Highest Road in the World by Tandem Bicycle: into Central Asia and Return over the Great Himalaya Range

Ride our tandem with us over the highest road pass in the world (18,380 feet) from South Asia into Central Asia. Pedal thirteen days across The Great Himalaya Range (passes to 17,558 feet) from exotic Tibetan Ladakh in the far north. Take a train to far south India and then bicycle with us from the Arabian Sea on the west to the Bay of Bengal on the east. Stories, photos, videos and music.

Read the rest of this article...

On our way to India

Applause, Zippy ready for India

Applause, Zippy ready for India

We leave Tucson today for a few months in India. We begin in Ladakh, tight between Pakistan and China, in the Tibetan cultural, and landscape land. We start in Leh, in an 11,000 ft. valley in the Himalayas.

We’ll hang out exploring temples while we acclimatize, then test some passes, and ourselves. We’ll stay about a month in the mountains and then descend into the plains where we may take a train to avoid the most populated areas, and go to the far south. We’ll be working on stories for Desert Leaf.

We have a one-way ticket, so we don’t know where we’ll fly home from. It’s nice not to know. We don’t have a phone. We should have internet fairly often and we’ll post here.

The preparation craziness is done, so now we can allow ourselves to be excited. This is going to be fun. No doubt some physical and mental challenges along the way; hey, that’s what makes life interesting, memorable.

I expect my camera to get a workout: Ladakh is called The top of the World for good reason, with the highest motorable road, spectacular scenery, and the Tibetan people are colorful and friendly. We rode across the eastern part of Tibet on our In Search of Shangri-La trip, and want to see how the Tibetans are different here in their western-most range. We expect some differences: they are free in India, not so much in China.

Haiti: Pain and Lessons to be Learned

Don’t take a predetermined tour. The tour leaders are sure you don’t want to meet the real people, but a sanitized version of folk presentations. Travel independently, and don’t always stay in the travel destinations, the tourist towns; stay in smaller towns or villages, spread your money around. Look that street vendor in the eye while you negotiate some mystery meat on a stick. Return her smile. Not only will you have more fun, more memories, but that street vendor will remember that some Americans actually cared enough to want to see her village, and how she lives.

Read the rest of this article...

Christmas Card from Bangkok

Happy Christmas from Bangkok

Happy Christmas from Bangkok

Happy Christmas from Bangkok, from Bob and Claire and Lucky. P-bear, Lai Lai and Foster send their best wishes from Tucson.

We’ll celebrate by crossing the International Date Line on Christmas Day. Does that mean we get Christmas twice?

Happy Christmas

Claire and Bob Rogers

PS. See a video of us having a look-back at our Shangri-la journey from Bangkok, Christmas Eve day.