An artist in India fell for a Swedish tourist — so he biked nearly 6,000 miles to get to her. Here’s how he made it with just $80

PK wanted to join her, but a plane ticket was out of reach. He was stuck in India, trying to make ends meet.

Eventually, PK decided to sell his belongings, buy a secondhand Raleigh bicycle and cycle nearly 6,000 miles to Sweden. He set off on January 22, 1977 with only about $80 in his pocket, his paintbrushes and the power of love.

Flash forward 50 years later, PK’s remarkable journey is now the subject of The Cycle of Love, a new documentary directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel. The film follows the couple’s improbable romance and PK’s journey across continents to reunite with his love.

He followed the Hippie Trail and the kindness of strangers

When PK looked into flying to Sweden, he learned that a plane ticket would cost about 40,000 rupees. According to The Telegraph, that was roughly 18 times the average annual income in India at the time.

The broader economic data from the era puts that price tag into even sharper perspective.

A National Council of Applied Economic Research survey analyzed by the World Bank found that the bottom 10% of Indian households received just 2.27% of total household income from 1975 to 1976, while the top 10% received 33.88% — underscoring the significant income inequality in India at the time.

But he was determined to reach Lotta one way or another, and his alternative — a secondhand bicycle — cost just 60 rupees.

PK pedaled through unfamiliar countries, following a well-established route known as the Hippie Trail — an overland network that had become popular among young Western travelers in the 1960s and ’70s. The route connects Europe with South Asia, passing through countries including Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

“I was not alone,” he told National Geographic. “I never met any person whom I disliked. It was a different time, a different world of love and peace and, of course, freedom. The biggest obstacle was my own thoughts, my doubts.”

Along the way, people sometimes invited him into their homes and gave him food in exchange for sketches. His artwork effectively became a form of currency.

After reaching Amritsar, PK was refused entry into Pakistan. His journey appeared to be over until he encountered a man named Mr. Jain, who recognized him from newspaper stories about his artwork. Jain offered to buy him a plane ticket to Kabul. Another German couple separately offered to transport PK’s bicycle.

In Afghanistan, he helped an Austrian traveler who had been injured in a car accident. After PK spent time helping her, she later sent him a train ticket to Vienna as a thank-you. And once in Vienna, a gallery owner who heard his story bought some of his paintings and provided him with another train ticket from Vienna to Gothenburg, which allowed him to continue traveling toward Sweden.

His only cash, meanwhile, stayed hidden in his belt.

“I hid that $80 in my belt and never touched it,” PK told National Geographic, adding that, along the way, in Kandahar, Kabul and Istanbul, he got letters from Lotta that encouraged him to keep going.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

The journey ultimately took 123 days.