2 Ride the World - the epic journey continues 2RTW

04-04-2010

Varanasi hasn’t seen us today we’ve simply written up diary and caught up on sleep in our hotel room. We also took the advantage us using the enclosed pool area. Oh what bliss to be able to lie and relax in the sun without having to contend with a barrage of snorting and spitting vendors pushing some trinket or other in our faces whilst yanking on our arms.

We're packing up now, and sorting through our gear, tomorrow we're heading into Nepal.













A young child sits on the steps.



Getting a well deserved shoulder massage down by the Ganges



...hope you enjoyed the ride through India, our next section takes us into Nepal and the amazing Himalayas.

Cheers for now
Simon

Guess I don't have to tell you its a photographers wet dream...beautiful work.

Pictures leave me speechless....but Simon how about more of you and Lisa and your bikes?

Your pictures continue to astound and amaze. Loving every frame!

Namaste,
Lornce

Do you know what? I was just re reading some of this recent report and was thinking the same thing. We're putting together the Nepal section now so we'll make an effort to include a heavier dose of...US'ness...:huh

Simon

good idea....

What a mind blowing landscape to ride a bike through...

Here's a little teaser of where our bike ride take us to next, and yes we did ride to the top to the small town you can see in the foreground.



...I'll get the rest up here as fast as i can.

Cheers
Simon

The most outstanding photography...I am in awe!! Thank you for taking us along on your journey. Be safe and Godspeed.....

With the quality of the Photography and Commentary you are producing...
When is the National Geographic feature spread due out?

Beautiful Work!! (it's that good!) (we are truly blessed to have you for daily reading!)

Outstanding photo work folks. I will take a book to go with my calendar. This photo reminds me of another you took of fish tail mountain. Well done. Even though you are not done travelling you can do a book now and then another one later. So Where do I click for the book

All the best!

thanks for the thought, funnily enough we did contact NG years ago and were advised 'to go away' rather forcibly. I guess it was a standard response, they must get inundated. Hey; if anyone has any connections to any publications (especially outside of the USA, as we are currently under contract for written articles with RoadRUNNER, however, we can still sell photos to other USA publications!! and be interviewed ), we'd love to hear from you. We need to explore any chance of earning a few more $$ for gas.

All the best
Simon & Lisa

Did Bike or Ride or even MCN ever hit you guys up for a story? That just seems like a no-brainer.

fantastic pics with vivid colors. i need a 30" monitor....

thanks lisa and simon.

You last pic.......... WOW..........just WOW . :eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1

I've been following your exploits and adventures for quite a while now through this forum and various magazine article. I even wrote to Road Runner Magazine to request more of your story.

Let met just say that I admire you both for the life you have chosen and thank you for sharing it with those of us who lack (the courage in my case) or wherewithal to chuck it all and go for your dream. Also, I am a very amateur photographer and your photos are inspirational. Keep it coming! I wish you both the very best, and thank you.

Hi Johny Dakar..."nope"! None of them have We've tried countless times via email, press release, etc to get any kind of reaction from any of the UK mags but to no avail. We just can't get their attention. It's not that they're not interested, it's just The barriers are well and truly up, like I said before, it's not personal, it's just that all the mag's get swamped with unsolicited articles etc, and so for them to see the wood for the trees is almost impossible. Unless we can get in front of someone (which is tough as we're still on the road) it's proving hard.

The success we have had with both magazines (RoadRUNNER in the US and Men's Health in South Africa etc) and gear sponsors has all come about after a lucky/chance meeting with a decision maker/editor. We caught their attention and things have progressed from there.

...so like I posted above if anyone has any contacts with the publishing world and can manage to cast a little spotlight in our direction we'd appreciate it. Like with most things in life it's always 'who you know, not what you know....sad but true.

Simon

send them this thread...any and all magazines....how about BMW? What about getting Touratech to help? This is too good not to write up and even make a DVD

Hi macgart, wow, what nice words, thank you for taking the time to post and let us know, that's a nice way for us to start our day. Glad to have you along for the ride

We're busy sorting through the Nepal images at the moment as well as talking with RoadRUNNER to see if they're interested in any more stories, we'll keep our fingers crossed.

All the best
Simon

Hi Soph9...

the problem is even if we send publishers this thread, there's little chance, they'll open the email and even less chance they'll click the link and take the time to read through this thread. Yeah, I know that sounds a little pessimistic, but sadly that's the reality! We've been metaphorically knocking on the doors of publishers for many years now with little or no response. Like I said, everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame and so publishing houses, TV producers etc are literally swamped with proposals and so seeing the wood for the trees becomes impossible.

BMW are a strange one, BMW UK, Europe, Germany etc are impossible to get in touch with and we've pretty much given up asking for any kind of support; primarily because like publishers they're inundated with letters and emails from hopefuls all asking for 'free kit'!!! We've just not found a chink in the armor where could seize an opportunity to argue how we'd justify their support. Now, if we could get in front of a BMW Motorrad decision maker then that would probably be different, but trying to make an argument for their support from a distance has proven fruitless for 9-years now. We've gone so far as just offering BMW Europe etc free content, story's and images, just because we're passionate about wanting to share what and where our wonderful BMW bikes have taken us and allowed us to experience, but we've never even had a 'response'. It's not personal!

Remember in the UK, Germany and Europe for that matter, BMW have Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, that's a pretty big obstacle for us to have to get around to be able to argue our case for their support. Besides, much as we'd love their support, they didn't ask us to make this journey and no one owes us anything. There's no reason why our journey is more worthy of support than say, 'yours' or anyone else's for that matter.

We never intended our journey to become the way of life it now has. It's only been in the last 4 years that we've had to come to terms with the fact that if we hope to continue to travel, to explore and to live this life then we'll have to try to raise funds and or support by commercializing small parts of our journey. And to that end we're still hopeful that we can get the interest of a publisher/magazine editor/documentary producer etc. Who knows. In the mean we'll enjoy as many miles as we can and take nothing for granted, life's too short

Touratech have been incredibly helpful and are easily are biggest supporters to date. Incredible when you realize that they've not asked us to sign any kind of agreement etc. Not asked us 'only' say nice things about their gear. That's pretty cool and I think rare in today's cut throat market.

We'd love to put together a DVD, we have enough quality footage, but our little laptop doesn't have the power to edit a movie (even putting together a 6 min youtube video is a massive struggle) and neither Lisa or I are editors. We'd need to get together with someone who knows a bit about this kind of thing and work with them to put together something really watchable. At the end of the day it's just Lisa and I, and after the photography, the filming, the diary writing, the website updating, the trip planning, the visa sorting, applying and nonsense along with the article writing, youtube video editing, bike maintenance, GPS sorting, camping, cooking, riding and possibly even sleeping...we just run out of hours in the day!!!!:huh

Simon

Simon....email these guys at BMW

Chris.Duff@bmwgroup.ca

Robert.Dexter@bmwgroup.ca

they are in charge of Corporate Communications and PR

Send them a video, some of your gorgeous pics...this thread...trust me they will have a look..send them an email they will feel they have to open and if they don't respond send them another and another to get their attention.

We got their attention and the answer was NO but they emailed me back with a very nice email and not a stock one at that....try it...you have nothing to lose....Send pics of you and Lisa on your bikes as well as the scenery and people. They love their bikes in pics! Leslie