Interview by: Glaiza Seguia-Godinez
Jean Paul Michiels, 63, found a new home in Thailand after retiring from the Belgian Air Force, while Christiaan Pradolini, 51, settled in the country after his leukaemia treatment. Both self-confessed motorbike freaks, the two became good friends and decided to go for their ultimate dream: to ride from Thailand to Belgium and then back to Thailand. This overland journey is roughly 35,000km, over nine months, across borders and various terrains and weather, but for them it’s just another adventure. We sat down with them during their stopover in Dubai where they were having their bikes checked at the Liberty Kawasaki service centre.
What inspired you to do this trip?
JPM: We are just two good friends and in the past we have driven our bikes from Cambodia and Laos; just small trips. We met each other in Thailand. Belgium is too big to meet [laughs]. One day, Christiaan proposed to me why not go to Belgium, because they have to do a treatment for his daughter there. I said why not.
CP: I was very sick 11 years ago. The trip started for myself because I survived my illness, but my daughter is sick too. She needed to go Belgium for six months of treatment so I wanted to do it for her as well.
How did you prepare for such a huge journey?
CP: The day he decided to go with me, we started planning already. We did preparations as early as April last year because it’s going to be a lot of work. We bought the Kawasaki Versys 650 LT bikes especially for the trip. It’s a fantastic bike!
You are lugging a lot of weight, how did you manage?
CP: The bike is about 181 kilos, plus the kit weight, plus our weight. We are on the limit. We already fell down because of the weight.
JPM: But once you drive, it’s easier. You can manoeuvre easily.
CP: We try to sleep every night in a hotel. I want to really enjoy this trip because this is once in a lifetime. Normally, we drive for three days and then we take one day off.
How’s your trip so far?
CP: From Thailand to Myanmar, it’s normally impossible to drive with your own vehicles, but because of help of some people, we were allowed. It was rocky and we’ve fallen many times and damaged the bike. We rode 130km in Myanmar for 12 hours.
JPM: We then headed to India and saw plain roads and noticeably a lot of churches. At the border, the formalities were fairly simple and fast with little traffic. In less than two hours, including immigration, we are on our way. We met a young French couple, Damien and Marie, who have been on the road for almost one year and now on the way back to Europe by bicycle!
CP: Personally, we find that it’s more dangerous to drive in Thailand than India. In India, nobody passes the 100km on the highway. From Dubai, we will be on our way to Iran.
But Dubai wasn’t in your original route plan…
JPM: Yes, because we’re not allowed in Pakistan. We are re-preparing and servicing the bikes here.
CP: Thank you, Kawasaki Dubai. Great work on the repairs and the service is jackpot. I have to say we are very disappointed with Kawasaki Thailand. They told us there that if we have problems on the way, we can contact them. We bought the bike in Thailand. We paid the full price and everything, but they told us they can’t do anything. We are not expected to come to the Belgian embassy in Dubai, but we are expected in Iran. We don’t want too much publicity though [laughs].
How long will this trip take?
JPM: Nine months in total. We will stay for one month in Belgium with our families. But we’re still thinking if we are going to take the same route on the way back to Thailand.
How is your communication while on the road?
CP: Communication is great. We can talk, hear music and talk on the phone through Bluetooth. The Garmin is also very reliable. We download the maps beforehand. It even brings us directly to the entrance of hotels in the middle of souks. We are followed by friends and family on phone and GPS.
How did your wives feel about this whole trip?
CP: [Laughs] Oh they know us so well. We do all these stupid things. They’re very supportive, happy and proud of us. The hardest thing for me is missing my daughter and she already left for Belgium.
JPM: We will meet our families in four or five weeks and they will welcome us there.
Follow Jean Paul and Christiaan’s adventures on their blog: www.belgiumbiker.com/home.
