For nearly half a year we are three biketravelers now. We did not mention our new travel companion until today for some reasons: We cannot write about his identity. Neither about name nor about his or her gender we can speak. When we talk of “him” - the biketraveler - in the future, to make it easier for us, it should not indicate if the person is male or female.

No travel story from us since a long time and also now only a short overview over the last few travel months.

… can we - covered in a cloud of fumes - read dozens of times on our way from Lahore to Islamabad on advertising boards, but only as long as we don’t have to close our tearing eyes because of the hot wind which blasts dust in our eyes. But the merciless sun already burned this slogan successfully in our sun-baked brains anyway. Great that I wear a scarf - otherwise my overheated brain might think that because of the traffic we are still in India.

Until we entered Tibet our hands and feet were much more useful to talk with than our mouth. Only a few locals could speak more than two sentences in English and we sometimes did not meet other travelers for months. Next to the fact that I am quite lazy to do anything which even just remotely reminds me of my really frustratingly boring schooldays - and writing texts (especially English ones) will definitely remind me - the “Hands and Feet Language” is the main excuse that there are just four entries in our English diary section after more than three years “on the road”.

During our travels we saw great things. But we also encountered many people who were suffering. It was (and is still) really shocking for us under which circumstances some of the really poor people have to live.

What makes us sad is that in most cases it would not need much to improve the living standard of these people but nobody gives them the support to help themselves. Maybe because there are so many in need.

We’ve now left the coastal area of China’s east coast, after a wonderful stay with Urs in the city of Xiamen - he’s not only a keen cyclist, but he’s also a walking encyclopedia on the best places to eat in Xiamen. We had an interesting bike tour to KoYis Pomelo farm with Urs, and then heading on our way.

After an awesome stay with Sergey and Xenia in Ulan Ude and a bad adventure at the most important Russian Buddhist monastery nearby (which is our first encounter with Buddhism and therefore we are very disappointed) we leave Russia at the end of February 2006 because our visa expire soon.

“Only three months per year are cold in Siberia”, a Siberian man told us.
As he saw the disbelief in our faces he added with a grin: “The other nine months are VERY cold”.

Most of our new friends who we learned to know during the journey speak English, so we decided to start an English section of our homepage, too. Because of lack of time during our travels (we don’t have a laptop with us and only visit the Internetcafes on the way) only some parts - especially the diary section - will be in English, but we promise that after the journey we will write additional information to help other biketravelers. If somebody has prior questions we are glad to receive your emails and will answer them as good and soon as we can.