4. Packing

The one and only useful thing I learned in the army, besides digging trenches, was how to pack a bag. You’d think you would learn more than that in ten months, but apparently not.

I always travel light and I am usually the one with weight to spare, something my fellow travellers quickly abuses. You wouldn’t believe what I have hauled over the Atlantic Ocean (including a porcelain dinner set). Nothing illegal though.

This trip requires lighter packing than ever, yet this is my first trip carrying a computer. My constant need for attention is really going to get challenged on an adventure like this and the least I can do is to post long and numerous videos of myself on YouTube. On a typical vacation I shoot about 1000 pictures every week, and that is going to add up to an enormous amount of images unless I sort them and, more importantly, delete the bad two thirds before I return home. Now that I think about it, it is still going to be an enormous amount of images.

Unfortunately my camera bag is just too small, it doesn’t even come close to fitting my new and very tiny laptop, and my other backpack is way too big to haul around on a bike. Obviously I had to get a new awesome backpack; the backpack that will carry all my belongings, yet be small enough to fit on a bike rack and light enough to pass as a carry on luggage. Such a backpack is probably quite hard to find, so I did what I always do when I go shopping; I went to the nearest store and bought the first item I could find.

An HP NC2230S laptop and a lot of cables.

A Nikon D200 with an 18-200 VR and a Phottix GPS tagger and a lot of cables.
A Panasonic FT1 on a Gorillapod and a lot of cables.
An mp3-player / alarm clock, a.k.a. Nokia E51 cell phone and a lot of cables.

Lonely Planet South-East Asia On A Shoestring.

Some clothes.

Some pills.

Not too bad if I may say so. Total weight 8 kg (17.5 lb).

3. Preliminary route

How do you decide where to go? I don’t know. I want to go everywhere and I’ve always been a bit disappointed about not yet having been there. But I’m still young. Maybe I should apply for a job to drive the Google Car.

The criteria for this trip were basically that it should be flat, cheap, warm and safe. Africa doesn’t feel safe. South America isn’t flat. Australia, Europe and North America aren’t cheap. Antarctica isn’t warm. South East Asia it is. Here is the preliminary route, subject to change at any moment:

Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

2. The Uplifting Planning

I love to travel. Just knowing I’m going somewhere makes me a lot happier, and this time the pre-travel jitters are hitting earlier than ever. Usually I’m never nervous about a trip, I’m rarely nervous about anything actually, but this time I don’t have a clue about what is about to happen. They say you get less nervous if you are well prepared (citation needed) so I’ll give it a try, though I am not as nervous as I am excited.

Vaccinations? Check. Visa applications? Apparently I don’t need any visas; most countries seem to trust Swedes for some reason. Camera? My D200 will do. Laptop? Bought one. When I’m planning something my mind usually concentrates on the bigger, more important issues, and in this case I’m wondering how long a beard I’ll grow, and if I’ll get enough coffee. Will beer be an issue in Malaysia? Probably not, but I’ll better Google it. Yay, an interesting wiki-article! By now my planning abilities should be apparent to anyone.

My life has changed quite a bit in the last year, but time is a great healer and I feel better than ever. Not currently being as suicidal as when I first got my mind set on a trip like this, I have had doubts about it being what I really want to do. Do I really want to bike through Asia, or was it just a crazy idea of a madman? The answer is YES (to both questions). Loosing everything makes you think about what you want to do, and “nothing” is the wrong answer. With the means and opportunity there is no question, really.

Life before: 280 square meters (3000 square feet).

Life after: 6 square meters (65 square feet).

1. The Depressing Introduction

What would you do if you have nothing left? What would you do when the only possible option, except biting the bullet, is to leave everything and start over? What would you do when the goddamn pills don’t work?

You could turn the question around and ask yourself “If I could do anything, what would I do?". But I am getting ahead of myself as at the time I didn’t know the answer to that question. I didn’t even know the question. And I don’t own any guns, by the way.

I was aimlessly spending my days trying to repair myself when my wonderful friend Madeleine did her best to cheer me up (thank you, love you always), giving me tons of suggestions of what I could possible do. She had recently returned home from a couple of months stay in China and the idea of a longer trip grew in my mind. So far most of my travels had been weekend trips to some European city, a week exploring a paradise island, or driving up and down the coasts of the United States, all with the company of my ex wife. This time I wanted, and desperately needed, to go by myself. But I really don’t like to do stuff by myself and the idea of driving or riding by bus or train all alone didn’t seem like too much fun. I’ve been alone for, what, four days of my life or something. I guess I need to grow up.

I was surfing the nets at work (I LOVE my job) when I stumbled upon this video of Christoph Rehage walking through China. I was really fascinated by his adventure. A five minute video does capture the true ordeal, doesn’t it? I mean, how hard can it be? It’s not like I can’t walk!

But I don’t enjoy walking too much either, the lack of speed makes me frustrated. The idea stuck anyway and I started to look for similar stories when I came across Lars Bengtssons site lostcyclist.com. I couldn’t stop reading his amazing stories; this is what I want to do! I do like to ride my bicycle, and I like it even more without company. Perfect!

I looked further and found more people biking around the world. I found Scott Stoll, who asked the magic question “If I could do anything, what would I do?". I found Malena Stiteler who rides around the world on her own. I found Michelle Van who also rides alone. I found Wayne and Kristina Carpenter, a couple who ride long distances at an age (not old) when I plan to work as little as possible (yes, even less than I work today, don’t comment Karl). If they can do it, why couldn’t I? Not that I am implying anything, I am the least active guy I know and a week of downhill skiing while consuming as much alcohol as a human can survive is my idea of sport, but still.

Two questions remained: Do I dare, and where do I go? I solved the daring part simply by telling enough people to make it impossible to back down. Most of my friends already think I’m batshit insane anyway, which probably is a correct observation. I think I’m the sanest person in the world, but I guess that is what all insane people think. The where part changed a couple of times until I finally decided to start in Singapore and bike north from there. The distances between beds seem to be quite short and the weather is nice. It also appears to be mostly flat. Flat is good.

Things to do:

1. Plan trip.
2. Quit smoking (again).
3. Don’t fall in love (again).

I pretty much failed on all accounts. I am the world’s worst planner, as I can never foresee any kind of problem but rather solve things as they come along. The upside of this is that I don’t have to attend to too many meetings at work. I quit smoking in 2004 but picked it up four years later when my life was going down the drain. The cancer inducing sticks worked a lot better than the lousy pills. I have made an effort to give it up again, but unless you count a mixture of nicotine patches, Catch Eucalyptus and more than an occasional smoke “quitting” I am still working on it. I promised myself not to fall for someone before the trip but she came and swept me off my feet anyway. It solved itself (as always) however, since she dumped me faster than I could say “I’m fooled again” as soon as I showed interest. Then I met Cecilia… hmmm…

So, what now? I have absolutely no idea. Fly to Singapore. Buy bike. Seems like a plan to me.