The next day, while waiting for the truck to arrive, I surfed the web via cell phone, looking for flights. I found flights to Frankfurt on Turkush Airlines and flights on Condor that would get me back to Anchorage on Sunday or Monday. Then I ran out of minutes and had to ask one of the kids to run to Megacom with 300 som and reload the phone. Boom! It was done. Kyrgyz do better cell than USA ever will, and cheaper, too.
The truck arrived at 8:00 pm, and the bike was loaded.
The next morning, we headed back to Osh, leaving at about 9:00 am. It was another spectacular day, but the ride in the 4x4 was very, very rough. The foot swelled up again, and was pretty painful. The heat didn't help. We made it back to Osh at about 2:30. We probably would have been a little faster, but the driver, Daniel, took a back way that slowed us down and just about shook my fillings loose.
I will post pictures of the two days driving over the mountains, once on a moto and once in a 4x4, when I get back to the States. The one picture in this post has taken about twenty minutes to load, and it is still not done. The internets are slow here . . .
I managed to sell the bike at an undervalued price, but that is okay. The sale was easy, but the paper work the next day, Thursday, took four hours. Yes, four. The power of attorney had to be translated from English to Russian, and the bill of sale as well. Then the Notary (also a lawyer) wasn't sure I understood what all the documents meant. So I had to tell him, using Google Translate, that "I want to sell this motorcycle.", "I have sold this motorcycle to John Doe," and so on. He thought that was very good, and accepted my assurances, although he put them in a document in Russian - which I couldn't read. The ID I had with me was also insufficient for his needs, but I had saved copies of my passports in EverNote, so I was able to show him those on my phone. Since they were in color , he approved them, and they copied all the info off the photos of the passport into the documents (by hand). My name was translated into Russian about three different ways, but I didn't tell anyone because I did not want them starting all over again. So, what with waiting, translating, improvising, and waiting, it took four hours from the time I headed downtown to the Notary office until I was done.
When I returned to Biy Ordo I was hot and hungry, as I had missed lunch. So I negotiated a "bif steek" and french fries with sliced tomatoes for a salad to be delivered to the guesthouse. 590 som (about $10) got me a very, very nice sized T-bone and a plateful of fries. It filled the emptiness within me.
While waiting for the dinner to be delivered, I booked my flights and a hotel in Frankfurt at the airport. I also arranged that morning for Daniel to pick me up at 3:00 am on Saturday morning and take me to the airport. Daniel also helped me by taking me to the bazaar to buy a suitcase. To help this Chinese designed (with help from Samsonite) and manufactured suitcase retain its structural integrity, I will have it wrapped at the airport in that plastic stuff. It is full. My riding suit is not going to make it back to Alaska. It is dirty, ripped, torn, patched, and very abused. It served me well and protected me from pigs and taxi cab drivers, but there us just no room to bring it. It turns out that I should have bought a larger suitcase to accommodate everything.
With only about twelve hours before I leave, I am a little sorry to be leaving Kyrgyzstan. The people I have met are wonderful, especially the Kyrgyz people who have been so helpful. Likewise the the other travelers, like Mag and Flo, a french couple, and John from Michigan, Lucas the Crazy Brazilian, the Four Aussie Bikers, and on and on. Also, I didn't get a picture of Issy Kul for Romaniac, and he will have something to say about that. I didn't see Song Kul, which I really want to see, and I'm sorry about that, as well as the ride through the Altai Mountains on M52, and riding through Mongolia and down to the Gobi Desert. Those adventures will have to wait, but I am happy with what I was able to do and see. If you had told me three years ago I would be riding a motorcycle along the Silk Road, I would have thought you were crazy. On the other hand, if I had told you three years ago that I was going to ride the Silk Road on a motorcycle, you would have thought I was crazy. As it turned out, it looks like we are all crazy.
Pictures coming when I get home . . .
I will post pictures of the two days driving over the mountains, once on a moto and once in a 4x4, when I get back to the States. The one picture in this post has taken about twenty minutes to load, and it is still not done. The internets are slow here . . .
I managed to sell the bike at an undervalued price, but that is okay. The sale was easy, but the paper work the next day, Thursday, took four hours. Yes, four. The power of attorney had to be translated from English to Russian, and the bill of sale as well. Then the Notary (also a lawyer) wasn't sure I understood what all the documents meant. So I had to tell him, using Google Translate, that "I want to sell this motorcycle.", "I have sold this motorcycle to John Doe," and so on. He thought that was very good, and accepted my assurances, although he put them in a document in Russian - which I couldn't read. The ID I had with me was also insufficient for his needs, but I had saved copies of my passports in EverNote, so I was able to show him those on my phone. Since they were in color , he approved them, and they copied all the info off the photos of the passport into the documents (by hand). My name was translated into Russian about three different ways, but I didn't tell anyone because I did not want them starting all over again. So, what with waiting, translating, improvising, and waiting, it took four hours from the time I headed downtown to the Notary office until I was done.
When I returned to Biy Ordo I was hot and hungry, as I had missed lunch. So I negotiated a "bif steek" and french fries with sliced tomatoes for a salad to be delivered to the guesthouse. 590 som (about $10) got me a very, very nice sized T-bone and a plateful of fries. It filled the emptiness within me.
While waiting for the dinner to be delivered, I booked my flights and a hotel in Frankfurt at the airport. I also arranged that morning for Daniel to pick me up at 3:00 am on Saturday morning and take me to the airport. Daniel also helped me by taking me to the bazaar to buy a suitcase. To help this Chinese designed (with help from Samsonite) and manufactured suitcase retain its structural integrity, I will have it wrapped at the airport in that plastic stuff. It is full. My riding suit is not going to make it back to Alaska. It is dirty, ripped, torn, patched, and very abused. It served me well and protected me from pigs and taxi cab drivers, but there us just no room to bring it. It turns out that I should have bought a larger suitcase to accommodate everything.
With only about twelve hours before I leave, I am a little sorry to be leaving Kyrgyzstan. The people I have met are wonderful, especially the Kyrgyz people who have been so helpful. Likewise the the other travelers, like Mag and Flo, a french couple, and John from Michigan, Lucas the Crazy Brazilian, the Four Aussie Bikers, and on and on. Also, I didn't get a picture of Issy Kul for Romaniac, and he will have something to say about that. I didn't see Song Kul, which I really want to see, and I'm sorry about that, as well as the ride through the Altai Mountains on M52, and riding through Mongolia and down to the Gobi Desert. Those adventures will have to wait, but I am happy with what I was able to do and see. If you had told me three years ago I would be riding a motorcycle along the Silk Road, I would have thought you were crazy. On the other hand, if I had told you three years ago that I was going to ride the Silk Road on a motorcycle, you would have thought I was crazy. As it turned out, it looks like we are all crazy.
Pictures coming when I get home . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment