For our last night in Ulaangom we decided to let our hair down and hit the town (ie. the disco on the ground floor of our hotel) Sipping on the local brew and enjoying the vibe, we were approached by a group of travelers also looking for a place to chill. Among them was Makiko [...]

The ‘federal highway’ from Khabarovsk to Chita, can be described as a 2,200km construction site. Approximately 1,200 of these kilometers are on dirt roads with varying degress of sand, hard packed gravel, large loose rocks and pot holes. Amazingly, we only get one puncture on VERY worn tyres. We plan to put the new set [...]

After an 18 hour ferry trip we reach the port town of Vanino on mainland Russia.
On the ferry we meet Russian truckers, with whom we drink vodka and eat salted onion stems
From Vanino we ride over 200km’s of gravel road to Lidoga. It’s slow going at an average of 30km/hr, with relatively monotenous views [...]

The ferry from Wakkanai to Korsakov takes just over 5 hours. We travel with a French couple - Fred and Lydia - that we met back in Tokyo. They are riding a BMW F650 Dakar and a Suzuki DR350.
They told us an interesting story of their trip to Iran, during which they spent a week [...]