Back in the groove

Leaving Almaty still highly frustrated at having to spend over a months budget on a simple Chinese Visa I found the perfect cure: A day and a half back on the road towards Krygyzstan I hit the last hill, caught a tailwind and spent the next two hours flying at an average of 25 mph as within no time at all was at the Krygyz border - a massive smile on my face that you can only get from riding a bike down a hill very fast!

Entering Krygyzstan was a big moment for me - there is a lot of conjecture on where continental boundaries lie and speaking to different travellers only seems to fuel the debate, so I've simply decided to use FIFA and their confederations as a guideline, and as such for the first time I officially considered myself out of Europe.

Out of Europe and within a further hour to Bishkek, the Capital of Krygyzstan, located just 20km south from the border and my home for the next 10 days as I had to post my passport back to the UK to get my Chinese Visa. The first impressions were good - friendly people, a vibrant city and best of all cheap, good food! I spent the first 2 nights staying with a guy named Kemo, but unfortunately he had to leave Bishkek for the weekend so I ended up for the next 8 days with the wonderful David and Jennifer, American newly weds who had just moved to Bishkek to work at the American school. I had a great time with these guys, enjoying their banter, talking American politics (for hours of entertainment with American travellers wherever you go simply mention Bush and sit back for the next 2 hours and listen) and also learning that if your staying with Americans for free it's probably best not to refer to the NFL as 'Wimps rugby'.

David and Jennifer on the left, Pauline and Camille at the front and myself with Patrick, who'd been picked up by Camille and Pauline at the back!

I also began to learn just how small the world is inside the traveller network and also that I was far from being the only cyclist in Bishkek! On my arrival at David and Jennifers I'd been told that there were other guests staying - entering the room to see the familiar faces of Camille and Pauline, who I'd met in Tbilisi, wasn't something I'd expected! And then the next day, when I'd arranged to meet my friend Danny, another cyclist I'd met back in Georgia, it turns out they knew him aswell! So it seems wherever you go there's always a familiar face - and more cyclists!

I met Danny at the guesthouse he was residing in and the last thing I expected was to be confronted by not one or two but 6 other cyclists: Danny from Switzerland, an Austrian couple on the road for 3 years and heading back, Andie - an Austrian heading the same way as me (albeit a bit faster), Coreen - a French lady out in Krygyzstan for her summer holidays and Alvaro - AKA the Biciclown - who's on the road for 10 years (he left in 2004 and has already gone from Spain to South Africa and back up via Turkey to Central Asia) and performs as a clown for local children as he travels - a truly inspirational individual (although probably a few screws lose to attempt something like this!) - remember the name as there'll be more on him later!

The Cyclists (And on Motorcyclist) in Bishkek

But after a week in Bishkek, a day at the circus, a horrendously failed attempt at dating a local and enough local cuisine to mean I needed to get back on the bike just to get some fitness back I finally got the e-mail to say that my passport had arrived at the delivery company. Like an excited child who's spent the last week grounded, I rode as fast as I could to collect it, too fast in fact, as I rode into the wing mirror of a taxi nearly smashing it right off - the driver found it hilarious for some reason and ushered me on way even whilst I was still trying to offer my apologies - and with the ink wet on my Chinese Visa I was free to leave the next morning.

Never too old for the circus

At 6 am the next day I said my goodbyes and hit the road. With all the faffing around I'd only cycled 2 days in the last 20 and the lack of exercise showed as the next few days I huffed and puffed my way up to Lake Issykol. On Alvaro's recommendation I'd decided to take the long route down to Osh, which involved 2 passes over 3,000 metres and 3 more of over 2,500. The first few days we're ok but each pass contained no roads, just dirt tracks - a nightmare as everytime a lorry came past (and with a gold mine locally there was a hell of a lot of these) it raised the dust and meant I couldn't see more than 10 metres and would invariably spend the next 5 minutes coughing my guts up.

But there was a saving grace - the Krygyz food. I've been trying to restrict myself to a budget of US $5 per day - in Krygyzstan this meant I lived like a king and if, like me, you don't know to much about Krygyz food let me fill you in - it's basically fat cooked in different ways. Fat in dumplings, fat in noodles or just fat served still attached to the bone. There was 2 types of traveller I'd met in Krygyzstan - those undertaking exercise, eg trekking or cycling, and those who were just travelling around: the latter type of traveller unanimously hated the food - whilst those, like me, who needed the fat, could not have been happier. And with the average plate costing around 90p life was good!

Arriving in Naryn (a big tourist spot in Krygyzstan yet still with a population of just 15,000) I sat down to eat in a local restaurant - 2 main courses, a large pot of tea and a litre of beer (yep, litre is a standard measure out here!) came to a little over $4 - I was in heaven!

I left Naryn the same day and headed on the road to Kazarman. I'd heard the route was difficult this way and the road was bad - but what I got I was in no way prepared for. Road conditions were terrible, meaning even on the flat I couldn't go faster than 6mph and up the hills I was crawling along at 3 mph - and this was steep! The pass was only 2,800 metres - I'd scaled higher - but this was by far and away the hardest days ride by a long way - and worst still whilst my map showed only one pass - it turned out there was three - all over 2,500 with long descents and hard climbs on each.

Better view from the top

Worse still, on a day where 6 hours on the bike had yielded barely 50km, I ran out of food. Camping for the night on an empty stomach I was lucky in the morning to find the village I'd banked on making the previous day and then, when I finally arrived I was confronted by another problem consistent in Krygyzstan - the shops. I arrived in a village of a good 200 houses - after asking around I was told there was only one shop and that I'd have to find the owner to open it before I could buy anything. After tracking her down, she opened up the shop and bearing in mind this was the only shop for 50 km, I was surprised to see she sold only 4 items - biscuits, pick & mix, super glue and vodka. I say 4 things, what I actually mean is the first three items, aswell as about 50 different brands of vodka.

It's unfair to generalise, but its no understatement to say that by 11 o'clock in the morning about 75% of Krygyz men were drunk - a breakfast of 20 cigarettes and a bottle of vodka (about $2 if you were wondering) seeing them through till about 4 o'clock where you'd then see the same men passed out anywhere and everywhere: on the roadside, in horse carts, under cafe tables - on that kind of diet it doesn't pay to be fussy about accomodation.

Leaving with a kilo of biscuits and a kilo of pick & mix the descent to Kazarman was surprisingly easy. Furthermore, for the previous 2 days in the dusty road it had been pretty apparent I'd been following the tracks of other cyclists. I'd wondered if it was any of the guys I'd met in Bishkek and 10 km from Kazarman I found it wasn't - it was 2 Germans - Ewald and Ingrid.

Ewald and Ingrid

I liked them instantly, not least because Ewald told me he'd cycled Tibet and the roads here were a lot worse. We rode together into Kazarman, enjoyed lunch and the more we spoke the more I enjoyed their company - they were both 71 (71!) and had both travelled the world extensively, with some amazing stories to tell and on this trip they were just spending 6 weeks in Krygyzstan doing the circular route from Bishkek. However with time ticking on my Krygyz visa I knew I had to leave that afternoon and after speaking to Ewald and Ingrid they decided to take a taxi for the next stage, another 3,100 metre pass (I liked Ewald even more after he gave it the macho 'I could cycle it but my wife wouldn't make it') and I was left to leave town on my own.

I wasn't alone for long however - as after another 2 hours I could see a cyclist in the distance - it was Alvaro! I caught up with him, said hello and was again reassured that the first conversation exchange was simply looking at each other and saying 'these f**king roads'.

We decided to ride together and for me this was great. I'd never ridden with anyone before so to do so with someone who's already been on the road for 4 years was great as not only did it give me company, it gave me the chance to pick his brains on my route and get some general tips. He didn't dissapoint, giving me all the information I needed for Africa, helping me fix my stove and even giving smaller hints like how it can help to flag down cars on dust roads to ask irrelevant questions, as this way you don't get a face full of dust for every car that passes.

Alvaro on the road

3 days later and we arrived in Osh for a well earned rest day. The first night we strolled down town for a meal when a voice came from the darkness, "My friend".

Figuring it was an annoying salesmen we carried on walking - it came again, getting louder - "My friend, please stop".

We ignored again and strolled a further 20 metres to the safety town square before being tapped on shoulder by the now out of breath man - "When I say stop you stop!", he yelled.

Me and Alvaro looked at each other: This guy wasn't in uniform, we hadn't done anything wrong and we had our documents to prove who we were - I was too tired to talk but Alvaro took the lead.

"Who are you? What is your job?"

"My job is to protect the tourists in this town" he panted, flashing a card that looked like it must have cost 6 tokens off the back off of a Rice Crispies box.

"So you try to take us to a dark alley and then run after us and shout at us?"

The man was getting visibly annoyed but sitting back to watch Alvaro, who'd had a lot of practice at dealing with beauracratic people like this, it was impressive to see the angry man leave 5 minutes later, tail between his legs, apologising to us and not having seen any of the documents he wanted to.

The hotel room 5 minutes after we arrived

Leaving Osh was a difficult manner: Alvaro wanted more time but with time ticking on my Krygyz visa and having heard of yet more bad road conditions between there and the Chinese border, coupled with horror stories of people not being allowed through I made the difficult decision to leave a few hours earlier - the plan being to meet on the Chinese side of the border.

The ride started easily enough - 180km on patchy asphalt to the town of Sary Tash, going via a 3,600 metre pass (the highest point of the tour to date) and all set to stunning scenery.

Entering Sary Tash

The next 80 km to the border however were back onto the ridiculously bad roads - crawling at 5mph along flat boring roads. The weather also began to turn - as the darkness set in my stove failed and with the temperature plummeting to -10 I left the half cooked pasta and water in the pot over night - the photo below shows how I found it the next day!

The pasta I'd left in a pot, -10 degrees took it's toll on it!

Battling the bad roads and occasional snow, I made it to the border where I was offered free accomodation to stay and settled in for the night glad to be inside. I'd been offered to stay with the owners of a local cafe because in their words 'You cycle here from England, we don't make you pay' (maybe I should be milking this more) and that night I was treated like a king - and the culmination of my time in Krygyzstan? At 11 at night the carcus of a sheep was bought in - the next 2 hours I was treated to watch (and occasionally help) 3 men and 2 women take knives and axes to the meat, as over time the animal went from being recognisable to starting to look like the next days lunch - it wasn't for the squeamish and with one lightbulb illuiminating the whole room was reminiscent of a horror film - but nonetheless it was spectacular to observe and is something that'll stick with me for a long time!

The next morning I was up and out (no lamb for breakfast though) and was the first person over the border. Given how hard it had been to get a Chinese Visa, the horror stories I'd heard of people being refused entry and learning of other cyclists having all their kit taken out of their bags, their luggage scrutinised and their Lonely Planet books thrown in the bin I was surprised at how lax the security was - my bags weren't checked, I was simply asked what books I had - I got through without even taking my hat off.

I crossed the border in under an hour and was free to enjoy something I'd been missing for a long time - proper asphalt. I waited for Alvaro but had no idea where he was so pushed onto Kashgar - the next two passes which were both 50metres short of 3,000 really hammering home how fit I was and how much easier cycling is on good roads!

I arrived 2 days later to Kashgar (Alvaro showed up just 2 hours later and we'd missed each other several times by mere minutes) and now it's time for some rest!

First impressions of China? It's a culture shock! For a start there's people - something scarce in Krygyzstan. And unlike the morons I met at the Chinese Embassy everyone seem's friendly, warm and helpful - even the border guards. The foods good and spectacularly cheap (50p for a bigger plate of noodles than it's possible to eat) and best of all everyone cycles - although it's easy to see how theres 300 road deaths a day with the way people drive.

The laws unclear on the legality of cycle touring in China so it'll be interesting to see if I have any problems with the PSB but in the meantime that's it for this leg of the journey - the next 2 months is a mad dash of 5,500 kilometres in 55 days across the mountains to Laos - I'll be in contact then but in the meantime I'm just hoping it doesn't get to cold!

Extra Pictures

An improvised meal when low on ingredients

A better meal - presentation isn't everything

Krygyz kids helping me get water

Repairs on the Dolon Pass