Around the Europe, in the footsteps of Sinbad - on a motorbike

Qatari adventurer Khalid al-Jaber, the first Arab to travel the Silk Road route on a motorcycle, is planning to continue his passion for travel by embarking on another ride around Europe.

“In the past three years, I have completed 120,000 km of motorcycling, covering around 45 countries on the same bike on different trips. Now I am planning to ride around Europe next summer to promote an event related to Qatar and arts. This will be announced later this year,” he told Gulf Times.


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Khalid al-Jaber at the southernmost tip of Africa during one of his trips.


Al-Jaber, 43, holds two records in motorcycling. In addition to being the first Arab to cross the Silk Road from London to Beijing, he is also the first Arab to ride the longest road in the world, the Pan American Highway, from Alaska to Argentina around 40,000 km.

Al- Jaber, a network computer engineer, and a master’s degree holder in computer crimes from University of East London, has also got a bachelor’s degree in computing from Richmond, the American International University in London.

“I have done many trips around the world and covered 82 countries so far. I am planning to reach 100 countries by next summer and mostly on motorcycle. Through my adventures, I am encouraging youth to leave their comfort zone. I try to attach each trip to a charity campaign such as providing artificial limbs to children of the world, providing laptops to students of Africa or optical glasses to children of Kenya,” the adventurer explained.

Al-Jaber who has completed the executive leaders programme from Qatar leadership Centre, currently has taken adventure motorcycling as a full-time activity.

The globetrotter says he loves travelling and right from his early childhood, he has been travelling.

“During my childhood, I was moving between Qatar, Geneva and Japan, until I finished high school, due to my father’s job as an ambassador of Qatar. Then, I moved to Germany and from there to London for my university studies. I have always wanted to be a traveller after watching “Sinbad” cartoon when I was seven,” recalled al-Jaber.

Other than travelling, al-Jaber is also is an avid film buff as he has been a film producer for the last 10 years. “My film ‘Voyager’ was selected to film festivals such as Ajyal Film Festival 2018 and Cannes Film Festival 2019,” he said.

“The film shows my passion for travelling; how I am trying to fit myself in the role and also featuring the Silk Road travel and my feelings when I am on the trip. Travelling to me is like meditation, to know and appreciate life; see how people have nothing but happiness while we have everything but happiness. I keep saying: the world is so beautiful as long as we don’t watch news,” noted the rider.

“I hope many youth consider their hobbies as careers and they will just do great! Don't look, how much you will earn but how much you will change,” he advised the youth.

“I am inspired by Sinbad and wanted to confront the world and explore it as he did. I can say that I have achieved most of my dreams and done well in my career so far,” al-Jaber added.

As seen on GulfTimes  Image Credits GulfTimes