By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
I’ve recorded several podcasts, interviews, conversations recently.
At London Business School Maureen and I recorded Journeys, a conversation with Rajesh Chandy the Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Developing World at the Wheeler Institute. People seemed to enjoy it, someone suggested that we ‘looked like two teenagers our to start an exciting adventure,’ not business like at all.
With Tyrel Cameron Eskelson I talked on his Interlocutor podcast about my travel life, starting in Pakistan when I was a small child right up to travel in recent weeks and for the rest of 2025.
In Skyfaring - his 2015 best seller on the mystery and magic of flight - BA 747 pilot Mark Vanhoenacker told how he did it. Now in this 64-page addition to the Quercus series of ‘how to do it’ books he tells us how to do it ourselves. Land that is. Taking off is no...
We’re through to Day 92, our last day in Asia, tomorrow we cross the Dardanelles, from Asian to European Turkey and then on into Bulgaria. But more on Turkey shortly, meanwhile here’s a quick summary of Days 76 to 84 in Iran. Tashi was my co-driver on this stage an...
I’m now in Turkey on Day 88 of my Silk Road with an old British sports car journey and I’ve just posted on how friendly the Iranians were on my trip across that intriguing country, with my daughter Tashi often at the wheel. ◄ And shopping for bread when we stopped ...
I’m in Turkey on Day 87 of my 102 day Silk Road drive in an old MGB from Bangkok to London (and on to Abingdon where MGBs were made, many years ago). From Day 76 to Day 84 we drove through Iran. Friendly Iran as almost any visitor to Iran will attest. ▲Tashi Wheele...
We’re now in Mashhad in Iran on Day 76 of our 102 day Silk Road odyssey by MGB. Our last stop in the Central Asian ‘stans – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan – was at Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. None of the ‘stans were what I expected, Kyr...
Kyrgyzstan was a case of continuous culture shock, not what I had expected of the ex-Soviet Central Asian ‘stans when it came to the geography or the culture. The surprises continued in Uzbekistan, when we reached Samarkand and Bukhara with their wonderful Islamic art...
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, if I’ve had culture shock in recent years then these two countries have been the places that provided it. They simply were not at all like I expected, scenically or culturally. I was expecting deserts, I got the Swiss Alps. I was expecting t...
I’m in to Uzbekistan now on Day 65, but here’s a quick catch up from Day 47 to 57 Day 49 – Dunhuang is famous for its Buddhist caves and for the Singing Sand Dunes. The caves were indeed terrific, but after Maijishan it was hard to be impressed. The sand dunes, how...
We’re at Day 60 on our Silk Road by car odyssey, out of China, through Kazakhstan and into Kyrgyzstan, but here are some final thoughts on driving in China after covering 10,500km from the Laos border to the Kazakhstan one. ▲ My car, Burgundy, in trouble. It was to...
One of the pleasures (or at least conveniences) of travel in China today is the huge number of public toilets. Once upon a time they were hard to find and when you found one you often wished you hadn’t. ◄ Toilet sign in Pingyao Now they seem to be everywhere and...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013