So the 2009 Silk Route is back in full swing. Today we have completed our third day of cycling in Azerbaijan finishing with a successful convoy into busy Baku. All riders are well and likely tired after three days of challenging and great riding.
Tomorrow is time to visit such local spots as the wonderful carpet museum, the old walled city and of course all plan to report to their loved ones back home.
And Thursday we are on a ferry to Turkmenistan.
The weather is calm so the ferry should be right on schedule, plus or minus several hours.
Well it is done! After 10,700kms, 107 days, 8 countries, two major deserts, 60,000 meters of elevation gain, many too many headwinds, and temperatures occasionally over 40C (even melting the asphalt), but sometimes low enough to freeze the water bottles, it is all over. Despite the challenges, we rode on; the will to continue being stronger that the desire to call it a day. The riders were a remarkable bunch of people; at times being pushed to their limits but never thinking of packing it in.
The first ever bicycle caravan along the Silk Route is done. There will be others to follow in our footsteps, or rather in our tires marks, but we have set the mold. We have had the time of our lives, discovering old cities that had sounded to us like places from old fables. We had the opportunity to cycle through areas where, hundreds of years ago, cities were bursting with lives and riches. Today, only the hushed sound of the wind can be heard. We had the sobering opportunity to stand in silence and try to imagine the shrieks and noise of hundreds of thousands of people being massacred by marauding armies. We admired some absolutely amazing feats of architecture and human genius and all the glory of God's creations. We visited new cities, bursting with energy and life.
Most importantly, we were blessed with the possibility to live in the moment each and every day, to see new things, to taste new foods, new fruits, new smells and to face whatever challenges might emerge from around the next bend in the road.
The 2007 Silk Route Bicycle expedition may be over but our memories will be with us forever!
The Silk Route ride was not suppose to have been easy but with 400 or so kilometres to go we have all expected things to be 'easier'.
Well it did not happen today.
Overnight the weather changed; cold and wet and to top it all a pretty good head wind. And so after a very good breakfast in the hotel we headed of. Lunch was at 65km and many of us arrived pretty cold. Good warm soup, some fried eggs and hot tea and coffe helped us to warm up and than back on the saddle for the last 50km.
The afternoon turned out to be much easier with the road improoving and the wind dying out. Annother good dinner in the hotel and now resting up for the last three days.
I have made it to Bishkek the capital of Kyrgyzstan after a harrowing two day drive from Osh over some amazing mountains and passes.
I am pleased to have made it as there were warnings of avalanches (and possible closing of the road) but more importantly was my driver, was a former KGB man, a former motorcycle racer and a Sport Grand Master (a title given to excelling athletes in the former Soviet Union and a man who blamed the CIA for the disintegration of the Soviet Union) and I think he thought he was going to get even with the West by driving the vehicle as if he was racing his old motorcycle and scaring me to death.
My last update was from the "grand" city of Samarkand. As we all know there are several ways to skin a cat and there are several roads that one could take from Samarkand to our next major destination Khodjand in Tajikistan. My plan, and the plan for the Tour, was to take the most direct route. There was one hitch, the border crossing on this route was closed to foreigners several years ago.
My contacts in Uzbekistan said that this was no longer so. My contact in Tajikistan said he was not aware the the ban has been lifted.
So there was only one thing to do...find out by myself.
It turned out that this flat and boring/unattractive route with many checkpoints is still not open to foreigners. This required a detour of a 90 km, the last 60 of them parallel to a road that has been under construction for the three years and looks like it will take another three to finish.
This means that the Silk Route bikers will now take a different route to Khodjand; a route that will be stupendous in every sense of the word and will take us through a 3,360 meter pass. The road maybe terrible but the view, ah the view!!
Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet Union Republics and this is quite visible. The country is slowly recovering from a civil war but it will take lot of effort to get it back on its feet.
From Tajikistan, it was back to Uzbekistan a quick and simple crossing (for which I would pay later) into the famed Ferghana valley.
The valley is very fertile, heavily populated and quite flat with good roads. I was through the valley in 24 hours and all went well at the border until the Uzbeki custom man asked me for my custom declaration slip that was given to me at my first entry into Uzbekistan, taken away when I left and entered into Tajikistan. Some heavy and prolong negotiations eventually solved the problem.
I write this simply to announce (first warning!) to all of our participants that you must ask and fill the declaration papers on each entry into the country.
Otherwise you will pay.
If you plan come to Kyrgyzstan, you better enjoy high mountains. At least a third of the country is above 3000 meters high. Our route goes through the southern part of the country into China through a 3,600 meters pass which was completely covered by snow. Besides being stopped for a few minutes by a crew that was trying to straighten up an overturned truck we had no difficulties crossing the pass and driving to about 80 km from the border, or as far as I was allowed to go without the special entry pass.
From the pass, it was back to Osh and then the drive to Bishkek.
Today is the 2nd anniversary of the overthrow of the government that has ruled since the break up of the Soviet Union.
There are celebration planned, but also quite bit of tension in the air as there are still many unhappy campers in this country - so I am off to take a look.
We travel not for trafficking alone
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known We make the Golden Journey to Samarqand
James Elroy Fletcher 1913
I have arrived in Samarqand and, though it has been wet and windy and certainly not conducive to being a tourist, I am now thinking that when the tour arrives here in September the original plan for one rest day will not suffice and a change in the schedule is needed.
No other place generates the same aura and images of Silk Route than Samarqand and now that I have been here I would say justifiably so.
So, dear participants, pump up your tires and get in shape because the original plan of three days from Bukhara to Samarqand will be reduced to two. Thus you will be able to enjoy this wondrous place for an additional day.
After crossing the Tarakum desert (or at least the edge of it on paved - not very good - road) and passing over the Soviet-built 1,400km Karakum canal, I have arrived in Bukhara (or Boxara as the locals call it), Uzbekistan.
This morning, while walking from one amazing historical site to another, I noticed a lack of automobiles and wondered if Bukhara was having a car-free day. All the main roads were free of vehicles but full of policemen. Eventually, I was told that the Uzbeki Prime Minister was in town and to allow him to move from one point to another, the roads were closed to regular traffic. Most of you know how much I love automobiles so I did not complain!
Bukhara is full of big and small treasures and they certainly made the effort of getting here worthwhile.
Tomorrow, I am off to another famous landmark - Samarqand. My guidebook, in describing the city, quotes a traditional saying: "Samarqand is the beauty of the earth, but Bukhara is the beauty of the spirit." However, in the next breath, it mentions that Armenius Vambery, (whoever he was), upon visiting the city in 1868. wrote that "Bukhara (is) the most shameless sink of inequity that I know in the east."
I am currently in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, a city completely destroyed by an earthquake in late 1940s and then rebuilt Soviet-style in the subsequent decades by the communist regime. Since the break up of the Soviet Union there has been a frenzy of construction, with marble-facade buildings popping up almost overnight. It is amazing of what a wealth of natural gas and oil can do to a country of five million people!
But I am getting ahead of myself. An official from the Ministry of Tourism of Azerbaijan told me not to worry about getting our trucks on the ferry across the Caspian Sea; "the ferry is big enough to take a train". I thought he was kidding.
I was finally told to board the ferry and it was quite a surprise to see that a whole freight train already inside the belly of the old ferry.
Thankfully the weather was calm and I did not have to worry about an accident and a possible hasty sinking of the ship due to its weight.
The 13 hour crossing was uneventful as was the border crossing of all 13 passengers. A thought crossed my mind when waiting to clear all of the port formalities in Turkmenistan; How long will it take to clear our upcoming caravan of intrepid cyclists?
I was met by our local support who then drove me to Ashgabat. I will not write about the route as I really do not want to spoil the surprise though I will tell you that, though you may be a world-weary traveler, there is nothing like Ashgabat out there - at least nothing that I have seen!
-Henry Gold
It is of course a truism that coming to a place one has never visited before, one will be surprised about what he/she will find. For example, did you know that part of the Nobel fortune that is annually distributed to the Nobel price winners was made here in the 19th century when Baki (I always thought it was Baku) first experienced the oil boom, what one would now call the beginning of the oil age.
Did you know that the Azeri language is almost identical to Turkish and they also share the culture, the looks and the hospitality as well as a liberal approach to Islam. (I have yet to see a woman in hajib or shador but there are no lack of stylish high heels boots and shoes.)
Here are few more things I have learned in the last three days; there is remarkable carpet museum, I would call it carpet heaven for those who love hand made carpets, the wind in this city can beat any wind in Chicago and the food is delicious. So is the beer, the wine and the vodka!
There are some amazing 19th century oil mansions and an on-going construction boom generated, I suppose, by the latest oil boom. There is a new high rise being built, it seems, on every corner.
Oh, and one more thing, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Sports and Culture have been very supportive of our Silk Route Tour and are helping with all necessary logistics and support.
-Henry Gold
I have arrived in Korla the western-most city I planned to visit on the scouting mission. Korla is the oil capital of the quickly developing oil fields in the Takla Makan desert and this is quickly visible on arrival to the city. Shinny high-rises, wide boulevards, western style boutiques and energy � energy that comes when optimism and expectation sets in - that there is more money "in them sandy dunes."
So what other wonders have I seen since leaving Lanzhau? Well, there was the replica of the famous Flying Horse of Wuwei and the tomb where he was found, the giant reclining Budha and his disciples in Zhangye, the last fortress of the Great Wall in Jianguan, with "the wall" leading in and out of the fortress, an impressive structure by any means of measurement, and not the least the Mogao Grottos caves in Dunhaung perhaps the crowning glory of the trip. And of course the awesome cliffs that you see when you travel through the Hexi corridor, the edge of the world famed Gobi desert and the quiet peaceful vine trellises covered boulevards of Turpan the lowest depression in China - 80 meters below sea level.
Tomorrow I will check out the road west, on the edge of the Takla Makan (means "those who go in do not come out") desert which leads all the way to Kashgar and then to the border, though I do not plan to go too far. This part of the journey will remain un-scouted, so that all participants in the Silk Route Bicycle Caravan including myself will experience the adventure of the unknown and the unexpected - and unexpected will be without a doubt in abundance.
Cheers, Henry
Four years ago when the back pack from the inaugural Tour d�Afrique was nearing Cape Town some of us started to throw the idea of what next. And so the Silk Route Bicycle tour was born. Fours years on, I am in Lanzhou the eastern gate of the Hexi corridor from which point, for hundreds of years, the real journey into the west began.
It has been ten days since I started my journey in Beijing and even though I am not on bicycle it has been an exhilarating experience.
While most of us by now have heard about the industrial miracle that is transforming China at an immense speed, it is only when one sees it that one begins to comprehend what it really means. New buildings are sprouting up everywhere, new roads are being constructed, everywhere young people are fashionably dressed, but what most striking thing is the energy of the place - as if a sleeping giant has woken up and now nothing will stop him.
Everywhere I go people are friendly and welcoming and each time I mention the Silk Route Race/Expedition I get a smile, a warm reception and eagerness to help.
The timing for the tour could not better. It appears that China and the UN will have major conferences next fall on the Silk Road, its history and it�s potential for the future.
And though China maybe changing fast it is now more than eager to preserve and in fact reconstruct many of its historical wonders - and wonders they are. From The Forbidden City which I visited on my first day in China, to the Terracotta warriors I saw near Xian to the Taoists and Buddhists monasteries I visited yesterday in Kontong Shan near the city of Pingliang - one of our stops next year. Tomorrow another set of adventures.
So long, Henry
