Textile Designer Gemma Cagnacci of Line x Shape x Colour joins the Guest Blog this week, sharing highlights of her incredible recent round-the-world trip!

So I know I am prone to exaggeration at the best of times, but I really cannot think of a way to accurately introduce this week's guest blogger without launching into a tirade of superlatives.  Seriously.  We are SO lucky to have Gemma Cagnacci of Line x Shape x Colour with us all week, sharing highlights of her incredible recent globe-trotting adventure!

OK here come the superlatives.  Line x Shape x Colour is the absolute BEST travel blog I've ever seen.  Actually it's one of the very best Australian blogs you will ever lay eyes on, full stop.   Over the last year, Gemma, a Sydney-based textile designer, has used her blog to document the most amazing round-the-world trip.  She and her partner Andrew have just spent the best part of 2011 travelling through the Middle East and Central Asia, starting in Istanbul, meandering down to Cairo, and following the Silk Road  from Beijing to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.  The journey of a lifetime.

Luckily for the rest of us, Gemma has diligently documented every country, every city, every market, every monument, every cute kid and every postcard-perfect scene in eye-popping detail on her incredible blog.  Her shots are AMAZING.  It's vicarious travel like you've never experienced before - you simply must visit and bookmark Line x Shape x Colour!

Now back in sunny Sydney, Gemma has generously agreed to share a week of highlights from her trip here on our Guest Blog!  AMAZING!  She's distilled her epic journey into five dense, image-laden posts - we'll share highlights of her time in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Egypt and Turkey.

Good luck getting through this week without booking an airline ticket, that's all I can say.

Massive thanks to Gemma for taking us along for the ride!