Silk Riders: Jo and Gareth Morgan's Incredible Journey on the Trail of Marco Polo

by Gareth Morgan

Marco Polo's legendary journey overland from Xanadu in China to his home in Italy has fired the imaginations of travelers for 700 years. Even today, traversing the 20,000km Silk Road between Europe and the Far East is a perilous undertaking. But it sounded like just the challenge for Wellington economist Gareth Morgan and his intrepid wife Jo.

With five friends, they set off to travel the ancient route by a very modern mode of transport — motorcycle. Starting from the historic port of Venice, the Silk Riders crossed some of the most remote, inhospitable and politically unstable terrain in Eurasia, from the Balkan states, Turkey and Iran through various 'stans to the isolated western reaches of China, and along the Great Wall to Bejing.

The unfolding Silk Riders adventure kept radio listeners and website watchers entranced. Here, for the first time, is the story of the entire journey, told with the Morgans' characteristic humour and eye for detail, and accompanied by an extensive selection of photographs.

Genres: Nonfiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Gareth Morgan is a New Zealand businessman, economist, investment manager, motor cycle adventurer, author, public commentator and philanthropist.

Gareth and his wife Jo are passionate motorcycle travellers and have written 5 titles on their various trips which have taken them around the world. The first, "Silk riders" which took them from Europe to Asia following in the footsteps of Marco Polo, also resulted in a documentary. Gareth and Jo blog about their travel at http://worldbybike.com

Gareth is also the author of a series of books that scrutinise the spending of public money on various public services, including health, tax and welfare, and sustainability issues like fishing and climate change. Gareth publishes a blog on these topics at http://garethsworld.com

Gareth and Jo are UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit boring. Absolutely amazing adventure but lacking ingesting bits of cultures encountered and things seen. Morgan seems a better economist than Storyteller.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book. A nice idea for a bike trip which I'd love to do myself. I enjoyed the informative snippets as the Morgans progressed with their journey. However, I found them far too opinionated and sensed an inderlying predjudice against cultures or beliefs that they didn't understand. Ruined it for me. I've been given another book of theirs but haven't been able to bring myself to read it yet...

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right from the beginning it annoyed me that I didn't know who was telling the story, and I never got over that. It irritated me the whole way through the book. I had to dodge the boring bits about bikes that didn't interest me and was disappointed with the lack of funny or interesting things that happened to them on their great journey.

[Shannon Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book giving interesting perspectives on the cultures in the various countries. Definitely make me want to buy a motorbike and go travelling. The DVD included included some pretty amazing footage form the trip.

[Maree · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome read

[Donna Blaber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining, I enjoyed this book.