Last night in Khabarovsk...

Well we didn't end up camping last night for several reasons.  Mostly because the good camp sites Phil knew by the river had been claimed, but also the rains had come so it was surely to be a wet night. None of us we're disappointed as the consolation prize was the privilege of staying at Phil's home for the night and enjoying a wonderful meal with his family, Lena and several of Phil's friends. I think there were about 14 of us enjoying a Russian meal of beef, pork, vegetables, rice and local spices. We had also picked up some local beer and vodka so the evening became very festive.  Phil later broke out his guitar and provided the musical entertainment.  He is very skilled on the guitar and has a brilliant voice.  Good times!  Thank you so much Lena and Phil for your gracious hospitality welcoming us into your homes.  This time in Khabarovsk has been a highlight of the journey so far.

This morning we hit the road again after saying goodbye to our new friends.  We need to make some time and cover miles over the next few days as we hope to be in Chita by Wednesday.  Chita is about 2000 km away and there are no cities and very few small towns along the route.  We heard that the roads are better in this stretch than they were from Vlad to Khabarovsk but we will see.  As we found out last night while out looking for campsites the rain can make the dirt sections of road deteriorate quickly.  We are also hoping to reconnect with Adbang who will be coming back the other way from Lake Bakiel.

The bridge crossing the river...

Mark in Phil's living room.

Helping Phil prepare dinner.  I was a vegetable chopper.

Mark on a section of muddy road.

The road while searching for a campsite.  There were a few squirrely sections.

Posing for pictures before leaving Phil's Place.

Khabarovsk...

We arrived in Khabarovsk about 4pm - just in time for the rush hour in this city of around 800,000. We weren't sure if it was correct or not but a bank sign read 41 degrees Celsius.  All I know is that it was miserably hot sitting in stop and go traffic for almost 2 hours in full riding gear.  The gear is designed with cooling vents that work quite well at speed in high temperatures but are pretty much useless when not moving.  I didn't drink enough water during the day and we didn't stop for lunch - plus the heat and two hours in traffic pretty much wrecked me by the time we arrived at Lena's apartment.  My body and mind pretty much went into shutdown mode until I was able to re-hydrate. In the future I need to make sure to stay hydrated and eat some food during the day.

Khabarovsk is one of the two major cities in the Far East of Russia - Vladivostok being the other. The city is at the confluence of two major rivers - one flowing in from China and the other flowing from Russia.  We are about 50 kilometers from the China boarder here.  At the confluence the river is so wide it looks like a lake and a several kilometer bridge was constructed about 15 years ago to get across. Before the car bridge was built only the train had a bridge and cars and people had to cross by ferry.

We enjoyed a dinner of excellent Chinese food with Lena and her friend Phil.  After dinner we went back to Lena's apartment and engaged in good conversation and enjoyed some Russian spirits - which was basically moonshine.  A home brew type of grain alcohol cut down with water and fruit flavored syrup.  We also enjoyed watching videos of Phil's adventures in the mountains to the north and a trip he and several friends had made to Tibet. The footage was stunning with mountains, white water rafting and skiing/snowboarding.  We shared photos of similar activities from the mountains of Colorado and rivers of Utah and the Grand Canyon.  We all had a wonderful time together - certainly one of the best evenings of the trip so far.  I don't know why it was a surprise that we were all so much alike - I guess we just develop preconceived thoughts of what other cultures are like.  What we are finding is people from other cultures are much more alike than different - people are people and that is good!

Today Lena toured us around Khabarovsk.  We were all moving a bit slow, paying the price for the night before, but I think Ken was in the worst shape.  He turned into Silent Bob, maybe saying a half dozen words all afternoon.  I wish I had had my camera for the walk through the city - but the battery was dead so I left in in Lena's flat to charge up along with my phone.  Pretty much everything except my iPad has depleted batteries so it is good we got to stay at her place a night.  We also got to do laundry in a real washing machine as opposed to our normal sink washings - luxury!  

Tonight we are going camping with Lena and Phil to a spot they know on the river.  Will be nice to camp in a spot we are supposed to be and not have to worry about being discovered by security. They say it is a beautiful spot so I am looking forward to it.

This is Joseph a fellow traveler from Germany who we met on the road.  He was heading to Vladivostok.

Arrival in Khabarovsk.

Late night snacks at Lena's.  The little stemmed glasses got filled a lot!

Phil, Lena, Ken and Mark.

The Road to Khabarovsk...

The road to Khabarovsk is M-60 - we think.  The GPS says it is A-370 so we are not entirely sure. The road signs and compass indicate we are heading in the right direction so we are going with it.  In any case, the road goes from good, to fair, to bad, and then to total crap - then repeats the cycle in no particular order.  The total crap sections are the parts under repair and/or construction - sometimes a section of road is abandoned and they just start over next to the old section.  This area of Russia experiences 120 degree temperature swings between winter and summer and this basically destroys the roads throughout many sections.  Going through the construction zones it is a free for all with cars, trucks and us using any bit of available gravel and dirt to get through.  Some sections they put down gravel chards the size of baseballs, so you must pay attention to the terrain as well as the other vehicles doing crazy stupid shit - just like they do on the good road sections.  Many Russian drivers turn passing into a game of chicken - passing a string of vehicles even though cars are coming in the opposite lane.  If the oncoming vehicle is a car they force it off the road and continue to pass.  If it is a truck, then the just get back into the right lane - even if you are in it.  We tend to follow the principle of yield to anything bigger than you - which is most everything except scooters and other motorcycles.  "Right of way" just isn't a consideration.  It does no good to be right and dead, so we basically just ride like we are invisible and try to anticipate the next stupid, crazy, insane move the other cars and trucks frequently make.

We also have to look out for unmarked road damage on the good sections.  It's not like in the US where you normally see temporary signs to mark damaged road or bumps.  With all these variables going on we keep the speed around 80 or 90 kph.  A bit faster when passing big slow trucks.  Mostly we are getting passed because apparently Russians don't give a crap about their cars and beat the piss out of them on the marginal roads.

It is Friday and today we will meet up with a contact of Marks in Khabarovsk.  We also have a contact number from Ilya #2 at the local Iron Angles chapter in Khabarovsk.  We will most likely spend the weekend there so it should be some good fun.

Last night was our second "Dutchman" camp in as many nights.  We did a better job concealing ourselves two nights ago - last night we were discovered by Russian Security assigned to guard the communication tower up the dirt road from where we set up camp.  The rolled up around midnight and told us we must leave the area.  This would be a very bad idea as it would take a while to break camp and load up, it was late and dark, and we had just consumed the home brew whiskey a Russian restaurant owner Sergei had gifted us at our lunch stop - a very friendly, hospitable and generous man.  He sat and chatted with us while we ate and offered us extra items to sample that we had not ordered or paid for.  

We attempted to explain the situation in both Russian and English as the head guard (there were 3) did speak some English.  They agreed to let us stay the night if we did not go up near the tower - and warned us that he had cameras up there and would know if we did.  Whew!  Got a bit lucky once again...

Smoked Oscar for lunch at Sergei's.

A church in one of the small villages we passed through.

Utility road camp on Thursday.

The forbidden tower where we were trespassing.

Wednesday's camp off a logging road.

Crash, Bang, Boom...

We got a late start leaving Vlad as we had to collect our deposit from the apartment and the landlord could not meet us until noon.  Armed with local SIM cards we now have unlimited calls and data in Russia - all for the bargain basement price of $40 US for 2 months.  We also stocked up on Rubles at the ATM and camp supplies at the local grocery - great selection!

We hit the road a little after noon and immediately hit the same gridlock on the same street as the day before on the way to the Iron Angles clubhouse.  Mark who was leading got a little impatient and began splitting lanes and slipping between cars from lane to lane.  I was attempting to keep up with them as Ken had the GPS route that would lead us out of town and I didn't want to lose them.  The day before we just shut down the machines and brake coasted down the hill until traffic was moving again.  I wasn't comfortable taking unnecessary risks by splitting lanes with cars aggressively moving in and out of lanes - and had just conveyed this to Ken over the radio when I heard a crunch and looked down to see a piece of plastic on the ground next to the bike.  At first I wasn't sure if it was a piece off my bike or the truck behind me.  I had just split a lane and darted into the lane to the right when the truck went for the same spot.  My rear box had grazed his fender and popped off a plastic body piece.  "Oh shit" was my first thought - this won't be good.

The guy jumped out if his truck and started shouting at me in Russian.  I pulled up to Ken to get his attention and he started shouting louder.  In Russia when there is an accident the vehicles must stay in the same spot it happened regardless of the location or traffic conditions - totally stupid rule.  So there we were sitting in the middle of 5 lanes of gridlock making the traffic situation even worse.  Mark got off his bike and came over and started speaking to the guy in Russian - he had taken lessons for 6 months in Australia so could communicate somewhat with the guy.  Ken and I started looking over the damage - which was a joke.  The piece that had fallen off had clearly come off before.  There was caulk and dry wall screws that had held the part in place.  My barely nicking it had jarred it loose and it fell off.  Not a scratch could be found on my pannier.

He threatened to call the police if I didn't pay for the damage.  As the negotiation was going on, a police car pulled up to check out the situation.  I couldn't understand what the officers said after inspecting the Russian guy's truck, but their expressions and body language seemed to be "are you freaking kidding me Nancy boy?"  They asked Mark if I spoke any Russian, and he said no.  The then shrugged and got back in the police car and left.  

So the Russian guy wanted 6000 Rubles as restitution.  Technically he rear ended me at the front of his truck hit the rear of my bike.  It wasn't worth the hassle and he was still threatening to call the police again, so I just paid him and we were off.  I snapped a couple of pics with my phone. 

The massive damage to his truck.

Notice the caulk Kine at the bumper seam.

Vladivostok - Seoul on Crack...

We arrived at 9:30am back at the ferry terminal to meet Svetlana and retrieve our bikes.  The process today was just as efficient as yesterday and 1.5 hours later we were led to the warehouse garage and our bikes.  Links, Ltd. is worth the price of admission.  Yuri had been my contact in the planning process and Svetlana our speedy and efficient handler here in Vlad.  Both fantastic and made the process seem very easy - which I'm sure in actuality is not. They also set us up with the required liability insurance needed to travel through Russia by motorbike.  There are many steps to clearing foreign goods into any country and local knowledge is important.  Yuri and Svetlana showed that they are pros and made everything look very easy.  I would highly recommend using their services to anyone importing a vehicle into Vlad.  They Rock!

So we geared up and got on the bikes to run 100 yards back to the ferry terminal to have a coffee and breakfast and say farewell to Adbang and June.  They were anxious to get on the road as they were on a tighter schedule than us and would not be staying the additional night in Vlad.  The coffee is very good in Russia!  You actually have the option of no cream or sugar unlike Korea where it tends to be automatic - or maybe we just never mastered the proper way to order.  I had hamburger type patty topped with a sunny side up egg and a side salad of tomatoes, onions, cucumber and bitter lettuce for breakfast.  It was delicious!  I think I will like Russian food.

We then hooked up with Ilya #2 who is a member of the Iron Angles Vladivostok chapter motorcycle club.  We we were to follow him to their clubhouse where Mark was going to do an oil change on his bike and we would get to hang out a bit in their clubhouse that we had heard so much about from other motorbike travelers coming through Vlad.  The ride to the clubhouse was a bit of a nightmare due to the crazy heavy traffic, super hilly roads (think San Francisco), and blazing hot sun.  When you are not moving on a motorcycle and geared up in the hot sun it is miserably hot.  The gear is designed to vent you while moving, but traffic was at a standstill so no venting was happening.  We actually had the machines shut off and were slowly coasting and braking downhill for at least 45 minutes.  If this had been an uphill section it would have been pretty bad - especially for me with a BMW dry clutch and marginal skills in stop and go traffic - most of my riding is in rural Colorado where traffic is minimal and you can choose your stopping points pretty easily to not be on an incline.  I did not want to fry my clutch on the first day in Russia.  After the coast downhill we did have some stop and go on inclines and experienced the full on Vlad riding experience.  The Russian drivers were better than Koreans, but overly aggressive and less obedient of general traffic etiquette.  Ken described it accurately as "Seoul on crack" - and Seoul was no picnic.  

About an hour or so later we arrived at the Iron Angles clubhouse.  Ilya showed us true Russian hospitality and made us feel like members.  Ken and I hung around the clubhouse while Mark changed his oil and did some other routine maintenance on his KLR.  Ken and I have shaft drive BMW's so have a whole different set of maintenance requirements and had just taken care of them at Stoney and Nicole's in Seattle only about 500 miles ago - so we were pretty much good.

Ilya #1 met us at the clubhouse a couple of hours later and guided us back to our apartment.  We later went out and toured th university on Russian island and enjoyed some dinner together.  We got back to the apartment and popped the bottle of Shariz that Mark had carried for 16,000 km from Australia.  We said goodbye to Ilya and settled in for the night excited about heading north to Siberia.

At the ferry warehouse garage getting the bikes.

Stupid traffic in Vlad - not even rush hour.

Iron Angles logo.

Mark clowning around in the Iron Angles clubhouse.

More clubhouse.

At the university in the park.  Very beautiful setting.

Ferry across the Sea of Japan...

The ferry from Donghae to Vladivostok across the Sea of Japan was our route into Russia.  The three of us arrived at the ferry terminal about 9:30 Sunday morning as we had our bikes to load and that was the required call time for those with cargo.  The ferry was scheduled to leave at 2pm.  We knew there was at least one additional motorcycle traveler as Seoul Joe had put us in contact with Adbang, a Korean who was riding to Lake Baikal and back for his vacation.  Adbang is a engineer for Kia Motors and has designed many of their models.  When we arrived we met another Korean motorbike traveler named Junyoung.  He was traveling through Russia all the way to Europe like us, although on a bit quicker schedule.

We were met by the friendly cargo handler and led to a small lounge and served coffee.  Our paperwork was all laid out in neat piles for each of us.  He had us check everything and sign and we were then led into the terminal reception area to pay.  We got a pleasant surprise when we found out that passengers paying for cargo received a 50% discount on their passenger ticket plus a one level upgrade from economy to second class.  After paying we all hung around and chatted looking over each others bikes and gear.  This is what motorbike travelers do upon meeting.  Everyone wants to see how the other is set-up in terms of bike, luggage, accessories, etc.  

A short time later we were directed to ride the bikes into the cargo loading area.  After standing around a bit waiting for all the cars to load we finally got to ride our bikes up into the cargo hold of the ferry.  Kind of a sketchy hairball trip up the steep ramp to the second level but we all made it without dumping our bikes.  We then had about an hour or so to kill before passenger loading so we went across the street to buy some supplies at the convenience store and have some lunch at a small restaurant across from the terminal.  The rib bone soup was quite good.  I think we were now over 50% favorable on our meal choices in S. Korea. We then headed to the terminal to board the ferry as it was getting close to 1pm.

The ferry demographics consisted of about 65% Russians, 30% Koreans and 5% other.  The other was Ken, Mark, myself and one other American traveler from Oregon, a couple of Australians and two twin sisters from Holland.  The ferry was supposed to hold 400 passengers but I don't think it was at 100% capacity.  We had one empty bunk in our room of 8 persons.  I'm glad we were upgraded as the economy ticket would have put us in community rooms on the floor with mats.

The ride was 22 hours but we sat at the port for about 3 hours before we were able to disembark.  The 25 hours on the ferry were much more bearable than the 12 hour plane ride to Seoul.  There was a bar, a restaurant and a nightclub on the boat.  We met some fun Russians and Koreans and spent the afternoon drinking and socializing before the dinner buffet was opened.  After dinner we were pretty fried and only made it a few more hours until dark and tried to get some sleep.  The beds were a little hard and you could hear and feel the engines, but I slept pretty decent.  The next morning we were able to grab some coffee and breakfast in the late morning.  We had traveled two time zones so waking up at 8:30am meant it was 10:30am Vlad time.  The boat was due in the port at 2:50pm so we only had 4  more hours to kill which we spent on the top deck looking at the many small islands as the ferry passed by.  I don't know if we were lucky or the Sea of Japan is normally calm, but we had very little waves so the ride was pretty smooth.

It did take forever to get off the ferry as the Russians were instructed to disembark first.  They only allowed about 20 or so people off the ferry and into the customs area at a time so we didn't get off until around 5:00pm.  We breezed through customs and immigration fairly quickly and found a coffee shop inside the ferry terminal building with WiFi to get organized.  We needed to make contact with our customs agent Yuri and Ilya, a contact Mark had lined up in Vlad through a coworker in Australia.  We couldn't find either in the receiving area so hanging out in the coffee shop seemed like a good plan.  It worked as Ilya soon found us and a short time later and Svetlana, Yuri's assistant found us as well.  Svetlana quickly got us moving as the customs office would close soon and she wanted to get the paperwork sorted that evening so we could get the bikes the next day.  She was super efficient and expedited all five of us by about 7:30pm.  She then said we would meet back at the ferry terminal at 9:30am the next day and we would have the bikes.  Easy peasey!  We expected up to 3 or 4 days to clear the bikes from Russian customs.  The $165 we were paying in brokerage fees were becoming a huge value!  

We then went with Ilya who had arranged an apartment for us at $100 US per night.  More great news as we had budgeted much higher for a hotel and we would only need 2 nights instead of 4 or 5.  We got to the apartment, ordered some pizza and enjoyed Ilya's hookah water pipe on the balcony enjoying our 14th floor view of the city.  We went to sleep excited that we would have the bikes in the morning.  The plan was to get the bikes, stock up on some camping food provisions, hit an ATM to load up on some more Rubles and find some Russian SIM cards for our smartphones.  We would enjoy a dinner out at Russian Island which was two bridges and land masses away and spend Tuesday night in Vlad.  We  weren't really looking forward to riding the bikes in Vlad because what we saw from the car was as bad or worse than Seoul from a traffic congestion standpoint.  Vladivostok is also very hilly - reminds me a bit of San Francisco - so the clutch work would be challenging on the uphill in traffic. 

Arriving at the Donghae ferry terminal.

About to ride up into the cargo hold of the ferry.

Mark and Ken hanging out on the ferry deck.

Stern view.

Our second class cabin.

Arrival in Vladivostok.

Ghetto Beach Part Two...

So now that it is dark we can begin to set up our hammocks under the open air cabana structures. This is when I unpacked the borrowed hammock for the first time and discovered that it was just a hammock for lounging around in during the day and not for sleeping at night where you want to be sealed out from the elements - or in this case insects and rodents since the fly that mine didn't have wouldn't be necessary as we had cabana tented roofs.  So it was tent for me - much less than ideal as I would be pitching on a wood platform with no way to stake it out.  Didn't think it was too big a deal at the time as I was not using the fly because I had the tented roof of the cabana to shield rain a bit.

We all got set-up and into our respective sleeping quarters and I remember saying to Ken who was in the cabana a few feet away that I thought it was so strange to not have any breeze at all so close to the sea.  I had lived on the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea the previous three years and don't ever remember conditions like this right on the sea.  It was also stifling hot and humid which made it difficult to fall asleep - but eventually sleep came.

I awoke some time later when a cool breeze started passing through the mesh of my tent and thought finally some cool relief from the heat.  Only minutes later the breeze became a wind and then became violent gusts bending my tent poles violently as each gust pushed at the tent.  I jumped up and zipped out of the tent to see an ugly black sky out towards the direction of the wind.  "Oh shit, it's going to storm" I half shouted as I fumbled for the tent fly.  The wind was so strong at this point my tent was sliding off the platform (even with my 25 lbs or so  of gear inside) as I struggled with the fly flapping and whipping.  I got 2 of the four corners attached and discovered the straps on the other two corners had separated from the fly and blown down the beach somewhere.  Ken had woken up by this time as his hammock was also swinging quite severely from the wind - but it was probably my swearing while struggling with the fly that got him out of his hammock to assist.  Ken rigged the two fly straps to somewhat function, but there was no way to guy out the fly on the wooden platform.  I was convinced that rain was coming and the cancan a roof would be useless for all of us due to the heavy wind.  I tied off one side of the fly guy out to a tent pole which is probably what kept me from blowing off the platform later.  We did a quick check of the weather with my smartphone and it showed only 40% chance of rain and 18-20 mile winds.  No tropical storm mentions.  Several had been in our general area the past week, so that was my initial fear.  I have experienced several during tropical storms during my time in the Caribbean and where we were on the beach would be a terrible place to be should one come through.

We decided to stay and weather it out as the gusts calmed a bit although the wind was still quite brisk.  It was 2am at that point.  I did not sleep the rest of the night.  The winds increased and the gusts became more violent.  My tent was tacoing badly with each gust.  I held the poles at the stress points hoping  they would not snap.  Then the wind changed a came in from the opposite direction.  I had not tied off that side so the fly was flapping, poles bending and tent tacoing in the opposite direction. I was a bit terrified that my tent would be trashed before we even made it into Russia - but it survived through the night.  Amazingly and luckily it never did end up raining. 

At first light around 5 am the winds calmed a bit.  It was very overcast and looked like it could rain at any moment so I wanted to get my tent put away dry.  I heard a truck pulling up to the beach and turned to see 2 camouflage military vehicles park about 100 feet behind us.  About 8 solders came walking down towards us packing automatics.  I initially thought they would approach us because we should not be camping here, but they continued past stopping briefly every 20 feet or so to check the integrity of the razor wired fence.  We had passed several military bases the day before and we we we still only a few miles from the DMZ.  Looked like just  a routine patrol and the paid us little attention of no more than a glance or two.  We decided it was time to leave so we packed up our gear and rode into Sokcho to find some coffee.  Probably one of my worst nights camping ever.  Glad the only penalty was losing a couple of fly straps and not broken poles or a ripped tent.

Ken's cabana hammock set up.

I'm guessing this says keep out but not entirely sure.

Razor wire fencing.

Beach destruction from the stupid winds the night before.