First why don’t we take the bike in south-east asia. The reasons are two-fold. The first one is the cost of transport, we would have to fly the bike from Kathmandu to Bangkok and then again from Bangkok to Bucharest which would be quite expensive. The sea-shipping from Kathmandu is much cheaper.
The second reason is that Vietnam doesn’t allow big motorcycles (more then 200cubic cm) on its territory. As we want to make a tour (Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam-Laos-Thailand) we can’t really leave the bike anywhere and come back to pick it up.

The bike performed admirably throughout the 17.800 km of the trip. The damage to the bike is pretty minimal: the left rear view mirror was broken in an encounter with a van in Iran but I managed to buy a (second-hand!) iranian honda mirror that fits, the lid of the right-hand pannier had a dent from a truck on the Manali-Leh road, and the bottom of the same pannier is dented from a fall in Rajastan. All this incidents took place at very slow speed or even standing still

Apart from the fuel pump which left us stranded on the side of the road twice, we had effectively 0 problems with the bike. This was probably due to a bad case of beginner’s luck as we didn’t even had a flat tyre the whole way…

If you think of doing the same trip with same enormous amount of luggage (and two-up) it would be a good idea to change the rear spring to a stiffer one. The stock spring is much too soft for such a load and you lose a lot of suspension travel due to sagging. A high performance shock is not strictly necessary (although is certainly nice if you can afford it). If you decide to keep the stock spring try to distribute some of the load to the front of the bike. We had all the weight on the rear and the front was very light and prone to wobbling.

A long-range fuel tank is both very expensive and un-needed. We had a 6 litre jerry-can (less then 10Euro), and we only used in Baluchistan and in the Himalayas. Even there we could have managed without it, as there were people selling fuel from jerry-cans on the side of the road.

The Metzeler Tourances performed admirably, the back tyre is squared after the trip due to the load, but the front is still in very good shape. They are not off-road tires by any means so on the sandy and muddy parts you have to be careful but they have decent grip in the wet and are very hard to wear down. A good choice if you decide not to carry spare tyres.
The panniers performed reasonably well (although I still thing they are a bit flimsy). They are rated for 10kg each and we carried almost double…

One of the things that you might want to consider is an alarm. I’ve installed a cheap car alarm with a pager. It has a shock sensor, a leaning sensor (set to engage when the bike is taken off the side-stand) and a trunk-opening sensor wired to the seat. The alarm is installed in the toolbox under the seat. Also a bike cover is a must have especially in India.

we kept records about our spending, this will be detailed in another post.

One question that is likely to be in you mind if you read this contemplating a similar trip is “How difficult is it ?” . While difficulty is a relative thing so my assessment doesn’t really help, it is almost certainly that you will find the trip easier that you think. Once you are on the road you solve the problems as they arise and you don’t have much time to worry about it. There were some tricky parts (baluchistan etc) but they aren’t as daunting as they look from back home.

This being said, expect some very long days when things don’t go as planned and you are quite stressed (our worst day was between Sukkur and Multan), but after you get through them they don’t affect your trip too much. There is so much beauty and excitement along the way that the difficulties that you encounter are comparatively too small to matter.

Before we left there was much discussion among our friends if it’s wise to leave with a single bike. It’s quite clear that with a larger party some of the problems are easier to be dealt with, but it also causes additional ones. If you decide to go in a larger group be sure that you really know (and really like) your travel companions. We were lucky to met very nice people on our way and we went together for a while, but it’s a big difference between riding together for few days and riding together for 6 months, if you choose your companions poorly you will compromise your whole trip.

We are quite happy with going alone, we managed to get over the hard parts by ourselves and I think it added to the feeling of freedom and unburden inherent in this trip.

After almost 4 months and 18.000km we are convinced that riding is the best way to travel and hope we will be able to repeat this trip.

Without any real connection , I add some pictures from our second forced stop. Repairing the fuel pump in Madhya Pradesh with some 20-30 spectators.

The mountains are quite wild with a few scattered villages and a very heavy military presence.

Dogubayazit it’s a dusty little town with more soldiers than inhabitants. The views of mount Ararat are wonderful and the Ishakpasa Palace is really stunning.

– un imens oras subteran construit pe malul Tigrului

– 2 palate

– biserici bizantine sapate in stinca

– asezari troglodite care sunt inca locuite

etc,etc

Este atit de frumos incit ar fi trebuit probabil sa aiba un capitol separat . Satul va fi inundat din cauza unui baraj care se va construi pe Tigru, asa ca totul este in paragina nimic nu se repara, nimic nu se construieste.

Atmosfera e una de oras pierdut, uitat de istorie, care tocmai a fost redescoperit, nu exista nici o amenajare turistica. Multe dintre ruine sunt prabusite, sunt pereti intregi de stinca care au cazut (puteti vedea in poze scari interioare, camere etc).
In sat era un singur motel cu 20 de locuri care era plin. Din fericire aveam un numar de telefon al unui ghid (de la Susan cu care ne-am intilnit in Sanliurfa). Pina la urma am stat in gazda la ghid (am dormit pe acoperisul casei).

Oamenii din sat vorbesc kurda,turca si araba. De multe ori le amesteca intrebarea e in kurda si raspunsul in araba.

Am luat cina pe malul Tigrului, intr-o terasa scufundata.

Ca sa il citez pe ghid “Hassankyef is too much beautiful” 

Pun pozele de-a valma, faceti voi click unde vreti:

Built on a hill overlooking the mesopotamian plain it has the most beautiful post office in Turkey, built in an old caravanserai.

and also an 13th century medrese

We took a stroll through the old town which is built in the arabic way.

The mosques and medreses complex is very beautiful.

Urfa was the first town in Turkey were we did not feel really welcome. The children would approach you and would scream “Hello, what’s your name”, but not in a friendly manner. They were trying to annoy you.

Also we took a stroll in some smaller streets looking for  a mosque and a child threw something at us, hitting me.  If you go to Urfabe careful.

We stayed in a small “pensionu”, which was located in a traditional house. We had a very pleasant evening with 3 brits, 2 ausies, 1  french and a bottle of raki

ajunsi si cazati in karadut, am descarcat bagajele, ne-am dezmortit un pic, nu spun ce, si am plecat sa vedem apusul sus pe munte. Dimineatza am facut ochi devreme …pe la 4 sa vedem sı rasaritul. Sint 2 temple sus, unul spre vest si unul spre est si in yenıkale e o fortareata pe un virf de munte.

yenıkale

gata,pa

We took the second route (naturally)
The first 70km are on a nice winding mountain road (resembling Transfagarasan).

In Turkey thy love to cover the roads with small pebbles (criblura ? cum se spune in engleza?), this can be a real hazard sometimes.
This road was freshly covered with 2-3cm of this pebbles.

On a steep uphill hairpin, with the Africa Twin fully loaded (2 people, 60kilos of luggage), the front wheel is so light that you are lucky to get any traction even without the damn pebbles

Anyway, after some 80km, the tarmac stops, and you get on a fire road going right under the Nemrut peak

Ioana was busy taking photos:

Highest elevation (according to my new ultra high tech watch) 1650m

We met different kind of steeds on this road.

In the morning we left at 6 o’clock to go to Divrigi.

Divrigi has a little 13th century mosque and hospital. Lonely Planet describes it as Turkey’s least visited monument (although is a UNESCO World Heritage site). It is really out of the way in between Sivas and Malatya some 90km from the main road, and after a 1950m mountain pass.

The plan was to start from Sorgun and an stop in Divrigi for the night after 350km.
The mosque and the hospital (a mental hospital built in 1200 ), are simply breath-taking. You really can’t tell from the pictures, you have to there yourself.

The problem was that the hotels in Divrigi were beyond awful , even worse than the Sorgun thing. We decided to go to Malatya to have a decent night’s sleep.
So we ended up with a 610km day.

As a sidenote/rant, The turkish hotel industry is a lot like the romanian industry in some ways. There are lots of old, state-owned hotels, which are awfull, dirty and overpriced.
If you are in a tourist area you can find small private-owned hotels which are reasonably priced and clean. But if you are in a small town out of the main tourist path…you are in  bad position.

 
 
Dupa care am trecut pe la Gordion, adica pe la aia cu nodu’ gordian. Nu am mai gasit nodul (cica  il taiase cineva), dar l-am gasit pe Midas. Exact, Midas ala cu aurul, dar cred ca e o greseala pe undeva pt ca nu era impachetat in aur ci in pamint.
Mult pamint:
 
movila are 70m inaltime si 300m diametru si e mormintul lui Midas

In final a trebuit sa dormim in Ankara, pt ca in Gordion (actualul Yassihoyuk) nu e nici un hotel.
Ankara e la fel de urita si la a doua vizita ca si la prima