Foreword to the 1997 Edition

WHEN MY FATHER BICYCLED FROM NORWAY TO SAIGON IN 1935 and 1936 he found a world quite different from today’s cosmopolis. The far corners of the Earth not merely seemed but truly were remote. Many regions were isolated by poor roads, by illiteracy, and by limited communications systems. By this isolation disparate cultures retained their ancient customs and manners. Changes evolved at an erratic and slow pace. Cars were a rarity abroad, and correspondence was primarily by post or by spoken word, for radio was yet in its infancy.

It was a hazardous time to be abroad in a world stirred by political unrest. Travel was limited to the privileged. Those who ventured into newly accessible but still uncharted lands were the brave, the reckless, and the truly adventurous.

These travels and adventures on a bicycle were undertaken in the spirit of Lindbergh, of Admiral Byrd, and of Amelia Earhart, in a time when the great heroes were adventurers. The literary style of the book is consistent with the inherent romanticism of that era.

Some of these adventures are so fabulous as to seem fantasy, and there are some who have doubted the veracity of our father’s adventures. But we who have accompanied him on many of his later travels can attest to them, and to his remarkable strength and endurance, his uncanny ability to find adventure, and his wonderful way of making friends with all along his way.

MELINDA BIRCHMORE MUSICK, M.D., PH.D.
JANUARY 12, 1996