UK - Asia 2002 / 2003

the first of (hopefully) many mails from the adventuring duoSo here it is - the first of (hopefully) many mails from the adventuring duo. Not all of the mails will be as long as this one, especially when we're paying by the minute in cyber-cafes. We-ve chosen an appropriate namne for our joint email (sorebums (at) yahoo.co.uk) - Do you like it? Seemed to be fitting, as we'll be sitting on the bike for about 35,000 miles over the next 18 months.

A few days previously, Simon looked at the junk and dust still remaining in his house and realised that we weren't going to make the Saturday ferry.........ROUTE: Manchester to Bursa

COUNTRIES VISITED: England, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

DISTANCE DRIVEN: 2812 miles/ 4500 km

DISTANCE FROM HOME: 1727 miles/2779 km

WEEKS COMPLETED: 4/74

WEATHER: Too hot. Ever since Italy it's been mid 20s to low 30s (tan on face, hands and feet doing nicely)

A lot of Turkey is over a kilometer above sea level. This makes for clear, cool riding days but bloody cold nights.ROUTE: Bursa to Turkey-Georgia Border

COUNTRIES VISITED: Turkey, Turkey and Turkey.

DISTANCE DRIVEN: 4,817miles - 7,700kms

WEEKS COMPLETED: 6/74

WEATHER: Freezing (at night) to 34 degrees

OBJECTS BROKEN: Centre stand, exhaust brackets, rear tyre, the speed limit (42mph or 70kph for bikes - yeh right!!!), thermarest mattress delaminated

MINOR MIRACLES: Finding a bike shop to order a new tyre

Buy a cabin for the boat for $100 each as a foreigner - alternatively 'pretend you're Azerbaijan' and only pay $60. No, don't do that (good advice from Lonely Planet) as a crewman will rent you his cabin (complete with girlie pin-ups) for $10. We were later told by a friend that the captain rents his cabin out for $20, and for a few dollars more you can enjoy his personal services, if you're a female passenger!IMPRESSIONS........

Turkmen flag; green with a crescent moon and star, and a red stripe with what appeared to be 5 carpet patterns on it. Surely not! Whatever, I had obviously not done my homework.IMPRESSIONS..

- Desert, desert everywhere
- 5.5 million nice people and 1 mad man
- Everyone seems to consider themselves Russian (the Turkmen live in the desert with their camels and funny hats)
- Sturgeon and caviar
- No real tourist sites, but great to see how weird a place can be
- We’ve never had it so good and I’m alright, Jack attitudes over-ride political progress

Slowly, slowly into the Achara thiefdom - keeping to the 50kph speed limit to avoid the attentions of radar cops. A few times in Georgia we came round the corner of a road to see a cop with the radar gun out looking happyIMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTRY...

Our exit from Turkmenistan was considerably less gruelling and time-consuming than our entrance, only the "jobs worth" squaddie on the barrier insisted on his superior (who was obviously on the khasi) examining the passports after everyone else, making us wait in the 40C scorching sun.ROUTE: Uzbekistan

DISTANCE DRIVEN IN COUNTRY: 843 miles/ 1,349 km

DISTANCE FROM HOME: 7,340 miles/ 11,744km

WEEKS COMPLETED: 11/74

Where has all the oil gone – the engine was full only 800kms ago; it can’t just disappear! There’s no alternative but to stick what oil we have in the engine and look into the problem later.Kazakhstan

Highlights
- Almaty – a really pleasant, modern place
- Snow leopards in the zoo
- Chilling with other travellers
- Moving on again after weeks of being in the same area

Lowlights
- Incompetent visa agents
- Trashed bike engine
- Kazakh roads

After 2 nights of rough camping our first reaction was to jump into the water. It was glorious. This really did seem an idyllic spot until we revealed our sleeping intentions to our neighbours. Horror across the girls face as she announced But the horsemen will come and will drink vodka and you will not be safe. Now this type of statement on the first day of visiting a country is not healthy for my vivid imagination. I immediately had visions of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse, pissed up, ransacking the tent.DISTANCE DRIVEN IN COUNTRY: 1,300 miles/ 2,080km

We decided not to take the spare tyre up with us (saving a massive 4 kilos from our total 450 kilo load!!) and we set off for the hills. Here's a 'bikey' description of the day Simon and I trashed the bike. Even if you don't understand the technie bits I think everyone should get the gist.

ROUTE: RUSSIA
NUMBER OF WEEKS IN COUNTRY: 3
DISTANCE DRIVEN IN COUNTRY: 2,500 miles / 4,000 km

The scene was pretty ugly when we eventually met up and the tension never really subsided after that. But we all ended up in a guesthouse in the centre of UB - 300 metres from the parliament building - and for just $16 a night for 2 people - which other capital in the world could you do that in?Highlights
- back to friendly people and decent food again - the perfect antedote to Russia
- grasslands and glowing sunlight
- all the dirt riding you could dream about
- a mixture of medieval and modern

The Russian side of the border was as officious as the previous time, but we managed to get across in a couple of hours. When the other Simon and Monika came through a few weeks later, they got held up for 3 days, as the Russian customs officials demanded a licence for their GPS - only the intervention of the British Embassy in Moscow got them out of that trouble.After the superb time we had in Mongolia, the prospect of going back to Russia was less than appealing. We would have to get up every morning to go out and fight our way through a bunch of problems.

Although further east than Vladivostok, Japan is 2 hours behind Russia, so even in autumn the sun rises at 5.30am . This allowed us to get an early get away and to start exploring the mystical land of the rising sun. Our first reaction was complete shock. I really didn't expect such a busy environment. You may recall that Japan just couldn't arrive soon enough for us, so when the Mikhail Sholokhov docked in the tiny 'port' of Fushiki we waited in anticipation to disembark.

The benefit of keeping a personal journal throughout the course of a visit to a country comes to the fore when you have dramatic events halfway through the visit. All the early memories tend to get obliterated by the later events....

So what did I know about Cambodia before we entered the country? Very little as usual - "The Killing Fields" film about Khmer Rouge atrocities; my favourite Oxfam T-shirt during the 80s bore one of its former names of Kampuchea; Gary Glitter the 70s glam rock "leader of the gang" had just been deported from there because of his child pornography conviction in England; and Kim Wilde had a UK number 12 hit with "Cambodia" in 1982. We both crossed the border whistling her tune.

No, we haven't gone completely barmy and sold up the trusty BMW for a clapped out VW van, but Georgie has gone slighty loopy and has just bought a new Enfield 500cc Bullet in Kathmandu!!!A few months ago I had a stupid idea that I might like to have the experience of riding my own bike home to England.

Should I go for something easy to ride and maintain

If you're not interested in getting oil under your fingernails, you may want to ignore this posting! But if you want to know how rugged an old BMW can be and how important it is to be lucky as well as good.......We have just fixed a problem with the engine on our bike. I caused the problem 1 year and 35,000kms ago.

Laos was to be our first "proudly communist" country for a while, and after our previous experience with other communist regimes we were slightly worried about what we'd find. But many fellow travelers told us that we'd "love Laos, especially riding round it on a motorbike". Sounded good! The plan was to enter in the south, do some jungles and then head north to the capital, then further north to the highlands. On the way we'd take in more temples and war sites.Our first port of call was Pakse - "but where are all the people?" - the place was almost deserted.

Descending into the Kathmandu valley we realised that Nepal would be that little bit different. Snow-capped mountains in the distance, acres of terraced hillsides, brickworks billowing out smoke and a sprawling city. There was a different class of tourists stepping off the plane - none of the usual hippy backpackers of south east Asia, but now a fitter, sturdier and healthier youth ready to tackle some of the highest peaks in the world. We felt a little intimidated.