this is a little help for english speakers that want to contact me.
as my blog is made on a french site, the contact form is in french.
so here is the translation of the names of the fields you will have to fill:
easy no?
so now click on this link to contact me!
(do not fill the form on this page! this is only an exemple)
it was already night when i got into kyrghizstan
as i didn't know where to sleep
i went in a international truck parking to put my tent
but there i met a man that proposed me to eat and sleep at his home
this is his son's neighbour and his house
mountain near osh,
the biggest kyrghiz city at the end of the fergana valley
40 km after osh begins the valley that leads to chiyirchik pass
they are renovating the road
and more than half of it is a track, mostly not stabilised
samples of kyrghiz textile design
-actually bed covers drying along the road-
when i saw these snowed mountains
i was afraid that it was already to late to pass the mountains with my bicycle
-actually it was!-
and i worried where would i sleep the next days
chiyirchik pass (2406 m)
after the pass the road is a long slope down to gulcho's valley
there was already no sun so going down has been very cold
as i couldn't find a good place to put my tent
-even a flat one-
i just put it near the road
no problems at all, despite the noise of traffic
the valley after gulcho
i had a flat tire
and as usual it was just before sunset...
so i had to camp along the road again
marvelous panorama but it was quite cold there
the third photo shows the ice inside my tent fly in the morning
children that came to watch me near my camp site
the mountains that close the valley of gulcho
i would stop a few kilometers after taking this photo
and hitchhike a truck that would take me to sary tash and irkeshtam
the road to the taldyk pass (3619 m)
there was snow on the road on this huge slope up
so even if i did it with my bicycle i would have had to push it...
and even pushing it snow is very slippery
sary tash and the pamir mountains, more than 7.000 meters high in the background
after sleeping in a little hotel in irkeshtam
i continued to china on my bike
this is the road that crosses the no-man's land
before china's border
(a very good road, probably made by chinese)
just after the turkmen-uzbek border
bukara
it is a nice little city
with many ancient buildings
surrounded by old traditional houses
near the mosques and madrassas
there is a bazar for tourists
i bought there a chapka in karakul
and two other traditional hats
(karakul is uzbek name for astrakan: the curly fur of baby sheeps
3 of them are used for this hat: i'm really a monster!)
sometimes it was very windy
i got protected of wind behind tractors carrying coton!
coton is grown everywhere in uzbekistan
which is the second world producer after the USA
left: people recolting coton
right: a coton factory with huge stacks of coton
in uzbekistan there are many bus stops along the road
some have shops inside them
this one is a butcher-bus stop!
registan place in samarkand
mausoleum of gur emir, amir temur and some others in samarkand ...
taskent, the capital is a big city created in 1938
there are mainly huge sovietic buildings and big banks
many nice parks also but nothing really interesting to do...
i have shared my hotel room with another olivier on bicycle
he's from barcelona, catalunya
and came in uzbekistan by plane with two other friends
to make a bicycle trip to bukara and samarkand
the hotel is very well decorated and very cheap
($8 for a bed in this double room)
but the boss thinks too much about money
and only his son speaks fair english...
buildings with huge communist paintings
in the suburbs of tashkent
a camp just after angren above the dam of its valley
the road to the end of the valley
the road that climbs to the kamchik pass
a touristic place at the end of the fergana valley
actually i didn't took any photo of the fergana valley...
it is mostly a step with som
there is petrol extraction near the kyrghiz border
this field is uzbek
that mountains are kyrghiz
je suis actuellement à Perth, en autralie de l'ouest
i am now in perth, western autralia
je cherche du travail, mais cela semble peu un difficile (pour moi particulièrement, je n'ai pas beaucoup d'expérience pour la recherche d'emploi!).
i am looking for a job here, but it seems a little difficult (for me especially, i don't have much experience in job seeking!).
ma première impression de l'australie n'est pas très bonne : trop cher (comparé à l'asie, c'est sûr!), mauvaise nourriture et il semble difficile de trouver un logement bon marché…
my first impression of australia is not very good: too expensive (compared to asia, it is sure!), bad food and a cheap accomodation seems difficult to find...
les deux premières nuits j'ai dû dormir dans l'aéroport parce que tout était plein à Perth, ou trop cher!
the first two nights i had to sleep in the airport because everything was full in perth, or not affordable!
à++
see you later!
mais pas sur mon vélo !
but not on my bike!
je suis arrivé à Bangkok… en autobus !
i arrived in bangkok... by bus!
en fait j'ai cassé ma chaîne à 300km de Bangkok alors que j'essayait de la réparer et il était impossible de faire quoi que ce soit parce qu'elle était vraiment trop vieille…
la seule chose à faire était de changer les plateaux et la cassette en même temps que la chaîne, sinon ca n'aurait pas fonctionné: une nouvelle chaîne avec de vieux plateaux et cassette craque à chaque tour de roue.
actually i broke the chain 300km fom bangkok as i was tring to repair it and it was impossible to do anything because it was really too old...
the only thing to do was to change the crankset and the cassette at the same time as the chain, if not it wouldn't have worked: a new chain with old crankset and cassette makes cracks on every turn of the wheel.
quoi qu'il en soit j'avais déjà décidé de me débarasser de mon vélo avant d'aller en australie parce que j'ai déjà trop de bagages… je ne veux pas payer $20 par kilo en trop dans les avions que je vais prendre pour aller en australie et au canada.
également je ne suis pas sûr je ferai beaucoup de vélo en australie: j'y vais d'abord pour travailler pour gagner de l'argent pour mes voyages futurs.
anyway i had already decided to throw away my bike before going to australia because i already have too much luggage...
i didn't want to pay $20 per kilo in excess on the planes i am going to take to australia and canada.
and also i am not sure i will ride much in australia: i go there first to work to make money for my future trips.
j'ai pris tout ce qui était encore valable sur ma bicyclette,
je l'ai juste laissée sur le bord de la route et j'ai pris un autobus pour bangkok…
i took everything valuable on my bicycle,
i just let it next to the road and took a bus to bangkok...
à bientôt!
see you soon!
et quand j'ai atteint bangkok, j'ai vu que j'avais bien fait de n'être pas venu a vélo : cette ville est énorme, avec beaucoup du trafic et je ne savais pas où trouver un hôtel bon marché ; je n'avais même pas de carte de la ville !
ça me fera aussi 3 jours supplémentaires pour trouver un bon dentiste avant de prendre l'avion pour perth.
and when i reached bangkok, i saw i was lucky not to be on my bike: this city is huge, with much of traffic and i didn't know where to find a cheap hotel and didn't even have a map of the city!
i will also have 3 more days to find a good dentist before i'll took the plane to perth.
si je vais au canada, j'achèterai un vélo d'occasion à vancouver afin de traverser le pays.
c'est la solution la moins chère et la plus facile.
peut-être que j'en achèterai un en australie également…
ces derniers jours je me repose dans le village de vangvieng, à 150 kilomètres au nord de vientiane.
these days i am staying in vangvieng, 150 kilometers north of vientiane.
ici on peut voir plus de "falang" (un mot dérivé de "français" signifiant "étranger" aussi bien que "français") que de lao et les menus des restaurants sont principalement à base de nourriture occidentale. je ne suis pas vraiment fan de ces villages pour backpackers, mais après de longs mois de voyage en Asie, ce sont de bonnes vacances pour moi.
here you can see more "falang" (a word derivated from the french word "français" that means "foreigner" as well as "french") than lao people and the menus of all restaurant are mainly based on occidental food.
actually i'm not really fan of theses places for backpackers, but after long months of travel through asia, it is a good rest for me.
désolé, la connexion n'est vraiment pas rapide:
une seule photo aujourd'hui!
mon repas de midi au bord de la rivière de vangvieng:
un sandwich fait avec une "vraie" baguette!
sorry but the connection speed is really slow:
i will put only one photo today!
it's my meal near the river in vangvieng:
a sandwich made with a "real" french baguette!
j'ai obtenu sur internet mon billet pour aller à perth en australie depuis bangkok pour le 7 février 2008.
je veux aussi aller voir le dentiste à cause d'une ceramique qui est partie en chine et aussi de quelques caries.
je ferai tout ca pour un bon prix avant d'aller en australie.
i got my flight ticket on the internet to go to perth in australia from bangkok on the 7th of february 2008.
i also want to have dental care in bangkok because i have lost a piece of ceramic and i also have some decayed teeth so i will do this for a good price before going to australia.
à la prochaine! de bangkok sûrement...
see you later! from bangkok surely...
je suis arrivé au laos le 27 décembre.
j'étais vraiment heureux de sortir de chine car je devenais cinglé à cause des klaxons des camions et de la pollution…
i arrived in laos on the 27th of december.
i was really glad to get out of china because there i got mad with the horns of the trucks and the pollution...
le laos est vraiment un joli pays, quelque peu accidenté et certaines portions de route sont des pistes caillouteuses mais c'est de toutes façons mieux qu'en chine!
laos is really a nice country, somewhat hilly and some parts of the roads are only dirt tracks but anyway it's better tahn china!
en ce moment je suis à oudomxay, 160 kilomètres au nord de luang-prabang.
j'ai été invité par un jeune moine à me reposer dans son temple et il m'a aidé à nettoyer et réparer ma bicyclette qui en avait vraiment besoin!
now i'm in oudomxay, 160 km north of luang prabang.
i was invited by a young monk to rest in his temple and there he helped me to clean and repair my bicycle that was really needing this!
je partirai demain pour luang-prabang et vientiane.
i'll leave tomorow for luang prabang and vientiane
je n'ai pas beaucoup de temps pour mettre des photos et la connexion n'est pas très bonne, alors je verai plus tard (encore !)
i don't have much time to put photos and connection is not very good, so i'll do this later (again!)
à bientôt, certainement de thaïlande.
see you later, certainly from thailand.
