By Johan Aziz
Three tourists see the world on bicycles
KENINGAU: Three tourists from Ireland, Australia and France are currently travelling around the world by cycling to their destinations.
They arrived here on Tuesday and stopped for a while to look around.
William Bennett, 26, from Ireland said he had been travelling from his country since January 2015. They arrived in Lawas, Sarawak and continued their adventure along the Sipitang-TenomKeningau road.
“And our next destination is Tawau via the NabawanKalabakan road and after that will go on to Indonesia, Australia and South America before returning to my country," said William who quit his job as a Computer Science Programmer simply because he wants to fulfill his dream of travelling around the world, especially to countries he had never visited before.
He said he wants to realize his childhood dream of traveling all over the world. He is currently enjoying it.
"I have a bitter experience along the way before where I lost cash, passport and other valuable items three times when I took a rest. Sometimes I had to ride in the cold, heat and rain and I really missed my family,” he said.
Meanwhile, the other two travellers - Matthew Harris, 45, from Melbourne, Australia and Clement Thiepel, 25, from France, were cycling from Beaufort to Kimanis and then to Keningau.
Matthew, when met here, said he had been travelling from Eindhoveen in the Netherlands since September 2014.
Matthew, who is also a Light Researcher, said he has traveled since September 2014 starting from Eindhoven, Netherlands.
"I have cycled to and visited 32 countries and will return home after I have visited all the places I want to go," said Matthew who works as a light researcher.
Matthew said cycling to all the places in the work with a friend is an interesting experience for him.
For Clement, who had completed his studies in civil engineering in his country, he has been travelling for over a year.
His journey started from the Ireland before cycling to Germany, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia, Sabah and Sarawak.
Next he will continue his travel in countries he had planned to visit before heading for home.
They all agreed that the experience of using a bicycle to travel is interesting because they would be able to get closer to the local people apart from giving a good example to other people that nothing is impossible if one has the determination to do something.