Leg 6 – Back to Asia

Leg 6 – Back to Asia (+/- 7000 km)

Countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar?, Thailand?, Lao? and Vietnam?

If you have read my route plans for the other legs of my cycle through South East Asia, Oceania, South America, Europe and the Middle East  you will know that there are a fair few unknown variables that I won’t be able to factor into my routing until I actually arrive in each of the continents.  This means that at this stage it is hard to predict exactly how much of my 12 month time frame will be left by the time I get to India to start the final leg of my world cycle.

The interactive map below outlines the provisional route that I plan to take for the final leg of this cycle. The original idea when I set about planning the cycle route was that I would start and finish my cycle in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  I will still set out with this aim but if time is against me I would rather spend the last couple of months just exploring northern India and Nepal, rather than killing myself to get all the way back to Vietnam.

Please click on the map symbols for more detail about the final leg of my cycle, and zoom in for a closer view of the route that I plan to cycle. (the initial map load time may be slow depending on your internet connection)

Zoom in on the map for a closer view of my route

One of the things that I have loved about the research that I have completed in the route planning stage of this cycle ride are the amazing random facts that I have unearthed about individual areas.  For example, outside of Africa the only place that you can still find Lions ‘roaming wild‘ in their natural habitat is apparently in the state of Gujarat, in western India

My plan is to start this leg by fling into Gujarat in India, and then head north through Rajasthan with the ultimate destination being the most northerly state of Jammu and Kashmir.  Although political tensions in this area remain high, with a reported half a million Indian troops garrisoned in the state, there has been an overall decline in violence in the area in recent years and an increase in the numbers of Indian and western tourists.

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Once I have visited Kashmir I will loop back and cross the border with Nepal; this is where the training sessions in the mountains of northern India should pay dividends. I spent a couple of months cycling in Nepal in the late 1990’s and it is a hard hard slog but so rewarding.  My arrival here coincides with the start of the monsoon season and travel in the mountains can be both dangerous and difficult due to the many landslides that the rains cause.  If the normal weather patterns hold in the region the rains should not arrive in full force until June by which time I should have already exited Nepal.

From Nepal, ideally I will be able to drop down into Bangladesh. However, if I miss the monsoon rains in Nepal then they will definitely catch up with me in Bangladesh.  As the majority of the country lies on a broad deltaic plain I will have to wait and see if it is feasible to cross overland as each year many of the bridges and transport infrastructure gets washed away. If necessary, I will stay in India after Nepal and continue west to reach Myanmar.

In 2014, my wife and I spent Christmas and New Year in Myanmar. Although, the central areas of the country are open to tourists much of the northern areas seem to still be off limits to foreigners. It will be interesting to see whether this changes given the recent national elections which saw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy take the majority of the parliamentary seats; although she was prohibited from becoming the President of the country, due to her late husband and children being foreign citizens, she assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role akin to the Prime Minister.  Perhaps in the future more of the country may become accessible to foreigners and I should be able to cycle to the eastern border with Laos. If not, then I will head south into Thailand. From Thailand, it will be a quick sprint back through southern Cambodia and back to Vietnam.

As for many other parts of my route I will assess the situation when I arrive and alter my plans accordingly.  If I commit to a different route I will update the route map to give an accurate overview of the route I plan to take as I cycle this leg.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my planned cycle route through India, Nepal and beyond and if it looks like I will be cycling past where you live feel free to join me for a couple of days, or if you can’t join me then the offer of a meal, a garden to pitch my tent or even a bed for the night would be amazing.

If you have any comments, tips or recommendations for places that I must visit as I cycle through this part of Asia I would love to hear from you – please leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can, or alternatively click here to email me direct! 

Finally, I intend to record my journey via blog posts, so if you would like to follow my journey as I cycle around the world add your email address to the form at the foot of this page to receive automatic updates.

Hopefully, I may see you somewhere on the road.