From YOLO to Solo

A 60-something's Silk Road adventure

by Sandra Reekie 

Publication Date:  11th Oct 2021


£9.99

From YOLO to Solo: a 60-something’s Silk Road adventure travel narrative – 64-year old Sandra Reekie is offered the chance to travel the ancient SilkRoad, from Istanbul to Islamabad, in this engaging memoir. One condition: she would be travelling with a woman she had never met. What could possibly go wrong? An honest and soul-lifting read.

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About this book

At the age of 64, Sandra Reekie was offered the adventure of a lifetime: to spend three months journeying along the Silk Road, the fabled trading route between Asia and Europe. One condition: she would be travelling with a woman she had never met. What could possibly go wrong? You only live once, after all.
In this soul-lifting and honest memoir, we join Sandra as she travels with hope in her heart, rucksack on her back and the ever-complaining Joan by her side. It’s a journey through eight countries, bumping along from Istanbul to Islamabad on hair-raising flights and elusive trains, tortuous taxi rides and never-ending night buses. We encounter awe-inspiring ancient sites and lost cities, from Persepolis to Palmyra, Kashgar to Khiva, as the author shares her curiosity and optimism, her frustrations and her fears. At every turn, the timeless kindness of strangers buoys her up and propels her forward – and ultimately helps her summon up the courage she never knew she would need.
From YOLO to Solo defines the true spirit of travel: to say yes to everything, to enjoy the small moments as well as the epic, and to embrace the fact that it is never too late for adventure.

About the Author

Following many years raising a family, Sandra Reekie undertook her first independent travel trip at the age of 55. With a poor cancer prognosis the following year, she thought her travelling days would be short-lived, but ten years later and with several more trips under her belt, her story stands as testimony to the fact that it is never too late to embrace adventure. When offered the chance to travel the ancient Silk Road, she jumped at it. ‘You will never see a sky as beautiful as the sun rising over the Himalayas from Darjeeling, she recalls her father telling her, a memory that has spurred her on to see it for herself and visit Agra, where he was born. Always passionate about history and the East, hers is an honest and soul-lifting tale of a dream come true.

Additional Information

Table of Contents

Introduction
Turkey
Syria
Turkey again!
Iran
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
China
Pakistan