Kurang lebih begitulah kalimat yang terlintas di telinga dari seorang kakek bule berbaju singlet dengan celana olah raga didepan kasir 7Eleven dekat ITC Fatmawati Kamis (26/1) lalu. Sempat terpiikir ada bule gila ini pengen coklat tapi ga mau bayar. Rasa penasaran yang mendalam memaksakan diri untuk mengajak pasutri bule ini ngobrol. Disaat itulah mereka mengatakan kalau mereka itu sedang dalam perjalanan keliling dunia menggunakan sepeda. Wow..! Hampir merasa tidak percaya. Well setelah sempat mengunjungi Pontianak, Kalimantan mereka akhirnya sampai di Jakarta, mereka tiba di Jakarta hari Selasa (24/1) lalu dan berencana untuk melanjutkan perjalanan ke Bali hari Senin depan, kemudian melanjutkan perjalanan menuju Australia dan tentunya menggunakan sepeda. Sekarang mereka tinggal di Indonesian French Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Setelah obrolan singkat tersebut akhirnya munculah ide untuk ngobrol lebih banyak dengan mereka.. dan inilah sepenggal hasil obrolan dengan Bruno & Isabelle..
Well, it was make me shocked when I heard your story yesterday.. I thought that it’s impossible for 54 years old to cycling for long kilometers, but you did it! And you travel the world using a bicycle.. it’s amazing.. So, for people who don’t know you.. Who's exactly Mr. Bruno & Mrs. Isabelle? Can you tell us about you and your life?
We are a french couple. Bruno, 54 years old and Isabelle, 51 years old. We live in Normandy. We have one daughter. In 2006 We decide to stop to work to travel with bicycles around the world to meet people, cultural differences and traditions..
Talking about your traveling.. When you start traveling?
We start traveling on 8 april 2006.. We have decided to travel the world with bicycles because it's not so expensive, don't need gasoline, so no polution...
Cycling around the world.. Maybe some people thought that it’s kinda weird and impossible.. So what is your particular reason doing this? and what’s your mission?
It's just an old dream of Bruno.. Exactly we have no mission, we just love to meet people, cultural differences, traditions and it feels like we build a new life.. you know how it feels when you can realize your dream..
Looks like you leave your time off as an old people to realize your dream.. And I bet you don’t bring all stuff on this traveling so what did you bring on this traveling? And how you sleep at night?
A personal equipment.. at the evening we knock doors to ask them for the hospitality.. we live daily with people, we discover their lifestyle and they become friends forever.. that’s it.
As far as I heard from you, it sounds like you travel the world for yourself satisfaction.. Is there any benefits for you beside your satisfaction itself?
Hmm.. We learn how people from around the world stay alive and learn the cultural differences and their traditions.. And we learn lot of stuff from them... so many differences so many new experiences..
So how about food differences? I know you found a lot of food differences from all countries you have visited.. Do you have any problem with food differences?
No.. we love to discover.. In Asia we eat a lot of rice, in europe no rice at all... In Korea we eat very spicy food, in Japan a lot of fish and low fish, low fish is very good and we like it.. in Jakarta a lot of rice.. haha..
Know one question for Isabelle as a woman.. You already 51 years old and mm.. What's your biggest challenge traveling around the world using bicycle?
The more difficult it's to leave family in France. Even it's not every day and sometimes discord, married since 31 years, I stay with my husband to live this magnificent adventure
You said you start this traveling on 2006.. so how many kilometers have you reached so far? And how many countries you have visited?
Now we have ride 63000 kilometers since 2006
And we already visited 46 different countries.. Croatia, Belgium, Turkey, Russia, Japan, Mongolia, China and so much more..
Then how many countries you want to visit before returning to France?
We don't know how many countries we can sitll discover but we planned to visit Australia, USA, Canada, Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru and more.. we hope we can continue this travel 6 or 7 years more if we have good health
You don’t cycling cross the sea right? haha.. so how do you move from previous country to the next country? by plane or ferry boat or what?
No..no..no plane because it’s so expensive to bring bicycle on a plane.. When we have to cross the sea we always use ferry boat..
Almost 6 years cycling, 63000KMs, 46 Countries.. Have you got any obstacles so far?
The problem for us is to have visa, in some countries like Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan we don’t need visa for 3 months, in Europe without visa we can stay anytime no problemo. Some countries like China and Indonesia we need visa and for Indonesia is 1 month, after that we need to go to immigration to ask for prolongation, it’s very difficult for us and it’s not possible, that’s the problem.
For example now we have to go from Jakarta to Bali and it’s very long way and after visit Bali we planned to go to Flores and Timor but we have just one month to stay in Indonesia so we must stop in Bali then go to Australia. Visa is a big problem, in China only have 1 month for French people and it’s very short to cross the big country.
In Indonesia a lot off traveler.. Do you have any tips for them?
You should not hesitate to travel when you have a dream. On the road it is only of the happiness.. Take time, go meet people, do not hesitate to ask help. We meet wonderful people every day who are ready to help us..
Anyway you have daughter, what is she thinking when she knows that her parents will travel the world using bicycle?
She is happy we can realize our dream but she would like we stay in France
Do you miss her?
yes, of course
How you keep in touch with her and friends in France?
We have no phone but we send often messages by e-mail to our family, friends, schools, newspapers...
I bet this is your first time coming to Jakarta, Indonesia.. so what do you think about Jakarta so far?
It's the first time we come to Jakarta. It's a big city with a lot of motorbikes, cars and buses. It's very difficult to ride with bicycles but very nice people with good hospitality..
Setelah perbincangan tersebut selesai Bruno mengatakan bahwa hari Senin (30/1) mereka harus pulang ke Perancis karena sang ayah sedang menderita sakit. Tapi itu tidak membuat Bruno & Isabelle membatalkan perjalanan mereka untuk mengelilingi dunia. Bulan April 2012 mereka berjanji akan kembali lagi ke Jakarta dan melanjutkan perjalanan mereka menuju Bali. Mereka juga memperlihatkan foto-foto mereka di beberapa negara yang sudah mereka kunjungi, foto-fotonya bisa kalian lihat dibawah.
Merasa penasaran dan pengen memantau perjalanan mereka langsung saja klik www.roueslibres.net
Tertarik buat gowes keliling Jakarta bareng Bruno & Isabelle? Yuk kita tunggu saja mereka di bulan April lalu kita ajak mereka keliling Jakarta!