28 February 2001
Just to keep you updated on our progress, or lack of, we are still in Sydney. Various work being done on the bikes has held us up slightly and now the vagaries of the Bangladeshi customs systems are proving to be a little challenging. Also of course, Australia is currently in a state of mourning as the great cricketer and Australian icon Don Bradman passed away this week, so there's really no telling when the shipping people here will feel up to organising our bike crates.
As ever, our intended departure date is 'next week', but we really mean it this time. We'll keep you posted.
Sunday, 4 March 2001
Finally, we have some exciting news. It would seem that we may be about to leave Sydney! No, really, it's true. We bought our tickets yesterday and we leave on Thursday.
It has been a rollercoaster week of highs and lows to get to this point though. First the Bangladeshi shippers informed us that it would take nine working days to get our bikes out of customs. Nine days?! Boo! "Oh, and you do realise it is the Muslim festival Eid so customs will be closed for a week..." A week?! Say it ain't so! So for a while it looked like we weren't going to be leaving Bangladesh for another three weeks and our chances of making our deadline of the UK in July were getting slimmer and slimmer. We were seriously looking into reworking our itinerary and missing out Bangladesh altogether. Then... after frenzied faxing and emailing to Bangladeshi customs, the shippers got back to us and said "Actually, it'll be two days, and by the time your bikes get here Eid will be almost over." Hurray!
So, we are back on schedule - not our original schedule of course, but our revised, 10-days-behind-schedule, schedule. Today our friend Carl is here with his ute, his Aussie expertise and his sense of humour to help us load the bikes into the crates, and tomorrow we take them to the shippers. That day and the next they are inspected by various customs departments, then on Wednesday they fly to Dhaka. We fly out on Thursday and spend two days in Singapore meeting our friends Gordon and Yuni's new baby Arran, and hopefully slinging back some Singapore Slings at the same time, and then fly on to Bangladesh on Saturday.
So assuming everything goes according to plan (hey, statistically it's bound to happen sometime) our next update will be written in Bangladesh. Thanks for your good wishes, everyone, and do keep an eye on the site to see what we're up to. It might even get quite interesting soon.
Friday, 9 March 2001
Well, we've finally left Australia and are currently relaxing in the splendour of Gordon and Yuni's Singapore pad. Baby Arran is lovely, with the shaved head required of every good Muslim baby, but as his dad is now also a good Muslim we should have expected that.
It's great to feel that the trip has finally started after all the difficulties and set backs of the last few weeks. Last Sunday was when things really started to come together when our friend Carl arrived as expected and another friend, John, arrived unexpectedly to pack the bikes up. Between them they managed to get the bikes firmly installed into the smallest possible crates. John also managed to completely rewire the XTZ which had a full blown electrical meltdown as it was being ridden the 20 metres to the crate.
The guys did a fantastic job, eight hours of hard work and unstinting good humour, and we are eternally grateful.
The next day we set off with the two crates on a trailer to deliver them to the shippers. And after another whole day of inspections, packing and paperwork, finally they were off our hands. Then more admin, organising and the terrifying final pack and we were, finally and unbelievably, off ourselves. Mark and Mags, our legendary friends who put us up for the last month of stress, tears and trauma, waved us off at the airport (were those tears of relief, Mags?) and the trip officially started.
Shipping companies are pretty strict about what you can and cannot pack in bike crates so we ended up taking various tubs of highly toxic, flammable and corrosive substances in our hand luggage. Those, along with the many padlocks, chains and tools that we had on us meant that, if required, we could have highjacked the flight quite successfully. But, for once, our luck held and customs didn't raise an eyebrow.
So now we're in Singapore enjoying some R&R. Even the flight here was a joy - after all the running around of the last few weeks, sitting there having the chance to be a candidate for deep vein thrombosis was like a dream come true.
Last time we were here we subscribed to the standard Hong Kong resident's view which is that Singapore is a sterile wasteland and not the 'real' Asia but I have to say I'm not getting that impression this time. It makes a huge difference seeing a place with people who live there and we've had a great time just wandering around the place eating and drinking. Sterile wastelands are OK with me if this is what they're like.
Our friends' baby, Arran, is a real cutey so for the friends back home, and baby fans everywhere, some photos follow. (Some people seem to be able to view these pictures and others don't so sorry if you can't. We're working on it.)
