The Transcript

Karthika: Welcome Heike. Thank you so much for joining me on CulturallyOurs. I am so very excited to have you on the podcast and I cannot wait to chat with you and get to know you a little bit better.

Heike: That sounds great. Thanks for having me.

Karthika: Absolutely. So before we begin, could you tell us a little bit of who you are, where you’re from, just to kind of help set the stage for this conversation?

Heike: I am Heike. I’m from Germany. I grew up in southern Germany in a tiny town. I’m a professional photographer and camera woman. So I used to work for television for quite some time. I’m a sport lover and the main thing is I love to see the planet.

Karthika: That’s fantastic. And you have done that so wonderfully, my friend. You have such an interesting journey in these past few years, I guess since 2013, right? You set out to see the world on your bike. Can you talk about how you started right outside your front door. So walk us through what that has been like. I mean, what is that experience like?

Heike: It might sound that I have a house or a flat, but actually when I said that it’s my mom’s place and I lived in the basement for a bit because to I took care of my money so I can travel. Cause even when I worked I wasn’t able, cause I worked as a freelance. And I was always kind of keen to see the planet and so I always kept my life a bit, you know, less luxury. So before I left, I had all my boxes packed and left them in my mom’s basement and then I head off. The first weeks wasn’t all that easy and I thought what a crazy idea I came up with. Back then I actually had the idea of going all the way to Australia and I thought, well, will stretch it so far. But then  my brother said to me when he said goodbye, ‘You know what if you get as far as Romania that’s already pretty far’. And so I kept this in mind and it was kind of the motivation I had and then it just went by itself. It was so fascinating that it was no longer a problem at all.

Karthika: Now I have to ask this because it, since 2013, you’ve been all over the world, well! almost all over the world.

Heike: The world is such a big place. But I’ve been to quite a few countries by now. But there’s still a lot left I haven’t seen yet.

Karthika: But what made you decide to even embark on this journey? On a bicycle?

Heike:First of all, the bicycle is a perfect way to just see the planet because it’s environmentally friendly. It is cheap. It’s slow and people see you right away and you also can see everything what’s going on around you. If you sit in a car, there’s always a lot of times, you have this metal thing around you. You don’t hear the birds. You cannot see the ants crossing the road. You cannot talk to the kids who are waving you and saying hello to you. You were much closer to everything and if you no longer want to cycle and even cycling is too fast for you, then you just push it and you walk. When you sit on a motorbike, it’s always noisy. You know, I don’t like the noise. Yeah. I want to listen to the silence, especially in the desert.

Karthika: I love what you said about connecting with what you see around you. You’re so right in a car, you’re sort of isolated, you know? You can roll down the window, but it’s not the same. Yeah. That’s such a beautiful way of experiencing everything. You know, when you sit in a car, you don’t really realize how far everything is, how big everything is. Yes. You can only realize how huge this world is if you’re paddling or walking.

Heike: Absolutely.

Karthika: Now you’ve traveled to many places, most of them are quite different from kind of life you’re used to, right? Can you share some experiences or people who have really made an impact on your life, on your lifestyle and more importantly, your mindset? Because it takes quite a bit of courage to do this and also do this alone, like you have.

Heike:  What I learned, and I think this is probably the most important message, is that the world is a wonderful place and it’s full, absolutely amazing people. And coming from a northern European country where people usually locked their doors and don’t let anyone in, going to all those, especially the, also the Muslim countries they open their doors and they open their hearts. I mean, they even host you as a guest and say, hey, come in, just feel free and relax and feel home. And they gave me everything you can think of. They took care of me and that helped a lot. And of course, I mean that kind of influences you and you start thinking about your, life where you come from and how you treat foreigners, and how we treat to each other. And I think that has had an impact on me. And I learned a lot.

Karthika: Now what do you love the most about your years being on the road? Do you have a favorite place you traveled or a favorite set of community that you interacted with?

Heike: That’s a really tough one because the world is so different. And I’m a nature lover. I love the culture in Asia probably because of the food actually. I spend quite some time in the US and I love the deserts and the open space, you know, coming again from being in an overcrowded country. That was totally fascinating. If you can put your tent wherever you want to and you can camp and do what you want to know when it’s interfering in your life. But of course being among people, it’s totally amazing and you learn a lot about their customs and to how they live and how they treat each other. So it’s the whole impact. But if I had to pick one or two countries, probably would say you Iran really was amazing. The culture, the buildings, the beautiful mosques China was really tough. It was probably the hardest part. They don’t make it easy for you. The bureaucracy is a nightmare. But the landscape is superb.

Karthika: So hard in terms of getting there and getting the logistics. That’s what you mean by hard, right?

Heike: Sort of. The entire country is not easy cause cause people on not very open. They’re are not very friendly. Plus there is higher elevation You are always above 5,000 meters and in a lot of places it’s high altitude, right? It’s tough on your body and you are somewhere where it’s piping hot summer in the Gobi desert and the entire country is just not easy. And if you want to extend your visa and they say no. Okay, so now you need to figure out what you’re doing.. Cause you might have two days left and you’re in the middle somewhere in the middle of China and they just say no. So it’s not the easiest country to travel in. And especially there is no one who speaks English as you can imagine. My Chinese is not that fluent.

Karthika: All right. So let’s switch gears a little bit and maybe get to know Heike a little bit more. So what motivates you and what drives you? Heike from a life lifestyle perspective, I know you said you wanted to see the world was that what pushed you or is there something else that really kind of pushed you to have this wonderful experience?

Heike: No, I would say this is really the main point. I wanna know how it looks behind the next bend. I want to see it, you know, when I understand it, I know sometimes I put myself a bit too much under pressure. I think I always want to understand things and I’m questioning a lot of things and it keeps my mind busy all the time. Sometimes I think this is a bit of a mistake, but you cannot run away yourself, you know, that’s just how I am. And I cannot solve the problems on this planet, but I’m trying to.

Karthika: Absolutely. I mean, you are bringing awareness and you’re bringing so much, I want to say hope because you know, a lot of people feel like, wow, she’s doing it. She’s all alone on her bicycle and she’s having these amazing experiences. Imagine what I can do in my own hometown. People move around. So there are chances of culture and diversity in your hometown is pretty high these days for the most part.

Heike: Right.

Karthika: So now how do you balance all the emotions? You said yourself just a bit a while ago that you know, sometimes you feel like maybe this is a mistake. Other times you’re like really happy as well. I mean, how do you balance on these kind of feelings? Especially being all by yourself.

Heike: You know when I am riding it is really funny the things I notice. If I compare to my previous life the losses and wins, the roller coaster is far more extreme because you’re exposed to far more extreme situations. And the ups and downs, they can sometimes even differ from hour to hour. So you might, you might see me in a bad mood and then a second later, I’m thinking, you know what, it doesn’t matter. Just keep going. Because if you are kind of getting stuck with one problem for too long, then you will never get anywhere, so you have to move on at some stage. But this question is actually, or the topic is actually for me the biggest barrier was not being able to communicate. Quite often the problem I have is that I’m not able to talk to everyone all the time because just the language barrier. Because people might not have the same ideas of life, less educated or you know, they are facing different problems. They don’t know what you’re talking about. So, right. Only discussing that with myself is not always easy. And of course it leads you to moments where you feel lonely and are thinking, what am I doing? Why not just go home? But as I said you, the next day is a different day. And that’s how I see it.

Karthika: Now if you’re open to sharing with us and whatever you’re comfortable sharing, what have been some of your life’s most beautiful experiences? And on the flip side, what have been some of the hardest to deal with?

Heike: Are you talking about the trip itself? Are you talking about life in general?

Karthika: You can take it in any context. Life in general or specifically for the trip.

Heike: The most difficult part for me was probably because I wasn’t treated all that nicely in Turkey, had quite a few problems there. So I’m standing at the border to Iran. I was thinking, and with the bad reputation the country has, I’m always thinking, you know you have probably gone a bit too far, you know, this is crazy. So that was a moment when I was really scared. Then I crossed the border and it was so different. Everyone was so friendly and so super nice and I think it was some sort of a trip changer for me because then from that moment on I knew I could manage everything. And that was really very helpful for me. So it said that was probably the most important moment. Then I met a guy, he was a German fellow. I met him in Turkey and he was on foot. So he walked all the way from Germany to Turkey, which is quite a long way. Sat with him in a bar and we chatted. And he actually took the speed out of my journey. Back then I was still trying to get to Australia and was thinking if you if you don’t pedal out a certain amount of kilometers a day, you will never get there. But when I met this guy and he’s on foot and he did 15 kilometers a day. And he was, he was so calm and it felt like he knows it all and knows how to travel so much that I thought, okay, I think I should slow down a bit and smell the roses. And from moment on I was not racing anymore. And I think that was the most important thing I have experienced.

Karthika: I love it. We are all here thinking what the next thing, whats my next goal, whats my next achievement. We don’t stop. But lets slow down a little, right?

Heike: Yes. Now I don’t want to show off in anything so don’t get it wrong, but I’m a bit experience now. I usually decide by the hour what I’m doing next. There doesn’t have to be always this huge plan, you know, just decide how you feel and then do. If you are constantly worrying you are not enjoying life at all. So slow down.

Karthika: I love this. And you are so right. It’s such a rat race and it’s such a rush and there’s so much beauty around, right. You said this earlier you see the ants crossing the road. I mean who pays attention these days? But if you do, you see the beauty around you in, you learn to see the beauty around you and little things and I think that calms you down.

Heike: Oh totally. You realize how many different ants there are on this planet, you know. There is so much diversity.

Karthika: Now I am sure you have been asked this many times, you are quite the celebrity out there. In terms of people who want to do something similar to what you are doing, and bring more purpose or adventure in their own lives, what advice would you give them and how can they do this? And kind of honestly not just do it for getting popular or you know, doing it for getting a following, but actually do it for themselves. Do you have any advice?

Heike: First of all if you come up with an idea, then everyone thinks they have to interfere. They have to scare you. They have to come up and say, you know, this is a very bad idea. Don’t do it. Don’t listen to this. This is your dream. Go for it. My mom said I shouldn’t do it. But then you meet so many others who are also doing that. So there can be anything wrong with it when you just follow your dreams. That’s what I think. And also if you start slowly that’s the best thing in my experiences, start right where you live and then go from there. From there you can pitch your tent in the forest and enjoy your surroundings. So level on somewhere else where you don’t know anything about it. Just believe in yourself and don’t get distracted and influenced by others. That’s what I think. And of course nowadays, I cannot judge others because I have a website myself. I’m also posting my pictures because this is actually my only income I have. And I have to get some sort of an income that some stage. But yes doing it for showing off or sharing it with the entire planet to say that you’re the greatest. This doesn’t make a lot of sense because I think that it’s just a lot of stress and you cannot really enjoy it cause then you’re back in the roller coaster and you’re back in the rat race, you know? Feeding online competition instead of competing in your office.

Karthika: Yes, absolutely. Then it’s like, okay, what am I going to post now? Oh, I need to like take a video. I need to take a picture of anyway. I mean, as a photographer, you know this, it’s like your camera is with you everywhere, but that shouldn’t be a motive. That shouldn’t be your motivation just to share. It should be going spaces and experiencing things. Let’s perhaps start to wrap this up just in the interest of time with a few more questions. If you had to do this all over again, Heike would you do it and would you change anything? And if so, what?

Heike: I would definitely do it again. I would change it to doing it earlier in my life because was a backpacker and I also traveled by car and I never really figured out that bicycle touring is what pleases me the most. And you could now say I learned a lot through this learning curve, but still I probably would say tell myself just go for the bicycle ride right at the beginning.

Karthika: Okay. What do you do for fun? How do you unwind after a long day on your bike?

Heike: I love the stars along my campfire and I love to cook at camp and also I love to bake bread. So this makes me really, really happy that either you give me an ice cream or you give me a campfire.

Karthika: All right, so we’re going to do a rapid fire question around just so that we can get to know you a little bit better.

• Coffee, tea or something stronger – Masala Chai
• Favorite flavor of ice cream – Baskin Robins Coconut Chocolate
• A quote that you get inspired by – This one is from my dad. My Dad used to say to me when I was a kid, you always said just do what you want, but make sure you don’t get caught.
• What’s your favorite season? Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter or summer – Summer
• What was your childhood dream job? – I wanted to become a nurse or a gardener
• Beach or mountains – Mountains
• Favorite meal you have ever cooked or had – I would say the first meal I had in China. I was coming from the central Central Asia where they only had old breads that you could hardly to eat. That was for months and months on end. And then all of a sudden I crossed into China and I had this lovely piece of fish. And extremely yummy vegetables. It was just the best time.
• What’s your favorite country in the world? – Australia. There is no-one there. They have the best starry nights. You can have a campfire every night. And so there’s a lot of wildlife. People are very friendly and it’s desert. It’s quiet. It’s far away from everything.

Karthika: Heike, now what lies ahead for you? Are you fully living your dream. Is this all you want out of life or do you have any other like goals and aspirations for the future?

Heike: I don’t know, cause I usually am in the moment, so at the moment my mind is set for crossing Africa. But I might even get up tomorrow and saying, you know, I have had enough. Then I might just tossed my bike in the ditch and say it’s over. I need to find something new. So I don’t know. And the only important thing I know is if I want to get somewhere else, no matter in which way, I don’t want to do it on the main road. So I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing, you know? I get bored easily so it has to be something exciting. Otherwise I will not be happy.

Karthika: That is so inspiring. I love what you said. You want to kind of create your own path, right?

Heike: Yes Don’t follow the pack. Do what you do on your own terms. Live life on your own terms and that what life is all about? Would you haven’t done or seen or experience a lot outside of your box then you don’t know that there’s a lot else. You know, you just fall in the others and you feel comfortable because no one is questioning you.

Karthika: Absolutely. Well thank you so much Heike, this has been amazing. It is such an inspiring story and such an inspiring way of looking at life. So thank you so much for sharing. I really appreciate you taking the time. And how can we keep up with you?

Heike: I am on PushBikeGirl.com. A pushbike is a bicycle. I’m on Facebook sharing my life a bit. And thank you for having me.