Anyone Been To Ukraine?

a mates been when he competed in the Carpathian enduro. loved it. beautiful countryside, v.friendly people, v.run down. as is so often the case when these two things come together. apparently as soon as you cross the border from Poland its like entering a third world country. horse and carts are common place. he will deffo go back.

 

Hi Dave, like yourself I've been to quite a few Eastern European cities on business, one of which was Kiev, and TBH it's not a place I would visit again. Albeit it was a quite a few years ago, but at the time a lot of the roads were in pretty poor condition with huge pot holes and a lot of traffic on the roads which were rather chaotic too. It may have improved now but if I was going to ride over there I'd certainly be careful on the roads and ensure I had as much security as I could for the bike if I was staying there. Just my thoughts mate.

John.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SHORT-HIS...741156?hash=item2f084d37a4:g:z48AAOSwImRYhmkt

 

There won't be anyone there? They're all here!

 

Ukraine ? full of friendly natives

 

AK with a drum magazine! He ain't messing about chap

 

It's actually a PKM.

 

I went from Minsk to Chernobyl on my 899 last year as part of a bigger trip. Belarus visa was a bit of a pain but border crossing was ok. Some of the rural roads around the border are in absolutely terrible shape.

 

Isn't this Sean Bean? He always was a great method actor....

 

I only had a transit visa so 48 hrs in country only for Belarus. I arrived on Independence Day from Vilnius so there was lots of stuff happening, beer, music, fireworks. Police stopped me a couple of times on the bike but mainly just curious about a foreigner riding a bike. Everyone was really friendly although few spoke English. I liked it.
Next day I went south, there's lots of border crossings but only a few for non locals. Border crossing would have been painless but I had a Russian stamp in my passport and a Russian biker turned up behind me so we were accused of traveling together and being part of the 'knight wolves'.
I booked Chernobyl through 'SoloEast'. They'll pick you up in Kiev. Good trip.
Drop me a PM if you've got any questions.

 

Make sure you have the V5 for your bike with you. A friend got to the border with Ukraine from Poland and was asked to produce the registration documents for his bike. He only had a photocopy and entry was flatly refused.

 

Only an ex Army guy would have spotted that! Bet it was better than the FN i was expected to live with?

 

I was chatting to som riflemen in a Windsor pub that a lot of the troopers frequented a couple of summers ago.We got onto the subject of the unmistakable AK sound and eventually the SA 80? It was surprising what a difference of opinion there was? Some really rated the rifle while others called it a plastic pig!

 

Yep, 23 years service, the last 9 & half of which involved working with a lot of foreign weapons, and 12 years working within the private security sector, you tend to come across a lot of the AK family weapons. The argument regarding the the SA80 and has been going it since it was introduced, my option is it was a very effective rifle and did exactly what it was designed to do (within the budget constraints imposed), of course there are better but also a lot worse.

 

The way it was explained to me, the L1A1 SLR was used to drop an enemy in its tracks.

Apparently and by comparison, the SA80 is used to express mild disapproval and a suggestion that the enemy should pause and reflect, if its not too much bother?