Milton & Motokai Ride The Silk Road 2012 (Changsha to Ürümqi)

**euphonius** · 09-04-2012, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by milton

Sorry about the problem of pictures not showing up earlier on. I hope it works now.
On the night we stayed at Zhouzhi, I casually said to Motokai “Say happy birthday” and he obliged. Actually he did more than the lip service and managed to sneak in with the following “surprise”:

There were 8 candles on the cake, which puzzled me a bit. I know I am quite advanced in age, but there was no need to exaggerate it with 8 candles. Quite excessive and depressing. Nevertheless, we had a great time that night.

Much appreciated, Motokai!!

Jesus, looks like Motokai baked that cake himself. Brings a tear to my eye....

**MotoKai** · 09-04-2012, 12:26 PM

Would you believe that in Shanxi it's a tradition that after 30 years old, they stop associating your age with the number of candles on the cake, and instead it's always "8 candles"? An auspicious number indeed which means "wealth" or "keep tax man off my back".

* Bikerdoc: If you can't see the video, send me a PM (I'll fix that for you). Likewise to anyone else who has such needs.

**MotoKai** · 09-04-2012, 01:23 PM

Some additional pics from the first few days of riding (Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Shanxi, Gansu).....

Zhangjiajie Profiles

Milton taking it all in

Rest near the Hunan-bei Border

Black Betties (Bam-A-Lam)

A photo worthy of 2 Ride Reports

This puts the "E" in 93E

**MotoKai** · 09-04-2012, 01:30 PM

A Roadside Picnic
(It was on our list of things to do, and we found the perfect Chinese sandwiches for the occasion!)

A Roadside Portrait

Qingling + Red

Milton letting it all out + Red (reference "taking it all in" photo above)

Wet Betty

Fellas, I'm ready to get up and do my thing
I wanta get into it, man, you know
Like a, like a sex machine, man,
Movin' and doin' it, you know
Can I count it off?

**Wrangler** · 09-04-2012, 02:58 PM

Awesome pics guys!!!

**milton** · 09-05-2012, 12:55 AM

Originally Posted by MotoKai

Milton letting it all out ....

Although it’s “water” under the bridge now, this photo and many like it deserve an explanation.

There is this (totally reconciled after 5200 km) difference between Motokai and I regarding the philosophy of bike riding. Motorcycling to me is a means to the end of getting places, while to Motokai it is the end in itself. He likes to go off road or risk his neck just to enjoy the thrill of it, whereas I am off-road and neck-breaking averse unless there is something rewarding at the other end. So during our trip he rarely took or needed rest breaks and staying on the bike all day long was just fine with him. (That is why he started that thread discussing how to urinate on the bike and stuff) To me, since I’d paid so much for getting there, physically and mentally, I wanted to take as many breaks as possible. The unbelievably good scenery presented to us during this trip just cried out for a large necessary number of breaks. Unfortunately for him those breaks slowed down the progress and Urumqi must be reached on time at all cost. So I constantly sensed this pressure of being hurried throughout the trip. However, it is futile to rush a person of my age, who has all the excuses in the world for slacking off. Frequent pee breaks are something I easily came up with so I got to stop often without compunction. You will see lots of photos and shots in the vids with me taking them. At such a high frequency of me with back toward you in this RR, soon it will become the most recognized back profile in MCM. Mind you (Tom in particular) that this may appear as a fetish of some kind of Motokai’s, but the truth is no more than what I’ve just explained.

**MotoKai** · 09-05-2012, 01:12 AM

I belong to the journalism school of thought that says "Shoot Everything!", and pee breaks are just part of the journey!
And this one has an artistic feel that makes me think of 为了人民服务！

Just be happy on that one time you took out the toilet paper I happened to be distracted with a certain dirt road in front of me and went off to explore~!!

**bigdamo** · 09-05-2012, 02:52 AM

Great RR so far interested to see the Xinjiang part. The capital of Gansu is Lanzhou not Xining, .Lanzhou is a nice city I think what with the river and Buddhist temples and mosques close to each other.

**milton** · 09-05-2012, 03:03 AM

Originally Posted by bigdamo

Great RR so far interested to see the Xinjiang part. The capital of Gansu is Lanzhou not Xining, .Lanzhou is a nice city I think what with the river and Buddhist temples and mosques close to each other.

Thanks for the correction. I have changed the text since to describe Xining as the capital of Qinghai, not Gansu. Too bad we did not get to visit Lanzhou.

Although Xinjiang is nice and different, my favorite part of the trip is actually the mountain ranges of Qilian (祁连山). It is featured on the cover photo of Motokai's first video and should be in the next installment of this RR.

Cheers!

**bigdamo** · 09-05-2012, 03:20 AM

Originally Posted by milton

Thanks for the correction. I have changed the text since to describe Xining as the capital of Qinghai, not Gansu. Too bad we did not get to visit Gansu.

Although Xinjiang is nice and different, my favorite part of the trip is actually the mountain ranges of Qilian (祁连山). It is featured on the cover photo of Motokai's first video and should be in the next installment of this RR.

Cheers!

Xinjiang is a vast place and has a few mountain ranges up there with the best in the world. The only good thing about Urumqi is the road out.Unfortunately you only saw a small part of Xinjiang and the Tian shan mountain range it gets better as you head further west(Tian shan range travels 2500Klms and a couple of countries) actually the whole of Xinjiang does.