Seems like it would be a great adventure. While everyone has their own comfort levels with regards to possibly dangerous places off the beaten path, I feel like the fears of some are excessive. I have traveled by myself to a few places many people would have considered no go zones with no problems. I made two solo trips to the Russian far east in the mid 90's shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first time illegally (my visa was only good for St Petersburg thousands of miles from Khabarovsk where I landed). The other trip was 10 days in Pakistan's Northwest frontier province after flying into Peshawar. Luckily for this trip I knew a guy there who's sons took me all over the area, they even took to me to the Khyber pass on the Afghan border and we walked across into Afghanistan. This was at the time the Russians were fighting in Afghanistan and the US was helping provide missiles to the Mujahideen, so Americans weren't as controversial in the area as now. I found many of the locals in both places friendly and helpful, they were often impressed that I was willing to travel to their area alone. A key point to these trips being successful was likely hooking up with locals, especially since I didn't speak more than a few words od their language.