Overland from Shanghai to Cape Town
Our second journey comes after three years in Shanghai, where we learned to speak Mandarin Chinese well enough to conduct an interview, muddle through a business meeting and reveal the mysteries of a Chinese menu. It starts with a detour, back to India. After three months on the subcontinent, we fly from Calcutta to Bangkok, beginning a loop through Southeast Asia back to China, which we’ll enter through Vietnam. A zig through southern China and a zag through the north will put us on the Silk Route, which we’ll follow to Syria’s Mediterranean shore.
Our route then stretches due south, continuing through the Middle East to Africa’s east coast, which we’ll travel down as as far as Dar es Salaam. We’ll ride the Tazara Railway into Zambia, cross into Zimbabwe at the Victoria Falls and eventually enter South Africa across the grey-green and greasy water of the Limpopo River. We aren’t yet sure what route we’ll follow through South Africa, but by the last day of 2012 we’d like to be in Cape Town, preferably at Iain’s mother’s cottage near the beach, just a few kilometres from Africa’s southern tip, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet.
Itinerary
16 January 2011 – India
- Mumbai
- Gokarna, Karnataka (Photos)
- Murudeshwar, Karnataka (Photos)
- Trivandrum, Kerala (Photos)
- Sivananda Ashram, Neyyar Dam, Kerala
- Mumbai
- Jamnagar, Gujarat
- Ahmedabad, Gujarat
- Delhi
- Agra, Uttar Pradesh (Photos)
- Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh (Photos)
- Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (Photos)
- Calcutta, West Bengal
4 April 2011 – Southeast Asia
Thailand
Laos
- Vientiane
- Vang Vieng
- Luang Prabang
- Trek near Luang Prabang
Thailand
- Chiang Saen
- Mae Salong
- Chiang Mai
- Bangkok
- Koh Mak
Cambodia
- Chi Phat
- Phnom Penh
- Battambang
- Siem Reap
- Phnom Penh
Vietnam
- Chau Doc
- Ho Chi Minh City
- Hue
- Hanoi
- Lao Cai
China: Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Hunan, Jianxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Beijing, Shanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang
Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran
Middle East and North Africa: Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt
East and Southern Africa: Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa
