I am back!

(Or maybe I am travelling again...)

This web site is devoted to my travels, and what I learned while travelling (or preparing for a trip): travel journals, photography, and even a section devoted to Turkic languages.

On this site:

Marjolein’s Travel Blog

Blogging about and during my travels - from wherever I can find an Internet connection and a spare hour or two.

• Following Marco Polo’s Footsteps

  
  The first blogged trip is my 2004 trip all across Asia, following in Marco Polo’s footsteps along the great Silk Road: through Syria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China.

• Up, up to the roof of the world

  
  This trip, September-October 2005, was be Asia again: China, Tibet and Nepal overland; posts are not quite complete yet but the rest will appear later.

• Annyŏng haseyo, Nĭ hăo

  
  This trip, in September 2006, will be to North Korea (DPRK) with a week’s extension in Beijing; the itinerary is available as well as some preparation posts. Annyŏng haseyo is "hello" in Korean, Nĭ hăo is the same in Chinese. It’s unlikely I will be posting fom the DPRK, but will try to update once back in Beijing.

On the site you can choose which trip to view (click a map!), or view anything from any trip.

Soon to appear here:

Trips and photographs

(still elsewhere for now)

Greetings from...

A number of quick-and-dirty electronic postcards from several of my travels for those I could not send a paper one.

Pittsburgh - a photographic impression

In 1999 I was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the USA for a conference. At the end of the week I had a day off and made some pictures with a little throwaway camera. The results were better than I expected from a piece of plastic, and the best ones can be seen in Pittsburgh - a photographic impression; choose the pictures one by one from the thumbnails, or view them as a slide show.

Self Portrait

On my trip through Central Asia in 2001 I also made a self portrait!

Centraal-Azië 2002 - Central Asia 2002

In 2002 I made another trip through Central Asia. Here’s a detailed journal. Mostly (still) in Dutch but when I have some time more pages will be translated in English, too. If you don’t read Dutch, you might want to browse it for the pictures. More pictures will be added later, but my scanner broke and I am broke...

Languages

Learning Turkic Languages

Largely unfinished: my efforts at “Turkic for travellers” - with pronunciation where available! - with side-by-side comparisons of Turkish, Turkmen and Uzbek.