Antipodes

Around the globe there are a small number of (near) antipodal cities. Cities that are on the exact opposite side of the world. We have now managed our first pair. Ulan-Ude (Russia) and Puerto Natales (Chile).

Our hope is that they also have an opposite effect on the bikes. It was in Puerto Natales that Jean's suspension snapped, and that is the bike I am currently riding.

Ulan-Ude has furnished us with everything that we have asked for; spare oil (I'm burning it), spark plugs ( the one spare was used over a week ago), new tyres (pre ordered and arrived 3 days before us), plastic metal (for extreme radiator repair), tea tree oil, and Dove soap.

Despite this modern day list, we were in a city, in the second most powerful country on the planet, where people still had no running water and street hand pumps were in use less than a mile from the centre.

Driving east across Siberia towards Irkutsk we noticed driving standards deteriorating, especially over-taking. Then I noticed the increase in right hand drive cars. I had forgotten that many people import cars straight from Japan to Vladivostok and drive them west, as it is much cheaper than buying in Russia. So to overtake they have to move most of the car into the other lane to get a view. A snap survey while at lake Baikal showed over 80% were RHD. This explained some near miss comedy overtakes we witnessed.

Ulan-Ude is a relaxed city by Russian standards and fairly small. It is not enclosed by high rise buildings and has a motorcycle dealer who used to be an English translator.

With the random way of the world, as we unpacked our bikes at the hotel, a man wandered up an introduced himself. Pretty normal, we are used to that. However it turned out he was a friend of Boris from Chita (700km further east) who Mike and I stayed with 4 years earlier on our RTW. 

With all our business concluded in the home of the biggest Lenin head in the world, tomorrow we will head off for Mongolia. A new country, new roads (or dirt tracks) await us.