Last day of our short stay in South-Korea as backpackers we put our "mountain of luggage" in Ralf’s car, 5:30 am. Because of we have not been allowed to let any luggage at the bikes we now look a little bit as a moving firm, not as tourists. Ralf is so friendly and drives us to bus terminal in Seoul. From here shuttle busses went directly to the airport Incheon, our departure place.

Flying toTokyo, where we have a stay of eight hours, we go on to Vancouver. 20 hours we are on the way but passing the date zone we arrive in Canada only two hours after we left Seoul. That's crazy and our jetlag takes some days.

Excited to visit Canada we are also really looking forward to meet our friend Daniel again.
We visited him once at the beginning of our trip in Switzerland and now he's working in Vancouver.

We read and heard a lot about the Rockys, legendary Yukon, wild bears and all these uncountable beauties in nature.

Also to be able to talk with people again without problems is a reason to looking forward to Canada. Between four and six months we want to travel through this impressing, huge scenery.

Big Brother is watching you!
But all our pleasure changes to disappointment soon after landing in Vancouver airport.

"I may send you back to Japan." The female immigration officer asked us many questions, noticed them on a sheet of paper and disappeared for 20 minutes.
Coming back she fired a printed posting of our website on the counter. We never told her about our site, she found it with the keywords got during the interview.

In May 2006 we wrote that we are interested to work, searched for information by this posting. By this request she now calls us swindlers! We intend to work illegal in Canada, she says.
Absolutely speechless we recognize this reproach. Never we planned to do so, not one second we thought about working illegal or to defraud somebody!

It can't be forbidden to ask for information and travel in Canada. Freedom of the West is a big illusion: big brother is watching you!

We just want to travel again by bike, visit a beautiful country. The officer doesn't accept discussion on it, we have to show all our cash and balance of our bank account.

Five hours we stay in the office, hungry, thirsty and tired of the jet-lag. We only had the small breakfast before landing. Than the officer comes to a decision: we get a five weeks stay-permit.

As fast as possible we leave the terminal, take a taxi to the home of Daniel.
It was a real great relief to us to see Daniel again. He waited for us at the airport - three hours without success.
Lucky we are we can stay in his apartment untill our bikes will arrive at 16th of June.

Vancouver...
is a fascinating city. Mirrored sky scrapers, beaches, view on snow covered mountains and in the middle of all huge green parks with jungle-trees.

It's a town in which we feel well even if we are missing traveling on countryside.

Together with Daniel we make nice excursions, wondering about the jungle inside town, see rebuild totems in the 400 ha huge Stanley Park, have a rest at Kitsilano Beach with view to the mountains and enjoy apple-pie and cheese cake in the nice decorated Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe.

Vancouver at night we watch from a point in the mountains, some miles outside and accompanied by Eva, a friend of Daniel, from a bar on the top of a skyscraper which turns slowly 360°.

Interesting and tasty food we buy in Chinatown. The only steam-clock and renovated Victorian houses with many shops for tourists we visit in Gastown, the origin of Vancouver.

once again planning and organizing
But most time we spent by planning and organizing our further trip in the Internet.

Extension of our permit of stay is nearly impossible, even if the possibility official exists.

After some sleepless nights which are not only caused by the jetlag, we decided to travel through the States after leaving Canada at 15th of July. From there we will take the way home to good old Europe at 15th of October.
For this we buy air tickets, hope with them we will be able to enter USA without such trouble and absurd suspicions again.

So far we read on official websites that you might have to bring a flight ticket or sufficient balance for entering countries of North America. Neither credit card nor sufficient balance had helped us while entering Canada. Everything depends on one immigration officer!!

Shipping for our bikes back to Europe we found after a long search in internet. Interfracht Kaebele from Bremen will ship our bikes together with the luggage from Huston to Bremen in a container by freighter.

Now we are waiting to get our bikes and finally be able to ride them on Canadian highways direction north.

Wish us luck that we will get them soon and without trouble!

Until the next report which finally will tell you about a motorcycle trip...

Greets from Vancouver,

Alex und Carsten