"We have a winner"

Good evening all from Australia! (I'm saying evening because I know that you come on this blog every morning with your cup of coffee..and for us its the evening!)

I apologize for the very few news but we're working from 6h to 6h monday 'til friday (and sometimes even on saturdays), but you can see that thanks to the great people who run the blog you're not forgotten =) A big thank you to all of them (It's great to see the pictures !)

So ! For those who haven't look the real-time map, we sleep and work exactly at the last point on the road to Ringwood, surrounded by kangaroos, parrots etc..

We don't really have any way of giving you nice pictures so we'll give you a nice description. 

Here it's the wet season, so 30 degrees + (and the degree sign doesn't exist on australian keyboards) and 90% humidity when its dry. We're near different farms and nothing is really done to contain vegetation, only tractors, pick-ups and other super cool camper-vans cut some paths. Few trees and high grass, it's migration  season and above us it's hundreds of wild-geese and other ducks that taunt us while we're putting bags of 35kg on pallets. 

Parrots are legion ! They're the local pigeons, white with a yellow crest on their head. And what would Australia be without small groups of kangaroos leaping here and there and without 2m high termitaries covering the plains. The only typical animals we haven't seen yet are crocodiles, as for reptiles and batrachians we have plenty; lizards, tree frogs and toads in the bathroom.

But the best part..and we'll take plenty of pictures, are the storms and the sundown...See a cumulonimbus several kilometers away unloading its fury on the plain in a reddening dawn is breath-taking. You feel the wind lashing your face, you see little whirlwind whipping up dust, it's getting closer but you can't stop looking at this gigantic mushroom, its stalk made of rain and its head full of lightnings crimsoned by the sun (anyway for those who haven't read all that: its great)

Brrr 

About the contest ! The van has been baptised, and has made a happy (feminine) winner Ripley.

Thanks to her offer : "Nostromo" she allowed us to find the name of our new van which is... 

Le Bebop !

Ripley will receive her present soonish. It will just take the time to find her spaceship and to check the fees for interstellar parcels.

without feet !

We haven't find the final words but..wait a minute..that's one!

Lots of kisses and see you soon. We'll take the road again in 3 weeks, leaving from Darwin to Perth along the west coast.

Van with no name

Big contest :

We are looking for a name, any ideas ? (a surprise for the winner)

Rain and Fog

The call of the road, that's the true thing. 

You feel the shiver of the departure when you start your motorbike in the morning.

Everything is still covered with dew,

the tent is a bit wet,

cows wake you up,

you surface and in two minutes you're driving in surrounded by mountains and paddy fields.

The call of the rain, it's a bit harder.

You feel the cold water going right through your clothes while you're driving your motorbike in the morning.

Your shoes are still soaked from the day before and are making weird noises when you walk,

your clothes have a rate of 100% humidity.

There's more water than cotton in your underpants,

your hands are numb,

you prefer not to think of the moment you'll have to pitch the tent in the mud.

The call of the bus, it's a bit more dangerous.

You don't really hear it coming and it appears suddenly in front of you, honking and overtake in a bend on a mountain road.

You don't really fool around when you're stuck between two trucks on a slippery road, neither when you're driving in the fog in a mountain where there is certainly oxes crossing the road just for fun.

We've seen death, but it's ok.

We've been close to it...still ok.

We caressed it...it was sexy.

After that we were friends and came closer.

Finally she's not really good company so we ran away !

 

We stopped our engines at Da Nang and unwillingly sold Loraine and Le Tavernier, then we took the night bus to Saigon.

Dear Honda Dream II, we won't forget you ! We'll think about you next week, when we'll be around Darwin, Australia to look for new companions with wheels (or turborocket).

La quiche à la moustache

Xi Chao !

We're starting with sad news ; it's with tear in the eye that we're announcing that we're parting from...Belette™. It was the 24^th of November 2011, it was a sunny day and a light breeze was blowing against the pointy mountain of Guilin. This morning, the ignition keys of this temperamental changed hands.

She went away limping for the chinese countrysite so carry six times her weight in wood, straw, rice, and other chickens !

It was a transaction worthy of the biggest black market, eased by the owners and employees of ou Guest House in Guilin who accomodated us for nothing.

In a way its probably better that she explodes in the hands of someone else ! Until the last day we drived her into a corner by leaving for a road trip by the river Li.

Our only salvation was the train and bus to cross the Vietnamese border to go to Ha Noi, where we currently are.

We had to think...how to go to Ho Chi Minh city...To clear our minds we went kayaking and camp in Ha Long bay, more precisely around the island of Cat Ba (and even more precisely on the map)

When we came back, only one solution presented itself to us : 

Thank you, thank you for your support, it gave us the strengh (and enabled us) to do it, to add two new friends to our journey and to be free !

Let me introduce you to Lorraine and Le Tavernier ! 

They will endure the road between here and Saignon, using the old Ho Chi Minh track bombarded by more than 390k-tons of american bombs dropped by B52. Plus the 18000km and trillion of moskitos blood thirsty.

See you in 10 days (or more...)

Moustach and Motobike

Hey Hey par ici !

Finally a picture of the belette (weasel) ! It's not so easy to find a place with proper internet and proxy to access the blog !

Where were we...oh yeah ! We went on the belette(weasel) the « man looking in the mirror, house » (烟台, Yantai) to go to « eight, squid »(日照, Rizhao). As you can see inbetween we learnt how to read chinese, which is quite useful to read signs and the chinese map we have. We defeated the rain... and we thought it was hard ! So we found equipment against the cold. And boom heading to « house, staircase and smiley » (合肥, Hefei), then we've been to « coffee mill, apple box » (南昌, Nanchang) then « plam-tree toss j, beta eight » (衡阳, Hengyang) where we took those pictures.

Its true that on the road we had small problems, a flat tire, we lost the exhaust, the engine does whatever he wants, the kick is …., the battery died ages ago (anyway she was only useful for the honk, the rest didnt work) we changed things without knowing what they were ! As long as its going we cant stop in a garage to ask as if its working we cant explain whats wrong.

So we've been thinking ...and now that we're arriving in the beautiful county of Guangxi (i mean « step, window with curtains » (广西)) at « palm-tree dumbbells, palm-tree palm-tree  » (桂林, Guilin) which was our main objective (if you can see mountains here..look for Yangshuo county you'll see its amazing.) As its more expensive to fix the bike than to pay for the gas and that we havent heard lots of good about the chinese-vietnam border...

We're gonna sell it. Yep ! After 2900km ! It's sooner than planned and we only decided that about half an hour ago...but the idea is that we cant cross the border (no chinese licence, no chocolate, no vietnamese person, no metacarpus) and the more we drive the more it's falling apart. But it doesnt mean we're done, it'll help us visit the county and we'll say goodbye with a big fire in the tank. (that' ll be payback). Or, selling it could be good as well. But we need a guy who would be at least as crazy as we are. 

The pictures you can see in that post were taken by our host Russel, who initiated us to chinese hiking, with his son Andy who initiated us (against his will) to crowds of « chinese students who have never seen a white before and follow them by hundreds ».

Sorry...Anyway project Ulule is coming to an end, we're almost there ! If you feel like helping, you're more than welcome to !

Big thank you to our followers and to the people helping running the blog !

You get a bonus ! The real-time (or almost) map of our itinerary until now, available on the right side of this website ! 

Pouet

The amazing story of the Belette™

Nín hǎo !

Sorry, it's been a while since you've had news from us, due to the flood of information that fall on us everyday. We try to use every quiet moments to make a sorting of all these information.

Well, we're in China! A lot of things happened. Firstly, we ended up in Seoul, in great form! We enjoyed a quiet week with Jim, a relaxed couchsurfer. Nevertheless, this week has been busy; we have our Vietnamese visa!

The Vietnamese embassy (in any case the one of Seoul) has been a real shock for us compared with the embassy of China or Russia. That was 3 prefabs on a parking with the only thing for the security: a panel with written "no photo". That's less stressful and rather easy since we just had to fill in a paper and fork out the money. And, because in Korea 1 euro is about 1400 Won, when you line up 80 000 Won in a little office, lost on a parking, you have whiffs of mafia with large doses of Italian accent that overrun the place...

Some frights with the tickets for the ferry bound for China. Little free advice that was very useful: always have dollars on you, since they are accepted in every change office. Sometimes the cashpoints don't take the foreign cards and you're stuck without money (that was the case for us in South Korea and in China too, you must find the right cashpoint and that's not always translated into English...)

And now the big info! I don't have real picture but she looks like this:



It's not exactly the same as our Belette* but she looks like. The few differences are on the physic integrality. Ours doesn't have wing mirror. It's not very important because in China people drive very well (BULLSHIT! but it's not very useful because they honk all the time, to say "hey, I'm here and I'm not annoying!"). Ours doesn't have any nerdy stickers! However, she has an eagle in relief on the handles. Her customization is on-going, she's already dirty. Oh! I forgot, she doesn't have right brake handle (so, no front brake) since we had to use it to change the clutch handle... To sum up: Chinese stuff!

Despite the many stops due to technical problems, she had nevertheless engulfed the kilometers between Yantai and Rizhao (where we're currently), with a top speed of 50 km/h, just to not exceed the 7000 rpm.

(Do you believe this: they stick all the wiring in the front headlamp and thus when you turn it on, if you drive too long, the headlamp is too hot, and the cables melt! We had to change all the wiring... and I don't even talk about the rain...)

Her name is Belette* and she's beautiful! We have yellow helmets! And a blue tarp! And she hurts the buttocks! Contrary to what we could heard about China, people are nice and they don't try to bamboozle you all the time (otherwise they are very good) if you have a problem they'll help you. They are just bad drivers (yes I speak about you, the guy who has done a U-turn on a three-lane dual carriageway with a central wall. You wonder how it's possible? It's easy, all you have to do is a U-turn, and drive in the converse direction, what a stupid question!)

Sorry for not having real picture, normally, there is going to be a massive publication of our first photos soon and certainly other notes from our road journal. Sorry if the news are too few, but everyone has a lot of things to do.

We're fine! The winter is coming in China, we'll try to rush towards the south, next city: Hefei !

Pierre says : Dad, Mom, don't worry, it's not so dangerous as it seems to be! Just we don't know if we'll do it, alive!

Kisses !

*Belette means weasel in English.

Penis Story

Heeeeeeey !

It's been a while ! Ralala.

So, we're in South Korea. We arrived early in the morning the 15th at Donghae Port. Kocoba isn't so excited to come back to his country, he hasn't said anything for a while. We're gone directly to Samcheok (where i'm writing now) to spend few nights.

South Korea is really awesome, particularly their writing. It seems to be very difficult but in fact it's very well thought out. You can learn how to read Korean in one day, and it's very cool to read shop signs walking in the street, even if the meaning remains incomprehensible.

In Japan, we were close to the prostitution. Indeed, we accepted an invitation to dinner from an old Japanese man, who didn't offer this without ulterior motives.
The begining of the evening was cool but this man was very ... friendly! After some caresses on thighs and the view of naked man posters on the wall, we began to slip away quietly... especially Pierre who had taken his fancy!
Free meal in exchange for company, we were like escort boys!

But this introduction to homosexuality was not the only one since today we were at Haesindang Park. It's a pious place of cult; dedicated to keep the abundance of fish given by the sea. Indeed, a long time ago, a young virgin freshly married, saw her husband go to sea, whithout having carnal union after their marriage. She waited for his return desperately on the coast, in a fever of impatience. But, her mind was miles away, and she didn't saw the huge wave who took her in the depths of the East Sea.

Since this day, the sea dried up and the fish, it seemed, had all disappeared. One day, a man who contemplated the sea, had a natural desire, excited by the power of nature he began to masturbate (with no hidden motive). When his sperm hit the water, a myriad of fish gushed out from the sea!

At least, the woman was satisfied! And to continue, they erected about one hundred giant wooden penises on the seaside, forming a park called Haesindang Park. I let you to find pictures by yourself.

Anyway, it became hot between Pierre and me with all these stories, I mean that was hard!... In brief that was bizarre ! So we decided that we needed distance between us, just to cool our ardour... Pierre is going to the south towards Busan! and me to the north towards Sokcho!
With a common destination; Seoul October, 23rd!

I'm going to let you go now, with that!

乾杯 !

Good morning !

What's up this morning ? We're not that bad here. After arriving in Vladivostok, all went just as we planned, which is a pleasure !

We say goodbye (not without pain) to the russian sundawn, and to the lovely family of Marya, Alex and their 2 huskies.

Photograph taken by  Marya Miftakhova in Vladivostok

On the 21st, our boat leave as planned ; that's a real confort. Sauna, nightclub, karaoke... But especially full of travellers ! We're really a lot to travel around the world. We don't follow the same road, but still ! In the middle of the Corean people, we find each other.

After a halt in Donghae (South Corea) the 22nd, our team grew up with one new member :

Photograph taken by Ciaran McGrath in Donghae

His name's Kocoba ! he is really nice ! He was hanging out near the trash bins, like a real traveller ! Like us ! He's name is for "Korean Cocaine Bag", he is a kind of easy rider.they tried to find something on him in the customs, but he is a real pro. he may be heavy, it is not told we don't abandon him aboard the road, children love him, and women so ! And god knows we love childr... erm, women !

He was well received at the Daisen's Beer Festival ! Where we went just as we arrived in Sakaiminato, on the 23rd. We will probably se him on a lot of photographs of the event.

Otherwide, well... We sleep on the floor, futons are really comfy, the flat we're occupying is amazing, littles houses outside are awsome, there are electric wires everywhere, this is Japan, it's beautiful and everyone is nice with us !

Kisses from Yonago !

Hahoy,

As agreed here we are 6 days later. We're so well rested that right now Pierre is sleeping like a log.

Here it's 11.57pm so in France it's....2h57am. The train arrived at 6h30 and some. There is something magic happening in this train that I can hardly describe,, maybe it will be clearer in my notebook ( besides I finished it we'll send it as soon as we arrive in Japan!).
Anyway jet lag is horrible, it was impossible to sleep at the right time so when we finally arrived it was really time to get some rest.

From our host's flat we can see the sea and across that sea is our next target. We'll rest and visit, our ship should leave the 21st in the afternoon and arrive on the japanese coast the 23rd !

It's a bit weird that you received all the parcels, we're exhilarate, thanks for the teasing ! I hope the pictures are good.

See you !

Arf I can't leave you like this, tribute to Pierre who had it on his mind all way long :

We are now going to Vladivostok with the Transsiberian ! 6 days of rest. See you !

Clement et Pierre

Hey hey guys !
We are in Russia, in Moscow in fact !

Sorry we didn't give news since a long time but this trip take a lot of time. So What ? After Wroclaw we left to Krakow, still hitchhiking, and on this point Pierre is very useful with his super artist power graduated from Art school :

Pict by Joanna, Krakow

I'm not gonna tell you all the details about the road, something tell me that you would discover it in a couple of days (At least, I hope).
Just know that Ukraine is really awesome ! And people are very welcoming (even if they seems closed in the first impression) as you can see on this picture of us in Zhytomyr with Casey (our american hoster and friend). A little Ukrainian pict.

Pict by Heidi, Zhytomyr

Bullshit ! Ukrainians are not like that, in Kiev we've met really coolest people in the world, few students who showed us the city without stopping and who relayed themself to help us to find some place for sleeping, washing clothes or getting internet... But Pierre worry me...

Pict by Karina, Kiev

Whatever, they got a giant rabbit and you have to go in Kiev to see this !

Photo de Karina, Kiev

Thanks ! To all the nice donors of the WwT1 project for their help. Really we fell very embarrassed, thank you for trusting, we gonna do everything to give you back !

So we start the WwT2 project, that's just an add to the first one because It was already half paid by the WwT1.

If everything is ok we'll buy our transsib' tickets tomorrow ! We took a train with 3rd class couch for 14 hours from Kiev to Moscow, to have a brief idea about it, and it's quite comfortable.

Thanks again !

Bisous !

Clement

привіт

22nd of august :

"We are still alive ! And now in Rzesznow, Poland. We are going this morning to the Ukrainian border (Medyka) to reach a contact in L'Viv."

23rd of august :

"We are arrived in L'Viv (that you can pronounce in the Ukrainian way : Luveeve, or in the Polish way : Levufv), tomorrow we'll take the road to Kiev and we hope that we'll be in Rivne Tomorrow evening."

27th of august :

"Here, in Zhytomyr, we talk with an american guy from Florida and and we eat a 15 euro-cents watermelon...(and cigarettes packs cost  0,50 euro, but I say no to temptation)". "Tomorrow we'll left to Kiev, here we'll take train to Moscow on the 2nd of september".

Lolo

Cześć guys !

Yesterday we were in Cottbus (Germany) and we crossed the Polish border to Wroclaw, in four steps.
Funny fact, there is nothing written at the border to inform you that you're arriving in a new country. The driver did'nt speak english... so we were just enjoying a Franz Ferdinant CD, this one : (it will be an interactive message again)

Ok, put the music on a CD, put it in your favourite reader... and have a sit on your washing machine turned off.

Are you ready ? Ok so close your eyes... imagine

You are in a small car, driven by a polish guy who drive at 50km/h more than the speed limitation can allowed, with Franz Ferdinant at the loudest. You are on the german border... mmmmmh... now ! Turn your washing machine on ! (to have the complete experience it's very important to put the cd player on the washing machine) Well done ! You are on the polish border ! With the best roads of the world, perfectly flat, and making you trusting in your car's suspensions.

Not a lot of problem to reach Wroclaw, we even had free bus tickets, it was perfect. But I had to use my super geologist powers to be accepted by our hosters. The super heroes league won't be glad to know about it I think.

Photo de Jacek Heine

Well ! pożegnanie !

Kisses

Clement and Pierre, from Wroclaw

Ich bin ein Berliner

Hey boys ! (and girlz)


We arrived in Berlin after some detours ! I will make you a little summary of our journey, because we have some minutes. Indeed we will be hosted here few days by a cool band of students, we met them... Wait a minute, I'll tell you this after, we wait our russian visa and we'll go away !

Well, to make you an idea you will need an European map (yes it's an interactive post) :

25/07 : Poitiers->Lyon
26/07 : Lyon->Annemasse
27/07 : Annemasse->Genève->Bern
28/07 : Bern->Solothurn
29/07 : Solothurn->Basel->Saint-Louis->Weil am Rhein
30/07 : Weil am Rhein->Freiburg
31/07 : Freiburg->Karlsruhe
01/08 : Karlsruhe->Stuttgart
02/08 : Stuttgart->Heilbronn
03/08 : Heilbronn->Nürnberg
05/08 : Nürberg->Amberg
06/08 : Amberg->Plzeň
07/08 : Plzeň->Praha
08/08 : Praha->Dresden
10/08 : Dresden->Berlin

Tadam  ! We met a lot of persons and we have a lot of stories in all those cities more or less written in our notebooks. You'll recieve them in... few weeks I think.

For waiting, the storie :

When we arrieved in Nürnberg, after a tiring hitchhiking day (yes, it's tiring to keep up a sign for 3 hours and smile), our last driver stopped in an inappropriate place far from the center, near a big road and some cars seller...

And we walked, hoping that the city is in this direction (Pierre kept saying that he"rêvait d'un bon bain dans une bonne auberge"* ). And after a long time our motivation completely fall down so we found a parc to rest our legs and shoulders, thinking about sleeping under a bridge.

Suddenly ! Because you never know when you'll get lucky, a nice dog stopped to smell my bag (empty of food of course, but animals love my bag I don't know why). Well, so we start talking with the dog's owner in a bad english.
We asked if she know some place away from the city, a piece of grass to plant our tent, without spending money.
Without hesitation, this lady, called Susanne, told us that she have a garden. And it was so nice so we stand two days and we met all the family except her oldest son, while visiting the city and having a student party.

Julian who live in Berlin ! What a great surprise, these people are so adorable.

The End

For the moment !

See you next time buddies ! I leave you with an amazing song !


Clément et Pierre, from Berlin.

*quote from a french movie : "La Classe Americaine". It means "he dream about a good bath in a good hostel"

Picture from Anne Bichsel.

Today, we are in Nürnberg (Germany) after starting the 25th July from France and crossed Swiss (we keep the interesting details for the first send package)

After a lot of hitchhiking stories, we came to the country of Bern on the evening of July 27, where Anne and Robert took pity us. This picture was taken the next day during a tour of the city proposed by Anne and her sons.
 
Kisses kisses kisses and thanks again for the welcoming of Bichsel family (the "kiss" is an idea of Pierre).

Step in Lyon where we are eating some... Toblerone.
Yesterday in Geneve where we're eat some...

Lolo

Go !

The departure date is postponed.

We had the choice between force through the Russian border or wait a few more days our visa. As we have small arm and one is not too courageous, it was decided to wait a little...

Quick presentation

For more informations on the project clic here and to help it, go there : http://www.ulule.com/worldwidetriangular1/

and kiss.