23 countries, 20K+ miles, 3 years... and I ain't even done
Sometimes shower thoughts get out of hand.
During the winter of 2017-2018, I had stagnated. Days were a slog, I had bad habits, and I dreaded going to work. One day, as the black grease on my arms and the stress in my mind melted away with the hot water and cheap soap, I blithely wondered if you could drive from Europe to East Asia. There’s gotta be roads, right?
I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I noticed an ad for $99 flights to Europe from Norwegian Airlines. I wanted to go back to Japan, where I’d spent a couple months as a hot-springs resort worker.
Norway to Japan?
I could ride a motorcycle there.
Whoa.
Random thoughts became obsessions. The spring returned to my step. I evolved a plan: work hard for another year, and save a pile of cash. The waiting turned out to be too much to handle, and one impulsive April morning, I just bought the ticket. $99 would take me to either the UK, Ireland, or Norway. Edinburgh had the cheapest hostels of the three, so the journey became Scotland to Japan.
I sold or gave away everything. I got my motorcycle license. I packed a schoolboy’s knapsack with the bare essentials, and June 4th, 2018 saw me soaring over the Atlantic.
I bought 1981 Honda CX500, almost the worst possible bike for the task, but the one I'd seen in my dreams. I was off!
For an overview of the journey up until February 2019, click here. To read blog posts for each country, click below.
The adventure continues!
From crofting in Scotland to scrubbing toilets in Turkey to teaching English in Kyrgyzstan, it's all on the blog. Or will be, in short-ish order. ;)
Simply click the tag, "Scotland to Japan".
country by country
Getting going, and the UK
Getting going, and the UK
Getting going, and the UK
Got rid of all my stuff, flew to Ireland and then Scotland, bought a bike, and rode from Stornoway to Dover.
France
Getting going, and the UK
Getting going, and the UK
Spent a week in Paris and a week in a little village in Burgundy. Calais to Pontarlier.
Switzerland
Getting going, and the UK
Switzerland
I spent a couple weeks around the French-speaking West with old friends, and lost my mind. Lausanne to Basel.
Germany
Luxembourg
Switzerland
Camped, visited old friends, and bombed around the Nurburgring. Schonau-im-Schwartzwald to Bitbourg.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Fixed up my bike, explored cities and villages, and brushed up on my history. Luxembourg City to Bastogne.
Belgium
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Explored the city and fixed my bike some more. Brussels to Antwerp.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Stayed with travel buddies Jack in Delft and Cecelia in Amsterdam. Roosendaal to Hoogeveen.
Poland
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Rode to my ancestral home of East Prussia, visiting the city of Suwalki and the village of Filipow. Szczecin to Krosno.
Hungary
The Balkans
The Balkans
Dom, the guy I bought my bike from, set me up to stay with his friend Gyuri in Budapest and his parents in the village of Csakany. Miskolc to Barcs.
The Balkans
The Balkans
The Balkans
Had my first taste of hard eastern Europe. Bad roads, abandoned socialist architecture, and glittering black SUVs weaving in and out of traffic. Virovitica, Croatia, to Svilengrad, Bulgaria.
Turkey
Georgia
Georgia
Lived in Istanbul for two months. I worked in a hostel and a cafe, and was a freelance English teacher. Edirne to Hopa.
Georgia
Georgia
Georgia
Lived with a core group of travelers for another two months. Stayed with locals, worked in a motorcycle shop, climbed mountains. Batumi to Rustavi.
Armenia
Georgia
Azerbaijan
Visited bitter-cold Gyumri, the balmy capital of Yerevan, and steep mountain passes on the border of Iran. Tashir to Agarak.
Azerbaijan
Turkmenistan
Azerbaijan
Sick for the better part of a month in the glitzy oil city of Baku. Qazax to Alat.
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Hopped a ferry across the Caspian Sea, and rode through the night on desert roads in the second most closed country in the world. Turkmenbashi to Turkmenabat.
Uzbekistan I
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Rode from the desert wastelands around Bukhara to the cool, wet forests near Denau. Busted up my bike and body pretty good in a spectacular crash.
Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Hair-raising jaunts through shoddy high-altitude tunnels, hitchhiking with Muslim peasants along the Afghan border, struggling to outrun dogs. Tursunzoda, Khorog, Khujand.
Uzbekistan II
Uzbekistan II
Uzbekistan II
Bike was seriously on the fritz so I took trains, including a delightful high-speed one. Strong, flat desert. Termez to Chirchiq.
Kazakhstan I
Uzbekistan II
Uzbekistan II
I was just about broke by this point, so I rocked up to an oil town near the Russian border to find work. Taught English and made some awesome friends. Shymkent, Uralsk, Aksai.
Kyrgyzstan I
Uzbekistan II
Kyrgyzstan II
Spent a week in the capital city of Bishkek, three in the USA, and then returned.
Kyrgyzstan II
Kyrgyzstan III
Kyrgyzstan II
Fixed my bike, partied with locals and travelers, and got to know a very special local family.
Kazakhstan II
Kyrgyzstan III
Kyrgyzstan III
Took a road trip from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Almaty, Kazakhstan, with no tools or supplies, and reaped the consequences.
Kyrgyzstan III
Kyrgyzstan III
Kyrgyzstan III
Continued to teach English, live with a local family, and whip my old bike around Bishkek.
Out with a bang!
Out with a bang!
Out with a bang!
What started as a simple errand to renew some documents turned into a madcap misadventure.