planned_route

On January 1, 1999  legendary investor Jim Rogers embarked with his wife on a Guiness World Record setting road travel crisscrossing the globe passing through 116 countries, covering more than 245,000 kms of highways, dirtroads, deserts, tundra, steppes, urban jungles and war zones.   This trip took them more than 3 years to finish in their custom made, Mercedes Benz station wagon. (The map above traces the route that Jim Rogers made for his record setting voyage)

Being born in an archipelago, I often yearn of doing a loooooong road trip with a distance of at least 2,000 miles (which is nearly impossible if you’re living on an island).  One item in my “Bucket List or Things To Do Before I Die” is to travel the length (or what’s left of it) of the famous, though decomissioned, Route 66.   This highway, nicknamed, America’s Main Street, stretches 2,448 miles and starts from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California.     This was inspired by the 2006 animated movie, Cars.  And I intend to do this with my daughter.

Another crazy road trip that I want to embark on is to drive a car/SUV from Tierra Del Fuego, the Southernmost tip of the American continent all the way to Anchorage, Alaska.     It’s an outrageous idea shamelessly copied from Ewan McGregor’s road trip from Scotland to Cape Agulhas in South Africa.

I’m not filthy rich like Jim Rogers or famous like Ewan McGregor to be able to finance or find sponsors for those road trips.     Then one evening, over dinner,  my very good friend Ajarn Pudpadnoy Omglin (a legend in muay thai and considered to be one of the top 3 fighters of all time) shared to me and my family about his plans of doing a road trip from Paris to Bangkok on his 60th birthday (that’s 2 years from now) as an honor to King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.    He intend to do this journey with three friends, two of whom are Thais.  And to my surprise, he said that if it is ok, he wants me to be part of the long voyage.

Those words sounded like a TV announcer declaring my lotto ticket number as the jackpot winning combination.   Of course, I want to join that trip.    The voyage  will be financed by a Thai Billionaire (who must remain unnamed) who has a collection of more than 1,000 antique cars, military vehicles and even a decomissioned Norwegian military submarine!

Though it’s still two years from now, the route and date of the voyage is already planned.   We will leave Paris during summer (Of course!  The bitter European winter will definitely decimate the bodies of 4 Southeast Asians accustomed to tropical weather) then go up north to the European capitals Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm then down to the Baltic Republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), then to Minsk, Moscow, across to the Russian tundra,  down to the former Soviet States Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, then eastward to Tibet, China then go down to Laos and finally, to Bangkok, Thailand.   There’s no estimate yet of how long the journey will be.

To say that I’m excited is an understatement.  But I really have to prepare for this trip because I will be the youngest person in the expedition.   This early, I am already preparing by studying first aid, navigation  and the geography of the route (this is my forte) and of course, I have to study even just the basic of several European languages.

Two years is enough time to prepare, but given my situation,  having a full time job, a family to support plus other engagements and commitments, I’m concerned that it may not be sufficient.  I’ve also been asking some of my friends in religious services (either as priest or pastors) to pray for this trip to push through and for the health of King Bhumibol, in whose honor this voyage is being dedicated to.

But whatever happens, I will still live by one of my principles.  That is prepare for an opportunity even though there’s no assurance that it will come rather than an opportunity coming and I am not prepared for it.  Looking forward to June 2011.