November 20, 2006 GMT - Intro
The aim of my trip is to follow as closely as possible the journey Madame de Bourboulon made in 1862 on horseback between Beijing and Moscow though Mongolia, and to stay wherever she stayed. She was supposedly the first...

November 20, 2006 GMT - Final step
I left Vilnius on October 13th. From Vilnius the train in the summer of 1862 wasn’t going directly to Warsaw yet. But the line had just been opened in March between Vilnius and Kaliningrad, formerly Konigsberg and then a Prussian...

October 12, 2006 GMT - In Europe
That’s where I’ve been since I crossed the Ural Mountains on September 22nd. I had left Tyumen the day before and spent the night in Yekaterinburg in Elia’s apartment, a local biker. This is the city where the czar Nicolas,...

September 18, 2006 GMT - Race against the clock
I went back to Vladivostok to pay a visit to Shustrik and prepare for the rest of my trip across Russia. I had heard about the very bad road between Birobidzhan and Chita and I had no intention of riding...

August 20, 2006 GMT - Welcome back to Russia
After arriving in Ulaanbaatar on July 19th, I visited some travel agencies to find a jeep in order to go back into the Gobi and complete the few stages Madame de Bourboulon had made150 years ago before reaching Urga (presently...

July 22, 2006 GMT - Across Mongolia
I’ve got a new Chinese visa since yesterday and I’m going to be able to go back to China, as soon as I leave Mongolia, to pick up my motorbike at the border near Vladivostok. The plan, after I have...

July 08, 2006 GMT - Going north
The trip is going slowly but surely. I’m making small steps, never more than forty to fifty kilometers a day after leaving Beijing, and a bit more north of Zhangjiakou. I’m trying to respect as much as I can the...

June 25, 2006 GMT - Beijing
After saying farewell to my bike at the Chinese border, I took a bus on June 16th in the morning to Mudanjiang, 150 km from Suifenhe, to board the night train to Beijing in the afternoon. The road was in...

June 18, 2006 GMT - Entering China
The problem on the bike wasn’t serious. Shustrik fixed it in no time. We even replaced my battery with a new Chinese one. The weather in Vladivostok was awful during the ten days I remained there. After asking around during...

June 08, 2006 GMT - Vladivostok
I left Iwataki on June 1st at around nine and rode my motorbike all the way to Takaoka where I arrived seven hours later. I met the representative of FKK who was very helpful. He told me that I could...