Guest Nicolai Bangsgaard is a Danish Anthropologist who has spent almost two decades discovering the world by human powered travel. In 2006, he set out on a long distance bicycle tour that would span four years, taking him across six continents, pedalling his way through 53 countries with a total distance of 62,000km. But that by no means was the end of his adventures and since then he has kept exploring the world through slow travel.
I spoke with Nicolai when he had just arrived in Perth to undertaken leg 2 of his latest challenge which he calls the Global Triathlon. Leg 1 involved a 20,000km cycle from Denmark to Singapore. Leg 2 will see Nicolai traverse Australia and New Zealand on a Kick Scooter. For leg 3 he will be running across the US before returning back to two wheels in Portugal and cycling back to his home in Denmark.
I really enjoyed hearing Nicolai share his vast experiences and insights from the adventures he has undertaken so far. I was able to understand his motivations to keep exploring the world in this manner and to also learn more about his current challenge too.
You can follow Nicolai’s adventures via his instagram account – @nicolaibangsgaard (https://www.instagram.com/nicolaibangsgaard/)
Find him on facebook via : Nicolai Bangsgaard (https://www.facebook.com/nicolai.bangsgaard) and his personal website is https://www.nicolaibangsgaard.dk/hjem/
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In the sing Jang province of western China I wanted to go a specific route and the police told me I couldn’t go that way because it was like a closed off area for foreigners or for aliens as they call us Travelers I had to turn around and do like a 520 kilometer
Detour that took me over two mountain passes 2,500 I think meter high mountain passes and I was just you got to be kidding you cannot do that to me cuz you know my journey through China was long enough more than 5,000 km and now these policemen they were just sending me on
This 525 km D when that was just devastating welcome to the seek travel ride podcast where we share the stories and experiences of people who have undertaken Amazing Adventures by bike whether it’s crossing state borders mountain ranges countries or continents we want to share that Spirit of adventuring on two wheels with our
Listeners hey everyone Bella here from the show before we get into this episode just a little heads up the audio for Nikolai in about the first half of the podcast is probably just a little bit less than sharp and a little bit less quality than probably what you’re used to
Unfortunately there was a little bit of a problem with the equipment that I didn’t pick up on until about the halfway mark of the recording it’s all okay you can still definitely hear Nikolai speak and by all means you certainly want to listen to the first
Half of this episode because he has got some amazing insights and experiences that he shares but I just wanted to let you know bear with it and once you get pasted through the first half it’ll be a real transformation when nice and sharp and crisp Nikolai starts speaking and
Answering my questions as well I am excited for this episode and I’m excited to bring it to you so no further Ado let’s get into it hello I’m your host Bella Malloy and I’m excited to introduce my guest for today’s episode of seek travel ride Nikolai bangard Nikolai is a Danish Anthropologist and
Adventurer and it’s safe to say he’s been pretty fully immersed in the world of slow travel in 2006 he set out on a longdistance bicycle tour that would span four years taking him across six continents pedaling his way through 53 countries the total distance of 62,000
Km now I can only imagine how much a trip like that has shaped Nikolai as since then has been embarking on numerous Outdoors Adventures again all in that theme of human powerered slow travel his Adventure CV is truly impressive he’s now visited 123 countries cycling 120,000 km plus
Through 83 of them this all leads me up to speaking about his latest Adventure one which he has named the global Triathlon now as the name suggests there are three distinct modes of transport to this Expedition it’s a triathlon with a bit of a twist it involves cycling from
Denmark to Singapore then taking a Kick Scooter across Australia and New Zealand from there Nikolai will be running across the US before being re equated with his trusty bike back in Portugal where he will cycle back to finish off his trip home now I’m speaking with
Nikolai today just as he has arrived in Perth Australia having just finished the first cycling leg of this journey 20,000 km of pedal revolutions from Denmark to Singapore across 22 countries no doubt there’s going to be lots of stories to tell as well and I’m really looking forward to speaking with Nikolai
About those to learn more about not just this trip but to also have him share some insights and learnings from living out such a life full of Adventure Nikolai it’s a big welcome to the show thank you thank you Bella I’m excited to speak with you leg one of the global
Triathlon is finished you’re here in Australia in Perth we’ve got so many questions Nikolai but a question which I start my show with and I asked this of all my guests is do you remember the very first bike you ever rode thanks for the great and fine introduction by the
Way yeah my first bike I do actually remember that bike it was a present from my mom and that for my seventh birthday I just turned seven back in 1983 and it was a secondhand bike and it was sort of reddish purple color and it was a total surprise I didn’t know I
I’ll would get this present and I was just so proud of it beautiful bike and it had some pretty special gears it had three gears but instead of the gears being on The Handlebar it was a sort of on the frame itself it was kind of not
Not the normal shifter it was sort of it was a special system that no one most people hadn’t seen that before I got a lot of attention which made my proudness even bigger that was my first bike and I had it for for a couple of years until I
I grew it wow and so from that first bike so as I said in my introduction really the majority of your life filled with slow travel and outoors Adventures I’d love to know what was your first actual adventure and I’m not talking as an adult just as a child like do you
Reflect back on your childhood as one where you took adventures as well I guess I I have a different view on adventures now obviously than I had back then but my very first trips and and Journeys um was with my parents my sister and my parents back in early 80s
Where we’d go to Southern France in a something called a camplet kind of like a pop-up trailer that you dag behind the car and then you you just it’s a trailer and then you pop it up and we would go to yeah southern France and Spain and former nuavia especially the trips to
France in 1982 and 883 when I was six and seven were just really really great to me and it was my I don’t really remember the first trip to Yugoslavia and ad and 81 but trips to France were just uh really really great to me because I started noticing the the
Different landscape the different cars and things look different and I would compare things to Denmark the way things looked in Denmark and I just found that really really interesting and I think it sort of made my curiosity about the world gr from then on forever grateful
To my parents and my sister that we had these campaign trips during summer it was during my summer holiday so we go for four weeks drive from Denmark down through Central Europe the Mediterranean and just temperature the pine trees the smell of pine trees there so many different input that I found really
Exotic my seven8 year old brain yeah wow and I guess my motivations for asking you that question Nicolai is to try and see what’s informed you to take on the LIF that you’ve undertaken now in your adulthood as well as I mentioned you’re not just an adventurer you’re an
Anthropologist and I feel someone who’s done so much travel and has experienced so much as you whether or not you wanted to you you’d definitely be an anthropologist because your insights and experiences with so many people in different countries your insights into cultures and all sorts it goes hand in
Hand with that and I wondered whether there was something that happened in your childhood that sparked off that word that you use that Curiosity there’s also something else I noticed just even in recounting those memories there things that you’re talking about that are sensory experiences too at the smell
Of the pine trees and I imagine someone who travels like you do there must be so much immersion in the landscape as you travel slowly through it as well is that some of the draw for you it definitely is nowadays it’s definitely one of the the reasons why I
Do what I do why I chose to live the way I live and why I chose Adventures to have such a central part of my adult life but to get back to the beginning of your question I I I think curiosity was pretty much always there I can’t
Remember a version of Nikolai not being curious about pretty much everything I mean it wasn’t always of course curiosity about what lay outside of Denmark it was curiosity about countries and like animals and insects all sorts of things number plates and car brands and I had a lot of curiosity
About a lot of silly things really and that sort of just exploded as I got older and of course it got more focused because as the years went on and I got into my teenage years and started studying at University and stuff it my interest sort of got channel into the
World instead of just you know keeping the Curious Focus on my home tur taking so many trips keeping things fresh must be something that I imagine would incentivize you to keep traveling like this I feel when we travel especially with the way that you describe yourself you are curious about the world you
Don’t go to places just to experience the same thing again I imagine I don’t think or do you I could do that yeah I think for me one important thing is to be able to sort of wipe my mind clean of previous experiences and expectations
And to sort of try and see the world with fresh new eyes wherever I go because that way to me it it makes even Sunrise number 2340 it makes that Sunrise special because I’m like wow I might have seen 2339 sunrises before but that number
2340 is just wow magical and I I feel that consciously I try to not get to take things for granted and yeah I know the Sun is going to rise tomorrow but will I be there will I see it will I feel it will I touch it feel it whatever
To me that gives me a sensory experience that it’s always fresh and always new and I think that way I managed to keep my eyes hungry in a way you wake up excited each morning to see what things are going to occur for you in the day I
Guess that’s a lesson I’ve learned from speaking to long time adventurers is you can have the best laid plans in the world but if anything is a certainty is that things will never go 100% to plan either yeah and it’s one of the things that I really love about traveling like
Human power be it on a bicycle or on a Kick Scooter running walking whatever it’s unpredictability like they not knowing where my days end and where I’m going to rest my head for the night and so the agenda when I travel like this is usually unknown but one thing I know is
That it’s going to be great I have this expectation that it is going to be great no matter how much it’s going to rain no matter how you know how many people I meet or if I don’t meet any people at all I just have this vibrational
Expectation that it is going to be a great day because it’s my day I’m in control of it and you know I got my bites and know so many exciting exciting aspects of traveling that way excitement I’m meeting new faces new places or the excitement of being Physically Active
Something that I really like I’m really fond of I think you can almost call it a healthy addiction healthy Obsession definitely yeah use my body and just to be able to move my body through countries through continents with an extreme often an extreme feeling of freedom of my sleeve or around my heart
And my stomach wherever that film is it’s powerful and it it makes to me it makes living a or choosing a normal 9to five job almost impossible have you ever actually done like the normal 9 to-5 job I don’t know if that’s a an ignorant question to ask you but it just feels
Like so much of your adult life has been traveling in this manner like have you gone through the the regular Paces of that routine of a Monday to Friday before um not really not really I mean I while I was just before I started writing my thesis for
Myological degree I took six months off and worked in a travel agency in Copenhagen in Denmark but apart from that and that was like you know 9 to5 was great job but apart from that I’ve not had like a proper job I wonder how would you go just being in one place for
So long obviously if I look back at the adventures that you’ve done just to phrase it differently some of your adventures span for multiple year some of them expand for you know 3 months or a month at a time or something but do you find that when you’re not
Participating actively in those do you find you’re Restless no I don’t really I mean I get asked this question quite a lot because apparently people tend to think that oh he must be restless he must be feeling really bored when he’s not on under Adventure but I don’t I
Mean I never really feel restless but then again it might be because I’m I’m a pretty flexible you know I’ve got a lot of freedom in my life I chose to have a lot of freedom in my life so there’s pretty much always a next Journey on my
Mental Horizon so in that respect it’s kind of easy for me not to to go Restless I think it’s kind of usually people from Denmark I mean you live in cagen you work there typically and then You’ go on holiday for a few few times a
Year and then come back I’m kind of like opposite in a way because when I’m back home in Denmark I sort of I have my free time I mean I I do give presentations that’s been my proper job you can say that for the last 153 years I give
Presentations about my Journeys my Expeditions but it’s I mean TimeWise it doesn’t really consume a lot of my time and usually it’s during spring or Autumn so during the winter during summer I have a lot of time to just be myself hang out and enjoy life almost feels
Sometimes like like a holiday in my own City in Copenhagen and then when I go on adventures it’s back to business then I have to be active and it it’s hard it’s you know it’s hard work to cycle from A to B or around this island or whatever
It is what kind of project I’m doing so that’s when I I perform I work hard and then when I get back to Denmark I have a lot of free time where I can just read and go to the gym hang out with my friends and family and so it’s kind of
Reverse in a way I wouldn’t change this whole world I’m really happy and pleased and feel extremely privileged being able to this way a question which I wondered again looking through the things that you have done that first well I don’t know if it was the first tour but a
Really major one 2006 to 2010 that trip there that you took you know around the world did you start off realizing how long it would be did you have this big trip in mind geographically yeah I thought of knew I was going to go around the world by a
Bike but I had in mind that it would take around two years and that the length of the trip would be around 30,000 kilometers but for various reasons the Expedition ended up taking twice as long and being twice as long too things just changed and you know I
Was I was just taking my time enjoying St in cities with friends that I met along the way and I didn’t plan on going to Africa my route up through the Americas and South Central to North America was ended up being a lot longer than planned even just the mindset to
Set off with that long distance in mind as well and I wonder also conversely have you had times like during that trip where did you ever feel like I’ve had enough actually or was that a point where you would just pause and and stay longer in a certain place yeah the the
Ladder definitely I I had moments where when I felt that I felt less hungry for the world and for finding out what’s around the corner but instead of just you know sort of just throwing the towel in the corner I would just go okay what
Do I need I probably need a rest and then I’ll just sort of P the breaks and have a break for however long I felt I needed and it could be five days it would be two weeks it would be one month I went through Australia on that round the world bike
Ride as well and I took like a month off in Melbourne and the month off in Sydney because just love those cities and made some made some good friends great friends and I just you know I did not feel any urge to just rush through Australia so whenever I had this feeling
That sometimes my social batteries would just be deed and I would just felt I need some human touch or I need to talk to someone I need a good conversation instead of just being in my own head which I was prob was Recons I was most
Of the time just me riding through empty Landscapes which I love as well but sometimes I could feel the the need to I need to relate to someone and then I would just go to the next city could be in South America and Peru I would go to
Lima capital and just go to a hostel check into a cheap hostel and hang out with random people there and then maybe after few days a week maybe I I felt I’m recharged now socially so I’m ready to hit the road again and my legs would
Tell me say like come on Nikolai you haven’t reached your goal yet so come on keep pedaling and then so I like that um the change change of pace and change of input I think that helped me keeping the the motivation high and not coming to
The point where I felt ah I just rather quit this Expedition and go back to Denmark that was never not even once did I think that thought of quitting the Expedition and going back you’re talking about the need for human connection at points because you realize spending so
Much time on your own through places with your own thoughts you would reach points in time where you wanted that human connection something AAS guest of mine who’s also a very long-term longdistance traveler Peter Galo he’s been undertaking trips actually pretty much in a similar time frame as yourself
As well I think he started his big Expeditions in 2005 and much like your s Nikolai has continued to do so yeah when I was interviewing him something that he spoke of uh I guess sort of the payoffs of this lifestyle there’s lots of reasons to keep doing what what you do
And for Peter the the same it’s obviously still something the experiences you’re gaining is obviously the reason to keep doing it but Peter spoke about also the payoffs for doing that and for him one of them was that feeling of just a loss of connection or the lack of feeling like you’re always
In a community when not on a trip say when you’re visiting family or friends back home you’re not fully connected in that way or at least that’s how Peter felt is that anything that resonates with you as well not really I mean I I know Peter very well and known him for
You know for my own 20 years now but I don’t actually feel that way I mean I I I know that I have had strong relations I mean I’m sure Peter has as well course but I don’t really when I’m in Denmark I try to consciously be there like be
There for my friends be there for my family be there for my sister and her family and my two nephews and I try to cultivate like those relations instead of mentally being on on the next trip it sort of worked like that for me because then I just have feeling that I’m not
Really either there or you know not even in Denmark or not out there on an expedition so I I try to sound cliche but to be be here now wherever I am and and grow make those relationships grow most of my relations like friends and they’ve been with me for
Or we’ve been friends for 30 up to 40 years so it doesn’t really matter in the sche of things if I’m I hope not if I’m away for say half a year or three months every winter or whatever I come up with plans I know that they will be there and
I will be there for them once I get back I don’t really feel disconnected in that way similar to P the motivation to keep traveling in this way there’s so many more reasons for you to do that you’re enriched your life by taking on this typee of adventurous lifestyle so to
Speak yeah absolutely I do want to go back to that big trip would I be right Nikolai to say that that trip set the tone for the rest of your adventures oh yeah yeah that’s um absolutely it totally did when I left in 2006 I just
Turned 30 and uh I had no idea at that point the impact this round of World trip would have on my later life and when I got back back in 2010 things just sort of happened quite fast I started writing writing a book about aition and
Even before I back in Denmark I had my first presentation obligation or my first presentation deal which was kind of weird because I didn’t have any product to sell but people were willing to buy my story but I was like yeah I can give this presentation but I had no
Idea I had so many other things on my mind to know see my friends and my family and get back to Denmark but so things started working out and without me knowing all the doors that this addition had opened to me within few months a new career sort of opened as a
Public speaker or PR yes since then things have just pretty much snowball because I would earn money for my next Expedition and when I came back from that expedition I would give another new experimentation and started doing tool leading like leading bicycle trips working with various Danish travel agencies set up different bicycle
Expeditions and so that was a totally new job never done anything like that before and then all of a sudden it’s like okay I know how to plan trips and I know how to do the bike stuff I have quite a lot of experience from throughing the world so why not take
People with me um and it even had that beneficial factor that I would get this the social aspect of it as well like being with this group of people who would put some money in the project and go to wherever we went like Malo Sri Lanka Val Indonesia whatever and then
Being paid to take these people on a great bicycle ride that it was and continuous to be a super huge privilege for me to be able to show other people the the way of bik going that’s yeah it’s a great feeling I’m so passionate about it and I’m quite sure that this
Passion it people can feel it and yeah hopefully they get motivated by it as well I could only imagine what it would be like to have you as a tour leader like all your experience and and stuff as well would be awesome because when you were talking about tour leading
Then one of the trips you’ve LED we’re not talking about small trips like barley to Beijing okay I think it was the largest Expedition ever I think it was 84 people or something uh yeah it was the largest bicycle Edition in Denmark all spish bicycle Expedition but
Um yeah maybe I should just say a few words about the you know the concept of that trip because I set up this Expedition with with a Danish travel agency and it was a it was like a 10,000 kilometer long B bicycle Expedition lasted six months and it was divided in
Seven stages so each stage would be like 23 days and each group would have like between typically around 14 people up to 20 was maximum and and uh then we went from Bali across Java Indonesia then up through like from Singapore up through Malaysia Thailand Laos and then into
China and finishing off after 10,080 kilometers in Beijing and that was yeah that was it was my first ever experience as a tool leader it was quite a mouthful I’d say I mean it it was by far the the most challeng team and thankfully rewarding trip I’d ever made because
There was so many things I had to to do and make sure of and big responsibility as well because having say 18 people in my group and then leading this group of experienced and not so experienced writers through million like cuties with millions of people like through Jakarta through
Singapore through whatever like jangu or kuning in China it was it was challenging and people would get sick and I had there was so many things that I had to take care of all the time like what do we do and do we go up this
Mountain or do we go around it is group strong enough so we can go up the mountains like to some Hilltop at 1,400 meters in Malaysia for example or should we just stick to the coastal flat Coastal Road there was so many things I
Had to to take care of but the same time I it was was a huge satisfaction seeing how the the Expedition just progressed and how everything just worked out eventually this is one of my lessons of my touring career that always work out and one time we would end up in this
Little Indonesian village where I checked online that there was three hotels so I thought well three hotels should be plenty for us we were 20 in the group at that time but when we rocked up in this little town it there was a festival going on so all the hotel
Rooms were just full it was fully booked everything and and I was there standing with a group of tired cyclist and with no accommodation whatsoever and continuing was not an option I had we had like a support bus Port vehicle and there was an ination driver and me and
Him yantu was his name we just started knocking people’s doors like random houses would just go and knock the door and ask sorry can you do you have space for two people maybe four people tonight and it was just very very basic accommodation basic houses but within 25
Minutes we managed to find sleeping spaces for these 20 people which I was it was just huge relief and the day after I was just sort of I was sort of apologizing for that incident you know in a funny way because I knew that most
Of the people had had like a great great experience that we wouldn’t otherwise have had it it was and they all ping but we left it we left it can we stay another night here and it’s like wow so yeah it just turned out to be a really
Great experience but arriving in that town I was just no good 20 people tired and sort of impatient but we all sweaty and tired and hungry and you’re only as fast as the weakest person on any given day as well obviously and my mind’s blown Nicoli just thinking of the
Differences from being responsible just for yourself on a solo tour to then all of a sudden having that responsibility of people at all different physical fitness levels and experience levels and also their expectations of what it’s going to be like and what you’re going to help guide them through as well I
Can’t even I can’t even fathom the idea of 20 people with with that type of mixture and then throw sickness into it days of incredible headwinds no doubt and rainstorms what a concoction there yeah we got it all I guess for you it would have been first few days would
Have been like swimming in the deep end but I guess there must have been also very quickly you would realize the reassurance that your previous experience can and your skill set that just came to the four there because you can’t take trips for this long and not
Have all these skills that so many novices don’t even know they need um like I say I mentioned your first trip there I imagine Nikolai there’ have been so many changes since you undertook that first expedition to say how you’re undertaking your current Expedition from how you plann things to even the
Technology that’s available to help you to do that to what you know about countries as well I wonder what are the some of the biggest differences you’ve noticed yourself well I guess the planning part is very quite different compared to when I set off on my first
Bike fit back in 2005 I went to Morocco for one month back then obviously there were no smartphones and no checking out your your mobile phone booking a hotel in the next year no I mean Google Maps with my knowledge wasn’t the around so it was good oldfashioned paper maps and
Yeah it was it was totally different in a way but that said I wouldn’t go back to to those days I really enjoy freedom and the options and the opportunities you have with a smartphone today so it gets you a lot of choices to go down dubious roads back then would
Neighborhood taken I would pretty much especially on my around the world bik right I tended to stay on bigger roads because I never knew where this minor maybe interesting looking Road would take me and could suddenly turn the wrong way around like no I’m not I’m not
Going back and so I would rarely would I take any chances like going down this tiny road because I had to keep in mind that okay I’m going around the world that’s big enough that’s long enough yeah you don’t need to extend the trip unnecessarily no it’s already a massive
Trip yeah and and you also mentioned even in the haer stance somehow you managed to double it anyway double the time double the distance yeah maybe you did actually take some more roads than you thought yeah maybe when you said out for that first trip were there Milestones that you were looking forward
To how do you break a big Tri trip like that down um yeah uh I did operate with like certain Geographic Milestones or mental mind Milestones I remember like Istanbul getting to Istanbul from Caden was was the first sort of mental and physical Milestone that I was aiming for
Because surely I wasn’t when I left Denmark I wasn’t thinking the thought very often that oh I’m gonna gonna SLE around the world that was just too massive I mean it didn’t do me any good to think about it like that I mean if I got excited about it I would think about
It but often times I would just be overwhelmed with the thought that wow I have like two years or 30,000 kilometers in front of me and that would just overwhelm me and a not necessarily a positive way so I would try and just focus on where to go on that specific
Day like go from A to B and I had like I think I never really talked about it but mentally or privately I had a sort of daily Milestone that if I reach 100 kilometers then you know I was now I feel peace I can pull the brakes and I
Can put up my tent somewhere sometimes obviously I would go longer and some days I would go shorter but it was sort of my daily reward that if I pass the 100 kilometer Mark I would just you know give myself a little clap on my shoulder
Yeah yeah just one of various ways to sort of motivate myself and the world people around to keep the motivation up so and then when I got reached Istanbul you remember cap and do was in the Paul was one of the next big Milestones getting to Australia was a huge
Milestones because I knew that after Australia was you know then I was sort of once I got to New Zealand it was like okay I’m going home now you’re closer to the Finish than you were at the start yeah and I knew that yeah Denmark is coming closer and closer every day for
Me that was motivation as well thinking that no matter when I will get back to Denmark because when I left Australia went to New Zealand I sort of used those first two years and that was like the original time frame so I was like oh maybe it’s going to take another two
Years for me to back and you know I I had a lot of time to digest that thought and think about it and feel yeah just just come to an sort of acceptance to the fact that this is going to be like a fouryear petion it was kind of easy
Enough because I was just prolonging the magic so to speak I mean I love what I was doing so okay I love this trip for the first two years I might love just as much for for the next two years I mean of course it there was a backside to it
As well because that meant that I would I wasn’t going to see my friends and my family for another two years especially for my family I’m mom and dad and sister but instead of just thinking oh I’m not going to see my friends and family for another two years I started focusing on
The fact that no matter what happens no matter how long this trip is going to be tomorrow if one day left until bit hu so I can hu my my family again that sort of helped me quite a lot along the way especially if I had stretches through
Deserts or if it’s been raining for a few days Non-Stop and my motivation probably wasn’t that high I would just try and motivate myself and all right Nikolai r is part of the adventure as well and tomorrow no matter what happens I’m one day closer to seeing my friends
Again my family again and so come rain come hail come headwind come whatever come sunshine I don’t care I try to sort of make myself independent of what the weather situation was like or yeah what the conditions of the road or hilly terrain or whatever in my way
Keep Focus on I’ve got me I’ve got it Nikolai it doesn’t matter how big the the wank crops are I’ll continue and tomorrow is going to the Lan is going to stop eventually so I often wonder when I interview people who take such big solo Expeditions obviously there must be that
Inner peace of being alone with your own company because I don’t think you could do anything to this degree if you weren’t comfortable with just being with yourself you did mention earlier that you also knew when you needed to charge the social battery and and actually connect with people do you find though
If you could choose a perfect place would you prefer are you more at home touring through like hustle and bustle of cities observing there or are you more at peace in a solitary landscape just on its own probably between the two settings i’ definitely go with the with
The ladder definitely I really enjoy en Joy usually riding through vast open Landscapes as long as under clear boo Sky I can’t get enough of that and I’m told that austalia is going to bring a lot of that so I’m pretty excited oh my gosh I’m just just imagining of what’s
Ahead of you there as well it’s amazing to me thinking you set off from Denmark and it’s 20,000 kilometers of human powered travel pedaling your bicycle to get to the end of that land mass in Singapore like it’s an it’s Monumental trip in and of itself without thinking
Of Australia and the North America and everything else that’s to come ahead of you as well yeah setting off for these trips there must be a level of assurance or self assuredness that you know that you can do this as well is it more a case it’s not a physical battle for you
It’s more mental fortitude to get you through it’s a good question I think it’s a it’s a healthy mix of those two I mean it’s it’s a obviously it’s a physical challenge but most like the most important aspect of that challenge is my own head keeping the motivation
High and know overcoming the obstacles I met along the way there’s been a few of those but I don’t know yeah it’s it’s a mental battle and it’s a physical battle as well or challenge but at the same time I don’t want it to sound like it’s
Just a battle battle challenge it it there’s so many reasons to be grateful to have the chance to see the world as it is and to meet all these people and to see The beautiful landscape to just be outdoor pretty much 24 hours a day it
Feels so right and I can’t yeah I mean I I just can’t express how liberating and how free that feeling is and it’s kind of addictive in a way once you get a feel of that feeling immersed into the world and of course I mean I had I had
It when I left Denmark April 1 w last year 23 surely I had an idea that I can do this especially the the bike part OB things like that before the the Kick Scooter part I mean I’ve done Expeditions on the Kick Scooter as well I went around Denmark a few years ago
Two months 3,200 kilometers I went to all the bigger cities in Denmark through the country without a a dime to my pocket I left my credit cards at home the aim of that trip was to to get a feeling of what the Danish hospitality and the kindness to strange is like
Because when I’ve traveled in so many countries around the world one of the in red line to all those experiences is the extreme friendliness andology I met people around the world so I realized back in 2019 that I never really gave Denmark much of a chance so I was like
Okay I’m going to travel around Denmark I’m the Kick Scooter with 25 kilos of luggage and I’m not going to bring any money with me and the money part was primarily because I had a feeling that without money to my pocket I would be sort of forced into taking contact with
Any people and thus find out now how how do they react to the stranger coming to their home knocking on their door or someone outside a supermarket started chessing and told them about the project you know how would they react so it was a great adventure and I learned a lot
Also personally I learned that you know I don’t really need money to get byy in this world I would collect cans and bottles from the people just through in on the road s side because thenmar you get a refund when you recycling yeah so
You’d get like 20 40 cents per can so I would just collect those and usually on a good day I would probably get five Australian dollars worth of and then I’ll go to the supermarket and just buy the with reduced price product so that would make my money last longer and so
Yeah that worked out Brantly plus there was a lot of people like more than 300 Danish families reached out to me and had a Facebook page around Denmark by Kick Scooter and so people had an option to follow me on that trip and I did some
PR as well because I had it an idea that the more people who know about this trip the easier way he you know I wouldn’t go to bed hungry because course before I left on that trip I was like I have a feeling this is going to be a great
Idea but what if people are not going to be there or if I don’t meet anyone just me and the bottles I found in the side of the road I was kind of nervous and which was healthy thing to me to to feel this nervousness because I I wasn’t sure
That it it would work out at all whereas on this trip Lo dine now that I done the first part the bike part I can easily say that yeah I had an idea that this that would be the the easy part it’s also you know the easy part because
You’ve done so much cycling you know what to expect notwithstanding there will be unexpected things you may have equipment failures extreme weather eventss borders might cause problems or something like that but you also know what’s required of you to to Pedal long distances day after day you know what
It’s like to Wild camp and all those sort of things as well yeah imagine the Kick Scooter element’s going to be a little bit different I realize you have done some Expeditions on that and in fact let’s talk about that quickly cuz I have so many questions about this and
Listeners I’m going to put links in the show notes to All of nikolai’s Socials so you can actually follow along and you can have a look at his blog a lot of it’s in Danish don’t worry Google Translates amazing and you can actually read it all in English and Nikolai goes
Into amazing detail even on his kit list I love the breakdown that you went down there on how much every single thing weighs it it tells me Nikolai that that every detail has been thought through but when I saw the photo of the Kick Scooter I was like Wow and then I read
Something and it was like wow I didn’t even occur to me and what I read was how you had to determine how do I put bags on a Kick Scooter how do I carry my gear like do I have it on a backpack do it
And then I thought my gosh of course cuz on a bike we’ve got front racks back racks and you handlebar bags and top tube bags if we want them and but on a Kick Scooter all those modifications like how many people even Tour on a Kick
Scooter is it just you no it’s not just me but there aren’t a lot of people you’re like the president of the Kick Scooter touring Club no no I wouldn’t I I would say if no if I’m part of the club I would be happy and proud but no
There I mean there are other people doing it but not not a lot of people as far as I know but there’s a French girl long her name who a couple of years ago went excluding long distance like around Europe for few years and then she went
So right yeah so that apart from that I haven’t heard of a lot of people who done it which is one of the attractions for me because instead of just being that guy with a bicycle the Danish guy with a bicycle who cycled around the world and now he’s doing something again
Or something similar kind of like the fact that this is something totally different yeah definitely can I ask I I’m going to ask some stupid silly questions and I apologize if they sound shallow but just the first one that I’m thinking of what sort of average speeds
Can you expect on a Kick Scooter depending on the the terrain of course and the wind I would usually go around 15 to 20 kilometers an hour I mean it it’s a not one of those tiny kits kick scooters no it’s definitely not a Kick Scooter that’s got wheels that have
Different colors on it and no You’ see like a six to 10 year old playing about on by any measure and it’s not even an e scooter that we would see a lot of in the cities and the city plans now it it’s different it’s almost 2 MERS long
And the the front wheel is 28 in and the the rear wheel is 20 in and then in between it’s got like a platform where I stand and kick and then it’s got standard brakes as on a bicycle and as you said it’s got a rack on the front
Wheel where I can put my my backs my peners and put all my stuff and hopefully I don’t have to wear anything on my back to carry anything CU I’d be moving my upper body quite a lot and obviously the legs as well prefer not to
Have on my back on that note with the legs and and maybe this sounds like a silly question but do you alternate the league that you kick with yeah yeah I do you’d have to wouldn’t you yeah yeah if not you know I’ll probably end up looking pretty silly with one huge leg
And then one tiny leg you’d have like a really strain hip flexor yeah but yeah it comes pretty natural I mean it’s probably the question I get asked most while on a a Old Trip uh but it it happens all natural like like nature I just sort of
Jump from one leg to the other and then again depending on the terrain and the wind I probably K say 10 to 15 times on each side and then sometimes start feeling the leg starts to get tired and then I just jump over and start pushing through the right
Leg and then 10 15 or 20 times maybe and then jump over it feels like pretty much like doing one leg squats all day it’s pretty hard wow there must have been and I did actually see this in one of your Instagram posts coming close towards the end of Singapore is conditioning your
Body and starting to train your body with different exercises knowing that the Kick Scooter part of this leg is coming up because it’s total different demands on different muscle groups really exactly yeah and that’s from experience I know that the first week on the K scooter trip is usually pretty
Painful because it it had some adjustment to yeah as you said it it’s totally different muscle groups that I use on a kick scoer compared to the bike so it’s more like bum and core and different leg that I use so pretty much all whole body is engaged when I’m the
Kick Scooter which is not the case on the bike on the Kick Scooter I use my arms and my shoulders well yeah I try to prepare I’m trying to prepare and going to the gym and doing some one leg spots and stuff to finally prepare myself is
It a bit similar in a way to starting out on a bicycle tour where the first few days or the week the first week of a bike trip hurt the most as well because your body sort of gets jolted into realizing the expectations you’ve got of
It and it adjusts and would you say it’s similar then you’re going to have that adjustment period for that first week on the Kick Scooter as well yeah I I I expect it to be pretty brutal the first few days and you know waking up on day
Two after I I leave Earth I expect my body to be just well what have I done did I go into a war with my legs or what happened uh it it’s usually like that yeah I just take it easy and take my rest and listen to my my body listen to
What my body tries to tell me and whenever I listen and don’t force it too much things usually work out f it blows my mind to think of you kick scooting across the nullo I wonder if you’re the first person that will have ever done that I don’t know quite possibly quite
Possibly we’ll see but I know we’ve gone on the Kick Scooter here and I don’t want to I don’t want to just wave pass the the first leg of your trip because first of all congratulations you you’ve done that first leg that’s in the bank now thank you not withstanding you’ve
Had experiences cycling through some of these areas previously but it’s still an amazing journey in and of itself 20,000 km 22 countries I imagine Nikolai you had your own Milestones again like we spoke of earlier of things that you were looking forward to it wasn’t just get me
To Singapore I wonder was istan buul another sort of milestone for you that’s it’s that typical Bridge of you know the finish of Europe and the start of Asia um no actually I didn’t go through istano on this trip I I went through like Germany Austria back to Germany
Then into Czech Republic to Slovenia Croatia and then down from the Balan to Greece and then I took get fa from from Athens to eir in turkey and then which is in the Southwest corner of turkey and then from there through turkey so I’d say the the first Milestone on that trip
Was getting to eir because uh my girlfriend I got a girlfriend and she was going to meet up with me in isir and then we would cycle together for two weeks from eir to antalia so getting there to eir to Turkey to see my girlfriend was uh that was like the major
Yeah definitely and I think am I right I think she’s met you on in a couple of places along this trip as well yeah we met up um in November L end of November in nor Thailand and then again like in Thailand we met went up several places I
Would hang out for a few days she would take a bus I would go back in the saddle SLE for whatever 300 500 kilom we’d meet up hang out for a few days and then continue that way and then the last time we we met was in milaka southwestern
Part of Malaysia awesome they’re the sort of personal Milestones that you can motivate yourself with as well yeah but obviously getting to Singapore was also like a huge milestone to me and that specific day when I reached Singapore which was just last week was just it was
Really emotional to me right when I woke up in the morning in in Malaysia and I had just 35 kilomet from pedling into Singapore I crossed the there like a cway between Malaysia and Singapore that I could cross on my bike and then I just you know reached the island of Singapore
And I just felt I felt pretty emotional and I was trying to make some video and talking to the camera and now I’m in Singapore and it’s and I just you know I just something just cracked inside of me and I started crying like wow I could
Hardly speak to the camera I’m like just came out of the glue because I thought I got it I’m just going to do like a small recap of where I am what happened I cycle 20,000 kilometers and I finally reached blah blah blah but it didn’t
Turn out that way because I just I just couldn’t talk it just the words just sto my throat and it was I just realized then that wow it’s a big achievement for me to get there especially considering you know what what I went through and I
Had I waited for for example I waited for 35 days to get the a Visa for Iran which I ended up not getting I was rejected twice by the immigration authorities and I was just waiting in Armenia the neighboring country and it was so so frustrating to just go and
Wait and then ended up not getting that visa and having to sort of restructure the whole Expedition because I was sort of Trapped in a dead I couldn’t go south to Iran Pakistan India which was my origional plan I couldn’t go to aan because the Border land bot between
Armenia and aaban was closed going north Russia was not an option because I would only get like a transit Visa for five or 10 days which wouldn’t be enough anyway I was just I it was just a not a very nice situation I managed to go through I
Came from Yovan in Armenia I flew cross the caspan sea 45 minutes to aakhan time called akau and then I continued through Kazakhstan bistan Tajikistan kistan back into Kazakhstan from where I I left the bicycle in alachi in Kazakhstan went halfway back to Denmark to tii in
Georgia to go to the Chinese Embassy back to M and then spent two months 6 they cycling 6,000 km through Beau and chinking China and then into last Thailand Malaysia yeah the Visa issues is such a big part of that and even hearing you talk about to get a Chinese visa I know
That a lot of you know around the world Travelers now a lot of them have been scuppered with the Chinese visa plans as well because to get it you can’t get it from am I right to say that you can’t get it when you’re actually in Central
Asia you need to apply from somewhere else I have previous guest of the show muel who did ride through China he had to go back to London for a period of time to apply for the visa to be able to get through there as well so you obviously did something similar went to
Different countries but for the same reasons yeah there was kind of like a loophole I mean I had to leave Central Asia to get the Chinese at that time through different WhatsApp groups I managed to get this piece of information that it might might be possible to get
It in ji and so I was just okay I I don’t want to go back to Denmark to apply for the Chinese visa so I know tried my luck and went back to Georgia and I was lucky you know after three days I had my Visa for 60 days and I
Heard through these WhatsApp groups that two weeks later or the week after the Chinese Embassy in L just shut down this option wow it was meant to be for you so I was like wow like yeah I was I was lucky there and because that would have changed your whole route massively yeah
Yeah yeah I don’t really know what I would have done probably take a flight from Kazakhstan into Pakistan or India and continue there but and into the me La close borders and I would have to fly again from India to Thailand which I really wouldn’t like to do the Visa
Issues would have been oh such a stress for you imagine there would have been moments of just pure ation and joy you were describing that feeling there of reaching Singapore of being overcome with emotion at the realization of what you’ve just done but imagine that there’s moments along the way that would
Have been quite unexpected for you too whether it was through struggle or just through Vistas I was wondering could you take me back to just a day on your trip can be any day any country any place and I just want you to describe a day on your trip
Uh yeah I can um first thing that pops into my mind is some of the struggles I had uh early on on the trip like I left as I said in April 1st last year and it turned out to be pretty cold and miserable winter through the first countries like Germany
Czech Republic Slovenia I wasn’t really expecting that because I’d been studying the the the charts and stuff and it it looked all right but it was just so so miserable and and cold and I’d be wild camping like in the in the forest of Czech Republic for example waking up it
Was like this thin layer of frost on my tent it was just I mean I’m just not good at I don’t enjoy cycling or being I hate the cold pretty much I love sun and the heat but just that I mean you ask for one specific day I would say yeah
Just waking up in this forest with frost on the tent and Frozen feet and Frozen hands and just yeah it was just a struggle I mean just staying warm and not wearing too much clothes because then I would start sweating from the inside and that sweat would just eventually turn to ice
If I you know if it yeah it was just really hard to yeah to stay warm and to to stay motivated as well because being out in those conditions without really being prepared for it because I thought it would be maybe like 10 12 Dees but it
Was much closer to freezing even during the day on some of those days so that was just I mean I would just struggle look at the map okay if I can make it 20 kilometers to this next Austrian Village or whatever Czech Village then I’d go
And treat myself to a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and I would do that and just sort of defrost my toes and my hands and my nose and then try and pep talk myself into going back out in the cold weather and take another 20 30
Kilometer stretch and then that’s pretty much how my days went during the first weeks and yeah maybe the first month of that Journey it was it wasn’t really what I what I expected you know and and the weather forecast kept saying ah next week it’s going to be better it’s going
To be 14 degrees Celsius I’m talking cus here and but it it just didn’t happen yeah that was it was a challenging start you know and then just everything was wet from the during because everything got wet and Frosty and waking up in the morning it was ah it’s just kind of
Misery but um things soon turned for the better there’s something you said there which made me happy this this is an insight into Bella Nikolai you said that you looked forward to have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake to keep the mood high and I think
is a coffee lover and he likes cake and I like that I like that food is a motivator and we all like food and coffee massively you know there are people in this world though Nikolai where food is just something that they have to eat to sustain themselves and
They enjoyment from food is not for them and I’m not one of those people no I don’t know that you’re one of those people either no there is a section of sck travel ride which does talk about food quite often because I am a food lover how could I pass up the
Opportunity to ask the world traveler about perhaps his favorite type of cuisine on tour hello listeners it’s Bella here host and producer of seek travel ride many of you have recently gotten in touch with me to find out how you might be able to support the show I am an
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Over a year and we have 60 episodes in the bag as well but pretty much if you do want to support the show and show some love to the content that I have been producing I have recently set up a buy me a coffee account it’s just a way
That you can financially contribute to the show and put some funds towards the running cost of producing this podcast I’m very proud to be an independent podcaster and whilst it does mean there’s a lot of work on this show at my end it’s an absolute joy to bring it to
You at your end I have included a link in the show notes to my buy me a coffee account there so if you want to support the show just click on that link once again thank you all so much for your support now let’s get back to the episode
You mean like camping food or just food in general because what would your best goto Camp meal be because you must have like a a regular routine meal that you would that you would want to fill yourself up with at dinner what would that be um while camping right yeah I
Generally I I’m a big fan of just one putt meals I don’t sit for say 45 minutes and CH all my veggies and wait for rice to cook I I prefer it to be efficient and fast and just so whatever I can put it could be lentils it could
Be rice it could be like pasta I would usually I would boil that in in the pot and then add some Tomatoes fresh garlic oregano canned corn is a big favorite to me because it’s you know it’s got the nice energy in it and but basically just what whatever I could
Find usually it would it’s not I don’t buy a lot of like fresh groceries I mean if I’m cycling through a desert or whatever it doesn’t it doesn’t make sense any so canned food like peanut butter and oatmeal is my go-to meals but that would probably be be my um my
Simple dinner and just a lot of it I’m not too fuzzy with with my cooking sometimes I make up some crazy meals that no one probably ever heard of and want to hear of oh they kept you going the next day that’s the most important thing I wonder Nikolai did you have
Instances when you’re going through like Central Asia of people randomly stopping and offering you up things like you know cucumbers or Rock melons or stuff like that because I’ve seen so many pictures of World Travelers where that’s happened and you know there’s a photo of them
With a local and a big melon or something did you have that as well oh yeah plenty of times in usbekistan and Tajikistan like in yeah in Central Asia it happens on a daily basis and often many times a day and yeah I mean I would be people would hand me like huge
Watermelons or some yeah all kinds of melons and which is great because it it sort of it warms my heart to have this inter interaction and it’s just but at the same time carrying around 5 kilo water watermelon with hardly any calories in it is just I’m right stupid
So usually I would just say thank you very much and I would just you know drive to the next Village or whatever and sit down under a tree and just cut the watermelon open and just eat as much as I can which is three kilo is probably
My limit I realized three kilos of watermelon that’ be nearly three liters of water really wouldn’t it because I mean the thing is water yeah it is water your bike could feel light afterwards though yeah I mean you just trans through the white haven’t you yeah yeah
That’s right but yeah I mean it really it happens a lot and especially there’s a place in usbekistan called the fagana valley fana Valley and when I rode through the that Valley it’s things just went crazy I mean from really friendly to just out of this world friendly and I
Rode through that region on my first round the world bike right in 2006 as well so I had a had an idea what would happen but again I was just super surprised about the degree of friendliness and just whenever melon seller by the roadside he would see me
On my bike first thing he would just grab a melon and just hold it out so when I passed him he was like here this is a present for you and it’s just wow and I would sit down and have a little chat if we could yeah with this fell and
I would just stuff myself full of watermelon or Honey Melon or whatever was on the table and yeah I would leave that place just yeah with my stomach full of melon but also my My Heart full of love and yeah I I really enjoyed that region Nikolai as an anthropologist you
Have had so much time with thoughts on society No Doubt with all your observations that you make as well what’s your perception of of our world of all all the different countries and culminations of cultures like when we have access to so much technology and so much that we read proper knowledge not
Just the stuff that we see in the media you know we can educate ourselves to a degree but I feel like nothing will ever replace the actual experience that you would have in person there and you’ve got such a breadth of it what’s your perception of of the world and the
People within it well first that it’s a lot better A lot Kinder a lot more positive than than the media tell us I mean that’s one thing for sure and as an anthropologist I see a lot of a lot more things that connect us than separate us
But you know the media usually focus on the things that separate us like in a very black and white us them otomy I’m not a big fan of that it’s just because that’s not my perception of the world that’s not how I see it you know I I see
So many human traits that are that connect that are the same if you’re in colia or if you’re in Kazakhstan or if you’re in Australia it’s pretty much the same we we want the same as human beings we’re made of Flesh and Blood and we have feelings and we have wishes we have
Wants we have likes and dislikes and we our needs are pretty much the same all over the world so why not focus on those aspects that connects us instead of listening to the media and the media just tells us it just feeds us this is
Us then doomy and it’s to me that’s just not how the world clicks and it’s not how it works that can be quite frustrating to me sometimes that the vision of the world or my view of humanity is so far away from what the media tells us and not that I have the
You know the secrets or anything or that my vision is clearer or better or more right than anyone else’s but it’s just from all these close to 30 years of experiences from all over the world I have my own sort of um yeah my own pool
Of experiences that I use to sort of form my view of the world the view of people of the world and um sometimes I just wish that why why why can’t people just look at the the world the way I do because it’s a very very positive outlook because that’s what I experience
Wherever I go people will meet me with open arms and I’m not blind to the fact that of course it depends on the way I meet the world and meet the people I meet along the way I’m totally aware of that but if you smile to people chances
Are they’ll smile to you if you don’t smile to people chances are they won’t smile back and that’s just it’s simple it’s cliche but that’s how it works and and you can use that to your advantage and just sort of build up a positive vibe not not only in in yourself but
Also in in the in your immediate surroundings yeah and that that’s so powerful once you realize that you have the power as well it’s not just the world out there and I’ve got no control of that we have power as human beings and why not use it in a positive
Constructive way instead of moaning about oh the Israel blah blah all the conflicts around the world and I mean I know it’s it’s a fact that I mean I’m not blind to the fact that not everything is perfect and you know all right in the world things are happening
That we would rather be without but I think it’s just really important to keep things in perspective and realize that it’s it might be like less than 1% a lot less than 1% of the population of the world that is involved in these conflicts and fights and wars or
Whatever most of the people like most of humanity 8 billion people just live and want to live normal simple lives and you know get on with their things and yeah no drama no just friendliness and peace and that’s me that’s that’s how I see people because I have I’ve had so many
Options and experiences from just going through Villages where people don’t expect me to just drop by so I I feel I have a really good insight into different culture around the globe and it it’s given me so many Priceless yeah experiences and insights as an anthropologist but also
As private Nicolai and of course that affects me to day in and day out just meet these hospitable kind people who show an an an interest in in the stranger and extremely friendly and maybe I get invited to have a meal or to put up my tent in the backyard whatever
It’s just oh how can can that not affect me and anyone else you have written a book it’s in Danish isn’t it is there an English version of the book um no unfortunately there’s only a Danish version of the book Solo four years around the world by bike and it came out
In 2011 and I think it’s kind of I mean it’s kind of behind me now probably I never say never but I I don’t plan on Translating that book unfortunately but there’ll be a new book coming out after this Global TR I’m quite sure do you
Think that’ll be in English as well yeah hands up for a copy I’ll hopefully I’ll meet you somewhere and I’ll I’ll get you to sign it I’ve said this many times to many previous guests I feel it’s such an honor and a privilege as as the host of this show to
Be able to share time with people like yourself Nikolai because it’s my opportunity to learn more as well it it’s my opportunity to learn from people who have those really experiences as opposed to the media experiences that I might know about a country for example
Before I did this show you know if I talk about a country just randomly like Iran I I’m told as an Australian in the western society that Iran is a dangerous place it’s not a place where I should go as a woman either and it’s the people
You know are evil or things like that every World traveler that I’ve ever spoken to is has filled me with you know hospitable stories of these amazing beautiful people and you know that’s just one small example and yeah it is cliche but it’s true that people just
Want to do good for you you know speaking with you Nikolai it’s it just comes out so naturally that that’s been the overwhelming experience that you’ve had from this sort of trip as well yeah it is yeah it’s exactly the same same experiences yeah and I I keep getting
Overwhelmed by warmth and friendliness of complete Stranges that I meet along the way it it just never ceases to to impress me and I just feel humble and honored and happy and privileged to experience it you need to get out there to expose yourself to these different
Environments to be able to receive the love and the friendliness and Etc I mean because there’s nothing special about me it’s just once you put yourself out there then and expose yourself then you’re you’re sort of receptive to all that friendliness and love and but if
You just stay at home and no the world is not it’s a dangerous place I’d rather stay at home of course then you don’t get the benefits and the positivity of meeting strangers that are just super kind to you I can totally just understand where where you’ve come from
With that as well total different tra here but we talked earlier about what’s changed in terms of your trips and in terms of planning and you know the technology has been a massive advancement what about just even equipment wise what’s changed for you from a longdistance touring perspective
Have there been changes of brought on by experience of you know what to take what not to take if if a total beginner came up to you and said Nikolai I want to go for it and ride from Denmark to Singapore what’s the sort of thing I
Should think of bringing that I probably don’t know that I need what would you sort of suggest perhaps I’d say leave the fear at home that’s probably be my my best advice I mean of course it’s kind of important that you bring along the equipment that you you might need
But in general I think some people have a tendency to sort of overdo it to plan too much and get into too much details about what tend or what spokes to put on the bike and I mean it doesn’t really matter in the long run just as long as
You get yourself a decent bike and a decent saddle and do some research of course but get yourself a tent sleeping mattress like the sleeping arrangements and then just pretty much just go and the rest will sort of work out yeah of course most most of my luggage is like
Specialized equipment so it’s like my tent is like a kilo 2 person tent is like one kilo super light and pretty much all my stuff is there’s a reason why I’m bringing it because you don’t want to carry especially on the K scooter you don’t want to carry excess weight package so
I’m still Blown Away by the fact that you can get up to you know 15 18 kilometers or whatever an hour on the Kick Scooter yeah but once you get going it’s um quite some momentum on the Kick Scooter as well so what’s it like going
Down on a Kick Scooter on the downhills what’s that like oh it’s fun it’s it’s really it’s it’s good fun because um I mean obviously I had good breaks on the kick sarter like bicycle brakes standard brakes but it’s it’s big fun because I would usually I would just put both my
Feet on the on the platform and then just go down to talk to yeah to diminish the wind resistance and they just go and uh sometimes I I can hit like 50 60 kilometers an hour if it’s going down so it’s usually it’s a matter of how much
Uh yeah I can Brave it or when I sort of chicken out so it’s good it it can go pretty fast and it’s hands on experience and then uphills is it is that’s a total different experience then like I mean ping momentum like going up a hill and
Do you get to a stage where it’s just walking yeah I found out that if the incline is much more than 5% then it’s for me it’s impossible to to stay on the on the on the K scooter then I just push the Kick Scooter up and and it
It’s tough of course if it’s warm and you’re in the Sun and Kick Scooter itself is like around 10 kilos and Luggage maybe 20 kilos so you have like 30 kilos pushing up a hill which I mean it’s hard to describe what it feels like on your legs but it’s something like
Filling up a pushing like a full trolley at the supermarket pushing that upill I think I can appreciate it last year I did a cycle tour across the I did the raid pyrene or a variation of it on the on the bike my bike didn’t weigh I think
It wasn’t as quite as heavy as yours but it was still probably 32 33 kilos and I remember going up some of the very steep climbs there the best thing I did was put a big climbing cassette on the back M you never complain that you’ve got an
Easier to go into let’s put it that way that’s I remember at one stage I was going that slow and I was thinking I think I could walk faster than this but then I thought I could on the flat but I don’t think I could push this bike up
This steep gradient so no like there is a point where the wheels aren’t helping you push this like it is all just strength isn’t it yeah yeah it’s just on on a kick scorer you don’t have the transmission you don’t get the help of Gears that you have on a bicycle and
That’s probably the main difference between a Kick Scooter and a bike and it’s what makes it a lot harder like per kilometer to go on a Kick Scooter because you you need to push you need to work through every single kilometer every single meter on a bike you can
Sort of just you use the gears to go uphill there’s no such thing on a cake score you just need to push push fast if you don’t go backwards so is there left leg right leg gear changes cuz one of your legs has got to be a dominant leg
Right yeah it it’s sort of balanced out over the years after I’ve done a few kick scoter but when I started I would say my left leg was probably 70% and my right leg only 30 so but I just forced myself to use my right leg as much as my
Leg left leg and now I’d say it’s probably down to 53 47% so I still have my favorite leg but I tried to just use my right leg more than like to to push than the other one to sort of the balance the 5050 50 Ballance but I’ve
Got time to to figure that out over the next few months in Australia and New Zealand oh definitely before you then go on to the running leg of your trip yeah which isn’t just physically running with a small backpack like you will still have your gear so I’m imagining you’ve
Got like a push pram or something I plan on getting like a two- wheel it’s a little wagon made for kids it’s called a kit Runner so it’s like a two- wheeled wagon that I track sort of like a belts around my hip and then attached to this
Uh this wagon so I have my hands free and then yeah the the hips will do the the dragging of the trailer I wonder how much the kick scooting across Australia and New Zealand will be great lead up training to the Running part it’ll be different again won’t it it it will it
It’s a good question and I I don’t know what it’s going to be like it’s I expect it to be really really tough and probably the toughest of three disciplines to run across the US I’ve never done any longdistance running before about my only experience was like
Nine years ago I flew to from Denmark to Sicily and ran the equivalent of five marathons in five consecutive days but apart from that I hang on a minute hang on a minute you just told me I’ve never done any longdistance running before but I have done five back-to-back
Marathons well yeah but it’s like nine years ago and yeah it was different printed it wasn’t like 5,000 kilomet running across a continent it was I mean it was tough it was good fun it was a challenge but yeah I don’t really see that as an experience that I can use or
Yeah make use of do the us but it will be different it’s again it’s different muscles in the leg it’s going to get me through so I don’t know I’m I’m excited about that but I really don’t focus on that part of the trip right now I I feel
It’s very important that I focus on the kter earlier we were talking about you know the mini Milestones that you allow yourself to think about to be motivated can I ask what the mini milestones in Australia are well I think Norman is probably that’s that’s a tiny Milestone
Not that I have any expectations that Norman is going to be like a super exciting place to be but just because it’s sort of like the start of a section that’s to be really challenging like between Norman and say pusta probably then that things get bit more civilized
And Adela will be like definitely a milestone I’ve got some a good friend in Adelaide and Sydney obviously well I’m not sure if I go through canra or I go along the coast to Melbourne so I don’t know really I don’t have any milestone for that but Sydney is
Definitely in some way perhaps the weather will dictate a few of your decisions as well perhaps I really hope that you have the prevailing wind for your kick scoot journey across the nullo oh thank you I hope that too have you had some massive weather events so far
On your trip that you’ve had to navigate through not really I’ve had cold weather and in China I had some cold weather as well in the sing Jang province of western China I wanted to go a specific route and the police told me I couldn’t
Go that way because it was like a closed off area for for us or for aliens as they call us Travelers I had to turn around and do like a 520 km detour that took me over two mountain passes 2,500 I think meter high mountain passes and I
Was just you got to be kidding you cannot do that to me because you know my journey through China was long enough more than 5,000 kilometers and now these policemen they were just sending me on this 525 kilom D that was just devastating just adding 10% of your
Journey in China onto your trip exactly and I was sort of like I only had two months to to cover that that distance so I was like no you you got to be kidding and I tried to convince them to to let me go but they were just no no no it’s
It’s closed I mean you can you have to leave now and you have to go down that way and then yeah that was challenging also weatherwise but it ended up being a great experience as well because I got to see I had to go through an area that
Was usually closed off to churs as well but the police realized that I had to go that way but I was not allowed to sleep in certain towns I had to go through towns I could have lunch in town a but then I had to continue to town B where I
Could find a a y to sleep in like a sort of touristy but only for Chinese tourist y to sleep in and then the next day I had to I had to promise them to just keep going until I got back to the sort of Main Road the Classic route through
Singan so that was stressful but also like an extremely fantastic experience because I got to see a side of China that not a lot of Western people have seen there’s an element of me Nikolai just thinking how many parts of the world that you’ve seen that regardless
Of whether we can access them or not most western people will never see as well it’s just it’s mindblowing that way too isn’t it yeah it is and it’s it’s what bicycle touring does and can do it’s it just brings you to places where not a lot of people go and it’s it’s
It’s a free free gift I mean as long as you don’t let the fear guide you if you just sort of feel confident and just go into the unknown then things will just Blossom and good things will happen something that’s occurred to me because you’ve said it a couple of times of
Leave the fear alone don’t let the fear guide you I imagine having as much experience as you have those moments of fear would be less and less but do you still ever get them at all not really I mean I’m I’m not really a fearful person I think
I mean it’s not that I don’t know the feeling but I don’t know I I I I’m I just I don’t fear much I think not because I’m naive or anything but just because my life has shown me that as I said people are good the world is is a
Nice place it’s a kind and positive warm place and why wouldn’t it be so tomorrow as well it was today and it was yesterday and the day before yesterday so why wouldn’t it be there so it’s kind of a matter of looking at it realistically instead of just making
Things up in your mind and oh all these things that could happen you could get bitten by a snake or scorpions and don’t you know that the dangerous spiders in the world are in Australia blah don’t worry about the spiders you’ll be fine yeah I mean snakes just don’t bite
You like that it’s yeah if you step on it it’ll bite but usually I mean they’re not aggressive don’t try and catch a snake anybody that’s that’s the number one reason why people get bitten they try to catch them exactly and years ago I I made up this uh fictive um deal with
All the wild animals that if I you know just stay in my own space and don’t disturb the the wildlife then the wildlife won’t disturb me and it’s it’s sort of sort of worked so far You’ got lots of great Wildlife to look forward to as well yeah I hope so just listening
To you Nikolai I imagine you know we were talking very at the very start about the sensory experience of bicycle touring as well I imagine a few guests have mentioned to me one of the greatest benefits of slow travel is you can just stop and appreciate things as they
Happen as well you see something you can take notice of it it’s not like you whizzed by in a car and the viewpoints gone there’s nowhere to pull over and stop and take a photo or something so that’s something great that you get to look forward to as well yeah absolutely
And yeah there’s there’s so many yeah so many great things about the slow travel that appeals to me the human powered aspect as well I I don’t really look at this as a slow travel and I know that is enough to call it slow travel but but
I I I’m more focused on the human powered aspect of it the satisfaction of moving my own body and my belongings under my own steam the satisfaction from that is is really great and you have time to digest what you experience and it’s a great way to
To see how people live on a day-to-day basis because you you you travel so slow that you actually site and you’re yeah your senses can can keep up with what you experience if I ever had to think of something to marry up with an anthropologist I feel like this is a
Perfect thing for you to be doing you’re giving yourself the biggest gift of being able to observe different societies from day to day in different places as well what an awesome thing to be undertaking Nikolai I know we’re going to have listeners tuning into this episode wanting to think oh my gosh I
Wonder where he’s up to now how is this adventure going I will provide links in the show notes but if you want to just give a quick shout out what’s the best way for people to follow along this journey at the moment for you uh Facebook and Instagram I have accounts
Um on Facebook and Instagram where that I update daily with the coverage in text and photos of my on my journey so that would be the best uh way to go and and yeah it’s just the accounts are just my name Nikolai bangard n i o l a i bangard
B a n gs g a r d awesome I will definitely do that and I definitely encourage you all to do that because you also have the ability to track where you are as well yeah yeah that’s right um every night when I put up my tent or if
I sleep in a hotel I have this uh Google Map sort of interactive map where people can actually see like within one or two meters where I spent the night yeah and there’s lots of I I put a lot of links um especially on my Facebook pages where
People can you see what kind of equipment I use and what mode of Transport I’m using and yeah where I am and if people want to follow me on straa or gin it’s possible to go through via those links I know that I’ve got a lot of Aussie fans and listeners in this
Show I’m I’m inviting all of you to openly stalk niiz progress and be one of those awesome dot Watchers and meet him out on the road somewhere and show him some good Aussie Hospitality along the way as well Nikolai I do need to wrap the show up now and I’ve got three quick
Questions to finish it off with the first one is if you had to pick a song to be the soundtrack to the global Triathlon uhuh what song would you pick and that song gets to go into the seek travel ride playlist which is a song picked from every one of my guests
Available now on Spotify and apple music so what song am I putting down for you Nikolai wow that’s a great idea I didn’t know that um that you put up a Spotify it’s an Eclectic mix it could power you for days I think oh yeah yeah I’m definitely
Looking into that gonna look into that I listen to music a lot and there’s a thousands of numbers but I would pick the song called no one’s going to love you with a band American band called band of horses that you might know of I
Think I’ve heard of them and it it’s off the 2007 album SE to begin which I actually listened a lot to when when I crossed Australia last time like on my round with B ride I just listen to that album sees to begin constantly and but especially this song called no one’s
Going to love you is just even when I hear it today 16 years later it’s just a it just melts my heart and I remember vividly a lot of times I was writing like from Darwin down to to Adelaide through the Outback and I would just put
The song on it sometimes it almost felt like a like a drug like a audio drug that I needed to put that song I had like an i what’s the name iPod back in the days of iPods yes the IP yeah and I would put song on and I would
Just oh you know riding through this Northern Territory with this black asphal snake connecting the horizons with under the blue sky with the gum trees I just felt like the luckiest guy on Earth and listening to this beautiful song was just W it just sort of framed my my whole experience so awesome
Because n i what I have the pleasure of doing is I listen to this playlist myself now and what I love about it is I know which guest has obviously picked which song and fans of the podcast you would probably know now too because if you listen You’ll Know who’s picked what
But whenever I hear their song the awesome thing for me is it transports me to their adventure and I love that like this show gives me fills my cup of Wonder lust each and every week so I get to I get to travel to places and and in
My mind I’m I’m thinking my own Adventures to come with it so I’m looking forward to listening to this song and picturing you I’m going to picture you kick scooting your way along from Norman that’ll be fantastic oh that’s that’s beautiful okay last two questions Nikolai and you know what the answer to
These to the first question I wonder if it changes depending on your mode of Transport but hypothetical scenario you’re going to be riding your bike one day and you have the choice to make you can ride perpetually up a constant hill climb or alternatively into a constant
Headwind which one would you choose um the hill without a doubt yeah yeah what if you’re on a Kick Scooter oh yeah that’s tricky yeah it’s got to be less than 5% though so maybe I’ll make it like a 4% climb so it’s just on the limit what you
Physically do I would actually pick the headwind then because my feet is slower so I won’t get affected that much by the head headwind whereas I know that going uphill is just it’s just pain on the kigs forers yeah that actually interesting I would probably pick the
Wind for continuity here what I wonder what you’ll do when you’re running um when running the wind is not such a big fact because you go slower and so two out of three for the hill climb team Hill Climb perpetually I need to shake this question up because everybody picks
The hill climb yeah and to be fair ncol I was seeing someone from Denmark flatlander like maybe you would you should of all people perhaps have picked the headwind but you’ve lived so much of your life in other places now yeah that I’m sure you’ve probably collectively had months of constant
Headwinds yeah in your experience as well and months of months of riding uphill too so oh for sure but the views oh Mega can I ask quickly this is such a random question and it’s it’s probably a really stupid hard one but what’s your favorite mountain range that you’ve
Experienced oh that’s a good one I’ve seen quite a few over the years I would say in terms of a feeling of Adventure and Expedition would have to go with the Himalayas wow lovely yeah yeah back in 2006 I sort of followed and crossed the Himalayas through Tibet and
That area is just out of this world in on so many levels um and one of the most isolated places like Tibetan Plateau on Earth so I would pick that one but if you ask me tomorrow I might say the Andes yeah of the Andes too but it’s
More civilized and not quite as wild and not as remote not as remote no oh I like that it it’s a good Adventure answer I like it I like it okay final question I promise you have the choice you’re going to be writing for 4 hours it seems so
Small but anyway this is the this is the hypothetical four hours one day and you get to choose to ride four hours on your own or four hours with someone else which one would you choose H H that’s a good question uh I would go by myself I think
Okay and just that’s what you feel most comfortable with or uh not really but I I do enjoy being just on my own when I’m on the an adventure on the on the other hand I mean again if you ask me tomorrow I might say no I like to cycle with
Someone but I mean I I I I’m I like both I really do but since I’ve done most of my cycling alone on my own then I’d probably pick that one for no apparent reason really because I I’m a sociable person as well I I love the company but
I also love my own company well I feel like that has to be the case because you couldn’t undertake long travel like like longterm travel like this if you didn’t like your own company no well Nikolai bangs gotard it has been an absolute pleasure I time has flown for me just
Listening to you talk about your experiences talk so beautifully about your Reflections on the world it’s not a scary place there’s more things that make us stick together than that separate us apart I will try and take your Mantra on to leave fear at the door
For my own adventures and I encourage my guests to do the same I wish you Perpetual constant tail winds and gradients less than 5% as you make your way across Australia and New New Zealand I’m definitely going to be looking out towards your Dot and seeing how you’re
Making progress thank you so so much for taking the time out and sharing your story with all our listeners here on seek travel ride oh thank you so much Bella thank you it’s been a real pleasure for me I feel so energized having just spoken with Nikolai there
The words of wisdom that only a longterm Adventurer could possibly come up with perhaps leave the fear at the door go on that Adventure don’t over plan it don’t over complicate it you’ve got that idea in your mind just to go I think that will resonate with a lot of you my
Listeners as well and I wish Nikolai all the best for the rest of this Global Triathlon as a proud Aussie I’m going to be watching that dot track along this big country and see how he goes have you joined the seek travel ride Facebook Community yet if not check out the link
In the show notes you’ll be able to join our page and our group there and get in on some more discussions there’s a lot of the guests of the show are in that Facebook Community too and we share a few more extra details and photos of some of our adventurers trips as well
It’s sure to help keep topping up your cup of wonderlust and give you your own inspiring ideas for that trip that you have planned to until the next episode my name is Bella Malloy thanks for Listening