Part 1 route

I'm the first to admit that my chosen route is somewhat ambitious. But I think it is still completely doable.

View planned route 2012 in a larger map

I'm trying to get out of Europe as quickly as possible, only because Europe is really close and really expensive. I would rather save my time and money for places much more difficult to reach.So first to Italy, then a ferry to Greece. Through Turkey to Iran and north through Central Asia. I will follow parts of the Silk Road, through the Pamir mountains up into Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia. From Russia I will get the ferry to Japan.Eventually I will end up in Tokyo, probably, and from there fly to Bangkok (China is too expensive). After a little circuit around Thailand, Cambodia and Laos I will finish in Malaysia. From KL I will just ship or fly the bike home.

For this to make sense I should probably explain where I have come from.About 12 years ago I had the opportunity to go to Japan on a school trip. I remember having an amazing time there, but being slightly disappointed that we didn't get to see very much of the country. I returned home thinking I wanted to go back properly some day.A few years later, in my last year at school some friends and I started talking about doing a 3-6 month road trip across America. It was never very serious, and although the idea of long term travel was put to one side for university, it never really left me.By the end of my university course I had started riding bikes and decided I wanted to go back to Japan. I was going to work for a year or two, save some money then fly to Japan, rent a bike and ride around for a couple months. This never really happened due to discovering that the Alps are very close.In 2010 I realised that if I didn't do my travelling now then I probably never would. So I started planning a 3 month trip around the coast of the mediterranean for early 2011. Unfortunately, all the countries I was planning on going to overthrew their governments as soon as they heard I was coming.At the start of 2012 I went to Kuala Lumpur for 3 months with work. I came back resolved that I was going to do my adventures right now, and that it was going to be across Asia to Japan. At work we were able to arrange things so that I would return to work in Kuala Lumpur and that I would have 6 months holiday to ride there. And so the route was born.