She Traveled the World by Motorcycle for 6 Years (with No Plan)
Hi my name is Léa and I'm traveling from the north of Canada to the south of Argentina, on my motorcycle. In the last video, I told you that I was staying in a very cool place for a little while, and today I want you to meet one of the owners, Anne, who spent six years traveling all around the world on her motorcycle. So let's go and meet her! Hello! Hello. Thank you for letting me asking you some questions! You're welcome. Can you just introduce yourself quickly, tell me where you from, and what got you into traveling by motorcycle. Okay, well I'm from Switzerland, and I'm 53 now, and I traveled with motorcycle.
It was like always a dream, watching the Paris-Dakar. Yes, and I've been biking since I'm 19, but on road. The off-road side and the... that was a bit... that came very late! And that I don't think that really came... But yeah, that's another story! So did you learn it while traveling? Yeah, because I've always been... I mean in Switzerland and Europe, it's mainly good roads, and I've only had a street motorcycles so far.
And how did you plan for this long travel? Was it planned for six years at the beginning, or how did it happened? No no, actually that was quite a quick shot. I decided to travel with the motorcycle, and a year later, we started the trip. So that was a very fast preparation, and without a big planning. The only thing was that the idea was an open-end traveling, so without any date to come back, or with the idea, actually, of eventually finding a new place to stay.
And did you have a destination in mind? Like from Switzerland, you went East? Yeah, we went East, but that's about it. We started actually in 2014, and the first idea we had was actually to travel through Iran, and at some point do these "stan" countries, and go up into Russia, and afterwards, yeah wherever the wind would take us. And at the time, when we started, there were some trouble starting in Syria, and we didn't feel so comfortable to go in that region.
Fair enough. And also in Georgia, there were some small trouble. So we actually decided to not go there and we went up north. North Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and then into Russia.
Because we are now in Mexico... How did you arrive in Mexico from there? What happened in between? Well, what happened in between... So we went through Russia, a bit of Mongolia, back into Russia. Then we took a ferry. We didn't know from Russia where we would go to, but we saw that there was a ferry going to South Korea. So, okay let's go to South Korea! We had like a three months visa, so easy peasy.
We went to South Korea and then said "Okay, where do we go next?" and next, we thought "Okay, we could actually put the motorcycles in the container and ship them to Thailand." So that's what we did. We stayed in Thailand, between Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, one and a half year about, we stayed in that area.
And things changed a bit, because we had the idea of going in Indonesia, and then eventually to Australia. But we took a dog in Thailand. And that changes everything, because you don't enter Australia like that and we found out that, to take a dog, coming from Thailand into Australia it would take take us at least a year of preparation for the dog, with the vaccinations, with the blood tests, etc.
And afterwards, when you get into Australia, you have this quarantine. So it's a lot of money, and a lot of time, so we said no, so no Australia. And we looked for a country where it was easy to go in with the dog, and we found out Canada is fairly easy to go in, to travel with the dog, so we went to Canada! Stayed quite a bit in Canada. We had the opportunity of doing work and travel. Yeah, obviously not me.
And then from Canada, at some point, when covid popped up, we had friends here, in Baja California, who told us that it was... the weather was good, because that was a bit the issue. We liked Canada a lot, but wherever you go, the winter is endless, so for motorcycling, it's not that funny. So they told us it was fairly easy to get in, to stay also a while, also for the motorcycles or the vehicles, because at the time we changed a little bit the way of traveling, from mainly motorcycles, to also camper. That kind of things.
So we found out it's easy to enter with the vehicles here, and stay for a longer time in Baja, so that's what we did. The plan was not to stay here but... yeah it happened! Life happened! What's your bike? I have, to travel, I had and I still have a BMW 800, an R80 GS, Paris-Dakar. So it's the first Paris-Dakar edition. How old is the bike? It's from 91.
Pretty cool bike but with a lot of changes. The good thing about that bike was there's no electronic on it. So that's very good. Carburettor. It's not an excessively fast bike, not at all,
but that's a strong bike. We had the frame a bit reinforced here and there, because we found out, afterwards, that this bike had probably already about 300 km... 300,000 km on. That's a lot for bike! Because we found out it has been around the world already, at least once! So yeah, and I had a gas tank of 40 L on. It that must be heavy! That was heavy, yeah, when it was full. But it was useful.
Yeah it's independence! There were a lot of unknown when we started, like Russia, if you cross Russia, I mean how often can you tank or whatever. So yeah, that was cool. Do you remember one moment when you felt like "Okay, this is why I'm traveling"? There's a lot of moments... Actually like Russia, crossing Russia, that was quite something, because it's endless! It's endless. At some point, from Mongolia, when we re-entered Russia, the GPS said...
because we had the GPS, and we just said "okay we want to go to Validivostok" and the GPS said: "in 1,600 km take right". So these are moments where I say "yeah you're traveling" and you have this sense of freedom. Because at that point, when you start traveling, you're not in a long-term traveling modus. You're more like a tourist, because you usually take a holiday.
You have like two three weeks and you have to go to one point to the other and you're quite fast on the way. And at some point, you realize that you have time, and then you relax and you enjoy just the fact that you're traveling, and you're not going back. You're always going in one direction. So that was it. Also Mongolia was quite special, because you're in a country and in a day you might not see anybody. So that's pretty cool.
Yeah, that was my first motorcycle travel as well. It's a very special country for that. Cool. Do you have an encounter, like a very unexpected encounter, that you could tell me about? Russia was quite special, because, as soon as you leave the western part, you really enter Siberia, and places where people don't see a lot of tourists, or lot of foreigners, and there was one place, we were looking for a place to pitch up the tent, and we saw this little village, so we just entered the village and we just drove through the old village and at the end, there were some the last houses, and then some spots where we might be able to pitch up the tent, so we stopped and we looked if there was someone, we found someone. It was a girl who actually went to get her mom. And the mom came out and... Russian... You notice that communism and this way of living is not far away, so they're a bit skeptical about what's happening, and once we explained what we were doing and we asked if we could actually pitch up the tent on the plot next to hers where there was nobody, she said yes, okay, but she was quite... not really smiling.
So we pitched up the tent, I took out my cooking stuff, wanted to start to cook, and she came out, and said in a tone which you can only answer by "yes of course". She said "Dinner is ready. Come and eat." Da! So we went and I must say that was amazing, because she was like self-sufficient, she had a few cows, she had chicken, she was growing her own vegetables.
So she was self-sufficient and we had a great meal. Actually very simple but delicious. She was baking her own bread, she was doing her own double cream, that was amazing! And at some point she took out a little bottle... Uh little... A two litters bottle with like water inside. And she said it's Samogon, which she does herself, so it's 100% sugar. And she took a small glass, took the glass, she drunk the first, then she passed it, etc.
So we had some Samogon with her, and that was a great moment! And the next day, actually, she did the same, calling us in for breakfast! And when we left, she gave us a freshly cooked bread, some pickled gherkins and tomatoes from the garden, and that was quite something. Yeah I must say that was something... We had her address and, a few years later, I went back to Switzerland for a few months and sent her a parcel full of cheese and chocolate. Oh that's cool! And she actually got it. We had an email from her daughter, saying that she was very pleased receiving the cheese.
So that was amazing, I must say. That was really a good moment. Do you have a country or a place that really surprised you, either in a positive way or in a negative way? Yeah actually Thailand. Why? Yeah I was very positively surprised. I was not very keen on...
It's also because of the climate. I don't like when it's humid and hot. It's not my type of climate. And I didn't really have especially a good image somehow from Thailand.
I don't know why. Maybe too touristic? Yes, somehow... And there's also not very good things happening there with the tourism, so I was not very keen, but that was a very nice discovery I must say. We met very nice people and, as soon as you are outside of the touristic places, it's really nice and there were a lot of places where you don't feel like being a walking dollar anymore.
And once you know what the price is of the stuff, you can just go on the market and buy and don't... Yeah that's very nice. I picked up a few words then, that was very positive I must say. I was very very positively surprised. Do you remember one like very challenging moment, that you had on the road, and how did you get through it? Especially one we yeah! We were in Cambodia and there were some waterfalls somewhere and, the GPS was showing like a little line to go to these waterfalls, and said okay, we asked a few people, and because everybody has this little scooter, and everybody said: "Yes, yes, yes, you can go with the bikes, you can go with a bike" And we were, like, fully loaded, we had a 20 kg tent with us.
That is heavy! Yeah, my kitchen thing was... so the motorcycles were huge! We were very, very heavy. More than us? Yeah, that was very heavy. We got lighter actually on the way.
Yeah, a bit lighter, but still very heavy! We had a lot of spare parts and tools and stuff, I mean yeah. So we started this little way and sometimes, it was just... the track was, like, this size! And at some point there was a bridge, but it was a bridge, like two planks and that's it. And it was like 2-3 m down, and that's why I thought "no, I'm not going!". So my partner said "No problem", so he drives through with his bike, comes back, drives my bike over and, okay, we continue. And at some point, there were always these little scooters overtaking us, and loaded like two on it, with the girl behind with these 24 bottles of water, and they were going on it like it's nothing, and we were sweating and going...
And at some point, after the second bridge, there was a road going up, but it was like a mini-canyon, and I thought "We're not... we are too wide, we will not pass through!" and my partner tried, but that was a fail, and some people helped us to get out of that canyon thing. And we went back and said "when there is only a little line, and if scooters are telling you: yes, you can go, it doesn't mean you can go". Okay, check first! Do you remember a moment where things didn't go as planed at all but it ended up being like an incredible experience? No, we actually.. Well as we didn't plan so much things... The whole travel was a surprise! We never had like big issues or things like that.
No because as we were planning very little in advance, everything was a surprise! The biggest surprise was actually to stay here, in Mexico. You stay now in Mexico, but is there another country where you would feel like home and you would stay you think? We liked... I mean I must say we like Thailand a lot, but the humidity actually was a bit of an issue, because you have everything rotting at some point... So yeah that was not so... but to live, actually, I understood why so many people decide to live there.
Canada, with another type of weather, yeah why not. But Mexico is the winner? Mexico so far has been good to us and to me. I'm not planning anymore, anyway, like 10 years in advance. So, yeah, I felt good here.
I cannot say I will stay forever here, I enjoy the moment. Is there something you wish you would have known before starting the trip? No because that was good to have like surprises, not expecting too much, just going with the wind basically. And we didn't prepare much, we were very prepared... we had prepared bikes and so, but what I learned, basically, is: everybody is traveling the way they're comfortable with.
You can read as many books as you want about people traveling, that's very interesting I think. I enjoy reading a travel experience! But at the end, you have to do it the way you feel comfortable with. So no regret, that's cool!That's positive! If someone would like to go for like a long motorcycle journey, but would be hesitant. What advice would you give them? Go! Just stop thinking! Don't have regrets afterwards... If you try and it doesn't work out, that's okay.
I mean, you tried at least! You don't have regrets afterwards "Oh if I would have tried, and this and that..." Go for it! If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Especially for us coming, from Europe. It's very easy. You go in every... you can enter every country, you get visas, you can always go back.
Yeah your country will take care of yourself, so go for it, just go, don't hesitate! If you want to go by motorcycle, choose a motorcycle you're comfortable with, it doesn't have to be an off-road bike or whatever because, at the end, when you're loaded, the off-road side, it's minimal what you can do. That's my experience. So take something you're comfortable on, and yeah go for it! Did you feel ready before starting the trip? No! No because you're never ready! As you don't know what to expect... So at some point you have to go! I agree with that! I can imagine. You would never be ready. No because you never know how it's going to be. For everybody it's different, that's also something you learn on the road.
Everybody will tell you "oh this was great, that was great... that difficulties to enter the country or this and that" and it might be very different for you. I enjoyed South Korea, I must say, very much, and at some point we met people who actually didn't like it at all. Yeah the experience was different.
Make your own thing. It's good to have the ears open to what people are saying... And one very important thing is: listen to your gut feeling.
If you are in a place and you don't feel it, don't stay, go. Yeah even if you cannot explain it. Don't try, go. That's important I think to stay, to have a good feeling all the time. And on more practical side, do you have a very underrated piece of gear that you had with you, and that happened to be great for you? For me it was important that I could sleep well because I thought, when you're like five, six, seven hours on the road, on the bike, you want to sleep well.
So we had a good tent, but we had very good mattresses. They took a little bit of space but I must say the investment was worth it! That was a quite an expensive piece of equipment. Also the sleeping bags.
Very good sleeping bags, which allowed us sometimes to not pitch the tent stay but just like that. And it got to minus 2, 3, 4 at night. And you feel good in your sleeping bag, and you feel good on your mattress, so when you get a good sleep you are fit for the next day! So for me that was important! And that was something where I don't regret that we spend a lot, because it still works after 6 years, and now even more, and that makes a difference on a long journey like that! Especially I'm not 20 anymore! So like, no I need to be fit on the next day! I would like to finish with a little tac-au-tac questions, Like all question, and you try to answer as fast as possible. It's not tac-au-tac in English, it's fire round! A quick fire round! Mountains or desert? Mountain. Coffee or tea? Coffee.
Cheese fondue or tacos? Cheese fondue! Camping or staying with locals? Camping. Best road: twisty mountain pass or endless straight road in the desert? A mix of both! Variety. One word to describe the motorcycle travel? Great! Okay, cool, thank you, thank you! That is such an inspiration! Well it must be fun that's the main thing, it must be fun to travel, that's important to have fun in life! Thank you. I agree with that. Thank you for answering these questions.
You're welcome and have a good travel, safe travel, enjoy it! Thank you.
2025-02-09 06:13
