Tag Archives: meeting fellow motorcyclists

Day 293 – The end is neigh

The meadow was full of poppies and yellow flowers

We did good yesterday, in terms of distance. That meant that we only had two hours to go to Tabriz, giving us ample time to upload 6! blog entries and do a bit of sight-seeing as well. The first guesthouse we aimed at was jackpot, right away.

I came into Darya guesthouse only to stumble over two German overlanders in the process of checking out. They had only good things to say – the price was right and the parking safe. Meanwhile Nina got into a little chat with another young couple staying at the guesthouse. We booked in without much hesitation, unloaded the bike and got it parked safe and sound in a chicken coop in a backyard around the corner.

Cream-filled puff pastry! Success!

There were a couple of hours of light chilling and blogging, including a good afternoon nap. At about 4 pm we made our way to town to do a bit of sightseeing still. The main draw for us was the UNESCO world heritage bazaar, which also had the money changer that we needed. Once again, the bazaar was a really cool experience and with far less motorcycle dodging than Esfahan’s. Shame on me though, I forgot to re-stock our date supply.

After that, we felt like some more relaxing and went to look for a recommended tea house in another shopping street. It turned out to be hard to pin down, but as always in Iran there were helpful locals all around who could lead us around the corner to the back-alley entrance. The tea house was super cool – a brick vault with a fountain in the middle. Judging by the people around, this was just our crowd. Heaps of “slipping” hijabs …

Cozy seats around the fountain and real daybeds further up

Tea and baklava were good, but by now we needed something more substantial to fill the hole in our stomachs. So off we went in search for another recommended restaurant, but this time in vain. We passed the spot three time, but not even the friendly locals were able to find it for us. We did, however, find two more stragglers in search of food. Giona and Uliana, the young couple from earlier at the hotel, were looking for the same place. Spontaneously, we decided to join up and try our luck together at the next place.

Sadly, this one was closed as well. People told us earlier that today is an Islamic holiday in Iran. That might explain it. Uliana knew that the kebab shop next to our hotel would do vegetarian kebabs, so we defaulted to that place. What was lacking in the taste department was more than compensated by the good company. Uliana and Giona are overlanding in a 4×4 campervan from Europe to Mongolia and back. It was also refreshing to chat with more “global citizens” with a more complicated idea of home. There were at least seven languages spoken between us, with English and German as the lingua franca of choice.

Tabriz had some very particular shapes for their cookies…filled with lemon jam…yum

After dinner, we had to pay one more visit to one of the many sweet shops in town to restock Nina’s supply before retreating to bed for one more blog post …

… not yet. I keep on forgetting to write about a big looming cloud that is constantly at least on my mind. We continue to travel and do things as we have done them and so write blog posts that are probably similar to Australia or Asia. But every day now, my thought wander to Germany. Where money was our big worry in South East Asia, re-integration is it for Iran. We have not lived in Germany for years. A lot has changed since then, mostly for us and our outlook on and expectation of life. Every second interaction with Europeans is a dreadful reminder of the reasons we left in the first place.

So I keep on worrying, scheming and planning. What route to take from Istanbul? What about health insurance, warrant of fitness for the bike. Will I find a job? When to start applying? How to do a German style CV … on and on it keeps on encroaching on my everyday thoughts. Tabriz was the last city in Iran, from tomorrow on we will head for the border. In two days, we will be in Turkey, the last country we will travel in for this trip.

Then, Europe. A crazy sprint through Eastern Europe and then the culture shock of being back. Stopping. Resting. Building a life once again. In a place I am not sure I want to live in again. The end is neigh …

: One of our memories: Flo packed this bag probably close to 200 times now

: The meadow was full of poppies and yellow flowers

: Tabriz had some very particular shapes for their cookies…filled with lemon jam…yum

: Lovely vendor who agreed to a picture: “Green tomatoes” are sold everywhere…it’s a kind of plum

: Towards the bazaar!

: The building is a Unesco world heritage site

: Fresh cheese for sale…

: …and spices

: Checking out what’s available

: Cream-filled puff pastry! Success!

: So, so many heaps of dates

: Rock sugar sticks for your daily chay

: A colourful mix of tea

: All the mirrors Snow White could possibly want 😉

: Apparently, 21 caravansaries are hidden within the bazaar

: To all my colleagues: Almost DIN compliant, right?

: Cool statues sitting on the steps to a bank

: Celebrating the barber profession

: Looking up to the ceiling of the tea house

: Cozy seats around the fountain and real daybeds further up

: Afternoon treats 🙂

: We passed so many confectionery shops…

: …I had to take a couple of pictures

: Flo did some laundry in the sink so that we have clean socks again

Day 288 – Being a hipster in Tehran

A young Polish couple was traveling with this one.

After all the quiet times in the mountains, Tehran came as a bit of a shock. It’s a big city with lots of option of how to spend your time. Do you go shopping in the bazaar? Do you look at the Royal Palace? Do you visit the Museum of Iran to see more of the ancient artefacts that have been dug out throughout the country? To be honest, we were out of energy. Instead of trying to cramp in as much as we could, we decided to try and see contemporary Iran and experience city life in the capital.

Nina with nice organic tea

So we took it slow this morning, sleeping in, have a longer breakfast and using the internet after two days of abstinence. At about 11.30 we went out with the plan of having lunch in a tea house. The Lonely Planet recommends going to one of the parks to watch people which sounded like a good idea. Park-e Shahr is the one closest to our hotel so we could walk there. Right before we go to the entrance, we stumbled into a tiny market full of stalls. One stall sold freshly baked pastries, most of them vegetarian, another stall sold sweets. Two buy options and we were set for lunch on a park bench in Park-e Shahr. 🙂 A lady at the stall next door offered us to test the tea they are selling. They are the first company that has gained the organic label in Iran. She had a little cheat sheet which she used to read the information to us in English.

bird watching, Tehran style

The park was quite big and to our surprise, it had bird cages in it as well. Once we had eaten and wandered around for a bit, we were ready for more exploration. Flo wanted to see the old embassy of the United States now named US Den of Espionage which was too far to walk there. Thus, we took the metro for a couple of stations to get there. Always a bit of an adventure to figure out how public transport works in other cities. The train was crowded but a lovely lady got me a seat before telling me about her three years in Vienna 30 years ago.

True face?

The US Den of Espionage is closed to the public most of the times but you can walk around it and look at the murals on the wall around the area. Such a weird experience. We continued from here to the Park-e Honar Mandan for some more people watching. The park sports a trim-dich-pfad as well as some sculptures. More strolling around before settling down for a café for some lovely tea, coffee and chocolate cake. Mmmmh, chocolate cake. 🙂

Others were more into it

The café we chose was in the Iranian Artists’ forum building. We had snobbed the forum yesterday … but not today. The exhibition is for free and as a way of experiencing contemporary Iran, it was perfect. Taking our time, we made our way through three level of art. It was great. We especially liked the room dedicated to the caricaturist Hadi. The artist was actually present to take some pictures in the exhibition room so Flo and I ended up on a couple of “look here is the public looking at the works” shots, we think.

Public display of logo design suggestions for an event. Pretty cool.

One room was lined with the entries to a design competition. Flo particularly enjoyed this as you could make out differences in the quality already. Another room showed photos of theatre plays which were incredibly interesting but we are lacking any knowledge of the plays which is a shame really.

Going back home we passed the market stalls again. Not wanting to have another round of kebab for dinner, we bought more vegetarian pastries as well as olives in a spicy paste that go very well with bread and cheese. Dinner was had in the hotel room before we met up with Joris and Noor who stayed next door. Going for some tea, it was lovely to talk to fellow travellers; we spent two hours just doing that and then made to ride with Joris tomorrow. Noor took a flight back to the Netherlands this night as her holiday of visiting was over.

: A young Polish couple was traveling with this one.

: Four stories of auto parts, one building after the other. Madness …

: Nina with nice organic tea

: The caramel blocks were divine

: At Shahr’s park

: This park also had a couple of birds on display

: Never seen one of those. The signs were in Persian, unfortunately

: bird watching, Tehran style

: Not many pictures from our ride, we got told off pretty soon

: famous mural on the US Den of Espionage

: Recent symbols of nationalism

: True face?

: We have yet to see a single Irani use these public health facilities 😉

: Well, I had to try, hadn’t I?

: One of the artworks in the artists’ park

: Some respite from the hot day

: Tea and chocolate cake and we were good to go again

: We did like the abstract paintings

: Ha, I have used that color palette before. It is also Nina and I hugging …

: We were less intrigued by the creepy bone phase of his oeuvre

: Others were more into it

: We liked the execution on this one a lot

: Public display of logo design suggestions for an event. Pretty cool.

: Cool caricatures; we immediately had to think of the Caricatura in Frankfurt

: Just epic … 😀

: detail in the park

: interesting mix of style and message

: The former Embassy pretty-fied.

: On point, but a slight weakness on the grammar

: It is hard to capture the insanity on the road, since most of it is about movement

Day 287 – Humps and bumps

Totally sealed, Garmin, totally sealed

It seemed we had managed to hit the perfect camp spot – not too hot, not too cold and undisturbed the whole night long. I felt really well rested getting up this morning. Besides, we had only a light day ahead, so what was there not to look forward to?

Maybe I should have been a bit more suspicious of the fact that the Garmin found a “third way” over the mountain that was neither on the Lonely Planet map nor on our Iran paper map. But it was set to avoid dirt roads, so clearly it knew something the others did not…?

The condition of the dirt road deteriorated quickly

Well, as it turns out it may have been that avoiding a 50 km “detour” back to pass number two overruled the no dirt rule. Or the open street map is a bit ahead of its time, since for the most part there were roadworks actually on the way to transform this into a proper sealed pass. For now, however, it was not. For about 60 km we had everything from a perfectly compacted gravel road to “this is a muddy riverbed at a 30° angle, if it rains now, we die”.

You can see our camp spot and the tunnel we came through

In all fairness, it was mostly good though. I mostly enjoyed the exercise, but I also could do without any more drama on this last leg of the trip. In the end, we made it and were rewarded with another set of fantastic view from up to 2400m back down to the valleys to the north.

Once on the other side, the motorway called and we got back into full cruise mode for a short hour to cover the last 120 km. Traffic truly got interesting once we got into greater Tehran, but nothing much surprising left to it. The Lonely Planet calls it “a Darwinian game of chicken”. There are still rules to it, though. They end up in a higher risk game than most sane people would engage in, but on the other hand, people get from A to B much quicker than they would in high survival rate countries under the same circumstances. I just go with the flow and compensate with better gear for the worst case, I guess.

Quite the shock to be on the motorway into Tehran

We had lunch in a hip cafe at the House of Arts – good burger and veggie pasta for once. A lovely place we probably like to come back to (the House of Arts, that is). For now though, we need to find a place to stay. Hotels are pretty expensive, so we settled on one place slightly too expensive, in the knowledge that A: There is not much else cheaper and B: we had saved some by camping the last few days.

When I parked the bike I saw another overlander bike from the Netherlands and back in the hotel found out that we were next door neighbors, so I knocked and introduced myself. Joris and his partner were busy for the day, but we agreed to catch up tomorrow.

That was pretty much our day, except for the one hour it took me to find some bread around here. The entire neighborhood – a full city block – is exclusively dedicated to selling auto parts. Not even a single little grocery shop anywhere among them for the most part. I did, however, get a replacement for the second screw that had vibrated off our windscreen in Iran.

: Good bye Alamut valley! You have been fantastic!

: Totally sealed, Garmin, totally sealed

: Climbing higher up…

: Last look back towards Alamut before riding through the tunnel

: Old-school: No lights and an uneven muddy ground

: Crossing over a bridge to get to the next mountain range

: The long and winding road

: The condition of the dirt road deteriorated quickly

: You can see our camp spot and the tunnel we came through

: See? Tunnel!

: It made for some great motorbike shots

: Quite the shock to be on the motorway into Tehran

Day 267 – Dockside surprise

There was no real rush to get up this morning. All we had to do today is arrive at Port Khalid in Sharjah by 12 noon and then hang around until the boat would leave. So we slept in and went out before packing up to have another dead cheap Deira breakfast.

On our way back, we checked the copy shop again, but it would not open for another half an hour. I had painfully grabbed an ok version of our business card design from the web (the original is on my PC in Germany), since we were running out of cards pretty fast. It was only 9.30 am once we had packed and the shop promised 30 minute turnaround, so we stuck around a bit longer and got a new batch printed.

The whole procedure in the port ran pretty much according to the great instructions we got from Al Hili Marine Services. There was one brief moment of terror when the cashier at the customs office looked up from my paperwork and said: “I have one more question: …” After a pause that seemed eternal, the relief came with “ … why Honda and not BMW?”. Because I can buy 3 of mine for the price of one GS, my friend. 😉

By 11.30 am we had done everything we could and got into waiting mode – right after an overpriced lunch at the Seamen’s Club (no kidding) at the port. As we were just abode to nod off for our afternoon nap, I heard the clatter of a large displacement single nearby. I looked up and saw a new Teneré coming towards us, with the unmistakable overlander outfit of aluminium panniers and bag roll.

Turned out that there would be two bikes on this boat, Rocinante and Jan’s Teneré. Jan is a young German guy on his first long distance bike ride. He had just shipped his bike to Dubai from Bremen to ride it back home to Germany. Most likely he will be taking the same route as we will.

And so the afternoon went by, chatting, blogging and finding other ways to occupy ourselves. Around 5 pm, we loaded the bikes onto the ferry. It took only a little bit of convincing, then the ship hands did a fine job in the end. Next up we walked over to the shack labelled passenger terminal to be processed and hauled back to the ferry in an ancient bus.

The ferry could take up to 375 passengers, but today only about 50 would sail with us. Everybody had plenty of space and we could spread out in a corner of the family section (Jan was “adopted”). We had to wait another couple of hours till 9 pm for dinner and departure. A good time to start studying the lonely planet to make up a route. The lights were turned off at 10 pm and we all spread out over multiple seats for a good night’s sleep.

: No pictures allowed in tye port…so we took pictures on board of the ferry. All safely stowed away

: Looking into the port from aboard the ferry

: Sun is setting…still hours until we start moving

: It counts as Iranian ground so hijab time!

Day 226 – Traveler’s meeting

Epic food hipster shot – it was tasty, too.

It was late yesterday…a nice long sleep-in was in order. Around 11am, we actually left the guesthouse in search of breakfast. Since it was so late already, we had the vague plan of making this breakfast more of a brunch and save on lunch. Arriving at Angel’s Secret, they had an extensive brunch menu and thus, brunch it was. Amazing brunch to be honest. We had everything from a big tea pot with apricot cookies to a French chocolate croissant, muesli with fresh fruit and yogurt to a big hearty egg sandwich. So yummy!

However, I didn’t feel too well today. Nothing serious, just likely that I caught Flo’s runny nose. So back to bed for more sleep and some home-y you tube shows.

In the evening, a big traveler’s meeting happened. Leonie, Peter and Chantal were still in town who we wanted to meet anyway and Chantal met more overlanders at her hostel who were happy to meet up, too. In the end, there were nine of us: Pia, Pascal, Frederic, Raphael, Chantal, Peter, Leonie, Flo and I. Quite the big gathering actually. First, I wasn’t sure if I’d be up for it but in the end, I was super happy that I went even if I left early to go back to bed. It was a nice meeting and our last chance to see off Amsterdam to Anywhere who will be leaving for Myanmar tomorrow.

: Nina was especially pleased with the homemade cookies

: Epic food hipster shot – it was tasty, too.

: Flo is leaning out of the frame in the bottom left …

: Dutch connection, double XX section.

Day 225 – Reunions

One of the great inspiring websites for motorcycle travelers

The days get pretty same-y after a while. We have either done the homework we had or can not do it until I am healed up a bit more. That, still, is like watching rice grow. Agonizingly slow (yes, I am aware that one week is not a long time for an injury and it could be much worse – I am just not that good with waiting). I spent a little bit of time following up another potential option for shipping the bike, thanks to Peter.

Luckily, there are two things to keep us in good spirit: Good food and good company. The first one came in the form of delicious Indian food. The naan was the best we had in a long while. Once again the Lonely Planet held true, and judging by the long list for Chiang Mai, we won’t have to settle for bad food until we leave. Ok, well, we did actually, trying to grab a cheap bite before meeting up that night … but that was our own fault. 😉

Leonie and Peter – Amsterdam to Anywhere

That evening, we were set to see Leonie and Peter again – plus Chantal (Chick on a chook chaser), who was on her way to Chiang Mai that day. We have last seen her in Dili and followed her trip updates on Facebook and her blog since. Once more, it was a lovely evening. We talked to Leonie and Peter for an hour or so about this, that and everything before Chantal joined us. It is amazing every time how often we meet fellow travelers and it just ‘clicks’ and after only a handful of hours you end up talking about real heartfelt stuff that one normally only shares with good friends.

Chantal arrived and filled us in on her latest exploits. So we hung around, nursing the one

Chantal – Chick on the chook chaser

drink we all had budget for until we got finally booted out near midnight again. Best of all, we did not even have to say goodbye, since we are all staying another day in town!

Day 224 – All in one day

Tuk-Tuk to the hospital

We had organized breakfast last night already, with chocolate croissants waiting for us in the morning. Thus, we were ready to go to the hospital before 8am. Flo called both possible hospitals beforehand, ruled out the one where the people on the phone didn’t speak English and decided that we would take a tuk-tuk taxi to the McCormick hospital.

Arriving there, we were flabbergasted by the difference: This was a proper hospital. Gigantic compared to anything facility we had been to lately. However, size and professionalism of a hospital come with another western achievement…bureaucracy. Thus, the first thing to do was register as a patient. Which turned out to be not that straight-forward without a Thai insurance. Despite having our Insurance Certificate with us and despite having our insurance give the hospital a guarantee of payment via email, it was not enough. A THAI insurance needs to give this guarantee, not an international one. So we ended up paying for the treatment upfront and will claim back the expenses.

Finally, a modern hospital

With all the bureaucracy b******t out of the way, Flo had a first examination. The doctor spoke English quite well, wrote an accident report and proceeded to test Flo’s arm. The elbow was much better already but the rotation of the arm resulted in screaming and Flo giving it a 9 out of 10 on a pain scala. Just to be absolutely sure, the doctor ordered another x-ray, this time of the forearm. The x-ray was digital this time, of a much better quality and ready in no time. Still, nothing is broken. The doctor suggested about another week for recovery and recommended physical therapy to help the process. So I hung around the hospital some more while Flo had physical therapy. I have to say, he was not quite convinced afterwards which bugged me a bit as I know how effective it can be. I haven’t worked in a physio therapy office for four years without picking up one or two things. At least, the therapist was able to give a slightly better diagnosis: The elbow is sprained while the muscle between the two forearm bones is strained.

The truly amazing Peter and Leonie from Amsterdam to … Anywhere

Afterwards, we had lunch and relaxed for a while before having some cake and coffee in the late afternoon. Then, we met up with Leonie and Peter of Amsterdam to Anywhere. They had contacted us a while back but we hadn’t managed to actually meet yet. So we had this lovely evening with food from a local market and then a drink at the Rider’s corner. Flo tells me that the Rider’s Corner in Chiang Mai is one of THE places to meet overlanders, so that was fitting. We clicked pretty straight away so that great conversation ensued. All of us are going to be in town for a while longer so we made tomorrow evening another date. 🙂

: Tuk-Tuk to the hospital

: Finally, a modern hospital

: I WANT TO RIIIIIDE!

: Epic manbun of hipsterdom +1

: It also was our 7th anniversary, so we had some treats in the afternoon.

: The stiff milk does not really work on ice …

: A Chinese Funduro with a Chinese plate – of cause the overlandets will check it out.

: The truly amazing Peter and Leonie from Amsterdam to … Anywhere

Day 208 – Vang Vieng

Croissants with butter and jam

Again, having only a 150km stretch to ride today, we decided to have breakfast at the fancy French bakery. Pain of chocolate (pain au chocolate) is just my favourite way to start the day. Again, it was delicious. We were happy now to leave Vientiane behind which did turn out to be a sleepy little town.

150km north of the capital is the small town of Vang Vieng. In earlier days, it was a party-haven for young travellers wanting to tube down the river while being high, but three years ago the party scene was shut down. Nowadays, outdoor activities such as kayaking, tubing and rock climbing are the center of tourism here.

An example of the red dirt colouring everything

The road to Vang Vieng turned out to be the worst in quite a while. Giant potholes interchanged with missing stretches of road. It reminded us of Timor-Leste, to be honest. Thus, it took us longer than expected. Unfortunately, there was also no nice space to stop and take a break from the taxing ride as we were pretty much walled in by trees and bushes that had taken on the colour of the dirt. Riding in the clouds of cars and trucks was also not that much fun.

Nice and refreshing

We finally stopped on a bridge for a rehydration break as the view from up here was refreshing after all the red. Nothing to linger on too long though which meant that we arrived at our destination before lunch time. This early, we even got a room at Pan’s Place, one of the popular hostels in town. Since the cafe and our room looked nice, we decided to book two night from the get go.

The prices at our hostel’s café looked reasonable so we had lunch right here and then in form of Western food. While waiting on the burger and cheese-garlic-baguette, two other Germans sat down at our table. They had seen us arrive on the Transalp and were keen to talk, one motorcyclist to another.

Rather worrying wooden bridge

Being in a slight food coma after lunch, it took decisive action to get out of our room once more and actually DO something with our time in Vang Vieng. The Lonely Planet recommends a tiny loop of about 26km which is short enough that many attempted it on a bicycle. We, however, took Rocinante out for a spin enjoying the dirt roads through mountainous scenery rather than the many waterfall and cave stops. And what beautiful scenery it was! We took 1 ½ hours for the 26km to take it all in, take many photos including Flo riding on the dirt roads and wave to all the locals we met.

Last bit of motorbike epicness for the day

At one moment, a lady working in a rice field actually smiled at us and waved and I wish I could have taken a picture of this moment but some things are too fleeting to grab on camera.

Very happy that we actually went on this loop, we arrived back at the hostel to plan tomorrow.