Singapore to Ireland
From Asia to Europe by Motorcycle
The Project
I am riding a motorcycle from Singapore to Ireland in support of the Lotus Children’s Centre in Mongolia.
Read more about the work of Lotus and my route on the About & Donate pages.
You can support the children of Lotus and my ride across Asia and Europe, by making a donation to Lotus Children’s Centre through Virgin Money giving.
Thank you for your support.
Today was spent repairing the kids outdoor play equipment, with lots of little helpers swinging hammers, sawing bits of wood and having fun whacking nails and screws into anything they could find. After lunch, together with two Mongolian guys, we mixed 6 bags of cement and laid a concrete slab as a base for another ger. It was solid work shoveling sand and blue metal and mixing by hand, then trowling the cement smooth. I know my back will feel it tomorrow. It was only after chatting with…
13th June 2014 0km by bike Lotus Children’s Centre – Gachuurt I spent the day working at Lotus Children’s Centre today. The Children’s centre is located on a property in a beautiful valley in Gachuurt, on the outskirts of Ulaanbataar. First task of the day was to empty two shipping containers of gers that had been stored for the winter. Once that was done, together with two Mongolian guys, we built a ger from scratch. This was a brilliant experience, and…
12th June 2014 0km Ulaanbaatar The morning was spent at the Kazakhstan embassy, applying for the Kazakh visa. I had overlooked that the embassy might want copies of both my bike registration and IDP. While I had my Australian drivers license, they insisted that the IDP was needed. Fortunately the girl in the consular section agreed that I could send her a scanned copy of both documents later in the day, so after filling in the forms and having her check over them, I returned to…
11th June 2014 12-31’C 366km (100km off-road) Ikh Gazriin Chuluu – Ulaanbaatar I woke at 4:45am when the sound of chirping birds stirred me from my slumber. It was a bright night, courtesy of an almost full moon, but I was very comfortable in my tent, and especially happy with the ultralight Thermarest NeoAir X-Lite camping mattress, which has proven to be more comfortable than some of the hotels I’ve stayed in. Even with tufts of stiff grass and rocks underneath, I’m still…
10th June 2014 12-24’C 327km (130km off road) Sainshand – Ikh Gazriin Chuluu – N45°45.512 E107°15.308 It was a beautifully cool morning as I headed out from Sainshand towards Chyor along the newly built road. Arriving at Chyor, we found a place for lunch, a strange sort of Mongolian dish of fried noodle with potato, capsicum and carrots, but tasty. On leaving the restaurant, a car pulled up and two couples and two small kids got out. The voluptuous woman who was driving the car arrived…
9th June 2014 12-22’C 237km Erenhot – Sainshand (Mongolia) Last night the hotel arranged for the bike to be parked inside a shopping mall. I rode up and into the mall, parked next to a small store and the mall was locked up from 6pm-9am. So after loading the bike, I started up the engine, ready to head for the border, but the engine misfired repeatedly and wouldn’t run. It was only firing on one cylinder. I sense of dread crept over me, as…
8th June 2014 11-24’C 360km Ulanqab – Erenhot I woke up to this fabulous view in the morning, of a truck parking lot, a heating building and the last of my maps of China. It was a cool morning leaving Ulanqab, and breakfast consisted of just two steamed mutton dumplings and a little yak milk tea. Passing by mud brick villages, where the winter temperature reaches -25’C, you wouldn’t want to forget to light the yak dung fire, you’d freeze. Eventually…
7th June 2014 21-25’C 370km Beijing – Ulanqab (Inner Mongolia) The rain storm that passed over Beijing yesterday, made a tremendous improvement Beijing’s air quality. Gone was the humid, grey, choking pollution haze and I awoke to beautiful clear blue skies and cool air. Being Saturday morning, traffic was light apart from a large number of cyclists in lycra, also out enjoying the clean morning air. The first hour was spent exiting the city, then the next hour riding some…
Riding in China is a whole other world, and requires constant focus and attention not to be wiped out by the other crazies on the road. There are many different types of drivers and vehicles, each with their own peculiar attributes and behaviours. Trucks Prevalence: 9/10 Danger: 2/10 Most Chinese truck drivers are real professionals, they are respectful on the road, give you space and often even a wave. There are literally thousands of these guys driving semi-trailers on the…
6th June 2014 31-18’C 0km Beijing – Temple of Heaven – Tiananmen Square The morning was spent exploring the magnificent Temple of Heaven, an absolutely beautiful collection of buildings, dedicated to the emperors communications with heaven and requests for a good harvest. I then headed over to Tiananmen Square. It had started to rain heavily, which was a good thing as it had been hot, humid and with nasty pollution in the morning. PM2.5 >200 and I could feel it in…
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