The morning I was to leave Macleod Ganj and head back down the mountain was grim to say the least. I woke to sheeting rain and mist swirling around in the valley that leads down from the town. I didn’t really want to ride in that weather so I thought I would give it an…
I had decided to spend a rest day in Amritsar so I could see the Golden Temple properly and at different times of the day. Which was well worth it as it was especially beautiful at twilight. Earlier in the day I also got to have a nice chat with some locals who were interested…
Having cycled pretty much from one side of Central Asia to the other I thought I would write a post with some hopefully useful and possibly interesting information on the region. The areas within the area I have experience of include Western Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, South Central Kazakhstan and far northern Kyrgyzstan. Sections: Sights Roads Drivers…
After a couple of days getting acclimatised in Delhi it was time to head out and start riding round India. It is hard to describe how nervous I was about riding out through Delhi. The driving I had experienced in the city had been crazy thus far and I was not looking forward to experiencing…
After I’d dropped the bike off at the Almaty bicycle shop I spent a pleasant few days in the city getting things sorted for India and catching up with people I’d met in Bishkek. Part of the sorting involved culling my luggage and sending some winter stuff home to the UK. I was fairly brutal…
After almost a month in Bishkek I finally managed to drag myself away as the Kazakh visa I had applied for some time ago started to run out. Unfortunately while I had been staying in Bishkek the weather had grown colder, quite a lot colder. In the day the temperature seemed to be around -20C…
I have ended up staying in Bishkek rather longer than I had expected. Initially I thought I would be here for a couple of weeks to pick up a new Kazakh visa and an Indian one. At the time of writing I have been here nearly three weeks and this is the longest time I…
The first night out of Taraz, I spent in the small town of Kulan, close to the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. I managed to find a reasonable guesthouse, which was relatively clean but a little bit more expensive than it should have been – especially given that showers were extra and had to be…
I rode out of Tashkent on wide Soviet built boulevards passing the city’s TV Tower as I went; bearing due north for the Kazakh Uzbek border at Jipek Joli about thirty kilometres away. Reaching the border I was expecting a repeat of the waiting and frustration I’d experienced when entering Uzbekistan from Kazakhstan in the…
Leaving Samarkand I had prepared myself for some tough riding, similar to the ride I had experienced arriving into that city. As ever on this trip, things did not turn out as I had expected and instead I was treated to three days of relatively easy riding on flat, smooth roads with very little ice. …
Riding ROUND 