Any post related to a country
In Mongolia there are two major traditional holidays. One is in summer and is called Naadam, the other is in winter and is called Tsagaan Sar or white moon. Tsagaan Sar is the celebration of the Lunar New Year, following the same calendar as the Chinese New Year. The photos of this special celebration can be found [...]
Reading about this massive lake in Siberia called lake Baikal made me wonder. After having stayed in Ulaanbaaatar for a few weeks I decided that I was too close to the lake Baikal and I had to go there. See the great photos of the frozen Baikal here A journey to Lake Baikal The journey from Ulaanbaatar to [...]
In Altai I had time to think and decided on a change of plans. I now was planning to follow the south route to Ulaanbaatar. The original plan was to cycle north from Altai to Uliastai. Due to being in the winter of Mongolia I decided on the easier and shorter southern route Altai, Bayankhongor, Arvaikheer, Lun, [...]
So, I arrived at Hohhot East train station at around 16:30. I was still operating on western China time and hadn't realized that the sun would already be so far down. I thought I had enough hours of daylight left, but instead I had to rush. I asked a porter to help me with my two huge [...]
I was nervous as I was preparing the first leg Bulgan to Altai into western Mongolia, a leg of 600km with very little supplies and people, mind I say the Gobi desert. The photos Bulgan to Altai The morning came and I was as ready as I could be with a small cold coming along. I cycled out of [...]
It was amazing! Arriving to Urumqi after cycling there all the way from the Netherlands. It was quite a huge milestone for us. But it was also a bit daunting because during the last days of the year we'd had some deep conversations about what next. The plan was clear but the feelings not so much. We [...]
Tarkshken the last town before Mongolia, I left Urumqi and Susanne on a cold morning, well all the mornings are cold at the moment. It was hard and a relief to be on the bike again. Enjoy the photos in the gallery Urumqi to Tarkshken I had enjoyed Urumqi with Susanne and we had celebrated new years there. [...]
Cycling is what we have been doing the last 11months, we are now used to the process and it has become a comfort zone of ours to cycle. We spent almost 4 months in the 'Stans' where change came in small bits. Now we have cycled to China and we have a hard time believing that we [...]
Almaty, the second city and previous capital of Kazakhstan, felt like Europe to us. Expensive Burger King, household appliances, large super markets, food courts and even proper dental care. It was nice to be in a place where we could enjoy some luxuries, although we were missing the off the beaten track feel of the places we [...]
Our legs are shaking, our fingers are numb and we are only 500 meters away from the hostel where we stayed in Bishkek. A really nice place by the way, nice and comfortable, where the communal heating was on all day. So making the step from 23 degrees inside to minus 10 outside after three weeks was [...]