Kevin Staples of Big Lake is infamous in the community for going on wild motorcycle tours around the world. This year, he took a trip around eastern Europe and western Asia.
Last year, Staples left his bike in Bulgaria, and his plan was to fly back to where he’d stored the bike and begin his journey from there. Unfortunately, there were a few hiccups at the beginning of his journey, including his flight being canceled and needing to reschedule at the last minute. When he finally got to Bulgaria, the weather was cold and rainy, and not conducive to riding a motorcycle.
After the first ten days, Staples nearly called it quits to look for a flight home, but that was when the trip started to turn around.
Staples made his way over to Turkey and continued to move southward. He soon found himself in the area that was hit by earthquakes last February. The intense earthquake and aftershocks left towns across the area decimated. Staples booked a hotel room to stay for the night, and the hotel, being one of the only places where clean water was available, had lines of refugees out the door, each just looking for a gallon of water. Despite the devastation, Staples said there were lots of smiles from the locals as they worked together to build up their community again.
Staples continued southward to Iraq, where he applied for an e-visa to enter the country. He had no sim card for the country, and so had no access to his phone for the first day he was there. Fortunately, Staples was prepared, and saved the direction for a hotel on his phone before entering the country. He traveled the worn-down roads, at one point hitting a nasty pothole that caused some unfortunate cosmetic damage. The weather changed from rainy and cold to hot and humid as he made his way.
Staples finally arrived at his hotel and asked if there was anyone there who spoke English. A man in the lobby of the hotel offered to help Staples. Together, he and the good Samaritan took a trip to the cell phone store so Staples could get a new sim card. Staples thought he was out of luck when the cell phone store needed a permanent address in Iraq in order to issue Staples a card, but the kind translator gave them his own address to use. When the two returned to the hotel, Staples tried to repay the man with a $20 bill, but the gentleman refused the money, saying it was his pleasure to help. Staples was amazed by the kind nature of the man and the other Iraqis he met.
As kind as the people were in person, driving in the country showed a much different side to the residents. The streets could be pretty chaotic, Staples reported. Iraqi drivers don’t stay in their lanes, but rather take up all available space on the road. As a motorcyclist, this left Staples feeling very claustrophobic as he made his way around. He quickly became overwhelmed by the heat and the crowded streets, and decided to move on to the next country, hoping to visit Iraq again in the future, preferably during one of the cooler months.
He ended up in Georgia next. There, he arranged to meet up with a friend of his. He met this friend a year ago. He was another American citizen who immigrated to the US from what was then the USSR, and is now Ukraine.
When they met for dinner, Staples noted how he was hoping to travel to Kazakhstan next, but didn’t have a good option for getting there. Staples’ friend suggested that he simply go through Russia. Staples was dubious of this plan, with the current political tensions between the US and Russia. But his friend insisted that it would be ok, and Staples, not one to pass on a crazy adventure, let himself be convinced.
In order to get a visa to enter Russia, Staples needed an invitation from a company or individual inside the country. He paid a tourist company $120 to extend their invitation to him, and as a bonus they took care of all the paperwork involved. As a condition of his entering the country, Staples needed to have a set itinerary and reservations at the hotels where he would stop. He also needed to give up his passport for a few days, sending it to the Russian travel agency. This part of the process made Staples understandably nervous.
He ended up waiting for the return of his passport for 15 days. Without it, Staples was not able to travel around Georgia since he wouldn’t be able to book another hotel without it. He spent the two weeks in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, where he walked to the market every day to buy fresh food for his meals and check out the local restaurants and street vendors. He called into work and asked if they needed anything during his down time, and spent the days working on a project from his hotel room.
Finally, Staples’ passport was returned and he was able to make his way into Russia. He has some issues at the border due to poor translations on border documents, but was able to get in.
He was surprised by the attitudes of the people he met. He’d expected some hostility from the Russians he met, but instead found a very inviting people. Lots of people wanted to take selfies with an American, including Russian military personnel. The way Staples saw it, these people were just trying to do their job and feed their families, but had no personal hostility for America.
As he continued his ride, Staples stopped at a convenience store for lunch, but was not able to find anything substantial to eat, only candies and granola bars. The shopkeeper very kindly gave Staples the sandwich from his own lunch, going out of his way to help Staples. Staples kept expecting to find someone who would turn away an American or act coldly towards him, but he never did. He was surprised to find that the (American) government websites warning about traveling to Russia due to tense relations were simply not accurate that he could see.
Still, Staples couldn’t linger due to the itinerary he had with the travel agency (as well as not wanting to terrify his mother, who had his GPS location at all times!)
When Staples arrived at the next border crossing, he was once again held up, this time for more than two hours. He went to the processing window, where he presented his passport to the clerk, who then handed it off to another person, who took it away. Staples did not know why. He was waiting for the return of his passport when another person came and escorted him away. They walked into a large shipping container and Staples started to feel very apprehensive. Fortunately, in the back of the shipping container Staples saw a desk and a window, and realized the container was being used as an impromptu office. There, border agents did a thorough search of Staples’ electronics, going through his daily journal, texts, and emails. Fortunately, Staples was prepared for this and made sure to scrub anything which might have been misconstrued as anti-Russian. Then Staples was interrogated, asking about his business in the country. They finished by asking him his viewpoint on the war. Staples told the agents about the positive experiences he’d had while visiting the country and that his government had not been truthful about the danger of traveling in Russia. He didn’t directly answer the question, but the border agents were satisfied with his answer and didn’t press him.
Staples was once again told to wait, but finally his passport was returned to him with an exit stamp and he was free to go.
Staples was very relieved to get into Kazakhstan, as the two hours he spend at the border were the scariest he’d experienced on his whole trip.
From there, Staples said it felt like he’d left civilization behind. The roads were all made of dirt, and there were no hotels to book, just families willing to house him for the night.
Staples visited the Aral Sea. The Aral see was a giant lake in Kazakhstan, but the Russians have diverted nearly all the rivers and streams that fed it, and it is now nearly completely dry and desert-like. Ships were stranded in the sand with no water to keep them afloat.
Staples moved on to Kyrgyzstan, where he once again met up with the friend who encouraged him to travel through Russia. From there, Staples tried to get a visa to enter Tajikistan, but the process was taking too long, so he was not able to enter the country, as he waited for two weeks for his visa approval and ran out of time on his trip. Staples was disappointed to have lost a whole month between waiting for his visa there and at the Russian border, but said the time he did spend traveling was intense enough to make up for the lost time.
Next year, Staples plans to visit China, Tibet, Pakistan and Afghanistan, so Patriot readers should look out for another article next year detailing Staples’ continued adventures.
