We want to do the entire trip by land, to, trough, and back from Asia. So what`s a better country to start in than Turkey? It`s the gateway between Europe and Asia! So we bought a one-way ticket to Istanbul and there the trip begins. We did that piece of the journey by train in 1999 but just before Istanbul we had te abort the final end because of the major earthquake. This time we`re going to fly because doing it by train costs twice! From Istanbul we`re going east to Iran, then trough Iran to Pakistan and then to India. From India we visit Nepal, and then the overland route stops unfortunately. There is only one reliable landroute from the subcontinent to the rest of Asia and that is the karakoram highway in nothern Pakistan. That means going back to Pakistan and conquer the great mountains of the karakoram and enter China. It is a possibility, but not a practical one for us. Instead were going to fly to south-east Asia, to Maleisia (Kuala Lumpur) for example, this isn`t sure yet, and then to Indonesia by boat. Then from Indonesia back to Maleisia, this time not as a stopover but to travel to Thailand. Then we go to Laos and from Laos to China. China is going to be the last country we really visit because we step onto the transmongolia express in Bejing. This train is going to bring us all the way back to Europe, Poland to be exactly. From thereon we pick the cheapest option to The Netherlands.
Turkey (25/07/2001) 3 weeks
Iran (15/08/2001) 3 weeks
Pakistan (07/09/2001) 2 weeks
Nepal (29/09/2001) 3 weeks
India (17/09/2001) 10 weeks
Thailand (15/12/2001) 4 weeks
Cambodia (19/12/2001) 3 weeks
Vietnam (09/01/2002) 4 weeks
Laos (09/02/2002) 4 weeks
China (09/04/2002) 5 weeks
`Home`; (16/05/2002) 2 weeks travel
Of course this is a guideline, we don`t have the illusion to keep to this plan.
We updated this at 21/11/2001. Because of the 11th september attacks a lot changed, of course...
