Butterflies and Flat Tyres

One of the strangest riding idiosyncrasies in China is filling up with petrol. Some (very few) stations will not serve motorbikes at all and some (even fewer) will fill the bike up directly. The normal practice is to park the bike on the side of the station and use a…

I’ve just bought a bagel that could be used to commit some serious bodily harm. No wonder the street vendor was so surprised when I wanted to buy one. I think they usually sell them by the truck load to build houses, but this thing is sure not edible. I’ve…

  It’s really great to finally be on the road again and after leaving Bishkek and slowly heading down to the border we make a short stop at Tash-rabat. This is one of the most stunning places I’ve seen in Kyrgyzstan and make me realise I need to come back…

So Dozer now has a homemade luggage system (that will get me as far as it gets me and then I’ll make another plan) a new tank, some spare parts and a kind of spare wheel. I pack this little lot up on the poor old man and boy he…

After 3 lovely days riding around the lake with Richard and really getting to know Dozer I headed back to Bishkek to pick up the bigger tank. This was on one of Chris’s other bikes currently being hired by an America guy from Denver Colorado, Karst. Karst was great and…

After finally arriving in Almaty in Kahazakstan I spent a week trying to find a suitable and very inexpensive bike. My friend Richard hooked me up with a local guy Anton who was yet another Russian angle. He was a great help and really nice guy. He arranged for me…

So after spending a painstaking day at the airport, thank goodness they had wifi, and remember this is not Heathrow, but a tiny airport with only 3 gates. So finally we get to board the plane, and I notice it’s not the same one which had duct taped their seats…

Hmm did I mention in my last post that I will fly to Almaty today… Well I’m now sitting in Irkutsk airport. I got up at 4am to get to the airport and fly at 7. The flight was then delayed until 9. Then on that flight half way down…

I have now been in Irkutsk for 11 days and things at first went from bad to worse. I was towed here by an amazing Russian couple who found me on the road. We had a great adventure getting to Irkutsk together and I was very sad when they left…

I have now spent a week in Irkutsk and although it is a nice city and the church people have made me feel very very welcome I not only do not want to overstay my welcome but I desperately want to get back on the road. I should be collecting…