Krabbi and onto James Bond Island

Our ride to Krabi is a short one.
Phil takes the ferry and gets in just after us. 

Down here in Thailand this pretty well sums it up

We really must check  before we go out together

Phil takes a late afternoon swim as the squall rolls in

New Movie.....
The Man With The Golden Elephant

Long tail boat waiting to take you anywhere

My passenger seems a bit heavier than normal

Long tail boat to James Bond Isl

People have been coming here since the movie was made
in 1972

A guided paddle boat tour

Kind'a like a gondola ride but not!!

Through the Lime stone Islands

Bonding again
(thats 007 bonding)

Wow! you are so strong

The famous much photographed
 ROCK Island
Now I have to watch the movie again

The Islands are truly amazing to see 

The floating village of Panyee

We where told this village (not exactly floating) has 2700 people living there and before the movie,made in 1974 " The Man With The Golden Gun" it was very poor but now it is doing very well feeding the tourist lunch every day.

Dam it Grandma
 Go put some cloths on!! 

Very cool Island shapes

Leaving Turkey entering into Syria

We left Antakya Turkey around 10 am and headed off to the Syrian Border, It was about a 25 km ride so that would put us there with plenty of time to clear out of Turkey then in to Syria and then ride  to Aleppo and find a place to stay. As we where riding along the back road to the border that was mainly under construction with long stretches of ungraded gravel which are always fun with the bike fully loaded we were flagged down by a police officer, after we pulled off the road the officer proceeded to tell us how much he liked the bike, asked us if we were going to Syria then let us go wishing us a safe trip and asking if we had enjoyed our time in Turkey. Gee I didn’t think I had been speeding!!

As we approached the border we ran parallel to an 8 ft high Razor wire fence and posted every kilometer or so was a guard tower complete with armed guard in full kakis. Wow this was so different to going to the USA. Clearing out of turkey took about 30 mins then we had to ride through no man’s land which was about 1 km long full of trucks all waiting to get in. Arriving at the border of Syria we where immediately greeted by a gentleman from the ministry of tourism Welcome to Syria he said with a big smile I will help you with your papers we are happy you are here. He then directed  me to the customs window where I showed our passports and after answering several questions about my profession and my parents names I was told our Visas would cost us $52.00 US each so off to the bank to pay for that. I returned to the same window where I had to fill in a small card with  names of parents our names and profession then the  passports where stamped by a very fastidious gentleman who checked every page of our passport to see where we had been but as we entered on our new EU passport there were no stamps in it yet.

After receiving our stamped passports and our Visas we returned to the Office of Tourism where we sat and talked for a while then another gentleman said he would look after our Carnet and insurance for us He took  $100.00 Turkish lira for taxes and fees (about $70.00 US we are not sure about that part) then said the insurance for the bike for one month would cost $40.00 US so we sat and chatted with the first guy while this guy ran off and got our insurance papers and the Carnet Stamped.

Upon his return he asked for a small donation to show our appreciation ($10.00US would be nice he thought) so again we cashed out then the first guy was told to stay with us till we cleared through the final customs check point where everybody was having their cars and luggage searched  we where advised not to show our GPS as there is some sort of problem with them and security in Syria so that removed and stowed in our tank bag we sailed through with no problem no search for us, another wave and a smile from the final inspector and Welcome to Syria, thank you for visiting.

The whole procedure took about three hours from pulling up to the Turkish border to entering into Syria.

Not bad I thought.

We rode into Syria a short way then pulled over to get the GPS out but when the screen came up no luck no roads no map OK now the fun starts!!!

On the road and loving it

Well we have been out for more than a week now and are settling in to quite the routine. We have covered about 2500 miles doing around 250 to 300 miles per day. The roads so far have been pretty straight with not much traffic (I don’t know why anybody would choose a route on the interstate) but the scenery has been a lot of the same. We have ridden through Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and are now in Michigan. This continent we live on is huge!! Tomorrow we will head back in to Canada across the North Cannel between Lake Superior and Lake Huron into Ontario. We will push on for two more days then take a rest in Ottawa for a couple of days to let the feeling return in our back sides!!

Packing and unpacking the bike every night is a lot of work but we have been able to get it done in one trip each way. We are refining our routine every time and as we move things between bags and some things get locked on the bike we are perfecting the task with each day. As we both thought finding good stuff to eat is always a challenge coming from the west coast we are spoilt with what we find in the restaurants and even small coffee shops in general all the menus are base on the same food groups some of which I have struggled to identify!! But if you want a burger and fries that can be found any were. Good coffee is rare we even had one girl ask us what an Americano was. Help and get me to Italy!!

The bike is performing as expected we are burning about a tank of gas per day and that big tank is great but I guess if we had to fill up more often than that would give us one more rest stop. Navigating is fun I am planning the days ride and uploading it every evening to the GPS. As we get further into the more scenic parts of the USA and Canada’s east coast I think we will maybe need to spend more time on that but for now we have just been blasting across the country. We are both looking forward to getting into Vermont and on through to the coast as they are places we have not see and have heard so much about.

Finding accommodation is not a problem we have even used Hotwire.com where you book and pay for the room before you even get to know where you are staying so far it has worked and we have been getting some good deals so camping has not even been something we have considered also the weather has been a bit hit and miss so we decided the tent could stay packed.

We have ridden in the rain for quite a few hours but with the BMW gear we have on it is not a problem, so far not a drop has got inside. I think the heat might be a challenge for me when the weather gets better as even now I am only riding with a T shirt under my jacket. We are finding the wind noise to be quite harsh especially riding across some of the open country of Montana and North Dakota where the side winds have been extreme but now we are back in the trees of the Hiawatha National Park and as we cross into Northern Ontario I don’t think it will be a problem.

We are having a great time, we have spoken to some very interesting people and we have even been invited into a complete stranger’s home. We were just stopped looking at our map when a lady pulled over to chat about the bike. She and her Husband had made a trip to New Zealand many years ago and rented a bike for a few weeks and she saw our plates from BC. Well after chatting for a while we asked if she could recommend a place to stay and she gave us a couple of options so we got back on the bike and rode off only to be flagged down just down the road and asked if we would like to stay at their house so without a second thought we took her up on the offer and spent a wonderful night chatting about our plans and their experiences riding BMW’s with sidecars and their son in all around the great lakes Thanks to you both Kim and Dan and we mean it if you are ever in our part of the world we would love to repay your hospitality.