Vladivostok, Russia:

I spoke too soon … for reasons I don’t understand, the boat went to Vladivostok direct, rather than to its usual destination Zarubino. That meant I didn’t get to do any miles yet and Sherri hasn’t yet ridden in Russia. But we are here, in big old Vladivostok. At least we are, but our bikes are not. The bikes you see, are still on the ferry boat. We got in too late for Russian customs to be interested in processing them, and so we have been told to leave the boat, check into a hotel and return tomorrow morning after 9am to unload the bikes.

I called a local biker from the Iron Angels bike club, Ilya, and he met us down at the ferry port, introduced us to his club and then took us to a hotel. It was almost midnight but we were hungry after more than 24 hours on the boat in which we ate none of the onboard food. I took Sherri out to the Gutov Beer House, scene of last years Vladivostok headquarters for the initial Sibirsky Extreme Project, and despite the late hour we had a bang up meal. The first western style meal for Sherri since she left Australia several weeks ago.

We went down to the dock the next day and as promised they were unloading our bikes. But it was a Saturday and despite having the bikes now unloaded, they were destined to sit in customs until the vehicle processing guys returned to work on Monday morning. If we had arrived in Zarubino, the bikes would have been ridden off the boat, been processed by customs as part of the normal arrival procedure and we would be all clear by now.

While down at the docks we saw three bikes waiting to go onto the ferry, and sure enough, we soon met the owners. A trio of guys from Montenegro were on their way around the world (www.theridearound2010.me). They had just come down from Magadan and were making their way to Korea and onwards to North America. They were BIG guys … all about 190cm tall and had big bikes. One on a 1200 GSA and one on an Africa Twin – the other bike was a more sensible F650 Dakar. They asked us what we were riding and we told them we were on a pair of 650s. They nodded – “sensible choices” they said. Even these very big guys said their bikes were too big for the likes of Mongolia and Siberia. We swapped information, part of which was them giving us the address of a nice cheap homestay type place to stay. Then they clicked – “Oh so you are the Sibirsky Extreme guy !!… we have visited your site many times. We already have a link to your site on ours”
“Yes, I am back in Siberia” I replied. I wished them well for their travels ahead. They seemed like nice guys.

We found a café with wi-fi internet and camped there for the afternoon, with laptop keyboards clicking away furiously. Sherri Jo reckons she is a long way behind schedule with her blog. I still like to do my blogging on a daily basis … at least I like to update my draft blog daily. By the time we emerged from the café, the Dong Chun ferry had sailed … they 3 Montenegrins were on their way to Korea.

It was a rainy weekend in Vladivostok and the city was fog bound for most of the time. Humidity accordingly was between 95 and 100%. A walk up the street turned into a sweaty, sticky hike. I never liked humidity. I was always more of a dry air kinda guy.

We got a local sim card for Sherri sorted out, so her Australian iPhone is now fully functional here in Russia. I had told her to make sure it was unlocked (in terms of networks) before she got here, so I am pleased to know foreign iPhones can work perfectly well in Russia with a local sim card – if you ensure your home network unlocks it before you arrive here. I, ironically, struck a problem with my new smartphone. Despite making sure Sherri unlocked her phone, I bought a new locked phone in London a month ago, and forgot to get it unlocked. Now I have a wait of 2-3 weeks to get the unlock code, rendering that phone useless here unless I use my UK sim card. The idea of 50 quid a day on phone bills doesn’t turn me on, and I have two spare unlocked telephones, so they will have to do for now.

Monday began well, after a weekend of solid rain, there was sunshine and patches of blue sky. We hoped to get the bikes out of customs today. We went down to the port and the agents who handle the Dong Chun ferry helped us get the paperwork together. By the time we had the paperwork together, and had driven up to the Customs building that handled vehicle imports (not at the port) they had just about closed for lunch.

I wandered around to get some pictures of the location. By now the cloud had totally cleared and we had a fine hot muggy Vladivostok day.

I spotted some customs girls also taking in the view on their lunch break and wandered over for a chat. They were very friendly and with them onside, the customs documents for the bikes, with “as long as we wanted” timescale (we kept it at 3 months since that was the limit of Sherri Jo’s visa) came soon after lunch. It confirmed my view that it’s always good to make friends with the right people.

Armed with our approved Customs declarations we headed back to the port to get our bikes released. But it wasn’t so simple. Because it was Vladivostok and not Zarubino, there was also a port charge for handling the vehicular cargo, of 2600 rubles (about 55 quid). I made a mental note (and now a written note) … when taking the Dong Chun ferry, avoid the runs to Vladivostok like the plague. Going to Vladivostok by the ferry will cost you in port charges and will be a bit of a pain to get the customs stuff done (nice customs girls excluded). Unloading at Zarubino is a “ride the bike off the boat and straight to customs where you will be fully processed in under 2 hours.” So it’s got to be Zarubino!

By the time all of this was done, it was almost 4pm. Ilya the biker met us again and led us to the clubhouse and workshop of the Iron Angels. Sherri Jo needed an oil change, and the Iron Angels guys had that rarest of lubes, 10w60. We might as well use the guys to change her tyres, since they have a moto wheel balancer too. Sherri Jo had the finest French shoes fitted –a Michelin Desert rear and Michelin T63 front..

As soon as we got to the club, we met a quartet of bikers from Kazakhstan who had just come to Vladivostok and were getting some servicing done.

I chatted to them about where they had been and they had actually ridden part of the BAM road … from Bratsk to Chara. From Chara onwards they had taken the train, but their stretch did include the mighty Vitim River Bridge. Respect. Even more so as they had actually RIDDEN over the bridge. They told me they had taken the train from Chara as there were no bridges on the road further. I told them “it is not quite true. There were some bridges! And the road is rideable to Tynda.”

Sherri tried some Kvas, a traditional Russian drink, while I checked out the bikes from Kazakhstan.