Long Way Back Home from Korea through Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Finland

[longwaybackhome]

Good day fellow inmates & lurkers!

I have been working in Korea for some years and my contract expired end of May. I could of course have taken the flight home but I had a much better(?) idea. Why not ride home by motorcycle through Russia and Central Asia? An excellent opportunity to combine my dearest hobbies; motorcycling, outdoor life and photography.

On 17th of August 2010 I arrived in Finland after 48 days of travel and some 16300 kilometers. I had a fantastic time meeting friendly, generous and hospitable people and enjoying awesome landscapes that I had so far only dreamed about. It is my intention to write the ride report in a diary form, the 48 days of travel day by day.





Anyway, I do not want to bore you with too much text in my first post so I thought that I show you some of my favourite photos from along the road. I have intentionally chosen not to post any photos of people in this first post since I would like to share the stories behind all encounters with you (and the stories of the people I met as well!). My travel diary, 3500 photos (most still unedited) and my memories(?) now need to be compiled into a report so I will have to ask for your patience.



South Korea: Busan – Sokcho




Below photo on courtesy of Anton Scholz (http://www.theimage.de/ / http://korea-consult.com/2010/eng/main.php).





Russia: Vladivostok – Baikal – Barnaul













































Kazakhstan: Semey – Almaty – Korday









Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek – Issyk Kul















Kazakhstan: Korday – Astana – Petropavlovsk





















Russia: Kurgan – St. Petersburg


















Hope you enjoyed the first post and the teaser photos. In the next post I intend to write about the trip preparations.

[funhouse]

BMW should pay you for the rights to this report! Bruce

[Litus_ADV]

...This promises....

[Mr Pif]

more,more,more photos please, ''state of the art'' photo report !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yeuop]

Finally
I've been waiting for this one!!
Can't wait to read about Kyrgyzstan..

[Serp]

Subscribed

[longwaybackhome]

Many many thanks for the compliments. I feel the pressure to deliver now.

Originally Posted by funhouse

BMW should pay you for the rights to this report! Bruce

I may need some support from BMW soon... See http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=629342

Originally Posted by yeuop

Finally
I've been waiting for this one!!
Can't wait to read about Kyrgyzstan..

Piotr, I am very happy to have met you and Dominik in Marinsk. You are a real hardcore ADVrider! Your report is top notch although I for whatever reason still can not see most of your photos in full!

Anyway both our trips as well as the riding season for this year are over now! Sulphur!

Originally Posted by Rogdog

Those are some jaw droppingly beautiful photos... and can't wait for more about your ride across Korea, lived there for 4 years and it has a special place in the heart (that and an addiction to Kimchi).

I used to be a kimchiholic and now my withdrawal syndrome got really bad again.

Originally Posted by Ohota

Looks like a nice trip. very good photo's. I will follow this one. If you have time you can also look at my trip in 2007. Vladivostok to Norway.

I have read your report probably 10 times - It is one of the triggers to my trip! So thanks for the report and "guidance".

Originally Posted by sambor1965

Hello! Excellent pics Andrey!

Hello Krzysztof! Thank you very much for your kind e-mail advice with regards to the Stans and Pamir Highway!

Originally Posted by G-Wing

Wetmywhistle photo's Looks like a lot of pavement, sorry but I've got to ask what kind of mileage you got from those K60??? (those of us on pig bikes neeed to know) Now I'll be quiet and wait patiently for the rest of the show

Had a puncture that I couldn't patch 100% (or possibly a small second one that I did not find) so I needed to check the pressure / fill regularly. I had roughly 18.000 km on the rear tire when I run it with too little air and then shit hit the fan. There was 5 mm thread depth left so from wear point of view there would have been quite some kms left.

[Ekke]

We're riding Germany to Korea/Japan in 2012 over roughly the same route and then back via SE Asia to India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey... This is great knowledge and inspiration. Thanks for sharing.

[svenoman]

Looking forward to the story.

[kopeli]

awesome tour.

[ClifNotes]

i like how you have such a long ways to go, but you still stop to take great photos.

have you thought about going through turkey? istanbul... and there's TAKSIM in istanbul that's awesome.

i bet you'd have a lot of great photos there.

i miss taksim.

[Big Daddy D]

Do it!!!

It's still in my favorites!

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