My book

I was a thirty-something geologist living in the Netherlands when I discovered that my live-in partner had been having a long-term affair. Suddenly, I found myself without a place to stay. I decided to quit my job, pack up my life, and jet off to India in search of a new beginning. But my plans quickly took an unexpected turn when I fell hopelessly in love — not with another person, but with a motorcycle. Behind the handlebars, I felt alive and free — nimble enough to trace the narrowest paths, powerful enough to travel the longest of roads.

I first rode toward the Pacific, winding through the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand, and then into Malaysia. Instead of satisfying my appetite for the open road, that ride only ignited it further. I shipped my bike to Oman, at the base of the Arabian Peninsula, and set off on a journey that took me through Iran, across Turkmenistan along its border with Afghanistan, over the snowy peaks of Central Asia, and into Europe, all the way back home to the Netherlands. I covered remote and utterly unfamiliar territories; broke down on impossibly steep mountains; and pushed on for too many miles along empty roads, farther and farther from civilization. But through these travels, I discovered the true beauty of the world—the kindness of its people, the simplicity of its open spaces, and my own inner strength.