Fjällbonäs-FarAwayistan:
070611
Reading
signs in countries, where they write from right to left is not
easy to do. This naturally makes us to take a wrong turning
from time to time. It has become something of a sport for us,
inventing reasons why we didn’t pick the right road. Nobody
admits getting lost. Lukas rides at his own pace and his GPS
is broken and he never liked it anyway and still prefers an
old-fashioned map. It is difficult to find fault with this,
because in some odd way he always finds the way to the final
destination
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| We
feel like stars because of the sensation we cause everywhere
we turn up. It is like a B-Western, scenes in the second half,
when the rest of the family has gone to sleep on the sofa. The
point where everybody meets outside the saloon to organise a
posse to chase the villains. The posse in this case are myriads
of 125s with youngsters, who dream about a real motorcycle.
We are the villains. Iran has a restriction on big bikes. A
Swedish Band, “Kenneth and the Knutters”, did a
song years back and the text is really meant for freedom-seeking
Iranian biking enthusiasts. The text is like this: ”Give
me free speeds and free petrol, a free life and a bigger bike”.
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| Here,
Cam is stupid enough to offer a public demonstration of his
GPS and talk about some of the finer points of his bike. After
a while there is no room for him around his own bike and the
situation is nothing less than absurd. |
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| A
125 is a transport vehicle in Iran.This bike overtook me several
times over a distance of 100kms. Every time I stopped to take
a picture, the 125 passed me. I realised that the whole family
had been in the city, shopping, and was now on its way home.
I caught up with them and took this photo of the family father
clutching his valualbe cargo at a speed of 105kph. |
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| This
type of sign does not need any comment. |
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| The
mountain pass to the border between Iran and Turkmenistan was
something special. The mountain formations were brilliant, but
impossible to catch on camera |
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Our
night’s stop in Ashkhabad, what I believe is the capital of
Turkmenistan. A huge building had been erected, to show off, but it
was clear that something wasn’t right about it. The city is
made up to house 1-2 million people, the buildings are fantastic,
but it is all a show. Like in the Mad Max films – strange and
eerie. The hotels are empty and it is a surreal background for something
out of Star Wars. We are staying the night at the Hotell President
with 5 stars and 16 floors. I think we are the only guests tonight.
I
don’t know the whole story about Turkmenistan, but this is the
most arranged impression I have ever had when visiting a new country.
Come here and see for yourselves!
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High
Performance Riding
www.pgdakar.com |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Fjällbonäs 15
933 91 Arvidsjaur |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Eva.PG.Lundmark@swipnet.se
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Updated
2007-06-11
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