Turkey - Istanbul Part 1(we'll be back here in a month!) - Day 332 (23,548 miles)

Matt and Anita had shipped their bike into Istanbul a couple of months before us and had received a warm welcome and much help from the members of the Istanbul Bisiklet ve Motorsiklet Ihtisas Klubu. We made contact with club member Zeki before we left Nepal and headed for their club headquarters when we arrived.

They have a great set up, an area downstairs for chatting, drinking tea (an important pastime here), eating biscuits, looking at bikes, working on bikes, planning the events they take part in and an upstairs apartment for passing travellers to stay in.

From right to left Zeki, Adil, Ismail, Mehmet and a young lady who's name we didn't get.

On the right here is Jake a New Yorker who is spending his college summer holidays touring eastern Europe. He had been staying at the club and showed us round the neighbourhood on our first night taking us to a good cheap restaurant and baklava shop before heading off the next day on the remainder of his journey.

Adil holds the approved customs release form at Istanbul airport. This was our most difficult import yet (worse than Delhi), without a Turkish speaker or alternatively paying for an import agent it would have been impossible. You must have proof of police clearance for the rider and 3rd party insurance before you can even start the clearance process. In our case this was complicated by the fact that our bike reg number contains an X and there is no X or W in the Turkish alphabet, therefore none of the usual insurers would insure us!. To solve this Adil took a 90km round trip to the Turkish Automobile Association office who were able to arrange the necessary cover.

The complete process took 2 days and that was with Adil knowing the system inside out.

Our first sightseeing stop was the Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar) some of the building is 15th century and it holds 4,500 shops. It was torture! We wanted to see it but leaving without buying a carpet or lovely glass light fitting was so hard (well for me!)

The carpet sellers were on fine form

Them "Please, please come look, no charge for looking"
Us "No thank you, we are travelling on a motorbike, we cannot carry"
Them "No problem, we can ship, very good price"
Us "Turkish carpets are lovely but we already have some"
Them "Come I show you the best in Istanbul"
Us "We have no jobs, no money!"
Them "This is an investment,I do very,very, very good price"

At this point John would start talking about wool on wool, wool on silk and knots per inch to let them know we knew something about how to tell the quality of a carpet and wouldn't be lulled into buying that cheap tatty old one that had been in the shop for years!

Note the seated man having his blood pressure taken, perhaps his wife is a bit of a shopper like me.



I so wanted one of these.

Next stop was the Spice Bazaar if we couldn't buy anything to carry home at least we could indulge in lovely dried fruit, nuts and Turkish Delight while here!











After a couple of hours walking round the beautiful Topkapi Palace John hits the point of sightseeing saturation! He's probably wondering how long before I'll notice if he makes a run for it.

We take a break for dinner and a couple of beers before visiting the famous Blue Mosque......









I forgot to take my scarf so had to don one of the small sheets given out for head covering at many mosques and temples. Although this is an Islamic rather than a Christian place of worship I did feel like I was dressed to utter that well known Monty Python line "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy."

On Sunday we joined some of the club members for a picnic in a forest outside of the city. John helped with some on the spot petrol tank repairs before lunch.



Chef for the day was Apo, old olive tins were turned into ovens and in 50 mins he produced the best chicken and vegatables we had ever tasted.








Great company, food and chay turkish tea made in a traditional pot. We had a great day.



We took a boat trip on the Bosphorus the stretch of water between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, it's a great way to get a view of lots of the spectacular buildings in the Old City of Istanbul.










After a week in the city we packed up the bike and head west to the Gallipoli Peninsular.


Ismail and Adil lead us out of the city and pointed us in the right direction. We'll see them again in around 4 weeks time as we head back to Istanbul then to fit new tyres before we leave Turkey.

Tenere Exhaust Problem update - Turkey Day 328 (23,478 miles)

Some of you may remember that we had an issue with the Akrapovic exhaust that was fitted in place of the standard Yamaha pipe. (see blog 'Thailand - Tenere Exhaust Modification - Day 184 (16,702 miles')


Basically, the routing of the rear tail pipe crossover run near to the rear tyre causing the tyre to overheat in ambient temperatures over 20 deg C. In Thailand we had the rear pipe modified which improved the situation by improving the gas flow and diverting the radient heat from the pipe to the sides of the bike. This was a good solution at the time but it did not resolve the problem completely as when we were in India in temperatures over 40 deg C the problem came back as well as the diverted heat from the rear pipe was causing Jane's feet to get very hot at times.

When we got to Istanbul I was describing the problem to the members of the 'Istanbul Bisiklet ve Motosiklet Ihtisas Kulubu Derbegi' who had invited us to stay with them at there club (The best motorcycle club in Turkey and a really great bunch of people) when two guys 'Apo and Ismail' told us of a product that they have used for similar problems.
It is essentially a heat resistsnt bandage that can be wound around the exhaust pipe to insulate the pipe thus preventing heat from being generated from the pipe.

So with no wasted time Apo got the material within a couple of days and it was fitted to the Tenere.

With the test rides completed around Istanbul (what a lovely city, well worth a visit and only a short ride from the UK and northern Europe) it revealed that problem was sorted. With some final modifications when we get home, the addition of some stainless steel clips to replace the stainless wire, I think that this will be a permanent fix. At the time of posting I dont have the product name but will get this when we return to Istanbul in a few weeks time. (Maybe Zeki or one of the guys at 'IBMIK' will get a chance to post a comment on this blog before we return)

This is 'Apo'.
This is 'Ismail'.

Once again, thanks to the members of the Istanbul m/c club, Jane and I look forward to meeting up again in a few weeks.

Thats all for now. John

Nepal- Kathmandu, Goodbye to Asia - Day 324 (23,458 miles)

Kathmandu is everything other travellers have described. Compared to the rest of Nepal it's busy, dirty, noisy and polluted, we loved it! It's also full of amazing architecture, friendly people and as it was out of season it wasn't jam packed with tourists.



Big rodents in a big city (as big as my size 6/39 feet!)


John indulging his passion for ironmongery. I think he must be planning a career in security or escapology when we get home, this must be his 3rd padlock purchase (and he's always telling me my luggage is too heavy!)












What a great city for people watching!

Fantastic samosas, curry and chai, 70 rupees the lot (that's about 60p) Our cheapest meal in Kathmandu.


Durbar square is the site of lots of temples and palaces where over the last 10 centuries or so the Malla and Shah kings have lived.

It may be a religious centre but of course you can still get your sewing done.






Hinduism has many gods and goddesses (Shiva, Ganasha etc) but in Nepal the Hindus and Nepali Budhists also worshship the Kumari living goddess. This is a prepubescant girl (can be as young as 3 years old) who is chosen based on 32 physical attributes and her reaction to some animal sacrifice rituals! Once chosen the girl and her family get to live in a palace and she is paraded around during religious ceremonies, when she reaches puberty she is pensioned off (with a dowry) and a new goddess is chosen.

There was much excitement when we were walking passed the Kumari Palace and we were ushered in to witness the Kumari appearing on a balcony (it wasn't especially for us there were other tourists there too). You had to feel sorry for the child (we think she was 7) as she was paraded on a balcony with rather badly applied black eye make-up and gawped at like a zoo animal. Photography is forbidden which made it seem like an even more awkward minute or so, all rather strange.



The monsoons are approaching fast, these young street vendors splashed around while us and all the other tourists were sheltering from the downpour.


All packed and off to Istanbul. It could take a few days as there are plane changes in both Karachi and Islamabad and mangos take priority over all other cargo this time of year. Now we both love mangos but we're paying alot for this shipment and will be a bit pee'd off if fruit delays our journey for too long!


The excitement proved too much for these warehouse guys!



Some of the Himalaya range poking through the clouds as we flew out of Kathmandu, one of them is likely to be Everest but don't ask us which one!

We're sad to be leaving Asia we hope to get back there to explore some more in the not too distant future.