A last complete riding day on this trip takes us over 300km south to the old capital and temple city Ayutthaya. Here, we charge the batteries for our last leg tomorrow, which will take us to Bangkok downtown and even more: later through dense traffich across Bangkok, to bring our "horses" to the place, where they get ready to be shipped home (or somewhrere else, for those, who continue their journey).

Today, we cross the border from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan, which is one of the smallest countries on our tour.

On our way, we will cross elevations of about 2000 meters and in the afternoon, we will arrive at the second highest alpine lake (after lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia), the Issyk Kul.

After a well rest and after we got our bikes serviced (also with new tires), we will leave this big city and take some nice secondary roads towards east.

THE highlight of the day will be Sharyn Canyon, where we will spend some time for breathtaking pictures, before riding a bit on an (partly) unpaved road to our hotel with a pool (which is up to 40 celsius warm; nice in the cold evenings!)

After that long stretch yesterday, we stay now for 2 days in Almaty, the former capital.

Our bikes get a service and new "shoes"...

Today is the day with the longest distance to ride: 680km

Nevertheless, an early start lets us enjoy the route with its vast lands and some treasures in the "nothing".

Balkhash lake (partly saltwater, partly fresh water - and bigger than lake Aral) will be our destination of today.

Lets see, if we can find the first camels on the way there...

Good-bye capital of Kazakhstan and welcome to the kazakh prairie.

Just another typical lunch place but don't judge too early, please. The food was good!

Taking the pre-order of our dinner

We leave the national park and head to the capital, which was renamed this year after the last Präsident.

Todays route leads us through the first (a bit Mord flat) part of Kazakhstan, where we can get a slight impression, of what is waiting for us the next days. In the afternoon, we reach the area of Burabay with its lakes, woods and hills (of which some are serious mountains: the highest up to 1000m).

Our swiss friends, Bruno and Martin.

As we continue further east, the weather will not change to better today - but the route has some nice and interesting insights for us!

What a match:
Lets travel the world...

...but first, we need to gas up

Rain has also a bright side...
...like this reflection of one of our bikes

Who remembers such a TV set?!

Today, we head to Izhevsk, where the famous russian Kalashnikov (machine gun) is manufactured

Rain and cold temperatures cannot turn our moods bad and we start with some unpaved fun...

...then 18km with a mix of hard pack, bit sand and some mud

Now, the bikes look, for what they were built

Today, we will discover Kazan - the capital of the Tatar region/district is half muslim and half christian

Today is one (and not the last) of some days with colder temperatures (8-10 celsius).

But nevertheless, we enjoy the ride and more of the Russia!

This city needs to be discovered!

And that is, what the group did!

Thanks to Cliff, Maria (a local City guide) gave some more insights on a walking tour.

At breakfast in the hotel:
No, that's not Strudel!
(Omg, don't let our austrian friends see that!)

Kremlin, red square and its well known Basilius Cathedral are a must. Phil was there

Ralf and Martin: really...?
...you want to continue the tour like that?!?

The capital of Russia awaits us...

We follow the "good old" M10 (which is actually in new and excellent condition) which we leave after half way for smaller roads to have more curves and more scenic environment.

Then finally: Moscow!

Big, modern, rich, wiiide roads (but luckily, not too much traffic!).

First full riding day in Russia: Leaving beautiful St. Pete we take the M10 towards Moscow: 390 km on this loooooong and very straight country road, where big trucks seem to have a race and we become more and more used to the Russian traffic.

What a contrast, approaching our hotel at a calm situated lake.

...especially, with a refreshing "sundowner"

After some days of last preparation here in Tallinn the day has finally come to load the bikes, dress up and start the engines for an amazing trip!

400 km and an unforeseeable border crossing into Russia ahead, we prepared the bikes already before breakfast to be able to start off as early as possible.

After a nice ride of around 2,5 hours through Estonia towards the border, we arrive there at the scheduled time. Just some comleted customs paperwork later we are already out of the EU. Entering Russia is a completely different task. Luckily we have Vasily with us. Our Russian partner does amazing to help us cross the border. Huge thanks to him!!! Nevertheless it takes us around 5 hours to enter Russia.

Yeah we managed to get to the hotel in one piece through the Russian traffic and take the elevator down to the underground parking