Originally Posted by Image
John ...way back in our optimistic youth my wife and I went to istanbul two-up on a 250 MZ with all our camping gear..... our 'relaxed' planning meant running out of petrol after 10 miles on the A1 and, as we forgot the map, my wife navigating from the pillion using the map of Europe in the back of her pocket diary ...... wasn't til Yugoslavia when the arguments got really frequent that we bought a map smile


K

I did Yunan, and a bit of Sichuan China, with a small group of 6 MZ 250s. I was the only one with wife on the pillion. Navigating with a Chinese map was fun. We were on a tour organised by an Australian Chinese and staying in hotels. Our luggage was being carried on a support vehicle and we had a local guide at every stage plus a police officer (we think reasonably high ranking and taking advantage of a free holiday) with us because we had special permission to go into what were then forbidden areas for foreigners. The organiser expected us to stay in a group but we quickly set him right smile We bought a local map and once we knew our next stop and the road to take we travelled independently with the support vehicle following later to round up any possible breakdown or misadventure.

A couple of times I had to ask directions on a country road and getting a local who spoke only the local dialect to understand my terrible Mandarin was a bit difficult but with the help of the map and good will we were set on the right road. I still have the now rather tattered map smile

Peter

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