Trans-Eurasia 2005 Part 6
Trip Start
May 20, 2005
1
5
14
Trip End
Aug 05, 2005
Beijing,
China
Saturday, June 25, 2005
I think I left off I was leaving Moscow. I did ride out to the Bike
Fest and it was a lot of fun. Picture Crazy Horse Campground at Daytona
only crazier. Thousands of bikes, probably just as many cars, a stage
with live music, and beer everywhere. I felt like a movie star while I
was there as everyone wanted to get their picture taken with me on my
bike. I tried leaving to look around for over an hour and couldn't get
away from the people or the bike. I'd like to come back next year
during the daylight to get a better look at the place and hopefully
there won't be so many drunk people at an earlier hour. But maybe not.
I left Moscow closer to noon on Saturday as I was still waiting for my
laundry to finish. The hotel allowed me to park my bike right at the
entrance up on the sidewalk for the 3 nights I was there. The taxi
drivers mostly got a kick out of it and me I suppose. When I finally
loaded up on Saturday I "hired" a taxi to lead me the way out of town
onto the M7 headed for Kazan. This hiway is just like any other hiway.
Just boring. Because of my late start I only got as far as Novgorod
before I found a hotel/casino to spend the night. There are a lot of
casinos in Russia by the way. In the morning I was surprised by another
American in the same hotel. A couple were there from Missouri to adopt
2 boys.
Anyway I left headed for Kazan at 9:30. By 9:45 I was sitting in a
police booth at the river crossing. The road split into a fork and I
stopped to ask for directions to a cop who was pulling over another
car. He motioned me to wait a minute, and then when he finished the
other guy he asked for my papers. I handed them over and then he
mentioned for me to step into his booth. There he and his colleague
told me I had to pay them US$ 500.00 or they would confiscate my bike
and keep my passport. Nice guys. I started out very polite but as time
was passing I got firmer and firmer. Finally, they "let me off" with
just 1,000 Rouples (about US$ 40.00). That and a wasted hour and a half.
Now I'm nervous at just the sight of a cop and there will be plenty of them in the days to come.
I reached Kazan without any further incident, but I'm so bored with the
hiway which isn't in very good condition anyways, I decided to get off
and try some back roads for a change. It looks from the map there is a
shortcut from Kazan to Pyerm by just heading Northeast. So I take this
road and it immediately lifts my spirits which have been down since
this mornings encounter with the dirty cops. I finally decide to look
for a room for the night in a small town called Kykmop. These are the
English spellings as I can't type the Russian characters. The hotel is
disgusting as I imagined, but in a small town what can you expect. I
head down the street to a restaurant/casino for dinner. It's about
10:30 PM but still light out. At dinner, I ask the owner for directions
to my next destination, Pyerm. He and his daughters write them out for
me but they have me headed back south to get back on the M7 hiway.
So I head off for my room and a nights rest. At sometime after midnight
I get wakened by knocking on my door. I answer the door to be met by 4
cops! They instruct me to get dressed and come with them. Now I'm
really nervous.
But all they wanted was for me to park my bike in their impound lot so
they could make sure nobody steals it. They were very friendly and
worried about my welfare at the same time. They also gave me a ride
back to the hotel.
Now I try and get back to sleep, and at 3:30 my cell phone rings. It's
someone from Beijing who didn't know I was out of town. The sun set at
about 11:30 PM and it was already risen by 3:30 AM.
The bathroom in the hotel is just too gross to take a shower, so I get dressed and decide to get an early start today.
So, ignoring the directions I was given last night I head off in what
looks to be Northeast. I ride for about an hour when the road turns to
a dead end. So no choice now but to ride back to Kykmop, cursing myself
the whole way for being stupid and then follow the instructions. But by
the time I get back to Kykmop it is raining. I finally get to test my
new Nelson Riggs rain suit and it seems to be up to the task of keeping
me dry. But I do get lucky, in that after about 2 hours of riding I
find a sign that points towards Pyerm and it's not the M7. So it's
still raining, but I'm on a nice 2 lane road, fairly smooth, and
passing through villages and farms on my way to Pyerm. As the road
starts to rise towards the foothills of the Urals the road turns into a
smooth twisty ribbon. I catch up to a really well driven car and we are
racing each other for about an hour. He is clipping every apex and I'm
about 10 feet off his bumper. Lots of fun, no cops, and I'm now making
pretty good time. But finally my road turns off and my racing buddy
goes on straight ahead. Now I'm about half way to Pyerm and from this
point until I get to Pyerm I get stopped 6 times. That's in just about
200 kilometers. That must be some kind of record. Most of the stops
were not for speeding as far as I can tell, they just want to see my
papers. I am about the only motorcycle on the road, and I am loaded
down pretty heavily so I must stick out to them. One stop was for
speeding apparantly because the cop showed me his radar gun readout
which showed 58 kmh (in a 50 kmh speed zone). But I don't get a ticket
or a fine all day and everyone just wished me well and waved me on. I
passed some city, maybe Glazov where it looks like they make Ladas.
The road leading into Pyerm is the worst condition road to date. I have
to use just 1st and 2nd gear only to dodge frost heaves and potholes. A
couple times at roundabouts, where there were no signs I get
sidetracked, but asking for directions puts me back on track. I get
into Pyerm about 9:00 PM and it's still plenty of daylight. Pyerm is a
well to do city, as on the outskirts there are huge single family
mansions that would look at home in any upscale neighborhood in the
U.S. and there are upscale car dealerships for Mercedes Benz, BMW,
Volvo, Audi, and a few other makes. I find a nice hotel for a change,
courtesy of a couple of kids in a Mazda. Get to eat in the hotel and a
nice hot shower and a good nights sleep. Again I get to park my bike
right at the hotel entrance where it will be watched all night.
In the morning I find an internet cafe to answer some e-mails and it's
off to Ekaterinburg which according to the map is a big city. I'll be
riding from the west side of the Urals to the East side so I'm thinking
it will be a nice mountain road. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. The Urals, at least between Pyerm and Ekaterinburg is nothing
but some large hills. No mountains that I can see, no switchbacks
either. But this road is now the worst road I've ridden so far. The
distance is only 400 kms (about 240 miles) and it takes me 8 hours to
complete that distance. I have to use 1st and 2nd gear probably more
than half way. There are brand new paved sections which abruptly drop
off to a moonscape. I am one sore old man by the time I get to
Ekaterinburg. I decide to splurge though and I'm in the best hotel in
town which is equivalent to any Hilton or Hyatt in the world. Expensive
as all getout though at about US$ 250.00 per night. As I have a number
of $10.00-$20.00 per night hotels in my travel so far, though so I
rationalize this won't break my budget, just raise my average stay a
bit.
I've now heard from Scott and Sjaak who are telling me the conditions
of the roads from the Mongolian border to Ulaan-Bataar. I can't imagine
they would be worse than todays roads, even if it's just a cow path.
But I've got 3 maybe 4 days to think about it before I hit Novosibirsk
where I have to head either Southeast or Northeast depending upon which
route I choose to enter Mongolia. Tomorrow morning, I'll look for a
shop where I can change my oil and filter, look over the spark plugs,
and try to fasten down any trim bits that are falling off. I've already
given up on the sidecar as every bit of trim on it has fallen off
already. But the bike is very reliable, except the starter is working
only intermittently, luckily it starts easy enough with a bump start
and the rear tail light has given up completely.
Funny when you're riding alone on a boring road what goes through your
mind for hours on end. For myself, I can't get "Back in the USSR" song
from the Beatles out of my head.
If anyone else is contemplating this kind of ride, I would suggest a
bike with a very good suspension. My bike, which I love dearly, has
state of theart suspension for 1969 which is pretty rough on the back
with these roads.
My next stop is Tyumen whch looks to be a small town, so my next internet connection will either be in Omsk or Novosibirsk.
