Day 310km
Trip 15.740km
Bike 20.765km
Only 300odd km today – but of course rain 😉 The japaneese gentleman on his bicycle who we had met at the hotel, had already left – we passed him a bit later on the road.
The ride was good though – the end of the first part of this journey at arms length. The landscape flattened out a little, but it stayed warm – around 20′.
As we got closer to Vladivostok, the presence of army and police increased a lot – closely related to the APEC summit 2012 in Vladivostok I guess. But no problem, they never stopped us – actually we never were stopped in russia. They are more into cars and trucks I guess.
Around 14:00 we arrived in Vladivostok.
What a feeling, the end of the first 15.000km.
Andreas’s plans change frequently and todays option was to phone the russian visa chap at the embassy in hong kong. By the time we got to Juri – the highly recommended shipping agent in Vladivostok – however andreas was all for going to Ekaterinburg again and wait for his ferry to japan on the 19th. He was off to the travel agent and we were to meet at our prebooked hotel later.
So, Juri and Svetlana (his assistant with excellent german and english) gave me the options for the next part of my journey. Since I do not want to spend another 2 weeks in Vladivostok or russia for that matter, I have to ship my bike home. That’s OK though, need a change of scenery and travel 😉
In the end I went for the shipping to germany (berlin) option and confirmed my flight to Hong Kong on saturday. VERY excited, never been there – and let’s forget about the looming hurrican season …
This decission meant also, that I had to take the bike to juri’s warehouse and sort my luggage (taking bike stuff since one option is visiting lutz in cambodia – actually my favorite option 😉 ), take out the battery, empty the tanks, take off Ollo’s windscreen to fit the bike in a smaller box and before all that, have the bike cleaned!
By the time all this was sorted, it was already 20:00 and I had not eaten all day.
Juri took me from the ware hiuse to the hotel, when I got andreas’s text, that he had changed his plans and that he wld stay at another, more central hotel. Since I did not want to pay for the booked double, Juri offered to check out the local hostel with me 😉
It’s located by the harbour, in an old russian prefab apparment block and seems to be operated by local school kids – all playing guitar hero 😉
Dorm it is, but hey kitchen, washing machine (hey eastseven – in russia I NEVER paid less than 25€ per load!!!) and a great view. This shot was taken without HDR!
After a shower one of the guitar heros called me a cab and I was off to a recommended restaurant. The taxi was the first surprise – private car and 2 pretty blonds driving 😉 Angela (one of them) gave me their number for the return trip. Apparently it’s their after work job.
The second surprise was the restaurant – as I am sitting here, it has turned into a disco. But not tonight, too tired after all this action today.
Anyone ever needs help with shipping, here are Juri’s contact details:
Yuri Melnikov
General Manager
Links, Ltd.
89 Svetlanskaya str., office 312,
690001, Vladivostok, Russia.
Tel/fax: +7(423)222-15-78
Tel: +7(423)222-08-87
Mobile: +7 902 5243447
mail to: ymelnik@links-ltd.com
Svetlana Sen’
Manager
Links, Ltd.
89 Svetlanskaya str., ste. 312
690001 Vladivostok
Russia
Tel. 8-423-2220887
Fax 8-423-2221578
E-mail: info@links-ltd.com
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