That's a very good question, blues, and I am not sure I have a wholly rational answer to it. I have an itch. I've travelled widely in Europe and to some extent in North Africa and India. Now I want to go further afield. I guess I am also a stubborn oik and don't like things to defeat me.blues2cruise wrote:Question.....
When you know you have a sensitive stomach...and you know you're riding into hostile territory....ALONE....why would you choose to go there and not some place else more conducive to finding food you can eat and less chances of being bombed?
Inquiring minds want to know.
You might need this....
On the issue of my diet, it's a challenge, definitely, but I've decided that there are ways around it. The things I do eat are limited but consist of fairly basic foods that are available in most parts of the world, so I don't think I will find it an overwhelming problem. I plan to carry some emergency rations with me to keep me going for periods when I can't get anything locally. Other than that I intend to visit markets and do most of my own cooking, so I can keep tabs on what I put into myself.
I think we have the media to blame for presenting us with an image of the world as a violent and hostile place when, in reality, most of it is no more dangerous than central London. Of all the hundreds of two-wheeled travellers I have met, I know very few who have experienced any kind of serious threat to themselves. Sure there are some war zones that need to be avoided, but warfare is very localised. People travel safely through Afghanistan every day, for instance, rarely encountering any sign of recent conflict. You keep your ears open for where the fighting is and stay away from it. One biker I know has just got back from Iraqi Kurdistan. He had a great time and apart from seeing a lot of men and women in military-type uniforms, experienced no signs of military conflict. Another friend has just gone to the Sudan for Christmas. She is in her 70s!
The consensus of Western travellers is that the world is mostly full of helpful and friendly people, and because, in many places, the tradition of hospitality to strangers is still strong, those people are often very much more helpful and friendly than back home. I think in The West we suffer from a deeply rooted and often unconscious xenophobia which leads us to demonise people from foreign cultures and see them as untrustworthy or dishonest or very different from ourselves. In fact, people are much the same wherever you go. They may have different beliefs and customs but they all have lives to lead and have the same concerns as you or I, getting a living, bringing up their families, enjoying themselves.
It's also a fact that much of the world is now modernised in ways that are immediately recognisable to a westerner. Iranian cities, for example, are probably much more modern than most British ones, their inhabitants well educated and highly cultured. I began to realise just how modern the world has become in the last 50 years when I discovered that there is now nowhere left on the planet where I can't order bike spares and get them quickly in the event of a breakdown. Reading up on Uzbekistan and Central Asia opened by eyes further. I had previously had this image of endless steppe lands inhabited by an alien, tribal people eking out a living in a highly insecure environment. It is a strongly Muslim area, the land of Genghis Khan and Tamberlaine, and it's true that people here still hunt on horseback with eagles, live in yurts on the hillsides and wear traditional tribal costumes. But these days many tend to go into the big cities, like Tashkent, to do their shopping. And if they wish, they can take the kids on the Tashkent subway out to the north of the city and spend the day at 'Tashkent World' which is a local version of Disneyland.
I want to travel because I want to ride across the Afsluitdijk; I want to see (and smell) the apple forests of Almaty where all the apple trees in the world originally came from; I want to visit the old imperial backstreets of Baku on the Caspian coast and see the oil bubbling up out of the ground; I want to see the firepits of Turkmenistan; I want to travel up Lake Baikal on a cargo ship; I want to see the Tufa hills and underground cities of Cappadocia; I want to visit Santa Sophia and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul; I want to wander around the ancient city of Persepolis, and see the great central square of Bukhara; I want to travel through the hills and see the caves of Dalmatia; and I want to ride the Pamir highway and see for myself what many say are the most beautiful mountains in the world.
Like a lot of people, I have many complex and personal reasons for travelling, but the bottom line is that I want to stop reading about the world I live in, step outside my comfort zone and see it for myself. Right now I have a small window of opportunity to do that. It won't come again. If I don't take it, I suspect I will remain regretful for the rest of my life. I'm not too worried about things going wrong. Most situations can be dealt with one way or another. And I've never met a long-distance two-wheel traveller who ever wanted to come home or, once home, didn't want to set off again as soon as possible.