Of Silk, Sand and Vodka

This blog is about a trip 13 204 km from Peking to Istanbul. The so called Silk Route. I will do it on a bicycle and not a camel. The journey goes  through ten countries. It is impossible to spell their names. Kyrgyzstan is easy but try China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan,Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Turkey.

I will try to write about unusual and hopefully exciting things that come my way. No pun intended. Stuff that's available on Wikipedia will be avoided.

Not much has happened yet except that I have managed to get myself, two bags and one bicycle to Peking without losing anything. The airline was Finnair with a brand new Airbus 350 of which the entertainment system didn't work. Luckily the engines did. The plane was half empty which is not good when talking about a glass of wine but very good on intercontinental flights.

During the flight I could see the dawn breaking over the the Gobi Desert 10 000m below. It looked magnificent over the rim of my plastic coffee cup. Couldn't help thinking that soon it will be a much closer encounter. Sand everywhere. In my sleeping bag, between my teeth and in all the places where the sun doesn't shine.

Haven't seen much silk yet except for the lingerie I bought at Victoria Secret at the Gothenburg airport.

Encountered lots of tea but sadly no Vodka yet. Will probably have to wait for Kyrgyzstan or at least Siberia.

At the moment I'm licking my wounds at the Holiday Inn in Peking behind closed doors waiting for all hell to break lose on Sunday when we convoy out of the city.

Crazy thing about jet lag is that you meet your midnight demons in broad daylight. Better teach them to dance.

Silk

Sand

Vodka (Photo: Andreas Pakenham)