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Well I finally find myself aboard my rusting cargo ship crossing the Caspian Sea, and to be perfectly honest, it’s all gone worryingly smoothly – in context that is. I mean it certainly isn’t like crossing the channel on a Stena line ferry. I had heard many horror stories with regards to this journey which have had me on edge for quite some time. For instance, as it’s not a regular passenger ship and it leaves only when its full, I have heard of some people having to wait up

The border was fairly straight forward. It was pretty empty to be honest with only soldiers walking around with, well not much else to do. We had to wait for half an hour at the Azeri side for some reason where the soldiers were asking all sorts of questions. Luckily for me, Furkan can understand Azeri and so I could just sit back and relax safe in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be needing hand signals for the following five days. As was the norm, I was asked where I was from

I received my visa! I crossed the border! I arrived in bloody Baku and the end of my journey across land! As you can imagine – I’m a happy fish. It’s been quite a long journey up until this point and there were times in the past couple of weeks when I never thought I’d make it here under my own two wheels but I did it. I’m extremely happy and I’m writing this with just a slight smile on my face. It was a wee bit difficult getting here however. It was a real rollercoaster of a

Friday 12th August Eight days have now passed since I first came to Tbilisi. Time is ticking away and it feels like I’m no closer now to getting my Azerbaijan visa than I was five days ago when I re-sent the application. With no word from the tour company after two days, I decided to call to see if I could get a date out of them and after three phone calls, was told not worry and that my electronic visa should be ready tomorrow. In the meantime I have received my Letter of in

I left Batumi with my stove kind of fixed by a Georgian man whom didn’t release a smile in the entire forty minutes I was stood in his shop. He didn’t charge me though which was nice. I had some maps of Georgia now and so I was confident when I finally left the city, following the bicycle paths that wound their way along the coast north. Due to the mountainous nature of the country, the highway takes you quite far north before turning inland but of course I found a road that

Well I’ve been in Tbilisi, Georgia for five days now nibbling on my nails and generally sat on the edge of my seat continuously pressing refresh on my inbox to see if I have any news regarding my Azerbaijan visa application. It’s tense and I’m going ever so slightly crazy as the days tick by. My Chinese visa application couldn’t have gone more smoothly yesterday but I will not hold my breath until I have my passport back in my hands tomorrow morning. Nothing is certain it see