I started reading Geoff Thomas’ blog. Poor Circulation is the name. I don’t know where he got it from but here is the story he told the Iron Tigers in Vladivostok on a Vodka Night.

Asil was a Turkish boy with two passions in life; Motorcycles and Travelling. After finishing college, disillusioned with his lot in Turkey and the prospect of completing his National Service in the army, he packed his motorcycle with all of his belongings and began his journey. He travelled all across Europe, through North and South America, … down into the centre of Africa and eventually into Mongolia. In Mongolia he discovered that his Turkish passport was about to expire and so visited the Turkish Embassy in order to have it renewed. Unfortunately the embassy realised that Asil had avoided his compulsory year of National Service in the army and refused to renew his passport unless he returned to Turkey,…. immediately.
Not wishing to complete a year in the Turkish army, Asil sought advice from his friends in Mongolia. After much thought there appeared to be only one possible solution to his predicament. Asil would find and marry a local Mongolian girl and then apply for Mongolian Citizenship and a Mongolian passport. The plan actually worked, he found a girl, they married, Asil received Mongolian Citizenship and collected all of the documents necessary to apply for his Mongolian passport. With a spring in his step he took himself and the documents to the passport office in Mongolia and waited in line. Eventually his application was taken and inspected by an official, ……. but the news that greeted him was not exactly what he’d expected. Unfortunately Asil was now 26 years of age and a Mongolian Citizen, …….. he therefore must spend two years in the army doing his comulsory Mongolian National Service.

A great story indeed.

But what’s more surprising for me is that this is the first Turkish rider I heard doing an overland trip of this scale. I wonder who this Asil is… I’m sure I’ll hear more of it.