It’s been only our second full days riding in Russia and once again the day has been hijacked by corrupt police officers. We left Apseronsk at around 8am and arrived in the city of Rostov at around 9pm. We’ve covered around 150 miles in that time, encountered seven full checkpoints and been accused of drink driving, riding the wrong way along a dual carriageway, turning right against a road sign, crossing another non-existent white line and speeding, .. all of which were totally false accusations. Thankfully a little more experience and a little more ‘Russian’ has allowed us to escape all but one of today’s ‘Bribes’ but this intimidation and corruption is beginning to ruin our views of this great country.
Alan’s still feeling under the weather and hasn’t fully recovered from the bug that struck him about a week ago. He’s feeling down and I think that at one point today he was ready to turn back and head for home. For me, I understand that these problems are only temporary. When we have as much experience at avoiding the ‘Bribe’ as the police have at issuing them, .. then everything on Poor Circulation will once again be rosy. Most travel writing is retrospective, …. The book is written long after the event has taken place and the writer can place the ‘Problems’ into context with all that has happened. Writing on a daily basis it’s difficult to divorce the ‘Good’ from the ‘Bad’, …. So please bear with me and in the coming weeks it will all be brighter news. After all, the beautiful nurses of Sappaya Hospital in Thailand, and Nurse Wipa Klampeng in particular, have once more visited the Temples and sought ‘Good Merit’ for Poor Circulation, …… and for that we are thankful.
On a brighter note, when we entered the city of Rostov we met a group of young guys on scooters. They were returning from swimming at the lake, saw us travelling towards the city and offered to guide us to wherever we needed to go. They first took us to an ATM to replenish our Roubles and then onwards to a hotel. They wanted to show us their city but unfortunately we were simply too shattered to go any further, …. It was 9pm, we’d been riding since 8am and we’d covered less than 150 miles.
We talked together outside of the hotel, posed for photographs and distributed yet more Poor Circulation badges. Their English was excellent and Norik helped us to check into the hotel and secure a ‘Poor Circulation’ tariff for the room, .. fantastic. All of the guys spoke good English but we’re informed that had John not decided to ‘go walking with girls’ in grade 12 and stayed at home to study, …… his English would now be almost perfect. Thanks guys.
(John Glastyan, John Mutachovski, Shasha Chvan, Tima Kechedziev)
www.justgiving.com/geoffgthomas
Alan’s still feeling under the weather and hasn’t fully recovered from the bug that struck him about a week ago. He’s feeling down and I think that at one point today he was ready to turn back and head for home. For me, I understand that these problems are only temporary. When we have as much experience at avoiding the ‘Bribe’ as the police have at issuing them, .. then everything on Poor Circulation will once again be rosy. Most travel writing is retrospective, …. The book is written long after the event has taken place and the writer can place the ‘Problems’ into context with all that has happened. Writing on a daily basis it’s difficult to divorce the ‘Good’ from the ‘Bad’, …. So please bear with me and in the coming weeks it will all be brighter news. After all, the beautiful nurses of Sappaya Hospital in Thailand, and Nurse Wipa Klampeng in particular, have once more visited the Temples and sought ‘Good Merit’ for Poor Circulation, …… and for that we are thankful.
On a brighter note, when we entered the city of Rostov we met a group of young guys on scooters. They were returning from swimming at the lake, saw us travelling towards the city and offered to guide us to wherever we needed to go. They first took us to an ATM to replenish our Roubles and then onwards to a hotel. They wanted to show us their city but unfortunately we were simply too shattered to go any further, …. It was 9pm, we’d been riding since 8am and we’d covered less than 150 miles.
We talked together outside of the hotel, posed for photographs and distributed yet more Poor Circulation badges. Their English was excellent and Norik helped us to check into the hotel and secure a ‘Poor Circulation’ tariff for the room, .. fantastic. All of the guys spoke good English but we’re informed that had John not decided to ‘go walking with girls’ in grade 12 and stayed at home to study, …… his English would now be almost perfect. Thanks guys.
(John Glastyan, John Mutachovski, Shasha Chvan, Tima Kechedziev)
www.justgiving.com/geoffgthomas
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2 comments:
listen, you run into trouble again, call +7 903 773 4937, ask for chris, tell me what the problem is, and then let me talk to the officers. I will straighten them out.
Thanks Chris,.. we have your number,.. and hopefully the Police have lost ours :-) Blue88
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