German journalist Lothar Baltrusch, 51, has completed a 15,000km motorbike trip from Germany to Viet Nam to visit a poor Vietnamese girl and raise funds for World Vision projects in the central province of Quang Tri. Baltrusch, who works for a local radio station called Antenne Unna, in Germany's Unna City, spoke to Culture Vulture about his trip called Way to Huyen.

What's the story behind Way to Huyen?

Riding motorbikes is one of my passions - before this trip I used to cruise around on my Harley Davidson. Then I got the idea to visit my sponsored child [Pham Thi Thao] Huyen who I've been in contact with through World Vision since 2009.

The other guy who travelled with me was 52-year-old Andreas Huelsmann. He's a freelance journalist and had done some long-distance tours throughout the world on his bike. He was in Siberia (Russia) and Mongolia before that, as well as South and North America, Australia and Central Asia. So this guy has a lot of experience and I asked him to share this experience on the Way to Huyen.

I first had the idea for the trip two years before we started and asked Andreas whether it was possible to go by bike to Viet Nam. He said "yes" and we started to planing the trip from that day forward.

What was your motivation for the journey?

Of course it was the promise of adventure that pushed us to do it on our bikes, but that was not the main reason for the trip. First and foremost, we wanted to raise money for vital projects in Viet Nam. You can't achieve that by simply jumping on a plane as it's not special enough to grab people's attention. But travelling 15,000km on a bike for two months to visit a child is a bit more out of the ordinary. The people recognise the magnitude of the task and start to take notice.

What is the significance of the trip to you and to Huyen?

The significance of this trip was to shine the spotlight on an important issue. It has made people in Germany start to think about the privileged and prosperous situation they are in. Through this trip we tried to remind them that there are other people in the world who are living under much poorer conditions and are in need of assistance.

Who are the beneficiaries of the trip?

I think everyone gained benefits from this trip. Before and during the trip, we collected more the 20,000 euros (US$26,300) in Germany for World Vision projects in Quang Tri.

In my opinion this trip was a total success and on the website www.abenteuer.lotharbaltrusch.de we got more than 20,000 hits in two months. We also recruited more than 22 new sponsors for the kids and people are still donating money which we will forward on to World Vision. For me personally, it was a trip of my lifetime – something that will never happen again. Andreas and I hope this trip rallied people and put the focus on people in Viet Nam who need help.

What were your emotions and impressions during the journey?

Personally I'd never done anything like it before - I'd never been so far from home and for such a long time. To see the different landscapes was amazing and very impressive. But the most heart-warming thing was the people we meet on the road who were kind, friendly and helpful. Even when we met poor people they would still share with us what little food they had. That really touched my heart. — VNS