ULAANBAATAR - HANOI (15/04/2007 - 26/07/2007)
2007, April 25th
We took the train from Ulaan Baaatar to Beijing.
For the first time we were travelling with another machine than our Suzuki.
The trip was nice. We passed through the Gobi desert. The custom formalities were applied right on the train.
At the frontier, using an elevator to lift the carriages they changed the wheels. The Soviet Union used a major width between the rails. They changed also the restaurant carriage.
In Beijing we found a hostel and spent every days to buy and to prepare two bicycles, to find clothes etc.
We bought two Merida mtb and we found a big market of forged clothes, looking like a fish market, where everyone shouts and where you have to negotiate the prices.
We left on our over weight bicycles.
The eastern China is very crowded. Fields and towns, the roads are full of three wheels vehicles and of course bicycles (even more electric).
Ambulant workshops and restaurants where to eat a soup.
In the towns, the restaurants sell many kinds of meat (including snakes and dogs).
We couldn’t put the tent, so we slept in very poor inns.
We got Shanghai. It’s impressive, with its high skyscrapers and its electric lights.
It’s very interesting to pass into the cities in the early morning. You can meet groups of people doing Tai Chi.
We were close to the Pacific Ocean but we did not see it until we was in Hong Kong, because the road is a little far from the shore and it’s hidden by the mountains.
Getting close the city the bicycles and karts end, and everything becomes to much modern.
The frontier for the autonomous region is some kilometres far from the city, and to get it from there by bike is exhausting, there are prohibitions in most roads, and you have to take the train many times (it would be better to take it from the frontier on to the city).
Till now we rode 3968 km.
2007, July 5th
Hong Kong was crowded because of the 10th anniversary of the independence, so we could assist at the big occasion. We found a place in tremendous hostel, maybe the worse in the city, but there was not any other place, because of the anniversary.
In a day we got both the visas for China and Vietnam (Entering in HK they put an exit timbre on your visa, just because even if it’s doing part of China, HK is an autonomous region).
We left Hong Kong moving to west, to reach Vietnam.
The inner Vietnam area is more rural than the rest that we saw.
In the 26th of July we was in Hanoi, the Capital city.
Claudio and Patrizia
8.17.2007
8.02.2007
MONGOLIA (28/03/2007 - 14/04/2007)
Hello, today is the Susi last stand.
Probably tomorrow we’ll leave by train on our way to Beijing.
As we said, at Ulan Ude we had the Mongolian Visa and we moved to the south.
On the road to the border we met a German traveller, cycling since 2002, on the way to west, because he finished the money to stay around the world more.
He knows Mongolian roads very well, and so he suggested that it would been better to sell our car in Ulan Baator, before driving on those terrifying tracks. We would risk to damage it seriously, and to trash it instead to sell. We did not follow his suggestion, with some consequences.
We spent the night on the frontier. A drunk Russian enlivened the evening with drinks and some punches-up with the others.
In the morning they opened the gates, we were fourth in the queue, but people in the first positions allowed us to pass for first, we well know the hospitality of these regions.
The guy we told about tried to hid his vodka and beer cases everywhere in the car, using paper and rests of clothes.
We saw the officers checking his car in every parts. Poor guy, his career of smuggler was already ended.
The Russian custom officers kept us there for more than one hour. They suspected about the truthfulness of our passports, maybe because one of the two (Claudio’s) got 48 pages instead the other got 32 pages only. Also they were perplexed about our Immigration Cards and called an expert, or a superior, in the person of a very fat and ugly woman in a mimetic wear. Fortunately she ascertained that everything was ok.
Once in the Mongolian side of the frontier again we had to spend a lot of time. They made difficulties because of a missing stamp on some document, causing we had to enter and exit from an office to another, to another, to another…
When everything was ok and they were doing the last procedure the woman at the pc said a "Oooh…" … the machine had a black out.
I laughed, exasperated! She smiled and allowed us to go on.
The landscape in Mongolia is various: steppes, deserts, pastures and you see few trees.
The road to Ulan Baatar is well enough asphalted and somewhere you have to stop and to pay a little toll.
The police stopped us and forced to clean glasses, mirrors and plates before entering the Capital city.
Once we reach it we understood the reason of that strange request.
There every cars are clean and almost new! All of them come from Japan and the oldest ones are ten years old. They tempt the people to trash their old cars with high taxations on more then 10 years old vehicles.
Our muddy 22 years old Suzuki was a star!
Yes…but it will be difficult to sell, as we would do before entering China.
In the city we got our three months Visa for China and we spent some days in a guest house. Also the owner, a very pleasant person, suggested to try to sell it before driving on Mongolian roads, but once again we answered that we have a super car…
We spent the first night away from Ulan Baatar lost somewhere in the steppe.
The day after we had to drive back for 70 km to get the right road.
Mongolian roads are tracks on the plateaus, developing among yurts, camels, wild horses and ships.
We drove at 20-30 km/h because of the condition of the roads. The garnishing of the doors are damaged and so the wind blows the sand into the inside.
We got Bulgan, it was the second day. We slept into the car and we cooked with our fuel stove.
Going on the road became worse. The shaking caused the luggage rack was damaging the top.
We met few cars, two or three per day, but a lot of shepherds riding horses (and someone of them riding Chinese motorbikes). In villages, out of the shops you could see tied up horses instead parked cars.
The Mongolian is very difficult for us. We can read the Cirillic but we can’t pronounce the words as they do, so the communication with locals is poor and we are sorry for it.
There are a lot of eagles, and a lot of marmots run fast and careful to be not their victims.
On the highest plateau there are herds of yaks, impressive buffalos, agile and fast like dogs.
We drove slowly among the herds of ships, we worried to disperse them. One time a few days old ship, not able to follow the herd, decided to follow us. I stopped and walked back to bring it to the herd, but probably she decided that I was its new mom. Fortunately the shepherds saw the scene, and once he reached me, he kept the puppy until I disappeared.
We wrong the road (again) to get Moron. Fortunately there are fuel stations in half, they are old barracks with modern Chinese pumps.
Probably some years ago to reach fuel was a problem, at least somewhere… at least if you lost yourself in an immense steppe…
Once got Moron, we found a carpenter who soldered the damaged luggage rack. They said the truth… Mongolian roads are tremendous.
We needed a shower, we’re covered of sand, but the inns were expensive, and so we decided to wait for the next town, at 100 km away only.
We left the city, enjoying to reach the lake on our way, but our car got a problem.
The warning light of the alternator turned on. Fortunately we could repair the electrical damage by ourselves… We were lucky, we did not do anything else than disconnecting and connecting again some cables…
Sometimes the warning light appeared again, we have just to hit the alternator with a hammer.
Once close to the lake, passing on a dry river the Suzuki made a terrible noise and it lied down. A back spring broke and the axle moved.
To see Susi dieing was sad.
Going very slowly we could drive for the 4 km remaining to get the town on the lake.
We met a girl who suggested to rent a yurt of her own, but it was 22 km away from there…too much to be run on a destroyed car.
So she suggested to rent a yurt of his brother’s own (Buggy, he became notorious) and also she called some friends (mechanics, she said) able to fix our car. Once we saw them we found a story to not allow them to touch our poor Susi.
I (Claudio) spent a day trying to fix the car using nothing (because there was nothing for the chance) and once we were sure to have not choices than to abandon it there I had a good idea.
Using the ribbons of the "ITALTENDE Del Grande" I could straighten the axle, insert the spring on a hole in the chassis allowing it to work a little and especially use the ribbons as suspensions.
The poor beast was hanging on the left, but still alive. Our way back to Ulan Baatar was depending on ribbons.
We spent some day at the village, because of Patrizia’ sickness and the damages of the car.
The exhausting girl was always with us (except when we were having a shower) and devoting took care of Patrizia, hoping that once she felt better we could move at her house, for sure spending more money.
We did a plan to light the car, now approximately fixed, but fragile. We stripped down the luggage rack with the heavy case on it, we empted the emergency tanks into the car tank and we discarded something from the backpacks.
Doing it we lost 25-30 kg about.
In the morning we gave the whole stripped down things to the notorious girl. we told her that Patrizia was seriously sick, and we had to go at the hospital, and we couldn’t go at her house.
She took a lift on a motorbike and rode away bringing our gifts.
Finally we were alone.
Patrizia was feeling better, the car was ok for what concerning the chassis, but the alternator.
The warning light turned on when the engine run at low regimes.
We were however ready to get our coveted goal, the iced lake.
The woman brought us a paper… the bill?
We told her that we had already paid to her sister in law (Buggy was, or at least he had to be the husband of the yurt’s owner) and she said that she did not know nor the girl and Buggy.
We became very angry especially because we gave all that things to the fucking girl.
The woman was very sorry for the inconvenient. We paid the bill and we took our way to the lake.
The track was very damaged. We drove into the dry river for some kilometres. The spring well worked, but the alternator made us worrying, we had to hit it sometimes.
We drove for 1000 km to reach the lake, and now we were determined to exhaust the last energies of the car to drive for the last 20.
It could finish its trip killed by its last effort, abandoned where its cylinders made the latest explosion. Every travellers have the secret dream to be buried where they die.
We got the lake, a wonderful vision. A expanse of ice surrounded by pines.
But we got a better vision! The unfamous girl outside of a yurt, in the village on the lake shore.
We couldn’t have back our money but our things…
She was very scary…for sure she hadn’t our anymore (Buggy got it).
To be correct, we have to say that the boy scout soul of Patrizia was ready to forgiveness, while Claudio was ready to…
Never try to cheat a man from Genoa!
Forward we gave our things to another guy, a shepherd met some days before. He wanted to thank us allowing to ride some deer… we refused, worrying for the animals.
We took one day more to get Moron, just 100 km far away. Every five minutes we had to hit the alternator to allow it to work. Once we got the city we took a room and we brought the alternator into, we cleaned every contacts but once re-installed, it did not work so much better.
We found a workshop, they changed the brushes, the old ones were too much damaged to make the contacts.
In the afternoon we found a guy who helped us to dismount the spring. Then we found a welder that repaired it. The Suzuki came back to life.
The way back to Ulaan Baatar was easier, and it lasted 15 days.
We went to sleep at the same guest house where we staied for some days, where we were waiting the pack containing the spares from Italy.
The owner explained again how difficult is to sell an old car, so highly taxed.
We proposed to him to buy it for 200 dollars only. He accepted, He will found to corrupt some policeman, so he won’t pay any overtax.
Maybe just tomorrow morning we will take a train to Beijing.
The ditches-jumper ends its trip here.
Thanks for all, Susi.
Claudio and Patrizia
Hello, today is the Susi last stand.
Probably tomorrow we’ll leave by train on our way to Beijing.
As we said, at Ulan Ude we had the Mongolian Visa and we moved to the south.
On the road to the border we met a German traveller, cycling since 2002, on the way to west, because he finished the money to stay around the world more.
He knows Mongolian roads very well, and so he suggested that it would been better to sell our car in Ulan Baator, before driving on those terrifying tracks. We would risk to damage it seriously, and to trash it instead to sell. We did not follow his suggestion, with some consequences.
We spent the night on the frontier. A drunk Russian enlivened the evening with drinks and some punches-up with the others.
In the morning they opened the gates, we were fourth in the queue, but people in the first positions allowed us to pass for first, we well know the hospitality of these regions.
The guy we told about tried to hid his vodka and beer cases everywhere in the car, using paper and rests of clothes.
We saw the officers checking his car in every parts. Poor guy, his career of smuggler was already ended.
The Russian custom officers kept us there for more than one hour. They suspected about the truthfulness of our passports, maybe because one of the two (Claudio’s) got 48 pages instead the other got 32 pages only. Also they were perplexed about our Immigration Cards and called an expert, or a superior, in the person of a very fat and ugly woman in a mimetic wear. Fortunately she ascertained that everything was ok.
Once in the Mongolian side of the frontier again we had to spend a lot of time. They made difficulties because of a missing stamp on some document, causing we had to enter and exit from an office to another, to another, to another…
When everything was ok and they were doing the last procedure the woman at the pc said a "Oooh…" … the machine had a black out.
I laughed, exasperated! She smiled and allowed us to go on.
The landscape in Mongolia is various: steppes, deserts, pastures and you see few trees.
The road to Ulan Baatar is well enough asphalted and somewhere you have to stop and to pay a little toll.
The police stopped us and forced to clean glasses, mirrors and plates before entering the Capital city.
Once we reach it we understood the reason of that strange request.
There every cars are clean and almost new! All of them come from Japan and the oldest ones are ten years old. They tempt the people to trash their old cars with high taxations on more then 10 years old vehicles.
Our muddy 22 years old Suzuki was a star!
Yes…but it will be difficult to sell, as we would do before entering China.
In the city we got our three months Visa for China and we spent some days in a guest house. Also the owner, a very pleasant person, suggested to try to sell it before driving on Mongolian roads, but once again we answered that we have a super car…
We spent the first night away from Ulan Baatar lost somewhere in the steppe.
The day after we had to drive back for 70 km to get the right road.
Mongolian roads are tracks on the plateaus, developing among yurts, camels, wild horses and ships.
We drove at 20-30 km/h because of the condition of the roads. The garnishing of the doors are damaged and so the wind blows the sand into the inside.
We got Bulgan, it was the second day. We slept into the car and we cooked with our fuel stove.
Going on the road became worse. The shaking caused the luggage rack was damaging the top.
We met few cars, two or three per day, but a lot of shepherds riding horses (and someone of them riding Chinese motorbikes). In villages, out of the shops you could see tied up horses instead parked cars.
The Mongolian is very difficult for us. We can read the Cirillic but we can’t pronounce the words as they do, so the communication with locals is poor and we are sorry for it.
There are a lot of eagles, and a lot of marmots run fast and careful to be not their victims.
On the highest plateau there are herds of yaks, impressive buffalos, agile and fast like dogs.
We drove slowly among the herds of ships, we worried to disperse them. One time a few days old ship, not able to follow the herd, decided to follow us. I stopped and walked back to bring it to the herd, but probably she decided that I was its new mom. Fortunately the shepherds saw the scene, and once he reached me, he kept the puppy until I disappeared.
We wrong the road (again) to get Moron. Fortunately there are fuel stations in half, they are old barracks with modern Chinese pumps.
Probably some years ago to reach fuel was a problem, at least somewhere… at least if you lost yourself in an immense steppe…
Once got Moron, we found a carpenter who soldered the damaged luggage rack. They said the truth… Mongolian roads are tremendous.
We needed a shower, we’re covered of sand, but the inns were expensive, and so we decided to wait for the next town, at 100 km away only.
We left the city, enjoying to reach the lake on our way, but our car got a problem.
The warning light of the alternator turned on. Fortunately we could repair the electrical damage by ourselves… We were lucky, we did not do anything else than disconnecting and connecting again some cables…
Sometimes the warning light appeared again, we have just to hit the alternator with a hammer.
Once close to the lake, passing on a dry river the Suzuki made a terrible noise and it lied down. A back spring broke and the axle moved.
To see Susi dieing was sad.
Going very slowly we could drive for the 4 km remaining to get the town on the lake.
We met a girl who suggested to rent a yurt of her own, but it was 22 km away from there…too much to be run on a destroyed car.
So she suggested to rent a yurt of his brother’s own (Buggy, he became notorious) and also she called some friends (mechanics, she said) able to fix our car. Once we saw them we found a story to not allow them to touch our poor Susi.
I (Claudio) spent a day trying to fix the car using nothing (because there was nothing for the chance) and once we were sure to have not choices than to abandon it there I had a good idea.
Using the ribbons of the "ITALTENDE Del Grande" I could straighten the axle, insert the spring on a hole in the chassis allowing it to work a little and especially use the ribbons as suspensions.
The poor beast was hanging on the left, but still alive. Our way back to Ulan Baatar was depending on ribbons.
We spent some day at the village, because of Patrizia’ sickness and the damages of the car.
The exhausting girl was always with us (except when we were having a shower) and devoting took care of Patrizia, hoping that once she felt better we could move at her house, for sure spending more money.
We did a plan to light the car, now approximately fixed, but fragile. We stripped down the luggage rack with the heavy case on it, we empted the emergency tanks into the car tank and we discarded something from the backpacks.
Doing it we lost 25-30 kg about.
In the morning we gave the whole stripped down things to the notorious girl. we told her that Patrizia was seriously sick, and we had to go at the hospital, and we couldn’t go at her house.
She took a lift on a motorbike and rode away bringing our gifts.
Finally we were alone.
Patrizia was feeling better, the car was ok for what concerning the chassis, but the alternator.
The warning light turned on when the engine run at low regimes.
We were however ready to get our coveted goal, the iced lake.
The woman brought us a paper… the bill?
We told her that we had already paid to her sister in law (Buggy was, or at least he had to be the husband of the yurt’s owner) and she said that she did not know nor the girl and Buggy.
We became very angry especially because we gave all that things to the fucking girl.
The woman was very sorry for the inconvenient. We paid the bill and we took our way to the lake.
The track was very damaged. We drove into the dry river for some kilometres. The spring well worked, but the alternator made us worrying, we had to hit it sometimes.
We drove for 1000 km to reach the lake, and now we were determined to exhaust the last energies of the car to drive for the last 20.
It could finish its trip killed by its last effort, abandoned where its cylinders made the latest explosion. Every travellers have the secret dream to be buried where they die.
We got the lake, a wonderful vision. A expanse of ice surrounded by pines.
But we got a better vision! The unfamous girl outside of a yurt, in the village on the lake shore.
We couldn’t have back our money but our things…
She was very scary…for sure she hadn’t our anymore (Buggy got it).
To be correct, we have to say that the boy scout soul of Patrizia was ready to forgiveness, while Claudio was ready to…
Never try to cheat a man from Genoa!
Forward we gave our things to another guy, a shepherd met some days before. He wanted to thank us allowing to ride some deer… we refused, worrying for the animals.
We took one day more to get Moron, just 100 km far away. Every five minutes we had to hit the alternator to allow it to work. Once we got the city we took a room and we brought the alternator into, we cleaned every contacts but once re-installed, it did not work so much better.
We found a workshop, they changed the brushes, the old ones were too much damaged to make the contacts.
In the afternoon we found a guy who helped us to dismount the spring. Then we found a welder that repaired it. The Suzuki came back to life.
The way back to Ulaan Baatar was easier, and it lasted 15 days.
We went to sleep at the same guest house where we staied for some days, where we were waiting the pack containing the spares from Italy.
The owner explained again how difficult is to sell an old car, so highly taxed.
We proposed to him to buy it for 200 dollars only. He accepted, He will found to corrupt some policeman, so he won’t pay any overtax.
Maybe just tomorrow morning we will take a train to Beijing.
The ditches-jumper ends its trip here.
Thanks for all, Susi.
Claudio and Patrizia
SIBERIA (16/03/2007 - 27/03/2007)
Hello!
We reached Ulan Ude (cross-roads to get the far eastern Russia or the south, Mongolia) last Saturday. Just today we went to the Mongolian Consulate to apply for the Visas, and we will obtain them in the afternoon. A further 2 Euros allow our car temporary entrance.
We run for 2500 km since we left Novosibirsk. To leave the biggest city in Siberia was pretty hard.
It’s incredible that in the biggest flat area in the world they don’t make any ring-road and you have to cross the whole city from an end to the other if you have just to pass through.
Along the road the territory changed. Anymore flat, but hills and taiga, the Russian forest.
Because of the cold the policemen are quiet, they don’t stop us, preferring to stay into their heaten gages.
The springtime announced itself with a snowfall (sign of the hotter weather) causing some problems on the roads, especially to those truck-drivers preferring to take a run-up on the uphill instead to put on the chains.
Along the road I (Claudio) had flashes of memory. I was here in the 2001 and even if this time is snowing, I remember some hills, or villages, because when you see Siberia, it remains behind your eyes.
We drove most of the time with the 4WD on. On a uphill we met a queue of big trucks unable to move on that high snow.
There was a small lateral road just affordable with an off-road vehicle. A 4WD Subaru was slipping, and we try to go on. People started to laugh seeing our small Suzuki going on with such bullying. We pull up that big Subaru. In Siberia you can’t leave someone in troubles. Once on the top of the hill, people already knew that there was two Italians with a super off-road.
In the evening we stopped in a Café and because of the weather the electricity had a black-out. We gave some candle to the lady, allowing her and us to eat.
In the morning we arrived at the lake Baikal. Glaced. Wonderful. We saw a little truck driving on the surface, and it made us sure to be able to do the same with our small car.
We followed it, but at 100 metres about from the shore the truck rapidly did an U turn because the ice was breaking. We did the same, we run on to the shore without watch behind us.
We spent another day to arrive to Ulan Ude. Along the road we saw a lot of Japanese cars, more than Russian cars. When I (Claudio) was here some years ago the most common car was the Lada Jiguli, copy of the old Fiat 124, I did not imagine a so big modernization of the car park.
Since we started from home we intended to sell somewhere our car (soon or later we will start to pedal) but today we aren’t anymore sure to make it possible.
Claudio & Patrizia
Hello!
We reached Ulan Ude (cross-roads to get the far eastern Russia or the south, Mongolia) last Saturday. Just today we went to the Mongolian Consulate to apply for the Visas, and we will obtain them in the afternoon. A further 2 Euros allow our car temporary entrance.
We run for 2500 km since we left Novosibirsk. To leave the biggest city in Siberia was pretty hard.
It’s incredible that in the biggest flat area in the world they don’t make any ring-road and you have to cross the whole city from an end to the other if you have just to pass through.
Along the road the territory changed. Anymore flat, but hills and taiga, the Russian forest.
Because of the cold the policemen are quiet, they don’t stop us, preferring to stay into their heaten gages.
The springtime announced itself with a snowfall (sign of the hotter weather) causing some problems on the roads, especially to those truck-drivers preferring to take a run-up on the uphill instead to put on the chains.
Along the road I (Claudio) had flashes of memory. I was here in the 2001 and even if this time is snowing, I remember some hills, or villages, because when you see Siberia, it remains behind your eyes.
We drove most of the time with the 4WD on. On a uphill we met a queue of big trucks unable to move on that high snow.
There was a small lateral road just affordable with an off-road vehicle. A 4WD Subaru was slipping, and we try to go on. People started to laugh seeing our small Suzuki going on with such bullying. We pull up that big Subaru. In Siberia you can’t leave someone in troubles. Once on the top of the hill, people already knew that there was two Italians with a super off-road.
In the evening we stopped in a Café and because of the weather the electricity had a black-out. We gave some candle to the lady, allowing her and us to eat.
In the morning we arrived at the lake Baikal. Glaced. Wonderful. We saw a little truck driving on the surface, and it made us sure to be able to do the same with our small car.
We followed it, but at 100 metres about from the shore the truck rapidly did an U turn because the ice was breaking. We did the same, we run on to the shore without watch behind us.
We spent another day to arrive to Ulan Ude. Along the road we saw a lot of Japanese cars, more than Russian cars. When I (Claudio) was here some years ago the most common car was the Lada Jiguli, copy of the old Fiat 124, I did not imagine a so big modernization of the car park.
Since we started from home we intended to sell somewhere our car (soon or later we will start to pedal) but today we aren’t anymore sure to make it possible.
Claudio & Patrizia
CENTRAL ASIA (13/02/2007 - 15/03/2007)
We Spent ten days in Tashkent. We stayed in a pretty hotel, the innkeeper is a very good guy. We rested on a small tottering bed, and we drunk a lot of vodka (they demonstrate their hospitality in this way). We got easily the visas that we needed (Kirghiz, Tagik, Kazak and Russian). We arranged the Tagik one with an agent, his name is Sadoullo, who was very nice and… hospitable. We was again drunk.
To get the Russian Visa you need a letter of invitation, and right at the moment we had just a print of the e-mailed copy of it. Fortunately they accepted it. Also they asked for a flight reservation. Why, if we exposed our intention to cross the country overland? There was no way… so we did it (for free, but a waste of time)
The pack sent by Andrea (Claudio's brother) arrived at the hotel. It contained spares (window, an axle of transmission and cable of the speedometer) and sweets made by the mom! We fixed the car, and we hope to have not such kind of meetings anymore (fucking guys in that village in Kazakhstan).
We left for Samarkand. Along the road there were at least 20 check points, there is a Kazak enclave and the road passes through it.
We met a friend of the innkeeper of Tashkent. He invited us at the birthday party for his four years old son.
In the late evening the children went to sleep and the adults took the famigerate bottles of vodka. If we’ll continue to care of traditions we’ll become adducted!
We got the University to meet Shoya, a friend of Andrea. She teach Italian and she was keeping the lesson when we arrived. She had the opportunity to have two Italians and asked to Claudio to explain the comparatives of majority and minority to the class. They brought into laughter when he said that he never heard about!
Class: "Are you married?"
Claudio: "No, we are fiancé since one year"
Patrizia: (annoyed) "They are almost two…"
Laughter from the class
Class: "Claudio, what did you give as gift to Patrizia for St. Valentine?"
Claudio: "Uhm… nothing…"
Laughter from the class.
Shoya told us that she earn 30 us$ per month, so she has to do also the guide for tourists, to earn what she needs to live.
Bukhara is also nice (it seems…Genoa). Mosques and Madrasas are not decorated like in Samarkand. Becouse of their colours Bukhara is the Earth, Samarkand is the Sky.
In two days from Bukhara we got the border to Tagikistan.
We got Dushambe and so the house of Zarina, daughter of Sadoullo. We stayed at her house for 12 us$ per day (Dushambe is expensive) and she arranged the permits to drive the Pamir.
We were ready to drive from Dushambe to Osh in Kirghizstan.
We filled the tanks and we moved the luggage from the top to the inside. We worried for the rack.
Along the road we saw a lot of abandoned military vehicles of the Soviet Union.
We spent a night among a wonderful family. Around a stove, at the light of an oil lamp, we talked about our different cultures. In the morning, with -5°C the children were playing outside in t-shirts.
We gave a lift to an old man walking to the mosque 20 km far away.
At a check point we gave some gasoline to the soldiers for their generator. They were in the darkness.
In the villages they use oil lamps and wooden torches both in Tagikistan and in Afghanistan. We drove on the frontier.
There is a traffic of opium, so it’s unsafe to camp along the road.
There is a kind of competition between the two countries. For example, if an Afghan village has the electricity Tagikistan make up for asphalting the road.
An ONG named ACTED made a project for the Pamir road. There are inns with fixed prices along the road. Paying a little amount you can have the dinner, the breakfast and the bedroom.
In Kalaikum we filled the tank for the first time. We argued that the fuel was diluted with water, but we had not other choice.
We drove right on the border to Afghanistan for several hundreds of kilometres. We took a maximum speed of 30 km/h because of the bad road (however we broke a spring) and we saw signals of "beware of mines". A morning in the dust on a car window we red "Un saluto da un altro Genovese, Khorog, 2007, Feb. 26" (Hi from another genoan).
Close to a 4200 metres high pass the temperature of the inside was -12°C. The oil of the engine was thick and the engine completely covered by snow because of the wind.
Once we cleaned the sparks connections and the distributor the engine turned on, but we heated up it for one hour.
Because of the fuel diluted with water and the altitude it had the power of an autocycle.
Finally, on the pass, in front of us was the magnificent Pamir Plateau, the top of the world, where Himalaya, Karakorum, Hindukush and Tian Shan begin.
There is not snow in the winter because it’s too much cold.
The Chinese border is thickly covered by barbed wire. The border is not natural like the Afghan (the Pyant river).
We got the Kirghiz frontier, stronghold by a barrack, and then along a bad road (maybe the worst) Osh, where the Pamir ends.
We were used to the mountain people and worrying about the city.
On the road to Bishkek we could again drive at 80 km/h on a asphalted road. We could hear every noises from the car.
We got Kazakhstan once again. We drove on the steppe from Almaty to Astana. We made the last ordinary maintenance at the car, so it was ready to run for the last 10000 km. We used a 10 W 40 lubricant. Before we used a synthetic 5 W 40, because of the low temperatures on the mountains.
We found however -20, -23°C and in the nights we brought the battery with us in the room. In the mornings we had to wait for the sun to turn on the engine. The ice formed into the inside lasted till the late day.
We got Russia. It was nice to see again the trees, almost non-existent in Kazakhstan.
Claudio & Patrizia
We Spent ten days in Tashkent. We stayed in a pretty hotel, the innkeeper is a very good guy. We rested on a small tottering bed, and we drunk a lot of vodka (they demonstrate their hospitality in this way). We got easily the visas that we needed (Kirghiz, Tagik, Kazak and Russian). We arranged the Tagik one with an agent, his name is Sadoullo, who was very nice and… hospitable. We was again drunk.
To get the Russian Visa you need a letter of invitation, and right at the moment we had just a print of the e-mailed copy of it. Fortunately they accepted it. Also they asked for a flight reservation. Why, if we exposed our intention to cross the country overland? There was no way… so we did it (for free, but a waste of time)
The pack sent by Andrea (Claudio's brother) arrived at the hotel. It contained spares (window, an axle of transmission and cable of the speedometer) and sweets made by the mom! We fixed the car, and we hope to have not such kind of meetings anymore (fucking guys in that village in Kazakhstan).
We left for Samarkand. Along the road there were at least 20 check points, there is a Kazak enclave and the road passes through it.
We met a friend of the innkeeper of Tashkent. He invited us at the birthday party for his four years old son.
In the late evening the children went to sleep and the adults took the famigerate bottles of vodka. If we’ll continue to care of traditions we’ll become adducted!
We got the University to meet Shoya, a friend of Andrea. She teach Italian and she was keeping the lesson when we arrived. She had the opportunity to have two Italians and asked to Claudio to explain the comparatives of majority and minority to the class. They brought into laughter when he said that he never heard about!
Class: "Are you married?"
Claudio: "No, we are fiancé since one year"
Patrizia: (annoyed) "They are almost two…"
Laughter from the class
Class: "Claudio, what did you give as gift to Patrizia for St. Valentine?"
Claudio: "Uhm… nothing…"
Laughter from the class.
Shoya told us that she earn 30 us$ per month, so she has to do also the guide for tourists, to earn what she needs to live.
Bukhara is also nice (it seems…Genoa). Mosques and Madrasas are not decorated like in Samarkand. Becouse of their colours Bukhara is the Earth, Samarkand is the Sky.
In two days from Bukhara we got the border to Tagikistan.
We got Dushambe and so the house of Zarina, daughter of Sadoullo. We stayed at her house for 12 us$ per day (Dushambe is expensive) and she arranged the permits to drive the Pamir.
We were ready to drive from Dushambe to Osh in Kirghizstan.
We filled the tanks and we moved the luggage from the top to the inside. We worried for the rack.
Along the road we saw a lot of abandoned military vehicles of the Soviet Union.
We spent a night among a wonderful family. Around a stove, at the light of an oil lamp, we talked about our different cultures. In the morning, with -5°C the children were playing outside in t-shirts.
We gave a lift to an old man walking to the mosque 20 km far away.
At a check point we gave some gasoline to the soldiers for their generator. They were in the darkness.
In the villages they use oil lamps and wooden torches both in Tagikistan and in Afghanistan. We drove on the frontier.
There is a traffic of opium, so it’s unsafe to camp along the road.
There is a kind of competition between the two countries. For example, if an Afghan village has the electricity Tagikistan make up for asphalting the road.
An ONG named ACTED made a project for the Pamir road. There are inns with fixed prices along the road. Paying a little amount you can have the dinner, the breakfast and the bedroom.
In Kalaikum we filled the tank for the first time. We argued that the fuel was diluted with water, but we had not other choice.
We drove right on the border to Afghanistan for several hundreds of kilometres. We took a maximum speed of 30 km/h because of the bad road (however we broke a spring) and we saw signals of "beware of mines". A morning in the dust on a car window we red "Un saluto da un altro Genovese, Khorog, 2007, Feb. 26" (Hi from another genoan).
Close to a 4200 metres high pass the temperature of the inside was -12°C. The oil of the engine was thick and the engine completely covered by snow because of the wind.
Once we cleaned the sparks connections and the distributor the engine turned on, but we heated up it for one hour.
Because of the fuel diluted with water and the altitude it had the power of an autocycle.
Finally, on the pass, in front of us was the magnificent Pamir Plateau, the top of the world, where Himalaya, Karakorum, Hindukush and Tian Shan begin.
There is not snow in the winter because it’s too much cold.
The Chinese border is thickly covered by barbed wire. The border is not natural like the Afghan (the Pyant river).
We got the Kirghiz frontier, stronghold by a barrack, and then along a bad road (maybe the worst) Osh, where the Pamir ends.
We were used to the mountain people and worrying about the city.
On the road to Bishkek we could again drive at 80 km/h on a asphalted road. We could hear every noises from the car.
We got Kazakhstan once again. We drove on the steppe from Almaty to Astana. We made the last ordinary maintenance at the car, so it was ready to run for the last 10000 km. We used a 10 W 40 lubricant. Before we used a synthetic 5 W 40, because of the low temperatures on the mountains.
We found however -20, -23°C and in the nights we brought the battery with us in the room. In the mornings we had to wait for the sun to turn on the engine. The ice formed into the inside lasted till the late day.
We got Russia. It was nice to see again the trees, almost non-existent in Kazakhstan.
Claudio & Patrizia
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