Moscow by Day...

Today we got to play tourist and took the Metro into Downtown to see Moscow during the day.  It was very busy in Red Square as they were setting up huge grandstands and tents for this weekends holiday celebration.  Nothing really eventful - but Moscow sure is a beautiful city.  Tonight we will check out some of the nightlife after Ken drops his bike off at the suspension shop - off the bikes.

I'll let the pics speak for themselves...

Moscow by Night...

After three somewhat uninteresting days of just pounding out kilometers on the bikes (my brain is now converted to kilometers) we had an interesting day - and night.  We took a quick break about 100 km outside Moscow to touch base with Dmitry - a friend of Mikhail's that lives in Moscow.  Ken had been in contact with Dmitry and he was going help with getting the shock sorted.  We told Dmitry our location and he said it would be 3 hours to Moscow - it was about 2:30 so we would be hitting rush hour.  We arranged to meet at a McDonald's near his home on the northwest side of the city.  

As we approached the eastern edge of Moscow things began to change right away.  The roads got wider and traffic heavier the closer we got to the perimiter.  Moscow is set up as a grid with concentric freeway circles going around the center of the city.  These expressways help connect the districts where the 25+ million residences live.  We would be approaching from the east and take 2nd perimiter expressway around the northe to get to the west side where Dmitry lives.  All the Russians say there are two Russia's - Moscow and St Petersburg, then the rest of Russia.  This couldn't be any more evident when we hit the expressway (and later got to really see Moscow).  There are five lanes in each direction - and two extra lanes in rush hour.  One is the shoulder on the right, the other a narrow strip between the dividing wall to opposite traffic and the far left lane - the one only wide enough for motorcycles (barely).  

We took the flowing traffic as it came and basically stayed in the mainstream lanes.  Then an accident ahead slowed everything to a stop - and that spells overheating for the bikes.  We got past the accident after a bit only to quickly hit the wall of Moscow rush hour traffic. It was then that we ren the wall on the far left to keep the bikes moving and engines from getting too hot.  For me it was a bit unnerving as there were only a few feet of error - the wall on the left and the line of traffic on the right.  My fender bender in Vladivostok suddenly came classing back.  I blocked out the thought as bes I could and just concentrated on not hitting the wall or clip a car.  After a bit we exited the freeway and made it the relatively short distance on side streets to the McDonalds near Dmitry's home.  We just had to have a Big Mac combo meal to see if McDonalds is consistent with their product across the world.  The fries were identical, the burger seemed a little different - but when I thought about it I could remember the last time I actually had a McDonalds burger.  Maybe over 10 years?  So maybe it is the same, I just don't remember.

We called Dmitry and he met us promptly riding his Gold Wing.  We would follow him to his friends shop where we would get oil changes for the bikes - across to the opposite end of Moscow, in rush hour as it was now about 5:30pm.  We set off following Dimitri and as soon as we hit the first wall of traffic we proceeded to split lanes and weave between the stopped cars.  There were literally inches of tolerance in some spots - again the Vladivostok flashbacks.  I tried to go to my happy place and relax to the music in my headset and focus on skinny thoughts.  The ride took us past the city centre - passing by red square, the Kremlin and various other ancient historical buildings and cathedrals.  Simply an amazing city, like nothing we has seen so far - two Russia's. After about an hour of lane splitting we made it to the garage unscathed - I'm an expert at it now.  I was thinking I should move to California to put my new skills to use - CA is the only state in he US where lane splitting on motorbikes is legal.  We got the oil changed and headed out to grab some dinner.  It was just beginning to get dark and the traffic had died down a bit.  Thank goodness - after 8 hours and 450 km into Moscow and th one hour of insanity across town, I was ready to get off the bike for a while.

We arrived at the biker bar/restaurant with dozens of bikes in the lot.  There are two separate establishments - one more a bar for drinking alcohol and the other a restaurant.  This was a enthusiast gathering place for Moscow motorcyclists of all types.  We joined a couple of Dmitry's friends and enjoyed some dinner on the outdoor patio of the restaurnt.  As everyone there is on bikes, no one drinks alcohol - only coffee, tea and sodas.  At about 11pm Dmitry said it was time to go and experience Moscow - at night riding the bikes.  Since the city is so congested during the day, it is night time when the motorcyclists come out to play.  We took a three hour whirlwind tour of the city stopping only twice to get off the bikes.  The city is completely lit up at night and is breathtakingly beautiful.  We hit very little traffic and were able to blast down empty streets at speeds of 100 kph.  There were hundreds of bikes on the street - but mostly street racers.  Not too many touring or adventure tourers as we were on.  We got to see so much of the city and I was having so much fun - until I ran out of gas.  My fuel light had been on for about 45 miles - I usually get 75 to 90 miles to empty after getting the light.  But running at slow idle in traffic and then heavy on the throttle during the night tour made for crap fuel efficiency.  It happened in a terrible spot while going through one of the tunnels.  Very dangerous as cars are speeding through the tunnel at speeds off 100+ kpm.  I was sputtering about half way through and completely shut down about 50 yards from the exit.  I hit the hazard lights and frantically did the Fred Flintstone shuffle to get clear of the cars whizzing by.  Once out of the tunnel I hopped off and pushed it quickly to a side street.  I had got off a radio transmission to Ken just as I was sputtering so he knew I was out of gas behind them.  After a bit they came back, helped me tip the bike on one side to get the remaining fuel to what was remaining over to the fuel pump side of the tank - then fired it up and ran it the 100 meters to the station we were about to stop at before I ran out.    I had started sputtering a few days earlier just as we rolled into a station.  I felt lucky then - this time I was 100 meters short of lucky.  

We returned to Dmitry's home at about 2:30am where he graciously put us up for the night - an early night by Russian standards, but Dmitry has to go into work for a bit on Friday.  While he is working we will take the subway into Downtown Moscow to get a closer at some of the sights we rode past at night.  Then tomorrow evening we will take Ken's bike to the suspension shop to hopefully procure a repair.  The replacement shock that was sent for Holland is here in Moscow, but apparently held up in customs indefinitely.  Then we will meet up with our new friends and partake in some liquid librations Moscow style - off the bikes of course. 

Night riders.

Dinner at the biker bar.

Dmitry and Kenya - aka Harley Girl.

One of the fully lit buildings.

Vie down river from the bridge.

Dimitri and his chicas.

Nizhny Novgorad...

We rolled into Nizhny Novgorod much later than we shoul have.  Running in the dark and rain is always a bad idea.  Weather, traffic and road construction made the 675 km we put in take longer than it should have - a common theme in Russia we should be used to.  In the US this distance could be covered in 6 hours - today we were on the road for 11 hours.

Since it was dark and raining we grabbed the first hotel the GPS gave us on the edge of town.  When we went to the desk to inquire we were asked if we want 24 hours or 12 hours in the room - ok maybe a bit sketchy.  We paid for the room and went out to unload the bikes and in rolls a sedan and out pops a couple of scantly clad Russian women who then appear to be "negotiating" with a couple of guys outside the establishment next door.  Another women comes out the same door wearing an extremely short skirt - ok seems we found the seedy part of town. No restaurants nearby so we grab a couple of beers from the shop next door and bust out the camp meals.  Tomorrow we hit the road early to breat the morning rush hour in Nizhny Novgorod and evening rush hour in Moscow - a 400 km ride.

Morning rush hour.

10,000 Miles and 1100 km to Moscow...

Today we crossed the10,000 mile (16,000 km) mark for travel on the bikes.  Total distance traveled which includes planes and ferries is now up to 25,000 km (15,500 miles) - which I think puts us past the half way around mark.  We also have been for traveling exactly 8 weeks.  This may seem like a long time to those reading this - to me I'm not sure how it feels.  On one hand it seems like only yesterday that we were in Seoul clearing the bikes through customs - but on the other hand I think of all we have seen, all the people we have met and all the terrain we have ridden and it changes the perspective.  I can't put it into words as it is like a time warp - I'm just not used to spending so much time just traveling with little expectation of what comes next.  I do like the randomness of just going with the flow.  We only have a few set dates left where we actually need to be somewhere on a set day. 

Moscow is coming up in a few days.  We are only 1100 km out.  We hope to get Ken's rear shock sorted out while there.  The replacement has now been held up in customs for over a week.  If it doesn't clear before or while we are there plans B (repair existing at Yacugar dealer in Moscow), C (buy a used shock off eBay Russia and D (have a new one custom made by a contact we have through a friend of Mikial's).  Ken is super pissed off (not to mention it is downright dangerous with his rear wheel skipping all over the place over uneven road) riding his pogo stick so I hope one of these options comes through.  Mark wanted to take the scenic route so we split up yesterday and will rejoin in Moscow over the weekend. 

Next week we hope to be into the 4th phase of the journey - Europe.  We will enter through Estonia and work our way down to Munich where we will attend the Oktoberfest keg tapping on September 20th.  We are also meeting Ken's wife Marybeth in Milan on the 25th.  Other than that we will see where the road takes us. There are probably no wrong turns - it all should be good.

I have no good pictures from yesterday because we busted out 750 km and pretty much didn't stop.

Here is a pic of my semi-clean bike - 20 years old, 102,000 miles and still running strong.

Back in Russia...

We found a decent guesthouse last night not too far over the boarder just before it began to get really dark.  It had the biggest pool table I've ever seen - maybe it wasn't even a pool table because the balls were all white an seemed a bit larger than normal pool or billiard size.  Anyway it was 12'x6' - but they wouldn't let us play because it was too late and would disturb sleeping guests upstairs.  

The ride today was a bit strenuous due to irregular roads and a strong cross wind.  Traffic was very heavy with quite a lot of trucks - so this meant a lot of passing.  This part of Russia is very flat and open so there isn't much to stop the wind.  It was also the coldest weather we have ridden in on the trip.  It was in the high 30's and raining when we left and never got much warmer than 50 during the day.  Adding in the wind made it down right chilly while riding.  My grip warmers stopped working somewhere in Mongolia - which I could have used today.  

There really was nothing to see so we just tried to bang out some distance.  We made it to Chelyabinsk which was our goal for the day.  We did see a WWII tank and stopped to take a pictures - but only farmland and swamps to see from the road.

Giant pool table at the guesthouse last night.

The tank and my bike.

Extortion in KazakhSCAM...

So we heard from all the travelers we encountered that had passed through Kazakhstan that the country was expensive, somewhat boring, the roads suck and the boarder agents and police were corrupt and will look for any reason to extort money from travelers and tourists.  The only reason to go there is to get somewhere else.  Even our Russian friends in Novosibirsk said "why" when we said we were going through Kazakhstan.  They actually said it many times to us.  Why - why go to Kazakhstan?  Nothing to see, bad roads, corruption.  Ken and I had paid $160 each in advance for our Kazakhstan Visas - right before the country announced in July Visas would no longer be required for US citizens.  We really didn't need to go - we could have gone north and around, but since we paid and Mark wanted to see the country we decide to go and spend one night in Petropavlovsk and then cross back into Russia.  It is actually a shortcut from a distance standpoint from Omsk to Moscow.  Probably longer when you factor in the boarder crossing time but we thought what the heck, let's go.

The fun started at the boarder crossing into Kazakhstan.  The boarder agent tried to say I committed some type of violation in the vehicle que while waiting in line to get one of the various stamps needed to get to the next station.  The "fine" was to be 3000 Rubles.  Ken and Mark both got their stamps and he was refusing mine unless I paid the bribe.  I flat out said I wasn't going to pay this BS bribe that amounted to about $100 USD.  We waited it out for about 20 minutes and the "fine" came down to 1000 Rubles.  I decided to pay it, got my stamp and we moved on to the immigration station.  While we were in the immigration line the agent came into the building and motioned Mark outside.  Aparently he got a bit spooked because Mark speaks some Russian and returned the 1000 Rubles and said it was a joke - yea right. 

We got through the rest of the various processes and a few hours later we were in  KZ.  We stopped at a Cafe for lunch a few clicks from the boarder and enjoyed some Kebabs and soup.  We then headed to Petropavlovsk to find a guesthouse or hotel for the night.

We got within about 3 km from the town and were pulled over by the police for a document check.  We had been stopped 3 times in Russia and figured it was coming at some point in KZ based on the reports we had heard from other travelers.  Well they asked for every document possible and finally found one we didn't have - the requisite liability insurance.  We had purchased it in all the precious countries as part of the boarder crossing process.  We couldn't enter the those countries with out it.  We never noticed anyplace selling insurance either inside or outside the boarder to KZ.  So now we have big problem.  The police said we can't rider the bikes without insurance and it cannot be bought in Petropavlovsk until Tuesday as it was now 5pm on Sunday and Monday was some sort of holiday.  They said the bikes would have to stay right there on the side of the road or impounded until Tuesday when we could buy insurance - neither choice a good option for us.  They suggested a third option which was to pay a "fine" of 21,000 RUB (about $550 USD) and drive to the boarder to get insurance.  We didn't have anywhere near that amount in RUB - but we all had emergency USD stashed on our bikes which we did not want have to dip into.  We waited it out and Mark sat in the police car and negotiated with one of the officers in Russian.  After about an hour we had a compromise - we would pay a 10,000 RUB ( about $270 USD) fine and exit the opposite western boarder about 50 km away.  We paid the fine and they escorted us out of town - or we surely would have been pulled over again as there were several more checkpoints we passed on the way out.  We rode the rest of the way to the boarder and held our breath as we passed another checkpoint - it would have surely resulted in additional "fines".  If they were to motion us over I think we would have just gassed it and taken our chances on the chase.

We got to the boarder and went the through the normal multiple show documents, stamp, next, show documents, stamp, next, etc. and were in Russia two hours later.  We basically spent about 6 hours in KZ - which was enough.  I'll never be back - the country is shit as far as I am concerned.  They are set up to extort money from tourists at every turn.  Every we met said the same.  Good luck KazakhSCAM - you will need it even though you just opened your boarders to the US and EU.

The only photo I have from inside KZ - my trusty bottle of Sriracha which I used at the lunch stop and carry because northern Asia seems to only have Ketchup for a condiment choice.  Chip likes his pelmeni spicy!