Jamie and I with my girlfriend Ruth have met Paul Van Est from Team Walkabout.

We exchanged news of our preparations and I'm shocked to hear that there might not be any hotels along the way to Mongolia, which means we need to camp.

There goes my plan of wearing pressed shirts throughout the trip and enjoying myself.

We chatted about what we could possibly give the locals besides diseases. Should we tell them about our lives back home in Western civilisation? Should we lie to them? Should we spread the message of hope, that we are coming for their oil in exchange for democracy?

Perhaps the people of the East will surprise us Westerners. Maybe they possess technologies we don't know about.