August 19, 2008 22:10 by
jan
Brilliant, every inch! Here's a "best of". The weirdest experience goes to waking up in an earthquake, the ground shaking and tent vibrating, as a large slice of mountain collapsed nearby in huge cloud of swirling dust. As early morning wake ups go, this was from zero to max adrenaline in 10 seconds. A huge rock pile nearby where I'd rested in the shade the previous evening.
- 20 punctures, 1 broken luggage rack, 3 sets of tyres, 3 sets of brake blocks. That's good!
- Longest day 262km across desert, shortest day 500m switching hotels.
- China was fantastic, particularly the contrast ride from Western desert into the green more populated areas. Fantastic country rides between the big. Each province is like a new country, fantastic food, good prices with beer as low as 20p for a large bottle. Cycling by the Great Wall, farming the rice paddies, wedding cake terraces across mountain landscapes.
- Laos has friendliest quietest roads. Lesser travelled places are incredibly friendly. Cambodian excellent off road. Thailand was a 'home away from home', having cycled there before, laid back and easy.
- Thanks to everyone who gave me gifts, like stopping in the desert to give me ice cold water, melon, food, invited to stay in a village, camping on rice paddies, bringing breakfast out to tent, stopping to say hello, guiding me the best locals hotel.
- Cycling through a 50km swarm of bees. And camping with wild boar outside the tent, banging pots and pans, put the radio on, built a fire, red cycling flashing, slept 2 hours that night.
- The Danube cycle path is a fantastic route through the heart of Europe, beer gardens, hostels, camp sites, quiet roads.
In Pictures
The Pamir Highway and the Akbaital pass cycling up to 4,655m
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Spectacular Himalayan Passes. |
Fantastic stay with nomadic Yak herders
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The great outdoors |
2000km of Taklamakan desert
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Passing motorists bearing gifts, cold water, melons... Much appreciated.
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Cheap and cheerful stopover.
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A quiet spot to fix a puncture and then... |
Friendly Laos
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Treated like a Hollywood star
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Police escort
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Iranian border, looks scary but wasn't, phew.
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Stunning limestone mountains
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5 on a bike
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Cambodian red roads | | 
Lovely Thailand |
Continued
- Mixed cycling, with friends and solo.
- One week's fabulous stay in an average Chinese town, made many of friends, English lessons at local school, wedding, the good doctor
- Eating as much food as you like, no limits, 1000 cream cakes, no worries when out in the open.
- All the markets, great street food, being outside, chewing the breeze sitting comfortably in open air town centres.
- Don't panic!
My World Record!!!
- Adding the hours together gives roughly 1800hrs, diving by 24hrs gives 75 days for the whole trip
- 23,000+5,000km=28,000km from London to Singapore, or about 18,000 miles, the same distance as Mark Beaumont who broke world record for cycling around the world - on flat express ways and an airplane from India to Thailand. Mark took 194 days, I did the same in 75 days, so yes, I am the new world record holder;)
- And I have the 3 pairs of pants I started with, that's 9,000km a pant.
- I only included time on the bike and not the actual number of days, this might have effected my calculations.
- Enjoyed this account of giving up
What Next
- Australia & South/North America - stage by stage cycling across the globe
- It's great to have a job again, there's comfort in knowing you have a profession where you can be in demand. So it's a few years work and then back to the road again, gonna paint a red line around the world.
Under Construction as Always
Currently rated 4.3 by 3 people
- Currently 4.333333/5 Stars.
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