While “Hunza” is used to refer to the local region, in reality it is divided into two: Hunza on the north side of the river, and Nagyr on the south. Our plan for today was to head up the namesake Nagyr Valley to the village of Hoper next to the massive but accessible Hoper, Read More
After a few days of constant travel, having a couple of days in Hunza to unwind has been a nice change. It was also our opportunity to meet the local team from Silk Route Expeditions, who would be coordinating everything during the Pakistan part of our trip: Didar Ali – Owner & Guide Muhammad, Read More
Given the length of the journey and terrain we had to cover, we had broken up the bulk of the trip from China to Pakistan into two days. Our first night in Pakistan was spent in Passu, a small village by the KKH. The next morning we continued south down the road towards Hunza,, 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
Yet more travels under my belt, but not a blog update in sight. Sigh… France: Bordeaux, Medoc, Cognac, Provence, Avignon, Arles, Corsica, Dordogne (Rocamadour, Domme, Monpazier), St Emilion, Chamonix, mountaineering week around Mont Blanc massif Spain: Barcelona for Andy & Laura’s wedding, Montserrat Germany: Munich Netherlands: Amsterdam x 2 Switzerland: Zurich, Baden, Lausanne, Berner Oberland,, Read More
Just got word from the Embassy of Afghanistan here in Madrid that they will be issuing my visa on Thursday, so it's looking like the trip has got the green light – yay! I have had a lot of people ask me what the hell I'm doing going on "holiday" to Afghanistan, so I, Read More
A word of warning to all you readers out there: I’m in a contemplative mood and about to get all nostalgic again… You Have Been Warned! 🙂 Wow…! Well in the blink of an eye my global "Grand Tour" of the past 285-odd days has come to an end. It’s crazy to think that, Read More