My 31st birthday

Thats how I look when Hope Too is not around for a week.

I had a special birthday present from them.

I'm so glad that i could share the recipe of Bangladesh curry chicken with Daniel. Now he could cook it without me.

Recommanded hostel? i'm not in it. Ladies, you might find handsome and well built men that are not intrested in you.

we met him in november 2007, Pasir Ris park, Singapore, before our trip, he was going to sail to Australia, 3 months on a boat.
Then we saw his bike in Santiago March 2009, didn't have a chance to meet them. check out http://www.pedalen.ch/index.php

That's Anke and Sam!

It was a real pleasure to be with Anke again. We had a good time cooking for each other. The taste of Kuchen, not pronuced as ‘koo chern’ but ‘khoo hern’, the german pie, came to us again! 2 out of 3 nights our dinner was provided by Hostel de Sammy for FREE!

Charles, owner of Hostel de Sammy serving his free dinner to Sam.


One of the nights, Miriam visited us in our hostel. She is now the first Italian woman to travel on motorcycle on such an epic journey. Miriam is traveling up to Alaska, like us so we will always meet along the road.

We left Santiago on 19 March 2009 by bus to Valparaiso. Coming back to Villa Kunterbunt was like coming back home. Other than Martina and Enzo, the host, was familiar, we met Thomas, Andrea, Olli, Silke, Daniel and Miriam!

Thomas and Andrea had ended their 20 months motorbike trip in the America continent. Olli and Silke were stopping over in Villa Kunterbunt, so as Daniel and Miriam. We always had been keeping in contact, trying to ask each other that when will we meet again, since we parted Thomas, Andrea, Olli and Silke 3-4 months ago when we were traveling together. Daniel since our Dakarmoto days, since the horizonsunlimited meeting and we didn’t know where in the world we will meet. All of them arrived earlier than me but they didn’t get to the most romantic tower room in Villa Kunterbunt. In this Villa, it’s build by wooden so each steps on the stairs will have some screeching sound. the old stairs leads up to the third level, the only room. Surrounding the room were windows, clear window that we could have the day view of the whole city, the night view of the lights in the whole city. Thank you all my friends for giving us this room.

It seems like a dream, in this wonderful dream you had different but familiar people appearing in the scene. 20 March 2009, the ladies, Martina, Silke, Andrea had started preparing food for the night since noon. When ever I enter the kitchen, the ladies tried to ask me out. I didn’t know that they are baking a special cake for me until the midnight night.
Silke and Andrea, preparing the surprise cake.

This was the only time that I had reached a place, that everyone is so familiar with each other, that I will not be asked about which countries had we traveled so far, what motorbike you have, where are we from… blah blah blah. These 2 days we talked about our plans when we go home, about other friends and about everything. Its like close friends.
Sam, Santiago (thats his name, from Portugual) and me.

Most of the time when we reached a new place, people around us wondered about our identity. Even in a bagpacker’s hostel, we met other travelers, they ask us the same thing. We are not annoyed but pleased to answer their doubts. My main aim of answering them is not because I am a friendly person but to let them understand how such a trip can be made, how Asians also can do it, how dreams could be achived.

Martina preparing tonnes of meat.

It’s about 2 hour to midnight, everyone was showered with the lovely steak prepared by Martina, grilled by Enzo, salad prepared by Sam, Andrea and Saskia. Enzo started to dance within the latino music. He had the greatest charm of a latino dancer. The tricks in his movement was like bull fighting, the eye contact that he gave was to give attraction to the dance partner, the hands moving around makes you know how to turn even if you are a first timer. He had passion in what he does. It’s from him I understand the word ‘Passion’, which had a different meaning than loving something.

I knew midnight fell when Enzo brought out and old turn table with the happy birthday song. Everyone was singing. I was even touched when Sam brought out a birthday cake. It had been years that I have not had a birthday cake. My eyes were drowned, I looked at everyone around as they sing the song, truly congratulating a special day of mine, making me so important. I recived hugs and kisses from everyone. It was not a birthday that I had expected. It was not a birthday that I had organized. It was a birthday of true moments.

Thank you Enzo, I really learnt about many things that I had not discovered before. Enzo, me and Oliver.

Thank you Martina, being our host, saving the romantic room for us, organizing everything. Silke, Martina, Andrea and Sam preparing for the first night dinner.

Thank you Thomas, your words had always been sincere, trying to help us secretly.

Sam, Andrea, Thomas and me.

Thank you Daniel, I had always wanted to meet you, enjoyed your presence.
Thank you Miriam, you left me many deep memories, we will meet along the road. Me, Daniel, Miriam and Sam.

Thank you Oliver, teaching me about beer opening, carrying the cartons of beer back everytime, sharing about your point of life.
Thank you Silke, always checking on my mood level, organizing and making sure everything works well.

Silke, Oliver, Sam and me.

Thank you Andrea, always ensuring about our belongings like socks, sleeping bags, making sure that they are warm. I recived the most hugs from you.

Martina, Sam, Me and Andrea.

Thank you my wife, my life mate, a person that I will be with for the journey of life.

Did I missed out something about you?

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Now we are back in Iquique, leaving our moment of time in Valparaiso, then I just woke up from the dream, I had left my Camelbak in Villa Kunterbunt!

Today I had Hope Too on the move. His front brake disc was totally covered with thick rust. I rode to the bike shop,
Bemotos. S20 12.848 W70 08.432

I was recommended by samsmoto because they are too busy for my bike. the first time with bemotos was the problem with my steering wheel problem. He took out everything of the steering wheel, checked and all the bearings were fine. he greased all the bearings and fixed it back. they only charged me for 5000cpl. cool! please be reminded that in Santiago, a friend of mine had his tire changed for 15000cpl PER TIRE, for the workman ship, at Metzeler. I was very satisfied with Bemotos. they are repairing a lot of Yamaha off road bikes from the touristic rental shops. the Yamaha goes up to 450cc. almost everybike there are blue.

the second time I went there was with my chain kit being sent from Singapore as Santiago is selling it 2-3 times more than at home. even I had a 5kg parcel sent in from Singapore, everything in the box cost less than buying a chain in Santiago. Today he helped me change the chain and sprockets, cleaned Hope Too where I had not clean since I bought it, do up the brakes. It was about 5-6 hours job and it cost 10000cpl. cool! I’m very satisfied. I went off to another shop to have my broken inner tire patched. well, there are almost 12 holes and they charged me 7000cpl, I was upset and they gave me a discount of 2000cpl.

In Bemotos, there is another mechanic, from Ecuador. He was a black man, suffered from polio. both his legs were gone and he is sitting on his wheel chair. I could see from his eyes that he is living with hope. he enjoyed his work, as a motorbike mechanic. he specialize in quad bikes. check him out, he left deep impression in my mind. Charley.

Charley

after Iquique, we will be traveling much faster than before to the north. sorry if I had not update our blog… catch us in Peru!

Check out the midnight video that touched me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B4Pau3NFvA

who is Enzo? Who is Miriam? how they dance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk7iVOX9EyY

Me, learning how to dance with passion from the passion master, Enzo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXf9L8aT0rQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk7iVOX9EyY