After cycling alongside the Great Wall for quite some kilometers we were ready to start ascending it. We had picked the village Gubeikou as our starting point from where we wanted to walk to the Jinshanling section. Great photos from the Great wall hike The Great wall part 1 and The Great wall part 2 Our arrival at Gubeikou [...]
'This is how we decided to travel by bicycle' is the first part of the series “This is how... by TwistingSpokes.com”. In this part we cover the process of deciding to travel by bicycle and how we got to the point of departure. If you have been following us from the start you already would know some [...]
We have now cycled more than 19000 kilometers and we now feel it is time to share "This is how" we do this. 'This is how...' by TwistingSpokes.com will consist of several subjects on the aspects of bicycle touring, traveling and living on the road as you can see below. We will try to publish a new subject [...]
We took a day to settle back in to China, enjoy Chinese food and the bustling streets of Erenhot. This is a city in Inner Mongolia an autonomous region in China, also called Ereen or Erlian, where Susanne had been before on her way to Ulaanbaatar. Enjoy the photos Erenhot, the Chinese Gobi and The road to Gubeikou There [...]
It was hard to leave Ulaanbaatar. Our winter break had been good in many ways. We had created a nice social life, gotten to know quite a few really nice people, established bonds with Mongolians and with projects going on in Ulaanbaatar. But it was time to go and we were cycling the Gobi, a desert with surprises! Our goals [...]
We have gotten to know the city of Ulaanbaatar reasonably well because Susanne stayed here more than two months and Martin almost six weeks. It is a city of contrast. We both felt very comfortable in Ulaanbaatar. Maybe even too comfortable. For us it was the first city in a long time where everything was available although [...]
After knowing that Martin and I would split up for a while (because he was cycling through Mongolia) I started looking into what I could be doing. First my eyes were set in southern China, but soon I decided that I wanted to go to Mongolia after all and spend my time there. I was looking at [...]
In Mongolia there are two major traditional holidays. One is in summer and is called Naadam, the other is in winter and is called Tsagaan Sar or white moon. Tsagaan Sar is the celebration of the Lunar New Year, following the same calendar as the Chinese New Year. The photos of this special celebration can be found [...]
Reading about this massive lake in Siberia called lake Baikal made me wonder. After having stayed in Ulaanbaaatar for a few weeks I decided that I was too close to the lake Baikal and I had to go there. See the great photos of the frozen Baikal here A journey to Lake Baikal The journey from Ulaanbaatar to [...]
In Altai I had time to think and decided on a change of plans. I now was planning to follow the south route to Ulaanbaatar. The original plan was to cycle north from Altai to Uliastai. Due to being in the winter of Mongolia I decided on the easier and shorter southern route Altai, Bayankhongor, Arvaikheer, Lun, [...]