On the road, on an impulse

Daniel Sillekens 36 does not rattle off too many numbers but the figures associated with his travels are baffling Over the past five years Sillekens has travelled across 104 countries 83300 km of which were covered on his bikeNow he is in Mumbai until his bike is shipped to the city from Kenya Sillekens says he is going around the world because it allows him to timetravel mdash to ldquodiscover a far diverse world beyond the confines of Western EuroperdquoExcerpts from the chatDaniel Sillekens has covered 212200 km on his bike over five years PicPradeep DhivarOn how it all startedIronically I hated bikes till the age of 25 I grew up in a German village of just 900 people and camped and fished with my parents Suddenly just after I turned 25 in 2003 I rented my friendrsquos motorcycle on a whim and never looked back mdash I travelled through Scandinavia Iceland Finland the Pyrenees and Spain on a bike which I later bought I knew I had found something I wanted to do mdash frequently mdash for lifeIn September 2010 I overheard someone at a family wedding speaking about a guy who had travelled across the world and spent euro80000 on hotels That night I Googled how one could go around the world on a motorbike and drew up a path The next day I called my father and my employer I was a customs agent and told them about my decision Thatrsquos how simple it wasOn shocks surprise and everything in betweenWhen I started out I headed toward Syria the Sinai desert the rest of Africa and then toward South America and so many things startled me On my first night at Syria I was flabbergasted to have to park my bike out on the road because the place I stayed at didnrsquot have a garage The same thing happened in Greece Compare it to what happened when I was in Canada recently mdash I left it behind at the port under the care of stranger for a week and took a ferry to AlaskaWithin six months I tore up all the plans and budget lists I had made back home I have cleaned up computers by installing softwares and got a stay free Irsquom open to any surprise now The first time a guy on a highway in Paraguay offered me free stay for two weeks I was suspicious now I would readily go along The biggest culture shock was being in Peru mdash that country is poorer than some north African countries and that really puts you in despair There are dogs in the waiting rooms of every hospital mdash picture thatThe best time I had was in Central Asia in Iran My bike oil compartment broke when I was in Malaysia Iran was my next destination At a railway station a guy saw me dejected leaning on my bike He happened to be a member of one of the two biking clubs in the whole country and he fixed my bike oil compartment for free I would have had to sell the motorcycle if it hadnrsquot been for himOn the idea of homeI will never go back and settle in Germany mdash I am glad to have gotten away from the myopia that is Western Europe I am very taken with Argentina and thatrsquos where I will end up when I stop my tour which is maybe a decade from now Irsquoll find a girl whom I want to marry and travel with her afreshOn MumbaiIrsquove been to Chennai Udaipur Jaipur Bundi Agra and Goa and now Mumbai But what I am actually here for is the Himalayas I will then head to MyanmarWhat amuses me most about Mumbai is how when you ask someone in a local train for your destination the answer unfailingly is ldquoNextrdquo