Sokcho surprised me. I was expecting a small fishing town dominated by a large port. What I saw was a clean-cut, modern city with banks, shopping malls, parking lots etc... I needed to pay a rather large amount of cash to the shipping company. One of the agents drove me to the nearby bank in his brand-new super-silent Hyundai. The large GPS screen displayed something that looked like a "Hello Kitty meets Sim City" version of a navigation software. There was an animated character who was constantly happy that we were driving to the bank. This was my introduction to ...Read More
The Dong Chun itself is like a piece of the far eastern land. The ship and the crew is very Chinese. It operates between Zarubino, Russia and Sokco, South Korea. For me, it was a way of skipping North Korea as there is no way of riding a motorcycle as a foreigner in this weird country. The lights of the seaside towns was all I could see of it.
The voyage takes about 16 hours excluding the amazingly long waiting time as they load and unload cargo. It took about 7 hours to leave the port of Zarubino.
It's not cheap. Customs ...Read More
During my days in Chita, I met a nice guy named Max. He was interested in what I was doing so we spent some time talking and exchanging views. He helped me look for a new tire, which proved to be a useless struggle, and get the new suspension from the DHL office. We also talked a little bit about Amur Highway. Max drove this road more than a few times so he seemed to know it well.
As I was leaving the town, I expected to spend at least 10 days on this part. It felt quite exciting and maybe ...Read More
I left UB at around noon. Got lost trying to find the road north to Ulan Ude, and therefore couldn't make it to the border before it at 6 o'clock.
70 kms from the border, I noticed a heavily loaded road-bike with elaborate aerodynamic fairings parked in front of a local rest-stop. The rider was a Bulgarian named Costa. He wore a leather jacket, big round earrings and long hair. It would be an ordinary sight somewhere in California, but definitely not so in Mongolia. Costa is also a graphic designer. He left home 4 months ago and rode through Russia ...Read More
I went to the DHL office on Friday to pick up the suspension. But the tracking number I had didn't work with their system. After a long day involving many phone conversations, SMS messages and a trip to the Central Post Office, I learned that the package was sent using regular post, not express... I was told that the package was en route via China and it would arrive in about 3 weeks.
I was shocked! This would be a relatively acceptable mistake if I hadn't specifically told them that I wanted it sent via DHL Express and would be ...Read More
I insisted on sleeping in the morning. I didn't want anything to wake me up. The Brits packing up, the cows and camels, the children running around, the wind from the door left open as they were bringing in some wood... Everything wanted me to wake up but I insisted. So much that I even pretended to sleep for what appeared to be another half hour. Finally, some guests arrived and they neded a place to sit. So I had to pretend waking up...
After having some more tea in yak milk and fresh cream for breakfast, I started packing up. ...Read More
We woke up very early and started riding towards the rising sun. Already, there were some hints of road construction. I even tried riding on a closed section of unused gravel. It felt really good until I came across a pile of earth blocking the road. I tried to cross over it but the bike got stuck. I had to pull it down and go back to find a way out of the raised road surface.
Then there was a sandstorm hitting us head on. Luckily, it didn't last too long. The dirt roads once again became dirt tracks above ...Read More
