After a long silence, more than a year of living the normal routine life in my homesoil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I’m now preparing for my next long exciting journey, of course, on bicycle! Again, I’m writing this inside my room at home, sweating under the hot weather and still…. my aircond isn’t working! As usual huh? :) Its been 2 years since the day I flew to Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China with nothing except my sexy backpack and some cash. Without any experience on long distance cycling and only armed with a very strong spirit to travel the world, I cycled blindly from Chengdu, alone. The previous journey that marks my bicycle odometer over 7000km brought me all the way to the Pamir Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, a very beautiful, unpolluted country deep inside Central Asia. It was there where I met the love of my life, a beautiful and exotic Central Asian woman that belongs to the proud Kyrgyz people. A few months later, we got married in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was indeed the best moment of my life, I never regret doing this trip.

We spent a year of our marriage life here in Malaysia. I spent a year working hard and planning my next ride carefully. The spirit to travel the world is still strong burning inside me! Now, everything seems to be in place. I’m now at the final stage at preparing my next cycling journey, tougher, bolder! This time, I will ride in the land of fire and ice! My journey will start in a country where the mountains spit of fire, the rivers flow of lava instead of water, a country where the American Plate and the Eurasian Plate meet, a country where it shores touch the Arctic Circle. Yes, my journey will start in Iceland on summer 2012. It all started during the major eruption in May 2011 where Iceland came out to the international headlines. The eruption was catastrophic where all major airport in Europe had to be shut down temporarily and the smoke covered the sky as far as Denmark. When others see it as danger, I see it as opportunity! I wanna get close to the mountain of fire and ride along it, get close with it!

The destination? That question never comes across my mind anymore. I have learned from my previous journey that the destination is not important. Its the journey which is important. I want to see and learn about the planet we are living in. I wanna travel very slowly with my bike, taking my own sweet time.  I don’t need to worry about refueling petrol, no flight to catch and bringing my complete camping equipments and having enough dry food that can last me for at least 2 weeks, its a total freedom! I will keep riding when I see roads without worrying where does it lead me to, I will just follow where the wind blows and let the eagles flying above me to lead me. I want to feel free! I wanna be a freeman!

Before I end this post, I wanna share some more pictures on my previous journey that I never shared on my blog all these while. I was browsing through the pictures on my hard disk, I found many other beautiful images that were captured on my previous journey. Also check out the video I shot, its the making of my bicycle that will be used for this journey! OrangeCycle, a bicycle shop based in Taman Sri Manja, Off Jalan Kelang Lama (orangecycle.blogspot.com) was very kind to sponsor me a custom made mountain bike that has been modified into a strong, fierce touring bike, that is meant to be ride on fire!! And ice!!! :)

Glaciers in the Tian Shan, China

Heavy traffic in the Tian Shan

Nomads in the Tian Shan

Nomads in the Tian Shan

The Steppe Of Kazakhstan

Pamir Mountains, Kyrgyzstan

Pamir Mountains, Kyrgyzstan

Pamir Mountains, Kyrgyzstan

Issykul Lake, Jewel of the Kyrgyz People