jeudi 9 août 2012

Aug 3- 7 from Baikal- Siberia to Far East Russia

After an agitated night , bothered by drunk Russian militaries ..
We start for the far east and it's 5000 km to Vladivostok
An endless forest landscape, ondulating , with less and less population.
On 3rd we covers 600 km with roads in very bad conditions. Petrol stations are spaced of more than 300 km.we stop for a coffee by the road and we arrive in the middle of a wedding party- the interesting snapshot of the day is all the people around the bike and singing Kaline kaka line ... With an accordion
We have to take some zakouski and a small glass of vodka before hitting the road.
we stop by night just after Chita - the last city of the no mans land of 2500 km, completely empty.
A general Advice is not to stay by night in the stretch as they are serious security problems .
So we spend the night in a kind of gulag ... Hotel sleeping 3 in a 8 sqm bungalow that is almost completely collapsed - and of course with aggresives Mosquitos.
Ou neighbors are extremely nice and cooks pasta for us, as it is late. A family with 2 kids of a certain level , as the man is a bank branch director driving a brand new Lexus.
Strange that they are in this crap place, probably an old vacation camp from soviets time - but completely destroyed. But they is absolutely not any hotel or place to spend vacation but that stuff for thousands of kilometers around !

on 4th after 600 km of big nothing
Night in a "gastiniza' kind of guesthouse, very simple with no luxury at all.
The small village, 50 km away from the main road is linked by a bad gravel road., is like out of ages. With an old broken factory that doesn't work any more - probably since the end of the soviets time, like everywhere in the region..
On 5th we carry on east for another 700 km of Siberia- still the same landscape but , since Chita city - we are like in a kind of No-man's land where petrol stations and anymore facility disappeared - replaced by old manual pumps, here is another Russia , much poorer than what I saw so far.
People are very rude and over friendly often, almost brutal.
We learned that there were people traveling with motorcycles assassinated in their tents during the night in this area, so we decided not at all to stop around here and to carry on. This is definitely a dangerous place and drunk Russian by night are not at all a good encounters.
Lack of petrol again , and we need to use the jerrycans for my Italians friends as they have not enough range to link between 2 petrol station.
We meet akira, a Japanese biker who goes back to his home country, he join us for safety. He rides a xr650 Honda , and seems not experimented as well, but really funny. When I show him how to kick start his bike properly at first trial, we hear funnies hoooooo, haaaaaa, from him as he struggled for a month to start his bike by the wrong way! It is the snapshot of the day ! Like a cartoon! He rides a Moto guzzi in Japan
So a Japanese man, who rides a Italian bike and a Frenchy who show him how to start his Honda.... It is absolutely an hilarious situation .
I made have 20,000km on my odometer since I left in may
Stop for the night in another gasteniza , sleeping 4 in a smelly bedroom, (including akira)noisy with trucks and permanent movement
On 6th another 700 km, crossing another dangerous area, with new comments about security, more precise, - people get killed here, and killed for nothing , not even for robbery , just by drunk people . So definitly no stop there, and the ambience in villages we cross is a bit like in the movie "deliverance". With ugly and weird people not welcoming at all .
2 Russian Ktm bikers going to Mongolia cross our way- some chat with them - in limited English and one is very fat and his poor bike should suffer like hell
He wears flashy clothes that make the character really funny .. But definitly a friendly guy
Arriving almost at night at a place where is supposed to be a gasteniza - the first one after 700 km - this one is full! Not good!
By chance, a biker pass by, (the 2d today - after none the last 3000 km)and show us the way to a small hotel in the city close by- dinner with us and he confirmed the scary stories about murders that looks like a national sport in the area..
Good Not to be out in the forest at night around here.

I. Have to decide soon what to do ,as I don't have any ticket to go from Vladivostok to korea, which was my initial plan , and I don't have all the papers to go to Japan thru sakhaline island as well..- but keeping going with my new gang looks a safe option

I like more the 2 d plan now and will try to make it-
I ve to ride a bad 500 km piste to the japan sea and then take a ferry that links sakhaline island to the continent for a 20 hr trip. But not idea of the schedule.
Then , a 600 km thru the island to another harbor , south , where nuclear missiles were pointed towards japan during tthe cold war, and to catch up the ferry to Japan , it seems there is one once a week and after the 5 hr crossing , to manage to bring the bike in Japan without the proper papers improvising - and at the end find a shipping company who will send the bike back to Europe.

I don't have bookings, papers , but I think it is possible - as I don't really see other options by Korea - there is no boat available before end of August.
So let's see.
Anyway shakaline looks stunning with pristine nature brown bears everywhere - I look forward to camp again in the bush. If I do care of human beings and their unpredictable reactions and dangers - I definitely prefers wildlife dangers , that I can manage and predict more easily, I get use to that in Africa

On aug 7 we head to Khabarovsk , another 700 km, since baikal, the weather is hot and humid like hell with a 30-35 celsius and over 70%humidity all the time, making the ride exhausting. A stop in a roadside restaurant and the visit of Jehovah witnesses and just after, of christian missionaries trying to do something with us..
Roberto play the catholic, Mateo the Muslims with the coran in his baggage, our Japanese a Buddhist and I do the Protestant.... A bit too much for the guys - funny time
Arriving to Khabarovsk, the first big city for almost 3000 km, and we approach the beautiful Amur river, border with china.
Nice city with people smiling definitely more than on that endless road.
We meet 2 italians journalists, only foreign people since Ulan Bataar.
Like everywhere around, no foreigners here, and we are a curiosity..we reached another part of Russia now, completely different.

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