The book I read to research this post was Butterflies And Flat Tires: From Zurich To Singapore Via Siberia by Lorraine Spence which is an excellent book that I read at kindle unlimited. This book is around 220 pages so is a decent length. It is about a trip made by Lorraine by motorbike. She was born in South Africa but lives in Switzerland. She took 6 months unpaid leave from work to do this and other trips and aims to write books about. Part of her preparation involved doing an off-road motorcycle course. Particularly in Siberia some of the roads were in a horrendous state. She took in the BAM road in Siberia a road that runs parallel to the Trans-Siberian railway. It was built with prison labor and there are bridges missing in several places meaning she often had to cross rivers on the railway bridges and just hope a train didn’t appear. Less than 50 people have ever completed this route. At one point a helpful guard stopped the trains so she could cross. At another point a strict guard refused to let them use the railway bridge and they were forced to make a 50 km detour. In Russia the border guards perhaps not surprisingly were not very friendly and quite strict. This contrasted interestingly with Kazakhstan where they were friendly but seemed eager in some cases to be paid if they put themselves out. They have nice straight roads which go on for vast distances but the speed limit is only 50 km and there are lots of speed traps. I did enjoy this book and do recommend it.
