New Route

The new route...

 A few weeks ago I spent about four hours working out the accumulated cost of all the formalities we would have to face to get to our intended point in East Asia; visas, import permits, ferries, insurance etc, and it came to a surprisingly large amount. It's a shame that we live in a world where we need demanded pieces of (sometimes incredibly difficult) paper to be able to cross borders. I had a lot of idiosyncratic, bureaucratic hurdles to jump through whilst I made my way around Africa, with one notable time of having to bribe officials to become a recognised citizen of another nation to be able to get a visa. It was all a lot of fun in the end, but it does get quite tiresome having the doubts of whether you are going to get turned back constantly looming over you head. Both of these reasons are the main causes for the change in direction.  

I worked out the other day that we could ship ourselves and our bikes to South America for the same cost of what the paperwork would be in order to get to South Korea. And with Canada being the destination of choice, once we arrive in visa-free South America, we won't have an Ocean to cross on our way there.

I've always wanted to visit the Stan's of Central Asia. And if you've followed this blog for a while you'll know that when I first set out on a bicycle, I was heading for the mountains of Central Asia on my way around the globe.  Looks like I'll be travelling the opposite way round to what I originally planned! Asia will have to wait. But it will happen.

Still, I've always wanted to travel around South America also. I'm really happy with this plan! I'm quite dubious of actually planning out direct routes now, so all I'm planning is that we'll land somewhere around the East coast and then make our way north from there. Sometime around the end of this year is the intended departure date.

 Will give my girlfriend more time to actually get a bike! Calling on anybody with a decent cg125 they're willing to part with..? Blue, apparently...