Today was the first day on my long way back home to Thailand.
After two weeks back home with the family, I got up at 4am on Thursday, to get to the airport in Chiang Mai to get on the first flight to Bangkok airport and to catch the flight to Almaty where I arrived around 4 pm local time. Stayed at the same hotel close to the workshop where I stored my bike, decided to change the brake pads, even when they are still good, mainly to get rid of the extra weight for the spare brake pads I had in my luggage. For all three brakes, it sums up and I’m happy to have 300 g less to carry and brake pads which will easily be good for the next 11,000 km, the approximate distance to get home through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China with Tibet, Laos and then Thailand. Maybe less.
Yesterday I picked up my bike, to repack and prepare everything,only to realize this morning I forgot my boots in the workshop shed, so I had to wait till 10 to get over (driving in full gear but with flipflops) and to change into my boots. Another great chitchat with Roman, one of the owners and off I went into the expressway to get out of Almaty, well, it took me approximately 1 1/2 hours to reach the free flowing express way, including a tankstop to fill up the tank and a quick bottle of ice tea.
Once out of town and leaving the suburbs behind, it’s back to the wide steppe and driving along the mountains range to the south, still within some snow at the tops.
After another two hours or so I arrived at the exit to turn south towards Bishkek and the border. Unfortunately, the expressway was closed after that exit, so all traffic was redirected along that road and it got a bit busy on the two lane sections, when all the trucks had to slow down in the steeper slopes down the pass.
Anyway, I made it to the border, overtook slowly the long queue of cars waiting to get through the gate, squeezed myself in Just as the gate opened and got my passport stamped after it was my turn, maybe 15 minutes later, what is record time, comparing it with last time at the same border. Luggage check was a 5 second affair, and a lot of questions of where I’m from and where I go and so on.
Got my two stamps, got over to Kyrgystan, same procedure, same questions, same check, all good, 15 minutes later I was through the gate and stopped at the booth where I got my insurance and SIM card last time. The guy remembered me, all quick and friendly, with one unexpected hiccup, my phone was blocked in Kyrgystan, after I have been here before, but did not register the phone with whatever authority, and after the grace period of 1 months is over it gets blocked.
No big problem really, my main phone has an E-sim, which is working and I connect the second navigation phone via hotspot. Works for me.
Getting into and through Bishkek is the typical bigger city traffic, maybe a bit less because it is Saturday, and a bit after 6 pm local time, I arrived at the guest house, with nobody at home. Well with a bit of WhatsApp I was directed to my room all good, waiting for the boiler to heat up the water to take a shower and to write this update of my first day on the bike of my long way home.
Tomorrow to Toktogul, what will be a great ride as it goes through those mountain planes and passes with all the yurts, the horses, cows and all kinds of livestock that nomads keep.
Will update more tomorrow.
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