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Australia, Photos

I’m in Australia – without my bike!

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I’m in Australia! But my bike is still on Bali in Indonesia!

The plan was to arrive in Australia at the beginning of December and traveling with my girlfriend for a about month.
But I missed this deadline greatly, I was at least one month too late. So I just stored my bike in Bali and took a plane to Australia!
No worries, I will fly back and continue the tour on my bike.

So far we visited Sydney and Adelaide with the Kangaroo Island.
Stay tuned for more 🙂

This part of the trip is marked on the map with a purple line!


Indonesia, Photos

Crossing the Equator!

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Yesterday I crossed the Equator on Sumatra in Indonesia!
it didn’t hurt at all! 🙂
There’s a stone, a monument and a line on the ground. But the GPS showed the actual Equator 150m south of all this…

So now I’m in the southern hemisphere, summer is comming!


Malaysia, Photos

Melaka, Malaysia

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sorry for the lack of updates!
In Kuala Lumpur, I’ve been trying to organize some parts for my bike, not as easy as expected… so I drove on and will return to KL when the package arrives.

I’m in Melaka now, south of Kuala Lumpur. Nice old town, it used to have a big harbour under the Portuguese and Dutch. but the English took over and pushed Singapore and Melaka has been forgotten.

 


Malaysia, Photos

Malaysia!

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Yesterday I crossed the border to Malaysia!

Nice curvy roads here in the north! But the guesthouses are pretty expensive! At least it looks like there will be more possibilities to camp again, I already camped last night. It was the first time camping since Kazakhstan, almost 4 months ago!

But it’s hard to find beer here! Fortunately I still had one from Thailand…


Gestern habe ich die Grenze nach Malaysia überquert!
Schöne, kurvige Strassen hier im Norden! Aber die Guesthouses sind ziemlich teuer hier. Aber warscheinlich kann ich hier wieder öfters im Zelt übernachten. Habe gestern jedenfalls wieder das erste mal gezeltet seit Kasachstan! Das ist fast 4 Monate her!

Aber man findet fast kein Bier, bzw Alkohol hier, Malaysia ist muslimisch.

bike, Photos, Thailand

Motorbike service, replacements and repairs

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Since China, the front forks were leaking oil.
It could temporarily be fixed in Luang Prabang, Laos. But as they didn’t have new seals it started to leak again a few weeks later. No chance to find a descent motorbike mechanic with the right parts in Laos or Cambodia, as they only sell bikes up to 250ccm!


I was looking forward to Thailand to do proper maintenance, replacing some parts and finally fix the leaking.  So I went to the Honda Dealer ‘BigWing’ in Pattaya.

It was the worst Honda service ever!
I had to tell them exactly what to do! They did not have a list of what is to do at the official Honda service intervals! Basically they  just replaced the oil. But didn’t check the brakes or the condition of the bike in general. They didn’t even know the official Honda service booklet!
I then requested that they also clean the airfilters, fix the parking brake and the leaking front forks.
So they took apart the front fender to only realize that they don’t have new seals! And they were not able to put it correctly back together, I had to show them how to do it!
And they didn’t have any spare parts at all, although they sell one AfricaTwin a week! No seals, no chains or sprockets, no brake pads, nothing!


Fortunately the JP Rider shop nearby could organize a chain and sprockets and Oleg knew a tyre dealer in Bangkok (29tire.com).


But I still needed to get the forks fixed! So I got in contact with another Honda BigWing dealer in south of Thailand in Phuket, which ordered the parts and said they will arrive in a week. It took finally two weeks for them to arrive! (they are not shipping from Japan but are produced in Thailand!)

When I finally arrived at BigWing Phuket, they didn’t want to fix the fork that day! I guess it’s too much work for a Saturday… I should come back next week. But they are closed until Thursday because of holidays!
Again I was lucky and found a very good shop nearby called ‘StreetBiker’ which did it right away in two hours. He worked really professionally, had all the proper tools and cleaned every part he got in his hands!


 

 

 

Cambodia, Photos

Cambodia

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I’m in Cambodia!

Except from Siem Reap with the famous Angkor Wat temple complex it feels like Cambodia is a little less developed than Laos.
But they have more beer brands! It’s also less rainy here, but a lot hotter and more humid.
And it’s flat! There are almost no mountains here but long straight roads (boring!).