Not very nice news coming from Northern Pakistan. We’ll probably stop biking in Gilgit and avoid going through the Chilas region.

2. Getting There | No Comments »

After a long search, we have found the best flight combination. Our plan is to fly to the Xinjiang’s region in western China, bike to Pakistan and, if we make it, to fly out from Pakistan. We’ll start in Helsinki by catching the train to St. Petersburg, Russia. It’s one of my favourite city, so we’ll spend the weekend there. On Monday evening, we’ll take the overnight flight to Novosibirsk with Siberian Airlines and then we’ll fly straight to Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang’s region. There, we’ll probably spend one night and buy the mountain bikes. Urumqi is a pretty big city that should offer a decent choice of bicycles. From Urumqi, we’ll take the overnight train (22h) to Kashgar. We’ll spend a couple of days in Kashgar to visit the city, buy the food and get ready for biking. We plan to bike from Kashgar till Gilgit (about 700km) and then,if we still have some stength and time, we’ll try to bike till Islamabad. Otherwise, we’ll catch a bus to Islamabad and then to Lahore. From Lahore, we’ll fly to back Stockholm with SweFly where we’ll catch the overnight partying cruise Viking Line to Helisnki. All the flights are changeable and refundable, so we can always modify the trip if we get stuck somewhere.

1. Planning | No Comments »