25.000km from Malaysia to Germany - Interactive Road Trip

Dear motorcycle enthusiasts,

I still can‘t quite believe it but in 10 days I‘ll start the biggest adventure of my life: I‘ll ride a Suzuki DL650 ABS from Malaysia to Germany on an interactive charity road trip .

In 2011 I did an exchange semester at the Thammasat University in Bangkok and after this had two months off before my business studies in Switzerland continued. So I went to Vientiane (Laos), bought a crappy motorcycle and drove it more than 5.000km all across Laos. This experience changed me more than I ever thought was possible. Memories of incredibly friendly people - especially kids - keep coming back and I still draw lessons from it almost one year later. However, I also saw the poverty and especially the UXO (unexploded ordnance) situation that literally destroys lives and makes farming impossible in vast parts of Laos.

Now I find myself being 23 years old, having finished my business studies, two years of NGO (Aiducation International) work experience, obsessed with motorcycle trips - and little money So i put it all together, wrote a marketing concept and was able to convice Suzuki and MOTORRAD (Europe‘s largest motorcycle magazine) to support me. Together we will pull off the world‘s first interactive charity road trip!

Many people successfully drove from SE Asia to Europe, but never on an interactive road trip. You can actively become part of my journey by changing my route, suggesting restaurants/hotels/food to try, activities to undertake and so on. You know a spectacular mountain pass in India? You know a speciality that I jost got to taste in Cambodia? Tell me about it and I‘ll make it happen. Whatever is on your mind! I will fulfil the most interesting requests and shortly later post pictures/videos online. At the same time I‘ll blog about my journey to keep you informed.
I‘m particularly happy about the charity component of the road trip as it enables me to give something back to the locals. My Laos trip changed me quite a bit, I‘ve learned so much and really fell in love with the country and its people. So I don‘t want to ignore the poverty in the places I‘ll travel and support local NGOs to help the people a little bit. More about this later...

How does it work?
Facebook:
All the interactive requests should be submitted via Suzuki Germany‘s FB page (Suzuki's FB page). This will make communication way easier for me and you can get inspired by other user‘s ideas and really be creative. Also I‘ll post short updates, pics and videos there (in German and English).

Blog:
I‘ll blog about my journey on MOTORRAD online (I‘ll post the link soon) and tell you all about my experiences on the road. Also there‘ll be lots of pictures and videos :)

Adventure Rider:
Last but not least I will keep you informed here as well. Whenever there‘s a new blog post or anything interesting happens, I‘ll let you know and will publish a short preview including some pics here. Of course you can ask me anything in this thread or via private message and I‘ll gladly reply. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I should answer them within max. 2 days normally :)

That's me diving in El Nido, Philippines


And my beautiful Suzuki DL650 ABS. Actually it's not my bike I only saw my bike once so far and forgot to take a picture... Next week you'll see the true beauty of my bike :


My route will look something like this. I did some rough planning but didn't really go into detail to leave more room for your creativity :)


So let‘s hope all works out and I‘ll hit the road in 10 days - can‘t wait!!

Cheers,
Steven

Finally I saw and rode my DL650 for the first time - and I LOVED it!! She's a real beauty:





'RS Wolf''s mechanics were more than motivated to help. Here they're making a lighter tool to save weight:


Their precision and love for detail is astonishing. I could have posted 50 pics and still wouldn't have presented all their great ideas, changes and modifications. Simply amazing. If anything goes wrong, it's definitely not the bike's fault.

Have a safe trip, looking forward to your RR
Nice bike

I'm not far away from your starting point. Ride safe and looking forward to your updates.

Thanks guys :)

It all feels so surreal... For more than half a year I've been waiting for this moment to come and now that I'm only a weekend away from Malaysia I'm surprisingly relaxed about it. In my mind I'm running a huge check list of things that might still go wrong (being German essentially...) and simply try to think of everything.

Today my shipping company of choice "In Time" kept their subtle promise and picked up my bike in time. Also I received the Carnet de Passage after having some difficulties... Now the only thing missing is my helmet I'd better solve this problem before I start my trip...

Here are some more pics of my first day riding:
Got all the equipment


Proud owner of a Suzuki DL650

Very cool trip, I may have missed it, but how long are you going to be on the road?
Have a blast and stay safe.

P.S. I didn't know Suzuki made touring gear, neat.

I'll be on the road for seven months. Most likely I'll spend around six months in Asia/Middle East and then cross Europe within less than a month. This obviously is an easy way to save money but it also helps to satisfy my curiosity. Especially Pakistan/Iran/Iraq are countries I can't wait to see :)