11-12-13 - 08 - 2006
Facing the Ocean Bike Show – Nahodka 11-12-13 – 08 – 2006
In the morning we are escorted to Nahodka by some other bikers from Vladivostok. They are not members of the Iron Tigers, but we have been hooked up with them because they ride about the same speed as Doug and me. It is a rather long ride although it is only 270kms. Maybe because we only stopped once. Anyway, lunch was good even though the service was super crappy. The festival is about 10kms past Nahodka. The setting is perfect: a bay with a nice sandy beach right next to the ocean. As soon as we arrive the tone is set for the rest of the festival: people talking wanting to talk us, asking us all sorts of questions and taking pictures of the bike and/or the biker. Doug and I manage to register, but after that all hell breaks loose and reporters have to queue to have an interview with us. During the festival we have been interviewed for magazines, newspapers, local TV and Russia’s first channel (national). It is fun and flattering, I guess these were my ‘15 minutes of fame’. Some reporters even found out about Nadya and started asking all kinds of questions. You can’t blame them for trying, but that was sort of snooping in my private life.
The festival itself was OK, but I liked Tomsk better. The beach was overcrowded and apparently not only reserved for bikers, but regular weekend tourists as well. This area is a very popular vacation spot for people from all over Primorye (the larger district). There were a lot of places to eat and drink. All kinds of t-shirts and other souvenirs of the bike show were available for sale. It appeared to me that everything was a bit overpriced. I don’t mind people making an extra buck at a festival like this, but some prices for beverages were insane. There were not as much competitions as at the other bike shows I have visited. The bands that played on the stage were not really to my liking either, but that is totally a personal taste issue, the rest of the visitors seemed to like them.
We met Alexander again: the guy on the green solo Ural from Moscow. He was in our camp in Tomsk. Doug was not feeling his regular self through the festival. He suffered from some stomach cramps. He was in the tent a lot, so I set out by myself to mingle with the crowd. I met people from Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and bikers from all over Primorye. Invitations for vodka or beer were frequent and I only indulged in a few.
The ocean was great. Cool enough to be refreshing and warm enough to stay in for hours. The water is very clear, nothing like at the coast in Belgium. The tide is also remarkably small, 1 meter of difference would be overestimating it. The sun was scorching and after one day walking around without a t-shirt I was of course lobster red. I will probably never learn. Sleeping was uncomfortable for days.
For the closing ceremony of the festival, Doug and I were invited on the stage to lower the flag. We each had to say a few words of appreciation in our native language. Beside ‘festival’ there were no other words the Russians could understand from my Flemish.
Sinus is the organizer of this festival. He is famous among Russian bikers and has travelled to a lot of places all over the world apparently. He speaks good English. As a farewell present he gave us some stuff from the festival and a bottle of vodka. He is a great guy and I will get back in touch with him. He maintains a helplist on his site www.sinus.vl.ru and I will send him my contact details to publish on this site. I figure this is a great way of showing my thanks and appreciation to the Russian bikers. I hope to be able to help out Russian bikers in Belgium and in this manner repay some of my incredible debt to the Russian biker community.
After the closing ceremony, Doug and me headed back to Vladivostok. It seemed easy enough, but of course we did not go back the same way we came and we missed the Vladivostok city sign, so no extra pictures of that. That’s OK. I have the memories, I was there, I know … the pictures are just to show to other people.
We make our way back to the Iron Tigers and set up camp between the Japanese motorcycles again.
In the morning we are escorted to Nahodka by some other bikers from Vladivostok. They are not members of the Iron Tigers, but we have been hooked up with them because they ride about the same speed as Doug and me. It is a rather long ride although it is only 270kms. Maybe because we only stopped once. Anyway, lunch was good even though the service was super crappy. The festival is about 10kms past Nahodka. The setting is perfect: a bay with a nice sandy beach right next to the ocean. As soon as we arrive the tone is set for the rest of the festival: people talking wanting to talk us, asking us all sorts of questions and taking pictures of the bike and/or the biker. Doug and I manage to register, but after that all hell breaks loose and reporters have to queue to have an interview with us. During the festival we have been interviewed for magazines, newspapers, local TV and Russia’s first channel (national). It is fun and flattering, I guess these were my ‘15 minutes of fame’. Some reporters even found out about Nadya and started asking all kinds of questions. You can’t blame them for trying, but that was sort of snooping in my private life.
The festival itself was OK, but I liked Tomsk better. The beach was overcrowded and apparently not only reserved for bikers, but regular weekend tourists as well. This area is a very popular vacation spot for people from all over Primorye (the larger district). There were a lot of places to eat and drink. All kinds of t-shirts and other souvenirs of the bike show were available for sale. It appeared to me that everything was a bit overpriced. I don’t mind people making an extra buck at a festival like this, but some prices for beverages were insane. There were not as much competitions as at the other bike shows I have visited. The bands that played on the stage were not really to my liking either, but that is totally a personal taste issue, the rest of the visitors seemed to like them.
We met Alexander again: the guy on the green solo Ural from Moscow. He was in our camp in Tomsk. Doug was not feeling his regular self through the festival. He suffered from some stomach cramps. He was in the tent a lot, so I set out by myself to mingle with the crowd. I met people from Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and bikers from all over Primorye. Invitations for vodka or beer were frequent and I only indulged in a few.
The ocean was great. Cool enough to be refreshing and warm enough to stay in for hours. The water is very clear, nothing like at the coast in Belgium. The tide is also remarkably small, 1 meter of difference would be overestimating it. The sun was scorching and after one day walking around without a t-shirt I was of course lobster red. I will probably never learn. Sleeping was uncomfortable for days.
For the closing ceremony of the festival, Doug and I were invited on the stage to lower the flag. We each had to say a few words of appreciation in our native language. Beside ‘festival’ there were no other words the Russians could understand from my Flemish.
Sinus is the organizer of this festival. He is famous among Russian bikers and has travelled to a lot of places all over the world apparently. He speaks good English. As a farewell present he gave us some stuff from the festival and a bottle of vodka. He is a great guy and I will get back in touch with him. He maintains a helplist on his site www.sinus.vl.ru and I will send him my contact details to publish on this site. I figure this is a great way of showing my thanks and appreciation to the Russian bikers. I hope to be able to help out Russian bikers in Belgium and in this manner repay some of my incredible debt to the Russian biker community.
After the closing ceremony, Doug and me headed back to Vladivostok. It seemed easy enough, but of course we did not go back the same way we came and we missed the Vladivostok city sign, so no extra pictures of that. That’s OK. I have the memories, I was there, I know … the pictures are just to show to other people.
We make our way back to the Iron Tigers and set up camp between the Japanese motorcycles again.
posted by Anonymous | 9:35 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home