Epilogue

September 2008. Bicycle tours are always more fascinating if you look at them from a distance of few months. Well rested, well fed, the travelers diarrhea receding, the (slightly touched-up) photos look much better than at the time you took them, re-thinking the good and the bad moments from the adventure-less present, it all seems so attractive, you seem to enjoy your tour much more now than at the time when it was happening.
When I look at the picture of asphalt strip running in the middle of stunningly colored hills of high Pamir, or the dramatic road cut into the Indus canyon, I feel the urge to jump up and get back there again. I forget that at the time when I took the photograph I hated every meter of a gravel road, I was fed up with cycling, with dirt and sweat, with kids stalking me at every village, with answering over and over again the same six uninteligent questions.
This was "le tour fatale", after all: fatal for the future trips. At the day 34, the last cycling day, I was sure I'd never come back to 'developing' world, to dirt roads and to places where you can't cycle through the village without being attraction to every man, woman, child and dog. I was sure that my dream of completing the RTW tour one day was ridiculous illusion - it would be impossible for me to go over such things day after day. I am in envy of the ones who can take that. But now, just over one month later, I start to dream of a big tour again.
So, which is the real tour: the one you cycled or the one with the after-the-act make-up? And being fair to the audience - or to yourself - to give the picture to those who are planning something similar: which story would you tell?

3 comments:

Noelfy said...

Wow! Really nice tour!!
I am now in kyrgyzstan and I find you randomly!

Hayden said...

Great read, thanks for taking the time to write up your tour. I'm just about to move onto the next one!

Bryce said...

Great read. Thanks for your report. Very interesting. I respect that you didn't tell the unrealistically optimistic version. I will do this tour in the coming months. Thanks for keeping your site going. I've been reading your thoughts for a few years and I always keep coming back. Please post more updates.