Exploring a Silk Trip

I have been staring at the world map lately and discovering countries I have never heard of before. Kyrgistan is my favorite.

I read few articles about recent travelers who followed the silk road, and then how much they learned and enjoyed the journey.

So I am exploring what it would take to follow the trail of Ibn Battouta and Marco Polo.

Here are my first notes about the trip:
- Unlike Ibn Battouta, I would need a lot of visas.
- Recent travelers observed that the silk road population is dominantly muslim and the experience is sometimes tricky as the locals may be reluctant to interact with Russians and Westerners, and a minimum of understanding of the muslim habits is important to avoid upsets.
I still did not encounter any documentation about a muslim silk road traveler.
- There are different alternative silk roads, some of these roads should be avoided at this time for security reasons. (e.g. Afghanistan, Georgia)

Do you know anybody who walked this path before?