Date received: Sat Jul 21 2001, 10:23 AM PDT
I am now in Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul is an interesting city. The
gateway between Europe and Asia, it has a fascinating blend of European
and Arabic cultures.
I arrived here a couple of days ago, via the Greek islands of Paros,
Naxos, and Samos. After a quick visit to Ephesus, the site of some of
the best preserved Roman ruins in the world, I hopped on an overnight
bus to Istanbul.
In the past couple of days, I have made amazing progress on motorcycle
purchasing. It looks like the paperwork will be manageable and not too
expensive, and the availability and price of bikes is acceptable. I
did a test ride of one today, and tomorrow I will go to a motorcycle
market.
I will most likely be here for at least a week. Besides all the logistics
of buying a bike, I also have to deal with getting visas for Iran and
Pakistan.
peter
