a trip to the moon

I have left Vladivostok on the 28th of July ( I wanted to do it2 days
earlier but GNU’s engine was overheating and balancing all the numbers
I’ve decided to wait for the next opportunity). That was not that bad
considering that Hans and Volker (the two German Doctors that took it
on 26; and we were supposed to travel together) are still in Seoul, we
had dinner together last night and their bikes will arrive at the same
time with Gnu in Anchorage. So, yes, it was a bit of work on Gnu, that
distroyed my gyps (a lot of hot water to clean the cooling system),
oil, antifreeze and dirt while working on the other parts. Her left
radiator is now amputated, and I’ve used Russian fittings to get a
good circuit with only 1 radiator, she has rubber from a broken
tyre-tube instead of metal springs at the stender, wood (oh, yes, I
can say that we fixed a bike with a sea-saw now) in the handlebar to
connect the hand protectors, and other things. The russians that I
have met in Vladivostok were fantastic, and all the travelers on bikes
confirm this. The level of involvement and help that you get from
them, without anything in return being expected, has no match in “the
western world”. I had cut the gyps on the evening of 27 and in the
morning I rode Gnu for 250 km from Vladivostok to Zarubino. The arm
hurt a bit (it still does), the road was not asphalt the whole way, I
had no map, no GPS, and I felt free and right again, after a few days
of recovery.

Yes, surprisingly to some rumors, the things are on track. Even if,
yes, my left hand is in gyps (anybody wants to sign on it?), Gnu has a
broken radiator, loads of screws sheared, the clutch locked, the
clutch lever and the clutch shifter broken, the left-hand grip messed
up, GPS down. But even so, we’ll make it to Anchorage because someone
invented the pain killers (take them, gyps off, ride, stop, breath,
gyps on, breath) and it seems that I’m caring with me exactly the
spare parts that are broken (well, except for the radiator… but the
KTM has 2 and with a clean circuit, I can bypass the broken one and
have proper cooling) and the Russians are wonderful people. The rest
is will, daydreaming, love and the road. And some evil machine running
tick-tack in the back of my brain gathering every-option, counting,
measuring, pushing it further and further, and dangerously enjoying
it.

And a bit closer to the facts:
I left Chita and Eastern Siberia and entered the Russian Far East and
the taiga (swampy thick forests through which you could go days and
not see the sun…so nobody really adventures too deep inside).
Camping is a bit interesting because of the mosquitos and various
insects. The best thing is to ride till late, get off the bike and
start smoking the pipe (British tabaco did fine, though I would have
loved a Danish blend; not in my pocket at the moment) when setting up
the camp and continue smoking especially inside the tent. It worked so
much better than the mosquito spray.

After a couple of days, Putin’s “bone breaking” road showed me that
yes, there is a price to pay here as well. Ah, and when I say road,
don’t think of asphalt. How did it happen this time? Almost on
purpose :). A “better part” of the road just finished, one man on the
side of the road freneticaly waving the hands, what seemed to be “free
fall, road ends”, deflated front tyre and thin rear brake pads; I
thought I’ll go into so I leaned on a side (left since my right foot
was already unhappy) and let it drop hopping both Gnu and me will stop
before the precipice. We did; but there was no precipice; just the
road going suddently 20deg down for 5m. Well, than there was the pain,
a bit harder than in Mongolia, I was feeling I can’t breath, the
waiving spectator staring at me, a couple of car trafficking men who
were rushing to Chita, and Edvard and Sergey (the truck drivers that
I’ve overtaken a couple of times during the morning). Yeah, again, I
believe that no bone is broken and Gnu is in good shape but I don’t
have strength in my left first, can’t pull the clutch (and if the
right foot and arm are for pressing the brakes and you can live
without brakes, well,… you can’t live without the clutch) and I
can’t flex the biceps so no, I can’t drive. It’s been an hour now
since the crush and the pain is almost the same so, hmmm.. what if
something IS broken? Maybe not a bone but a ligament. I know a truck
ride it’s gonna go bad on Gnu but I decide to sacrifice her. So,
Edvard, Serghey and 2 other truck drivers tied up Gnu directly on the
back of Ed’s truck (they don’t have trailers, just returning their
Freightlinners from Moscow). And yes, it got bad on Gnu.
Unfortunately, not much to do than counting the damage. It was an
extremely bumpy ride. A 15liters turbocharged Caterpillar engine that
would normally pull a 50 tons trailer is flying around when all it’s
gotta do is play with a 7 tons empty truck. It’s been very interesting
watching Ed rushing it while writing his SMSes and smoking and hitting
from time to time the roof with his head. “Da, Harasho! Ocini
harasho!” and we spread away dust and rocks and the road to
Vladivostok is open. Sure, there are the trafficked cars from Japan
coming from the other way but they often have to pull aside or go back
when facing the truck.The next day the arm is very swollen, and I have
a 6cm2 hematom at the elbow. Ain’t good, Ed get’s frightened by a
friend who tells him by the phone that I need to get to a hospital
asap otherwise chop-chop so Gnu is second priority, Ed knows his way
around and in a small town I get some x-rays, a doctor checks it
(yeah!!! nothing broken) but it needs gyps.

Yesterday night we’ve got into Vladivostok; some bikers (tks Cri for
all the efforts) came with a small van to pick me and take Gnu to a
garage. The think that by the look of Gnu I’ll have to stay at least 1
week in Vlad but I want to start working right away and ride tomorrow
to Zarubino and Korea. The get into it and yes, yes, yes, I have the
right spare parts and yes, everything else should be fixable. I don’t
know if it’s all gonna be ready today but I have a ferry on Saturday,
I should make it to Korea on Sunday and on Monday fly to Anchorage.

Now, there might be a little girl called Leida getting more and more
worried as these posts come; but, well, Leida, we’ll keep it on the
beaten asphalt road in North America and Petre already arranged for
new brake pads in Anchorage so he’ll be back home safe in a while.

Such good people, so friendly.. (sure, many
are shy, but practice your zdrasvitze, ia minea zavut, atcuda, na
leva, na pravo, priamo, zapravka, cusatzi, niznaiu, ocini harasho and
they will open up and they will really appreciate that you give it a
try and they will try to communicate and not put a wall in your face
because you were not born with their language in your head as would
many other “civilized” people do, they will try and concentrate on the
fact that you have to communicate and not that you make grammar
errors). And ther’s good food, and ther’s Lenin everywhere and
everything decent, nothing agressive, pushy. It’s a place where people
live and even enjoy it and they are ok with themselves.

Now, in one hour I will head out of Chita (that’s where I am now) to
Khabarovsk on what it called the “bone breaking Amure Highway”. Putin
said in 2005 that in 2008 thare will be a road across the “Shilka gap”
but he’s going away and the road is just a trail of bumpy gravel with
a lot of dust that gets mud in the often rains. A German rider (that
together with his fellow bypassed Central Asia and turned back from
Mongolia into Russia after hitting the hard roads) just wrote me that
he had a bad accident on this road (a tree branch hit him in the head
at 80kmh, broke his helmet, left him unconsious and put him 3 days in
neurosourgery) a few days ago. He’s better now and they are looking at
a way accross to Alaska (by the means of Air Vladivostok through
Kamtchatka; wich I’m not sure it’s the best option right now. I have
mine through South Coreea, maybe more expensive, but I know it can and
will happen).

I’m headding on now.. and I want to be in 6 days in Vlad. I guess the
plan is to meet Petre in Alaska on the 28th of July and I intend to
keep it that way.

After crossing into Russia, I promised myself I won’t stay in a big
city for more than one night. And I kept my promise. I arrived in
Barnaul late on the 2nd of July after crossing the Kazach/Russian
border in the last hour before closing. I stayed there for the next
day, enough to solder-fix my GPS again, to buy a rollbag (yes, made in
Russia and excellent quality and decent price), taste some delicious
Kwas and eat loads of icecream and soups.

My impressions of Siberia? - Modern! And Decent! Good, educated and
polite people! People who’s brains didn’t stop thinking in the
transition period. My compliments to Russia.

I left Barnaul close to 9 in the evening and made it to Gorni-Altaisk,
where I arrived at 1 in the night and had put my tent in a car
dealer’s parking-lot. On the 4rd I crossed the Altai region and it is
beautiful; most that I could do was to plan for the future. Than, on
the 5th I intended to cross the border. No way. The soldiers were
drunk, the border closed: “-try tomorrow; -tomorrow is sunday!; -
rabota, rabota (it works, it works)” and the Mongolian consul in
Bucharest tells me on the phone that there is unrest in Ulan Bator and
a 4 days state of emergency is declared. Well, I have … hope.

Entering Russia was very easy. Nice people. Drawing some conclusions … there are 2 countries I wouldn’t visit to soon - Armenia and Kazachstan (of course, because of the people). I fixed my GPS at the hotel. They let me work in the “Wireman’s Office” for 2 hours. It’s working perfectly now. I will make some provision and this afternoon head directly to Mongolia.

I rested in Almaty for two nights. Not much of a city - very, very expensive and bad services, too. Something like Roman or Targu Frumos in Romania. Then a short trip to Barnaul (Russia), meaning 1600 km in two days.

(heading West)

In Kazachstan they have the most curious policemen - where are u from? are u sure? are u married? where are u heading to? is this your bike? what’s it’s highest speed? Some of them even wanted to ride my Gnu. This was too much. I told them that Allah will cause a terrible accident to the men who will ride Gnu (except it’s owner).