Day 4 (Last Day) - 2017 Golden Week Riding Trip

May 2, 2017. Tuesday. Sunny and Clear Sky.

After lying in the tent for some 8 hours straight without any sleep, I decided to wake up and get ready for the road.


I will go empty stomach this morning because all my food was flooded with shattered eggs in my top box.
The egg case wasn’t an enough protection against the violent shakings the Super Rindo gave to my bike. Well, just had to eat something along the way I guess. (and I just searched online trying to find some sturdy plastic cases for eggs. darn... why do I just love eggs so much? How do you guys store eggs?)

By the end of this trip I have come to getting used to setting/packing up tent, preparing food outdoor, having no shower for consecutive days and having to worry about shelter at night. Getting used to it, but I have to admit it did take a toll on my overall well being. To sum it in one word, it was hard. I enjoyed it no doubt, but I also have to admit that it was hard.

No drama from the time I woke up until I boarded the ferry and rode safely home. Got home, unpacked and settled down with a big sigh. So the trip is now officially over. It ended two days earlier than what I planned for. I am glad that I did all that I set out to do: I managed to pick the lower cost option most of the time, I camped and stayed away from hotel, I covered my destinations without pre-determined routes and I was cool all the time. To top it off, I managed to ride on Super Rindo and it boosted my confidence to a whole new level (per my case that is).

This is a very good experience for me and I want to do something similar more in the future. Definitely.

In coming August, I am going to FUKUSHIMA.

Cheers,

CK

Day 3 - 2017 Golden Week Riding Trip

1 May, 2017. Sunny. Clear Sky.

In hindsight, today is my last night in Shikoku. I will leave for Hiroshima tomorrow by way of ferry. Today's highlight has to be the super-rindo. 

Rindo is a Japanese word which could be directly translated as forest road, but perhaps more appropriately as "unpaved road" - meaning it could be dirt, gravel, mud, etc.

Super rindo is the longest of its kind in Japan - a total of some 88km in length, it runs through several towns along its course. This rindo is high up and deep in the mountains, when the rider successfully climbs to the top, he will be rewarded with a view unique in its kind. 

Riding the Super Rindo with Lara

This rindo has mostly gravel section with a short stretch of cement in the very beginning. People say there are dirt roads as well but I didnt see it, perhaps those are located beyond the closed section. Only a part of the entire rindo is opened to public this year - a washout has caused some big rocks to collapse in the way and local authorities are not repairing it. It makes little economic sense to repair the road, i get that I just hope that next time when I do come (yes, when I do come, that is) it will be opened. 

I always wanted to ride off road. It's not because I like it. Rather, it is because I think it is a skill that I will need when I go on my long way round trip. I have zero experience riding off road. Two weeks ago, I participated in an event organized by my dealer, in which I got a chance to ride a F700GS fitted with knobblies on a rindo. That was a great experience. It didnt prepare me for the super rindo of course, but it did give me some idea of what rindo riding is about. Lifted some of the fear, maybe. So two weeks after, here I am in the super rindo.

To be frank, when i was on the rindo i wished I could just simply make an u-turn and go home, or at least go somewhere else, anywhere but the rindo. It was terrifying! I couldn't control where I wanted Lara to go, I was constantly swept off of my feet (the wheels just kept sliding under me all the time), the tires felt like they were pierced, the all-time fish tailing...and worst of them all, was that I could see the deep valley just five feet to my either side - all the time. If anything happened to me... no one could find me, ever. I was scared shitless. 

I tried standing up - it seems to be THE way of riding off road - but sometimes it worked and sometimes it didnt. I am sure it is just me, nothing to do with the standing method. Will need to put in more time in training.

After the rindo i spent three hours getting to the camp ground and here I am, writing this blog. It is so windy tonight I feel like if I go out of my tent now the tent will get blown away, no doubt. Yes you are right I forgot the pegs. Brilliant eh?

Tonight is my last night of the trip. I wanted to celebrate it with a dinner made of up rice and eggs. Alas, the eggs didnt stand a chance battling the violent shakes of the rindo, they all smashed in my top box and all my belonging in the box is now bathed in eggs....

As a bonus, let me show you some creepy photos...

Cheers.

CK

Day 2 - 2017 Golden Week Riding Trip

April 30, 2017. Sunday. Clear sky. Strong crosswind.

Waking up to the bitterness of the spring morning, I realized that my sleeping bag was not what it advertised to be. The temperature rating was 7 Celsius degree but i was cold in there. 

I have a medical condition with my nose and it prevented me from having a good sleep. Without enough sleep, the otherwise acceptable sleeping condition was no longer tolerable to my body and as a result of that i was feeling sluggish the whole time second day into my riding trip. 

I chose my camp ground because I want to see this. It is supposed to have been built in over a night to welcome some important person from the federal government, back in the 17th century. It's basically a decorated sand dune.

this is how it is supposed to look like

Leaving the camp ground, i continued my journey to the Kamouda Misaki. It is the most eastern point of Shikoku island, looking out to the Pacific Ocean. This place isnt like any other lighthouse tourist attractions at all. Very few people were seen and assess to the place was really confusing. I admit it, i lost my way trying to return to the city. I took a photo to show you as well. :-)

After that I went straight to a 24hour sauna to call it a day. It was only 4pm but I have had enough. I dont know what would the equivalent facility in your country but suffice to say this is like a poor man's hotel. In here I pay 30USD for unlimited shower, sauna, hot tub, water, tv, reading material and a place to lie on. Oh, parking is another 5 USD. So all in all I pay 35USD for a night in a not-so-attractive place. However, I made this choice not thinking of cost performance too much, but rather as a ritual - after all this is Japan, and I just have to put this on my itinerary. :-)

I am going to call it a day. Hopefully I could get more sleep tonight.

Cheers,

Day 1 - 2017 Golden Week Riding Trip

April 29, 2017, Saturday. Clear sky. Strong crosswind.

Today is the beginning of my first long trip of the year. As mentioned earlier, I have specific goals to achieve this time, other than the usual riding pleasures. I will go for my own Long Way Round, and I expect myself to tough it out when I will be on the road. However I am not anywhere near tough, so this is my training, so to speak.

I took a ferry crossing to Shikoku island. It is a rider friendly island with places of interest to riders in general. Most importantly, although the island is big, it is sparsely habituated-which is why i chose Shikoku as training ground. 

The ferry was nothing new to me. Made a few friends on the way and we parted to our own ways once landed onto the island. I dont have any particular place to go except to make sure I make it to the place to camp. 

On my way to the camp site, I tried looking for a stretch of winding road deep in the mountains but I couldn't find it. Instead, I bumped into the place (looked like a ghost town) which is supposed to be famous as a ski resort. Indeed, i saw parked cars and buildings, but there was no human to be found. Very eerie ambient.

I pressed on to my destination and stopped for food. One of my goals this time is to suppress expenses. It means no eating out as much as possible and no beverage for pleasure - strictly water. So this is what I bought. The meat is only for dinner but the eggs and bread will be for breakfast and lunch for the coming one or two days. 

I dont like doing dishes. And I was thinking that during LWR there wouldn't be so convenient a water source every time i stop by. I would need to wash the dishes or remove the need of washing by all means. So this is my solution - line the pot with aluminum foil, cook on the foil, remove the food and discard the foil. Brilliant, no? :-) This way I wouldn't have to wash. However, I still dont think this is good enough. Oh well, this is only first time doing such "stoic" riding, I will just make myself happy with this setting for now. Room for improvement, check.

I didnt know why but I ate rather fast - not that I didnt enjoy it or anything - although there was still plenty of sun light remaining for a slow dinner. Maybe it was the hunger for something, I felt pretty good actually, being able to cook myself something while on the road. Me in the past would just snot at the idea of cooking, because then I thought riding is supposed to be just ride, nothing else. I have changed, i guess.

Wiithout power supply or any sort of portable battery ( again I wanted to be minimalist ) I dont have a choice to watch TV or YouTube on my phone. I could only type this post on my phone with an apple keyboard, then set up the camp and hit the sack, hoping to get up early enough tomorrow morning for a slow and decent breakfast. Wouldn't want to sleep in.

No shower available, although there is a toilet in the park.

Good night!

Cheers.

Over Budget... How Do You Do Budgeting When On The Road?

I had a budget of 10,000 yen(100yen/1USD, give or take) for my four-day ride trip over the last weekend. Guess how I did? I couldn't believe myself. 

Here's a list of the expenses:

<2017 Golden Week Ride(4 days 3 nights) expenses>

Daiso(Dollar Store) camping goods = 1080

Himalaya(Outdoor Gear Store) food = 906

Tobishima bridge toll = 560 X 2 = 1120

Fuel = 2016 + 1500 + 1895 = 5411
(I do have more than 3 quarters of fuel left when arriving home though)

Ferry = 1420 X 2 = 2840

Lunch Sukiya(traditional Japanese fast-food chain) = 500

Dinner Marunaka (localsupermarket) = 563

Lunch Aeon(local supermarket) = 291

Breakfast(convenience store) = 338

Lunch Udon(traditional Japanese noodle) = 700

24HR Sauna(one night of room, dinner and car park) = 2950 + 500 + 700 = 4150

Total = 17,899

Over budget by 7899 Yen = roughly 78 USD

The biggest chunk of money was spent on fuel. Next is transportation (toll and ferry), followed by a room at night. 

So, where did my budgeting go wrong? 

For one, I didn't plan on staying at the 24HR sauna. That would have had saved me 41 dollars if I chose to camp. However I did go there because I had to. I guess in the future I would need to take my health condition into consideration when allocating budget for lodging. It's only a night but it more or less blew my budget. 

Next is the fuel. To be fair I was almost right about it but I played safe by refueling for the third time. If I hadn't done that it would have saved me another 18 dollars. As for the toll and ferry rides, there's no way I could do away with them. In fact, they are significantly cheaper than the highway. I am glad I took that ferry.

All in all, even if there was no surprises in this trip, I would still have had over budget for about 30 dollars. 

What I took away from this is the lesson whereby:

1. I need to allocate my budget in a more realistic manner

2. I need to allocate a "OTHERS" category for emergencies

3. Make my budget and stick to it. When all else fails, just accepts it and move on.

So, what's your story in budgeting? 

Cheers,

CK