Previous journey

Not all journeys I made were done by bicycle. In fact most of my journeys were with my backpack using trains, busses, cars and any other available transport as camels, tractors etc. By the end of the 1980's I was cycling all over Europe and I enjoyed it very much. I had a job and I used all my spare time to cycle around. But my friend Ivo made me fall in love with Asia. From the early 1990's I traveled around in many Asian countries. But my holidays were not enough so I quit my job in 1998 and went on the road.

A map of that year what I traveled you find here. I made many pictures and some of them are available here too. During that year I visited for the first time Pakistan. I met an English cyclist who brought back all the cycling memories I had. During the following months I started to think of cycling on my own again. Back in Holland I bought a mountain bike and started from Amsterdam a journey to north Pakistan. See again the maps for more details on that journey. It went from Holland, Belgium and France to Italy and further to Turkey and Iran finally into Pakistan. I cycled back to Turkey and flew back home.

2002

In 2002 I started in Bangkok, went to Angkor in Cambodia and cycled back to Thailand. The road I took went to the north east party of Thailand. I got problems with the bike and had to go back to Bangkok. With a friend I went again to Cambodia with public transport. Back in Bangkok I was able to fix the bike and cycled to Laos. From south to north it took me about a month.

A map shows the road I took this year. In words I cycled into China at the Mohan border in Laos. From there I went to Kunming, the capital of the province Yunnan. I took a rest and went to Yangshuo in Guangxi province. It was time for a new visa so I cycled to Hong Kong, got my visa and cycled back.

Meanwhile it was rainy season but I cycled into the province Guizhou. Due to the weather and bad road conditions I had to take a bus from Liping to Kaili and later I had a train from Huaihua to Luoyang, a former royal city. Now I cycled to Xi'an, the city of the Terracotta warriors. The route followed south west to Sichuan and ended in Chengdu. Again I needed a new visa so I took the bus to Guilin and cycled to Yangshuo were I left my bike and took a bus to Hong Kong.

Back in Yangshuo I had a bus to Chengdu. After a great loop in West Sichuan I cycled south to Yunnan. My route now followed a different road again to Yangshuo to celebrate Christmas and New Years Eve. So at the end of the year 2002 I was back in the town of Yangshuo after 14000 kilometers cycling. What happens next year will be explained later

2003

The year started with a wedding in Yangshuo. After that event I cycled in the direction of Nanning but I was forced due to circumstances to get back to Yangshuo.