Meet Team JTS Alex Wong and Allyson who have their suburban routine life for a life on two wheels traversing the world.
BY YVONNE YOONG
An epic journey of 100,000 smiles literally took off when couple Alex Wong and Allyson Yik kicked off their full-time self-funded journey around the world on July 16, 2013.
“Since then, we have travelled approximately 150,000 KM on two wheels,” shares Wong gleefully who lives happily by the mantra of
“Living each day and riding for life”
“The first big step into the unknown constituted a 1,030-day journey in the Americas after arriving in Vancouver, Canada on July 16, 2013 — a trip which ended on May 24, 2016 in Santiago, Chile.
In June 2017, resuming their “Ride for Life” journey, they left for Indonesia — island hopping from Sumatra across to Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sulawesi on a journey which ended in Kalimantan which saw them returning home from Kuching, Sarawak some 162 days later.
In April the following year, the couple resumed their “Ride for Life” journey once more. This time, the emphasis was on China, following the theme “A Return to the Roots” tour which appropriately started from Alex’s ancestral village called Zhen Zhen Li Village which is located in Jiangmen city, Guangdong that ended 175 days later after touring the Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Hainan villages.
The unstoppable couple once again returned to China in April 2019 to continue on their journey into the Middle Kingdom following plans to tour the Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces.
Unbeknown to them, the couple’s earlier years since 2009 that saw them participating in motorcycle tour expeditions in Nepal, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Yunnan – were steps made in preparation of them taking on bigger things later in life.
“We aspire to inspire before we expire,” he quips with a laugh sharing that the secrets to making their dreams come true included “keeping to the plan and to live simple lives”.
Offering advice for those brave enough to throw caution to the wind and travel around the world on a shoestring budget, his advice to adventure seekers is that “the best experience is the journey and not the destination”.
Since travelling on two wheels is quite vulnerable, Alex kept to the plan of practising practical survival tips of keeping safe when on the road simply by “driving slowly”.
Alex sums their mission to see the world as offering them “the chance to meet new people, find yourself and have a story worth telling”.
Through all their travels since 2013, the couple has been blessed as they have never encountered danger except during a few rare occasions when encountering people with bad attitudes. However, these negative experiences were easily overshadowed by them regularly meeting many kind strangers who, on a few occasions, went out of their way to assist them. This confirms their belief that all around the world, people are basically kind at heart and universal citizens.
