Tehran

Dan from London leads the way today.

Wow, I am in Iran !! It was an emotional day when it finally came. The effort to enter Iran with your own motorcycle was incredible, but with out question it was worth it. The standard questions , where are you from, my name, what city do you live in, the motorcycle, and so on,  start at almost every place I stop at. It may only be a brief stop for a bottle of water , but someone is going to see me and want to know more.. The people tooting there horns , smiling  and a wave as they drove past me on the road made riding in the Heat a lot easier .. Tehran is a big city in excess of 14 million people, traffic is as you would expect, but I can say I have seen worse !

Soltaniyeh, the worlds 3rd largest domed building 1303 AD

I hope you enjoy seeing more photos of me, I have been told it would be nice ... The first night was at Hosseins guest house not far from the border, then off to the Capital. Its going to be a faster visit than I would like, so its a busy schedule of riding early before the heat, and visiting the many sites in the evenings.

The photo here is in front of the old American Embassy ... Its a large compound surrounded by walls of graffiti . The graffiti is what it is, but does NOT reflect the general feeling of most people in Iran. I have been told just today that they wish for better relations between the countries, including Canada.

In Esfahan I was taken below the bazzare to see the dying of cotton, how they used camels to  turn stone wheels grinding spices, the making and repair of carpets , and hand painting of fabric . Esfahan has a long trading history as part of the silk road to Bagdad. .

Iran

Today is the day !! I am excited to finally be moving forward with my travels East. Thanks to a lot of work and planning, I will put some miles on the bike again. I will travel the length of Iran , with stops in Tehran and Estafan for a rest and site seeing.

My final night in Turkey included a few beers, some music and street food on the way back to the hotel. The Kurdish people of Turkey are all very friendly, welcoming and sincerely interested in other people visiting their country. Nothing but good memories will fill my head when I think of Turkey in the Future !! Thank You to everyone in Turkey for the wonderful experience ..

Georgia

Good morning from Georgia ! Its been a few fun and frustrating weeks poking around Georgia and the Black Sea. I had no idea I would still be here a month ago, but here I am .. Batumi Georgia is the destination of choice to hang out while trying to get onward travel sorted out.. Iran changed some travel rules for Americans/ Brits/ Canadians & ?? AFTER I left home. In a nutshell I need a guide from the border of Turkey to the border of Pakistan.. Iran has a lot of guides, as well as a lot of other motorcycle guys touring the country... The issue is none of the guides want to be bothered doing a trip thru the country , they would rather take the easy peazzy trips... I have not given up, and hope the next blog post is to say I am on my way to Pakistan and NOT the airport !
An option was the Stans across the Caspian sea, but it involved a number of visas, a guide thru Turkmenistan and China, added to the confusion I needed to get into Pakistan before my visa expires on July 24th ...
My hopes remain good that eventually things will work out..
Tourists from Iran like to visit Georgia and Turkey, and all that I have met are very welcoming, with offers to contact them when I get there. Likewise Pakistan has some fascinating places to visit including their gun markets ( not like Sudan's camel markets ) where hand made duplicates of any weapon can be found to exacting details, While Turkey is great at duplicating cloths from the worlds top designers at a fraction of the cost westerners pay,
Also home to Pakistan is the : Karakorum Highway ! This is the highest paved road in the world ! its at an elevation exceeding 15000 feet ! ( Mt Rainier is 14,400 ) The region is home to 5 of the worlds 8 highest mountains. Not sure what to expect riding a motorcycle at the elevation, but its definitely an opportunity I will not miss. The road was built to connect China with Pakistan thru the Himalaya's ...
I have been healthy ( hmm...  the odd hang over ...  ) the motorcycle has a bad shock again , but I can deal with  it. The past few weeks have also been a little different as I ride with " Dan " from England ..we have met other riders along the way and enjoy beers while sorting out the usual travel details ...

Balkans and Turkey

Hi guys,
Its finally not raining,  but I am inside on my computer writing a blog post... go figure.. The past months  have been great as I made a small loop around the Balkan region,  as far west as the Adriatic coast of Montenegro. It started in Bulgaria where I travelled clockwise, first south west in Greece to Macedonia, then north east to Turkey .. Some countries are small ( like Kosovo ) and it seems I just entered a few days and leaving again... others like Croatia have a way of keeping you from leaving with a  beautiful sea coast.  The coast  draws people to it from central Europe all summer looking for a vacation in the sun.
Lots of mountain roads and passes,  all awesome places to be on a motorcycle. Some days were very wet, and cold ... taking a toll on me... and bringing on my first cold in years..

My" must have" items now includes baby powder to tame the smell of my riding boots,  they have had better days.. Things should dry out soon in Turkey and I hope to not be called smelly biker as I head east..

The visa process is going slow , but its going.. The Pakistan consulate did a phone interview , Friday I interview with India, and I expect to know more about Iran soon..

In the past number of weeks I have seen a lot of churches, monastery's , Mosques, temples , and fascinating museums.. A camera cannot capture the feeling inside some of these places. Nor do I  have the words to describe a dome soaring inside over 100 feet in diameter of the Blue Mosque. The domes dominate the skyline of the city of Istanbul. Dating back over 5000 years there is lots to see , that returning again and again is common for many visitors.

fresh squeezed juice is always a way to stay healthy on the road. I wish Seattle had more places like this.

 This photo is on a Sunday afternoon in Istanbul. People love to walk, shop and just be outside. Park benches are everywhere.. cafes , candy shops, locals love to spend afternoons playing backgammon , an

endless sea of people...

Businesses have contracts with private companies that collect their employees in small buses and bring them to work. 10s of thousands of people are all pooled to work every day in an effort to ease traffic, and keep the city humming along.. Trains are everywhere, as well as ships,  taking people from the Asian side of the city to the European side..

The government frowns upon drinking , so high taxes move people to other social activities besides backgammon and drinking tea all day.. As men wash there feet to enter Mosques its very social , as well as smoking water pipes , and fishing in one of the worlds busiest waterways. Health clubs are also everywhere !!,  as the culture of old Turkish baths shifts to younger interests. Health clubs have annual dues starting at about 1000 ( dollars )

I dropped my lens cap in the water here.. ( Europe ) across the larger bridge is Asia.

Countries such as France and Switzerland ceased billions of Arab dollars in the Arab spring, moving Arab investment money to countries like Turkey.

 Russian investors, as well as Europeans are all moving investments in the new world system to Asia and away from the American dollar.

Turkey is hosting world conferences with people in the thousands coming to visit. Waits to visit famous museums are long,  forcing some to stay open 24 hours a day. An owner of a hotel told me we are building ghost cities. Most people own two homes, and have moved investments out of the banks. Its common to see small cities of condo towers that look completely empty. Home owners love to have a place along the coast they visit a few weeks a year, as well as a place in the city.  Some cities are almost all Irish, or Brits, or Russian, or ... newspapers are in local languages for these new cities. as well as radio and TV. As the shift away from dollars continues to Asia it will no longer be as cheap as it used to be to visit, but for now,  I love it all, as I travel east.

Rila Monastery: Bulgarian Hospitality

Hi again, its been a few frustrating weeks at the Moto camp in Bulgaria. Before leaving the camp last year " Peach " said he could make repairs and have the motorcycle ready and waiting ... Not So..
After 100 KM the rear hub was destroyed because of a missing spacer while remounting the back wheel, that also put the chain sprockets out of alignment bringing them to an early grave...
Parts and the rebuilt wheel finally came and I am mobile again. It was a huge waste of some serious cash, thinking this guy knew what he was doing.. mistakes happen, but the apology or return of some of the money never did. lesson learnt ... what kind of name is " Peach anyway ??"

I did enjoy some really good hospitality while stranded at the camp. Its in a village of some 80 people. Friends are very social,  having dinners, movie nights, sharing rides to town for shopping, the endless Happy Hourzzz, everyone is welcome and treated awesome.
 Niki Kisimov in Sofia is a certified BMW guy who saved the day and my pocket book from further damage.. Niki would think nothing of ,  charging me for labour to rebuild the wheel, and completely go over the bike before leaving.. He could not stand the Chinese parts the bike had acquired while in Africa and replaced what he could free of charge with genuine BMW parts.. including a new mirror. The morning turned to noon and his family brought out lunch, then it was dinner, and they put on the BBQ, eventually the bike was good to go and time to see the historic bits of Bulgaria.

 The Rila Monastery started in the 10th century, and remains an important part of Bulgarian history. Not sure where all the monks were. I saw about 3..

 Veliko Turnovo in Bulgaria, about 25 k from the moto camp. Its been a cool spring in Bulgaria, as well as Greece.. so travel will be slow as I wait to here from the Pakistan and Iran embassy about visa applications.

 Rome... I have a lot of pics from Rome,,, but I am sure even with all the practise using my camera you can still find better pictures on the net..

 Alexander the great, and if I had it a picture of Marco Polo...and Genghis khan ...who knows the connection ?  Picture is also from Thessaloniki, Greece.

 Finally arrived in Greece.. Thessaloniki, its a cool city, filled with a lot of coffee shops, drinking holes, tourists, and ruins. the city is built over top and around of what is left.

 Rila Monastery in Bulgaria again, I wish I could show more photos, but for some reason your supposed to act pie es ? no picture taking or silly tourist questions at a monastery ...

 Martins and Jeana's place in the moto camp village.. cost about $10,000 remodelled ..

The final picture is also Greece.. where I made a point of stepping foot in the Mediterranean as part of my next adventure.. it will be complete if I can step foot in the sea of China... There are a number of Silk Roads, including a northern route, southern thru Iraq, as well Iran into India, China, and of course Afghanistan.. Travel overland thru most countries is no longer possible. My goal is to see what I can, taking as long as it takes.. Marco Polo spent years, or it can be done by train in about 3 months.. visas, as well as shipping and bmw parts :(  will determine what I see of the silk road.

Douala, Rome, Sofia..

Hi guys, Sorry for the delay in posting..
Cameroon was quite the experience from my first trip a few years ago. Although they are celebrating 50 years of independence its still very easy to say I am on a farm... I visited with Sebastein and his family as well as my friend  Elvis from Tanzania,  during  his global tour to bring awareness to education and our environment ( chiletokili.com)

SEbastein has a small stand at the local school selling omelets to students. He is the subway of Bafoussam... add mayonnaise $ add spaghetti $$ add meat $$$ add seasoning $, and so on.. he fries the eggs and the students cut there own bread, and add the options they want ... he sells up to 60 full size subs a day .. also working Saturdays,  he makes about $18.00 per week..

My return was to give him an opportunity to do more, and help provide some future for his family.. we both soon found ourselves trying to help a friend instead . Sebasteins friend was sent to prison accused of stealing a speaker ( value about $20.00)
I was surprised by the corruption  just getting into a federal prison ( NOT A JAIL). I had to pay to get inside, prisoners have to pay for there own food, and should expect to be covered everywhere  in BITES from ??    Guilty in Cameroon if someone says you are, and innocent if you have the financial resources to do anything about it. He may spend the next 5 years there, and by looking at how slow Cameroon is to get on its feet and progress,  It may be longer... ( more to come )

Douala has an active nightlife, great sea food,  beer seems to replace drinking water, starting from the time many people get up. It was a nice change for Elvis who was arrested twice the previous week in Nigeria suspected of being Boko Haram . ( google it please )
The 250 kilometer bus ride to Douala included a minimum of 20 road side stops by the military all expecting some kind of payment for nothing from the driver... When I traveled Cameroon I never stopped , or considered paying a bribe. They do not want trouble from a white man, but they think nothing of cheating each other any way they can.

We split ways

 at the airport as I departed for Rome... The plan was Bulgaria, but Rome was on the way... kind of...
I spent a week with all the other tourists walking the streets looking at the map for the next tourist site. lots of good coffee , pizza, and  pasta to keep you going. My birthday that week was celebrated by the hotel manager and  friends from Iran  in there New Years eve celebration year 2578 ?? Traditional Iranian food and spirits.. Vodka mixed with wine ... !!

I get conflicting information about travel thru Iran. The motorcycle is registered in the USA , and  I do have both a Canadian and American passport , but with American tourists still in there prisons it seems a bit dodgy... despite USA Today and other articles that Iran is doing what they can to get American tourists to come visit... If given a choice I would rather ride Iran and Pakistan into India rather than ship it from Turkey... hmmm

Yesterday I arrived in  Bulgaria and took the BMW for a spin !!

Cameroon 2014

I made it !! missed a flight in Turkey, baggage delay in Yaoundé , and 6 days later I am in Bafoussam , Cameroon. The 5 hour bus ride completing the final leg of the trip quickly brought me up to speed with local culture. Loud gospel music is played in the bus while women sing along as they would any Sunday... Music was interrupted as a young man spent about three hours trying to sell passengers everything from toothpaste to green tea ..  I asked the young man how much he paid the driver to turn off the music ?? he lost  his courage to continue as passengers laughed at the question  and the music was turned back on and the singing continued.
Locals try hard to separate me from my money, ( Egypt is worse ) and an expected " duty " from the white man is part of travelling here. My friend here, negotiated my hotel room price before I arrived. When the hotel manager saw I was white he was not happy, thinking whites must pay more. Waitress's do not bring my change unless I go ask them for it, same goes for just about anything I need to buy.
Hundreds of 100cc Chinese motorcycles create the local mass transportation system as young businessman try and make a buck racing up and down the streets for the next passenger. Women as seen in the photo usually can be seen at the farmers market selling there produce or fresh cooked ... Young men are usually the ones walking the streets with bags of used cloths for sale .. my goal is to find a Super Bowl jersey from the Denver Broncos.. Seattle made sure they were all donated to Africa !! Thanks again Seahawks .
The malaria pills, mosquito nets and crazy dreams as a result,  will be short lived, as I leave for Bulgaria in 2 weeks and jump on the BMW .