Starting out from Vladivostok
Hello everyone,
I have been dormant on the forums for some time and lurking more recently, but I am popping up again as I am finally in Vladivostok, getting ready for the “big one”, crossing Siberia, into Mongolia and then Central Asia. I don’t have an specific itinerary, as I find they go out the window pretty quickly, just a general direction and a time limit: end of September.
I say “getting ready” but I’m really waiting for my KLR to arrive from Cambodia, with the usual shipping complications and delays; apparently my motorbike is arriving at a different “fishing” port, and it’s going to cost more the expected :-/
But I hope to get rolling within a week. I feel like all my previous trips have contributed to this one some way or another to finally decide to tackle this one. I just wanted to say that this forum has been an immense resource to get information that is so hard to find, you guys are amazing! I plan to try and contribute my experiences to the collective knowledge so that others will hopefully follow their dreams on a motorcycle. I know without this forum, I may not have pulled the trigger on this one.
I’ve read a bunch of posts on this forum regarding route planning and advice, including Colebatch’s amazing waypoints (Czesc!) and the recent Kyrgyzstan thread that is really good. I’ll keep searching back in the Northern Asia thread for additional info for my route, but if you guys can point me to any “gems”(especially in my direction) that would be much appreciated.
Right now I’m concentrating on the first leg of the journey - Vlad to Ulan-Ude. I haven’t seen much on interesting points along that route - is it just a bunch of highway to get out of the way, or is there something that I shouldn’t miss? I’m solo at the moment, and my off-road skills are “average”, so I don’t think I’m going to tackle anything like the Old Summer Road or BAM, but I am on a KLR so I think it can hold it’s own and I’ll get more skilled over time. If someone can point me to a thread, I will gladly read it.
And if you have read this far and happen to be in the area, going my direction or the opposite way, let me know. I have a Spot so you can see my location, would be great to meet up for a lunch or a ride sometime.
Again, thanks for being such a great, supportive group from all over the world. I’ve been in IT and on the internet for a long time, and this reminds me of the original promise and potential of the internet, where like-minded people could connect, support each other, make the world seem a lot smaller and less intimidating.
Cheers, and wish me luck,
Dominik.
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