A bivvy, a phone and a drone: cycling home from China.

so so so so i didn't know if i'd make it i had a bike a bivy instead of a tent my phone and a drone [Music] seeing a country from the seat of a bicycle gives you a perspective that cannot be achieved in any other way you feel every up and every down you're hindered by the wind or pushed along being vulnerable makes you appreciate the kindness of strangers after getting in contact with giant i traveled to shanghai to pick up a bicycle from where they are made with the intention to cycle at home home happened to be on the other side of the world [Music] friends made and good wishes given i left the giant factory and the enormity of the task had undertaken sank in it felt incredible to be on a bike my senses prickled with all the new sights and smells of the culture so different from my own in chinese they call this time of year san fusian and it's the hottest season and boy can i feel it the north face bag that i had on my back the zip broke and it was annoying me so i've bodged it onto the front of the bike using zip ties and duct tape it's got all my winter kit in so i've just steeled it up and i'll get out when it gets cold surprisingly i found some good bike paths in china [Music] home to the terracotta warriors xi'an is where i began my journey along the silk road a network of ancient training routes connecting the east to the west [Music] i was cycling about 200 kilometers a day and sleeping on the side of the road however this wasn't technically legal the chinese police require you to tell them where you are every night they do this by getting your hotel to register you with a local station allowing them to keep tabs on you not possible when camping i was set up camp after dark and was never bothered i slept under the road last night and it's pretty cozy under here actually using highways with a large hard shoulder and not a huge amount of roads to choose from navigation was easy in china and the surface was excellent too entering into xinjiang an autonomous territory in north west china home to many ethnic minority groups i was monitored more closely every 40 kilometers or so i would go through a military checkpoint that even locals had to go through using google translate and sign language to communicate [Music] i wasn't allowed to enter the town without a police escort they were very friendly even taking me out for dinner to the amusement of everyone else in the restaurant they took me to a hotel foreigners to stay in and left me to book a room but before i could pay 10 chinese police rushed into their reception with bulletproof shields guns and batons they ushered me into a police van with my bike and were about to drive off when on the radio they were told i could stay there i didn't get into this hotel room until 2am just wanting a shower and a place to rest [Music] entering into kazakhstan with a handshake and a smile was quite a relief i took a day off in almaty spending the day eating food and soaking in the public baths which involved getting beaten with oak leaves and skinny dipping with fat naked men swan diving around me i didn't stay in kazakhstan for long talking with other cycle tourists i decided on a detour which took me along the pamia highway considered to be the second highest international highway in the world the highest point standing at 4 655 metres above sea level [Music] on the descent down there's been a lot of local stalls selling these white and then black balls and i've been really curious to what the they were so what i i stopped and gave one a try expecting something really sweet and sugary and it wasn't at all it was really sour and almost cheese like um which i wasn't expecting and then a bit further down the road i saw someone milking a horse so i think i've just eaten horse cheese which is the first the highway began on the other side of kyrgyzstan after a few scary encounters with dogs and one night spending thinking i was going to be eaten alive by wolves or a snow leopard i arrived in osh the beginning of the pamia highway for me after stopping up with food i headed for the mountains i feel the time and the space between [Music] this remote highway was where i had most of my encounters with other cycle tourists and the kindness of the locals in this region was incredible inviting you into the warmth and offering you food with no payment wanted [Music] the coldest night i remember was in no man's land between kyrgyzstan and tajikistan i'm not around but i'm not gone i miss the bed you're sleeping on [Music] another cold morning on the palmy highway i stayed in a homestay last night so it was nice and cozy uh and i got lots of food i had two bowls of porridge this morning and lots of bread and jam and today i'm going up to the highest point on the pamia highway which is about 4 600 meters so that'll be interesting um and then it's pretty much downhill the whole way to shamble with a few peaks in the way but generally downhill so that'll be good if you know i was now cycling on the roof of the world and with a combination of high altitude strong wind and rough road services it was slow going but spectacular [Music] if you never come around how are we ever gonna be if you're always on the ground then you're [Music] oh after the high altitude of akbach tower pass i started descend towards the panzer river the natural border between afghanistan and tajikistan [Music] many years many years [Music] the road i was now cycling along also happened to be the main channel for heroin coming into europe from afghanistan the largest heroin producer in the world it's just potholes everywhere and if [Music] these guys are being very nice and trying to help but they're about to break the bike so i i stopped them before they they could drill right into the fork um so i'm just gonna have to continue getting to the chamber which is about 370 kilometers away and there should be a bike shop there that i can hopefully get out for good uh it's just been really annoying it's been a beautiful road but it's not a good quality and with the two front fan years it's not fun i'd love to come back and do it on with just less kit and maybe or a mountain bike and you could fly along the horrible terrain [Music] i've now been riding along the afghanistan border for just shy 400 kilometers and i've got a totally different viewpoint on afghanistan now um my viewpoint before was what you see on the news all the desert and the the fighting that goes on but what i've seen along the border it's nothing but just huge mountains and quaint little isolated villages that are set next to waterfalls down there in the mountains just green in the oasis oasis of barren rock which is pretty spectacular uh i'm heading now to the chamber which will be the end point of the parmia highway i'm looking forward to the next chapter of my journey [Music] as old as rome summercamp is one of the more important cities along the silk road being at the crossroads of world [Music] cultures [Music] having bought a drone in shanghai and using it to document my journey i found out that in uzbekistan drones are banned and worst case could lead to a three-year prison sentence i hid it at the bottom of one of my opinions and hoped for the best it's about 1200 kilometers to the caspian sea so i'll just ping it there and then i think it's a bit of a mess around to get on the ferry it's not there's not really a schedule i just go away at the ferry port camp there for a few days and hope to get a ferry [Music] in kieva i bumped into another cycle tourist heading in the same direction as me johannes from germany would cycle with me to the caspian sea where he planned to catch a ferry to azerbaijan [Music] i'm now back in kazakhstan i've not videoed too much because all i would have been doing is complaining mainly about the road surface in uzbekistan and then the wind here in kazakhstan is pretty bad um and then the food has been not so great i've basically just had a diet of bread and tomato sauce so i'm looking forward to get to the caspian sea which is about 320 kilometers away now and the food should improve when i get over there and then into turkey i feel it's pretty good um and also it's been very cold here in the desert everyone i've spoke to other cycle tourists have said it's been really warm and been like the hottest part of their trip but i've found it to be pretty cold and especially at night um so tonight i'm going to be camping in this abandoned house that somehow i climbed in open the door um so it should be a bit warmer in there and then be able to set off a bit earlier because when you're cold in the mornings it's hard it's hard to get out your sleeping bag so hopefully get a decent chunk done tomorrow and maybe get to the caspian sea in two days get to the ferry [Music] [Music] there we've got the bikes next to the cooker this is johannes with his bike and this is the sleeping platform it's gonna be nice and cozy we've got some candles that are here provided for us some broken glass more broken glass the door that doesn't open that's the window that i climbed through to open the door but yeah should be warmer than a tent now leaving for the ferry [Music] after a 36 hour wait at the ferry port we're now on the ferry it's nice to not be on the bike but i'm really looking forward to a shower i think we'll try and find that later that's the old german currency before the euro oh yeah i shouldn't have spent all of our coins on on stickers it's now been 17 hours i can still i think we need we need more food next time we should bring rice and noodles yeah i'm cool everybody but i think we are the only one complaining here they not always need their food they never register they never finish and we're just striving the food's good but it's just not good yeah so we're gonna fill up our bread [Music] finally back on dry land we've entered the middle east and now we're in azerbaijan so three more countries and i'm back in europe cycling through azerbaijan only took a few days and was fueled by pomegranates and short-sized glasses of tea each with several spoonfuls of sugar [Music] georgia the first country i began to see the signs of autumn with the trees changing color with winter fast approaching i could not dawdle not wanting to get caught in any bad weather in europe [Music] turkey may be doing some dodgy stuff politically right now but they sure know how to build the road [Music] turkish tunnels are so much nicer than central asia they're lit they're air-conditioned you got air flowing through the ones in central asia there is no lights and it was just dusty and it just suffocated so much nicer the fastest route across turkey would be to hook the black sea coast all the way to istanbul after a day's riding there's nothing better than a turkish imam to relax and recuperate [Music] i'm currently riding into istanbul [Music] i spent a few days in istanbul crossing backward and forward between europe and asia being hosted by friends i'd met at a giant bike shop [Music] [Music] i had some shelter to sleep under last night but it's pretty awful weather and it doesn't not look nice outside i do not want to ride but i've got to get out of turkey soon it's just going to get worse through europe so just gonna get cracking i'm about to leave turkey i'm gonna be going into greece for a little bit and then into bulgaria [Music] leaving turkey and entering into europe it felt like i was nearly home [Music] as i was in the final few weeks of my journey i met others heading in the opposite direction just beginning theirs [Music] the kindness of strangers in eastern europe was amazing i was given three course meals on the house and invited into people's homes [Music] unfortunately in serbia the driving became noticeably worse with drivers coming scaringly close i arrived in budapest with christmas markets already in full swing [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i've passed through vienna i'm now following the eurobello route along the danube and it's so much better than it was in hungary in serbia austria's just got it right it's a bit wiggly still but the smooth tarmac and traffic free i left the danube and took my route through the austrian alps [Music] oh it's getting a bit chilly in germany my nose is running i made myself some other shoes with my socks oh be unlucks and big hopefully soon after germany i rerouted once more to enter into luxembourg the country where my dad took me on my first proper bicycle tour when i was seven i began cycling along the venn band bicycle route which reverses three countries luxembourg belgium and germany [Applause] [Music] i'm currently riding along the benband which is a beautifully smooth traffic free bicycle route uh i've just stopped quickly in monchau which was down a really steep hill which i just had to climb back up i was about to miss it um i'm glad i didn't but it is beautiful uh nice christmas market down there i'm now gonna keep on riding get to arkan uh and then i'll be really close to the netherlands which is my last country until i get to england for the last few days of the trip my dad cycled out to ride with me before cycling to the dfds sea wasteberry bound for newcastle we rode to the home of giant europe dad in the netherlands [Music] we met with frank veldman second in command of the giant hq who showed us around and then cycled with us to almia on route to amsterdam [Music] do [Music] four months 15 000 kilometers and 19 countries back in newcastle one kilometer away from home feels good

Channel: Josh Reid

Views: 893,633

Rating: 4.954649 out of 5

Keywords: Bike touring, Adventure, World travel, Cycling, Bike

Id: Mmdxs_0yYwc

Length: 29min 25sec (1765 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Duerogue]

Cool video...

Imagine placing your camera, go back, cycle in front of it - just to turn back to pick it up though

Over and over..

[u/Sterling_Thunder]

Sincerely enjoyed. My only complaint is the end, it's just over. I'd love to hear about your mental and physical state at the end

[u/ukfashandroid]

How did he deal with visas for all these places man. This is sick

[u/radclyff3san]

This is a fantastic video! I did LA to San Francisco and back as a teen from the UK an I wish I could have documented it with the same technology, what a way to memorialise some of the best memories.

Proper r/videos content!

[u/fl0wing]

Hows your ass and thighs ?

[u/mattcolville]

Bits of Kyrgyzstan look exactly like the California desert, right down to the roads and cars.

[u/FunnyPhrases]

It would have been more impressive if it was:

This person rode his bike from China to the UK while brushing his teeth the whole time

[u/futurespacecadet]

Do you think it’s possible to do this now with the current state of covid and the world? Or are there more restrictions.

Also, I couldn’t even imagine doing this and getting caught in the crazy China floods that was happening.

[u/tlatoqur]

This is just a big ad paid for and organized by Giant bicycles. There's even a convenient photo of him "picking up" his bike from the factory in China at the start of his trip.

Giant bicycles is a piece of shit company that sells bikes with faulty parts, shitty customer service, and a massive slave labor workforce in China.