Off Topic » Itchy Boots FY24-25

Itchy Boots has started to publish her latest adventure series. But it is getting off to a really slow start. She is going to ride an old 1980's 600cc Yamaha ADV and is having a specialist spend a huge amount of time to rework the bike in all sort of ways to (hopefully) make it "bullet proof". They are really putting a lot of lipstick on this pig. No GS for her. She is really dragging out this part of her "adventure". Here is a link to her fourth episode, which isn't much different than the first three. Fortunately, she will finally (at last) be off on her next adventure starting with the next episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYY6BvnAKwc

It's being dragged out because she's been injured and unable to ride for quite some time; ie unable to earn her usual living from Youtube. Added to that, when she started on her latest trip, whenever and wherever that was, she will have needed to build in a decent lead time (many weeks) so that she's long gone from wherever she's been filming to stop the weirdos from tracking her down. I'm sure she'll therefore have strung out release of the 'preparation' videos as long as she can get away with...

Here is the latest from Itchy Boots. She in Istanbul and heading east to somewhere in Asia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNFIN-Akhk&t=8s

Itchy Boots has just published a video about her entering IRAQ, which I have not watched yet. Following news reports the way I have lately, that is not someplace I would want to ride as it doesn't seem like a very safe place to visit. However, since she publishes these episodes likely weeks after the experience, I assume that she made it out of the country in one piece. Here is a link to the latest IRAQ fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fofR8r-Tgd8

She says that she wants to keep heading east, which would have her crossing Iran. Not exactly a paradise for women travelers. However, my recollection is that she visited that country a few years ago, so maybe she knows how to get through it in one piece, too. The next country heading east is Afghanistan and she would really want to stay clear of that country. So likely after Iran, she will go into Pakistan, which would definitely be the better choice. If you ask me, she is really pushing her luck with this trip.

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She says that she wants to keep heading east, which would have her crossing Iran. Not exactly a paradise for women travelers. However, my recollection is that she visited that country a few years ago, so maybe she knows how to get through it in one piece, too. The next country heading east is Afghanistan and she would really want to stay clear of that country. So likely after Iran, she will go into Pakistan, which would definitely be the better choice. If you ask me, she is really pushing her luck with this trip.

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Like Iraq, the northern part of Iran is Kurdish. They are very different to the Shia Muslims that dominate Iranian politics and our newsfeed, and there are many videos of people travelling these parts. Remember, she has a Dutch passport which does not carry the dangers of holding a UK or US passport in this region.
Most will then head north into the former USSR stans and head to the Tajik border with Afghanistan to ride the iconic Pamir Highway.

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She says that she wants to keep heading east, which would have her crossing Iran. Not exactly a paradise for women travelers. However, my recollection is that she visited that country a few years ago, so maybe she knows how to get through it in one piece, too. The next country heading east is Afghanistan and she would really want to stay clear of that country. So likely after Iran, she will go into Pakistan, which would definitely be the better choice. If you ask me, she is really pushing her luck with this trip.

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Like Iraq, the northern part of Iran is Kurdish. They are very different to the Shia Muslims that dominate Iranian politics and our newsfeed, and there are many videos of people travelling these parts. Remember, she has a Dutch passport which does not carry the dangers of holding a UK or US passport in this region.
Most will then head north into the former USSR stans and head to the Tajik border with Afghanistan to ride the iconic Pamir Highway.

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I finally got around to watching the latest episode of Itchy Boots and I see that she is heading north to Kurdistan after riding through IRAQ as you mentioned. I have a feeling that I am going to learn more about the geography of this part of the middle east in coming episodes. Apparently Noraly knows more about what she is doing than I do....

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just look at a map of the area - lots of straight lines where imperial powers from the west made arbitrary decisions about the lands and named the artificial countries. Few of these countries actually represent how the local people organise themselves based on ethnic tribes and religion, as we see when the dictators installed by former imperial powers are brought down. Syria being the latest.

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Sykes-Picot

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I am starting to realize that. One thing is for sure, the world geography courses that I took in high school many years ago, never got around to discussing this part of the world. They pretty much focused on the UK, central Europe and the Americas. The history of these countries was discussed, but never current politics.

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many of the problems we are experiencing today from the Middle East are as a result of actions taken in the middle of the 20th century when the British, French and USA installed puppet governments in former colonies.

BBC Radio 4 has been running an interesting serialisation, part drama, part documentary on the involvement of the British and your CIA when they initiated a coup to install the Shah in Iran in 1953 as they were worried the unpredictable post Stalin Russians would get control of the oil and territory. Ended well that one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Irani..._d%27%C3%A9tat#

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Starting with tomorrow's episode, Noraly is off for a fun ride into Yemen. That doesn't seem like a very good idea to me. She had better watch out for those unexploded bombs, mines, and kidnappers looking for hostages. But it does have the potential to generate some good "click-bait" titles for her Yemen episodes. My daughter subscribes to her newsletter and here is the the latest news:

Spring has finally arrived and in the Middle East, that means temperatures are rising fast now! Before coming to Saudi Arabia, I didn't realise the mountains in the South West were so high, but now I can totally see why this part of the country is a pleasant summer escape for Saudis! Before I continue my journey through Saudi Arabia, I am going to visit its neighbour: Yemen. Tomorrow will be the first episode on my channel about Yemen.

Yemen is currently hitting the headlines because of the Trump administration bombing Yemen. This is happening in a part referred to as Northern Yemen (whereas geographically, it's actually more West Yemen). This is the area that is under control of the Houthis. However, as more often the case in countries that are experiencing war or conflict, this doesn't mean that the entire country is being bombed. The part of Yemen that I am going to is not under control of the Houthis and is not being bombed by the U.S either. So buckle up for the upcoming episodes, things will get very interesting from here on!


I assume that as long as she keeps posting YouTube videos, which seem to be two or three weeks after her actual ride, she is still OK. So if she is now posting videos from Yemen she likely made it out of the country in one piece.