Using my article and a picture of my passport without admission is not okay I love when people and organizations share my articles to friends and followers, but not when they are claiming to be the authors. READ MORERead More
The picture is taken from the webpages of Vodkatrain who operate the tour The Silk Road has its name from the trade of silk and other things between Asia and Europe, but the routes used were actually many. They all go through Central Asia, through changing landscape, countries and cultures. On my trip...Read More
When arriving at the Turkish capitol, Ankara, we felt like we had gotten a lot closer to our home country then we had been before on our Silk Road journey. Ankara felt much more European that I had expected, but just like Istanbul it had its districts that had more in common with its...Read More
The Silk Road goes through many countries, but I am surprised by how little the standard of the trains did vary across the borders. The first ones we took were Chinese trains from from Beijing to Urumqi and Urumqi to Almaty. We were staying in soft sleeper, 4 berth compartments that had plenty of storage...Read More
We arrived Teheran early morning, just a few minutes after the train had done its daily 5 am prayer stop. It had been a short ride with just a couple of hours of sleep, so we were all happy when we arrived at our hotel and were told that we could eat breakfast, go swimming...Read More
We got to do a full day of sightseeing in Isfahan to see the Worlds second biggest plaza (after Tianamen Square in Beijing), the palace, some underground and overground Mosques and the famous bridges that connect the South of the city with the North. For the two next days our guide could not show up...Read More
When crossing the border from Turkmenistan to Iran there was an instant transformation of how people behaved and how they dressed. By law all women in Iran have to cover their hair and body and men have to wear long trousers. There were more pictures of political and religious leaders than there were comercial advertisement...Read More
Ashgabat was the capitol of the Palin Dynasty around year 0 and was almost completely destroyed in an earthquake in 1948. Since the Soviet left and Turkmenistan got their independence in 1991 the city was completely rebuilt and is until today officialy the weirdest city I have ever visited. We traveled from Turkmenabat through the...Read More
After having a pretty tight itinerary the last couple of weeks it was great to arrive in Bukhara where we would have four full days to explore and relax. Bukhara is Central Asia’s holiest city and was the capitol of the Mangit dynasty from the 16th century until the Bolsheviks came to take over. Today...Read More
After having just a couple of hours of sleep in a hotel in the Uzbek capitol Tashkent we jumped on the next train that would take us to what many will consider the main highlight of the Silk Road, namely Samarkand. The city had been captured by Alexander the Great and Ghengis Khan, but the...Read More
Almaty was the capital of Khazakstan until 1998 when it was replaced by Astana, but it is still has the reputation of being the most cosmopolitan city in Central Asia. We were there just for two days when the Khazaks were clelebrating Victory Day making it even more lively. Children were marching and singing songs...Read More
When getting off the train in Urumqi (pronounced Uru-Muchi), the capital of the Xinjang province, we felt that we were no longer in China, but in one of the Central Asian countries. This was muslim China and food, people, buildings etc were much different to what we had seen in Beijing. When asking Chinese people...Read More
Only fog, rain and wind when we were at the Great Wall I had arrived with the night train from North Korea early in the morning and was looking forward to meeting my friend Robert who would join me on a month long trip along the Silk Road. I had already seen the most important...Read More
North Korea must be one of the Worlds most expensive countries to travel to, as it is one out of just three countries in the World where tourists are required to be accompanied by a guide at all times. The other three countries being Bhutan and Turkmenistan. Itineraries can be custom made to include not...Read More
The first thing we did when going to Sinju was to make a stop by some huge bronze statues of Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il standing in front of a newly built monument. We were everyone were asked to buy flowers, bow down and place them at the feet of the...Read More
Gangnam is the business district of Seoul and is also known for having some of the Worlds best nightclubs. When the song by Psy became one of the most viewed videos on YouTube I decided that this was something that I wanted to experience. Me and my friend booked a thee day stoppver on the...Read More
