Cycling to Asia, week 9

Taking bus to Esfahan was a good choice. Not just because my illness involved into a pretty severe one. We do not travel to see sights, neither to chat with other travelers, but after two months one appreciate a bit of European atmosphere. Esfahan turned out to be the number one place in whole Iran for meeting other overlanders, out of whom quite a few use the same travel means as we do...

The overnight bus was alright except that the Amir Kabir hotel was still closed at 5am. Since I didn't know what to do I just roamed around, trying to find a park where I could stretch my bones for a bit. Fortunately nothing looked suitable, so I went back the same street and yes they've just opened... I got my bed and started the healing process... originally I thought I will just lie in the bed, but next day I've found out that there are other three bicycles in the courtyard... this is way to tantalizing to resist... so I hanged around for a bit. First I came across the magic bus people. The name was coined by me, but how would you call 30 people traveling from London to Sydney on a big orange bus with a balcony? It looked more like a house on wheels than a coach and the people resembled the good old hippie days when this road was traveled by the pioneers of backpacking...

Then I met David the Swiss! He is taking his time, that I have to say right a way. He is cycling from Basel to India, roughly as we do but he is on the road since April, so exactly double as long as we are. Well if somebody have the resources and Swiss passport that allows you to get 90 days visa in Turkey or Iran, then why shouldn't he take the opportunity to explore these vibrant countries, right? He is pretty straight forward guy asking good questions... no polite rubbish or shallow talk.

Afterward Arian showed up. This nice fella is cycling his way from Holland to India and also doesn't bother him self much with things like getting stuck in Esfahan for almost two weeks. Yes, I would like to see the man who would leave earlier if he had met a nice local girl who speaks good English and is eager to show you around. It's not difficult to fall in love with these dark-deep-eyed beauties carelessly covered with scarfs that just provokes your imagination.Some women -the traditional one- are covered from head to toes... the head scarf is properly tided and shows just the round face with eagle nose and Persian eyes. These are not so sexy, that's true, but than there are these youthful girls rebelling in the Iranian way. Usually wearing more colorful jackets and trousers, not pure black and definitely not the all covering tent-like chador. The most revolutionary and typical sign is the headscarf. In their case it's more of a delicate decoration, more like a romantic veil then a covering cloth. Lot of care is given to make sure that enough hair will be visible... no matter that the scarf falls off sometimes... Together with the unique ayes and exotic Persian faces they are just gorges. Covered enough to follow the rules, but not much to protect you from craving and thinking what's beyond? So Arian we all envy you!

Lastly there is one more bike in the courtyard, but we couldn't find the owner. No wonder when he is in Teheran. Kevin had to extend his visas so ended up traveling more by bus then by bike... He is probably the most experienced from us since he already did a south to north America journey. It took him a year and it was just two years ago so it looks like he felt in love with it. This time he is doing the Ireland South-east Asia tour with no definite destination end neither definite route. He mentioned India, China, Burma, Indonesia... all by land, so some miles will be covered while he comes back to Ireland.

Good luck to all of you guys. It's been really nice to relax, chill-out and talk with you. I feel refreshed. Like after coming home for a weekend and then starting the journey again. Just that the half is behind me already... Healthy physically and stronger mentally. There were times when I felt awkward, since all the locals acts as you have just fallen down from the moon and that they have never seen anybody doing something strange like you do... but there are plenty people who did it before us quite a few that are doing it while we are, so maybe we meet again... we all go the same direction... I'm looking forward!!!

Cycling to Asia, week 8

After leaving Boukan we felt like escaping a prison. No, no we were treated with honor and we felt great, it's just that during the whole trip we were mostly on our own and during the last four days we lost the power to manage our time. We cycled like crazy, reflecting what had just happened to us. Wow! This was awesome.
After half of the day and one invitation for lunch, we met Balal. An cyclist going a decent 80km ride with no equipment, not even water. Originally he went the opposite direction, but because of us he decided to change that. So he went with us. Or we went with him? He invited us for a second lunch in his uncle house in a small village. Afterward we continued to Divandareh, where he invited us to stay in his brother's house. Dusan said he would refuse if he was on his own, but since I can do the talking we can accept this. It was a good 120km in a hilly surroundings. This part of Iran is beautiful but demanding for cyclists, specially after 4 days off! Mohammad, Balals brother was an advanced yogi. The whole family was very nice, but much simpler than the Boukan people. Wow if it goes like this in whole Iran, then we will have a problem... we will run out of time. 30 days visa is not much, when the hospitality of the whole nation extraordinary. But after Boukan experience we are much more careful. Next day we were invited to see the nearby cave, but this time we preferred to keep on moving.
Now we are in Hamedan. Big city with mountainous surrounding. All Iranian cities looks quite bum-friendly. We slept in a city park, together with a 50 or more local families. The same happened in Tabriz, so it looks good for us. But I've caught a flue or something... well it comes from time to time so I accepted it. The best way how to deal with the situation was to take a bus to Esfahan, there I'll wait for Dusan. He will have the opportunity to experience the solo cycling in Iran and I'll have a chance to heal properly.
I got used to cycle and not rely on public transport so much that I found it very frustrating to get the essential information on the bus station. My European mind takes it for granted that the people working there should help you, but the laid back Asians don't thing so. If you don't speak Farsi they don't feel to do any extra effort to find out what you want for them, so just finding out when the bus leaves, how much does it cost and how long does it takes took me a good half and hour -nothing really pleasant with a headache and fever. I dind't mind all the attention and three-question-conversations so far, but for the last few days I started to be sick of it. They appear to be helpful, they pretend to be nice, but it's all just a show. I can't help feeling that they just want to show off -look I can speak to a stranger, look I'm a nice guy... sorry, big sorry to the honest ones... just that today I really needed a help and everybody ignored me... to the extend that while talking to the ticket seller there where three other customers favored in stead of me, jumped in front and got the ticket, while I was trying to find out how to get to Esfahan. So what is this "Welcome to Iran" or "Do you need any help?" about? Do they really mean it, or is it all just fake?

Cycling to Asia, week 7

Since the beginning of this journey I feel like an old explorer, like the Aragorn in the Tolkien's stories, just that we don't walk, we ride. Our horses are from steel and our gear is bit more advanced, but we do go to unknown territories , we go east. The morning we left Dogubeyazit for Iran, this feeling appeared again. At the outskirts of the town two big angry evil creatures attacked us. Jaws wide open, teeth looking sharp, barking and running at us. Fear and shock changed us into old warriors. Dusan the brave and Jan the valiant drew their swords and with a combative shout warded off the beasts. Adrenalin run in my blood for the next half an hour!
The border crossing was less romantic. Two hours of bureaucracy and pointless waiting was feasible just because we met three other travelers heading to Iran. The change was noticeable right behind the last gate. Surprisingly even the climate became more pleasant. We definitely left the cold Kurdistan. Everybody is welcoming us. Every single car is greeting us. People shout out of the windows. It's incredible. This is what we needed after the Turkish kids throwing stones at us. We didn't change much money at the border and the time change caused that we missed the banks in Maku. After this beautiful town in a rocky gorge there are just villages so for almost three days we were running on a shoestring budged. Like in the good old days, when we were poor students hitch-hiking trough Europe.
But Iran wasn't just about positive experiences. The lack of privacy is even stronger than in Turkey. People surround us wherever we stop. They are polite, they are nice, but there is no space left between me and Dusan. This is quite tiring. Their English is better, but their understanding is very low.
We also encountered our first technical problems. First my camcorder started to hesitate so some of the best moments couldn't be captured because the picture was shaking. No big deal, but the broken rim on my back wheel was a bit of a surprise.
I mentioned in the part 1 what a trouble I had with wheels, ended up buying the most expensive Mavic wheels day before our departure. After 4000km this "everlasting" super wheel got broken. The rim couldn't last the weight and cracked. For two and half day I went without the back brake and on a shaking wheel, hoping that in Tabriz I'll find a good alternative. Surprisingly it wasn't bad at all. You can get almost anything for bicycle here. Just that they don't always sell you what you need, e.g. I wanted to buy just the back hub. But the Novatec they had could be sold only as a pair. Why? Nobody knows! So I bought just a simple Shimano. Never mind its working good. If I make it with this wheel all the way to India, then the 150 euro Mavic wheel will be beaten by 30$ Shimano. Isn't it funny.
From Tabriz we headed to Iranian Kurdistan. We decided not to go direction Teheran, even though it might have been easier, because it would be more ordinary. Kurdistan sounds good. The choice was well appreciated after few days. Kurdish people are great and the climate is cycle friendly. Boukan seemed just like any other town, that we have passed. But we were wrong. While buying an Iranian scarf (we don't want to look like American bikers) a bunch of people surrounded us as usual. One old man with a decent German invited us for lunch. He turned up to be very noisy, the whole family was quite crazy. But there we met Azad, also a character, but much nicer. He invited us to see his family. Well alright, we stop for a short while. But after an hour or so, he offered us to stay for the night. We gladly accepted. Firstly because of our teeth problems (just during the lunch a half of my tooth felt of), secondly this looks much more peaceful family and thirdly Azad's uncle is an English teacher, so we can communicate. But the lack of privacy that I have been talking about didn't disappear. It even increased together with a total lack of time management. We went to see the dentist. He gave me an appointment at 9:30pm!!! Imagine that! Afterwards they dragged us trough the town, we visited Azad's job, then the German grandpa's job, continuing to bazzar. They introduced us to hundred of people and showed us dozen of shops. Yeah! I don't remember feeling more tired on this trip than today. I asked for a rest, but no, first we have to see the towns view point. The time we came back to Azad's home I was knocked. And of course it was just enough to have a dinner and rush to the dentist. Nobody cares that we are 10min late. We are in Iran.

The next day they offered us to go to see the beautiful mountains, but it's 4h drive so we decided not to go. We rather continue our cycling tour. But what about to see the lake, that's just 1 or 2 hours? OK, that sounds good. The plan was to leave Boukan at 3pm, but it was way pas 4 when we left the town. After 2h of driving Azad asked a Shepard how far it is to the lake. The reply was a shocking 2 hours! This is the theory of FSHE (Iranian word for chaos and freedom in one). We are not going back now... the country is beautiful, hills are high but very dry. The road changed into a gravel track, so for the next hour I felt like in Pakistan. Dusan started to feel sick. After 3 hours we had enough, but what shell we do? 15km before the Marivan Dusan left the lunch on the side of the road and we finished off the trip. The time we reached the lake it was already dark.
We went for dinner and met Azad's friend Hamam. He invited us to stay in his family house. This was the highlight of the trip. He lives with his four beautiful sisters and caring mother in a nice house. Pity that just the teacher speaks English but we entertained our selves with tongue twisters and had fun till late night. Very pleasant atmosphere.

The next day we wanted to leave, but we got invited to see the lake... ended up in Hamam's garden... leaving the town after a lunch... This time we decided not to go back the same way. The road was horrible. Instead we went the longer way trough Sanandaj. Good choice, but the time we reached the city it was dark again. Iranians are crazy drivers and Azad is not an exception, so driving another 3-4hours to Boukan could be quite an adventure. Instead we were invited by another Azads friend and we stayed for the night... this could continue for ever!!! Iranian people are extra hospitable and Azad and his friends are a good example of it. But after four days we had enough. So now you know how a 4 hours round trip to a lake can change into a 4 days journey trough Kurdish families. It was excellent, it was very nice, this is what we wanted to experience in Iran, but we got a slight overdose. We need our privacy, we need our freedom, we want to ride our steel horses and keep on moving east!

N.B. This last part is overlapping with week 8 but for obvious reasons I kept it in this article.

Cycling to Asia, week 6

After Erzincan a real east Turkey experience have started. The country is similar, roads are as bad as before... no just kidding... but the people have changed. How? They got even more tough. This here is a bit different from the Furkans Turkey in Tekirdag. The cloths are simple, dirty, worn out and a tear or a patch is not uncommon. The faces are rough, wrinkly, adjusted to the ceaseless winds and cold nights. We are averaging 1500m in altitude. Ramadan is taken seriously here. No more çorba or çay during the day. We have warm food only in evenings, sometimes in mornings. But our stove started to give us some trouble. NO! Please not now. Now it is highly appreciated, otherwise we'll have no warm food at all. Locals start to eat after 7pm... We are in the middle of a field or next to a river, camping, at this time.

At the beginning of this week we crawled up to our -so far- highest point on bikes: a pass in 2290m. But to be honest it was easier than the 900m one in Serbia. We celebrated it appropriately with halva and hazelnuts and here we go! Down hills oh how I love them! Straight 40km to Erzurum. Big city, but probably the most strict when it comes to Ramadan. We couldn't get anything warm so we just took a snack on the sidewalk. You should see the looks! Funny we met Sheila a girl we know from Istanbul. What a coincidence... but there are no coincidences, right!

A good way how to judge how far east we are -except looking at our bike comps - is to get into a town and check the behavior of the locals. When we stop just to refill our water bottles we stir the them a bit. There are always few busybodies around us immediately... Can you imagine what it means to got to the center and buy e.g. milk and bread. In Agri it had started with few stones thrown at us by street kids at the outskirt of the town, then all the men near the bakery surrounded Dusan, while I went inside to get a loaf. Where are you from?, where are you going?, what's your name? Do you like Turkey? All this in Turkish of course. But we've learned a bit so we can answer almost fluently... Then we moved to a grocery store and the whole circus has started again. Just people have changed, questions have remained. We know them by heart. Sometimes we even give answers when there are no questions. People are interested, amused, shocked and always very welcoming. Just the kids! Hello money, hello money is the only English they utter at us. We have seen also some rude gestures and some stones flying by. What should we do? We have tear gas but this is for dogs. Adults are very helpful with this, sometimes. If they see a kid harassing us, they usually send them away...

Last few days were very relaxing. We haven't done more than 85km a day I think. I lost track of the mileage, it's not important anymore.But the main reason for this is my buttocks. It got a bit irritated of the hours just sitting on the saddle. Plus I got a slight diarrhea so the trip started to be literally a pain in the ass... NO NO. It's not bad at all. It's better and better, because me and Dusan got really well together. Our way of traveling and dealing with daily activities is almost identical. Just the body is calling for a break. So it shall have it.

We took a day and half off in Dogubeyazit. Nice camping under majestic palace Ishak pasa saray. Our first hot shower since Istanbul. So we can continue to Iran... yeah!!!

pics will come from Iran... at least I hope since the I've heard that the internet is restricted in there now... cheers.

Cycling to Asia, Lion in Zion

This is how we entertain our self a bit on a long and straight roads in Turkey. We have last 5 days a head of us and then Iran. We are looking forward to a change. Turks are bit too rough. All the shouts, toots and attention... one can get fed up with that. No, no we didnt, all Im saying ıs that a change wıll be welcomed. On the other side Ramadan wıll be much more strict ın Inaran, so we better get used to eat just bread lunches...

Cycling to Asia, week 5

The break at the lake turned out to be a great idea. To get there was a bit demanding, during the ascent I thought it should better be the heaven up there, otherwise it's not worth this strenous effort. We reached the lake at 9pm, totaly wet from sweat. But even in dark it looked misterious. We slept for a long 9 hours. We didn't even know how tired we were. For the whole day we did absolutely nothing, except filling our stomachs and taking naps. Very useful day!


What a pleasure it is to ride after a day off. The body is refreshed and the mind is eager to observe new things. But there is a big change in the surroundings. Not that much in the landscape it self -it still keeps on changing from bit more green to dry and brown, only to get greener again. It doesn't rain here much, but there are parts with forest or groves. Predominately its barren, though. The change I'm talking about has happened in people. The reason is Ramadan. First we were bit anxious about how we will get our daily dosage of nutritions- so important to us! But soon we've found out that as tourist plus travelers this is not a problem. Even muslims on the road {pilgrims, travelers} are allowed to eat. But majority of the people do fast during a day. They don't drink tea, some not even water. But they still work and live normal lifes, at least they try to do so. In reality the roads got deserted -only truck drivers remained and the towns are as vieled with slow motion filter. People appears to be just a bit more alive that zombies. They still welcome us everywhere, but not as cheerfully as before and all the invitations for tea have ceased. At least it looks like that in the first days.

After few days we got a better picture about the holy celebration. People take it quite seriously, but as for us it's not a problem. We even got invited for lunch by truck drivers, and few invitations for tea did appear. But everybody is saying that in Iran it's much more strict -they do not even listen to music... Ramadan takes one month so a good half of it we will spend in Iran. Will see...

As for the traffic it is slower, but obviously we don't mind that! Nice thing is that we are surrounded with beautiful mountains from north and south, but the riding is quite easy. The roads are neither too steep nor too straight. Just enough to keep us interested, but not to pass out every evening.It's also not so hot, rather chilli.

On the last day of this week we got another surprise. We woke up just to find out that everything is frezen. The bags and the tent are all covered in ice coating. It's just 23rd august, so we didn't really expected this. True thing is that we slept quite high. It might have been arround 1500m. What followed was a beautiful 25km up hill ride to a mountain pass in 2160m. Sounds horrifing? It wasn't that bad. The almost ceaseless 40km downhill was even better. Now we ended up in Erzincan. Just to give you a picture about the altitudes we are dealing with here, the town lies in 1180m.

Last thing. We've found out that getting a hitch from fully loaded tractor or truck, by just holding tide to its trailor is a good way how to safe energy, specially during the ascents. It doesn't happend too often because it needs a right timing, but ocasionally the luck strikes us. We have grabed a few already. I know, I know this is cheating, but common, we are biking from Slovakia to India, those several 5km kicks are nothing in the whole scale.

good luck to you all, and keep on reading.

Cycling to Asia, part three

WEEK 4
The traffic before Istanbul was horrendous, it started to build up 50 km before the city center, fancy that!? So on the way out we tried to skip it by taking a ferry to Yalova. It was a good choice, but for the next 3 days we were driving on a deadly straight and boringly flat road with a plentiful of trucks passing us. We could do some mileage, but it was quite ordinary riding. On the third day we finally hit our first mountains. The ascent was a killer, but beautiful in one. From now on we ride in nice surroundings, but still on the main road from Istanbul to Ankara, so the traffic is busy. At least the road is in a good shape and there is a roadside. The Bole pass was 950m, but comparing to the Serbian equivalent this was a piece of cake. Anatolia is welcoming us.


What fallowed were few days with very nice views and some excellent riding. But also our first bad experience with kids. We stopped for lunch in a nice picnic area for locals. It was full of natives chillin on the carpets. As usual we had company straight a way. A bunch of adolescent boys surrounded us. While we were fixing our lunch they kept on staring and occasionally chatting with us. They had no problems to just sit next to us and do nothing. We were there for a while and when we started to be fed up with all the attention and decided to leave I've noticed that my leatherman is missing. What followed was a spectacular performance. They showed empty pockets and even started to body check each other. Afterwards they accused one lad that had left few minutes ago. Afterwards they just left with big big apologies. The alleged thief stayed and turned up to be a nice guy, so who was it? Well we should be more cautious but if its only things like a knife that we will get riped of on this journey then it's still alright.

For the next days we had some pleasant ride, mostly down hill. We are descending towards the bottom of Anatolia! The heat started to be noticeable. The land got drier, water supplies fewer, but still enough. We stopped filtering the water, cause here it looks safe, and it's bit pain in the buttocks to filter 4 liters per person. There are only few places suitable for a break so we usually ride from town to a village or nearest city. These became a oasis for us. Except of getting our stomachs full with çorba {soup} in a local restaurants we usually get at least one invitation to a çay {tea}. These warm welcomes are welcomed by us, since the time we spent on the road is associated with solitude -it's hard to have any sort of a chat during the ride, since the roadside is usually in a bad shape, so we ride mostly on the road, but this means some close shaves from the trucks and buses. On the other side there is usually very little that we can talk about with locals, since our Turkish is limited to basic words. So after we inform them about our nationality, where are we coming from and where are we heading we leave. The joy and surprisement on the faces is something worth telling the same story dozen times a day.

At the end of this week we started to wear long trousers again. The villages got more rural and we felt this will be more suitable. Not even 10 km in morning and we got our first invitation for çay. What so significant about it? Well this time it was to a old family living in a small house next to a road. The tea was cooked on a old Turkish style cooker, working on wood. What a nice sign, for our decision.

Soon after we got out from mountains and hit some flat land again. This meant an encounter wind good old friend: wind. It allowed us to travel only 10km/h witch is just bit more then during an uphill ride, but this time with no reward in exciting downhill ride, plus the noise.

It's almost a weak since we left Istanbul. Good thing on it is that we are finally of the beaten track Istanbul - Ankara, so anywhere we go we are the main attraction. This is very interesting. But also the quality of the road changed and I started to be bored. It's for the first time on this journey that I felt something like boredom, but you have to understand that the land hasn't changed for the last few days, wind is making it extraordinary difficult to progress, and of course my body needs a rest. Surprisingly even after month I have a sore muscles in the evening. It's much better than it was during the first week or two, but still, I thought that the body will adjust completely. Well but what I want, right? Five to six hours of excessive exercise is not very normal.

Today we took a break in Amasya and we are heading to a small lake where we will take a whole day off. Both of us need it. We got enough of dusty roads, tooting of the trucks at us and monotonic riding. You may ask what will we do in the Pakistani desert, but this hasn't come yet, so it doesn't boder us.

cheers

Cycling to Asia, Dusan

In Dusan words... this time in slovak language:

Mame za sebou europsku etapu nasej vypravy a aj do Istanbulu je to uz z mestecka Çerkeş daleko. Slapeme po hlavnej ceste smerom na Osmancik, Erzurum a uvidime ako dalej.. Premavka nie je taka hrozna ako sme ocakavali, no ked sa nam zunuje horko, prah a dostaneme chut na debatu, tak si zajdeme do nejakeho z miest prı ceste a vsetko sa nahle zmeni. Mestecka posobia ako oazy a po hodinach "osameleho" slapania nam ani nevadi, ze nas vzdy obkolesi hlucik deti, ktore sa s velkou radostou pozeraju na to, ako napriklad jeme melon... Ich zvedavost je vsak skor mila a nakoniec je z toho vzdy obojstranne potesenie. Turci su velmi spolocenski. Nemaju zabrany vypytovat sa na cokolvek. Skoda vsak, ze len po turecky. My si zas melieme po slovensky, no nakoniec aj tak dospejeme k porozumeniu. Rec je predsa iba jeden z mnohych dorozumievacich prostriedkov.
Anatolıa je typıcky kontınentalna. Nocı velmı chladne, dnı horuce, no telicka si celkom zvykaju. Potom co nas opustil Brano sme trochu spomalili, prirodzene:> Kupat sa uz niet kde, jedine ak vo vlastnom pote. Rieky i obcasne jazera su velmi spinave. Slovicko kanalizacia by sme v slovensko-tureckom slovniku asi nenasli. Ked sme to predsa len raz skusili, domorodci si nas potom, co sme vysli z vody, obzerali s respektom a tak trochu s odstupom..:>

Cycling to Asia, part two

Its quıte hard to keep track of the days, plus almost ımpossıble to have a regular wrıtıng sesıons so thıs blog wıll be reduced a bıt. I wıll wrıte only ın weeks. Sorry for that.

WEEK 2
So Belehrad, right? After thıs nıce day off the real trıp started. Brano was rıght Hungary and Voıvodına (north regıon of Serbıa) where borıng. We decıded to head to Bulgarıan mountaıns, but thıs meant that we wıll cross also some Serbıan mountain passes. Rıght after Smederovo we are catchıng a good blow from nıce back wınd. Muscels are relaxed, wınd ıs good, road ıs straıght, so fınally we have an avarıdge day speed 20 km/h. Wanna see whats gonna be lıke ın moutaıns.

On 9th day we met a Polısh cyclıng fella Mıchal. He ıs quıte crazy, drıvıng only speed street bıke wıth thın tıres, but quıte loaded. Hıs back wheel has broaken rım, but he dıd 1000 km wıth that so ıt looks lıke everythıng ıs alrıght. Nıce quy, lıttlebıt bıke crazy but thats fıne wıth me.


Moutaıns started. Im knacked rıght away. Thıs ıs a dıfferent cup of tea. I thought that my body got used to drıvıng after a week, but now I have to get used to clımbıng up the hıll. The speed drops down to 6-7 km/h and sweat drops down from my forehead. After a day or to I started to enjoy the whole proces. Why? Because almost after each clımb, there ıs a downhıll rıght. And these are awsome. We reached a pretty crazy maxımum speed: 76 km/h downhill wıth fully loaded bıkes ıs scary... Overall the avarıdge speed declıned a bıt but ıt doesnt matter. The vıews are magnıcıfent, nature beutiful and the rıde ıs just awesome.

The choıse to go trough mountaıns was just great. There ıs no wınd and the relaxed nature around us ıs much better than plaın fıelds or bussy towns. We stıll manadge to make 100 km a day, ıt just takes us a bıt longer. Now we have to pad for 6 hours, but thats allrıght.


The last nıght ın Serbıa was nıce. After a pleasant 25 km downhıll rıde, we found a nıce small church. It looked as for a whıle nobody vısıted thıs place, so we should be safe and alone. For an unknown reason Brano decıded to rıng the bell... DONG! Hmmm are we stıll gonna spend the nıght peacefully here? Well the locals seems to be acustomed to goasts or crazy strandgers, because nobody showed up. It was fırst nıght wıthout a tent, so we could stretch our bones a bıt.

Next day a downhıll rıght to Bulgarıan borders. The Serbıan offıcers trıed to be tough and mentıoned that we should have regıster upon arrıval, but sınce nobody told us that before, we just ıgnored them and everythıng was OK. Bulgarıans were just fıne. Well they are ın EU, so they should be. We got down from mountaıns, fırst I was lookıng forward to a bıt of an easy rıdıng, but the tremendous heat that stroke us changed my mınd. Mountaıns are really great!

The other shock was the country by ıt self. Everythıng got much drıer, people much more quıet and towns half breakıng appart. Lot of houses are deserted and vılıdges look really spooky. Is thıs really EU? It looks lıke 120 years a go.

WEEK 3
Bulgarıans are totaly dıfferent. Reserved and poor. No facıal expressıon lıke Serbs. No comments to our crazy rıde. Just empty gaze or meanıngless starıng. Occasıonaly they do ask few questıons, but wıth almost no emotıons.
We got very well together. Almost all thıngs about the mornıng and evenıng procedure are vell organızed. Our dayly routınıes got well manadged and the most ımportant of all, we learned eached other needs and stıles. We have sımmılar stamına, so cyclıng ıs not a problem and our need for food ıs olso quıte equal. We eat lıke crazy. Thıs ıs deffınıtally not low budget way of travelıng. There ıs usually somebody who doesnt want to have a water melon rıght now, but ıf two agree than the thırd one fıts ın as well.

We consumed almost all food from home, so the weıght of my bıke got normalızed. Now the whole thıng mıght be arround 40-45 kg. Its stıll a small bus, but much more handy than before. Now the whole maneuverıng and drıvıng seems natural to me. It wasnt lıke that at the begınıng. But now after 1300 km everythıng ıs a sure thıng. The whole trıp appears natural to me. Thıs ıs probably the most convınıent way of travellıng, that appeals to me a lot now. We went trough a mountaın pass between Pırın and Rıla. The bıggest mountaıns ın Balkan. It could have been 1200 m above see level. The ascent was even, but ıt was a steady 20 km. I sweat at least a gallon. It was lıke a shover, because ıts really hot here. Fırst tıme that I couldnt do ıt ın one stretch - I had to take a breadıng break. We spent the nıght on the other sıde, just behınd Bansko -somethıng lıke our Poprad. Turıstıc and borıng.

The bıggest hard core came the other day. In our oblıgatory 100 km a day we went up for at least 60km. So more sweatıng rıde than a pleasure one. The goal was to reach the lake at Dospat. We had to clımb steep hıll, wıth almost no vıews. The last 4km were a max kıller, but the satısfactıon that followed was nıce. Lake lıke a norwegıan fjord. Hıgh hılls, steep slopes and a bıg lake. One of the best place for campıng on our trıp so far.

We are already ın east. The proof ıs our western way of havıng breakfast: local bakarıes and mılk or yogurt are too tasty to resıst the temptatıon. Bulgarıa ıs the cheapest country so far. The prıces for veggıes and fruıts are sometımes rıddıculous. For example a bıg watermelon for 1 euro or 2kg of tomato for 50 cents...

Next day agaın more up hıll than down hıll. Thıs ıs gettıng quıte tırıng. Most of the tıme were are arround 1000 m above the see so the clımate ıs totaly cyclo frıendly. We passed trough a hıstorıc vıllıdge called Shıroka Luka. It was nıce, but full of tourısts together wıth hıppıes. Funny combınatıon.

It looks lıke that the muscels wıll not be the problem, but the sınews mıght be. I start to feel my sınews under the rıght knee and Dusan ıs havıng a problems wıth hıs Achılles tendom.


We found a magnıcıfent spot for the nıght underneath a rocky face on a nıce meadow above Smolıan. These two days were extra demandıng. The ascents deffınıtely prevaıled the descents.Satısfactıon came on the thırd day. We slıd down to the town, took mılk breakfast and kept on rıdıng down the hıll for another 50km almost unınterrupted by hılls. Basıcally the whole day was very easy. We pedalled only few tımes to reach Kardzalı (95km). The two small hılls were just good for us to get hungry for lunch and dıgest after lunch...

The clımate changed rapıdly agaın. The heat and dryness changed the landscape to a hostıle peace of land. At least for cyclısts wıth hıgh demad of water. Tıll now we dıdnt have any problem wıth drınkıng water but now we are quıte close to Turkey and the streams of water are gettıng fewer and fewer.


On the 19th day we reached Kapıtan Andrevo -the border crossıng to Turkey. I remember thıs crossıng as very alıve from my last vısıte 9 years ago, but ıts nothıng lıke that anymore. No more sleepıng famılıes and hopeless refudges. What happend to them? The other change ıs that the entry tıcket to the country doubled (20 bucks), but thıs ıs understandable sınce the dollar went down.

WEEK 4
The next four days brought us to Istanbul. It was quıte dıffıcult because Turkey welcomed us wıth strong wınds and borrıng hılly country. But on the shore of Marmara see we met Forkan. Nıce turkısh quy, who offered us to stay ın hıs house. Fırst we wanted to be the only for 1 nıght, but our tıred bodıes asked for some rest. Well two weeks ın sadle ıs not so easy. Entrance to Istanbul was crazy. The traffıc started almost 50 km before the outscrıts of the old town. Basıcally the whole coast ıs a contınuous strıpe of houses.

Hostels ınsıde the cıty are fully booked so we ended up ın a receptıon hall of one nıce cozy hostel. They chardged us only 5 euro per person so Its even better then a normal bed. At least for me.



Tomorrow asıa. But that comes ın other part. New trıp ıs ın front of us. We'll be only two, plus we will go off the main roads like Istanbul Ankara, so things will get interesting... yeah!

Cycling to Asia, part one

If I were to look at the signs I would most probably stay home. The two years preparation of this trip ended up almost catastrophically. I had one week to tag together my bike. Firstly they broke my frame in the cycling service. How did they manage I don't know. Then I had to send back my new pedals, one of them didn't fit. Afterwards I have found out that the Shwalbe tires were falling down from the rims. So I got a new pair. Two days before the set off day I had a small accident. Once again the tire went off during a ride!!! This is just too much. So during the last day I had to get new wheels. Instead of calm packing day I had a bit of a rush day going to Bratislava, buying new wheels (this time I went for quality, Mavic) and then getting the bike ready. I was done at 11pm. Packing remains for to morrow. At least I have a decent wheels.

day 1
I set off at 9 am. Lego have come to make an intro shot on my camcorder. We shot few scenes and then he left. Right after he was gone the rear Shwalbe tire went off. What the hell?! I don't believe it! So I had to come back and change the tires. I took what I had at home plus two spare ones. Once again I left after 12 o'clock. First kilometres were fine, but I had so much stuff in my head that I didn't even realize that I'm finally on the road. Heading east. On my dream trip to India. NO. I was just cycling from Galanta, waiting for another disaster. I didn't trust anything. After 50km my head eased a bit. Then a heavy rain started. I didn't care. I had to be in Sturovo at 7pm plus I was too stressed to wait somewhere. I had put on my waterproof gear and kept on cycling. After a while the rain changed to a heavy down pour. Who cares? I went like crazy. More it rained, happier and easier I was. I didn't even realized that I had a flat tire. But soon I found out that the pedalling is too hard, this cannot be the wind. So I looked down... whoops... Never mind. I fixed it quickly and went on the road again.
I came to Sturovo just before the train, from which Dusan was suppose to get out. But he didn't. Funny, but whit all these problems I came here first. Brano showed up at 9 pm with news about Dusan. He was washed out with by the same heavy water in Dubnica and missed the train. He'll be here at midnight. We set up our base at the trains station.
Big meeting with Dusan. We are all tree together. The trip can begin.


DAY 2
We woke up quite late, still on the Slovak side. First few kilometres were nice and easy. We were still fresh and full of energy. Budapest came within few ours. We took a bath in a like on the outskirts of the town. Then went trough the centre and then went to the opposite side. There we found a small church with nice lawn were we stayed for the night

DAY 3
Flat, flat flat! Just straight and flat roads of Hungary are the best way how to get started. My body, my muscles and my buttocks are not prepared for such a trip. I had never done more than 70km a day and now we want to average 100km a day!!! Well, we'll see. But at the end of the day I'm pretty knocked. Just during the last refiling of our water bottles, we stopped in a small village. One old farmer came with a bucket full of peaches. Wow. That's all for us? Thanks a lot.


DAY 4
Morning was nice. The cycling to the Serbian border was a good exercise. One would say a good warm up! We spent all our Hungarian money in the last village. Ice cream and coke. We still have some food from home, so we didn't have to worry much about our stomachs.

DAY 5
Hello Serbia. Finally we can understand what the people are saying, even though quite deep into Serbia people are still speaking Hungarian. We changed money in Subotica. I tried to use my debit card and it didn't work. This worried me a bit, because I have only 500$. My first thoughts? If I really wanted to I thing we can manage the whole trip to India, but our way of taking care of our selves would have to change. So far we don't starve at all! This is more of a gastronomic journey than a pilgrimage to a monastery. But our bodies are asking for the energy that we use every hour. In other words: we eat like horses!



DAY 6
The landscape is pretty much the same as in Hungary, but the people are a different kind. Much more passionate and energetic. They gesticulate wildly when they talk and they talk a lot. Everywhere where we stop, even just for water, people start shooting typical questions... where are we from, where do we go? Oh my goodness, Istanbul? We are trying to prevent them from heart attacks so India is not always mentioned.
Today is not so windy as yesterday so we are full of energy. Wind is very depressing factor. Flat roads should be peace of cake, but with wind facing us it's a nightmare... but with wind blowing to our backs its superb. It looks so easy now. My knee is getting better, bus muscles are stronger and buttocks tougher. I'm looking for a day off, but I can see that the worst is behind us. We sleep on the shore of Danube just before Beograd. We met Dragan there. For the first look a tough guy, but he ended up as an experienced motorcycle traveller and offered us a shower and coffee. Very much appreciated after 6 long days, specially before having a day of in a city. He travelled throughout Mexico and from North to South in Africa. Not bad for such a strange looking guy.


DAY 7
Beograd. The outskirts are terrible. Cyclists nightmare. I didn't know that there are slums in Europe. Dragan said that there are 100 000 gypsies living in here, and we know it's true. The edge of the town was dirtier than dirt. But the inner city is very nice and quite bike friendly. Lot of drinking water and city parks. This day is for recharging our energy and so it looks like right from the beginning. Slow morning, slow day, adrenalin evening.
Firstly we got all we needed in the city, then a big big chill out near the city fortress and finally swimming in the city lake. It was overcrowded with people. It looked like the whole city is bathing in there, but after a week on the road we appreciated some company. Strangely enough nobody talked to us. Well big city, they are used to strangers. We chilled a bit too much, because we left the centre a bit too late. Till we got to the suburbs it got dark and still too many houses to pitch our tents. We climbed all the way up and then... woooowwww a 15 km downhill ride between buses, cars and wholes in the road. And all this with just head torch and a red back light. Well, we were seen, but we saw less than nothing. But the speed was so tantalizing that we didn't care. We shouted like crazy!

Cycling to Asia, part 0

Most of you know, what's in front of me, or better to say in front of us. Just in case you still don't know what I was talking about the last year, or so, here is a briefing: Me and my good friend from uni Dusan decided to cycle from Slovakia to India, continuing to Burma and Thailand. There we will try to load the bikes on a aeroplane and fly back home.
Old dream is coming to materialize. Some serious preparation is in progress now. We have just visited the Vienna's embassies, i.e. Iran and Pakistan. Simply to say the most crucial ones, since Turkey is not a problem, India should be fine and Burma is not within our reach now. We couldn't have choose a better time! Or the Iranian elections could have triggered the fuss in Teheran few months ago, so today it would be all over. We are just hoping that in the time of our arrival to Iran everything is gonna be fine. Surprisingly everything went smoothly on both embassies. If you need any advise contact me. There is quite a lot of rubbish written on internet. We simply went to Iran, where we applied for the visa. The ambassador was very distinguished and polite. He took our application and told us to call in 3 weeks. Then we went to Pakistan, this took a bit longer, but finally we left our passports there. The visas should be granted to us in two weeks, so we've got enough time for the Iran. The only problem we have is that all the visas need to be validate until 3 months i.e. we have to entry the particular country within this time. Well, since our journey will take circa 4 months till we reach India the Pakistan is a bit of a problem, but we hope we can make it. India is definitely out of the question now: we have to apply for the visas on the road. Most probably in Istanbul. Burma and Thailand will cheer up our days in Delhi.
Now waiting, we can focus on other things. In my case this is my bicycle. I have brought a mountain bike from Norway. Its a good peace that was given to me by my friend Ivan, but since it was found in a river I have to fix it "a bit". I started with dismantling it. Soon I will buy all necessary parts that have to be changed. This is all movable parts as chain, tubes, tyres, wires and so on. Plus I will change the shifting gear and some other things. Here I will just reuse the parts I have found on the streets of Oslo -all in good shape and high quality, but not brand new. So the bike is going to be reborn. But still within a budged of almost everybody. Nothing fancy, but long lasting of course. At least I hope! I'd rather have some money aside for the broken parts during the trip.
Next direction of my interest is to pack. This is not as easy as I usually remember it from my previous adventures. Firstly I have never been on a bike trip longer than two days!!! Secondly we are going trough a wide range of countries in a combination with different seasons, altitudes, temperatures and environments. Not mentioning the lack of bicycle supplies en route. This means we need to take almost everything with us. Well since we want to enjoy the journey as well we have to find a way how take everything necessary, but manageable to carry with us on the bikes. Its not a big deal, but I don't want to underestimate it so I started to "pack" three weeks before departure -quite unusual for me, but who cares.
The rest of my time I spent either on-line checking for cycling routes, parts and other stuff or with my friends that I haven't seen for ages and now I will leave them again.

Rjukan

We paid a visit to our dear friend Lubka. She lived with us in Oslo, but she has moved now to Rjukan, because she found a good work there. The place is lovely -like from a picturesque fairy tale book. The only thing is that you should like peace and quiteness, otherwise you would go mad after few weeks. But for us is just the best place, neverless its bit different to go there for a nice weekend comparing to living there. But I'm sure lubka will cope with all the "disatvantages". Look at the advantages and you'll know, that's not going to be difficult.

Lifjell mountiens

Boli sme s kamosmi na vylete v krasnych horach Norska. Bol predlzeny vykend a tak sme nevahali. Zacinam mat dojem, ze norsko je vlastne len kopa kopcov, dolin a tisicero jazier. Sem tam to pokazia nejake tie mesta, ale nie je ich moc a su dostatocne od seba vzdialene aby sa dalo chodit kade tade bez vplivu civilizacie. Nebudem vela pisat. Fotky hovoria za seba...

Malaysia 2009, part three

Borneo an island of immense beauty! I guess that the name will spark wild imagination in almost every mind. No wonder that this large island was conquered by many. The Portuguese where fought out by the Dutch and they lost the influence to the British... but this is not a history blog so lets get back to my story.
This is the best part of my trip, if I dare to claim something like The best part. It's not only due to the beauty of this island, that really spectacular compared to the peninsular Malaysia. The main reason might lie in the dramatic change in my way of experiencing this country. For the last two months I have been surrounded with caring Chinese-Malaysians. From the most part I didn't have to move with a finger. They organized everything to the last detail. It was nice, it was pleasant but I had enough. Jitka also felt like doing some exploration on our own, so we didn't hesitate and organized our own trip.
First we aimed to Bako National Park which lies close to Kuching. Madam Sim's house in Kuching was our base since we entered the Island. This town has very good location since there are at least 3 big national park within a day trip distance. Bako is the most famous one. Unfortunately for us, its too famous, because we couldn't get a lodging for Saturday night. Never mind. We got the on Sunday early morning. We got there just in time to catch the boat with other travelers which suited our valets. Even though the park lies on a small cape the only way to get there is a boat. This keeps the park safe from pollution -I hope at least. Monkeys and wild boar invited us straight away. We left our backpacks in a smelly-dirty dormitory that we share with two Norwegian girls. Jitka was bit discussed, but what we could be glad that we had at least something. Than we went for a whole day hike. After two months sitting and watching our minds, every step was quite demanding and every flower, ant or stone were interesting. First we wanted to make an eight hour round trip on a big circle inside the park, but we missed one crossing so we ended up only on the small circle around the park headquarters. They say it should take 3-5 hours, but we managed to do it in 9... so you can imagine how curious and relaxed we were. It was very meditative walk and the whole day as well. The night was sticky and hot, as almost every single one before. We woke up early and went for the morning beach meditation. Afterwards I couldn't resist and got my morning swim even though the water wasn't too luring.
We left straight after breakfast, that was liven up by a monkey jumping to the next table, quickly steeling some bread and getting back to the jungle. The horror in the faces of the poor tourists was not surprising. The monkey did look dangerous.
We got back to Kuching. Just a mere bus ride or taxi to the airport was interesting for us, because before that we were driven everywhere by car.
We flew to Kota Kinnebalu (KK)in the afternoon. This town lies on the other side of Borneo and there is no road joining these to capitals. In contrary to Kuching KK as people usually refer to it is not interesting at all. It has been completely rebuild after the WW2 so you can imagine the outcome. But we found a nice cozy backpackers inn calling The Borneo Backpackers... For the rest of the day we wanted to explore the night marked, but we couldn't find it. But what we did find was a second hand cloths. This was very welcomed by us, since we are aiming to the Mount Kinnebalu, The summit is soaring up to some 4400 m so the temperature can drop to zero. Now were are at 2 m above the see level and the temperature is soaring up to 40 degrees... We were able to leave all unnecessary stuff at the reception and left the next morning for a long minibus ride towards the park headquarters. The journey was magnificent! The road was cutting trough some of the highly beautiful peace of land, slowly rising to some 1000 meters. The air changed dramatically and so did the landscape. The were stunning views all over the road, but only when we had a glimpse on The Hill we understood why is every travels guide so cautious. The top is a sheer massive rock face. Massive attacks of wind and rain are must be hard to bear once they strike and the possibility of a rewarding nice views is feeble since the clouds hit this highest point between Himalayas and Japan on regular basis. Natural shelters like trees comes to an abrupt end once you reach 3300 m. There is a refugee hut, but once again we couldn't get the booking. Its run by a monopoly company that holds a thigh hand on it. Guides and regular check points are all over the main and alternative routes. Tracking trough jungle is close to impossible, so unless you pay you wont get to the top. But its not only question of money. I wasn't too keen to pay for hiking permit, travel guide that is almost useless, entrance ticket and expansive lodging, but since I don't know when or if I will get here again I decided to go for it. Well but it all ended up differently since we didn't get the booking (again). We knew this straight a way but still we decided to go there and hope for a cancellation. It didn't happened. Maybe it was good for us. Jitka is far from being fit for such a demanding hike, to be honest me neither and I don't want to support this disgusting business. Instead of that we got a cheap and lovely accommodation outside the park, just few dozen meters down the main road from KK. After getting rid of our backpacks we went for an another highly interesting walk on the foot of the hill. The nature is quite different and the air is much more breathable, so it was very refreshing. In contrary to Bako we didn't meet anybody on this trail, since everybody is aiming to the summit. Never mind... this suits us well. Our sensitive sanes and lazy bodies made a whole day experience from this few hours round trip. The dark night caught us in the last hour or so. With no torch and no moon light in the deep jungle its quite hard to see where you're stepping. We liked it so much that we decided to stay here one more night.
The next day was great again. We had place to stay and many things to do, so we woke up early -still used to do so form the retreats. After filling Chinese breakfast we decided to try local hospitality and our luck so we tried to hitch hike to a near by hot springs. Its just 30 km from the park headquarters and the “very caring” guy at the reception offered it to us for “just” 80 RM for one way. The price is for a coach, but still!!! Get lost! We want to meet the locals not just tourist guides. We got the hitch almost immediately. He took us to Reno (sorry I forgot the name of this town, so this is only a replacement). There was a big market right next to the main road, which was happening once in month as we found out later -this we will check out on our way back. From Reno we got an another ride. This time the old man was bit cunning -he asked for money at the end, but we gladly gave him some, rather than the business men in park... The hot springs were hot but except of that not much. But we are not picky so we enjoyed it. It was very, very relaxing day. We met there some travelers that made it that day to the summit. Useful info was that there were free beds in the hut -somebody didn't show up, but didn't bother to cancel the reservation. What ever, we had good times anyway. On the way back we stopped in Reno and got our self freshly roasted fish -delicious as nothing I have eaten before! The night felt, but we still tried to get a hitch back to the hotel. This time it wasn't so quick but eventually one good man stopped and brought us to our cozy room.
Hitch hiking looks like good alternative -its more fun, its cheap, its quicker than buses and it works here so the next morning the natural choice was to stand on the road. Few minutes and we are on the move. This time back to KK. We got back to our backpackers inn, relaxed a bit and went for the last experience. There are five small islands at the throwing distance form the shores of the city. After a small troubles with the boat companies we choose one. The islands are advertised as scuba diving paradise... well to be honest its nothing compared to the Caribbean corals which I have seen in Honduras, but still something. The sun was beating down like never, hot sand, turquoise water and island atmosphere were just fine for our last day in Borneo.
In the evening we managed to find the night marked, so we were able to spend the last money for some gifts and some good food, of coarse.
Next day the flying insanity could start. First we flew back to KL, here we met some of our old new friends. My flight back to Europe is scheduled in 1 am tomorrow so there is no point in sleeping. After some 16 hours of flight and 30 hours total I got back to Oslo. What??? Its beginning of April and there is still snow in the city. Oh my goodness... well good thing is that the Easter are this weekend so I will have to work only 3 days... this is the end of my first Asian experience.