map August Diary | September Diary | October Diary | November Diary | December Diary Subject: A brief messageDate: 04 October 2001 07:39Hello Folks We are waiting in Ulan Ude for the Mongolian Government to give us permission to cycle across the border so I may have a chance to write up the latest episode between planning for the next stage of the ride and having a good time:) There has been a little bit of disbelief over our adventures but things really did go just a little bit mental when we got to Urkutsk leaving little time for internet. Here is one newspaper website from our last press conference in Urkutsk: http://www.asbaikaltv.ru/cgi-bin/as/news/news_show.pl?day=2001_09_26&news=12.news (it has pics, I have no Idea what the text says!) More to follow... Rgds Rory Subject: A wee appearance on TVDate: 04 October 2001 09:05Hi peeps, it seems like the message I sent out last week didn't work properly so here it is again, sorry if its a repeat... there will be mre original stuff soon. ------------------------------------------------------ My last message was our amazing adventures with the Russian Banya, plowing through 7 foot marijuana plants and a brief word about the hotel. Well there was more this hotel, much more…. Not long after we arrived at the hotel the Director asked if we would like to be on TV. We couldn't make the decision without Andy and Scott but I said it was probable. Back at the internet club (mainly full of kids playing shoot-em-up games) Demtri was helping me in getting to a hospital. We were the first westerners to visit the place and again a kind of celebrity status had been bestowed on us. We were a little late setting off to find a doctor but we ended up in what I assume was a kind of casualty ward. I would be more sure but many institutional places just don't seem to have any signs. In England if you walk into a hospital as a non urgent case and just ask to see a doctor you may be asked to wait. A week. At best you will be asked to sit down with a smile that suggests a good book and sleeping bag would be appropriate articles to have with you. In Russia you barely have time to ask how long the wait will be before being ushered into meet the doc. The spacious room had 1 plump doctor (there are very few metabolically challenged young people in Russia), and three nurses. One cutting bandages, one doing nothing and the third picking her nose. After several days rest, the pain symptoms had disappeared (as happened previously) and I was offered an x-ray. At this point the hospital turned into a museum. Those machines you see on early Frankenstein movies had nothing on this place. With the knee positioned carefully over the film I looked nervously around for some sort of lead anorak. I got a lead facecloth which was gingerly placed you know where and the room cleared. A significant amount of wirring and clicking took place. I think the tingling in my knee must have been psychological but undoubtly I got a good dose of x-rays. Later, when I left I insisted on keeping the film (not usually allowed) to prevent any more such exposures. I sat back down in the hall with Demtri (a respectable looking internet club manager in a suit) where he proceeded to tell me about some of his political views. It went something like this: "I have read about your skin heads in England, they are good yes"? "No, what do you mean good"? "We have black people and foreigners coming into our country now, this is bad". "Why"? "Russian people, especially Northen Russian people are the best people. Milosoevic was a good leader". "WHAT!"? "Your media lies to you, Milosoevic is a good, strong leader and America has no right to bomb his country. I hate America. Stalin was also a great Leader" "But he killed Millions"? This was going to get sour. I was sitting, waiting for the results of a x-ray and my interpreter was a raging fascist. I soon changed the subject but just to make sure I wasn't jumping to any hasty conclusions: "What about Hitler"? ---2 days later the wall paper on the internet clubs computers was the 2nd tower exploding.--- We were called back in to the surgery where I was given a vague diagnosis and told investigative surgery was required to make sure and it would cost $200. I politely declined. Needing to visit a bike shop another chap at the computer club said that he would show me where one was. I liked this guy. He was a 18 year old entrepreneur who promoted music events in the city and worked part time at the radio station. I mentioned that our friends were arriving the next day and with his media contacts he offered to organize a TV appearance, no doubt with some intention to publicise his own name. I said I'd be in touch. This I mentioned to Demtri who now insisted that He would arrange the TV interview in his internet club! Things were getting out of hand and I said no. He did it anyway, I've no idea what the TV companies thought but we canceled. The director of the hotel, who's political views and English were much better, arranged for two TV companies to visit later that day. "You've cycled 9000 km from England, what do you think of the events in America"? Here we go. Scott hadn't even seen a TV. He had spent 20 mins on the internet, had friends in Manhattan and was being asked to comment on the events. Eventually we did do 2 interviews although one of them described us all as Americans! Later that night half the hotel staff gathered round the TV to watch us. A visiting Chinese businessman was standing watching as we came on. He heard us murmuring and turned round, then looked back at the screen, then at us again, this time pointing before joining us on the sofa. The real celebrity status had begun. We had gone out on 4 news broadcasts being virtually the only other news apart from America. The Hotel Prostitute When we first arrived they thought we wanted a room for 2 hours, not 2 people. We soon figured out what the hotel was about. In previous hotels the accompanying phone call of "Sex Yes, Sex No"? or "you want Russian women"? were now quite familiar. I had suggested to Andy that he should say "Scolka"? (How much?) before phoning his room with a fake Russian accent but I think my quote was too high. This place was in a different league. There were no phones in the rooms so the ladies sit outside the front door squeezed into a Lada. Fortunately they are not allowed into the bar unless accompanied by a client but what seems to happen (now I'm speculating) is that they club together and rent a room which they use throughout the night. This gives the added privilege of allowing them to sit in the foyer. Quite a close analogy can be drawn between the way Mossies (mosquitoes) and Prossies move in for the kill when you're not looking. On one occasion one girl was offering herself to me as a present! All in all the place was not too bad, although Scott did have two condoms under his bed. The hospitality (of the friendship variety) was astounding and it sported the biggest Chinese and Russian market I have seen outside Camden on its doorstep. I have just bought a nice new fleece for 4 pounds. In the evening after our tv interview one of the camera men turned up and with some language difficulty communicated that he wanted to make a film of us riding our bikes. Thinking that this was a money making scheme on his part we declined. He then went on to tell us that he would lend us his camera so that we could make a film of ourselves. When we realized that he really meant it and that it was not going to cost anything we gladly accepted. It was late in the day and we had no tape. No problem, he drove us half way across town to the only shop now open. There were no specific plans for the evening but we managed to shoot 90minutes of the most raucous Vodka drinking session culminating with Scott and Andy getting literally legless. Being behind and responsible for the camera I did not get drunk and managed to get a quite entertaining “morning after the night before” experience. The Video has been sent to London for Editing Later. Next: The road trip out of Krasniask as media stars. It gets Cold. The sheer beauty of Siberia, and the Media (TV Radio and the papers) go mad in Irkutsk. top Subject: From Mud Tracks to Media CircusesDate: 05 October 2001 09:40Hello Peeps, This is a little lengthy it's two episodes really but so much has happened and internet places are few and far between. Time is also scarce. Where we are. Find Singapore on a map. We are due North about level with London, next to that big lake that has 22% of the worlds fresh water and is so pure you can drink it. We are over half way to Singapore and riding high as you are going to see. GMT +8 ------------------------------------------------------------------ LEAVING KRASNIASK We still had the video camera and I filmed while Scott and Andy wobbled off down the road sporting spectacular hangovers. Two days later Toby and I set off. We were a day later than planned due to some pretty bad weather so had a lot of catching up to do. It was a thousand km to Urkutsk and Lake Baikal and we expected to do it comfortably in 10 days. At a cafe we learnt that Andy and Scott had slept the night of the storm that had delayed us and had managed to dry off before continueing. It was a beautiful sunny day and we zipped along making good progress. Severial times an hour cars would come past tooting and waveing. We were stopped by a car who had the coach of the regions football team, they asked where the other two were as they had seen four of us on TV and gave us little metal team badges and cigarettes! This friendly behaviour from traffic carried on all the way to Irkutsk. Towards evening we filled our water bottles and started to look for a camp site, this is not difficult in Siberia since good camping spots are present everywhere. A COLD AWAKENING As we came over a large hill into the shadow of the setting sun there was a distinct chill in the air. I glanced down at the bike computed as it went from 8 to 7 degrees. A few minutes later it was 6 and before the bottom of the hill had hit 5. We needed to camp fast and turned off onto the next track and found a lovely flat spot in the woods. The temperature continued to fall at exactly 3 degrees an hour and by 11 oclock it was -5. We were getting seriously concerned as to when it would stop. It steadied at 5 below and we both managed to have a reasonable nights sleep. It was a Siberian warning shot about just how fast things could change and that is really was time to prepare for extreme conditions. After our cold night the weather warmed up and again we scooted along getting faster as I gained confidence that my knee seemed to be healed. We generally ride about 6 hours a day but the days are getting shorter. In Europe we were enjoying 16 hours of daylight but now little more than 13 hours after sunrise it's dark. Much of the time we ride in silence just pointing interesting things out to each other, occasionally someone sings or 
remembers an old joke. We spend a lot of time laughing, Scott and Andy have a great sense of humour and can sieze on the most benigh object and create humour. This happens mainly with characters met at cafes as often they are quite drunk. COSY NIGHTS Toby and I were still chasing the others 3 days ahead of us but we realised our priority was to stay warm and dry as we could catch up by hitching a ride on a lorry if necessary. Making fire is easy, fallen trees are every where and most parts of the forest have evidence of a forest fire passing by. We hoped to camp slightly earlier that night in order to prepare for the cold but still wanted to make the next 100 km mile post (if that makes sense) as there should be a soggy message waiting for us from the others stuck to the post. A few km short of the post we saw a lump of coal which had falled from a lorry. This was not a normal lump of coal being about the size of a small microwave oven. Without too much hesitation I offloaded the back of my bike onto Toby's and wrapped in the largest plastic bag we had the lump precariously stayed in place as we tottered off for the last few km of the day. In picking a camping place we had long since given up hiding in woods to 
avoid being seen. We don't camp too close to villages and try to be out of sight of the main road but often choose open fields as they are flatter and receive the morning sun. Sometimes we have visiters but they are always friendy, somewhat bemused and usually impressed. At the edge of a large field we pitched and set about building a fire. Toby managed to break chunks off our lump of coal by hurling it at a tree and we lay by the fire toasting one side then the other gazing at the awesome stars in the moonless siberian sky. Around midnight after seeing several shooting stars we retired to bed only to be reminded that earlier we had filled 1 litre plastic bottles, scavenged from the road side, with hot water boiled on the fire. They were wrapped in socks and while it was about -3 C outside the tent, my bag was warm and puffed up from the heat. We had a warm, dry and comfortable nights sleep. The lump was still glowing and without too much ado the fire was rekindled. The last time we had toast was in England but bread was laid in the embers and despite the slightly charred texture we devoured slice after slice constantly giggleing about how idellic it all was. The autumn colours were all around set against the bright silver of the birch trees. The cold had done away with the insects, the sun was drying the tents and we had coffee and toast. HOMELY LUXURIES It was a lazy start to the day, the others were pulling away from us and would would be ready to leave Irkutsk, the half way point of the ride as we arrived. Against our will, as we really wanted to cycle we decided to hitch ahead to catch up with them. Easier said than done. There was a vehicle about every 5 minutes but only one an hour that could accommodate 2 heavy bikes and none which were going far enough. After two days of hopping on and off trucks we had made no more progress than if we had ridden hard and we estimated (from the time and date messages they left) that Andy and Scott were now 2 days ride from the City. 
The roads were bad in places, it only rained on us once during a long gravel section (which strangely were always on the uphills) and we were crawling along at about 6 mph. The gears and chain were grinding from grit, we were very low on oil and the water dangerously hid the holes in the road. Our spirits resoloutly failed to be dampened, our toast making skills had evolved so now, with more scavenged road debri (a rusty bucket) we could make beautiful cheese on toast, scrambled egg on toast and Jacket potatoes. I never retired without seeing at least 1 shooting star. Every city and most towns have police check points on the main roads. We have never been stopped while cycleing, although several times when we were hitching the lorries were stopped. Some checkpoints stop all vehicles. Occasionally we get shouted at over the loudspeaker system and now know that it's a goodluck saying in Russian meaning "safe voyage". This is more than words since the heavy penalities and random stops mean that there are relitively few drunk drivers on the roads. One evening we had got too close to a town to camp so had to carry on through as the sun went down. We knew that foreigners are not allowed to drive outside of the cities after dark and the many police checkpoints enforce this. Gone 9pm it was dark when we passed through the check point at 5 times the 5km speed limit. The junior guard with the kalshnikov did the familiar double take, looked confused, turned round then back again, shouted a question to his boss, had no idea what to do and we were gone. We camped 4 minutes later without being chased. HITCH-HIKING SUCCESS Eventually we got the lift we had been seeking. A brand new crane was being delivered to Vladivostic from Moscow. The driver spoke no English but we managed to communicate ok and gave him some of our snacks. We had learnt on a previous lift not to get out the newspaper article in a moving vehicle. Earlier we tried showing it to the passanger in a lorry (there were 4 of us in the cab) but he couldn't read so the driver read it to him at about 50 mph! We stopped at a cafe. My attire was decidedly commical. Heavy black walking boots. Black Nike leggings with a white stripe down the leg and a pink collared shirt (usually used for more formal occasions but the only long sleves I had other than jackets). The girls in the cafe collapsed in fits of giggles (this was quite familiar) and hid behind the doorway while one after an other a different girl poked her head round for a glimpse. We paid for the meal and showed the article. He read it slowly and carefully. Ohh. Ahhh. Skolka kilomoter? Skolka Chass? These were familar questions and we answered effotlessly. We had been stopping at the 100 km posts in the crane to collect the messages, so he already understood that there were more of us and the questions became more complicated. One cafe lady joined in and was shown the article, then another. Now, during the interview for the newpaper we were asked about our plans after the trip. For some reason, mainly as a joke I had said "I am going to return to the most wonderful woman I have met on the trip and ask her to marry me" Of course this was published and was pointed out to the girls in the cafe by our driver. You can guess the rest but it was a bit of a relief to leave after elaboratly signing their guest book (the first English entry), you can have just too much attention from young women at times! Rolling along on the crane again it was dark. We suspected that we had passed Andy and Scott. The driver wanted to take us to the city but we refused since entering a strange city late at night can be quite risky. We were dropped, to our drivers bewilderment, 20 km outside Irkutsk in the pitch dark by a corn field. We failed to meet the others despite riding into the city almost within an hour of each other. Our agreed meeting place was the British Council office where we were expected after our welcoming chance encounter 4000 km earlier in Samara. Scott and Andy had limped in to the city, very tired and with 2 broken wheels. IRKUTSK – MEETING UP The Council were extraordinary. The next day we were fed coffee and cake while we recounted stories from the journey. An hour later Andy and Scott walked in. We hadn't seen them for over a week, it was like a reunion and the rest of the people in the room seemed to fade into the shadows as we sat round the table for ages gossiping about the latest adventures. The kindship we have as a team is wounderful and people seem to marvel at us, there is a certain kind of energy we have when together. Anatoli, the manager of the council suggested we speak to the press. No problem we said. Also the manager of BP who co-funds the British council was in town and would like to meet us. OK. We went off to do various chores and Tobes and I checked into a local and cheaper apartment style hotel. A GRIM HAPPENING We had a quiet night in to rest. Actually it was rather racous as we laughed and swapped stories in Andy and Scotts flat. The next morning Andy stuck his head round our door to say that someone had hung themselves on our floor. Right above where we had been partying the night before. Knowing Andy's sense of humour neither of us believed him and went back to sleep. Three days later a priest came round every room in the hotel accompanied by a member of the militia, sprinkleing holy water and saying a prayer. MASS MEDIA 
I was shown the list of media. The council had issued a press release and 4 television stations, 4 Newspapers and the radio were due to turn up. Gulp. This was a little more than we expected. We had received quite a lot of attention as we left Krasniask and that was after 2 tv appearances. This appeared to be getting out of hand and anyway we did not understand why there was all the fuss. We were 4 normal guys and all we had done was ride bicycles. Albeit ten thousand km. Scott, Andy and I walked in, Toby was off doing his laundry on the other side of the city (we did ours by hand in the hotel) but he knew the schedule. The table was laid with glasses of water and a big Union jack in the middle. 3 oclock came and we had to start the press conference. An audience of 30 but we were only 3. Minutes later, in rushed a very sweaty and out of breath Toby. His bicycle chain had snapped 10 km away, there were no taxies and he had hopped on and off busses and ran the rest of the way. He did have clean trowsers however. We were broadcast that night. The British council has connections with the English language departmemt of the University and we were asked if we would talk to some of the students. Sure, No problem. BP One of the problems we were having was getting the correct lubricants for the bikes and we had said this at the press conference. After the meeting the British Petrolium regional manager got in touch to say that they had a display cabinet in the office and if we wished we could go and see if there was anything of use. They would send a car for us the next morning after which we would go to the university. Great, the media thing was actually working in our favour although no offers of sponsership were forthcoming. There are many swish looking western cars in russia inamounst the Volga's and Lada's. They are often black with darkened windows. We were now in one of these. A gleaming big, black 4WD with black leather seats and blacked out windows being whisked along to the BP head quarters. We all looked at eash other and just burst into fits of giggles. What was happening to us? One day you are cold, riding on muddy roads with lorries thundering by and the next minute you are being turned into celebrities. We were given the VIP treatment at BP and our driver (who was obviously good at getting hold of things) said he could even get spirit for Andy's stove. We had bought 4 liters in Germany and used it sparingly but now it was all gone and we were going to have to rely on the petrol burning stoves. We daparted with a couple of lubricants from the display cabinet and the next day 4 liters of pure spirit from the Irkutsk Vodka factory was delivered to the British council. It burns beautifully, can be used indoors (or in tents) and a bonus. You can drink it! (would we be so daft?) AN UNFORGETTABLE PRESENTATION We walked across town to the University (we deserved a taxi at least:) and were 20 minutes late as we met the director of the English department at the entrance and were ushered upstairs. A few people were milling around the doorway and we squeezed our way into a large crowded room. Forget the media, this was scary. well over a 100 people were squeezed into the room. I think I could see about 10 guys, the rest were young ladies. We stood at the front, more than a little bowled over by the attention and did our introductions. Then the questions. "We hear none of you are married, is this true"? Yes. The room stirred with murmering and giggles. "What about girl friends"? "No" More Murmering. "There must be somebody at home waiting for you" "Our Mums" we all said in unison" "we saw you on tv. How do you do it"? "you just get on a bike and keep going" "but its very dangerous, we think you are very brave" "No we are just 4 normal guys following a dream" "No. To us you are amazing, we think you are hero's and so brave" Gulp... "Are there any questions from the back"? We spoke for 90 minutes and just escaped having to sing "yesterday" by the Beatles. I'm not sure how many believed us when we told them that we all stand in front of our tents at night and sing god save the queen before bed but they were listening wide eyed and attentively, maybe without realising it was a joke! We were talking to the 4th years but Lizz, an English girl from the council was teaching 3rd years at the same and reported that they were most disruptive and innatentive as they didn't want to be in there but would rather be listening to us. AIR HOSTESS HAGGS FROM HELL I am seldom so derogatory about anyone but the next episode left both Toby and I a little shocked. There were two ladies, somewhere in their 40's staying in our flat. We first made their aquainance when I was doing my laundry in the kitchen sink. To me this is a place where you scrape the mud off potatoes and wash dirty dishes. To one of these ladies this was an abysimal atrosity, and while yelling at me she physically dragged me in to the shower made be do it there. I went off and found a washing bowl. A day later they were back in the flat and getting quite drunk on Vodka. Sitting in the kitchen they took it in turns to try to get me to sit on their knees and have a bit of a snog. One dragged me off to her room with the pretence of showing me something only to have two vodka glasses laid out. They just wouldn't take no for an answer. Toby and I were making chips (fries to you Americans) as a rare treat. The ladies (I use the term loosely) had made Pizza. I tried a bit (it really was excellent) but it obviously had saussage on and Toby being vegitarian declined. They refused to admit that saussage was meat and physically tried force feeding him (and these were largish girls). They decided they wanted their Pizza hot and put it in the oven. Except that it wasn't an oven but a kiln. The temperature knob was actually an on-off switch. To our relief they went back to their room and we got on with our chips. We got the oil a little too hot and it started to smoke so we turned it off for a while. Strangly the smoke got worse and worse but we thought it was just the fat still smoking. The girls burst in scolding us for making such a smell (or somthing) just as Toby and I realised that the smoke was from the oven and that their prize Pizza had turned to a small charcoal lump. When the oven door was opened all hell broke loose. Somone was coughing and opened the hall way door prompting a visit from reception about the smoke. The larger lady who was thoroughly wasted on Vodka was trying the force open the locked balcony door with a flimsey handle. She could hardly stand and right behind her was a large pan of smoking oil. Eventually we communicated the danger and she gave up tugging at the door. Two days later they were back, looking a little sheepish and showed us photos of them at work, they were air hostesses. LEAVING IRKUTSK 
We escaped Irkutsk after Andy's saddle had been welded back together by the fire brigade. Scott stayed behind for an extra day because he said he needed another days rest but joined us with empty panniers for the tv to film us leaving the city. If he had known the consequences of staying behind, nothing would have stopped him joining us. Now we are together again in Ulan Ude, he has told us his story. "it was the worst 24 hours of my life, I was virtually crying mummy" I'll tell you about that later, I've written enough for one sitting. From Ulan Ude, 3 days from Mongolia. God bless. Rory August Diary | September Diary | October Diary | November Diary | December Diary | top |
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