Diary & Travel Reports by Simon Milward
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00/03/28 Karachi-bound
Tue, 28 Mar 2000 04:18:11 GMT |
2k/03/08 Hi from Dubai
2k/02/19
2k/02/09
2k/01/28
2k/01/21
2k/01/10
99/12/26
99/12/26
99/12/23
99/10/
99/09/23
99/09/06
99/07/28
99/07/17
99/07/11
99/06/12
99/05/04
99/04/10 |
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It’s all very exciting as it's bye from Dubai and I’m going to depart for Karachi any day now. It’s almost like the December feeling back again! Honda donated a crate and yesterday afternoon was spent dismantling and packing the bike in it at the Airlink International depot at Dubai airport with all available hands helping out. Thankfully they are waiving their admin charges so in all I’m saving about $400 in bike preparation charges. On top of that Pakistan International Airways is only charging about $160 to fly me and the bike there - though I’m still holding out for free tickets from Emirates, the UAE’s own airline. I've been in Dubai three weeks basically because Iran is being a pain in the backside. After paying for the visa and waiting 12 days, they told me to re-apply through a travel agency, pay $80 for the honor of doing so and book/pay for all hotels in advance - way over my budget. The extra time would also land me firmly in the Indian monsoon season. They could have told me this when I first went to see them. So Iran is relegated to the same league as Libya (new government or not) though it’s a shame to miss the Iranian people all of whom I’ve met have been great. Perhaps it’s just as well as three Portuguese overlanders were hijacked on my planned route not so long ago. I was waiting for some definite news before emailing you - I haven’t decided to settle down with some Arabian princess and I’ve not been thrown in jail. Yet anyway. But I did plan for it. This is because IF I had managed to persuade a captain of a dhow (small wooden cargo ship, where going to the toilet involves crouching in front of a hole in the side), the Pakistani authorities would reportedly have locked me up as they don’t like passengers coming on cargo boats. As it was I spent a number of days going to the various creek ports - some have dhows to Somalia and the rest of Africa, others to the Gulf states and many were bound for India. I did locate a few going to Karachi, but one captain up the coast in Sharjah had the cheek to suggest a anon-negotiable $6000. A few nights ago I was scrambling over 3 moored dhows in Dubai (springy gangplanks in the dark!) to get to a Pakistani ship on the outside but even he was only prepared to take the bike. I’ve tried very hard to take this more traditional mode of transport - perhaps there is a new (military) government dictat on this subject in Pakistan.
The charity fundraising front has been slower than I had hoped - only $1800 - piss-poor from a country like the UAE. This mostly came from the Harley Riders of Dubai bike show last Friday, when they awarded me the sweepstakes and Martin Hoyle donated his prize to me. Most of the rest came from individuals. But hopefully there will be some independent local fundraising done for Riders for Health work in Gambia in the future so that’s great. I managed to get a free carpet though! (Incidentally Dubai has just exempted carpet trading from taxes, the traders deserve it because they are not nearly so 'pushy' as those in Tunisia, Turkey and everywhere else ...) It's a silk praying mat, used for the Mecca ritual, not that I’ve converted. An Afgan trader gave it to me at the Friday market, en route to the Fujeira Hilton at the invitation of the Natural History Club - wow it was just great to be in mountains again! The next mountains for me will be in north Pakistan - I’m aiming to ride up and down the famous biking road the Karakorum Highway. That’s north of Kashmir and south of Afganistan - should be there in a week or so. Then it will be off to the Pakistan/India border where I’m getting conflicting reports as to its passability and presence of loaded guns. I really regret not going to Lebanon, I hear so much about it from the many wonderful happy Lebanese people here and the girls are so pretty, particularly the Dubai TV interviewer. The bike has gone through some evolution. Aside from the new tool roll donated by the Harley shop (the Tunisian handbag fell to bits) I was very fortunate to have been given access to the workshop and staff of Bin Sulayem Performance. Mohammed Bin Sulayem is the Middle East Rally Champion (Ford) and President of FIM member the UAE Motorcycle Club. BSP fits custom-made turbo chargers to four wheel drives. My bike now can go 300km/h. Only joking! But his skilled Philippino workers did some great detail work on the bike: the colostomy bag is no longer a plastic water bottle but an aluminium cannister (it’s for the oil tank breather), we have new hinged security brackets to prevent battery theft, new secret stash place, new headlight couling crash frame, new snail adjuster stops (rear wheel, I smashed the others off when riding over corrugations to a beach party) and we stopped the oil leaks (rocker breather & clutch cable housing.) I’ve emailed three of the largest Japanese bike magazines to prepare bikers there for the arse-kicking I intend to give them later this year. They need a riders’ rights organisation for their own sake (witness the terribly restrictive & expensive driving licence regime) and for our sake (rest of world) in view of this globalisation thing and because this is where most bikes are made. On many people’s advice I have ditched my preventative malaria treatment - basically it’s ineffective apart from the side-effects and I want to keep my hair (what there is of it anyway). It’s best to simply take the cure if you get it, and by all accounts you sure know when you do! I also ditched some black T shirts in favour of white ones - I decided that the heat in black was more unbearable that cooler oil-stained white. I must also give a mention to these kind organisations: Megarme ($100) Al-Sayegh Brothers (mended the camera), Dubai Internet Café, Dubai Park Hotel, Emirates Photo Market (digital camera lead), Hard Rock Café (fundraising evening), Harley Riders Dubai, Honda Trading Enterprises, Masonlite Dubai (disdplay board for bike show) and Xerox for copies. Last but by no means least a million thanks to Graham and Niketa who thought they were having me for 10 days but it’s been nearly three times that long! And to you for bearing with me! The aim is still to get you an update every two weeks. Cheers for now Simon PS: I felt my first drops of rain yesterday since Turkey, and it was the first cloudy day for about 7 weeks.
This interim report is intended for those who support the Millennium Motorcycle Ride. Share this dream while raising funds for medical health care registered charities Médecins Sans Frontières (worldwide) and Riders for Health (Gambia appeal). For 20 Euro/US$ + goodwill donation you get a commemorative pin badges and this regular email updates. Corporate sponsors welcome. |
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