Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) A Spanish man who has covered 18,000 km spread over 14 countries since 2009 on a solar hybrid electric bicycle, his Vietnamese wife joining him a year later, will unveil their unique global story here Tuesday.

And Guim Valls Teruel, according to his wife Nguyen Thuy Anh, feels that India is a “karmic” experience.

The riders will narrate their historic green journey to spread the message of cleaner environment, pollution-free travel and the importance of non-conventional energy sources.

The venue will be the Spanish cultural institute, Instituto Cervantes.

Teruel began his journey in 2009 from the Beijing Olympic Stadium. He is likely to reach London in 2012, a statement by the Spanish embassy here said.

Teruel has covered 18,000 km and 14 countries including China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam and India.

The journey has changed their life.

In 2009, in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, Teruel was interviewed by Nguyen. They married in January 2010.

Since then, they have become partners in the global journey too. This has made Nguyen the first Vietnamese to tour the world on a bicycle.

For the couple, India has been a spiritual and karmic experience.

“To enjoy India, you must not think,” Teruel told his wife during their earlier tour of India. The couple was in Kolkata for the first 10 days of their journey.

The woman writes in her e-dairies: “I could not say anything at that moment. But after one month of travelling in India, especially two weeks in Varanasi, I had to admit that he was right.

“India is really like another planet, where you can’t question things but just accept them as they are.

“After six days of travelling in the sun at 40 degrees to pass 700 km from Kolkata, finally we arrived in Varanasi, the oldest and the most spiritual city in India.

“We turned down a small alleyway and stopped at a restaurant located on the terrace. From its roof, I got the view of the banks of the Ganges.”

She went on: “(Varanasi) is older than history, older than tradition, older than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”

Most of the evening the couple walked along the Ganges.

“There are 84 ghats along a seven-kilometre stretch of the river. Each one varies in function and purpose. Like some are for bathing, some for washing clothes, some for religious rituals, and only two of them (Jalsain and Harishchandra) are for cremations,” the cyclist wrote.

The couple then rode to Sarnath for a 10-day meditation session. On Tuesday, they will tell their audience all they have seen and expereinced so far — in India and abroad.