Monday, 20 August 2012 Dong Hae, South Korea to Vladivostok, Russia (0 miles) Total Trip Miles – 4723. 0 hours riding

Weather Temperature in the low 80’s and humid with clouds & rain

While underway on the DBS Ferry, I met two Russians at the bar: Alexey, who sells used cars in a city about 100km from Vladivostok and was in Korea buying Hyundai’s, KIA’s and other cars speaking some English and Victor, who’s in his early 20’s with a masters degree in sociology and speaks good English – great having someone to translate. We talked about just about everything including American politics – unbelievable how much people from other parts of the globe know about the US.

It had been a long day for all of us and we each decided to turn in for the evening.

Finally met my roomate after calling it a night at about 10 pm…since the DBS Ferry only provides one key per room & I was batting second, I had to go to the information desk several times to get a crew member to let me in – no sign of him…no bags although he was checked in and had the key.

About an hour after I got settled in the room, I heard the door open and this Russian man who looked to be in his mid 50’s & neatly dressed in a polo shirt and jeans, stepped inside turning the light on. I immediately popped up to introduce myself & asked if he spoke English.

“Very little”, he said with a strong Russian accent and that pretty much ended things for the night although I did ask his name…”Alexander”, he said. Even with a bit of uneasiness sleeping only a couple of feet from someone I knew so little about, I did manage to sleep pretty well…keep in mind I was in 1st Class with 2nd & 3rd Class offering 8 in a room & 72 in a room respectively.

At about 6 am I heard him stir and leave the room…after about 15 minutes or so, I got up for another one of my sponge baths since the men’s shower room was on the second deck and at the other end of the ship…one night without a shower didn’t make much difference to me.

For breakfast, I went to the bar and ordered the “American-style” breakfast…one egg over easy, quartered bread not toasted, some kind of SPAM-type meat lightly fried and lettuce & tomatoes – not quite sure where you might find that kind of breakfast in the US – surely not Waffle House, but it worked being I was out in the East Sea several thousand miles from Nashville.

Headed to a seating area on third deck and saw Alexander with a couple of Korean-Russians and asked if I could join them. Ends up that Alexander has been a truck driver for his entire life making many trips across the Siberian route – he was a huge source of information even with the language barrier. He dis keep smiling and giving me a thumbs up when we talked about my trek across Russia on the bike…I wasn’t sure whether that was a good or bad sign.

The ferry arrived promptly in port at 2 pm local time…I’m now 16 hours ahead of the central time zone by the way. I couldn’t help but think about one of my good friends from home, Chuck, when it came time to disembark the ferry…a mere 3 hours of aggravation to say the least. Given the language barrier and ship security only allowing people off in groups of about 25, it was shear agony. I couldn’t help but to question what I’d gotten myself into with this trip – I absolutely must have been smoking some Dutch Cleanser I thought to myself!

While standing in line, I gave Yuri Melnikov with Links, Ltd a call asking about my next steps on clearing the bike through customs over the next few days…he said he’d have his assistant meet me at the DBS Ferry office once I cleared customs.  Yuri Melnikov can be reached at Links, Ltd at +7-423-222-0887, +7-902-524-3447(mobile) or ymelnik@links-ltd.com

After finding the office and peeking my head inside, a young woman said, “You must be Brad Thompson”, in very good English – and she told me her name was Svetlana. She started by asking a couple of questions and first recommended that I cancel my hotel reservation for one much closer to the docks making it easier to collect the bike especially since she needed to pick me up to visit the customs office on Wednesday afternoon allowing me to complete the necessary documents & payments so I can get the bike on Thursday morning. She also arranged the hotel booking with the Azimut Hotel and drove me and my gear there to check in….are you kidding me, this all would be virtually impossible with their assistance!

Once checking into the hotel, I just sat in the crazy, busy lobby to just unwind…what a day it had been.

Ended up having dinner at the hotel…a buffet-style affair that wasn’t very impressive, but hey, I was hongry and didn’t have to leave the hotel.

Details on my deluxe, economy accommodations tomorrow…yeah, deluxe alright!

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