Seven Dragons Across Asia

A dream that became an adventure!

By Bill Pratt

Travel Log

By Ken Weipert

*Subject*	*Start Date*	*Description*	*Location*
Temple of Heaven	8/21/2000		Beijing
Tiananmen Square	8/21/2000		Beijing
Forbidden City	8/21/2000		Beijing
Team Meeting	8/21/2000		Beijing
Acrobat Show	8/21/2000		Beijing
Dinner	8/21/2000		Beijing
Great Wall	8/22/2000		Beijing
Friendship Store & Free Market	8/22/2000		Beijing
Tiananmen Square	8/23/2000	After waiting around to see if customs would happen today, we decided to go back to the square. Bill and Randy wanted to go to the Internet cafe. I wondered around and checked out the stores and banks. Bank of China does VISA cash advances. We "ran" into Lucy, Anna, and another friend outside the train station. They took us to their studio to sell us their art. It was too expensive but a fun experience.	Beijing
Rusty's laptop	8/24/2000	We got the portable CD-RW drive to work on Rusty's laptop.	Beijing
Customs Clearance	8/24/2000	Headed out to the airport after lunch to check out the bikes. They were being held in a secure hazardous cargo area. Customs only looked at Rusty's and my bike. Took them to the freight company so they could be trucked for the police inspection tomorrow.	Beijing
Beijing Police Motorcycle Inspection	8/25/2000	Motorcycle inspection was actually very thorough. They used an automated test station for emissions, brakes, and lights. The police officer allowed us to run Randy's bike through 5 times instead of having to unload all the bikes.	Beijing
Motorcycle Licenses	8/25/2000	Terrible traffic to the Chinese equivalent of the DMV. Once we got there, it was just waiting around to go through the formalities. We were issued temporary driving permits and vehicle licenses.	Beijing
Flight to Xian	8/25/2000	Domestic security was actually very thorough. They had me take off my passport holder under my shirt and run it through X-ray. Randy was not on this flight. He volunteered to ride with the bikes on the truck to Xian.	Beijing
Pagoda	8/26/2000	Visited a Buddhist Pagoda built around 400AD. Until 1984, this was the tallest structure in Xian.	Xian
Selles Tablet Museum	8/26/2000	Visited a library made of rock. These stone tablets were meant to allow China to rebuild quickly from invasions. Instead of having to reinvent the wheel every time, these tablets served as the way to store how society and government were to be structured. We then walked the shield wall for a Kilometer.	Xian
Shaanxi History Museum	8/26/2000	Large, modern museum with many displays. Interesting, but the best part was seeing and riding the Honda TransAlp.	Xian
Xian to Jinping	8/27/2000	Left the Hotel in Xian after a very short night. Went to bed at 1:30am and got up at 5:30. Drove through Xian about 30 miles to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. At noon we left. Had the GPS installed and our track record begins from here (actually, I screwed up and the track from Xian to Jinping is lost). Great day of riding through a crowded city, open highway, tight mountain passes, and a construction area in the dark. That was interesting. As usual, we attracted a large crowd in Jinping. Hotel was very poor. Covered 202 miles by the GPS today, starting from the warriors.
Jinping to Lanzhou	8/28/2000	An even better day of riding. Great weather once we got into the country side. Got helmet cam up and running. Did 206 miles today. (232.8 by GPS in the 28 Aug 00 track
Lanzhou to Xining	8/29/2000	Fairly short ride today so we took a detour to see an old Buddhist Monastery. To get to it required about a 45 minute boat ride up a reservoir. The ride to and from the reservoir was on descent, fun roads with some twisties. By GPS we did 132.7 miles today .	China
Xining to Qagan	8/30/2000	Everyone pitched in today in search of a replacement fan for my bike. Ended up using a small computer fan. 283.4 miles by GPS. Went by the largest salt water lake in the world. Very long day, lots of road construction, Dong had a flat tire, and we finished 40 miles of road construction in the dark. Got into our hotel at midnight and our rooms were sold out. Went down the road to a traditional guest house. 2 to 3 people per room, no running water, or toilets. Not much fun after the day we had.	China
NaQu to Lhasa	9/3/2000	Long hard day of riding today. Lots and lots of construction meant several hours standing on the pegs. There were several water crossings that were pretty tough. Great scenery today.	Tibet
Portola	9/4/2000	Very old and impressive structure. Many relics contained in the huge palace. No photography allowed inside without paying an exorbitant fee.
Monastery and Market	9/4/2000	Wandered the main Buddhist monastery in Tibet and then the old market around it.
Ranpan Monastery	9/5/2000		Lhasa
Bikes	9/5/2000	Worked on the bikes.	Tibet
Lhasa to Xigatze	9/6/2000	Left the Lhasa Hotel and went to the Portola for picture taking. It was raining and continued until about noon. Did ~162 miles today. Middle third was dirt, washed out road, very muddy. It was tough getting stuck behind a slow truck. Very hard to stay upright in deep mud going real slow! Got a little stuck in a deep (24") narrow stream ravine. The bike went through OK but my pipe and skid plate got hung up coming out the other end. In spite of this, a fairly easy day!!	Tibet
Paperwork Problems	9/7/2000	We were to leave at 8:30 this morning but the required permissions were not properly done. This was entirely preventable by the travel agency. Everyone very frustrated by the lack of thought and planning by our agent in Tibet. Plus, this is supposed to be a very tough ride today. We finally went to the police station and hung out. The officer was actually quite nice and wanted to help. Bottom line was that approval had to be sent from the autonomous region capital (Lhasa) before the officer could sign off. This eventually happened and we were on our way. Got to visit a rug factory while waiting.	Xigatze
Xigatze to Nanpur	9/7/2000	Finally under way. Did about 100 miles today, mostly on dirt. Some pretty wild river crossings and mud holes. Hit a pass of 14,890 feet. On the way down I was coasting into a right tight turn and the front end violently tucked in. Result was a spill with my right leg caught under the bike. Got some help to get it up. Bike OK but my storage pipe busted. At 4:30 stopped in Nanpur for lunch (dinner) and decided to spend the night instead of pushing on to Xegar. Not real happy about this but it was time to go with the flow. Main factor was the extremely poor condition of the road. Of course, that was true of today's ride. While tough, it was very doable. We'll see what tomorrow brings.	Tibet
Nanpur to Xegar	9/8/2000	Was supposed to be a short day today. No such luck. We rode 61 miles by the odometer and it took all day. Roads were mostly all dirt with many washouts, huge muddy ruts, multiple deep water crossings, etc. Hardest day of riding yet, and it was the shortest. We aren't even to Everest base camp yet! We crossed a pass today of 17,280 feet. To see if we can make a world record Rusty, Randy, and I rode up further on a hill by the pass. Got to 17,335 feet by GPS on the motorcycle. The GPS distance is not accurate today because I shut it off prior to approaching the check point. Oh, and by the way, I didn't fall over in the mud once today. Everyone else bailed, sometimes several times.	Tibet
Xegar to Ronbuck	9/9/2000	We were set top leave at 7:45am but Randy held us up. Got through the checkpoint OK. Put the GPS back on the bike at the turnoff from the main highway. Traveled 51 miles today. Crossed another 17,235 foot pass. Great views of the Himalaya but clouds were fairly heavy. The road was quite challenging with the pass, switchbacks, water, ruts, and major rocks. When we got to the monastery Everest was clouded up.	Tibet
Ronbuck Monastery	9/9/2000	Explored the old nunnery ruins and walked around. Quite tiring at 16,500 feet. Later that evening Everest was just coming out of the clouds. Got what video I could. One of the best meals of the trip was what we prepared ourselves tonight.	Tibet
Everest Base Camp	9/10/2000	Rode from the monastery about 2 miles to the site of base camp. There were no climbers there this year. Everest was covered in clouds. Rusty took a spill on the way back.	Tibet
Ronbuck Monastery to Tingri	9/10/2000	Rode back from the monastery to Xegar to get gas. Then went back to the turn off for Ronbuck but continued on to Tingri. Distance from Xegar to Tingri was 37 miles. Nothing to eventful today except for back tracking the very tough road from the monastery and Randy taking a spill trying to brake before a water crossing. Hotel at Tingri was a disappointment as there were no modern facilities.	Tibet
Tingri to Zhang Mu	9/11/2000	Left Tingri in a decent time in the morning. Was clear out so shot several minutes of video of the mountains. 5.5 miles from Tingri I was leading and came up to river crossing. The bridge was washed out but to the right the water was going over a 3 foot fall. I went to the left but kept getting pushed further left by debris and rocks. Where I could get back on the bridge surface with water only running 6 inches deep was now to my right. As I tried to get over there I fell into a hole about 6 feet deep. I and the bike were totally underwater with concrete debris and rebar about. Stood up to my shoulders and got my bearings. The water was running very rapidly but I had good footing. Pulled the bike upright and lifted that back, but it had to come to shoulders to get out of the hole. Randy got on the scene and then Gary. With some local help we got the bike out. I got out and started to strip. The locals were standing around and Rusty finally shooed them away so I could strip down. Got into some dry clothes. The others started on the bike. In about 3 hours we had it running again and were on our way. Good ride through wonderful scenery after that. Rode up to the back side of the Himalayas with fantastic mountain views. Then started down a valley that gradually got narrower and narrower. Climate and vegetation changed dramatically as we descended nearly 10,000 feet. It was amazing to see all the green, rich, verdant plant life everywhere around us. It then really sunk in how barren the Tibetan plateau was. Got to park our bikes in the lobby of the hotel.	Tibet
Zhang Mu to Kathmandu	9/12/2000	Left Zhang Mu early to clear Chinese’s customs. They were hung up on there not being 6 bikes. Our guide Yuan Ju (Wrong Shoe) was useless. Rusty finally wore them out and we were allowed to pass. Within a couple of miles we reached our first obstacle. The road was washed out for about 80 yards. Fortunately, Rusty's Sherpa friends were waiting for us and we lowered and carried all the bikes through. In less than a mile, we hit the next obstacle, a step rocky section that we portered through again. In a quarter miles was another major washout that required the bikes to be lifted nearly vertically to get over. Rode about 2 miles and came to the river running down the road and it being very rocky. Rode through this stretch. Crossed the bridge and were let into Nepal. Now began the interesting Nepalese customs dance. We had no paperwork, Carneigh's, etc. After several hours Rusty got our bikes through with a $13 fee for each. Think the road was set for smooth sailing? In 3 miles came to another impassable wash out. Bikes were carried across this as well. After that obstacles were ride able but we had to wait and wait on buses, cars, etc. to get out of our way. We finally broke out into decent roads but still had several hours to ride. Got to our hotel in the dark around 9:30pm.
Kathmandu	9/13/2000	Ate breakfast at Mike's. Was OK but not that great. Some folks went to Baktapur but I went back to the hotel and sorted stuff. After lunch went with Nancy and Dorothy to the Tibetan Refugee Camp. Found 3 entry rugs and 2 hallway runners for $470. Checked out a carving place and got a couple of things there too. Had some beers on top of the roof with George, and then had a salad and Pizza at KC's.	Nepal
Kathmandu	9/14/2000	Went on a mission of finding replacement goggles. One store out of 23 had some. Got long sleeve shirts, T-shirts, and found the Baskin & Robbins ice cream place. We all ate dinner over at Mingme Dorje Sherpa's house. A very good Nepalese dinner.	Nepal
Kathmandu to Chitwan National Park	9/15/2000	Rode out of the city early enough to miss the worst traffic. Gassed up about 15 miles out and began a fun day’s ride with lots and lots and lots of switchbacks. Roads in very good condition for the most part. Parked the bikes at Santa's resort in town. What was described as a short bus ride is very much longer. Then there was a short boat trip across the river to Jungle Island Resort.	Nepal
Elephant Ride, Chitwan National Park	9/15/2000	Rode elephants around in the jungle. Did not see anything except for a couple of deer. Did not care for how the elephant's were handled.
Jungle Walk and Boat Ride, Chitwan National Park	9/16/2000	Saw a turtle quite a ways from the river. Leopard and Tiger tracks those were fresh. Some deer and one croc. Saw monkeys and birds on the boat ride back. There were lots of leeches around. Everyone got bit. Mine was on the left knee and it bled through my pants. Rusty got really nailed by them.

After Chitwan National Park, we set off for home. Some of us packed the bikes at the Kathmandu airport, others boarded flights for Bangkok. We all had to fly through Bangkok, so Rusty and his wife Nancy, and Bill stayed four more days to enjoy the Bangkok shopping and culture.