Santa Barbara and with Duncun Bardine

Thank you Yi Lin, Marisol, Tuc, Andrea & Thomas (swiss) and Vigor for leaving your comment on our blog. it just kept us going... for more postings!

We also like to thank Mr LOH NYEN YIU of Singapore for his generous donation.

Pictures by William Holland.

Pictures by William Holland.

Picture by William Holland.

Mulholland highway, near LA.

Every satuarday there will be many many bikers going to this natural track. look at his knee guard. he really slided alot with it.

Professional photographer (mr William Holland, the one with the red shorts) will take this chance at Mulholland highway to take pictures. He made his promise after taking pictures of us and did sent us his shots on the same day. Unlike the lady we met in Death Valley. See the first 3 pictures.

anyone knows what does it means and where it came from? 'i need a miracle'. Duncan explained to us!

Along the road, we met fellow bikers again! The Germans!

Axel rode from Germany to Nepal, then flew his bike to Australia and also rode around New Zealand where Katarina came over to meet him as what they planned. Katarina bought a Yamaha 600 in Australia and they shipped their bike to Canada, then they went south. They were on their way to Argentina. We exchanged informations. Axel and Katarina gave us info on Australia where we gave them about Latin America!

Teddy had new friends now! Too bad they were not in facebook.
This was the first night we camped together. the nearest campsite was US$35 so we shared. till the next morning, no one came and collect money from us and we rode away. anyway, we are not the only people doing this. US$35 for a campsite is really ridiculas. Please keep this a secret.

so it was early morning 8am, we rode back onto Highway one and it was a single lane highway. Speed limit was 60mph and we were traveling at 55mph. Axel was the lead, followed by Katarina and we were the vehicle. On my mirror, i observed there were about 5 cars following behind us. I tried to slow down for them to overtake but the immidiate car behind me wasn't confident enough, causing a 'convoy'. Then a police car came behind me with his siren on, instructing us to stop.

Axel went off, Katarina stopped and i stopped aside. The policeman came out of the vehicle and started YELLING AT ME:

DO U THINK YOU OWN THE ROAD?!

DO U REALISED THAT THERE WERE MANY CARS BEHIND YOU?!

YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO STOP ASIDE AND LET THEM PASS!

YOU DON'T GIVE A DARM CARE AND JUST RIDE AT YOUR OWN SPEED?!

DO U UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?!?!

I just gave him a silly smile and he was really pissed off and went back to his car, made a u-turn leaving the dust created by his tires and zoommed off.

we were more pissed off with him. there wasn't any signage of 'to stop aside and let the vehicle to pass' or any other special instructions/rules. we were not speeding as we were traveling 5mph below the speed limit.

strange.....

An elderly came to talk to us when 4 of us were eating breakfast outside a supermarket. Herb Harsch was curious about us and was eager to show us his toys. He invited us to his house for a hot chocolate and introduced us to his wife, Patti Harsch (above). Patti was a belly dancing teacher. she also made costume for belly dancer. Herb (below) was retired but he had alot of toys!

his most reason toy is the Buell. though he is 85 years old, he kept many younger bikers on the road behind him with his new toy.

Herb had a collection of motorcycle. one of the most intresting one was a Japanese made with boxer engine shown below.

We went furthur south to Santa Barbara to meet Duncan. Remember the 'strange' guy we met in Harbin Springs?

Meeting Duncan was like a red carpet invitation. He had posted a small signboard for us. Duncan had a special life. on the 2nd morning in Harbin, i told him about our plans to go LA to look for a crate for Hope Too, he took out his writing pad instantly to drop down notes of the specification that i needed.

few days later, i recived an email from him about the crate. he is a person of action. when we first him, i told Sam that this guy is abit crazy but after some time, thou he is crazy, he is a high energy person with good responsibility. he knows how to take care of people around him. if you meet him, you will realise that what he have now is thro his experiences and good analysis skills. I see him as somebody that could change the world if he really wants to.

Duncan brought us to visit Santa Barbara's attraction.

Santa Barbara is really beautiful. Nice sunset with good company of friends!

nice sunset!

Duncan's way of living is very special. you have to go Santa Barbara to see him and be his friend!

The next day, he brought us to ride some nice route around the region where he linked us up with his buddy, Christ. we had take away lunch at the beach.

Before saying goodbye to Duncan and Christ, we told him that we wanted to camp in USA for the last time before reaching LA. The campsite around the area was expensive. we have:

4 person and 3 motorcycles.

total fee for us to camp in the site was US$49.00

a camp site cost US$25.00

it only allows one vehicle in the site. so we have 2 extra 'vehicles' and it would be US$12 per extra vehicle.

it doesn't makes sense. these campsite are non-motorcycle friendly. the space of 3 of our motorcycle takes up much smaller than those camper vehicle (size of a bus, towing a car) and we are paying more than them!

we gave up the idea and took up Christ's invitation and stayed with him for a night.

After saying goodbye to Axel and Katarina on the next morning, we went into LA, where we had early arrangement to a home stay with a Chinese family.

They were really easy going. thou we are paying US$30 a night (we spend 11 nights in LA) for a private room with internet but they treat us like their children. they will invited us for their dinner sometimes, brought us around the town, and send us off to the airport. it's more than what a landlord should do.

Mr and Mrs Luo.