Brickbats and Bouquets

And finally before we head off for a new life in Dubai, we'd like to acknowledge all those who assisted in making the trip possible and such a great experience as well as a few of those who conspired, unsucessfully to derail bits of it. If we have missed anyone who gave us support and encouragement, you know who you are so please accept our apologies and consider yourself included:

(in alphabetical order)
• Alan & Kate for hospitality in Sutton Coldfield and medical support
• Ali for hospitality in Sydney and with Phil, keeping an eye on R&A and storing wine
• Angela for hospitality in Aberdeen
• Anna & David for hospitality in Devon and taking us to the Dartington Rockshop after-party
• Annie Ong of Megastar Shipping in Singapore for dealing with the paperwork in Singapore
• Bergen International, Istanbul for finding a customs agent to extract the car from Turkish customs
• Christine for allowing I1 to take a year off
• David & Karen for proving it could be done, for arranging Edinburgh and for hospitality in Newcastle
• Fiona for being our best blog commentator
• Gail Goodman of Motorcycleservices.com for arranging the Green Card insurance when everyone else had turned us down
• Gerry for a great job looking after our emails and fending off all work related matters for 12 months
• Helen & Steve for hospitality in Newcastle
• Ian & Wendy for company, jigsaw support and forcing us up mountains in the Lake District
• Ian’s Mum for lunch at the Ship Inn at Roose
• Imran Zaki of Maersk Logistics Pakistan for great service in arranging shipping from Karachi to Istanbul
• Linda Czeng, Beijing Caissa International Travel Service for arranging China permits and guides
• Lyn Taylor for suggesting the trek and arranging the guides and porters in Nepal
• Michael for hospitality in Edinburgh and the pancakes
• Mr Li Shunhong, our guide in Yunnan for finding amazing breakfasts but not for navigation skills
• Mr Pu Qiong, our guide in Tibet for taking us to meet his Mum
• Nasir Kazmi, of Dewan Motors, BMW Islamabad for outstanding customer service and looking after the car whilst we were in New York
• Paul Craven of Steppes Travel for arranging our China permits
• Picass, Hari and Binaya for portaging and guiding in Nepal
• Richard & Alexander for support and encouragement and looking after everything whilst we were away
• Roger & Julie for hospitality in Hampton
• Stamford Plaza, Singapore for giving us a suite during the World Bank meeting
• Steve & Alexis for taking us to Skye, arranging a guesthouse to break into in Thurso and in Pitlochry and Spean Bridge as well as the ferry from Bergen
• Stuart & Georgina for hospitality in Singapore
• The guys at Holterman St Motors for the pre-departure car maintenance course
• The Man with the Van in the arctic for helping fix our second puncture near Lakselv in Arctic Norway
• The manager of the Piccadilly Hotel, Lucknow for providing tea and sympathy as well as a nice room when everywhere else was full
• The Sydney Morning Herald for giving us the idea in an article about the Asia Highway
• Vincent & Sophie for hospitality and car-sitting in Delhi

And then those who were less helpful:
• Perkins Shipping for failing to tell us the ship was a sailing a week late from Darwin
• The cops in Prague for clamping the car
• Skymate for providing a useless GPS tracking service
• BMW Alexandropolos for telling us the suspension didn’t need fixing
• BMW Tromso for charging $150 to tell us the suspension was broken but not fixing it
• The Manager, Hotel Valide Sultan in Istanbul for double booking our room

And finally:
• The best Creme Brule is in the Elephant Restaurant in Luang Prabang
• The best Margarita is in Kilroys in Kathmandu