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June 2001

We are probably stranded in the middle of nowhere and cant get near a computer to give you an update. Either that or we are having too good a time and we could not be arsed. Later!

29th June (from Kevin). He has found paradise in the form of a Norwegian Brook Shield look-a-like shemale while skinny dipping with nine other blokes.

I am at present immersed in Paradise on the med coast. It is a really great place . Where they filmed the blue lagoon. There are lots of Brook sheilds look alikes around still, great. I appreciate that more than most after crossing Pakistan and Iran. There is a 2000m mountain at the back of the beach with a road up and lots of paragliding. I am still not in the mood to fly though.

I did an interview with the discovery channel about my trip. Met a Norweigen also travelling on an enfield home. I have had lots of girls asking for a ride on the bike but I have yet to have the favor returned and get a ride on them! They are so selfish women are. I also may get the opurtunity to take tourists on this route as a guide as I met an english overland tour operator who are interested in setting up a package based on the trip I am making. Cool life style maybe. But I need to rest a while before I take on that job. I have to get parts shipped from india. And have to do a half days work on the bike when they arrive in 5 days or so. But the bike still runs so that is good. It may even get me home but that would be risky.

Getting drunk every night. Anice change after the drought in Iran. Also found out from the norweigen that it was 55c crossing the deserts in Pakistan and Iran. Hot eh!

Last night I inspired about 9 guys and 3 women to go night swimming, (An english guy had a bottle of good scotch whiskey that he poured down my throat, you can see where I am coming from now cant you). Why is it that women always go for that kind of thing in far smaller numbers than men. I just dont understand.

If anyone has places for me to stay in mainland Europe I would appreciate an address or phone number. Cause money is getting short. An europe aint cheap.

All is good.
Kevin

26th June (Shane).------------Hi Simo, Heres one for the site. I left Delhi on Monday morning after being stuck there for 11 days. No wonder it seemed like forever(I was)!. The last two days I have been driving from dawn till dusk. Well dawn for me is slightly later than for most people. As soon as I got on the road I realised the bike was too heavy. After about 100Km the rear shocks started going again. All the spare part combined with all the crap that I am carrying(even though I have thrown loads away I still have too much crap). New tent and spare parts really dont help. Well despite the suspension going I kept the head down. It really dodgy cornering but the straights are not to bad as long as I stay below 60Km per hour. Worst of all is my new leather old fashioned sprung saddle. My ass is killing me. I've been sitting in the bloody thing for more than 20 hours in the last two days. Just as well I have cheeks of Steel! Its now Tuesday evening and I've covered over 600Km since Delhi(may not sound like much but then your not in India travelling on an Enfield with one side of the suspension gone- so there!). I'm up in the mountains in Manali heading for the highest road pass in the world(5400M). I have to ditch all my gear and spare parts here so I can drive on these roads with the suspension the way it is. I'll worry about what to do when I get back down(and hopefully nothing breaks on the way!!). I should reach the pass in 3 days time providing nothing goes wrong and provided the weather is OK. THEN I really am turning for home and putting the boot down. Kevin bet me a fiver I wont make it to Achill for the friday night of the August Bankholiday weekend. Well Kev your fiver is mine!. I'm going to have to put in some very long days. Actually every day is going to have to be a very long day!. Well maybe I'll take a day out in Turkey to check out one of these resorts that Kevin has been talking about. I may be out of contact while on the road. Have faith and mines a Guinness. Out there somewhere, Shane T. (Shane 18th June------------------------------) I'm still in Delhi and will be for a few days yet. The bikes gone for a facelift. The new colour will be "Blue Moon". Classy or wha?. It took me half the day to decide on the colour. I got it narrowed down to blue moon, fiery red or pastel blue. I hope it does not look toatally naff(or maybe I do hope it looks totally naff! naff can be good). I have also gone for the leather sprung seats. I just had to splash out. I could have got out of here tomorrow but a bit of cosmetic surgery fro the bike was a must. Poor old Silver was not looking quite as good as he has in the past. Although the name Silver has become a little inappropriate. Ohh yeah I got the large 22l petrol tank fitted as well. Annnnnnd! in addition I've got a larger front sprocket and a larger carburetor jet so not only will I be looking cooler I'll also be going faster as well. I've decided to head for Kardung Lah(5400m road pass) in Ladak which is the highest road pass in the world. It way up north so it will take at least 10 days. One of my contacts in the motorbike world(hah) has a group of tourists paying well over $1000 for a 10 day trip aand I'm going to tag along. We leave on Monday. That will put me at the Pakistan border on or around the 7th of July. Yeehaaa- India to Ireland in under 4 weeks. Anyone willing to give me odds on making it to "The Pub" in Achill for the Friday night of the bankholiday weekend????. I think I can do it. See yas there. And in case you forgot "ITS YOUR ROUND". Walkin the line, Shane.

18th June (Simon).
I got this email from Kevin - he's alive & well in Turkey. Check him out (he's wearing velvet pants

(18th June)Hi Si
I made it to Turkey and it is great to be here. Iran was just a little boring. Kohmeni has taken all the sex drugs drink and rock and roll out of life there. The dirty little fecker. His photo is up all over the country. Big brother is certainly watching in Iran. So many police check points it was crazy. They do know how to make good carpets though. I simply had to purchase another 20kgs of luggage for the bike in the form of a beautiful persian rug. Eastern Turkey has many police check points too. But after today I should get away from them. People here drive toyata carinas and volkswagen. I actually spoke to 2 women yesterday. WOW. I will maybe drink a beer some day soon.
Not much news cause I just arrived in Turkey. The bike is running smoothly. Even though I completed its last service myself . I thought that that may have caused a problem.
As I travelled from the Iranian border this fucking bee flew down my t-shirt and stung me on the chest. I pulled up quickly and put the bike on the big centre stand to investigate. The road was sloping off to the side and the bike fell over and down an embankment. Nightmare. I managed to put it upright but couldnt get it back up the bank so it fell over again. At this stage I was wrecked. Fortunatley after a couple of minutes a passing car stopped and a guy helped me get it back on the road. Only minor damage done. Well I think I will spend 3 weeks or so here and then head for home.


See you in Achill for a cool pint of Bulmers.

Kevin

17th June 2001(Shanes mail to Kevin)./p>

Howya, So you made it then. Tell me,. what do you think is the quickest time i can make it to Turkey from Amristrar?. I'm in Delhi at them moment. I arrived last Thursday. The drive from Katmandu took four days with the last day involving 4 punctures only one spare tube and no pump. Ohh yeah I felt like just jumping in a taxi, abandoning the bike aND FLYING STRAIGHT HOME. I'm staying in hotel Krishna (owned by KC hotel). I've also got some problem with the back end of my bike. I think the suspension is fucked and I also thing that by back tyre is fucked from all the punctures. Any time it gets really hot now the back end wobbles all over the place when I'm cornering. I'll call into Maddan tomorrow and see what he says/ trys to con me into. I had to driv the last 40KM into Delhi at about 30Km per hour. I am surprise how clean Delhi is and I dont seem to get much hassle. Maybe I've just become a weathered travell who no-one bothers with??. The beard is back and I'm smoking heavier than ever. I was out with the girl from the Irish embassy last night. I went to concert hosted by the french embassy. We went witrh a few of her friends so it was not really a date or anything. I met! that Scottish girl again in Katmandu before I left. I'll be glad to get out of India again. Kev I think you should head down to Pamplona for the bull run. If I was close enough I would definately go. IO can even give you the mail address for a group of Kiwis driving there by bus from London. The world Kayaking championships are also on in sort which is sort of on the way. How long do you plan to spend in Turkey???. PS say hello to all the lovely ladies in Turkey for me and tell them I'll get there as soon as I can. Surviving, Just About, Shane. Weathered Traveler looking forward to a bowl of cornflakes and some Irish milk. /p>

14th June 2001(Shane). Silver is nae Ok. Hes still causing trouble and will have to pay a visit to d bike-wallah. I have the visa for Iran on the way. I was told to call back next Tuesday to pay for it. I hope that this means that I also get it next Tuesday. My Carnet is also on the way thanks to me mammy and to Simon.

I had an interesting taxi ride into town last night during which I got a bit of insight into the old rickshaw drivers "kidnap the tourist and bring them to a load of gift shops routine". Basically I was offered the taxi for 5Rs which was very suspicious as it was way to little. I happily jumed in and sure enough out popped the taxi drivers brother and asked if he could get a lift. Shur for 5Rs I was willing to share. We got chatting and I soon realsied that they had plans for me. After a bit of a confrontation I gotrt them to admit that they were not going in the right direction and that they were taking me to some gift shops. I managed to get out of them how it works. Basically every shop they bring a punter into has to give the rickshaw driver 10 Rs for just getting the person in the door. If the person actually buys anything they get a further 50Rs. I was in no hurry so I decided to let the guys make their few rupees. I told them that I was not going to buy anything but this was fine by them too as they still got their 10Rs for each shop. I even got a free cup of some quite tasty Kasmiri tea from one of the shop owners. After 4/5 shops the lads dropped me off where I wanted to go, for free, and invited me around to their place for dinner tonight???. So I'm off now for dinner with two dodgy taxi driver in their house. It seems a bit dodgy but they actually seem genuine so I'm going along to see if their is acrtually some scam involved. I'll bring a minimal amount of money so I aint got that much to loose. Wish me luck.
/p>

13th June 2001(Shane). I made it to Deli- Just about

Well I left Katmandu on Sunday and after 4 days of solid driving I made it to Katmandu. The first 3 days were great. I got some really big mileage done and had no problems with the bike. There were the usual driving incidents once I got back on the Indian roads(man I forgot how crazy the drivers are here- the onbly way to survive is to fit in which suits me fine). Yesterday I had left myself a relatively easy day with what I thought would take about 4 hours driving. At 8 am I left some little shithole hotel in a little shithole town whos name I dont really want to recall(just setting the tone for the day to come). Actually that hotel was probably the dogiest hotel I have stayed in yet. The manager kept going on about keeping my room locked. My room did not have a lock. My room had one 20watt bulb(the power supply was so bad the a candle would give out more light). no curtains(I was so dark inside that noone would be able to see anything anyway), loads of mossies(big one) etc. etc. All the staff in the hotel we particularly untrustworthy looking/acting and one of them kept going on about how good he was at martiual arts. For the first time in my whole trip I felt unsafe. I slept with my torch in one hand and my trusty letherman(it got 101 uses including the obvious) in the other and got the hell out of the place as early as I could drag myself out of bed(ven with the fear factor I still could not get up before 7.30). Ohh and the room was shit hot. I have never sweated so much in my whole life. I could not even get mineral water from them as all the bottles had dodgy seals. I had to crack in the end and by a bottle and then drop a few iodine tablets in it. Right enough about that hotel!!! some things are best not remembered/worth forgeting!. Where was I? Yip my short days drive to Delhi. The roads were particularly eventful for some unknown reason(I was having a busy day as Kevin would say). There was even a higher number of overturned tata buses and trucks strewn all over the place. My first puncture was a high speed(well high speed for my Bullet("Silver" I finally gave the bike a name, Silver, as in Hi-Ho...) blowout which due to my wonderoust instinct reaction driving, developed over the past 4 months, I managed to control. At this satge I was about 120KM from Delhi. One of the first things on my list when I got to Delhi was to buy a pump in case I got any punctures(In the word of one very famous American "dohhh"). I sat looking at the bike knowing I had too much luggage to carry and leave the bike. I was in the middle of knowwhere but the usual starers turned up. I decided to make use of them this time and I managed to scare them all off by asking them for help(I'm going to use that one in future). I took the wheel off took the old tube out and the new one in. All I need ed was to get it pumped. Eventuall two young guys offered there services. We agreed on 50RS(75p) and I watched my back wheel being rolled of into the distance. The other gut stayed with me and we had a good old chat in his broken English and my even worse "try to talk to someone with broken english, english!". I did the usual pull out hte map of the world trick and show him where I was from. Well back came my wheel on the back of a bicycle this time and I put the wheel on, said my thank and bid the guys farewell. About 2km down the road I knew something was not right. I kept the speed down and sure enough 10km later, bang. Some guy saw it happen and fair play to him without even stopping he drove on only to return two minutes later with the local tyre wallah on the back of his bike. That stop was quite interesting also. I was talking to a young Indian guy about 16 about travel and the usual preoccupation with any Indian you meet how much money westerners have(I tried to explain that I had more debt than he could ever hope to have- I think he understood but he just shook my hand and smiled so I'm not sure what to take from that). The wheel returned and I was off gaain. I was told that the tube was dodgy and that I needed a new on. The next town with one was 30KM down the road. I made it 25. Luckily the guy who helped me out at the last place was heading in the same direction and was giving me an escort. He disappeared and again returned with yet another tyre wallah on the back of his bike. With a new tube and after thanking yer man(fair play to him) I headed out on the last 40KM to Delhi. Basically somethign is seriously wrong with the back end opf my bike. It was wobbling all over the place and it felt like the yre was going to go again. I had to do the last 40Km at about 20 miles per hour which out here is probanly the most dangerous thing to do. Well I made it. On the journey I think I drank 8 litres of mineral water, about 5 small coke, one 1.5 litre bottle of coke 2 coffees and 1 chai and I was still dehydrated every time I stopped by the side of the road to check!. I've heard so many bad stories about Delhi that I was really dreading driving in at 20mph with the prospect of the bike breaking at any minute. The roads were brilliant the traffic layout etc. was really good. The builings looked new or at leat clean and there was less poverty visible than almost anywhere else in India. Maybe I flucked my way in though the really good areas but I was really impressed by Delhi. Even walking around last night I got very little hassle from anyone. Maybe I am the one who has changed but Delhi is not what I expected??? Its much much better. I think I better go see a bit more of it and find out for sure.
11th June 2001(Kevin). Cool again
Hi, I nearly passed out the day I sent that last mail. Woe that was just a touch too hot. Next day down a terrible road and through some amazing scenry I went up into the mountains and a cooler climate. The following day, today, I passed an even worse road through even more beautiful desert, to this town Qeutta. It is cool here too. I think I will take a rest day tommorrow. I passed through some of the tribal lands where the law of the gun rules supreme, but the people are just so genuinly hospitable and friendly words cannot describe it. It is a real chore getting from A to B. from 10 o clock this morning I have had to refuse offers of "come to my house for lunch". The guide book reassures me that no one would ever shoot a guest in thier house.
The lp guide book for pakistan is full of shit. But worth reading at the same time Shane. I think it is possible to go to Afganistan from here. There are lots of friendly Afgan refugees saying it is possible but I fell I don't know enough about the bike to risk it this time. Maybe next time, eh! The Turbans the Afgans wear are tres cool. The thing about the roads here is they can be very good sometimes and they can be bad at times but they do not have anything like the amount of traffic on them as in india so you don't get cover head to toe by the black diesel fumes from the tata trucks. Even if the road is shit it is still more pleasant than the indian roads.
Yesterday I passed 2 Austrians driving a tractor and trailor, back to Austria I presume. That is an original idea. I feel completly out done. So everything is going well. Pakistan has been a pleasant suprise. I recommend everybody to come here. But you should spend a little more time here than I have to do the place justice.

More news as it happens.
Mohammad Kevin

10th June 2001(Shane). "On the road again... It feels good to be on the road again..."(Willie Nelson). Well I have finally got around to moving on. I have been in Nepal since the 16 March which is almost 3 months ago. I've had a ball here and really enjoyed working as a Safety Kayaker. I just finished a 10 trip on the Sunkosi. It was class. It was my first really big volume river and I loved it. Nepal seems to be a bit of a time-bomb at the moment. The politial situation is very unstable. The killing of the Royal family has destroyed the moral of the Nation. Many people are not happy with the new King and especially with the circumstances surround his succesion to the throne. Many people dont believe the offical line that it was the young Prince who shot his whole family. Even before this incident the political situation was very unstable. The communist partys grouped together and declared at 3 day nationwide strike. Anyone who did not close their shops /hotels etc. during these days would have their shops destroyed by the mobs marching the streets. The hotel I stayed in had the front windows smashed and the railings ripped of the front porch. Our desk clerk got a brick in the face. There were many other similar incidents throughout Nepal. As far as I can see it will take very little for the whole country to explode. Any escalation in the violence of recent weeks will undoubtedly damage the tourist industry even further. This in turn will destroy the livelyhood of countless people. I really hope that this does not happen. I have met so many good people out here. I've made many friends here and "I will return". "Thank you Nepal and good luck". I'll be signing on again in a few day sonce I get to Dehli. Brian is back in Ireland recovering well and last I heard Kevin was in Iran after an enjoyable, but hot, journey through Pakistan.

5th June 2001. Kev rasies temperatures in Pakistan.

Pakistan is hot man. Very Hot 45 deg C. The People are incredibly friendly, I am sick because I have drunk too much pepsi and 7up. Anytime I stop to take a rest somebody buys me a cold drink, too much pepsi. I really like this place. But it is too hot. 4 days and I will be in Iran, Inshallalah. It will probably be hot there too. I am going to an AC restuarant for dinner.
Bye and stay cool
Kev

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