I travelled Europe last year, got stopped by the police 4 times, once in Romania where I genuinely was speeding - actually keeping up with the traffic, there aren't really any motorways in Romania so all the Turkish & Hungarian truckers use the same roads as you will, and if you're in the way they'll happily try to force you off the road. The cop just gave me a warning though.

In Ukraine they just wanted money, but I think there is a tendancy for people to know that's what they expect and just give it to them. I was prepared to do that, but tried just saying "I don't understand" a few times. Not only do they not have very good English, the ones that stopped me seemed to be very reluctant to actually ask for money - they seemed to rely on the fact that you would understand the subtext and play your part, but if you just didn't follow the script (not getting angry or anything) they gave up. It may have helped being a girl on my own, I heard stories from guys travelling who found the cops to be more agressive.

Re time I would say that's a long way to go in 3 weeks, not saying you won't make it but make sure you don't fix in your head "I have to get here", if you don't get to Asia it will hopefully be because you've had lots of interesting experiences on the way.

Re budget my 4 months cost me about £5000 so you should be fine!

Have fun, good luck, and enjoy!

Laura