Route

Southeast Asia

After shipping Phil to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, we trace a path past Angkor Wat before crossing into Laos, where the road follows the Mekong up through Luang Prabang and into the mountains of the north.

We’ll swing into Thailand, exploring the northern cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, before turning north toward the Chinese border.

China

Crossing the border from Laos, our route through China takes us through the rice fields of Yunnan Province, through Tiger Leaping Gorge to Shangri La. We’ll head to the panda capital of Chengdu, before experiencing the modern metropolis of Chongqing, where we’ll pick up the last member of the team, our camper.

After visiting the famous Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, we head north through the Gobi Desert, before visiting the western end of the Great Wall..

Central Asia

Crossing from China at Khorgos, we cut across the steppe of Kazakhstan to Almaty, then drop south into Kyrgyzstan, past Issyk-Kul and through Bishkek.

The real test is Tajikistan, where the route climbs onto the Pamir Highway — one of the highest roads in the world, and about to become one of the hardest miles of the entire trip.

The Silk Road

Uzbekistan is the Silk Road on repeat — Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva — each one a reason the old trade routes went this way in the first place.

Turkmenistan is stranger: Ashgabat’s marble skyline, the Karakum Desert, and the Darvaza gas crater burning in the middle of it, before Phil goes on a ferry at Turkmenbashi for the crossing to Azerbaijan.

The Caucasus

Off the ferry into Baku, then west through Azerbaijan into Georgia, where Tbilisi’s old town and Kakheti’s wine country make a strong case for staying longer than planned.

From there it’s into Turkey, the last big country before the roads start looking properly European.