Journey to the West - The Begin

Inspired by my previous bike tour in Japan, which can be seen on my YouTube Channel, I wish to embark on a more prolonged journey from Hong Kong, China, to France in Europe. This time, I am not alone. Rather, I am acommpanied by my girlfriend and best friend, Mathilde Bertholon. I met her during my Japan tour in my last stop in Osaka.

Here I am next to my brand new bike, the Giant Escape 1. You can have a look at the details of this bike on YouTube

This is my girl, Mathilde, next to our bikes. We put them on the rooftop of our friend on Lamma Island. We shall spend a few nights there to get ready for this massive undertaking.

We thought that it would be a great idea to draft a map listing all the countries we wish to pass through. The detailed route cannot really be planned ahead this far and besides, we wish to have some freedom of choice when we get to an unknown country. It's hard to know what you wish to visit if you don't know what they are, it is like the unknown unknown. Ever since I travelled for more than a year by now, the unknown unknown has been my most favorite amongst mysteries. How in the world would I know, that I, as an Austro-Chinese, will meet my girlfriend, a French chef, in a hostel in Osaka, Japan, that I booked wrongly due to misspelling on Booking.com? Totally, right?! So, hot tip to pick up your favourite girl: travel long distance.

Ok, perhaps I should start shortly with the prequel to this. I mean, how on Earth would you have the idea or guts to cycle over 20,000 km from Hong Kong to France?

It all started with a boring insurance job in Austria. You must imagine the land of the Hobbits, incredibly beautiful, peaceful, stable, little grumpy Hobbits jumping around the almost empty streets, looking strangely at strangers and collecting fruits and veggies all day. This is Austrian, with the exception of the people here being a bit taller, fruits being money and veggies being vanities of life such as titles and last names or what school you went to. I got my secondary education here and returned after my fancy degree from UCL to get a job. Worst idea ever. But it is the dawn of the most amazing time in my personal history.

Here are the steps to happiness, which happened after I noticed that my life was stale in Austria working in an office for a boring insurance company.

1. Quit your job within asap, no compromise and unconditionally.

2. Sell everything you don't need and put all your belongings into two things: credit card and one single backpack or luggage.

3. Buy an one way ticket to the destination where you have not been before and where you always wanted to go. Like Palembang. No, no, don't go there, ever! Trust me.

So, this is what I did. I sold everything and quit my job, flew to China in May and travelled the north of China for three months, from Handan, through Dalian to Changbaishan Mountain. That mountain with it's Heavenly Lake is a must visit! Very inspirational.

After returning back to Handan, I booked a ticket to Tokyo around August. Then, the best time of my life began. I met my favourite boss and worked for him in his hostel and cafe in Yokohama. It's called Chillulu Cafe and Hostel. During that time I was travelling through the area around Tokyo and Yokohama and met the best of people. I saw the horizons and limits of human goodness, compassion, positivity and capacity for greatness. It's there I met Koske who was working on this guesthouse Casaco. He travelled from Portugal to Japan on a bike. That was the inspiration for my own bike travel. So, I borrowed his world travel bike for my Japanese tour. I cycled all the way down to Osaka and met a YouTuber, Matt Galat from Jayoe Nation. This was the most amazing time ever, like EVER! I tasted for the first time in my life what it meant to have pure freedom. You get it when you are alone, on a bike with all your belongings on it, no ties, no obligations, no people telling you what to do or what not to do. All you see is the way ahead, the endless stream of memories passing on the asphalt road. Small, getting bigger slowly, becoming huge very quickly just before they get smashed under your tires where they fade into nothingness, meaninglessness and dispassion. Not a care for the world, that is crazily spinning around itself for things you don't know, for stuff you don't need and for people you don't care.

It was at this moment, the peak of my freedom, where I met Mathilde, in the hostel that I booked wrongly. I initially wanted to book the JHoppers Universal which was close to the Universal Studios. But there was another branch of the same brand in the centre of the city. The day after my first night, I came back for breakfast after a morning run for errands. There she was, a hot chick spreading butter on a toast. I just had to talk to her. My first pick up line was so terrible that I won't even share here. Maybe she would tell it to you one day.

Well, a few months after we moved in together in Hong Kong, we stand at a point where we don't like this place due to high cost of living and the not so friendly neighborhood. There were a few ways out. Working holiday in Australia, flight back home or going to Japan and of course there was the cycle tour. I jumped on the cycle tour but Mathilde insisted to explore the rest of the options first. Turned out that I could not get a Working Holiday Visa for Australia, just two minutes after she paid for her visa application. We sat there perplexed at our stupidity not having checked this restriction before she paid. Then we thought that we did Japan already and flying back home seemed like a shameful defeat. Then, destiny called. I mean, I don't believe in any supernatural powers but sometimes, just sometimes you have to feel that we are not alone here. It just cannot be random.

She looked into her bank account. There is was. 3000 Euro more on her current account, ready to be used. In total she had about 5000 Euro for the bike tour. Apparently, her bank suddenly decided for themselves to close her fixed savings account and put the amount onto her current account. It was at this moment, I felt the first sign of divine revelation. Something or someone out there wanted us to cycle from Hong Kong to France. It was at this moment, where she finally backed down and told me: "John, let's do this bike tour!" I smiled.

Here we are, having our bikes, ready to take on the next steps. In the following days we will get our Vietnamese visa. Mathilde Just went to the Consulate of Vietnam to apply for both of us. It is very quick and easy in Hong Kong. You go to their office and complete the application form, pay 500 HKD per person for a single entry 30 days visa. Wait 3 days and done.

We already got the Chinese visa. Our route starts from Hong Kong, through China to Vietnam. Here is our map. It is a crazy map and you might think: "How on Earth are you going to finance this giant trip through more than 60 countries, John?!" Well, good question, I have absolutely no idea. If you have an idea, please do share it with me in the comment section. Subscribing to my YouTube channel is definitely a good way to start supporting me. I do regularly send postcards to fans and sponsors and some generous donors already sent me some money via PayPal [email protected] and WeChat Pay xiangyujohnwu. I sent them already their postcard from Taiwan. Hope to send yours too sometimes.