Sao Joao Da Boa Vista

Coffee packing.

classroom presentation.

Hope Too, in workshop with the mechnic and at Simone's home with the mechnic

coffee grading where he had to sip 10 spoonful of coffee per sample. guess how many sample he has everyday?

it's time where we left Sao Paulo. Simone helped us to call everyone for help due to the bike. we would like to thank here for all the trouble. she is here also for holiday and yet she took the trouble helping us to plan everything. this is how a Brazilian kindness that we are hard to forget in our life. why would someone that doesn't know us where we came from another world, would helped us in this way?

yes, Hope Too had bad fuel in Brazil. very low octone and dirty quality at about S$2.00 per liter. causing lots of dirt to the cabrator. along the way from Bolivia to Sao Paulo, we wish to get there fast as the battary (installed at Pakistan) is not working well. Upon reaching Simone's mother home, she (her mother) also helped us to call the newspaper reporter, drove to the local honda dealer to ask for sponsorship for us. she is about 73 years old. the marketing director require an email for any request but after sending the email, we waited a few days, until now, there isnt any response. i decided to walk into the honda workshop to enquire about the battery price. we didnt speak good portuguese but thanks to the internet, there are lots of translation online. i just wanted to buy the original battery which cost about S$70.00 in Singapore but they quoted me S$600.00 for one! thanks mann.

luckily with Simone's referral, we got to know Philipe and went to another workshop. that street has about 30 motorbike dealers and workshop side by side. Motoracer was the one we went to. i check the battery price before going to Motoracer, most shop sold at S$250.00++ but motoracer quoted me $20.00 lesser. not because it is S$20.00 lesser but to ensure that we have to know the market price. the mechnic checked everything for me, re-wire Hope Too's battery, cleaned the carbrator. i asked the boss how much was the workmanship and he did not charged me a single cent for that! as a support for our trip and as a biker himself, he only charged me for the cost price of the battery! what a place, full of warmness! http://www.motoracer.com.br/

happily riding back to simone's home, Sam noticed that the overflow pipe was FLOWING with petrol! again, not devasted but it makes me angry. Hope never give me such problems but Hope Too always had! i couldnt ride back to the workshop again where the petrol is flowing everywhere when i start the engine. the next day i took out the fuel tank and check but everything is in order. Simone call up the workshop again and in a few hours time, the mechnic rode to our place and retify the problem! free of charge again! of cause we give him a token of apprciation but such 'on the door' motorbike service, i had never had before!

we went to a school and share with them our journey as Philipe's sister in law is teaching in the school. the children were impressed and motivated with our journey and pictures.

Simone's mother. 73. living alone but lived her life now as a busy woman. She helped the needys to cut hair, not alone but by organizing and participating in all the charity work. this is one of her younger days when she go to the children's home. in asia, a woman at 73 would......would not do such troublesome work or dirty work.

she is someone that we look up to. the disabled that they attended to, i may not have the patience to take care of them.

There was also a hospital for the poor women, where they give birth to babies. the mothers there had no money to do their hair because of their financial statues so Simone's mother had organized a salon in the hospital to give the new mothers a new look and confidence after giving birth. every women deserved to be pretty regardless of $, espically after giving birth where they felt so tired. i'm really touched about what her mother was doing.

S 21deg 58.294'

W 046deg 46.547'

Activities in Sao Paulo

thanks to Cedar, worked in Coca cola, she got invitation from a local club by the name of History. History was having their opening ceromany and we drank caipirinha (famous brazilian cocktail) and beer, on the house!see what Shindawa chainsaw can do...



an old photo we found at Simone's house.


Mauricu just handed me a badge from his vest just because i said that it's nice. i just got to know him less than 10 minutes!



One of the common faces we can see in brazil, not the one on the left but the senior biker with the leather jacket.

Carolina! Bad girl bad girl... guess how old is she... you will be surprised!



Hope Too was inhaling too much sand and dust during our 'Euduro Bolivia'.

Hope Too had his battery fault again. Can't start. Sohail at Pakistan had changed the terminal to a smaller one. I threw away the original terminal connector and cable. now the battery is weak and it couldn't start. 2 of the spoke from the rear wheel had broken, because i tried to tighten them.

Trying to look for a good bike shop to nurse Hope Too.

anyway, we were invited to a biker's weekly gathering. they are cruzer guys from a international group of Mansonry. They told me it's an international group. the chairman presented both of us 2 very special badges where ordinary members even didn 't have. Sam and I were touched thou we speak lousy Portugese. many RTW bikers chose to skip Brazil because it may be out of the way from the north, hearing that it is dangerous, because it is not so popular blah blah blah but they had missed the people here!

well... now no bike to travel but we are very lucky that Simone and her mother had let us stay at their house. How can we repay them???

ugly singaporeans, the world is reading this now.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20081005/tap-263-mp-meets-serangoon-gardens-resid-231650b.html

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_286434.html

refer to the news above, in my very personal opinion, i could feel... feel the goods and bads.

those resident at serangoon garden, singapore, that complaint about this issue now felt:
1) UNSAFE. Because...
a)they think that foreign workers bring problem to the society.
b)they think that foreign workers are dirty and low class.
c)they think that buy having a dorm at the area, it had brought down the property value of their houses. making serangoon garden a low class place to stay.

so, some leaders from the area had survey the project, ensuring the resident that most of the workers come from the manufacturing industry, instead of construction. so high percent is female. WHAT DOES THIS MEANS???!!! does it means more male construction foreign workers would create fear to the resident?!

BUT, the building of the dorm in Serangoon Gardens will make some business bloom! example, food stalls, provision shop and transportations.

why do we still have a kind of 'racist' towards foreign workers?

hey, there are many singaporeans working overseas like in Australia. i agree that those singaporean working in australia is mostly professionals but do u know some of the aussies hate chinese there? does that means that the resident in australia must move the singaporeans away were we are foreign workers?

i felt that singaporeans had a different look towards dark looking construction workers. u can imagine how is it like when a few workers gather under a void deck having a chat then someone walked pass and lodge a complaint to the police, fearing that they will create trouble. can u imagine we have traveled to their country and how i feel?

for those that think that dark looking construction workers in singapore will create fear in your life, GET LOST!!! you should travel to their country. are you sick or you have some dieases that looking at them makes you scared, thinking that they will rape you or rob you? they are just like me, born by a mother, have blood and soul. give a thought: how many % of crime is done by the dark looking workers as compared to the % of singaporeans. touch your heart when answering that or are you just worried about the value and statues of your property?

'oh, you are staying at the XYZ estate? where the foreign workers also stayed there?'

do you know that they need to pay the blood sucking agent lots of $ to come singapore to work? then if there is no work in singapore they are in debt. some employers treat them good, some treat them bad but what about the society in singapore? how do we look at them? your new houses, your new garden, your new road and ,,..... without them who is going to do this? do you expect a singaporean, averaging educated, would sweat in the sun, wearing dirty clothings and do life theatening job? they are life! they must be respected. the news report i that i have viewed really make me sick!

sorry if you feel the opposite.

our house maid, came from indonesia, came from philipines, they had family. they had sick mother and father too but why are they selling their time to take care of our family? why?

many think that... oh... these worker come to singapore, worked for a few years and when they go back to their country and they will be like a king. come on... wake up! times are different. check it out how much they have to pay for the debt. check out how 'home sick' are they. check out all! if a singaporean goes to england to work, earning english pound and the people says: when this guy go back singapore, he will be like a king... how will you feel???

sick!

they are like you and me. they didn't have a choice. not everybody have determination and faith can do what they want. like if im born in a poor country, even i have determination and faith, i don't think i can ride the world. i'm just lucky, lucky to be borned in singapore. i have the choice to do what i wanted to do.

dear friends, lets not be sick like those singaporeans that i have mention. if you do not like what i have said, i'm sorry. i'm frank. i do not write anything on the blog just to make you happy.

do you know that singapore is still backwards? we still have to fill in the column about what race we belong to. are we racist? some of the country that we have traveled, when they are applying for job, the company leave out the name and race for the application form.

intresting?

we, the citizen of singapore. pledge ourselves be one united nation. REGARDLESS OF RACE, LANGUAGE OR RELIGEN, to built a democratic society, base on justise and equality. so as to achive happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation!

note... fellow singaporeans. lets stick to this, the pledge that we always put our right fist on the chest and everymorning we input in our mind. my spelling may not be correct but i know what am i typing. stop acting like a '1st class' citizen. we are still not 1st in the world. F1 doesn't mean anything for us to the world. we are like morocco (africa), did the race on the street. knowing to speak english doesn't mean you are educated, high class or you can travel the world by speaking english. wake up my dear, wake up.

i hate those singaporean that travel to malaysia, feeling that malaysia is dirty, malaysia is a lower class place than singapore. i hate it.

now the world is reading this blog, i hope to make singapore proud.

thank you for your time.

intresting brazilian landscape products

wood deckingswood decking with plastic module fix at the bottom. allowing to fix with other pieces of deckings.curly cactus?aloe vera with thorns??another picture of 'curly cactus'.Brazilian pine bark. the workers in the pine forest uses hand to scrape off the bark from the tree.the pine bark in 60 liters packet. cheaper than the australian ones.

we are invited by Simone's brother to his son's birthday.

Simone's family.
the local newspaper reporter interviewed us.
Hope Too spoke was broken. can't move now. the battary was faulty now. luckily we are stationed at Simone's house. Waiting for help.


a typical brazilian style of serving food. the waiter come with the roasted meat and cut on our plate.

we went to a mobile market.

the mobile market changes location everyday.

food!

this year, Brazil celebrates 100 years of history for Japanese immigrants. Lots of Japanese migrated to Brazil for agriculture work during that time. Thus, other than the Negro looking, european looking, native looking, Brazil also has asian looking people. i think brazil has the most type of people all over the world. years passed and the races married to each other and has mixed look.

all of them speak portuguese. the younger generation has lost contact with their motherland thus they had not learned their mother tongue. we felt 'camoflaged' in brazil because we looked like the japanese community here.

due to the many type of faces of people in brazil, the passport of Brazil has made valuable to the black market.

this coming sunday is Sao Paulo election. wao... they are very advanced. the candidates has 'advertisment' thro television. i believe they are the first in the world to use electronic voting system. unlike singapore, the candidates had to set up a 'stage' to give speech to the public in the open field, like 'ge-tai'. singapore is still sticking to the paper style of voting.

Lina! Simone's mother in law from Italy.

Sao Paulo

well, thats what sao paulo is. i think they are having an election round the corner.


dont think that brazil is a backward country. i saw the creativity and technology in this country is so advance. i can say better than singapore. the standard of living is more luxury than singapore (in sao paulo).
along the way from Bolivia to Sao Paulo, we had about 1400km to wheel. good and straight road towards the east. low graded gasoline is about S$2.20 per liter. as our french friend said, everytime we enter a new country we will lose $. thats true. 1st day in brazil we stay in a R$110 hotel. (R$1.00 = S$0.80)
2nd day we stay in a Motel, those that people needed urge and drive in and had a private parking, nice bed and mirrors everywhere. condoms and lubrication supplied type of place. the motel is R$80.00 per night. lousy quality if i can grade.
3rd night... after 600km of travel, we wanted to camp at the petrol station but they didnt allow. i guess only truck can stay overnight because their tank is big and they will fill their tank in the morning. motorbike is small customer. the friendly attendance told us there was a hotel nearby so we went. it was dark and the hotel is like a resort... situated inside a village where from the dirt road without street lamp it leads the way to the gate of the "hotel". the gate was closed and i have to intercom with the reception. i convesate in english but they speak portuguese. come-on... its a hotel, when i say the word "hotel" or "room" it means that there is customer coming to spend at the property! they just dont want to open the gate. forget it! we proceed towards sao paulo and look for exit along the highway where there is possible place to stay.

we reached another highclass motel after the rain in the cold night where it affected my visilibility greatly. they quoted me R$47.00 per night and i couldnt believe it! much cheaper that we thought. well... we had a good time at the motel again. Hope Too could sleep peacefully in his own room and we had a good shower and sleep. also, there is free XXX movie in the motel!
i guess Brazilian are happy people because such motel exist... similar to those in Taiwan.

Shoik!

now we have reached sao paulo. Remember Simone, we met her in Italy? she is a Brazilian, working in the Brazil embassy in Roma. we stayed at her house in Roma and now we have met here here in Sao Paulo! we are safe and staying at her house.

we are at:
S 23deg 37.100'
W 046deg 40.217'

This is for Kid_rizal, the previous posting about Santa Cruz in Chinese. its translated by http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

Turns on the map to go to Brazil from Santa Cruz to have two roads. Seems the first road is small is also also curving. The second article is the enfilade, along catches fire the vehicle route yizhi dao important pass. We decided that chooses looks like quite easily to walk second. We estimated that this 647km the distance only needs to take three days to be able to complete. Early in the morning, we took the 20km road, thought that budgets the dissimilarity with us, the road is very good! But when we finished eating the breakfast to walk multi-5km, the nightmare started! The main road is servicing, we can only with the side alley. Truck surmounts us. The sand dust unceasing blows to us, our line of sight is covered all! Sometimes must stop, and so on winds sweep it. The road is uneven, on road's Sha Duodao is the same with the sand beach! Walked 80km with great difficulty, thought that the main road will be good a spot; Does not have! The main road and the alley do not have the distinction! Is high speed ' the road in here `is this. Thought that Hope Too has been like this old, but must jog in the sand beach, at the same time runs also at the same time coughs, what really wants its life! Looks opposite comes the vehicle lets me link thought in family's hamster is taking a bath. 　We altogether tumble two times! The first time is because in the sandpile has the big stone to trip. The second time is the Hope Too foot by the card in the sand, cannot take! Ming Jun makes an effort to transfer the oil, Hope Too loses balanced tumbles. You go to Kuala Lumpur's journey from Singapore are conceivably this: Has not rested the station, does not have the store, does not have the restaurant, nobody housing! Jeepers, why can do the road a spot? On road's truck similar turtle in ground crawls, crawls! When can deliver the goods? We could not think through, why can the road use the sand to come the bedding? Some people tell us certainly to want indefatigable in Bolivia, now we only then understand these words the meaning. 　Arrives at the day from the dawn to be dark, we walked 270km, nine hours. On the road does not have the street light, only then pitch-dark woods, belly rumble rumble calling. We cannot stop, can only proceed. Sees the street light with great difficulty. Asks the human to ask, only then knew that we already arrived at San Jose de Chiquitos. . We very quick found the hotel luckily, the nightmare can finish. Wants to turn head, we are lucky! Has not been hit snatches, does not have the serious fall wound, Hope Too not to have the bone fracture. Is 377km is also same?

we have reached our 23rd country, BRAZIL!

Argentina was Tango

Bolivia was Salsa

Brazil is SAMBA!

our exit stamp for Bolivia was 21 sept 2008 but entry stamp for Brazil was 22 sept 2008, why!?

21 september 2008, we reached the bolivia border. we had an exit on our passport but the custom office was closed. the officer didnt care about my bike so i rode to the brazil side.

there were immigration officer checking on cars randomly. they tell me to pass and go to the next town, Corumba, to get our passport stamped at a police station.

we went to the police station, they said the office for passport control was closed (sunday). come again tomorrow.

so we stayed one day in Brazil without entry stamp, but we are greeted by the town for festival, music and fireworks as it is the 230th birthday for the town.

next day, went back to the bolivia to hand over the import permit for my motorbike. the officer seems like just take the paper and put in the pocket.

the brazilian side, went to an office somewhere in the town, try to talk to the officer in portugese but i can only say yes no and thank you. waited 3 hours to get my bike "imported" and had to "export" within 3 months else gona pay US$8500.00.

intresting intresting.

Brazilian road are 100% better than bolivia but standard of living is almost 4-5 time more.

i can say that Bolivia has always surprising roads that will surprise the user, boring food BUT all at very affordable rate for me!

San Jose de Chiquitos 到Robore

这才算是高速公路！

脚踏实地的感觉真好！

明骏：“如果一路到巴西都是这样就好！我们已经够多off road了”

从Santa Cruz去Brazil

According to Bolivia's map,they had two different road to reach Santa Cruz. one is small and dirt road and another one is straight and big road,which is follow the train road. we deceided use big road because we got enought of fall down experience and our mind only want to quickly to pass thought Boliva. We were estimated this 647km distance only need to take 3 hours more to complete.
　打开地图从Santa Cruz去Brazil有两条路。看上去第一条路是又小又弯曲的。第二条是直路，沿着火车路一直到关口。我们决定选择看起来比较容易走的第二条。我们估计这647km的路程只需要花三天就能完成。


Early moornig, at the first 20km we felt that everything was undercontrol as like our plan. The road condition is good!
一早，我们走了20km的路，觉得和我们预算的一样，路很好！

The nightmare was happened after 5 km more, the main road was under construction. we had no choice to use side road. Big truck coming again and again.... the sandstorm came blowing towards us and our sight had been blurred and blocked! sometimes we had to stop to wait for the wind to blow away the sandstorm. the sand on the road is equavlent to the sand on the beach. we thought that after traveling for 80km, the road would be better but NO, it was the same for all the major and minor roads (on this expressway/autobann). giving a thought for Hope Too, at this old age, running at the sandy beach, coughing while jogging, really giving him a hard time!
可是当我们吃完早餐走了多5km, 恶梦开始了！大路正在维修，我们只能用旁边的小路。大卡车一辆一辆的超越我们。沙尘不断的向我们吹来，我们的视线全被掩盖！有时必须停下，等风把它吹走。路是凹凸不平的，路上的沙多到跟沙滩一样！好不容易走了80km, 以为大路会好一点；没有！大路和小路是没有分别的！在这里的‘高速’公路就是这样。想到Hope Too这样老了, 还要在沙滩上跑步，一面跑还一面咳嗽，真的是要它的命！

after few hours....one more fall down.

can you see our shoe?

看着对面来的车就让我连想到家里的hamster在洗澡。


　我们总共跌倒两次！第一次是因为沙堆里藏有大石头而绊倒。第二次是Hope Too的脚被卡在沙内，拿不上来！明骏用力转油，Hope Too失去平衡而跌倒。你们可以想像从新加坡去吉隆坡的路途是这样：没有休息站，没有商店，没有餐馆，没有人居住！天呀，为什么不要把公路做好一点？路上的大卡车相似乌龟在地上爬呀，爬呀！几时才能把货送到？我们一直想不通，为什么路要用沙来铺盖？有人告诉我们在Bolivia一定要有耐性，现在我们才了解这句话的意思。
　从天亮走到天暗，我们走了270km, 九个小时。路上没有路灯，只有黑漆漆的树林，肚子又咕噜咕噜的叫。我们不能停下，只能一直往前走。好不容易看到路灯。找人问一下，才知道我们已经到了San Jose de Chiquitos。。幸好我们很快就找到酒店，恶梦才能结束。想回头，我们是幸运的！没有被打抢，没有严重跌伤，Hope Too没有骨折。接下来的377km是不是也一样呢？

post by Sam