There is nothing like 2 and a half hours of downhill riding to remind you why cycling is so much fun.

To cross the border from China to Kazakhstan you must take a bus. Tom covered this in his post Borderline Ridiculous. Here is what is was like.

By now you would have read the post about our adventure from Bukhara back to Aktau, Kazakhstan. This is what the first train was like.

It was all well and good deciding to skip the Uzbek and Kazakh deserts and the accompanying 45-degree furnace. We still had the problem of getting three cyclists, bikes and bags all the way from Bukara to the port of Aktau in Kazakhstan. In this part of the world at least, the machinations of getting [...]

On our final day in China we stopped with Jiao for our last meal. This is what we had.

Flying in the post-9/11 era has become a rather stressful experience. Security is so strict these days that it would be easier to get into prison than most airports. Retina scans and biometric passport ID are fast becoming the norm for proving that you are indeed you, and not a pale imitation. Rules are made [...]

Coming to you LIVE from the ferry terminal. An as it happens blog post with bonus video. We are in our 9th hour of waiting for a ferry that apparently arrived today. For a the full story read on… I found out that the ferry had arrived after wandering in to the ticket agents office [...]

This video was taken just a few days before we left China as we traveled around a beautiful mountain lake.

This post contains as much information about the visa and the ferry process as possible that I promised cyclists and backpackers who are are heading from East to West along a similar route to us. Anna, Ruben, Leon, Peter and James. I hope your travels are going well and this information makes your stay here [...]

A lot has happened since I last wrote a post about our route. Previously we had planned to cycle the majority of Kazakhstan. This idea was put to bed after a long conversation about visas, road conditions and sightseeing with David from Stan Tours. As you know since then we have cycled through Kyrgyzstan and [...]

Thanks to a facebook post by Kath we found out that the Korea Times wrote an article about our trip. A quick mention and thank you to Dairin Frawley who initially contacted them on our behalf. We really appreciate it Dairin. Here is the complete article which can also be found at http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2009/07/139_48844.html Cycling Quartet [...]

Having spent 4 days here in Bishkek at the Sakura Guesthouse I have fast learned that this seems to be the place where cycle tourists, motorcyclists and backpackers alike come to vanish into the vortex that is the Central Asian Visa process. So far I have met a couple from Spain that have been cycling [...]

Hailing from a small island nation has its ups and downs. You lack the bad press that comes with being an American (unfortunate, yet true), but despite the best efforts of U2 and a legion of Irish pubs stretching from Boston to the Baltic, anonymity is often the best you can hope for. Having said [...]

Sakura Guesthouse was a lovely little family-owned establishment in Bishkek, run by a very pleasant Japanese couple. A popular destination, it had evidently been doing good business in recent times. There was a band-new accommodation block, the upper floors still being painted and decorated at the time of our visits. The reality was far-removed from [...]

As in Almaty I like to take an afternoon and wander around the of Bishkek. Here is what I saw. Vodka mixers on slae at every corner S-T-O-P. Not to be confused with a street name as I did City Square Guarding the flag The Bishkek Opera House