To plug or unplug, that is the question… for about a week now I have been unplugged. No phone, no email. Some people can, some people can’t. Try it and see.

Riding through beautiful Nagaland, home of the Hill People. So nice to be up high in the cool mountain air knowing temperatures are going to heat up on the final leg.

Inle Lake is spectacular! Amazing accommodations, a boat tour where we saw the unique fishing methods..all a must see. Don’t want to give anything away.

Bangkok, the perfect end to an epic trip and wonderful backdrop for the beginning of Joe and Valerie’s new life together. Helge played wedding photographer! Everyone loves a wedding! Good luck you guys. All the best.

Thanks to Dan for accepting me on your private group tour. Thanks to Windsor for all the laughs. Alexis, from river trips to remote villages in Nepal, it’s always fun with you. Curtis, thank you for vouching for me and I am so happy to have had this time with you.

Hate to see this trip end.

An epic trip to be sure. Helge, you’re a class act and you go out of your way to accommodate everyone and make the trip is special and memorable. Your mechanical aptitude is immense. You have been there through the entire evolution of the GS, taken them apart, put them back together in the field, in your garage, wherever!

So, thanks Helge! It really was a blast and I look forward to seeing you again somewhere really soon on this big beautiful planet. Keep doing what you’re doing. You are making a difference.

Book your GlobeRiders trip (and wedding) now!

We left Bhutan and entered India. Right at the border there was a river with a bridge over it. I stopped on the bridge, I looked north to Bhutan and saw ever rising mountains, ridge after ridge. To the south was India, low and flat. I presumed the flat land of India sloped to the ocean. I was wrong.

We rode south  across the grasslands and tea plantations into the highlands of India. We saw the spectacular sub-tropical mountains of Nagaland. That part of India was lush and clean compared to our previous travel in India. It also was much less populated. The population was made up of people in small villages and towns. Many of the villages were ancient, occupied by the same tribe for eons.

The roads were amazing, not because they were good roads. There were lots of pot-holes, some dirt roads, some muddy roads, and everywhere roads were being worked on.  The roads are “hand built.” People with sledge hammers break boulders into smaller rocks. People hand placed 4-6 inch rocks on the ground followed on top by smaller and smaller rocks. Eventually, sand was placed over the rocks and hot tar/oil is hand poured over the sand. Then more sand is then placed over the tar/oil. The finished product is a great road. It is however, a very slow process and good roads are the exception.

In India we saw a lot of military personnel near the border with Myanmar. The soldiers had dogs and metal detectors in use along the road in Southern Nagaland. Apparently, there is a long standing desire by certain Nagaland residents that the region become a sovereign state. Violence is the method the disgruntled think will help bring their objective to light. Fortunately, we did not experience any violence. To the contrary, we only met friendly hardworking people.

In India, like all other places we visited we were a novelty. I referred to us as “two-headed cows.” We seemed familiar but something looked wrong. People along our travels generally recognized that we were on motorcycles but something wasn’t quite right. A big motorcycle in SE Asia is typically about 200 cc’s with the exception of the occasional Royal Enfield 500 Bullet. I realized that it took time for people to fully appreciate that we were on bikes and that we were, in some instances, moving faster than they were accustomed to. That caused me to try to keep my speed down and be cautious that others may unexpectedly cross my path. 

Myanmar is a country I was familiar with as a result of the media. It was a beautiful and wonderful country. The people were friendly, happy and modest. We traveled for days through Myanmar through remote areas few tourists visit. There was no hostility nor even a cop or soldier to be seen for days. I intend to visit Myanmar again.

In Mandalay the ancient stupas and temples were impressive. Both are a type of Buddhist Pagoda. A temple has at least one opening and a Stupa has no opening. Our guides always wanted to take us to another pagoda.  Eventually, we all reached shrine saturation.

Riding through Bhutan was marvelous but hot and very humid. In other words, we were soaking wet with sweat.

We went to Lake Inle, Myanmar and saw homes on stilts, people fishing with nets and baskets and ladies working looms. The hand woven fabrics were beautiful. The Lotus fiber was softer than silk and many times more expensive.

The ride came to an end in Thailand. We crossed the border from Myanmar and everything was instantly more “Western” and modern than we had seen in weeks. We saw shopping malls and fast food, McDonalds, KFC and other sights that told me the adventure was coming to an end. We headed to Bangkok for our final days. 

Bangkok is a city of about 5 million and has a reputation for terrible traffic. I however, enjoy challenging traffic and wished I could have ridden more on the congested roads of Bangkok. The drivers and cyclists are all moving en masse. No horns or overt hostility. Most of the road signs are also in English, something we had not seen since Chengdu.

Bangkok is a melting pot of people from all over the world. Good food, lots to see and of course all the hustle of a huge city. 

I will miss the people I met along the way, especially the spontaneous smiles from people in cars, on bikes and those along the roads. I will miss the friends I rode with. I look forward to future rides with those dirty, stinky guys. 

Imagine two months without stress. I am ready to go again.

Helge put together and coordinated a trip with so much detail and expertise that our experience was richer and more enjoyable than anything I could have done on my own. The “ride” was better than I had hoped for and beyond my ability to describe.  Thank you Helge for your friendship and  helpful advice. Now will you please hurry up and get my bike back to me!

Waiting to ride.

Curtis

Myanmar, previously known as Burma was another country that surprised us.  It is a land of extremes filled with wonderfully, kind and friendly people.  With a total population of approximately 52 million, it is much larger than Bhutan (population is said to be between 500,000 to 750,000). After spending 12 days exploring this country, we were exposed to quite a cross section, from small country villages to large cities.

At the India-Myanmar border, we were greeted by our government assigned minder, a local guide, his assistant and a driver for our chase vehicle.  So the guide to traveler ratio was one-to-one. Unlike India, Myanmar is a right hand drive country so the roads immediately felt more familiar, still filled with cows, water buffalo, goats and dogs that needed to be dodged like potholes, but familiar just the same.  A word about the Myanmar dogs…..they are everywhere and with very few exceptions, they appear to all be one breed, what I call the “Myanmar Dingo”.  They are all medium sized dogs, light brown in color with long faces, similar to an Australian dingo.

In addition to dodging livestock on the road, one also had to dodge the many scooters, cars and trucks that seemed to come from all directions.  When entering the roadway, the drivers rarely look to see if there is oncoming traffic.  They just pull out and do this rather wide angled merge into your lane and simply assume that everyone will give way.  For the most part this works, but in one case it had disastrous consequences for me.

Halfway through our journey through Myanmar, we left the Prestine Resort at Inle Lake under sunny skies, moderate temperatures and low humidity.  Prior to departure, we met the man who is the owner of the local Tour Company we hired for Myanmar.  He was a very gregarious, take charge type of guy and was very happy to meet up with us and would join us for our travels that morning.

About an hour into our ride, we passed through one of the dozens of small towns we would encounter that day.  These towns typically have a two lane road passing through with shops lining both sides.  Most of the shops are also the living residences of the local people.  On this morning, the streets were filled with traffic and the roadside lined with children walking to school and people making their way to work.

Suddenly, a scooter with two women on it pulled out from the crowd on my right and stopped right in front of me.  They never saw me coming despite me having my headlight on and wearing my hi-viz yellow motorcycle jacket.  They couldn’t move forward because a large truck was headed toward me just to my left.  I was traveling about 40 MPH and had three options, none of them good!   If I went left, I would hit the truck head on, if I swerved right I would be riding through a crowd of many small children.  That left one option…..hit the scooter.  Not wanting to T-bone them right in the middle of the scooter, I decided the best thing to do was to quickly drop the bike and slide into them, impacting them down low with the tires of my bike. I applied full brakes and slid the bike sideways, hitting the pavement hard on my right side. Upon impact the women were thrown to the side and the scooter went up and over the left side of the bike, with me sliding down the pavement close behind.  The bike took the brunt of the impact and somehow the scooter did not hit me. The wind was knocked out of me a bit, but I managed to get up on my hands and knees and crawl over to the bike to hit the kill switch.  I then gathered my thoughts. The rest of the riders were well ahead of me and wouldn’t know there was a problem for quite awhile.  The chase vehicle, with our local guide, Myint, and our government appointed minder, Joe, were behind me a ways and it would be 10 minutes or so before they got to the scene.

By the time I had gotten to my feet, a rather large crowd had gathered.  The two women were both screaming in pain and were already being loaded into a small pickup truck to be taken to a hospital.  Right about that time, I was approached by a couple of police officers attempting to speak to me in the local language.  With my head still groggy from the impact and them speaking a language foreign to me, we were getting nowhere, fast!  Just about then the chase vehicle showed up and the crew helped me get the bike up.  The police wanted me to turn the bike around and go to a small police station about 100 feet back.  After looking at the bike, I realized I wouldn’t be riding anywhere soon….the windshield and front fender were broken, some metal debris from the scooter had gotten lodged between my front tire and the wheel, the left hand guard had been sheared off, but the most significant issue was the entire clutch assembly had been peeled off the left handlebar.   Without a clutch, I wasn’t riding anywhere.  I was able to shift into neutral and with the help of the crowd, pushed the bike to the police station.  Once there, I sat on a bench out front and waited for the rest of the riders to notice I was missing in action and to come back to find me.  With all of the excitement, our government minder and local guide were pretty nervous and wound up.

Luckily, Helge and the rest of the group had stopped along the roadside ahead to take some photos and they heard the phone ring.  Myint filled them in and they quickly dashed back to the scene of the accident.  About the same time the riders returned, the Owner of our local tour company arrived, as well as a local motorcycle rider who also worked for the tour company. While I and the rest of the GlobeRider crew started working on the bike, the local guides and support team started working on the police.

On that particular morning, all of the stars were aligned in my favor.   At the scene was a large number of people from our tour company, including another employee of theirs who just happened to be riding in a car behind me.  She saw the whole accident unfold and was able to verify that the scooter pulled out in front of me and I was not at fault. The Owner of the tour company told us he was going to go to the hospital and check on the two patients and we would have to wait at this location until he returned.  Meanwhile, Myint asked for my passport and started processing things with the police.

We quickly summed up that the bike was in bad shape, but probably repairable.  We were able to bend a few brackets back into place.  We asked the small crowd if anyone lived nearby, one guy raised his hand.  We gave him a piece of the bike and a bolt and asked if he could go drill a hole in it for us….he immediately took off.  Not knowing where he went, I was hoping he would return….without that part, we were going nowhere!  We continued to duct tape and zip tie the bike together.  We deflated the front tire and carefully removed the metal that had jammed itself between the tire and rim. Then our new friend returned with our piece of metal, hole drilled exactly where we needed it. We thanked him and offered him money, but he would not accept, he just wanted to stand around and watch us work.  We then bent the bracket that previously held hand guard and bolted the clutch assembly to it.  We inserted a couple of pieces of bamboo we found on the ground to shim it into the proper location and then secured everything nicely with a hose clamp and more tape.  After taking the bike for a quick spin, we determined that the bike was suitable to continue the journey….we still had 150 more miles to ride that day.  I on the other had was not doing so well, my ribs were starting to get very stiff and I could feel my right thigh and butt cheek starting to swell.  I was starting to look like I had just returned from Brazil, after a low budget butt implant surgery, completed on only one side.  I had all the proper riding gear on so there were no abrasions or cuts, but I was clearly banged up.  With it looking like it would be at least an hour or two before we were able to proceed, I just kept drinking a lot of water, took several Ibuprofen and kept trying to stretch things out.

After about 2-½ hours the head guy from the Tour Company returned from the hospital.  He said one woman had a fractured leg, the other had a slight head injury.  This was not surprising, the women were not wearing helmets, both wearing dresses with flip flops and the passenger was riding side saddle as most woman do.  I was just glad that there were no children on the scooter.  It is not uncommon to have one kid standing on the scooter in front of the driver with the passenger behind, holding another child.  In some cases you will also see a third child wedged between the two adults.  If that would have been the scenario this morning….it would have had tragic consequences. The tour company representatives then went into the police station to negotiate for my release.  This took about a half hour, most of the talk involving what dollar amount I would have to pay.  Even though the accident was not my fault, I am the wealthy American on the expensive motorcycle and these people are incredibly poor.  We had determined that the scooter was not licensed and the driver did not have a driver's license. An offer of $500 was suggested by the police, it was negotiated to $300.  We immediately paid the fine and were allowed to proceed.  Later that evening, Myint informed me that if I had been injured to the point I had to go to a hospital, then the issue would have been referred to a court for settlement.  I would have been detained until then and the U.S. Embassy would have to get involved.  Given the current situation with the Rohingya tribes that are being forced from the country and the United States Government ready to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar, it was probably best that we did not have to get the Embassy involved.

Riding the remaining 150 miles was tough, but the toughest part was getting on and off the bike, I was really stiffening up.  When checking into the hotel that night, I asked the front desk to deliver a bucket of ice to my room.  Once there I removed my riding pants to find that the my right thigh and butt cheek were now swollen out about 1-½ inches.  No bruising yet….that was coming.  That night I put an ice pack on my wounds and had dinner in the room - a bag of salted almonds and a large glass of whiskey.  Sleeping was difficult because it seemed that every muscle I had, as well as others I don’t have, was aching.   But in the morning, I didn’t feel as stiff as I thought I would and I was able to ride 200 miles the next day.  All in all….the stars were aligned in my favor that day and I was able to keep my “Get out of Jail Free” card for another day.

A GlobeRider first…..a GlobeRider Wedding!

Being part of the 2017 Himalayan Expedition for the second four weeks of the tour, the original plan was for my fiancé, Valerie, to meet me at the end of the journey in Bangkok, where we would spend a week together before returning home.  Prior to this, we were looking for a location to get married back in the US, but nothing quite seemed to fit.  Then we came up with the idea of getting married in Bangkok and that just seemed different enough to be just right.

The GlobeRider group arrived in Bangkok on a Sunday afternoon.  Valerie was scheduled to fly in late that same evening.  The following day we had an early morning appointment at the United States Embassy to start the process to prepare the necessary documents. Fortunately, Helge knew a previous GlobeRiders customer, Kurt Durrant, who lived in Thailand and he was able to provide us some much needed assistance with the paperwork.  We soon discovered that Thailand is a very bureaucratic country.  Kurt was able to set us up with a local translator/interpreter who was able to walk us through the process which took four days and numerous taxi rides, criss crossing the city to complete all of the necessary documentation and approvals.

If you have never been to Thailand, I can only say that the Bangkok traffic is Epic, unlike anything in the States.   At times it is complete gridlock for cars and trucks with scooters and Tuk Tuks whizzing by in all directions…...yet the odd part is that there is absolutely NO road rage!  People will calmly sit in their cars, trucks or buses and wait….no horns blaring, no one finger salutes….just a calm, polite,  controlled mayhem.

On one particular morning, we met our young female interpreter at her office.  We then hopped into a taxi and proceeded to go across town to the central governmental agency.  During that traffic jam, our interpreter started a nice conversation with the young man driving the taxi.  They had their first date at one intersection, he proposed further along in the journey and they then consummated their relationship at yet another traffic signal…….now that is Epic gridlock!!

Because of the lengthy documentation process, we were not able to receive our final authorization for marriage prior to the departure of the remaining GlobeRider group, but nonetheless, Helge was able to take some wonderful photographs prior to his departure.  Thanks to Helge for sharing his photographic talents to capture the preview of our special day!

The marriage was the crowning moment of another fantastic GlobeRiders tour.  If anyone reading this post is considering a future GlobeRiders tour….take the plunge and go….you will not be disappointed!

This journey has been so full of incredible experiences and they just keep coming, one surprise after the other. India, the part that we traveled through, is so different from what most of imagine India to be. Nagaland was beautiful and quite a surprise with ethnic groups that we did not imagined to be part of India. Myanmar surprised with its wonderful people and great roads. And finally, Thailand was like coming to Europe, so modern and organized.

We ended the tour in Bangkok where the bikes were delivered to the shipper to be transported in a container to Seattle. We had been on the road for more than 2 months and I thought it would be good to write a few words on how the bikes had performed during the journey. I can’t get in to all the small stuff so here is a few key point I like to touch on.

Twice a year I ride my bikes on a 2-3 months long journey with GlobeRiders somewhere on this earth. This is a little different from going on a 2-3 weeks journey once a year. Why does that matter you might think, why make such a statement? Well, I keep running in to discussions with other Riders regarding their experiences from the road. We end up comparing tires, breakdowns, what bike is the best for the job etc.

For this reason, I will dedicate the end of this Himalaya Expedition 2017 to talk a little about how we did on this journey focusing on our bikes and gear in general.

After some terrible experiences with Heidenau K60 Scout tires on our Tierra del Fuego Adventure many years ago we have come to trust the Continental TKC70 tires for our long journeys. All of our bikes on this journey were outfitted with the TKC70 tire and we anticipated to be able to do the full journey on just one set of tires. I am happy to report back that we did so and after about 6,000 miles we all still have rubber to spare.

Life is a compromise and you have to find what works for you. It is very easy to fall in to the trap of purchasing the, in this case, tire that gives you the most mile for the money. When you do so it is just logic that you have to give up something for a tire that last longer. Like I say to some of the people that I discuss this issue with, why do we not make a tire out of plastic and it can last 100,000 miles. Obviously, we will have no grip on the road and for that reason this will be very dangerous. To me the Heidenau is such a tire that has lots of mileage, but poor ability to stick to the road, especially wet asphalt.

I will much rather pay a little more and get a tire that has shorter lifespan and be safe on the road. Today we trust our rides to Continental TKC70.

Another item that is very close to my heart is a light weight bike cover. Personally, I use and recommend the Aerostich Ultralight Bike Cover. Best insurance against tampering and theft from your bike while you travel.

Imagine you are a group of 5 bikes parked in the parking lot of a hotel in a foreign country. With five shining bikes, it will be very tempting for anyone to explore a little closer. Perhaps sit on the bike, fiddle with buttons and perhaps remove a part or try to steal the bike. With all bikes covered, out of sight – out of mind, you have a much higher chance of not drawing attention to your bike. Forget big chain link locks or alarm systems and get yourself a bike cover for your next adventure.

Spare key, always bring one and find a smart place to keep it. With all of my travels I always have my spare key silicone/glued behind a plastic cover of the bike. This way it is a no brainer as it is always with me and I can find it without too much hassle.

When we arrived in Myanmar, after some bad construction roads in India, I noticed that my right side lower part of my riding pants was soaked in oil indicating a leaking fork. Actually, both fork seals were leaking, right side more though.

Later in Myanmar I had a unusual sound and wobbly front end. I was not able to diagnose it at first, but with the second warning I pulled off the road, put the bike on the center stand and found to my shock that the left side wheel bearing was toast. After removing the dust cover I could see that the roller bearings were totally dry, no grease what so ever. There were even ball bearings missing. I had no spare wheel bearings to replace the bad one with so the next move was to take the wheel to the nearest little village, 3 kilometers away, and see if we would be lucky. At an agricultural/car spare parts shop we scored big when the clerk asked how many bearing I would like, he had the correct bearing and several of them, very lucky. This is one thing BMW are good at by using standard bearings where they are able to do so. After 1½ hours we were on the road again. I am not sure why I had this problem as I am very good at watching so no high pressure washing gets water in to the front wheel bearings. Guess I will be carrying spare bearings from now on together with fork seals.

One last and perhaps the biggest improvement that I have done to my GSA is the shock absorbers. I have changed to the Touratech shocks and I could not be happier. On every tour, we do with GlobeRiders we have riders that end up with a bad BMW shock absorber. This happened on this journey as well when Evan’s front BMW shock lost its dampening. My best advice for anyone that plan to set out on a serious adventure, change to Touratech shocks. Yes, they are expensive, but they are also the best available. If you travel as much as I do I also recommend that you have the shocks overhauled every 15-20,000 miles. That is the beauty of the Touratech shock, they can be overhauled while the BMW shocks are supposed to last forever, they don’t!

This is all I have for you in regard to how it all worked out for this time. Perhaps some other time I will dive in to a more detailed article about experiences from the road with GlobeRiders.

Thanks for tagging along and enjoy the pictures and stories.

Ride Far – Ride Safe!

Helge Pedersen