After many years dreaming, I am finally doing it! In early May, I will leave the comfort of a 40 hour weeks and hit the road on an 8 month journey of discovery through some of the most culturally diverse and beautiful regions on earth. I intend to cross about 15 countries and cover about as many thousand kilometers as I wind my way from Europe to Asia. I'll be mostly alone but intend to meet some friends along the way who are game enough to give this wonderful way of travelling a go. I plan to camp where possible and to really meet the people along the way, hopefully to gain a better understanding of what really does make us all so similar. It is all too common that we feel isolated and unaware of the cultures which seem so foreign to us, in reality everyone has the same basic needs and desires. So, a rough plan for the trip, I will be making adjustments I go along according to what feels best and where the wind takes me.

Part 1:

Starting in Budapest I am planning to head south east toward Istanbul along the Danube, passing Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria before reaching Turkey. I then intend to head north east across Turkey to Iran (if I get the visa!). I will then spend 4 weeks cycling towards Tehran from where I will board a plane bound for Delhi.

Part 2:

As the winter is long in Ladakh, India, I will have to skip the 'stan countries this time and fly to Delhi to be in the mountains during the 3 months snow-free window during which the roads are passable. Pedelling up to 5600 m, the plan is to cross (arguably) the worlds highest moterable road. Some more info is here.

I will then try to find a way into China, most probable that I will have to fly as the border between China and India/Nepal is not the easiest to get through with a bicycle.

Part 3:

From China I intend to head north east then south east through Myanmar (if I can get in), Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and finally Cambodia, arriving sometime in December or January.