Dear Friends,

Feels like I was sending the last Xmas mail just some days ago. And that this one here is the 3rd in a row from the road abroad makes me stunning too.  Neither that I planned to be away for so long, nor that I feel this journey will end soon.
The last 12 month were incredibly intense and emotional touching.
It all started with finding myself chained to bed recovering from a severe pneumonia in Lhasa on the Tibetan high plateau. A region that left such a deep impression on me with its beautiful nature, high mountain ranges, pure emptiness and cultural tragedy, that I got the urge going back there soon. Having had the chance of several trekking experiences just intensified it. And the outlook of cycling with my brother Boris in Eastern Tibet soon was quite exciting. But the unexpected Lhasa riots in March forced us to come up with a complete new plan and so we ended up meeting in the city jungle of Beijing instead.
What a contrast: but necessary in order to prepare for the next month of cycling in Mongolia and Russia. New equipment had to be bought, visa arrangements to be made and passport issues to be resolved.
Looking back we made the right choice. Especially Mongolia was so rewarding and more than just a suitable substitute for nature, open spaces and remoteness, the things we were looking for once to experience in Eastern Tibet. And the relaxed attitude of the Mongolians in the countryside always added a joyful surprise to many of already stunning days. Although I love my bicycle, I must admit that horses are the best mean of transport there, no doubt.
Russia by contrast made us feel the closest to home ever on the whole trip. With its European touch of culture, orientation was easier than in many other countries. Talking food it was a culinary trip back in time and our grandma’s dishes (she was born in today’s Moldavia) revived regularly. Always loaded with fresh bread, sausages, pickles and smoked fish my tent turned into a kitchen every night and we spent ages preparing a decent feast! With my lessons learned in Tibet I had no problem to justify the huge intake of calories and get prepared for the cold time to come soon. The start of winter with its bone shaking temperatures in Siberia and the Far East is the beginning of a new season, when frozen rivers turn into highways and boosting truck traffic is rushing to remote places far out there, accessible only by helicopter in the warm season due to impassable mud roads. And every story from truck drivers or people living out there left a strong and increasing desire to come back in winter one day. But for us it marked the end of our Russian experience: not fully equipped for these conditions and at the end of our visa we left Vladivostok to indulge ourselves in a new culture.
South Korea received us with a warm, relaxed and friendly atmosphere, a real contrast after the harsh Russian world and a welcoming change. But with a blink of an eye our last two weeks rushed by and I soon found myself at Incheon’s international airport saying goodbye to Boris. I suddenly realized this will be the end of our common travel and the end of my travel period too (and the early return into temporary working mode). How can 7 month of common travel end so quickly?
A lot of impressions from the last two years are waiting in my mind to be digested. And some discussions with people I met in the last time triggered me emotionally too. In addition I recently was informed that my former employer in a last minute action didn’t approve my position in Shanghai due to a global hiring stop, a new challenging position in Engineering I was about to start soon and keen to face. So a crash landing into reality took over and all this together made me facing the void very quickly.
Since then I’m sailing in rough waters sorting things out and slowly getting ready to prepare for a new round of job applications and possible interim jobs in teaching to ease my travel budget. These are really not the things I expected to happen but also part of my journey thus part of the experience.
I had to smile when my sister recently sent me a short text translated from Sanskrit, ever true but also a good reminder during this period of my life:

Look to the day
For yesterday is already a dream
And tomorrow only a vision.

But today well lived
Makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness
And every tomorrow
A vision of hope. (from Sanskrit)

I wish all of you a joyful Xmas time and a successful start into 2009!

Bambitee

PS: as promised since a long time the homepage is updated (statistics etc.) and the latest pics are published. Sorry it took so long, but I also managed to crash the whole database that required a rebuild from scratch

• Mongolia … 03 Ulaanbaatar to Border Russia)
• Russia (01 Border Mongolia to Lake Baikal, 02 Lake Baikal, 03 Lake Baikal to Vladivostok)
• South Korea (01 Arriving in Sokcho, 02 Seoul - ‘Soul of Asia’, 03 Jirisan National Park)

Russian Roulette, that’s what we felt when we arrived at the Russian border post.  After clearing immigration on the Mongolian side the nice lady opened the gate and we entered no man’s land. With a smile on our face we cycled up the mountain, because against all odds it seemed like we could ride our bikes between two countries- quite uncommon the further away from Europe you are.  But this freedom only last some kilometers: the Russian gate was closed and with a clear “nyet” (”no”) we were asked to go back to Mongolia and organize some kind of transport into Russia. Walking and cycling in no man’s land not permitted. Funny guys, how to go back on an single entry and exit visa that has been used? Being trapped we asked for water and prepared to camp until some transport will show up, whenever this will be. But like most of the time we were lucky and only minutes before “office time” was over Denis showed up and we crammed our gear into his van. The unlucky was trapped too (or better his drilling equipment for mineral resources which could not clear customs) and thus his unhappy Canadian customer was kicking his butt. What a start!

Expecting more of this we positively got disappointed- it finally was the start of a very good time in Russia. We met many friendly people, received warm hospitality, ate (or were “forced” to eat) tons of delicious food (close to what our grandma conjured), admired wild and beautiful nature and experienced the start of the bloody cold Siberian winter.

The first 7 weeks doubtlessly were the most active ones. Still cycling we covered all the way from the border to Krasnojarsk on our own two wheels. For the last 4 weeks we then changed our travel scheme. Regarding accommodation this meant using the genius social networks of hospitalityclub.org and couchsurfing.com for homestays with families. And concerning transportation it simply meant taking the train (Transib and BAM) to Vladivostok with a 10 day stop over at the northern tip of lake Baikal (cycling and trekking). Given the short visa and the approaching winter there was no other way to cover the gigantic distances here. And yes, it got cold: once the thermometer still was stuck below -30C at 8 in the morning we knew it’s time to hit the road and get to the warmer Pacific coast soon. With our gloves, shoes and sleeping backs already far beyond limits there neither was a chance to stay outside camping at night nor cycling during the day (snow and ice covered tracks only). During the “warmer” nights we already started collecting enough fire wood for our hobo camp in the snow just in case we might keep the fire blasting the whole night.

Now our gear is packed and we are ready to board the ferry to South Korea tomorrow: the cold time is over (although I still would like to experience -50C) and warmer weather ahead. As well a new language and a script we can’t decipher…

Bambitee

PS: once again the pics have to wait, I will upload it from South Korea, PROMISSED

Hello out there,

After a long and bumpy ride towards western Mongolia we finally arrived in Olgii (the provincial capital of the most western province). From here it’s a short stretch of 120km to the Russian border. Given the fact we will be able to clear the Russian immigration (with all the inperialistic shit going on at the moment) the journey can go on. Then all the hassle to get our visas ready (the last six weeks our passports were traveling between Mongolia and Germany in order to obtain the Russian visa) was worth going trough.

Mongolia was the most relaxing place so far and the nature is quite impressive. Invitations into gers (traditional felt tents) and spontaneous encounters of walking, riding or motorbiking Mongolian were luring all over the place. We could pitch our tent everywhere which made traveling very handy (most of the time we camped sharp on the aimed kilometer just right beside the road without any problems). Talking about “roads” (or better tracks in the best case, very often we could chose from a hundred “tracks” in a plough up area of several kilometers in width) is shite and warmly recommended for all pain seeking cyclists. Thus sand, gravel, washboard, potholes and deep mud puddles after rain were our daily travel mates. Any timing could be obsolete within minutes and we were forced extensively to keep patient. But again as all the time before: the most painful moments are the most memorable in the end and we don’t regret cycling here.

Tomorrow we will board our bicycles again northwest bound. The itinerary isn’t finalized yet and Vladivostok is very far, too far to get there all the way cycling in the visa time given. So we have to cover some stretches by train. The only thing we’re sure yet is the fact that before completely freezing our balls off in Siberia we will hop in the train, share some vodka with locals, sip hot tea from the samowar, say goodbye to Kaviar&Co (alias Russia) and hello to Kim’chi&Co (alias South Korea) sooner than planned. Boris’ flight to India is scheduled 30th of November from Seoul and latest by then I should have shuffled the outcome of my job applications for further planning.

As always the horizon is wide open and thrilling moments laying ahead of us.

Yours, Boris&Bambitee

PS: the latest pics will be uploaded later, connectivity is pretty poor at the moment…

Hello again,

It’s time again to say hello before heading off into the void. It’s now 3 weeks ago since we arrived in Ulaanbaatar and the organisation of the Russian visa, a new Chinese visa (just to go back for 1 day to obtain a new Mongolian visa) and necessary border permits (we plan  trekking and mountaineering in the border region of China/Mongolia/Russia) took most of our time. Not shocking anymore are some political unrests along with burning buildings and (like a deja vue) troops in the streets: somehow these things seem to attract me Although we haven’t been affected too much (except that they stopped selling alcohol for 5 days) it came as a big surprise.

During the next weeks we will ride towards the west and after the long break in the city we are very keen getting back onto the bicycle. With good maps and tons of GPS data we shouldn’t get lost during the next 2000km.

After the serious database mess I was able to restore all data and most sections of the homepage have been updated too:

• Statistics: new entries of the last 100 days and China (complete)
• Multimedia: restructured and some movies included
• Photographs: China (06 Jangsunglhomo Trekking, 07 Lhasa II, 08 Kalurong Trekking, 09 Pulha Ri Trekking, 10 Commuting to Beijing, 11 Beijing - Border) and Mongolia ( 01 Border - Ulaanbaatar, 02 Ulaanbaatar Round Trips)  have been published as well.

Enjoy the new input and until later

Bambitee and Boris

After 5 month (!?!) of not cycling it is time to hit the road again. Since my arrival in Lhasa Xmas 2007 many things happened.

January and February I was laying down dead sick recovering from a severe pneumonia that stroke hard on me (and other cyclists in Lhasa too). March to mid April I was out mountaineering most of the time, just interrupted by the Lhasa riots that messed up all planing. Since April 13th (the day I was expelled from Lhasa/Tibet after some “nice” meetings with the authorities and trying to turn down a lot of strange accusations) I was basically dashing around to apply for a new passport in Beijing and meet my brother Boris. So Lhasa was off the list and the next meeting point in Golmud had to be canceled due to new travel restrictions. Finally we managed to meet in Xian, just right in time to celebrate Boris’ birthday. By this time I had already been to Beijing and left my gear in Golmud that needed to be collected- a nice task if you are not allowed to go there anymore;-) With the growing xenophobia before the Olympics that resulted in a 30 day only visa for Boris and me hitting the 10.000km mark riding on the train it was time to shuffle our ideas: were to go next? First to Beijing due to visa and power shopping (gear and bicycle), but then? Not an easy task if you dreams go wild looking on the Asia reference map that basically covers Lisboa (Portugal) to Darwin (Australia) We decided to trade in tropical climate of South East Asia for continental climate. Today we will head up north to Mongolia and south Siberia until mid October. Then Boris will fly to India and I will return to China via Vladivostok and South Korea in order to follow up on the job search.

So finally we have a new plan for the next month that feels good, even if organising the visa to both countries is a pain in the ass.

Bambitee

PS: I just realized that some entries on the homepage are corrupted due to database upgrades. This will be fixed in the next weeks together with the last pics starting March 2008…

Hello All,

Meanwhile the smoke settled in Lhasa and slowly we’re going back to normal. After a long night in a telephone kiosk last Sunday in Nangartse (140km out of Lhasa: see last update) my friend and me refrained from our plans “escaping” into the mountains. Based on the information from our reachable contacts in Lhasa we decided to give it a trial going back. Fortunately the general curfew was lifted on Monday morning and public transport resumed. Being kicked out from the bus (the driver was a bit afraid giving foreigners a ride) we finally found a smart taxi driver who circled all hot spots and dropped us right in front of our hotel. Oh what a warm welcome: all friends were OK, same the hotel manager and owner. Our hotel was untouched and surrounded by smoking and burnt down shops but nevertheless we kind of felt being back home. Meanwhile it is quite again and only about 10 foreigners are staying in Lhasa at the moment.

Tomorrow I will leave again for another 14 days of trekking and mountaineering- I definitely need some quite days, there where too many things happening the last 7 days. As well I have to keep a low profile for the next time since I ended up 2 times in military and police custody after illegally taking photos (I’m just too curious). One more incident and I will be expelled from China, not the kind of “free travel” I’m looking for.

End of April I will meet my brother Boris here in Lhasa (crossing fingers) and we will cycle together to the East. For the 2nd half of this year I plan to find a job (12 to 18 month) in engineering, project management or consulting at the east cost and learn Chinese. My new home will be preferably around Beijing or Shanghai (for the Mandarin language) or Hong Kong (for the nicer lifestyle).

With new money in my pockets I then will further continue my travel. At the moment I’m thinking about to continue after having reached Australia: New Zealand, then from Alaska all the way down to South America along the Panamericana. Doing so the next working experience shall occur in a Spanish speaking country (i.e. Mexico), the future will tell.

I wish you all the best and nice Eastern (we were searching easter eggs this morning too on the hotel roof).

Cheers Bambi

Dear Friends,

Today is the first day I learnt about the riots here in Lhasa. For the last 10 days I was out mountaineering with 3 friends. Yesterday evening we got arrested because we hiked into a forbiden area. After the showdown on the police station we were asked to show up again this morning at 10am for final instructions, but the police station was nearly empty by then. All responsibles were gone and we were wondering allready what happend (now I know). Happy to avoid the payment of any fine we left.

Since there is little traffic today we went to the Internet cafe to kill some time- here we go! At the moment we discuss about what to do. Unfortunately all my gear is still in Lhasa and it seems to be unfeasible to get in at the moment.

To avoid getting deported during the hot events we might stock up with food and will disappear into the mountains again for some more time…

I will keep you updated

Regards Thorsten

Dear All,

What people, what a landscape, what political injustice, what an endeavor: after leaving Kashgar 16 weeks ago I arrived in Lhasa in health a few days ago. This stretch of my journey was the hardest so far, both physically and mentally.

Since my departure in Kasgar I cycled 3870km on dusty roads (about 1200km paved, 2670km on gravel), climbed more than 34.000m in altitude difference, crossed 39 passes or plateaus (17 above 5000m, 21 between 4000m and 5000m and a “warm up” of 3300m) and shivered during cold nights in my tent below -20C.

Luckily I could return to civilization gradually; I already spent 6 days in Shigatse, the 2nd biggest city in Tibet. “Returning to civilization” in simple terms means nothing more than harrying the nearest supermarket, finding a warm bed and to stay in there for 2 days eating and sleeping…

Now it is time for a long break: cycle, equipment and driver require some rest and a lot of stuff is in bad shape after the bone shaking ride. Just to mention the major break-downs: my front break went dead more than 1200km ago (making the long and steep downhills even more thrilling), the rear stand disappeared, all fixings of the front dirt board are gone, the front rack makes strange noise, half of the snap-locks of the panniers don’t close anymore, same for all the zippers of the tent and my sleeping mat has a micro hole that requires at least one refill per night before touching the freezing cold ground.

Lhasa is a wonderful place for a winter home. There are only few tourists around but a lot of pilgrims. With decent temperatures during night time (only around -7C) and warm and sunny days we can start every morning with a big breakfast outside on the hotel’s rooftop. As well 4 other cycle friends are staying here making it a pleasant place.

The next weeks I will spend with a lot of repair work, writing the outstanding travelogues (basically all from the start), sorting my pictures and climbing some peaks around the city. Unfortunately my pocket PC got lost or stolen with a full SD card covering 1200km/44 days of photographic documentation. And this on one of the most interesting section in regard to landscape, nomadic life and religious places.

Already for the 2nd time on this journey I wish you Merry Xmas, a Happy New Year 2008 and enough energy to pursue your dreams.

Best Regards from the far distance

Bambi T

Hello,

I just would like to use one of the few moments I’m able to be online to say that I’m doing well. I’m still heading East towards Lhasa. I expect to be there around Dec. 15th. There are around 1000km left and my next destination will be Mt. Everest base camp. In Lhasa I will have a stop of minimum 4 - 6 weeks: time to close all my open action items and especially take care of my deserted homepage. It’s time to publish the promised travel reports… As well I have to make up my mind on the next steps.

So stay tuned and don’t get stressed by the approaching Xmas preparations. I meanwhile will continue counting the endless bumps of the washboard roads and try to keep myself warm in the tent during night time- temperature now is falling far below -15C each night…

Bambi T

Hello everybody,

There is a time on each tour you touch ground with the bottom of motivation. This is what happend to me during the last 4 weeks. Beeing stomach sick since I left Gilgit for most of the time and having seen the hospital twice I felt quite demotivated. I had lost 5kg reaching skinny 69kg. In addition the train trip to Hongkong was very demanding as well- one way took 6 days, 90hrs sitting on approximately 6500km.

So my 2nd stay in Kashgar was like vacation. I met a lot of nice people, more than 15 cyclists (!!) and I had enought time to fully recover. During the last 9 days I regained all my weight thanks to the good food and a lot of chinese beer (which is actually cheaper than water) I stuffed in all the days. My confidence is back and I feel fit to hit the road again.

Enjoy the last pics and stay tuned

Bye from Kashgar, Bambi T