From NZ to Iceland

Eastern Europe

2009-07-19T06:21:00.000-07:00

Well here is finally some blog.

We left Volgograd in Russia and went towards to Ukrainian border in the south by the black sea. On the way the police had to stop my and say goodbye by fine for $100 for driving on 101 km/h in a 90 zone. So stupid but nothing you can say about it. Our last night in Russia we got invited to a party that few guys were throwing for one of their brother that was wisting them from Moscow. It is so funny in Russia that people don't talk or don't even try to talk to us normally, but after few drinks they get so interested about those strange foreigners. And they treat us like kings, buy heaps of drinks and food, and we have to drink and eat it all.

Ukraine is so similar to western Russia, we talked about the only difference we did see was the large number of really beautiful ladies we experienced in Russia did not exist in Ukraine in so great quantities. We had decided we wanted to sleep by the black sea. After quite a bit of search and directions from locals we found the perfect camping spot just by the sea. But this spot did not turn out to be as perfect as it looked. In the evening we got eaten by the flyes and in the morning we woke up really early because it was so hot and the tent was full of small ants. They had got in the tent in the motorcycle gear we had left on the ground while pitching the tent. Next day I my rear tire lost air just before the Moldovan border. I had driven through the tire and the tube. This was the tire we had put under in Mongolia but we had our old tires from SE Asia for spares. Ukraine was also really hot, definitely the hottest country we traveled in Europe. We also drove through the most polluted city we have been through there, half of the city was just large factories producing clouds of smoke.

We arrived into Moldova quite late and decided to head to the capital which is 80 km from the border. The border crossing went good. We just had to pay the immigration officer some beer money to fill out the forms for us as they were all in Moldovan! We left the border and after maybe 10 km we got to a bridge that was guarded by soldiers with machine guns, and they also had some military vechles on the bridge so it was just one way bridge now. But after the bridge we came to the first road intersection. On the other side of that intersection the police and the army had some buildings by the roads. First a police officer stopped us and wanted to see the drivers license, he then pointed us to go to some other officer. He was a passport inspector and finally he pointed us to go into a building and that guy wanted to inspect the registration papers for the motorcycles. We got out of this without paying but a little further down the road another police check point. We got stopd and a "nice" officer pointed us to come in with him with our papers. He checked our passports and then pointed to a amount we had to pay. We ended paying him and when leaving he said we would need to go across the road to get our drivers licence registered. That guy took my license hammered some random stuff into the computer and then asked for 10 Euros. We payed him half of that and did off course not get anything back. As we finally got to the city the police stopped us one more time there. But they gave up on us very quick as we always started to talk about something else instead of continue searching for our driver licence. After checking into the most soviet hotel we visited in our trip we got inspected by the for the final time after dinner when walking home. As you need to carry your passport all the time in Moldavia we both had our passports this time. First the took Viggos passport he took Vissos passport and started writing info in some paper he found in the car while he was once in a while asking, beer money for police, beer money for police. Viggo just no beer money tonight. Then he took my pass and did the same exept this time the standard was higher. He asked for Cognac money for the police Cognac money. They are so pathetic, go lower than hungry people in many places. But apart from this Moldavian people were really nice and the country was more beautiful than Russia and Ukraine.

Getting into the EU in Romania was nice and easy. This beautiful country recently got into the EU and the first thing they seem to have changed there is every second person is wearing high visibility west now. It is a bit odd seeing old farmer with hat on his horse wagon in high visibility west. The EU also seem the have shipped large loads of asphalt as most of the roads had new. They were also starting construction on some large highways. But it was nice to see the horse is still so much used in Romania. We drove a really nice route trough the northern part of the country. This is definitely a country we can see us wisting again.

Now we are in Sönderborg in Denmark at Sighvaturs Viggo cousins place. We are going up to Hanstholm to take Norrænu in the morning. We will sail to Faeroe Islands and arrive in Iceland on Thursday 9 AM. But we know it is going to be some struggle to get the bikes through customs because they do not meet the EU requirements. But those bikes have been imported from the US so I'm sure it will be OK. We have therefore decided to drive to Reykjavik on Friday, not Thursday.

Now we are finally world famous back home as we came in the newspaper, see it here and here.

Well it will be nice to be home soon,

Take care,Ingo

Iceland here we come

2009-07-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

We have booked a ticket in Norraenu and we will arrive to Seydisfjordur 23 of July.

Now we are heading to France to visit some of my family who is there. We plan to drive through Ukraine, Moldova?, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and France. Then we will drive north through Germany to Denmark and take the ferry from there.

Ingo

10 days - 5 time zones

2009-07-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

We are now finishing our only stop here in Russia and are heading into Ukraine today. We have driven over 6000 km in ten days and are now close to the border in Volgograd. The drive was often quite tireing and boring, expacially in siberia. The roads have mainly be fine exept few gravel section in siberia, but we were lucky there as it rained before so there was not much dust from the trucks. The police stopped us few times for speeding and crossing a solid line when overtaking. But we have gotten away most time without paying except twice where we had to let some dollars fall on the floor or the desk. Viggo got arrested here on Saturday night for not having his passport on him and had to sleep that night in Russian cell. How funny is that. They also checked me but luckely I had mine on me. Sadly our computer is broken so we have not been able to upload more photos. But we will hopefully get it fixed in Europe.

Russia is beautiful country, expecially it was nice after crossing the Urals. The people are nice as well but they dont speek english which make everything so hard. Just the simple thing of order food and get accomidation can be mission on its own.

Take care,
Ingo

Russia

2009-06-24T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

Short update. We we drove yesterday to Irkutsk in Russia. I collected my driverslicenase here today so we are all ready to drive through Russia in 13 days. I belive it is around 8000 km. Our Russian visa expires on the 8 of July.

We have put in some of the photos from Mongolia, check them out. Mongolia was great country. Deffenetly the high light of the trip.

Well have to go, lots to drive today. First to the Baikal lake and have a look at this deepest and largest water in the world. 20% of all fresh water on the earth is there!!!

More will come soon,

Ingo

Mongolia

2009-06-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hi hi,

Yesterday we finally got our bikes here in Mongolia after shipping them from Thailand. Today we are going on a 1-2 week trip around Mongolia, starting by heading south to the Gobi desert. We have had problems getting Russian visa here in Asia so we did send our passports back home to Iceland. They are now in the Russian embassy there and should be back here in 10 days or so! We went on a 5 day organized tour witch was awesome. Stayed in gers every night, three of them with nomadic families. We have uploaded a lot of really great photos in the album, here.

Take care,
Ingo

Shanghai and Beijing 18-23 May

2009-05-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Shanghai early morning and with no sleep from last night. We started finding guest house and then we went straight to the Russian Consular in hope to get visa. We got there and the first thing they office lady did was looking at our Chinese visa and say sorry. You need to have Chinese residency to get Russian visa here. We

did not give up and talked to the guy over the visa section for some time and the best he could offer us was 10 day transit visa. He also said the only hope he could see for us would be getting help from the Icelandic embassy to make a “deal with the Russian embassy in Beijing. Angry and pissed off we went back to the hostel and called the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. The told us the only thing they could offer us was writing a letter to the Russian embassy asking them to process our application quick and positive. They also said this was normally enough to get the visa. Happy with that news we took a nap and decided to leave Shanghai ASAP and go to Beijing. We went to see the Oriental Perl tower that night.

It is so high and beautiful. It is apparently the third highest tower in the world. Next day we had fight in the afternoon so we went to the Ocean Aquarium and Science and Technology Museum before we went to the airport.

Landed with another Chinese airline in Beijing, they are just fine to fly with by the way. We went to a hostel I stayed at last time when I was here last year. The day after we went to see a travel agency, just to see if they had any advice or could help us get the Russian visa. They told us the embassy in Hong Kong was the only in China that did process foreigner. But they thought we would have a good chance with the letter we had. Next day we took the application and the letter we collected from the Icelandic embassy and took it to the Russians. They told us to call them in the afternoon. We spend most of the day waiting and calling them as we always had to call later and then finally 5 PM they told us to come next day at 11 AM. They would then be finished “thinking” about this. Early next morning I got email from the Icelandic embassy that they would deny our request. We went to the embassy at 11 and they said sorry we can not give you visa as the Icelandic embassy in Beijing has the same rules for Russians in China who wants to get Icelandic visa. We went straight to buy a train ticket to Mongolia as we knew there are only two trains a week and the next one was leaving the next day. We got the tickets and went to explore Beijing attractions, such as the Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square.

It is funny that we were not able to access this blogsite in China, they seem to have it blocked there!

Now we have been in Mongolia for three days and really like it. Today the temperature was close to 0 deg and it has been snowing a bit. Last two days we could were shorts and I belief the temperature then was over 25 deg. So crazy!!! We are leaving on a 5 day tour tomorrow where we will ride camels and horses. Stay few nights with nomadic families in there gers. Go to national parks and se the only wild horses in the world and the final day we will spend with eagle hunters. They use eagles to hunt animals, everything up to wolf I was told. The car used is UAZ (rússajeppi).

We have put in new photos from the last days in Thailand and China here. And from the train journey to Mongolia here.

Take care,

Ingó

Thailand second time, 8-17 May

2009-05-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

Chiang Mai

We left the border town by the Mekong early and set of to Chiang Mai. It was 300 km drive but we wanted to try to talk to some cargo companies that day because it was

Friday. When we got there we went straight to the airport were Thai cargo is. They told us it was a public holyday today and on Monday so they could not help us until then. Great, its always public holiday in Thailand when we are there. We called all the cargo companies and on of

them said he could help us but he would not be able to meet us until Sunday. He was Mr. Boonsak. We found a nice guest house with a swimming pool, as we decided we really need that since we were back in hot hot Thailand. Went out to try to find place were we could get new tires, chains and sprockets for Mongolia. We did not have luck that day but we found later MX shop and they ordered tires for us from Bangkok. They could not get sprockets but could get them maid easily. We didn’t want to do that so we are just going to see how long the original set will last.

Next day we just did some shopping, I got new sandals and wallet. On Sunday we Boonsak came to our guest house. He was going to give us prices to Seoul in S-Korea and Ulan Bator in Mongolia. He measured the bikes and was going to call us back tomorrow.

On Monday Boonsak gave us prices and we decided to ship them straight to Mongolia. It was quite more expensive than to Seoul but if we got there we need to take ferry to Vladivostok in Russia as well as we would most likely need to transfer the bikes in Korea by land and I have read just that costs 700 USD. We drove the bikes to his warehouse and he gave us scooter to have that we took back.

On Tuesday we went back to his warehouse to take the bikes apart so the shipping would be cheaper. We took the front tire, front fender, handle bars as well as the rear fender off the bikes. Boonsak drove me as well to pick up the new tires. We changed the front tires but we will probably ride on the old back tire as far as we can. The new tires are quite knobby so not going to be nice on tarmac.

On Wednesday his workforce created the bikes. They packed them into wooden creates made on the spot with just hand tools. We went to check out there work just before lunch and were not totally happy as they were too big. When sending freight by air the price is calculated for volume and weight and the higher price is used. When packing bikes it should “easily” be packed so it is charged by weight. After insisting to make creates 20 cm narrower, our bikes will be now charged by weight not volume. So there is no point to make them smaller than that.

Went to a blues bar that night and listened to good live performance of some Thai bands. Me with the guitar player, called Slash. Realy cool guy that with a awesome hair ;-)

Next two days we were just hanging in Chiang Mai waiting for our Passports to come back from Bangkok. Boonsak had to send them to Bangkok to custom clear the bikes and it took few days. Also we have been going to the ATM every day in the last couple of days to collect money for the transportation.

On Saturday Boonsak called us in the morning to tell us the Passports had arrived. So we booked train to Bangkok leaving that night and flight to Shanghai from there. Boonsak drove us to the bank to get the rest of the money. We were having problems as we the cards have limited amount to take out each day. After a struggle it got sorted and we could finish the payment. In the afternoon he took us to the train station and we had dinner with him there. He bought beer and water for us to have on the train. This was night train we took left at 17:00 and arrived in Bangkok 08:00 the next morning. There were reasonably nice beds in the train that were turned into seats at the start and the end of the journey.

On Sunday we arrived in Bangkok at eight in the morning and went too a very large mall. The mall had 500 stores and 90 restaurants on 7 floors. We printed out documents for the Russian visa as well as some other things. Went to a movie and walked a lot around this mall. Decided there was no point leaving it as the temperature outside was too high and so nice in the mall. Then we went to the airport early to wait more. When the Chinese Airline finally decided to open the check in and we went there they had problems because when we checked into China at the Laos border, they marked on the visa with pen and the airport staff they believed we had already used our visa. So they had to get confirmation from Chinese immigration and we had to wait for over and hour for them to get that. But we got that and were all fine. Next stop Shanghai-China.

Laos continue 3

2009-05-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

We left Luang Prabang, a very nice place, to go north to try to get into China. We drove to Luangnamtha a town 70 km away from the Chinese border and our plan was to try to get in there the next day. The road was similar as the last drive, really twisty road and it took us long time to cover those few 270 km that day. But as before the scenery was beautiful because of how high in the mountain the road is.

Our plan for the next day was to try first a go road that goes over the border but no border crossing is shown on the maps and then if there is no luck there try the international border at Boden. It’s the only crossing between Laos and China. We walked around the town when we got here and it seems to be not much to do or see. But we spent the evening talking to some travelers.

We woke up early and drove to the small border. There was a border control there and the guards told us this crossing was just for local people. So we went back to try to cross at Boden. Our plan was to take the motorbike gear off and park the bikes so the border gards would not see them. Get our visa stamped and get on the bikes and try to cross as the guys inside don’t often know what is happening on the outside. As we got close to the border we stopped and took all our motorbike gear off and put our normal clothes on. Viggo also took a back pack he had to try to look more like normal tourists. After checking out of Laos we had to dive 1 km to get to the Chinese border, and the difference.

There was one small building at the Laos border but when we entered China, large buildings and just a highway. So weird, even both sides on the road were decorated with flowers, all looked so modern and “nice”. As we got close to the gate we parked our bikes behind a parked car on the side of the road and walked to the offices.

After security and swine flu tests we could proceed to the check in. The officials took our passports and asked us quite a few general questions that we answered and never lied but we never told them about the bikes. Except he asked me where my luggage was and I told him it was at the back on the bike. We passed and were in China now. But now we walked back got on the bikes, but the guy was watching us the whole time and just said you are not taking those in, sorry. And that was it. He was very friendly and even withdrew the arrival stamp so our visa could be used later. We went back to Luannamtha, sad and disappointed. Went to the pub that night in hope to find some information on how to smuggle the bikes over the border. No luck that night.

Next day we went back out, trying to find someone who could help us out. After speaking to a guy at one travel agency we had not much hope that this could ever be possible. He told us that trucks from Laos could not enter China and they unloaded the trucks at the border to put the cargo into Chinese vehicle. Chinese trucks can though cross both borders but we were not keen to put our bikes into Chinese truck as he could so easily steel the bikes and we would never see him. Also Chinese driver keen to do this would be very hard to find. We meet up with really cool Australian couple that night. It was good to forget about China laughing with them. We made decision we would need to go back to Thailand to organize transportation for the bikes over China.

We got up the next day and got straight on the bikes again and headed to Thailand. The road to Thailand there is a good road, the biggest and best road in Laos. It was build to connect Thailand and China. We got to the Mekong River to cross over to Thailand in small town I don’t remember the name of. There are two harbors there, one for people and the other for vehicles. We got over the river on a big “platform” along with trucks. But before leaving there we had to drive to the other harbor and check out of Laos.

When arriving in Thailand the clock was getting late and the customs office closes at 6. It tool us maybe an half an hour to get us back in the country but then the bikes were left. The customs people were so nice to keep the office open for us and the filled in all the forms for us, and all got sorted in 15 min. Didn’t need to pay anything just one signature on the form. This took few days to do in Bangkok to do and did cost quite a bit for the same form. Found a nice accommodation but black out in the evening prevented us to go to the internet.

The end of the begining!

2009-05-16T01:42:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

Just to keep you up to date and show you we are still alive. Now we are finally on our way again. We are taking an over night train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok leaving soon. Then we will fly to Shanghai at midnight tomorrow. We will stop in Shanghai for a day, two or three to get the Russian visa. It is supposed to be easy to get it there so we are not going to risk that. Then we will take train to Beijing to get the train to Ulaan Bataar Mongolia. Our bikes are leaving as well and will they be in Mongolia around 23 Mai.

Take care,

Ingo

Some videos

2009-05-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here are two videos from Laos. Sorry they are in Icelandic.

Laos continue 2

2009-05-11T02:20:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

Sorry how lazy Im putting in blog. Now we are in Chiang Mai - Thailand and have sorted out transportation for our bikes from here to Mongolia. We have to do this since we could not get

into China and Mayanmar (Burma) is also closed for motorbikes. But more about this later as

we shall now go back in time when we where still in Laos.

Wednesday - Thursday,

Drove from Vientiane after a great brekfast at the scandinavian bakery. After just 170 km we got to our next stop Vang Vieng. This is a really touristy small town with lots of activities around it. The town lies by a river and beoutiful mountains.

The first day we took it easy but the next day we drove around the area and looked at three caves on the way. After caving went swimming in creek coming from cave so it was possible to swim inside. I got really sunburn this day after riding for long time and forgetting the sunscreen. The nightlife is lively here as there are som many young tourists and on an island in the river are many pubs that the police leave alone. One the law in Laos for example is that all pubs has to be closed at 11:30 PM.

Friday - Sunday

After a bit of a struggle geting Viggó up and to leave Vang Vieng we finally left. I dont know if it was the great number of pizza resturants that made him want to stay, who knows!! We set off not too early as there was not many km to next destination, Lunag Prabang. Just 230 km. After just few km the road the road the road got really twisty and started to go up the mountains. Our average speed this day was around 50 km/hour on the main road that has

good tarmac, crazy. Just break, turn, gear down, trotlle on, throttle off, break, turn. I was just so glad we were not in car as they went even much slower. But the senery on this road is great. It goes up to 1300m elevation and then it goes on top of the mountain for quite long time. Also interesting see that people live in such high elevation on top of the mountains.

The next day in Luang Prabang we went elephant riding. That was great fun as we controlled the beast most of the time, not the guide. It was really hot tho and lot of flyes. In the evening we walked around town as well as up a high hill in the middle town and has good views.

The last day in Luang Prabang we just hang around. The town is nice as it has old French colonial buildings, is clean and people are nice. I think it is like beeing in nice town in europe exept everyting is much cheaper so you feel like king, except Viggó is prins.

OK I promish to finish the last days in Laos soon :-)

All the pictures from Laos are in now, see here.

Cheers,

Ingo

Laos last day?

2009-05-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Now we are in north of Laos, really close to the Chinese border. There are border in less than 100 km distance that we are going to have a look at tomorrow. They are small and probably not for foreigners. But we will see. We are thinking of finding a truck driver that is keen to "smuggle" the bikes over the borders. But we might also just give it a go and see if they let us in. We have also been thinking turn the bikes into cows and ride the cows over. I’m sure you can take a cow over. Any ides on how to get unseen into China?

The trip has been going really well so far. No problems I remember at all except my wallet got lost in Thailand. We have not slept in the tent yet. There are just no camping grounds here!!! And we have not even tried our cookers yet. It is so easy to get cheap food everywhere here in SE Asia. If there is road then there are people.

Vietnam fell out of the loop before we left Bangkok because it is impossible to get bikes with larger than 200cc or something like that in there. We have totally enjoyed Laos and hopefully I will be here again. Now as we are in north of Laos we notice the people are different. Lots of Chinese have immigrated in here. Apparently the US did train immigrated Chinese people to fight the N-Vietnamese in Laos, the secret war.

The bikes have been really good. No problems at all. We just lubricated some cables and washed them yesterday and that is all we have done. We have driven almost 5000 km so far.

We have uploaded some photos from Laos here, but there is more to come.

We will also finish the Laos blog very soon.

Well good night from Laos,

Ingó

Laos Continue

2009-05-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday,

We woke up early to go to Savannakhet, the second biggest city in Laos. It is not big though, more like an average town. Left early in the morning after a good sleep with all the insects probably crawling all over us when a sleep. The weather was great and it was nice driving past so many people walking on the road to work. Carrying baskets and there tools heading to the field. Later in the day we went past many rice fields. Where people were cutting the rice plant, all done by hand. Drove on gravel roads most of the day. Arrived early and walked around town and had dinner on a floating restaurant on the Mekong.

Sunday,

We did catch up with a French guy Jerome over breakfast. He joined us and took us to monkey forest near by. We had bought bananas and Viggó and the monkeys were all happy getting them. The monkeys were cool and we took some back road twist with Jerome back to the main road were he went back to Savannakhet where he lives and we continued up to Thakhhek.

Monday and Thuesday,

We woke up early, well 8 o’clock to do “the loop”. It is a loop recommended to on motorbikes in the lonely planet. It is recommended to do it in three days because there is lot to see and the road is in bad conditions in places. The main thing for us in this loop was to see a hydro power plant they are building up there. Apparently there have been a lot of arguments regarding this plant. So we started by heading east and got soon surrounded by beautiful limestone mountains.

And after a few hours ride we came to the power plant. It was nothing spectacular, looked like an average Icelandic power plant in size. Then we started to drive up the mountain, up beautiful twisty tarmac road that did turn into a beautiful gravel road at the top. We covered I would guess around 100-200 km at the top before getting to the dam site. But the funny thing is that all the time driving up there we were driving by the lake made for the power plant. Then the dam was a big disappointment, just a tiny dam. This lake is huge in size but very shallow. After leaving the dam site the road got really rough. Nothing so bad but the instead of driving maybe 80-90 km/h average on gravel road it probably went down to 40-50 km/h. It was probably fine road when it was built long time ago but not been maintained for decades I would guess. But finally around 100 km later it turned into tarmac again. We decided to try to reach the capital city that day and went for it. It got dark we getting into the city and it was so hard to drive. Lot of dust, many without a light and cows made the driving hard. But we made it fine and did manage to drive the three day loop plus another 200 km to the city in one day. Totally we drove 530 km that day which is our record. Sore and tired we went to bedNext day we took it easy in the capital, Vientiane. I did spend most of the day trying to sort out papers to be able to apply for new drivers license that I lost in Thailand. The city is really nice to hang around in, but there is not really much to do there.

Laos

2009-04-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

Now we are in Laos in a very touristy town 150 km north of the capital. Really beautiful place, surrounded by high mountains and lying by river. This town reminds me of Queenstown in NZ, really touristy and very beautiful. But back to where we were.

Thursday,

After out from the Cambodian border we drove 100m to get into Laos. After filling out one arrival card and pay $1 we got our visa stamped and the gate was opened. They did not care we had motorbikes at all. So we kissed Laos soil in only 5 min after arriving at the border.

Laos immediately showed that this was different from the other two countries we had been through so far. We arrived in remote area of the country but somehow we both felt that this place was nicer then the other two places. Beautiful landscape, cleaner, better roads and almost just everything made this please my favorite so far. Just compare to Cambodia where every second house has the rubbish just piled up around the house. This people don’t seem be w

ealthy but they seem to have a lot of pride. Every town we drive through there are smiling curious children wondering who in the hell those creatures are.

We went to see waterfalls in the Mekong River after getting into Laos and then we drove to town called Pakse for the first night. Also one of the great difference between Laos and the other two is it is cooler. We are normally not suffering from too much heat here all the day.

Friday,

Today we left for a mission to see one of the greatest waterfall in Laos. After driving first on a nice tarmac road that then turned into a tarmac road with almost more holes than not. The road then turned into gravel but still passing trough many towns. But after quite longer drive the rode was getting really narrow and we did not see any sign of life for long time and with the day getting short we where getting a bit worried. But then a locked gate prevented us to go further. And weirdly probably some tribe woman was standing by the gate and kinda pointed us we could not go further. It was getting a bit creepy!! But by putting our minds into race mo

de we got into civilization just before dark. People in Laos seem to do a lot of hunting because that day and the next we sew quite few guys carrying rifles, normally on there scooters. So we did not manage to see the waterfall :-(

Cambodia continue

2009-04-25T04:57:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

We are finishing our third day in Laos. Great country that, but we shall start by finishing up our story from Cambodia.

Sunday,

Got up before 5 AM to go and see the sunrise at Angkor Wat and to get a early start for a long riding ahead of us that day. The sunrise with the Wat in front was stunning.

Our route this day was to head into North West and get onto a road that is not on the map. A local dirt rider guy recommended us to take this road. So me, Viggo and Nick eat a lot of dust this day riding for 12 hours on dry gravel roads. But the scenery and the roads were superb. Viggo had his first crash in a sandy riverbed. Nick must have been so sure he was going to fall off there that he got it on film. With just minor scratches on his knee and bike Viggo was better than before the crash. After “just” covering 350 km this day we got back on the main road after this big loop off. Dirty, tired and happy we went early to bed.

Monday,

Drove the main road to the capital city, Phnom Penh, to get visas (landvistarleyfi) into Laos. I managed to drop the bike into before leaving. I just wanted to be sure I would be able to raise it up by my self. Nick drove half way with us but then he went his way up north. The road was fine tarmac the whole way until the last 10 km maybe into the city the road did turn into and wide really rough gravel road. The traffic was pretty chaotic there but being on motorbikes it is so easy to zik zak past the traffic avoiding being in line maybe for hours. We met a nice tuk-tuk driver when we got into the city that followed us to our hotel and drove us then to the Lao embassy. In the evening we went to see two documentaries, one about the mines (jardsprengjur) here in Cambodia and the other was about the genocide by the Khmer Rouge (raudu knerrarnir). Not nice stories those.

Tuesday,

Got up in the morning and took the bikes to a guy named Tony that lives here in Phnom Penh and has motorcycle workshop. He changed motor oil, oil filter, adjusted the engine valves and adjusted the rear spring by one cm. While the bikes did recive their service we went to explore the city and hired the tuk-tuk driver for the day. Started going to S-21, a old high school building that the Khmer Rouge changed into prison. This was there main prison where people where tortured normally before they were killed. Then we went to see killing fields. There people where killed and burred in mass graves, around one million of them. We could walk around the fields as well as look at a monument tower there with thousands of skulls. Ended the driving by picking up our visas into Laos in the afternoon. Also we heard that Nick had hit a cow on his bike that day and broke his wrist. Bad luck that.

Wednesday,

We drove up North towards the Laos border. We drove 470 km and stopped in Stung Treng 50 km from the border. We called Nick and he was on the hospital but hoped to get out today to head south and lay on the beach.

Thursday,

Got up in the morning and drove to the border to cross into Laos. We got stamp into our passport for departing Cambodia and where then pointed to see the custom guy to take care of the papers for the bikes. We went into his office with no papers and claimed we did not get any papers when we entered Cambodia the guys at the other border pointed us just to drive through. He was not happy and was trying to tell us inn his bad English that he needed customs papers for the bikes and we could not go through with the bikes. We would need to go back to Phnom Penh. But after arguing with him for about five minutes, playing really stupid and talk lot of Icelandic he suddenly gave up on us and just said. OK, just leave. Laos here we come……………..

Photos from the first three days in Cambodia are here. The rest will come very soon.

Cambodia

2009-04-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday,

We woke up early to be at the border to go into Cambodia early morning. It took few hours to go through. Get the Cambodian visa, checking us and the bikes out of Thailand and then get our Cambodian visas stamped. When everything was finished and we were in Cambodia a random guy pointed us to go to a custom office building across the road. To get the bikes registered into the country. We went there and the officers simply said we could not go into the country without a carnet.... no way to talk them in!!!! Simply just told us to go back into Thailand and we could try enter from Laos since they are not as restricted there. Did we drive towards the border again (100 m) and discussed what in the hell we could do now. We decided to try drive into the country past their office. We drove slowly past the office and after few km we stopped to see if someone was following us. And after two other stops we started celebrating. We did head to Seam Reap this day were the Angkor Wat is. On our way we came across and English fellow on the road side on a XR250. He joined us to Seam Reap.

Friday,

We went to see the Angkor Wat and some of the other temples in that area. Found a tuk-tuk drive we paid a few dollars to drive us there and back and between all the temples. This is most likely the most impressive structures we have both seen. What amazing share size of the buildings along with the fine details everywhere. This mostly built between 900-1200 and the rocks were transferred by elephants from mountain some hundreds of km away. This was as well the hottest day we have experienced, in the 39 deg we where melting.

We went to the hotel, after seeing all the main temples in a record time to jump into the not so cold swimming pool. After we went to see Nick gets eaten by some Dubai fishes. He turned 40 that day but no energy was left after dinner for the happy hour drinks so we ended in bed very early on his birthday.

Text was written by Ingó, but based on Viggós diary.

Thailand, photos

2009-04-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hey,

We just uploaded phothos from Thailand, here.

Today we just managed to smuggule the bikes into Cambodia. Viggo will tell you more about that tomorrow.

Remember to check out this..... here.

Ingo

Thailand, west of Bangkok

2009-04-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

Now we are in Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand. I lost my wallet last night so we decided to stop here for one day. People now have three days holiday because it is there New Year. Over these three days the only thing people seem to do is having a water fight. When we where driving last night got few times hit by water and today it has been even worse. After few minutes walk on the streets we are soaked with water and maybe also covered in talcum powder. This is just nice though because it is so bloody hot here. Tomorrow we are going to head further east and get close to the Cambodian border so we can cross the border in two days.

Friday,

Left Bangkok in the morning and headed west. We had read about great driving road that lies to Myanmar (Burma). The driving out of Bangkok went well, except for one taxi that was in my way. Small scratches on his bumper after my case did not worry the driver too much and he allowed me to go. The traffic was less dense and the views just got better further we drove. Bravely at the end of the day we stayed at a nice river resort accompanied by many insects.

Saturday,

After American breakfast and two new Coca Cola in Viggo stomach we headed further west. To a town called Sanghla Buri just by the Myanmar border. This road just got better and better further we went. More twisty and spectacular views made us smile the whole way. When looking for a place to have lunch Viggo almost hit my. Even turning signal and slow deacceleration did not get his attention and after looking his front tire and almost fall into the road he manages to pass me. To make a perfect day even better we stayed at a really nice guest house, in a cabin made from bamboo and got the best dinner so far. Deep fried jungle frogs are superb with the local Chang beer.

Sunday,

We had to start the day by head back the same road but on the way decided we would need to turn off to a road that lays up the mountains to a mine and into Myanmar. This road is the best road I have ever driven. Thousands of twists up the 1000m road did put me into race mode. We drove all the way to the border where two cops secured the border. One of them allowed us to drive a little bit into Myanmar and followed us on his scooter. No accommodation up on the mountain forced us to go back down that same day. We stayed at a nice guest house at a farm owned by retired Thai man. He told we he came out to see us when we arrived he had a pistol in his hand because tourists do not normally show up on motorbikes. He thought we where rebels. But luckily when we took the helmets of he hided the gun behind his back.

Monday,

We left this area and headed back into the center of Thailand to be able to be in Cambodia in few days. After leaving the mountain area we soon started to drive on straight roads surrounded by rice fields. First dump into a public WC hole and a 400 km of driving, flooding in sweat is going to make this day a memorable one for Viggo. We arrived into the former capital city of Thailand, Ayutthaya in the late afternoon.

Bangkok, last day

2009-04-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

Hey hey,

Thanks for all the comments in last post. This Monday we woke up at bright and shiny at 7 AM to go and get the bikes out from customs. We took a 1 hour taxi to the shipping agency, we were supposed to be there at 9 Am. The manager was going to take us to the port to get the bikes. After sitting in a waiting room and filling out one form we finally left to the port and got there at 1PM. We signed one form when we got there and then pointed to wait in the waiting room. After waiting for few hours we were started to be quite enjoyed and thought we would not see the bikes this day. The offices were supposed to close at 4:30. Our agent was ruining around the last 30 min with our papers and somehow managed to keep the customs open for an extra half an hour. So finally around 5:30 they took us to the bikes. Then we had to assemble the bikes, and I don't think they realized how long that was going to take. But after 2-3 hours and a hand from four security guys, the bikes where ready to go.
The port is in a other side of Bangkok from our hostel. Bravely I decided it was no problem to get there having the GPS and my superb navigational skills. We just had to find one rode that would take us across Bangkok. The first 5 minutes went smoothly, then little but later when I was overtaking a stationary car I did hit him. 10 minutes of driving and the first crass, not a bad effort. I had forgotten how wide the bike was with the side cases and the case did hit the cars rear light and made some scratches as well on the body. I offered the guy 1000 bath (50 NZD, 3500 kr.) and he agreed on that. The case and the bike where fine.
Then to make a short story even shorter we managed to cross Bangkok after just a few wrong turns and not knowing where in the hell we where. It took us about 2 hours. The day after we where both not feeling too good, all tyred and I felt hangover. Didn't even drink the night before. But the ride home was so hot, there was not a dry spot on out clothes when we got home. I have never been so hot in my life on this ride. And the pollution, think I made my life three years shorter.

But this is enough for now. We have been making the bikes ready in the last two days. Now they are tip top and we hitting the road tomorrow.....

Cheers,
Ingo

Bangkok, Thailand

2009-04-05T01:43:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

Me and Viggo have been in Bangkok waiting to be able to customs cleare our bikes. When we arrived to Bangkok the shipping company told us that we where not able to import the bikes, it was just impossible. After insisting go and see the customs guys the shipping manager drove us to them. After talking to the head of the customs guy at this harbour for few minutes, telling his where we were going and telling him some jokes he informed us this would be no problem. This was on Thursday and we should get the bikes on Tuesday. The shipping guy did need Friday to do the paperwork and Monday is a holiday. But we are just enjoying Bangkok. Well saying that, at least me. Viggo spends large amount of time each day on the WC but he doesn't complain!! Went to a floating market today and to the Grand Palace yesterday. Which have the most amazing buildings I have ever seen. Now I'm here writing this because there is poring with rain outside and so loud thunders. We spend most time chilling, eating, drinking and sorting out things for the trip. I will try write more soon and get some pictures in.

Hefur folk ahuga a ad vid skrifum lika a Islensku? Endilega commentid ef tid viljid tad.

Ingo

4 Days to go

2009-03-25T19:32:00.001-07:00

Hey whats up?

Just got it confirmed today that the bikes will arrive to Bangkok 30 March. Me and Viggó will arrive then as well so it looks like it is going to start smoothly.

Im getting my last visa sent back today. That is the Mongolian visa. So we will start the trip with Vietnamise, Chinese and Mongolian visa. we need to get the Russian somwhere on the way and the others we get at the borders. Well we hope so.

Just four days..............Viggó................dog...........sick.........malaria........ladieboys........singha

I will submitt my thesis on Monday morning and then I have flight at 2 in the afternoon. Working overtime on it now :-( Then Simon is hosting a farwell party tomorrow at his place. That will be interesting.

OK bye.

You tube

2009-03-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Just an update that we are alive.

Evrything is going fine, Im just working on my thesis at uni. Will propably hand it in the morning the day I leave.

We both arrive in bangkok on the 30 of March and the bike should as well. Really hope so at least.

Me and Bergur filming bikes and mods.

Bergur and Heiðar on the waterslide.

Bikes gone, time for your support

2009-02-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

A week ago the bikes were driven to Cargo Company and apparently they are waiting on the harbour now. Just hoping the will leave soon so they can be in Asia around the 25th of Mars.

I will write more soon about the work that has been done to the bikes in the last weeks and put some photos. But I would like you now to grab you credit card and put you on the list of people that will donate to UNICEF if we finish this trip. You can find the link to the fundraiser page on the right here.
This page is in New Zealand dollars and today there are about 60kr. in one dollar, which equals to that there are about $35 in 2000 kr.

Change of plan

2009-02-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

Our plan was to ship the bikes to Malaysia here from NZ but now we are going to start in Thailand. This is because AA (same as FÍB back home) is not willing to give us a carnet for the bikes. This is a document that some countries require people to have if they are entering on their own vehicle to guaranty the vehicle will leave the country and if not they will get there costume and taxes paid. The only country on our way that requires the carnet is Malaysia so will just skip it. We will though have big problem if we cannot enter China and will go into India and Middle East. Most of the countries there do require the carnet. But we will get into China, who wouldn’t let two terrorists from Iceland into their country!!
But because of this change of plan I have to ship the bikes this Friday. So I’m not going to study much this week :-) I got six brand new Pelican cases that we will fit on the bikes and use to store all our stuff. I got orange and Viggo got silver cases, he wants everything in silver. He is the new silver fox..... The cases looks awesome and I have started fitted them on the bikes and will post some photos and tell you more about that soon.

Have a god weekend :-)

Bad news, just two bikes going

2009-01-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Very sad news, Simon has bailed out of the trip. He says it is a money problem but I have been informed by his mates that he has fallen in love.
But me and Viggó are not going to let this affect us and are going to tackle this the Icelandic way. It is better in many ways being just two. But it is for sure that the fashion cop will not be able to charm the Asian girls. It will be quite different trip but we respect his reasons.

Three bikes in house

2009-01-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

Me and Simon took a road trip to Dunedin just before Christmas to pick up the new Suzuki DR650 bikes. Andy at Advance Wholesale Motorcycles made us an awesome deal on those three bikes and we want to thank them allot for there support. All the bikes are the same, except for the registration numbers. Viggó bike has registration number 33ZRE mine is 34ZRE and Simon is 35ZRE. Here are some photos of the bikes while they are still sparkling :-)

Departure date

2008-12-17T00:10:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

We have set a date we are going to leave Kulala Lupur in Malaysia, 1 April. We will ship the bikes from NZ few weeks before on a freight ship while we will go there by plane. Viggó will most likely just meet us there. So he will trust us to organize his bike and gear. This mean the bikes need to leave 2-3 weeks before us from NZ. Now we are starting applying for visas for the countries we are visiting. It takes a lot of time organice what gear we need and want to buy, but it is fun. At leats much more interesting than write my thesis at uni!!!

Have a good christmas.
Ingó

The Gear

2008-10-28T18:25:00.001-07:00

Computer

One computer will be in the trip. Asus EEE 901 is a mini notebook with a solid state drive and has therefore no moving part and will hopefully be very reliable. It has 9" screen, so it small and weights only 1 kg. Its battery life is around seven hours but the hard drive is only 12 GB. We will carry portable hard drive for all data, such as pictures and video. A 12V charger will be used to charge it on the back of the bike. More details about this beauty can be found here.

Camcorder

The camcorder does also have flash drive to store the data like for the computer. Therefore there there is no moving part in it either meaning it can be recording in almost under any conditions. It is so small and light, but the movie quality are not the greatest. More here.

Tents

We have decided to go for two tents, two and four persons. It will give us the flexibility of privacy by put up the both tents but also we can just put up the four persons tent and all sleep there. We have bought high quality four person tent made here in NZ by MacPac. This 'home away from home' is a four-person, all-season favorite. Trusted at Everest base camp, the six pole design creates a spacious shelter. Large double doors and vestibules create a sheltered entry for cooking and gear storage. The Hemisphere also has excellent ventilation, using low side venting and high dual extractor vents. Because New Zealand has record wind speeds, our designs are especially stable and rainproof. You'll see this thinking behind our seam-sealed tub floors and UV30™ fabric. This premium fly fabric stands up to intense sunlight just as well as wet, windy weather. Every feature is shaped by 30 years of experience in tough conditions, trials and improvements that continue with your own expeditions and feedback.. More about the tent here.

The two persons tent is not as "fancy" as that is not as vital. It is Earlylight 2P made by Marmot and is a very light weight structure. More about the two person tent is here.

Sleeping bags

For sleeping bags we will go for the Kathmandu Pacesetter Epic V3. This water resistant down bag should keep us warm in all condition this trip has to offer. More about the bag here.

Stoves

We are going to have two cooking stoves, one from trangia that can be used in any weather condition. It is so simple that there is nothing that can go wrong in this stove. The only thing that can make the flame go out is that it run out of fuel. It burns spirit fuels and we are not sure if we can get them everywhere so we decided to have the other cooker multifuel one. More about the trangia stove here.

The other stove is a Coleman 533. He can almost run on every liquid fuel so we can run him on the petrol we use on the motorbikes. See him in action here.

The Bikes and there Mods

2008-10-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

We are going to use same brand of bike, by doing that we should be able to bring more spare parts with us and also we don't need as big collections of tools to fix them. Also the modifications will be easier when all the bikes are the same. After researching other travelers stories we have decided to use the Suzuki DR650SE, a simple robust machine that has proven its solid design over the last 18 years. Here is a very good information on the bike on Wikia.

The Suzuki DR650SE - it's your invitation to find your adventure.

Luggage system

After a lot of discussion we decided to go for a hard luggage system. We went for a setup the Icelandic brothers, Sverrir and Einar used when they traveled around the world. Hope they mind we are "stealing" there idea. The Pelican cases are made from plastic and are supposed to handle everything, yes EVERYTHING. They had a lifetime warranty before I drilled holes in them and are water and dust proof. I made the mounts myself and I want to thank Walter for the access to his workshop to do that. 1550 cases were used on the sides and 1520 case is on top.

I went for orange cases.

The Silver Fox (Viggó) he went for silver cases on his bike.

We glued leather over the bolts heads inside the cases to prevent them damaging the bags we got made to fit inside the cases.

Here come some photos of the mounts I made. The cases were mounted to them using 6mm bolts with large washers on each side. Rubber sealing did I made from motorbike tube and they were put on each side under the washers to keep the cases waterproof.

Long range fuel tank

We put a changed the original 14 L fuel tank with a Australian safari fuel tank made by RV Aqualine. These plastic tanks are 30 L and should give us a range of 600 km. The tanks can be bought from here.

Heated grips

Oxford heated grips were fitted that have been fitted that are connected to the electrical system of the bike. It has four power settings, 40- 100% and if we forget to turn it off when the bike is parked it automatically turns off when the battery voltage drops below 11.6 V.

The Route

2008-10-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

The trip will start in the southern most capital city in the world, Wellington, New Zealand and finish in the northern most, Reykjavík, Iceland.The bikes will be shipped from New Zealand to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where the riding will start crossing the biggest continent in the world, Asia and continue into Europe. The first leg of the trip will cover south-east Asia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We hope that those countries will be relatively easy and we will most likely not cover large distances on average each day since there is a lot to see in this part of the world. Next leg would be to ride north up China into Mongolia and Siberia across the Gobi desert. We expect the hardcore riding to start when entering Mongolia and Siberia where most of the roads were build some decades ago or there are no roads at all combined with some of the most weather extremes in the world. After driving west across Siberia, Russia will welcome us with better roads as well as Europe. We will decide on the way if we will drive across Europe or Scandinavia to take the ferry to Iceland were the trip will end some 3-4 months later approximately, well we really hope so ;-)

Malaysia

The climate in Malaysia is tropical. The north-east monsoon (October to February) deluges Borneo and the east coast in rain and often causes flooding, while the west coast (particularly Langkawi and Penang) escape unscathed. The milder south-west monsoon (April to October) reverses the pattern. The southern parts of peninsular Malaysia, including perennially soggy Kuala Lumpur, are exposed to both but even during the rainy season, the showers tend to be intense but brief.

The terrain consists of coastal plains rising to hills and mountains.

Thailand

Thailand is largely tropical, so it's hot and humid all year around with temperatures in the 28-35°C range (82-95°F), a degree of relief provided only in the mountains in the far north of Thailand. The careful observer will, however, note three seasons:

Cool: From November to the end of February, it doesn't rain much and temperatures are at their lowest, although you will barely notice the difference in the south and will only need to pack a sweater if hiking in the northern mountains, where temperatures can fall as low as 5°C. This is the most popular time to visit and, especially around Christmas and New Year's, finding flights and accommodation can be expensive and difficult.

Hot: From March to June, Thailand swelters in temperatures as high as 40°C (104°F). Pleasant enough when sitting on the beach with a drink in hand, but not the best time of year to go temple-tramping in Bangkok.

Rainy: From July to October, although it only really gets underway in September, tropical monsoons hit most of the country. This doesn't mean it rains non-stop, but when it does it pours and flooding is not uncommon.

There are local deviations to these general patterns. In particular, the south-east coast of Thailand (including Ko Samui) has the rains reversed, with the peak season being May-October and the rainy off season in November-February.

Laos

Laos has three distinct seasons. The hot season is from March to May, when temperatures can soar as high as 40°C. The slightly cooler wet season is from May to October, when temperatures are around 30°C, tropical downpours are frequent, and some years the Mekong floods. The dry season from November to March, which has low rainfall and temperatures as low as 15°C (or even to zero in the mountains at night), is "high season" (when the most tourists are in the country).

Cambodia

Cambodia's climate can generally be described as tropical with seasonal monsoons. There are two distinct seasons, the rainy and dry. Temperatures during the rainy season, between June and October, average 27-35°C. The dry season is characterised by cool months, November to February, with temperatures averaging 17-27°C and hot months, from March till May, which sees temperature range between 29-38°C.

Vietnam

Vietnam is large enough to have several distinct climate zones.

The South has three somewhat distinct seasons: hot and dry from March to May/June; rainy from June/July to November; and cool and dry from December to February. April is the hottest month, with mid-day temperatures of 33°C or more most days. During the rainy season, downpours can happen every afternoon, and occasional street flooding occurs. Temperatures range from stifling hot before a rainstorm to pleasantly cool afterward. Mosquitoes are most numerous in the rainy season. December to February is the most pleasant time to visit, with cool evenings down to around 20°C.

The North has four distinct seasons, with a comparatively chilly winter (temperatures can dip below 15°C in Hanoi), a hot and dry summer and pleasant spring (March-April) and autumn (October-December) seasons. However, in the Highlands both extremes are amplified, with occasional snow in the winter and temperatures hitting 40°C in the summer.

In the Central regions the weather is somewhere in between, only just to confuse things here the rainy season is in the summer, not the winter.

China

The climate is extremely diverse, from tropical regions in the South to subarctic in the North. Hainan Island is roughly at the same latitude of Jamaica, while Harbin, one of the largest cites in the North, lies at the latitude of Montreal. There is also a wide range of terrain to be found in China with many inland mountains, high plateaus, and deserts in center and far west; while plains, deltas, and hills are to be found in the east. On the border between the province of Tibet and the nation of Nepal lies Mount Everest, at 8,850 m, the highest point on earth. The Turpan depression, in northwest China is the lowest point in the country, at 154 m below sea level. This is also the second lowest point on land in the world, after the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan.

Mongolia

With only 4.5 people per square mile, Mongolia has the lowest population density of any independent country.
So, when is the best time to travel to Mongolia? The ideal Mongolia travel season starts in May and hits its highest peak in July, during Naadam Holidays, and in August when the weather is most favorable for traveling. This is the best time if you like the culture and bear the crowds of other tourists. Not a good time if you want to getaway from your busy lifestyle because you will hit the traffic, busy schedule, waiting in lines etc.

Siberia

Almost all the population lives in the south, along the Trans-Siberian railroad. The climate here is continental subarctic (Koppen Dfc or Dwc), with the annual average temperature about 0 ℃ and roughly −15 ℃ average in January and +20 ℃ in July. With a reliable growing season, an abundance of sunshine and exceedingly fertile chernozem soils, Southern Siberia is good enough for profitable agriculture, as was proven in the early twentieth century. The southwesterly winds of Southern Siberia bring warm air from Central Asia and the Middle East. The climate in West Siberia (Omsk, Novosibirsk) is several degrees warmer than in the East (Irkutsk, Chita). With a lowest record temperature of -71.2 °C , Oymyakon (Sakha Republic) has the distinction of being the coldest town on Earth. But summer temperatures in other regions reach +36...+38 °C. In general, Sakha is the coldest Siberian region, and the basin of the Yana River has the lowest temperatures of all, with permafrost reaching 1,493 metres. Nevertheless, as far as Imperial Russia plans of settlement are concerned, the cold was never viewed as an issue. In the winter, Southern Siberia sits near the center of the semi-permanent Siberian High, so winds are usually light in the winter. Precipitation in Siberia is generally low, exceeding 500 millimeters only in Kamchatka where moist winds flow from the Sea of Okhotsk onto high mountains — producing the region's only major glaciers — and in most of Primorye in the extreme south where monsoonal influences can produce quite heavy summer rainfall. Despite the region's notorious cold, snowfall is generally extremely light, especially in the east of the region.

Russia

Throughout much of the territory there are only two distinct seasons — winter and summer; spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low temperatures and extremely high. The coldest month is January (on the shores of the sea—February), the warmest usually is July. Great ranges of temperature are typical. In winter, temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers can be quite hot and humid, even in Siberia. A small part of Black Sea coast around Sochi has a subtropical climate. The continental interiors are the driest areas.

About Us

2008-10-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Viggó Már Jensen

Is born on 11th May 1981 in Reykjavík, Iceland. He is educated as an Marine Engineer and is working as such on an Icelandic freezing trawler Vigri as well as working in a metal workshop when he is not out at sea. Viggó has been riding dirt bikes before he got chest hair and has raced in couple of enduro competitions.

Ingólfur kolbeinsson

Ingo is born on 13th July, 1981 in Reykjavík, Iceland. Currently he is finishing his Masters in Mechanical Engineering in New Zealand and this is going to be his traveling method to go back home to the land of ice and snow after finishing his studies. As well as driving rally car two seasons back home he has had his legs wrapped around dirt bikes since twelve and competed in couple of enduro competitions. Ingo did obtain Marine Engineering degree earlier and did work in metal workshop as well as go fishing on trawlers as an engineer.

The Supporters

2008-03-18T01:32:00.000-07:00

RV Aqualine

RV Aqualine in Australia makes safari fuel tanks. The best long range fuel tanks for motorbikes on the market. Go to there website here.

Pelican Products New Zealand

Pelican Products New Zealand is the distributor for pelican products. There cases are almost bullet proof. Go to there website here.