8-02-06  -  This is from Janet in Erlinhot, China

For those of you who have been following The Dragin' Run, I would love to tell you that we are riding through the wilds of Mongolia, but we have not left China, as yet.  I know that China is a large country, but it doesn't take 16 days to leave.  We have spent the last 7 days in Erlinhot, which is an Inner Mongolian border city just 10 kms from the Mongolian border.  Why aren't we in Mongolia?  Well, the answer is simple, but quite complicated in the telling.  The following is a synopsis of our travels from Changchun to Erlinhot, and we will follow up with a more detailed story and pictures attached...the Internet Bar will not allow us to download pictures on their computer.

The last week we stayed in Changchun was crazy and very busy.  When the morning of July 17Th arrived, we are not organized and just packed our gear into the bikes without much thought on placement.  We needed to meet people at 4:45AM and we were already late.  By 5:15AM we drove to Perfect English to say our goodbyes, which were very tearful and heart rendering.  Of course, the media was right on the story taking pictures and asking questions.  Our good-byes had to be cut short, because there were 100 bikes waiting at Culture Square to escort us out of the city.

When we arrived at the Square it was amazing to see all the bikers donning The Drag in' Run T-Shirt sponsored by Perfect English.  The riders waited in line to have us sign their T-Shirt...we all felt like celebrities. It was exciting and the energy was just emanating from the crowd.  The media were taking more pictures and everyone at the Square wanted to be photographed with the "Dragin Run Riders...this is what we wanted to hype up the ride.  But as the time dragged on, everyone became anxious to jump on their bikes and head out.  We were finally lined up and our bikes were behind three Gold Wings and the rest of the bikes were behind us.  The sign was given to go and the "parade" all started quite orderly, which surprised us.  We flowed into traffic and the media road along, taking many pictures along our route.

As we progressed along the chosen route, a few of the bikes dropped out and the riders began to jockey for first place.  It became a bit unruly, but we just stayed a safe distance from the hot shots.  We continued to ride until we were about

10 - 15 kms outside of city proper and we all stopped for another final photo shoot.  It was at this point that most of the riders left, but a few stayed with us to continue on the route to Siping, our first destination.  In the final push to Siping only two bikes that escorted us into the city.  It was certainly the rousing send off that we wanted, but in the end we enjoyed the ride much more when it was just the two bikes.

The ride from Siping to Shenyang was great...the conditions were perfect: good road, nice weather and the natural quietness of nature.  Of course, we had to deal with traffic, but nothing as compared to the city.  Jack and I had ridden from Changchun to Shenyang in April, but this route was a much better road.  Even with all the right conditions, which still experienced some difficulties...Tam's bike was not operating at full power, so this slowed our progress.  We also had instances when we missed road signs or roads were not clearly marked...all contributing to our arrival into Shenyang later than we expected.  We were tired, hungry and very thirsty.  So we took care of these needs:  registering into the Holiday Inn, going to Mulligan's Bar (a new restaurant at the hotel) to eat and have very cold beers.  Even though our intent is to camp on most of this journey, it was nice to sleep in a clean bed and take advantage of a warm shower.

The next morning we awoke to gray clouds and spitting rain.  We had to get a good start to make up some time lost.  So a quick breakfast and we packed up the bikes and drove out of the city.  We were plagued most of the day with rain, bike problems and the deterioration of road conditions.  All of these added up to a loss of time and kilometers.  We had to reach Beijing for our final bike check by Wednesday evening, so we pushed very hard, taking little time to eat gas up or even make minor repairs.  On our ride to Beijing, we broke a cardinal rule of the road: do not ride at night.  We all decided that we needed to push forward and to arrive in Beijing, which we did about 7:30PM.  This late arrival caused some rearranging of plans, but we registered at a hotel, had a good meal at the local Subway, instead of  an exclusive restaurant in Beijing; but all in all we had reached our final destination on this leg of the ride and were satisfied.

The next morning it was an early rise for Jack and Tam.  They wanted to oversee the exchange of the motors (due to the documents that were already prepared); modifications that remained to finish on Tam's bike and then a general service to make sure that both bikes were ready to ride Mongolia.  Dave and I took the opportunity to sleep a bit longer, since this treat would be few and far between once we reached Mongolia.  We both had a late breakfast/lunch and got to know each other a little better.  We got a message from Tam that things were moving along on the bikes, but Jack was not sure if we could leave on Saturday morning.  That night Tam, Jack and I had an early dinner, while Dave was off visiting friends from Changchun.  The plan was to get to the shop early to continue the check on work being done.

The following day Jack, Tam and I went to the shop.  They checked the bikes while I had to prepare some gear for our departure.  Dave, in the meantime, was out scouting a laundry.  With no luck, Tam left the shop early afternoon while Jack and I stayed a couple hours longer.  We needed to get back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with a friend and his family.  His son was in from Vienna, being on holiday from school.  It was great to forget about the ride for a short time and just have good company, good food and drink.  We cut the night short, so we could get an early start on preparations to leave the next morning.

We were all so anxious to leave that getting up was not an issue.  We were all ready by 7:30AM and treated ourselves to a local Starbuck's thinking that they had wireless...not, so we had to delay our update.  We did enjoy the muffins and coffee.  Jack was talking to several people as we waited for the time to go to the shop...about 9AM.  One of the people offered us a ride in his van and we were happy to take him up on his offer, putting us into the shop only a bit early.  When we arrived it looked as though all the work had been completed, so Jack and I took on the daunting task of unpacking the bike to repack. 

It was amazing to see all of our gear on the ground, realizing that all of it needed to fit back into the sidecar and other gear for storage: saddle bags, panniers, dry bags and a rack built on top of the spare wheels as well as the cage built over the sidecar for security.  While we were packing, Jack noticed that Tam's rear tire was losing air.  They had to change the tire and replace the tube, since the Chang's tires or not tubeless.  They also had to check her electrical system, since she had been having trouble with it.  Once the repairs were completed, both bikes packed, it was 11:30AM and time for lunch.  The bikes were gassed up before we sat down; trying to save us time, but it was already two hours passed our departure time.  We finally took off from the shop at 12:30PM. This was also a busy time in Beijing, so the added traffic delayed our progress as well as a flat rear tire (the same one they had been originally changed) on Tam's bike only a few kms from the shop.  It took about forty-five minutes to get the necessary tools and change the tire.  Now we are facing a late afternoon start. 

Luckily, Frank, the owner/mechanic, made this part of the trip with us.  We were following a route that took us through the mountains.  Tam was having a difficult time keeping up the pace, losing power on the hills.  Frank rode her bike to check out the problem.  He diagnosed carburetor problems.  Once he worked on the carbs, she seemed to have no more problems, but Jack was experiencing a loss of power also.  Frank rode his bike and thought that it was a combination of the hills and the load we were carrying.  We took an alternate route and everything seemed to settle down, enjoying the scenery and the touch of nature. But all of these delays hampered our progress, and, again, we had pushed until late that night arriving at a hotel about 8:30PM.  Once the gear was unloaded (all the items that were stored above the security cage and there were many), we satisfied our hunger, thirst and our tired bodies.

The next morning Frank worked on Tam's carbs to make sure the timing was right.  Since all the problems seemed to be handled, Jack asked that Frank point us in the right direction to the route to Mongolia and suggested that he return to Beijing. In hindsight, it would have been better for Frank to stay with us another day, but he left and we road toward Mongolia.  We found ourselves on several occasions missing the road signs, getting the wrong directions when we asked and Jack developed some bike problems, mostly losing power and running quite rough...all the signs of carb problems.  We drove as long as we could and Jack had to pull off the road to check the carbs.  He ended up replacing the carbs three times and each time the problem did not change.  By now it is late in the afternoon, but all of us made the decision to push on to the next city.  This time we stopped at about 5PM, finding a hotel that had showers and air conditioning for us older ones.  The first one turned out to have their showers in the bath house next door.  This was okay with tam and Dave, but jack and I did not want to trek across the way in our whatsoever for a shower.  So we looked for another hotel.  This time the hotel had a decent lobby, showers and air conditioning in the rooms and all agreed.  We registered, lugged our gear up onto the third floor.  There was also an Internet bar at the corner...what else could you ask for a pleasant stay.  We found that the hotel had showers, but they did not have towels, so we had to go around the corner to the bath house anyway with a free coupon.  Once there, the cares of the ride floated won the drain with the hot shower water.  Tam and I indulged in a body scrub, 100% milk and lotion massage and a steam room...just the perfect ending to a hard week.  Couple this relaxing experience with a barbecue restaurant that served good beer and fried bread...Ah! The joys of the road.

The next morning Jack was up bright and early to get a fresh start on the repairs.  While working, a man strolled over to just watch.  They started their non-verbal conversation and a second man joined them.  From what jack told me since I was not there, the man knew his way around motorcycles and knew what he was doing with the carbs.  So Jack just stepped away and let him work.  By the time I joined the group, the bike was running.  All four of us were there clapping and hailing this man as our hero.  We needed to get to the Internet bar, so we left and the crowd that had gathered dispersed. 

Jack and I had gone to the bar, sending of emails and doing any last minute catching up.  By then it was time for lunch and we found a new restaurant not far from the hotel.  We had a great time with the waitresses and waiter, enjoying our food and laughing a lot.  I went up to pay the bill and we left.  Jack went back to the hotel and I went to the Internet bar. I was settled for only a short time when I knew that I had left my camera case in the restaurant, but I checked the computer station first, no camera.  I burst into the restaurant and was a bit rude, because no one seemed to neither know about the case nor lend too much help.  Of course, there was a language barrier, but they knew that I was not pleased.   I lost not only a very good digital camera, but many great, great shots that cannot be replaced.  It took me a day to move on from this, but I needed to focus on the ride and adventure ahead.  We decided to stay the night and get an early start in the morning.

We were up and ready by 6AM, but could not leave due to Jack's bike not starting.  By the time he got it started it was about 7AM and we rode off, only getting a few kms on the other side of the city.  We stopped next to their main city square.  I took the opportunity to photograph a group of Chinese woman performing traditional dancing in the square.  In the meantime, a crowd was gathering around Tam, Dave and Jack with the usual curiosity about them, their bikes and where they were going.  In the midst of the crowd, I found a policeman that was going to find a mechanic for us and then give us an escort out of town once the bikes were fixed.  In Chinese fashion this took more than an hour. 

While we were waiting, a young lady approached me and asked if I knew Jack...not my Jack.  She had been in Changchun about 2 years ago and Chinese Jack, whom we knew, had taught her English.  She also attended our English school, Perfect English, for a short time.  To top this off, she was dating a teacher who previously taught for us.  The world is small if you just get out and experience it.  She helped to translate the questions the Foreign Affairs Officer, whose responsibility it was to find out our business and how long we would stay in the city, was asking us.  I volunteered to go with her to have all our passports copied.  Our answer was, "As soon as our bikes are fixed."  Once she performed her duty, she seemed to leave us alone.  With the arrival of the police and mechanic we were directed to follow them to his shop.  We parked outside and the usual crowd gathered. I found out that we had been staying in a city called Ji ning, which was not on our original schedule of stops. We waited while he worked on the bike for about 2 hours.  It even required a call to Beijing.   In the end, the bike was better than before and the decision was made to push on to Erlinhot.  Little did we know that this would be our last and final destination for now.

While on our drive to Erlinhot, Jack not only experienced the same carburetor problems, but two flat tires.  Tam was not exempt from this, because she experienced another flat tire and her headlight went out, which is not good driving in the dark.  Luckily, for the flat tires (Jack had two in a very short period of time on the same spot) we were able to stop in front of a major road construction area that was quite well lit.  Of course, the workers had to stop what they were doing and come to see what was happening with the foreigners.  They always want to help and in this instance, being tired and in a hurry to move on, their help was more bothersome.  We asked them to leave and they complied.  We contemplated camping off the road, but there were too many negatives to feel comfortable, so we decided to push on to Erlinhot.  At this point, Tam did not have a headlight, so she wrapped a headlight used for camping around the light, while Dave held another flashlight out and over her head.  We certainly looked like a good group slowly moving on the highway.

At one point we were pulled off the main road and told to take an alternate one.  The police came over to the bikes, but never mentioned the headlight or never gave us a warning.  They just had us move on.  As we continued on the road, we saw the remains of a car that had been completely totaled, which was the reason for the police's concern and focus.  We found that we were only a short distance outside of Erlinhot, and stopped at the first hotel we saw.  It was Chinese, cheap, clean and we were ready for anything.  We stocked up on some food from the grocery store downstairs, since we had not eaten in hours.  Our bodies ached and our minds were spacey.  The next morning Tam went out to find another hotel and an Internet Bar, since her bike was working.  Jack's bike was having trouble starting.  In a matter of an hour or two, she had managed to find both and we moved out.

We arrived at the Jin Long Hotel on July 26Th and have been here ever since.  We did call Frank to come up and check out Jack's bike since it would not start, and by the next afternoon he arrived in our lobby.  So that entire afternoon and all the next morning he worked on both bikes.  First, on the electrical problem for Tam's bike and then on Jack's  They ended up cleaning the air filter, which needed cleaning, replacing the original battery, which was purchased in the US and  supposed to be invincible, and replacing the carbs one more time.  The bike started, but very reluctantly.  Frank needed to get back to Beijing and left that afternoon with the bike problems being solved, we thought. 

 We were just so anxious to get to Mongolia that we decided to leave as soon as we could ready our bikes for the trip.  It was about 3:00PM and went to gas up our bikes before we set off.  Once in the parking lot of the station, Tam's tire was slowly losing air, and she decided to go have a mechanic replace the tube.  We waited for what seemed a long time, and then all together we took off toward the border.  It was so great to be on the bike and on the move again.  Our spirits were high and then we reached the Chinese border.  The young guard looked at us, made a call and then gave us the dismal news that we could pass, but our bikes had to remain in China.  Jack refused to take this news and kept asking why and trying to get a definite answer from him.  He got so rattled and did not want to deal with the foreigners that he gave his walkie talkie to the other guard and walked away.  We found out later that he went to bed.  The other guard at least tried to tell us that we need some document, but could not tell us what.  Jack called some business friends in the city to help and they came right out, enmasse.  They found out that just recently, who knows how recent, there was a new policy that all Chinese vehicles have to have a document from the customs office that allows them to leave...this is a way of keeping track of the vehicles that leave China.

So with our tails between our legs, we headed back to the Jin Long Hotel to register for at least another night or two until we could sort this out.  Our friends would go to work on it the next day.  So we lugged all of our gear up three floors, one more time, and settled into our room. We went to dinner and all had a pretty restless night.  Jack was up early the next morning with thoughts about the document.  He thought that we would go and start the bike, but he came back very upset...the bike would not start one more time.  We had a meeting of the four: Tam, Dave, Jack and myself to get some options to solve our predicament.  It was decided that Jack would call his friends for them to arrange a truck down to Beijing.  This all came about later in the afternoon.  At  5:15PM.they came by to let us know that there was a truck going to Beijing that night and he needed to get his bike over to the loading dock at 6PM.  We all dashed around to unload his bike and to make sure that he had the needed gear to spend several days in Beijing.  By 5:50PM he was gone. 

The truck would drive all night and drop him off in a town outside of Beijing.  At about 7:00PM, Jack called me and said that they had not left and he would be by for the computer.  He called me later from the road to let me know that they we not out of Inner Mongolia.  The truck had departed at about 11PM, but experienced four breakdowns on the way.  They then stopped for gas, a two hour rest at 4AM, breakfast at 6AM, another gas stop, a two hour card game, another gas stop and then a two hour lunch, which should be over in about 45 minutes.  They seem to travel all night, but not all day.  At this point in time, I do not know if Jack has reached Beijing or not.  I certainly hope that his trip to Beijing does solve all the bike problems.

I know that I painted a gruesome picture of our trip, but in reality, there were some great times with the people that we met at every stop.  They were friendly and very helpful.  Their childish curiosity is something to watch, but at times it gets annoying; because of their constant need to touch: honk the horn, kick the tires, and test the hand breaks, test the seats and even climb onto the seat...which is going beyond being courteous to someone else's property.  At least Dave and I were able to enjoy the scenery and take pictures along the journey.  Jack and Tam had to concentrate on getting to our destination.

I did find out today that Tam's bike is now experiencing some problems: the fuel line was fouled and she changed those, got rid of the new on-line filters since the bike ran better without them, but the carbs are running sluggish and she needs to check the transmission fluid.  In the meantime, Dave has made the decision to take a train to Ulan Bataar to investigate shipping bikes to Moscow, changing the border city for our departure from Mongolia, and any other information that he can gather before our arrival.  Since the train does not run every day, he will have to check the schedule to leave either tonight or possibly Friday.  So you are now up-to-date on the ongoing journey of The Dragin' Run.  So Tam and I will wait to hear from Jack, hoping that our stay here will not be any longer than this Sunday.