After the long break and rest, the sinus is still there, but under control. Time to hit the road again. Heading north. Looks like i am going to skip Macedonia.A bit off to the east and will take time to divert. Just gonna hit Albania then.
Sleeping in a tent by the lake was really nice. After been sleeping in bed for a while, I kinda miss sleeping in my tent. Riding from Athens to Ioanina was really a challenge for me. Saw on the news that Greece was on strike and most of petrol pump was already dry. I still have to move on. Can’t afford to wait for situations to get better.
I have been trying 3 times this morning just to get lil G filled up but non have any left to sell. This scares me. Don’t want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with no fuel. Finally, I found a filling station which has some left. Only 100 ron available fill her up and my reserve container.
Rode for almost 9 hrs today and found this campsite by the lake; nice, cosy and quiet. Almost all the campervan here being driven by retired people from all over Europe. Most of them are on the way back since summer time is over and temperature is dropping. In fact I do felt it at night, temperature went down to 15c and slight rain in the middle of the night, adding up to the cold.
Woke up in the morning and all set to cross the border. Border crossing is just another same old stories. Entering Albania was not that heavy with traffic but they are really slow and wanted to see everything. They never heard of Malaysia and kept asking me from what country I came from. They thought that Malaysia is Malta. Until came this one old man. He looked at my passport and smile. He told the custom guys. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, all are close by.
Power went down and they couldn’t continue processing my entry. system went down as well. Waited and wasted more than 2 hours just to get it done. Riding into Albania was not easy. With mountains around and hilly ride, it was really taking time and slowing me down. Yet the ride was nice. Couldn’t make it to my intended stop and tonite I am putting up a nite in Vlore. About 200km from Greece border. Couldn’t find any camp place…putting up a nite at the guesthouse; just EURO2 extra comparing to the rate of the camping site.
The next day I started a riding about 10; bit chilly morning. Tirane, the capital city of Albania is just 150km away. So it’s gonna be few hours away I guess. Took me about 5 hours just to get here, bad road and bad traffic, some pumps doesn’t have fuel. And me struggling in the city trying to find this backpackers place. Kinda tough trying to ask ppl where I am heading to and show them the map. They come up with so much questions and wanted to talk to me and not giving me direction. It goes the other way around lah. They are really interested to know where Malaysia is.
Reached my backpackers house at 3, freshen up and went out to grab a bite and roam the city; city filled with small casinos and construction going on here and there.
Khoda Hafez
Iamalaysian 