Big Lake resident Kevin Staples has once again made an amazing multi-continental voyage on his motorcycle.
In years past, the Patriot has been happy to report on Staples’ amazing voyages, and this year’s journey is just as amazing, taking him to Russia, Pakistan, and South Korea, to name a few stops. (Previous articles are available online at PatriotNewsMN.com)
After his travels in 2023, Staples stored his bicycle in Uzbekistan for the majority of the year. Staples made sure he was ready to go with all the right permits and hit the road. Shortly after, he had a unique experience he’d never yet encountered in all his travels: he was pulled over.
Through the assistance of Google translate, the officer was able to inform Staples that motorcycles were not supposed to drive in the passing lane. Though Staples reported, with a laugh, the cop did know two words of English: effing tourist.
Staples made his way to the border where he found another biker having difficulties with border patrol. Staples went to see if he could help, and found out the man was actually a friend of his. The two had met in an online forum dedicated to motorcycle trips in eastern Europe. The friend was a resident of Pakistan, and Staples had hoped to meet him during his trip. Without being allowed to pass over the border, the two decided to turn around and head back into Uzbekistan and spend a couple of days hanging out.
After parting ways with his friend, Staples started traversing the famous Pamir Highway, an ancient road that was once part of the Silk Road trade route to China. Staples traversed the road quickly, and climbed 12,000 feet up the mountain pass in about 10 hours. The sudden change in elevation, as well as finding out he had the flu, knocked Staples on his butt for a bit, but he eventually finished the five day crossing.
Staples kept going until he came across a hot spring hotel that had been recommended by another friend from his online forum. After he checked in, he found his friend actually happened to be staying there with his wife at the same time. The couple, originally from Canada, spend their lives on the road exploring new places.
The couple gave Staples recommendations on where to go next. They showed him a road to his next destination, but said the journey could take a long time since the road was under construction.
Staples set out on his way, hoping for the best. He got to the part of the road that was under construction. Workers were using excavation equipment to widen the dirt road. Luckily, Staples was able to get the attention of one of the excavators, and was able to mime his desire to get across. The excavators paused to let him pass quickly, and even radioed ahead so the next group of workers down the road was also ready to let him through. Even when he got to a section where construction crews were building a bridge, the crew helped him get his bike over.
Staples made his way into Tajikistan, towards the capital city Dushanbe. There he went to the Chinese embassy, where he presented a letter of invitation from a Chinese friend he’d met online, with the hopes to get a pass to enter the country. Unfortunately, the embassy would not grant him his request, as they insisted that Staples needed a letter from a Chinese business, not a private citizen (despite Staples confirming the contrary online) and so Staples had to give up on his hopes of traveling through China.
Instead, Staples made his way through Kazakhstan (quickly, to mitigate his exposure to the summer heat) and up towards Russia.
Getting into Russia was no easy feat, as the reader might assume. While most border crossing took Staples about 20 minutes or so, the crossing into Russia consistently takes between 5-7 hours. Staples was not able to get to a city for the night until late in the evening, where he found the other issue of crossing into Russia. Apparently, when Staples went to convert his money, he didn’t understand through translation error that he would not convert American cash directly into Russian Rubles. The money changer instead gave him money for Kazakhstan, which could then be changed to Rubles, but Staples took the change given to him and thought it was the correct currency. So when he got into the first city late at night, he had no money to use to get shelter for the evening.
Fortunately, Staples met a man who spoke English who helped Staples find a hostel for the evening. Although the other guests of the hostel were loud through the night and Staples didn’t get much sleep, he did have shelter and a bed for the night.
In the morning, Staples set out to solve his two big problems: he had no money and no cell service. A local woman and her son were able to help Staples find a bank and then a phone store, kindly taking an hour out of their day to do so. Finally, Staples was able to get a hotel room and get some much needed sleep.
Staples continued his travels towards Mongolia. Staples said he’d always dreamed of visiting Mongolia, but the trip fell a bit short of his expectations. The land was pretty flat and uninteresting.
To top things off, Staples had difficulty finding food for sale. Gas stations in the country only sold gas and were not convenience stores like they usually are in the United States. So Staples would look for restaurants to find food. He would pick what he wanted and type it into Google Translate, showing the translation to the host. But every time he tried to order, the restaurant staff would shake their heads no. For days, Staples ate only the protein bars and instant oatmeal he had packed. Staples continued on, feeling very alone. He was not able to communicate with anyone, and there was hardly any traffic on the roads, and no one would sell him food. Staples said he’d never before felt so vulnerable on one of his travels.
Finally, when he had almost reached the far end of the country, Staples found a hotel/restaurant with very kind staff members who allowed him to park his bike in the employees only garage. He again tried to order food, only for the restaurant staff to again tell him no. Finally, Staples just pointed at random things on the menu until the staff eventually nodded yes and went to get his dinner, with Staples having no idea what he’d ordered.
As he waited for his food, a woman stopped by his table and asked if he spoke English. It turns out this stranger had studied at a university in California and was currently working for the tourism department of the Mongolian government. She asked Staples how he liked the country, and he shared his honest frustration with the trip he’d had so far and especially his difficulty in finding food. He showed the kind stranger how he tried to order food, and she told him the problem wasn’t that no one had food for him, but rather that most residents were illiterate and could not understand the words on his phone, even though they were in their language.
From there, Staples headed back to the Russian border. He crosses into Russia, and starts making his way cross-country, trying to figure out a plan of action as he goes. Because of trade limitations between Russia and the United States, Staples was not able to find a company that could ship his bike to America. As an American citizen, Staples couldn’t even legally purchase a plane ticket.
Staples instead looked into finding a shipping company that could take his bike to a country that could ship to America, such as South Korea. He sent out so many emails inquiring at so many shipping companies, his email was temporarily flagged as being a spam account.
He finally found a ferry that could carry him and his bike to South Korea, and, after another intense border crossing, he was able to catch the boat on time.
Staples found out that Google Maps is outlawed in South Korea, and motorcycles are only allowed on specific roads, and so he needed to download a new app to navigate the country. While he was trying to figure out how to navigate the country, he ran into issues with finding lodging. The first hotel he tried was closed down, and so he found another and booked a room. Only to find out it was too far away and he wouldn’t make his reservation. (Fortunately, the staff let him cancel the reservation even though the booking said “no cancellations”.) Finally, Staples ended up at a no-tell hotel. He said it worked, since it was clean and private, even if they did sell disposable underwear!
Staples made his way to Seoul, greatly enjoying the culture, food, and people of South Korea. He also was able to find a company that could ship his bike to Washington state.
Staples flew home for a bit, then flew to Washington to pick up his bike. He rode the bike back to Minnesota, enjoying the areas of Montana and the Dakotas that he enjoyed when he first got into his hobby.
Staples says he’s planning another amazing multi-continental trip for fall of 2025.
