Diary & Travel Reports by Simon Milward

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Thu, 21 Jun 2001 10:17:01 +0100
From: simon @ millennium-ride.com
To: sponsors @ millennium-ride.com

Dear All

This is in two parts because Unitech are thankfully doing some sorting out for us.

I'm emailing from Ulan Ude, about 100km East of Lake Baikal in South Siberia. It is 34 degress C outside!

It was an eventful ride from Vladivostok, 3000km by road and 1000km by train. It rained only on the first day, hard and non-stop, but the rest of the time it has been superb weather.

Russian people are very friendly and generous, on a par with Syrians and Pakistanis. I've been given presents by children, and food, beer & vodka by complete strangers, and find it difficult to pay for food at cafes and so on.

They can hardly believe it when they learn of my voyage. My 'Travel Book' with Russian text explaining what I'm doing (prepared nearly two years ago!) has been most useful. On the other hand I'm trying to pick up some of the alphabet, quite easy when you know what you are doing (which I don't!)
Well, I've alot of distance to cover before mid July, and you can't learn while riding.

But Russian driving standards are generally excellent, very different from most of Asia.

I was a bit worried about tick-borne encephalytis, prevalent in the forest in this part of the world. It was the only vaccination I did not have, thinking I would not need it. It can kill you if you do not take the cure within three days, but the symptoms don't show for five days!

The police stop me on average three times daily, to check and register documents or book me for speeding. I've never had to pay anything though, in contrast to Russians who I've seen handing over cigarettes.

In Khabarovsk I provided some entertainment for the people lazily drinking tea at the stalls by parking on the main square. The police took 5 minutes to arrive and demand documents, and I pretended not to understand when they said 'dollars'. Off I went again and got a puncture.

At one point I thought I would be smart and take a 'short cut' cross-country. I rode round and round through vast fields and got bogged in a swamp for three hours. Mosquitos drove me crazy, I felt firmly insane exclaiming loudly at the ineffective insect repellent and heavy bike that would not budge, standing up or laying on its side. It was dark by this time. I will take no more 'short cuts'. I didn't come to Siberia for this, honest.

My bike and I have now recovered, the former with welding to the frame again and repaired rear broke line, me with a relaxing train ride.

I paid $50 for me and the bike to go on a stretch where there is no road.
It was two days with fantastic scenery. The bike was in the back of a van, I slept in another. The train was very slow and spent more time stopped than moving. There were 6 vehicles on the train and thereafter we rode in convoy to the city of Chita, much of it Paris-Dakar style on sandy gravelly tracks. Silly really, I had no rear brake at the time.

Tomorrow I'm off to Lake Baikal for a few days. My plan is to catch a fish and cook and eat it. I want to have a swim too in the icy waters. And sleep for a while. Why this mad dash to Baikal and back again? Because it is there of course. The other possibility was to go to the Ural mountains, another few thousand km, but I ruled it out. The Ural motorbike, based on the wartime BMW design, is quite a common sight, virtually all with sidecars. The scenery around here is absolutely great.

There are many Buryat people looking like Mongolians, they inhabited this area long before the Russians who came in the 1600s.

Yamaha have offered the 12 motorbikes we need for the new health project for US$980. Thanks Yamaha. Which organisation or company will claim the supreme accolade of being the first sponsor of one (or two!) of these?
Email me for more info.

Simon

9 June 2001

Hi

It took longer for my rocker arm to clear customs than it did to be DHL'd from Austria! Plus I had to pay US$22 import tax, even though the thing is for export. This is Russia so my new friends keep telling me.

But the bike is all fixed now and running great (thanks Rotax). I've reverted to my single mono shocks from Malaysia. But they are still a bit hard so I may take some ballast since everyone warns me that the roads furher north can be bad to non-existent. She is called Anna, Anastasia or Olga. It's a bit up in the air at the moment, this Saturday morning at 8am, but if there is no firm passenger by Noon then it'll be just me and my bike as usual.

They say there are scientific reasons why Vladivostok girls are the prettiest in all of Russia. But this has absolutely nothing to do with my ballast requirements.

The excitement at finally being on the road after waiting for nearly two weeks here is just brilliant - it gets me every time!

DHL Valdivostok kindly freely sent my Psion palmtop computer to Singapore for repair, where Psion said they will simply replace the unit. The problem is getting it back into Russia without having to pay half the value in import taxes, so I may have it sent directly to Anchorage Alaska. Back to pen and paper for my diary then, but at least there's is no heavy fundraising agenda to keep on top, just the bike!

The Banya is a type of Russia sauna where, naked and lying down, you are whipped and stroked with small leafy branches of a local tree. These branches are hot - 108 degrees C. It's as good or better than a good massage. The pain was nearly unbearable. Lying on your back you must cover your heart and your 'eggs' (for men) with each hand for obvious reasons.

Last night we ate giant crabs with pincers nearly the size of my forearms for supper at the Iron Tigers Motorcycle Club. I've never seen so much honey in all my life as down here at the market stalls.

Ride free!

Simon (Ballast free!)