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  • How much technical knowledge do you need for a World Trip by motorcycle?

    How much technical knowledge do you need for a World Trip by motorcycle?

    To be honest, We didn’t know anything about technical service when we started our world trip in Europe. We were thinking we could learn on the road. On the other hand, it was easy way to start our motorcycle journey from Europe. Because If we need technical service We can find easily 🙂

    We want to write our comic experiences which You can have fun and understand that We really didn’t know anything.

    GS started to ride from Turkey and We met in Germany. We went together to Holland to get ready for Nordkapp.

    Our first day for motorcycle journey to Nordkapp from Holland:

    We were almost German border and stopped to buy petrol. Her motorcycle didn’t work again! We have no idea what happened. GS wanted to call her brother to ask. Her brother said that look for insurances. We have no idea where they are. We had guess and open to side. We were just looking them without took our and check they broke our not. Because we didn’t know that J After a while we called a technical service in Holland and They said that This is battery problem. They said that “go to second gear, push motorcycle and turn engine. After work it wait a while.“ Yes, we did it. It worked but engine sound wasn’t good. So, we went to the technical service and learn that the battery was dead. Her motorcycle is second hand and we had to change the battery……

    (We were in Africa and a motorcycle had same problem who was in Africa by motorcycle. We said him that He has a battery problem we need push it and after that wait a while to get the battery full, it worked :))

    honda crf 250l

    We are in Norway and Time to change oil filter and engine oil:

    We never do that before. But GS saw when her brother did. So, First GS changed her oil filter and engine oil. But no way to open his screw to took out dirty engine oil. Screw was stuck and we didn’t have good tools to fix it. GS walked around the village to ask tools and GS found one. We changed two motorcycles oil filter and engine oil almost in a half-day.

    (For Africa journey, we have new tools :))

    Honda crf 250l world trip

    Ferry, my motorcycle doesn’t wan to go anymore:

    We were riding on Finland highway. Suddenly, my motorcycle started to jump. I was telling to FS on intercom that “Something wrong! My motorcycle doesn’t want to go, engine will stop soon.” I went to emergency line and stop. He asked me first about petrol. I told him I have 2 draws more. He got surprise because He was using reserve. He looked to the tank and saw zero petrol.  He went to look petrol and I understood that Don`t trust what showing my motorcycle for the petrol line.

    (In Africa, We just check how many km. we go with petrol)

    Europe motorcycle trip

    The Chain is getting big and a lot of noise. No idea what happening:

    GS called again her brother to ask what we can do. He send some photos and We learned that we need to take tire bag to tide chain again. We found a Wi-Fi in Tallinn and look some YouTube videos. After there we started to work on it. It took more than half a day. But It was to late we had to change the chain in Poland.

    (In Africa, we can control chain a lot and if we need to tide the chain It can take 10 minutes now 🙂 )

    honda crf 250l techinical

    Actually, we didn’t have more problems during our 20.000 km ride in Europe. GS wanted to go Istanbul, Turkey before start our Africa journey. Because GS has friends in Istanbul who has technical service and help us to learn technical details for motorcycles and also we can check up motorcycles and modify a little.

    We went to `` Ersoy Moto“ in Istanbul. Owner name is Gokhan. We were in his technical service a week. He showed us everything what we need to know and how we can fix our motorcycles on the road. Also, He checked up them. We changed our chains, tires…etc. there. We bought a lot of thing there what we need necessary on the road from him. Also, we went to some store and modified our motorcycle to be more comfortable. All stuff is really cheap when you compare to Europe.

     

    What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

     

  • How much did we spend in West Africa?

    How much did we spend in West Africa?

    We started our Western Africa journey from Morocco. We passed 17 countries until Namibia in 7 months. We spent most money for visas. And sometimes we had to change our route because of visa hunting. 🙂

    When we started our journey we said that “Our daily budget is 50 USD for discover the world by motorcycle.” End of the month, year… etc. If the budget is aprox. 50 USD we are safe. 🙂

    Daily, we have been writing how much we are spending with all detail. Therefore, so easy for us to see country by country our spent and discuss what we spent for nothing to be careful.

    Congo and DRC was most expensive country for us because of visa fee. 🙁 End of the day, our daily budget was 37.82 USD  for Morocco to Namibia. Less then what we were thinking.  This doesn’t mean that we are so careful or all countries are so cheap. People invited us to stay or offered food. They also helped us for motorcycle parts… etc. It was great experienced to met people, learn culture and life style, also make a lot of friend in Western Africa.

    You can find all detail to our spent :

    How much money need for West Africa Travel

  • How much do we need for the world trip by motorcycles?

    How much do we need for the world trip by motorcycles?

    We want to go Europe after that Africa by motorcycles but our target is a world trip. It means that no work anymore. How much we have, we need to spend carefully.

    Most important question for us “How much money do we need daily?“ And than easily we can figure out monthly money. Also, how many years we can keep going to the world trip. 🙂

    I traveled Central and South America for a while. I was spending 35-40 USD daily include all transportations. When two persons traveling an accommodation can be more cheap because you can go more wild camping. We don’t use bus, ferry or plane a lot because we will be on the motorcycles. So, how much I was spending It can be enough for petrol to both of us. Just food will be for two persons. Could be 50 USD per day is enough.

    But we didn’t sure about that. We went to Europe trip for 4 months and we spend approx. 55 USD daily. After that, we decided our daily budget cant be more than 50 USD per day for the world trip.

    What does include in our daily budget for the trip?

    • Visas, Custom Service, Traffic Insurance
    • Petrol
    • Accommodation
    • Food/drinks
    • Healthy to go to pharmacy or doctor
    • Shopping on the road what we need for motorcycles, outdoor, kitchen…etc.

    We saved a little money to spend for something what is necessaries. And not include in our daily budget

    • Fly tickets
    • Shipping motorcycles
    • Kilimanjaro
    • Masai Safari
    • New Carnet de Passage, passports…etc.

    So, easy to calculate now: 50 USD per day for two-person, 1.500 USD per month, 18.000 per year.  How long do you want to be on the road?  For us, until finish our money. We have been planning to work sometimes on the road. But we don’t know yet where and how.

    GS

  • How did we decide to go to the world trip by motorcycles?

    How did we decide to go to the world trip by motorcycles?

    After Indonesia trip, we started to talk what we will do for future and how we will live together. At the same time, i was telling him non-stop my dreams, which are, go to Africa by motorcycle; actually go to a world trip, which I have already started, from South America.

    In the beginning, he didn’t agree with me go to Africa by motorcycles. Because he never ride motorcycle and also he never interest to ride a motorcycle. But he agreed with me to discover the world.

    He also agreed what I told him in the beginning “I have been looking for my home. Somewhere in the world, I am sure that I have a place belong to me. When I see it I can understand and I want to live there.“

    We needed to figure out how we will travel. We don’t need to hurry up because it is a big step in our lives. My brother was getting married. So, he came to Turkey to meet my family. Ferry and I didn’t have motorcycles at the moment but my brother has two. He was getting ready to Latin America trip with his wife. He gave us his motorcycles. But I didn’t ride real motorcycle more than 10 years now, how can I ride? I did a little practice and I saw that you never forgot when you learn one time. We got one motorcycle and teach Ferry how he can ride. It passed 2 hours he was making circles and U turns very well.

    motorcycle trip

    After 4 hours, he was making very well breaks. 6 hours later, my brother came and he got surprise when saw Ferry. My brother asked me that “I am sure, Ferry never ride before!“ Maybe he never ride motorcycle before but his balance is amazing because he has been cycling since he was 4.

    Ferry loved to ride motorcycle. When he was leaving from Istanbul we decided that I am going to buy a motorcycle in Turkey and he is going to get the driver license and a motorcycle. He got his license in 3 weeks and bought motorcycle as well.

    How can you get ready to motorcycle exam

    Africa is really tough, especially West Africa if one person has started to ride now and other person didn’t ride motorcycle more than 10 years. We don’t need to be crazy right? Go to Europe first. Put a target for you trip, which is North Cape. If we really like and enjoy to ride motorcycle we can go to Africa and make it CapetoCape . If we turn our road to Africa it means for us we can make a motorcycle journey to discover the world!

    We traveled in Europe 4 months and made more than 20.000 km. We really enjoyed so much. After that we went to Turkey before go to Africa. Because I know a lot of people who, can help us to get our motorcycles ready to Africa.

    We have changed some part of our motorcycles. We went to “Ersoy Moto“ for a week. He teach us a lot technical things how we can fix our motorcycles.

    So, our trip was in the beginning go to North Cape. After that we said go to CapetoCape road by motorcycles. Now we are saying that we are in the world trip by motorcycles! How long can we go? Where can we stop? We have no idea. We will see!

  • How did I meet my love?  How did I fall in love? FS

    How did I meet my love? How did I fall in love? FS

    I bought my ticket for the ferry, not the cheapest one because they told me maybe it’s nice to have a bed on the boat as it’s going overnight and the price was just 50 cents more then the deck-ticket. As I arrived on the boat a guy called Ferry was the only local speaking English, he helped me find my way on the boat and put me on the deck and got me a mattress to sleep on. I was just sitting in the sun relaxing talking a bit to other backpackers what they where about to do on the Togain island and to what resort they where thinking to go to.

    All of a sudden there comes this girl on the deck with an amazing smile! Wow, I need to get close to her and talk a little with her, so I did. Coming from Turkey and shining like a star, very interesting of course. Ok! Ferry don’t push to much as she was talking with some other people as well, 1 person was just taking photo’s from her and I thought is this somebody famous, blogger, model or what? Ok, I need to go and ask again. After that we never stopped talking on the boat, some other backpackers where sitting with us as well but we just talked with the 2 of us, 7 hours straight away. Ok, time to close our eyes a little bit and hopefully we follow our conversations tomorrow again. I woke up in the morning and the sun was coming up, I just had a few hours sleep but I felt like I was shining like the sun. I looked at her for a while when she was still sleeping, she’s also beautiful when she’s sleeping. I softly woke her up to see the sunrise and together drink a coffee.

    I still had the same amazing feeling about her, I really wanted she was coming to the same resort as where I was going to but how are you going to convince somebody you just met 14 hours ago? I didn’t had a clue, we walked together from the deck down but when I was downstairs she was not behind me anymore? What happened? I decided to wait a little and there she came, smiling as always, I just hoped it was because I was waiting her. I basically asked her directly to come with me to the same resort, she smiled and walked with me, still I wasn’t sure if she was coming to the same place, as we needed to take a canoe to the place. I looked at her eyes again and I just knew she was coming with me.

    (What happened after that you can read in her story.) I just want to say that when we were sitting on the beach and looking stars our lives really changed and never would have been the same again. When I looked in her eyes there was so much feeling going through me, I just knew that I didn’t want to run away, but yes the easiest way in life is saying ‘no’ but I’m not the person who chooses the easy way, so I stayed and now we are living our life together around the world. Best decision ever made 🙂

    FS

  • How did I meet my love?  How did I fall in love? GS

    How did I meet my love? How did I fall in love? GS

    12 of February, I booked cheapest ticket for the ferry, which is sleep on the deck. I was turning in the ferry but I couldn’t find to stairs. Somebody showed me a man who is local and can speak English. I went next to him and wanted to help. He was really so friendly guy named Ferry. Actually, it’s not an Indonesian name. I learned that his father is from Italy. He took my backpack to help me and we started to climb the stairs. It was really sharp.

    Finally, we came to the deck. He was asking a lot of questions about my trip and accident. At the same time, one guy was standing next to us and listening us. After a while, he suddenly jumped to our conversion. And started to asked questions. When I was trying to answer him. He said that “By the way, my name is Ferry“ He took out his sunglasses. I saw his amazing eyes. In a second, I forgot what I was talking! It was some kind of joke. I am in the Ferry. Indonesian guy helping me who name is Ferry. And he was saying that his name is Ferry….

    We talked 5 minutes or something like that. After that, I was looking a space where I can put my mattress. He already took the nice point. I asked him to put my mattress next to him. Of course answer was YES! That time, more people started to come to the deck and I started to talk with them. I was giving some info them about Indonesian islands and they were taking a lot of photos from me. Ferry, jumped again our conversion and asked me “Are you a blogger or something? You look like very famous. I just laugh for that but I liked to subject anyway.

    I talk with Ferry more than 7 hours. Every minute, I was feeling something more to him. It was coming midnight and we decided to sleep time.

    13 of February, Somebody was touching my shoulder very softly. I woke up. It was Ferry. He remember that I told him “ I love to watch sunrise and sunset“ Therefore, He wanted to I woke up and looked to sunrise. It was beautiful. When we were watching the view very quite the ferry came to the port. Ferry asked me “ what is my plan? Which island am I going? I didn’t know what I could do. We left to ferry and went to the port. I was talking with other people to learn where they are going. Ferry asked me again “ are you coming with me?“ This time I got surprise because the question was so different 🙂

    Yeap, I went with him but not alone with other 5 tourists. When we arrive to island we went to cheapest bungalows with everybody. Ferry and I talk all morning and afternoon non-stop. No Internet no phone access which is nice. So, what can you do more? Just talk and talk… After that we decided go a few km far a way to see some little beaches. That moment we took our first photo. And stayed there to watch sunset. It was so lovely sunset.

    We turned back to the bungalows and had really nice dinner with other people. Owner said that “No electricity after 11 pm.“ it was ok because we could see amazing stars and view.

    14 of February, It was midnight and we took some towels, went to in front of bungalows and sat. We were watching stars and great view from the island. Our eyes touch each other.

    This time, I really felt something went trough to him from my heart. He kept my hand and asked a question `should I run way now? If I don’t move know I will stuck with you forever“ I couldn’t find any word to tell him. Just I looked his eyes again and again with big smile…. I felt that he is my love of life. This is the guy who could take my heart!

    GS

  • Why did I decide to go Indonesia? FS

    Why did I decide to go Indonesia? FS

    My story is actually not that exited at all, as I was always looking for cheap deals to fly somewhere. This time I found a good deal to fly to Indonesia so Indonesia it was. Of course Indonesia is not just 1 island, so I needed to make a choice where to go to, as everybody goes to Bali nowadays this was no option for me. I did some online research and found some blogs about the unexplored island Sulawesi they all described it as paradise on earth and not touristic, that sounded really good to me!

    You can read GS story

    FS

  • Why did I decide to go Indonesia? How did I change my plan? GS

    Why did I decide to go Indonesia? How did I change my plan? GS

    I saw a lot of amazing places in Central and South America. Met nice people and learned different cultures. It was time to change the continent. My dream was go to Africa but I know that it’s not easy to be backpacker there. On the other hand, I want to ride motorcycle in Africa. What can I do? Where can I go?

    Next continent can be Asia. My birthday was coming and I wanted to choose a special country to start on my birthday. The time was coming but I didn’t know where I want to go.

    20 of December, I woke up and said that “ I must go to Indonesia“. I booked my flight to first of January. I got ready and went to Indonesia.

    6 of January, I was in Borobudur template. I went to up and sat. It was my birthday and was thinking about my life. Actually, I have a great life, nice family, good friends…etc. Just one thing was missing in this good picture love of my life. I got a little upset because I started to think that I never find him.

    world trip

    My plan was stay in a month and than go to Malaysia. But I want to discover more Indonesia and extend my visa one month more. I wanted to go to Papua and see last cannibal tribe in the world. After all my research and wrote I found cheapest way 4.000 USD for two weeks and not include my flight tickets. Come on! I can’t do that. This is 4 months travel money for me!

    I change my road again in Indonesia. I had already visa and could do more interesting thing in Indonesia. I decided to go dive with shark and see active volcano under the sea. I went a little village to search a ferry and tour about it. I rent a little scooter. And had a accident with 50cc scooter. My rent helmet was so big when I was riding bumpy road it closed my eyes. When I was trying to fix it I saw a little kid jumped to the road with some chickens. I used in front break at the moment and I fell down. I injured my rib. L So, my other dream disappeared again. No more diving!

    I had problem with rib and also a lot of scratch on my arm. I needed to get rest. But where? I have only one option to go to the Togian islands and stay a coupe of days. Next day, I went to the port and bought my ticket to the ferry.

    GS

  • Who is FS?

    Who is FS?

    I was born in Alkmaar (Netherlands) and grow up in Langedijk, that’s where I lived all my life. After I finished all my schools it was time to start working, NO! Instead I decided to start traveling, I took my backpack and went to Australia, where I had the best year of my life (till I met GS). But the traveling virus has attracted me and I loved it. After a year in Australia and New Zealand it was really time to start working, as I was totally broke.

    I have been working in glasshouses, picking flowers and after that in the car-rental business. I never liked the fact that I was working for someone who decides what I need to do and tells me what time I need to be there and when I can leave. So after a few years I started my own business on the internet, that gave me the opportunity to travel more as well again. Always as a backpacker.

    Nowadays I’m going through life as rider on my Honda CRF250L, sold everything I owned in Holland and living on my motorcycle and as a roof we have a tent above our head.

    FS

  • Who is GS?

    Who is GS?

    I was born south of Turkey which city is called Adana. I grew up there and than moved to Istanbul for University. After graduated I found good job in Istanbul and never turn back my city. Also, my brother came to Istanbul for university. After a while my family has moved to Istanbul 😉

    I was working finance sector and actually I had a good carrier and was earning good money. I was a system analyst to many banks for 15 years. Even if I like my job so much, I never want to work so long. Because always, I was thinking to see the world and discover. I started to travel a lot when I was working but never got enough. What could I do? It wasn’t easy to resign and went your way. Good job, good money! Also, You have a lot of friends, nice apartment and good life.

    Until, I lost my mother. She was just 57 years old and she was so healthy. I understood that Life is really so short. If I don’t choose what I want now maybe I never have it. I quit my job. Pack my backpack and have started to explore the world. My first continent was South America. I don’t know why but when I was young I wanted to live there. Almost 3 years I was there. Sometimes, I went back to visit my father.

    GS