The Long Road Home

A short post to say that I plan to finish my ride home at 3pm tomorrow, Monday 30th Oct at Reuters Square, Canary Wharf, London. Hope that cafe opposite still does nice cakes. Goodnight meanwhile from Maldon, Essex.

I’m now on the ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich. There are just 100+ km to ride into London through Essex once I’ve arrived in the UK.

I’ve now cycled over 10,000km on this journey, probably the slowest relocation ever from Hong Kong to London. We’ve raised enough money to build a sports centre for street children in Cambodia, and set up sports initiatives for children in the earthquake-affected areas of Pakistan, and both those projects are already starting now.

So many people have helped me that I hesitate to try and write a list, because I am sure I’m going to make a mistake and miss out somebody important. BUT, I’ve tried below to identify some of the people who have helped me do this trip.  If I’ve missed someone, please write and tell me, but meanwhile, I write today to thank the following people:

The teams at Deutsche Bank, Crosby Capital, Prudential, Lloyd George and ADM Capital for their generous corporate donations to the charity initiatives.

Alice Tee at Kodak for the brilliant V570 dual lens camera

Angelina Wong at Virgin Atlantic for flights hong kong to sydney

The team especially Luis and Jason at Beeline Bicycles Oxford for my bike, panniers, shoes, and patient advice over phone at any moment

All the people who’ve made personal donations and given messages of support

Julia Fuller, Reuters Corporate Responsibility Manager, for finding Ben, helping design many aspects of the project, and writing articles

Ben Haines, Information Security Analyst Reuters London, for designing and managing the longroadhome.org website in his spare time and spare bedroom

Kenneth Tsui head of Reuters North Asia for bringing me to Reuters HK in 2000 and for everything that came after, including rallying the help of the reuters greater china extended team for this adventure, ensuring communications and insurance were ok, and even alerting the HP field engineers across China in case I was in trouble

Mark Redwood and Stephen Wilson in Reuters Sales and Trading product division, and especially my colleagues in the Exchange Traded group for their forebearance and patience whilst I’m away

Denys and Rob, and Lisa and Alex and everyone at ADM Foundation for tons of things, including huge help selecting charity projects and identifying great corporate support

Charles Lankester and the team at Edelman for helping me match up with sponsors in Hong Kong

Tara Joseph from the Reuters HK bureau and Vincent Lai from Rtrs HK exchange-traded division for being the people who received my "heartbeat" messages, and would call the police if I went missing

Simon and Nicola and Simmons & Simmons for legal support (and the chine=
se bond certificate leaving present)

Han-Yang Yap at reuters asia for holding all my important personal numbers
Rico, ayako, dan, polly, vincent, fidelia, helena, and the labci team for lovely leaving presents, including my SW radio, PDA, and camera SD cards, and Vincent (again) for ALL THE PLASTIC BAGS and clever alternative power supply gizmos

Elisa for pccw plug adapter and red luggage cover (sorry I lost it on a bad day in azerbaijan)

Yan for spare tyres and cassette cracker tool

Kitty for the SAVLON

Rick and Polly for rick’s trip up to meet me in northwest china, and the gloves and warm sweater and treats from hong kong

Elisa, Kitty, May and others from the Hong Kong cyclists for maps of china’s provinces which you spread all over the floor of my hk apartment, for the trips in Guangdong, and for riding with me right into china, AND joining me near Wuzhou

May Tam for lots of things, including organsing the Wuzhou trip - and even bringing the Cateye instruction leaflet in english

John and Chris working on Chevron Tenghiz projects out in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, for looking after me in Baku

Rebekah for helping me out in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Iris and Phil for trying to meet me in Bulgaria (sorry I was so far behind….)

Denys, Rob and Mary at ADM Capital for a brilliant welcome to Istanbul (amongst lots of other things)

Ka Kee and Jonathan for the teeshirts and ginseng, and coffees and encouragement

Margarita and the team at Reuters Tbilisi for welcoming me and starting to get tv coverage in the Caucasus

Anca, Viktoria, Toufik from Reuters who helped get tv media coverage through Europe (and thankyou also for biscuits, cakes, lunch…)

Alex Hungate who was the only person who wrote with practical information on how to deal with altitude sickness

Alexey Shupov from an Almaty medical equipment company for cheering me up in Kazakhstan

Anna and Ian Billington and Alex, for a great farewell party at their house, and for the GPS

Polly, Rico and Vincent and the reuters hong kong and Labci people for organising my office farewell party, and all those who came to it in Hong Kong’s Soho

Eric Hall and many folk at the reuters bureau in hk for advice on china, cameras, sending media files etc

Dr Susannah Chua for medical advice

Istinna, Bella, Maria, Elaine and Jennifer in hong kong HR team for handling such an unusual relocation case so enthusiastically and patiently

Helena Mok for still being a fantastic personal asssiant long after I’ve left hk

Mr and Mrs Harrison and Henrietta for keeping a place for me to stay in london when I get back

Chris and Ann Harris who took the first trip photos (lying horizontal on Black’s Link footpath, HK). Brave brilliant inspiring Ann has since passed away, life is crazy and NOT FAIR.

Bethany Isenberg for the self-defence spray given (ok, lent) to me in azerbaijan - to be returned unused…

Ed Latter for Turkish history lessons by email, and inspiring travel tips
Andrea, Arthur, Lea and Fiona, and Andrea’s mum for the brilliant welcome in The Hague, Holland, including even the banner you made and hung on the house

My parents, Nana, brothers, cousins, uncle and their families for almost^ never being cross with me for causing them so much worry (^Nana WAS very fiercely cross when I told her I was ill with altitude sickness)

There are also lots of people who who have helped me, but who are never goi=
ng to read this because they maybe didn’t even ask my name, including:

A young tibetan woman in northern sichuan who nursed me better from altitiude sickness

A couple from xinjiang driving a coal lorry who rescued me off a ice-bound mountain pass in the tianshan

A club rider in germany who rode with me for 20km then gave me his helmet because I’d lost mine

The Secmenler brothers for my birthday glass of tea in Turkey

Sarkan and his family and friends for helping me get to the safety of their hut in the mountains north of Trebizond, eastern Turkey

The map maker who helped me get through the mountains of central Turkey…. and countless countless poeple in villages and on the long road, all the way from China to Holland who gave me food, water, shelter, and a bit of company on the way.

That’s my list.

I’m riding through Essex on Sunday, aiming to reach Reuters Square, Canary Wharf, London on Monday after lunch. In case anyone wants to meet me in Reuters Square, I’ll write another post either Sunday night or Monday morning with an expected time of arrival. (By the way, thanks to Julia and co, there’ll also be a "do" of some kind tbc in November at Reuters Building, London).

Still can’t quite believe I’ve really done this.

Firstly, I’m now only about 300km from the coast of the north sea, and my expected arrival date in LONDON is below. Exciting! (certainly for me)! So read on if you want to know about that.

But, AT LAST here’s the announcement of the winner of the Virgin Atlantic competition to win a pair of air tickets hong kong to sydney.

To win the tickets, you had to answer correclty the question, "through how many countries did my original route pass?"

The answer - including hong kong as one, as indicated - was 16:

Hong kong, china, kyrgyzstan, uzbekistan, turkemnistan, azerbaijan, georgia, turkey, bulgaria, romania, hungary, austria, czech republic, germany, holland, england.

A lot of people sent in answers but a lot were wrong, mainly because people put "the caucasus" as a country, which it’s not.

Anyway, Angelina Wong, Head of Marketing at Virgin Atlantic in hong kong picked out IRIS CHIM from those who got the answer right. So Iris you are the winner of the tickets! Congratulations!

Iris is a school teacher in Hong Kong’s New Territories, who as you’ll see from comments on this blog, is one of the people who’s followed my route super attentively all the way along. Hope you enjoy your trip! Thankyou to everyone who entered, and thankyou very much to Virgin Atlantic for their involvement.

And about LONDON - I hope to arrive in Reuters Square, Canary Wharf, on Monday 30th afternoon. Can hardly believe I’ve really nearly made it, but I’m aiming to cross the North Sea from Hook of Holland on saturday evening then ride from Harwich to London.

As you’ve probably noticed, thanks to the forebearance of my manager and colleagues, I’ve been able to spend longer on the road than originally planned. This has meant I’ve been able to attempt to finish this journey properly, rather than cut off short or come thru europe by train etc. I appreciate very much their patience.

More later on arrangements for the finish.

That’s all for now - I’m racing across Germany as fast as I can but I still have some long days to do to make my planned schedule. I am eating my dinner here at a small town near Muenster, with German and Dutch maps all over the table, figuring out this last leg…

Now I’m in the westernmost bit of the Czech republic at the border with Germany.

I’m in Frantiskovy Lazne which is a v genteel spa resort all yellow Habsburg buildings and promenades and a bandstand. People are having all sorts of treatments with sulphur water and peat (apparently), and lots of things I’ve never heard of.

It’s gone really cold. I’m wearing both my shirts under my jacket, and long-finger gloves and new overshoes. Makes everything more difficult, I’m much more clumsy, and my eyes water in the wind and mess up my glasses. Just little things.

Last night I was in a village in the middle of nowhere, stars and moon and thick hoar frost on the fields. I stayed at a b and b with radiators lovely toasty warm. Was thinking of camping out in frost on the Sichuan Tibetan plateau, don’t know how I did it, I’ve gone soft since then.

I’ve also become FAMOUS (here, momentarily). Thanks to Toufik at Reuters Prague, two Czech TV channels did interviews and filming. This included rather dangerous-looking bits where I was riding along whilst the cameraman was crouching in the open boot of Toufik’s car whilst he drove. I’ve never seen them do it quite like that in the tour de france.

Since then, people wave, shout, toot their horns, clap, talk with me. Amazing really. A petrol station gave me a huge sack of energy drinks in cans which I had to apologise and mostly leave behind as they would have pretty much doubled the weiight of my kit. Some people asked me where my support car was. Men in overalls at a factory cheered. A lorry driver stopped to take photos. I was amazed I got onto Czech Tv because they’ve got such huge real sport stories of their own.

People have really been really welcoming even before the tv actaully. A bike shop in Trebic went mad when they realised I’d come to their shop from china, took photos, replaced brake blocks etc for nothing and gave me a (huge) pair of socks. They pumped the tyres to 90psi with a track pump. Feels great riding on these good roads with decent tyre pressure.

And the roads in the eastern Czech republic were just gorgeous, swinging gently up rolling hills, bending this way and that. I had a few days of warm autumn sun when everything was lit in beautiful colour, virginia creeper bright red in willow trees, yellow oak leaves and yellow sycamore leaves, manor houses and churches, spiders webs drifting across and sticking on my stuff. Blue hills, sun, and complicated shadows of bare tree branches over the roads. For miles I had the sun in my eyes squinting at the lines of roadside apple trees, sun reflecting silver off fallen apples and white dog daisies and chamomile daisies in the verge.

There were pretty towns with lovely squares where the buildings are painted with shepherds and cupids and people in togas. Then I had the sort of foggy cold days on which you look out in the morning, and really DON’T want to get on a bike on the road. Would be nice to stay in, get a bus, sit warm somewhere, have coffee and biscuits. Best not to think about it. Just go. When the sun comes through, you get glorious silver light and the grass is bright bright green like paddy fields and the woodlands look just magical.

Now I’ve just got to get across germany and holland and I’m home. I’m eating too many pancakes. That’s about all the news I’ve got.

Some photos from Sue’s interview with Nova TV in the town of Kamenice and Czech TV in Prague.

Thank you to Toufik for sending them to us.

view more images from this album

A big thank you to the Czech Reuters team and Toufik Dallal for arranging the coverage!

Seems Sue is becoming a bit of a celebrity. With her 3rd TV interview completed she’s only a few weeks from home

Thank you to all at Reuters Hungary for making arranging the interview.

This is from Francesco, one of the team at the M’Lop Tapang street children project in Cambodia, with news about the sports playground being built with the money you’ve been giving:

"In M’Lop Tapang (MT) street children’s refuge courtyard, children now discuss daily on who’s going to play the opening game, and what sport (basketball, volleyball, soccer) will be the first one to be played.

"The total area of the playground is about 600 square meters. We will divide it so that there is going to be a small playground for young children (50m2), a small deposit room and a good shower room (40m2).

"The sport facilities will occupy around 500 m2. The area will be multi functional: it will be a 18 meters wide and 25 meters long. This means that it can be divided into 2 regular size (18m/9m) volleyball courts, or into a basketball court and also a soccer court (5 on five).

"The first work to do is to pave (concrete) the access (a 10 meters long alley) and the whole area. At the same time the kids will paint the internal walls and the access to the playground in bright yellow, M’Lop Tapang’s color. The walls (over 100 meters in total length) will be a permanent board for kids to draw and will be always happy and bright. We want the kids to be in charge of most of the work.

"Since the rainy season is ending, we will not build the roof cover immediately, so that the playground will become available sooner.

"Our idea is truly that of creating a community playground that can be used by kids from 4 to 18. Mothers working at the market will be able to bring their children to play in a safe and happy environment. Here our staff will be able to build relations with the children and their families from an early age, the best strategy to prevent children from working in the streets at a later age.

"The sport facilities will be accessible throughout the day, both on a drop in base and on more structured training activities. Particular attention will be given to girls, who too often have no access to any sport facility nor are allowed to "play".

"Children working in the streets will be able to drop in at the playground for a basketball or volleyball game. At the same time they’ll be able to take a shower and our staff will provide life skills training and learn how these kids can be best helped by other activities at M’Lop Tapang, such as the clinic, remedial school, or drop-in centre for drug users etc.

"Kids have been involved in the decision to create a multipurpose playground and will be the centre of the development of the centre. They will paint it, advertise it, manage it through our team of street volunteers (ex street children working as peer educators).

"Our outreach team expects more than 100 children will use the facilities every day, while tournaments will be developed during the weekend.

"The street volunteers are excited by the fact that they will be able to reach a greater number of their peers and build strong relations. In the words of Tren (17), a street volunteer with a background of drug use and life in the streets, sport is what helped him to quit drugs and learn to live in the community, and this playground will be his tool to help many other kids like him. Watta (16), who until 3 years ago was living on the beach and now is the top student in his class, is keen in teaching volleyball and soccer to younger children as that is "the best way for them to learn to accept rules". Danin, a 13 year old girl who attends the centre daily and lives in a hut a few meters from the playground suggested that we have activities for girls, especially volleyball.  Danin is keen for the centre to stay open until sunset because many girls will be able to play after 5pm, when their mothers go back home and they do not have to look after their siblings.

"Setha, the outreach manager, who will supervise the activities run at the playground, is extremely excited: hundreds of kids he meets daily cannot attend the other MT centre facilities because they need to make money on the streets for their families. The playground in his opinion is the best way to provide happiness and "a break" in their lives. He’s convinced that he and his team will be able to make sure this break from work and dangers in the streets becomes longer and eventually last all day long.

"Finally, as part of an educational campaign on the environment, the outreach team is planning a small clean-up/recycling initiative linked to the playground: the idea is that kids will bring some plastic (from the slums, their homes, etc) as a token to use the facilities.  The plastic will then be picked up by the public garbage company and properly disposed rather than abandoned in the streets.

"We are approaching a few sports people in the hope that they will take part in the opening day, and without a doubt some will accept to witness a special day for the kids of Sihanoukville."

That’s the letter from Francesco. You can find out more about M’Lop Tapang, and the street children and the centre at  www.mloptapang.org

A huge thankyou to everyone who’s making all this possible, especially the top corporate sponsors Deutsche Bank, Prudential, Crosby Capital, ADM Capital, and also Virgin Atlantic, Kodak and Beeline Bicycles.

AND if you have been enjoying this project, please also think of BEN HAINES from Reuters who is a VOLUNTEER, and who set up and run this website in his spare time from his bedroom or somewhere, uploading files etc thru the night, and making podcasts etc possible. He is the top behind-the-scenes person without whom this project would not work.

If you have ideas on what more we could do to help at M’Lop Tapang or elsewhere, pls just drop a line.