Here - but bikeless

27/7/11.

Well I've been in Vladivostok for three nights now and have enjoyed the city - but there is just one small hitch; I've yet to get my bike which is still going through the customs process! The ferry may be drive on , but its very definately not drive off.  The bike gets lumped in with all the cargo to be processed and we are not  a priority. It looks like I'll get the bike tomorrow which is Thursday so three full days after arriving.  I'm told not to complain as the previous weeks ships delivery took a full week to clear.
Vladivostok is a much bigger city than I expected - population officially three-quarters of a million and I'm told unofficially over a million.  Its also a giant building site as the next Australian Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) government summit occurs here July next here and the town is getting a massive spruce up in preparation.  As well as the usual tidying up of building facades, new parks and general roadworks they are also building two huge suspension bridges across parts of the bay.  When you see the current state of progress on construction all I can say is I'm glad I 'm not the project manager.
In the photographs below you can see some general shots of Vladivostok in its slightly faded beauty.  Its easy to criticise it but just as easy to forget this was a closed military city between the '50's and 1992 where obviously maintaining beauty was not a priority.  But with imagination (sometimes a lot) you can see how given another decade or two of work it could regain some significant glory.On the ferry I teamed up with two Croation guys, Patrick and Robert who are doing a round the world trip by bike.  They are on the back-half of their trip having done Europe and the US and now planning Vladivostok to home.  We will probably ride the first couple of days together in Russia but they will then run on ahead as they want to be back in Croatia by late August - thats around the world in 4 months definately faster than I'd like.
The first couple of nights here in Vladivostok I stayed in a hotel I booked off the internet - mainly based on price.   I booked as a single person and so, unbeknown to me, the staff decided that meant as "my" room had two beds they could also let it to someone else.  This I only found out as I registered and when it was too late for me to do anything about.  As it was they failed to find me a room mate for the first two nights so it didn't matter, and then for reasons I'll explain in a minute I moved out tonight almost as soon as my room-mate moved in.  The hotel itself had a very flash lobby and lovely pictures of beautifully furnished rooms on its walls (and use on the Internet advert) but it turned out it was only partially renovated - my room was definately in the to be done part, very 1950's or 60's soviet, tired but fortunately quite clean and functional (though the bathroom only just scraped into the male version of that category).  It was fine though as a first stop and it had a good reception and cafe/restaurant staff who cheerfully tolerated my attempts at murdering their language.
I was also due to stay at the hotel again tonight,but then I along with Robert and Patrick got an offer to stay at the clubhouse of the local motorcycle club, the Iron Tigers.  This group is well known for helping  travellers so I happily accepted and it turned out to be great decision.  The club is 10km out of town so one of its members Andrei picked us up and drove us there and given the state of Vladivostok traffic was a major effort on his part.  It is located within an old building which contains the clubs president, Mickaels, business, which is re-building and selling imported bikes (dozens and dozens of them).  Within this building they have a room termed "the box" which is outfitted for travellers to stay with camp-beds and the like plus a toilet and washing machine etc.  At the end of the day they simply leave and tell you to lock yourselves in.  They have been offering this hospitality for a decade or more and it is hard to imagine someone in Australia being as open and trusting. The visit to the Iron Tigers has been a bit of a highlight of the time in Vladivostok and has made the wait for the bike worthwhile.
Well thats about all the news for now - hopefully when I next post it will include news of the bikes safe release and the start of my forward progress.

 

On the move at last

Well finally I'm travelling by bike in Russia.  It's an experience.  The people are really friendly and helpful - but I really feel my lack of language skills because unless I meet an English speaker I am pretty cut-off from things and communication is very limited.  The night school russian helps a lot but I wish I had paid more attention and practised more. That is where my preparation really fell down in the last month or so, with all the rushing around I did very little practice then and it really shows at the moment.  What is really useful though is being able to read, albeit very slowly, the cyrillic names of towns, signs on shops and the like: even this was very hard at first but I practice with every street sign I see and it is slowley getting more intuitive and I'm beginning to recognise some common letter patterns. Without that basic skill travelling around would be a nightmare.  In an attempt to re-establish my very basic speaking skills a bit I've now holed up in a hotel for a couple of days in order to just listen to the lessons I have on my computer again and refresh the basic vocabulary and grammer. I hope it helps.
Anyway a lots happened since I last posted after the bike was just freed from Customs.  It is now about 5 days later and I have travelled north and am in a small town of Komsomlosk Amur probably about 700 km of Vladivostok as the crow flies.The original plan had been to leave Vladivostok early (5am ish) on last Friday (29/7) to avoid the horrendous city traffic but due to the two Croations, Patrick and Robert, bike batteries still being re-charged we didn't actually get away until 1100 and peak hour gridlock.  Fortunately the night before I had managed to get my Russian maps working on my GPS so at least I had some idea how to get out of the city, although this was much complicated by roadworks and closed streets coupled with steady rain to make everything really slippery.  It was here it became apparent the Croations and I had different riding styles - they wanted to filter aggressively through the traffic, me (and remembering I'm coming to grips with being on the wrong side of the road) wanted to be ultra cautious.  Once we got out of the city proper (and no longer needed the GPS) the Croatians shot off and I haven't seen them since.The first 20-30 kilometres of highway out of the city leads past the airport so it was being upgraded in preparation for next years summit.  This means that most of it was gravel, often highly potholed and took over 2 hours to cover.  I said in a previous post I didn't fancy being the Project manager for the unfinished bridge - all I can say now is he has an easy task compared with the one for the Motorway.

[caption id="attachment_125" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Vladivostok - motorway!"][/caption]

I was heading for Khabarosk some 800km basically north and after the end of the "motorway" at the airport the road is basically all normal road.  The main hazard on this section of the trip was the delivery drivers for the imported Japanese cars - time is money and these are driven north at furious speeds with overtaking at every opportunity; several times I took to the hard shoulder to allow everything to fit across the road width.  Russian police were every where and lots seemed to be stopped by them for speeding and crossing white lines (both of which seem heavily enforced) - but I think the drivers mean weight of numbers mean most of them will get away with it.  Everything changes dramatically as soon as you leave Vladivostok - within 200km I was passing through tiny villages with some fairly run down houses and on occassions water still being drawn from a well.

[caption id="attachment_126" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Typical village house - 200kn N Vladivostok"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_127" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Roadside scene"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_130" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Road side eatery (some are a lot more basic)"][/caption]

Night fell when I was about half way to Khabarosk so since I was now in fairly unpopulated areas I found a side track into a bit of forest, got well out of sight of everything and camped for the night.  Camping is a rather grand term for it - since it was warm I simply put a plastic sheet down and slept on that.  There were a few mosquitoes around but nothing too bad (unlike the monsters that reputed to live further north) and it was a pleasant night.

[caption id="attachment_128" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Dirt road to the "campsite""][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A happy camper"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_131" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="One of the road hazards"][/caption]

The next day I continued on uneventfully, except for some atrocious patches of up to 10 km of very dusty dirt road masquerading as roadworks, to Karbarosk arriving their just after lunch.  Its a medium size city on the banks of the Amur river and its noteworthy feature (according to the Lonely Planet guidebook) is that it has actually tried to make something of its water front rather than just ignoring it.  Whilst you wouldn't call it flash, and the beaches are mainly pebbles, they are right it has an inviting feel in the sunshine and whilst some things are rundown there is obviously some new money moving into the town.

[caption id="attachment_134" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Amur River beach"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_132" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="You can see where Disney got inspiration."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_136" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and where you have churches you have ... (actually about 20 of them!)"][/caption]

After wandering around the waterfront for a few hours I was just about to get back on the bike to try and find a hotel when I was approached by someone speaking good english.  Turned out he was a merchant banker from Moscow visiting friends in town.  Turning a long story short I had a very late night involving river cruises, lots of vodka, toasts of eternal friendship and ended sleeping in a very swanky penthouse apartment.  Russian hospitality was turning out to be all it is reputed to be - thank you Michael, Sasha and Andrei.

[caption id="attachment_138" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="My new friends"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_139" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Michael's daughter checking out the bike"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_140" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Later the same night!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_141" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="The accommodation for the night"][/caption]

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, I was not feeling my best the next day. So reminded why spirits and I normally avoid each other I delayed my departure for Komsomolsk until late afternoon.  The drive there, which is as far North as the road goes in this area was through increasingly wild country side, beautiful in Summer but you can imagine how inhospitable it must be for 6 -8 months of the year.  The trip was enlivened by a couple of incidents.  Firstly I was flagged down by a driver in a very smart new Lexus (more serious money) and he then explained he had been motorcycle touring in Australia last year and was going, with friends, to do the same in Europe later in the year using old russian built "Ural" sidecar rigs (think any sidecar in WWII movies) - any way we exchanged email addresses and who knows I meet up with him later.  The second instance was in the middle of absolutely no where I found myself driving down a very smooth very wide bit of tar; it took a few minutes to realise this was an old cold war runway hidden in the road network - off to the side was some indication of abandoned military stuff in the forest but locked barriers and signs deterred further investigation. Anyway I safely made it to Komsomolsk just on dusk, about 10 pm, and am now safely holed up here in quite a nice hotel catching up on "blogging" and doing my russian lessons.  I'm staying here three nights total before I have to turn south and repeat my run back to Khabarosk - there is no other practical route out of town.  There was another road on the map I thought to use but I've found out it is 6 wheel drive truck country.  If I was with someone I might try and tackle it but being on my own I'll give that a miss. More about Komsomolsk in the next post.

[caption id="attachment_142" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Arriving Komsomolsk Amur"][/caption]

And finally the bike is free.

Big news off the day is the bike was finally released from customs about 3pm this afternoon. Everything seems to be undamaged and nothing missing and praise to all the dieties that look after motorcyclists it started first push of the button.  Unfortunately the same could not be said of the two Croations, Robert and Patricts bikes which both had dead flat batteries; however customs warehouse staff seemed to be well used to that and soon rolled out the jump start equipment.

[caption id="attachment_115" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Re-united at last"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_116" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Starting kilo-metres - 130,300 (guesses on the finishing figure anyone?)"][/caption]

We were then off to find a petrol station as all bikes had  to be shipped with minimal petrol in them.  After some confusion I've now found out Russian petrol stations work  differently to what we are used to.  After stopping at the pump and before filling up you go to the cashier and pay for the amount you estimate you want - then the pump is switched on and delivers the set amount.  Apparently lots don't have auto-cutoff either so you don't dare over-estimate how much fuel you want or the surplus is likely to be dumped on the ground.There then followed an entertaining 10 km trip through peak Vladivostok traffic.  Its not like anything I've experienced before - they drive on the right side of the road (difficulty one), traffic is horrendous (difficulty two), the driving varies between assertive and aggressive (difficulty three) and finally most of the cars are Japanese imports and have steering wheels on the right ie the wrong side for their road system (difficulty four) and top it off it started to rain.  Fortunately we were following someone back to the Iron Tigers club house because navigating on top of all of this might just have been too much.  I'm staying here again tonight so that Patrick and Roberts batteries get a chance to be re-charged and then hopefully will head off tomorrow mid-morning.

[caption id="attachment_117" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="All three bikes safely at "Iron Tigers""][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_118" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Is he telling me to head that way?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_119" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Vladivostok - random street scene"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_120" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Vladivostok - street market"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_121" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Vladivostok skyline."][/caption]

Here - but

27/7/11

Well I've been in Vladivostok for three nights now and have enjoyed the city - but there is just one small hitch; I've yet to get my bike which is still going through the customs process! The ferry may be drive on , but its very definately not drive off.  The bike gets lumped in with all the cargo to be processed and we are not  a priority. It looks like I'll get the bike tomorrow which is Thursday so three full days after arriving.  I'm told not to complain as the previous weeks ships delivery took a full week to clear.
Vladivostok is a much bigger city than I expected - population officially three-quarters of a million and I'm told unofficially over a million.  Its also a giant building site as the next Australian Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) government summit occurs here July next here and the town is getting a massive spruce up in preparation.  As well as the usual tidying up of building facades, new parks and general roadworks they are also building two huge suspension bridges across parts of the bay.  When you see the current state of progress on construction all I can say is I'm glad I 'm not the project manager.
In the photographs below you can see some general shots of Vladivostok in its slightly faded beauty.  Its easy to criticise it but just as easy to forget this was a closed military city between the '50's and 1992 where obviously maintaining beauty was not a priority.  But with imagination (sometimes a lot) you can see how given another decade or two of work it could regain some significant glory.

[caption id="attachment_100" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Vladivostok Street"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_101" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Eight months left to finish the bridge"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_102" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The old state run department store - GUM"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_103" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Vladivostok - A grand station to mark the end of the Trans siberian"] 

 

Vladivostok - street scene

I'm there

A very quick post to let everyone know I've made it to Russia - complete with my 'lost luggage' which turned up with 45 minutes to spare before leaving Korea. I haven't got bike yet because I need to clear customs with it today. I'm told this is a fearsome process - but everyone also said that about immigration, and in the end she was young, pretty, blond and told me "You are very brave" - what better introduction do you want to a country. Wish me luck - I'll post more in a day or so.

[caption id="attachment_96" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Vladivostok!"][/caption]

Nearly there.

Hallo, I'm still in Korea - but this is my last night here.  Tomorrow its on to the ferry and just under 24 hours later I'll be in Russia.  Feeling a bit nervous but more expectant than anything, a lot of thought, dreaming and a little bit of planning has gone into this stage of getting myself there (and possibly not enough on what to do once I've actually arrived - but I'm sure I'll work it out). Korea has been a lovely interlude on the way there and part of me wishes I had planned  an extra week here.  I enjoyed what I saw of Seoul, but that was very little - I scraped the surface wandering the streets but saw few of the tourist sites.  What I did see emphasised how the centre of gravity of the world is shifting to the Asian region; there  is a feeling of continuous change combined with an energy and a dymanism, as well as an obvious struggle for survival for many, that just isn't apparent in our more established societies. I'm sure "Industrial Revolution" Britain and late 19th, early 20th century America felt the same.

[caption id="attachment_87" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Koreans love their neon"][/caption]

Today, with still no news of my missing bag I left Seoul and moved on to Dong Hae.  the journey there was a straight forward mix of subway (which thoughtfully has English on all its signs) followed by a 3 hour bus ride.  After causing some confusion and amusement when  trying to buy the bus ticket I found Donghae is not pronounced as you might think from its spelling, but Tong Hei.  The Korean express bus system was a model of efficiency and reasonable luxury - only three seats across the bus width, all reclining etc.- and all this for only $20.  I shared the back row of the bus with three middle age Korean ladies who decided I was looking hungry and insisted on sharing their lunch with me - and this will be part of my memory of Korea, everyone really friendly and helpful.

The route itself was pretty uninspiring, in many ways the most interesting scenery you could see were the masses of apartment high rise around each city; I'm always perplexed why this style of housing has succeeded in much of Asia and Europe but was a dismal failure in post war Britain. Something to ponder on.  Many of these blocks have an inspiring name such as "Paradise View" (obviously no advertising standards rules apply) painted large on their side and more prosaically a similarly large set of numerals so you can work out which is your block.

[caption id="attachment_88" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Outskirts of Seoul"][/caption]

At Donghae, where my first concern was to check on and uncrate my bike,  a taxi driver dropped me at a gate of the port and insisted it was the right one.  All I could see was a locked gate; after standing bemused for 5 minutes two sailors wandered up and then disappeared through what I thought was a locked side door so I followed them in.  Inside I found three well armed Korean policemen thoroughly checking their passports and documents before grudgingly admitting them.  After they'd moved on I explained what I wanted and I'm sure they didn't understand anything other than the ferry company name but they waved me through and pointed me at an office a few hundred metres away.  I offered to show them my passport but that was waved away.  You have to picture that throughout this I'm carrying two large bags that might contain anything; I love security checks they are consistent in their inconsistency and general illogicality throughout the world.  Anyway once inside I found the ferry company people and they couldn't have been nicer.  One spoke good English and was waiting for me to turn up (forewarned by my very efficient Korean agent) and promptly drove me over to my bike and left me to uncrate.  I found I was one of three bikes but as far as I could understand the others are going on pallets as freight and not on their wheels, maybe I'll find out more tomorrow.

[caption id="attachment_89" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Mines the one in the middle"][/caption]

Uncrating went well and when I needed a little extra muscle a port worker willingly leant a hand. Any way after an hours work I nervously put the key in the ignition and with little encouragement she fired up.

I didn't have a hotel arranged as I could not find a cheap one on the internet so that was my next challenge - not that it proved hard, the guy at the ferry company simply phoned up the hotel they use and got me the company rate - about $40 and about half what I would pay. I felt at that point the day had gone quite well but the icing on the cake then followed, the airline phoned they had found my missing bag and it was now in Korea.  After a few phone calls it is arranged it will be delivered to the hotel before 9am tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed I will have it in time.

So as I type this message I'm celebrating all this with a couple of bottles of beer as a I sit in my hotel room with a Korean sub-titled Hollywood war movie on in the background.  Life's good.

[caption id="attachment_90" align="alignnone" width="264" caption="A happy (and slightly apprehensive) man."][/caption]

Its finally started

[caption id="attachment_80" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Departure Sydney - seen off by my sons."][/caption]

Well my trip has finally started and I type this message from a hotel room in Korea.  This is now saturday morning and I have been in Seoul 3 days which has passed incredibly quickly.  Its a good place to get my feet for travelling - obviously foriegn, but with enough english speakers and signs for me to ease into the process.  People here have been extraordinarily friendly - if you stop and stare a map for more than a few minutes on the streets some one invariably comes up and in varying levels of English asks you where you want to go - and more often and not then insists on walking with you until they are certain you have your bearings.  Seoul is an amazing contrast of major arteries and highrise (very) modern buildings forming the edges of the city blocks with then masses of tiny streets and laneways full of both old and new buildings, in all sorts of states of repair hidden behind them. 

[caption id="attachment_81" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Typical very modern architecture - few 1960's square blocks here"][/caption]

The lanes vary from one car width roads down to bicycle wide alleys.  Through these there is a constant movement of people and ubiquitous delivery motorbikes.  My hotel is down one of these lanes and is very good and friendly but was a challenge to find first off.  Also hidden in the lanes are various parks and palaces where one can suddenly find peace amongst the noise of the city - quite  contrast.  Some of thse arabsolutely exquisite and I would have liked to had more time to isit them properly.

The only downside of my visit here so far is whilst I made it safely not all of my baggage did.  One of my two bags has dissappeared who knows where.  The airline knows it left Sydney but has no record of unloading it at Ghangzhou (where I transitted).  So currently I am missing all my camping gear, maps and most of my chargers for electronics and the connecting cables, memory sticks etc.  That is part of the reason I haven't posted earlier.  Anyway yesterday I managed to buy a phone charger and  a few of the essential cables so I am back up and running. One of the challenges was Nokia is not a common brand here so getting a charger for it turned into a many houred tour of the city (but again helped by many locals).

Today I am off out of Seoul and onto Donghae where I hope I will be re-united with my bike.  My shipping agent here, a charming lady called Wendy, assures me it is there at the port and there will be no issues just going and unpacking it but I can't help be nervous.

Assuming that all goes well - then its off onto the ferry to Vladivostok tomorrow and the beginnings of the trip proper.

Getting closer.

[caption id="attachment_72" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The bike in front of the Russian Consulate, Sydney."][/caption]

Well things are moving along. On last Friday I finished at work for 6 months and also collected my Russian visa (a 3 months and double entry visa – officially called a “business” visa but might be more appropriately called an extended stay visa ). Collecting the visa was remarkably anticlimatic – after all the sweating about getting the visa, and some of the scare stories I heard, the process was remarkably straight forward and the consulate staff in Sydney very charming and efficient.

 

Then on the weekend it was time to do all those final little jobs on the bike (mainly trying to find final mounting points for my spares) and giving it the final pre-trip service which was basically an oil change and fitting the new tyres. Fitting the tyres exposed a slight flaw in my trip preparation – I pulled the rear wheel out only to find there were all ready three puncture repairs on the rear tube. Not how I wanted to start the trip, and this was Sunday afternoon and no where open to buy a new one. Then I remembered I'd fitted a new tube a month or so ago to my sons bike – so it was off with its wheel and a quick swap of tubes. I say quick but that wasted an hour and it was that sort of afternoon, everything I touched seem to have a minor, but solvable problem; so what I had planned as an easy few hours work suddenly took all day.

 

Even with theses milestones in place the trip still had a slightly otherworld feel, something that is happening but not really involving me, then “wham” today

[caption id="attachment_74" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Gone!"][/caption]

the reality I'm really going to do it hit with a rush. It came midway through crating the bike up in preparation for taking it to the air frieght forwarding company tomorrow.



Suddenly I really believed it was going to happen – and I also realise the amount of stuff I still have to do before I go. This is going to be one busy week. Some of the more critical things left to do are:

• Get my own plane ticket to South Korea


• Transfer money to appropriate account so I actually have some money for the trip, and


• Organise my own going away party.

 

Russian Visa

[caption id="attachment_45" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The Letter of Invitation"][/caption]

Well the big news today is my Russian "Letter of Invitation" arrived. The LOI is a necessary pre-curser to getting a visa and hence the whole trip hung around receiving it. In many ways its routine to get it - find suitable Russian travel agency, fill in paperwork, send money and then wait. Easy to say after you've got it but nerve wracking when you are waiting for it, especially when it was running a few day late. Anyway in the next few days it off to the embassy to convert this to the visa proper - 3 months double entry.

The next big job is to finally crate up the bike because next week its off to the shippers.  Suddenly things are getting awfully close!