About

I AM GOING TO RIDE MY VESPA SCOOTER AROUND THE WORLD!

This is the intended route for my Wasp. It is still open for changes and may stretch beyond this to the American Continents.

Call her: Juvena, Juve for short or if you are really lazy, just call her Ju, JuJu.
Years since she popped out of the womb: 30

What she enjoys doing:

• Riding and Travelling and Meeting New Faces - this blog says it.
• Spending time with family especially when she will not be seeing them for quite some time.
• Dirtbiking - but this activity is temporarily put on hiatus because she needs to save vitamin M.
• Yoga - an activity which has helped in strengthening her busted knee and fostering health and mental well-being. Yoga is also an exercise that she wish to bring along while on the road.
• Trying and learning new things - skills and language acquisition, she learns many things and languages but is never really a master of anything.
• Whipping up dishes in the kitchen - due to her frequent association with animals in her personal and professional life, she decided to refrain from consuming meat. Home-cooked meals are one of the best way to fulfill her nutrition needs and palate satisfaction. Plus, she saves money by cooking whenever possible, a habit she wishes to bring on the road. She has a flair for making her own pastas and Palek Paneer, but outdoor cooking is more useful skill on the road. 

What she does to fund her travel and no she did not strike Toto, it would have made the below list shorter: 

• Mainly study and research on things that swims in water (It is called Aquaculture).
• Serving delicious food in an Italian restaurant including the things she studies and researches on
• Giving Maths and Science tuition (Animal Biology is her forte, she was a Vet Nurse for two years prior.)
• Lugging camera equipments for weddings in the weekends
• Being a Research Volunteer and getting paid for it 
• Lelong lelong (Sell) items at flea market
• Managing my expeditures and savings with prudence - insurance, investment etc.

Hello everybody, this is an ordinary Singaporean lady with a crazy dream of travelling around the world on her Vespa scooter, whom she has forged a strange bond over the past 7 years. She has used and abused her scooter (named Ebony Rogue) through thousands kilometres of riding - daily commuting, long distance trips including off-road riding. And still that scooter refuses to falter.

On an adventure to Endau Rompin!

Her love for Vespas started in 2006, on a trip to Vietnam. She saw these pretty little old scooters rendering their riders freedom to go anywhere they wish. She wanted to rent one to ride but there was no opportunity and time back then. There, she told herself, "I am going to get my bike license when I return and get a Vespa scooter."

One year later, she signed up for bike lessons before even telling her mother. After 6 months of bumping tires, curbs, repeating circuit test and revision again and again, she got her Class 2B license on her first assessment attempt, then collected Ebony Rogue on her 20th birthday. It cost her only $2,000 with 6 years COE and a new paint work.

And there, everything two wheelers overtook her life. She met fellow riders and who eventually became good friends, friends who encouraged her in trying new things, like dirt biking. She never thought she could ride a dirt bike because she is a midget. She never thought she could travel long distance on her Vespa scooter because she thought her 20 year old scooter will not make it. All these while, all these talk downs were only limiting her without her realising it.

Ebony at Haadrin beach in Koh Phangan, Thailand.

At Wang Kelian Border between Thailand and Malaysia.

One friend had left a great impact on her. He always said, "It is the rider, not the bike."

A late friend, Lawrence Tan was the one who catapulted all these motorcycle touring madness on unconventional bikes.

In end 2008, he pillioned his mother from Singapore to North Thailand on a DRZ 400 SM. He fully utilised his multipurpose DRZ - for commuting, touring and dirtbiking. Because of him, Juve also rode her Vespa on dirt and eventually got herself a proper KTM 200 for dirtbiking.

When everybody told her that the KTM 200 is too high and powerful for a 1.56m frame to handle, he convinced her otherwise. "Don't listen to what others said. It is just a matter of time getting used to it. You need more practice. It is the rider, not the bike." He was a man of mettle, ready for any challenges and adventures. She hardly hear him utter the word 'impossible'.

Crazy Lawrence riding my scooter up a off road slope.

Juve went on to compete in Enduro and Motocross competitions, won RM50, many bruises and a twisted knee.

I did not believe I could fly, now I do. Photo credit: Jose Carbo

Cherie and I twisted our knees in the gnarly terrain. 

50 Ringgit prize money for coming in 9th.

We fall, we learn.

Lawrence and another rider friend Wei Jie, planned another ride to China border on their DRZ400 and XR400 respectively in mid December 2009. A week before they set off, Juve received the news that Lawrence passed on in a van accident. It took her many minutes to register the sudden loss and break the news to Wei Jie. Nonetheless, a few weeks later, Wei Jie went ahead alone to complete the trip they planned together.

With Lawrence's passing, the awareness of the brevity and uncertainty of a human life made her question everything in place and how she wanted to live her life.

Although Lawrence is no longer around, his zeal for adventure lingers and infects many others. Always in the planning for the next adventure, Wei Jie proposed a crazy idea about riding beyond Southeast Asia. Due to Juve's small stature, finding the suitable adventure tourer bike has always been a challenge.

Heck, she might as well go with whatever she has - her Vespa Scooter. Destination - Italy, the birthplace of Vespa. Plus, she have always been an Italophile - a lover of Italian scooters, a sucker for pasta, a fan of Italian band Lacuna Coil, and an amateur Italian speaker.

Since then, she has then been scrimping and saving, working ad-hoc jobs along the way. (Diary of a Service Crew)

To read the rest of the story, click here.