http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/SA-SilkRoad/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from SA SilkRoad en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:44:51 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:44:51 +0000 Over 40'000 km 9 countries 12 languages and 6 alphabets. Jungle desert mountains steppe and coast. From 20m to 3500m and from 10C to 45C. By plane train bus taxi boat elephant and horse. These are only a few numbers from our trip of the last 5 months.We had a lot of fun during this trip and we want to thank you all for reading our blog as well as leaving comments and messages.Oh yes http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Fribourg/blog-232215.html After a bit more than 4 months of traveling around the world we thought that we needed some rest. In fact it was a great idea to spend the last 10 days of the trip on Thai beaches When you go to a beach holiday there is usually not much to tell when you are back and that is pretty much true for our beach holiday as well As the weather at this time of the year is usually better on the west coast http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Krabi/blog-228718.html Our first stop in Northern Thailand was in Chiang Rai. Roughly two bus hours south of the Laos border. We visited the very interesting Hilltribe Museum and Education Center which reinforced our decision not to do more treks visiting hilltribes. We have already mentioned our mixed feelings in the last blog entry. Besides an exciting night market less touristy than Chiang Mai and a few wats there http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Sukhothai/blog-225893.html Our next station in the Southeast Asian cherrypicking tour brought us directly from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang in Laos. You think that Laos is remote and that few travelers would spend their dollars in this obscure country Forget it... it is almost as packed with tourists as every corner of Southeast Asia There are less tourists than in Thailand and because Laos is landlocked you won't find the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-221755.html This is our first blog entry from South East Asia. Hope you enjoy itWe stayed 3 days in Bangkok before we actually started to travel. Definitely a great city and so different from everything we have seen before on our trip. It is evident that with this city we begin a new part of our trip. All the countries visited before where on the Silk Road and had some cultural and geographical similarities http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-220635.html This is our blog entry for the Uzbekistan part of our trip. There are 47 pictures in this entry and you have to click on next at the bottom of the page to see the pictures on page 2 and 3. There is also a map available. We hope you enjoyCrossing the border from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan went without problem and we found our way to Fergana where we stayed for the night. A first general impression http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Uzbekistan/Tashkent/blog-216311.html As planned we left the urban life to discover the countryside of Kyrgyzstan. We took a mashrutka minibus from Bishkek to Karakol in the IssykKul region. IssykKul at a height of 1800m is the world's secondlargest alpine lake after Lake Titicaca and moderates the climate around the lake in winter and summer. Karakol itself is a few kilometers behind the lake but it is Kyrgyzstan's fourth l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Osh/blog-210851.html We write you this entry from Bishkek where we finally arrived last Thursday. As you can imagine we were a bit nervous at the airport in Mashhad The guy at the checkin first looked for Kirghiz visas in our passports but this time we had the magic letter see previous entry that allowed us to board the plane We also had the pleasure to see our Kirghiz friend there but we weren't very motiv http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Bishkek/blog-209055.html Incompetent employees make us stay one more week in IranAlthough we thought that we wouldnrsquot write you anymore from Iranhellip we have to spend an unexpected additional week in very religious Mashhad It seems that everything was going too well for us till now Last Thursday we experienced our first real bad luck during this trip This day we felt that we had enjoyed our 30 days in I http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/East/Mashhad/blog-207702.html Finally this is our next blog entry... it took a while and is short wrap up of our last 10 days in beautiful Iran.EsfahanThis city is the beauty queen of Iran. We stayed 4 nights but could have stayed a lot more. The biggest attraction is the Imam Khomeini Square. The second biggest square in the world the biggest is Tiananmen Square in China is not only huge but it is surrounded by nice build http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/East/Mashhad/blog-203417.html We have included in this entry a map where you can see our journey of the first 19 days in Iran. Just click on the map to the left.YazdAlthough we are on one of the different branches of the Silk Road since we reached Central Anatolia in Turkey we have not yet written a lot about it. Not only Silvan and Annamaria traveled to Yazd but also the probably best known Silk Road traveler Marco Polo. He http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/East/Yazd/blog-203078.html In Iran there is a governmental firewall. Our blog was blocked in some places but not in others. That's why we couldn't post this blog entry from Shiraz and we do it now from Yazd.Iran's South WestAs we began to tell you in our last blog entry our first ten days in Iran were literally an immersion in Iranian culture and society. After Tabriz we haven't seen any tourists until Shiraz except on http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/South/Shiraz/blog-202060.html Salam from IranYes we made it We're now in Iran for one week Before beginning to tell you our first impressions we want to thank a lot Isabelle and her husband as well as Kianouche and all the people who took the time to give us useful advices about Iran.After many calculations our visa allows us to stay 30 days in Iran and there is only one flight per week from Mashad to Bishkek Kirghistan http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/North/Zanjan/blog-198912.html To quickly summarize our last days in Turkey we can say that it was great and that it was not without pain that we left this country.AniAni was once the capital of a medieval Armenia kingdom covering todays Armenia and eastern parts of Turkey. At the beginning of the 11th century Ani is believed to have had a population of over 100000 making it a respectable rival of Constantinople and Baghdad. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Eastern-Anatolia/Dogubeyazit/blog-198911.html Turkish is in fact a very easy language to learn... Really no joke Just look at the pictures and you will understand why. It is just half the fun if you don't have some French or SwissGerman skills however. Do you recognize the words Starting tomorrow this all won't help us anymore. Farsi or Persian is very different and we will need to learn some basic words quicklyTurkey was wonderful. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Eastern-Anatolia/Dogubeyazit/blog-194136.html Kayseri Silvan aloneThis Central Anatolian city is one of Turkeys fast growing cities. A brand new tramway is it a Bombardier is being built on the central Cumhurriet square a lot of streets are being completely redone and an ultramodern otogar central busstation will open next month. For sure this city will look quite different in a few years.By arriving in Kayseri we left most of the http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-194429.html The last time we have written from the harbour town of Ka351. Now we are in the heart of Turkey in Central Anatolia. Again in a few words what we have done in the last 8 days and some general impressions so far.Ka351 was a pleasant stop to slow down a bit. All services were easily available. After one day mostly spent at the beach we felt that some culture would be good and visited the Ant http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Cappadocia/blog-192741.html Apologies currently unable to restore. If you have a backup please edit this entry and savepublish.There is a small possibility that this entry will be restored only small. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Quebec/Montreal/blog-184027.html MerhabaIt is now one week that we have left Montreal and it already seems far away First as some of you noticed our blog crashed but it seems to be all back in order now except that our first entry has disappeared. We try to recover it but we don't know if it will work. At first we want to thank the Auberge Croque Mouton in Montreal as well as Yannis in London for the nice and comfortabl http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Mediterranean/Kas/blog-189208.html