Author Archives: odycycle

Our mini pink rubber ‘dice’ finally came bouncing to their resting positions both prone on their backs, tiny trotters pointed skyward. Tse Jam Tso beamed at us with swelling satisfaction. But what had he achieved? His querying grin was in … Continue reading →

As you read this post more than 11 million people are travelling the trains of China. That’s the equivalent of the entire population of Greece all rumbling along the rails at any given moment. The sheer and immense scale of … Continue reading →

Better than a flat in Hackney The land of the Kyrgyz begins, as is so often the case in these Central Asian nomadic lands, not at the swirling Kyrgyz border (drawn up by Stalin, on Acid, chanting maniacally the ubiquitous … Continue reading →

Maria’s fingers curled once more into a perfect circle, with forefinger and thumb kissing lightly and the remaining digits fanning out delicately. She repeated with even greater Castilian clarity this time her response to our duplicated question. She mouthed the … Continue reading →

A vast white wall of mountains – the very western gates of China – stare back at us now somewhat tauntingly as if to say, “are you ready for this?” And we do not know. But we are tickled with … Continue reading →

There is a saying in this part of the world, one that we suspect holds equally true in many other places – “be wary of the fat policeman”. The thinking is that the chubbier the official, the more corrupt he … Continue reading →

We start part two where we left off part one with another curious bit of ta’arof. Not content with the mundane language of “thank you” to express gratitude, Iranians smear far more colour onto their linguistic palette with the phrase, … Continue reading →

Iran should be the country that, of all the places we will or have now visited, we know best and are most informed about (or should be, at any rate) and indeed there is much – so very much – … Continue reading →

Visa hunting had admittedly left us dazed and confused. For those with knowledge of Futurama, “confused and aroused” may be more apposite, given the heady anticipation that began to swell as our goodly bikes shuttled us along the Anatolian pastures … Continue reading →

We write to you from behind closed doors. This is going to be a very short and sweet blog. We speak in hushed tones on the back row of a backstreet alleyway internet café with the nervous assistance of the … Continue reading →