It was a rough nights sleep; while it was cosy, the ergonomics of a sleeping mat and a hard pillow is similar camping, not to mention a blocked nose; oh and as it turned out, I was sleeping in the same room as the elder son. His phone went off at 5AM, giving me a fright (I thought it was my phone).

After waking at 6:45AM (I had promised Mauricio that I’d go with him in the morning), I decided that it was too early, and had another hour’s worth of slumber before leisurely packing my things and setting off.

Early morning at the Kyrgyz border

I realised that this morning, my bike probably has an issue with the clutch. It engages way too early, and while this was manageable until now, by this morning it has gotten to the state where it is now permanently engaged. This is rideable, but not ideal, as iIt makes switching into neutral while the engine is on quite difficult/impossible (so I need to switch the engine off to engage it in neutral), and the bike slowly creeps forward when I have the clutch pulled all the way in, which takes some getting used to. I will get this looked at once I reach Kashkar tomorrow. [Note while I write this: Florian joined me at the lobby and diagnosed this issue as air bubbles in the hydraulics]

Oops…second set of crashed vehicles I’ve seen (the last was yesterday, a Chinese SUV along the highway)

I had reached the border by 8AM, and before long I was out of Kyrgyzstan and into China. This border was an interesting one; rather than following an obvious natural feature, it seemed to split the valley in two without there being an obvious separation between Kyrgyzstan and China.

Topological map of the border

The Kyrgyz side of the border; hundreds of trucks and cargo in waiting

What followed once I reached the immigration centre for China was absolute bedlam:

• we were told to remove all our luggage from our vehicles, so the small room was completely filled with luggage on the floor
• the immigration officials did not speak any English, so I was serving as the defacto translator for all the foreigners
• there was a tight bottleneck, being the rate they could inspect people’s luggage, so people were piling into the room and being increasingly agitated
• the officials seemed to be completely overwhelmed and at a loss for what to do. I even observed a few arguments between officers.

After about 1.5 hours of waiting, I finally made it through, making a few friends in the process. China is the country where I have consistently received the most amazed reactions about my travels. One person even remarked that the trip I was on, would be a lifelong dream for many. I guess that is true, and I am quite lucky to have the means, the time, and the support of my family to pursue this.

It was a few more hours of waiting on the other side, for the entire tour group to make their way through the customs process, through which I was acquainted with the entire cast of characters in the tour group.

Once more into the middle kingdom

In our group was: ⁃ Jukka, a 51 year old Finnish motorcyclist that had sold his company 4 years ago. It seemed like he had been on the road ever since, talking about riding in Africa, and elsewhere. He had started his trip on a Triumph Tiger 900 (brand new) from Finland, and was heading to Australia, and then New Zealand from here. Then his plan was to ship his motorcycle from New Zealand to Alaska (!) and ride all the way down south to Ushuaia in Patagonia. A true round the world traveller. ⁃ Alex and Mauricio (who I had previously met), who were Colombians travelling from Spain in their VW campervan. They planned to travel to South East Asia, but had not planned beyond there; the van was their home, so they could go where they wanted to go. ⁃ Florian, a German motorcyclist riding an old BMW to Malaysia. He seemed to be the unluckiest person of the group; from bike issues in Kyrgyzstan, to losing his Kyrgyz documentation required to exit the border (he made it though eventually).

• Bjarne and Finja, two others who were travelling from Germany in their Fiat campervan. They were about my age, seemed to be married, and seemed to have a nice time travelling the world together.
• Reda and Erika, who were travelling from Italy. They were probably the best dressed, wearing top shelf riding gear which not only matched each other (seriously, matching helmets, goggles, jackets, pants, and even bike panniers), but also their bikes! They were also travelling all the way to Australia.

Our group: Reda and Erika closest to me, Florian front right and Jukka front left. The cars are up ahead.

Separately from us, we also met two Irish guys who were driving their Land Rover to Australia, and their German hitchhiking counterparts. The hitchhikers were the most surprising interaction for me; they had ridden their bikes to Tbilisi, and then decided to hitchhike the rest of the way to South East Asia. They were travelling with just two backpacks each, and slept mostly outdoors … in hammocks … This made me shudder to think about; I was too afraid to camp in a tent with heaps of layers and camping gear rated for below zero temperatures; they were out there sleeping at freezing temperatures in just a hammock! I asked how they slept if there were no trees, and they mentioned that they just slept on the ground.

I had my first Chinese meal of the trip (dumplings) while waiting for the others, and bumped into a family of three from Guangzhou (originally Sichuan) who were travelling by car. They were incredibly warm and had many questions about my travels; they even had a relative who had moved to Australia for university.

The family of three posing by my bike. Bumped into them later at lunch, and then again at the hotel in Ulugquat(!)

A later selfie with the dad at the hotel in Ulugquat

Finally, at ~12:30PM we set off as a group for Ulugquat.

Today’s route in blue

The scenery along the road from the border was absolutely spectacular. Perfect asphalt roads, paired with Pamir-esque mountains (arguably equal or better) alongside. Along the valleys and by streams would be horses and goats grazing in the grass.

Mountains along the road in Xinjiang. These did not hold a candle to the others along the way (I just didn’t have the opportunity to stop for those)

While the distance was only ~140KM, it took us 3 hours to reach Ulugguat. We were all following the guide’s vehicle, so we were driving quite slowly (60kph for large parts). This is probably my least favourite part of tours and group travel; since I was riding in the middle of the pack, I wasn’t really able to stop along the way and take photos / for bathroom breaks. That being said, I would say that I am probably the least experienced rider of the group, so my previous concerns about reckless and unskilled riding did not materialise.

There was one more stop in Ulugguat; we needed to register our vehicles with customs, so we gathered once more in a waiting room for another hour or two.

Ulugguat is a quaint town. It is set among rocky mountain ranges, and seems to be full of relatively newly built buildings. People are very friendly; when Jukka and I were lost trying to find the hotel, a local offered to take us to our hotel (going a few blocks out of her way in a scooter to take us there).

70th year anniversary of the founding of the Xingjian Production and Construction Corps

I split from the group to explore the town at sundown, and had noodles and skewers for dinner.

Posing in the city park

Some stats: ⁃ 164 KMs travelled ⁃ No coffee consumed :( ⁃ No fuel added ⁃ 9 unique interactions

Part 2 route to date

Route to date