It's been a while

Other than my stumpy little entry the other day I know I've not posted any photos or blog entries for a while. Thanks to the folk who have mailed to say to pull the finger out or offer assistance. As it is I've managed to get through the final part of Mongolia, into Russia, traverse the rest of Siberia (in the region of 4000km) and get onto the ferry. Im sitting in a bed not unlike the top bunk of an offshore cabin except I'm sharing with nine other people.

So whats been happening... Uncertainty has been a huge part of this section of the trip. Im still a little nervy about border crossings because of all the bad press each and every one seems to have gotten when I read other blogs or write ups but the three border posts Ive experienced since Ulaanbaatar have been fine. The last one in Russia despite all the fuss I've read about it involved me ignoring the customs departure lounge for an hour and a half while staying outside, having lunch, going for a coffee, and also entertaining the natives. All this while the majority of the ferry passengers sat in a stairway and small holding room sweating away. Once there was space I passed my tank bag through an x ray machine where I don't think the guy was looking at the screen, walked through a switched off metal detector then stood for ten minutes awaiting my time to get the passport stamped. I thought surely there must be more but walked through another door onto the dockside toward the ferry.

Working through my thoughts in the other direction I wasn't too worried about the re entry to Russia but uncertain about what was going to happen after. The days ride from the border to Ulan Ude was fine on good tarmac and I got there without stress. I was little nervous about the bike and something else going wrong with it but managed fine with other thoughts about my front tyre coming in. Melusine (backtojapan.fr) pointed out my front tyre wear before I left UB but there wasn't any time to do anything there despite all my hanging around otherwise so I figured something would work out later.

Once in Ulan Ude I found a nice spot to stay and decided that although it was Sunday I would try and get a tyre. The girl on the front desk was incredibly helpful and found some info for me but the first place I went was closed and everyone in the nearby shops said I would have no hope either there or in Ulan Ude at all. Undeterred I returned to the hotel to seek more help and was given another address and directions. So setting off I returned to the bike and... Click... Nothing.

I was certain that it was the same issue I had in Mongolia again and was gutted. Wasting the rest of the day in a strop (unlike me I know...) I eventually got in touch with Bad Man who took the brunt of my grump but gave me some good thoughts and stayed positive. Eventually I went downstairs with my new multimeter to check the voltages. It was only at this point as dusk was falling that I did this and noticed a small spark off the negative terminal as I pressed down. Repeating this a few times I then tried it with the ignition on, kept the pressure there and started the bike without issue. What a muppet. Still, I can't explain the relief. It didn't remove the fear of another failure totally but at least this feeling slipped as time went on. Perhaps it was very opportune that I did this in dusk so I could see a spark.

There was another uncertainty in the sense of the tyres when I knew my horrid knobblies weren't going to last too much longer on road. On the way out of Ulan Ude I made my way through a few locations for a couple of hours only to get no luck but when I came out of the last place there was a guy looking at my bike. No surprises with this but he seemed to be taking photos of the front wheel, I figured that this may be because of the rim ding I got in Turkmenistan but no, he was looking at the tyres.

Now Viktor has a CBR600 which is an interesting choice of bike for this part of the world and he was texting, photo messaging and calling round people without me asking while I was being distracted by a school teacher chatting away to me in English. In the end Viktor scoots off and tells me to stay put for twenty minutes. The teacher doesn't stay much longer and Viktor returns to me twenty minutes later and good to his word with a 21" Dunlop front tyre which has a bit of life left. He suggests driving to Chita and getting the tyre swapped there as I do have some life left on my current tyre. He also insists I take the tyre for free.

And so I set off onto another stretch of uncertainty, the Amur Highway. Again I've heard horror stories but the first days ride to Chita was fine on reasonable tar surfaces and the M55 gave way to the M56, M58 and finally M60. I knew the road was being built and upgraded as a legacy from Putins time as president but there's so many little stories on the net about this road to Vladivostok. Basically because of the strength of the Trans Siberian Railway there was no real need to spend billions on a new road because people here just got on with tracks and small sections of road built by individual towns. The stories I've heard are of days and days traversing gravel, gravel and more gravel in amongst horror driving.

As it turns out there's a good selection of surfaces over this long road but only about 150 - 200km total of gravelly construction site to navigate, the longest section being about 15 - 20km long so it wasn't bad. Another uncertainty which wasn't so troubling in the end.

So back to the tyres. The trip to Chita wasn't particularly nice with the front squared off unbelievably and there still being a big lack of grip from the remaining knobs. Once there however I managed to find a tyre place no problem and the chaps there charged me three pounds to swap the tyre over onto the second hand Dunlop. This element of uncertainty rapidly vanished as I could see how well it was wearing and it was nice to have some rubber with a round profile.

Well, this meant that the borders ended up fine, the bike behaved itself and the tyres were sorted very cheaply. In the meantime theres the selection of people I've met. Lunch one day being particularly funny as I spent an hour with Uri, Dima and Vitali by the roadside trying to refuse cups of Vodka while eating shish kebab. One of my best meals of the trip bought very cheaply with no end of banter and a free knife to be getting on with, I would need it they thought as I was spending a lot of time through the forests.

I also managed to bump into a guy called Iain later on one evening as we were both dodging storms. I met Iain in Ulaanbaatar and he left a few days before me, heading toward lake Baikal. Over this period I caught up with him as he moved from one storm and then was retreating back from another. In the darkness I could tell it was a dark colored Yamaha Tenere, turned round and gave chase. From there I've had company over the next week on the way to and within Vladivostock.

On the topic of people from Ulaanbaatar (and Khovd) in Mongolia. I bumped into, or more truthfully was spotted by two Spanish guys. One of whom has the same bike as me. Seems that the battery failure he was subjected to in mid Mongolia really was a similar issue that that I've had with my bike and he has ran out of power a few times in Russia. The result of his problems is a purchase of four different batteries and then a battery charger where the decision was to try and charge the battery every night somewhere. These guys also had the bad luck of arriving in Vladivostok the day the ferry left toward Japan so needing to wait another week, then they didn't go with the shipping agent option and had a very stressful day the day before the ferry left trying to sort out the notoriously difficult Vladivostok customs procedures. In the end they were put in touch with the same guy I was told I needed to use and Uri sorted them out. I think with Uri everything was sorted out within two hours for me without any stress.

As usual there's probably much more to say but everything going well as I sail toward Korea on my way to Sakanaimoto in Japan. There's going to be a few contrasts between Russia and Japan going to hit me soon I'm sure.

Location:South Korea

Just a quickie...

Well, its been a while and a long blast through Siberia. Trees, swamps, mosquitos and a struggle finding somewhere to pitch a tent or get a bed. I have managed to meet up by chance with a guy I met in Ulaanbaatar so Ive had some company all the way to Vladivostok.

Ive managed to get onto the net to do this blog and put up a couple of photos but theres going to be a bigger entry soon, largely I know this because Ive got 2 days on scum class upon the Eastern Dream as it winds its way over the Japan Sea to Japan so theres plenty of time. Ill have plenty of time to tap in an entry and post it probably somewhere in Japan. I may even manage to get a wander into South Korea for an hour or two.

Tick follows tock

Well then, tick does follow tock and Ive been in Ulaanbaatar for a week now. Not had, nor seen any Guinness but the advert springs to mind just now.

Ive managed to get myself into a shared ger to keep the pennies down and it looks like Ill be here in UB until Wednesday now. When I checked DHL a moment ago my spare parts apparently left Seoul in Korea yesterday so it looks like Ill be getting them fairly soon. The official estimate upon pickup was apparently Tuesday. So fingers crossed Ill get the bits then, manage to get things sorted up quite quickly then get myself on the move again come Wednesday morning. Then its up north to Russia before a bit of a drive east and the dilemma of going toward Vanino then Sakhalin and on to Japan or just tramping straight on over to Vladivostok for a direct ferry. Ive spent a little longer here than I had planned so I need to try and think about how best to proceed.

Otherwise Ive been chatting to allsorts in the guesthouse. On the way here I got shouted at and look upward only to see a few of the guys from Oasis and so I sat for a beer with an English motorcyclist, an Aussie 4x4 guy and a Spanish cyclist. We were joined briefly later on by 2 French bikers and a German 4x4 lady.

Ive given the bike a quick once over today and all looks reasonably well. Its had a brief water only wash to get the worst of the muck off and Ive oiled up the chain again. For the rest of my time this week Ive wandered round town, caught up with some communications and gotten myself to monasteries and into a national park. Theres some photos of these on Flickr.

Theres not a lot else to say really. The knee has gotten back to being almost perfect and Im just getting on with things otherwise. Ulaanbaatar is an ok spot but its not really grabbed my imagination. The rest of the country is pretty impressive but you need to either book onto a longer tour or get on the bike and explore it so Ive not seen as much as I could have.

Ill leave it here for now but Im hoping that the next time I post something it will be a little more interesting and involve me actually getting on the move again.

Wait a minute!

There's a theme building here in Mongolia. Perhaps some mystic farce, sorry force has decided I'm traveling too fast and decided to slow me down a little...

Following my "Another day in the life posting" I've had plenty of time to contemplate things. This has take the form of a long days wait to try and get assistance from the point of breaking down in-between the borders, through waiting for the bike to get fixed in Olgii in amongst the Naadam festivities. It took another step after I decided to go for it in traveling between Olgii and Khovd only for the trip to come to a lurching painful halt again as I managed to get myself trapped underneath the bike mid way.

Although I managed to get back onto the bike and complete the journey I have to admit I was in quite a bit of pain when I arrived at Khovd. So I figured I'd have a bit of a break and a bit of a rest. Unfortunately by day three of my stay in Khovd I was still in a lot of pain walking and the paranoia about just how the bike had been made to work again had set in.

So, after a mild faff arranging transport and getting pretty angry after going to see a healer / physio type guy when I returned to find that against instruction the guys had lifted my bike into the back of the truck I was eventually off eight hours later than promised. The strop by the way was caused by my insistence to see just how they had secured the bike and the proposed (and implemented) securing mechanism was laying the bike on it's side on top of three tyres. After coming back down from the roof of the truck and realizing my other option had drove off I came back a little calmer and asked how they now proposed to secure the bike because it wasn't going to rattle all the way to UB (Ulaan Baatar). The new method was to take the truck and get lugs welded to the structure and attach the bike to these which made me a lot calmer.

By the time I left I thought that I would have plenty of opportunity to pay through the nose to get replacement parts sent out so I could get the electrics standard again. So, sending suitable instructions and a delivery address back to the UK I set off on a 1500km trip that had about 50 hours of driving and took 77 hours total. Yup that's an average driven speed of 30kph bumping uncomfortably along the tracks making up the main road to UB. About a third of the way through after visiting another Naadam in Altai and drinking some vodka we picked up a friend of the driver so the space in the cab became that little more cramped again.

Not to worry, we ate marmot and an assortment of other local foods on the way, drank airag a few times and had some beers in a truck the first night before driving off. I slept one night in the truck cab for two hours, another in a student halls with six in the room and another night with three of us on a hard wooden bench with a coat over me. Without my wee issues Id have missed out on all that.

So at half past midnight on Sunday morning Id managed to wake up Sybille from the Oasis guesthouse (intergam-oasis.com) and score myself a ger with the only Mongolian speaking security guard. The bike was unloaded safely and I could get a good nights sleep. Following my efforts earlier in the week to order up the spare parts I was happy in the knowledge that I would be on my way before long.

It's at this point that Mongolia strikes again because Monday brought no news on the spares delivery and it was only later on Tuesday that I found out DHL still hadn't picked them up. It's now mid afternoon here on the Wednesday, more than a week after trying to get the ball rolling with the spares and sadly there's no news of them being picked up never mind leaving the country. So, on a quoted delivery time of six days it looks like I'm in for a wait and I have to admit that I've been ready to move on for a while now.

Taking some positives from this though I've learned more about myself, a load about vehicle electrics, a lot about my bike in particular and also seen two Naadam festivals.

At Oasis I'm making up for barely seeing other bikers this trip by meeting bikers and 4x4 overlanders from Estonia, Finland (motolla-mongoliaan.blogspot.com), Australia, Northern Ireland (awayfromhere.org), Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France (thetimelessride.com) and I hear that there's some Polish folk coming later today.

Although at the minute I've no idea when I'll be on the move again I'll find something to keep myself occupied for the coming days. Im having more time to rest the knee which has moved from searing pain at times to an occasional niggle and I'm meeting lots of interesting people.

I'll be happy to be on the move again though.

Location:Mongolia

Another day in the life

It's easy for me to think as the days pass that not a lot happens but within each day there can really be a lot of note. After doing a day in the life blog from Turkey I've thought about the possibility of doing another but when, where from?

Then the opportunity arose in the form of Mongolia except that its been more than just a day. It all started when I got over the Russian side of the border crossing into Mongolian territory when I thought I would stop and take a photo. There were animals off the side of the road so I turned the ignition off from the bike, took my photo and got ready to go again. On trying to start the bike I don't think that I even got a click from the starter and the dash went blank. This happened a couple of times and I laughed before thinking that this could be a real problem.

Cursing, I stripped the non functioning Scottoiler from the bike as it was just annoying me and gave me a focus then sat down with the top section of the bike apart. First past me came a van full of Kazakh's who when I asked about jump leads just looked really blankly at me. I let them go and sat down for what seemed an age before a Mongolian 4x4 drove past refusing to stop with the driver just looking at me to the side of his eyes as if pretending not to see me.

Next past were some Czech folk in three small 4x4's having an adventure into Mongolia before returning home again. They came out with some tools and thought it was my alternator that was at fault. The engine seemed to run a while after jump starting if I kept the revs up and they suggested I return to the Russian side for help. Turning around I got 100m up the hill before the bike just died totally on me. Looking back they were off already.

During this time a few Chinese 4x4s came haring past honking their horns for us to get out of their way even though there was space for them. This continued with maybe ten in total passing while Adam from Israel on his GS adventure and Chris from England on his Honda stopped. They were helpful and chatted a while, they let me know that the border was just around the corner maybe a kilometer or so down the hill and also thought that it was just the battery I was having bother with.

Once they leave I get the bike trundling down the hill to the border post where I'm processed without much of a fuss. At the far side the guy who had taken 30 roubles for not disinfecting my bike brought along a guy who I thought was called Viktor (I found out later his name was totally different) took me to his house where we got on an old Russian bike and returned to mine. He told me that to get a new battery if he gave me his then he would have to pay 100usd, I thought that this was nonsense and then we went through the theater of him going away. He wasn't even into any form of barter and by the time I grudgingly agreed after having no other option his battery was too gutless to do anything on my modern bike.

So, pushing the bike up the hill I get talking to an Austrian in a Landcruiser who is there with a girl driving and a guy in the back all squeezed in beside most of a KTM Adventure in bits. Turns out his bike broke down, these folk were with him and they just decide to strip it and return home. Then I got talking to a couple on Honda Transalps as they got past before I got huckled for insurance for the bike, not sure if its really legit because it wasn't part of the border post but after my experiences in Kazakhstan I decided not to argue.

I have my first food for the day mid afternoon within Viktors house with a bottle of water, which I get charged for and then looked blankly at when I wait for the change. As I finish, Viktor comes back to me and takes me into the countryside hunting some transport.

The hunt for transport involves me being stuck on the back of an old Russian bike with no front brakes bouncing along dirt tracks and feeling every bit of metal rattle underneath me. It doesn't take long to get used to but its not pleasant. After stopping at a ger (local nomadic home) we get on the move again and he seems to be scouring the countryside for some form of a jeep. After maybe half an hour bouncing around the countryside and Viktor hopelessly shouting at a 4x4 on the other side of the valley we get to in the region of Tsagannur where we stop at another ger encampment.

Im introduced to one guy (Arstan) who says he can take me to Olgii and after some time Im taken back to the border where my stuff and the bike is jammed into a too small trailer and we are off again. But not before Viktor has demanded money from me for sorting out the contact. A couple guys meanwhile try and have a chat to me, they had recently arrived on some Suzukis and were waiting til the next day to cross the border. I don't get much chance as I'm motioned toward the jeep again.

My new friend Arstan says I will stay with him and we go back the ger encampment where I met him. It takes a few hours for anything to happen but I'm looked after by the family who offer my plenty of weak milky tea with butter in it and some meat soup which is quite tasty. At about 8:00pm he comes into the ger and says "come, I fix your bike!" and we get into the 4x4 with his wife, son and a guy called Toulou.

We drive about ten minutes then stop again where we pick up a container of airag (fermented mares milk, quite tasty in a strangely salty, vinegary, milky way) and a couple of children before we set off into the sunset.

Bouncing away we stop once for resecuring the bike which seems to have shifted during all the bumping about. It's at this time, just as we enter pitch darkness that a thunderstorm rolls in overhead. I've got no real idea what's happening or where we are really off to but just have to give in to what's going on, none of it feels bad or untoward so I just try and settle in and avoid the constant stream of rainwater drips coming in from the windscreen above my legs.

Finally, at just before midnight Im in Olgii. We stop at what turns out to be Arstans brothers house where I'm given a few cups of tea and a few cups of airag too. Some point after midnight Arstans brothers wife appears with some bedclothes and points me toward the sofa where I'm to sleep.

Although I've no idea what's happening I'm at least being looked after and really have very few options being pretty much exactly half way round the world from home with no transport. Im exhausted and settle down to sleep which seems to take only seconds despite the noise from the adjacent room and I await what's to come over the next few days with the local festival and the bike getting fixed.

Location:Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Ups and downs

I guess that I can be pretty stubborn at times and can think of a few moments at work where I must have been a royal pain. That stubbornness combined with occasional bursts of blind faith must have led me into all sort of situations and my career path which led from choice of degree at age 17 through til recently quitting hasn't exactly been a straight forward one although up til now it's managed to head me in a generally positive direction.

Now it's taken me til half way round my trip to start questioning the sanity of some decisions but it's led me to decide on arranging to have the bike and myself transported 1400km to Ulaan Bataar across the Gobi steppe where I hope to be able to properly sort some issues on the bike and get on the road again after a rest.

So unfortunately I feel no little bit sad about this decision but there was a moment months ago in Turkey which came shooting into my head a few days ago, this when the guys from Holland who were organizing a big KTM do admired my panniers but then qualified this by saying they don't like using metal ones because if you come off you can break your leg. This moment of clarity came to me after driving through water, coming out of the other side into mud, losing the front end and the dawning realization that my leg was indeed underneath the pannier as the bike was dropping onto me.

A few seconds later as I was laying in the mud with the bike on top of me and my heart pumping I managed to do a wee self diagnostic check. The positive news coming back from all my limbs that I could 1 - feel them and 2 - the feelings weren't too painful. So I lay there, turned off the ignition because the engine was still running and spent the next couple of minutes trying to wriggle from under the bike. I managed this, stripped the bag off the top of the bike and got it upright without much grief. It started again and walking beside it I managed to move it onto drier ground. It seems that I've twisted my knee and although I drove another three hours afterwards and have been getting about in Khovd I admit that sometimes I'm in pain.

Since then I've been feeling a bit fragile. The knowledge of the bikes wiring being rough and my suspicion that without replacement electrics I'm going to have a detrimental effect on the remainder of the electrical system with the potential for breakdown on the steppe. There's also my fear that the ongoing pain in my knee under load could lead to another painful fall to my left which could result in bad knee damage and the end of the trip. So at the half way point I've sadly decided to put my hand in my pocket and ensure that both the bike and I are in a fit state to complete the trip by taking transport.

This physical and mechanical fragility have led me to listen to the few people Ive spoken to recently who seem surprised and amazed that I'm here, this far from home, on my own. I've feel a little sad at the decision but feel it's the right one to safeguard the rest of my trip, I've also felt for moments a bit vulnerable but that's not lasted more than a few minutes as things really aren't that bad.

So this I guess has led to a little bit of a down moment, but do I regret starting the trip? Do I regret the choices that have led me here? Do I wish I was back home in the nine till five worrying about broken down helicopters and fire detectors? Not a hope. It has made me think about low points in the trip though and there's been amazingly few. I was a little low at the end of Uzbekistan and parts of Kazakhstan when I realized how far from home I was combined with being on my own again after being in company for the best part of a week. I was also low with the repeated police stops in Uzbekistan and fear about insurance in Kazakhstan. Then there were a few moments on the way into Mongolia when the bike broke down but otherwise there's been nothing thats bothered me for more than an hour or two.

If I can compare this to the ups though, from leaving home, getting on then off the ferry from Newcastle, meeting family in Germany, so so many moments of seeing fantastic scenery or eating interesting food, meeting up with Lisa in Uzbekistan for a few days, waking and realizing I've just camped out in the middle of nowhere with fantastic views, starting to appreciate Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia among the seventeen countries I've been through so far.

There's no comparison with the ups and downs. The downs are transient, fleeting and pass with the knowledge that even with the crazy (according to others) decision to do this trip on my own I've managed to get more than half way round the world with only a few issues and survived with my health and the bike largely in tact. The ups are so many and by the time I find wifi in Ulaan Baatar to post this I will indeed be in Ulaan Baatar, another city most people only ever hear of or maybe see photos from. I'll have a days drive to Siberia where Ill be amongst some fantastic countryside again, then there's a couple of ferry trips before Japan which I'm really excited about before it's off over to Canada where again there's amazing scenery, the prospect of catching up with friends while there's the ease and familiarity of language.

Finally there's the USA where time dependent I'll be crossing the Rockies twice, riding the pacific coast highway and taking a right turn in California onto Route 66 and that's before riding into New York.

It wont all be straight forward, there will be more challenges, I'll get bored and hacked off from time to time but I've seen and experienced so much and have a way forward from this point where I still have half a trip, and half a world to experience.

The ups have it...

Location:Barnaul,Russian Federation

Countries III

More fairly dry, facty information here. Sorry Mart, Ill make it up. Promise.


UZBEKISTAN

It's about as easy as I could imagine to get into Uzbekistan. Again I've heard of different problems getting in and getting around the country but my experience was fine. After getting a soldier to open the gate to let me in he takes my passport. I follow him past a crowd of foot passengers and stand waiting for him to ask me some questions. When he comes back to the door of the little office he just passes me my stamped passport and tells me to go to customs.

In customs I'm stuck for about an hour. This time passes quite quickly because there's a tv beside me, so after I fill a form in, then decide on an exit border crossing the guard sits down for ages filling in the forms and ledgers for me. I watch some music tv, some comedy and then a guard changes it over to some reality tv. Eventually he passes me my paperwork and I'm free to go.

The road conditions are variable but on the whole pretty decent, I'm getting used to rough and bumpy roads so none of it really fazes me now. What I'm not used to is the near singular car make. If it were Lada then I might be able to understand, but Daewoo? Turns out than in my abortive effort to get myself into Bokhara I find a Daewoo factory so that explains it.

Police wise they drive, yup Daewoo cars, when they have them. Although there were a few oddities like an old Mercedes and an old Vectra. I also managed to avoid any police attention again throughout the whole country other than a two and a half hour stint on the way toward Tashkent. In that period I was pulled for driving too close to the bus in front, that was 20usd but the guy saw I only had 10 in my wallet and was happy enough. The second was after taking a bit of a wrong turn and doubling back, I saw that Police were there and was behaving myself but got stopped anyway. I kept up the don't understand patter and eventually the guy just asked me if I liked the girl who was depicted on the calendar under his paperwork before letting me go. Stop three was as a result of again taking a wrong turn onto a road that had lots of roadworks and the Police said was closed, I've a rant about this if you are really interested when Im back. Anyway, after driving away with my driving licence and passport and an hours faffing I was stung for 100usd. Ten minutes after getting away from then was stop four. I paid the 37000som because the grumpy officer had a point. I was speeding although faster than he told me which just proved they weren't using the radar gun. Finally, stop five was a made up speed limit but I was just desperate to get on into Tashkent that I threw the demanded 10usd at the guy and wandered off.

After this in the way back out of the country one guy just asked for 10usd and I mistook his importance so gave him it. It was maybe twenty minutes and I was through after some cursory checks.

KYRGYZSTAN

I'm kicking myself for this but I didn't even try. I was told to nominate an exit point from Uzbekistan on the way in and chose the Tashkent (Yalama) crossing because all I'd heard on news channels and from industry security updates (cheers Bob) was that all hell was breaking loose in the south. I knew airport to airport into Bishkek was fine but the land borders I couldn't trust. So with a heavy heart I skirted Kyrgyzstan. Incidentally I spoke to an Aussie cyclist in Almaty who told me he had tried on two occasions to get in and they weren't having it, I guess they were just letting locals over because there were still a few Kyrgyz cars going about. The closest I got was turning right toward Almaty where I saw a road sign saying it was 24km to Bishkek.


KAZAKHSTAN

After a good long wait behind a few Turkish truck drivers I managed to get my passport stamped on the way in. When passed onto customs the guy simply asked in English if he could have ten dollars, I asked what for and he said that he would fill my forms in for me. He was straight forward enough and after finishing the lady in front of me he reached forward under my wallet, pulled out the ten bucks I had ready, smiled and simply said 'present'. I like to see honesty in my corruption... All in all I was through on my way to Shymkent in about an hour.

The roads in Kazakhstan have been the predictable mix of pretty decent smooth surfaces to almost immediate transitions into broken tracks. Following a wrong turning I made it onto a dirt track which looked like a reasonable road on the map but it was all fine.

As for the police, driving around in anything from Daewoos, to a fairly popular choice being a Mitsubishi Galant I was largely left in peace. At one point a young guy pulled me over and I was about to go when the older guy sat in his Lada shouted me over. He was fishing for cash I think but only got as far as asking for a souvenir. Repeatedly. I had a couple of whisky miniatures in the pannier still and gave him one just so I could get going again.

More irritatingly / scarily, on the way out from Shymkent I got stopped. The guy seemed insistent on seeing my insurance, of course I again had none. It was never offered at the border so I never worried. It took half an hour of faffing and attempting to get me to give him money but not telling me how much. At one point he sat in the back of the car and shadily wrote down $100 to which I told him that for that much money I wanted lots of paperwork. This then turned almost into bartering and him trying to get me to tell him how much I wanted to pay. In paranoia about possibly needing insurance I tried offering 5000tenge and this seemed ok for him. Interestingly he didn't want to touch the money and told me to drop it into the car door pocket. No sooner than this was done he told me to pull it back out again, turns out an older policeman was now standing behind me. This then turned into handshakes, smiles and being told to go, bizarre. I can only guess that this guy was on the take and I'm no clearer as to whether I needed insurance or not but it left me paranoid for the rest of my time driving. Although stopped again by police and checkpoints I was never once asked about insurance.

Kazakhstan also provided me with my worst roads to date. I can handle the dirt track that the road degenerated into on the way north when I got a little lost but I'm really not keen on roads like I experienced on the last 160km into Semey where bumpy roads degenerated into carriageway wide holes up to two feet deep in the space of thirty feet. It really kept you on your toes and meant that you switched carriageway along with the rest of the traffic from time to time. I hit some heavy bumps on that road and that was with my trying to keep on my toes.

One thing that did surprise me was the preference for German cars, in particular I saw lots of old boxy Audi 100s. I can't remember the last time I saw one back home but in the south especially it seemed like every third car was an Audi 100. Everywhere else there was a reasonable mix but with lots of Audi and VW cars. Meanwhile, in Almaty there were quite a few right hand drive Japanese cars which hit me as a little odd and had me doing a few double takes to start with.

As for the way out, not a lot to say. I made it over the border north of Semey where the Kazakh side took about twenty minutes, mainly checking my passport repeatedly while I just stood there and also making me fill out a new customs declaration which was a carbon copy of the customs form I filled out on the way in. Nice and easy.


RUSSIA (pt 1)

Another country I was a little nervous about was Russia, in the end the immigration side of things couldn't have been easier. I was given an immigration entry form not unlike those given to people entering countries on aircraft and it was in English. The customs side of things was a little trickier but I was there second in line after Domenic who I met by the roadside ten kilometres from the border. He had managed to get through before me and was busy with the customs guy who couldn't speak any English and was merrily taking the mickey as the forms were filled out. It all seemed good natured enough and I only had a little banter as I crossed over. Back on the bike I had a brief check through my panniers before a big smile and "welcome to the Russian Federation!". Cool.

The way in was through Belarus, this took the for of generally very good and very straight roads through countryside that could well have been Holland. Following on from Kazakhstan there weren't that many Ladas, or other older Russian marques but plenty of Japanese cars. A lot of the Japanese cars were right hand drive which was a little strange and a taxi driver I was with explained that many of these cars were in fact from Singapore so if you are there and wonder what happens to the older cars, well they are all in Russia it seems.

Driving down toward Mongolia I managed to stay on really good roads. It seems like the inter city roads are kept in good condition but the side roads and some of the roads in cities are left to pretty much fall apart. One of the guys I spoke to at one point made a joke about if you can ride on Russian roads you can ride anywhere, I didn't have the heart to tell him that Kazakhstan has far worse to offer in places.

On the way out I arrived at Tashanta border crossing a bit earlier than I had intended, largely because the border station is about ten Km before the actual border. On realizing where I was I figured that I could try getting over and sleeping in Mongolia but with no luck as the crossing was closed (it was about 7:30pm).

So I camped locally before returning the next morning as requested by a border guard at 9:00am. About half an hour later I was invited into the compound where the customs paperwork and passport stamps were done and I was through the other side painlessly after a quick panniers check within half an hour. After this there was another 10km of good Russian roads before a final passport check, beyond this gate was Mongolia and the road abruptly stops and turns to a dirt track.

Location:Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia