Blue sky, bright sunshine and I gave my brother a “free ride” from the airport to the old quarter of Hanoi. Shortly before his arrival I ended up in a discussion with the police who wanted me to leave the public parking area at the airport. Motorcycles are supposedly not allowed here and they just asked me to go back to the city. No way!
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The north offers spectacular scenery, often characterized by its paddy fields carpeting the rolling slopes of the mountains. I stayed the first night in Dien Bien near the border and spent the next day traveling north to Sa Pa. August is one of the very rainy months in the monsoon season and it came to no surprise that heavy rainfalls left its marks on the road.
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It has been silent for weeks now, without any updates on this blog but there were good reasons… Sometimes the blink of an eye is enough and the world around you appears in a different light. On July 9, in the Chinese province of Sichuan several tragic events occurred, all more or less at the same time
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The Pamir Highway from Khorog to Osh was built by Soviet military engineers between 1931 and 1934, in order to facilitate troops, transport and provisioning to this very remote outpost of the Soviet empire. Being a major drug-smuggling artery, the road has several border-guard checkpoints, where you will have to register. Our path led more than 500 kilometers along the Afghan border.
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There was only one thing on my way to Dushanbe that bothered me. It was a little passage but I was pretty much concerned about it and it mentally preoccupied my mind for days. I had heard of this section long before I started my journey.
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In Bukhara and Samarkand I used the early morning hours at sunrise to explore the deserted streets and squares before the tourist life took its usual course. There are once again the big architectural masterpieces, which refer to power and glory of past empires, often built by unspeakable violence and excessive urge to rule.
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Although I had four days left to cross Turkmenistan, it only took me 48 hours to get through the country and to exit it towards Uzbekistan. One might ask why such a hurry …
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Esfahan, with it’s tree-lined boulevards, Persian Garden and a number of important Islamic buildings makes it probably the most beautiful city in Iran. My favorite place was the Naqsh-e Jahan Square. In the afternoon, the place was quite empty but in the evening and especially on weekends it gets crowded with people who pick nick, walk around or simply enjoy the atmosphere of this amazing spot in town.
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