I got on my Long Haul Trucker, and when the 60kg heavy luggage burdened my body, the thought of not realizing the dream weighed down my shoulders even more. That was how it began.

The journey from Kuala Lumpur to London took 6 months and not just that, it took all I had as a cyclist – my stamina and my endurance, living more than 12 hours on two wheels. It took all I had as a man, being away from my loving wife and daughter who hadn’t even been old enough to recognize my face. It took all I had for 6 months and yet, to everyone who had asked if it was worth it, my answer was a confident yes. Coming home, I thought about how to eternalize this experience and how it would translate into a story that everyone, and not just cyclists, could relate to. Most of all, I wanted to put the story down in words that would withstand the test of time and eventually carry the message to my daughter when she is old enough to understand it. Perhaps even for my family who asked no questions when I told them I wanted to go on an adventure and cycle through 16 countries for 6 months.

The first notion that came to me was to publish a book that would record every memory I had on the road. It never occurred to me that attempting to publish a book would be harder than braving a 18,000km cycling route and it was infinitely harder to even get a publisher to talk to me, let alone publish a book. I had friends who started telling me that print was a dying artform. People were afraid to invest into publishing books in hard copies because let’s be honest, how many people today would take up a book in place of their smartphones? So push came to shove and here I am writing this blog armed with nothing but a journey of a lifetime and an experience to share.

I hope you stay to listen.