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This is my first time writing sharing our part of our story.
My name is Zainal (difficult to pronounce, so just refer me as Z as in Zorro) from Malaysia and my wife is Celeste, a South African. We have been married since 1991 (didn’t realize it has been that long). We are starting our journey on 1 April 2014 (April Fool Day).
Due to the difficulty to get permission to ride through Myanmar and the high cost to go through China (our wallet is not that thick), we have decided to air freight our bike, the ‘Black V’ (V stands for Kawasaki Versys) to Kathmandu, Nepal. We shall start our journey from there and ride through a few Middle Eastern countries, Europe and down to South Africa. The traveling is plan for 13 months, free and easy and no rushing, nothing is set, and we will just go with the flow.
Why are we doing this trip? Simply because we want to meet people of diverse backgrounds, experience the different types of food, see different sceneries, experience the different kinds of weather and hear & understand (at least) the languages and the beliefs of people of the world. Most importantly we want to see for ourselves how people in different countries live their life because you can only learn so much from books.
Who are we? We are in our very early 50s. Since we have the energy, still physically strong and our hair is not yet fully grey, this is the right time to do what we want to do. Celeste is an educator in the entertainment and arts and also very active in social work. I am just an average 9-5 Joe, heavily involved in the development of human resources. Career wise, we both deal and have passion for people and this traveling suit us nicely.
The Black V is a 650 cc, year 2011 with 14,000 km on it. I am not a technical or mechanical savvy person so my ability to do heavy bike repair is almost ‘zero’ but it should not be an issue because we will pick up the know how along the way through ‘trial and error’. Why the Black V and not a Black GS or Tenere? Well, our reply is ‘why not?’. We know that any bike will do, even on a scooter. If you happen to see a Black V somewhere out there (riding or stranded), please give us a honk, a cup of coffee or even a place to stay (ha ha).
The Black V is already in the airport warehouse just waiting to be ship to Kathmandu via Bangkok on Tuesday. It will arrive Kathmandu on Wednesday mid-day and we will pick it up from the airport on the same day or latest by Thursday.
We will update our report as much as we could depend on wifi availability, so please feel free to follow our journey.
__________________ Grant Johnson Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------ Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997! www.HorizonsUnlimited.com
It has been quite a while since our last posting. We are now (5 Apr) in Kathmandu since 1 April. The weather is still quite cold despite winter already ended last month.
Kathmandu is a very busy city with movements everywhere – cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles and people moving in all directions, left right, front back, top & below, just like an army of ants marching. The honking of cars, buses, lorries, motorcycles and even bicycles is another issue of concern, so you need to have ear plugs to keep you sane. You also need a face mask to keep the dust out of the nose and mouth. If you have mastered ‘tai-chi’ then you could move easier on the streets because you can manoeuvre your way in between motorcycles, cars, rickshaws and bicycles easily. Hmmmm, ear plugs face mask and tai-chi, yeah what a combination !!!
Nepal people are very accommodating, helpful, humble and tolerant. We have a lot of respect for them. The majority are poor but despite the hardships they are facing in life, they are very hardworking and happy.
There are many hotels in Kathmandu and the room rates are as low as USD15 per night with plenty of choices. Within the 5 days in Kathmandu, we have stayed in 3 different hotels because the 1st one is a bit expensive, the 2nd hotel exercise their own way of supplying electricity, water and internet for their hotel’s customers and the 3rd one so far seems okay as we did not encounter any issue and they give us free breakfast unlike the first 2 though this 3rd hotel is cheaper. Move to a 4th hotel…… we are not sure yet ! So if you have the time and you are a bit resourceful, you can get quite a good bargain for hotels in Kathmandu.
The power supply in Nepal is under government control and will come on and off according to the time schedule. Hotels too are not exempted. Most hotels have generators to do their in-house power supply. So your time management capabilities must be good so that you can timely charge your phone, lap top, camera etc. Don’t worry after a few days in Kathmandu you will get used to it.
Our bike, the Black V is arriving Kathmandu on Sunday, 6 April and we are taking it out from the airport on Monday, 7 April. Black V has given us some drama and almost did not make it to Kathmandu. It was supposed to arrive in Kathmandu on 2 April but it didn’t. The forwarding agent that we entrusted to send the bike suddenly decided to increase the price by 250% from the original price at the very last hour. After a few days of ding & dong and ping & pong with our lawyer posting a letter right to their office door, they eventually agreed to send the bike. However, all these ding dong ping pong has cost us some extra money which we did not plan for.
So if anyone is planning to ship/airfreight out his bike from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia our advice is not to use this agent. You can contact us personally (zainal-b@hotmail.com) to check whether the agent you are engaging is the same one we had encountered. If you still decide to engage this agent, you should engage a lawyer as well, just in case.
We are heading to Pokhara, about 215 km west of Kathmandu next Tuesday, 8 April or Wednesday, 9 April. We plan to do a short mountain hiking over there. Meanwhile Celeste (the Trailing Spouse) has found something to do in Kathmandu. She is giving dance lessons to students at a local college. I am yet to find anything to do (or should I), so while Celeste is busy with her students, I will continue to walk around the city with my ear plugs, face mask and further practise my tai-chi skills because we still have more than a week to go in Nepal.
In terms of providing like/love rating levels for Kathmandu, our rating so far is 8/10. We love the people’s enthusiasm, hospitality, the weather, the good food the cheap hotels and of course, The Trailing Spouse is loving the shopping and I have to keep reminding her “panniers…not suitcase” otherwise I’ll have to get a side car just for the luggage.
On 7 Apr 2014, being the last night in Kathmandu we had our dinner at Naglo, which is a well know restaurant. I had Thali chicken set and my Mrs ordered corn bread and dhal. To close the night, we ordered apple pie and hot lemon & ginger with honey. The dinner was just perfect to end our stay in Kathmandu. It was raining when we headed back to our hotel. Probably Kathmandu was crying because we are leaving.
We left Kathmandu early the next day after breakfast, slightly before 8 am. The weather was still chilly. Pokhara is about 211 km away but we were informed that the journey would take about 5 hours because of the roads and traffic condition. Black V seemed excited to be in Kathmandu and it gave no trouble to start everything up in the morning. We stopped at a Castrol station to fill up. Petrol per litre is USD1.47 and I only topped up 10 litres only because I did not want to overweigh Black V.
After topping up petrol, we headed straight to Highway 1 leading to Pokhara. The 'highway' is a 2 lane road, 1 yours and the other one belongs to the on-coming vehicles. but in actual fact in Nepal, your lane also belongs to the other vehicles. Quite frequently, you have to slow down or stop completely because the other vehicles - buses, trucks, mini vans, cars, motorcycles, tractors etc will come into your lane like you don't exist. So to ride safe, you have to take care of your own self because the on-coming vehicles don't bother about you. We rode slowly and sometimes very very slow. The road condition was 50% good, 25% bad and 25% extremely bad. A lot of pot holes, uneven surfaces and also road under repair.
The road winds up and down and around the mountain with the cliff on one side and a ravine on the other. The weather was clear and we caught glimpses of the Annapurna range. Although the road was sometimes dangerous and daunting, the scenery was very beautiful and awesome. I can explain over here by describing them and showing photos but it would not be the same and it is something that you have to experience for yourself. The whole journey took us about 8 hours because we took it slow and easy. No hurry and no rushing, like we said before 'it is not the destination that matters but the journey'.
We arrived in Pokhara at around 5 pm and went to Phewa Lake, a touristy spot just like Phuket. A lot of foreigners around and the place is quite a laid back place. Later we checked into ‘Arrival In Highland’ hotel near the lake with reasonable rates and breakfast included. The hotel owner conducted a small welcoming ceremony to welcome us into their hotel. Black V is parked in a secure place in the hotel compound.
We did a 3 days 2 nights mountain trekking in Pokhara.
Our visa will expire on 16 Apr so we will stay in Phokara till 15 Apr and after that we will proceed to India.
Cheers,
Borneoman & Trailing Spouse on 2 Wheels
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We did a 3 days 2 nights mountain tracking in Pokhara.
We left Pokhara very early morning on 15 April as our visa is expiring on April 16. Our destination was Sonauli (Pokhara – Tansen – Butwal – Sonauli), a border town between Nepal and India. The distance was about 200 km and we rode through high mountains, villages, next to ravines and rivers. There were not many vehicles using this road as they prefer to use a Pokhara – Mugling – Sonauli route which is easier though slightly further. Our riding was good and smooth.
We reached Sonauli at about 2.45 pm. The carnet clearance with the Nepal’s Custom took about 20 mins and Indian’s Custom slightly shorter about 15 mins. There were many local touts around on both sides offering services to do the carnet clearance but we decided to do on our own. It cost us USD0.30 on the Nepal side and USD0.00 on the Indian side.
Sonauli is a chaotic town, full of people, vehicles and animals moving in an unorganized manner. We are not sure whether these people and vehicles have proper documents to move in/out of the two countries. We did not stay long in Sonauli and rode further into India roads. Since time is getting late, we decided to stop and put a night at Nautanwa, a small town 12 km after the bother. It was a wrong decision and a wrong place to stop but unavoidable because the next sane town is Gorakhpur, about 95 km away. We don’t think we can make it to Gorakhpur before dark.
The USD9 hotel per night in Nautanwa was managed by a 70+ year old man. It has common/shared bathroom with no hot water and no light (in the bathroom) as well. We went out to look for food/dinner and could not get a decent eating place. The town is full of dust, the traffic was a nightmare, people move from all corners, so we went back to our room and ate our spare/reserve food – oat and biscuit using our torch/camping light as the electricity has went off.
Definitely not so good impression about India on Day 1.
On day 2 in India (16 April), we headed to Gorakphur, about 80 km from Nautanwa where we spent the night when we entered India from Nepal. We stayed for 2 nights in Gorakhpur with nothing much to do except walking around in the city. For us, Gorakhpur is not a city to visit. How was the traffic in India so far? Our answer is the same as the other travelers who have been riding in India - chaotic, havoc, dangerous, nerve wrecking and deafening.
On 18 April we rode to Lucknow about 250 km away. The road wasn't that good in most areas and our average speed was 65 kph (definitely very slow). Petrol in India is USD1.39 per litre and the stations are everywhere.
Lucknow city was better than Gorakhpur with good roads and transport systems. However, the driving behaviour and road manners of the drivers are still the same. We did some touristy activities mostly, visiting historical places. We spent 2 nights in Lucknow before leaving for Agra on early morning 20 April.
Agra is about 365 km from Lucknow and the first km on the road we travelled was quite bad and after that just outside the city, the road became better. Our average speed was about 80 kph and arrived at our hotel – Taj Home Stay at around 3 pm. The hotel is managed by father (S. Sethi) and son (Tarun) and is located in a posh residential area and the atmosphere was quite homely. We had a very pleasant stay at this home stay. We spent 3 nights in Agra and the must see place in Agra is of course the Taj Mahal, one of the 7 wonders of the world.
Have YOU ever wondered who has ridden around the world? We did too - and now here's thelist of Circumnavigators!
Check it out now, and add your information if we didn't find you.
Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)
Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance™ combines into a single integrated program the best evacuation and rescue with the premier travel insurance coverages designed for adventurers.
Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.
Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
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Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.
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