From Kyrgyztan’s capital Bishkek it was only a 25km ride to the border. I met up with the Frenchman Bertrand (who I’d cycled with in Tajikistan) and we headed over to Kazakhstan together. The border was a total shambles. I’ve come to expect nothing less from Central Asia’s border crossings, but the last couple I’ve … More Kazakhstan: Searching for Borat (26/10/15-05/11/15)
Between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan there’s a long 20km of no-man’s-land. Unsuprisingly there’s not much going on in there but one family, it turned out, had a tea house right in the middle. It was getting late in the day when I exited Tajikistan and I was over the moon to find some civilisation. After struggling … More Kyrgyzstan: Meeting the willy snatcher and wearing strange hats (02/10/15-26/10/15)
From Khorog you have a couple of choices regarding which road to take. The main Pamir Highway (M41) leads up into the mountains, while a southern route continues to follow the Afghan border as the Wakhan corridor narrows. Recently there was only one choice, as the M41 was closed due to big landslides a couple … More Tajikistan Part 2: The Pamir Highway (22/09/15-01/07/15 Khorog to Kyrgyzstan)
During the hour long search at the Uzbek border the guard felt the need to make a little small talk with me. ‘Did you hear about the killings in Dushanbe a few days ago’. ‘Err, no?’. ‘Yes – many terrorists in Tajikistan’. I thought she was just gloating about how much better Uzbekistan is (those … More Tajikistan Part 1: Cycling the Afghan border (08/09/15-21/09/15 Uzbekistan to Khorog)
I got off the night train and walked straight to the Tajikistan consulate. I was there an hour before ‘opening time’ (not that that means anything to them) and already there was a huge crowd outside – they’d been closed Monday & Tuesday due to the Uzbek Independence Day so it was no surprise that … More Uzbekistan Part 2: Bukhara to the Tajikistan Border (03/09/15-08/09/15)
After my thorough questioning by the Iranian border staff, I cycled over to Turkmenistan. They didn’t seem to care that (having now switched back to my UK passport), it looked like I’d just magically arrived at the border with not a single other stamp in my passport. They had many more important things to do… Like … More Turkmenistan: The Desert Dash (14/08/15-18/08/15)
I woke up on my last day in Armenia exactly 6 months since I started this trip. Half a year! That’s a good while… Very soon this will be the longest I’ve ever been away from home. Time seems to move at a different pace on bicycle. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been away that … More Iran part 1: From the Armenian border to Tehran (16/07/15-26/07/15)
It felt like spring had come and gone within a week. It was nearly 30 degrees when we crossed the border from Serbia into Bulgaria and I was struggling in the heat. We still had ages to go until our first stop near Vidin, and light would be running out soon so celebrations for ‘100 … More Bulgaria & Macedonia: 3 months and 15 countries (16/04/15-27/04/15)
I’ve been busy since my last update – cycling ten days straight around Hungary’s borders with no less than five other countries. I was looking forward to a ‘social-break’ from the Couchsurfing routine, and had treated myself to a couple of nights in a hostel in Vienna. I was looking forward to an early night … More Vienna to Szeged: Austria to Hungary via four other countries (24/03/15-06/04/15)
JKB's Bike Ride 