We made it to Mongolia! Our border crossing near Tashanta took some time, but again everybody on both sides was very friendly and we had no issues at...

Together with the Majors, we went to a small lake that we decided would be our meeting point after crossing the border. We were all very happy to have...

We spent two nights at that lake and had good fun together. The wind was very kiteable and so we got our kite out again.

Racki started our new water kefir, whom we named Mongo-Fir (aka Mongo). The day after we had crossed the border, the border was closed because of...

So we decided to take the northern main road of Mongolia. What a road... Before we started, we stocked up our supplies at the shops of the small...

So we started our journey on the northern road and... We had heard a lot about Mongolian roads from friends who had visited Mongolia before and I have...

From iOverlander and the map apps, we knew that we would have to cross a pretty big river that had multiple options for crossing. So Racki and I went...

We kept driving for a bit more and found a place in the steppe to camp. Around us was nothing but the beautiful mountains in the distance.

We played some boules and had good fun with that.

After a while, we had come up with more and more exotic ways to play it. It was hilarious.

And beautiful.

When we continued the next day, Racki tried to localize the source of a disturbing plastic squeaking noise we had. It was not always an easy job to...

The track was sometimes pretty nasty with corrugations and stones, but manageable. More a matter of patience than crazy off-road obstacles.

And then we reached this wonderful lake!

The reflections of the mountains were amazing! Reminded me of Canada.

All three of us parked together, and we had a beautiful bird friend who was around us most of the time.

These birds turned out to be one of the most fascinating things in Mongolia for me. This majestic one we called Boris.

One day, Racki and I did a small hike to get a wider view. All the lines in the photo are potential off-road tracks from which you could choose. Some...

Merel and Racki did some jewelry craftsmanship together.

Together we fixed the tent fabric of Rosinante.

And after that was done, I found a leak in our windshield washer tank. Very satisfying.

We had a very good time together...

...at this magnificent place, Lake Uureg.

And we had an absolutely hilarious karaoke party as well! It was hilarious!

Our border crossing from Kazakhstan to Russia at the small town called Mikhailovka went very well. We had to unpack a lot of boxes and stuff from...

When we arrived at the location, we were first a bit disappointed because the whole area was fenced and the main gate closed. But while searching for...

The routes were all in very good condition and on limestone crags which were spread over the area. It looked very nice.

We got quickly into climbing on these crags even though the Russian difficulty ratings were, as always, very optimistic, and in the shade the rock was...

There were very interesting routes. Some felt a bit like tufa climbing in Thailand and Malaysia. On two routes I was suffering a lot. Especially one...

We continued our transit through Russia and went in the direction of a town called Belokuricha. In the town, we went for groceries which was...

In the town, we met again with Merel and Leon, our climbing friends from the Netherlands.

The climbing crags were located in a very beautiful and dense forest. It was a very nice and natural place.

The patterns on the rocks were amazing!

And we all had a good time climbing, with some frustrations and panic attacks and lots of joy.

The mosquitoes were crazy and the only things protecting us were mosquito repellent from Thailand and smoke.

Merel and Leon left after one day and Racki and I continued climbing for some more days. This route was my favorite one. I was not so used to climbing...

And we celebrated our BenDy (BENni + cinDY) anniversary with drinks and a nice view.

We met a cute little friend in the woods and off we went in the direction of the border to Mongolia.

On the way to the border, we did only one more proper stop at a sightseeing spot called Mars.

The weather was changing a lot and the rocks looked interesting.

Everything was prepared in the style of old spaceships and planet Mars expeditions.

We took my little astronaut friend Astrid with us for some photos.

She's a climber as well.

And likes to chill. At this Mars place, we met Tanja and Marcel for the first time in real life after Racki had already been messaging with them for...

After preparing Rosinante, getting our Russian transit visa, and choosing an agency for our stays in China, and all the activities in Almaty and...

On our way out of Almaty, we went to a mechanic who we got recommended by Kasia and Michael. That mechanic was supposed to help us getting a technical...

We continued our travels, but wait, what were these boards next to the highway in Kazakhstan about? Recycling? ...

... No littering?! Were we still in Kazakhstan? Normally, here the only one caring about stuff like that was the wind. ...

Safety? This couldn't be Kazakhstan!

But it was. And we found our first real overlanding camp spot on our way to the north east of Kazakhstan. It was awesome!

The overlanding travels had us back and we were driving a lot to make it to the north east of Kazakhstan.

Eventually we arrived at the Lake Markakol. But it was very different than what we knew from the stan countries: we were not allowed to drive to the...

It was a beautiful lake for sure.

But having a really nice view was only possible to hike and fight our way through a lot of bushes. See our hike on komoot.

We liked it: back in the stans, hiking, nature... beautiful. But I personally would not recommend Markakol Lake. There are so many lakes that are more...

From the lake, we went into the steppe and found this place!

Astonishing!

Such nice formations!

And the colors!

We loved all the details.

And parked right next to the rocks.

And the sunsets were so beautiful as well!

And there were stars all over the sky!

We continued ...

... to more rocks in the steppe.

Nice colors.

Next to the big Lake Zaysan.

Unfortunately thousands of grass hoppers lost their lives in Rosinante's wheels.

Another beautiful camp spot with a very good internet connection for Racki to work online.

And this was our last camp spot before entering Russia. It was beautiful and close to the border.

And of course I was practicing playing the guitar almost every day.

In between all the things we did in Almaty, we went to Tamgaly Tas to climb there again. And this time I had my favorite birthday present with me: a...

The climbing felt great again. And it was interesting to climb on these rocks again. To me, it felt in a way easier and simpler than the climbing in...

A lot of friends came to visit us in Tamgaly. It was very nice. For a couple of days, our friends, the Startroopies (Sarah and Wouter) joined us, and...

His father celebrated his 65th birthday with us. It was very nice. And the Startroopies gifted us another special chalk bag: a yeti-style one!

And the same day, he tried sport climbing for the first time.

One day, our friends "The Gügels" visited us. Together we went for some climbing, and the boys tried to catch some fish. Together we figured out a...

The dinosaur tail found a lot of friends, and one day, I lent it to a Kazakh climber who gifted me a dino shoe sticker for that. Dino fans!

Merel, Leon, Arni, and his dog Cleo joined us as well, and we climbed a whole lot!

Everybody had a good time, and it was so nice to see everybody continuing the climbing experience. Arni especially got really into it after trying...

Something was different in Tamgaly than last year: our stray dog gang was missing. But one day, all of a sudden, they were all back and as crazy and...

We had a look at a nice mountaineering competition of a mountaineering club from Almaty.

In between, I got a new guitar: Phoebe! Absolutely beautiful and super nice. I kept practicing almost every day. And Racki and I decided to change...

Together with the Startroopies, Merel, and Leon, we had a fantastic karaoke night! It was hilarious: riverside motherfucker!

.webp) And we had some minor sandstorms! Interesting to have about 15% humidity again after 90% in Southeast Asia.

One day when I was belaying Racki, I had a look around and discovered that some Kazakhs had somehow managed to drive their pretty small car pretty...

Racki and I climbed a lot of newly bolted routes and older routes we had never done before. I was especially happy with two more 7a routes which took...

We made it back to Kazakhstan and of course our first stop was at Gleb's place to meet our friend and reunite with Rosinante and our plants Georgia...

And for that, she had earned the colorful magnet we got for her in Malaysia, which fit very well into her collection, even more.

After that, we met Arni at his new, big, and nice home.

The house was very nice and some walls were made the Kazakh way: absolute perfection.

We lived in his big yard and started preparing Rosinante for continuing our car life.

First, we had Rosinante's bushings in the lower suspension arms in the front changed again: cheap, crappy Kyrgyz bushings out, new expensive German...

Some teeth cleaning for us and for Racki hours of drilling: all new and shiny.

And we went collecting shirts that we had designed for our birthdays. Racki got "Climber's Life" in the style of the Stranger Things logo and I got...

We went to the famous Atakent Mall parking lot where a lot of foreign campers meet during the season. But this time we were alone. At least until...

My birthday with good friends at a nice pizza place and awesome presents.

As always in spring, there was Nauryz in Kazakhstan.

It was nice as always: people got active after the winter. A nice feeling of spring.

We met again with Maria, our good friend, and had a good time at the festival ...

... and in the bars of Almaty.

At Arni's place, we did a lot of stuff for Rosinante. And we had a lot of fun doing so because Arni had a lot of ideas and was always motivated to try...

Fixing our light in Arni's workshop.

Getting a present for fixes on the way.

After some days, Harry, a friend of Arni, came to visit him and he helped us as well. Here they are fixing the hinge of our cabin hatch.

Unfortunately, my phone had a severe accident and was almost completely unusable. So the search for a repair shop or a new phone started... Not easy...

Months ago, one of Rosinante's rear shock absorbers had started leaking. These shock absorbers were special ones from a German manufacturer called...

We ordered some static lifts to Arni's place and together we did a good job swapping the shock absorbers and leaf springs.

We installed an additional intake for our diesel heater and a switch so that we could switch between heating up the air from outside or inside or...

We rearranged the button to switch the charging of our living battery with Rosinante's alternator.

And Arni made us a very special and beautiful new emblem for Rosinante!

Lovely and unique. 3D scanned, modeled, and made with love.

One evening, we met Gleb, his girlfriend, and his mother together with Maria to thank them again for taking care of our cars when we weren't in...

Like every year, Racki and I attended the Wings for Life run. We decided to join a bigger event in a small stadium in Almaty because of the rain.

And again we were not alone: Arni, another traveler (not in the photo), and our friend Abubakar in Tajikistan (running in Tajikistan) joined us....

At Arni's place, we did several barbecues. Our good friends Merel and Leon came back to Almaty as well, and Kasia and Michael joined us too. Together...

Paola and Igel, whom we got to know last year in Almaty, visited Arni's home as well. They had to sort out some topics with their unique camper truck...

Another evening, we went to an electro music party. Normally, I like parties like this, but the circumstances were... odd. Racki, Merel, and Leon went...

We finally made it to Tonsai and Railay! The climbing rocks looked amazing from a distance already! And I remembered being on Tonsai twelve years ago...

The tourist village on Railay was absolutely touristy with all the bars, marijuana shops, accommodations, and restaurants next to each other.

A lot of longtail boats waiting for passengers to Tonsai or the next city.

The beach and one of the iconic climbing crags of Tonsai.

The beach of Tonsai. Tonsai has an interesting story: first, all the small hippie-style bars and accommodations had developed next to the beach as...

Our first bungalow at Tonsai Basecamp, a well-known climbers' accommodation. As usual, electricity was only available from evening to morning because...

It was an ok accommodation, but Basecamp had seen better days, for sure. A lot of things were pretty run down, and for us, the atmosphere felt quite...

Monkeys on the Tonsai wall.

Graffiti and paintings on the Tonsai wall.

One of my favorites.

The hippie-style accommodations, not too crowded.

A boulder cave.

We only had to wait once to climb a route, and it only got crowded when guided climbing groups used an area.

It was beautiful, and some areas were only climbable during low tide.

The friends we had met before at Spirit Mountain had brought us our climbing gear, and together we did a lot of climbs.

One time, we got caught by heavy tropical rain in a multi-pitch area and got trapped until it finished.

At the hippie bars.

The scenery was amazing.

At the main beach of Railay, it got crowded with beach tourists right next to the climbing routes.

The famous penis cave. Jokes and funny things were pretty much all around Tonsai and Railay.

The view from one of the caves.

Our friends were visited by another friend, and together we explored the caves, did some climbing, and hung around.

One night, we went to a bar on Railay where a very good guitar player gave a concert, and we got a cocktail for free.

Racki got a new bikini, and we enjoyed our time.

We found a cheaper bungalow at Mama Chicken, the famous restaurant and low-budget accommodation. It was about 12 Euros per night. It was not possible...

After over ten years of wearing one of my favorite t-shirts, it was completely falling apart and time to say goodbye.

This route was one of my favorites of all time!

It looked and felt amazing to climb, and the view was incredible. Partly it was like climbing a dragon's mouth.

One day, the climbing went pretty late.

Just for the photo: I couldn't do more than one move on that overhang.

A fire show on Tonsai.

Hanging around with other climbing friends we had met.

And then it was time to leave for Krabi airport and fly back to Kazakhstan.

On Ko Lanta we tried to find a cheap transfer to our next destination: Ko Libong. The guy of the cheapest agency we found, got a bit confused and...

On the ferry, there was a Thai very proud of how much fruits he was able to load on his pickup truck. He told me it was three tons. Maybe it was a...

After the taxi, we took a short ride with a long tail boat and ...

... arrived at our beach.

Especially on high tide, it was a wonderful and calm beach and our accommodation was very nice as well.

The last funny swimming goggles photo for our collection.

We gathered some other tourists in a big group and did a super nice snorkeling trip to a group of isolated, remote islands.

The trip took some time, ...

... but then we arrived, ...

... and Racki went off for her first proper snorkeling experience.

We had a good time.

The water was beautiful.

And although there were other tourists groups around, it was never too crowded.

After hanging around, we had ...

... a snack and went back.

Everybody was very happy with the trip and in the end some had seen a shark, some a stingray, and some a sea turtle.

Nice moon eclipse at the beach.

In contrast to Ko Lanta, Ko Libong was very calm and peaceful. Being closer to Malaysia, more locals were Muslims. Alcohol was less present, but...

We enjoyed this calmness a lot.

And had such a good time together.

The trash had to get sorted and then driven back to the mainland. No clue what they were doing with it then, but the islands were all very clean.

And after some days on Ko Libong, we took a speedboat to our next destinations: Michele went to another small island and Racki and I continued to our...

And of course Ko Lanta has sticky rice with mango and coconut sauce!

We had booked a bungalow accommodation for Michele and ...

... Racki and I found a pretty nice spot for our tent. With shade, next to the sea, and not too far from Michele's bungalow.

One day, we rented scooters and went around the island. This was a nice scooter shop for Zuckerwatte.

Racki and I went to the elephant's sanctuary of Ko Lanta, but didn't want to pay the pretty high entrance fee. So we watched these majestic creatures...

But still, it was so nice to see them. Every elephant had his own human guardian.

After that we went to a popular small jungle hike ...

... to a beautiful waterfall.

Nice and refreshing.

On the way back from the waterfall, we met a gang of monkeys.

Racki trying to become one of the monkey gang.

A huge, beautiful jungle tree.

We had to pay an entrance fee for the first hike and a photo of us with the guard would give us free access for the other famous hike of Ko Lanta.

The second hike south of Ko Lanta was sometimes pretty steep but I liked the first one more.

But there was another nice, big jungle tree on the second hike as well.

With interesting skin.

And a nice beach.

After that beach, we went for another beach for the sunset.

There were real waves and we had a lot of fun and a absolutely nice sunset.

After we came back, there was quite nice electronic party at Michele's accomodation.

And the next day we spent at the nice natural beach next to our tent, ....

.... did some t-shirt shopping, ....

... and witnessed a very instagrammable proposal at the beach.

During our stay on Ko Lanta, there was a big Thai biker festival with interesting Giger-style motorcycles, predator masks and other funny stuff.

There were a lot of biker chapters with all their individual leather jackets and quite nice Thai rock music.

We picked up Michele, one of my best friends from Germany at the Krabi Airport and went for a snack at the night market: Mango with sticky rice and...

All these different things to try... During our time in Malaysia and Thailand, I ate meat again just to be able to try different things, but still...

Nice road shop.

Our accommodation for the night had some funny feature: Toilet paper came out of this camera.

Our view from our room. But the receptionist was very nice, friendly, and helpful.

Racki found a super beautiful, handmade dress in the small shop of an extortionary cute women.

Almost the same hair cuts.

And off we went with our first ferry boat.

Already seeing the rocks of the world-famous climbing areas Tonsai and Railey in the distance.

The first long tail boat heading for Ko Pu.

On Ko Pu we found our first scooter taxi.

The scooter had a hard time with the four of us and all the luggage, but the driver was all positive that it would make it.

We made it to our first bungalow resort but were quite confused because the location of the resort was far from what they had advertised on...

And a nice cocktail bar.

And our first hippie-style bar. I love these bars with their pretty individual construction-style.

One day, we rented scooters and drove the the trailhead of a nice hike to a small hilltop to have a view over Ko Pu.

The hike was pretty nice and some parts were quite steep. Here it is on komoot.com.

On the way, we met another tourist who had decided to do that hike barefoot. Not being very experienced with going barefoot, there might been some...

But we made it all to the top.

And back down.

We took our scooters around the island and found lots of nice places.

An nice evening with cocktails of questionable ingredients and quality but a lot of fun.

Michele and I practiced a lot with my guitar.

And my favorite party night in the Rock Bar.

The owner of the Rock Bar and his reggae band played longer than four hours and we were dancing all the time. It was awesome and especially their...

This nice local was all the time dancing with a winter hat.

Michele bought some sexy swimming goggles.

And then it was time for boarding the ferry to the next island. On the way, we passed this well parked sailing boat.

We took the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Krabi in Thailand. Our first destination was the climbing area called Spirit Mountain. See it on thecrag.com....

The property was very nicely built and really followed a lot and clever ecological guidelines.

Our tent life home about 50 meters away from the climbing routes.

The routes were awesome and we enjoyed the climbing a lot and it was nice to discover the different climbing sectors around the whole crag.

Tufa-style!

A pig living in the wall.

And there were quite some other climbers which we really liked after mostly climbing alone in Malaysia. We met another couple from Germany and became...

One special route was going up a liana.

On the top of the liana.

This was the spirit mountain from a distance.

We loved our little climbing oasis.

With the cat friends, ...

... the dog friends, ...

... and it good vibes and friendly Thais and other visitors.

For food, we went to the main road and the restaurants there. The distance was about four kilometers but sometimes a friendly Thai on a scooter picked...

The way was worth it.

Beer advertisement.

And some leaf spring upgrade inspiration for Rosinante.

Together with Anja and Miri, we went to Kuala Lumpur where we picked up Ufuk, another of Racki's best friends, at the airport. From the airport, we...

... the pool had a really magnificent view on the towers.

Our apartment had an very interesting location. On one side the new modern city with all the skyscrapers etc. and on the other was the rest of the...

This second part really looked like the villages and little towns which Racki and I had visited before in Malaysia. Small shops, small roads, small...

But the view on the towers never got old as well. No matter what weather.

Once, we had a crazy thunderstorm with a whole lot of lightnings hitting the skyscrapers going on. It was very nice and impressive!

The others went to the bridge of the towers, the observation deck and the observation deck of the KL tower but Racki and I felt pretty fed up with...

But of course we had a look at a whole lot of places. Some we had seen before with other friends.

Flamed marshmallow covered ice cream!

Coincidentally the opening show for the upcoming MotoGP season took place in Kuala Lumpur and we spend some time watching and hearing these crazy...

We had a great time together and experienced a whole lot and I loved to get to know some of Racki's friends.

But then it was time for Anja and Miri to leave for Germany. But Ufuk, Racki and I continued our trip to the west coast.

We got an accommodation at the sea. Pretty run down with a cockroach friend, but ok. The cockroach was actually one of the biggest we had ever seen.

We had a good and relaxed time.

Beautiful sunsets on the sunset side of Malaysia.

But honestly I think Port Dickson is a pretty uninteresting town on it's own: a couple of coffee shops, other shops and no nice beaches.

But there are beautiful beaches to discover if you leave the town.

This one was our favorite.

Nice swinging.

Interesting hiking.

And even some nice climbing. Ufuk did really good!

Here is our tour on komoot.

My shoe sticker collection grew more and more.

And more sticky rice with mango and coconut sauce! It can never be enough!

One of the signature dishes of Malaysia: Steamboat grill menu which you are cooking and grilling by your own on your table.

A last sunset together with Ufuk and the end of a very good time with her. Next stop for us: T-Hailand.

After some climbing, we met Racki's friends Anja and Miri who had arrived on Penang a few days ago, relaxed a bit in a pretty fancy hotel, and were...

First stop: A mangrove forest park with lots of green, ...

... monitor lizards, ...

... mud slippers, who were seem to like fighting with each other, ... ...

... or settle conflicts of other species, ...

... and a new kind of friend we had not seen so far in Malaysia.

Anja and Miri booked a very nice accommodation in Ipoh for all of us and especially the view for the sunsets was awesome.

Racki found a promising waterfall tour of the main tourist attractions on Google Maps and so we went for a nice jungle hike.

No tourists, only locals working and living.

Nice bamboo!

Huge, palm-sized ...

... and beautiful butterflies and after some challenging terrain, a fall on slippery stones ...

... we arrived one of the most beautiful waterfalls we've ever seen!

Happy waterfall hikers! Here is our tour on komoot.

Next stop at one of the most disturbing places I've ever visited in my life! From the outside it looked mostly like a chocolate museum. Nice chocolate...

After the sadness of the last stop, we went to our new accommodation. We shared the outside with a lot of monkeys! One clever monkey mother managed to...

These monkeys looked like the Grinch and the ai bot made them look like him even more.

We did a boat trip to see some bioluminescent plankton and that looked pretty awesome.

Some more graffiti art.

And a trip into the largest population of fireflies. There were millions of them!

And after that, we did a small trip to some local springs.

After the Kleinis had left us and took an airplane to Kuala Lumpur, we went to a nice little climbing area in George Town: Jesselton Park. We pitched...

Not too many routes, but a lot of shade and very silent. And of course it felt very good to climb again! The wall was very different than the other...

Odin (a friend we've met at Toni's Guesthouse and who went with us to the Thaipusam) came visiting us and had his first climbing experiences.

We had to clean the easiest routes because the locals didn't really use them and had a good time.

And in the evening Racki and I went to the still ongoing Thaipusam to have some dinner and witness the festivities some more.

Next we went to the biggest temple on Penang, the Kek Lok Si Temple. It was so beautiful!

Getting some good spirits.

Made of jade.

About 10.000 buddha statues in one of the buildings.

After the temple, we joint the Thaipusam festival. It is one of the major Tamil Hindu festivals with one too one and a half million visitors and it...

Holy cows.

At the wagons, people donated money, food, and all kind of things and got blessings for themselves and their children in return.

Smashing coconuts was one of the main activities for a fortunate live. The coconuts actually have a deeper meaning. It's interesting. Google it.

Small temples all over the place.

More coconut smashing!

And then we reached the area of the main activities! It was crazy! People carrying dragons, dancing, praying, super loud modernized, electronic,...

... some carried big, self-made things (about 30 kilos heavy) on their backs, ...

... some put weighs on hooks through their skin, some carried blessed milk, and more dancing, chanting and everything! See the video at the end of...

We had a good time! It was fascinating and kind of magical.

And a lot of food: a lot of the companies of Penang were offering food of all kinds for free.

And of course there were more temples.

And then we reached the destination of all the visitors of the festival: the Arulmigu Sri Balathandayuthapani Temple (Waterfall Hilltop Temple)....

And in the temple on the top of the hill, after waiting in line, the ones who carried the blessed milk, gave it to the helping people, ...

... who then were pouring the milk over the main deity statues of Lord Murugan (the Hindu god of youth, war, and virtue). Thousands of liters of milk.

It was fascinating and a nice final experience with the Kleinis before the left for Kuala Lumpur. {{< youtube BD0bFkvXrwQ >}}

Our luxurious bus brought us on the Penang peninsula which was a pretty touristic and crowded place.

But we found a very nice accommodation: Tony's guesthouse. It was such a nice and calm place with a big community kitchen, eating table and...

Especially meeting somebody of the rainbow family gave us a nice and interesting perspective on life and the balancing and struggling between planning...

And there were a whole lot of graffiti arts at the whole place.

Of course we went to the beach on which some interesting things got stuck ...

... or constructed.

And the famous cat beach, a medical station and temporary accommodation for cats which helps them a lot.

About ten cats per visitor.

In the canals there were a lot and very big monitor lizards.

But we sticked to the mango, sticky rice with coconut sauce.

The other day, we went to the monkey beach.

A touristic, but still beautiful place.

With a lot of monkeys who looked kind of nice and innocent like always ...

... until they attack you to steal your food, drinks or whatever. One grabbed me on my leg which let me to improve my defensive strategy: louder...

We visited a beautiful botanical garden.

Had our feet cleaned.

And almost got stuck in the children slides.

On the way to a hike, the door of the bus broke down and we helped our thankful driver to repair it and were able to continue our ride.

The hike was interesting and nice and it felt very good to have some exercise-like movement again.

The locals stayed mostly at the artificial swimming ponds in the river and we tried the hiking paths.

And met a beautiful lizard.

And a nice view. Here is our tour on komoot.

We took a long distance bus to the east coast of Malaysia. This time it was a really luxurious bus. A lot of space, adjustable air condition. We were...

We arrived at the coast and this one was very different. There were waves which reminded us of the Atlantic.

Our accommodation was still ok for us but more things than usual were broken and the balcony they praised on booking.com was not really existing. But...

Now that we were at the east coast of Malaysia, Racki and I wanted to see a nice sunrise and so we went up early, took our breakfast to the beach and...

The locals were observing us and two men started to collect trash as well and dealt with it in the Malaysian way: burning everything right at the...

An elderly lady came by and was very motivated to take a lot of photos with us. She was very cute and it was interesting that she was so happy to take...

We took a nice walk in the town and saw all kinds of interesting things.

Scooter benzene in glass bottles at the mini market.

And we were always on the hunt for mango with sticky rice and coconut sauce.

Once, when we had lunch, the locals from the hardware store on the other side of the road did a bit too well in burning there trash and had to move...

More graffiti streets with beautiful ...

... sweet ...

... political ...

... and creative graffitis.

And of course there was a lot of very delicious food and ...

... cute kittens!

We visited a Buddhist temple ...

... with a beautiful statue.

A colorful interior.

Interesting paintings.

And then we wanted to visit the big local mosque. It turned out that it was not a very touristic one. But the locals there were super friendly and...

They were very eager to take photos with us and we loved that they were so open and happy to show us their holy place and tell us how they are...

We went with the minivan from Kuala Lumpur to the long tail boat and then further up the river into the biggest national park of Malaysia: Taman...

The ride with the boat took quite a while and it was nice to observe the shore, the jungle and how the driver had to put quite some effort to find the...

The restaurants at the heart of the tourist area were mostly on floating platforms.

On the search for the best french fries.

Our accommodation was very nice but the geckos did not enjoy their stay so much. At least not the ones getting trapped in the fuse box.

Jungle explorers.

In the junge.

We found a lot of interesting stuff, sounds, and animals.

Some suckers were not our friends.

One evening, we went to an observation post and waited and observed for a hour in the hopes of seeing some jungle elephants ...

... but didn't see any.

On a guided night tour we saw a lot of interesting animals. These are sleeping birds.

Techno party scorpion.

Our guide showed us a photo of the biggest flooding that took place in Taman Negara in 2014 and was about 75 meters high.

To go into the national park, we had to take a boat to cross the river.

Dumbfuckery all the time!

Meeting other travelers.

The jungle rollercoasters ...

... and highways.

My favorites: the big trees.

Some up to 80 meters high.

Some leaning over.

Back to Kuala Lumpur and the monkeys had followed us into the city. It was interesting: the locals fed them with bubble tea and chips and of course...

Then we picked up Kleini Two (aka Ben) from the airport. He is a good friend of Racki and brought all kinds of gifts from Germany.

Together we went to the Batu Caves, the same attraction we went with Rackis brother before. But again it was nice. And this time the big golden statue...

We had all the different food Kuala Lumpur had to offer. Once we went to an Indian restaurant and Rackis meal was by far the spiciest we ever tried....

Little India.

A scooter peeing while doing a handstand.

The famous PETRONAS Twin Towers as a nice reflection.

Back in our favorite bar this time the band played our favorite song Hooked On A Feeling 🥳

Racki made a beautiful and spacy necklace 💫

The accommodations we had with Ben, were nice. This one had a pretty big pool.

On the satellite photos this palm shaped resort looked interesting.

In reality I did not like it. Very artificial. Packed and weird.

And then we picked up Kleini One (aka Moni, Ben's girlfriend) 🤗

Moni is vegan and we were quite positive that it would be possible to get something to eat for her in the restaurants. And it turned out that it was...

Next stop Taman Megara, the biggest national park of Malaysia 🚀

We went to Baling for rock climbing, but there was a lot more to see. This was a projection on the main rock cliff.

There were beautiful graffiti arts.

And while taking a walk, we came across this little cafe. It was closed but still the owners allowed us to have a look around.

A lot of the art was about mountaineering and climbing.

We went to Baling to try the next climbing area called Lubuk Pedati (see it on thecrag.com). After one night at the official camp spot right next to...

The bridge connecting both sides of the river was broken but the locals already started repairing it. Crossing the river by foot was possible through...

The routes were very awesome! Especially the trees growing next to the crag and connecting to the rock looked fantastic. We did a lot of 3D climbing...

One day, we did a small hike and visited some of the caves.

Beautiful stones.

And alien artifacts.

And we met this huge tree. Racki is standing beside it to indicate its hugeness.

One of the fattest lianes we had met so far.

During our time in Baling, I got pretty ill and could not climb for more than a week. So we moved from our tent to a bungalow.

And we found the cheapest accommodation for about 11 Euro per night.

The protection foil has to stay, of course 😁

The locals were friendly and interested as always. Here Racki is playing Badminton with local girls 🤗

Every evening we went to one of the cheap authentic restaurants and for some meeting western tourists was quite a highlight. So there were a lot of...

From Merapoh we took a train and a long distance bus back to Kuala Lumpur to celebrate New Years Eve. We found some interesting "German" advertisement...

And the remnants of Christmas in Asian style🎄

And a nice Mediterranean restaurant with delicious food, live music ...

... and a good cocktail deal 🥳

On the roof terrace of one of the many malls, we enjoyed a funny Asian concert 🎶

The Maybank tower displayed a sand clock...

... and at midnight there were some but not too crazy fireworks 🎇

We met a lot of nice people 🤗

Got a bit confused while searching for another party spot 🙃

But eventually found the main party area which reminded me quite a bit of the Reeperbahn in Hamburg but in a different style 💃🕺

This was our next aquarium without any outside windows for the new years eve time 😁

From Gua Musang we went to Merapoh which was close by and a village known for being close to the biggest Taman Negara (national park) in Malaysia and...

The first climbing sector we visited was called Gua Lima ("cave five").

In the beginning of our time in Merapoh, the rain created some ponds we had to cross to reach the climbing routes.

Especially Racki attracted a lot of these leaches in different sizes. I only got a few.

At the end of our stay, it was all dry again.

In the beginning the crag was partly wet but dried up more over the days.

Climbing was awesome 🥳

The highest routes went up to the top of the wall 🧱

From up there, the view was amazing 🤩

As a belayer, we were always accompanied by different insects. Of course, there were mosquitos everywhere but we liked these jungle nymphs the most.

This impressive little one is a jungle nymph in its last stage. It looked super alien 👽

Gua Bekong was the next climbing sector we visited.

It was very nice but most of the routes were out of our difficulty range. We built up our climbing capabilities and felt really good and fit 🥳

But we did the easier ones and learned a lot.

Some days we met up with Alex who bolted all the routes in Merapoh. It was an interesting guy with a lot to do and a lot of motivation for bolting and...

The weather was nice all the time which was super good after the days of concessive days of rain 🌞

On our walks to the different climbing sectors we saw a lot of beautiful Malay homes with beautiful gardens 🌺

Impressions.

And big, big cows with a whole lot of skin 😀

Our first apartment after the camping in Gua Musang had an ac which we used to dry all our stuff.

This was our tower for the water kettle because its cable was too short 😁

The sink had an interesting outflow which led straight on the ground 🙃

Our second accommodation was the cheapest we could find: five Euro per person and night. It was just on the main road. The toilets and showers were...

In our room, we had this mosquito net. We called it the Käseglocke 🤣

Breakfast we always made ourselves and dinner we mostly had at one of the many small restaurants.

After some days we found our favorite ones. And the locals were always very curious about us because they did not have so many international tourists...

One day we went into the famous Taman Negara which is the biggest national park in Malaysia. On the way there, we passed a lot of Plantages ...

... what made the beautiful rain forest even more beautiful. Because of the rainy season, only the tree top walk was open but it was absolutely worth...

And the highest platform was 32 meters high 🤩

This was one of the biggest trees seen from the top. It was massive and very impressive. The photos can't transport how big it was. One of the...

These trees grew up to 80 meters 🚀

From Kuala Lumpur we took a bus to Gua Musang. On the booking website, it said the bus would take five hours. A taxi driver told us that it would take...

There were basically routes around the whole crag and right through the crag went a tunnel which was the main attraction for none climbing visitors 🙂

During our six day stay, it rained a lot. It was still rainy season so it was not a big surprise. But we climbed the front of the crag on a dry day...

We met a Malay climber couple and had good fun climbing 🧗‍♂️

This was the map of the area where the climbing crag was located 🗺️

At first we pitched up our tent on an ordinary tent pitch ...

... and used the nearby pavilion to hang out and...

... cook 🏡

We had some long...

... and stinky friends 🦨

And when the rain came...

... we moved our tent in one of the huge pavilions 🎊

It was rather spacious 😅

We had a monkey family living with us in the camping area and sometimes they were running and jumping from our roof in the trees and back again 🦘

And once they stole our food 🤣

On Racki's birthday we wanted to get some drinks and walked to the only market that sold alcohol. That one had a small Chinese temple as well and we...

The shop owner and a customer were very nice and we had some interesting topics to talk about 😀

The guest insisted to give us a ride back to a restaurant close to our camp spot and gifted Racki a birthday cake and a rose on the way there 🍰

Racki's birthday dinner...

... and birthday cake and beer 🎂

Back in Kazakhstan, we decided to go to Malaysia because there were a lot of climbing routes. More than in Vietnam for example. After we arrived, we...

There were a lot of interesting routes and we met some local climbers who helped us reading the topo and gave us some recommendations. Some routes...

The access to the Volleyball Site crag (open on thecrag.com) was very special. On the photo you see a restaurant and event place and behind that is...

To access it, you have to go through the restaurant and on the roof of one of their buildings everything starts. When we arrived there, it was a nice...

The cheapest place to stay we found, was the ARK BATU CAVES HOTEL (see it on Google Maps) which was not too far from the climbing crags. It was 70RM...

But the walk to the crags was easy and not too long and that was the most important to us. Actually the walk got quite longer because we had to...

We went back to Kuala Lumpur and spent some hours in the KLCC Aquarium 🐠

I found the sharks, ...

... turtles, ...

... and rays the most impressive 🤩

The interiors of the aquariums appeared sometimes a bit sterile 🛀🏽

But it was nice ...

to see all these different animals 🙂

Especially the crazy looking ones like these ones sticking in the ground, ...

... or this funny fellow 😄

😳

But always asking myself how it is for these animals being locked down in these small pools 🤔

These were the big insects making a lot of the loud sounds in the jungle 🔊

😄

And there were some rare dinosaurs as well 🤣

We had a last, very delicious dinner together in an Indian restaurant, ...

... some last impressions of the skyscrapers, the jungle, ...

... and the contrasts between old and new, ...

... and then Tom had to leave and fly back to Germany. We had a great time together with a lot of discoveries and experiences 🤗

We visited a mangrove forest where we could walk through this unique ecosystem without destroying it even more than we humans already have 🪾

It looked interesting at first glance but the really interesting stuff we found when having a closer look 😳

There was a river bed to observe as well 🙂

And there were a lot of monkeys ...

... chilling and socializing on the paths ...

... watching over his gang and getting tired 😴

But the most interesting creatures we could observe after having a closer look at the ground 😀

They looked pretty alien ...

... and were jumping in and out of there mud holes 🏠

And the crabs had very different colors ....

... nice blue ...

... big claws ...

... some had dates ...

... and some happy time together 😁

Oh, and there were reptiles too 🦎

Some were fighting ...

... and others were just strolling around. Warans were my favorite ❤️!

We took two busses from the Cameron Highlands to the coast. The first one was very comfortable and the second an older line bus. The driver delivered...

As always, we took the cheapest apartment we could find. This one was nice and had a nice view. No hot plate, but we managed to buy a gas canister and...

The view was very beautiful and several times we spotted a pretty big waran. We called her Clementine 🐊

It was beautiful at night as well. The whole apartment complex was almost abandoned for most of our time there. So we had the pool just for us 🌌

We found a nice restaurant and had very good dinners there 🥳

Tom and I had some fish 🐟

And on the small Marina Island, which seemed to be an artificial Resort Island, was this: the funtasiland! The most neon place we have ever seen! The...

One day we went into the small town of Lumut. Very much deserted in the off season 😁

With nice graffiti pictures ...

... and robots 🤖

In an Chinese temple we put some wishes on the wishes tree 🙏🏼

Another day we went to Pangkor Island. A customs free island where you can mostly buy sweets and fish. No alcohol or cigarettes 😁

They had a whole lot of scooters on that island. New and old 😳

A mosque in the ocean 🌊

A gang of goose that went rogue and had to get caught 🤣

And we went to this magnificent tropical beach 🏝️

It was very beautiful ❤️

Hammock, ...

...

... this nice blend of jungle, sand, and ocean ...

...

... and some animals to discover. There was a wild boar as well 🐗

And this nasty monkey who wanted to steal some stuff from us. But we fought him back ☮️

After some hours at that magnificent beach, we started our way back to civilization ✨

At first, the jungle trails was like the ones we already took before 😀

But the trail developed into a very rough one. The photo doesn't do it justice. The path was marked by small pieces of barrier tape wrapped around...

But we made it in time so that we could head to the last ferry going back to Marina Island 🥳

On our way to the ferry we came across another nice beach ⛱️

And at home we treated Racki's and Tom's wounds from leeches. For some reason the leeches did not suck on me. Maybe the mosquitos already had taken...

We took a bus to the Cameron Highlands. The bus engine was not that bad when it was moving, but in neutral the engine got pretty loud. And we were...

The jungle was very different from what we'd seen in the last years 🌿

And the jungle trails were pretty cool and interesting. It was never boring to walk there. More like an agility walk 🥳

And they were actively maintained and some parts had even ladders and, or ropes 🪜

The plants were amazing 😍

So much green and besides the trails there was the impenetrable jungle 💚

We made it up to a view point. The viewpoints were mostly not so impressive because there was mostly not much to see. More covered by trees 🔭

All these patterns, ...

... colors ...

... alien shapes, ...

... crazy ones, ...

... mushy ones, ...

... more mushrooms, ...

... and psychedelic ones 🌺

So many 🥳

And reptile friends 🦎

Another hike brought Racki and me ...

... to a peak at 1840 meters 😁

Meanwhile Tom got lost a bit because I accidentally put the wrong location in his navigation app. But we made it and reunited 🤗

But still I was very sorry for my mistake because the path to the wrong location was very slippery and we had to walk a lot longer to avoid taking...

But in the end, we made it and on the way we met a lot of jungle-assimilated old cars 🌿

The weather was awesome. Not one rainy day in the rainy season in the jungle. Our apartment was in one of the big living houses in the Cameron...

And we pitched up our new tent in our apartment. Tom brought it from Germany and we applied sealing to it ✨

Racki's brother came from Germany and joined us for two and a half weeks 🥳

Together we moved into a very nice apartment on the 18th floor of one of the many high buildings in Kuala Lumpur 🌆

Because of the off-season it was only 15€ a night for two bedrooms, a kitchen, and we had free access to a pool and the rooftop which had an awesome...

The skyscrapers, and of course especially the Petronas Towers and the Maybank Tower, were beautiful in the night as well. And sometimes the...

We were mostly taking the buses and trains and mostly they were not overcrowded. Only once we had to wait in a queue. And that queue was pretty...

Even though it was the rainy season, we had not too much rain. But sometimes the clouds were swallowing the towers 🌫️

We did a lot of sight seeing and showed Tom (Racki's brother) the biggest mall we have ever seen: the Pavillon. This thing was crazy! The shops had...

Instead of the typical German Kaufmannsladen, there were miniature versions of street shops and ...

... street kitchens 😁

And interesting services like this ear cleaning service. They had a couple of treatment chairs and above every chair there was a monitor showing live...

I liked the graffiti street a lot. Two or three streets with big paintings in the walls and ...

... the streets 🎊

There we went to one of my favorite restaurants and paid only 3,5€ for two dishes and a coke which was very cheap, even for Kuala Lumpur prices 🏷️

The contrast between the old and mouldy buildings and the new shiny one was very interesting. One of the locals (a taxi driver) told us, he paid about...

There were the restaurant streets all over the place 🥣

And markets for everything 🌺

And Little India looked very colorful. Especially at night 🏮

And the towers were the most illuminated 🌆

One day, we went to the Batu Caves 🏯

And met a lot of monkeys hanging around, stealing food 😄

The temples were beautiful and colorful 🎊

Some 372 steps up to the main cave 🚀

We got some blessings ...

... and walked through ...

... this magnificent cave 😍

The other day we went to another colorful temple 🎊

This one had the most lanterns 🏮

And ...

... crazy figures, ...

... mosaics, ...

... dragons, ...

... and some love ♥️

Of course we went to a bar as well and had a great night with a funny local band 🎸

We made it to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Rosinante was safely parked. It was a whole different world than central asia. From the airplane everything...

But instead of jungle Kuala Lumpur had these very impressive towers 🌆

Beautiful in their own way 🥳

Some even blended a bit into nature which was not so easy in that concrete city 🌱

The roads and rails got built in multiple levels and we had to get used to finding our walking pathes through these labyrinths. It felt like KL was...

But it was fun 😁

The culture was very different in so many ways. One example are stores with plenty of action, manga, and cute figures 😀

And of course the small markets were very vivid and colorful 🎊

As was the street art 🎨

And the bars of China Town were we moved into our first hostel 🏮

This one reminded us of Uzbekistan with all the small Damas Deluxe micro vans 😁

Proper asian street restaurants 🥳

Sticky rice with mango and coconut sauce 🥰

And proper ice cream 🍨

But we did not expect to find the Christmas craziness in Malaysia 🎁

One day, we went to a small art and science festival. It was very interesting. We painted and talked to the super friendly locals 🥳

We met one of these awesome robots of which I had seen so many videos on YouTube before 🤖

And we painted motorcycles which then got digitalized and were racing a digital race 🏁

It was a nice and fun experience 🎊

We knew that it would be the rainy season in the beginning of our stay in Malaysia, but still the rainfalls were impressive! And it was obvious that...

It was very different than in the stans! There were a lot of plants on top and sometimes in the routes. More insects. But very nice! The easy routes...

We had the first cold nights and the days got colder as well in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Because it was too cold for rock climbing , we drove in the city...

Sarah and Wouter were there as well and together with the other campers we had a great party night with a lot of dancing 💃🕺

We went two times to an escape room in Almaty. From the website we were aware that these escape rooms would be more focused on horror than on puzzles...

Racki saw a pet sitting request in one of the climbing groups for Almaty on telegram. The contact to the pet owners was super nice from the get go and...

Lovely brothers 🤗

Racki learned the Russian commands for Sam 🐕

And I put this cute automatic brain translator hat on Furry. It worked sometimes a bit 🤣

Furry loved taking a wall, climbing trees. A real climber 💪

Interesting sleeping posture for such a big dog 😅

Very furry 😁

I practiced playing guitar and we liked our apartment life with our two pet friends 🎸

After more then two years we had to say goodbye to our water kefir Isarne-Schlippky. We did our best, but the car life, especially in winter, suited...

We cleaned Rosinante and prepared her for the four month stay in Almaty without us 🧹

And we got Rosinante another rust treatment because the rust guy did not do a good job treating the parts of her frame where she touched the car lift...

Sam was ill and had to get antibiotics. But not as pills but with an injection. It was not so easy because he had to get three injections! On the...

The brothers were so funny. Especially when they were playing together 🥰

One day, we did a hike to the Big Almaty Lake. It was beautiful and Sam had a lot of fun playing in the snow ❄️

The lake was a famous attraction for locals and tourists but in the middle of the week there were only a few other hikers. Here is our track on Komoot...

We had an awesome barbeque with our friend Gleb and his girlfriend and mother 🎊

And then it was time to park Rosinante for the winter 👋

And start our trip to Malaysia and Thailand with backpacks, tent and climbing gear 🚀

After a couple of days in Almaty, we went to Tamgaly Tas, our favorite rock climbing area in Central Asia. In the end, we stayed there about two...

Leon was not able to find climbing shoes in his size. Size 46 is not so Common in Central Asia. After some routes in his hiking boots, we thought that...

And Merel continued her climbing journey and developed natural movements and a mostly calm mind while climbing. Just minor panic attacks from time to...

Before Leon and Merely continued their journey, we gifted them a sticker and we are looking forward to see them again 🤗

The weather was mostly very good. Only some days the wind got pretty nasty and a few times we had small sand storms 🌬️

We moved into our camp spot that we used the year before for so long. Home sweet home 🏡

And then we met again with Sarah, Maria, Luci, Wouter and Vedinger 🥳

We had a proper camp and such a nice climbing life. Everyday something was going on ⛺

And every evening, we had dinner together, hang around or played some cards and had a good time 🎉

One day, we helped locals to change their flat tyre. They only had that tiny car jack which was not capable of lifting their off road car. They wanted...

We had a great time together and sometimes even did small operations 🙃

And of course we did a lot of climbing. Sarah and Wouter bought themselves their own shoes, harnesses and helmets and got all into climbing. They...

And Sarah took some nice photos of Racki playing with the puppy stray dogs 🐕

They were absolutely cute 🥰

And me learning to play my guitar called Io 🎸

It was a crazy difficult process but I managed more and to let it sound like a guitar 😁 {{< youtube -UDsSS2oFn8 >}} I was very happy with this move....

After some more days, we met again with our friends, who we got to know in Tajikistan, for the Travel Fest. The location was directly at the lake, the...

Most of the visitors camped in the festival area in cars or tents and they did a lot of motor sport. First came the motocross and after that the quads...

And then the jeeps 🚀

They had good strategies to cool their cars during the race 💦

And in the last race, the obstacles got ridiculous! Before the race we and all the visitors and racers investigated the jumps and the big pits. We...

And took the hard landing 😶

Got stuck 🙃

And broke down on top of the other side. But after twenty minutes or so the car was running again 😄

In the process some got pushed into the pit by cars (at the top left of the photo) 🤣

And others winched themselves out pretty good and fast 🚀

Where as others stayed in the pit until the end of the race and had to get recovered 🐢

We played beach volleyball, were swimming in the lake and had a good time with our neighbors 🌞 Although the four of us were the only visitors from...

Every evening the music started and we had good parties 🎶

With a lot of dancing under the moon on the beach 💃🕺

And after three days the crazy off-road festival was over and we were very happy to have been there 🎊

After the festival we stayed a bit more at the lake and chilled with bonfires...

... and stick bread 😋

One day, the garbage truck which collected the trash from the festival got stuck on the sandy track near our camp spot. We tried to help them but with...

After the lake, Racki and I made use of the good weather and drove to the mountains of Karakol. At that point of the track, we turned around and took...

So we took the hike from our camp spot. On the way we came across very beautiful yurt camps 🎉

The hike was beautiful and very famous. We had never met as many hikers on a hike in central asia before 😁

The Ala Köl had a very nice color 🎉

And we had a good time hiking back to Rosinante and finishing this 27 km hike. See the whole tour in Komoot ⛰️

After the hike, we went back to the Issyk Kul to chill again 🌞

One day, we built ourselves a scale to check how many bags we would need to take our climbing equipment with us to Malaysia and Thailand from November...

From the Issyk Kul, we went into the mountains and found the next nice camp spot. One day, a local came by with his horse and I tried it 🤠

The next local came with his motorbike, and I tried that as well 😁

The ordinary way to treat the trash: smaller or bigger holes that get filled up and closed when full. Sometimes extending the capacity by burning the...

We met again with Merel and Leon and had a great time at a very small lake in the mountains ⛺

The view on a hike, we did together, was wonderful. Here is our tour on Komoot ⛰️

After a couple of days at the small lake, we split up and Racki and I went for a two day hike to another lake higher in the mountains 🚀

The hike was pretty exhausting for me and I felt kind of tensed but in the end our destination was very beautiful ❤️

We slept one night in our tiny one person tent. All alone at that beautiful spot 🥳

The next day, in the sun, the lake was even more beautiful ☀️

And we went back to Rosinante. Here are our tours on Komoot: to the lake, back to Rosinante 🚀

And in the next few days we made it to the climbing area south of Bishkek, where we have been some months ago 🎊

We met again with Merel and Leon and climbing together was awesome! And this time very special: Merel and Leon had both no experience with rock...

That was us on a nice and very funny movie night in the camper of our friends. And on another day, we did a 7a 📽️

After days of climbing, we went to Almaty (Kazakhstan). Our first mission was to extend the customs document for Rosinante because when we entered the...

In Almaty we stayed mostly at the Atakent Mall. It's a well known parking lot next to a small park 🅿️

We met old and new friends and had a look at their homes on wheels 😁

Some of them had lovely and sometimes pretty weird decorations.

And finally I bought a guitar. She was a portable headless guitar and because of her modern look, I named her Io. From there on I started practicing...

We took a border to Kyrgyzstan that we had never taken before. It has been opened just a couple of weeks before for tourists. The officers were all...

Our plan was to take a small mountain pass to the Peak Lenin area but because we were not sure if the mountain pass was actually passable, and it...

In between, we chilled a bit 🌞

And Racki managed to fix our phone holder 🥳

In Osh we parked at the Tess Hotel for free. It was a good city camp spot. And after some hours of trying, messaging, communicating and waiting for a...

Right next to a typical UdSSR monument 😶

We decided to go back to Issyk Kul (the biggest lake in Kyrgyzstan, the fourth biggest mountain lake in the world) 😯 On the way there, we took a break...

They even had a prehistoric banana 🐉

But still we had a good time, helped two families to recover their cars after getting stucked, got some food gifted and finally helped to recover a...

At the Issyk Kul, we visited some sites we had not been before and took a swim in a super salty small lake. Perfect for non swimmers. It was not...

Another nice spot at the lake 🥳

Racki became a Macrame knitting machine and her creations got more and more beautiful ✨

There were some thunder storms and the mountains on two sides of the lake looked amazing 🎉

When I checked the new bushings and we investigated a noise Rosinante made only from now and then, we found oil leaking out of her engine 😯 In the end...

Our plan had been to go to Afghanistan and continue to Pakistan, India and then Nepal. But after the only border crossing between Pakistan and India...

The crag was awesome as well. Although there were only about four routes bolted. We did one not too hard one. The next day we went for the multi pitch...

Happy to have survived.

At our camp spot next to a bumpy dirt road, we got quite some visitors. Among them was one nice elderly guy. We invited him for dinner, talked via...

We drove further and did a very beautiful hike.

The hike went all around a very famous white crag.

From there a lot of routes were going deeper inside the mountains.

It got pretty steep.

And the glaciers were as impressive as always.

On the way down, we had some fun sliding down the snow fields.

And we met a head attached to the inner remainder of his body.

This white mountain looked very nice. Here is our tour on komoot.

We went on and after driving a long time on bumpy off road tracks, we found a nice camp spot next to a river. From our camp spot, we started our next...

The men were herding etc and the women and girls did everything else.

The hike brought us to a very beautiful waterfall!

It looked really nice. Here is our tour in komoot.

After some days, we continued our way back to Kyrgyzstan and took one of the more remote and lonely mountain passes.

And we made it close to the border to a big lake we've only been to once before. And like most of the times when we arrive at a lake, we helped a...

We went back to Dushanbe and had most of Rosinante's oils and liquids changed. With our friends at the car service we arranged that Racki can order...

We went north of Dushanbe and through the tunnel of death. Coincidentally the song "Don't worry, be happy" started playing on our radio when we...

We made it to the Iskandarkul, a big mountain lake.

On iOverlander, we found the coordinates of a few climbing routes in one of the comments to a camp spot. There were only a handful of routes but still...

Most of the routes were pretty tough and the view from the one multi-pitch was nice. But I felt like there was building up some tension between Rackis...

We escaped the mosquitos and searched for a place at the lake with less trees in hopes that there we would face less of these angry monsters. On the...

The camp spot we found was very nice. Close to the water, less mosquitos.

One day, we did a hike on the closest small mountain ridge and took this bridge. It was a very special and very creative one. Strong and solid. Made...

During that time at the lake, my next song got released: encounter. Here is a list of music services on which you can listen to it.

One day other travelers from Germany joined us and we had a good time together.

After some days, we left the lake and had a look at the nice canyon and waterfall next to it.

The waterfall was the strongest one we had seen so far. When we continued our drive to our next destination, Racki and I talked about the tension I...

Our next stop was at another small climbing area. It was super hot, but directly at the climbing routes there were three big trees and so this place...

The drought was omnipresent. The main river was completely dried out and locals had installed a whole lot of water pipes from the upper parts of the...

After climbing, we went back to Dushanbe to pick up Racki's macrame cords and visit our friends.

The best toilet decoration above the pissoir in a bar we visited.

Our friends showed us their home, car and gave us cute presents. It was interesting to talk with them about their future plans and their lives in...

After a couple of days with about 42 degrees in the city, we went off north again to a place we knew from months before. And of course we found...

The next day, a nice couple from the Netherlands joined us and we had a day of very interesting talks about a lot of topics. Of course there were some...

We left our camp spot near the last lake in Tajikistan and searched for a spot with good internet in a small town near the border to Uzbekistan. This...

Samarkand was beautiful. It was Rackis and my anniversary and we had a nice dinner. After weeks in remote places, it's nice to have some city life. We...

We are not so much interested in city sight seeing, but the light show on the most famous historical buildings was nice and beautiful.

This place was interesting as well. A center of self made, local workshops where you can even do workshops. In Samarkand we met some other travelers....

After some days in the city, we went up some low mountains to have it colder and to do a pretty long hike. Our camp spot was beautiful.

The weather was not so clear, but still the hike and the views were awesome! And we did some climbing to reach the top most part of our trek.

This is one of the summer camps the local shepherds and their families are using. Sometimes the men stay up in the mountains alone and sometimes their...

An original Snikkers cake in one of the many mini markets. It's funny what stuff they have.

We went on and found a pretty nice, remote spot near a pretty touristic area. There we did another hike. These pavilions on the photo were very new...

We continued and cleaned Rosinante in a small car wash. A nice guy came by and gifted us some cola. He loved Germany and was so happy to meet us. For...

Some maintenance work in our next spot. It took us some years to recognize that we could sharpen our axe with the grinding pads on our electric...

Racki continued making wonderful bracelets. This one was especially amazing.

She made it for a friend and it had so many beautiful details.

Our next spot was in a jungle near an offroad track leading to a waterfall. On our way there, we recovered an offroad taxi which had slipped in&nbsp;...

This is one of the offroad taxis. Most of them are old Russian jeeps. If these are the only cars you encounter and there are no ordinary limousines on...

The view from the jungle. Pretty rare in the stan countries.

From our jungle place we did a short hike to the beautiful waterfall.

Next stop in a small town called Shahrisabz and some sightseeing.

Old guy out of stone.

From there we went to the next water reservoir/ lake and found a nice spot.

It was pretty hot and everybody was looking for some shade or a refreshing swim.

As nearly always, a donkey rider came along and we had a conversation about this and that with Google Translate, arms, and hands.

From the reservoir, we went to a beautiful canyon.

We found a beautiful camp spot on a hill with a nice view.

And beautiful visitors.

One day, we took a longer hike. See it on komoot.

In the canyon, we found a lot of beautiful stones for Racki's next macrame creations.

At our next spot, Racki made me this little alien friend called Helmut. We love him and since then, he's been hanging around in our cabin.

The place we found, was located on a hill with a nice view to the mountains on one side and to the next city in the other. The approach was pretty...

Our next spot, you can see Rosinante at the bottom of the photo, was pretty close to a settlement. We had a lot of visitors and short talks about...

We did a nice hike to a waterfall we had found on the map. But there was no waterfall (anymore). But still the hike was nice. We met a lot of goats,...

Instead of a waterfall there were only small springs. Here is our tour on komoot.

We went on and found another beautiful camp spot. The view was amazing.

My diarrhea was still ongoing but we had to leave Tajikistan because our visa days were almost finished. The border crossing west of Dushanbe was the...

The reservoir was a famous attraction for the locals and a lot of people came by and had a chat with us. Especially with a group of young Uzbek guys...

We visited another famous attraction.

A beautiful waterfall.

Not far from the waterfall, we found a nice relaxed camp spot and did a nice hike. See it on komoot.

When we came back to Rosinante, some new friends chilled in the shadows of our tent.

The squeaking noises did not stop and at the camp spot with the cows, I investigated it again and found the reason: one of the bushings on the front...

And the day at the garage was pretty fun as well. We met our mechanic friends again and got to know a nice couple from Spain.

From Dushanbe we went back into the mountains and found an awesome spot at the Alauddin Lake.

This place was really nice.

And the lake was beautiful as well.

This waterfall was quite special because the water was just running on the stone until it fell down.

The lake at the highest point of our hike was very different than the lower one.

It was a nice hike. See it on komoot.

From the Alauddin Lake we drove close to the Kuli Kalon. The hike there was beautiful as well.

In the first part of the hike went a big group with a guide. But on the mountain pass, we met nobody.

It was a beautiful and interesting hike, see it on komoot.

With serious gravel and rock parts and some small rockfall.

We entered Tajikistan for the second time after we did the Pamir Highway in summer 2024 and found a camp spot at a lake in the first bigger town after...

We went into the mountains and took a pretty high mountain pass to get into north/ central Tajikistan. Finding a camp spot was not so easy that time....

On our hike we found interesting alien plant.

And this crazy happy puppy who pissed herself so happy she was to see us. It was a really crazy and absolutely cute on. After following us for a while...

Our next destination was Dushanbe. It was a nice and slow paced city. We liked it. I think this photo looks like it could be from the 70s or 80s....

We did some sight seeing, went to a restaurant for dinner and enjoyed some city life stuff.

After trying two iOverlander camp spots, we found our own one. This one was pretty wired and located in a small area that got used for parking and...

The traffic lights in Tajikistan make the impossible possible: green and red at the same time.

They seemed to like it.

Racki's macrame skills reached a professional level and she got super fast and enjoyed it a lot.

I got my own custom made bracelet with alien eyes! And we started to give the locals bracelets as presents when we spent more time with them or they...

After climbing for a couple of days (you can read about it in this post), we found another nice spot at a river and went for a waterfall hike. We only...

The waterfall was amazing! We guessed it was about 60 meters high. Here is our tour on Komoot.

We continued our way on the ordinary Tajik roads.

And found a nice spot at a big reservoir and had some chilled days.

Soon we got two new dog friends. Racki played a lot with them and we cooked a big portion of rice with dog food for them because they looked quite...

We continued our way and found a nice spot in the greens close to a small town. Soon everyone in the town seem to know that someone interesting had...

On May the 4th we did the Wings For Life Run. Last year, we did it in Armenia and this time we run through the hills and farming area of Tajikistan...

Another evening Abudakha showed us the local museum and recreation site and explained a lot of the historical stuff there. After coming back home to...

We left Abudakha and the village and went to a place they had recommended us. It was a beautiful place!

The translation of its name was something like "40 girls" and witch that the absolutely beautiful stone formations are meant.

We took a nice hike around the main rocks and they were astonishing from all sites.

I'd say it was one of the most beautiful hikes. See it on Komoot.

And our camp spot was very nice as well. And as always the locals tried to go as far as they could with there cars, regardless the scratching, rubber...

So we went to visit the small town of Kulob. Again I liked the old stuff the most. Like this small fairy wheel.

And of course the president's photos were everywhere. Most likely he is the politician I'd recognize the easiest.

On the way to Uzbekistan, we parked near some fields and a small canal. Everything was like always. Some locals passed by, we greeted each other, had...

So we packed and went off to another place in the direction of Dushanbe because we could not think of another place nearby where we could get a new...

With some research, we had found this rock/ sport climbing area in Vazob, Tajikistan. And from that point on, it had been clear, that we wanted to...

And the scenery was fantastic! It took some time from the road and our camp spot to reach the climbing area, but it was absolutely worth it.

And of course there were always some donkey friends to meet on the path.

The rock was located in pure nature and we loved climbing there. Although the routes were sometimes pretty adventurous and it was often not obvious...

We managed to climb four routes. This one here is the toughest one on that crag. The overhanging is completely part of the route 🤣 We did not do this...

With the multi pitches, it's possible to reach the 110 m high top of the crag.

Some equipment in the wall was not in its best shape. The left bolt got completely destroyed. It's hard to see on the photo. But we found ways to keep...

We climbed for a couple of days and stashed our climbing gear next to the rock to not have to carry it on the 30 to 45 minutes approach every day.

And our camp spot was pretty special as well. Close to the main road but even closer to a big river so that the sound of the river was louder than the...

From Almaty, we went to the nice rock climbing area south of Bishkek we had visited the year before as well. Have a look on the crag.

Our friend Maria joined us and brought a new friend with her who tried rock climbing for the first time. Together we had a lot of fun hanging around,...

... and partying on a techno party in a nice, old bunker location.

From Bishkek we went into the direction of Osh to cross the border to Uzbekistan to then continue to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan (again), Afghanistan,...

As always in Uzbekistan: the invasion of the Damas mini buses! They are everywhere. Uzbekistan has an interesting car market which is dominated by...

We went into the beautiful Uzbek mountains and started a two days hike.

The hike was beautiful with some river crossings and a bit of rock crawling.

Our destination was a beautiful waterfall.

And not far from the waterfall we found a nice camp spot for our tent.

The weather was super nice and it really felt like summer again!

The way back to Rosinante was mostly pathfinding in the labyrinth of goat trails. Here are our tours on komoot: day one, day two.

We continued our way in the direction of Tajikistan.

We went back to Almaty (Kazakhstan) to take care of the house and cat of friends while they were in Germany for their holidays. For us this was...

First of all we emptied the whole cabin and cleaned it a crazy lot. Some parts of the carpet we had to clean with bleach to remove moldy or strong...

Again, we had a look at everything we had and sorted everything in a keep, maybe and a give away pile.

And we washed almost everything we had.

After the cleaning, we bought Rosinante a nice anti-rust treatment for most of the metal parts of the frame, rear bumper, wheel suspension etc. This...

And this with the new protection.

The guy who did it was a recommendation of the Startroopies (friends of ours) and we felt he did a good job for 400€.

After that we put everything back inside and it went very well. Letting go of some stuff absolutely helped. Especially because we wanted to keep the...

Our heating and air condition blower started to make disturbing noises and so we went to car city in Almaty to get a new one.

And the new and stronger coil springs for Rosinante's rear suspension, which we had sent to a Kazakh friend, arrived and we mounted them by ourselves....

After cleaning Rosinante, I had my teeth cleaned.

And Racki got some Hannibal Lector treatment.

This was the crazy cat we were sitting. She was super cute and very, very much attached to humans. Every morning at around 4 o'clock she came in our...

One advantage of a house: an oven for casserole and french fries. It was really nice to live in a house for these three weeks but living in Rosinante...

The last day, we cleaned everything we used and when I was cleaning the shower bath, the holding for the shower gels fell off the wall and smashed the...

We did a very nice hike with Maria and her dog Vedinger.

The snow was pretty deep. Sometimes even waist deep and so we had to fight through it.

Vedinger had to fight as well but enjoyed it a lot.

And of course we went out with our friends.

One night we visited a "gay bar". It was good fun.

And on one of our last nights in Almaty we had a proper farewell party.

We went to the Ala Archa National Park south of Bishkek to do some mountaineering. Our weather app (meteoblue, it's the best one) was quite sure that...

I had not much sleep because I was worried that our heater would stop working again but in the morning we started an extraordinary tour!

Beautiful mountains.

In every direction.

This is one of my favorite photos of all time.

We went up to the summit Komsomolets on 4204 meters and the view was crazy. Here is our tour on Komoot with more photos...

Back in Bishkek, we met a super nice Kyrgyz couple and their friend for dinner. We had first met them at the Issyk Kul and they had invited us to...

It was Racki's birthday, we went to an awesome Indian restaurant and I gifted her a self designed shirt.

After the city, we found a very nice camp spot up the mountain near the biggest ski resort around Bishkek and one of the biggest in the whole country.

While waiting for more snow, we had fun with our slides.

And then we had our first snowboard day! The pistes of the ski area were not well prepared and not so steep but still it was fun to ride again.

After the snowboard day, we wanted to go back to Almaty (in Kazakhstan) to spend Christmas with our friends there. But at the border the officers told...

When we went to Bishkek a couple of weeks ago, I preordered a new laptop in a small gaming laptop shop. I was thinking if it would all work out....

After a period of feeling not good about life and the universe etc. I managed to get more positive again, to live with what was coming. On Christmas...

We got our leave visa and spent a wonderful New Year's eve with our friends in Almaty.

And had a nice party in a small bar club as well!

The next days we spent doing some maintenance and improvements on Rosinante. We were sure that the brake pads of rear brake needed to be changed, but...

We improved the cables leading from the starter battery to our charging booster and did super good. Now with a sense line and bigger cables charging...

One day, we took the dog of friends for a nice walk on the snowy mountains.

And we had fun spending time doing city stuff with our friends. But our plans to stay in Almaty for longer changed when we found out that the method...

In March 2025, the travel route we had in mind was: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal....

Because getting the evisa stamped in our passports was not possible on the land borders and Rosinante was not used to flying, we decided to take the...

The park was a good place to ease our tired minds. There, a lot of people did yoga, meditated and practiced breathing techniques. To me it felt nice...

After breakfast, we did some sight seeing and I absolutely liked the style of the historical buildings.

The next method of transportation, we tried, was a tuk tuk. We got an electric one and had the most relaxed driver. After the taxi ride, that...

We got pretty tired and took a nap on a meadow near one of the historical buildings.

Everybody was super friendly and lovely. Several Indian groups wanted to take a selfie with us which we always find funny.

A nice home for one of the stray dogs.

One of the many tourist bazaars.

An ordinary shopping area in the old town.

Infinite small shops.

We liked the monkeys and the cows a lot.

Packed, tight corridors.

And sideways.

We decided to take a rigsha. Before we started, we showed the driver where we wanted to go because we were wondering if it wouldn't be too far. About...

In the car free area of old town, he pushed our rigsha through the tiniest free spots. After some kilometers he got exhausted and driving on the...

In a small Buddhist temple, I did a meditation and Racki relaxed a bit. After that we had dinner and took the metro to the airport.

Goodbye Delhi after 15 hours to get our visa stamped in our passports. It was a crazy short visit, but an interesting one as well.

Back in the airport of Almaty, Racki got a super discount on Baileys (her favorite drink). A successful end of our trip.

After the visa days disaster in Kyrgyzstan, we checked again how the visa days in Kazakhstan were calculated. And it was the same as in Kyrgyzstan....

Back in Kyrgyzstan, we did our first ski/ snowboard tours. Racki had a split board and I went up with snowshoes and my snowboard on my back.

We had good fun and the scenery was super beautiful.

On the hunt for more snow we went up to the highest mountain areas of Kyrgyzstan south west of Bishkek on 2200 to 3200 meters. We got stuck in the...

We found a camp spot but did not check the weather forecast until it was dark only to find out that the forecast was -25 degrees Celsius. With what we...

After the ski tour, we drove down a bit to have a warmer camp spot while new snow was about to come. After a few days we went up again and found a lot...

We did another ski tour and this one was very exhausting because the snow was so light that I sunk in it even with my snowshoes. Sometimes waist deep.

But still it was a nice tour with the most snow we've had so far.

The main road was in very good condition. Even now in winter.

After the ski touring we went further south west to the Toktogul Reservoir. We had been there before in summer and it was very beautiful in winter as...

And did some laundry and cleaning of Rosinante's interior and tent fabric.

We went further south in the region west of Osh because the snow was still barely enough for ski touring and we preferred warmer conditions when ski...

Racki's Slide broke on one of the slopes.

And we found more nice views.

This is the way most locals deal with the snow and wet. They have inner and outer shoes which can be easily separated.

This stuff, which friends gifted us in Almaty, helped a lot curing my throat pain.

We built a nice little website, one which Racki is offering talks and messaging with people who are feeling lonely: https://nicht-alleine.org

And of course we were playing our favorite board games. This round of Spirit Island was crazy but still we won!

We went again up a bit further. When preparing for ski touring with all the equipment it was pretty packed in Rosinante.

Here we had a ski in and ski out. It was a funny tour and we did snowboard down narrow hiking paths.

Our next camp spot already felt like spring.

Slipky (our water kefir) and our plant (called sibling) enjoyed the sun and warmth as much as we did.

And the snow seemed to already be vanishing.

Winter was coming and with it came the first snow. So we left the Tamgaly Tas climbing area and moved to the city of Almaty.

After months of climbing, we started the city life and went to a regulars' table of German immigrants (no photo) in a Paulaner restaurant and drank a...

Had a bonfire with friends.

And made new animal friends.

Did some hiking with our good friend Maria and her Kund ("Kind" (which means child) + "Hund" (which means dog) in the early winter weather.

After some days, we went back to Kyrgyzstan where we did a lot of beautiful winter hikes.

The weather was cold but beautiful!

And sometimes pretty white.

Our diesel heater stopped working from time to time and that really pissed me off. I guess in about three years of living in a car, I learned a lot....

Still I had to crouch under the car mostly every morning and sometimes during the day to somehow get the fuel line working again. It was not nice to...

At some point we took a big water bottle, filled it up from Rosinante's auxiliary tank and had the heater suck the diesel from that bottle. This...

I felt much better once we had solved that issue after two weeks of unrewarding trying and failing but still I felt very exhausted and stressed. It...

In a shop for handmade stuff we bought an original Kyrgyz carpet for a friend and I found this little fellow: Boris.

The glint wine season started.

In Karakul we had the service on our snowboards done to have them ready for ski touring once there would be enough snow. Our transportation method for...

We managed to find a fast and satisfying routine for living in the cold temperatures in Rosinante and it felt better and everything started to feel...

Drying of washed clothes still worked.

On our winter hikes there was a lot to see.

And we had wonderful views around the Issyk Kul. One of the biggest lakes in the world.

On the way to Bishkek, we found these.

And because most of our hiking trail was covered with ice, we tried to slide down the trail while sitting on stones. I did not work that much.

We made it back to the climbing area we had visited months ago. This time the weather was perfect. Last time it was way too hot. The entrance fee was...

We did a whole lot of climbing.

And learned a lot, lot, lot.

Sarah and Wouter, the "Star Troopies" (travelers we had met before several times in different countries) joined us and tried rock climbing for the...

It was super awesome and they did super good. Although they had no own climbing shoes. Racki's shoes were good for Sarah, but Wouter suffered a lot in...

Climbing on the wall.

Climbing on another wall.

Climbing on an overhanging wall.

We had a whole lot of fun climbing,

hanging around,

and relaxing.

Slowly, slowly it was becoming Autumn.

Simon visited us and although he was afraid of heights, he made his first rock climbing experience as well.

Maria, who we had met before in Murghab on the Pamir and at the border from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan, and her "half-human-half-dog dog" Vedi and...

At one weekend there was a big climbing festival organized by the biggest "climbing company" Skala in the climbing area. Unfortunately the weather on...

One day Kali and Didi, travelers from the Netherlands, came to the climbing area and we climbed a lot together, shared stories and experiences.

Didi brought trad (traditional climbing) gear and let me try it. It was my first time using that stuff and it was very interesting. In the sport/ rock...

And we had water melon with the cheapest vodka we could find. It tasted like it had back when I was sixteen.

Sarah and Wouter came back and this time Wouter brought his own, brand new climbing shoes! It's always nice to see if people love the rock climbing.

Again we had a great time at and in front of the rock.

Halloween!

Our last days of climbing on one of the last warm and sunny days of the year.

After the weather got too cold, we drove to Almaty and met a whole lot of our new friends we had met in the last couple of months.

From Osh we went in the direction of Bishkek and Kazakhstan.

This time we took the main road and stayed a couple of days at the Toktogul Reservoir.

We continued our tyre rotation and our cheap Chinese tyres still looked very good after all the gravel roads and stones in the Pamir region.

The brake pads of the rear brake too were in good conditions.

Rosinante's warning indicator for the fuel filter went on again and so we changed the fuel filter.

Made new friends.

Chilled in the nice scenery.

And enjoyed the view.

In the Bartang Valley other travelers reported that the road from Dushanbe into the Pamir area were pretty much under construction and that there were...

In Khorugh, one of the few bigger settlements in that region, we organized some stuff. It was not so easy to get certain things but as always it was...

Otto's exhaust pipe got welded and looked good again. A screw had been broken off in a thread in the bracket of Rosinante's underbody armor and we...

We went further south along the river separating Tajikistan from Afghanistan. It was interesting to be there and see Afghanistan and the Afghan people...

We visited the Afghan Market, a market for Afghan and Tajik people in the middle of the big river separating the countries. It was a nice visit, we...

After some hiking, we visited a museum where a elderly and absolutely motivated man showed and explained a lot to us. We're not so much into museums,...

We wanted to visit an ancient Buddhist temple and a local kid took the opportunity to get some money by leading us there. Because he was a fun guy, he...

The views along the river were very interesting.

And changing.

I liked the old school patterns of fields. The local farmers did not use machines and did all by hand and with the help of donkeys, horses and cows.

This was my favorite camp spot on the Pamir. It was a pretty tough dirt road with stones and steps to get up there but once we reached that place, it...

We asked the surrounding farmers if we could stay for a couple of days and they were very fine with that. I think they liked having us there because I...

And especially the views

One day we did an awesome hike up along the river.

On the way we met some cute friends.

And the views were awesome again!

Happy hikers.

I had thought the gravel mountains would be pretty boring very fast, but they did not.

Next we went east and the track got super crazy. It was the most eroded track we ever took and the waves were very deep. There were two ways to go:...

Near Murghab, the other big settlement on the Pamir, we visited some ancient paintings.

And a absolutely stormy old observatory. The wind was so strong that we could lean into it. But staying there with Rosinante was not an option and so...

I loved the Yaks! They look so cool! We shared a camp spot with them. They were mostly eating and we rearranged the fuel pump for our diesel heater...

The ways the locals are transporting stuff and animals are adventurous. After some years of traveling, cows and horses on small transporters became...

In Murghab, we met a horde of local children who got a bit annoying from time to time. But it was still a nice encounter. We played again with our...

This is the main shopping place in Murghab.

Very different from Western European towns.

But always friendly and interesting. We found fresh fruits, cheese,

and Yak milk ice cream!

After Murghab we entered another area off the main road.

The colors in that area were amazing!

Our camp spot.

More Yaks!

After a nice hike and some days, we continued our way to the highest point of our Pamir adventure: 4500 meters. The cars did everything very well and...

On our way back to Kyrgyzstan, we wanted to stay again on the beautiful camp spot next to the big lake which we had used on our first day of the Pamir...

o Only after hours of looking for us Simon arrived at the camp spot as well. A pretty big fuck up. We could not imagine how we could have missed each...

The border crossing back to Kyrgyzstan went very well. At the border a young soldier wanted to earn some extra money but we declined that. When we...

Back in Osh, we were craving for stuff we could not get in the last weeks on the Pamir: pizza and cake! A super nice final of our Pamir adventure....

We reunited with Simon and his car Otto and together we started our Pamir Highway adventure!

We bought a whole lot of stuff in the supermarket and filled both of Rosinante's Diesel tanks.

We started in Osh and our first stop was the Basecamp of Peak Lenin. This mountain is very famous because a lot of people say it's a pretty easy to...

The area around the base camp was very beautiful and we did a nice hike with a beautiful view. Unfortunately I had a strong diarrhoea and had to shit...

These little and sometimes not so little fellows were everywhere and made a lot of squeaking noises. We continued to the border to Tajikistan and on...

We had organized the permit for the Pamir region and everything else in advance and so the border crossing went very well. The road between the...

The landscapes were super beautiful and we found a very nice camp spot at the Karakul Lake at 4000 meters altitude.

It was crazy. The light and feeling in that area felt very special. I can't really say why or how.

Racki and I did a nice hike up on the summit of the Urtabuz mountain at 5047 meters. It was a super easy hike.

We met some living friends on the way up.

And some dead. Actually Racki carried this skull, about 4 kg, almost to the summit and the whole way down again to our camp to gift it to Simon who...

The view from the summit was amazing! On 5000 meters&nbsp; surrounded by 7000 to 8000 meter high mountains and perfect weather.

After a few days we continued our way into the famous Bartang Valley. Our plan was to enter it from the east for about 40 km and then return because...

But once we had reached a certain point we decided to just continue and try to drive through the whole valley because the weather was perfect and had...

So we guessed that the water level of the river would be pretty low and the potentially muddy parts would be ok.

The scenery and colors were amazing. The track was ok and driving fast on the super dusty smooth parts was a lot of fun.

We made it easily over the most offroady part, at a small mountain pass. Only at one point, a pretty narrow, bumpy crossing of a stream on the...

On iOverlander and in the chat groups travelers mentioned primarily three tough sections. We made it through the two river crossings without a...

In the last tough section a land slide had made the track pretty narrow and depending on the water level you had to guess where the track was. Take a...

We found a nice camp spot to relax after the adventurous part of the Bartang Valley.

The views were awesome.

There were some oases in the rocky terrain.

And the switching between rocks, gravel and the green was super interesting.

We always had some sweet presents with us.

In one oasis village we met a group of super friendly villagers. One of them spoke very good English and invited us to spend some time with them. It...

After they showed us their home, they wanted to see our homes and got very interested in how everything works and how we lived. We gifted them some...

We continued our way in the Bartang Valley and found a nice camp spot close to a river to relax and stayed for a bit longer.

There were just a few cars taking the only off-road track through the valley. One day a solo backpacker from New Zealand joined us and together we had...

Our visitor got a seat in Otto and together we continued our journey through the valley which became more easy to drive and at some point we got back...

We did a nice and easy hike to a remote village which was only accessible by foot. On the way we met other travelers.

The village was very beautiful and located next to a lake. We learned about their lives there, how they were making bread and that they try to live in...

We went back to Kyrgyzstan and met a gang of "fat ass sheeps". We call them that way because on their back sides, they have additional "fat sacks"...

Beautiful Kyrgyzstan.

We did an interesting hike on which we depend on mostly cow trails. They did a pretty good job preparing a trail through the bushes and making the...

When I was about to take off my shoes for a river crossing, a nice local came with his horse and brought me across the river.

We installed the magical box. It was the lid of Racki's old gemmy box which she has had since she was a child. The magical box provides electricity...

And of course we played a lot of Spirit Island. My favorite board game.

And we tried to rescue this little fellow. He was suffering under the changing temperatures etc.

Next stop was the famous Song Kul.

We found a nice camp spot next to the water, did our laundry and our other daily routines.

Dino had a good look at the lake.

♥️

Which was sometimes calm and sometimes pretty stormy.

On a stormy day two young German guys on motorcycles came along and we had a good talk.

After the Song Kul we went down the mountains again.

We drove a whole lot of dirt roads in the direction of Osh.

One day we parked in the line of a crazy thunderstorm. Maybe it was the most powerful one I've ever witnessed. We had to very quickly close...

Close to Osh, we met with Simon and planned our route on the famous Pamir Highway.

Some cleaning.

And riding a donkey.

These donkeys. We did see them a lot ridden by elderly men and that looked like they were in a cartoon because the riders feet are nearly touching the...

I did admire how the locals were packing their cars but this one was pretty close to flipping over. In the photo he had to go up a bumpy track, the...

We crossed the border from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan and went to the Charyn Canyon. It's a very beautiful canyon.

And it was pretty touristic. There were a lot of other tourists which was not often the case in the stan countries. Here is our walk around the canyon...

After the canyon we went to Almaty and were pretty surprised how organized everything was there. Getting spare parts for Rosinante was super easy and...

After the city we went to Tamgaly Tas, a big rock climbing area. It was so nice there!

There were almost 300 bolted routes and we climbed a lot of them.

The maximum temperature in the sun was 56 degrees Celsius and so we only climbed in the morning and evening. In between we jumped and hung around in...

We spent more than three weeks there. When we first entered, we had to pay about 8 Euros for the entry. When we went to the supermarket, we took the...

Something I love about this nomadic car life: repairing stuff. It started for me because it's often not easy to get a replacement. But now I love it.

Alien creatures.

Every week we went to a nearby lake to relax and have an internet signal. We met Simon a friend of Whoopie who became our friend in Georgia.

In Almaty we had stickers for Rosinante printed. A dino for me.

And a Rhino for Racki. She had a Rhino on her car Thor as well and I thought it would be nice to keep it that way now that we are traveling together...

After a whole lot of research we added an additional leaf spring to Rosinante's suspension. We payed about 30€ for the work. The prices for most...

To let her carry as much as this truck 😁