Don’t tell my Mom I rode 17,000kms from China to France on a stolen proto Yam XT250X.

[Cortez]

Don't rush him, damnit!
It was a long trip!

[fujian]

I'm locked in :) More please

[jplum1556]

Subscribed! This is most epic RR I've ever read. Looking forward for the rest.

[TallRob]

Typical french,,,,,taking his damn good time..........in this case, the wait is worth it........ Viva La France!

[Frederic_Shiffer]

Don’t tell my Mom I rode 17,000kms from China to her house in Normandy, France with a stolen Yamaha XT250X prototype crossing the middle east on the way.

Episode 4: Floods, Vultures and Tibetans.

Hey guys,

Sooooooo I am now alone on the roads of China. I just left Xi’an where my friend Matthieu B., who was on the back of the bike, took his flight back to Paris.

I am now heading to Chengdu city to meet my friend from Canada who is gonna get on the back of the bike for next days.

His name is Max L., oh yeah.


Max



And that’s me in case you forgot what I looked like. Cause I almost forgot.

Going to Chengdu:





The one child policy.



On the way, I visit my friend the Huge Buddha of Leshan.

Let’s go straight to the facts : this guy is the largest carved stone Buddha in the world. Bam, hit that. It was built during the Tang Dynasty (618–907).

His sensual name is Lèshān Dàfó, so don’t fuck with him.






Yeah and as I had some time free, I decided to stop for the full solar eclipse of 4mins that day.

Apparently some girls did not care about the eclipse so much (don’t tell my mom):




Ok now, it’s time for serious things, Max and me are heading for a small city called Litang, around 100kms from the Tibetan border.



We saw a very disgusting thing, it’s called a Sky Burial, here is the Wikipedia moment you have all been waiting for:

Sky burial or ritual dissection was once a common funerary practice in Tibet wherein a human corpse is cut in specific locations and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements or the mahabhuta and animals – especially to birds of prey. The location of the sky burial preparation and place of execution are understood in the Vajrayana traditions as charnel grounds. In Tibet the practice is known as jhator (Tibetan: བྱ་གཏོར་; Wylie: bya gtor), which literally means, "giving alms to the birds."

Sum up? Ok: Get a corpse, cut in dices. Now your meel is ready: feed to vultures.

But actually the thing that digusted me is that this was handled by some people making a “tour” out of it, we arrived there and felt like we were disturbing a family’s intimacy so we decided to leave.

I’ll just put one picture here.


(Yes these are human bones. I've put it in small size not to hurt anyone sensibility, at least a little less)

Anyways, after all this vivid action, we went back to Chengdu with Max and headed straight for one of the largest city in the world.

Chongqing city. What? You do not know it? Might be normal… Welcome to China.

It is even considered the largest city in the world by some (it is however a trick, the city itself is not so big).

Wikipedia time, I liike *kazakh akzent*:

According to a July 2010 article from the official Xinhua news agency, Chongqing has a population of 32.8 million, including 23.3 million farmers.

The city was full of streets going up and down and massive bridges, it is famous for being the city where there is no bicycles for that (no bicycles in China??).

This was such a pleasure to drive like crazy in these streets uphill, downhill, massive bridges, large roads. Unforgettable time.

However, as I sunk my camera during some river crossings, there is no pictures of Chongqing. I will have a camera for the next article, but it won't be mine, bwahaha ahmmmm sorry.


Little pic from Chongqing, Google image search. Copyright Grandma.

We did took some videos on the way, during heavy raining period, these are the last ones before the camera died, I like them a lot:







Next episode:Yaks and earthquakes.


Frederic Shiffer.
Actually living the life in Buenos Aires.
18^th of October 2010.



BONUS:

Now, I was making a lot of researches this week for an upcoming large motorcycle trip.

As deep my love is for the deep sound of a motorcycle engine and the pleasure of playing with gears; I was looking at electric motorcycles.

Yes, electric motorcycles. Making a very large defying trip on a motorcycle would be a great occasion to have an all new challenge.

I have to gather some good ideas and some (a lot of) money to maybe make it happen, I am for the moment only planning the planning.

During my researches, I found about this guy, who is already famous on ADVrider forum: Tormod Amlien. He is planning “the first solo circumnavigation of the world on an electric motorcycle, beginning in Norway in April 2011.” “Accompanied by just the hum of an AC motor, the whirr of the drive chain and the whoosh of displaced air, Tormod Amlien will ride across the globe.”

The name of this adventure is: Electric Epic.

As I saw that his website just opened, I strongly recommend you to check it!
http://www.electricepic.com/home.html


MEGA BONUS:

Now, let’s do something.

Nice report, pick up the pace please, I want to hear more.

Booger1, if you post a picture of yourself in underwears on your bike, I won't publish ONE article a week.

Neither will I write TWO.

I promise to put THREE articles a week!!

Why in underwear? Because I like it.

[Cortez]

Originally Posted by Frederic_Shiffer

Why in underwear? Because I like it.

The price we have to pay for a god ride report.
Oh well!

[KrazyKooter]

Originally Posted by Frederic_Shiffer

Sum up? Ok: Get a corpse, cut in dices. Now your meel is ready: feed to vultures.

It reminds me of the line in the movie The Outlaw Josie Wales, when he says, "The buzzards got to eat, same as the worms."

[Cooltours]

Just discovered today in the newspaper: Migros, CH's most important grocery-chain and one of the biggest organisation in the country anyway, today is opening a special store for electro-mobiles. Inovative, green and with one quiet impressive longterm-view as I find. PLUS, they have a website in French too;-)
Good possible that they indeed have some demand for some Ninjasfighting ambassadors like you!

http://www.migros.ch/FR/Medias/Actua...spx?NewsID=508
and
www.m-way.ch

[prsdrat]

I'm in! It's raining today, so I have nothing else to do
but waste a day dreaming on ADV.

[beechum1]

In.

[Goran69]

Now I have seen some crazy s...t around here but trust me you beat them all....

[Falco]

Great RR!!! Subscribed, for sure!
Can't wait for next episodes

[Effigy]

KUDOS!!! Damn what an adventure you had there!!!

Do you have some kind of blog???? All this waiting is killing me and I would kill to see more photos...

Congratulations, you sure have some courage!

[H96669]

Originally Posted by Frederic_Shiffer

MEGA BONUS:

Now, let’s do something.



Booger1, if you post a picture of yourself in underwears on your bike, I won't publish ONE article a week.

Neither will I write TWO.

I promise to put THREE articles a week!!

Why in underwear? Because I like it.

So........?????

[beechum1]

no hommes in their hunderwear.... I guess you lost interest in your own RR Froedrick??