Someone sent me this article the other day. Check the link below.
It is about a man who is planning a year-long driving excursion crossing several different continents and spanning the globe. His route starts in NYC, continues down across Central America and into South America. Then he plans to put his truck on a ship and float to Africa where he will cross Asia Minor, hit Europe just for kicks, and then turn east across the Islamic countries finally getting into India, Thailand, and Cambodia before packing the car off in another boat headed for California. Seems like a difficult route!
After reading the article I took a long bus ride through the mountains. I would have rather been sitting in the passenger seat of a nice Toyota SUV than the back of an old, dusty, beat-up POS bus... BUT... I also would have gotten lost a million times over if I had to do the same trip by myself. I haven't really seen maps here and none of the streets are marked in English. It is extremely difficult to navigate using road names; basically you have to use landmarks. When ascertaining directions a local may say, "Go to the orange temple, turn left, go past the well and then ask someone there for more directions."
I usually have a decent sense of directions but I get lost here within a matter of blocks. I do not envy this guy at all... he is going to face some very, very, very frustrating travel delays along the way. You would not believe how slow travel is here until you live it. So many roads closed for bad bridges, new construction, or clearing landslides. Hell, our bus got delayed about 5-10 minutes behind a large and motley pack of sheep, goats, cows, donkeys, dogs, and boys the other day.
Ohhhh.... and so many cars fall off the roads! Very recently, there was an accident in the town of Tosh where I was staying for a few days. There, a taxi fell into the river only a matter of weeks ago killing two men. Apparently, the guy was backing up at night and just went too far and oooops, right off the cliff. From the village you could see the little white car all crumpled up and resting in the creek at the bottom of the ravine! The superstitious taxi-wallahs were charging extra to take anyone to the town because they feared the road was cursed. Also, while on the bus yesterday the Times of India had a front page article about a bus falling off a cliff (not far from my route) killing most people aboard.
I don't think a non-native has the fortitude to tackle these roads and I sure as hell wouldn't want to get lost and start asking for directions in Pakistan or Afghanistan with a fancy foreign car and a New York accent like the guy in this article. To each their own, I suppose! What do you think?
It is about a man who is planning a year-long driving excursion crossing several different continents and spanning the globe. His route starts in NYC, continues down across Central America and into South America. Then he plans to put his truck on a ship and float to Africa where he will cross Asia Minor, hit Europe just for kicks, and then turn east across the Islamic countries finally getting into India, Thailand, and Cambodia before packing the car off in another boat headed for California. Seems like a difficult route!
After reading the article I took a long bus ride through the mountains. I would have rather been sitting in the passenger seat of a nice Toyota SUV than the back of an old, dusty, beat-up POS bus... BUT... I also would have gotten lost a million times over if I had to do the same trip by myself. I haven't really seen maps here and none of the streets are marked in English. It is extremely difficult to navigate using road names; basically you have to use landmarks. When ascertaining directions a local may say, "Go to the orange temple, turn left, go past the well and then ask someone there for more directions."
I usually have a decent sense of directions but I get lost here within a matter of blocks. I do not envy this guy at all... he is going to face some very, very, very frustrating travel delays along the way. You would not believe how slow travel is here until you live it. So many roads closed for bad bridges, new construction, or clearing landslides. Hell, our bus got delayed about 5-10 minutes behind a large and motley pack of sheep, goats, cows, donkeys, dogs, and boys the other day.
Ohhhh.... and so many cars fall off the roads! Very recently, there was an accident in the town of Tosh where I was staying for a few days. There, a taxi fell into the river only a matter of weeks ago killing two men. Apparently, the guy was backing up at night and just went too far and oooops, right off the cliff. From the village you could see the little white car all crumpled up and resting in the creek at the bottom of the ravine! The superstitious taxi-wallahs were charging extra to take anyone to the town because they feared the road was cursed. Also, while on the bus yesterday the Times of India had a front page article about a bus falling off a cliff (not far from my route) killing most people aboard.
I don't think a non-native has the fortitude to tackle these roads and I sure as hell wouldn't want to get lost and start asking for directions in Pakistan or Afghanistan with a fancy foreign car and a New York accent like the guy in this article. To each their own, I suppose! What do you think?
its a good thing he bought insurance...not really sure how that will help when a Russian AK is staring you in the face from a Pakistani group of Taliban...my prediction - this guys truck gets stolen (prob at gunpoint) and he flies back home. Good Luck though!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's ballsy (or insane) to drive through most of (hostile) Arabia. However, my prediction is he doesn't get through southern Mexico or some shady Central American slum town without being robbed for the first time. I think his is in for a hell of a ride!
ReplyDeleteHe is gonna stick out so much everywhere he goes. Even in Mumbai (India's most "cosmopolitan" city) the cab drivers were pointing out and stammering over this white man driving an SUV in their city's traffic. He looked like a Diplomat, and must have lived there for quite a while, but these rickshaw-wallahs couldn't believe a white man was driving! How is he gonna blend in while in darkest AFRICA!?!