Ep. 158: One day Arev and Mathias decided to bike from Germany to Korea.
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[Music] Hello everybody and welcome to the latest episode of the Fox podcast. I’m your host Fox Nomad Anop. I’ve got a fantastic episode for you today. My next two guests have traveled the world on bicycle. So they are the couple behind Amazing World Bike Tour. That’s Arv and Mateas. They make some fantastic YouTube videos about the places they’ve been. For those of you who’ve listened to the podcast or have followed me for any length of time, you know that one of the major reasons that I started traveling was because I read Long Way and I watched the documentary Long Way Round. So, this uh episode really is just sort of near and dear to my heart. It’s really just one of those kind of trips that I really love hearing about and I think you’re really going to enjoy this episode with Amazing World Bike Tour. Thank you both for joining the podcast and working with me on the schedule. I know you were traveling, I’m traveling, so I’m really glad that we were able to to get together to be able to record this. So, thank you for taking the time to be on the podcast. Um, I want to hear about your travels. I I mean, you have this kind of big adventure planned or ongoing and it’s it’s a bike trip around the world. Is that how you would describe it? Yeah, I guess. Yeah. So, that was the idea that we cycle around the world and obviously with a bicycle we are quite slow. So, all the world um is relative. But we soon figured out that that we at least want to cycle from Germany to Korea. That was kind of the minimal goal because I’m from Germany. We met in Germany. Um I was originally from Armenia and my mother is from Korea. So to yeah connect all this with a bicycle that was the main goal. And I mean are you cyclists or or were were you why bikes I guess is um no we both of us are not cyclists or also u not very sporty people but u yeah we like cycling. It’s u it’s a fun way of traveling and um when we wanted so when the idea came that we want to travel for longer period Matias came with this idea why not cycling and of course in the beginning I was a little bit um surprised and it took me a while to to agree on that but because psych of course cycling as Mati has already told uh it’s we are slower and so I like oh it will take a lot of time until we get to Korea then and you were not the most confident of cyclists in the world so because so I grew up in Germany I’m born in Germany grew up here so in Germany it’s absolutely normal that you start learning to cycle in elementary school and if I remember correctly in third or fourth fourth fourth grade, we had this kind of cycling license where real policemen would go on a training area with the signs and everything and then we would get kind of a paper cycling license. But Alf learned to cycle when she was already over 20 years old. Yes. Yeah. Properly. So I tried as a kid but I wasn’t successful. I just loved it and then I would never imagine that I would cycle for so many kilometers in the world and uh yeah so it took me a while but I was actually happy to do that because yeah I really enjoyed cycling after all. Yeah. And and to get back to your question because so I cycled all my life casually or how to say I cycled all my life to to get to places like I to get to school later to get to university to get to my work if it’s close enough. Um but never for fun. Never ever for fun. And um so I think there’s the question why did we decide to cycle around the world when we are not these big cyclists and that is because I have a friend from school and he cycled also a very long distance from Germany to basically to central Asia and um there he had to stop his trip because he got sick and everything but so this was in the back of our mind that it’s technically possible to do a big trip with a bicycle even though we had never done anything like that and we always wanted to travel. I wanted to see Southeast Asia as well and I every year said I don’t want to fly there for just two weeks. That doesn’t make sense in my mind. And then I said okay one day we’ll do a longer journey. We saved all these years. We we saved as much as we could and then when the opportunity arose I said how about we do it with a bicycle. A and what is the logistics of planning a trip like this? So, I mean, I think most of us are familiar with, you know, you’re flying to a country, you check your passport, do you need a visa, and you get on the plane, you know, it’s it’s pretty straightforward. But with a bike, you now have a bike. And if you’re crossing borders, h how does that work? How did the planning uh go into such a trip? Do you want to? Yeah. I mean, we um I think there’s different approaches, very different approaches. Um there’s very different extremes. I think we are somewhere in the middle because um so we’ve been going for a couple of years now and we’ve met people on any approach and the the one extreme is that they have a very specific very short time frame and they want to to cycle a very specific route and then they plan exactly where they go and they have the maps and and the roots already on their GPS device and then they just hammer down the road every day. So that’s that’s one extreme and if you want to do a world record this probably the way to go but we we are more to the other end um where it’s more loosely. So the preparation is more like um to be set up for anything that that this journey can throw um in your path. And so so we started out with thinking what kind of bicycles would we want to ride and then we soon figured because we don’t know um which countries exactly we would choose and and which roads and and how the condition of the roads is and everything. So we decided to go with very very sturdy very simple bicycles um and and they served us really well actually. um stuff like this then and then you pack for uh all seasons. So you have clothes for summer, winter, uh rain clothing. Um yeah, you have your tent and kitchen and bathroom. The border crossings we did kind of on the go. Um what we did or what I did, I I begged Alv to change her passport to a German passport before the trip. um so that we have the same passport to make it a little bit more straightforward and we don’t need to go through two different processes every time we change the country. Um and I think that was a good idea. Um and then with the German passport, a lot of the countries um give visa free entry or visa exemptions, stuff like this. So the first visa that we really needed was Iran. Yeah. And then we had some troubles with countries like Turk Ministan, which is notorious for not being the easiest to get the visa. And then back then we also struggle to to get into China and and later we managed that. So um but that we would just go on do on the on the fly basic not on the fly on the cycling basically. Yeah. And and is there a particular bike that you landed on? Did you both have the same brand and model of bike? Did you choose different bikes? I’m curious what the what the gear looked like there, helmets and that kind of thing. So, um, we decided to go with kind of old school bike touring bicycles. And what they they’re very similar to to the steel mountain bikes from the ’90s just so that they’re a little more sturdy and that they have longer chain stays so that with the penas in the back that you don’t hit your feet on the on the backs with every time you turn the pedal. So basically they’re just a little longer stretched out and um with a very upright riding position. And no, they’re not the same, but they’re very similar technically. Um, so for ALF, I bought a bicycle is probably now 20 years old from a company that’s even in business anymore. Um, and I changed all the parts when when I got it into into what I wanted it to be. And my bike is, yeah, maybe around 10 years now, um, from a German company. But basically they’re very simple. So it’s this um derailia system with three chain rings in the front and um yeah basically three times 9 Shimano. So we have 27 gears uh with the chain. So nothing new and fancy. We don’t even have disc brakes. have um rim brakes like the simplest simplest stuff um that you can think of so that we can repair it more easily and in countries uh that are yeah that don’t have access to to very fancy stuff. Yeah, and it makes sense that you would go for something that’s more durable as opposed to for speed or or something like that because like you said, if you get the new is the the most complicated bike and it needs a very specific screw or something and you’re in Turk Manistan, you you might not be able to find it easily or at all. Um, so I’m guessing like on this route right through the European Union, border crossings probably were pretty easy, I’m assuming. Non-existent. Yeah. And then you you hit the Turkish border, right? Is that that’s the the route. And so this is the first time you’re showing up on bikes now from Bulgaria, right? AC crossing the border from there. Okay. Uh, no. From from Greece, we came with a ferry. Yeah. Okay. So, does anybody like when when you make that crossing, that seems like a pretty standard crossing except for maybe the bikes, right? So, did you get any questions or like how long are you going to stay? What is the answer to to some of those that that they might ask you? Well, they look surprised sometimes and then they want to check our bikes because what is it that we carry? And yeah, then then they open sometimes to see what we have. And most of the time we were really lucky or we met really nice people and so they were like, “Oh, it’s fine. Just go.” Yeah. Actually, I think we were more excited than them. For us, it was a big thing to leave the European Union. We were really looking forward to to get this bigger change um into Turkey. And so we we actually we took a ferry from Athens to a small island um which is close not far from Ismia. And then from there you need to take another boat to get to Turkey. Um so we arrived with maybe 100 people. Obviously, we are the only ones with bicycles. And it was funny because I was like, “Oh, no. Please don’t uh that they don’t make us, you know, take off all the bags and put everything through the scanner and stuff because that’s kind of I mean, it’s not a massive deal, but it’s kind of a hassle.” And then when the the border guard saw us um or not the border guard, but the guy with standing with a scanner machine with an X-ray, he sees us. He sees the queue behind us and he’s just like, “Okay, just just go. Just go.” So that was our first first bigger border or real border crossing. But we really almost never had a trouble uh crossing any border. Yeah. Maybe I mean people are excited to see us and you surprised but also positively surprised. Oh, what are you guys doing here with your bicycles? Yeah. So, I mean, I guess they don’t It’s not very common, I’m assuming. It’s not like they were like, “Hey, we just saw some people on bikes last week or something like that, you know.” Yeah, it depends on where. Yeah, because I mean in many countries, of course, like in Europe, nobody really notices you when you’re cycling with with a lot of bags on the bicycle. So, people see this every day and it’s just not not something to turn their head. But in Turkey, it really started I think that uh people noticed us um because it’s just yeah out of the ordinary and then people get excited and and ask questions. Where you coming from? Where you going? Why are you here? Um because with the bicycles we go through regions where nobody really visits most of the time, right? like normal like let’s say average tourists they travel from from the hotspots to the hotspots in the country so they’re not really seen in between but we spend 95% or or more of our time in between those places and and that’s really cool and and the borders it gets funneled through this few border crossings a lot of the time right when you go from Turkey to Georgia it’s like free border crossings when you go from Georgia to Armenia there’s also I believe three border crossings as possible. But then from Armenia into Iran, it’s just one border crossing. Just one. So of course there the board offices, they know that cyclists come because we are not the only people who do that, right? And are you using GPS like on the way? Do you do you look at the route every day? Is it kind of like or do you have it mapped out all from the beginning? Is it more of a dayto-day? Well, we have offline maps, but um yeah, it’s a dayto-day thing. So, we plan every day uh we will go approximately in this direction and then and then we’ll see where we will stop, where we will end up putting our tent for the day, but we have an approximate direction for the day and for the month. Yeah. So often times we have a general idea for for just for bigger countries especially like Turkey for instance it was I mean going from west to east that’s like 2,000 kilometers or more. So we knew we need to think about how much time do we need for this? How much time do we actually have? Um so we have a general route that we plan before but then we deviate almost every day. Yeah. So then we have like ideas ah maybe this city in I don’t know 400 kilometers and there,000 kilometers. So yeah and then do you deviate you know if you you see a sign or somebody recommends a place to visit or somewhere to eat. Did you have flexibility in the schedule or it seems like you you had planned it that way so that you had some it wasn’t a race, right? You not to not to try to break a record. Yeah, exactly. And also that’s why we loved cycling because we have the flexibility and freedom to stop and I don’t know go somewhere where locals uh recommend or a lot of the time people just invited us over to their place or wanted to spend time with us and for us it was also an important experience to make and yeah we we would stop and change the plans. Yeah, sometimes you would spend up to a week uh with random people that just invited us in from the road, which is fantastic. So yeah, then if you plan too much, you you struggle a lot because you will not never be able to to stick to the plan. So, so we learned early in the journey that that we shouldn’t plan as much because then we we feel bad if we don’t hit the targets that we set before and so better like I would say don’t don’t plan too much. And is there a moment or a couple of moments that stand out to you where somebody invited you uh for for dinner or maybe gave you a recommendation? Just one of those moments that you wouldn’t have had if you had flown to the place or, you know, if you weren’t on bikes. Thousands. So many. Yeah. So many. In almost um every country we visited, we had these moments that we wouldn’t have if we were in cycling. Every day. Yeah. It’s um well I think so I think a lot has to do with the mindset and the priorities you choose and um we said we want to travel and experience country and people and cultures and we don’t have to be fast. We don’t have to yeah plan and get somewhere but we want to be there and feel the place see the people and um and we experience the best uh places and people uh in between the places as Matias already said in the villages on the roads. Yeah. really in the middle of nowhere or you know people would call it somewhere nowhere like nobody would think of going there uh when you just visit a country but yeah but that’s where people live and that’s where you get to know the authentic life and um yeah I I think that was very valuable for us and that’s what made for me our journey so special yeah and to give a example um is like I remember this one day that was also in Turkey like in Turkey we had a lot of firsts because in just I mean Turkish people are very hospital anyways and then also we are more of a curiosity as well and it’s such a big country where in the center of the country where we cycle through they don’t see um people like us many times and then it was also the first time where the language barrier was a little more noticeable because not many people can speak English. I mean, there’s a few people that speak German actually because maybe they they had worked in Germany before, but most people generally don’t. And I remember this one day we were cycling through the middle of nowhere almost and we I was hungry, of course, we’re always hungry and there was no food. And then we hear the mosque. Um, and then we go to the mosque, but there’s no village where the mosque was. It’s like, this is kind of weird. And then we cycle a little further. And then there was actually a village um with a with another mosque and we bought some I think a watermelon. Mhm. Or some kind of melon from from a fruit vendor. And we were super tired. It was super hot. And then this old man who saw us, he was also riding his super old bicycle through the village. I think he just visited the mosque and he sees us and he’s just like come come just waving his hands basically. So we were not really talking but so he he he made us follow him and then he invited us to his home and then his wife uh prepared some some lunch for us and he told me to lay down on the on the couch uh on the ver and to have a like it was so beautiful and like moments like this we have yeah most days really. Yeah. It’s uh so interesting that people can just see that you are tired and they want to comfort you, give you we could definitely also stay there if we wanted and sleep and continue the next day. But yeah, but yeah, that he was like just eat and sleep and rest. Yeah. Yeah. It’s interesting because I think when when people hear about this trip, some people they probably think it’s dangerous, right? So, especially when they hear, you know, Iran or Central Asia, you know, or these places. Um, so, you know, it’s nice to hear that over and over and over you had these positive experiences that you had people that were friendly and curious uh inviting you. I mean, you you must have been very tired that day if you was saying you need to lay down. Um, do you I mean I guess when you meet that many people from that many different places, is there something that you take away from each place or something that you changes how you look at I guess those cultures or just people in general? Those are serious questions. That’s a very serious question. But um well I can say one thing that um from Greece to Turkey and Iran and up to Japan that we cycled um everywhere where we felt a little bit tired or sick or we needed some help, people there were there for us. And uh I can say that there is something universal about humans that no matter from where you are, which culture, which country, which religion, people Yeah. are good in their hearts and they want to Yeah. They they want to help. And uh even in not only in like I think it started in Germany already like if you show that you’re vulnerable and I mean we traveling on a bicycle sleeping in a tent in random places most of most most of the time like we are very vulnerable right like even in traffic like we don’t have a a car that protects us from traffic and and the weather and everything and like when we when we look like we need help, we we got help anywhere in the world really and that was an amazing realization to wait uh for a long time. So it really the help arrived quickly and yeah also that people are hospitable in Germany, in France, in Switzerland, in Asia, in really everywhere, wherever we’ve been to, yeah, people were kind to us. So um this is what I take what I took for me and and another big one I would say is that like we’ve been in the homes of so many people and the first time that happened was like that we actually were in a house of a random person that just invited us into his house. Um that that also happened in Turkey for the first time. And there was this very lovely um old man. He was long retired. And it turned out that he had extremely different views on the world and and on life and and morals and religion like everything. He was like almost opposed in his views to us. But that didn’t matter to him, right? And and this was one of of then following many many experience that made us realize that people everywhere in the world they want to do good like they want to live a good life. They want to to be good people and and they do it based on on what they believe to be how how it should be, right? And that can be very different depending on which in which culture you grow up and and what’s the society around you. that that can be very drastically and a lot of the time like we couldn’t live there. We noticed like it was amazing like this whole journey is like to explore these cultures to see how different they are to understand to begin to understand why that is. But we also realized um that we that we can enjoy it because we are just visiting, right? That it would be very difficult for us probably to live there. Um but in any case, people want to do good. Yeah. I I I find that as well that the more I travel it’s like you said I people are seems like most people are trying to be good and do the right thing but how they get there or how they think they should get there varies quite a bit I think um but there are some things like you said that are just universal um that that that that don’t block these kind of interactions Um, I I’m curious though, you you mentioned the tents and I I I just imagine along the way, are there probably not campgrounds every time you stop? How do you how did you plan where to stop and set up a tent? How does how does that work? And the easy answer is when we get tired and it’s getting dark, we’re like, “Okay, we need to look uh around and see where we can put our tent.” Um yeah, but that was a big change. I mean like so we both had no experience in in wild camping because because obviously like our journey several years without income we knew we need to travel very very low budget and to go on a campground and pay whatever it is just for a couple of hours is not feasible like on this like for us it wasn’t feasible so we did that in Germany when we started in the beginning also Germany has very strict rules on on camping just somewhere like also German people tend to be you know like they like to follow rules so so we didn’t and we didn’t feel comfortable so we didn’t do it but then when we continued into France I was terrified the first night and and also like the first weeks I was really scared like or concerned let’s say um like where do we put the tent and um yeah that That was interesting and that led to conflicts and now um over time obviously we got more and more comfortable you know like with all this positive experience like you put the tent you sleep well nothing gets stolen in the morning you wake up somebody might walk their dog past you and then they just wave and and smile at you or something like this or sometimes people gave us a coffee in the morning or like so there’s all these experience that you too. And of course, sometimes there’s a negative one that that we learned from like putting the tent next to a gas station on a on a on a highway and then we didn’t sleep. Oh, yeah. It was loud. Yeah. But it was not like we didn’t have Yeah. Then you learn. Okay. Yeah. The trucks were passing by and Yeah. So, you you mentioned the conflict. Was it like with police or was it between you trying to decide where to stop and No, between us. Okay. No, between us I guess because in the beginning Matias was more concerned about the place and I was it’s not that I had more experience. is just because we also have different characters and I was I’m more um I am feel more comfortable just with talking to people and saying hey I want to put my tent here and I’m okay with people knowing that I am here camping and in the beginning Matias was a little bit concerned and he was like no we need to find a place where nobody sees us and so we have different sense of security and but I think it got so much better during uh the journey and uh and now I think now especially me I think you are better than me. Yeah, I’m really good at spotting places that would be a great camp for the night. Yeah. And of course, it really depends on where you are because in some countries like in Central Asia, especially um where where there’s not a lot of people, but a lot of space, you can literally put your tent wherever you want, right? You just want some flat ground and maybe not not too close to the road, but it’s very very easy to find um a lot of the time. And yeah, uh that’s very different in other countries, but in Thailand, for example, we learned very quickly that we can just uh pull up to to a temple. And there’s I think what was it like 30,000 temples or something are in Thailand. So every village had at least one beautiful Buddhist temple and then would just pull in an hour before some that and find the next monk and ask politely like with sign language like, “Can we sleep here? we have a tent one night, tomorrow we go. Stuff like this. And they would always just smile and point us in a direction where we could put our tent um for the night. So it was different. Um but yeah, with with time we got a lot of confidence. And do you tie the bikes up? You know, my brain is I’m thinking more on the like because I haven’t done it to say Yeah. Like do you tie the bikes up? Do you are your bags all in the tent? H how how does it uh work? Well, it depends on where we are camping at the moment. And um I would say one thing to this that during the uh journey you develop a feeling you know about the place and you know oh do I do I need to um I don’t know secure the bikes or no. So you kind of feel it. And sometimes we did secure the bikes and took the bags inside the tent, but sometimes we also just left them outside because we were sure that there is just nobody around. And um or or even people are around like in Thailand in the temples, we would just not secure anything. Yeah. Because we knew nobody would ever dare to touch um someone’s stuff. Yeah. in the temple they wouldn’t. Yeah. And so yeah, some it depends really also sometimes it’s not just the safety also when it’s raining. If it’s raining then we would just take the bags inside and Yeah. What about wildlife? I mean did you when you’re out alone do you see different animals or different I don’t know. Do you both good and bad like snakes, rats, mice? I’m not sure. Yeah. Uh you you can answer this one. We talked about I mean it started with so Adolf grew up in in a big city in in Yean in Armenia. So she was terrified of insects. So in the beginning she would search with a flashlight the tent for like 30 minutes to make sure that nothing as tiny as it might be is in the tent. But I just don’t like this because it’s like you are a city person. But that’s what it is, right? So, um, so a lot of those, of course, we saw snakes, but not many. I would say more often than not, they were dead because like roadkill, right? Um, scorpions. I remember we saw one early on in Turkey and we were on a small country road, just two lanes, no traffic at all and and like like high green like bushes on both sides and then I hear Araf yelling. I turn the head to the front and I just see like for a split second I see the the the snake flying over the last meter of the road into the greenery. So that was a little bit concerning between the wheels because it was so quick and I had never seen a snake going so quickly but I think that night we were hosted by um by warm shower host. So we were not camping that night so that was not so concerning. I think like like the biggest animals that we had next to the tent were um wild boars. Um that happened a couple of times. Then of course cows and stuff, but they are domesticated animals, so it’s not not scary at all. Um um we had sometimes something like I think in Iran in the desert there were something could be coyote or something something like that. I’m I’m not sure, but they were lurking around in in the and howling in the bushes. So on those kind of nights, do I mean do you get good sleep then or is are you just awake the whole night? How how does that or do you just get used to it, you know? Well, it depends. But for example, when we had once this that a wild board was really close to the tent and we would, you know, you you hear that some that it’s touching the tent or sniffing around and so of course you don’t sleep at this moment. Hi. Don’t know how big it is. You’re in the tent, right? And yeah, that was a little bit scary. But in general, I would say we slept well. I I mean, I slept the last few years. I slept better than ever before just because we’re so tired. It’s very physical, obviously. So, um I I could like we do our evening routine, we we do some dinner and stuff and then we make it into our bed and and often times like you try to write something and you actually um kept the diary like but very short because it’s so you’re so tired and then I would just go into a coma more or less and then wake up when the when the sun is starting to heat up the tent in the morning. Yeah. Know that actually brings me to a question I had which was during this journey or these long bike trips, how does your body respond to that? How does it change? I mean this is a like a huge amount of activity um is there like does how do you adapt to that? Um are you just sore and tired all the time? Do you get used to it? Is there something that happened that maybe you didn’t expect? You know, maybe it was easier than you thought or more difficult. Well, I think this first two weeks are more difficult and everything is hurting and yeah, you have back pain and uh yeah, but pain. Yeah. Um but then after two weeks I think for you as well. No, two weeks. Two weeks we say is a good time. After two weeks, you get used to it and then then it’s fine. And then of course it depends on where you cycle. Is it flat or are you in the mountains on gravel or Yeah. So it can really get hard, but then you develop muscles and um yeah, it gets easier. And how does the the the packing work? So, I mean, you’re you you mentioned the roads, the rain, sun, heat. So, how do you prepare for all of the elements and how much gear do you have? Like, you know, in terms of capacity, my general rule for packing is most people don’t need more than what they would need for a week of traveling. But I don’t know if that holds true if you’re going by bike and you need uh you know do you need a winter jacket, summer light jacket, rain, all that stuff. Yeah. So with bike touring um if you go on very long journeys like us, we were prepared for anything from super hot to minus 10° and because it’s and that’s also something that we learned in many countries. is very difficult to almost impossible to ship your equipment from that country to another country. Sometimes that’s that’s just not possible or even if it’s possible it’s super super expensive. So we tried to pack really light and I think we did a good job. Um but because our bikes are super heavy like they weigh about 20 kg just without anything on them and then with the backs I think in the beginning was it 45? I think almost another 30 kilograms per per person. So almost 50 kilograms um the bicycle would be loaded. And clothing wise we we do the onion system. So when it’s really cold, we just need to put on everything we have. So I I remember the nights in the Palmia Highway in Tajikistan. We had two nights at about 4,200 meters altitude and I was in I think end of like middle of August or end of August or something. So it’s really hot actually. But at that elevation in the night it was below – 10° and in the sleeping bag that was fine. But if you need to get out at night to take your little we refreshing. But obviously like the the the night sky makes up for that too. But yeah, this is how we try to minimize. Like we had I think three pairs of socks. Um two or three pairs of t-shirts, long sleeve, another long sleeve, a jacket, fleece jacket, a raincoat. Um yeah, pretty much it. And then some gloves and a wool hat. Yeah. Is there anything that you you just ditched right away? you said, “I we definitely don’t need this.” After a couple weeks, you said, “Uh, you know, we didn’t need that.” Or something maybe that was like a lifesaver that you absolutely were like, “I’m really glad we brought this.” Like we had a lot of discussions about this. You know, we have and many things we are very different persons and we have very different approaches to to many many things. So there was a a constant um potential for for a little struggle between us. Um but I think on day two or day three we decided to send home some things and among those I remember were like we started with two cups and two little bowls and we sent home one of because why would you carry two cups where you can just share the cup, right? Um so stuff like this and the chair. We had two chairs. We had two chairs. That was a mistake actually, I think. Yeah. But but then again, it was really he like heavy and so and I Yeah. So we decided to use one chair. No. Yeah. I love hearing, you know, people’s efficiency plans, you know, when when packing. I you know most of the time like I don’t know if you’ll agree but you always say why did I bring this rather than I wish I had that when you’re packing you know I think that’s more common where you’re like why did I you know this thing is and when you’re on a bike it’s like that added weight probably makes a huge difference I mean you know not as much as if you’re hiking or something of course because like especially when you’re going flat it doesn’t really matter or not as much how heavy the bicycles when you’re going through the mountains. Of course, it does makes a lot of difference. But we are heavy anyways. Like if you go on this very long journey with the bicycles and you’re not going through rather developed countries and you don’t have a very good credit card with a lot of, you know, cash uh in in the bag, um then then you’re just heavy, right? And also because we’re doing the videos for YouTube, we carried I think like 15 kilograms of electronics that that didn’t help. I think if we would take them out, we would be fairly light for what we did. But with those like, you know, camera, drone, GoPro, a lot of batteries, chargers, so on and so much. Um, but one thing was the pharmacy. So I had an extra bag for pharmacy, first aid kit and everything. And my dad was like, why do we need so much pharmacy? So, but I was like, okay, it’s bandaging stuff. Bandaging. We could I always used to joke um you know, Montyons, the the Knights of the Coconut or something. I don’t know the title. I only know it in German. Anyways, like I always joked, okay, we could have a horrible accident, lose a leg or something and then bandage everything and then continue sighting, have another accident and bandage us again and again on the same day without refilling. So, we needed none of this. And of course, this is great, you know, that we made it uh all that way. um like but I’m still happy that we had it because I always uh I was confident okay if anything happens we have enough medicine and bandages and it’s better to have it and not to use it than to need it and then in the middle of nowhere then you don’t have anything and you can’t help yourself. So I was even though you don’t agree I was happy that we had but the first aid kit. Yeah. No, it seems like your planning styles kind of overlap in good ways. In other words, you know, there there’s maybe more caution on one thing but less caution on the other, but there’s this overlap. So, where you’re you’re prepared in either, you know, either situation. It’s it’s it’s good uh because you’re also biking for that many days, right? you need to kind of be in sync, you know, and to maybe also it it helps there there are two of you to think about something you might have missed if you were doing it alone, right? Like something you may not have thought about or you know uh like the first aid kit, even though you didn’t use it, which is great. It’s that’s obviously how you how you want to do it. Um but you bring up gear and I have two questions. one. Did you have a GPS like a Garmin in reach type of device? We didn’t have a dedicated GPS. We just used our phones for that little navigation that we did. And um I think that’s sufficient. I think it’s more efficient like energy use wise if you have a dedicated GPS but since like we brought a solar panel and two power banks and then like I mean that you are out of civilization that you don’t have any chance to to recharge on a wall plug at all for several days that that’s really rarely the case the way that we travel because we are bound to roads and then eventually you will hit a a gas station or a cafe coffee or anything, right? And also also the solar panel helped us a lot. Even if we didn’t have meet anyone or any house or cafe for several days, we still had the solar panel and we could recharge our phones. Yeah. Yeah. The the reason I ask is because in many countries those are actually banned the GPS. I’m sure you we heard in India, right? Yeah. So, um, that’s a lot of people don’t like I would never think that it would be be banned or or something like that. Well, like drones also, drones can be problematic in certain places. Um, what and you’re creating content. So, I wait, I I feel like I’ve touched upon something with with the drone. Um, so what did you bring and what trouble did you have with the drone? So that was a constant struggle the drone really and and we really asked ourselves should we bring the drone into Iran and I mean I think many people have heard the stories of of travelers tourists getting um yeah jailed in Iran for whatever reason like even if they’re legit or not I think a lot of the time they’re probably not not legit reasons right um so bring the drone to Iran was a concern, but then we ended up deciding because there were there were no information that it’s definitely forbidden. So, we were thinking, okay, we can bring it and then when they find it at the border and then they complain, um then we can find a solution right at the border, right? Um, and then we put the stuff through the scanner and they didn’t see the like they didn’t notice the drone and then there we are in Iran with the drone, right? So I think we packed it really low somewhere in the bags. Um, and and we ended up using it only like three times in Yeah. But yeah, also that was a decision. Okay, we just carry it because you know we it’s a continuous journey. So if in Iran we don’t use it but in the next country we might use it. So it’s we just want to have it with us and so we decided that we wouldn’t use it. Then we used it for somewhere in the desert and somewhere in in the mountains where you can’t be sure that there’s not a you know special facility where they’re doing something shady. But like we were like I was kind of confident and nothing happened. So yeah. So it went well. But of course like in case that that you get stopped by um law enforcement in Iran and they are for whatever reason maybe you took a photo in in a wrong place and then they might search you and then if they find the drone you are in big trouble right so that was that was we were lucky we can smoke and I mean yeah we were careful sort of but of course like it couldn’t have could have gone a different way and then then we were stuck with the drone basically And so to get out of Iran, we didn’t get the visa for Tukmanistan. Like we went to the embassy in in in Armenia. And then like at the time they just didn’t give any visa. So we ended up taking a boat to the Emirates and then to fly flying over Turkmanistan from the Emirates to Usbekistan. In the Emirates you can bring a drone but you cannot fly it. But in Pakistan, there are stories that people got their drones smashed on entry from from the border control. So I didn’t want to bring the drone. We left it with a couch surfing host in Abu Dhabi. And then we didn’t have a drone in Pakistan where they did not end up searching our stuff. Like we we had our bikes and everything packed up in the massive boxes. And when we got them back, there was a sign that we should go to customs. There was a big red, you know, sticker on on the box. And then we showed up at customs and we’re like, “Oh, now we need to take everything apart.” Blah, blah, blah. And they just looked at us and asked what’s inside. We that’s our bicycles. We are traveling around the world with bicycles. And they’re like, “Okay, just go.” Like, “All right, we’ve heard you.” But our drone was back in Abu Dhabi. And it took us until Kystan I think that we found a person out of actually you found a person that flew from there to Abu Dhabi and then brought the drone back and like it was it was a hassle. Yeah, traveling with the drone is not easy. Yeah, it it is a pain. I I will send you both a if you want a a premium uh code for for my app drone mate which it tells you all the places you can and you can’t fly a drone with all the permits 247 support as well if you need to get a permit. So I I’ll send you I’ll send you that after uh the recording. Thanks. Um so the you’re filming along the way, you’re creating content along the way. How did you plan out like, okay, this is when we should film or are you just taking a lot of footage? How were you uh with the content creation? Yeah. Right. So, we we’re not professionals, so we are just filming randomly most of the time. Just when So, we have a GoPro and and a camera. And with the GoPro, it’s just like when we see something that we think could be interesting, we just start record. Um, so we have a ton of footage. With the with the camera, it’s more like, okay, this is so beautiful here. We should put the tripod, put the camera, make a nice shot. Um, but we have, I think, six or seven terabytes of footage now, and we don’t shoot 4K. We shoot only 1080p. Um, so it’s a lot. Editing is kind of a pain. Yeah, I I I totally get it. Um, when when you when the when you get to Korea is the last stop. What did that feel like? How like when you was there like a place that you were going to like a specific place or was it just when you got in the the city did the trip feel over? No. So um so I’m half Korean, right? And so two things from my side I think. So when we started the trip, we asked ourselves the question, can we even do it? Right? And obviously a lot of our friends and family were like, “Oh, this is impossible.” Right? But for us, I think long before we reach Korea, there was no question that we can make it to Korea, that we can make it anywhere where we want, right? Like because we went through this thousands of situations where there was sort of a problem and then there was a solution as well. So I think weirdly when we reached Korea, we took a ferry from China and and my biggest concern was that we might find Korea boring because it’s a very developed country with cycling infrastructure and and everything. And so that didn’t happen. We just enjoyed it really much because for a change it was just very very relaxing. We didn’t need to think ahead. It was just like, oh, we cycle and it’s beautiful and then if you’re tired, there will be a pav, you know, where we can put our tent inside and there’s it was so easy. There was everywhere but we had planned um that my mother comes to visit us in Korea so we can visit our relatives with her and Alf has never been to Korea and that was obviously like a big goal that we do that and that was fantastic like we spent two weeks with my mom on the road we we rented a car and I did a whole road trip and was the first time for her to really see all of the country as Well, because she moved to Germany when she was just 17 um alone. So when she visited back in Korea, she would just visit family, you know, she never got to see the whole country and that was great. And then we didn’t want it to to end the journey like that like that we fly back from Korea. Um, and so we continued into Japan and then last minute we decided not to fly to Portugal, which we had intended to to soften the the the landing in Germany that we cycled back to Germany from Portugal, but I think two weeks before the flight, we we re like okay maybe maybe we go to Africa. So we checked what’s possible like how can we change the flight and then we ended up uh changing the flight to Gambia on the West Africa coast and that was yeah so we were not quite ready to end the journey when we reached Korea but I guess for me when we really reached Korea I um I felt this oh we really did it was well we are already in Korea And then I just you know when you go back and you remember or the start of the journey where we were so unsure about everything what was going to happen and everything what we would experience and then suddenly we were in Korea with our bicycles and I don’t know cycling around Soul and like we just cycled here. I had this feeling we cycled to Korea and and it was amazing. I was a little bit sad that oh the journey is coming to the end and but also yeah very emotional about making it. Yeah. And and you have all of this documented on on YouTube and your website um so people can follow along. Are you still editing? I mean are are how far behind are you on the on the Yeah, as as Matias told we filmed a lot and we have a lot of material to add to work on to edit um right now we we finished we started to edit the videos from Laos and then Cambodia, Vietnam, so Asia and yeah we have a lots of work to do or at least I I I reckon at least another year of of editing. Um but yeah, it was um it was not so easy to travel and edit the videos at the same time. um especially the way we wanted to to create the videos because um I don’t know how much of it you have uh watched already or maybe you will still watch but we kind of the way we experience the countries the way we experienced people we also wanted to transmit this through our videos and um so we decided not to make a typical vlog travel log uh to to to create this experience and share it with um people. So it does take a lot of time and work. But yeah, and I think it would be interesting to hear like from your perspective as a as a much more experienced content creator like we feel like what we do is like a mix like a hybrid between a vlog and and and a travel documentary. Um, so at least that that’s that’s what we’re trying to do. And yeah, what do you think? Like yeah, I I think it’s it’s a good strategy that you you caught on early, which is don’t let the creation the content creation process interfere with the travel because you can always in the edit voice over or whatever, but as you shouldn’t let it take away from your experience that you’re having at the moment. And I think having it be both informational but focus on the experience is is a really good mix because everybody comes to a travel video looking for something different. You know, it’s really really hard to Some people are really good at just being pure entertainment. Some people are really good at being purely informational. I prefer things that are a mix of the two. Um, and I think as when you’re creating the content, that’s a really it it’s it fits more naturally if you’re filming while traveling. In other words, I I think it it just it fits the style a little bit easier. So, yeah. And I I I I think you you definitely came on to that good really good uh thinking because you don’t it doesn’t feel like the content is forced like the footage is forced which then it just takes away you know I want to feel like I’m having your experience. I want to like I’m I’m just watching you know on the side or something like that. So yeah and and that’s also one of the reasons why you film so much because you you know it’s we are not planning right we don’t have a story line oh okay we film take these shots and that shots and so also this flexibility we we had but many times I thought it would be so great to have a third person you know walk behind us and film all this because there’s so many situations where we couldn’t like because maybe we were too tired had or or also mentally too exhausted. But that could have been amazing moments, you know, to capture or especially I think like when we were fighting to film this like between the two of you when you when you see Oh, I tried it once. It was kind of realized that I just thought the camera actually the angle of multiplied immediately. You don’t film that moments. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a difficult balance. I mean, you know, I have it when I’m traveling and, you know, let’s say I’m going from somewhere to somewhere. I’m just walking somewhere and I don’t necessarily have my camera out and then something really cool starts happening. It’s really weird to take out your camera and be like, “Wait.” Yeah. Can I record? Interrupt the moment. Yeah. Yeah. So, you just kind of get used to having your camera handy all the time because you never know when things can happen. Um, but also like I feel like you guys have learned this a lot quicker than it took me, which is really the the story happens in the edit, you know? It it’s not you don’t need to make the story as you’re filming it. That’s Yeah. Like cuz then if you have a camera person with you Yeah. That’s then it’s very easy. But when you’re filming yourself, it’s it’s very difficult. Yeah. So, what is uh what’s next? What’s the next adventure? Yeah, that’s a good question. The next adventure, I guess, is um well, we want to finish editing the videos. Uh we actually need really some time to to process everything what we’ve experienced during the past years. And we want to edit the videos and I want to write a book. Yeah. and um and then and then we’ll see in the future survive um but also like we are thinking about um starting a family and stuff. So there’s a lot of things that um that will happen in the in the coming years. Um, but right now like I’m I will focus on on editing yeah at least another 15 episodes of of our amazing world bike tour and yeah write a book like with all you know with all the things that we couldn’t film on camera because yeah it wouldn’t have been right probably also to turn the camera on like there were many moments you you will know right when when you turn on the camera it changes everything at least for the other people that are there with you. Mhm. Right. And and then that’s what we’re interested in in to learn from from the interactions with people. So a lot of the time we just like we looked at each other and figured out do we film this or not? And actually more often than not we decided if we start filming this now we just totally destroy the moment. But still there were so many memorable things that happened during these times. and and I don’t want them to get lost. So, yeah. Yeah, I think you made the right decision to not ruin the moment. I you know, with with with the camera, I I I always think those are the memories you’re going to remember later down, even if you don’t catch them, which you know, sometimes you’re like, “Oh, that was great.” But, yeah, um you know, that that that can happen. Where where are all the places that people can find you? your your site, YouTube. Uh yeah. Uh yeah, mainly on YouTube, Amazing World Bike Tour, and also a little bit on Instagram and um what else? Facebook, but that’s the same, right? And uh yeah, but right now we focus completely on on YouTube. Oh, great. I will leave links to where everybody can find you and hopefully have you back on for your next adventure or when the book is ready. Uh that would be great. I I I have so many more questions. I I really I’m looking forward to the next episodes to see what’s coming up um and the places you’ve been. It’s fun to see places that that you know as a viewer that I’ve been to at least the country but then also places that I’ve never been to which is a lot because I I have not done a bike trip. So true. And then I would have a question for you. Uh if you have seen a video of us from one country that you visited yourself, uh did you have a different feeling or like well I did have a completely different experience or feeling about this place than? Honestly, I’ll give you the boring answer which is I really connected when you guys said people are so friendly and warm and welcoming and nice. Um I have found that especially in in well most of the world places where you know like you are for example Laos is one place where people were just extremely friendly. Cambodia was like this. Um you I can think of just so many times where it’s like wow you know like I’m glad that it’s not just me having those experiences. I think that’s what I really liked was like, oh, this is just comment which makes me more optimistic about the world, you know. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, you’re like, oh, so no, I I I can’t say I had a, you know, any very different experience. I think I’m happy to say that it’s very common that people are just really friendly and outgoing and curious. uh you know sometimes when I take out the camera for example and I have a camera in my hand I’m worried that people are going to like like you know I don’t know run away or be hostile toward me but it’s actually the opposite. People are very curious and want to come up to you and and some people want to be on camera actually a lot more than than than I would expect. Yeah. You know, there’s always there’s always like that one person that you find in a place who’s just great for the camera. There’s always one and you’re like, “Ah, yes, you will help me in the edit because you are great for for this particular video.” Yeah. So, I yeah, I look forward to seeing what’s coming up. I I’ll share the links in the show notes and in the description box. Thank you very much for your time, both of you, and uh yeah, good luck with the the edits and everything coming up. Thank you. I know. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ar Mateas, for joining the podcast and thank all of you for listening. If you’re watching on YouTube, make sure that you subscribe to the channel and give this video a like. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast, make sure that you give this episode a fivestar rating and a couple of nice words. It helps us get the word out about the show. Thank you all very much again and until the next episode, I hope you have a great rest of your day. [Music]