Tashkent-Vientiane Challenge

Our overland journey took eight weeks to get from Vientiane to Tashkent with our return trip taking only a fraction of that time at two days.

Our bikes were shipped by DHL with Uzbebistan Air on Monday 20th June with Horst, Boris and I on the following flight Wednesday 22nd June. It took the lads until late afternoon on Thursday to finally get the bikes back out of customs in Bangkok when we realised a box was missing. It was the box with Horst's riding gear. A short phone call to Tashkent revealed that 'oops, yes, there is one box still in the office here'. With Horst's protection missing and a severe rain storm pouring down on us at the airport we decided to load the bikes up on a truck and hop into the back of a fancy van. This all was generously sponsored by DHL Bangkok who again proved to be a well run professional team. We then raced through the night to Nong Kai.

On Friday morning then (24.3.2011) we took on the last short drive to the friendship bridge over the Mekong into Laos. Some last minute minor problems arose because we apparently did not have the right paperwork for our bikes to bring them into Laos again. It took us, or rather Horst with his advanced negotiation skills, an hour to resolve the problem and involved Boris and Horst driving back over to the Thai side, getting the exit stamp in the international transport booklet so that the Lao officials could then stamp us in. - Bor pen yang!

For us three, Horst, Boris and me the adventure which a year ago was still a rough plan for a very crazy and exotic trip, is now over. It seems as it was only last week that we headed out! While we get back to work, Simon on his Jolly Jumper is now continuing alone through some more "Stans" and further countries with the aim of reaching the Swiss alpine homelands in August. Check out http://www.laosuri.blogspot.com to stay posted on his journey.