Finally I left home on Sunday 14 may 2000, just one day after the fireworks explosion in our town (20 people died). Fortunately not in our area, but it had definitely an impact on my departure .
Via Germany, Czech republic and Slovakia, I'm in the Ukraine at the moment and planned to arrive in Odessa today when I discovered this Internet access.
My intentions were to pay a brief visit to Vlad Turayev whose address I got through Internet, as he was willing to help me in obtaining a visa for the Ukraine.
Martin Rooiman
The next day I went to the east end of the Crimea to take the ferry to Russia. I arrived just after the ferry had left and the next one was leaving in 3 hours. Waiting and waiting. Finally we were able to go aboard and had the 20-minute trip. Because I was on my motorbike I was able to leave the ferry first but it had no effect at all as my immigration was the most difficult one by far (because of my visa) and I was put aside and had to wait till all others had passed.
After an overnight trip in a very damp and hot cabin deep down in the ferry we arrived in Trabzon very early. There was only my bike and one Russian car to go through the paperwork so they had plenty of time. But they offered me some tea as well. It finally cost me USD 20 to pay for all the 'stamps' they had to put on all different kind of papers but then I was ready to go into Turkey.
The border wasn't that difficult. The only thing was that they forgot to give me a Turkish visa and the officer wouldn't stamp out my passport when I didn't buy one, even if I was leaving the country. But because it was a multiple entry visa valid for 3 months I had to buy it anyhow once I was returning from Syria I bought the visa.
The next day I crossed the border with Jordan and visited the historical site in Jerash, which was very touristic but nice to see. I spend the night along a small unpaved road and had a good night. In the morning an old man passed me asking where I was coming from. I told him I was from Holland and that I was making a world trip and we had a little chat.
Back to Syria. I reached the Syrian border at 1.30pm. and went through the hassle to get out of Jordan and into Syria. I was ready for a battle as the first time I entered Syria I had to buy a one month insurance for the bike (minimum) which was still valid for 10 days. But there was no battle at all as soon I showed the insurance they accepted it directly.
My goal was Adana where my father had sent a small package to the TNT office containing the palmtop. I had asked around for any address to send this package to, but the Dutch embassy and the AMEX-office both said they refused it 'for security reasons' and private persons refused to give their address as soon they heard there were electronic parts inside the package. Turkey customs would ask then for additional payments. So sending it to the TNT-office was the only solution left.
The next morning it was a short trip to the border. There was a long line of trucks waiting but the advantage of a bike is that you can pass them all easily. I got a paper from the Turkish authorities to collect stamps. After collecting all the stamps you can leave Turkey. My passport was no problem but for the Carnet (bike registration) the office was closed. The official was outside having a relaxing chat in the sun. Once I found him we got to his office and I got his stamp in no time as well and could leave Turkey.
Crossing the border was so easy and relaxed. I was offered a chair when they were doing the paperwork of my Carnet (bike papers) and had tea as well. After finishing everything I spend the night in a hotel in Taftan the border town on the Pakistan side.
On Monday 18 September I left Islamabad to go up north to the Chinese border following the Karakoram Highway (KKH). First I went to Murree on a busy road but it got very quiet after I passed Murree. Not so surprisingly after I missed a turn and was heading to Kashmir (the disputed area between Pakistan and India).
My plan was to go back to Astore when they told they wanted to go cross the Deosai plains. I told then this was going to get difficult so late in the season but they wanted to give it a try. In Skardu I decided not to cross the plains but when they offered me to go together I accepted. We would just see how far we were going to get and agreed to stay together.
After returning in Gilgit from the cold Deosai plains with the freezing night together with the Danish couple Poul & Pia, I needed some time to relax. So I spend a few day in Gilgit doing all kind of small things but mainly doing nothing but relaxing.
My initial plan was to do some major service on the bike on the campground in Islamabad, but when I got an offer from my former employer to work in Lahore for one week I decided to do the service in Lahore.
I wasn't really sure if they would accept my modified extension letter at the border, but the border was just 25 km from Lahore so I could always return to let them sort out the problem. But I was worried for no reason as they accepted the paper without any problem. On the Indian side they wanted to go through all my luggage, but briefly so no major problems here as well.
Our transfer-time in Chennai was getting tight, as we had to go through immigration here as well, but still possible. The flight was too short to catch up any delay so we could just make it. After the plane landed it turned off the runway and stopped then. The captain told that they had problems with the steering wheel and had to wait a while to get towed to the gate. This made our transfer impossible as it delayed us for an extra 15 minutes.
I had crossed this border before so everything went smoothly. Leaving Banbasa I went straight up into the mountains where it was much cooler and more comfortable. Through small mountain roads I was slowly making my way towards Shimla carefully avoiding leaving the mountains. It was not only cooler in the mountains it was also much less crowded. So I was thinking about rough camping again. Problem however was to find good spots.
We left Delhi around midnight as well and arrived in Bangkok early next morning. We stored our luggage in a depot and headed directly for the cargo terminal. We entered the building with a single paper and in no time we had a stack of papers to carry around as we had to fill out several forms (each of us a separate form of course), copies of passport and carnet and so on.