So, off again! A quick intro and background to the next chapter of Meg the Rolling Egg:
After I returned back to England after the last trip, I quickly moved to London and started my job as a corporate lawyer (yes, the contrast was high). To become a lawyer in the UK, you have to do two years working as a trainee. Once this two years is over (which it now is for me!) it’s common in the industry to take some time off before starting your newly qualified position - around 6-8 weeks usually. After some (read: a lot) of fighting with HR, my team managed to get me 9.5 weeks off. So for context, I’ve not quit corporate life to return to travelling, this is just a fun little break to mark leaving the world of a trainee and (finally) becoming a qualified lawyer.
The plan
Now for the good bit, what I’m going to do with this precious 9.5 weeks off.
Amsterdam - The trip begins with a short stint in Amsterdam. No particular reason, just a nod to taking the Eurostar as a first step to any trip, and I’ve heard Amsterdam airport is lovely. Definitely not because of a boy…
Pakistan - Leaving behind the stroopwaffles I fly to Islamabaad. From here, I’m going to be making my way along the Karakoram highway for 2 weeks. This is an insane road which weaves through the Hunza valley, in the Karakoram mountain range, linking Pakistan to China and following an ancient Silk Road trading route. It is one of the highest paved roads in the world, and the border crossing into China is the highest border crossing in the world. I will spend my time exploring the side valleys, doing plenty of hiking, staying in guesthouses (and perhaps some camping), travelling along the highway by hitchhiking.
I’ve been getting a lot of extreme reactions to my Pakistan plan, which I will write about in more detail later, but Gilgit-Baltistan (which is the region the Karakoram highway runs through) is incredibly safe and well-visited by tourists.
China - I will follow the Karakoram highway over the Khunjerab Pass and into the Xinjiang province of China. This is an autonomous territory populated by a diverse ethnic mix of Uyghur, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hans and Mongols. I plan to visit a few Silk Road cities here, and perhaps travel up to the Kanas Lake which is right on the border with Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. I’ll travel east, again for around 2 weeks, using the high-speed trains, into the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, before heading south into west Sichuan. This is an area that is culturally Tibetan (but not actually Tibet which has stringent visa and other requirements). I’ll do some more hiking on the Tibetan grasslands, visit lots of monasteries, and hopefully see some pandas!
India (Yoga teacher training) - From Chengdu (a city in Sichuan) I fly to Delhi and then travel north to Rishikesh to enter the second phase of my trip. Not exactly travelling, I’ll spend 4 weeks doing my yoga teacher training in an ashram in Rishikesh. This is an intense program of 4.5 hours of physical yoga, 2 hours of meditation, and 2.5 hours of theoretical classes each day. Afterwards, I’ll be a qualified yoga teacher (perhaps even more impressive than being a qualified lawyer?).
Home - I have a few days between finishing the yoga course and flying back to London, which I’ll probably spend exploring a few nearby towns in northern India. After arriving back in London, I have 2.5 days to move into my new house and start back at work. 9.5 weeks well spent!
Why this plan?
If you are familiar with my previous travel route, where I traced the Silk Road overland from England to Malaysia, this next trip might seem like a logical add-on. Especially when you consider that I flew over and skipped Afghanistan and Pakistan last time, and didn’t touch China. I also felt like it was the right time for me to do my yoga teacher training, something I knew I wanted to do at some point in my life. I wanted to do this in India, so it made sense to travel overland around the surrounding areas to fill in the missing pieces of the Silk Road. When the India/Pakistan conflict kicked off a few months ago, I had to change my travel plans around to fly from China to India, rather than crossing overland from Pakistan to India.
I don’t know which bit I’m most excited for… Seeing Coen in Amsterdam - I mean, visiting the Amsterdam airport? Hiking amongst mountains in the Hunza valley? Experiencing central asian culture in Xinjiang in China and observing how it diffuses into Chinese culture? Visiting Tibetan monasteries? Or dedicating an entire month to doing the thing I would perhaps say is the most important part of my life?
I will be blogging the entire trip, of course! Although posts may be delayed until I’ve returned to the UK.