While we are all waiting from an update from Duncan and Yuri, Ruben an Rianne have released the next compilation clip. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/FietsenNaarNepal#p/a/u/0/iHhxvbuJteY

Dear all,

I've just been told my visa request for Iran has been rejected. They didn't even bother to explain why. Chances are we'll be spending the rest of our journey in Turkey. As the Middle East is still in turmoil we don't think it wise to head south. A possible alternative would be: Caucasus => Caspian Sea => Kazakhstan, but we are not informed well enough about this option to rely on it blindly. Will keep you posted!

Yuri

Dear all,

(tip: click for English)

Voici mon dernier message de ce 'voyage au Nepal'. Ce n'est pas vraiment un voyage, parce que maintenant je ne voyage pas beaucoup, et ce n'est pas vraiment au Nepal, parce que je n'ai pas réussi d'aller plus loin que la frontière de France et Italie). Parce que j'ai passé beaucoup du temps dans mon pays favorit, j'essaye d'écrire un petit message en français pour tout les amis français qui j'ai rencontrés sur la route.

Because Yuri and Duncan were busy arranginging their visa's I went ahead an posted the two new video's. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdhGQcwD2T4&feature=related

This is video number three uploaded 30th of March:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARp8XMY1JFs

Yesterday Yuri and I decided - it's time for us to leave this city. By 15:30 today we'll take the ferry to a city south of Istanbul, Yalova, from where on we decide whether we will leave the visa be and continue our tour till we've seen all of Turkey, or whether we will return to Istanbul later on to pick up our one way ticket to Persia. If there will be a ticket available for us of course. Without getting in to details - if you're planning to get a visa for Iran, prepare for a bit of patience.

Because Yuri and I are stuck in Istanbul waiting for our Iranian visas to come through, I have had some time to update just about all of the pictures up till now. You'll find them on my picasa, located here.

As some may know from the new pictures I uploaded, I went hiking a week ago. Unlike my earlier hiking experiences in France this year, this did not at all turn out to be good for my knees. The inflammation in the tendons of my knees is not over yet, nor is the inflammation in my Achilles tendons that I developed in March.

Because of some time pressure in reaching Istanbul 'in time' (read: incoming girlfriends), Yuri and I cheated a bit the last two days. First off we travelled almost the whole of Montenegro by bus, to sleep in it's capital Podgorica. We were allowed to sleep on the abandoned upper floor of a house still under construction - a luxurious sleepover compared to camping in one of the dark wastelands surrounding the city. The next morning we woke up to find our coffees ready and afterward headed for the border with Albania. What awaited us was beyond my wildest expectations: