Say hello to Pat, my travel partner for this trip. When I had decided to do this trip, I wanted a seasoned traveler by my side as I knew that traveling through Central Asia would not necessarily be easy. There was only one person that I thought who would be even remotely interested and capable in coming with me and that is this lady.
She is an experienced traveler who has been to more than 70 countries and counting. Her travels have taken to all corners of the globe and even in her younger days, when money was tight, she and her husband (now deceased) figured out how to stretch their money to enable them to travel. They were budget travelers before the phrase ever even existed! Her husband's love of foreign languages took them to non-English countries that most people would never dream of traveling to - like Mali. I find it amusing to think that off all the places that she has never been to but wants to go to, the UK tops the list.
