Happily, yes! I have contacted their branch of the Ulysses club and just received this reply:

-----Original Message-----
From: Cheryl and David Laing
Sent: Saturday, 1 January 2005 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: Your good health.


Mate, the bottom line is we are riding honda Shadows.
take more than a wave to catch them.
We are well. Missed the disaster by days so that was good. Where we were was completly destroyed so we watch the news reports with a few tears. but for the grace of god go us , and all that.
Wish every one a Happy New Year from us. Cheryl and david.


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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

Good news.

idem
good news,
happy they're alive

Mattias

A huge thank you to all of you being so concerned about us. Our number wasnt up.......we are at the moment in Northern thailand riding the Mae Sot to Pai road. As a lot of you would know, this road is paradise. Total paradise. As we left Samui , as late as siting on the ferry, we made the decision to go to Kanchanaburi instead of Krabbi for Christmas. Sometimes things just work out right.
Cheryl and david.

I worked 2 jobs, 7 days a week for 18 months. One very low paying office job working in IT (but mostly researching the trip and slacking on the programming) and one job hosing monkey shit at a monkey lab. I also sold off most of my stuff. Old punk rock records are worth some $$$.

Only thing I couldn't sell was my Yamaha SR500. Not any major problems with it, but no time to fix it so it's sitting in a garage while the fuel gums up the carb.

I'll run out of money in New Zealand and I'm trying to get a job teaching English in Japan. I put that mostly useless Anthropology degree to work since they don't care what your degree is in, just as long as you have a university degree. So I'll live on credit cards and hopefully will save up enough in Japan to make it through Asia and Europe.

I'll run out of money again, and ring up the credit charges again as I make my way back across the US. Will work my ass off again to get out of debt and plan my next trip. I'm going to get a Vincent Comet and tour the Middle East if Bush doesn't start WW3. And if he does, then down to Argentina and back. I was thinking pre-war Norton which is a complete rip-off from Che but I like old bikes.

--Dave

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Trying to ride (and work) my way round the world on a 1965 Ducati 250cc. Australia, New Zealand and Japan are first. http://nokilli.com/rtw/

I work about 8 or 9 months a year - and live fairly frugally during that time - then take 2 or 3 months off each year to go riding. By doing things that way, I can cope with the expenses (ca. $100 a day) without having to dip into capital. I think of it as a RTW in about 10 stages, 1 stage every year.

I am not surprised that many of the riders who do the really big, really long RTW trips need to dip into capital (house appreciation, stuff like that) to fund the trips. For sure, it can get expensive out there.

Well, I just put my coop up for sale. It's not much but I realized, hey, I could sell my place for a small profit why try renting it out.

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Brooklyn Dakar
http://motorcycleramblings.blogspot.com/

This is probably the most important thread I have seen on this site. It has inspired and frightened me at the same time.
For years now I’ve been collecting overland kit and practicing my mechanical skills on cheap bikes that I restore and sell. I recently purchased a very capable bike, which I currently use to explore my own country and have accumulated about 80% of the gear I think I’ll need.

I’m ashamed to admit it but I seem to lack the guts I need to quit my job and sell off my assets. I’m 32 and still have lots of years left in me – I have no reason to pussy foot…
…except a mortgage, a job, a dog, an apartment full of stuff, and a fiancé…

I’m sure these doubts are completely normal and I simply have to give it more thought. I will visit sites like this until it becomes unbearable and I’m forced to make the paradigm shift you fine folks have already made.

Luckystriker, and everyone, if you're wondering, dreaming, thinking, but not quite there - come to one of the 10 HU Travellers Meetings this year - there's a new one in South Africa this year too.

All the inspiration and opportunity to talk in person to those who've done it - or leaving soon...

See you there!

Grant

Luckystriker...

I happen to think you have a point, but consider what you have spent on the "capable bike" and imagine yourself riding through India on an old Enfield that cost 500 $. Vietnam on a minsk, russia on a ural etc. Sounds like you can use a spanner and this might be the way to resolve your dilema. Start with a small cheapish chunk and move up if the desire is still there.

I know of people who have driving holidays in Europe where the car can't cost more than 100 pounds...sometimes they make it across the continent, othertimes 40 miles from home, but each time it is a bit of an adventure. If the car dies its straight to the tip, the occupants to the pub!

good stories, and no fear of theft!

cheers

alec

Lucky Striker et al,
Deep down the trip is what makes you happy. And the trip was taken on the pretext that from the comforts of our everyday normal lives, we were willing to embrace adversity. Then somehow along the way, the trip became our new everyday normal life and when we returned to our old normal life, things just didn't make sense. The struggle to reconcile the post trip normalcy from the motorcycle trip normalcy is not the adversity we're willing to embrace. The irony is unsettling but its the leit motif one has in their life that helps guide us through these transition periods and focus us.
If not, then I'm rambling and I should take my medication...a cold beer...

Thank you for those comments Grant, simmo and Biram.

I’ll definitely attend the HU meeting in South Africa and meet the congregation.
It will be good to talk to likeminded people – my family and friends just don’t understand. Blah, blah, nag, nag …I sound like a teenager!

Thanks again

Columbus, Gue Vara, Marco Polo, Livingstone, Cook, Magellan,(Mc Greggor!!)ok forget last one.
They were all retarded teens then?
If yes or no, they brought civilization forward with their dreams and obstination.
Just tell them that!
Its one classic comment pfff.

Matt

The mortgage can me dealt with, rent out the house or sell it. The fiance, well, that depends, if she isn't game to go along then you have, shall we say, a situation. Maybe you are the lucky one who has found happiness without traveling around the world.

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Brooklyn Dakar
http://motorcycleramblings.blogspot.com/

It is not a situation until she becomes your wife. Before that it is only a minor irritaion easily dealt with. On the other hand look at it as a test. If she want to go with you, then you have truly found paradise. If not, well at least you found out before it was too late.

Happy decision making.

John