Cycling, you said?

Yes, cycling indeed! 

From November 2016, I (Wim) will take a sabbatical leave for 8 months, and we (Wim and Ellen) will cycle through Asia. Much of that trip is still intentionally undecided, however we know that Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, China and probably Korea and/or Japan will be on our itinerary. More details will be depending on how we feel, what we hear from others, the weather, visa, and… just the way the wind blows I guess!

Happy cyclists in Cambodia

But why cycling? How did that happen, we hear some of you think out loud???

Well, I made my first cycling trips many years ago. First when I was 15 (sorry, no pictures available), a short trip of about a week, from my home town Hasselt to the Belgian Coast and back. A year later, during the 1985 summer, I cycled to the South of France, and 2 years later to North Italy. I was biking partially because it was a dirt cheap way to travel and I had no money (well that worked out well then), but also because I simply loved it! And even though ever since then I did not travel anywhere by bicycle, this great way of traveling stuck with me – until this day.

Family trip in Cambodia 

Then, almost 2 years ago, Ellen and I went for a 10-day holiday to Cambodia and we decided to try a… bike trip again! We rented 2 bicycles and all the gear we needed in Phnom Penh, and that was all it took. We cycled from Phnom Penh along the Mekong towards Laos and really had a great time. In fact, from day 1, the enthusiasm was so big that the dream was born to go on a long bike tour. The longer we travelled, the more other cyclists we met, the more we liked it, and the more we started to dream about much more… For years I had already been considering a sabbatical leave, and the time was right to go for it! So in January 2015, we kind of decided we wanted to make it happen.

The Mekong riverside at dusk

This is more then 1,5 year ago. Between then and now, a lot had to happen still. Firstly, a real decision was needed – yes, this kind of things don’t happen by chance, it’s something you shape yourself. Next, we obviously really wanted it to fit in the plans of our children: stay in Malaysia, study, in Belgium or in Australia, and so on. And lastly, I have been working since 1999 with Materialise and wanted to find a good solution to take this sabbatical in harmony with Materialise. For these things to all work out it took some time, but it has come together very well! So here we go!

And finally... Cycling is a very environment-friendly way of traveling of course, and that is also one of the reasons why we want to travel this way. We have become increasingly aware of the pressure we are all causing to our environment. With more than 7 billion people on this planet our environment is suffering big time. Just open your eyes and look around you, you will see it everywhere. We have been gradually doing efforts to reduce our footprint, and while cycling we want to draw your attention to these things around us, and things we can all do to contribute.

So, why cycling? I hope this gives you very clear answers to that question!