Chapter 1

Welcome to Chapter 1 of our journey!
This chapter marks our journey along the Silk Road. We will be traveling overland 🚂🚌🛥️ (without airplanes❌ ✈️) from Toronto 🇨🇦 to Hong Kong🇭🇰! Læs mere

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Chapter 1 World Vagabonding
Day 187: bus from Mestia to Tbilisi
9. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Time to leave Mestia and head back to civilization. Our next stop is Tbilisi, where the challenges were ahead of us. We will stay in Tbilisi for a month to figure out our onward travel.

Btw, we thought we had gone with the wrong bus company for the bus to Tbilisi. We should have took the one which was more popular among foreign tourists. We ended in a super crowded bus!! But anyway, still an experience though!Læs mere
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Day 195: Walk around Tbilisi
17. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
A brief walk around in Tbilisi! Went to the ‘Always’ Bridge and the old town. The weather was too hot to do more things in Tbilisi. Probably we were still climatizing :)
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Chapter 1 World Vagabonding
Day 200: Mtskheta
22. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
📍Samtawro Church
📍Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
📍Jvari Monastery (this is not easy go from Mtskheta, we had to hike and cross the highway in order to reach there)

Overall, a nice day trip in Mtskheta
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Day 204: National Botanic Garden
26. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ 🌬 26 °C
📍national botanic garden of georgia
Not the best botanic garden and you have to pay for entrance
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Day 204: Mother of Georgia
26. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
She symbolizes the Georgian national character; left hand holding a bowl of wine to greet those who come as friends, right hand is a sword for those who come as enemies.
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Day 206: Didube Bus Terminal
28. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Caught the bus to Gori for a day trip to Uplistsikhe Cave Town
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Day 206: Gori Bus Terminal
28. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
a brief transfer at Gori for the bus to Uplistsikhe
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Day 206: Uplistsikhe Cave Town
28. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Uplistsikhe is one of the oldest urban settlements in Georgia. Strategically located in the heart of ancient kingdom of Kartli, it emerged as a major polotical and religious center of the country. The earliest traces of human presence in Uplistsikhe date back to the end of 2nd millennium BC. It declined in its importance and lost its position to the new centers of Christian culture - Mtskheta and later, Tbilisi. The Mongol raids in the 14th century marked the ultimate eclipse of the town.Læs mere
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Day 206: Didube bus terminal
28. juni 2024, Georgien ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
After a long day in the cave town, we went back to Didube bus terminal
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Day 211: Ananuri Fortress Complex
3. juli 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
This is another fortress complex that is quite well-known. There was a secret tunnel linking the church and the fortress. The army hide in the fortress and got supply from outside with the tunnel. The place is called Ananuri because the enemy kidnapped a girl called Ana and asked about the secret tunnel. But she did not reveal any secret and eventually was killed by the enemy. She was from a town nearby called ‘Nuri’. Therefore, the fortress was named after her.Læs mere
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Day 211: Didube Bus Terminal
3. juli 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
We went back to the bus terminal after the day trip
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Day 216: Samtavisi Cathedral
8. juli 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Such a lovely cathedral in a small town. We went there because it is a tentative UNESCO world heritage. We got the place to ourselves, which is pretty cool for a visit.
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Day 216: Sterlin Museum and Birthplace
8. juli 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
We visited this as we were on our way to Gori. Very disappointing museum and area to walk around. We learn nothing about Sterlin after visiting. The English description just ended suddenly as well. It is also very pricy 15 GEL pp for a visit and no video allowed inside the museum.Læs mere
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Day 217: David Gareja Monastery
9. juli 2024, Georgien ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
A monastery lies between Georgia and Azerbaijan border. Due to the conflict between the two countries, we could only visit the part on the Georgian side. It is in a very remote place and only one shared taxi a day will go there except for tour. The ride was long (around 2 hours) and they just gave us 1 hour to walk around. Not very worth the time to be honest. If we go again, we will recruit more people and hire a taxi for a day so that we could have more control of the time.Læs mere
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Day 218: Russian Transit Visa - Done!
10. juli 2024, Georgien ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
After more than 2-week waiting, we finally got our 3-day Russian transit visa that we could move forward! What a relief!!
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Day 221: Ortachala Central Bus Station
13. juli 2024, Georgien ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Today was the big day. It was day 1 on our way to Russia. From Tbilisi, we took a 6-hour mini-bus to Vladikavkaz 🇷🇺
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Day 221: Vladikavkaz Bus Station
13. juli 2024, Rusland ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Amazing soviet-design bus station! Our first impression in Russia is quite good. People are friendly and helpful. Since we have 3 days only, We quickly found our bus to Astrakhan, which is 912km from Vladikavkaz.Læs mere
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Day 222: Arriving Astrakhan
14. juli 2024, Rusland ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
After 10-hour of bus ride, we are finally here, Astrakhan! We quickly check-in at our hotel and took a quick nap!
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Day 222: Astrakhan Kremlin
14. juli 2024, Rusland ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
After 6 hours sleep, we were re-charged! We did a little bit touring around Astrakhan. This kremlin is a UNESCO world heritage. We were curious about the onion-shaped church!
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Day 223: Overnight train to Atyrau
15. juli 2024, Rusland ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C
Last day of our transit visa in Russia! We had to make sure our overnight train to Kazakhstan was up and running before the Transit Visa expired in midnight.
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Day 224: Arriving at Atyrau
16. juli 2024, Kasakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Nice and early! After 11-hour train ride, we are here, Atyrau Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 Finally completed our transit in Russia! Another relief!!!
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Day 226: Walk around Atyrau
18. juli 2024, Kasakhstan ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Atyrau is an industrial city, most people will skip it and carry on with their journey. But we chose to stay here for a few days, just to catch our breathe and wait for the train to Aral Sea! Our first impression to Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 was everything was so huge!Læs mere
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Day 227: Leaving Atyrau
19. juli 2024, Kasakhstan ⋅ 🌙 30 °C
Back to the Atyrau Train Station for our overnight train ride to Aralsk More Station! We tried the 2 people berth on the train with private washroom! It was definitely a lovely train ride!
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Day 228: Arriving Aralsk More Station
20. juli 2024, Kasakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
After 17-hour train ride, we arrived at Aralsk More Station. Not many tourists will come here as most of them will visit Aral Sea on the Uzbekistan side. But we would like to break the long train ride, so we stopped here and learn more about the Shrinking Aral Sea.Læs mere
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Day 229: Aral Sea (Tastubek)
21. juli 2024, Kasakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
It is very difficult to get around in the area as it is close to the desert area. We hired a private driver to bring us to the sea and take a look at the area.

The drying up of Aral Sea is quite sad. It was due to a major water diversion project in the 1960s. It is hard to believe that the Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake in the world. Now, the Aral Sea has dried up significantly, even a dam has been built between the northern and southern parts of the Aral Sea. Really hope that some measures could be done to improve the area so that fisheries and communities dependent on the sea could be recovered.Læs mere
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