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The
Oriental Caravan's Tokyo to London September 2007
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the route |
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| Early morning Osaka, Japan | Amazing hospitality, Korea | Busan, Korea | ||||
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En route from Busan to Seoul - the first (and last!) sign
that we were actually on the Asian Highway Asian Highway map |
Iranian cargo ship at Tanggu docks, China | Car marques to Karl Marx? Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Square, Beijijng | ||||
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| Happy man | Some of the going in China got rough... | Uighur girl, Urumqi |
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| Somewhere along the Gansu corridor | Cyclist, Hami |
Arrival in Zhengzhou |
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| Young boy, Hami | Commuting home, Hami | Young man, Zhangye |
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| Road-side stop, near Xian | Chinese settler in Urumqi, | Traffic jam, near Xian |
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| Girl, Zhangye | Happy man in situ | Passing through the Great Wall of China, Gansu |
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| Chinese chess, Zhangye | Camouflaged cyclist, Hami | Kazakh yurts near Lake Sairam, |
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| Sunset precedes a hellish night time drive to Almaty, Kazakhstan | Uzbeki driver, Uzbekistan | The road to Samarqand... |
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| Registan Square, Samarqand | Samarqand | Courtyard of Kalan Mosque, Bukhara |
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| Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar in Merv (Mary) - once the largest city in the world, Turkmenistan | Merv | Negotiating bovine traffic, Merv |
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| Bizarre architecture in a bizarre city, Ashgabat. | One of many gold statues of megalomaniac Sapurat Niyazov (aka Turkmenbashi), recently deceased President of Turkmenistan. Learn more... | A giant 'book' statue of Niyazov's strange political testament, the Rukhnama, Compulsory, though not exactly compulsive, reading for Turkmenis the book opens up periodically to play a video of the ex-President's life. Study of the book comprises a third of the country's education system. Available to read online here... |
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| The Niyazov Olympic Stadium awaiting the day... | Niyazov's successor - Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov | Changing money on the black market, Ashgabat |
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| Phil's birthday celebrated in Ashgabat | Beautiful baby poster, 'Russian Bazaar', Ashgabat | Camel's pose one of the main road hazards in Turkmenistan - particularly after sunset when they lie down on the still warm tarmac to sleep |
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| Car and tractor | Guitar at sunrise, awaiting the Caspian ferry at Turkmenbashi port | After a long, dusty night sleeping under a car cover in a flowerbed we finally board the ferry, which also takes oil freight trains |
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| Caspian water snake | On board the ferry across the caspian | Sunset over the Caspian |
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| Azerbaijan's former President Heydar Aliyev with de rigueur dictator's moustache. Now succeeded by his son, Ilham. | Azeri pastures | Old houses, Tbilisi, Georgia | |
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| Tobacco drying, Samsun | Down on the duck farm with some muck-spreading friends in Samsun | Turkey's beautiful Black Sea coast | |
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| Tower block, Belgrade, Serbia | Presque la... France | Bulletin board, Ivanic Grad, Croatia | |
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| Roads already travelled... Our arrival in Paris coincided, coincidentally, with the arrival of the 2007 Peking to Paris Vintage Car Rally almost 10 years to the day since Phil's participation in the same event | About to board the ferry across the Channnel. | Time for a quick cup of tea with LIz. And then home... | |
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That's all for now. |
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Japan - the Land of the Rising Sun Japan - in the Footsteps of Pilgrims |
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