+++IMPORTANT to everyone interested in joining - There are going to be several “teams”, each with their own route and timings. Contact me, let me know which team you would like to join and I’ll get you in touch with each ‘team leader’. Click here+++

+++Monday 14th May – I got my Chinese visa. I was shitting my pants on the way to the embassy, but then everything went really unspectacularly. I went to the cashier, paid and got my passport with the visa back without any comments. From then on I was so relieved and relaxed, spent the rest of the day at the “Occupy” camp and had an amazing last day. I will leave tomorrow morning with a fresh strart – now I have about 10 000 km ahead of me without having to bother about visas, such a nice feeling. I am on my way home!

The “Eco-Traveling Marathon” is proud to welcome two more participants! Charly, one of the Couchsurfers from Holland staying at the “Occupy” camp has decided to join the adventure! He will travel back home on ground – he will try to apply for the Russian Visa in Shanghai or also follow the same route as I am taking through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Eastern Europe. He can be followed as “Team Peter Rabbit” from now on! At the Kazakh Embassy I met a young Chinese guy who is about to leave on his bicycle from Beijing to Italy – he will form “Team Raphael”. Follow the teams ++++

+++Saturday 12th May – Hong Kong. I spent one night at “Occupy Central”, the Hong Kong version of “Occupy Wallstreet”. Last night we went dumpsterdiving in one of Hong Kong’s most luxurious malls. We were six people, equipped with big bags and shoe cartons. We carried out, I would say, about 150kg of food! And it wasn’t just any kind of food – it was THE most decadent dumpster dive I have ever experienced! After we snuck our way through the basement of the mall, through the car park, past the Porsches and Rolls Royces, we found bags full of Sushi, French camembert, Spanish smoked bacon, fresh fruit juice. Pretty much all the endangered and overfished species of fish were found in those garbage bags, still cold from the fridges of the mall and with a sometimes even a day to go on the expiry date.

We hauled the bags through town and distributed the food to pretty much every homeless or poor-looking person we could find. In the end, even after we stuffed our own stomachs, we still had so much left-overs that we had to put back to where they had come from – the bin. +++

"Occupy Central" - Creating a public space for people of various backgrounds to interact, to initiate, to let their voices be heard at the heart of Hong Kong. These activists have been squatting the HSBC Headquarters (Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation) since October 16th 2011, taking a stand for responsible corporatism!

+++Friday 11th May – got the Kazakh Visa this morning. After all the rejections and bad timings in the past weeks, hearing that at least one application got approved and the visa is ready to be picked up, was such a relieving and motivating feeling. With my clear shaven face and new passport photos I went straight to the Chinese Embassy and submitted another application form. I now hope that they don’t keep my ‘file’ somewhere and will have forgotten about the previous application (as the consul had actually already told me not to apply another time at their office, because “It’s not just your beard, it’s your whole face”). In fact I felt quite confident. They have at least a 100 applicants every day and I don’t believe they keep track of every case. Worst comes to worst, I will have to go to Macau on Monday and apply there.+++

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Go to “Berlin Chennai Papua” or “Eco-Traveling-Marathon” to read more.

© Florian Augustin

Six people left Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 21st to embark on a journey to Berlin, Germany. 108 hitchhiking rides, trains, buses, ferries through a total of 14 countries and only one rule:

No flying.

Watch the whole film!