Around SE Asia in 80 days - my next Edventure

If it was me I would get out of their jurisdiction. I would hope they can not go interstate with their bank raids. A super tip I got from another ride report and that I have used myself, is to get a Charles Schwab bank account. It comes with a debit card. The big deal is that they charge no ATM fees and no currency exchange fee when you use a foreign ATM. It is the only bank I know that does this. The catch is that you have to open 2 accounts , a brokerage and a bank account. So what ? There is no requirement to do any trading. And you can freely move money from one account to the other. I have used their trading services also and I like that service as well.

I can claim to have seen pretty much every state, Canada, Mexico, Central America and much of Europe. I would agree that California has it all geographically. In spades. And some beautiful people too. But I think you are on to the reason that more people are now leaving than going to CA.

I heard from the grapevine that ED and RAD will be in Corona, Ca for meet and Greet...this coming Sunday
Anyone know where they will be?

Re: ED

I hear you.

The usual catch 22 - had a similar mishap a few years ago. To de-register here, you need to physically hand in the number plate, in order to invalidate the reg tag. Well, how are you going to do that when you are half a world away? Of course they made me pay the road taxes, despite the vehicle being crashed & scrapped years ago... Had to pay (deducted off account). But t.b.h. it wasn't as much as the DMV wants from you, so I just swallowed my pride and stopped complaining.

Hence our bureaucrats came up with these travellers' plates, with fixed expiration date.

That's one the very few advantages of being based in the heart of Europe, in heavily populated SW-Germany near the French border of all places...

Teutonic bureaucratic nightmares for the most minor things, high taxes, way too densely populated and expensive.

But when it comes to vehicle registration, export, purchase etc, it's paradise! Also, very good central starting hub for overland trips to all continents except America and Australia. Starting from here, you can basically ride half the world without the need for a plane ticket, or cross-continent bike shipping containers (it's just a short ferry ride to Africa...)

Half the world buys their used vehicles here (well at least all car & truck import/export nomads residing from here to Vladiwostok, Middle East via Ethopia and all the way to Lagos, Nigeria).

The local DMV is used to anything and everything when it comes to countries of destination.

Usually, it's Baltic / Russian / North-Asian guys in the used Merc / BMW / Audi trade. Also many West Africans and Lebanese traders.

But I have already met some people at the DMV from places such as Mongolia and a whole lot of Iraqis with intent to repatriate their "new" used car / truck purchases on overland convoy drives with German export plates... Daily occurrence, no big deal for the officers. And it's a very small city here...

Anyway, good luck with sorting that DMV bill out, If you need any inquiries about registration of your bike in Europe, don't hesitate to ask me. Or if you need a bike to tie you over for a few days, no worries - I'm just a very short train ride away from Frankfurt airport!

It is actually in the City of Riverside near the Corona border and near Lake Mathews. We can all go for a little ride around the Lake Mattews area before the BBQ Sunday.
And Scub - no Chimay for you this time!

That was Bad...!

A comment about Girlfriend "Joop." Notice the old Farang with a walking stick to your right (our left) in the photo of you on your machine? His T-Shirt says it all: "No money, No Honey."

My comment on the alluring Joop..."Butterfly! My Butterfly..."

You're a free man now, go forth and conquer!

I had been to Bangkok many times. And I have ridden around Bangkok many times. But I have never ridden my bike into the heart of Bangkok. I was always a bit concerned because the traffic there is horrible. But surprisingly, it being Songkran weekend, the traffic was extra light.
Here is some memorial in downtown BKK. I think it was called Independence Circle or something like that. I am sure someone will correct me here.



I left in the morning at 7 am to beat the traffic.



During Songkran, it is the most dangerous time to be on the road - with all the drunk people driving and people throwing water on you and trying to knock you off your bike



Photo from a couple of years ago

Ed

That’s why I live in Wyoming. Enough said.

Have fun in Europe.

Eric

If you'll never bring the BMW back to CA, send in the "Release of Liability" form to the DMV, which will notify them that you no longer own the vehicle. End of story.

Hello Ed

Thanks for sharing your edventure it is very inspiring.

I have one question, how much do you spend an average month all included.

Sharing a pic from a small trip in Sweden.
Welcome to swing by if you are touring Sweden.

Regards from Sweden

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Just when you thought this RR was over, I had one more country to visit.
On my way back to California, I had a 20 hour layover in Shanghai, China.
Fortunately, China offers a 24 hour free visa on arrival.
So I took the subway into town and spent the day and night in Shanghai.
I had not been there in over 30 years and wow, had it changed!
And this was the first time I was legally in China on my 6 years on 2 wheels.
The other times, I think 4 or 5 in total, I snuck in illegally.
Shhhhh!

You're Swedish? I would have never guessed
It depends on where I was at. For example, when I was in Thailand, I averaged about $1000 a month. And I paid for the Bungalow and most of the expenses (here that Mom?)
But in Europe and places like that, it might be closer to $2000 - especially if it was a wine producing country
Hope that helps

If reg is still current and you do not want to pay for insurance, you have to file an affidavit of non use. Otherwise your registration will be suspended until you get more insurance..... Californicated.

From the airport, I hopped on the Metro Subway and rode it about 75 minutes into the heart of Shanghai.
I was amazed how clean and efficient their subway system is. This communist country puts America to shame with their public transportation system.



It's nice to have friends around the world. This is inmate Joshmakenoise. He lives in Shanghai but originally from England. He picked me up at the subway station on his electric scooter, It turns out that 99.99% of 2 wheeled vehicles are now electric. And to have a plate to be able to legally ride a gas powered motorcycle within the city might cost you $50,000. All of a sudden, California isn't looking too bad any more. But the scooters are cheap ($500 will get you a nice one) and can effectively get you around.



It was already 10 pm by the time I got there. But this is Shanghai and the city doesn't sleep. So Josh takes me to a few special places he knows where I can have a good beer. After 3 months of crappy Thai beer, I was looking forward to tasting something with some flavor.
This place was a store with maybe 200 bottle to select from but also sold some local brewed beer from the tap. He pours beer like Orsi - lots of bubbles



The next place was a bar with some 500 beers to try. FIVE HUNDRED! This is the new Shanghai. Modern city.
We didn't try all 500, but we did a pretty good job knocking off that beer list.
The beers were organized by country. And America had by far the largest selection. It goes to show you, I think we are making the best beer in the world right now. And we are definitely the most innovative beer making nation in the world today. You want peanut butter in your beer? There are maybe a 100 of those to choose from now. Not my thing but if it works and makes the beer taste better and give it more complexity, then who I am to say there should be only 4 ingredients to making beer. Make mine an Imperial Stout with Chocolate malt and aged in whisky barrels. Yum!
This shot was taken at 3 am - just before closing time.
Josh's Chinese is flawless. It was fun to watch him speak Chinese to these local guys.
At the end of the night, only 3 of the 4 of us was still standing.



It was a long and fun night. Josh is a cool dude. I think I will be seeing him and riding with him this summer in Europe.

I was really impressed with Shanghai. It was a shame I was only spending 20 hours there.



On the way I took the high speed monorail because it is supposed to be the fastest train in the world



Getting on the train, you have to put your baggage thru a metal detector. The inspector asked me to show him an object on his computer screen. For the life of me, I didn't know what he was wanting to see. But then I realized it was my flashlight- tazer that he noticed.
I showed it to him and he played with it for a minute of so. He knew exactly what it was and it was forbidden in China unbeknownst to me. He played with the switches on the flashlight and got light to turn on but he wasn't satisfied that only light turned on. He knew it was a tazer and was trying to figure out how to turn it on. And when he did get the right sequence, he acted surprised and scared. And he said to me "NO!" And then said "Passport". I gave him my passport and he started to document what I had done.
He told me in broken English that I couldn't bring this tazer on the train. I asked if I took a taxi instead, could I keep the flashlight/tazer. He seemed to be ok with it. So I told him I was going to take a taxi. He handed me back the flashlight and I said, I am going to the airport and I am going to be leaving the country in 4 hours. I asked if I could just get on the bullet train and take the flashlight home with me. He just laughed. I told him thank you and just walked onto the train. I fully expected him to tell me to stop, but he said nothing. I was surprised and I beit shocked. And in the end, I rode the Bullet Train with my tazer. Go figure
Good thing he didn't see me take this photo. This was just for your viewing pleasure.



260 miles per hour. It's the fastest I have even been on land. It was like watching life go by in fast foward.

Ed
Just stumbled on to this a few days ago. Glad to see you are out being Ed again. Congratulations on your new relationship, seems like a great find. You are always welcome back in Georgia, Stephanie says hello.
Ron

And that concludes this latest Edventure.
But the Edventure doesn't stop there.
The next chapter starts now

http://advrider.com/index.php?threa...howing-the-world-is-a-friendly-place.1317807/