Asia.
Our last continent... After all our previous trips we had one continent left... Asia. It was for many years a dream to go there. The first idea was to follow the Trans Siberian railway through Russia and take a ferry from Vladivostock to Japan and visit the Suzuki company in a 2-3 month trip. But during our planning in 2000 we both got the news that we would loose our jobs in 2001. Well... thats good news! So we started to make a bigger plan. Because we would have all the time in the world...
May 2001. We started our motorbike trip to Asia. Our itinerary is via East-Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal. From Nepal we flew our bikes to Thailand. There we discovered South East Asia: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, From Malaysia we shipped our Suzuki's to New Zealand and then to Australia. From there we went to Japan and visited the birth place of our Suzuki's. Then we started the long, long way home and rode back to Holland via Siberia, Russia and the Baltic States. After 17 months we crossed our last border, back to Holland. After 24 countries, 64.000 km we are tired, dirty, the bikes are almost falling apart, leaking oil, tires are gone, tent is leaking and our money is finished. But our mind is full. Full of adventures, full with memories of the people we met. Full of the places we visited. Full of life. We realized the last part of our dream. Traveling around the world. On our DR600's. We are happy...
The preparation.
I guess there are different ways to prepare a trip like this. I don't know which way is the best but to have the motivation to go and goodwill is the best start.
Then the preparation of your bike, reading guidebooks, getting all the papers (passport, visas, carnet de passage, international drivers licence, travel insurance, etc.), vaccinations, updating the gear (camping stuff, spare parts) takes a long time. And even if we are "experienced" travelers you are always short of time....So start long before your departure date... let the fun begin...
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