Check out the first draft edited short video I shot during my first hour in Iceland. Cycled for some kilometers to get to Reykjavik. Sorry for the bad audio quality for now, I was lazy :)
Shot with my Canon 5D and GoPro…
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The long flight from Kuala Lumpur to Keflavik, Iceland was very tiring. It took me 13 hours of journey from KL to London. Stucked for 9 hours in London Airport because the flight to Iceland was delayed. I was starving, weak and tired, I had no other choice but to exchange 12 pounds (around 60 ringgit) for a burger in a restaurant inside London Airport!
view of the Icelandic sky, it was around 2.45am!
Finally after 3 hours of flight from London to Keflavik, Iceland, I arrived my final destination at 3 am. Suprising, it was as bright as a day. My eyes fixed at the window during the touchdown, watching in detail every single object my eyes could catch. It is a small airport with not many people, making it easier for me during checkout process. I was extremely tired when I reached Keflavik Airport. When I got all my stuff, I quickly went out of the building and start assembling my bicycle. It was my first hour in Iceland and I already experiencing the Midnight Sun. It is a phenomena where the sun never sets for the whole of summer. This happens in countries that touch the Arctic Circle and beyond, and also the Antartic Circle and beyond. I really took my own sweet time assembling my bicycle. I already made an arrangement via couchsurfing to a local Icelander who stays near the airport to stay in his house. But it was in the middle of the night so I decided to cycle to a nearby guesthouse and take a rest.
chilling outside my guesthouse near the airport
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Iceland is among the most expensive country in Europe, and probably the world. The cheapest room I got was 6900 Icelandic kronos (around 180 ringgit) and the food and drinks here are double the price compared to us in Malaysia. As for now I have no other choice but to pay for it. I really need to get all the stuff I need in Reykjavik and quickly get into the wild so that I can save my money. At around noon, I finally contacted my friend here in Iceland, and cycle straight to his house. It was a very short ride of 15 kilometers and I already witness the beautiful landscape of the land of fire and ice! Its mostly black rocks here with black sands, I can see smoke here and there from the volcano craters, making me feel like I’m riding on the moon.
slept here for a night, in Gumie’s house
Gumie’s workplace
When I arrived at my friend’s house, he was already waiting for me outside. His name is Gudmundur Jonas Haraldsson, but I just call him Gumie. Very nice guy, he really gave me a good first impression of Icelandic hospitality. Surprising, we are working in the same field. He’s a film-maker as well, focusing in directing/acting. We had a long conversation and even wished that we can work on a project together one day since my specialty is in post production/vfx and animation and him in acting. Just like me, he also worked mainly from his house. A small and old house but very peaceful, reminded me of my studying days in New Zealand. Only about 20 meters behind his house, the majestic North Atlantic Sea. The environment in his house is very quiet, safe and peaceful. I had some trouble sleeping here though. The sun never sets, its very bright even during midnight. I need to get used to this. I slept for a while, around 2 hours and woke up just a few minutes before midnight. When I realized it was almost midnight, I quickly went outside with my camera to capture the Midnight Sun!
The magical light during midnight, its the Midnight Sun! This was taken at 12 am sharp!!
A short video showing the preparation for my incoming cycling journey. Packed everything, all 45kg of it on my bicycle. Including food and water, I might be pulling 50kg of luggage on my bike for thousands of kilometers through volcanoes in Iceland!
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
After a long silence, I decided to write the last entry for this season. Im writing this very sexy last post at the same location when I wrote the first entry of this blog, inside my room at home, sweating under the hot weather and my aircond isn’t working as usual :) Yes, Im back home in KL, my home country of Malaysia. Hmmm feel quite good to be home. Feel good to sleep comfortably on my own bed at home, under the pleasant warm weather. But I miss the mountains so much…
the condition during winter just outside my house
Reason I came back home? Many…. but there are 2 main reason why I came back home. Firstly, I was running out of money. Just nice, by the time I reached KL, I have 12 ringgit inside my bank account :) Secondly, its actually some personal reason that I cant discuss here in this blog, but its something big and most important moment of my life. Cant wait for it to happen :) I found “something” very valuable on my travel, and Im bringing it back home with me :)
during my last days in Kyrgyzstan...
The Winter Impression
I had a good time staying a few months in Kyrgyzstan. The fresh air, beautiful view even from my balcony, my mind felt so relaxed and calm. By early December, the winter season came. Snow started to fall and it gets very cold, constantly below freezing. I have to wear layers and layers and layers just to get to a shop which is 50 meters away from my house. Everything is covered by snow, even the roads. On the snowing day it was still okay. But the next day when the sun is out, the snow started to melt and the road became very very slippery. I had a hard time even to walk the road. Cycling? Forget it. I have to wait till summer to continue cycling again.
cute kyrgyz kids... :)
So as for now, I finally decided to come back home. I need to work again for a few months, save enough money to continue my ride. I left my bicycle and most of my stuff in a safe hand in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. I travel light back home, carrying only 2 bags, my huge backpack and my laptop bag. Of course my body got a bit shocked once I reached KL, with the hot weather after staying months in the snow mountains. Only a few days after I reached home, I started to work again. Hmmm.. lecturing. Kinda good to see the faces of my students again. I plan to teach 1 semester here before riding again towards the continent of Africa, I really wanna spend this one semester to bring up the skill level of my students. Time to hit the keyboard and the mouse again :)
eh slippery!!
The next plan hmmmm…..
Im not sure of this time I wanna try to get sponsors. I don’t want to be dictated by someone, and I don’t like the idea of ppl are watching me while im traveling. The key is to have freedom here. While I was in Kyrgyzstan, I have contacted 2 Malaysian cyclists who are now cycling around the globe! Yerp, theyre cycling the whole planet! Amazing… and sexy!! Only catch is they have to complete it by 289 days or something. So its kinda a race against time. I guess theyre breaking the world record? Guess these 2 guys must be very strong, since one of them is an ex commando or something? Tough guys. As for me, Im not really an athlete. So I will do it at my own phase. And do it really slow so that I can learn as much as I can from the locals. I might try to talk to people here in KL, but if I ever get sponsored, my term is that I can change my route anytime I want and at my own phased. Especially here in central asia, traveling by bike can be very difficult. Getting visa isn’t enough. Some countries like Tajikistan, if I wanna cycle in the pamir highway that leads to northern Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor), I need to apply for a permit. Well, its isn’t that simple! They have many regions there that I have to cross, each region needs its own permit. Ahaaa… complicated? To get to Iran from Uzbekistan, I have to cross over 600km in the land of Turkmenistan. I can only get 5 days transit visa which allow me to travel solo with bicycle. Don’t think I can cover over 600km for only 5 days of cycling. If I get the normal 30 days visa, they will assign me a tourguide, and I cant travel freely. Yerp I cant expect a tourguide to cycle with me. Turkmenistan is kinda North Korea for central asia. Well, that’s what I read. So my planned route might change here and there. Even land borders between Algeria and Libya is closed to foreigners, like forever!… due to kidnapping problems. Very difficult! Looking at the map, I have to cross into Tunisia, which is safe. So with all these problems, I think I will just do it alone. I prefer freedom, rather than pressure :)
As for now, Im writing a book on this first season of my cycling journey. Its travel journal with a lot of interesting pictures, hopefully will be out soon before I get on bicycle again. Besides, I wanna get myself busy doing a lot of freelance job! Need to earn as much as I can before continue traveling again. And yeap, I managed to get only 1 wedding photography job in Kyrgyzstan hehe. Very difficult to find people who speaks English there, I was lucky to get 1, at least I can experience a Kyrgyz wedding, tho they make it modern style. It was fun to join them. Very long wedding, very tiring, from morning till midnight! Very hot couple, Asel & Tariel. (i hope u guys dont mind i mention u guys in my blog? :)) Kinda easy to communicate with them since Asel (the bride) speaks good english, since she works in the american embassy in bishkek. It was kinda interesting, tho it was a modern style wedding, they still have some Kyrgyz elements on the ceremony. They stayed a few hours in a yurt, and of course, they enjoy vodka! :D
Now, I will get myself busy with many things. So many things to prepare. :) But my mind and my heart are still up there in the mountains. I never regret doing this great trip. I never regret all the pain, the coldness cycling and camping in the snow mountains during snowstorm and the sickness I had while crossing the Taklamakan Desert, as well as the near death experience while climbing the mountains of Tibet. Kinda shocking when some of my friends asked me why I never complete the whole trip, as my original plan was to cycle to Russia. Well, I actually missed the highlight of my journey. The highlight was cycling in the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan, passing Mt. Kailash near the Indian border, and riding the Karakoram Highway of Pakistan. Many problems came during my ride, most part of Tibet are not allowed for foreigners, u have to dodge police checkpoints, and its very dangerous, especially if u get caught. There was fighting and bombings went out in Aksu, as well as the Karakoram Highway on the Pakistan side is closed (and still close till now) because of huge landslide. Because of all these reasons, I have to cut straight into Korgas in Kazakhstan, and from there if I head north to Omsk in Russia, its not interesting anymore. The more north u go, the culture is all the same. Its only the drinking culture. Almost everyone u see on the street, holding a vodka bottle with them. Some of em gets very aggressive, alcoholic problems. So I decided to turn south. Heading to Kyrgyzstan instead, and get close with the nomadic culture. Well, the most important thing I want from this trip is experience, to learn as much as I can, not to break any record. So Im satisfied with the 7000km I did. And of course, I plan to continue, but to the west :) Now before I end my blog for this season, here’s some stats…
somewhere in china, rocking the road! :)
Total Distance cycled: 7136km
Longest ride in a day: 213km (downhill Tibet-Qinghai)
Shortest ride in a day: 46km (sandstorm in the Taklamakan Desert)
Longest time without shower: 12 days :D
Hottest temperature: 52 celcius (Taklamakan Desert, China)
Coldest temperature: -20 celcius (Issykul, Kyrgyzstan)
Highest altitude: 4800m (Tibet,China)
Lowest altitude: -160m (Turpan,China)
Most hospitality people: The Hui (chinese muslim)
Most harsh people: Drunk Russians
The best ride: Tian Shan, China
Worst ride: Getting out of Urumqi
Coolest driver: China lorry drivers (see post china lorry drivers are so cool!)
Worst driver: The Kazakhs (they almost kill me)
Hottest girls: Kyrgyz
Thx for reading… The end….
Diary Of A Traveller 