14-15-16-17-18 - 08 - 2006
Vladivostok 14-15-16-17-18 – 08 – 2006
I stay at the Iron Tigers club house. I pass time by working a bit on my motorcycle, going downtown, updating my neglected diary, extending my temporary import papers for my motorcycle, … but mostly waiting for stuff to happen to get out of Vladivostok. It is not that I do not appreciate the city or the help from the Iron Tigers, but I really want to be with Nadya. After Doug left on Tuesday (I can’t recall correctly) I do not have anybody to really talk to again. There is nothing more to say about these days, I just missed Nadya and wanted to be with her ASAP.
Finally on Thursday plans start taking form. Max ships bikes all over Russia and arranges my bike to be shipped through the same company he always uses. I would have liked a more cheaper option, but all things considered this is probably the way to go. Doug travelled from Chita to Vladivostok with the post train. He just offered the attendants of a particular cart 4000 rubles to take him and his bike along. This is the unofficial way, but it works. It just takes longer than the regular passenger train and you do not have the comfort of a sleeping berth. Apparently the doors of these trains are not big enough for my combination to enter and then again, my motorcycle takes up a lot of space and is not so easy to just take along among all the other postal packages. There is no guarantee of a platform when I want to get off in Novosibirsk. I just don’t want to bother with all these potential obstacles and go for the regular way. My motorcycle goes on the same post train, but just the official way and crated.
I disconnect the sidecar from the motorcycle on Friday morning and we load it up on the VladMoto delivery truck to take to the shipping company near the station. They can only quote me an exact price after they have weighed both parts. In total my motorcycle weighs in at about 460kgs. Amai, m’n orgel!! That excludes the heavy bag of luggage I will be taking along myself on the train. It costs me 8000 something roubles. I am happy with the price. They will crate my bike and put it on the freight train to Novosibirsk where I will probably be able to collect it on August 27th. The exact date will be confirmed to me by the Iron Tigers. They will also contact some bikers in Novosibirsk to help me collect the motorcycle and put it back together. Again a nice example of the amount of trouble the Russians go through to help you out. I am so grateful to all. I do not know what to say.
After leaving my Ural, I am a bikeless biker. It will be the train for now. My ticket to Kemerovo costs about 2700 rubles and luckily there is a train leaving this night at 2:00am. Great! I will arrive in Kemerovo on the 23rd around 11:00pm. This is perfect. I couldn’t stay at the Iron Tigers club house anyway, since my sleeping gear was tucked away in the sidecar. Sasha offers to entertain me at his home until it is time to go to the train station. Sasha speaks very good English and his wife as well. We talk a lot about all kinds of things. They treat me to some typical Vladivostok seafood: bear shrimps the size of gamba’s and crab legs. I am not a seafood kind of guy, but it was very tasty. Beer is also consumed and I had a lot of half liter cans before I went to sleep in my berth on the train. Thank you Sasha for your help and hospitality.
I stay at the Iron Tigers club house. I pass time by working a bit on my motorcycle, going downtown, updating my neglected diary, extending my temporary import papers for my motorcycle, … but mostly waiting for stuff to happen to get out of Vladivostok. It is not that I do not appreciate the city or the help from the Iron Tigers, but I really want to be with Nadya. After Doug left on Tuesday (I can’t recall correctly) I do not have anybody to really talk to again. There is nothing more to say about these days, I just missed Nadya and wanted to be with her ASAP.
Finally on Thursday plans start taking form. Max ships bikes all over Russia and arranges my bike to be shipped through the same company he always uses. I would have liked a more cheaper option, but all things considered this is probably the way to go. Doug travelled from Chita to Vladivostok with the post train. He just offered the attendants of a particular cart 4000 rubles to take him and his bike along. This is the unofficial way, but it works. It just takes longer than the regular passenger train and you do not have the comfort of a sleeping berth. Apparently the doors of these trains are not big enough for my combination to enter and then again, my motorcycle takes up a lot of space and is not so easy to just take along among all the other postal packages. There is no guarantee of a platform when I want to get off in Novosibirsk. I just don’t want to bother with all these potential obstacles and go for the regular way. My motorcycle goes on the same post train, but just the official way and crated.
I disconnect the sidecar from the motorcycle on Friday morning and we load it up on the VladMoto delivery truck to take to the shipping company near the station. They can only quote me an exact price after they have weighed both parts. In total my motorcycle weighs in at about 460kgs. Amai, m’n orgel!! That excludes the heavy bag of luggage I will be taking along myself on the train. It costs me 8000 something roubles. I am happy with the price. They will crate my bike and put it on the freight train to Novosibirsk where I will probably be able to collect it on August 27th. The exact date will be confirmed to me by the Iron Tigers. They will also contact some bikers in Novosibirsk to help me collect the motorcycle and put it back together. Again a nice example of the amount of trouble the Russians go through to help you out. I am so grateful to all. I do not know what to say.
After leaving my Ural, I am a bikeless biker. It will be the train for now. My ticket to Kemerovo costs about 2700 rubles and luckily there is a train leaving this night at 2:00am. Great! I will arrive in Kemerovo on the 23rd around 11:00pm. This is perfect. I couldn’t stay at the Iron Tigers club house anyway, since my sleeping gear was tucked away in the sidecar. Sasha offers to entertain me at his home until it is time to go to the train station. Sasha speaks very good English and his wife as well. We talk a lot about all kinds of things. They treat me to some typical Vladivostok seafood: bear shrimps the size of gamba’s and crab legs. I am not a seafood kind of guy, but it was very tasty. Beer is also consumed and I had a lot of half liter cans before I went to sleep in my berth on the train. Thank you Sasha for your help and hospitality.
posted by Anonymous | 9:37 am
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