Back on the road ... but to where ?

Hi all

Well I have been really bad at updating this blog! Then again I am back to camping without the luxury of WiFi.

So I am now at West Yellowstone and about to enter the park tomorrow.

So, how did I get here ? Well I ended up staying another few nights at Tacoma. I just didnt feel too good. I put it down to Jet lag but I felt really drained and lethargic. Not to mention I felt like I had flu like symptoms.

So I finally left Tacoma a week later. I had contacted a guy called Tom from ADV riders site. He was offering tent space or spare room. However he was at a friends small farm for the weekend, he did email me saying I was welcome and that there were other oversea's guys so I would be the only "foreigner" I did laugh! I never thought of myself as a foreigner in the USA.
Well it was a short 140 mile ride to meet Tom and the rest of the guys n girls. I have to say, I was slightly nervous of meeting them all but within minutes I was made very welcome and just felt part of it all.

There was of course, lots of beer and tons of food to eat. We all sat round the fire as Sue (Tom's wife) handed around the "teapot".. however this wasnt tea ! it was full of all sorts of spirits!  However it did go down rather well !

Round the campfire

Shaun the host, Ray from Manchester and Beth the hostess

toasting buns for breakfast

the morning after banter around the fire

So, Tom and Sue invited me back to stay with them. Tom took me over an excellent route to his house, stopping to take pictures of local beauty spots.

Tom also took me out for a ride in his lovely old car ( I cant remember the age, it was all just to much to take in ),

Tom showing me the local sights

Tom and I about to go for a drive 

So 1 day turned into 2 and then 3, Then Sue says Pot roast night..... so it was 4 nights

Sue's pot roast, it was so delicious :-) 

So I finally left Tom and Sue's, Though I think I would have been quite happy to stay for months ! Infact the bed was so comfortable, I started to feel homesick !

Sue and Tom, wonderful host's

So I hit the road, well the wrong road. Tom said take route 26 but somehow I ended up on the 30 and came round the back of Mount Hood, where I ran out of fuel but luckily carrying spare fuel. I ended up camping on the shore of a lake. You cant beat waking up and opening up your tent to a fantastic view

So it was back on the road and I found route 20, which took me to a lovely little quaint village called "Dayville". It was early in the afternoon but the sun was scorching and I decided to stop for the night. Julie the woman who ran the local garage/store offered to make me a pizza. I didnt think it would be as big as it was ! There was so much I was still eating it for breakfast.

Julie, cooked me a huge delicious pizza

on the Oregon Trail

I havent managed to many miles because every 20 minutes I seem to see something and stop to look or take a picture. Of course I keep going ohhhhh as I ride past things.

So I am now at the edge of Yellowstone Park. I intend to spend a few days here, head East to Custers last stand and then down to Sturgis. Till then, Ride Safe :-)

Following Eddie Murphy and Coming to America

Well I made it to Canada, were I had the biggest shock of my life, the price of food and drink in Canada!

a 12 pack of small Bud cost me £17!!! I am not going to mention the price I had to pay for the hotel just in case my kids are reading this and think that I have spent all of their inheritance.

I would say the hotel was fairly close to the airport

So after a couple of days it was time to take the Greyhound bus from Vancouver main to Seattle where I would change bus and finally arrive at Tacoma to collect my bike.

The Greyhound bus terminal

On the way we got talking to some firefighters that were doing a charity event. I asked if I could wear a helmet and very soon was given a hose to play with !

Me playing at Fireman Sam 

At the bus depot the bus pulled in and we started to make our way to the bus. The bus driver shouted at us "Going somewhere? then back it up to the line!" I was quite shocked. This bus driver didnt take any messing!

Soon we were on the bus and at the border.

The approach to the USA Border

Luckily the bus was allowed to take the bus lane and within 30 minutes all the passengers were processed. There was one girl who got a proper grilling but did eventually join us back on the bus. 

I was given a 6 month stay due to having an american visa, so I was very pleased at this, though I too got a bit of a grilling.... suppose its just all part of the process.

The bus swap over was fairly easy and within a few hours we had reached Tacoma, then a short but very costly $10 taxi ride to our hotel.

Today Dazzer and me made our way to customs to get the paperwork done, The bikes however will not be released till tomorrow (Tuesday) so hopefully in the very near future I will be on the road again.

I need to do some small repairs and hopefully find somewhere to do an oil and filter change.

view from my hotel with the docks in the background

Till then... ride safe

Hey I am in Canada :-)

So there I was lazing around in Bangkok, staying at an apartment block about 10 miles north of the city. Very cheap at £9 per night and for that you got a lovely room with balcony, fridge freezer, microwave and large flat screen tv.
It was a bit out of town though! So I soon found myself using the underground and Skytrain (Train goes above the city). Also used TukTuks and scooter taxis.
Scooter taxi's were great fun but a little frightening ! Basically you jump on the back of a scooter with no protection and agree the price and then its off ! zig zagging thru the traffic like a madman ! but its a quick way to get around as Bangkok has major traffic congestion.

So I decided I would squeeze a few days in Cambodia, I decided to move to the city where the hotels went up to £12 per night and also visited the redlight areas. I didnt stay long in the redlight areas, they were packed and it was scorching hot even at night!
I did get approached by a lady of the night, In China town of all places ! I was looking for some where decent to eat and ended up once again in the KFC!

So I took the train to the border, 180 miles for £1 thats value for money!
however it was very hot and jam packed! The novelty wore off after 20 minutes, to make matters worse the train was delayed and it took 7 hours to reach the border.

Seller come thru the train every 20 minutes selling a variety of food and drinks

I sat next to a young lady who later in the journey I gave a cig to, in return she offered me some sort of sexual favour, well I think it was unless she was miming that I needed to clean my teeth !!!
I then spent the next hour looking at her, struggling to see if she had once had an adams apple!

So you take a TukTuk from the train station to the border. Once there you have to find the visa building. Be aware that a lot of people will try and scam you. Just tell them you already have a visa and head thru the arch to the official building.
$20 later you will be issued with a visa and then its off to find transport to Siem Reap. I managed to buy a mini bus ticket for $10. This mini bus was shared by 10 others and the air con was so bad we on the back seat just melted! my shirt looked like it had been taken out of the washing machine and put on wet!

So I booked into my $12 hotel, which was lovely and had a pool, great for cooling off after a long day touring.

The I was there picture :-)

I also booked a TukTuk driver for the day at $10, he took me to all the ruins at Angkor Wat, I have to say, they were spectacular ! The downside was it was very hot with the temps touching the 40's.

The whole day was fantastic and I even got to see some monkeys.

I took hundreds of pictures, the temples are full of interesting statues and the walls are lined with sculpture and carvings/

The only downside was the locals trying to sell you things. I just felt they were a bit too much in your face!

After a couple of days I headed back to the apartment in Bangkok to get ready for the flight to Vancouver Canada.

1 of the hundreds of pictures I took that day

So arriving back in Bangkok gave me a few days to sort out washing and get last minute bits for the trip. The flight was a 1 stop over. So I can now add Japan to my list of countries (only joking, I didnt even get out of the airport lol).

I tried to sleep as much as I could on the flights, the flight time was 17 hours in total but because I was crossing the International Dateline I would be going back in time for the first time of this trip.

So I departed Bangkok at 8 in the morning, arriving in Vancouver Canada 2 hours later !! 

I have to say, this time I have really struggled with jet lag, today I had to go back to bed (only for 1 hour but slept thru the alarm and woke up 4 hours later).

Well tomorrow I head off on a Greyhound bus to Seattle USA, where hopefully Tuesday 28th Aug 2012 I will be re-united with my beloved bike ! Its been almost 3 weeks since I last saw my bike and I am getting quite excited about all the places to see :-)

So Ride Safe and take care :-)

lazing away in Bangkok Thailand

When we left Sabuk we took fantastic twisty scenic roads and had a night wild camping on the beach before taking route 7 down to Busan

Stunning scenery

Beautiful beaches and lovely warm sea's

wild camping on the beach

Well we managed to get the bikes loaded onto a RO/RO ferry bound for Tacoma USA.

It was touch n go though! we (Dazzer and I) had looked over google maps for the port and thought we had it all sussed. It looked like about 30 miles from the hotel in Busan to the port of Masan.

Because the bikes are not allowed on the motorways we allowed ourselves 3 hours to get to the port where we were meeting Mr Kim our custom rep.

All was going so well despite the very heavy traffic at 7 in the morning and the temp rising to 30 !  about 10 miles from the port we took a wrong turn and ended up on a motorway.  We got stopped at the toll gate and  we were told to turn around. However Dazzer went off and managed to get permission to use the motorway as long as we had an escort.
So an escort was found and instead of following him he insisted that we went in front.  This is were it all went down hill !! I think we took the 2nd exit when we should have taken the 1st. After 20 minutes of riding up and down different roads we managed to get split up!  With Dazzers phone not working all I could do was try to find the ferry and hope he managed the same.
After another 20 minutes I finally found myself on the road to Masan (though there was no road signs saying "Masan"!).
By this time it was almost 10 and I was starving, so I spotted a Macdonalds and thought, sod it, Im going to grab breakfast and work out where to go next.
Just as I sat down an american lady asked me if I was an English teacher, I quickly explained and in a few minutes she was on her phone and managed to contact Mr Kim.  I was instructed to stay at Macdonalds and he would come and get me.
How happy was I to see Dazzer in tow with Mr Kim, he had also found Masan and had stopped at a petrol station were they rang Mr Kim for him.
So 15 minutes later we were at the the port and the bikes were checked over by customs and finally handed over to the freighter's. The bikes are now due to land in the USA around the 24th Aug.

So we got a lift of Mr Kim and took a bus to Busan bus station, from there it was a short tube ride to the hotel.  4 hours on bikes to get there, 1.5 hours to get back by public transport !

The next day we set off to the airport to fly to Thailand for a few weeks (we had been told it was really cheap to live and eat in Thailand).
However our first hurdle was our flight had been cancelled due to bad weather in China (a change over flight). They did say Korean airlines were doing a direct flight to Bangkok, so we quickly headed over and booked and paid for 3 seats.
I must admit, it was the first plane I have been on that hands out complimentary drinks and snacks, YES free beer :-)  must make a note of that airline !

My first view of Bangkok

I have however had a right old time trying to get my money back from www.opodo.com ! They wanted me to ring them from Thailand, when I said they could ring my hotel they refused saying they were an incoming call centre only ! so finally after 7 days they have agreed to look into it!  I will update my blog when the money has been refunded... however I will never use opodo ever again.

I am now living in a lovely room with balcony, air con, fridge, microwave and big TV all for £9 a night ! and the food is so cheap here :-)  however the downside is, the hotel is on the outskirts of the city and Bangkok's public transport is not the best.  So its taxi's to most places, however they are quite cheap to!

I have been to a massive shopping mall called Fortune IT shopping mall, 4 floors of computers, cameras and all IT things.... IT heaven for me lol.  I did manage to get my laptop repaired in under a hour for £10.  I dont think you will ever get that service in the UK.

View from the top of the Fortune shopping mall

I have also visited the Pantip shopping mall, tons of computers and even more dodgy software, which is quite funny because they sell this stuff next to a big poster saying "software piracy is a crime, 10 years in prison etc" quite ironic I think?

I also visited the weekend market, its the biggest market I have ever been to. The downside was it was so hot and humid all I could do was walk around like a leaking sponge. 3 hours later I was off back to my air con hotel :-)

So I am now thinking about a few options, move to another but more expensive hotel in the city and enjoy the night-life or head to Cambodia on the train.... or find a beach somewhere and just totally chill !

I do now one thing, I am really missing riding my old motorbike !

I just had to take a ride in a Tuk Tuk, great fun !

If Russia was Hell, then welcome to Heaven.... South Korea

Well the ferry went smoothly, though I wasnt happy about leaving my bike overnight at Russian customs.
Infact the first thing I did when I got on the ferry was ask to see my bike :-) it felt very strange to be parted after we have been together for nearly 3 months.

So after paying almost £700 for an overnight crossing to Donghae South Korea. I was finally on my way out of Russia.

Dazzer and Leigh also managed to get booked onto the ferry, so the 3 musketeers where together again.
Stepping onto the boat was like stepping into a different world, people were happy and smiling, all the crew spoke English or should I say Engrish !! Anyway, they really couldnt do enough for you :-)

Once we arrived in port the crew called for us and pushed us through the usual customs and immigration. where we were met by the South Korean shipping agent, who took us to an air conditioned office and provided tea for us.  It wasnt long till we turned his nice tidy office into a temporary changing room

Within 30 minutes the bike were off the ship and cleared thru customs.

The shipping agent then took us to the city to find a motel, he really couldnt do enough for us.

The motel was a love motel, it can be hired for a few hours or for a full night. I did ask if they did a 10 minute rate but got no reply !!

It was also cheap at £25 a night but when we tried to book another night it appears that either we have hit high season or all the rooms over the weekend double in price.

So we went off to find a campsite. we headed 8km up the road to Mangsang to a free campsite with free wifi and a fantastic tourist information who have been fantastic to us.

The beach is just one big party! they have concerts on and during the day the have volleyball competitions, in fact there's never a dull moment here.

We also eat at Lotteria, its the Koreans version of McDonalds but with big differences. The first time we used we managed to cock up the order and forgot to include drinks. The manager appeared and introduced himself and apologized for not understanding and brought us free drinks ! everytime we go there now he comes over and asks if every thing is ok.  In fact the burgers taste 10 times better than anything I have had from the UK.

Today, we rode 100 miles up the coast to see the North Korean border, though it was red hot with the temps in the high 30's it was a lovely ride, however it was spoilt by the fact we couldnt proceed to the observation tower because we were on motorbikes, it appears that cars only can travel to the tower. I am also puzzled why motorbikes are not allowed on the highway which is there version of a motorway, quite strange restrictions on motorbikes here.

Well we hope to ship the bikes from Busan to Seattle USA around the 7th Aug. Then fly to Bangkok Thailand for a couple of weeks before picking the bikes back up :-)

So till then... Ride Safe :-)

PS just had a brilliant 10 minute fireworks display probably better than you see in Florida !!

 

End of the road for Russia

Well I am now sat in the Hotel Acfes Seiyo Vladivadstok.

So here is the story of how I got here !

My days in Ulan Batar were coming to an end, I knew it was time to move on or otherwise I would have to apply for Mongolian citizenship !

After having spent a few days with my mate Alec it was time once again to hook up with Daz and Leigh and head out of Mongolia.

Alec enjoying a Mongolian bus ride

So on the 12th July we headed out and up to the border. we took it quite easy, stopping to take some last minute pictures of Mongolia and enjoying a few brews on the way.

we stopped here for a brew

While I was sorting out my back box which had became loose after my crash in Ulan Ude, I noticed a small bell lying on the ground. So I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

The next lunch break we stopped at a roadside cafe where a couple of Mongolian guys were admiring the bikes. When we finished I went out to discover my small brass combination lock had been stolen off my bike! Well I know it was only a lock but I was furious. Despite the Mongolian being really nice people theres still some light fingered gits amongst them!

So we headed for the long road to Vladivadstok. Whilst having a nights rest just outside of Chita I received news that my mum had taken ill and was in hospital. I was beside myself and desperately trying to work out a way to get back home. Then my mum said under no circumstances was I to come home. I must finish what I started. Thankfully my mum is now out of hospital and resting on her way to a full recovery.

A few days later we stopped the night at a memorial for a Russian biker who was murdered by locals 2 years ago. There were hundreds of bikers gathered to remember him. So we stayed the night and had a fantastic time.

I left a pair of earplugs for him

In the morning I discovered that my tatty banda headscarf had gone missing, the Russian bikers did not believe that any biker would take it. So I have to say, I left feeling quite disheartened.

I started thinking back to the bell I had picked up in Mongolia, maybe after the padlock, my mum and then my Bandana it was really a bad luck omen. So at the next petrol stop I left it on the wall. So if you see it dont pick it up lol.

About an hour later we stop for lunch and when I take my jacket off, my bandana is stuck inside the sleeve! I have no idea of how it got there. All I could think about was how bad I felt that I thought a biker would steal my bandana. So if any of the Russian bikers are reading this. I am REALLY SORRY  for thinking anyone would have taken it.

The next few days just seem to be a blur in my memory, long hot roads with lots of road works and temporary roads, meaning just hard core rock or gravel!

I did stay in a lovely little motel and this young lady knocked on my door at 1 in the morning to see if I wanted to go in the car with her mates and go for a drink.

Well I must be getting old or I was very wary of going drinking late at night and I politely turned down her offer, I did however spend the next few days pondering over whether I made the right decision lol

I met some lovely people on the way, one young man wanted to give me a 1000 Roubles (£20) towards my trip. I said no, then he asked if I could exchange dollars. I said I have no dollars and felt sorry for him so I dug out some Mongolian money and gave him a 20 note (worth about a quarter of a penny) He gave me a 100 Rouble note (about £2) I refused but he insisted and shoved it into my tankbag. 5 minutes later he was back with an ice cold bottle of sprite.

Later that day I met this man, Sergi

He was the cook at a cafe I stopped at, I ordered a bowl of Borsh (Russian soup which is really tasty) and he brought out smoke chicken. then my Borsh, then he gave me a lighter, bottle of water and then disappeared returning with a Russian military water bottle and mess tins set.

When I went to pay for my meal, he completely refused any money.

So it took me 10 days (including a rest day just outside of Chita) to cover 2,450 miles. I have to admit, it was the most toughest of roads I have completed so far.

Now I am booked on the ferry to South Korea, my bike will be loaded tomorrow and I will head out on a very expensive overnight ferry to South Korea on Wednesday the 25th of July 2012.

Where I go from there........ I will let you know as soon as I know myself :-)

Feel like I am taking roots in Ulan Bator

Well I had to move out of the Kaiser Hotel, I did manage to get 2 more days there but with the up and coming festival the hotel was fully booked.
So I think I spent a total of 6 nights there. I couldn't give enough praise to the owners and staff, there was nothing they wouldn't help me out with.

Belle finally turned up after waiting nearly 3 hours in the scorching heat with my tyres. Which was just as well as my rear tyre, though it had plenty of tread left, had started to crack ! It wasnt till I took the tyre off that I realised how bad the cracks were becoming. The tyre change went really smooth, I suppose it helps when you can leave your tyres out in the baking sun for a hour before changing them. They went on like a pair of cosy house slippers.

So it was onwards to the edge of the city to the Oasis Hostel, run by Rene and Sibylle. I was given a very warm welcome and was allowed to pick a camp spot at the back of the garden, So I am now tucked away in the corner surrounded by the Gers.

The weather has been a bit of a hit and miss. One minute its scorching and the next a downpour, few minutes later and the suns out again and all is good !
Today however has been the worst of the rain, Went to the Black Market with Alec (another biker from the UK) and it tipped it down most of the day. I am so glad we had our umbrella's with us, Alec also had his bike boots on so I used him to test the depth of some of the rather deep puddles !

So I think now I will head towards Vladivadstok and try and store the bike in South Korea and head towards Australia for a few months tour. It seems its not allowed to sell your motorcycle in Mongolia, however I am going to investigate things further on Monday.

So lazy days in Ulan Bator and loving every minute of it, still got plenty to see and do. My bike needs some more work on it and I would like to see some more of UB.

So until the next instalment, take care and ride safe