Episode 193: Oktawia Van Tienderen

12,000km Solo from Poland to S.E Asia and Back Again

Oktawia Van Tienderen discovered a love for riding bikes while on a small holiday with her friends. They rented city bikes and she immediately felt that sensation of feeling free. You could say things kind of escalated from there as just a short while later she was getting panniers on her bike, adding her luggage and plotting a route that would take her from Poland all the way to South East Asia.

Travelling as a solo woman on this journey meant she was constantly told by many people how dangerous a journey like this would be, especially as a woman. But Oktawia had a feeling that these perceptions of insecurity and risk were just that, warnings from well meaning friends who hadn’t actually experienced being in the countries she had planned to venture to.

The country Oktawia was warned of the most was Turkey and it ended up being one of her favourites, where she was shown so much hospitality and care by all the strangers she met. She shared an encounter where she was put up to stay in the palatial residence of a town mayor and the very next day being greeted by a line of people giving her gifts of lotions, creams and food.

Oktawia however did reiterate that while she knew it would be safe for her to travel solo, doing so as a woman means also doing things slightly differently. There were times where she would pretend she wasn’t alone, or indeed that she was married and her husband was further up the road. In the main her adventures went without any security concerns, but she did receive some unwanted attention from men. She also said one of the most important things you can do is trust your gut instincts and intuition when reading a situation, a piece of advice I’ve been given by many other guests. Sometimes we can just perceive when a situation isn’t quite right and learning to read and act on those signals can help to keep us safe.

Due to the changing seasons Oktawia’s original plan of cycling from Poland and onwards through Central Asia were scuppered when she realised that temperatures in Kazakhstan would likely be minus 30C by the time she arrived there. She had known this when she first set off but had initially laughed it off, thinking it wouldn’t be that bad. But then she quickly reassessed and realised what was most important for her during this adventure was enjoying the time on the road. This wasn’t meant to be something she had to struggle and be miserable through. So she changed things up, and took a flight to Hanoi in Vietnam and started to make her way back to Poland travelling West.

This change in her route also meant that she would be discovering an area and countries she otherwise woudln’t have travelled through. It ended up being a highlight of her journey, travelling through Laos and Thailand. Then crossing into China came with showing her what she was capable of. The high mountains were calling, adn joined by a fellow cycle tourist, Hector, she managed to do her biggest day on the bike, both in length and elevation gain, cycling at times to points well above 4500m in altitude!

Many people often wonder how people can take journeys that span such a long length of time and how they afford it. For Oktawia this simply came down to her needing to work during her entire journey. For that she carried a laptop with her and taught English lessons online. Often that would mean ending a long day on the bike with teaching lessons from her tent. Oktawia recalled one wild scenario where she was teaching and then all of a sudden heard a pack of jackals outside her tent! Could you just imagine?!

Something else Oktawia also preferred on her journey was purposefully travelling slowly through the area she was riding through. While initially she loved flat roads she quickly learnt that the mountains were more adventurous and she started seeing the joy in taking the smaller, beat up gravel roads instead. Often they would lead to more isolated places and then also allow for a deeper level of connection with the people she would meet who lived there. People who would otherwise not have encounters with huge amounts of tourists.

By the end of her journey Oktawia had ridden through 15 countries and pedalled over 12000kms. The many twists and turns of her journey another example of the experiences that can come your way if you say yes to adventure. Oktawia says the best part of the trip was the connections she made with people adn also the realisation that when problems occur, there will always be a helping hand and a solution to be found. The world indeed is full of good people, and taking a long distance journey like this has helped to reaffirm this belief.

You can keep up with Oktawia’s future adventures via her instagram page – @Unicorntravels_

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