HAMBURG - ALMATA '02 hard facts

I left my parental home in Norderstedt, a suburb of Hamburg in Germany, on April 25, 2002, and arrived in Almata, Kazakhstan, on September 11, 2002. From Almata, I took a Lufthansa flight back to Hamburg.

The journey took me to the following 17 countries: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan (see map). The countries where I stayed the longest were Turkey and Iran (almost one month each). Visa were required for Yugoslavia and all 9 countries eastwards of Turkey. I got 4 visa in Berlin before my departure and the rest on the road; overall, I spent about US$ 670 on visa alone.

I did the whole trip on my bike, totaling 10,724 bike km on 91 cycling days (which equals an average of 118 km per cycling day). The only exceptions are 5 occasions totaling 200 km where I put my bike on a car or truck in order to be at some place and to meet somebody at an appointed time. In addition, I broke my journey for 4 days in June to attend the wedding of my friend Micky in Hamburg (and, to that effect, took a plane from Trabzon to Hamburg and back), and Georgian border officials at the Turkish-Georgian border made me go back to Trabzon on a bus to get my visa status in order before I could enter Georgia. Lastly, in Iran, I traveled with Maggie from Esfahan to Shiraz, and then on a bus back to Esfahan and, because of technical problems, Tehran. (see the color coded itinerary on the map)

My bicycle is a genuine travel bike by the German manufacturer Guylaine, i.e., it has 27 gears, a sturdy frame with a long wheel base, all the necessary carriers, a speedometer, medium-broad tires, fenders, and lights. Whenever possible, I traveled on small roads, and often went into the mountains for that purpose (especially in Turkey) (for some road impressions, see the road). I generally traveled alone (for exceptions, see my travelmates).

I slept in my tent (17 nights in the wild; 5 nights on campsites in the Czech Republic, Greece, and Turkey; 10 nights on somebody's premises with their permission), in houses of people that I knew before (25 nights) or didn't (33 nights), in youth hostels (3 nights in Germany and the Czech Republic), hotels and "hotels" (35 nights), in the bus (3 nights), and with Maggie (5 nights) (see some sample pictures below). Fortunately, I had family, friends, and acquaintances (now I should probably say: friends) in Dresden, Budapest, Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Istanbul, Yerevan, Tbilissi, Baku, and, in some respect, Tehran, many of which I visited for a couple of days. In addition, as a bike traveller, you frequently meet people who want to invite you to their place, and if you ask for a place to stay, you will often get much more than just a place to sleep (food etc.). If not, there is always the tent, and since staying at somebody's place can also be quite tiring (because you have to adapt your rhythm, you will have no time by yourself, and the conversations are always the same), I often chose the tent even though I was invited to people's houses, especially in Central Asia where I was invited all the time. The only problem are big cities, where invitations are rare, and pitching a tent is rather difficult. So in big cities, I usually stayed in hotels (unless I knew somebody there). In addition, it took me some time to get comfortable enough to traveling alone again, especially sleeping in a tent, so I stayed in hotels frequently in Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey. Of course, many of those "hotels" were, in diplomatic terms, rather basic, and, especially in Turkey, many of them functioned as brothels, which gave me an excellent opportunity to learn about prostitution in Turkey.

A rather decent hotel-brothel in Yugoslavia.	My tent in the Iranian dessert.	A bed by the roadside (left).

I mostly ate in cheap restaurants which are usually plentiful along the roads around the world, and which serve a complete cyclist's (i.e., big) meal for around US$ 2 to 4 in the countries that I visited on this trip. I did have a small stove with me, but used it only a couple of times. When I stayed at somebody's place, I was usually invited to eat there, too, of course.

In all of this, my Russian helped me a great deal, because I was able to communicate freely in all of the former Soviet republics that I visited (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan). Obviously, I spoke German in Germany and Austria. But German also helped me very much in Greece, some areas of Turkey, and Yugoslavia (people there generally pretended not to speak Russian), where it sometimes seemed as if one out of two people had spent long years as a "guest worker" in Germany. Surprisingly, German was

Any questions?

also the language that helped me most in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. In addition, I spoke German with Deni and her family in Bulgaria. Iran and some areas of Turkey were difficult, because even though the educated classes of these countries speak excellent English, you do not meet too many of those educated people on the country roads - so I had to use a lot of imagination and creativity to express myself non-verbally (for the basic communication needs, it worked).

I had only minor problems. Fortunately, I got really sick only once and only for 1.5 days in Turkey (diarrhea). I had some minor stomach problems for the next 3 weeks and then again for some days in Uzbekistan, I thought I had a skin problem in Iran, and I started to get a bad cold in the last days in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. One night, I was bitten by mosquitoes or sandflies about 250 times on my hand and feet (don't do as the locals do ...), and the next day I was stung by a bee. The many snakes I saw in Greece and elsewhere left me alone. Once, I was turned back at a border - at the Turkish-Georgian border because it turned out that, contrary to information given by the Georgian embassy and the Georgian foreign ministry, it is not possible to obtain a Georgian visa on the border, at least not at the border post that I used. I did have some trouble with my equipment, especially with my tires: I must have patched my Panaracer Pasela tires about 20 times and feared I would not make it to Almata (and so I had my mum send new tires to Bishkek - next time, I will take Schwalbe Marathon tires from the beginning) - but in the end, my old tires accepted my offer of an honorable cremation in Almata if they get me there:

Made it!

R.I.P.

The front derailleur broke after the medium front chainring had worn down completely and started to slip after about 7,200 km, so I had to change almost the whole drivetrain in Iran, which turned out to be a rather complicated operation, especially the financial aspects of it (I needed to go back to Tehran on the bus, where, fortunately, Ahmad and Amani helped me out). By contrast, I had no problems with crime at all. Two nights were a little bit eerie, but nothing happened: The first was when I ended up sleeping in a restaurant ostensibly being repaired by a group of poor Kurds, but these poor Kurds all had cell phones which were very busy at night, and there generally seemed to be quite a lot of renovation activity after midnight. The second one was in Kazakhstan, when I noticed a guy sneaking through the bushes in the middle of the steppe after dark, and the guy introduced himself as a homeless person - given that he moved around at night, I would think he was a fugitive. And, of course, I had to fend off all those corrupt officials in the former USSR trying to extract money from me. It is quite clear to me that the biggest danger was the traffic, especially on those rare occasions when I had to travel on a narrow road with heavy traffic. (for some special dramatic moments, see adventures)

The trip must have cost, I guess, about US$ 4,000, including US$ 670 for visa, my plane ticket from Almata, the new drive train, and luxuries such as having new tires sent to Bishkek by DHL (plus US$ 1,800 for the bike and US$ 600 for the flight to Micky's wedding - but this money I would have spent anyway) - not too much for a 4.5-month vacation, I think.