"15,000 KM Endurance Adventure Bike Ride for Charity and to Bridge Cultures"
Brick Lane to Bangladesh
London to Dhaka
NMP#  13.B.1
June 2013 Until It Is Done

Brick Lane to Bangladesh

Luke Barton and Tom Smith on June 2013 will embark on a 15,000 km unsupported cycle journey from Brick Lane in London to Bangladesh’s bustling capital; Dhaka. ​

As the main hub of London's Bangladeshi community, Brick Lane (nicknamed Banglatown) is famed for its many curry restaurants and it is the ideal starting point for the expedition which will take them overland through 20 countries to Bangladesh; the origins of Britain’s favourite dish.​

Food is one major theme of the trip and it's fair to say they'll be starting and finishing the trip with a slap up curry. More than eight out of ten curry restaurants in the UK are owned by Bangladeshis, and this fabulous dish dictates both the start and end destinations. ​

Thousands of Bangladeshis immigrated to London’s East End in the 1970’s and they now famously run many of the curry restaurants and other businesses on and around Brick Lane making it the cultural hot spot it is today. By cycling between these two curry capitals they hope to highlight the stark differences between the lifestyles of the two Bangladeshi communities, promote multiculturalism in London and help increase the profile of both Bangladesh and East London as tourist destinations.

​​​In the process they hope to raise a pile of cash for War Child, a UK charity dedicated to protecting children living in some of the world's most dangerous countries.​

The only time they will leave solid ground is when crossing the English Channel. The rest of the journey will be completed by bike and will take us across Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and finally across India to Bangladesh. During the trip they will be subjected to 50 degree heat in the Karakum Desert where they'll be forced to carry up to 16 litres of water on their bikes, to bitter wind and unforgiving cold on the high plateaus of Central Asia. They must also cross several mountain ranges including The Pamir and The Himalayas, cycling over 5500 metre passes, in order to make it to Bangladesh. The expedition will be entirely unsupported. They will carry everything they need on their bikes and will camp wild as much as possible.

Their journey will begin from Brick Lane in London's East End. From there, after a quick hop across the channel, they will travel across western Europe through France, Germany and Austria and then head south through the Balkans to Greece. They'll then cross Turkey and Iran taking some pretty serious detours in order to see some of the great sites these countries have to offer. They'll then enter Central Asia and work their way through the 'Stans' (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan). They'll be taking the Pamir Highway from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan before hopping off to head east into Western China. They'll then head south and join the Karakorum Highway which will take us in to Pakistan. Their other option here is to take a route from Tajikistan into the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan and over the border into Pakistan...still undecided. Either way, from Pakistan they'll tackle the last leg of the journey by heading east into Northern India and crossing the country from west to east until they reach their destination...Bangladesh. Then they'll stop and have a curry in Dhaka. This route is open to change depending on climate, politics, natural disaster and their own personal whims and sense of adventure.

Follow Luke and Tom at www.BrickLanetoBangladesh.com

Luke Barton

Luke was born and raised in Ripon, North Yorkshire and as it was before the age of the internet he spent his childhood messing around in the surrounding countryside which helped fuel his love for epic landscapes and the wilderness. After attending Ripon Grammar School he moved to Leeds to study guitar performance at Leeds College of Music and subsequently spent his late teens and early twenties performing in bands. After one band break up too many Luke packed his bags and went on a year long trip around the world visiting South America, New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia, Nepal and India. During this year he befriended Orangutans in the Sumatran jungle, drank whisky with inmates in a Bolivian prison, trekked high into the snowy Himalayas and cycled down the "world’s most dangerous road"... and came away well and truly infected with the fabled ‘travelling bug’. On returning he moved to London where he’s spent the last 4 years teaching guitar, working for a digital agency and enjoying all that the ‘big smoke’ has to offer.

Like most silly ideas the Brick Lane to Bangladesh concept sprung to mind after a few too many drinks. He soon realized that he couldn’t shake the idea from his mind and decided the only sensible option was to stop procrastinating and do it! His motivation for doing the expedition comes from a desire to achieve something truly physically and mentally challenging, to get out there and see fascinating parts of the world at a bikes pace and raise money for a couple of great causes. Plus some vague hope that life will become a bit clearer after spending countless nights sleeping outside eating tinned beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Tom Smith

(Biography under development)

 

War Child Charity

War Child started on a simple premise, it is still the same today: No child should be affected by war.​

War Child currently works in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, Uganda and is currently working with Syrian refugees in Lebanon. They're on the ground - supporting the most vulnerable children that are too often forgotten in the aftermath of conflict. These include former child soldiers, children living on the streets, children put in prison and girls at risk of rape or violence.

War Child's programmes are developed around the three themes of child protection, education and livelihoods. They working with communities to prevent abuse, neglect and exploitation, and are lobbying governments and decision-makers to improve the lives of many more. War Child also work to increase access to education, so that children can enjoy safe environments in which to learn and socialize with one another and they work with local partners to help young people and their families to build sustainable livelihoods, securing a better future.

In some of the most insecure conflict areas in the world, War Child's teams work with local partners to tackle the devastating effects of war after the cameras have gone home and media attention has shifted elsewhere.

For more information visit www.warchild.org.uk

 

The Noor E Farid Nasrine Academy

The Noor E Farid Nasrine Academy is a boy orphanage based in Comilla, Bangladesh.

Their Vision is to take twenty boys aged between two and four and give them a home. The facility provides them with nutritious foods, introduces them to sports and fitness with a particular focus on cricket and provides them with a quality education. The aim is to give these boys hope and a real chance to succeed in life and support through the duration of their youth up until they graduate from university.

Their Mission is to overcome the emotional insecurities inherent to most orphans and transform the boys in to secure, intelligent and confident young men. The Academy does this through developing a sense of brotherhood and providing them with structured environment involving both care and discipline.

Their goal is to build up both the boys and the project so that doors will open in the future and these boys will take advantage of opportunities otherwise not available to them. They strive provide a well-rounded educational experience including art, drama and music, but the focus is on delivering two key assets to the boys, a strong command over the English language and ensuring they are healthy and physically fit, with a strong focus on teaching them to excel at the sport of cricket.

For more information visit www.the-40.com

The material in this write-up is extracted from the www.BrickRoadtoBangladesh.com website

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