How much money is necessary to be happy? That was the difficult question which troubled Switzerland-based couple Markus and Anita Rytz all their lives.
Their world centered on materialistic things and in their pursuit for the luxuries of life they both suffered burnouts, on account of work-related stress. It is then they decided to change their lifestyles. Frequent road trips from Switzerland to different countries on their BMW motorcycle became quite common. On August 10 last year they embarked on their ‘around the world trip’ which will take them to different countries and continents. Armstrong Vaz spoke to the couple .
“It is not so important to have all the materialistic things, that’s is what we learnt through our travel in India. Poor people in India may be poor in terms of materialistic possessions but they are rich at heart,” says Marcuz Rytz, who along with his wife Anikta reached Goa as part of their ‘around the world trip’.
The couple set on the road trip on their petrol driven 1200cc, six gear, German made 115 Horse Power, BMW from Luzern Switzerland on August 10 last year and will be on the road for the next four years.
The couple will hip hop from one country to another and from one continent to another in the coming years, and during the course of their travel they have ‘two appointments’ on an otherwise appointment free travel.
“On November 5 next year I will be turning sixty and we will be in Ushuia in Argentina where we will celebrate the birthday. The second appointment is set in Brazil on March 4, 2011, where we taking part in the carnival celebrations in the land of samba in Rio de Janeiro city,” says Markus.
The couple who are armed with the Global positioning system (GPS), maps and medicines as travel companions sold their house and worked hard and long enough to make the dream trip.
“Travelling to India is every one’s dream and there are many others like us who want to travel to India. But one thing which clearly upset us is the disparity in the entrance fees leveled on foreigners to see place of tourist’s interests. The foreigners are charged twenty times more than those collected from Indians. Nowhere in the world is such a practice followed.”
But his wife says, the positives from India, where they reached on November last year, have been the great family traditions and the support-system which children can avail of their parents.
“Back home on account of work stress, couples have no time for children and that is reason many marriage end in divorce. In India, you enjoy family support-system when a crisis strikes.”
But driving through the big cities and traffic chaos makes the couple jittery.
On reasons of embarking on the difficult and demanding motorcycle trip the couple said: “We can stop anywhere and everywhere we like. We can stop by the people, talk to the people, smell the nature and feel the pain and sufferings of the people from close quarters. We can get wet when it is raining and also when it is hot, the experiences which we would not be able to get if travel by another mode of transport including a car, which we thing is a cave.”
“On reaching India I felt a free bird, as I discarded my veil which covered my face, which I had wear throughout my travel in Pakistan and Iran. Where we go we try to maintain the local customs and traditions,” Anita said.
Before reaching Iran, the couple who till now had a no breakdown problems with their motorcycle burned rubber on the roads of Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.
The former production manager at a steel company Markus had been an avid travel fan since the age of eighteen, but the motorcycle travel bug hit the couple strongly in 1977, starting with a trip from Switzerland to Turkey. What followed were several such trips by the couple to different destinations. The couple holds the record for being the first couple to take the trip from Switzerland to Japan through Serbia in 1994.
From Goa, the couple who enjoy the world-wide support system of BMW customer service will drive to Hampi in neighboring Karnataka.
The road map then takes them to Kashmir, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and then they fly to Bangkok from Kathmandu.
The travel plans lined up by the couple who are avid sailing fans takes them to South East Asian countries of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. The next phase of their travel takes them to Australia continent, East Africa, South Africa, South America, north America and end up their journey in Alaska.
For the Rytz couple making videos of their travel and photography are two passions, both which they upload on their German language travel website
www.bcprod.ch and they were more than perfectly happy to keep away from the madding holiday crowd after a long journey from Kovalam Kerala.
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Motorcycle details
Mileage – 21kms per litre
Fuel – petrol
1200cc
Six gears
Made in Germany 2008
Horse power – 115HP
Petrol tank – 38 litres lasting for 700kms
