The journey is over and we would like to say:

THANK YOU.

To all the lovely people we met along the route. It was a tough job memorizing and listing all these positive encounters during our trip. If you live in one of the following 18 countries and do not appear in our list, obviously something went awry ;)

• Thanks to Michael and Arif that you have enabled us doing this trip.

• Thanks to Calli and Sebastian from Berlin for "absence management" during our trip. Und danke an Ion für das fleißige Lesen und Kommentieren unseres Blogs.

• Thanks to Na and Meng. You looked after our appartment during our absence and, yes, you helped us a lot.

• Thanks to Yong Li, for pampering “Panzer” and handing him over to us in seemingly healthy condition.

• Thanks to Lu Jia for the pocketknife, which we fortunately did not have to use in an emergency.

• Thanks to Minxins working colleagues for the voucher, which we have immediately redeemed after receiving it.

• Thanks to Mr. Dieng for the most important part: the good advice on the purchase of our bicycles.

• Thanks to Ekki and Angelika for temporary granting us asylum in the cold German winter. And last but not least a huge hug to the optician from Winnenden, who set a speed record at repairing Florian’s glasses.

• Thanks to Bu Mei and Zhi Wei in Munich. Your cozy appartment in the Bavarian capital was our last hideaway before our journey really kicked off. We enjoyed the weekend at your place.

• And: thanks to our very first couchsurfing hosts: Barbara and Uli from Peissenberg (Germany) for the warm welcome (and goulash) and last not least the numerous “Maß” of beer.

• Thanks to the nice Italian car driver in Trento, who guided us the way through the maze of lanes in the right direction to Levico.

• Thanks to the Jamaican (!) Kebab shop owner in Levico who insisted on inviting us for a Döner Kebab.

• Thanks to the ticket inspector on the train to Venice, who turned a blind eye at our involuntary “fare dodging action”.

• Thanks to the nice restaurant owner in Caorle who rented his room to us desperate souls.

• Huge hugs for the Minussi family, our second couchsurfing hosts. We really loved staying at your place, eating delicious pasta, being drowned in Grappa and getting inspired by looking at your travel photos from Oman.

• Thanks to Gordana from Mali Losinj. This lovely lady helped us out of our first emergency situation by renting a Sobe and issuing a “certificate of exemption” to us, allowing us to transport our bicycles on the sleek catamaran from Maly Losinj to Rijeka.

•  Thanks to Ivica and Maria from Brela for hosting us on the eve of Chinese New Year. Great memories…

• Good luck to Yu-Ji on his bicycle trip from Japan to Portugal. It was the first long distance bike-a-holic we met on our trip near Dubrovnik.

• Faliminderit to Alfred and Bukulie for accommodating us for one night at their home near Burell. Despite the language barrier we somehow found a way to communicate with each other and learn a lot about Albania’s history and culture.

•  Thanks also to the two Albanian boys who loaded our bikes into their van and saved us the 14km ride through darkness to Maqellare.

• Thanks to the Greek Forrest Gump, disguised as a 14year old boy who showed us the way to the only (and very comfortable) hotel in Aminteo.

• Thanks to our third couchsurfing hosts, German, Cecile, Vraclav and Andreas from Thessaloniki for this great, fantastic, terrific, mesmerizing evening I cannot memorize.

• Good luck to Calu Fonla from France, the second cyclist we met on our way. Calu cycled the Golden Cicuit around Europe, coming down from Bulgaria. Hope he got his bicycled fixed again.

• Our fourth couchsurfing host was Sotiris, a nice, polite Greek guy. Staying with him was a unique, mind-expanding experience and included watching movies, talking about astronomy as well as supernatural phenomena and – different types of mushrooms.

• Good luck also to Mario and Rita who came back from a bike trip through Turkey. Hope the Greek stray dogs did not catch you and you reached Switzerland safely.

• Thanks to the polite Turkish man whose name I do not remember who helped us to find the right way to a Turkish city which name I do not remember from a city I do not remember.

•  Thanks to Ömer Faruk, another great couchsurfing host from Bolu. The first evening in Bolu we spent with his huge family in their family flat near Bolu, the second we took a ride in Ömers quad around the city.

• Million thanks also go out to the bunch of elderly men near Yenicaga who recognized Minxin’s flat tyre and offered us to fix the bicycle also including a free “check komplet”.

• Thanks to the Turkish truck driver who offered us a lift on the snowcovered pass down to Kastamonu.

• Thanks to Yusuf Polat our next couchsurfing host from Samsun. Staying with this cool guy also meant getting deeply in touch with bohemian Turkish counter culture. We had the chance to see Turkey from a different angle and rewarded him with some hopefully delicious Chinese food.

• Thanks to Elif Zaim inviting us for lunch in Vezirköprü, Turkey. Kudos also go out to the friendly kebab restaurant owner in Igdir, offering us some Tas Kebab for free.

• Thanks to Ahmet Celik. We met this cool Turkish guy while resting in a village near Carsamba, Turkey. The originally planned “short break” turned into a profound and feature-length conversation while consuming several liters of green tea.

• Good luck to Damien, the French motorcyclist who took a similar route to Central Asia. At least, Damien made it over the snow-covered mountain pass in Adcharia, Georgia, where we also met.
• And: thanks from the very bottom of our hearts to Temuri for providing us accommodation in the remote mountain village of Riketi and ordering a van on the morning after, enabling us to cross the virtually impassable, snow covered Goderzi pass.
• Thanks to the cute lady on the roadside somewhere near Gori for blessing us and wishing us a safe journey. Obviously, it helped.
• Of course we also would like to thank Nodir and his working colleagues for booking us a chamber in the Solom Hotel of Sighnaghi, Georgia. Getting drunk with his colleagues while an apocalyptic thunderstorm gripped the plains of Eastern Georgia was one of the most haunting memories of our trip.

• Thanks to the otherwise totally unfamiliar family from Dashuz, Azerbaijan who allowed us to watch TV in their home, thus enabling us to witness our grand appearance on Azerbaijanian local TV.

•  Thanks go also out to Elvin, granting us access to the BP workman’s housing in Kürdamir, Azerbaijan.

• Thanks to the three friendly restaurant owners from Chalabad for letting us camp in the backyard of their restaurant and inviting us for some food and beer.

• Good luck also to Danielis, Ivars and Laura.  These three cyclists from Riga, Latvia attempt to reach the furthest inhabited place from their homes in Latvia – Pitt Island in New Zealand. We met these Danielis, Ivars and Laura in Göztäpä near the Iranian border.

• Thanks to our friend Chingiz from Lenkaran and his crew from the local TV broadcasting station CTV being based in Lenkaran. We spent a lovely evening with Chingiz in a decent restaurant and later had some fair amount of beer at the Caspian Sea. This was exciting enough, to meet one day later again in Astara. Hope we see each other again.

• Thanks to Mohsen Kamali and his family in Asalem, Iran. It was our second night in Iran and a great welcome to this country full of hospitable people. It also was the first time we got in touch with Iranian culture and we really loved it: tasty food, interesting conversations and playing “FIFA XY” matches on the PlayStation.

• Thanks to the nice cyclist in Tonekabon for showing us the way to town’s only hotel (it took roughly half an hour to find it)

• Thanks to the guys from the Red Crescent near Kandovan Pass, Iran for letting us stay in their building for one night.

• A very special thanks for our meanwhile seventh couchsurfing experience we enjoyed with Sajad and his roommate in Teheran. It was a really unique experience and gave us some insight to the typical modern, urban Iranian way of life. Hope we stay in touch!
• Thanks to Rafael, Petra, Johannes, Xing Yue for spending your time with us in Iran while waiting for our visa to be issued. Those were the days!
  

• Thanks to the young, friendly couple from Damavand whose name I unfortunately forgot. They managed to organize a stay for the night in a cozy apartment and showed us around the city during the evening.

•  Thanks to the guys working at the rest areas at Firuzkuh, Semnan and Mayamey for offering us camping space and (in Firuzkuh) even a hot shower.

• Thanks for the tea time by the roadside, served by a truck driver near Semnan out of the truck window

•  Thanks to the family also travelling to Mashad who saved our life with ice cold water on a very hot afternoon near Semnan

• Very special thanks and millions of hugs go out to Mohammad and Farzaneh from Damgan who picked us up in the middle of nowhere and invited us to their home the day after. The evening spent in their home was one of the most lasting memories of our trip. We wish Farzaneh good luck with her studies!
• Thanks to the lorry driver who picked us up at the rest area near Damgan and offered us a lift to Sharud. Considering the heat - 45 degrees in the non-existing shade plus strong headwinds - his help was truly appreciated.

• Thanks to the two nice ladies heading towards the Haman pilgrimage site in Mashad who – at the start of Ramadan – provided us with ice-cold drinks and donated some white Cowboy to us.

•  Thanks to M. and C. for hosting us in Mashad. We really liked your sense of humor andyour style of cooking. A great farewell to the Iran!

• Thanks to the restaurant owner in Abravan who offered us free accommodation in his room in the backyard of his canteen

•  Finally, thanks to the millions of melons that we received as a gift on our way in Iran - the first one we received 5km after Azerbaijan border, while the last one was handed over about 20km before having reached the Turkmen border.
  

• Thanks to the Turkmen policemen for calling an taxi which took us and our defunct bicycles to the next city of Mary.

•  Thanks to the restaurant owner in Zakhmet who offered us free accommodation at his truck stop area plus some interesting conversation and a free visa extension for up to 10 days (according to his information his brother hold a high-ranking position in the government). As we were already approaching the Uzbek border we decided to reject his offer. 

• Thanks to the family from the remote desert village of Uch Adzhi for inviting us for lunch and tea. This was as close we could get to local people in this bizarre police state.

• Thanks to the very patient BMW driver in Turkmenabat for showing us the way to the only two open hotels. It was a strenuous 7km ride through the city at 3am!

•  Thanks to the bunch of locals who appeared out of the middle of nowhere at the outskirts of Turkmenabat on our way to the Uzbek border. We were already beginning to worry about our water supplies as it was stifling hot (45°C) that day and we were desperately searching for a shop to buy some beverages. These guys must have been sent from heaven as they provided us with water, coke and tea. It goes without saying that even these 5 liters of ice cold beverages did not survive until we reached the Uzbek border.

• Thanks to the truck driver who stopped for us at the roadside near Qarakol and offering us cold German beer out of his “Krombacher truck.”

•  Thanks to the very patient employees from Asaka bank in Bukhara who somehow managed to get the cash machine working again after numerous unsuccessful attempts.

• Thanks to several Uzbek families we met along the route who invited us to stay with them for a night. Unfortunately, due to Minxin’s rigid visa restrictions we decided to reject their offer and carried on.

•  Thanks to numerous friendly Uzbek people for showing us around some obscure provincial towns in our dire need to find an accommodation for the night.

• Thanks to the men who invited us for some tea and melons near Navoy during a very boring and extremely hot stretch of road.

•  Thanks to the men from Boysun who gave their best to arrange our transport to Dushanbe despite not having appropriate vehicles on hand. After some 30 minutes of waiting they somehow managed to attach our bicycles to a luggage rack which was mounted on top of a Daewoo Nexia limousine.

• Thanks to the Kyrgyz consul from Dushanbe who probably set a speed record at issuing Minxin’s Kyrgyz visa within 10 minutes.

•  Thanks to Vero, our couchsurfing host in Dushanbe. This charming French lady let us camp in her garden along with a bunch other cyclists during our stay in Dushanbe. Vero was so nice and replaced Minxin’s broken saddle with hers enabling us to cycle the Pamirs.

• Thanks to Eric, Charlotte, Nico, Gökben, Patrick NZ, Patrick GER, Mia, Oliver, Linda, Francesco, Mirco, Thorsten, Anselm, Micha for making our stay in Dushanbe enjoyable while waiting for the Pamir Highway to be opened again

• Thanks to several vehicle drivers, be it if Tajik or foreign, who we flagged down near the small village of Langar in the Wakhan corridor. As shelves in the few shops at Langar were empty we relied on the aid of others in order to prevent us from starving.

•  Thanks to both SUV drivers as well as to Olli and Mia for giving us a lift to Khargush.

• Thanks to Micha and Anselm for reserving us a chamber in the Sary Tash homestay.

• Thanks to the nice Kyrgyz boy for inviting us to eat melons on our way up to Irkeshtam pass.

•  Thanks to the lovely family from Gagarin who provided us with a camping spot and brought us some food for breakfast and dinner.

• Thanks also go out to the truck driver who offered us a lift down to the village of Arslanbob (we were hiking on that exact day)

• Thanks to the Chinese officer at the border who organized the taxi for Uluchab to us.

•  Thanks to the friendly Uighur family who invited us for tea and insisted on offering us a bed to stay for the night.

• Thanks to Wu Yue for reserving (and paying) the flight ticket from Kashgar to Urumchi.

•  Thanks and good luck for/to Oliver from New Zealand (an English teacher working at the Xi’an University) with whom we spent a lovely evening clubbing in Songpan

• Thanks to the men we met in a small pub in Songpan who invited us to toast several rounds of “Beijiu” with them.

•  Thanks to dozens of elderly women sitting by the road between Xiaojin and Rilong offering us apples for free.

• Thanks to the staff from Wolong National Park for offering us accommodation at their office. We were almost frozen to death when we arrived there.

•  Thanks to Guo Yu’s parents for letting us stay at their place and showing us around Chengdu.

• Thanks to Xie Qian, Zheng Dazhi and Andy for inviting us for dinner in Shanghai. It's alsways good to meet old friends again. Johannes and Andrea, unfortunately we could not meet in Shanghai, anyway we both wish you a good start in your new assignments in Germany.
  

• And last not least….thanks to Minxin’s parents for the warm welcome back at “home” after 10 months of travelling. Thanks for preparing tasty “Beijing Kaoy” as well as for celebrating my birthday in a fancy Italian restaurant located in China’s oldest existing 5 star hotel. Women ai ni!