I'M BACK !!

Back home in Oz, that is ! And I must say it is great to be back safely in one piece, amongst family & friends who I have missed these last 5 months. There were times when I wondered whether I would ever get back at all. For quite a while I have been replaying the trip in my head, just contemplating what has been achieved. I have just re-read Brian & Shirley Rix's book "Two for The Road", and it now takes on a whole new meaning. We went to a lot of the places mentioned in their book, and it is interesting to compare notes. We don't always come to the same conclusions, but in many instances I now had clear images of my own, and I savoured the re-run.


So, what conclusions have I come to, and how do I rate different parts of the trip? Well, let's try each country, one at a time.
SINGAPORE:
The popular images of Singapore, the"shopfront" if you will, are the snazzy retail precincts, the fancy hotels, the great roads, the manicured gardens, and yes, it is impressive. We stayed in the parts they don't promote, and got somewhat of a reality check, but I loved it. We should not have shipped the bikes here, because there is simply too much red tape involved in clearing Customs & getting all the authorisations to use the roads. We were told that in the first place, but did it anyway. D'oh.

MALAYSIA:
Overall, I was very impressed with Malaysia. For a start, it is making rapid progress on many fronts. The standard of living is being improved all the time, through education, technology, and infrastructure. I also get the impression that there is tolerance & respect for diversity. That people generally understand that just because you happen to be a Muslim, you don't have to live in a cave & kill everyone who is not a Muslim. (Pakistan, please take note!!). There is also a great road network, petrol is cheap, and the food is excellent!
Highlights. The chance meeting with the local BMW owners group in Penang. A terrific bunch of people and an awsome group ride up to Thailand.

THAILAND:
Our time in Thailand was marred to a fair extent by the problems I was having with my bike. This ultimately lead to us not having enough time to visit Cambodia as originally planned. Nevertheless, Phuket Bike Week was really something, and I would have liked to watch the Songkran aquatic festivities from a safe distance, rather than as an unwilling participant! So I got a bit wet- so what?
Highlights. First, an excellent ride from Phuket up to Bangkok. Second, the taxi driver who burned out his clutch trying to find our hotel- serves him right for taking us through half the backstreets in Bangkok.

NEPAL:
Our first taste of culture shock. Nepal is India's poor cousin in many ways. Kathmandu is overcrowded & very polluted, but nobody appears to be doing anything about rectifying it. I can well imagine that the first Europeans to stumble into the region would have found it very exotic, & the 600 year old temples around Durbar Square in Patan are wonderful.
Highlights. Sitting in a bar next to one of the main roundabouts in Kathmandu every night, being hilariously entertained by just watching the traffic. Then there was the tout outside the hotel who asked me to buy the same tatty stuff every time I walked out for over a week- gold medal for perseverence & resilience to abuse for him. Walking down the street in Chitwan, trying not to upset all the elephants. The British Gurkha museum in Pokhara is a must.
Lowlights. Picking up a severe stomach bug after eating in a silver service restaurant. Not being able to see any of the Himalayas because of the air pollution. Colliding with the goat goes without saying.

INDIA:
Well, it would be so easy to just slag off about what a dump this place is, but I will try to be more objective. India is very different. Most people would be aware of the overpopulation, the pollution, the poverty , the disease, all that stuff. On top of all that, I found that it is totally disorganised to the point of chaos, everything is a hassle, you get no personal space, everyone wants to take your money, and the traffic is appalling & very dangerous for motorcycles. The heat was stifling & the stench was abominable. But it is cheap! And in its own way, it is an interesting place.
Highlights. The Taj Mahal , no doubt about that. To be fair, we did stay in some excellent hotels, with very helpful & courteous staff. We had a narrow escape from the bombs that killed 80 or so people in Jaipur. A day earlier, we had been in the same street for several hours. A sobering experience indeed.
In Bikaner, we were befriended by a bloke who we thought at first was just another tout, but he ended up taking us to look at the old part of the city, and to a Hindu temple which was closed to the public. We would never have seen these places on our own, and he did not ask for any money, or attempt to take us to his cousin's carpet shop, etc.
Even the one & only time we got genuinely lost (leaving Kanpur) was an interesting experience. I still have no idea where we actually went, but I'm guessing we were the first tourists to ever visit several villages.

PAKISTAN:
A bit of a surprise packet, really. We were expecting it to be worse than India in just about every sense, but reckon it was actually an improvement. Of course, it has to be considered in parts, really. Some parts are as grotty as India for sure, and the security situation meant some parts were out of bounds altogether. Even some parts we were allowed to go were scary. The big problem for Pakistan is getting the tribal areas under control, and then educating the population. If schooling is left to fanatical religious clerics, it will take generations to weed out the lunatics, if it can be done at all. We have seen what can be achieved in some of the more populated areas, and that is encouraging.
Highlights.
The Karakoram Highway, and the Hunza Valley were outstanding, & not just for the scenery. We met some wonderful, friendly & generous people along the way. We were accorded unconditional hospitality in some of the most unlikely regions. I recall leaving Dalbandin, when we were both in pretty poor shape. A little old bloke came up & gave me a cold bottle of water, & flatly refused any money from me. We had other people go well out of their way to help us, particularly in DG Khan. These events were quite humbling, & really are moments to treasure. I hope in some small way that we were able to act as goodwill ambassadors for Australia.
Lowlights.
The perennial roadworks, high temperatures & lack of facilities made Baluchistan the toughest part of the trip, spiced up with a little bit of possible danger from the Taliban. Would not have missed it for quids!

IRAN:
This was always going to be a trip into the unknown. The hassle in getting the visas suggested that things may be difficult, and some of the struggle with beaurocracy was difficult. Organising access to funds, changing money & getting fuel were hassles. The punishing temperatures in the east of the country were demanding. We had no insurance cover for the bikes, so there was a big risk there. The military escorts were welcome, but nonetheless a little scary. But once things settled down, we started to enjoy the place, although we found the food fairly plain. I don't want to get into the politics, but at the time of our visit, I was unaware that in 1953 the CIA & Britain engineered a coup which booted out the elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh & installed the Shah. It pays to do some research. Little wonder there is deep resentment & mistrust of the west, at the official level anyway. It could have been a lot different. Anyway, we found all the people we met to be exceptionally friendly & hospitable. I hope that their government does not fail its citizens.

Highlights.

Very interesting cultural & historical sites. Not to mention cheap petrol, excellent roads, & my discovery of sour cherry juice! (I'd like to try it with Bundy). The pastries & confectionery were not bad either.

TURKEY:

Again, a country I was looking forward to, and I was not disappointed. The east of the country is mostly off the tourist radar and is fairly rustic, and there are some security issues with Kurdish separatists. The rapid development of the coastline to cash in on the package tourist trade might be good for the economy, but that's about all. It will probably end up going the way of Spain & the Greek Islands, so visit before it gets buggered up completely.

Highlights.

There were many, but visiting the Gallipoli Peninsula was probably the most significant for me. Goreme was bizzare but very intriguing, while all the places we stopped at along the coast were a knockout. The riding along the coast to Silifke was as good as the Great Ocean Rd, only with less guardrail & more mosques!

Lowlights.

Petrol at $3.60/litre. Substandard road surfaces in much of the country, lots of loose gravel & slick bitumen. Turkish keyboards in the internet cafes take some getting used to.

GREECE:

My first visit to Europe since 1977. The European Union has meant a lot of changes, its virtually one big country now, with a common currency & unrestricted movement within its borders. I enjoyed our run around the coast, & down to the Peloponese. Athens has probably gotten worse, its overcrowded, polluted & still hard to get around, but the underground railway is good.

ITALY:

Again, all the areas we visited were new to me. From a tourist point of view, I found the south to be very relaxed & the north to be very attractive. Great food & a great lifestyle.

SWITZERLAND:

Just about perfect I reckon, at least while we were there. Not sure if I could hack the Winters though. Fantastic to catch up with Ivo & Jacqueline, and a pity we could not stay longer.


FRANCE:
A quick dash, but no complaints at all. Its all there.


ENGLAND:
Had to break out the wet weather gear as soon as we got there, and then the warm clothes. We only got a couple of days when we could get out to ride around the countryside, & it was supposed to be Summer! However, it was indeed good to renew my acquaintance with the green & pleasant land generally, and the English pubs specifically. The food has gotten a lot better, but the traffic has gotten a lot worse, but you could say the same about Adelaide. Look, I really like the Poms, but its those white buggers I have trouble with.
Had a lot of time to browse around the bike shops, and made a few good value purchases. The Hein Gericke brand of riding apparel looks to be excellent - I don't think it is available in Australia- so we both lashed out there.
Ok thats it, thanks for watching. Until next time - South America beckons!!!

Regards, Mike Green.

ASSORTED PHOTOS:

Funeral Ghats, Kathmandu

The plaque outside the Gurkah Museum, Pokhara, Nepal.

Dust storm, Rajasthan, India

Snake charmers, Jaipur. (Stand well back & throw the money!!)










Hey, you. Yes, you. What are you looking at??

A bunch of galahs at the closing ceremony, Wagah border crossing, between India & Pakistan.

Same place, next day, looking towards Pakistan (not without some trepidation!)

Karakoram Highway, Pakistan

Part of the old Silk Road, Karakoram Highway

Police checkpoint, between Islamabad & Mianwali, Pakistan. Smiles all round!

The road to Lorelai, Pakistan. Behind the truck another is bogged in a creek. We got through ok, but had to wear some mud.

Lorelai Police compound, see what I mean.

The highway east of Lorelai, dry but soft in places.

The main street of Dalbandin, western Pakistan, from the VIP room of our hotel.

Sand drift over the road, between Dalbandin & Taftan, Pakistan.

Police escort, between Zahedan & Bam, eastern Iran

Roadside stops, Iran

Roadside mosque, Iran

View of the snow peaked Mt. Ararat (on the Turkish- Armenian border) taken from Iran.

The bizarre "fairy chimneys" of Goreme, central Turkey.

The not quite so bizarre Trulli Houses, Alberobello, Puglia, Italy.

THERE IS NOW A BIG GAP TILL THE REST OF THE BLOG. KEEP SCROLLING DOWN!

GREECE TO ENGLAND

Hello Again Readers! Some of you have been wondering what we have been up to. Thank you for your concern, but I am happy to report that all is well. I will admit to being slack. I will put some photos up soon, but here is the continuing story. We crossed into Greece near Alexandropouli, named after guess who, quite uneventfully. The Greeks wanted to see the Carnet but didn't stamp it, & also asked for the International Drivers Licence (for the first time) & Green Card for insurance. That was it, we filled up & we were gone. After about 30 minutes on the motorway we were passed by two guys on sports bikes, doing about 180-200kph, one wearing shorts showing about 2 inches of bum crack. This is different, we thought. We had hardly seen any other big bikes since Singapore, and not much bum crack either, fortunately.

That was about to change. From Alexandropouli, down to Larisa, then to Athens, there were bikes everywhere. Unlike Australia, the preference seems to be for big twins like the Suzuki V-Strom, Honda Varadero, Africa Twin & Transalp, Yamaha TD900, and lots of the supermotard type of bike. Oh yes, & lots of KTM's & Ducatis. Every time the lights change, it is race time!

The ride down to Athens was routine, but quite scenic along sections of the coast, and every so often some nice fast bendy sections to switch the brain back on. But I must remember to watch the left hand mirror, some of the traffic just screams past out of nowhere. Athens itself is huge, & quite hard to navigate. We got lost for about an hour, trying to find our hotel. An Aussie guy from Melbourne (where else?) stopped to chat when he saw the Aussie numberplates, & helped us out.

Greece is ultra touristy, espacially the islands. So the plan was always to go down to the south of Greece, the Peloponese, and look for small fishing villages to stay in, to avoid the crowds. We moved down to Nafplio, which I had never heard of, but it was actually the first capital of a united Greece, and a very interesting place. Very popular with Greeks as a holiday destination. A great castle on top of a hill overlooking the town & coastline, plus all the usual waterfront cafes & bars, but without the rip off tourist prices. From there we headed for Kalamata. We found some interesting roads through the mountains. Consider 180 degree hairpin bends, one after another, with a steep gradient thrown in for good measure. This was a first for me, as there are not too many first gear corners near Adelaide!! We didn't particularly like Kalamata, it was a bit industrial, and the esplanade was a constant torrent of super motard engines screaming in the bottom gears. So we headed for Pylos, which was far better & quieter. I must be getting old!! Anyway, there were bushfires somewhere on the peninsula, and from the waterfront we were able to watch the tanker planes reloading with seawater to dump on the fires. From there up to Kilini, and then on to Patra, where we caught the overnight ferry to Brindisi, Italy.

We had arranged to stay with Gill & Mike, friends of Chris's from England, who have a holiday house at nearby Ostuni. This turned into a very enjoyable if hectic week. We were able to do a lot of riding to nearby towns, often stopping for a meal, some sightseeing, swimming, or just for coffee. We ate too much & we drank too much. Tough work, but it had to be done! We loved Ostuni, and appreciated the hospitality of our very generous hosts. When it was time to leave, we headed for Switzerland to visit Ivo & Jacqueline, who had just finished their 3 year round the world odyssey. This was a long way from the south of Italy, so we headed for the motorway, & resigned ourselves to some long & possibly boring stretches on the bikes. The monotony was regularly interrupted by some very expensive hardware boring past in the fast lane. The most memorable was a black Lambourghini which merged from a side lane. Chris opened up just enough throttle to goad the driver, & so he floored it & virtually disappeared! I must admit to never hearing an exhaust note quite like it (jets excluded), it rattled my eyeballs. We also noted some Ferraris, and plenty of German machinery as well. The motorways are good, but they are expensive- in two days we forked over about $60 in fees, and petrol sells for about $2.50 per litre. It was interesting to see the countryside gradually change from the rocky and dry south, with its white houses & olive trees to the fertile pasture land in the centre, through to the more industrial areas in the north (not that we saw the real industrial centres).

We had overnight stops in Ancona & Bergamo, both lovely towns with splendid architecture, before reaching the Lake Como area. The scenery here was quite spectacular, and its really is a beautiful part of the world-with prices to match. But we didn't hang around & we crossed into Switzerland, after spending €30 on a Swiss motorway pass which nobody even looked at. We headed into the mountains aiming for the San Bernadino Pass, but missed it & ended up in the alternative tunnel instead. Never mind, it was still a great ride. One thing about Italian & Swiss tunnels is the weird feeling I get, its like you are actually inside some bizzare video game! Many of the tunnels have curves and a lot have two way traffic, so to have a truck coming at you while negotiating a bend inside dark noisy tunnel with all kinds of flashing lights whizzing past is a new experience for me, and one I did not get completely used to.

Swizerland is a wonderfully clean and ordered place which, as well as having great scenery, really appeals to me. It was a very pleasant ride through to Winterthur, where we caught up with Ivo & Jacqueline, friends I had not seen for two years since they departed SA to continue their marathon round the world trip on their R80GS. We had lots of notes to compare, and it was great to be able to reminisce over the highs & lows of India, Pakistan & Iran. We were even able to conclude that we actually stayed in the same room as they did in the Fleapit Arms Hotel in Dalbandin! (well, there's not a lot of choice). We were able to get out for a ride in the area around Winterthur, and went up to the Rhine Falls & Lake Constanz. This involved a brief entry into Germany, where a couple of bored border guards on a backroad looked at Ivo's Swiss numberplate, asked if we were all together, and then waved us through, only to see the strange Aussie numberplates disappearing rapidly. No passports or carnets required there! And Ivo is a hard man keep up with on his home turf, he kept leaving us way behind. It was most unfortunate that we could not stay longer in Winterthur, but time was tight & we had to push on to the UK.

That meant France, so we headed off to the west on the motorways, going to Basle, and crossing into France in the Alsace region of the north east. Again, another teriffic cultural & scenic experience, with vineyards everywhere. We stopped for lunch at a cafe in the hills, and noticed a nearby intersection with bikes coming & going in all directions- this was obviously prime bike territory. We were not disappointed on the run down to St Die des Vognes, where we stayed the night. Next day we headed for Riems, home to a wonderful cathederal which we had a look at, then headed to Calais. I had not been to the north/east of France before, and it was interesting to note all the road signs carrying familiar names of the World War 1 battlefields, & to see all the memorials and cemeteries. Once again, it was hard to reconcile the beautiful rural landscapes before us with those familiar WW1 images of total devastation in this part of the country.

We chose to use the Channel Tunnel for the crossing to England. Ride the bikes straight into the train carriage in Calais, and ride them out at Folkestone 35 minutes later. It could not have been easier. However, this is England, and dark clouds loomed above! It started to rain shortly after we got onto the motorway. And the M25 is not known as the world's biggest car park for nothing. Traffic was backed up for miles. We were either splitting lanes or wondering what was up ahead in the spray. We arrived at our final destination, Chris's mum's place in Solihull, just near Birmingham, cold and very wet. I am sure that his 4 hour ordeal was God's way of telling us that you cannot expect to ride halfway round the world on a motorcycle & not get wet, even if it is the last days of a 5 month, 18,500 km journey.

That's just about it from me, but I will put up some more photos, and anything else of interest in the next week or two. Thanks for following the story, it has been a great experience for me, and also great to know that friends were concerned for our welfare, especially during the tough times. I also hope that fellow bikers found the whole thing interesting. And a big thank you to those of you who took the trouble to post a comment, I really appreciate it.

Would I do it again? Too right I would! Could I do it again? Hmmmm!

Back in Adelaide soon.

TROY & GALLIPOLI

On the way up from Foçe, we followed the coast for about 50km, fabulous vıews, & many beautıful secluded beaches. Then we took the motorway north & headed for Çannakkale. One major problem İ have notıced wıth Turkısh roads ıs thıs. On the spray sealed sectıons, the bıtumen has bled up through the stone wearıng course, particularly on the wheel tracks, & formed a smooth slıck on the surface. In hot weather (ıe now) thıs softens ın the heat, to the point where you can actually see the tyre prints in ıt. Go ınto a corner too hard & the whole surface could just gıve way. In the wet ıt must be deadly, even for cars, & İ am sure thıs contrıbutes to the allegedly horrendous road crash statistıcs ın Turkey. Someone really goofed on thıs one, bıg tıme, because ıt ıs a problem we have noticed all over the country.



After a short but steep & (haıry!) clımb, we reached the top of the plateau. We detoured to the sıte of ancıent Troy. Interestıng, ıntrıguıng even, but there ıs bugger all left but a few stone footıngs & the odd bıt of wall. And ıts mıles from the sea. None of your Brad Pıtt leapıng out of the boat, sprıntıng across the beach & hackıng ınto people. Booked ınto the unfortunately named Otel Anafartala, rıght on the waterfront agaın, wıth a great vıew of the Hellespont. The amount of sea traffıc that uses thıs narrow straıght ıs staggerıng. You can see oodles of ships at a tıme, followıng one another ın or out. Look at a map & you wıll see why. Its the only entrance to the Sea of Marmora & the Black Sea, & the only sea access that several countries have.

Next mornıng we took the ferry across to the Gallıpolli Penınsula, to vısıt the battlefıeld. What can İ say about Gallıpoli that hasn't been saıd. İn a blog about motorcycling, nothıng, except thıs: The ANZAC story & the Gallipoli campaign are deeply etched into the Australian psyche. Its an integral part of who we are and how we choose to define ourselves. The ANZAC spirit is something we like to think we all have & can draw on as required. We get the job done, we play hard, we look after our mates & we don't quit, and this has sustained us in numerous conflicts & sporting contests ever since, and allowed us to punch well above our weight. This is the place that spirit came from. This unremarkable little beach at the base of the cliffs, separated from the sea by a series of gullies & ravines, the worst possible place for an amphibious landing against an entrenched enemy dug in at the top of the cliffs, belies the carnage that took place here in 1915. Its all quiet now, just rows & rows of headstones silently recording the deaths of so many young men, mostly in their early twenties, in this alien landscape so far from home. The well known words of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, about them now being our sons as well, are inscribed on a large stone tablet at Ari Burnu cemetery, & I defy anyone to read them without feeling intense emotion. I couldn't, but I am very glad to have visited this place which is so important in our history, and to have felt the ANZAC spirit which I think is palpable here. We owe a great debt to all those men of courage who by their actions gave all future generations of Australians so much to inspire us.

I also learned that Gallipoli is very important to others as well. The peninsula covers a large area & there are numerous memorials to visit. We could not visit them all, but did go to the New Zealand memorial at Lone Pine, and to the principal Turkish memorial. I was surprised at the number of Turkish visitors on the peninsular, but clearly many families were touched by the huge losses sustained by the Turks in defending their country, & ultimately through the vision & leadership of Ataturk this gave rise to the modern Turkish state that exists today. It could so easily have become a basket case like many other countries in the region. On the ferry across, I particularly enjoyed talking to some Turkish schoolkids on a bus trip to the peninsula to learn their history. They were keen to practice their English & were interested in the bikes & that we were from Australia. Elsewhere, other locals expressed similar interest, & I think they understood the need we have to visit Gallipoli. I was also reminded of what a shopkeeper said to us in Cappadocia, a long way away from Gallipoli. "A long time ago, our countries fight. But now we are friends" I'll drink to that, long may it be so.
After this, we moved on up to Istanbul for two days. A very large but interesting city. The splendid architecture of the numerous mosques was a highlight, although I couldn't help freaking myself out by having flashbacks to the movie Midnight Express from time to time. I was also staggered to see the shipping in the harbour. I did a rough count & got 40, all parked to go through the Bosphorus Straight into the Black Sea.
I really enjoyed Turkey & all the people we met. Now, onwards to Greece.

From here I intend to ease up on the blogging a bit, its just Europe now, & everyone knows all about it anyway. But we still have a lot of riding to do. We have just hit the 14,000 km mark, the bike sounds a bit rattley, like it really needs a service, and so do I! Bye for now.

PHOTOS PAKİSTAN,İRAN,TURKEY

PAKİSTAN.

The long, long road to Lorelai. Note my top box ıs strapped up due to a broken bolt.

The desolate Baluchistan regıon of Pakistan.


Dalbandin, Pakıstan. Buyıng petrol out of jerry cans ıs the only way to get any. We antıcıpated thıs & had a fılter.



Sand over the Hıghway, Pakistan, near the İranıan border. Surprise, surprise !!! We also saw large herds of wıld camels ın thıs area.


Pakistani trucks, they compete wıth one another for the most ornate paınt job, and for how far they can overload axles.


Typıcal Pakistani signage. This one says "For a good tıme, rıng Abdul......"


This is Abdul.


This one says "Go the Power".....İranıan branch of the Supporters Club.
İRAN.




İran. The remaıns of Persepolıs, as destroyed by Alexander the Great. İn İran, they just call hım Alexander, the worlds greatest vandal. İ must agree.


İran, tomb of Kıng Darıus 1st of Persia, cut ınto the sıde of a mountaın.


The magnıfıcent Imam Square & Mosque, Esfahan, İran


Brıdge ın Esfahan, Iran. Cırca 13th century.



İranıan mosques tend to have very ornate tıled domes, they really are spectacular.


Roadside Mosque, İran


On the road to Tehran. Thats Tehran, with a T.

TURKEY.


Turkısh Mosques have metal clad domes, and are a flatter shape, but are no less ornate than theır İranıan counterparts.


The bizarre landscape at Goreme, Cappadocıa, Central Turkey.


The Remaıns of The Great Lıbrary of Ephesus, Turkey.

The Amphitheatre at Ephesus, capacıty 25,000.

The vıew from our Hotel balcony, Foçe, Turkey. Reward for the struggle!! Its every bıt as good as ıt looks.

TURKEY

I know I am way behind in posting photos, & I have some goodies, but I will put it right as soon as I can. We are currently in Goreme, central Turkey. We took a good couple of hours to cross the border, & that was with some preferential treatment. We both really enjoyed Iran. We found the people with whom we dealt, & numerous others we met in the street, to be exceptionally friendly, genuinely interested in us & Australia, and generally a savvy and cultured group of people, & very western oriented, quite at odds with the sort of diatribe from the top that gets all the publicity. Although as we were leaving, just before we entered the border zone, we noticed an American & an Israeli flag painted on the road. It took a second or two for the penny to drop, but the idea was that all the drivers could insult both countries by driving over the flags. Nice touch, & as I said, quite at odds with the courtesy & generosity we encountered. There is no shortage of pizza joints, burgers, coke , pepsi, Mack trucks, & the only cash they will take at banks is US dollars. So go figure!

Anyway, we crossed into Turkey, & immediately the standard of the roads fell away rapidly. Back to potholes & all kinds of bumps. But, we now have insurance cover again, & we can get BEER. We stayed at the nearest town to the border, Dogubeyazit, & escaped early next day. We decided to abandon our southerly route due to the internal security problems here, & instead headed north to Erzincan & Sivas, then to here. It was some solid riding, but the weather is cool, & its very pleasant riding. We cant remember the last time it was cool! We still ended up going through 4 army checkpoints. Once they see the Aussie passports, they just wave us through. It is becoming clear to us that Aussies are respected in Turkey for obvious historic reasons, & the history is important to both countries. More later.

Goreme is a fairly bizzare sort of place, in more ways than one. It is what is left after a large valley was eroded, but the remnants are a huge number of rock pinnacles, some of which have been hollowed out naturally, and some by human intervention. People have been living here since the year dot, but more recently, others have started converting the pinnacles into habitable structures. The hotel Kelebek where we stayed is part cave, part sandstone blocks. The whole place looks like Middle Earth as in The Hobbit, or even Bedrock from The Flintstones.
We then headed straight for the Mediterranean coast, and ended up at great little spot called Fethiye for 2 days, then moved on to another nice spot at Celcuk for another 2 days. We will check out the remnants of the Great Library of Ephesus, one of the ancient wonders of the world while we are here. Efes is how you refer to Ephesus in Turkish, and I note with interest that the main brand of beer in Turkey is Efes. Gotta love that! Matter of fact, I think Ill have one right now.

FURTHER INTO IRAN

From Shiraz, we changed the program slightly to give us more time to recover from the flogging we copped riding across the Baluchistan desert. We decided not to go to Yazd, & spent the extra time in Esfahan, which we both liked. It is a tidy & well maintained city, with tree lined streets, & lots of parks. The highlight was Imam Square, which is a huge open square, surrounded by a bazaar, and with a huge mosque at one end, (& another in the middle). Really very impressive. On the Friday night, we noticed that a favourite local pastime was to take a picnic tea down along the riverbank at dusk. There were thousands of family groups involved. Not a drunken yobbo in sight to spoil the family atmosphere. Maybe thats our problem! And next morning, no mess along the riverbanks. We then moved up to Tehran, we had been warned about the traffic, and it is pretty crazy, but not as bad as India.

We took the bikes in to the BMW dealership for some TLC. You should have seen the colour of the old oil, I reckon we must have cooked it properly!! Anyway the dealership is run by the legendary Mr Ali Nouriani, a man whose reputation precedes him amongst overland bikers. Mr Nouriani is a most kind & generous man, & he graciously extended many courtesies to us, for which we are very grateful, almost to the point of embarrassment. Tomorrow we leave for Tabriz, & then into Turkey. It will be reassuring to have insurance cover for the bikes again. Iran was the only country where no one would cover us. Mr Nouriani offered to sort that for us, but we figured that we just need to be ultra careful for another few days.

Have to say afew words about the Iranian monetary system. Its confusing. For a start, the exchange rate is 9,300 rials to the dollar. So you change $100 and have a roll of notes that would choke a camel. All the notes have oodles of zeros on them, and a small purchase sees you forking over notes for about a minute. On a large bill, like a hotel, we have broken the million rial mark.
To make matters worse, everyone just drops a zero, so when someone says a thing costs a hundred, they really mean a thousand. Got it? I have been here a week & I still haven't.
Petrol costs 4,000 rials a litre. Sounds expensive, doesnt it? Well its only40 cents. We will get our come uppance in Turkey where we hear its about $6/litre. That is real pain at the pump!
Photos and further commentary to follow asap.

IRAN

Greetings, Friends, One & All. We made it from Quetta to the border, & are currently in Shiraz (oh, if only that was the literal truth, I could drink a swimming pool full of it!!). The road from Quetta to the border was, contrary to expectations, quite good. The problem it seems is just who to listen to when you start asking about road conditions. However, it was very hot & dry, and the hotels we stayed in in Dalbandin & Taftan, on the Paki side of the border, were just vile. At Taftan we stayed at the PTDC guest house. The taps just trickled, the shower didnt work, the toilets didn't flush (someone else found that out before me!), & there was no airconditioning. This at the end of a long hot ride, two days in a row wears you down. The quote we got was 600 rupees for the room, but by next morning, the price had changed to 600 each. We knew the slimy little toad who claims to be the manager was getting into us, but figured there was not much we could do, considering our location. We met a Dutch couple a few days later, who said the same thing happened to them. Any way, next morning we fronted up at the border, only to be told we had a long wait. Finally, we made it through, but we were too buggered to go much further. This time, we had to have an army escort all the way to Zahedan, the nearest town of any size, & also from there to Bam. The section from Zahedan to Bam was a test of endurance, We could have done it in about 4 hours on our own, but with the escort, it took 8, because they stopped every few miles to change it. Invariably we had to wait, & there was no shade. This is the most barren, desolate part of the earth I have ever seen. Rocks & sand, & boiling hot wind, nothing else. It must be like the surface of Mercury!! The escort got my attention when they rocked up with a heavy calibre machine gun in the back of the Hilux, & the driver said " go, ....& dont stop".

Anyway we finally got to Bam, & to the legendary Akbars Guest House. Mr Akbar is truly one of nature's gentlemen, a man you could not possibly dislike. He is doing it tough after the big earthquake which destroyed most of Bam a few years ago, killing 26,000 people in the process, but is still open for business. One of the problems we had first up was getting petrol. You have to have a prepaid card, but we couldnt find anyone who spoke enough English to get it sorted for us. Next minute , we are in Mr Akbars car, we collected a VIP on the way, & we are in the Governor's office!! Talk about contacts! We ended up with some official fuel vouchers, but once we left this region, we found people willing to sell fuel for cash.

So, the section of road from Fort Munro to Quetta remains the worst of the trip, it is now behind us, security issues should be a thing of the past & we are in a more pleasant part of the country, & from here it should all be a steady improvement. I am hoping the few days rest we are having here will recharge the batteries. Iran is a surprise packet. We are clearly in the Middle East, & have left the Indian Subcontinent. People (males) are fairly westernised in terms of dress, the roads are excellent. You can buy Coke & 7UP, you can, obviously, use the web. The food is also quite different, but more of that later.

PAKISTAN TO IRAN

Greetings Friends, We have finally obtained visas for Iran. We are currently in Quetta, out in the west of Pakistan, about 2 days ride from the Iranian border. We were glad to get out of Islamabad, where we indulged in various types of food that we hadn't seen in ages, like pizza, & steak. It was good to get back on the bikes after 2 weeks of not riding. We had some advice about where not to go, so we changed our planned route. We headed south generally following the Indus, to Mianwali, then down to Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan). We arrived at about 2pm, tired & hot, ready to find a hotel. Then the fun started. A very nice local chap, M. Arshad Khan, owner of a servo, took us to a hotel, (and all we did for him in return was to waste most of his Saturday afternoon) but apparently, foreigners are not allowed to stay in DGK, because of security issues, unless they have permission. We didn't. So we then sought out the local administrative big cheese & threw ourselves on his mercy. He was quite good about the whole thing, but it was too iffy. He ended up suggesting a hotel a good few k's back, & we were ok with that. We were on our way out when we got stopped by a cop next to a major intersection. He wanted to know what we were doing in DGK. Next minute there are people all over us, ogling us & the bikes in a way we had not seen since India. Eventually, a police jeep turned up, & we had an armed police escort out of town. We tried to explain that we wanted a nearby hotel, but we ended up being escorted all the way back to Multan, about 100 km back. Every 25 km or so, there was a new team of cops who picked us up. I was actually quite impressed with the way they put this thing together so quickly. At one stage we even had the local SWAT team as an escort, and they sat on about 80-100 kph, with lights flashing & horn blaring. We just tucked in behind the jeep & it was the easiest bit of riding we have done in Pakistan, only problem was we were heading in the exact opposite direction we needed to go. But it did make one feel important!!! We got taken to the Ramada in Multan. It was great, but it wasn't cheap, & we had to travel all the way back through DGK the following day, again with the police escort.


Out west, we can still pull a crowd, just by stopping!

On the way through a small town, there was a dope on a bicycle wobbling around the centre of the road, not taking much notice of the Swat teams approach. On the way past, a cop leaned out the jeep window, & gave the guy a solid clip around the ear! I spent the next couple of minutes chuckling. In another place, a tuk tuk driver cut Chris off, & a traffic cop appeared from nowhere & gave the driver a real hard belt on the side of the head for ignoring the motorcade. Pity the cops in Australia can't do that anymore, I say.

Anyway, this turned out to be a long day, as we had to get all the way to Lorelai, & had a 100km deficit to make up. Near Fort Munro we were held up while a rockfall was cleared up in the pass. A bit later on, my top box came loose. More delay. I had the brackets modified in Oz before we left, as I anticipated the box would cop a pummeling. The brackets were fine, but I had snapped one of the main mounting bolts. We strapped it up & continued, knowing the real rough stuff still lay ahead. Our enquiries as to the state of the roads had all indicated that the road to Lorelai was good. It wasn't! Almost the whole of it was being worked on, & there were numerous diversions. At one stage, we found ourselves on a sandhill, following a couple of tyre tracks, no sign of a road anywhere. During the next few hours, we copped the lot. Potholes, soft gravel, sand, powdery bulldust, mud, slippery gullies, even a dust storm, as if it wasn't hard enough. We passed through a gully in which a truck & a van were fairly hopelessly bogged, just after I took this photo, as it happens.

Its pretty desolate out here.

Through a small but very bustling town on the way to Lorelai , there was a bloke standing right in the middle of the road with his trousers down, & no underwear on. Dare not stop for a photo, but I'm guessing the guy is not getting the medication he needs!! We finally got to Lorelai & its fair to say it's a hole. We were looking for a guesthouse selected from the Lonely Planet, but couldn't find it. We soon ended up in the police station, and again soon pulled a crowd. Trouble was they were all cops or their kids, & there wasn't much we could do about it, but really we didn't mind, as the police have been terrific.

There is always a bunch of kids whose dads want them to sit on the bike. for a photo op. But I get to keep the photos!

After about 2 hours of being grilled (in a nice way, we were offered a cup of green tea) by the local Special Branch, they took us to the "best hotel in town". I can't imagine what the others must be like!! This joint cost us 300 rupees, thats $4.60, for the night. It had no air conditioning, a squat toilet which had no water trap (& therefore stank to high heaven), a blocked drain in the shower, so we were soon in ankle deep water. The bed linen was dirty. Anyway, we got there at about 8.30pm, showered & crashed, too tired to eat tea. This, after the Ramada! Next morning, as I went out the front door to start loading the bike, there were two cops with the ever popular AK47's waiting for us , to escort us out of town, without breakfast. I was beginning to take the security thing seriously, just call it a hunch.

At this point I want to say a few words about the Pakistani people we have met. From my perspective, they are very welcoming, generous & friendly. A couple of days back, we had people buy us drinks no less than six times, & no one would take any money. One bloke invited us into his shop (he sold mobile phones), sat us down in front of an air conditioner, & brought out two glasses of tea, laced with salt & lemon, different, but quite a tonic. We have learned to say the Pakistani greeting A-salaam alai koom (loosely translated as "go in peace" or something similar), & it goes down really well. Once you say it, you get the double handed shake, & usually a big smile, although that may be due to my Pakistani accent! Sometimes people who had a bit of English would come straight up & ask right out what religion we were, which we found amusing. Out on the road, a bloke came up to us on little scooter, & said how honoured he was that we should choose to visit his country. This been our experience the whole way through Pakistan. But unfortunately, out west we have been attracting some long stares, not all of them friendly, and you just start to feel uneasy, especially when the cops don't want to let us out of their sight. From here, we just want to make Iran asap.

Yesterday, we headed for Quetta, soon entering a mountain pass where it was at least cooler. Before too long, we were back in amongst the roadworks, and we covered at least another 100km of unsealed road, but it was not as bad as the previous day. Nevertheless, I spent a lot of time standing on the pegs, & my legs were getting fairly sore. The Fastway footpegs I fitted are superb, wide & comfortable & very solid. In fact, the bike handled the road conditions beautifully. We had a booking at the Serena Hotel in Quetta, back to our usual standard (9,000 rupees a night), and are resting today. When we leave here, we have two nights at what we expect will be very dodgy accomodation, and two days of hard physical riding to reach Iran. This is the section of road which we expect will be the worst of the whole trip. Then a whole lot of new issues to deal with. For a start, Iran will be the first country on our trip where the traffic drives on the right. There are no ATMs, we have to change US dollars at a bank. Vouchers are required to buy fuel. And our itinerary for Iran is also fairly tough, with some big mileage days. Anyway, we will manage. And just quietly, I am dying for a beer. We have been dry for three weeks, with another two to go. Its a record for me!