We retraced our final steps from Tashkurgan to Kashgar today, and left straight after the 8am breakfast. Unlike our previous morning in Tashkurgan a couple of weeks ago for which we had a brilliant blue sky and sunshine, the pre-dawn light was hazy and the surrounding mountains were faintly visible through it. It turned, Read More
We started the day in Sost knowing we had a long day ahead to get out of Pakistan, over the Khunjerab Pass, into China, and back to the town of Tashkurgan. We were at the immigration post in Sost by 8:30am in time for its 9am opening. The first step was easy enough, a, Read More
What a day! Today I achieved a long-time ambition of traveling over the Karakoram Highway from China to Pakistan, a dream I had since a guy called Christian (whose apartment I took over in Baden) first told me about it as he departed Switzerland to bicycle to Delhi via Central Asia and through the, Read More
With a long day of driving along the Karakoram Highway (KKH) ahead we had an early start after breakfast. The initial drive south out of Kashgar is surprisingly mundane, but we stopped off in the town of Upal after an hour or so to stretch our legs and check out the local bazaar (a, Read More
Having met the rest of the tour group in the hotel lobby over breakfast, we set out to sightsee around Kashgar for the day. I was curious to see what had changed since I was last here in 2006 on my epic Silk Road trip across the region. I was expecting the worst, as, Read More
I went to SFO ready to take on the challenge of getting to Kashgar via Shanghai (including an airport change across the city in the 4-hour layover), Beijing (an overnighter) and Urumqi (brief layover) before touching down in KSH some day and a half after I started. Unfortunately these best laid plans were put, Read More
So much for promises! I sadly STILL haven’t updated this site since I last promised it waaaaay back in April 2009. I’ll blame it on the fact I’ve been a busy boy (as always), but I have to admit that I’ve become more likely to post photos on Facebook than here. I’ve now set things up, Read More
I hadn’t thought about it before, but Hong Kong is a fitting place to finish my Silk Road trip. The trip began in Istanbul, that great city where “east meets west”. Hong Kong, as a city where “west meets east”, neatly bookends the trip (while not having a think to do with the Silk, Read More
My last full day in China and one final stop along the Silk Road: some more Buddhist caves at Shuilian Dong! Shuilian Dong, or the Water Curtain Caves (I like the Chinese name better), are about 20km outside the small town of Luomen. I traveled from Tianshui yesterday afternoon through some beautiful countryside to, Read More
Nothing much to report today. I had a look at a “famous” Taoist Temple in the city today, but didn’t think it was anything spesh. I’m off to my last destination, Luomen, this afternoon, and have time to kill until then so I’m chilling in this internet cafe with about a thousand chain-smoking Chinese, Read More