deCadence - cycling from HK to the UK

Cycling in Pakistan - Giligit to Chitral Video

2011-12-01T10:31:00.000+08:00

Gilgit to Chitral Cycle Ride (taster) from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

This section of the journey took 6 days of cycling and climbed over the 3800m Shandur Pass. We crossed the pass in October to try and reach the Kalash people of NW Pakistan, the only remaining indigenous non-muslims still living in the country. This film is just a brief part of a larger whole.

Whole route in Google Earth

2010-03-28T20:49:00.003+08:00

The whole route is available here as a Google Earth kmz file. Just download and click to open the route in Google Earth (as long as you've got Google Earth on your computer).

All of the separate sections are available here to download and use to plan your own route. It's a good way to see the absolute emptiness of Mongolia and the magnificence of the Ile valley and the Tien Shan in China. The Altai and the Karakorums look pretty good too.

Our books are finally finished

2010-03-27T23:59:00.005+08:00

Please use the Full Screen button to see it clearly.
The second part is also available from here: http://www.blurb.com/user/store/yodod

Ulaan Baatar to Kathmandu

2010-03-27T21:39:00.001+08:00

Below is a Nasa World Wind video of the route from Ulaan Baatar to Kathmandu:
Download the route as a Google Earth file here

Ulaan Baatar to Kathmandu from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Crossing the desert in Iran

2010-03-27T20:27:00.005+08:00

Here's a film made using World Wind, Nasa's simulation software, of our route across the desert in Iran. We took 10 days cycling from Neyshabur to Yazd.See here for more details. If you want to see this route in Google Earth just click here for the kmz file.

Iran - Crossing the desert from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Mongolia Gallery

2010-01-08T16:00:00.001+08:00

Pakistan Gallery

2010-01-07T00:38:00.003+08:00

The end of the ride…the adventure’s over – our final post

2009-06-19T19:03:00.001+08:00

Finally we reach the end. We’ve had our adventures and made loads of friends, especially in Iran, and over the last 12 months we’ve learned so much about the world, about different societies, cultures, languages, history and about how all these disparate people deal with life in the varied regions through which we’ve cycled. Mongolia, Pakistan and Iran were highlights but everywhere was interesting in it’s own way.

We’ve had time to reflect upon the things we’ve seen, to bore people with our experiences (they did make the mistake of asking) and increasingly to spend more and more time following the valiant attempts of the Iranian people to get the freedom that they all wish for and so deserve. ‘Where is their vote?’

We’re starting to crave bacon, sausages, different clothes, a little bit of consumerism and we miss our friends and family. We’re not really sure where home is so we’re off to England and then Canada before heading off to Dubai to teach there for two years.

The route guides should be good for a few years of cycling so feel free to make use of them, visa info changes constantly so make use of the Thorn Tree on Lonely Planet of you need more up to date info. Feel free to email us for information using the email link if you’re thinking about cycling anywhere along this route yourself and want advice. If you use the guides and they’re wrong then let us know and we’ll update them.

Thanks for reading and a huge thanks to all our friends who helped us while we’ve been away….Jules, Jo and Rob, you’re all absolute stars.

Simon Taylor and Isabelle Bedard June 2009

turkeyontheroad

Kelebekler Vadisi – Butterfly Valley - a Turkish paradise

2009-06-15T23:19:00.001+08:00

We’re at the end of our journey and have reached our final destination for this cycle ride. We’d always intended to get to Butterfly Valley and now we’re here it’s absolutely magic.

It’s changed, there are new tree houses, people here have changed but the valley is still beautiful.

I first discovered this place about 18 years ago and have been coming back every year or two to relax and switch off from the world of work in the UK.

About 25 years ago a farmer from one of the local village perched high up on the cliffs, sold the orange and lemon tree covered valley to a private person who promptly chopped down all the trees ready to develop the valley for mass tourism.

The end of the valley was (and still is) a breeding site for thousands of butterflies and luckily the land was then bought by a co-operative of Turks with the sole idea of preventing it from being developed. They managed to get the land protected by law and each year one of the co-op runs a small eco friendly camp and restaurant in the valley for a few months in the summer. You can camp on the beach or stay in wooden ‘tree houses’ but no-one can build any permanent structures so nothing much changes, especially when huge storms destroy most of the wooden huts every winter.

With all the rain that Turkey has had this spring, the valley is lush and more beautiful than ever, the waterfalls at the end of the valley are poring with water and climbing up to the top waterfall has become even more exciting.

Here’s some more photos from in the valley and also from George House and some of the coastal paths above the valley:

turkeyontheroad

Sunset in Cappadocia

2009-05-31T23:53:00.000+08:00

Cappadocia is so photogenic it just begs you to take photos. Close to sunset the shapes and shadows become incredible…..

Here's some photos taken close to sunset not far from our campsite:

turkeyontheroad

The wonders of Cappadocia – fairy chimneys everywhere

2009-05-30T23:42:00.000+08:00

In the centre of Turkey in an area called Cappadocia there’s an amazing landscape of fairy chimneys, underground cities and houses and churches built into caves.

It’s easy to visit and it’s also possible to sleep in hotels built into the rocky towers which are everywhere and make up large parts of the villages in the area.

Several million years ago there was a big volcano in the area which one day suddenly exploded, sending billions of tonnes of ash and millions of hard rocks shooting up into the air. All this stuff eventually landed and created a flat landscape of ash littered with smaller hard rocks. Eventually the ash hardened to make a rock called Tufa. (Ari: tufa is like the rock your mum uses to carve sculptures)

Ever since then the rain and the wind have been washing away the tufa wherever there aren’t any hard rocks sitting on the top protecting it, leaving tall towers.

People from the outside called the towers ‘Fairy Chimneys’ because they thought that fairies lived in them.

For hundreds of years people have lived inside the towers, carving rooms and tunnels that go right to the very top.

They had rooms where pigeons lived in little holes in the walls and the people collected the pigeon poo to use as fertiliser on their gardens, where they grew grapes and fruit.

About 1000 years ago all the Christians in the area were threatened by Muslim invaders and they even built underground cities that they hid in while the armies marched over the top looking for them. Instead of having normal churches they built their churches into the cliffs or underground where no-one could find them and destroy them.

Here’s some more pictures of some of the fairy chimneys and the valleys in the area, the best bit about it is that you can just explore and climb around inside the chimneys looking for tunnels and undiscovered rooms:

turkeyontheroad

Nemrut Dag Squared (Nemrut Dag Part 2)

2009-05-25T17:23:00.000+08:00

Having completed the first of our Nemrut Dag summit challenges, we headed West towards the second Nemrut Dag, the 2150m high summit near Karadut village.

This summit is much more famous and more often visited by tourists, as it is an absolutely spectacular sight. Perched on the top of the mountain is a 2000 year old pyramid and on two sides there are flattened terraces covered in giant statues looking out over the rising and setting suns. The whole summit complex wasn’t ‘discovered’ until 1881 when a German engineer employed by the Ottomans to study transport routes found the summit. It wasn’t even excavated until 1953.

The pyramid, terraces and statues were ‘created’ by Antiochus I Epiphanes in about 60-40BC as a tribute to his god and as a way of ensuring that he would join with ‘Ahura Masda’ in the afterlife. Ahura Masda was the name given to the ‘One God’ of the Zoroastians, the first Monotheistic religion, from which all the other Monotheisms have their roots. There are inscriptions on some of the rocks that suggest that Antiochus is buried under the pyramidal mound on the summit but no one has ever found the burial chamber.

For our route Westwards, we wanted to head up to the summit on the Southern road and then head down from the North to Malatya 100km away, and had read in the Lonely Planet that it was possible to cross from one side to the other. This proved no to be the case so we ended up carrying our bicycles and bags up to the summit from the road 700m away and then dropped down to the Northern road.

By the time we got our bikes there at 7am the whole summit was deserted as all the tourists had got cold and gone down. We had the whole place to ourselves and our bicycles. It was absolutely spectacular!

Here’s a brief slideshow:

turkeyontheroad

Cycling in Turkey – Diyarbakir to Malatya – Route Information

2009-05-24T17:52:00.000+08:00

This 271km route is a real challenge for touring cyclists as it involves cycling over the amazing Nemrut Dag mountain.

If you really like a challenge, a 110km section with nearly 3000m of ascent and descent between Karadut and Malatya.

It can be done over 3 days although it would be more pleasurable and probably healthier to do it over 4 or 5 days and this would give you more time to soak up the amazing scenery of this part of South Eastern Anatolia.

The Nemrut Dag summit is a highlight although with no road over the summit you will have to carry your bike and panniers for about 1km from one side of the mountain to the other.

Anyway if you fancy a go, here’s a route profile:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu tourism turkey

And here’s full route information:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu tourism turkey

km 0 4 47 70 76 84 86 88 Cycling in Turkey – Diyarbakir to Malatya via Nemrut Dag (271 km) Diyarbakir (660m) ride up hill, back up the same road you came down to reach the old town Junction, turn left following signs for Sans Urfa Petrol station - there have been several up to this point, mostly up to about 30km. This is the top of the small climb (1050m) Gravel pit opportunity for camping Petrol station (960m) The top of the hill Starting to enter Siverek, Restaurant / Cafes on the right Urfa road goes left, road into Siverek heads straight on. Keep following this road onto cobbles (770m) Hotels on both sides at bottom of hill, Feran Palace, Otel Mercan, Otel Ayyildiz, all nice. The whole town seems very friendly and relatively prosperous. Many cafes, restaurants etc. To leave town go left and immediately right to cut across to another large road. Just say Feribot! Reach larger road, turn right Reach roundabout and turn left on to the Feribot road. You are now leaving Siverek town Small lake, possible hidden camping Valley to right with options for hidden camping and possible water Ferry Boat. Restaurants on both sides, easy to camp there. (560m) Boats are free for foot passengers nut make sure you get the one that just joins up with the Kahta road, don't go to Adiyaman!! The ferries go every hour from 8am until 9pm Shop Narince village (830m). Go right through the petrol station on the right to cut through onto the Nemrut Road which is signposted (after a while) as 23km from Narince. You can't see Nemrut yet, it is behind the hills infront of you Road climbs up to 965m and then drops down another spectacular valley, through rocky and completely different scenery Low point (820m). Go over bridge You are entering Karadut, you will see some places to stay. Turn left up the valley that leads to Nemrut Dag. Signposted 13km Karadut Pansiyon (1045m) We camped here for 10TL and the next morning they gave us a lift to the top (30TL for a vehicle) We did not cycle the 1100m up in 11km. IT would be fine but slow and there are plenty of places to camp higher up. You could even camp near the top, where they have water and also a cafe. The road up climbs very steeply and also has some downhill sections which would be very frustrating. It is beautiful up there. There is also the option to cycle 5km further and sleep at Cesme pansiyon, which would make the following day easier. Summit cafe and car park. From here it is about 700m walking to the summit. If you want to go to Malatya you will need to push and carry your bike and panniers all the way to the Pyramid and statues on the summit. This is hard work but can be done in about 30-45 minutes. The summit. The track to Malatya and the Gunes hotel can also be seen below you from the Eastern (sunrise) terrace. The track is dirt for a while. Gunes Hotel (1930m) This is where the tar road starts. Great places to camp all around here. With water flowing from small and large streams. Big descent starts (1980m) Very steep road, your hands will ache, it is switchbacks all the way and in some places the tar is less than good Village of Buyukoz starts Hotel on bend at lowest point (1010m) Tepehan – Shops and cafe (1400m); The road climbs 50m before a long descent Camping park. Lots of trees, toilets, places to camp. No idea about price. There are also plenty of places in this section for camping. The descent is steep 89 90 95 108 124 128 145 149 152 153 155 156 167 168 171 173 182 183 196 200 209 214 227 231 233 235 243 245 Bridge over river at low point (840m) Road joins old highway at a small village (1090m) Shops and restaurants. There was one shop on the ascent but it wasn't open on Sunday when we cycled up. Cafe /Shop / Restaurant The very top (1900m) Just before here there are places to camp, and also just after the top there is a water fountain by the road and some hidden areas just over the hill Road flattens and climbs a bit (1810m) Descent really gets going (1835m) 1360m, most of the drop has now been done. The gradient from here is less steep. There is a lake and possible camping around the shore, but you would have to ask permission as it is fenced. Over the bnext few km there are lots of orchards where you could hide your tent if it is getting late. Road joins the main road (1040m) Petrol Station Lowest point and then gentle climb (940m) Highest point before Malatya (1055m) Turn left at traffic lights, signposted Museum. Turn right almost immediately to join the main road into Malatya which initially runs parallel to the highway. This is now downhill all the way Inonu Square with the mosque and hotels behind the mosque (980m) 250 254 258 262 265 271 Information about this route This is an outrageous route choice, but great fun. It involves you carrying your bike over the summit of the mountain to get from the Southern to the Northern side. All the climbs and descents from Karadut to Malatya are very steep, nearly always involving climbing gradients of about 100m per km (1:10) The scenery is spectacular. The best time to be on the top of Nemrut is after sunrise when all the people have gone away because they have got cold. Unless you've not seen a sunrise before then the actual sunrise itself is nothing special. Don't bother being there much before 6.30am. Another option for the summit is to see sunset from a base near the Gunes hotel. Timetable for an enjoyable experience: Day 1 Cycle to the delightful town of Siverek, stay in a hotel Day 2 Cycle to Karadut Day 3 Cycle to top and then stay at Gunes Hotel (or camp nearbye) Day 4 Cycle to Malatya but be prepared for a long steep day Other options are to get a lift to the top, camp near Gunes hotel, sleep in Buyukoz's hotel at the bottom of the descent from Nemrut or camp near the top of the climb before you descend to Malatya. Look at the Route Profile for more ideas. The journey across the back roads between Nemrut and Malatya is viciously steep and involves lots of climbing. Do not underestimate it. © Simon Taylor 2009 http://hk-to-uk.blogspot.com

turkeyroadguide

Nemrut Dag Squared (Nemrut Dag Part 1)

2009-05-21T21:18:00.000+08:00

When we got near to Lake Van in Eastern Turkey we started reading about the volcano that caused the lake to form.

The present Nemrut Dag mountain (2950m) was 1500m taller, and about 6000 years ago exploded creating the lake and a huge crater inside the volcano.

There are now several crater lakes and a whole microclimate in the crater and interestingly for crazy cyclists there’s a 13km road that takes you all the way to the rim, climbing about 1000m from the main road.

Despite the warnings that the road was closed because of snow, we decided to have a go at camping on the rim. It was a bit hairy getting up to there and we did have to carry our bikes and bags up the final 100m to get to the actual rim because of landslides and a huge icey slope blocking the way. Once we were there it was definitely worth it.

We even attempted to get down to the crater although there was really too much snow to make the journey safe enough to do on our bikes, as we discovered later.

We now head off to another Nemrut Dag, about 500km West, with a pyramid on the top and loads of carved heads…hence the ‘Nemrut Dag Squared’ title

Here’s a slideshow:

If you want more information there is a route profile here: Route Profile turkeyontheroad

Cycling in Turkey – Van to Diyarbakir - Route Information for cyclists

2009-05-19T21:40:00.000+08:00

Most cyclists travelling to or from Van take the Northern route and avoid Diyarbakir. We think this is a mistake as there is a direct route from Malatya over Nemrut Dag (with the heads on the top) to Diyarbakir, admittedly this is a little harder, but so much more spectacular on a bike. If you’re interested in cycling this way in either direction then make the most of these two guides:

If you want to cycle the 385km between Van and Diyarbakir then download and print out the following document:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu iran turkey

km 0 20 30 43 51 53 Cycling from Iran to Turkey – Orumiyeh to Van (293 km) Orumiyeh (1400m) We stayed at Reza Hotel, friendly, cheap and central. From here head back to Roundabout and take road NW, signposted 'Turkey border' Village with shops (1400m) and then road starts to climb The top – great camping everywhere (1825m) Iran checkpoint / Shops / Village Turkish supermarket on right in the middle of nowhere Serou Border – Iran side very simple – just a stamp in passport, no forms, customs check. Bank on Iranian side for changing money..OK rates. Turkey side, visa available from Border official in small office, very easy process. In May time change was 1½ hours. The day becomes very long Small village + Shops Small steep track on right to completely hidden camping area 50m from road. Stream flowing and flat grass Tunnel (labelled 2100m but actually 2200m) Yuksekova (1870m) – Major town. Main street at 94km on left. Supermarkets etc Footbridge, Old-road bridge to left to good camping, followed immediately by a tunnel for the new road (1700m) Bagisli (1600m). Army checkpoint, shops Village with shops Village with shops (1835m) One shop on the right has a cafe inside it makes good food Village with shops (1890m) Baskale starts (2240m) Petrol station on left has Hotel above the restaurant, 20TL/night. Hotel not signposted. The river at the bottom (2030m) followed by a steep climb back up to the plateau (2120m) Pit on left for camping Army Checkpoint and junction (2030m)– go straight up the valley following the river Shops and restaurants on the right (2225m) The top. (2770m) Just below communication towers. (Labeled 2730m) Quarry for camping if you have water (2465m) This is in middle of a long descent Gas station / Shops (2050m) Guzelsu. Castle, plenty of cafes/shops etc. Good one at petrol station as you enter town. Road has dropped from reservoir to 1910m Petrol Station, cafe Junction at edge of Gurpinar,( 1800m) turn right for Van. Edge of town ahead of you. From here the road climbs steeply up switchbacks Spring on corner with seating area. Could get water and camp on the top. The Top (2260m) labeled 2230m. Great views of Lake Van. Good camping up track to left. From here a fantastic long descent to Van, one flattish section near the top. Van starts. The road you are on becomes Cumhuriyet Caddesi and enters town from the south eventually reaching the roundabout near the mosque. Roundabout near mosque (1755m) 54 74 76 92-98 126 130 139 148 155 175 176-177 Centre of town (2290m) Road drops steeply as you leave town 182 189 190 199 210 216 227 232 250 265 270 275 277 290 293 203-208 Good camping opportunities up side valleys on either side. Plenty of water. (2385m-2600m) 237-248 Road follows edge of reservoir hovering around 1990m all the time. © Simon Taylor 2009 http://hk-to-uk.blogspot.com

If you fancy a side trip up the splendid Nemrut Dag volcano (13km one way) then you might also want the route profile as well, although it would come in useful for the Van-Diyarbakir route as well:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu turkey cycling

turkeyontheroad

Eastern Turkey – Lake Van and around

2009-05-17T20:58:00.000+08:00

We’ve spent the last week or so in the far East of Turkey, and absolutely loved it. The roads are OK, big mountains everywhere and the people are friendly (although nothing like the amazing friendliness of Iran). Weirdly there are hardly any women around…it makes Iran seem positively European.

We’ve even met some Iraqi tourists coming to visit their Northern neighbour now their is relative peace in their country (see picture on right)

We stayed in the city of Van for a few days and explored the crazy ‘Rock of Van’ castle before heading around the lake, a huge inland salty sea created when a huge volcano exploded and blocked a valley’s outflow only about 6000 years ago.

The scenery here is astonishingly beautiful and it is only over the last few years that the area has been safe for tourists as the Kurdish people that live here have been fighting an insurgency against the Turkish government. Everywhere you can see the heavy hand of the Turkish military, from huge Turkish flags, statues of Ataturk, military bases and tanks cruising the roads.

We’ve been loving shouting ‘Charni Barshi’ (hello in Kurdish) to the local people who love it too, as their language has been banned for the last 15 years until recently it has been allowed again…what civilised society bans a language in the 21st century? We’ve also discovered that Kurdish is similar to Farsi (Iran) so we know quite a few words already which leaves us looking quite clever. We just have to remember not to shout ‘Charni Barshi’ at the Turkish soldiers stationed every few km along the roads.

The whole area feels as though it is suddenly thriving thanks to the advent of peace, I just hope more tourists start to go there and help the economy improve for everyone’s sake. To their credit the government are building some amazing roads through the mountains to help improve the economy of the area (and maybe so the tanks can come back more easily!)

Here’s a short slideshow of the area:

turkeyontheroad

Cycling in Iran and Turkey – Crossing the border from Orumiyeh to Van – Route Information

2009-05-15T01:52:00.000+08:00

Here’s a full route profile of the 293 km journey through spectacular mountain scenery with the slight whiff of danger from drug smugglers, people traffickers and general border dodginess.

There are lots of army checkpoints with occasional tanks rolling along the quiet roads followed by troop carriers or machine guns mounted on jeeps.

People stop you and warn you not to leave the road to the East (near the Iranian border) and you’re never sure if they’re being kind or threatening. Police men offer to escort you to your ‘hotel’ and are amazed when you say you are just camping. Locals mime men carrying knives and guns and ask you to stay with them….

Yet despite all this it’s a beautiful place, the mountains in May and June are stunning, the road's always interesting and despite the warnings it’s relatively easy to find secluded camping places, especially near the mountain passes and you’re more likely to meet a shepherd with his goats than a smuggler.

Here’s a route profile and a full route description. There’s about 3500m of climbing in the three days it should take you, but it is generally well graded and never boring:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu iran turkey

turkeyroadguide iranroadguide iranturkeyborder

Is Iran the friendliest place on Earth?

2009-05-12T01:50:00.000+08:00

Of all the countries that we have visited on our travels, Iran has stood out as being the most unbelievably friendly place, inhabited by people who are more warm hearted, helpful, selfless and generous than we could have ever imagined.

We have constantly been overawed by the things people have done for us, from the shopkeeper refusing payment for an ice-cream, to the family who give up a bed in their home for us to sleep in, despite the fact that four of them then have to share a bed.

It has been almost impossible to pay for anything when in the company of any Iranian. However hard we try, we always end up giving up, as people just seem to be insulted if we try. This attitude resulted in us once watching an old lady fighting her son in law who was trying to pay her bus fare while a policeman held her back so that he could pay.

We would like to thank everyone that has helped us in Iran and if only we could all make such selfless sacrifices for guests in our own countries. the world would be so much nicer a place. Iranians seem to relish being kind to others and despite the oppression of their government over the last 20 years, they are still so proud of their country, it’s history, their lifestyle and their families. They want all guests to see the very best of Iran and while constantly telling us how idiotic their rulers are, they are still so proud.

Here is a slideshow of some of the people we have met. If you click on any of the pictures you will see a brief description of how they helped us. Thanks to them all!!

One of our biggest regrets was not having met Mohammed, a wonderful Iranian cycle tourist who helped us in Mashhad, Neyshabur and Esfahan. We kept missing him as he flitted about across Iran.

He has his own website – We Need Trees, and is in the middle of a long cycle ride of his own. If you ever meet an Iranian cyclist called Mohammed trying to plant trees in your part of the world, please give him some help and support him!!! We hope to catch up with him one day in some part of the world.

iranontheroad

Islamic Nonsense

2009-05-09T12:16:00.001+08:00

Despite the fantastic experience of travelling by bicycle around Iran and the warmth of the people, one thing really spoils the country - the obsessive issues that the government and the Imams seems to have with women.

Unlike Pakistan and even Eastern Turkey there are women everywhere, working equally with the men as doctors, lawyers, engineers etc ….the women must be the most educated women in the world yet they all live in fear that a little too much of their hair will show, or too much of their skin will be visible, and the men will all get too aroused….’Iranian men are dangerous’ we heard from many women, despite the fact that they also admitted that they didn’t actually know any men who would behave badly towards women.

Many women we spoke to said that they continued to wear the chador (the black tent which is now not compulsory) because it had become a habit and they knew they would never get any trouble if they did so (we could never really find out who would actually give them trouble).

The chador itself is the ultimate repression, a black sheet worn over the whole body that must be held with one hand and restricts movement, the ability to carry things and in the early evening or at night is positively dangerous in traffic. People also have another problem with the chador, if they lose a friend in a crowd, they can never find them again because they all look the same and no one can take their chador off so that they can be found!!

We heard many justifications for the chador and the head scarf, although only from a few young people still fresh from the imprint of religious indoctrination…

’Women must be covered to prevent men becoming sinful, it is for their own protection!’

‘Women are so beautiful, they must be covered to keep their beauty precious’….

Women we asked just said that they would take it off tomorrow if they were allowed and moaned about how hot it was to always wear something on your head.
What misogynist nonsense!!! No surprise in a country run by repressed religious men!
If everyone had free choice it would be fine, but here it’s law!! Girls must cover their hair from age 7 at school, and from age 9 in all public spaces, while boys wear what they want and young men squeeze themselves into tight little shirts and jeans!!

Even funnier are the ridiculous lengths that the authorities go to, to protect women doing exercise. On the right is a picture of the extended walls around a women’s exercise area (to prevent men watching!) There are security guards with guns outside swimming pools who check that women are covered up properly when they leave.

Here’s a couple of other pictures that illustrate other issues that the government obviously has, one is a sign on a park wall which seems to be a little bit hypocritical
and the other was near the border with Turkey:
It’s a shame that they just don’t grow up and get on with life. For probably the most highly educated country in the world it’s so sad that such nonsense is allowed to even affect anyone’s life.
iranontheroad

Esfahan - Half the World

2009-05-09T02:25:00.001+08:00

Esfahan is an absolute masterpiece, described by many as one of the finest cities in the Islamic world. It has beautiful bridges across the large river that bisects the city, exquisitely tiled domes on it’s many religious buildings, a wonderful public space in the Naqsh E Jahan Square, amazing bazaars, beautiful Armenian churches, restored bath-houses and wonderful tree lined avenues everywhere.

The traffic isn’t terrible either and the people are wonderfully friendly and helpful when they’re not shouting at us for calling Naqsh E Jahan by it’s new official name of Imam Square – they hate the Imam’s who rule the place so much that most people refuse to even say the new name for the square, we enjoyed winding them up at any opportunity…taxi drivers were the best!

We just soaked the place up for a few days while staying with the lovely Reza, Mahla and Kiana and being helped by Alireza, Vahid, Mohammed, Faroud, Marnauz and all their friends. Thanks to them all.

Esfahan also has some interesting food which we sampled regularly - Biryani, Bademjan and their own version of Feloudah (a kind of ice-cream) and Ghaz – a sweet nougat like snack.

Here’s a very brief slideshow of some of our highlights:

iranontheroad

Clothing advice for women travelling or cycling in Iran

2009-05-06T13:21:00.000+08:00

The Islamic Republic of Iran has several rules about what should be worn by women in the country.

The rules are designed to protect women from men, and to help prevent men from having sinful thoughts when they see the shapely body of a woman.

To this end, women’s clothing should be shapeless and most of the body should be covered. Iranian women in the countryside generally wear a black sheet called a Chador (Farsi for Tent) whenever they are outside the house.

Most younger women wear a headscarf and a shorter more fashionable black top called a ‘Manteau’ which covers their bottom and thighs. Inside the home most people wear ‘western’ clothing although in the countryside the women may well keep their head scarf on while guest men are in the home.

The woman in the Chador is the often shown image of women in Iran, but in the cities this style of dress is fading out fast as young women everywhere push the boundaries of what is allowed, by wearing shirts or stylish dresses over trousers, which are most commonly jeans, and wearing coloured manteaus with belts around their waist, and head scarves with patterned designs of every colour.

Heads are still covered but the percentage of hair covered reduces to a token scarf hanging on the back of the head in cities like Tehran or Shiraz and the more affluent areas of most towns and cities in Iran. Women still cover their heads but great pains are taken to have the most fantastic hairstyles showing but still covered in a way that will not get them into trouble.

Tourists are given a lot more leeway and to be honest most tourists just wear trousers, shirt and a head scarf so that they are still respecting the local rules.

It is easy to buy a manteau and many of them are made of light material and look really good.

We saw women with maybe 10% of the hair covered, half length sleeves and 3/4 length trousers, and many young couples holding hands as they walked down the street in Shiraz. We met one Irani woman who posed as a tourist in Yazd so that she could wear a shirt rather than a manteau. She said it was great but she still felt like she was taking a risk.

In the religious cities such as Esfahan, Mashhad and Qom, clothing is a bit more conservative in some areas, although if you Couch Surf, most people live in areas where clothing is indistinguishable from Tehran and Shiraz.

Some advice from Isabelle for cycling / travelling:

A black manteau is ridiculously hot in sunny weather and it is also difficult to organise yourself as the temperature changes throughout the day. On hot days it’s impossible to remove a lower layer so most Irani women just have to suffer if a restaurant is too hot.

I would recommend a man’s shirt or top that would allow you to wear only a bra underneath it when it is too hot. No-one seems to mind about the colour of this top so make it light coloured to keep you cool when cycling on really sunny days. I have a $1 shirt made in India and it works perfectly.

The head scarf can also become unbearable, so try to get a natural fibre one, or one with loads of holes in it, easily available in the bazaars of every city (ignore the Lonely Planet warnings..things have changed)

For cycling you would be much better with a bandana or a ‘buff', a tube of material which can be used in many different ways, from relaxed and groovy to positively pious (good for mosques) – see the pictures.

You will need photographs for your visa (2) or visa extension (2) with all your hair covered.

Some tourists also said that it was really hard to find hair clips to hold your head scarf on, so bring plenty of them from home

Some advice from Simon for men cycling:

Wear exactly what you feel like while cycling, t-shirt and shorts are fine. Iran’s dress code is great for men.

I’ve stayed nice and cool throughout the desert, I don’t know what all the fuss is about.

Iran’s a great country to travel in and I’ve had no problem regulating my temperature.

Wind-stopper cycling leggings can be useful in very rural areas…just pull them up and women will be able to take their eyes of your legs.

We both thoroughly applaud the attempts of the government to help prevent men having sinful thoughts by covering up so much of a woman’s body, but both of us really worry about the poor women who can see men everywhere wearing body-hugging little t-shirts and tight jeans yet get no help avoiding those same sinful thoughts.

There’s only one solution….all men should wear a Chador as well, then everyone could remain pure.

Here’s some ideas using a shirt or light cotton manteau and a ‘buff’ tube of cotton:

iranontheroad

We’re getting addicted to English Lessons

2009-05-04T20:51:00.000+08:00

We met Ali (front left) on the street in Shiraz who helped us all day getting visa extensions and posting things home.

He was an 18 year old student who just wanted to practice his English and in the early evening we went to his twice weekly English class to see his class and because we so miss being in the classroom.

Again it was a great experience so we thought we’d post some of the pictures for the classes to see. Next time we want to visit an all girls class. Thanks to Ali we had a much easier day than expected and some great discussions.

All the students were really nice and had interesting things to say even if sometimes it wasn’t easy to explain ourselves. Isabelle will never be convinced by anyone that wearing a head scarf is a good idea to help protect her virtue, but apart from that the conversations were all good and the teachers really helpful.

I’d just forgotten how much fun being in the classroom can be.

iranontheroad

Persepolis – a lost city rediscovered

2009-05-02T14:02:00.000+08:00

We spent a great morning wandering around Persepolis, having the whole place completely to ourselves for the first 2 hours of the day.

We camped right by the entrance protected by some friendly security guards and were able to enter at 8am before the tourist coaches arrived.

The city is about 2500 years old and is on a massive scale. It was hidden by sand until the 1930’s when it was ‘rediscovered’ and extensively excavated. The bas reliefs are absolutely amazing and from the hill above the city you get a real feel for it’s enormous scale.

Here’s a short slideshow:

Staying with Sasan Azidi – Isabelle gets a Make-over

2009-05-01T20:39:00.000+08:00

We left Yazd for Shiraz following an amazing mountain road over some high passes (2500m). Half way there lives a farmer who before the revolution was a competitive cyclist.

His name is Sasan and his family have a large farm where he grows, apricots, plums, grapes, pomegranate and wheat. He also has free range chickens and a few goats and sheep.

His father was one of the Shah’s secret police but unfortunately died only 4 weeks ago so despite hearing lots about him on the internet and from other cyclists we didn’t get a chance to meet him.

Sasan’s nieces are all hairdressers and were visiting for the day so Isabelle was taken away for a makeover which was done full Iranian style with all the subtlety of a punch in the face.

They were lovely but had some very funny ideas about Europe and the States thinking that compared to Iran everywhere else was like living in paradise and that no-one ever has any problems and that everyone has all the plastic surgery they could ever dream of.

We’d like to thank Sasan and his family for the lovely food and the great hospitality that they showed us, everyone was so friendly and his 16 year old son’s English will be fantastic if he keeps getting practice with tourists. Sasan is a wonderful character and most of his views are unprintable which makes for some entertaining conversations.

As for Isabelle, doesn’t she look lovely, so natural!!

Please comment if you have any opinions or would like me to send you copies.

iranontheroad

Cycling in Iran – Yazd to Shiraz – full route description and profile

2009-04-30T21:03:00.000+08:00

This 450km route is an excellent one although it might be best to do it in the reverse direction if the wind is blowing.

It gives you a chance to visit Persepolis and other interesting sites on the way to Shiraz and there is varied accommodation on the way.

Download and print out for your own use. If you have any updates please put them in the comments. There’s a profile and a description for you to use:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu cycling Road Guide

Here's a more detailed route description:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu iran cycling

km 0 6 10 23-30 36 38 49 59-61 63 71 93-94 102 144 147 158 182 183 203 205 Cycling in Iran – Yazd to Shiraz (450km) Yazd (1200m) Go straight down Shahid Raja'i (there are signs for Shiraz) At this point you go past a large left turn that you can't get to, so go round the next roundabout and come back 200m to get on this road. This is the Shiraz road Go under the main North South Highway (signposted Nain) Taft Village, lots of shops. At about 25km on the other side of the river to your right there is a small bakery. Village with shops Eagle rock and Restaurant near it with good cheap food Petrol station and shops Aliabad village off the main road, shops Road steepens. Many places to camp in small groups of trees on the way up. Top of Pass (2580) with good place to camp 100m after pass, up side track to right. Dehshir Village, Cafes and shops (1810) Police Stop and shops. Don't get the water from the tap, ask in the shop or small village or at the police post. The road is now flattish for a long time. Small village Shamsabad village with shops Ice making towers to left Cafe Small town with shops Junction with big main road – Surmagh (1870m). Turn right Farm belonging to Sasan Izadi – renowned Iranian tourist catcher – blue gate on large farm compound to left with 'Welcome' written next to door. About 500m before his land there is also a hotel which you can stay at for about $10 a night. From here the road climbs gradually up a wide valley with mountains to left. 152-160 Abarkuh town (1495m) goes on for ever, loads of shops, restaurants etc. 215-225 Camping possible behind rocky outcrops, road then heads across valley and starts to climb more steeply. 247 264 288 293 321 325 328 Top of pass (2510m) Shop on top of pass and Police post. Sahfr-Shah Town to left, shops and restaurants Lowest point (2070m) before another climb Another high point (2265m) Turn off to Pasargardae (signposted 4km) Saadat Shah rest area, restaurants and shops (1810m) Turn off left for old road if you want a quieter time. We didn't and the main road now enters a gorge. It often follows the side of the new Yazd to Shiraz railway line and there may be camping opportunities behind it. Saadat Shahr off to left (1810m) Cafe Beautiful river to right – there has to be camping Village (1765m) Small shop (Persepolis sign 40) Cafe and Shops Restaurants/Cafes 334 342 343 350 351 365 373 370-72 Camping possible up side valley 383 Mavdasht turn left. Persepolis is actually to your left across the field about 2km away but you will have to cycle 6km and then come back 3km up another road. If you can see a short cut through the fields take it. We didn't realise where Persepolis was. Turn left at roundabout for Persepolis Persepolis- You can camp at the main gate on the right. Just ask the security guards and camp in the trees in the area where the Shah held his famous party. There are toilets and good water and a shop not far away selling icecreams, crisps and drinks. Back at the roundabout. This time go straight on into Mavdasht 389 393 396 396-406 Mavdasht. At about 399km there is a row of cafes opposite the university serving good cheap food (especially breakfasts) Follow signs for Shiraz, the road turns a bit but is easy to follow. 407 418 425 431 433 435 446 450 Rejoin main road Zarqan Town to right..road starts to climb Cafe on right, good food Top of pass (1890m) New low point (1800m) Road climbs again Top of pass (1890m) From here it's all downhill to Shiraz Finally you reach the edge of Shiraz as the road emerges through a break in the cliffs and enters a gorge. This is the junction shown on the Lonely Planet map (1620m) Shiraz Centre (1540m) You will have discovered by now that Shiraz is a hilly town. General Description of route Look at the profile for a real idea of the route. There are a few long climbs and descents and even the 'rolling hills' can be a bit of a drag. The first day out of Yazd has 71km completely uphill and with a strong headwind could be hell. Water You don't need to carry much water apart from the section between Surmagh and Sahfr Shah Wind The wind can be a real problem although if you travel the opposite way from Shiraz to Yazd you will have it behind you a lot. For us the wind was hell! We were blown off our bikes several times by terrible gusty winds and struggled to pedal down the steep hill to Sahfr Shah at more than 6km/hr. Be prepared for the worst and hitch-bike if it becomes really bad. Heat Heat can be a problem although this route has quite a lot of shelter and villages so there are many opportunities for escape and cold drinks. For women wearing a head covering it can easily get too hot. For men in shorts and a T-shirt it is much easier. Camping Once in the mountains, camping is easy, in the more inhabited areas you will struggle. You may have to ask someone if you can camp on their land. You can also stay at Sasan Azidi's farm near Surmagh or at a hotel near Surmagh. There are also hotels in Taft. Time We took 5 days. With the wind in your favour it would be much easier. A day where you could easily do 150km with the wind can also be one where you struggle to do 50km into the wind. Be careful and always carry spare water and food. If you decide to take the smaller old road then it is about 40km further although the highway is very good for cycling with a large hard shoulder and reasonably polite traffic. © Simon Taylor 2009 http://hk-to-uk.blogspot.com iranroadguide iranontheroad

Yazd - the oldest city in the world

2009-04-29T15:49:00.000+08:00

We cycled along way across the desert to get to Yazd and it has definitely been worth it. It’s an oasis town in the middle of the desert and breaks up our journey to Persepolis and Shiraz perfectly….plus we’re knackered from riding for 10 days and need a rest and to eat lots.

We’re staying in a fantastic hotel; the Silk Road Hotel with it’s massive buffet breakfasts (ideal for cyclists), and huge internal courtyard and great views of the city from the roof. You can see it in the photo on the right:

The whole city is made out of mud bricks and the only things of any colour are the domed roofs of the mosques and the doorways.

Time is a little different here, everything is open from 8am-1pm, then everyone has a sleep and everything re-opens between 5pm and 10pm.

The only thing that spoils it for us is the number of women in Chadors (translates as Tent) which is absolute insanity in this heat. Men wander around in t-shirts and anything they want to wear, whereas nearly all the women have a black shroud over them.

We understand that it’s probably easier to wrap it on top of their normal clothes when they go out rather than wear a nice manteau and a very brief head scarf all day, but it just represents the unfairness of this society.

The women here may well be the most highly educated women in the world with 55% of the university population but they still have to hide behind the daft black sheet.

It is gradually changing but women still live in fear of being persecuted for having too much hair showing, so many just use the chador and avoid the possible risk. Inside the home, clothes are completely normal (to a European or North American mind)

Little boys run around in shorts yet girls are wrapped from head to toe in cloth while the mercury hovers around 35 degrees. We hope it changes soon because these people are so lovely and anybody who thinks that all women must be hidden, obviously has some sort of problem.

The city itself exists behind mud brick walls and under beautiful arches which let in loads of natural light but thanks to the mud brick construction keep out nearly all the heat. It feels positively cool everywhere apart from in the sun.

There is an elaborate system of towers all over the roof tops which allow hot air to escape and cool air to fall, they’re called Badgirs and some of them are gigantic, upto 20m high with incredible structures to redirect air flow to keep the inner courtyards and rooms cool. They catch even the slightest wind and create quite strong down draughts of cool air which shoot through the bazaars and houses underneath them.

The city has been occupied continuously for the last 7000 years and claims to be the oldest inhabited city in the world. Water is collected from the mountains and flows down small (1m x 0.5m) tunnels called Qanats, deep underground, to the city, where it is pumped up to the surface or wells allow access.

The guys who make and service these tunnels have a job for life if they want it and the Water Museum here is an excellent introduction to this incredible world. There are rooms up to 50m below the surface with pools and flowing water where people go on really hot days in the middle of summer.

7000 years of occupation gives people a good chance to make life work and in Yazd it really seems to work well.

The food is interesting too, spaghetti sandwiches, loads of sweet iced puddings, kebabs of every sort and lots of stews (khorosht) with delicious ingredients….we love Fesenjan - the most amazing meatball dish made with a pomegranites and walnuts, it makes you lick your lips just writing about it. Persian food is fantastic and so little known outside the middle east.

Here’s a slideshow of some other views of Yazd:

iranontheroad

Cycling in Iran – Crossing the desert from Mashhad to Yazd - 950km

2009-04-28T15:10:00.000+08:00

We would thoroughly recommend to anyone who fancies a bit of a challenge to cycle the 950km route between Mashhad and Yazd through the desert which crosses 6 ranges of mountains with large salty desert plains separating them, and climbs in total about 7000m over the 9-12 days that it takes to complete the journey.

We heard about it from the Travelling Two’s website and have made a couple of guides to help anyone who wants to ride it. Click on the links below to see them and download them:

Route Profile – 1 side of A4 paper

Route Guide – 3 sides of A4

It’s not easy, and heat, wind and the lack of water for long distances makes it hard work but the scenery is spectacular and camping is easy. If you like a regular shower then you probably shouldn’t bother unless you can make do with a 1.5 litre plastic water bottle special!

Here’s a short slideshow that should give you an idea of what to expect:

We will upload the maps we used, to the Maps section of this site when we get some faster internet

iranontheroad

English lessons in Iran – a great travelling experience

2009-04-16T14:06:00.000+08:00

In Neyshabur, Masoud asked us to come to his English lesson one night, we weren’t sure what to expect but in the end had a really good experience.

It was partly about helping the class practice their English but what was really interesting for us was the things they wanted to know about our world compared to theirs……

The teacher was lovely and spoke really good English, as did most of the class, she’s obviously doing a good job:

They started off with the obvious questions:

What do you think of Iran?

Where are you from?

How old are you?

But very quickly the questions became more interesting:

How do boys and girls meet in your country?

Is it true that many people don’t get married?

If you have a party where do you have it and how many people go?

What do you think of our government?

What religion are you? (Devout Atheist went down well)

Where would be the best place to live in the world?

We stayed about an hour and the questions kept coming and eventually the teacher had to tell everyone to go home.

We had our pictures taken and off we went back to the sports institute for our night in the dormitory.

Another great evening in Iran!

iranontheroad

The best cycling shop in Iran – Neyshabur (130km from Mashhad)

2009-04-15T13:53:00.000+08:00

Just over the mountains from Mashhad is the small town of Neyshabur where miraculously there lives a thriving community of cyclists, thanks to one ex-Olympic cyclist who lives there and trains cyclists at the Sports Institute.

There is also a thriving weekend cycling group and a fantastic shop with all the spares that anyone could ever need and an excellent mechanic. They even had Schwalbe tyres and 36 spoke wheels and hubs.

The owner doesn't speak much English but is very helpful and has friends who speak and read English well. You can email him for help at: fix538@yahoo.com

We also managed to stay at the Sport’s Institute in one of their dormitories for free while we got a new rear wheel for Isabelle’s bike – it was the compromise one we bought in Kathmandu to replace my broken wheel rim and the spokes kept breaking. Isabelle is now really happy with her 36 spoke Alex rims.

Masoud was the cyclist that we were put in touch with by Mahdi in Mashad and he helped us out loads, sorting out our accommodation and even escorting us 20km out of town as we headed into the desert.

Iranian’s are the best!!

iranontheroad

A tour of Neyshabur with Masoud and Mohammed, our fantastic hosts

2009-04-15T12:26:00.000+08:00

A friend in Mashhad had put is in touch with Masoud, a cyclist in Neyshabur. When our wheel broke again, he came and picked us up and took us into town to sort everything out, found us a room at the Sport’s Institute and then gave us a great tour of the city.

Masoud was very proud of being Iranian and wanted to show us the best that the city had to offer.

Masoud and Mohammed were really great and if Mohammed’s enthusiasm and energy were amazing considering he’d worked all night at a gas station before he met us.

First we visited the museum, where the staff were really friendly and helpful:

There was a great collection of a stuffed animals plus a potato shaped like a dog and a gruesome human foetus:

Then we visited an old Caravanserai:

Then finally a Mausoleum on the edge of town:

iranontheroad

The amazing Arbabi and Saeedy families - Iranian hospitality at it’s very best

2009-04-15T12:00:00.001+08:00

A friend on Couch Surfing managed to help us find somewhere to stay in Mashhad. We arrived cold and wet and were greeted by the warmest welcome you could have anywhere in the world.

Sarah and her friend Behnam met us in their car and escorted us back to Azizeh and Ahmad’s house where we were to stay.

The house was beautiful and we were immediately told to get in the shower, then fed and introduced to everyone. It was superb.

Azizeh spoke excellent English although she hadn’t used it for a while and Sarah was just all smiles and kindness, trying desperately hard to understand.

Behnam on the other hand was very good at English, studying Engineering at Universtity with all tuition in English.

We have been fed constantly and protected from the outrageous Mashhad weather, snow yesterday and rain the rest of the time! Apparently Mashhad is a 4 seasons in 1 day kind of place as we have now discovered. The family helped us mend our pedals which are hardly rotating anymore and we got our bike cleaned.

We have spent the rest of our time learning Farsi and just hanging out chatting about life and trying to get our heads around this amazing place, although we have also gone out for two meals – both to really nice and popular burger bars full of interesting people, had a walk in the park to see all the joggers, exercisers and the mountaineering group, had a delicious meal at Sarah’s parent’s house, been round to Sarah’s sister’s house for a meal and been given several music recitals as well as a visit to the great Ferdosi’s Mausoleum.

The best bit has been spending time with Sarah, Behnam and the Arbabi family (Lida the daughter arrived back yesterday from Tehran) seeing Iran through their eyes and learning as much Farsi as we can as well as as much as possible about the way people interact.

Sina, Sarah’s sister’s son was a superb Farsi teacher and was even able to explain the amazing concept of ‘Tarruf’ where everyone tries to be as kind as possible and asks several times if you want more food or want something for free. You just have to keep refusing. Even shop keepers do it and try to give you free food (but you HAVE to pay really) When we went to the Mausoleum even the ticket man tried to give us free tickets (But you HAVE to pay!) It’s a strange concept but makes Iran even more special.

This place is ‘Baah Baah’ They have great music too!

iranontheroad

A big thanks to Majid and his father who helped us in Mashhad

2009-04-11T14:12:00.000+08:00

After a night of rain and our bikes getting nearly destroyed by mud we were first helped by these two lovely gentlemen who found us some warmth and a hose to clean our bikes after first giving us a lift over a mountain through another rainstorm.

As we entered Mashhad after 90km of hard wet cycling we were soaked and couldn’t get through to Saeed who we were going to stay with, his mobile number wasn’t working. We stopped on the street and were almost immediately greeted by a smiling man who ushered us into his workshop, sat us around a fire, made us cups of delicious tea and then lent us a mobile phone to ring our few contacts in Mashhad. His son Majid spoke good English and helped us out and we had a great time sitting in the workshop with the employees (one fanatical Manchester United supporter among them!)

We eventually contacted another friend Mohammed, who sorted out some accommodation with his friend Sara. Majid and his father then escorted us on the craziest 20km night time drive from one side of Mashhad to the other to where Sara and her friend Behnam met us. We cycled on motorways, flyovers, huge roundabouts and nearly lost them many times. We had no idea that Mashhad was so big, or so like a normal Western city. When we arrived we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and were exhausted, just running on adrenalin for the last half an hour.

A huge ‘Merci’ or ‘Motejekhuram’ to a lovely family!!!!!

iranontheroad

Picnic at the Robat e Sharif Caravanserai in Iran

2009-04-10T11:35:00.000+08:00

About 60km from the Turkmenistan border on the way to Mashhad there is a small detour to an old Caravanserai where people used to rest along the Silk Route. It’s a popular picnic spot for Iranian families on Fridays as we discovered.

The moment we arrived we were immediately invited to join a group of 3 friends and their wives and children.

The Caravanserai was pretty interesting but the best bit about the whole experience was the incredible Iranian hospitality, everyone around the place tried to talk to us, we had our photos taken with people so many times.

A couple of the group could speak a bit of English and we got to practise our Farsi a little and do a bit of miming. At first the language is so different to all the languages we have been used to so far in the trip but after a while we were starting to hear some of the words and to distinguish sounds more easily. We WILL be able to communicate with people, we just need some lessons!

Doesn’t Isabelle look good in her manteau (the black smock/dress thing) and head scarf?

Luckily for Isa, as we were leaving Uzbekistan we met Chris and Rita from Sweden and Switzerland who had just come from Iran and Rita passed on the manteau that she had worn throughout Iran. It was a great experience because it was our first chance to really mix with women, who just interacted with us as normal, unlike in Pakistan where we never even saw women outside the home and they definitely weren’t going to speak to us.

iranontheroad

Transiting Turkmenistan in 3 days

2009-04-09T11:36:00.000+08:00

We first applied for our Turkmenistan visa on the 22nd March in Tashkent. We queued for 4 hours and handed in our application, explaining that we were cycling and asking nicely for 7 days to allow us to cycle the 600km across the country. We were told to come back in 10 days! No receipt, no smile, just an order!

We then cycled across Uzbekistan to get closer to the Turkmen border, caught the overnight train back and again queued for hours only to discover that they had moved their embassy to the other side of town without telling anyone. We eventually found the right place, queued again for hours and were told that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had checked our application and had approved a ‘3 Day’ visa if we came back at 5pm. We asked politely how could we cycle across the country in 3 days, receiving a blank stare, but felt wary that they often just refuse visas so we had to accept it.

In summary ‘The Turkmen Ministry of Foreign Affairs are a bunch of idiots!’…they give 5 day visas to cars, but 3 days to cyclists…Why?

Do the paranoid fools think we will tell their population how the government is stealing all their money and wasting it on vanity projects in Ashgabat, or on a ridiculous reservoir in the middle of the desert. Do they worry that we’ll tell the people that the history they were taught in school is nonsense or that their government is destroying their environment faster you would have thought humanly possible!!! Or that that the communist self styled 'father’ of their country died with over 3 billion dollars in the family bank account, while the people struggled on a dollar a day!

Whoever thinks that a cyclist can cycle 600 km in 3 days and 2 nights is a moron with a brain the size of most Turkmen’s bank balances.

We did eventually enter the country after loads of forms and declarations and many officials signing bits of paper, yet no-one even showed the slightest interest in our baggage, so all our propaganda leaflets got in safely and we were able to tell the people about their rubbish government.

Once in to the country the people in the villages were delightful, people stopped us often and gave us sweets and one time even forced money on us. How can people be so nice but the government so stupid?

The desert was in flower thanks to the rain that we had suffered in Uzbekistan and despite it’s flat emptiness the place looked good with poppies everywhere and people out collecting mushrooms.

We managed to get a vehicle to drive us for 250km one afternoon so we then raced through the rest of the country in the remaining time on our visa arriving at the border with a couple of hours to spare.

I’d have loved to see more, to spend money in the country, maybe even stay in a hotel, meet more locals, help the local economy etc but in the end we spent $8 on food in total and camped in the desert for 2 nights. We watched rampant corruption everywhere,even the Chinese trucks building the new roads were paying to get past every police check and it wasn’t even subtle, we watched two fat police officers splitting each bribe and putting into their pockets as they shouted at the guys on the street to stop more vehicles. They didn’t even care that we were standing in front of them. The guy who drove us South said that the police are terrible and that on the way back he would have to pay constant bribes to get his car back to Turkmenabat.

What a stupid government!!!

turkmenistanontheroad

Uzbek fashion show

2009-04-06T12:44:00.001+08:00

We wish we’d managed to get more photos, but this gives an example of the way women in Uzbekistan dress. It is a sort of Bath robe / Dressing gown - Haut Couture.

The brighter the better, but there can’t one bit of skin showing and no two items are allowed to match in any way.

I can think of several friends who would love the freedom that this would allow them in a mix and match sort of way.

It was very difficult taking photos so here’s a couple of specials, that Isabelle helped me out with:

uzbekistanontheroad

Bukhara – a living museum

2009-04-03T11:31:00.000+08:00

We spent the best part of 5 days in Bukhara, although the middle of our time there was interrupted by a crazy train trip back to Tashkent to get our Turkmenistan visas.

We stayed with a family who run a lovely and friendly little guest house called Nazruddin Navruz Hotel.

The city itself is different to Samarkand, it’s been inhabited and famous for much longer and thanks to some enlightened heritage planning it still has people living in the old city and it feels less like a museum than the undoubtedly beautiful Samarkand. On our train journey we shared a carriage with a 35 year old Uzbek who was part of the team working with UNESCO to allow development within the old city but still keep the feel and style the same. From what we could see they’ve done a remarkable job because it’s often hard to see where one finishes and the other starts. They encourage old building techniques and materials, which have stood up to earthquakes for hundreds of years.

The photos below were all taken early in the morning so the place is still waking up. The huge 47m high tower is one of the few buildings in the city that Jenghiz Khan didn’t flatten as he passed through, he was so amazed that it had stood so long that he left it standing. Most of the old town is centred around a square with a large pool in the centre and the buildings you can see are either Medressas, Mosques or Markets.

If you want to find out more about Bukhara you can read more in a Wikipedia Article

uzbekistanontheroad

Cycling Perfection – odometer delights

2009-03-31T02:44:00.000+08:00

An odometer seems an odd name for a cycling computer and most people would surely guess that it measures smelliness or some other such nonsense, but each day we watch as the numbers change, the distance rolls by and the speed rises and falls marking our progress across the world.

We have different ways of using it, I have to put mine on maximum speed so it gives me no information about my (lack of) progress unless I choose to press the buttons. I can meditate along and forget the huge distance I need to ride to find food or shelter. With my mathematical brain I find myself calculating times of arrival at this speed or working out how fast I need to ride if I am to get somewhere before dark. I would rather not know.

Isabelle on the other hand has her odometer on the distance for the day, something which I find intensely annoying (although I do like to look every hour or so)

As we get further into our journey we find ourselves getting excited by daily distances of 100 km or more, or the major milestones of 1000 km, 2000 km, 3000 km etc.

This nerdy obsession has developed into an attempt to reach a kind of odometer paradise where all numbers on the screen are identical. I will explain……..

6 digit perfection
Method 1: Cycle at 6.6 km/hr when the distance for the day is on 66.66 km. This is relatively easy as the opportunity occurs most days although there is only a 10m window of opportunity. Attained TWICE!

Method 2: Travel at 9.9 km/hr when the total distance for our whole trip is 999.9 km. This was the first 6 digit odometer heaven that I reached.

6 digit perfection just left me and Isabelle hungry for even higher achievements……

7 digit perfection
Method 1: 33.3 km/hr when the total distance is 333.3 km…..easy!

Method 2: 6.6 km/hr when the total distance is 6666.6 km…even easier!

8 digit perfection
Method 1: Cycle at 22.2 km/hr when the total distance is 2222.2 km. ACHIEVED!! I can hear your cheers. It wasn’t difficult!

Method 2: The holy grail of 8 digit heaven is the following: 111.11 km in one day travelling at 11.1 km/hr. We have had many opportunities to reach this target but it is almost impossible. We’ve had near misses, 111.11 km at 11.2 km/hr was my closest, but 10m is such a short window of opportunity to achieve this giddy target. We’ve practised cycling at 11.1 km/hr just so that when the distance is right we are ready to achieve……but we’ve always failed……….until yesterday!!

I am very proud to announce that as I approached Samarkand on March 27th 2009 I reached true odometer nirvana and on a slight climb (which I feel helped) was able to cycle at 11.1 km/hr at the exact moment that the total distance for the day reached 111.11 km. Passing cars would have wondered why the crazy cyclist was punching the air and whooping with excitement, but they had no idea of the number of failed attempts that we have both had. 111.11 km is a long way with a fully loaded bike and it doesn’t take much to break your spirit when you fail to reach your 8 digit goal. It was worth all the disappointment though when I finally succeeded. I can sleep easily now, instead of tossing and turning dreaming of the previously unattainable.

As I am sure all you high achieving readers have also found in life, when you reach the pinnacle of success, it can feel as though the future can only get worse.

What is there left to cycle for? Should we give up and fly home?

9 digit perfection
There will never be a better daily target but there is a way of having more digits:

We will have to wait a while before we have a chance of reaching this target….11,111.1 km while cycling at 11.1 km/hr.

I’m excited and salivating at the thought of it. A whole 100m to achieve it does however make it a little less exciting. I might even have a chance of taking a photo of it…..digitally preserved for ever! (The picture above is digitally enhanced just to help you feel a little of the pleasure that I felt – I hope it helps)

Samarkand – a wonder of Central Asia

2009-03-29T20:43:00.000+08:00

After three hard days of cycling, 135km, 75km into the wind and rain, and 125km, we finally arrived in Samarkand. It’s one of Central Asia’s oldest cities and was a key place on the silk road, being at the junction of routes to China, India and Persia. It is definitely worth coming to and is one of those places that that feels sort of mythical, yet real, like Timbuktu or Kashgar, other important places on trading routes in Mali and China respectively.

The city of Samarkand is about 2500 years old and has had a rich and varied life, being ruled by just about everyone from Alexander the Great to Jenghiz Khan (who destroyed it) and finally to Timur, the great Central Asian warrior and patron of the arts who created the Samarkand that you can see in these photos.

It’s been a little sovietised, with huge pointless empty pedestrianised areas around the buildings, and the life has been sterilised from the old parts of town, although with such important buildings to be preserved it's probably no surprise. In some of the photos from the turn of the last century it looks amazing with people and markets surrounding all the monuments.

Most of the beautiful buildings you can see are the oldest Medressas still standing anywhere in the world, important places of learning where scholars studied higher mathematics while Europe was still in the dark ages.

It does however feel like it might be a tourist hell hole during high season, with small shops occupying the rooms inside the Medressas, beggars hanging around outside and the inevitable policemen offering to take you to closed off areas ‘for a small donation’.

Despite all this it's well worth visiting and undoubtedly beautiful in design and proportions. The blue/green tile work is amazing, especially as some of it is unchanged since the 14th century. Some of the buildings have been over enthusiastically rebuilt but the Soviet’s have done a good job of preserving the monuments and the inside of some of them are incredibly ornate and lavish in their use of gold leaf.

Here’s a small slide show of some of the sites:

uzbekistanontheroad

Cycling in Uzbekistan from Tashkent to Samarkand

2009-03-26T21:11:00.000+08:00

The route across Uzbekistan from the present capital Tashkent to the old capital Samarkand is 333km long and relatively flat. It gives a good idea of how real people live, mostly relying on farming and maybe having a member or two of the family in another country or working in Tashkent. The people in the villages are super friendly, happy to have you camping behind their house and keen to talk to you at any opportunity.

Communication: The biggest problem facing people who try to talk to us is their inability to understand that a British guy can be married to a Canadian and that we don’t live in Canada or the UK. They want to give us their brother’s phone number in Montreal….’We don’t have a phone or live in Canada’, my sister works in HK….’We don’t any more’. We started just lying and saying we were both from Canada but then they want to ask me all about ice hockey (of which I know nothing and they know everything)

We have also discovered that unless we check the price before we buy anything it is normally at least 200% more than normal, even for buying a 50 cent ice-cream the price normally starts at about $2 until they negotiate the price down as we walk out of their shop and off down the street.

Most of the people in the countryside were absolutely lovely, refusing payment for tea and Samsa (bread or pastry stuffed with meat and vegetables) until we insisted. Strange how people with nothing are so generous, yet people with businesses just want to rip us off at every opportunity. Or maybe it’s not so strange.

At night we just camped by the road, not really making much effort to hide and sometimes people would come and see us just to say ‘Salaam’ and then walk off with their animals to leave us in peace, interested and friendly but not hassly, a welcome respite from the absolutely no peace of India.

Uzbekistan in late March is NOT WARM or DRY as we discovered on the second day, all our warm clothes having been sent home from Delhi meant that we just had to put our tent up and get into our sleeping bags to keep dry and warm, even though it was only 3.30pm…never mind, it can only get warmer as we head West.

There is a cycling guide for this part of the route in the Road Guides-Uzbekistan section with full route information including camping spots.

uzbekistanontheroad

Tashkent – What a nice place!

2009-03-23T20:44:00.001+08:00

We didn’t really know what to expect from Tashkent and have been pleasantly surprised. It’s open, airy, spacious and there seem to be very few people around. I asked someone if they ever had traffic jams and they said ‘once or twice a year’. The streets are wide, everything sprawls over vast distances and most people move around underground on the Metro.

There are policemen at least every 100m on every main street, looking bored, stopping cars, extracting bribes, getting together in groups and having a cigarette. What they are there for I have no idea, on the Metro there are several wandering around each station, in different uniforms, making sure the population obey the rules. This is one of the few indications that Uzbekistan is a police state, along with the necessary foreigner registration in every hotel.
We had heard reports that travellers get hassled by these policemen, but no-one ever stopped us in our time in Tashkent, and on the road we have been flagged down a few times but have just ignored them and carried on….
The city has lots of large buildings and loads of expensive hotels, the Intercontinental, Radissons etc with gold encrusted Russians and fat business men milling around their foyers.
Money is a real hassle, the largest note is worth 60 US cents so if you change money you are left with a wad of notes several cm thick. ATM’s (Bankomats) consequently never have any money in them as all it takes is a few customers to exhaust their supplies and no-one has thought to issue bigger notes or fill them up more quickly. Most people just use dollars so Uzbekistan is one of the weird countries where the dollar goes up in value all the time, as no-one wants their own currency ‘Som’.
One thing to note is that if you have a Mastercard/Maestro then you can withdraw dollars for 0% commission from the Bankomats, those of us with only Visa/Plus etc have no option but to get advances on their cards from Banks. The rate for Soms is 30% less than the black market and you also pay charges for the cash advance!!! so taking dollars from the cash advance is the best method, and then change them on the street for Soms, being careful not to do it near any policemen.
For all it’s oddness, and the obvious huge disparity of wealth between the few rich people and the majority of the population, the people of Tashkent are incredibly friendly and helpful and surprisingly many speak good English. We never had any problems finding anything and also discovered a row of useful bike shops where we were able to pick up some spare spokes and replace a cycle computer.
One of the more interesting places was the market in Chorsu, full of gorgeous food and friendly people.
We were able to sort out our onward visas quite quickly so after 3 days we headed off down the road towards Samarkand, excited to be finally able to start covering some distance again.

For more info about visas for Turkmenistan and Iran go to the visa section of this site.
uzbekistanontheroad

No route West from the subcontinent – we reach a dead end

2009-03-22T17:18:00.001+08:00

China refuses entry to tourists through Tibet
Thanks to China’s refusal to let anyone into Tibet from Nepal this year, we had to find an alternative way to continue our journey West. Until May when the Khunjerab pass re-opens, the only land alternative to the Tibet route is a three week police escort through Southern Pakistan staying in police stations every night, which would have missed out on a country that we have always wanted to visit: Uzbekistan, with it’s wonders of Samarkand and Bukhara, so we made the decision to take the 2 hour flight over China / Pakistan from Delhi to Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

The delights of Delhi – learning to tune out
After 17 annoying days hanging around in Delhi, organising our Iranian visas, getting ourselves Uzbekistan visas, watching TV, eating western food…….. we eventually attained a higher state of obliviousness, where the all pervasive odour of piss and cow shit vanished into the ether, the dust washed over and around us, the regurgitative sounds of spitting just blended into the constant honking of horns and the cries of ‘wan a rickshaw, sir?’.

Towards the end we were able to completely ignore everyone and everything around us, never catching anyone’s eye, not reacting to even the idiots rushing up to us saying ‘Long time no see! How are you? did you enjoy the Taj?’, or ‘I like your slim body’, or ‘Do you like McDonalds'?’. We could walk the streets of Delhi as though it was a silent path in the mountains or a cycle ride across the Mongolian plains………. for us our little area of Delhi had become an oasis of calm……..nearly!!!!

Flying from Delhi – packing our bikes

Leaving was a joyous moment but packing the bikes is never fun. We decided on an original method, we boxed in the handlebars, gears and saddle and took the bike to the wrapping machines at the airport. The guys said it was impossible, we bluffed them that we’d done it before…..and 5 minutes later it was done.

Air Uzbekistan complained a bit and then couldn’t be bothered, and with our special patented method of reducing the check in weight (lifiting the bike with our feet when it’s on the scales) we were able to reduce the check in weight of both bikes from 34kg to 20kg.

Arriving in Tashkent was wonderful, clear, dust free air, 20 degrees with low humidity, wide empty open streets, and everyone was suddenly helpful and friendly.

We’re in a nice hotel, we’ve spent today cycling around the city discovering the embassies (all closed for ‘Nowruz’ – the New Year), bookshops and cafes. The city is lovely, full of parks, trees and space.

What a contrast!

More Information about Uzbek visas in Delhi + Routes west from India

uzbekistanontheroad

Holy Cow (for Ari)

2009-03-19T21:55:00.002+08:00

A short piece about cows in Delhi written for a 7 year old boy in New Zealand who sometimes reads this blog

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Photos of Simon and Isa - just in case you've forgotten what we look like

2009-03-10T20:53:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since we've seen our family and friends so we've put this short little slideshow on so that you can remember us. Don't be too shocked by the change:

Heading West from India towards Europe overland

2009-03-09T03:48:00.000+08:00

If you need to travel west from India you are faced with a few choices although you are restricted by security issues, visa availability and time of year:

Southern Pakistan to Iran – if you are cycling, this isn’t a lot of fun as you will have to be in a police escort for about 15 days as it is considered too dangerous. Each day the police drive along with you and stay outside your hotel or you have to cycle from police station to police station. You can get a Pakistani visa in India and you can pick up an Iranian visa organised through a travel agency (Iranianvisa.com) in Pakistan or in India.

Northern Pakistan and into China via the Khunjerab Pass – This is a great choice as long as the Khunjerab Pass is open. (May to November). You can get a Chinese visa in Pakistan and the Pakistani, Indian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh visas in Delhi. If you are already in China, you can enter Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan with a visa that you can pick up in Urumqi although for Kyrgyzstan this involves a 2000km detour round the edge of the Taklamakan Desert.

Don’t cross from China to Kyrgyzstan via the Torugart Pass, use the Irkeshtan, less cost and hassle and also it’s easier to get from the Irkeshtan to Osh and then Uzbekistan unless you need to go to Bishkek. The only reason to go via the Torugart pass is if you have to go to Bishkek and you want to see Lake Issyk Kul or spend time in the Tien Shan mountains near Karakol. East Kyrgyzstan is beautiful but the Torugart is a pain because the Chinese don’t let you cross the border independently, only in organised transport that costs lots

You can get all the rest of the onward visas for the Stans in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan if you haven’t already got them.

In Pakistan it’s wise to get transport from Islamabad to Chilas as the Hindu Kush is a bit dodgy for cyclists, too many stone throwers. Once in Chilas the place is superbly friendly and easy to cycle around although it does head up hill a lot.

Nepal into Tibet/China then West – this is impossible at the moment but for the last few years has been OK. It’s unlikely to be allowed for a while as both Tibet and Xinjiang are a bit sensitive. we were quoted $3500 to be escorted from Nepal to Ali by a Chinese guide taking three weeks. You can’t get across any check point without all the people on your Group Visa (the only visa available in Nepal) If you enter Nepal with a Chinese visa it can’t be used to enter China from Nepal. And in any event newspapers are reporting that no tourists are being allowed into Tibet this spring and I suspect that these restrictions will continue all of 2009 (20th anniversary of Tianemen Square, 60 years of China, 50 years since the Dalai Lama escaped)

There’s oil in the desert of Xinjiang province so the Chinese are a bit tense at the moment. We could only travel through much of it because we had a HK ID card so don’t expect to be able to cut across the Tien Shan mountains, you may be forced to cycle all the way around. You can also enter Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan from China and pick up your Kazakh or Kyrgyz visa in Urumqi. These don’t need a letter of invitation if you are from one of 28 countries listed on the Kazakh website. You can also do this in India.

Flying Over Pakistan / Tibet to Uzbekistan – you can fly from Delhi direct to Tashkent in Uzbekistan with Air India/Uzbekistan Airlines (Code Share) for about $400 one way or $500 return. You may need to have a return ticket to Uzbekistan to actually be allowed into the country even if you have a visa. If you get a return ticket you can cancel it when you arrive, but you can only get your full refund in India although you do have 2 years to do so.

Several countries don’t need an LOI (UK and most European Countries but NOT Canadians) If you need an LOI then contact the Uzbek embassy who can advise you – they were really helpful when we went there. It’s next door to the Bangladesh Embassy which is in the Lonely Planet. Stan Tours can sort you out any letters of invitation that you might need for the Stans and are very efficient and quick to respond to emails. You can pick up your Iranian visa in Tashkent quite easily although it must be pre-arranged with a company like Iranianvisa.com

Flying Over Pakistan / Tibet to Kyrgyzstan - If you want to go to the fantastic Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan Air, Turkish Airlines and Aeroflot fly via Tashkent to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. tickets range from $700 to $1200 dollars. Most nationalities can get a visa on arrival for Kyrgyzstan. at the airport The Iranian embassy in Bishkek is rubbish so don’t arrange to pick up your visa there.

Payment to travel agents in Central Asia / Iran normally involves getting a MoneyBookers account because they can’t accept Visa or PayPal because of various restrictions. You can do bank transfer but this takes a lot longer. If you organise your Moneybookers account at home it will be much easier as you have to wait a few days, check your credit card statement for a payment amount and then enter this amount on their website before you can use the Moneybookers account. Once you’ve done this you can pay by entering an email address in the Moneybookers website and it’s all done. Check Iranianvisa.com or Stantours for their payment email addresses.

Useful addresses and information:

Stan Tours: www.stantours.com email: stantours@gmx.net

Iranian Visa: http://iranianvisa.com email: info@iranianvisa.com or iranianvisa@gmail.com

MoneyBookers: www.moneybookers.com

We’ve chosen to fly to Uzbekistan..we’ll let you know what happens in the comments.

Excess baggage is about $2 / Kg

Punjabi Dhaba - Great food and a great business

2009-03-05T21:21:00.001+08:00

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Cycing from Pokhara to Mahendranagar

2009-03-01T21:35:00.002+08:00

The scenery between Pokhara and the Mahendranagar in the far west of Nepal is absolutely beautiful and is on of the most unspoilt areas of Nepal. As you get further West the people become much more friendly. Here's some photos in a slideshow to give you an idea:

nepalontheroad

Leaving Bardia, Bardia Hideaway Cottage and Nepal

2009-02-27T21:12:00.002+08:00

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Leaving Bardia, Bardia Hideaway Cottage and Nepal February 27thth 2009 After nearly three months in Nepal and about 3 weeks in total with B, Kali and their family and friends it finally came time to head for Delhi to catch a flight. The Chinese weren't letting us in to Tibet, the Karakorum is closed because of snow until April, Southern Pakistan is too dreary to cycle through (Police escort all the way) and there's no other way West from India apart from via Afghanistan!!!!!! We are forced to fly over all these countries to either Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan from where we can continue West to Turkey. We also have the problem that if we want to fly to Uzbekistan we must get a visa in Delhi, we must also pick up an Iranian visa in Uzbekistan (Tashkent) if we want to be able to get a Turkmenistan transit visa. Travel in these countries is never easy. We were so sad to be leaving B and Kali and there wonderful little bit of paradise, but this time we won't be away for 7 years. We have plans to come back very soon to see how it all goes. Diliram, Simon, B, Kali, Bina, Isa, Bibek and Resham Riding proudly with our flower garlands. When we left we were presented with flower garlands by Bina and Kali and it was all very emotional, we'd spent all day everyday with them and they were all worried about us on our cycle ride to Delhi. We had to promise to ring them every night. It was very sweet. Cycling through one of the little villages on the way back to the main road at Ambasa Little kids running along with us just for fun. From Bardia we only cycled 50km that day to a small town with one guest house and then the following day had a fantastic 100km ride to Mahendrenagar the border town in the West. It's a great place and the people all the way along the road are super friendly. The only problem we had was that as ever Nepal seemed to know we were trying to leave and the wind decided to blow against us for the last 40km. We arrived absolutely knackered after 8hours of hard pedalling. The same thing happened in Mongolia, Russia and China! From the border we had 3 ½ days of riding to Delhi on the smoothest tar. Despite occasional crowded sections it was relatively peaceful, they're building a highway which we cycled on and this avoided most of the busy crazy sections through towns. There just aren't quite enough people in this part of India with cars to make the road horrible. We were very sad to have left Nepal, but we will be back. 'Twice is never enough'!!

Building Bardia Hideaway Cottage - a slideshow

2009-02-26T20:45:00.001+08:00

We were the first guests to stay at B and Kali's place: Bardia Hideaway Cottage and between December, when we first stayed there and February, they managed to get lots of work done. The local Tharu builders were amazing, everything done with hand tools, no power, making tables, doors, rooms etc.Here's a slideshow of the progress:

The Elephant Rehabilitation Centre at Bardia National Park

2009-02-25T21:29:00.003+08:00

While were staying at Bardia we spent a bit of time visiting the Elephant Rehabilitation Centre. It's only about 15 minutes walk from Bardia Hideaway Cottage; or the park entrance and easy to find. The same elphants are used to give people rides for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening. The babies often come with the mothers and are very playful and convinced that all humans have food for them.

Camping trip at Bardia National Park

2009-02-23T20:34:00.001+08:00

Here is a slideshow of a camping trip we did on the edge of Bardia National Park.We went with B, Diliram and Bill from Bardia Hideaway Cottage

Everybody Wants to Learn

2009-02-22T21:10:00.002+08:00

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Crazy Christians all over Nepal – Plymouth Brethren skulking about

2009-02-20T17:24:00.002+08:00

We've had an absolutely ridiculous and amazing experience here in Bardia, we cycled from Pokhara the 600km to Bardia and as we arrived back at B's place – 'Bardia Hideaway Cottage' he had a minibus arrive with 5 guests, 1 Nepali, 1 Russian and 3 Americans. We were very pleased for him because they took a room each and with the place being nearly full we offered to stay in one of the half finished rooms.

We chatted to them a little that night, but to be honest we spent most of our time with B and Kali and their family, so didn't come up with a firm opinion of what the guests were like, apart from that they were a bit evasive about why they were here...'running some conferences', 'organising some meetings'. We assumed they were probably from an NGO and thought nothing of them.

The next morning we were awoken by the most amazing sounds coming from the room nearest ours. Because we were in the unfinished room, it hadn't had the glass put in the windows yet and just had mosquito netting, so the sound was enough to wake us up......

We could hear the sound of chanting, but not just any old chanting, they were 'speaking in tongues'!!

We woke up and lay there amazed as they waffled on ' kdinga parabaraaaaa ambatrakiboo nidiboopee...etc'

This wasn't just a short thing, the whole thing went on for about an 45 minutes, with various crescendo's and sometimes a bit of wailing or singing interspersing the constant nonsense that was coming out of their mouths....'odoriniko spedibooki inorinoo....' (I quote!)

Every now and then there would be a voice that said something in English such as:

'We take dominion over Satan'

'Help us fight the powers of evil, destroy your enemies, Oh Lord!!!'

'Give us strength Oh Lord, to believe, to have no doubts, to have the confidence to preach'

'Protect Pastor Bill and give us the power to succeed today'

We just lay in bed giggling, yet slightly scared...and then got out the sound recorder to see how well it could record them – the sound was good. We left our room before they had finished and went to see B and Kali and all the Nepalese builders who had arrived by now to finish some of the roofs. They all thought that the men were speaking a foreign language and it was almost impossible to convince them that it was just nonsense...'speaking in tongues' They couldn't stop laughing when me and Isa did our own little bit just to show them how easy it was (in fact we continued to do this every now and then for the next week or so)

Eventually the nutters came out of the room, completely unaware that we could hear them so easily. Then they had their breakfast and went off in their white van to their 'conference'. We were glad to see them go and spent ages trying to tell B and Kali what they were....crazy christian nutters!

That night they came back late and sat right outside our room unaware that we had gone to bed at 7.30 and proceeded to talk about their day. Two of them immediately rushed off to have showers because 'I'm burning inside from all the witchcraft that I've seen today in the villages'. We lay there absolutely fascinated (and even more scared) listening to them for the next couple of hours.

They were bragging to each other about how they weren't allowed to be in Nepal but that they had come in as tourists, they talked about other countries that they were visiting on their 6 week trip: Bhutan, Cambodia, Vietnam. They bragged about the fact that to get round restrictions in Bhutan they had bought up a local travel agent so that they could go freely into the country. They kept saying to the Nepalese guy that 'You Nepalese need to sort out your government!'

They were patronising to B's staff as they brought them their food, knowing that they didn't understand English very well, they'd say things like 'Did you go and get this water from the river... boy?' and laugh a lot as he walked off. The atmosphere was one of bigotry and superiority....horrible!!!! They kept calling each other 'Brethren' so we assumed that they were Plymouth Brethren.

They insisted on having two hot showers a day each, seemingly unaware that B and Kali were waking up at 4am to start boiling the water that they were demanding. They bitched about the food on the first night and went on and on about how much better food was in the US. We were relieved when they finally went to bed because their conversation reflected the obviously ridiculously sheltered world that they came from.

The following morning we were woken up by the same nonsense (which we recorded) and off they went again in their white van. That night we had to listen to them bitching about the Russian and then slagging off the Nepalese guy when he wasn't there. Horrible messed up people meddling with other people's lives in countries that have their own proud traditions and religions.

There's a bit of a history of Christian missionaries meddling in other countries and creating huge problems, for example the First Indian War of Independence (called the Indian Mutiny by the British) was largely created by the fear that the British were going to convert all the Hindu sepoys to Christianity; Bush's 10 years of nonsense was largely down to the support of the Christian right, and their meddling stopped all US government funding to hospitals or doctors that promoted condoms as a form of contraception rather than the Christian method of abstinence. Millions of extra Aids deaths later Obama almost immediately revoked the decision; the same nutty Christians are behind the whole anti-evolution nonsense of 'Intelligent Design' and they're preying on the dalits (lower castes) of the sub continent who think that they're being offered something that will help them escape the prejudices of the Hindu caste system.

The morning that they were leaving they forced Kali, B and Bina into a room with them (they were too polite to refuse) and proceeded to do the same weird service that woke us up every day. B said later that the three of them just stood there giggling and that every time they giggled the head guy slapped them gently around their head and told them to listen. B had thought that we were already in the room and that it was some sort of Christian service he was being invited too. He's always interested in new things but wasn't really prepared for this. We sat outside, getting angrier and angrier with them as the chanting seemed to go on for ever. After an hour B, Kali and Mina emerged, gave us a little smile and whispered 'We'll tell you about it when they've gone'.

10 minutes later the guys got in their van, tipped handsomely and gave us their card. They weren't bad people, just absolutely crazy and with too much money and time. I guess that they collect money in the US to fund these 'Church Planting' trips and they even described what they do as their job and said it was great because it gave them a chance to travel. They seemed to have no idea of the impact that they have, although from the list of places that they visit it seems fairly obvious that they're after the poorest people who have suffered the most. They don't actually do any helping, just converting!!! They call it Church Planting!!

We've emailed the Bhutanese government their details and we'd like to find a way to stop them going to Nepal and all the other countries that they visit. These nutter evangelists have been everywhere that we've travelled on this trip...Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and all over China. They should stay at home and leave everyone else alone!

nepalontheroad

Watching Crocodiles near Bardia National Park

2009-02-17T21:06:00.003+08:00

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Watching Crocodiles near Bardia National Park Bardia National Park is bounded by two rivers, the Babai River to the East and the Karnali River to the west. Both rivers drop out of the Himalayas into the low plains of the Terai. In the past the area was off limits to most of humanity thanks to the high prevalence of Malaria and consequently despite the levels of nutrients in the soil, the only people who lived here were the Tharu people who had some level of inherited natural immunity to the disease. The historically low population density, two main rivers and their numerous channels proved a superb habitat for many species of birds, mammals and reptiles. However in the 1950s there was a widespread attempt to wipe out Malaria in the whole of the Terai by killing mosquitos, draining wetlands and using insecticides to stop the remaining mosquitoes from breeding. February 17th 2009 This was great for the people who could move from the impoverished soils of the mountains to the flood plains of the Terai, but for the flora and fauna of the area it has had a devastating effect. As people have built villages alongside the banks of the rivers and created paddy fields where there was once Sal forest or natural grasslands this has brought them into direct conflict with the wildlife of the Terai. Elephants became the enemy as they raided the rice and dhal fields for food and the large predators at the top of the food chain such as Tigers, Leopards and Crocodiles were killed to safeguard people living and working in the forests and by the rivers. Eventually the National Park was created and further expansion of villages was restricted although people were still allowed to live inside the park in special areas such as Thakurdwara where the Park headquarters are located. There are presently two species of crocodile that still live in the area, the Marsh Mugger Crocodile and the Gharial crocodile (pictured). Their numbers are low and the park has a Breeding Centre which can be visited for a small fee and some crocodiles have been released back into the Babai and Karnali river basins and can be easily observed with a good guide. We used 'Mr B' from Bardia Hideaway Cottage The crocodiles are about 1.5 - 2.5m long and mainly eat fish and small animals that come down to the river to drink. They aren't any threat to the people of the area although during the monsoon they often end up near people's houses by swimming up the irrigation channels that flow around all the fields.

We meet some tame Blue Bull Antelopes

2009-02-16T17:04:00.002+08:00

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The Nepalese curse on our bicycles

2009-02-15T16:59:00.001+08:00

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The Nepalese curse on our bicycles continues 15th February 2009 After the fun of my bike frame breaking the day we entered Nepal and the next couple of weeks of trying to sort out a replacement we finally transferred all the parts from my first frame on to the new one, serviced the hubs and replaced some bearings, cleaned everything else, tightened everything and replaced the chain. Once it was all done there was this feeling that everything wasn't quite right with the gears. I played with them loads, messing with the adjustment screws, checking everything, changed a slightly worn derrailleur cog and then because the chain kept slipping when I put loads of force on it I noticed that some of the gearing cogs on the rear wheel were heavily worn so I got some new cogs thinking that I'd solved the problem. But there was still the feeling that something wasn't quite right. I finally decided to try a different mechanic in Kathmandu not because Sonam from Dawn to Dusk wasn't any good but because I wanted some fresh eyes to see the problem. I ended up showing Harry from 'Himalayan Mountain Bikes' the problem and luckily he spotted it almost straight away: the rear derrailleur hanger, supplied on the new frame by Koga was slightly bent and this was creating the gearing issues. Luckily for me he had the only Park Tool derrailleur bending tool in Nepal and we managed to straighten it quite easily. Watching him work was fantastic, he was a man who loved bikes and it showed, he was so careful with everything. We set off for Pokhara and the bike seemed OK, a little different, but then the new frame made it feel slightly odd, so I wasn't really bothered. We got to Pokhara, went trekking for a few weeks and then set off on the 5 day ride to Bardia. On the first day I noticed that the rear brake wasn't working perfectly, but with the generally flat roads of the Terai and long distances to cover in short days I just ignored the braking problem. We were cycling for 7 constant hours, arriving as it got dark, eating and falling asleep almost immediately and the last thing I wanted to do was service the bike. On the third day I got two punctures in the wheel and decided to have a better look. Much to my horror the rim was coming away from the rear wheel. I sat cursing Isabelle for making us cycle over the craziest road in the world in Pakistan – the Shandur Pass with it's 50km of rock instead of road. In the end we decided that there was nothing we could do so I marked the edges of the crack with duck tape and we cycled another 120km. At the end of the day the crack was 5cm longer. Over the next few days the crack reached about 20cm, the rim was so far away from the wheel that I had to disengage the rear brake. We limped into Bardia down the 13km of dirt road that approaches it grateful to have arrived still riding the bike. Under the rim tape 4 of the spokes had big cracks around the spoke nipples...the wheel wouldn't have done much more on dirt or poor surfaces. Luckily we'd kept the card of the amazing mechanic Harry from HMB in Kathmandu, he had a real Mavic rim and after hassle with finding a way to pay him, he put a new wheel with a new hub and 9 speed gearing fitted (we weren't sure whether we'd be able to remove them with our tools) on a bus and sent it out to Bardia. The bus should have arrived at 3am, so B took me to the main road on the back of his motorbike at 2.30am and we sat in the dark and waited at the army check point that checks vehicles for wood smuggling out of the park. By 4am the bus hadn't arrived, so we woke up one of the guys from a little tea shop who gave us some dried meat and made us some milk tea. B slept on a bed, while I looked for the lights of the bus in the distance. At 5.30am it finally arrived, almost on time by Nepalese standards and we retrieved the wheel and headed back to bed. We dismantled the broken wheel, kept the hub and the almost new 9 speed gears and gave the rim to a little kid to play with..he was delighted! Luckily the bike is now absolutely fine all the little issues seem to have vanished, there are no slightly strange noises, nothing wrong at all!! And anyway we've left Nepal now so things are bound to be OK. The irony of it all is that the roads in Nepal are pretty good, yet the only problems I've had have been inside Nepal's borders. nepalontheroad

Why do so many tourists leave their brains at home?

2009-02-10T16:55:00.001+08:00

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Multinationals moving into the Annapurna region?

2009-02-04T16:51:00.002+08:00

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Walking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal

2009-02-04T16:18:00.002+08:00

We spent the end of January and the beginning of February walking round the Annapurna Circuit. It's a great walk at this time of year because there are very few tourists and prices come down and the people in the lodges have a little more time for you.

We saw about 10 people in our 10 days of walking, meeting most people in Manang where it's wise to have a rest. One thing that puzzled us was how little people seemed to know about altitude, yet the Thorung La at 5400m is at a height that causes serious altitude sickness if people aren't careful.

We were really appalled at the guides, who were telling their clients that lodge owners don't like independent trekkers and telling them nothing about the dangers of altitude and making them sleep far too high on consecutive nights. Most of the guided treks were sleeping in Manang at 3500m, Letdar at 4200m and then High Camp at 4800m on consecutive nights...this is absolutely crazy.

They weren't even telling them to climb high and sleep low or telling them about the 'never sleep more than 300m higher each night over 3000m' advice given by all health agencies and by the National Park authorities. Without exception everybody was suffering from moderate altitude sickness, and without exception everybody was ignoring the advice on notice boards around them...another sign of altitude sickness!!!

We spent every day walking short distances, dropping off our bags at a lodge and going on amazing high walks above the valley, finding a great Ice Lake above Manang, reaching one of the base camps above Letdar and we even visited the Thorung La twice, once on just a day trip from Thorung Phedi. Going over the Thorung La was easy and we both slept like babies every night.

One thing we were also amazed at was the way the groups set off at 4am to cross the pass, positively dangerous at this time of year. We left at 9am from Thorung Phedi, took about an hour and a half to reach the top and spent ages on the pass basking in the sun.

We urge everybody to stop taking guides around the circuit, as it's causing all the prices in the lodges to shoot up, any lodge must provide alcohol and meat if they want guides to visit their lodges and every tourist is paying for it. As far as we could see, many of the guides were just having a free 'piss up' at the expense of their tourists and not even offering them good advice. We talked to many lodge owners who re-iterated that the guides were getting greedy and that their worst nightmare was the lone traveller with a guide and a porter!!

To cap it all we had to help one hung-over guide over the Thorung La pass because he was too ill to keep up with his client!!! The park authorities need to do something about this!!

nepalontheroad

Is there a better place to have watched Slumdog Millionaire?

2009-02-03T16:48:00.002+08:00

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Could you find a more amazing place for a cinema? February 3rd 2009 When people talk about great places to watch a film, I'm not sure they can really compete with where we just watched Slumdog Millionaire. We've been walking the Annapurna circuit in the Himalayas in Nepal and arrived in Manang, 3500m above sea level. We arrived, tired from 5 days of walking to discover that the village has a small cinema called 'High Vision Hall' set up by some forward thinking locals so that they and tourists can watch films that are posted into the area on DVD. How the post gets there is another world from that of postal systems in other parts of the world. Manang is about 60km as the crow flies from the nearest major town, Pokhara. This doesn't sound far, but unfortunately there are some of the highest mountains in the world directly in the way, Annapurna I,II,III & IV, Gangapurna, Nilgiri, Tilicho Peak, Machapuchere. A dirt road snakes it's way along the Kali Gandaki river valley between Daulgiri and Nilgiri to within about 20km of Manang. The drive takes about 10 hours. The only problem after that is the final walk that involves climbing 2700m over one of the highest passes in the region, the 5400m Thorung La. There is another route, although that also involves a tortuous days drive from Kathmandu on a bus, a 4 hour jeep drive and 5 days of walking from the village of Syange at the end of the road. The track is often blocked by landslides and when we got the jeep into the area, a large boulder blocked the road so we couldn't even get all the way to Syange. We'd downloaded the Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo film review show from BBC Radio 5, and listened in Kathmandu to the good doctor's enthusiastic review of the film. We were pissed off that we'd have to wait until we arrived in the UK in July to watch it on DVD, but when we saw this little cinema in Manang we asked excitedly if they had Slumdog Millionaire...amazingly they had a slightly less than legal copy that had just arrived but was already rented out for the night. We booked the cinema for the following night, not really knowing what to expect. After a day exploring the mountains, we rushed back down to Manang for our 5pm showing, bought our Coke's and pop corn, paid our 200 Rupee entrance fee and entered an incredible little room with space for about 40 people sat on wooden benches covered in small squares of Yak fur in a gently sloping room. At the back of the room was a data projector connected to a small computer and a 4m wide screen hung at the front. January in Manang is extremely cold once the sun goes down and each morning we would wake up to frozen water in the buckets in the toilets with ice maybe 4cm thick. We wore ALL the clothes we had with us, I had a hat, thermals, gloves and also the hood on my pile jacket was done up like a Snorkel coat and we all sat as close as we could to the small stove fuelled by yak dung in the middle of the cinema. It never really did much more than take a little of the chill out of the room, the temperature hovering around freezing at best. For the next 2 hours we all sat in silence mesmerised by an outstanding story, direction and cinematography, and the excellent MIA songs on the soundtrack. Even the hard wooden bench felt luxurious with it's yak skin covering. I even sat through the excellent end credits, although most of my fellow cinema-goers had by then run down the main street in the pitch black back to their lodges for the warmth of the wood-burning stoves. For me it always feels a bit sudden to walk out immediately a film finishes, although when I looked around to discover that I was the only one left watching the dance routines, and that even my wife had vanished to have a much needed wee behind the 'cinema', I realised how absolutely engrossing the film had been. I hobbled back to the lodge and then had the longest wee of my life (and I know because I timed it – an old habit whenever I'm desperate!). Altitude makes it essential to drink loads of fluid and 108 seconds after I started weeing I finally stopped flowing. I suspect that it was a world record and reflected how absolutely captivating Slumdog Millionaire had been. My previous record had been 82 seconds and this marked a major improvement. Manang perched above the river valley at 3500m above sea level Now I know that the showing of the film was less than legal but everyone there will go and see the film in a cinema if they get the chance, or buy or rent the DVD. For the guys who've made the 'cinema' and invested in the projector and laptop it's one of the few ways that they can make money apart from working as porters or leaving for the cities. The quality of the picture was what you expect from a 720 pixels wide screen, spread over 4m but it didn't matter, the whole evening was absolutely magic and I'll be surprised if there's a better setting for a cinema anywhere on earth. Have you ever seen a film in a better location? If the 'Good Doctor' reads this, having listened to his description of coffee fascism (Americano, frappacinos etc.) and the near impossibility of just asking for a cup of coffee, black or white, I would like to report that I refuse to order anything but a filter or espresso coffee and am often faced with confused staff who can't find my order on their till. 'Do you mean Americano?' I'd like to add an extra area for discussion on the show on a similar theme: EGGS Over easy, sunny side up, over medium? When did the world become infected with this nonsense? What can be done about it? © Simon Taylor 2009 nepalontheroad

Solar Heaters being put to great use

2009-02-02T16:45:00.001+08:00

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The Himalayan Autonomous State

2009-02-01T16:43:00.001+08:00

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Campaigning for a 'Himalayan Autonomous State' February 1st 2009 All over the world, whenever people get marginalized by their government, face a lack of opportunity or see rampant corruption in their dealings with the state, small campaigns for autonomy or independence start up and tend to flourish. Quebec had a lot of popular support for their own independence movement thanks to the way the Canadian government marginalised the French speaking Catholics, Northern Island had the IRA thanks to heavy handed and unfair treatment by the British of Irelands majority Catholics, Tibet's people in China face similar alienation by the majority Han Chinese who portray the the people's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as a terrorist and force many monks to undergo 're-education' and restrict their rights. Han Chinese are given all the best jobs and the government seems surprised when protests occur! The same thing happened in Xinjiang province in the 90's although removing a few cities and preventing protest is a little easier in China than in most parts of the world. We never even heard about the Xinjiang autonomous movement, but the alienation of the Uyghur's continues and China will have to face up to it one day. Governments all over the world need to wake up and realise that all these movements are the fault of bad policy from the Government itself. If they actually paid attention to a fair spread of wealth, influence and opportunity then these movements would fade into the past as economic development created solutions to corruption, restricted opportunities and personal hardship. Nepal has had several years of war thanks to the rulers of the country plundering the wealth and ignoring the people living outside a few strategic areas. Congress and the King have for years done very well from being in power, for some reason all the politicians are wealthy while the majority of people make do with a subsistence style of existence relying on NGOs and Aid agencies to help them develop. It's no wonder that as we trekked around the Annapurna circuit we noticed regular signs painted on rocks demanding a Himalayan Autonomous State. The local people have a hard life, everything has to be carried in to the areas on the backs of porters or animals, there's very little electricity and for young people very little opportunity. They visit Kathmandu and see huge Landcruisers or Range Rovers driving through the streets and see smart new houses being built with huge walls around them to keep out the proletariat. It's nothing new, but if the new Maoist government doesn't manage to do something about the unfair division of resources then maybe we'll be hearing of a new terrorist movement in Nepal of all places!!! They seem to be trying to do the right thing although there's a fair bit of populist nonsense coming from some of their leaders and the constant 'bandas' or strikes on the road are ridiculously counter productive, blocking roads for days to demand that restaurant owners pay the workers more money just drives tourists away and harms the economic development of Nepal. nealontheroad

Images of Kathmandu

2009-01-06T11:16:00.001+08:00

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Monkeys at the monkey temple - Kathmandu

2009-01-04T11:15:00.002+08:00

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Swayambunath Temple in Kathmandu

2009-01-03T11:12:00.001+08:00

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The journey from Kathmandu to Langtang

2009-01-02T11:10:00.001+08:00

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Prayer Flags Everywhere - Maoist flags too

2009-01-01T10:48:00.001+08:00

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Langtang Trek - The Three Glaciers walk from Kyanjin Gompa

2008-12-30T03:09:00.002+08:00

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Langtang Trek - the people we met

2008-12-29T03:13:00.001+08:00

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Langtang Trek - Great light for photography

2008-12-27T11:05:00.000+08:00

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Langtang Trek - Tips for trekkers

2008-12-26T03:06:00.000+08:00

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Guest Houses in Langtang – tips for trekkers December 26th 2008 The Langtang trek is a relatively easy walk up a river valley passing through a couple of villages and passing by several 'trekking settlements' that have been built at suitable distances along the trail to catch a weary trekker. You start at about 1500m and the final settlement – Kyanjin Gompa is a just below 4000m. Most of the people are from Langtang village but have relatives at strategic points all the way along the trail: Rimche; Landslide; Bamboo Lodge; Lama Hotel these are some of the many 'villages' with a few guest houses...in Lama Hotel for example, 5 of the 6 guest houses are owned by one family. Because of this there is a bit of a monopoly for some successful large families and others remain poor despite having respectable lodges. For example one family have lodges in Rimche, Lama Hotel, Langtang and Kyanjin Gompa and can recommend their relatives so that all the trekking money stays in the family. They are even getting quite cunning and asking kind trekkers to take tomatoes to their sister (who also has a guest house) or asking trekkers to bring cheese back from the cheese factory in Kyanjin Gompa to ensure that people stay there on their walk out. As wise (cynical) travellers we obviously guessed what they were doing and were happy to carry the cheese, tomatoes, lettuce from one village to another, although we made a point of never staying there, preferring to spread the wealth a little wider. We constantly looked for the smaller lodges that no-one recommended to us. We also discovered that independent trekkers like ourselves, with no guide or porters, are the holy grail for the Guest House owners.....they don't need to feed our entourage, just us!! Guides are getting so cocky that they are demanding beer, chicken etc to bring tourists to the lodges. We were able to get half price food and free accommodation because of this and everyone was happy. The other issue that we faced was the cold...it was bitter, each morning at Kyanjin Gompa the water pipes were frozen, water tanks had 5cm of ice on the top of them and we could only huddle around the stove the second the sun went down. We soon realised that small lodges were better, less space to heat and often friendlier..some of the bigger ones felt a bit like very cold hotels. The locals, who are often of Tibetan descent, don't seem to feel the cold and leave windows and doors wide open all the time, while we sit there shivering in temperatures that are barely above freezing even inside the lodge. Their solution to the cold is alcohol in the form of Chang (millet beer), which they say warms their belly...we were wary, as any alcohol at altitude leaves you feeling terrible until you are really well acclimatized. © Simon Taylor 2008 nepalontheroad

Bardia National Park – Mr B & Kali's 'Bardia Hideaway Cottage

2008-12-17T23:17:00.001+08:00

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Bardia National Park – Mr B & Kali's 'Bardia Hideaway Cottage' December 15th 2008 After the last minute disappointment of the Chinese change in visas, a hurriedly planned new route via Mongolia, followed by 5 months of cycling and exploring, covering about 6000km, 1 puncture each and a broken frame for me, we have finally arrived at our first target – Nepal...and more specifically at B's house in Bardia National Park in the Terai area of the far West of Nepal. We came here first 7 years ago, when Nepal had many tourists and the place was relatively peaceful....I met Isabelle in Kathmandu and we came to Bardia expecting to see the park and leave. We'd been told about B and his camp 'Nature's Way' in almost mythical terms by a Dutch girl that we met in the Annapurna area of Nepal...she couldn't say enough wonderful things about Mr B, but also said that everybody tries to impersonate him when you first arrive in the park. She gave us full details of his family and told us to question people to discover whether they were touts or really friends of B. When we did arrive...sure enough there were 10 Mr B's and one quiet man sat on his own who we eventually approached, who said that he knew B and offered to take us to see him. We arrived at his simple camp and stayed for a few weeks in a simple mud hut, chatting, exploring, learning about the park, tracking tigers, rhino and elephants, talking to his wife Shakuntala (Kali) and being shown around the Tharu village that they live in. We had an absolutely brilliant time with a man who is passionate about the park, about the local culture and is treated with great respect by everybody....park officials, local villagers, tourists, hotel owners, even the touts think highly of him. He's trained most of the local conservation workers and park officials, taken many film crews to the more inaccessible parts of the park including the BBC and National Geographic, yet he lives simply, gives up his time for free to anyone who shows an interest and when we first arrived ran a small camp with 4 mud huts near the park entrance, the complete antithesis of the 'Tiger Tops' approach to tourism with their 'Elephant rides' through the park and their luxury lodges charging $50-$100 a night. He constantly said at the time that all he needed was food and some money for emergencies, after that it was all irrelevant. He was single handedly responsible for training many local people as guides, who could then go and earn money at the 'Tiger Tops' or other lodges of Bardia and help support their extended families. We were in awe of B at the time and spent our whole time there thinking of ways to help him. When we went back to Kathmandu we bought him a tent he could use rather than having to rent one from the bigger lodges, a stuffsac, and as many other things as we could afford, all with the aim of helping him to become more independent when he took people into the park. What did he do with the tent and equipment? He took his wife Kali on holiday! They left the children with the grandparents and went trekking in the mountains. He became a tourist!! They cooked and camped the whole way. He later sent us an email telling us all about it and how exciting it was. B had an arranged marriage to Kali when they were both only 6 years old, and what he described as a 'Love Wedding' when they were both 18. Twenty years later he describes her quite openly as his best friend in the whole wide world........... In December 2001 we left B and Kali, expecting to go back within a year or two, and then the Maoist conflict got more serious in Nepal and sadly one of the most dangerous places was the area around Bardia. No tourists visited the park for several years and B's only source of regular income was from going into the park to do surveys of how the fighting was affecting the animals (funded by an NGO.) Several times he was captured by the Maoists, who thought he was a spy with his binoculars, tent and store of food. Once he was held for three days, blindfolded so he wouldn't know where their camp was. Eventually they contacted people in his village who explained who he was. B also managed to get work taking tourists trekking in some of the more wilder regions of Nepal – places little visited and from this he started to save some money. His old camp 'Nature's Way' was abandoned and at times the Maoists used it as shelter, which caused him some problems with the army. During the worst times of fighting, his family all slept together on the floor of their house, mud walls not being very good at stopping bullets They spent nights listening to gunfire, Shakuntala's brother was killed by the Maoists, friends were also killed by either the army or the Maoists...as always, civilians suffering the most. There is now virtually no tourist industry in Bardia, all the lodges and hotels are abandoned, the rich owners have fled to India or other safer parts of Nepal. 'Nature's Way' has been registered with the government by another local man trying to benefit from B's good name!!! Despite all this B has been given an opportunity. There is no competition! B went and registered the new name – 'Bardia Hideaway Cottage' with the government and then with some of the money from trekking earned during the conflict he bought some prime land near the park entrance. With some help and guidance from the park officials he managed to get a loan from the Agricultural Bank and he has just finished building 4 beautiful en suite double rooms with concrete walls (they stop bullets), a kitchen, is in the middle of building 4 more rooms using traditional Tharu building methods, and has also started to build a large dining hall that can be used for up to 100 people to hold meetings in the village, or with NGO's, Universities etc. Lots of the work is being done by friends and family, villagers who owe him some of their time and he is also employing other local people to do some of the building. B works with them (he hates being the boss) carrying rocks, shovelling sand etc. While we were there we planted some hedges, although all the main work had stopped because at this time of year for 5 days the locals are allowed to go into the park and cut grass for the roofs of their houses. nepalontheroad

Disaster - Bike breaks but Koga Miyata save the day

2008-12-15T11:33:00.000+08:00

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Disaster!! One broken frame, but Koga Miyata save the day December 15th 2008 Leaving Mahendrenagar in Western Nepal we were so excited to be only 140km from B's camp in Bardia National Park. After 6000km we had nearly made it to the first target of our long journey. We were both high on adrenaline and anticipation, Isabelle even suggested getting up at 6am so we could guarantee that we reached B's before dark – this is a very rare occurrence as her first words are normally - 'I hate the morning!' Everything was perfect............. 100m after we left the hotel, I thought to myself that my bike sounded a little odd, the gears and chain weren't at their usual smooth best. I looked carefully at the chain, examined the derailleur, adjusted the panniers, spun the wheel, checked the crank and the pedals...........the noise persisted, nothing seemed to make it go away. I started to get a little frustrated. Why now?....we're so close!! I had another look: The excitement evaporated and was overtaken by an overwhelming feeling of doom and gloom, what had started as a brilliant first day in Nepal had suddenly been shattered by one small crack – literally the last thing we would have ever expected to happen. The frames are aluminium apart from the front forks and in this part of the world it was going to be impossible to mend it. We couldn't splint it as it was too near the wheel. Shit, shit, shit!!!!! The maker of the bicycle - 'Koga' guarantee the frames so we weren't going to be out of pocket, but all of a sudden we were a bit stuck. Travelling on buses with 2 bikes, 8 panniers, 2 handlebar bags, a tent and a small rucksack is not the easiest thing to do. Loads of people tried to help and eventually we got us and our bikes on to a bus to Ambassa - the village where the Bardia NP road starts. Once there someone in the tea shop rang B, who came and picked me up on his brand new motorbike and we left my crippled bicycle and panniers to be loaded on to the next local bus. Isabelle cycled the 13km to Thakurdwara on her own, across the wide rivers and through the jungle and beautiful Tharu villages that line the route. I was very jealous! 7 years after we first left this part of the world we were now back at Bardia. Once we arrived at his new camp and met his wife Shakuntala again and saw the emerging new camp, the magic of Bardia seemed to help the sadness fade away. Within a few hours we were calm, relaxed and ready to try and solve the problem. Luckily the new internet connection in the village was working (along with the intermittent electricity) and we managed to contact Koga, hoping that they would be able to help us. The next day we received an immediate email from them asking for details of where to send the new frame. Wow! We were elated. Problem solved. Nice one Koga!!! They've redesigned the new frames so that the metal is nearly twice as thick where my 2005 frame broke, so we shouldn't have to face this problem again. They were very sorry! This was a seriously impressive bit of customer service. Just what we needed. I will miss my 'brown giant' as we imaginatively referred to my bicycle. Isabelle still has her 'silver dwarf'!! nepalonthroad

Hero cycles across India

2008-12-10T12:07:00.000+08:00

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Rishikesh

2008-12-09T12:17:00.000+08:00

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Bir Tibetan Colony in Himachal Pradesh

2008-12-07T13:44:00.000+08:00

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Bir Tibetan Colony December 7thth 2008 About 70km West of Dharamsala is a small village called Bir. Here there is another Tibetan colony, not one full of tourists, but one full of Tibetans, and more arrive every day. It's a really interesting place, one that we only went to because we needed somewhere to stay and the people in MacLeod Ganj said that the people in Bir would find us a room. We arrived after about 80km of up and down cycling and almost immediately someone came out from a small shop and found us a room in a private family house. We then went for a wander around and discovered that the whole village is full of Tibetan flags, new monasteries, new stupas, chortens, mani stones and monks, with a fair smattering of elderly ladies spinning their prayer wheels and chanting under their breath. There's also a younger generation who either escaped from Tibet when they were young or were born in Bir or elsewhere in India. They have different aspirations, sit in internet cafes chatting enthusiastically, but despite this would still like to go back to an autonomous Tibet, even if it was just to see what it was like. The ones who have escaped can never go back. The lady who ran the cafe that we ate at, left her mother 27years ago and hasn't seen her since. They did used to speak occasionally on the phone but even that small contact is now impossible since the trouble in March. There are a few tourists here but they're visiting for an all together different reason – paragliding. The slopes of Himachal Pradesh around Bir are renowned as one of the best places in the world for riding thermals and doing cross country paragliding. From 2000m in Biling – the village above Bir, people can climb on thermals to 5000m and then travel to nearby towns, land, have lunch and then use the thermals to rise up and back to Bir. We met a German guy who had been coming for years but was bemoaning the way a great place always ends up being spoilt by too many people...his particular problem being the influx of Russians. While we sympathised with his sentiments, you can hardly begrudge the people of Bir and Biling being able to take their cut of all this new cash, and invest in their own future rather than working for 70 Rupees a day building roads. This is the permanent problem of travel, if it's good, it's not that good for long. All over Himachal Pradesh all the most peaceful and beautiful places have been ruined by another nationality: Israelis. Originally a few came because they were attracted by cheap prices and the peace and beauty of the place...and then their friends came. Before long they've taken over and no other nationalities will go there any more. In this way ghettos are created where they can ignore local customs, introduce a drug culture where there was none, attract the worst of the Sadhus from all over India, and from what we've seen and heard from local people and with our own eyes, have an almost racist attitude towards the Indians, talking to them as though they are lesser people and not deserving of respect. They often don't pay their bills and also many come to India and do jobs for the tourists that local people could have done...cutting hair, selling beads etc. They create a lot of resentment but the locals are caught in a Catch 22 – they'd love to not depend on them ….but they do!! They can't attract other tourists until they close the ghettos, but they can't afford a season with no tourists. In Nepal and Ladakh, many guest houses have signs saying 'No Israelis' or 'Israeli Monkeys Stay Away'. We walked in Ladakh with a couple of really nice Israeli guys who said that it drove them mad, 'suffering for the sins of others', they ended up saying they were from somewhere else just to avoid the stigma. The Indian government are waking up to this fact and visas are becoming shorter for Israelis at the request of the Israeli government who have to pick up the pieces when their citizens 'Flip out'. The Jewish place in Mumbai that was attacked was an orthodox Jewish centre set up to help 'flipped out' young Israelis, and in their vulnerable state get them to become orthodox Jews rather than stay part of the secular majority. This has helped fan the flames of conspiracy in Pakistan, where they say that the attacks were done by disgruntled Indians, protesting about the Israelis influence on India......... Bir is yet to be ruined by Russians...we saw one. It's a great experience stating there and if ever there was a group of people that deserve help it's the Tibetans. They might once of been the robbers and bandits who robbed all the silk caravans, but in their present incarnation they're peaceful, colourful and friendly, and also without a country. When will China wake up to the fact that they offer no threat?!?!? indiaontheroad

Indian women begging

2008-12-06T13:42:00.000+08:00

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Inside Hindu Temples

2008-12-04T13:40:00.000+08:00

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MacLeod Ganj - The Home of the Dalai Lama

2008-12-04T13:38:00.001+08:00

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School Bus Indian Style

2008-12-03T13:37:00.000+08:00

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Posters for Sale in Amritsar

2008-12-02T13:34:00.000+08:00

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Lahore Fort and Badshahi Mosque

2008-12-01T21:03:00.004+08:00

We spent the late afternoon at Lahore Fort, a remnant of the old Muslim rule of the Mughals which finally ended with the fall of the 'King of Delhi during the mutiny of 1857 against the British. It reminds you how Lahore and India have so much in common, despite the separation caused by the creation of Pakistan. The Mughal culture was almost the highpoint of the last thousand years of culture in this part of the world, they seemed to embrace a form of Hinduism and Islam that they mixed with Sufisim, poetry, science and philosophy, preserving the latter and giving children in the Madrassas the best education of the time anywhere in the world.
It was only with the Hindu soldiers (sepoys) rebellion against the British in the 1850's and the consequent blame attached to the Muslim Mughal emperors by the ridiculously ignorant British, that the Muslims were marginalised in India and the power transferred to the Hindus. This led in the end to the rise of 'Hinduism' and the eventual creation of India swiftly followed by Pakistan, as a response to fears for the safety and rights of Muslims in India. It also left fertile ground for conservative back to basics Wahabi Islam to spread from Afghanistan as a response to the glitz and glamour of the Mughal emperors, and ended with the conservative Islam now found in Pakistan.

The fort is pretty well preserved/refurbished and gives a good idea about the opulence amongst which the Mughals lived. Huge harem's, extended families, hundreds of children all living in the fort along with Eunochs, armies, poets etc.

Next to the fort is the Badshahi mosque which is one of the biggest in the world and can be viewed from the top of Cooco's Den, a restaurant on the roof of one of the old Haveli's of Lahore – the old buildings left from the Mughal era.

Full Screen Slideshow Here

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India and Amritsar

2008-12-01T13:28:00.000+08:00

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Amritsar – the holy city of Sikhs December 1st 2008 We've finally managed to drag ourselves out of wonderful but puzzling Pakistan, and crossed into India. We chose to cycle on the Sunday when there's virtually no traffic on the roads.....we weren't even going to leave until we went for some lunch and realised how silent and empty the roads were compared to their normal suicidal state. Within minutes we were on the road from Lahore to the border 30km away. It took 20 minutes to cross, although we had to wait for the electricity to come back on, so that they could process our passport on the Pakistan side. Once over it was an easy 30km to Amritsar. Until partition the two cities were an integral part of the Punjab and they still feel very similar in many ways. Like most Indian cities Amritsar is chaotic and almost impossible to navigate on a bicycle...we got quite lost despite almost always knowing roughly where we were thanks to the height of the white domes of the Golden Temple. The streets are stuffed full of crazy buses, trucks, minibuses, rickshaws, horses and carts, motorbikes, people pushing trolleys covered in fruit and veg or peanuts, or sweet treats...and all outnumbered by bicycles, people, dogs and the ubiquitous cows. Virtually all the vehicles on the road feel that they have to beep their horns almost constantly, in fact some buses have their horn on the whole time they drive through the city...just a perpetual siren warning that the insane Punjab driver will drive over you if you don't get out of the way. You only need to buy one Indian newspaper to read a story of someone being run over, and the inevitable tale of the driver stopping his bus and running away, never to be seen again just to avoid the lynching that would await him if he stayed and helped. It is possible to stay for free in the Golden Temple but by the time we got to it it was getting dark and there were thousands of pilgrims milling around – it was just too much for us to deal with, so we found another cool hotel a few hundred metres away – The Tourist Guest House – cheap and with free Wifi. The next morning we headed back to the Golden Temple – the most holy place for the Sikhs. It's a very relaxing place despite the crowds. You understand why Amritsar is so full of hotels when you see the number of pilgrims. Despite this the thing that affected us the most was the number of women in public. We just sat by the edge of the lake around the Golden Temple and marvelled at the fact that there is a second sex – women on their own, women with women, women with kids, women with western clothes, women chatting with men!!!! For seven weeks in Pakistan we'd hardly seen any women apart from when we stayed with the Kalasha, and it was just so refreshing for Isabelle to be able to go to the shop on her own, and for me to laze around instead of having to do everything. For the first time for ages Isabelle ordered food, asked for the bill and even paid for it. We then wandered around outside the temple and soaked up the new vibe of India. © Simon Taylor 2008

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Pakistan - Contents

2008-11-30T00:03:00.000+08:00

The Karakorum Highway
Crossing the border from China
The Karakorum Highway
Rebuilding the Karakorum

Passu
Suspension Bridge Walk
The Three Glacier Walk
The Karamabad Sisters and Hospitality

Karamabad
Irrigation creates life
The Baltit Fort
Lady's Finger Mountain

Gilgit
Buying Local Clothes
Gilgit Shops
The Gilgit Polo Tournament
Mr Baig and the Medina Guest House

Fairy Meadows
Fairy Meadows and Nanga Parbat
Silhouettes at Nanga Parbat
High Dynamic Range Photography of Nanga Parbat
High Mountains Everywhere
Mohammed Nour at Fairy Meadows
Riding on the Minibus Roof

Gilgit to Chitral
Road Guide
Route Profile and Hotels
Part 1 - Riding up the valley
Part 2 - Climbing higher
Part 3 - Shandur Pass
Part 4 - The Descent
Part 5 - The Friendliest People
Part 6 - Great Light
Part 7 - More HDR Photography

The Kalasha Valleys
The Kalash People
Pressure on Kalasha Culture
Kalasha Houses
Stuck in the Land of the Kalasha
Crossing the Lowari Pass

Lahore & The Twin Cities
National Press Article
Pakistan - India Border Ceremony
Sufi Night in Lahore
Lahore Fort and the Badshahi Mosque

Culture
Pakistani Trucks
Gilgit Polo Tournament
Pakistan - India Border Ceremony
Sufi Night

People we met
The Karamabad Sisters
Alex, Alby and their truck
Mohammed Nour at Fairy Meadows
The Kalasha People
Mr Baig at the Medina Guest House

Our Route and Cycling Guides
China - Pakistan Border Road Guide
Route throught the Karakorum in Pakistan
Route through China, Pakistan and India
Gilgit to Chitral Road Guide
Gilgit to Chitral Profile and Hotels
Gilgit to Shandur Pass Map
Route Map from Lahore to Kathmandu

Visas
Getting a Pakistani Visa in HK
Getting a Pakistani visa and onward travel

Crazy Sufi night in Lahore

2008-11-29T00:55:00.003+08:00

When someone told me that Sufi Night was held in the equivalent of a mosh pit (the crowded chaos at the front of a gig where everyone is squashed in and bounces around together) I didn't really believe them. But they were completely correct, it was absolute madness and a brilliant night.

There were maybe 500 people crowded into an open area between some buildings and a Sufi shrine, all sat next to each other closer than I could have imagined people could sit. Thursdays are also tourist night, so there is an area that we are led to, obviously full of people who had a good seat, who now have to be aggresively kicked out of the area and threatened with sticks to make them move. It doesn't help that everyone in the whole room is smoking huge joints and isn't inclined to move. Half the crowd is in a trance, the rest are passing around joints like there's no tomorrow. The 50 Pakistanis's who were sitting on the steps of the shrine in the tourist area were replaced by about 10 tourists all staying at Malik's guest house - 'The Regal Internet Inn'. He's well respected and his helper Niemet also did his best to make sure we were all OK. All over Lahore if we said we were staying with Malik people said he was a very good man and touched their heart, everyone saw him as their friend.

The reason for all this chaos were the three drummers stood with huge drums, swirling around like dervishes (the original dervishes were the first Sufis) playing amazing rhythms and spinning on the spot while they did it. The most famous one is deaf (blue clothing) and can still keep time from all the vibrations. We stayed for about 4 hours and went home elated from the experience, if the first people to play acid house weren't inspired by Lahore's Sufi night I will be amazed.

What made it even more strange was the transvestite's who regularly walked through the crowd and went into the shrines and then prayed for half an hour or so, while the music was going on. In such a crazy macho man world it seemed so incongruous to see 'gay men' dressed as women being able to walk around openly. Some are eunochs and live a very secretive life that William Dalrymple managed to find out a little about in 'City of Djinn's', they are respected and feared in Pakistan and India, yet are thought to bring good luck...........

More photos here: Full Screen Slideshow

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Wagha border ceremony - Pakistan and India

2008-11-27T21:07:00.002+08:00

Anyone who watched Michael Palin's 'Himalaya' will have seen the crazy border ceremony between Pakistan and India but nothing really prepares you for the spectacle of it.

On Sundays especially, thousands of people travel the 30km from Lahore (Pakistan) and Amritsar (India) to attend. It is like going to a football match...walking towards the stadium with announcements and the buzz of so many people all attending one event.
The whole nationalistic spectacle makes you laugh, smile, groan and despair...all in equal measure. It's great theatre, watching the crowd is almost as good as watching the stars - the soldiers. Two sets of people divided by a line that none of them would have chosen, shouting 'Pakistan....Super Power'!! and chanting at the Indian crowd behind a small dividing gate.
Full Screen Slideshow Here

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We're in the Pakistan National Press

2008-11-19T23:42:00.007+08:00

On the way into Rawalpindi from Islamabad, we got stopped at some traffic lights by a reporter and his photographer. We pulled in and were then interviewed while a load of people gathered around to watch.

The next day we were in the paper and virtually our whole story was made up. The only thing they got right was our names and the fact that we started in Mongolia.

We were never scared, we never had 4 punctures. Don't believe what you read in the papers. Be a critical thinker!!!

Newspaper Article - Daily News - Islamabad - 18/11/08

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Today we got asked to sign the article by the hotel owner who has mounted it on the wall in his office. Then another couple of local people came to see us and asked for us to sign their copy too. It was a bit embarassing, but very funny.

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We finally manage to escape from Chitral

2008-11-15T19:04:00.000+08:00

Pakistan - 34 - We Escape Chitral at Long Last

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We finally manage to get out of Northern Pakistan November 16th 2008 We've spent several days stuck in Chitral since the snow we encountered in the Kalash valleys. There are four ways out of Chitral: •Fly with PIA – no bicycles allowed according to the people at the PIA office •Take public transport over the 3200m Lohari Pass to Peshawar – road closed due to heavy snow •Go over the 3750m Shandur Pass all the way back to Gilgit (6 days of cycling) - road closed due to snow •Take public transport via Afghanistan – not allowed for foreigners We started to get a bit pissed off and sat around hoping that the snow would melt. We hunted for weather reports that said that the skies would clear, but local people said that the Lowari Pass might not even open this year because the North side is so steep, has 22 hairpins and gets very little sun. They did say that the new tunnel would open in December, so we weren't stuck for the winter. Yippee!! Chitral is friendly but not a place for women, so Isa was stuck inside the hotel room. One day we met a guy from the airport who said ignore the PIA office people, they're rude, lazy and know nothing. Buy a ticket and don't mention your bike. We went to bed all excited expecting to be able to escape on a plane. The next morning we excitedly headed down to buy a ticket, only to discover that the flights were cancelled for the 5th day in a row and that the next flight we could get was a week later. So close yet still so far!!! Then by chance as I was leaving the PIA office, I met a photographer (Alex Treadwell) who I'd also met in the Kalash valley, who was equally frustrated because he had to catch a flight from Islamabad the following day for a National Geographic shoot. He was going to try and drive across the Lowari Pass with a convoy of 4WD vehicles and offered to take us and our bikes. We were ecstatic and hurriedly managed to get all our stuff in the back of the Landcruiser and at 10am we set off. When it snows or rains in the North, the roads can get really bad and there are often landslides. Sure enough, within 30 minutes of leaving Chitral we were on a ridiculous detour on a road as wide as our vehicle, cut into a cliff, with vehicles going both ways. 10Km took over an hour with some ridiculous macho nonsense where people wouldn't back up to let each other pass and eventually we crossed a 70 year old British built wooden suspension bridge to rejoin the main road. This was not a good start. When we eventually reached the road that climbed up to the pass, we were told 2 hours to get over. Apparently one vehicle had got over in the night but it was now closed to everything but 4WDs. Alex hired a 'fixer' with some tyre chains and we set off. It was chaos. There were probably about 30 vehicles trying to go over and another 20 coming the other way, including some trucks. The road was covered in about 1m of snow with a track about as wide as a car cut in it by a bulldozer. Again Pakistani queuing was at it's best...every man for himself. We sat in jams for hours as vehicles tried to pass each other or got stuck in the snow or couldn't get up the icy track. Our fixer was brilliant, telling everyone where to go, making stupid drivers stop and pull in, rather than make the traffic jams worse. It took us an eternity to climb up the 22 hairpins especially when we got stuck behind a 2WD Chicken-Wallah, who's only traction aid was some old clothes that he kept putting under his rear wheels, while two external passengers jumped up and down while hanging on to the back in a pointless attempt to give the rear wheels some extra grip. 5 hours later after avoiding several near collisions with stationary vehicles, tractors and people, we finally made it to the top. From here we crawled at about 10km/hr down more steep bends avoiding some large trucks still trying to get up from the other side, until finally the snow (on the Southern side) started to melt. By the time we were down to the metalled road it was dark and we still had another 8 hours of driving to get to Islamabad. Our route then took us through the Tribal areas where we had been told not to be on the road after dark by the police, because of kidnappings and robberies, so we kept a very low profile and drove fast through every town. One time we stopped to get some tea before Mardan, and our superb driver wouldn't let us get out but went and got it himself. Amazingly he managed to stay awake with our incessant nervous chattering and we made it to Islamabad at about 2am. Amazingly despite no real hope of succeeding, we had all managed to get out of Chitral. © Simon Taylor 2008

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Stuck in the land of the Kalasha

2008-11-14T05:11:00.000+08:00

Pakistan - 33 - Stuck in the Land of the Kalasha

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