June 05, 2011 GMT - Cambodia 16 January to 6 February 2011
$2 came the surly demand at the Laos border post before they would stamp our passports. $2 was the jovial demand at the quarantine post (a tent) just inside Cambodia where our temperatures were taken. And $2 to get our...
February 03, 2011 GMT - Lao PDR 21 December 2010 to 15 January 2011
Baguettes and Bombs. You could sum up Laos (or rather the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao) with these two words, perhaps inadequately, but it’s a start. We can thank the French for the baguettes and the first utterly delicious bread...
January 17, 2011 GMT - Thailand 17 November to 21 December 2010
The year is 2553 in the Buddhist Calendar used in South East Asia. We are riding on the left, because the current king Bhumibol Adulyadej was partly educated in England, and learned to drive there, so he decreed that Thailand...
December 16, 2010 GMT - Malaysia 8 October to 17 November 2010 (Part 2)
We arrived back in KL to join the Tourist Board/WTR Magazine FAM trip. We used our own bikes: we did warn them they are not as fast as KTM950's or BMW1200's, so they gave us our own escort of two...
December 16, 2010 GMT - Malaysia 19 August to 7 October 2010 (part 1)
This blog was started by Pat in honour of the fact that her mum was born in Malaysia and her granddad spent several years out here building railways and bridges in the early part of the 20th century. It has...
September 23, 2010 GMT - Korea 2 July-4 August 2010
You are never alone in South Korea – the Koreans have to be one of the friendliest, most hospitable people on earth. Not many travellers spend time in this truncated half of a country with its lunatic nuclear-armed brother to...
August 12, 2010 GMT - Japan 5 April to 1 July 2010 (Part 2)
Base camp for the first three weeks was Tokyo with our great friend Yuko Sugeta who used to head up WIMA Japan (Womens International Motorcycle Association)....
August 11, 2010 GMT - Japan 5 April to 1 July 2010 (Part 1)
May 29, 2010 GMT - USA - 11 March to 4 April 2010
We had planned to cross the Mexican US border at Tecate rather than Tijuana, so our planned route up through the mountains was somewhat scuppered....
May 29, 2010 GMT - Mexico Part 2
Back to reality and heading north over more mountains, we got to Zacatecas which was very full. Nightmare finding somewhere to stay, but we eventually defeated the one way system and ended up at the delightful Hostel de los Gallos...
May 25, 2010 GMT - Mexico Part 1
Mexico is a large country.....Part 1, 25 January to 11 February 2010 What do you think of when you hear the word Mexico? With all the negative publicity about the drug wars and illegal immigrants, chances are it's pretty negative...
April 21, 2010 GMT - Guatemala 9-25 January 2010
We were feeling pretty spooked when we went into Guatemala. Everybody we'd met so far regaled us with tales of violence. Checking it out on the internet only added to our concern. The US government website lists in detail over...
April 21, 2010 GMT - Honduras and El Salvador - 4 to 9 January 2010
We exited Nicaragua, imported the bikes into Honduras, raced across the south of Honduras in about four hours and exported the bikes from there into El Salvador. We were very sorry to do this as the country looks very interesting,...
April 20, 2010 GMT - Nicaragua 22 December 2009 to 5 January 2010
"Licencia, licencia, licencia" demanded the motorcycle cop who'd whistled us to a stop on the outskirts of the capital city Managua. Our crime was apparently to cross over an imaginary line on a deserted roundabout on a Sunday morning. I...
March 03, 2010 GMT - Costa Rica 15-22 December 2009
Central American border crossings are notorious for the amount of bureaucracy (necessary and imaginary) involved. For some reason all border officials are obsessed with the need for copies of everything - you need photocopies of your passport, temporary importation document...
February 19, 2010 GMT - Panama 29 November to 15 December 2009
"Is there a lot of snow in Ukraine?", asks the policeman in Spanish at the roadblock on the Pan-American. I look at him blankly and his colleague asks "What's the capital of Ukraine?" I go even more blank and the...
