The Big Trip
I’m finally writing about a trip that has been in the planning for the last 6 months or so. We finally have things in a form that should be somewhat close to what will happen so I’m ready to share it with you.
The trip began as a harebrained idea to drive motorcycles From Indonesia to London. Amazingly this can technically be done with only one short ferry crossing from Sumatra to Malaysia and using the Chunnel between England and France. The rest is all land. However, as we started to plan, the length of time and difficulty of driving motorcycles, not to mention the cost, made us decide to backpack the trip instead. We also wanted to shorten the trip a bit and so cut out lots of country. We originally were hoping to go to Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and much of Europe but decided not to.
So, the plan is to backpack from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Moscow, Russia in about 3 months, exploring China and Central Asia in the process. A friend named Stephen and I will be doing the trip together and will hopefully set out on the 9th of September. We’ll be taking trains, busses, taxis and whatever else is willing to carry us in order to get there. Some of the countries are pretty far off the beaten track for tourists but none are having wars or uprisings right now so it should be pretty safe.
We can really use your help. If you know of anyone along our route who would be willing to host us for a couple of nights or to show us around, we would really appreciate their contact information, especially e-mail addresses. We’ll be bringing camping gear in case we get stuck out in the wilderness and hope not to use too many hotels along the way.
Here is the basic itinerary of the trip:
Please note that these dates are approximates and we plan on traveling to smaller destinations along the way as well that may not be on the map so if you know of anyone close to these places, let us know as well.
Medan, Indonesia Sept 9 - Sept 10
Penang, Malaysia Sept 10 - Sept 11
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Sept 11 - Sept 13
Krabi, Thailand Sept 13 - Sept 16
Bangkok, Thailand Sept 17 - Sept 20
Chiang Rai, Thailand Sept 21 - Sept 23
Vientianne, Laos Sept 24 - Sept 26
LouangPhrabang, Laos Sept 26 - Sept 27
Kunming, China Sept 29 - Oct 2
Chengdu, China Oct 3 - Oct 6
Lhasa, China Oct 8 - Oct 11
Golmud, China Oct 12 - Oct 13
Urumqi, China Oct 15 - Oct 16
Kashgar, China Oct 17 - Oct 19
Jalalabad (Osh), Kyrgyz Oct 21 - Oct 23
Tashkent, Uzbekistan Oct 24 - Oct 28
Dushanbe, Tajikistan Oct 29 - Nov 2
Khorog, Tajikistan Nov 3 - Nov 3
Jalalabad (Osh), Kyrgyz Nov 7 - Nov 8
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Nov 9 - Nov 13
Almaty, Kazakhstan Nov 13 - Nov 15
Moscow, Russia Nov 19 - Nov 24
St. Petersburg, Russia Nov 25 - Nov 28
Return to US Early December
The trip began as a harebrained idea to drive motorcycles From Indonesia to London. Amazingly this can technically be done with only one short ferry crossing from Sumatra to Malaysia and using the Chunnel between England and France. The rest is all land. However, as we started to plan, the length of time and difficulty of driving motorcycles, not to mention the cost, made us decide to backpack the trip instead. We also wanted to shorten the trip a bit and so cut out lots of country. We originally were hoping to go to Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and much of Europe but decided not to.
So, the plan is to backpack from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Moscow, Russia in about 3 months, exploring China and Central Asia in the process. A friend named Stephen and I will be doing the trip together and will hopefully set out on the 9th of September. We’ll be taking trains, busses, taxis and whatever else is willing to carry us in order to get there. Some of the countries are pretty far off the beaten track for tourists but none are having wars or uprisings right now so it should be pretty safe.
We can really use your help. If you know of anyone along our route who would be willing to host us for a couple of nights or to show us around, we would really appreciate their contact information, especially e-mail addresses. We’ll be bringing camping gear in case we get stuck out in the wilderness and hope not to use too many hotels along the way.
Here is the basic itinerary of the trip:
Please note that these dates are approximates and we plan on traveling to smaller destinations along the way as well that may not be on the map so if you know of anyone close to these places, let us know as well.
Medan, Indonesia Sept 9 - Sept 10
Penang, Malaysia Sept 10 - Sept 11
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Sept 11 - Sept 13
Krabi, Thailand Sept 13 - Sept 16
Bangkok, Thailand Sept 17 - Sept 20
Chiang Rai, Thailand Sept 21 - Sept 23
Vientianne, Laos Sept 24 - Sept 26
LouangPhrabang, Laos Sept 26 - Sept 27
Kunming, China Sept 29 - Oct 2
Chengdu, China Oct 3 - Oct 6
Lhasa, China Oct 8 - Oct 11
Golmud, China Oct 12 - Oct 13
Urumqi, China Oct 15 - Oct 16
Kashgar, China Oct 17 - Oct 19
Jalalabad (Osh), Kyrgyz Oct 21 - Oct 23
Tashkent, Uzbekistan Oct 24 - Oct 28
Dushanbe, Tajikistan Oct 29 - Nov 2
Khorog, Tajikistan Nov 3 - Nov 3
Jalalabad (Osh), Kyrgyz Nov 7 - Nov 8
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Nov 9 - Nov 13
Almaty, Kazakhstan Nov 13 - Nov 15
Moscow, Russia Nov 19 - Nov 24
St. Petersburg, Russia Nov 25 - Nov 28
Return to US Early December
posted by Randall Knutson at
9:59 AM
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