And so concludes my big trip, from Singapore to the Silk Road. Today I reach the final destination of my trip; Almaty, after riding through continental South East Asia, China, and through several Central Asian countries.

Today’s route in blue

In Almaty, I will be storing my motorcycle, fixing the issues I have had to date, and then figuring out a way back to Dubai. This could be shipping the bike, or riding it overland back to Dubai (my preferred choice) - currently routes look like either: (1) a trip back to China, exiting at at Pakistani border (via the famous Karakhorum highway), riding until Karachi, and then East to Iran. The crossing to Dubai would be via ferry at Bandar Abbas. (2) would be the same as (1) except skipping Iran and skipping straight from Karachi. (3) would be riding west across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, then cutting through Russia, Georgia, Iraq, until I reach the Gulf. Time will tell which route I end up choosing!

This morning was a slow one - after sleeping at 4:30am last night, I was keen to sleep in and preserve optionality for the day. Besides been rudely awoken by the front desk at 8:30, it was a decent sleep.

Biker Hotel Lobby

I was up at 11am, and ready to keep progressing with my journey. I was technically one day ahead of schedule, so I could have used that to stay the evening in Bishkek, but I had a desire to keep on moving. Now that I am close to finishing up, I have the urge to “get it over with” rather than hanging around. Not one for extended goodbyes.

Given my bike was damaged, i needed to: (1) assess how bad it was, (2) whether it was possible to fix in a timely manner, and (3) whether it was safe to continue on.

(1): it is not the best situation. Broken windscreen meant this wouldn’t be great in the event of getting rear ended (or otherwise flying over the handlebars). Leaking forks (with oil over the brakes) also not good; less predictable braking performance. (2): could i fix it? Not really. Broken windshield i could only really superglue some parts together (i also did not want to risk it getting blown into pieces in the wind), until a replacement could be found. Same goes for the fork seals. The closest Ducati dealer was in Almaty, and even they did not have replacement parts ready. (3): this was a judgment call. Given it was a short journey predominantly on the highway, it was reduced risk (predictable braking performance is probably most important when going hard around corners). Likewise for the windscreen; just don’t get rear ended!

The resident bikers at the hotel had a look and said the equivalent of “it’ll be fine” in Russian. One had even started a journey to Georgia and back - 20,000 KMs - with leaking forks and never even stopped to repair them (no time and no seals). He just topped up the forks with oil whenever he could and ended up with an oil soaked radiator, brakes, you name it. This certainly gave me comfort, so I decided to head for Almaty.

Resident bikers inspecting my bike

I was onto the road by midday, and following Google maps. It was odd, as I was continuing down a different route than the first time I had ridden from the Kazakh border. Instead of dusty roads, there were wide country lanes. Oh well! This was nicer.

When i got to the border there was a long queue of trucks. I skipped straight to the front, only to be stopped by the border guard, who greeted me with his arms in a crossed fashion (i.e you shall not pass). It turns out that this was a cargo only border! Thanks Google… The official crossing for passenger vehicles was 30 odd KM away, so I set off at once.

The line at the border crossing

The remainder of the trip was very standard. The landscape was less impressive than the first time I had ridden it (i stopped a few times to double check that i was on the same route!).

The final crossing; to Kazakhstan

I felt like I should have stopped for more photos, given it was my last day riding, but I felt an opposing urge to just “get it over with” and to keep going. I was a bit regretful that I was riding on the same highways as I had done previously rather than going my planned route through the mountains, but alas there was nothing I could do. Those roads would need to wait for another day.

Sandeep (with a haircut) at the statue near the Kazakh border

Not sure i like this look

By 5pm I was back in Almaty. I checked into the same hotel as last time, and got to work; I wanted to get organised to finalise my journey. This meant:

• washing my riding gear, and storing it with my bike
• getting my bike washed and ready for storage
• trying to figure out/get the repairs organised
• finding somewhere safe to store my bike
• booking flights back to Dubai

Outside Almaty

In the end, I managed to get my bike washed and my riding gear cleaned before the night was out. The laundromat was an interesting experience; they only allowed QR code payments from the national app, so I had to flag down passersby to ask them to pay on my behalf for both the wash and the dry cycles!

Final wash

Given I “look Kazakh” (everyone keeps telling me i look Kyrgyz or Kazakh after they meet me), this meant holding a translator app with the opener “hello, i am a foreigner, would you be able to help me with something?”. I’m glad the street canvassers from the west have not yet reached the streets of Kazakhstan, because if they had, I would have had a much harder time getting help!

It was only after washing my riding jacket did I notice that I had lost one of my phones…Apple’s find my app confirmed that it was somewhere near the Kyrgyz/Uzbek/Tajik border, where it presumably fell out of my jacket while riding. It feels like after a very smooth trip, all the problems were starting to emerge at the very end (which is the best time for them to emerge given a choice between the beginning and the end!)

Posing next to a statue in Almaty

The following morning, I finished packing my things, paid the Ducati dealership a visit to get my repairs organised, and booked a flight for the afternoon. After dropping my bike off for storage at a mutual friend’s garage, I had one last plov for lunch, before heading to the airport.

My life back home awaits.

Some stats (for the finale):

• 318 KMs travelled
• 11.4L fuel added
• 0g coffee consumed
• 6 unique interactions (4 on 30th and 2 on 31st)

Altitude map of today’s ride

Route to date