Trans-Eurasia 2005 part 8
Trip Start
May 20, 2005
1
7
14
Trip End
Aug 05, 2005
Beijing,
China
Saturday, July 2, 2005
The road from Omsk to Novosibirsk is the smoothest I've ridden on in
Russia to date. But is it boring! Siberia is probably what hell is
really like. It is a thousand + mile long bug infested swamp. If you
stop for any reason you are immediately swarmed with bugs like you read
about. The road looks like someone took a ruler to a map and bisected
Siberia as it is as straight as a ruler to the horizon.
I did get a nice lunch for a change at a truck stop about halfway
between the 2 cities. I'll probably stay hear for an extra day while I
do some preventive maintainance on the bike and try and find some Ural
square shouldered tires. Then I have to make up my mind to head south
to Tsagaannuur Mongolia or try and make it through Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude
to Mongolia. Because my visa for Russia expires in 8 more days I'm
leaning towards heading south but I heard from friends in Ulaan-Bataar
that the recent rains have washed out some of the roads. I still
haven't found a place to download my pictures so that may wait until I
reach Ulann-Bataar. I just heard that this city has a big nude beach.
The city is bisected by a large river, similar to Omsk. Today was the
warmest so far since I hit Europe back on May 30th. It was 27 C and the
first day I didn't wear leather chaps or jacket. But I am covered with
bug guts. These insects hit you and you feel like a small caliber
bullet just hit you. Then they leave a colorful mess, like you were the
last man out in a paintball contest. Anyway getting to an internet cafe
at 1:00 AM is getting old too so I'll sign off and try and download
pictures and more details of the ride tomorrow. Funny, at every
internet cafe I've hit it is packed with young people all playing
Counter Strike.
