Overland to India

So it goes something like this.

We are off up north. To the land of the midnight sun. Via Newcastle. In transit east. The objective is to stay on terra firma for the duration, hence no flying. An activity that I love so much.

And so from Newcastle to Scandanavia. Gothenberg, Stockholm and Helsinki.

Cutting down through St. Petersberg we will hit Moscow, where we'll jump on a train heading towards the rising sun. Trans Siberian/ Trans Mongolian, east all the way. Possibly stopping off in Siberia, (looking to Maria for addresses), we'll hit Mongolia a few days later. Heading out of Ulan Bator to tread in the footsteps of Genghis Khan, horseback on the Mongolian steppe, into the Gobi desert.... before jumping on board the train again to find the Great wall, Tianamen Square and the sensory assault of China. Beijing.

Got to find a telly to watch the World Cup.

South. South we will go into Vietnam, through Hanoi down to Saigon then skipping across into Cambodia to Phnom Penh and Ankor Wat. South East Asia may finish with a brief sojourn in Thailand before flying across to Calcutta. But given the overall objective is to remain overland we will explore the possibility of heading north again, up through Laos, along the Mekong river back in to China. The Chinese don't like tourists in that area so things may get a tad difficult- the route would take us hitching up into Tibet, to Lhasa before heading south across the Friendship highway through Nepal down into India. Hmmm. Not sure.

And Burma? Does political conscience over-weigh the tourist quest for adventure?

Whatever. We'll stay a while in India then commence the homeward leg. Heading West. And this depends upon the political situation, but our current plan is to take a boat up to Bahrain (Pakistan, sadly seems off-limits) then cross the gulf into Iran. I'm looking forward to some time there, Lindsey is not so keen, not relishing the thought of being covered head to toe in the hejab or chador. Anyway. It'll be up through Iran then across Turkey followed by a whistle stop tour through East and West Europe back home to sunny London at the beginning of next year.