I Walk 1

5 for Korean readers
Editor's Note 6

Anatolian Plateau
1.
Villages at the End of the Road 27
2.
The Woodcutter Philosopher 51
3.
Turkish Hospitality 84
4.
Doubt 118
5.
Kangal 158, the fierce dog
6.
I Came, I Saw 196
7.
1,000 kilometers 228
8.
Military police 258
9.
Target accommodation 296
10.
Women 331
11.
And the Thieves 372
12.
Solitude on the Plateau 418
13.
Mountain of Great Pain 453

Translator's Note 487

Silk Road Information
Republic of Türkiye 492


I Walk 2

Acknowledgements 5

Karakum Desert
1.
Storm 15
2.
Bazaar 48, the market of a thousand years
3.
Target accommodation 82
4.
Thirst 116
5.
Thief Police 146
6.
Tehran 170
7.
Desert 188
8.
Mehdi and Monir's Hospitality 217
9.
Opium Addict 232
10.
Iran's Reign of Terror 247
11.
Pilgrim 274
12.
Border 291
13.
Turkmenistan 312
14.
Karakum Desert 343
15.
Bukhara, the land of traditions 377
16.
Sky of Samarkand 399

Translator's Note 425

Silk Road Information
Islamic Republic of Iran 430
Republic of Turkmenistan 434
Uzbekistan "I Walk 3" Tan Republic 437


I Walk 3

Acknowledgements 5

Pamir Plateau
1.
Starting Again 15
2.
Umar 38, who repaired Willis
3.
The Tilted Pendulum of History 64
4.
Young woman Soltanad 83
5.
Tokon's Cabin 109
6.
Commercial City Cass 144
7.
Puddle in the Desert 158
8.
Countryside Red-light District 182
9.
Witness to the rear-end collision 210
10.
Good Person Mr. Ryu 240

Gobi Desert
1.
Sandstorm 269
2.
Poor People 280
3.
Heavenly Mountain, Tianshan 290
4.
300 Corpses on the Road
5.
Police! 320
6.
Chinese Funeral 339
7.
Great Wall 361
8.
Swamp of Frustration 374
9.
Yellow River 391
10.
The Sacred River, Weihe 400
11.
Patient 414
12.
Millennium of China 430

Epilogue 481

Certificate 485
Soyyu 486

Translator's Note 487

Silk Road Information
Republic of Kazakhstan 492
Republic of Kyrgyzstan 497
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 502
Gansu Province 506
Shaanxi Province 509

A 1,099-Day Record from Bernard Olivier, the Hiker's Guru
The Silk Road epic that sparked a global walking craze

There is a simple Frenchman who says, “At my age, I should be growing roses...”
Bernard Olivier is the author of "I Walk," which is considered a must-read for hikers.
Looking at his kind smile, the title 'the world's first Silk Road walker' that follows him around feels awkward.
He spent half his life working as a journalist and columnist for leading French newspapers and magazines, including Le Figaro, before retiring at the age of sixty.
It was a beautiful retirement for someone who had clearly done his part.


However, he could not forget his wife who had left him first, suffered from severe depression, and even attempted suicide due to his helplessness.
Then, out of the blue, I left Paris and walked along Santiago de Compostela, one of the oldest roads in the world.
When he found his way back from a desperate situation, the road gave him a reason to live.

At the end of Santiago de Compostela, Bernard Olivier, feeling hungry for walking, thought of the Silk Road.
As is well known, the Silk Road is the birthplace of globalization, and countless cultural artifacts have been transmitted along this route for thousands of years.
After a while he realized that very few people had walked this path from beginning to end.
Then I decided.
It was the beginning of the longest and most arduous journey of his life.
Some ask him if the four years he spent crossing the Silk Road must have been truly difficult.


But surprisingly, he answers that it was harder when he stopped walking than when he started walking.
While walking alone in a foreign land where he did not speak the language, he got lost countless times, and was threatened by thieves, wild animals, and even suffered from illness.
However, the path I walked alone was not lonely or painful.
On his journey to regain his will to live, he made unforgettable memories and over 15,000 friends.

"I Walk" is not just a simple Silk Road travel report by a retired journalist.
We do not fall into the trap of Western-centric thinking, which only reminisces about the past glory of the Silk Road or underestimates the Islamic cultural sphere.


Bernard Olivier, trained as a journalist, records the people and history of the Silk Road in a concise and accurate manner with a broad and diverse perspective.
The secret to being able to remember numerous anecdotes in detail and include them in a book is also not unrelated to my experience as a reporter.
Since his days as a reporter, he has enjoyed wearing pants with many pockets. He would put his passport in one pocket, a notebook and pen in another, and a camera in yet another.
When I met new people, I asked for their names and wrote them down, so I was able to collect a huge amount of notes.
It is surprising how much of his record-keeping spirit he possesses, considering that the content in "I Walk," published in three volumes, does not even reflect 5 percent of what he wrote.

Having experienced complete freedom and healing through walking, he founded the 'Seuil' association in 2000, meaning threshold.
The Soyuiyu program is a correctional program that allows juveniles incarcerated in juvenile detention centers to be released if they walk more than 2,000 kilometers for three months in a foreign country where they do not speak the language.
In fact, it has had a positive effect on many of the youth who participated in this program. Compared to the 85 percent recidivism rate for general juvenile offenders, the recidivism rate for those who participated in the Soyyu program is said to be only 15 percent.
This is why he, who experienced self-healing through walking, donates all of his royalties after deducting taxes to the cause of iron.