The driving we encountered on our trip, especially in China, was extraordinary. Overtaking is done with the attitude that if one honks enough the oncoming traffic will mysteriously disappear, roundabouts are attempted in either direction with equal frequency, wide footpaths were treated as defacto roads, traffic laws are rarely enforced, road design poor and driver education almost non existent. It was only in 2004 that serious penalties were introduced for drunk driving.

Predictably, China has one of the worst road safety records in the world, in excess of 100,000 deaths per year, and rising rapidly as 100 million new cars are predicted to join its roads over the next 15 years. During the trip we saw at least 20 serious accidents, many head-on collisions, two rollovers, one probable motorcycle fatality, one pedestrian fatality, trucks crashing into cliffs, motorcycles and cars. One truck smashed into a pharmacy store right in front of us.

The most pedestrian unfriendly city's we went to were Hanoi (Vietnam), Kashgar and Urumuchi (China) and Bangkok. In all four footpaths are either non-existent or have been over-run with cars and motorcycles. Cars in China would think nothing of honking at pedestrians to get off "their" footpath, or running a red light and then expecting pedestrians to give way, rendering pedestrian crossings almost completely meaningless.

Also noted that Asia is just as easily conned into buying piece-of-rubish SUV's as the rest of the world, with the Mitsubishi wanker/pajero being the pollution machine of choice. The Mitsubishi tyre cover below reads "environmentally friendly model".

Whilst we were hoping to set a good example by cycling across China, we were sorry to see the likes of Jackie Chan, Gong Li and China Mobile doing the exact opposite: