Juliana Buhring

The moment I stopped anywhere, I'd be swarmed by giant mobs of men standing around me just staring. It was very intimidating. Once the police had to come in with batons to break them up. Even while moving, they'd follow me in big groups on motorbikes for miles. I counteracted this by acting as aggressive as I could. Sometimes I'd shout at them like a crazy woman.

Thanks! I think the scariest experience was getting stuck in the mountains in New Zealand after dark, with 170 kmph winds, without a navigator and no idea where the next town was. STarted to get hypothermia as I was underdressed and the temperatures dropped. Couldn't ride as the winds were so strong, they were lifting my bike in the air. Fortunately came on a lovely old couple in a camper van by the roadside who rescued me. Too me in for the night and fed me whiskey and sausages. I can now change a tire in under 3 minutes...

Yeah, I figured as much, so I wasn't too offended, but it was very uncomfortable. However, with that in mind, I did wear longer trousers over my cycle shorts to try not to look too provocative. But yeh, you don't see women on bikes in general across Asia, however the Malaysians and Thais were a lot more polite about it. I'm fairly certain if they'd laid a finger on me, I'd have trashed them first. ;p

Only in India. It was perhaps the only country that I felt continually unsafe the entire time I was there.

Curiosity and generosity.

Can you?

Apart from the Thai stalker who followed me a few hours on a red scooter, the majority of people were wonderful. I think we only hear the bad stories, so the world appears a lot more dangerous than is the reality. All through Australia, the locals kept telling me how dangerous it was for a woman traveling alone, and I heard horror stories ad infinitum, yet Australia was also the country I had people chasing me down the road to hand me money, and who were the very helpful.

Sorry, only saw the second part. I think the biggest challenge towards the end was the extreme mental fatigue.

Turkey, hands down.

The people are some of the nicest I met in all my travels. The food's great, prices are cheap, the country is full of incredible history. Plus, I think it's even more interesting now with all that's going on in Istanbul atm.