Bob's Silk Road

The Last Post;

So I've been back four weeks and can appraise my trip in its entirety & consider its worth.

I began nervous of the physical demands of the challenge & anticipated a disaster each day.
It took about 2 weeks to fully relax into the routine, another month to wean myself from the need for continual stimulation of music or podcasts & around the same time to comfortably set off with 24 hrs food & drink... and not if I found a bed, a petrol station or a corner of a field to sleep in.

The overiding emotion when I look back is of gratitude to the countless people who offerred help, sustenance & accommodation along my way.
I feel the emotion well up when I remember some other little gesture of kindness and it is very humbling to meet such generosity in strangers.

Sometime we used Google Translate to communicate, at other times my very basic Russian.
After Turkey, I was surprised what an important part alcohol played in the rhythm of daily life.
Politely in Georgia I was drunk by lunchtime more often than not from home made wine, chacha [wine based spirit], or vodka.

The Uzbeks were perhaps the friendliest of peoples but having only raced through Azerbaijan over 3 days, I may not be in the best position to judge them.
China was both where I found a friend in a local, and an indifference towards me I wasn't used to. This was a police state where 10% of the Uighurs languished in prisons or re-education camps. Disappearances were common & arbitrary dictats from central government could displace 10% of a city's population in 7 days...
The revolution was dead and nobody I met under 40 seemed remotely interested in reforming society. The one child policy of 1980-2015 had born the fruit of a generation of careerists. Being the only financial safety net for their parents, they would furnish their nests before starting a family.
I only saw one chinese family with 2 children and they were flying home to Singapore.

I m not sure at 52 if this trip ever was going to radically change me but perhaps I'm a little less materialistic than before, more contented spending long hours alone and feel that I've grown new wings for future adventures.

Thank you to all who kave kindly donated to Against Malaria Foundation via their website, Clicksargent via MyDonate.com or into the collection boxes left at Magdalen Medical Practice.
These are both really worthwhile charities and tonight I m only £50 short of my ClicSargent target of £2k .

I'm booked to make a few presentations over the next few months so I might yet get to my target a year after I started my preparations.

Bob

Happy Father's Day Dad! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Hope you enjoy this picture of you looking strange, taking cover from rain in Burma.

- Elsa and Leo

The Lama Temple , Beijing

Learnt about the housing in Beijing.

The traditional Hutongs are small collections of dwellings around a central family courtyard. Each house is single storey grey brick built with communal toilets every 50 metres. Living costs are very cheap compared to average wages.

Doors left unlocked, which is amazing for the centre of a city of 8 million.

Visited the Summer Palace in Beijing - a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and temples, some built in the 15th century.

Met kind a newspaper editor called Teddy who bought me trout cooked with chillies and pepper.

Table etiquette in China:

A lazy susan is used to share a variety of dishes amongst the diners at a table - the most esteemed guest gets to choose from each new dish first.

Taking the lid off your tea pot acts as a signal to the waiter that it needs refilling. It is polite to fill your neighbour's tea cups or glasses before your own. To appreciate the pourer, you tap your middle finger on the table.

Before starting to sip your beer, wait for the first toast. A formal toast is made by raising your glass in both hands towards the toastee and crying out "ganbei!" ( Dry the glass!) before downing in one.

Never point chopsticks at someone or stick them upright in bowls (portent of death).

The Chinese value their matured fermented tea, just as the French value their wines.Thousands of varieties.

Aboard a train, only very luckily managed to catch it, as security took a long time, emptying all bags thoroughly, confiscating:

My nail file, wd40, a syringe for cleaning my water filter, dog repellent spray, a water bottle, and my can of camping gas, (fair enough).

Fortunately, I hadn't decided to start my trip in China.

Today I was taken for a haircut and what a palaver! Wash, then cut, then trim, then another wash, and then blow dry to finish - then onto my beard - a very precise trim. I also got a head and facial massage, what a treat.

The barber wanted me to pose for photos (with his sunglasses on) under a spot lamp he was so happy with his work (all for less than £9)
(Posted by Elsa)

The Last Stretch:

I'm only 15 miles now from Urumqi and I'm suddenly in no hurry to get to the final destination of my challenge.

Once again I was picked up by the traffic police earlier and escorted back 5km as here they enforce the rule of no bicycles on the motorway. They handed me over to a policeman who put my bike in his car and drove me 30km to another policeman who gave me lunch in the police canteen while he politely checked all my apps, phrases I'd used google translate for and photos. He showed me his very nice clean bicycle and put me and my bike in another police car which drove me 50km to the limit of his jurisdiction.
From there I've used my map.

- Copied from an email, as Bob still doesn't have facebook access

Bob has cycled from Kuytun to Shixenzi.

Cycling in China after the ride up to Sayram lake from the border has been hot, flat and boring by comparison with the mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

Buffer Breakfast here is an amazing range of vegetables rice noodles dumplings and fruit. Bob missed this dearly during his long days on isolated roads with very little around.

This central square, like every other public space, was patrolled by riot police with shields and guns. Lots of people bring out their instruments to play music or sing in groups here.

-Laure

The security in China is very high. Security officers x-ray bags and scan just to enter a highway, cafe or shop. The number of people employed in public protection is staggering and must cost the economy there dearly.
Bob had his passport checked 15 times in 24 hours. The police photograph him 3 times at stops.
Once he spent nearly 3 hours waiting for police to check his passport, photograph him and go through their questions on four occasions.
Flashing overhead cameras photograph every moving vehicle on major and minor roads so he guessed that his image is already stored hundreds of times.

-Laure