I entered New York State on Friday, April 17. Arrived in Toronto the next day. North American route is over. Along with it, some other things also came to an end. I now know that I'm leaving this continent and riding back home is not a plausible option anymore. The luxuries and conveniences of being in this side of the world are going to fade away slowly. One specific characteristic of this journey is that it began from Los Angeles, a city that symbolizes the ultimate edge of western civilization. As I move forward, this system of values and everything that comes with it, will slowly degrade to the point of becoming unrecognizable, meaningless. This is neither something to look forward to, nor to complain about. It's just something to go through and be aware of. Two weeks into the trip and I'm already losing some conveniences that were a part of my life ...Read More

Emilio Scotto is probably one of the most persistent people traveling around the world. I read his book called "The Longest Ride". At one point he comes across a river that is way too high to cross. He doesn't turn back. He pitches his tent next to the river and goes to sleep hoping that the river would be 'gone' by the morning. He wakes up next morning, and guess what, the river is still there... What kind of a person does this? Can you imagine trying to talk this guy into not doing something? Scotto rode his old Goldwing everywhere you can imagine including deserts and rain forests... I think he is the first traveller to ride into China with a foreign registered bike. They normally do not allow foreign vehicles but Scotto insisted to ride his 'Princess'... Read More

Baku to Turkmenbashi Ferry I thought I'd through in my $.02 about the Baku-Turkmenbashi ferry as I've received many PM's, emails, etc. about this. The B-T ferry is a rail car ferry primarily and takes on passengers and vehicles(including trucks), space allowing. It leaves on a scheduled based on when the rail cars are loaded onto the ferry and on some occasions, can leave sometimes 2-3 times a day. Once a day is the norm though and ask the Customs guys there info about the departure times and rail car loading to best gauge things. There is a similar ferry to Aqtau(Kazakhstan) but only a couple times a week. The Azeri ferry company that runs it owns a fleet of about 5 ferries. It takes one day to cross the Caspian and docks in the harbor awaiting another one of the previously arriving ferries to unload. Once unloaded, that ferry awaits rail cargo ...Read More

Hi Salva 2 options exist for Turkmenistan; FIRST : 'official tour' which requires 'loi' and requires participation of the tour. This is the option we chose, tour & loi came via David at StanTours (who is excellent). Using this option meant we had an emailed copy of our loi and then when we arrived at Turkmenistan port of entry we were there issued with our standard tourist visa (the visa matched in length the number of days the tour lasts, which in our case was 5 days). SECOND OPTION : 'Transit Visa' Using this option avoids the 'loi' and the 'official tour' thus saving some money. But you have to specify date of entry and date of departure. I would guess you could get away with requesting 7 days for transit (doubt you'd get longer). Transit visa can be obtained in Istanbul or Ankara (Turkey). Even though you have a specified date of entry, ...Read More

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 ...Read More

In theory you need a paper & stamp for every night you're there .. usually you can get the next hotel to include the camping days in their registration. We took all the slips out of our passports before we got to the border. NO ONE askesd for anything about registration, so we're thinking it's just another way for tourists to spend their money there. Read More

As time passes, and the route becomes somewhat clear, the countries and visa requirements are determined. I'll need to have a flexible entry-exit date for each country I'm going to apply for a visa. So far, the list is as follows: United States (Greencard) United Kingdom (Visa) France (Schengen) Switzerland (Schengen) Liechtenstein (Visa) Austria (Schengen) Slovenia (Schengen) Croatia (Passport) Bosnia and Herzegovina (Passport) Montenegro (Visa) Albania (Passport) Macedonia (Passport) Greece (Schengen) Turkey (Passport) Georgia (Passport) Azerbaijan (Visa) Turkmenistan (Visa) Uzbekistan (Visa) Tajikistan (Visa) (Can be bypassed) Kyrgyzstan (Passport) Kazakhstan (Passport) Russia (Visa) Mongolia (Visa) Russia (Visa) South Korea (Passport) Read More