In The Land Of Borat

On Saturday morning it was time to get back up on the bike again after a 2.5 months break from cycling. It felt a little strange and I knew it would take some time to get back into this crazy way of living. But I was full of energy and excitement about the rest of the journey.  I set out early in the morning and said goodbye to my wonderful hosts in Bishkek who not only hosted me for a couple of days but also my bike and all my stuff during the time I was away. It felt great to be back on the bike and after just a couple of km it was like I had never taken a break.

I reached the border after just 25 km and crossing over to Kazakhstan was smother then I had thought. The only hold up was when I went through customs and walked into a building filled with people waiting to get a stamp. And since queuing doesn’t really exist here you had to squeeze through the crowd, and I followed a German guy and was hoping he was going to the right booth of about 10 to choose from. But he didn’t have a clue either. Fortunately the officer was pretty fast and we got our stamps and could continue on. After crossing the border I can’t say I could see much different between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it sounded the same, smelled the same and people looked pretty much the same.

After the first 3 hours of cycling in Kazakhstan I got reminded that I hadn’t been cycling for a long time. My butt was sore and my legs where tired after climbing about 600 meters up a hill. I continue to push no for a while but after 115 km my body was telling me to stop. There weren’t any good camping spots around but eventually I found an okay place on a field with high crass to shield me from the road. I was completely exhausted and had to lie down in the grass for a while before setting up my tent and cooking some dinner.

After a good night sleep I woke up in a steaming hot tent. The sun was up and there was no way I could sleep in any longer. I got back up on the road with a sore behind but the legs were feeling okay to take me the 130 km I had left to Almaty. It’s going to take some time to get back into the cycling shape I was in before and today I stopped for lunch after 80 with tired legs. As always at restaurants I can’t order in Russian and no one speak a word of English. But I manage to get some food and after a while I was joined at the table by two nice guys. They didn’t speak English either but I could pick up on many of the questions since there mostly same questions all people ask. And of course some talk about sports like Sweden being champions of hockey and who doesn’t know about Zlatan Ibrahimovic! We had a nice lunch and when I went to pay for my food one of the guys came after me told the restaurant worker that he was paying for my meal. Then after some pictures with the bike I was off towards Almaty.

Just outside of the city there was some type of market and there were cars absolutely everywhere. The road that was a two lane road turned onto a six lanes. Four lanes on the asphalt and two more lanes on the side in the gravel. But with a bike it quite easy to maneuver through the traffic, but you had to be careful and I had to break hard a couple of time for cars who just saw an open spot and turned quickly.

Just as I got in to the center of town my front wheel started leaking slowly. But since I just had a couple of km left to the hostel I pumped up the tire and hoped I could get to the hostel without changing the tube. But after pumping the tire for the 6:th time it was leaking too much and I decided to walk the last bit. But that didn’t work out very good and the tire came loose from the wheel. In Bishkek I had changed the tires and in the front I was using the foldable tire I had in my bag as a backup. The bad thing about the foldable ones is that they are not as rigid as the normal ones and came loose when there wasn’t any air in the tube. So about one km from the hostel I had to stop and change tube not feeling too happy about it at 7 in the evening.

I decided to take one days break here in Almaty to rest my bum and legs before making the rest of the 300 km through Kazakhstan to the Chinese border. 

Back on the road again

When I returned to Sweden I planned on staying about 6 weeks to sort out my visa for china and then go back to Bishkek after that was done. But I actually ended up staying 2,5 months! I had to wait a while for my letter of invitation, and when everything was done and I had my visa I decided to stay a little longer. I figured since I was home I might as well stay a little longer because I had no rush to get into China.  That was a good decision and I had a great summer. I also think I appreciate Sweden more now when I had been away for a long time. Swedish summer is the best!!(except for the times when it isn’t)

But the will to keep on cycling is still strong and I’m looking forward to getting back out again. Even though I know it might take a while until a get into the rhythm again. I have spent a couple of days here in Bishkek fixing up the bike, doing some planning and getting ready. Today I picked up my Kazakhstan visa and tomorrow morning I’ll be back up on the saddle!! 

Received my Chinese visa in the mail yesterday. 60 day double entry =)
The plane ticket back to Bishkek is booked for august 19 and I'm really looking forward to getting back out on the road again =)

Surprise, Surprise!

I moved around a little bit in Bishkek the first days. I could only stay two nights with the first couchsurfer, but I had a good time there and started to explore the city. I stayed one night at a hostel after Almaz apartment and it was really nice to meet other travelers and also cyclists. Because you don’t need visa for Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek is a place most people who travel Central Asia come to and stay for a while sorting out visas for the next country while exploring the beautiful country.

After one night at the hostel I moved in to Dinara’s apartment, another couchsurfer who had a comfortable couch for me and I could stay there for as long as a wanted. I had some time to go through where I might be for the next couple of months cycling through East Asia. I realized I would have to push on way to fast through Southeast Asia so that I could be in New Zealand in the summer. I have been there before and I’m looking forward to going back there on bike this time, but I would really like to be there in summer. I would also like to spend some time in Australia before the hottest time of the year. And Southeast Asia is a great place and I don’t want to rush through. So in conclusion I decided I will spend some more time in Southeast Asia before flying to Australia in maybe August next year and then onwards to New Zealand and then South America. And with that plan I would have a lot of time and can really explore the countries without having to think about time, exactly how I want this trip to be.

Another thing I had been thinking about for a long time was taking a break to fly home for a visit. Sometimes I have felt like I really want to do that and sometimes I just feel like cycling on to the next country. But Kyrgyzstan has always felt like a great place to fly home from because there’s no visa and also a nice break before going into China. And even if I knew that the Chinese visa would be a problem I wasn’t expecting it to be this difficult. The only travel agency who would write me an invitation letter wanted 560 $ including insurances. And since there’s no way I’m paying that much another option was to get a one month visa from Bishkek and then extend two times once I’m in China. But that would be more expensive and I would also have some time pressure to get to a place where I could extend since I needed to do that one week before the visa expired. So after hesitating for a long time I booked a ticket to Stockholm that only cost me 260 $, which I think is really cheap considering it’s a 5,5 hour flight to Istanbul and then 3 hour flight to Stockholm. It was a great feeling having booked the ticket and knowing I would see my family in just a couple of days.

I had a nice weekend in Bishkek with my host Dinara. On Saturday all the parks was full of kids because it was Children's Day in Kyrgyzstan and on the central square kids where playing in the fountains and I almost felt like jumping in to cool off in the 30+ degree heat. On my last day before leaving Dinara took me horse riding in the hills just outside the city. I had tried riding a couple of days before with a family in the mountains, but this time we rode for longer and I have to say that I rather sit on my bike saddle for 7 hours than 50 minutes of riding. It was a lot of fun and a great experience except for how my bum was feeling afterwards. But it was all worth it and the view from the hill was great with the tall snowcapped mountains on one side and Bishkek down below.

On our way down we could see the dark clouds closing in and when we were back at the farm we were soaking wet after riding the last bit through heavy rain. Once back in the apartment I packet a small backpack for my trip home and put away my bike and bags in storage. Dinara was kind and let me keep my stuff at her place and it also felt great to have a place to come to once I came back. I tried to get some sleep before getting up at 3 am and headed out to the airport. It felt a little strange travelling like this after making my way on bicycle for the last 10 months. And with a plane I was back in Sweden after a couple of hours. I was a really strange feeling being back with everything being so familiar. And for the last bit to my hometown I got on a 12 hour night train and arrived in Skellefteå on Tuesday morning. I hadn’t told anyone I was coming home so I was really excited to surprise everyone. The first one was my brother who was the only one at home and when I rang the bell early in the morning he was sleeping and came to the door newly awake. After that I got to surprise everyone in my family one by one as they came home. And the look on their faces is something I won't forget. One of the highlights was surprising my sister at her house when I snuck up on the back and knocked on the balcony door. A big motivation for coming home was to see my nephew for the first time. I really wanted to hold him as a baby instead of coming back home when he is maybe 3 years old. I only booked a one way ticket and haven’t decided when I’m going back to continue my trip. But I think I’ll be here for maybe 6 weeks. By then I’ll have my 3 months Chinese visa in my passport and will be ready to tackle the next part of my journey.

From summer heat to snowy mountains

When I lest Fergana I had about 110 km to the border and planned to cross it the next morning. At lunch time I stopped at a store to spend my last Uzbek money and I thought it would be nice to sit by the river and eat. After buying some things I got on my bike but only cycled 20 meters when a man at a restaurant invited me in for tea. He was the owner of the place and also gave me a nice lunch before I got back up on the bike and cycled the last bit towards the border.

I got there faster than I had thought even though I got lost at one point and had to turn around when the road stopped. They don’t like to show people the way to Kyrgyzstan. Luckily there are helpful people along the way to ask. It was not a very busy border crossing and I wasn’t sure at first that I was at the right place. I cycled up to the gate and got the attention of a guard who walked over and opened the gates for me. There where contractions going on and the office was a table outside where I for the first time had to open all my bags for inspection. Strangely they never checked the hotel registration that everyone told me was so important to have. I took some time to through all the bags, but eventually I got the stamp and could cycle over to the Kyrgyz side. There they were more relaxed and the border consisted of two barracks on either side of the road and the cutest guard dog ever!

In the first barrack there was a huge man who when I came put on his hat before starting to write down my information in the notebook. It didn’t take long until got my stamp and it felt really good to be in Kyrgyzstan and it’s great that I don’t need a visa, it’s two months for free. Some of the first people I met in this new country waved me to the side of the road and game me a bag of cucumbers and a bag of delicious peaches. In the next small town I asked around for a place to stay and was directed to what they told me was a hotel. It was a little difficult to find since it didn’t have any signs on it and it didn’t look like much. And it wasn’t much either. It felt like some old Soviet military place, the room a slept in had five beds in it and when I had to use the not so clean toilet I had to find the woman who worked there to get the key for the padlock that was on the bathroom door. And as always I was bargaining for the price, especially at this place where she wanted way too much. We eventually agreed on a price that was half of what she started off with, but since I didn’t have any Kyrgyz SOM I had to wait until the next morning to go to the bank. A very good thing about Kyrgyzstan is that you don’t have to exchange money on the black market to get the right rate. But I had a little problem since the woman in the bank didn’t want to exchange 20-dollar bills which were all that I had. But after a little begging she agreed and I got some SOM. So I paid for my “fancy” hotel, bought a SIM-card since mine wasn’t working here and cycled into the mountains.

The road followed a nice valley next to a river that unfortunately had a couple of dams along the way. And another negative thing is that the crazy bike chasing dogs have made a comeback here. It was the worst in Turkey but in Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan I didn’t have much problem with dogs. But here I have been chased many times usually by two at the time. For the first time in a couple of weeks I was sleeping in my tent when I found a great spot right by the river. I had almost forgotten how nice it is camping especially in a beautify valley with a view of the mountain on both sides.

The next morning started off with a long slow uphill. But on the other side I had a nice view of the Toktogul Lake below. And for the rest of the day a cycled around the lake, up and down many hills towards the town of Toktogul. It was a cloudy and a little cold day and at lunch time I could hear thunder closing in. I was hoping that I would reach Toktogul before it started raining, but it’s difficult outrunning a rainstorm when you’re doing 6 km/h up a hill. So once I got to the town I had been cycling in heavy rain for an hour. I didn’t want to cycled any longer than Toktogul because after the town the road went higher up into the mountains towards Ala-Bel pass at 3184 meters above sea level. And I wanted a good night sleep before tackling that. It felt good to wake up and hear that the rain had stopped after pouring down constantly since yesterday afternoon.

The road up there went through yet another beautiful valley. But I was moving slow because it was uphill almost all the time. I stopped to by some honey from a beekeeper that was really nice and invited me in for lunch. And it was a good lunch with lots of meat, potatoes and of course honey for the tea. Perfect energy for the rest of the days uphill.

Not long after that I met a German man who was travelling by foot and was walking back from Bishkek where he had walked to during the winter. He had to find another was east since China didn’t let his dog in to the country. He had some good stories and some information about the road I was taking towards Bishkek. When I was getting closer to the top it got colder and started to rain that after climbing higher turned into snow. It was a nice to get to the top after almost seven hours of uphill. And 3184 meters was a new record for me almost 1000 meters higher that my precious record from Turkey. There was also another milestone for me that day when I reached 15.000 km! It doesn’t feel that long since I passed 10.00 in east Turkey, and I realize how far I have cycled through Asia.

Going up you can’t wait to get to the top and glide down the other side. But going down wasn’t much fun since it was snowing, raining and I could not keep warm with the cold wind at me all the time. The road came down into a valley where I was stopped by a man in a car got out and wanted to have a little chat. He didn’t speak much English but we understood each other still and talked for a while and drank some Bishkek cognac. He wanted me to load my bike in his car and go with him to Bishkek, but I tried to explain that I wanted to cycle all the way. He probably thought I was a bit crazy to turn that down when I was cold and wet. We said goodbye only to meet again a few kilometers down the road where he had stopped by a yurt and waved me in. We had some tea and he arranged so that I could stay with that family for the night.

It was an interesting evening and I got to experience the life of Kyrgyz nomads. I also got to ride a horse and help bring in the sheep’s for the night. The family was very nice but since they didn’t speak a word of English we had some problem communication. And even if I had come down from the snowy mountain it was still very cold and the night I spent in the yurt I had on all my clothes and three blankets. I woke up to another rainy day. But that wasn’t the worst thing that morning. I had left my bike outside and had forgotten to take in the bag where I had my food. So during the night a cow had smelled the bread I had in the bag and ripped it open with its horns to get to the food. The bag had one big hole on the side, some smaller rips and one attachment broken. The worst thing was when I saw that the bag I keep my tent in had a couple of holes in it, but after a closer inspection breathe a sigh of relief that the tent was undamaged. And I’m hoping to find someone who can fix the bag here in Bishkek.

I tried to make the bad somewhat waterproof and got back on the bike and headed for the next mountain pass. This pass was “only” 2564 with a serpentine road winding up the mountain. I wasn’t in a very good mood after a not so good start of the day, and a slow climb up the mountain didn’t feel that fun. But I pushed on and once I got up a little higher I could enjoy the great view of the valley below and It was all worth it.

At the top the road went through a tunnel and when I came out on the other side I was met by a very thick fog, or clouds as it is called at this altitude. I could only see 20 meters in front of me and took it really slow, most of the time=) After a while I was out of the clouds and cycled down a nice valley. But it was still cold and I needed lots of clothes to keep warm. After all the hard work in the mountains the reward came here and I was following the valley downhill for almost 70 km! And once the mountains stopped the air was much warmer and the sun showed itself for the first time in a while.

I spend the night in Kara-Balta since it was still about 60 km to Bishkek and I didn’t have the strength for that. So I had a rest there and yesterday I cycled the rest of the way to Bishkek where I’m staying with a couchsurfer for the moment. Now I have to sort out my Chinese visa and hopefully with some luck I can get a three months visa. But I’m not sure I will, and then the option it to get a one month and then extend it once I’m in China. But it feels great to be here and there is no rush for me to cycle on since I can stay in Kyrgyzstan for two months. I won’t stay that long but it nice not to have any time pressure.

Fergana Valley

After Samarkand the landscape became greener and also some hills appeared. But even if it’s a little hard sometimes getting up there in the warm weather, I do prefer it much more than the flat desert. Because once you’re up there there’s always downhill on the other side. During the day I met a guy from USA who was travelling the world on his motorcycle. We had a little chat and then he got back on his bike and left when some local guys came up to us and wanted to talk and take some photos. I wasn’t in such a hurry and like to try and talk to people along the way, and I also don’t mind taking some photos. I think my photo is on many mobile phones after all the people I have met just by the road.

I came to a small village that evening where I stopped to talk to someone and ask if they knew a good place where I could set up my tent for the night. But the construction workers I met there arranged with a room in one of the houses they were working on where we had some tea and I rested for a while until one of the workers came and told me to come with his. Islam was living in another house close by where I could stay for the night. We had a nice dinner and tried to communicate as best we could.

The next day I ended up cycling 135 km. the wind wasn’t as bad as before and I started early in the morning. When I started thinking about where to stop for the night a man pulled me over by the road to ask about my journey and to give me a cold beer. He asked me if I needed any help and I explained that I was looking for a place to sleep for the night. He said no problem, and told me to follow him for 5 km to what I thought was his home. It turned out being a petrol station that he owned and was renovating. But it had a nice comfy couch in one room so I was really happy with that. Ozod was very helpful and also brought me dinner later. But I had a strange feeling about the man and realized that the young woman that was with him wasn’t his daughter when they went in to another room for some “privacy”. Later that night after dinner and a couple of beers Ozod, his brother, friend and “lady friend” wanted me to come with them to what I understood was one of their homes. But I told them I needed the rest after a long day on the bike, but it was mostly because I had a bad feeling about them. So I made my bed on the couch and fell asleep only to be woken up in the middle of the night by a car pulling in to the petrol station. It turned out to be Ozod who spend the rest of outside playing music from the car and continued drinking. I didn’t get a very good night sleep that night and also turned down the offer to go to Ozod’s home for breakfast. Because there was no way I was getting in a car with someone who was still clearly drunk.

I had about 130 km left to Angren from where the road would go up into the mountains. It was another warm sunny day and I had a very nice lunch at a restaurant with some men I met there. They also invited me in to stay at their home, the only problem was that they lived in Toshkent. I soon arrived in Angren and decided to have a look at the prices of hotels and if it was too expensive I would camp somewhere outside of the city. But it turned out to be neither when a man whom I asked for directions to a hotel offered me a place to stay. Genna was a pastor at a church in Angren and the church had a rehabilitation center where I could stay for the night. I had a really nice time there and two church members who spoke good English came by and we had a nice interesting conversation. They had to leave so during dinner the conversation was more basic with the other guys living at the center. But we had a nice evening and a huge contrast from the night before with drinking and questionable “female company”.

For dinner we had Plov, which is a traditional Uzbek food with rice, fried vegetables and meat. It is good, but I have a little problem eating it because it was what I ate my first night in Uzbekistan and also what came up the other way the next morning when I had my stomach problem. But I can still eat it and the hunger after a long day on the bike takes over. It was a little bit more difficult to eat when the leftovers was served for breakfast the next morning.

But I needed the energy since the “Kamchik Pass” at 2267 meters was waiting for me this day. And even before the real climbing began I had to struggle with a strong head wind. So I knew this would be a slow day on the bike. The ride was beautiful and something I had been waiting for during the boring cycling in the desert. But it was hard work when I was cycling up the steep serpentine roads on a very hot day. But it was an amazing feeling once I reached the top after almost six hours cycling. At the top there was a tunnel I had to go through and since the military presence is something else in this region I had to show my passport going in to the tunnel and also the other guard at the other side. I think I showed my passport seven times during the day which is a new record for me and probably more times than I had to show it for my first months of travelling.

On the other side of the mountain waited the reward of all the hard work during the day. And luckily the road was okay for most of the way down. I was probably averaging 40-50 km/h for the first 20 km and it was a lot of fun. I know my mother doesn’t want to hear this, but I can’t help myself! I thought about doing a video with my GoPro on the way down but decided not to because of the military presence. It wasn’t worth taking the chance and maybe getting in trouble for filming something I wasn’t allowed to film. And on the way down I passed a couple of places with sighs of crossed over cameras. I was going downhill for a long time and even when the landscape flattened out I was going at good speed thanks to a nice wind and could make up for a slow day going up the hill.

I set my sight on Qoqan and though I would find a hotel there mostly because I needed to get online and have a look at my emails to see if there was any progress with an invitation for China. But I didn’t make it to Qoqan when I met some people in Danghara who invited me in for tea who turned in to a dinner (Plov again!) and they let me stay there for the night. I was woken up at 6 in the morning and we got in a minibus to somewhere that we would have breakfast. It turned out to be a wedding of some of their friends, and apparently they start the festivities with breakfast for everyone. It was a fancy  place and I felt a little out of place in my T-shirt and shorts, but it was nice even though Plov was served again=)

Today I have been cycling to Ferghana in the perfect weather. It’s been cloudy and windy, but this time wind was in my favor and I was going really fast and got here early in the day. I looked around at all the hotels but they were all very expensive but I had a look at one last Homestay on my way out of the city. They were renovating the place but had another place a little further from the center. So after a little bargaining I now have a big apartment to myself for just 7,5 $. I’ll stay here for at least two nights to relax, sort some things out and to spend my last SUM before crossing the border into Kyrgyzstan.   

Into the wind

After four days in Bukhara my stomach felt okay and I was ready to get back on the bike again. It was a beautiful old city with some great old buildings. But it felt a little strange seeing tourist again. I think the last touristic place where I’ve been was Cappadocia two months ago.

 

I felt okay when leaving Bukhara but the energy wasn’t 100% and after cycling 95 km into the wind I didn’t have much strength left in my legs and stopped close to Navoi. The next day I continued east and was hoping for some luck with the wind only to be disappointed once again. The wind has been blowing from the north for all my days cycling north, but now when I turned to the east then that’s where the wind is coming from of course. I think the last time I had a proper tail wind was when I left Tehran, but the weather was nice and warm so I probably shouldn’t complain too much. I also realized how cheap it is to by a lunch at the small restaurants along the way, so there’s no reason to go to the store and make some lunch myself. And I always meet some nice curious people when I stop. At the evening I came to the town Kattakurgan where I met a nice man who told me that there were no hotels open but that he would like me to stay at his house in a small village outside of town. I never turn down an offer like that and we managed to squeeze in my bike and bags in his extremely small car. I was sitting on the passenger side holding on to my bike that was sticking out from the back. But we made it there without losing anything driving on some really bumpy roads. We met up with his friend Jamshid who was an English teacher which was great since my host knew as much English as I know Uzbek. We had a nice evening with some food and Uzbek beer at a summer camp in the village. And once it got dark we headed back to his home where his mom served us even more food.

Yesterday I started off early in the morning on my way to Samarkand. The wind was blowing in my face and the roads continue to be very bumpy, so I probably won’t break any speed records here in Uzbekistan. But it would be nice to average more than 16km/h someday. But after many days of constant burning sun it was really nice to finally have a cloudy day and a little cooler temperature. Since I started cycling at seven in the morning I reached Samarkand at about two and had plenty of time to find a nice place to stay. It wasn’t the easiest city to find the right way, but with kind, helpful locals I always find my way at the end. After looking around a bit I settled in to a cheap room and after a couple cups of tea in the courtyard the rain started pouring down. I hadn’t seen rain in almost two weeks after cycling in the desert, so I could really enjoy the refreshing rain. Mostly because I’m inside. I ended up staying here in Samarkand three nights. It’s a very beautiful city with a lot of old majestic buildings. I’ve had a nice relaxing time here just walking around the city, seeing the sights and eating amazing strawberry’s and lots of ice cream. I have also been trying to figure out the best way to get my visa for China, and I have to say that they don’t make it easy. Hopefully everything works out and I can get it from the embassy in Bishkek. And I’m not that far away now. I have maybe ten days left in Uzbekistan before heading into the mountains of Kyrgyzstan towards Bishkek