About us

This is the long version of the journey: how in 2011 I quit everything and ended up cycling around the world. You can follow the whole route on the round-the-world map.

We never raced around the world, took the shortest route or looked for shortcuts. We wandered, stopped wherever a place had something to offer, and worked along the way. That's why it took years — to explore and really get to know the countries and people we met, not just ride from A to B.

New birth

January 2011: I started to travel. The plan was a few short trips that year; the plan failed. The travel bug caught me, I started joining the dots, and I never came home — I just kept backpacking around Europe. Within a couple of months I'd swapped my first low-cost flights for my thumb, and started to hitchhike.

"I hitchhiked more than 20,000 km and set foot in 25 countries with my thumb up."

Hitchhiking, I covered thousands of kilometres — no real plans, usually no map. I loved the uncertainty, and I still do: reaching a new country with a new currency and a new language, with no research done, made me feel alive.

Ilze

The road led me to Riga, where I met Ilze, who became my companion for much of the journey. A month later she handed in her resignation and we carried on together through Europe and Morocco, until we flew to Southeast Asia at the end of 2011.

Southeast Asia

We travelled for six months across Southeast Asia, trying to live as the locals did — eating where they ate, moving how they moved. We took songthaews and tuk-tuks, rode, cycled, walked. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam changed how we saw life — and somewhere along the way, cycling started to feel like the natural next step.

England

We stopped in England for a year and a half. Since Ilze didn't speak Spanish and I didn't speak Latvian, we needed neutral ground to work, save, and plan the bike expedition ahead.

Around the world by bicycle

On 8 January 2014 we left London heading east, with no return ticket. Five years, 47,000 km, and 30 countries by bicycle later, I finished the trip in December 2019.

That bet to drop everything turned out to be the best decision of my life. I never went back to the old one — I built a free life on my own terms, and I'm still living it that way. Because fear does not prevent death — it prevents life.

It's all in the blog. If you'd like to reach me, the easiest way is the contact form.