The world by motorcycle
Edmonton woman sold everything, set out to see the world
Charles Gal Special to The Journal, Edmonton
Two and a half years ago, Edmontonian Doris Maron sold everything, bought a motorcycle and set out to motorbike around the world.
She had no idea what lay ahead nor how long it would take. But she was armed with a desire to see it all.
“I finally decided if I don’t go now, I’ll never go, “ said Maron of her initial deliberations.
And so, in the spring of 2001, Doris Maron, 55, retired as a financial adviser and set out on her motorcycle tour of the world. She braved loneliness, heat, cold, deserts, customs agents, as well as mechanical problems for the next 2 ½ years. She has now completed half of her tour of the globe.
“I had this thing burning in me for a long time, and I had all the fears associated with travelling alone: not enough money and all the bad things too. And, I had a few people who tried to discourage me from going.”
But she decided that wouldn’t stop her. Single once again, with grown-up children who live on their own, there was no obstacle to keep her from fulfilling a long-time dream: riding around the world on a motorcycle.
Now, in the fall of 2003, the former Edmontonian has logged over 80,000 kilometres of motorcycling, travelling over all types of terrain and in all kinds of weather.
Maron didn’t have as many problems during her trip as she imagined she would, and surprisingly only one border crossing - from Thailand to Laos - gave her any grief at all.
At the border to Laos, the agents sent her from office to office before granting her a carnet de passage for her bike (“carnet” for short) - a type of visa for motor vehicles. She asked for a carnet of a month, but after much red tape and being sent to and fro and back again, she was only granted a week’s carnet.
“I almost felt like telling him to keep his carnet, and I’ll go back to Thailand,” said Maron. “Border crossings can be like that where you just have to bite your tongue.”
She ended up entering Laos and, like a true free spirit, travelling beyond the province for which she was given passage. But, when she returned to Thailand, she read in a newspaper that 10 people had been ambushed and killed on a road she had travelled just days earlier.
“That was really scary, because I had just been there,” she said. And yet, Maron had not felt anything that seemed threatening during her ride through Laos.
In spring of 2001, Maron left Edmonton and began her travels by heading north to the Yukon and Alaska and then down into B.C. She shipped her bike to Australia, where she toured for a while before heading to New Zealand. In New Zealand, she was without a bike, because the length of stay she planned made it cost-prohibitive for her to also ship her bike there.
From Darwin, Australia, she again shipped her bike, and toured Singapore and Malaysia, stopping to teach English (to further finance her journey) for several months in Thailand. However, during her time there, she made several trips into Cambodia, Laos and other parts of Thailand.
By March 2003, she left Bangkok and moved on to Nepal. From here she travelled through Nepal and India, by June of this year, she was in Pakistan and also in Iran toward the latter part of the month.
Somewhere in the desert between these two countries, her bike just stopped running.
Fear overcame her as she sat stranded in the desert hundreds of kilometres from anywhere with only a distant camel for company. A bit panicked after some time at the edge of the desert highway, she thought about the battery cables. Maybe that’s all it was, and she could be on her way. If not, she was in serious trouble. Fortunately, one had loosened and simply needed to be popped back on.
Maron choose to buy a Honda Magna, because of its size and reputation for reliability. She felt a 750cc bike was an appropriate size, but it actually turned out to be a monster among much smaller bikes she encountered everywhere else in the world where she travelled. However, as far as reliability goes, the Magna hasn’t let her down.
“The only work it needed was routine maintenance,” she said.
In fact, it needed a bit of fixing upon entering Pakistan, she recalled, one of the countries she deems to be the most hospitable in the world besides Turkey, which she said was the most hospitable of all the places she visited.
“As soon as I entered the shop, they sat me down on a stool and offered me a drink while they fixed my bike,” she said.
Most peculiar was the fact that most of the repair shops in Pakistan, Iran and Turkey would not accept money from her. Her repairs were done mostly for free while she sat waiting on a chair - usually brought for her - sipping on a drink that she had been offered upon entering the shop.
She spent three weeks in Turkey before travelling onward to Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Lithuania, spending anywhere from a few days to over a week at these destinations.
In August, she toured Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and finally stopped for a rest in the Netherlands. It was from here that she flew home to Edmonton for a family reunion and to catch up with old friends, including Rudi Zacsko. His long motorcycle trips to various parts of the western hemisphere were a big influence on her decision to embark on her own world motorcycle tour.
Most of her travels have gone smoothly, with only the occasional bout of homesickness overcoming her from time to time. But she pressed on, taking solace in e-mailing friends and family and writing her newsletters on her laptop that she carries with her at all times. Her newsletters are essentially journal logs of sections of her trip that she publishes regularly on an e-mail mailing list, as well as on her world motorcycle tour web site: www.untamedspirit.net.
There were a few times she felt like giving up and just going home, she admitted, particularly when her bike’s registration expired while she was in Bangkok, and she was unable to get CAA to extend it further. But, after seeking advice over the internet from other international motorcycle travellers, she found out how to get around the problem satisfactorily.
After her short stay in Edmonton, Maron will resume her travels from the Netherlands, heading south to France, Spain, Portugal and hopefully Switzerland. Then, she’ll bike southern Germany (Bavaria), eventually making her way to Africa and later to South America. And finally northward from there.
At least, those are her plans at the moment. She’s also been invited to stay a few months this winter in the south of France by a French motorcycling couple she met while touring in Malaysia, an offer she is seriously considering.
The second half of her journey around the world still entails another 80,000 to 100,000 kilometres.
“I’ve learned so much on this trip about the world and even myself. I’m so glad I didn’t let anyone talk me out of going.”
Myra Abstreiter, president of the Edmonton chapter of Women in the Wind, as well as the motorcycle club’s Canadian administrator, has been on many long road trips, averaging about 18,000 km per year on her 1999 Kawasaki Nomad on which she rides several weeks every summer. Maron joined the chapter in 1998, and Abstreiter feels very fortunate to have gotten to know a woman she considers an “inspiring lady.”
“Last year when I was planning to head to Oregon for a four-week bike trip by myself, every time I got cold feet about leaving, I would think of Doris,” said Abstreiter. “What she was doing was so much more than what I was doing that it just gave me the boost to just go ahead and do it. If she could do that, I could also.”
Laurie Martel, 41, a member of the Harley Owners Group in Edmonton, recently finished a three-week motorcycle trip to Milwaukee, Wis., on her 1974 Shovelhead where she attended Harley Davison’s100th Anniversary celebration.
“I think to ride for a long time you have to be in good physical condition; I really believe that. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. But, when I came back, I kept getting comments about my arms,” said Martel.
With respect to her view on Doris Maron’s world trip, Martel said, “She’s so lucky, I’m so envious. It would be great to just pack up and go. I think it’s a challenge. There’s no better way to see the world.”
Rudi Zacsko, 72, owner and manager of Scona Cycle and Sport (where Maron purchased her Honda), has been on many long motorcycle trips, touring in South America, Central America and most recently to Alaska.
He believes people like Maron are daring and admirable. Zacsko explained that, from his own experience, meeting people in the back countries and villages is real adventure.
“This is the kind of thing that no one can take away from you. An experience of having seen other places in the world, or even learning languages or musical instruments are the three things that are yours forever. That’s how I look at an adventure like this. Everything else you can lose. So this is the best thing anyone could do,” he said.
For more information about Doris Maron’s motorcycle tour of the world as it progresses, visit her continually updated web site: www.untamedspirit.net
