SINGAPORE: A woman recently took a solo bike trip through five countries in Southeast Asia and documented her trip, what she’s seen, felt, and learned, throughout her journey.

The content creator behind a YouTube channel called “Wing Outdoor” used to work in tech, but has since taken a break in order to explore Malaysia, Thailand, India, Laos, and Vietnam during a recent tour.

Not that she had it all planned out, and not that everything worked out perfectly. On the contrary, a number of things that could go wrong did, and there were days when going on was harder than she ever imagined. But she pushed through, learning a lot about herself and life in the process.

“Since the start of this trip, I’ve been figuring things out as I go. How to be on the road, and how to live on a bicycle,” she said.

Her trip started, quite naturally, in Malaysia, where her biggest takeaway seemed to be how willing people were to help her. Strangers she had never met before opened up their homes to her and allowed her to stay.

Indeed, Ms Wing found all sorts of connections on her trip, both human and animal, and her video is full of welcoming smiles, as well as the cats and dogs she found delight with along the way. Though as the trip went on, she appeared to favour cats over dogs, some of whom were apt to bark and chase after her as she passed them by.

The challenges that she faced included the heat, steep inclines that she couldn’t even bike on but was forced to walk, floods and waterlogged paths, troubles with her phone, which she dropped at one point, and problems with the bike.

“I didn’t understand the rules, and I did things that got me into trouble,” she confessed.

But there were many things she also seemed to enjoy immensely, including a karaoke session, dipping into hot springs, and the food she got to sample in each locale. The nature she saw was also breathtaking, and she had a newfound appreciation for the history of the places she visited, dark as those historical bits may be.

Ms Wing took a short break from cycling and rode the bus instead, loading her bike on top as she went pm.

At one point during her epic journey, she even took a side quest in the form of a wedding in India, which she was fascinated by, although she did not understand everything.

And Ms Wing kept on, and on, and on, met with the kindness of strangers at every turn, until she reached her finish line in Vietnam.

And in Vietnam, just like in other places, people still invited her into their homes, welcoming her as a friend.

“At the time, I didn’t really know what I was doing. The same question kept coming back. Why am I doing this?”

“It was the people, the history, and the discomfort, the moments that forced me to slow down and pay attention. I thought I was cycling across countries. What I was really learning was how to keep going even without having all the answers.” /TISG

Read also: Cyclist infuriated over people throwing trash into his bicycle basket

This article (Singapore woman cycles alone across Southeast Asia, sharing lessons from the road) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.