Great thread!
Some fantastic pictures! 
Old topic this. Iām enjoying the stories I read here.
I did read about āAsia Tomā in a story in a dutch magazine āTruckstarā. European trucking-magazines probably shares their stories.
Turns out now he works for my employer āThermo Transitā at our Oslo branch. When there is work for the 25-metre-combi he is the guy driving it. (it even has āTomā and āNatashaā on the front.) For the rest heās a bit of a Jack of all trades in and around the office.
I hope this is news for TS and that heāll read it after all these yearsā¦
Bump for jelliot!
Hi Dan thanks for that, interesting read and good to see some of the old photos still on line. Iāve been in the ditch a few times as well, the most memorable between Almaty and Novosibirsk when I was stationary empty, and at the time trying to fit snow chains. The wind came up real fast so I was getting the chains out the tool box, when I was dragging them to the drive wheels the truck took of and slid side ways across the road/ice into the ditch. Happy daysā¦
Jeffā¦
Weāre on page 3 of this thread so youāll be wanting some pics of Asia Tomās truck, wonāt you? Robert
Didnāt know that was the same blokeā¦ last seen driving a Freightliner across America delivering load of Yurtsā¦
When I read back through the thread and added it all up, Swedish bloke called Tom that had a microwave, I thought it might have been the one hit wonder that came on the China run with us. But unless he was partial to a bit of naked yoga in sub zero conditions it wasnāt him, and by the look of what he got up to on Ferdies web site defiantly not.
Just as a matter of interest does any one know why a Swede got the job of driving a Swiss aid truck to Mongolia. Not saying he wasnāt qualified, but I would have thought that one of Fridericiās drivers would have been the obvious choice given that at the time they were going that way on a regular basis.
Jeffā¦
Jelliot:
Didnāt know that was the same blokeā¦ last seen driving a Freightliner across America delivering load of Yurtsā¦When I read back through the thread and added it all up, Swedish bloke called Tom that had a microwave, I thought it might have been the one hit wonder that came on the China run with us. But unless he was partial to a bit of naked yoga in sub zero conditions it wasnāt him, and by the look of what he got up to on Ferdies web site defiantly not.
Just as a matter of interest does any one know why a Swede got the job of driving a Swiss aid truck to Mongolia. Not saying he wasnāt qualified, but I would have thought that one of Fridericiās drivers would have been the obvious choice given that at the time they were going that way on a regular basis.
Jeffā¦
Now you come to mention it, it think youāre right! Not sure how I came to conflate the two. Well, the Swede had some taste at least. Robert
āConflateā now thatās a good word, and my kallipygos wife agrees with me.
Jeffā¦
I once knew an Asian Tom called Gladys but thatās probably not the same person either 
David
hi all, does anyone remember one of the magazines (i think it was trucking) doing an article (maybe over 2 months too) on a guy called asia tom who was a german working for a company doing russia, he had a (blue?) renault magnum (dont know who he had upset to be given that ! ) and tilt trailer, i remember he used to carry diplomatic paperwork to help him on his way in case he got stopped, i think the company was called rudolfā¦
any help would be great, i would love to read the article again
cheers
Indeed I do Matt,and Iāll have a sort through my old mags this weekend to see if Iāve still got it!
Iām pretty sure Iāve got the mags, they covered a trip to Kazakstan (NICE 
) I think it was 1996.
Iāll also have a look and either try and put the online.
First Part from Trucking March 1998
Post the rest later.
fantastic muckles (and cheers keith too!), i know you should never wish your life away but sometimes i do wish i had been born before i was, missed out on many a trade route, khazakstan, i wish!!
I remember Asia Tom.
Him and another guy latched on to me and Black Bill on our way to Doha one trip at Aksaray.It was just after the Gulf War. He was driving a 95 Daf for Willie Bayerlein en-route to Bahrain. It was his first trip past Istanbul and he was loving every minute of it, finally he could call himself a middle-east driver.He left his Video player at Derraa, and he got a bit worried when he got to Haditha !! incase the Saudiās cut his motor apart. He had a microwave in the side locker on the unit. We parted company at Dammam and met up again on the way home at Derraa waiting for the convoy.
I spoke to him on the phone sometime after and he told me that the magazine were going to do an article on him, on a trip to Alma Ata.
What a nice bloke.
Wonder what heās doing now ā ā
GS
Have put a query out on a german trucker site,
so far, one answer that has returned, states thatH
he is working for a firm in NORWAY, and is not
driveing, will see if any more information is forth
comeing, later on.
Hi euromat,
I have just joined the forum and remember asia tom very well when he
worked for frank ritter. on one trip with him to uzbek we went swimming
in Balkas(kazak) with his girlfriend and two other drivers. His running
mates were also great guys to travel with especially silvio. There was
also an austrian working for them at the time but i dont remember his
name! Would be grateful if any old uzbek drivers can remember??
Out of interest where did you go in Uzbek?..only up to the mine?
I lived in Bukhara for 2 yrs from May '96 > July ā98 working on ag. eqpt. as product support - flippinā hot in the summer, I can tell you!..and now travel to Uzbek 3 or 4 times per yr.
I drove up to Zarafshan back in '97 just for the afternoon to look around - or a least around one of the repair sites for the excavators.
Do you remember going past the place where they pump the uranium out of the ground?
I guess you came in via Almaty, Chimkent, Tashkent then headed west down the āBitonkaā road down thru the 60km stretch of Kazak (again, where they sold diesel by the bucketful and the customs always shafted you for filling up in there) just prior to Jizzak and onwards to Samarkand then on to Navoyi.
Youāll doubtless remember this sign just out past the Hipodrome bazar in Tashkent, just before the police city limits check point.
My route was always from Samara across the desert on M32 to Chimkent, then Tashkent, Samerkand, Navoie then back into the desert to Sarafshan.
I remember well that section of Kazakstan that jutted into Uzbekistan, first couple of trips used to run past customs did not know who they were, seems a bit silly sitting at a table on the roadside.
Gave them a wave as I passed, they always waved back real friendly people.
That strip of land had more fuel tankers than Stanlow refinery, always filled up on my way through, very cheap.
One memory of the Gold Mine is that at night you could see the lights for two hours before you reached it.
Happy Days.
Dave.javascript:emoticon(ā:Dā)