31/10/2008
30/10/2008
29/10/2008
28/10/2008
23/10/2008
Cycle Touring - Spares and Tools for cycle touring
Here's some picture of our spares and tools.
If you click on the picture you can go to a flickr page where each item is tagged so you can see what it is. We can fit all of this in the bottom of one of the panniers.
If you click on the picture you can go to a flickr page where each item is tagged so you can see what it is. We can fit all of this in the bottom of one of the panniers.
Mongolia - main menu
Ulaan Baatar
Arriving in Ulaan BaatarOur appartment in Ulaan Baatar
Missionaries everywhere in Ulaan Baatar
The Journey
Mongolian roads are certainly differentWe meet more cyclists
Half way and knackered
Defeated by terrible sandy roads
Amazing cloudy skies a we cross a pass
Horses everywhere
Chili Lips for Isabelle
Incredible sand dunes
Trying to keep clean
The valley of pain
Incredible evening light
The best campsite on earth
Finally we reach Olgii
Olgii in the far west
Photography
Sunsets 1Sunsets 2
Sunsets 3
Landscapes
General Gallery
Cultural
Typical hospitality
Yurts are changing
Wildlife
Birds of PreyCamels
Yaks at the border
Roads
Slideshow of road surfaces to expectHow the road changes constantly
Food and Drink
Typical food
Typical drink
Mongol Rally
We meet the Mongol Rally coming through
Border Crossing
Our experienceCycling guide
Road Guides for Cyclists
Overall guide and advicePart 1 - UB to Tsetserleg
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
The Border
Maps
Complete route maps to downloadGoogle map
mongoliaontheroad
22/10/2008
16/10/2008
15/10/2008
14/10/2008
China - Contents
Culture 
Finally getting into China - a miracle
Being given advice about the route
The corn harvest - a use for all the new roads
On the route to Yining
We start to attract some attention
Hotels who don't want foreign tourists
Some useful Chinese symbols
Chinese brands of car
People on the streets of Kashgar
Getting the runs in Kashgar
Fake trees 
Landscape and Nature
Cycling up the Ile valley
The road less travelled
The incredible Bayanbulak Grasslands
Byanbulak Grasslands - Snow makes us turn back
Retreating by bus
Incredible geology in the Ghez valley and Canyon
Camels
Ghez Canyon
High valleys and sand dunes above Karakol
The Tajik Autonomous zone
Development of Xinjiang
Mao's legacy in Xinjiang
The development of Xinjiang province
The Karakorum Highway 
Incredible geology in the Ghez valley and Canyon
Camels by the road
Ghez Canyon
High valleys and sand dunes above Karakol
The Tajik Autonomous zone
Border Crossing
China to Pakistan from Tashkurgan
Visas
Getting a visa for Xinjiang and onward travel
Chinese visa problems in HK
Chinese Visa Information
12/10/2008
11/10/2008
09/10/2008
The Kashgar Runs
11am – Day 2
These are the ramblings of someone suffering from 'Man-Diarrhoea', a particularly dire illness (signified by my capitalisation) that women seem to be only vaguely aware of. This can be the only explanation for Isabelle's relaxed attitude towards my predicament. Ever since the mountains before Korla I've been a bit run down and ended up catching a really annoying cold which I only shook off a couple of days ago. Getting caught in the snow wasn't exactly good for it but hey...these are the trials and tribulations of a long distance cycle tourer. The one thing that I didn't expect was 'the shits' – I haven't had it since Africa in 2002 despite travelling all around SE Asia and India and always drinking the tap water and trying to build up my immunity wherever possible. I am now going through the recovery stage of a really vicious attack. I started to run out of energy a couple of days ago as we travelled by bus round the Taklamakan desert and just put it down to that thing where you always get ill at the beginning of a holiday. Why is that? - it's as though your body switches off your immune system for a few days because it needs a rest from looking after you on the road or at work.
2pm: I write this not because I think anyone really wants to know the details, but because it's damn boring lying here burping and farting, waiting for the next urgent trip to the toilet, whilst drinking copious amounts of flat coca-cola, rehydration salts a couple of times a day, and knowing I should eat but not wanting anything to go into the maelstrom of my digestive tract. I wait breathlessly for the magic drug Ciprofloxacin to kill all the aggressive little bastards multiplying in my intestines. Without going into too many details I haven't urinated for 48 hours but still need to drink constantly...I've had a fever of 38.5ºC for the last 24 hours, thankfully that's now subsided and I can stop breaking out in cold sweats in my 27ºC hotel room. I'm sick to death of lying down but every time I sit up, the gurgling starts again so I lie there watching endless CCTV5 repeats of the Chinese Olympic triumphs, table tennis and weight lifting being a couple of the less riveting favourites. The worst bit is the endless segues between segues advertising more of the same later in the day. I've discovered XJTV10 which is just Premier League football, although I'm even getting bored of that now. I have this dream that if I watch the TV for long enough I will eventually be able to speak Chinese fluently, although I also had this dream about French when I met Isabelle.
6pm: My biggest problem is that after a couple of days of lying here I'm getting crabby and uncomfortable, I'm not really tired but I feel exhausted, I'm hungry but don't want food, I want to go out but can't face it, I watch TV but I've seen it all before and I really need a shower but water frightens me. I'm not even ready to wear pants yet which says something about my state, so I sit here typing this with all on display, hoping the cleaning lady doesn't use her key-card to get in without knocking first. It must be tremendous fun for Isabelle, who kindly buys me the things I desire and then sits there looking as bored as I feel. At night I've been watching films on our impossibly small laptop sent out by my friend Rob in the UK. Janette, who chose the films, has excellent taste, but why are today's offerings all about death and loss!? I need cheering up not constant crying and blubbing.
6pm: My biggest problem is that after a couple of days of lying here I'm getting crabby and uncomfortable, I'm not really tired but I feel exhausted, I'm hungry but don't want food, I want to go out but can't face it, I watch TV but I've seen it all before and I really need a shower but water frightens me. I'm not even ready to wear pants yet which says something about my state, so I sit here typing this with all on display, hoping the cleaning lady doesn't use her key-card to get in without knocking first. It must be tremendous fun for Isabelle, who kindly buys me the things I desire and then sits there looking as bored as I feel. At night I've been watching films on our impossibly small laptop sent out by my friend Rob in the UK. Janette, who chose the films, has excellent taste, but why are today's offerings all about death and loss!? I need cheering up not constant crying and blubbing.
7pm: After no visits to the toilet for 4 hours, I've just had to rush, I'm disappointed but I'm still hopeful that tomorrow I'll be much better. My sense of self pity is beginning to piss even me off. I'm bored of it now. And worst of all I'm sick of Isabelle saying 'Does that mean I'm stronger than you because I didn't get ill?' I have no answer, which bugs me,the question is so obviously irrational and makes no sense. It's like her other questions - 'How many ants do you think there are in the world?' or 'How many blades of grass are there?'. I try and explain using complicated scientific gobbledygook how only strong immune systems can face such harsh bacterial infections but she sees through me almost immediately. I end up muttering about the things that I ate that were different to her while she sits there and grins smugly.
8.40pm: I've now reached the stage where I am embarrassed by the state that I am in. The hotel room is a shambles with rubbish everywhere, there are plates of barely eaten rice and Isabelle says that I smell of illness. 'Nature' is clever, I now want to clean everything, a sure sign that I am ready to look after myself again. I've just had a shower and brushed my teeth, I even cleaned the outside of the toothpaste tube and used bottled sterile water rather than the tap water (which Isabelle seems to use with impunity). At this moment all dirt seems to disgust me.
10pm: Another landmark, Cipro number 3 is now inside me. I am absolutely confident that I will be completely better tomorrow. I might even leave the hotel room. Now it's time for another film, I will not be watching one about illness or death.
I think we'll watch 'Run Fatboy Run' or is the title a bit too reminiscent of my predicament? (not the Fatboy bit)
08/10/2008
04/10/2008
02/10/2008
01/10/2008
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