Chelsea were joined by around 500 fans as they traveled to south-eastern Kazakhstan for Thursday's Conference League match against Astana and it's fair to say the trip was not for the faint-hearted.
Mark Narborough was kind enough to relay his odyssey to Mail Sport, starting on Monday when he flew from London's Heathrow Airport to Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. From there he made his way to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, on a Pegasus overnight flight, completing a flight journey of almost 10 hours.
Bishkek still has a very Soviet feel, with a statue of Vladimir Lenin in front of the State History Museum and a communist-chic Ferris wheel in Panfilov Park. Oh, and lamb heads, complete with teeth, sold by street vendors while visiting the maze of a marketplace called Osh Bazaar.
Good luck negotiating, because English isn't exactly a common language and as beautiful as this region, overlooked by Kyrgyzstan's Ala-Too Mountains, is, tourists are made to feel like they're not the most welcome.
An evening of karaoke with friends at the Munich Pub in Bishkek was followed by a hangover-curing visit to the natural hot springs in the mountains of rural Kyrgyzstan. Followed by another flight from Bishkek to Almaty in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, the body clock went haywire after yet another time zone change. In any case, the 75 cent pints are a solution.
A ridiculous number of Kazakhstani police officers descended on the Almaty Central Stadium – where this match took place due to renovation work on the Astana ground – before kick-off. Witnesses said they arrived by bus in the hundreds.
Mark and his mates were rewarded for their 7,000-mile tour with a 3-1 win and a key ring given to him when collecting the tickets that read: 'By land and sea, Stamford Bridge to Almaty, 3,485 miles.'
That is dedication.
Comments