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70
2007-07-28
LA back home Well … I am home now, not in Vegas but in the US My flight left Almaty at 7 am. One stop in Amsterdam and plane change and finally in LA same day at 5 pm. Long flight slightly delayed but I am glad to be home. How do I feel looking back ??? I definitely had a great time. I met a lot of wonderful people, everybody was extremely nice everywhere. I saw places that I could have not seen any other way. I tried a lot of different foods and I saw a lot of different people. Am I going to miss the adventure ??? Maybe it’s too early to answer that. Now I am happy to be home, to see my friends again and to be in my bed, use my shower and to have my own clean toilet to sit on rather than squat. And yes plenty of toilet paper also. Of course everything is much much simpler now. I don’t have to worry where I am going to stay, if I am going to have problems with customs, if I have to pay a bribe to a policeman. Everybody speaks English. I can find my diet coke everywhere and finally I can go workout again and get back on my diet. In fact finally I had a salad today after a long time. I realized that very few people eat salads outside the US. I never saw a salad in Kazakhstan for example. I will definitely miss the unknown. The getting up in the morning and wondering who I am going to meet, what roads and sights I will see. I definitely have to admit that the best thing about the whole trip was the people. The excitement when people saw us and our bikes. Getting to know them and seeing their environment that is so different from ours. Will I do it again ??? Definitely I will. I think that in about a month or two I will definitely get itchy to do something or go somewhere, especially now that I have nothing to do. I will keep you guys posted. The bike. It is still in Kazakhstan sitting at customs and I think it will be in LA around the end of next week. So my journey is finished and this will be my last entry. Next I will work on putting all these entries in a simple book with a lot of the pictures I took for me to look back on and remember. If any of you guys want a copy just let me know and thank you for reading some of my crazy ramblings and thank you for all the emails you sent me. GOOD LUCK AND THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU.
2007-07-30 09:50:38
69
2007-07-25
Almaty in Kazakhstan Got up, had breakfast and by 9 30 downstairs ready. Of course there is no driver. How did I know ??? After about 20 minutes the driver shows up. So we go to the lawyer or notary still not sure which is the one we need. We go to about three of them and NIET … NIET. I think that nobody has done this motorcycle power of attorney before so they don’t want to touch it. Finally we go to another one and after some talking I guess he agrees to do it and about 30 minutes later everything is done. Pay about US $ 15 and out the door we go. Back to Globalink and Vassilli. The crating is not done yet will be finished tomorrow and now they have all the papers they need to submit to customs and later on today he will email me the bank info and an amount for shipping. Ok. So we leave and go to Folke for the ticket. Vassilli said I can go he does not expect any problems from customs and if there are any I will still be here for the next 2 days. SO I finally purchase the ticket one way with KLM from Almaty thru Amsterdam to LAX. Basically I leave on Friday morning at 7 20 am and land at LAX still on Friday at 2 30 pm. 7 hours to Amsterdam and 11 to LAX, long day but not too bad. The last night we have to change hotel since where we are staying they have no opening. No problem the travel agent arranges for that also and for the transfer from the hotel to the airport Friday morning. I need to be there 3 hours ahead of the flight. So pick up time is 4 am in the lobby of the Kazakhstan hotel. Back to the hotel and I grab something to eat on the way. Some dumpling and some Pepsi of course. I am still not sure what kind of meat is inside these dumpling but they taste good. I prefer the Chinese dumplings but these are not bad at all. These are a lot bigger and they seem to have a much thicker skin. Like the Chinese ones these are also steamed. In the hotel I get on the internet and get a message from Vassilli. I try and respond and the email gets kicked back. SO I call him, double check his address and try again. No luck … somehow my emails to him do not go thru. I can receive his but my answers to him get kicked back… strange. So I call him and tell him that I will be at his office at 6 30 pm. So I just walk there it takes about 20 minutes. On the way there is a huge thunderstorm so I stop under an over hang at a bus stop. The rain is really coming down hard, 20 minutes later it stops. Get to the offices of Globalink wait for 10 minutes and then talk to Vassilli for 5 minutes. Everything is OK initial estimate around US $ 4,200 more than I thought. SO I ask Joy to do a comparison for me and FedEx came in at US $ 3,860 without the crating. So I guess the price is pretty much right. Good now I feel better. He gave me all the bank info to do the wire transfer and said that he will give me a firm number on Thursday. No problem that the transfer will take a couple of days, the crate with the bike will sit in customs for at least a couple of days. So the timing should work out just fine. Great. Everything seems pretty much taken care of. SO I walk back to the hotel. As soon as I get in there is a call. It’s Folke he invites both me and Lourens to dinner at his house. That is very very nice. So he picks me up at an intersection close to the hotel. By then I had already bought a couple of Pepsi and off we go. Dinner was very good. His wife is from Singapore and they have been living in Kazakhstan for the past 15 years. He likes it here and is happy with his work. The conversation was good and he has been all over the world. Especially all the countries in Far East Asia including North Korea, Burma and so on …of course Russia many times. So I find it very interesting listening to him. Time flies by and around 12 30 we take a cab and get back to the hotel. I crash in bed. I am not used to staying up so late. Plus somehow I have this huge allergy I am not sure to what and my nose is constantly stuffed up and I have a headache. Getting old Antonio … get used to it.
2007-07-30 09:50:07
68
2007-07-24
Almaty Kazakhstan Run around day today … Got up around 7 this morning. Finally took a nice long shower, shaved and had breakfast around 8 by 9 we were downstairs ready to go. By 9 30 nobody was here so I call Vassilli at Global Link. He said sorry no problem someone will be there at 10 to pick us up. OK at 10 someone is at the hotel and we go to his office. Meeting there. I show them the paperwork, custom entry documents, passport, Kazakhstan visa, registration and title. One of his assistants looks at the paperwork, takes copies of everything and says everything is ok. Lourens has not decided what to do yet with his bike so for now we are just doing mine. Around 11 30 everything is ok, next stop we have to go to the crating place. So they take us back to the hotel and they will pick us up again at 1 and we will follow them with the bikes to the crating place. So we walk to Folke’s place to pick up the bikes. No problem there. He said he has a flight for me for this Friday morning with KLM thru Amsterdam to LAX arriving Friday night in the US. I told him perfect book it but wait to pay for it until Global Link says that I can leave and they don’t need me here anymore. So we have an appointment to go back and hopefully finalize everything with him tomorrow at 11. Back at the hotel at 1. By 1 30 nobody is here so I call Vassilli. He says he sent me a text message that the driver will be here at 2. Funny thing I did not receive anything, I am starting to think that in Kazakhstan the business appointments are kind of loose. Ok 2 the driver is here and we ride. 30 minutes later we are at the crating company which is also owned by Global Link. I prepare the bike for shipping. Lower the windshield in the front as low as it will go. Disconnect the battery. Turn the mirrors inside and pack everything on the bike. I basically have 4 duffle bags on it and the side bags. I packed the boots, the pants and the jacket on it. I left the tank bag on the bike also. This way I will only have to carry one bag, the computer and the back pack on the plane with me. Around 3 30 we are done and have the people there check on the bikes and make sure that everything is ok. So we leave. They didn’t say anything about taking the fuel out of the bikes and they did not ask for the keys. Back to Global Link office. Next step now is the power of attorney so that they can handle all the Customs Paperwork for us. Vassilli said it will only take about 10 minutes. So off we go. I am not sure if we are actually at an attorney’s office or a notary public office. The guy looks at me and asks for passport and motorcycle passport. So after about 10 minutes talking to our driver the result is that by law we have to have the passport and the registration translated in Russian by a certified translator in his office. After this he can certify the power of attorney. This is nuts. Translate the passport ???? Come on there are only 5 lines on it. Ok so we go to another place and we sit there for about 20 minutes each and a woman translated the passport and the registration into Russian for both me and Lourens right there on the spot. The whole thing was basically US $ 12.00 each. Cheap enough but what a crazy thing to do. After she puts about 20 different stamps on it she gives us the paperwork back. Too late now to go back to the attorney since their office closes at 6. I hope we will be ok the attorney said the translator has to be there in front of him. Hopefully all the stamps they applied are enough for him. Funny the 10 minute thing turned into a 3 hour ordeal. So tomorrow we have an appointment with the driver for Global Link at 9 30 in the morning in our hotel, hopefully he will be on time and we can finish this power of attorney thing. Today I rode the bike for about 20 miles. It was kind of sad turning the bike over to the craters. This basically means that my adventure and my trip is almost over. In a way I am happy to go home and finally sleep in my bed and play with my toys. I am sad and worried because now I will have to face the fact that I have no CPI and therefore nowhere to go. I am happy I will get to see all my friends especially Kumichan and MAX.
2007-07-30 09:49:45
67
2007-07-23
Alamty in Kazakhstan Yes she snored pretty much the whole night … Let’s just say that between the noise of the train and the snoring I did not sleep well or a lot last night . So finally around 7 I got up. Went to the bathroom, tried to clean up as much as I could and then I sat where the controller’s office is and I charged first the phone and then the computer. I think they have the only plug in the whole rail car. But they are very nice about it and everybody can use it. In the mean time the train did a stop so I went off, I bought some dumpling and a cold pepsi from one of the vendors. It is nice to feel some air when you have been inside for so long. The accommodations are really nice but it still feels like you are cooped up. Around 9 I finished charging all he stuff so I went back inside the compartment. Everybody was up by then. The hour has changed somewhere and it is another hour forward so it is 10 in Almaty. We will arrive at Almaty 1 where we decided to get off since the bikes are there at 12 30. SO I just sit and read a little longer. Around 11 I fold the sheets and pillow case they gave us when we boarded and bring them to the controller so they can wash it for the next person. I fold the mattress and pillow and leave them there on the cot. After that I pack all my stuff and I am ready it’s 12. The stop at Almaty 1 is only for 7 minutes which is relatively short compared to others so we have to be ready to get off. So I walk to the end of the car and as I am walking I say good bye to the people I have met and the kids going to camp. Train stops and we get off. We start walking towards the main station and this girl approaches us and asks if we are Antonio and Lourens. So we follow her to the end of the sidewalk and we go into the cargo area. Our bikes have already been unloaded and are waiting for us leaning on the side against a metal barrier. I guess they did not know there was a side stand to put them on. Folke was there making sure that nobody was touching them. Folke is the principal of the travel agency that Kumiko has found for us. The girls that helped us in Aktobe work for him also. So we introduced each other and he explained that everything went ok with the unloading of the bikes, they did not use a ramp they just lifted them up and unloaded them. It amazes me how they rely mostly on human strength here some equipment would make their life a lot easier and it is not really that expensive. Folke’s girl went with us to the office and did all the paperwork for us. She was able to get us out of a bribe also. So we got to the bikes and checked them out. Everything looked ok. One of Lourens mirrors had come loose probably in the unloading but no scratching and most important the bikes where not dropped. We pack and we had to pay a second bribe of about US $ 40 to the people that actually unloaded the bikes. There were about 10 of them so about 4 dollars each. I don’t mind that. They definitely earned it, those bikes are really heavy. So finally about 1 hour after we arrived we can leave. We follow Folke in his car and we arrive in front of the hotel . What service thankyou Kumichan. It sure makes life a lot easier having local people that speak English also help you, everything goes much faster and easier. And since they are local they either get you out of the bribes or the amount decreases dramatically. We check in the hotel, very nice and then go back downstairs and follow Folke to his office where we are going to leave the bikes. There is 24 hour surveillance in his parking lot and he is literary 5 minutes walk from our hotel. So we drop the bikes off and walk into his office. We talk for a little. He was born in Spain but A German citizen and has been living in Kazakhstan for the past 15 years. He said that life has definitely improved a lot here in the past 8 years and now everything you want can be bought here exactly like in Europe. After about 30 minutes we leave his office. I left my helmet and my jacket there since it was so hot and the bikes are parked there in any case. We start walking back to the hotel and I realize I left my phone and the camera in the pocket of the jacket. Oh well … We walk right thru the park which is full of Russian monuments and a church which is the second largest building in the world built without a single nail. Interesting I will take some pictures. Back in the hotel and next thing now is finding a place to watch the formula one race. I go downstairs and they tell me they do not have that channel here in the hotel. SO I go outside looking for a bar, I thought I found one and I asked them to change channels looking for the race but no luck. SO I walked back to the hotel since it was also starting to rain. Using my satellite phone I called Kumiko and told her everything went really well and then I made an appointment with Vasilli. He is the boss at Global Link who is going to handle the shipping of the bike back to the US. He will send someone to the Hotel tomorrow morning around 9 am and we will go to his office and do all the necessary paperwork. After all the motorcycle paperwork is done I can finalize my ticket back to the US. Back in the hotel I checked up on my email and Lourens received an email from Carlos. Carlos was the dutch guy with the older BMW motorcycle that took the earlier boat from Baki to Aqtau like us. His boat ride took 56 hours because of bad weather so I guess I should not complain about our 33 hour boat ride. From Aqtau he took the same road we were on, in fact he did not even get as far as we did, he hit a rock that punctured his oil sump so basically all his oil leaked out so he had to abort. I am not sure how he handled it after that, he probably had to wait for a truck or someone to tow him to the closest town. I feel bad for him since he was by himself but that road or whatever you want to call it since it was not a road was very dangerous. That happened on the same stretch where I had three flat tires in one day. After the internet we had a bite to eat at a close by pizza place and then in bed. I was really tired. Today I rode the bike for maybe 20 miles from the rail station at Almaty 1 to the hotel and then to Folke’s office. It feels nice to ride again even if it is for a short distance.
2007-07-30 09:49:26
66
2007-07-22
On the train somewhere in Kazakhstan towards Almaty Well the day slowly goes by … Not that much to do on the train except snooze, sleep, read, listen to some music, look at the scenery go by and pass the time. There are quite a few kids on the train that came on board with us at Aktobe and they are going to a summer camp somewhere in Almaty. Their guide is this young Kazak guy maybe mid twenties that speaks fairly good English. In 2005 he was in the Sates in New Jersey for 4 months in some kind of an exchange tourist/working visa. He said he worked at McDonalds for 3 months and the 4th month he kind of traveled around. He saw Washington DC., Boston, New York, Atlantic city and says he would definitely like to go back. When we tell people that we are taking our vacation and spending part of it here in Kazakhstan they keep asking why … and now somehow I am asking myself why also. I enjoyed my trip a lot. I have been to places where I will probably never go back to again and I have seen places and I have met people that I would definitely like to see again. So overall I think it was a really good experience. On top of that I got to ride my bike everywhere and I definitely enjoy doing that. Would I do it again ??/ Well I am not sure … I would consider it but I am not ready to answer that yet. Well the scenery from the train is changing. Quisary where our train journey started is basically a desert with lots of sand and wind. The sand is blowing everywhere all the time. Like Lourens said as we were walking in the middle of town, this would make a great beach. So you can imagine how much sand is everywhere. Aktobe is pretty much the same but as we are moving more south east the scenery is changing and it is becoming greener. Less and less camels more cows and horses. One thing that definitely hits is how vast and dry Kazakhstan is. It is really hot in the summer and very very cold in the winters. The excitement of the day is getting off the train at stops and walking around the vendors and seeing what they have. From drinks of course, to dumpling, to fried fish, There is fruit like melons, apples, water melons they seem to have just about everything … Don’t worry Kumichan I took a lot of pictures. Kumiko told me that in Japan there was a scandal where they found pieces of cardboard inside dumpling instead of meat. No worries here … I ate them and they tasted fine actually very good. So as the day was lazily going by I talked to Kumiko and there seems to be a small problem. As the train goes by there are to stops Almaty 1 comes first and 30 minutes later Almaty 2. Basically Almaty 2 is closer to the center of town. The motorcycles are on a different train and on their ticket it says Alamaty 1 our ticket says Almaty 2. According to Kumiko now the motorcycles will get there one hour before us and we are going to a different station. So we decided to get off one stop earlier at Almaty 1 and look for the bikes. Hopefully they have not unloaded them yet and if they have hopefully they have not dropped them. We had a guide that speaks English meeting us at Alamty 2 and now Kumiko is trying to cancel that and have them meet us at Alamty 1. Hopefully that will be possible we’ll see. Today it’s Sunday and one thing about Kazak people they definitely are lazy and don’t particularly like to work. As far as the rest of the day nothing really going on. Soon time to go to sleep and hopefully tonight the neighbor will not snore as much or as loud.
2007-07-30 09:49:09
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