“Travelling outgrows its motives. It soon proves sufficient in itself."
-NICOLAS BOUVIER
“Why not?” is the question behind many of my personal decisions. So after a year and a half of quarantine, when the idea to quit my job and take a grand journey started to percolate in my mind, like oil through a leaky gasket, it was a foregone conclusion.
I had already booked roundtrip tickets to Italy for a friend’s wedding, so I decided that I would fly to Rome, but an empty seat would carry nothing but the vestiges of routine and sensibility back to San Francisco. And while I was at it, why not buy a motorcycle there?
A few similarly extemporaneous decisions later, and I’d resolved to ride my bike as far east as my temerity, bank account, and questionable vehicle documents would take me.
398 days, 33,452 miles, and 25 countries later, that would turn out to be Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - 26 if you count one foot stuck through a fence into China.
It is hard to find the words to describe this journey, and harder yet to believe that it’s over. I’m still trying to figure out what it all means, but I certainly learned a lot - about myself, and the world.
Personally, I learned how to step out of my comfort zone - in fact, I think I obliterated it completely. I grew the courage to push my luck, get in sticky situations, and improvise my way out of them. I figured out how travel spontaneously, without an agenda or a place to spend the night. In short: to say “yes and.”
As for the world? I learned that where the pavement ends, so too does the malfeasance and mistrust of the city. It seems to me that corruption lives in concrete, and is allergic to a balm of dirt, mud, and gravel. For when you get out there, among the potholes, ruts, and washouts, you see a different picture of humanity. One where indifference yields to altruism, and cynicism turns to rust. Where farmers look up from their fields to wave as you pass by, shopkeepers invite you to stay for tea, and everybody is a mechanic if you need them to be. It is wonderful, and I urge you to see it for yourself.
So the next time you have the chance, take the bad roads - they lead to good people.
