The Long Road Home

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.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 8:04 am and is filed under On the Road, United Kingdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.