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    Richard
    Parkinson
Vehicle Type
Motorcycle

UK - NZ, 2003 - 2005

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A Travel Story by Richard Parkinson and Lisa Godfery

Visiting

Updates

Italy - Slovenia

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Bugger.
My Kiwi 'she'll be right' approach to the amount of miles I've clocked up on the TDM over the course of 2 years blasting around the south of England for my job has finally caught up with us.
The bike had started running a bit rough through the south of France and into Italy so I gave myself a maintenance day at Lago D'Orta, stripped down and cleaned the carbs & replaced the plugs & leads.

Hungary

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We're still knocking around Hungary rather than exploring Romania due to visa hassles - but more of that later.
We left Slovenia 6 days ago and continued on to Keszthely on the shores of Lake Balaton. Not so impressed with Lake Balaton – seems like half of Germany is holidaying here and everyone seems unimpressed at our inability to speak German.

Romania/Bulgaria

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Playtime

click for larger image

Trans Fargasian Highway

The last 10 days have seen us travel from Hungary to Romania (the Romanian Embassy issued our visas next day in Budapest), through Bulgaria to Greece where we are now on the coast in Thessaloniki and where I am slowly but surely becoming addicted to Ouzo and Rich getting the required levels of Mythos beer back into his system.

Greece - Western Turkey

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Blue Mosque
click to see Aya Sofia

One month of sunny weather, one continent, one major breakdown. Two out of three isn't too bad and at least it wasn't Rich or I that had the breakdown. Bob the bike is now sorted and we've had no further problems (although some slightly dodgy Turkish fuel gave us similar symptoms, which had us slightly worried).

Out of Iran

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We had planned to stay for only 2 days in Esfahan but in the end it was 5. Famous for its delicious nougat, it probably is, as our guidebook states, Iran's masterpiece, the jewel of ancient Persia and one of the finest cities in the Islamic world. Its focal point is the spectacular Emam Khomeini Square that contains gardens, pools, fountains, horse and carriages, the bazaar entrance, a palace and 2 mosques.

Pakistan

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Deserts are hot, mountains are cold. A rather obvious concept that has been reinforced by our experiences here in Pakistan.

From Bam in Iran through to Quetta in Pakistan is a 1000km ride across the desert through the bad lands of Baloucistan.

Bam, a small oasis town covered in date palms with an amazing old adobe citadel, had seemed warm to us but it was only a foretaste of what was to come.

India - Rajasthan

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We were shocked and saddened to hear about the earthquake that has devastated Bam. Our hearts go out to the survivors and we hope the wonderful people we met there are OK. A German biker passed through the day after the quake and reported that the guesthouse we stayed at was flattened. Akbar, the owner and his staff thankfully survived but we believe one English tourist was killed: http://www.erwinvoogt.com/overland/bam.html

India - Jaisailmer to Goa

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Got sick of gorgeous hilltop forts, opulent palaces, coloured cites, snake charmers and Rajasthani women in colourful dress trying to sell us silver ankle chains and brightly painted puppets. We were really feeling the winter too (down to 20 degrees in the day is just not acceptable) so we finally left Rajasthan after nearly 3 weeks there - it really is enough for a holiday in itself.

Jain temple carvings
Click for view of Udaipur

Nepal

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One last photo of India, shot on the way to the Nepalese border, to show that even cows don’t escape Holi, the Festival of Colours.

Holi Cow

Thailand - Cambodia

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We arrived in Thailand by air; not at all our usual style but we thought it was impossible to come overland from the Indian subcontinent to Thailand.

Firstly the crazy money China demands from those bringing in their own vehicle is prohibitive for us (around US$200 per day) and secondly, because Myanmar doesn’t allow travellers to transit across the country, or so we thought….

Laos PDR

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Lovely Laos. ‘The Land of a Million Elephants’, or so they say. Personally, I saw two. It is however, at this time of year, the land of umpteen trillion butterflies which are very beautiful except when you have to constantly clean them off your visor.

Lao children
click here to see the Lao roads