Vladivostok to London May/June 2012
 

Anyone going that way around that time ?

Im riding Tourer Sport/Tourer and staying on the road. And staying in European countries.

Have fun , just completed that run , had a great time, loved it .

Hi there,
yes, I plan on leaving the US, on May 1st next year and anticipate to be in Vlad around the middle to end of May heading westward. I have Mongolia and Kazakhstan on my travel agenda.

Hi Thomas,
Yes I see you are equipped for any road condition, where as I am not.
At what point will you cross into Mongolia ?
Perhaps we could ride together up to that point and rondevu at a later stage.

Hi Bushman'
Good on you, Did you use the dual purpose bike ?
Why does everyone seem to use these bikes ?
I want to use a tourer/sport/tourer, I believe 99% of the road is tarmac so why ride a bike that is 50% trail ?

hi louiekiwi, the answer to why i used a dual bike is easy i didn,t know the road conditions at the time lots of conflicting reports on wether it would have tarmac or just rough stone.
But you can do the trip on any bike , the first four bikes into Vladivostok from the west that we saw were harleys , and out in the wilderness we met a couple travelling on a pair of Honda melody's ( 125 step through scooters ) there are still some rough areas without tarmac and lots of road works without tarmac but any bike can get through with a little care.
I was comfortable to take the beemer so thats what i went on, just go with what bike your comfortable with and you can make it .
There's a few low quality videos that i completed on the road have a look and see what it's like, nothing to hard.
mark bushman's videos on Vimeo

For the time being, I can only offer an approximate time frame. The plan is to leave/ship the bike from Vancouver, Canada by air in the second half of May. Considering travel in S.Korea the ferry to Vlad, I would assume crossing into Mongolia by the middle of June.

Thanks Mark, That makes sense. Any snipet of information is appreceated. Because Ive never been abroad before, well only Australia to the desert for work in the mining industry. So Im quite looking foward to this trip. I have relatives (as many of us do) in England. Your rugby team arrived today. Good luck with that. And thanks again I'll be watching your video.

You have your comments disabled on Vimio. I wanted to say - That bloody statue in Stalingrad is 85 meters tall and 6000 tons !!

louiekiwi ,
Hi just looked at Vimeo and it says anyone can add comments, oh well never mind . You could also read my blog from the trip
ridersoftheworld.co.uk and just click on blog and also my riding buddy also had a blog at Round the World in 80 Ways Hope it all goes well and please any other questions don't hesitate to ask : bushman_uk (at)hotmail (dot) com.

T Rex63 Thomas how did you get on in the recent storms ?

Hi Mark.

Well, there is my bike. Unfortunately Ive had a hold up with my Russian visa. The inviting company did'nt list my itinary the same as my actual itinary, so it was declined. Not uncommon, according the a visa specialist I have recruited @ $1500 that's about 1000 quid in yours.

Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and Positions

Did you have any problems with your visas ?
I'll read your blogs again.

Regards Louie

Wow Louie !

I rode with Bushman back from Vladivostok last year.

£1000 for a visa agent seems a bit steep to me - maybe £100 but not ten times more. Our itinary was nothing like what we actually planned - you need to make sure that your letter of invitation matches your visa application but there is no need to follow the itiary submitted.

Our visas were straightforward - 6 month multi entry business visas and I know that we only paid around £100 agents fees.

Hi Martin. That was the problem. The inviting company did not list my itinary correctly and I didn't notice because its written in Russian. That and the consul here is renound for denying visas.
Its a right bugger only having 30 days, I'll have to keep moving and forget about seeing the sights or relaxing.
I made similar mistakes with my Ukraine visa(forgot to send the accomodation conformation) but they granted it anyway, no problems and for 6 months.
The actual requirements call for every night accom to be booked and pre paid. I was prepared to do that then ride past every hotel Id booked and stay elsewhere.

That is indeed a crazy sum for a visa agent. And I would say that the problem you encountered is actually rather uncommon, for the simple fact that competent (and very well paid!) visa agents ensure that the itineraries submitted for the visa are the same as your actual itinerary.