Now in Xian, Shaanxi province, the cradle of Chinese civilization (travelguidechina.com), lots of history to sightsee. There's an ancient 15km wall encompassing the 'inner' city, modern & old intermingled. More populated now as we head east, hopefully will be quieter heading south, hear good things about the route to Chengdu. More...

Hello Brocolli, Bye Bye Blamange

Now in Zhangye (chinats.com), another luxury hotel, it's all getting too easy like a holiday. Marco Polo spent a whole year here, so thought we'd splash and stay 3 nights. More...

The word desert will henceforth be renamed to blamange, or any other after dinner sweet, time for something new and less desert. It's my way of coping. Err, carrot. More...

3 days & 470km out from Kashgar, hot, drink, drink, drink. Basic stops, the temptation too great for rest day here in Aksu, 3 star hotel, luxury, $10 a night! Have a big menu decoder in the back of my phrase-book, any dish i point to, they can make, and was truly delicious after 3 rough days on the road. Unexpected bonus of buffet banquet breakfast included in the price, so am now truly stuffed. It must be what a camel feels like carrying all their supplies in their humps for weeks on end. Someone else's desert photos from Aksu back to Kashgar. More...

Kashgar, China, 1st internet since completing Tajikistan and Pamir Highway, Kyrgyzstan and entering China. We cycled 7kms through no man's land to Chinese customs, big sandy hills with the occasional marble type ripple. Nice grand buildings too, and all signs, statues and everything now Chinese, like suddenly arriving in your local 'China Town', except we are in the extreme west of a vast country yet to cycle. Incidentally we're planning on taking the Northern Silk route across the huge Taklamakan Desert, the other route to the south having less facilities and frequent sand storms blocking the road. Kashgar is a major junction, an oasis of civilisation, and from here you can cross into Pakistan, or head off to Tibet, Nepal and India. More...

Kyrgyzstan customs were a breeze and we received a hearty welcome, before rolling downhill to Sary Tash on thankfully smoother roads, the scenery now changing to big rolling green hills, locals herding their horses in this well pastured area, yurt tents dotting the landscape with snow capped peaks in the distance. More...

Leaving Khorog to continue the Pamir Highway, remote dirt track through the Himalayas. We climbed up to Jelandy where we got a room at a health spa, comfortable quarters in this harsh landscape. The Lonely Planet refers to this place as a sanatorium, because people come here to fix their ailments, no evidence of loonies, but then who are we to talk. Lucky to get beer from a group of German voluntary workers, who'd had their accountant ship it in from the capital. The effects of higher altitude now and I can feel the heart pumping hard when trying to sleep, we've gained 1500m today, sleeping high at 3800 metres. Bodies adjust to altitude given time. More...

Back into the mountains after our rest in Dushanbe, heading onto the Pamir Highway. orgasmic scenery. Celebrated my birthday with a bottle of Tajikistan cognac, could just cram into bags and great value at 4 pounds. We spied an ideal camping site on the other river bank, that rare occasion when there was a bridge across the huge river we've been following. The previous night we'd camped on the lawn of a tea-house, having fantastic home made beer, a barrel cooled by stream water and pulled by foot pump. Fantastic cool down swims the end of hard days ride, also washes the clothes. More...

Clearing customs from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan was fast and simple, and we were soon off in search of local currency, food and drink. The first night we camped on the edge of a farmers field, it wasn't easy find a spot soft enough to drive tent pegs in, I actually half propped my tent up with rocks, and windy too (not baked beans), slept well! Then a couple of days, riding huge v-shaped gorges, a river for company, thrashing noisily as we followed it's course up hill. There we did an overnight stay on the floor of a mud hut for the princely sum of 3US dollars for the 2 of us. The noise and sight of the gushing river was staggering, had the owners left the valley maybe they'd find the silence strange. Fantastic spot. More...

Bit soon after my last blog but what the heck - the internet connection speed for some reason is awesome (ie average for Europeans). Just arrived back in Samarkand from our visa shopping spree in Tashkent, so called international regional travel hub and good fun too. Steve has decided to have a holiday and so is leaving our bike quest and flying out to Thailand - on the way back to New Zealand, good luck, has been good cycling together. It's Keith and I now, setting of into the Himalayas on Sunday. More...