EPISODE 12
Hospitality on the Road
If you enjoy hearing about random acts of kindness towards cyclists, you’ll love this episode! Belgian cyclist Kris Vlaeminck shares selected tales of hospitality from his tours in Europe, North America, and Asia. With the help of strangers, Kris and his riding partners Johan and Luc overcome inclement weather in Scotland, water and food shortages in Iceland, a bear blocking the road in Alaska, and other perils. In Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, they are welcomed into family homes and lavished with food, drink, and accommodations. Kris also reveals the surprising country that he believes to be the most hospitable among the many that he has visited.
Episode Transcript
Kris: Sometimes it’s really incredible what people do for you. I think everywhere in the world you will find people that are able to help you.
Gabriel: You just heard Kris Vlaeminck talk about the hospitality he has felt on the road in Europe, North America, and across Asia. If you enjoy hearing about random acts of kindness towards cyclists, then this is the episode for you. With the help of strangers, Kris and his riding partners Johan and Luc overcome inclement weather, water and food shortages, a bear blocking the road, and other perils. Kris will even reveal the country that he believes to be the most hospitable, among the many that he has visited. It’s going to surprise most of you.
Sandra: You’re listening to The Accidental Bicycle Tourist. In this podcast, you’ll meet people from all walks of life and learn about their most memorable bike touring experiences. This is your host, Gabriel Aldaz.
Gabriel: Hello, cycle touring enthusiasts! Let me take you back to the year 1996. While planning a grand European bicycle tour, my friend Terry and I had a crazy idea. What if we could get in touch with locals and camp in their backyard or crash on their couch? There was just one problem. How? The World Wide Web was still in its infancy. Google did not exist. The dominant browser was Netscape Navigator. Warmshowers existed as an offline directory only and Couchsurfing did not exist at all. Using my dial-up internet connection, I did discover one mailing list, called the Trento Bike Pages, started in 1995 by an Italian mathematics professor named Andrea Caranti. I subscribed to the mailing list and sent one email to the group, explaining that my friend and I would be on tour for six weeks and listing the countries we expected to visit. I got exactly one reply from a man named Kris Vlaeminck who invited us to stay at his home in Wetteren, Belgium. That summer, Terry and I stayed with Kris and his family, and have been in touch since. It’s fitting, therefore, that on today’s episode, Kris will share his experiences with hospitality on the road. Kris, old friend, welcome to the show.
Kris: I’m happy to be your guest.
Gabriel: I checked and the Trento Bike Pages still exist today, as a website chronicling bicycle adventures. Just for fun, do you remember how your name and email address got to be listed on the Trento Bike Pages?
Kris: If I remember well, it was in the, yeah, like you said, the earlier days of the internet. And I think there were some directories online you could find with a kind of mailing list. So in the beginning, when internet was a nice thing, you could connect to the whole world. But of course, you started looking at the things that you were interested in. I also found one list which was going about bicycling and it was bicycling in general. So now you have all these different kinds of lists and discussion groups, but at that point, there was one group, I think, and everything was discussed. That was a nice thing and especially because we were there with some people of all around the world. First of all, I think a lot of Europeans, but soon we got interest from all kinds of places and people from Australia came in and also Americans.
Gabriel: Yeah, well, things have changed a lot since then, for sure.
Kris: Yes, yes.
Gabriel: And at that time, were you already into bike touring?
Kris: Yes, I was already into bike touring. That started already when I was like 15 or 16 years old. The type of bike touring, it’s changed. In the beginning, it was more with a group that we went from place to place and we went from hotel to hotel and we even had a car behind us.
Gabriel: Oh, wow.
Kris: After that, we explored more the adventurous part of cycle touring. We went on the road with tents and everything.
Gabriel: Yeah, and you and I did a little bit of touring the summer after Terry and I saw you. We kept in touch and we toured with a tent for a few days. I guess that would be 1997.
Kris: I do remember that we ended up somewhere in Germany and then in France also.
Gabriel: Yeah, and Luxembourg.
Kris: Yeah, yeah, true.
Gabriel: We did as many countries as we could in that corner of Europe.
Kris: Yeah, it looks like we did a long trip, but I think it was only like three or four days before you were heading more south, I think, to go to some other destination.
Gabriel: Exactly, yeah, it was four days and four countries. That’s what you can do there. After our time together, I, of course, kept track of some of your trips and they got just more and more ambitious. You’ve by now done so many incredible tours in Europe, Asia, Alaska. As you’ve thought about the theme of hospitality on the road, what are some of the favorite stories that come up for you from all these many adventures you’ve had?
Kris: If you talk about hospitality, I think the moments that are most important, a lot of times it has something to do with the weather. If the weather is very bad, if it’s raining or if it’s very cold, every kind of shelter or home, when somebody lets you in, is really nice.
Gabriel: But come on, you’re from Belgium. You’re used to rain most of the year, really.
Kris: Yes, yes, yes. If you’re touring, for example, in Europe, then if you’re camping, well, one day of rain is okay. If the sun is out the next day, that will still be okay. But if you have like two days or three days of rain, then your mood is really going down and some hospitality can make you go through. One case I can tell on the subject is that once me and a friend, we rode End to End in the United Kingdom. So that’s from the most southern place of the UK to the most northern part, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. One day we were at Arran Island, that’s already in the north, and it was already a few days really bad weather, but every time the sun came out for a few hours and then everything was fine again. But then when we started from Arran Island, we had to take a ferry, I think, early in the morning. We crossed to the mainland and we started cycling direction of Ben Nevis.
Gabriel: The Isle of Arran, it’s really off the west coast of Scotland. Really, the End to End routes that I’ve seen are through the centre of Scotland. So how did you end up so far west?
Kris: It was in the year 2000, so you did not have all that kind of applications to find your routes and to load them in a GPS. We used a guidebook. My friend bought a guidebook. It was just a guidebook on local roads. Just to avoid the big cities, we were going a complete different direction. We ended up more to the west than the normal route. But we were not doing any record or something, so for us, it was nice to stay on the local roads. That was a lot better than to be on the big highways, because in the UK, you can even cycle on these A-roads, which are really incredible.
Gabriel: Yeah, the A-roads usually have a lot of traffic, they have no shoulder whatsoever.
Kris: Yeah. So we wanted to avoid that. But there was not such a choice like you have today. Today, you go to some kind of route navigation application, and you can build your own route in five minutes, but that was not the case then.
Gabriel: Yeah. Well, I remember those days and pulling out the map, and you realized that the road you’re on isn’t even on the map, because the scale of your map is not sufficient.
Kris: Yeah, true.
Gabriel: Okay, so that’s how you ended up there. Back to your story. You’re headed towards Ben Nevis.
Kris: Yeah, that was our direction. We did not have any accommodation reserved up front. There was also Booking.com did not exist. Airbnb did not exist yet. We also did not have any smartphone. It was still the year 2000. But England was full of bed and breakfasts at that time. They were well signposted. So normally in every place that you arrived, there was a sign to the B&B, and normally that would only take us like five or 10 extra kilometres, and we were able to find a place to sleep. We did not have any camping gear at that moment. So we decided, let’s go for the B&B option, and that’s how we were on the road. So that day, we crossed to the mainland, so we were in Scotland. We started to cycle, but that whole day, it was raining, raining, and it was raining in all different modes. It was sometimes drizzling, but sometimes it was real extreme pouring rain. Finally, we were so fed up in the evening, like, oh my God, this is really the most terrible day that we had. The route was nice. So we were in the area where you had a lot of lochs, like Loch Ness and other stuff. We started to look quite fast for a B&B because we wanted to get rid of the wet clothing. Luckily, we did invest a little in the good bicycle bags. So everything we had inside the bags was dry, but we were really dripping wet. The first B&B that we saw, we went there and a lady opened the door, but we had some discussion and she was finding all kinds of reasons for not letting us in. So the room was not big enough and we would not be able to store the bicycles. And finally, we felt, okay, we understood how we looked, that the lady did not want us in the house. So that was a bit of a disappointment. We even went to a second B&B. That was like the same story. Finally I was thinking, oh my God, please let there be somebody that let us in, because like this, we are not able to do this for the whole night. So finally, I think the place, I do remember the place because this was quite an interesting name. It was North Ballachulish, I think.
Gabriel: Who could forget that name?
Kris: And we saw another sign to the B&B, but when we arrived there, we saw it was like a small castle and it was next to the loch. We also rang the bell and a nice lady opened the door, but the door went open and then I saw the interior. Yeah, it was a bit the interior that you see in those fancy magazines, on how an English country house looks like. We saw also that the carpet was completely white.
Gabriel: Oh no. Oh no!
Kris: I was thinking, no, that will also not work. They will never let us in like we are here. But the lady was very nice and she told us, “Come. Come in, come in, please stand here.” OK, we could not go any further than just inside the door. First, we had to make sure that the bikes were somewhere stored outside, then we could strip most of our clothes off. She went away with the clothes and she told us where we could find the room. We went to our rooms, we had a hot shower, which was so good.
Gabriel: Sounds like the best shower of your life.
Kris: Yes, yes, indeed. So when we finally got into those dry clothes and we came back downstairs, all the clothes that were there, they were all gone. The lady prepared some tea and cookies in the orangerie of the castle. There we could sit and have a view on the loch. So that was incredible that after such a day, we arrived at such a place.
Gabriel: Were you the only guest that night?
Kris: Yes, yes. I’m not sure if there were any other rooms, but we were the only guests, yeah.
Gabriel: Are you sure this was a bed and breakfast? Maybe you went to the wrong place. I mean, it’s a one-room bed and breakfast?
Kris: I’m not sure. At that moment, I did not care. The thing I wanted was to have a shelter, having some warm clothes, having some tea, some cookies. We got to sleep very early in the evening because one day of cycling in the rain makes you so tired. We did not find our belongings at that moment. But in the morning, when we got up, we got a nice breakfast. All of our clothing, it was nicely folded, well-smelling. It was ready on the table. So the lady has washed and dried all our clothing and made sure everything was completely done. That was really incredible.
Gabriel: Amazing.
Kris: Yes, and even in the morning, she did not want to let us go because there was some storm expected and she said, “No, it’s not the right time for you to leave.” When we saw the weather on the news, the storm was blowing north. That was just the direction we needed to go. It was a day of very good cycling.
Gabriel: You had to disappoint her and leave after breakfast.
Kris: Yes, yes. And even when we went outside, so our bicycles, they were somewhere under a shelter, but she even had put some towels on our saddles just to make sure that we could start with a dry saddle. It was incredible, how much she looked at all the details and how well we were treated. I must say, I do not know the name of the bed and breakfast anymore. I just know that it was in North Ballachulish.
Gabriel: Well, how many can there be in this town? There was probably one in North Ballachulish and one in South Ballachulish and that’s it.
Kris: Yeah, probably.
Gabriel: Well, I’m glad you were able to go without any incidents. Otherwise, it would start to sound like the plot from a Stephen King novel.
Kris: Well, you can have a lot of fantasy.
Gabriel: But what a lovely experience. Just when it looked like you were in dire straits, you got this incredible hospitality. I wonder if that place even exists anymore.
Kris: It’s a bit different now. I think you need to find them through Airbnb and with those booking websites. But at that point, on the main road, you had signs everywhere, always pointing to the bed and breakfast, because people only found them when they were on the road. At the end of the day, you were looking for a place to sleep and you could simply find them just by following the signs.
Gabriel: Yes, that’s a good point. I had that experience too, and you really didn’t know at all. Bed and breakfast covers so many different levels of quality and accommodation. Yeah, it could be anything from a very dark room with a very poor breakfast to what you experienced, this castle with a view of the loch and a wonderful hostess.
Kris: Yeah. I do remember, I think there was some bed and breakfast in an old jail where we slept. There was one in an old station that was no longer used, so that there were a few very special places where we stayed at that trip. Every day was a surprise. We also did not know how many kilometers were we going to do. And so, Finally, when it became like five o’clock or six o’clock, we started to look if there were any signs. So sometimes it can be a bit disappointing if you are already tired and you still had to cycle like, 20 kilometers or something to find a place to sleep, but okay, that was how it was those days.
Gabriel: Right. And then, the other thing that goes along with that, is that element of surprise has been more or less lost, now that you have not only the booking sites but also the system of reviews. So okay, this one only has a five out of ten on Booking or three stars on Google or something. Back then you had no idea. You were following a sign, and you had no idea where you would end up and how good it would be.
Kris: Yeah, completely true. Everything was a surprise on the road.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Kris: You can still do it that way. So you do not need to book everything up front. You can still do it the old way and try to find a place to sleep and in some places you need to do that.
Gabriel: I think the not booking part is still doable, but I would guess that, really, a large number of people, if they’re going to have a goal for the night, they want to make sure that they’re going to a decent place with good reviews because… we’ve been there. You cycle for a long time and you get to a place and yeah, you were either turned away or the place is really lousy. In that regard, that’s a bad surprise that is no longer part of bike travel, really. People can definitely check out the quality, at least as far as the reviews go. It’s a different world now for that. Let’s move on to another story that you’ve thought of from another place.
Kris: I was also once cycling around and through Iceland with two friends. So we did mainly the Ring Road, but also some part we went through the center of Iceland. Well, we were a bit surprised. It was also still in the earlier days, that we were having so much issues to find food, because outside the big cities – but there are not that many big cities in Iceland – the number of shops is very limited and the opening hours are also very limited. Mostly, we were always arriving at a bad timing and the shop was closed. So we had several days that we really had to eat everything we had and then even days without food, but luckily at some different places we have met some travel groups that were there and mostly – and that was fantastic – they invited us to eat with them and to join for a meal, which was very nice, because if you’re really hungry or you have cycled already half of the day or the whole day without food, then it’s really nice that you could join for a meal, although I do understand sometimes we were used a bit as an extra attraction for the tour group. So invited us, the crazy cyclists, people came and asked questions and stuff like that. It was fun and our main goal: get some food. And luckily we had them because at some places you are really not able to get enough food. Travel groups, when they’re big enough, they share everything and you are able to share also.
Gabriel: In most countries you think of, “Well, I can go along the coast or I can go in the interior, it really doesn’t matter that much.” But in Iceland it makes all the difference because the Ring Road is paved, it goes all around Iceland, but as soon as you turn off the Ring Road towards the inland highlands, you’re very, very quickly on dirt roads, gravel roads, sometimes only really four by four accessible roads. The route number always has an F in front of it, I believe. F this, F that. Wait, no, that sounds wrong!
Kris: I had the biggest amount of washboards also in Iceland. That was sometimes terrible with a bicycle.
Gabriel: Yes.
Kris: And in the inland of Iceland, you also had to do a lot of river crossings. You were there in June. Then, still the water is quite high on all the rivers.
Gabriel: And freezing cold.
Kris: Yeah, indeed. And you have to pick your bicycle, put it above your head, because the current is quite high on those rivers. So you need to cross it with your whole body, with your bicycle on top of you. And then you need to go back, because you cannot keep the bicycle and the bags above your head. So the bags were coming also.
Gabriel: Right. So when you are going inland in Iceland, you… at least I found it super important to have sandals of some kind that you can put on. Sandals with a good grip. I actually changed into those sandals when I was doing these crossings. Afterwards, your legs are just numb from the cold water rushing past. It’s incredible that you actually were able to go without food for days in inland Iceland, because I just remember I needed food just to stay warm. There were times when I just felt so cold after sweating so much. And then, the temperature is pretty cold.
Kris: I can tell you that that was the trip where I lost, like, eight kilograms in three weeks.
Gabriel: Oh gosh.
Kris: Sometimes I’m thinking I need to do that trip again so that I will be back on my old weight. Maybe that gives an idea on how much food we had.
Gabriel: So that was one thing. And then the other thing was I can imagine that for these tour groups, it’s more of a Wild West scene. You have the settlers with their wagons and then suddenly, over the horizon, come these three banditos with their…
Kris: With their iron horses.
Gabriel: Yes, their iron horses. The other iron horse.
Kris: Yeah. It was even so that at some points there were so many mosquitoes that we were riding with the buffs on top of our nose and over our mouth. We were really looking like bandits on our way.
Gabriel: The touring cyclists in the middle of nowhere. That must have been quite an event for these tour groups. What kind of groups did you meet? Were these horseback trips or jeep trips?
Kris: It was mostly jeep trips and those big off-road buses that we have met. If they stopped at noon or in the evening, they built up some kitchen, outdoor kitchen, and they created lunch or dinner. And that was nice too. If you were really hungry, go with the flow and also had some meal.
Gabriel: Well, you could probably smell it from a long way off.
Kris: Yes, yes.
Gabriel: “I think there’s a tour group over the next ridge. Let’s go!”
Kris: Well, finally in the end, if you had like one or two occasions like that, you start to hope. Maybe there could be like some tour group somewhere and let’s hope that we see some people there.
Gabriel: Yeah, you start to look out for them and hope to find them.
Kris: Yes, true.
Gabriel: You’ve mentioned friends, but you haven’t really given their names. The End to End trip, with which friend was this?
Kris: That was with Johan. He’s a bicycle mechanic, so that’s always nice to be on a bicycle tour with a bicycle mechanic.
Gabriel: Okay, and in Iceland?
Kris: In Iceland, he was also there. One thing I remember is, it was probably in the year 2000 or 2001 that as a bicycle mechanic, he created a gravel bike, the gravel bike that you have today. He created that at that moment, as it was for him like the best bike to cycle through and around Iceland. At that point, I was thinking, “Oh, maybe it’s not a bad idea.” Today, I must say, “Okay, he had quite a good idea,” because now today, I see everybody on the gravel bikes. He already created that one in 2001. Another friend that was there in Iceland was Luc. I did most of my cycling trips with Luc. We have been in so many places together.
Gabriel: I remember Luc from some of the trip reports.
Kris: Yup.
Gabriel: Actually, it’s interesting too that you mentioned the gravel bike, because it’s important to remember that back in these days, what is now considered the bikepacking setup wasn’t really well known at that time. I think now people who might go to Iceland for this back roads tour might use more of a bikepacking setup with a gravel bike. Back then, you were probably using more of the traditional racks and panniers and all that. Is that correct?
Kris: Yeah, that’s true. Most of my trips, I just did with a mountain bike that was changed, a bit tweaked to do long touring trips. Since we were always on the lookout for some more adventurous roads, riding on a mountain bike was really a good thing. You could not do that on the normal touring bikes they were selling at that moment. Trek was having some bicycles for touring,but they were looking a bit more like race bikes.
Gabriel: Yeah, the tires were obviously narrower and…
Kris: I think you had one good reference for touring bike and that was the Koga World Traveller. Butnow today, you have so much choice. It’s incredible.
Gabriel: That was Iceland. Sounds like a very memorable
Kris:trip as well. You didn’t stop there. You kept going. Yes.
Gabriel: What’s your next story? Where is thattaking us to?
Kris: In Georgia, the country, not the state. It was quite a rough country. We were always happy to find a place to sleep and also to get some food and drink somewhere. It was almost at the end of our trip. We were moving to Turkey, but one of the last stops in Georgia, we stopped at a bar and when we entered… okay, two guys in Lycra that entered a bar in Georgia in a small town, everybody is looking up. Immediately the owner, he saw us and he said, “Come with me.” There was some room next to the bar where we could sit with him and immediately we got some drinks and some snacks. We had to drink some vodka with the owner.
Gabriel: What was the time of day here?
Kris: It was in the morning, at 10 o’clock.
Gabriel: Okay, get an early start.
Kris: Yeah, we were used to those Soviet countries. We know if somebody offers you a drink that you have to take it and you can refuse later, but not yet directly. We took the drink and we cheered with him. We had one and immediately, of course, there was a second one. We were looking at each other and we were thinking, okay, it’s 10 o’clock. We still need to cycle the whole day. We cannot continue to do this, so we had the second one, and then we tried to explain that we could not have any more if we wanted to cycle for the rest of the day. Luckily, he understood more or less. Yeah, as a cyclist, you need to be careful. It’s not only in the morning. Also in the evening, you need to be careful because the next day, you need to be back on the bike and you need to be fresh and it does not help, the vodka. One or two is okay, but nothing more than that. Immediately, we were getting some pear drinks in that area. You can have some lemonade made of pears and that was really nice. We had two of them and then the alcohol was already a bit less then. And when we wanted to leave, they did not want to accept anything from us. They told us, you have been guests and guests do not have to pay. Everybody was waving at us when we finally started again on the road.
Gabriel: They waved goodbye and they went back to drinking their vodka at 10 in the morning.
Kris: Yeah.
Gabriel: Are you aware that there is a Georgian proverb that says, every guest is a gift from God. Did you know that?
Kris: No, I did not know.
Gabriel: Guests are allowed to stay at somebody’s house for an indefinite period. In Georgia, they serve you food and drink all the time and you’re really not supposed to, as you mentioned, decline any of it because that’s seen is really impolite. It’s a country where hospitality is very important.
Kris: Yes. We’ve been to still some other places where there was even more hospitality. Sometimes it’s really incredible what people do for you.
Gabriel: Yes.
Kris: But also in the US, you can find lots of people that are friendly, that are helping you. I think everywhere in the world, you will find people that are able to help you.
Gabriel: There’s a pretty funny discussion of that in the episode titled, “Get Out of your Comfort Zone” with Christopher Briscoe. Typically of the US, he is asked if he’s going to bicycle tour with a gun because the perception is that it’s not safe to bicycle tour in the US, because “you might get shot.” These are American people talking to an American and Christopher reports that really 99.9 percent of the people in the US will do everything they can to help you out.
Kris: Yeah, I only did one big tour in America and it was in Alaska and there people were carrying guns a lot.
Gabriel: Where did you see the guns?
Kris: We saw a lot of people hunting. In the northern part of Alaska, everybody had, I think, guns in the car just for safety and for bears. In Alaska, there are not that many people without guns.
Gabriel: Right. Tell us a little bit now about this Alaska trip. Where did you start and where did you end? Was this also the usual suspect, Johan and Luc?
Kris: Yeah, the usual suspects Johan and Luc were also there. It was already September. It was late in the year to start cycling in Alaska. Because it was quite late, we started from the north, so we took a flight from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay. We started at the northern ice sea where you have all the oil fields. There’s a small village really therem\, up in the north. It’s also where the pipeline starts and where also the Dalton Highway starts. When we started from Prudhoe Bay in the morning, I think the first sign we saw was that there were no services for 240 miles. With a car, that’s okay. But on a bicycle, you know, on a gravel road, that you would not cover 240 miles in a day.
Gabriel: No.
Kris: Even not in two days. We knew that we were going to be like 304 days on the way before getting any services. So it’s mainly a gravel road. The people that you meet there are mainly also travelers, but mostly with those campers. Also a lot of truck drivers. Those big trucks are there on the road. And a lot of hunters, like I was just telling you. There was also, in the beginning, there was somewhere a sign, no rifle hunting, only bow hunting. So I was a bit surprised to see a sign like that. And then I was thinking, “Oh my God, they are really doing it the old way.”
Gabriel: I don’t think it’s a bow and arrow.
Kris: Yeah.
Gabriel: I mean, not in that traditional way.
Kris: No, no, no, no, no, no.
Gabriel: It’s a very modern bow.
Kris: Yeah. Finally, I’ve seen a hunter and he had, like, a very high tech crossbow. My imagination was bringing me to the wrong idea.
Gabriel: Yeah, we’re back on the theme of the Westerns that we had earlier.
Kris: In Prudhoe Bay, there’s a big shop where you can still buy groceries and stuff like that. So we started fully with food and a lot of water and drinks. But finally, you know, taking everything for like three or four days, it’s almost impossible on a bike. We started to ride and it was still warm at that time. The disadvantage of it being warm is that you have to drink a lot. And then, of course, your water is going much faster than expected.
Gabriel: Yes.
Kris: Somewhere after two days, we have used all of our water. We had some purification tablets with us. We also had a stove and some gas. We have taken water from, I think, even from a pool, and we cooked it. But it became really a problem for our water. Or we need to decide to cook it every time or we need to find some extra water.
Gabriel: And how was it in terms of water sources, like streams or anything like that?
Kris: Yeah, sometimes there were streams, but it was not that easy to get to the stream. And sometimes the current was also high. I do remember that one time I even lost a bottle because the current was too high. Immediately it was taken out of my hand. Luckily, a few hundreds of meters, it stopped somewhere and it was blocked. And then we were able to get it back.
Gabriel: Oh, nice.
Kris: Luckily. Finally, we found out that most of them, the people there on the road, they were also carrying a lot of water and drinks. Often they came to us and they asked us, “Do you need something? We have a lot of things in our car. Do you need some extra water?” Luckily, we were saved by a lot of people like that. The Dalton Highway is following the big oil pipeline. There’s also some security guys that do check this pipeline. And those guys, they were also very friendly. Being a security guy there might be sometimes very boring. So if you can have some talk with some crazy cyclists that are there, it might help to get you through the day. The only thing they need to offer us was a little bit of water. And we were also happy.
Gabriel: What other challenges did you encounter in Alaska besides water resupply?
Kris: If you talk about Alaska, everybody thinks about bears. We have done quite some camping in the north. And at night, you sometimes hear a lot of noises and you’re never sure what it is. We took all the precautions and put our food inside the tree far away enough from the tent and stuff like that. But still at night, when you hear a lot of noise, you never know what is going to happen. During the day, we have seen quite some bears, some of them from a distance. But at some point, there was one bear on the side of the road. When we saw him, we just stopped and we did not cycle any further. And we did not know very well how to pass him. We also did not know how long the bear would be there. And even if he disappears, sometimes it’s quite difficult to see how far he is from the road. Next to us, some other people started to stop also. And there was some guy with a big camper. And he proposed to us that he would ride his camper next to us – so in between us and the bear – and that he would take care of us to pass the bear with his camper in between. Okay, that helped us really out of the situation because we were not sure how the bear would react when there were three bicycles passing with humans on there.
Gabriel: Well, you know what they say when you encounter a bear, right? You just have to be faster than Johan or Luc and you’re fine.
Kris: Yes, yes, yes. But finally, that ended up well. You were just saying that people from the US are sometimes maybe a bit scared of the other people. But I must say that in Alaska, we were surprised that people were quite frankly, the places where we stayed mostly, they did even not lock the doors with a key. So you could just enter every house. It was never locked. I was a bit surprised because here in Belgium, it’s not the case that you can go out and leave your door open. Even though people were mostly armed in the north of Alaska, it was feeling really safe there.
Gabriel: Yeah, that’s actually true in a lot of rural communities in the United States. People don’t really lock their front doors or sometimes they might leave the keys to the car in the car because they don’t want to lose them. It’s interesting how different it is, right? Because those same people might also be heavily armed at times.
Kris: Yeah, true.
Gabriel: It’s like, it’s unlocked and it’s okay and it’s cool. And then if you do try to trespass, they have guns. As you know, the Dalton Highway has a reputation for being quite dangerous, just because it’s this dirt road and they’re all of these trucks and the weather can be challenging. Overall, having made it from Prudhoe Bay to Anchorage, did you feel like it was safe? Aside, of course, from the bear and the lack of water.
Kris: When you’re doing trips like that, you immediately get in some survival mode and I do feel that my body is probably able to do much more than in a normal situation. It was a tough ride, especially those first days on the Dalton Highway, but we never had the idea we are going to die here. The good thing is that when you have the Dalton Highway, you know that at least every hour or something, there will be somebody passing on the highway. That’s a good thing. If you get out of the highway and you hide yourself, then it’s possible that they will never find you again.
Gabriel: Right. Okay, you returned and you were still looking for more adventure.
Kris: Yes, yes. I already spoke about Georgia, but my friend, Luc and me, we had a huge interest forall the old Soviet states, so we went to visit a few Stans.
Gabriel: Ah, the famous Stans. In Persian and Urdu, I think the suffix “-stan” refers to the land of a certain people.
Kris: Like Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.
Gabriel: Yup.
Kris: We were attracted by the adventure, so if you go cycling there every day is an adventure. Finding a place to sleep is an adventure. Getting food is an adventure. It’s really nice to be in those countries if you’re looking for adventure.
Gabriel: The photo you sent me for the episode cover art is you and Luc and a family in Kyrgyzstan.How did you get to meet them?
Kris: It was quite a lonely road. We were coming from Kazakhstan. I was a bit surprised. We took a border crossing, which was just a container, like, in a desert, but luckily we were able to cross the border and we got the stamps. So we entered Kyrgyzstan. Somewhere on the road, there was a family. I think they just finished a picnic and they were starting to pack their stuff. I do remember, I think it’s even on the picture. They also drove a Lada. Everywhere you have Lada cars there.
Gabriel: In the 1960s, the Soviet Union needed to establish a domestic automobile industry to produce its own people’s car. In partnership with the Italian Fiat Group, the government created a state-owned factory on the banks of the Volga River. From 1970, the factory produced cars under the brand Zhiguli. Since this name was hard for non-Russians to pronounce correctly, the brand Lada was chosen for export markets. Ladas became popular in Europe and other parts of the world. The Lada Niva, a compact four-wheel drive vehicle in production since 1977, is particularly beloved. Still, Lada is probably best known for inspiring countless jokes and memes. Here’s an appropriate one: “Heard of the Lada’s new turbo model? It has pedals in the backseat too.”
Kris: The thing is, when you’re on a bicycle, the distance between you and the other people is very small. They can just talk directly to you. I think that makes a big difference. You’re accessible. When you stop somewhere, they speak immediately. They were really happy to see us. We tried to do some conversation, so luckily during all our trips in the Soviet states, we learned a few Russian words. They were also able to understand some English words and we continued our trip. They took all the food that they still had as a leftover from their picnic and they have put everything in my bag. We could eat the whole day on all the stuff they had, like apples, cookies, and stuff like that.
Gabriel: It’s incredible to think about the hospitality, when you think about what a salary for a week or a month in Kyrgyzstan is, compared toin Europe.
Kris: Yes, and that is something you need to know that people are asking sometimes questions. Somehow, they have the idea that if you’re traveling on a bicycle, you’re not at all rich. Because who would ride a bicycle if you can ride a car? They think, “Okay, you’re maybe a little bit adventurous and you want to do it on a bike, but you’re certainly not rich.” So often, they are asking the question, like, “How much costs the bike?” Or “How much salary you have?” And if you know a little bit the situation of the country you’re in, I think it’s best that you avoid these kind of questions because I think they would be surprised to see how much people pay for a bicycle here in Europe if they compare it to what they gain every month by going to work.
Gabriel: That’s such an interesting point. It’s very true and it happens over and over again. When you’re traveling on a bicycle, people almost take pity on you. Like, “Oh, look at this poor fellow. He’s loaded down like a mule. He’s got this dirty bike. This is just some kind of nomad.”
Kris: Yeah, they have mud on their faces. The sweat is all over the dust. In these countries also, at the end of the day, you’re completely dirty from these old roads and especially when you’re on gravel roads. Yeah, you start to sweat and then all the dust is coming in. Your face is completely black.
Gabriel: It’s like, “These poor people, they’re in terrible shape.”
Kris: They also have some sympathy for people that are trying to cross their country or to visit their country on a bicycle.
Gabriel: Well, your stories have shown that time and time again, I think, across the planet.
Kris: I must say, I often get the question like, “In which country did you found the most hospitality until now?” People are mostly surprised when I say that the hospitality in Uzbekistan was really incredible. There we got food, we get drinks. If you go to a shop, other people that are in front of us or behind us in the line, they pay our bills.
Gabriel: No way!
Kris: Yeah, I was surprised to see that happening. A few occasions, we were really stuck in some small village and we were looking for a place to sleep. We were carrying tents and sleeping bags, but we tried to find the real place to sleep first. And that was only when we were not able to, that we were going to use the tent. Often it took us only like fifteen minutes, asking in a small place if we could go somewhere for sleep. And somebody told us, “Please follow me.” We arrived at the people’s home and we got food, we got drinks. They had some place to sleep for us. It was really incredible. Like you said, in Georgia, also here, we did not always ask to pay something. We only checked if we had something in our luggage that we could give as a gift, because that’s something they were accepting. We were not asking if they wanted to have some money because that they do not like very much.
Gabriel: Right, you can’t do that.
Kris: Maybe one thing which was a nice story was that in Uzbekistan, at some point, we stayed with a family. It was a Muslim family. And we were getting food, we were getting drinks. But of course, the drinks were non-alcoholic. After we had our dinner, the men of the house, they asked us, “Do you want to have some beers?” I thought, “Oh, is he now offering beers?” I was a bit surprised.
Gabriel: Oh, this is next level now.
Kris: Yeah. And I said, okay, it’s not needed. We adapt ourselves to the place where we are. I think on some occasions in Uzbekistan, there were some possibilities to have beer, but on some other occasions, we only had tea. That was not a problem for us. But he really wanted to give us the opportunity to have some beers in the evening. I was a bit surprised what was going to happen. So he and his friend took, I think it was a Lada car. They brought us to some venue. I think there was a wedding happening. But there was also a bar next door. He even went with us in the wedding, so we were a bit surprised that we could just enter a wedding like that and just have a look on what was happening inside.
Gabriel: “These are the long-lost cousins from Belgium!”
Kris: People were even not really surprised. Of course, in the evening, we were no longer in cycling clothes. So we were already washed and we had some regular clothes. And then we had the possibility in the bar to have a few beers. The man and his friends, they just sat with us in the bar. They were not drinking any beer, but they just gave us the opportunity to have a beer or two. And then we went home again.
Gabriel: Is it clear whether or not these men knew anybody at the wedding? Or did they just go to the wedding?
Kris: I do not know. But I know the man was the manager of the local bank. Probably a lot of clients were there in the wedding, I think.
Gabriel: Okay. otherwise, it’s the Uzbekistani wedding crashers. It sounds like a really bad movie.
Kris: Yes, yes, yes.
Gabriel: Well, great experience. And what kind of beer was it? Was it some local beer or was it someimported beer? Do you remember?
Kris: I’m not sure, but it was local, I think. Because I was also thinking that Uzbekistan would be almost no alcohol because it’s a Muslim country. But I think because there’s still the Soviet influence and there’s also a part of the people being Russian Orthodox, I think. There’s still alcohol and beer available, like it was in the Soviet days, probably.
Gabriel: Well, there has to be vodka.
Kris: That’s true.
Gabriel: Did you get to stay in any yurts? In that part of the world, there are yurts.
Kris: Yes, yes, yes, yes. No, we have seen a lot of them on the road. We have met probably a lot of people that were staying in a yurt, but there we never had the occasion to stay in a yurt.
Gabriel: Next time.
Kris: Yeah, probably. Maybe another story of Uzbekistan is that mostly as a cyclist, you’re always on the lookout for fresh water and stuff like that. But we were stopped on the road by a car driver and he was asking us for water. In the beginning, I did not understand very well. Communication is not always going very fluently when you’re not speaking the main language. It was water that he wanted to put into his radiator.
Gabriel: Aha.
Kris: We had a small discussion, because it would be stupid if we would get into trouble by giving our water away to somebody else. But there were a lot of villages on the way for the rest of the day, so we did not think that there would be any problem getting extra water. We have given him one or two bottles, so that it was enough to fill up his radiator. But after that, it was not yet the end of his problem. He also needed some help to push his car. Okay, we wanted to do that. The two of us wanted to push his car. Inside the car, there were also like three ladies. They were dressed in niqab. I was not going to ask if they could get out. I thought, okay, this is something that you should not ask. We had to push his car. Luckily, it was not uphill. But there were four people in the car and we had to push it.
Gabriel: Wait, but the driver, I mean, this guy who asked you, he didn’t get out to help push? He just stayed inside?
Kris: Yes, it seems that he was the only one being able to handle the car.
Gabriel: Okay, you weren’t just pushing it. You were pushing to get it started. So I guess he was…
Kris: Yeah, yeah, true.
Gabriel: Kind of in the driver’s seat to get the engine to turn over.
Kris: Yeah.
Gabriel: All right, we’ll give him a pass on that, then.
Kris: I did not want to discuss. We just tried, and it worked.
Gabriel: Was this car also a Lada?
Kris: Yes, yes, yes. Again, a Lada car. They were mostly not that heavy, but of course, with four extra people in the car, that was…
Gabriel: So then, finally, the Lada roars to life.
Kris: Yeah, we brought them back to life, and he continued his way. I think we made all these people very happy that they continued their way. And also, I was happy that for once, I could give the favor back and give some water to other people.
Gabriel: Yeah, that’s perfect, yeah.
Kris: Probably because we had such a good time afterwards. It has brought us some good karma that we were also helped for everything on the road.
Gabriel: Absolutely.
Kris: If you’re nice to people, they are nice to you mostly.
Gabriel: The transcript for this episode is available on the Accidental Bicycle Tourist website. I welcome feedback and suggestions for this and other episodes. You’ll find a link to all contact information in the show notes. If you would like to rate or review the show, you can do that on your favorite podcast platform. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram. Thank you to Anna Lindenmeier for the cover artwork and to Timothy Shortell for the original music. This podcast would not be possible without continuous support from my wife Sandra. And thank you so much for listening. I hope the episode will inspire you to get out and see where the road leads you.
Kris: If you have already some podcasts created around that this might also be something, even though it’s not my piece of cake, no, not my cup of tea, I mean.
Gabriel: It’s okay, they both have to do with hospitality.