KTMphil
Senior member
Interview with Geoff Thomas - Riding Around the World
Geoff has been in Chiang Mai several times & presented at the Chiang Mai/ SE Asia Horizons Unlimited meeting this year. Below is an interview he gave recently to Xpedition Tech.
Interview with Geoff Thomas: Around the Word on a Motorcycle
April 24, 2012
This is the first of three interviews with the following presenters at 2011?s Horizons Unlimited meeting in Cambria, California: Geoff Thomas, Dr. Greg Frazier and Carla King.
Each interview followed the same format and focused on the three questions:
What inspired you to take-off on your first motorcycle expedition? What was the biggest obstacle you faced getting started? What advice would you give to somebody considering their first major expedition on a motorcycle?
Geoff, a London Despatch Rider with already several hundred thousand miles on a motorcycle, sold all of his worldly possessions and invested the proceeds on Triumph Tiger motorcycle. He then set off from the Ace Cafe in London in the direction of Eastern Europe, hoping to return from the direction of… what would that be – North America?
Anyway, he did it! And he did it on roughly £20 per day. Not letting a small budget get in the way of such a bold journey.
XTech: What was your inspiration to take off and travel around the world on a motorcycle?
Geoff: I was initial motivated by the past experiences of other around-the-world travelers, and secondly… there just seemed to be so much negative and wrong reporting going on around the word. I just felt that there had to be more to it than that.
I was particularly curious about Southeast Asia and Russia. For example, I had friends who had visited Russia over the years and seen the development. And as a student, when Russia was closed-off to the rest of the world, it fascinated me. I couldn’t understand this whole thing about the Cold War… it had to be the governments and not the people. How did the people feel about it? Were they the same as us? As it turns out they are exactly the same, no difference at all.
XTech: What was the biggest obstacle you faced getting started?
Geoff: The biggest obstacle for me was money. It was all about the money. And if I wanted to do it, I had to also leave my only source of money behind – my job.
I was also very lucky, in that when I first stated talking about it, I accidentally only talked to positive people. I didn’t talk to the fun sponges who would have said it couldn’t be done. I just talked to people who said, “stop talking and just do it!” If it had been the other way around, I would have come up with a lot of problems and obstacles and spent more time planning, which would have cost more money. This only would have delayed me, and I probably wouldn’t have ever really traveled.
XTech: What advice would you give to somebody considering their first major expedition on a motorcycle?
Geoff: Get it done. Tackle it mentally. Break it down into smaller journeys over a day or a week. If you look at the big picture, there is just so much to try and comprehend. So just look at a week at a time, work it out, then another week… suddenly you’ve worked it out and it might be twelve weeks or twelve months. You break it down into small parts, realize each one is possible and then just tie them up into one long journey.
And secondly I’d say slow down, otherwise you’re gonna miss all the good stuff. Talk to people. What you’re doing isn’t going to change the world and it isn’t going to end the world. Just focus on leaving a few smiles behind you.
Geoff has been in Chiang Mai several times & presented at the Chiang Mai/ SE Asia Horizons Unlimited meeting this year. Below is an interview he gave recently to Xpedition Tech.
Interview with Geoff Thomas: Around the Word on a Motorcycle
April 24, 2012
This is the first of three interviews with the following presenters at 2011?s Horizons Unlimited meeting in Cambria, California: Geoff Thomas, Dr. Greg Frazier and Carla King.
Each interview followed the same format and focused on the three questions:
What inspired you to take-off on your first motorcycle expedition? What was the biggest obstacle you faced getting started? What advice would you give to somebody considering their first major expedition on a motorcycle?
Geoff, a London Despatch Rider with already several hundred thousand miles on a motorcycle, sold all of his worldly possessions and invested the proceeds on Triumph Tiger motorcycle. He then set off from the Ace Cafe in London in the direction of Eastern Europe, hoping to return from the direction of… what would that be – North America?
Anyway, he did it! And he did it on roughly £20 per day. Not letting a small budget get in the way of such a bold journey.
XTech: What was your inspiration to take off and travel around the world on a motorcycle?
Geoff: I was initial motivated by the past experiences of other around-the-world travelers, and secondly… there just seemed to be so much negative and wrong reporting going on around the word. I just felt that there had to be more to it than that.
I was particularly curious about Southeast Asia and Russia. For example, I had friends who had visited Russia over the years and seen the development. And as a student, when Russia was closed-off to the rest of the world, it fascinated me. I couldn’t understand this whole thing about the Cold War… it had to be the governments and not the people. How did the people feel about it? Were they the same as us? As it turns out they are exactly the same, no difference at all.
XTech: What was the biggest obstacle you faced getting started?
Geoff: The biggest obstacle for me was money. It was all about the money. And if I wanted to do it, I had to also leave my only source of money behind – my job.
I was also very lucky, in that when I first stated talking about it, I accidentally only talked to positive people. I didn’t talk to the fun sponges who would have said it couldn’t be done. I just talked to people who said, “stop talking and just do it!” If it had been the other way around, I would have come up with a lot of problems and obstacles and spent more time planning, which would have cost more money. This only would have delayed me, and I probably wouldn’t have ever really traveled.
XTech: What advice would you give to somebody considering their first major expedition on a motorcycle?
Geoff: Get it done. Tackle it mentally. Break it down into smaller journeys over a day or a week. If you look at the big picture, there is just so much to try and comprehend. So just look at a week at a time, work it out, then another week… suddenly you’ve worked it out and it might be twelve weeks or twelve months. You break it down into small parts, realize each one is possible and then just tie them up into one long journey.
And secondly I’d say slow down, otherwise you’re gonna miss all the good stuff. Talk to people. What you’re doing isn’t going to change the world and it isn’t going to end the world. Just focus on leaving a few smiles behind you.
