We finnaly made it to Kashgar. Actually, much faster that expected. It’s a pity that in Novosibirsk we lost gprs coverage and here in Kashgar we are not even able to roam in the local gsm network. So, for sometime no more photos. Just a quick update.
Yesterday we flew from Novosibirsk to Urumqi. We arrived in the afternoon at 4 o’clock. During the flight we played with the idea of quickly buying the bikes and flying immediatelly to Kashgar. Just after landed we went straight to the Giant shop in Urumqi. We tried a couple of models and at the end we asked the seller to prepare a couple of customized bikes for us. He told us: in two hours they are ready. Wonderful. This can happen only in China. When we came back at 8pm the bikes were almost ready. Two brand new mountain bikes with Giant frame, Shimano gears, disc brakes, backsit and spare parts. Everything costed a quarter of what we would have paid back in Finland. Our flight was at 23:10. After finishing assembling the bikes, we asked the seller to disassable them againg and to pack them in the orginial boxes. It was almost a race against time but the seller was really experienced!! At 10pm we were on two different taxis running to the airport. We got there some 40 minutes before the flight. We bought a ticket, we made an ultra late check-in with excess luggage and at the end we boarded on time. When we were on the plane we couldn’t believe that we made it.
Today we spent the day in Kashgar trying the bikes and relaxing a bit. Funny, Simone got a puncture after 8 kilometers of biking. This is really promising 
Tomorrow early in the morning we’ll start the long trip. No posts for sometime. Probably till when we are in Gilgit.
WOW guys, it’s going to be a pity in the next days without your posts! They were the vacation that I didn’t have the possibility to take!
Well, if you will have the possibility to read this one, it will mean everything went well!
I really hope Simone will resist the temptation to have an exotic “adventure” in the middle of the Himalaya. After the post from Adri I’m a little bit afraid!
BTW… yuo both LAISETs, good luck!
Waiting for the next update…
Left by fabio on August 31st, 2005
Good luck guys.
Hope the only “punctures” Simone suffers are on his tires.
Left by Neven on September 6th, 2005
let’s see the original plan:
Day 1 - Urumqi
Day 2 - Urumqi (15:51)-> (overnight train)
Day 3 - -> Kashgar (14:49)
Day 4 - Kashgar -> Ghez (120 km)
Day 5 - Ghez -> Karakul lake (70 km)
Day 6 - Karakul lake
Day 7 - Karakul lake -> Tashkurgan (100km)
Day 8 - Tashkurgan -> Khunjerab pass (140km) (by bus)
Day 9 - Khunjerab pass -> Sost (85 km)
Day 10 - Sost -> Passu (40 km)
Day 11 - Passu -> Karimabad (50 km)
Day 12 - Karimabad -> Gilgit (100 km)
Day 13 - Gilgit (saving day)
Day 14 - Fairy Meadows trek (on foot)
Day 15 - Gilgit -> Islamabad (by bus)
Day 16 - Islamabd -> Lahore (by bus)
Day 17 - Lahore (9:00) -> Stockholm (13:45) (by plane)
If I correctly understood you gained a day but nevertheless today you should be already back to Stockholm.
It is true that Laisets never perfectly follow any plan… but Israel is getting quiet worry… so move your punctured ass and tell us “AKOL BESEDER!”.
Left by fabio on September 15th, 2005
Some fresh news to the Internet community that is anxiously following the Laisets’ adventures.
- The Nokia mobiles got broken the first day and this is the reason they didn’t have the possibility to update anymore the internet site.
- Simone got punctured the day #2 in his sacred hole by a Bin Laden fan.
- He liked it a lot (as we were all expected) and tried all the vacation to convince Claudio doing the same (we don’t know if Claudio accepted… waiting for his update).
- Simone tried to ride the bicycle up to the first slope (not more then 10Km) but he immediately understood that his lungs didn’t have the possibility to help him. He bartered his ass again for a ride and a pack of sigarettes.
- He met Claudio on the top. They tried to do some pics with the brand new mobiles… but they decided to switch to the digital camara. The definition was much better.
- Once they arrived to Islamabad the sadness started to “puncture” them. They spent the whole night with the truck drivers they met on the way… unforgattable!
- The day in Islamabad has been dedicated to try to meet tourists and stole as much stories as possible. They will have soon to come back to the real life and tell something to the friends.
- They are still fighting on that… that’s the reason they didn’t update yet the internet site. Simone fell in love with the Islamabad’s mulla and wants to scream it all around, Claudio (for sure the wiser) is trying to convince him he cannot… and they will have to invent about tens of gorgeous australian girls that on the KKH were waiting naked the 2 most excited Italian man of the world…
we will see who will win… soon… on this internet site.
Left by fabio on September 18th, 2005