This is the travelblog of Cyril Ducau and Niccolo Manno on their adventure from London (Cyril), Munich (Niccolo) to Hong Kong on motorbikes.
It took us short of 3 months to do 20,000km on bikes, trains and planes. We crossed the following countries together:

Austria - Italy - Slovenia - Croatia - Serbia - Bulgaria - Turkey - Georgia - Azerbaijan - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan - Russia - Mongolia - China - Hong Kong

On this site you will find some info on both of us, our bikes, some of our friendly helpers in Hong Kong and London and loads of pictures on our trip. 

Latest top picture

Latest top picture
Thanks for watching our blog - Enjoy as we did it!

Our path

Our path
Click picture to download Google Earth kmz file !

Monday, March 24, 2008

Baku

We arrived safely in Baku yesterday night. Whilst it wasn't easy to find an hotel we are impressed by the city. The road from Seki to Baku was a beautiful small country road. We had it all, from the mountains, to high plateaus, to hills, sand dune like mountains and the sea. I was really amazed about the beauty of nature here.
Baku is a very well developed city on the Caspian Sea and it seems they have invested a lot of the petrodollars to rebuild the town entirely in its original state. The historical town is full of old restored palaces etc... They are constructing new buildings all around but they seem to respect the city style.
We have very little time as we need to prepare our ferry journey over the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan. We anticipate this to take the best part of 24h-48h and we need to prepare for food, drinks etc...
In Turkmenistan we aren't sure of finding an internet cafe, so it might take us 4 days to post something new.
I've updated the pictures on the album

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello you,
a friend from Paris sent me your blog address.
We made the same trip than you, but without Motorbike and from China to Turkey just last year for 7 months.
If you need some tips, addresses... I can provide some. Especially in Central Asia.
I hope for you that you will visit the Pamir RoaD in Tadijikistan! It's Amazing, dertic, less than 30 000 people along the 750 km road.
Tell me if you need help,
Good luck
Antoine

Anonymous said...

Hi Niccolo
Just a quick hi to say it's been fun reading your blog so far and best of luck for the rest of the trip. Will keep checking up on you. We miss you!
Angelina

Les Ducau's said...

Coucou les aventuriers mal rasés!
On est tous les 3 devant l'écran à voyager avec vous.
On pense à vous, bonne route
La Mémère
Le Chef
Le Bro

Anonymous said...

Sympatosh les photos, on vous suit au jour le jour !

A +,
X.

ps. je trouve cela dit si je peux me permettre qu'y a pas encore beaucoup de nuit sous la tente. Un peu facile tout ca..

Niccolo Manno said...

Merci Antoine, je vais te contacter par mail et oui, toute aide est apprecie!
Thanks Angie.
Coucou les Ducaux. Vivement l internet.
Xav...tu vas prendre cher.

A BIG THANK YOU TO:

Cyril:
- Maddy, the head of our "London HQ", special technical and weather advisor, and because she is simply the best and has been so supportive over the last few months
- My family and friends for their understanding and moral support
- Robert Roe (alias Bob) from Motoselect Franham for preparing the bike with such good care
- Anastasia from thevisacompany for helping me deal with so much red tape
- Claudio von Planta for sharing his valuable experience on Long-way Round and Long-way Down and answering so many of our questions
- Ronnie, Emmanuel and Benjamin for their enthusiast support and precious advise
- The Techtransalp team for their excellent website and advertising our adventure

Niccolo:
- clearly Manon as she has always been supportive of this trip even though this means 3 months without me
- My mother for not giving up on me, for receiving all the parcels at home in Austria and for not freaking out!
- Amy and Steve for pushing over several months to keep focus on the organisation
- Xavier, for trusting me to be in France in June and be his best man at his wedding
- Cyril, for posting our tracks on the blog
- Louis, for looking into getting Continental to sponsor us
- Romain, for getting us the Turkmen visas
- My friends for all telling me "DO IT"!
- Claudio von Planta, Sambor and Maciej for sharing their great experiences on their numerous motorbike trips
- Henry, Yau and Tan from BMW HK for their support with the bike, the preparation and the bike sale
- Yasser, Mark, Michael and Christoph from BMW Munich for their help with all the accessories and the last minute bike purchase
- Bertrand and Alice for your help with the tyres in Almaty