If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Often we get cheers from people about our courage to take on such a big project with such little resources.  Many tell us that we are crazy, jaws often drop when Steve Bouey tells them that he cashed out his whole retirement fund to put into this dream.  I have put a great deal of my savings on the line and dug a nice little black hole of credit as well.

When the project first started we went back and forth on the idea of starting TWBR as a non-profit so that we could have an easier time raising money. This was based on the idea that our objective was to work with schools when we return educating youth about what is really happening in the world and inspire them to follow after their dreams like we have.  Again, the majority of people are very supportive of us and these goals.  We don’t expect to change the world, but we certainly hope to change as many minds as we can about what is happening out there.  This is why we ultimately decided to not make this whole thing about a cause like everyone is doing these days.  Many races, expeditions, and adventures are about raising money for something, we did not want to make this about that.

Since both of us decided to pour our entire lives and financial security on the line for this project, it seemed reasonable to at least have the option at the end of this of turning a profit and maybe actually getting paid for the risks we have taken.  Still there are those few out there that take offense to this, as though we are selfish people.  Perhaps someday some of these angry people out there can realize that just because someone is trying to make money, doesn’t mean they cannot also be helping someone.  The most recent and anonymous comment on the blog writes as such:

“Let’s see…..there are hundreds of thousands of children starving, abused, homeless, uneducated, orphaned and generally unhappy every day. 30,000 USD would change the lives of an entire village. I could help them, or help this group put more gas in their SUVs drive around the world. Hmmmmmmmm……….”

This fine anonymous reader of the blog is from Milton, Queensland in Australia based on the IP address.  My question to him/her and anyone who feels the same way is, “What did we ever do to you?”  We are a couple of guys that believe just throwing money at poor, less fortunate people does not solve problems.  As we state in our mission statement and all the info on the site explaining what we are doing- Only 20% of Americans hold valid passports and an even smaller amount of them actually using them in a given year (some years less than 5% of Americans leave the country).  The statistics are very similar in most developed countries.  Although the statistics may be a little better in other countries, not many people who donate money to the Red Cross or the countless other organizations out there trying to help people have even been to the countries where the money is going.  From what we have seen, a majority of this money is misused or never even makes it to the people it was meant to help.

Man on his Soapbox - Courtesy of Wikipedia

There are still many upstanding organizations out there helping people, but saying that giving money to a village is more important than educating youth is crazy in my opinion.  If we can fill the world with more young people that are truly aware of world issues, then we will more quickly solve problems like starvation, illiteracy, corruption, disease, pollution and more.  The majority of people I have met on this journey, American or not, do not know where half of the countries in our route lie on a map.   Before we all fill ourselves with guilt because we are privileged or stand on our soapboxes about sending money abroad, remember that education and understanding are our most important tools to creating real change in the world.  Between Europe, the USA, and the other developed countries pouring billions of dollars each year into foreign aid and influencing countless decisions of other countries governments, it should be our duty as citizens of these countries to make sure that those dollars are spent responsibly and the decisions are made well.  Without ever even getting near these places, who are any of us to say where the money is best spent or whether the decisions being made are responsible?

………………………………………………………………………………………………

PS. Anonymous, if you are looking for a village that has a really great program helping locals, The ETC in KhaoLak, Thailand is a place I would recommend.  Our friend Reid Ridgeway runs the program and it is a place that makes an unbelievable difference in the lives of Thai people and helps to preserve their environment at the same time.  Also, if you were interested we also filmed with AUSAid in Indonesia, and your Australian dollars are being well spent there building schools.

It is a huge task.  There are so many amazing things that we see daily that we do not realize just how many photos we have to go through.  Steve Bouey did most of the work editing the photos and getting them up online.  Overall I think that he went through over a thousand photos to handpick and caption all of these for you all.  So enjoy.

Wildlife Alliance and Khao Yai

Our weekend with our new friends the Buddhist Monks

The Bridge over the River Kwai

Our first days in Cambodia and one of the worst roads in the world

The Temples of Angkor

Now I know that I told all of you I would visit.  A couple of years ago was when I first started talking to all of you.  At this point I know that I look like a bit of a liar.

When Steve and I started planning a while ago we told all of you that we would give you each about 10 days.  I have not heard any outright complaints, but I can here the whispers.

"Why did Australia get 2 months?"

"How come you are still in Thailand? Your visas are about to expire."

"Hey guys you said you would visit our continent in Sept."

I know what we said.  I know that we seem to be going slow, but it is hard.  Some of your cousins are not playing very nice.  We are trying to give each and every one of you a fair chance but one of your biggest friends is holding us out for a lot of money and being a little bossy.

I won’t name any names here but Big C is blocking our path and making a serious fuss about just saying hello for a few weeks.  But enough with the excuses, the truth is that we feel really bad and after all of the tests and stipulations we will be back on path motoring along in no time.  The fact of the matter is that we are just as upset as you are.  If you could maybe ask around and help us out a little we would gladly pick up the pace, maybe you have more pull than we do.

So stay up Euros, Africans and South Americans, we are on our way and promise to bring some presents when we arrive.

Sincerely,

Steven Shoppman

We only have a few days left before we drive on to Cambodia, and there are a lot of things to update everyone on regarding our last several days in Thailand.
As far as mosquito bites and fevers go, I am feeling a lot better. I still don’t seem to have much energy and find myself longing for sleep more than I ever have in my life. Even the smallest of tasks seem to wear me out but hopefully that will come to pass as well in the near future.

Since we have been in Bangkok, we have been working with USAID to film some of the projects they support in the region. Specifically we have been working with Wild Alliance(formerly Wild Aid) and learning more about the work they to to combat the illegal wildlife trade in SE Asia. The illegal wildlife trade is a pretty big problem in the region and we got to observe with our own eyes at the sprawling Jatuchak (J.J.)weekend market here in town. Staff from Wild Alliance also took us to visit a village on the outskirts of Khao Yai National Park where we meet Kuman… a former poacher turned organic mushroom farmer. With the help of Wild Alliance, Kuman is now a protector of wildlife in the park.

In the last week we have also been fortunate to meet Prah Luis, a Buddhist monk who found out about The World By Road while doing an internet search for Madagascar (long story). Prah Luis is working to connect travelers, volunteers and professionals who come to Thailand with projects that are in need of assistance. We have been staying at Wat Thakham, a Buddhist temple about an hour outside of Bangkok with Prah Luis and learning about his goals not just in Thailand, but around the world. The monks have been very kind and warm and we have found that we now have a pretty big support network in the region. If we are ever in need of a place to lay our heads for the night, there is a temple with open doors not that far off. The monks also assure us that the same hospitality will be extended to anyone passing through, you just might have to help out around the temple for a few hours. In our case the monks are working to build one of the tallest Buddha statues in the region at nearly 40 meters tall. We mixed some mortar and Steve climbed to the top of the structure to help secure some rebar…  a small price to pay for a rewarding cultural experience.

There is also some news to report from the getting into China front, we had to find a place that would perform a road safety check on the trucks. Apparently, China wants to make sure that our cars are not going to fall apart when we drive them across the border. The fact that they are new, manufactured to strict standards and have current registrations and documentation is not good enough I guess. Luckily, we found a place in Bangkok that performs such a test and 4 hours and 1,600 Baht later, we had our documents to send to China. Word on the street now is that we will have an entry date by the end of the month… fingers crossed. We have already deposited $1,000 into our contact’s account in China and he seems to think things will go smoothly.

O.K., not my death bed, but I certainly have felt like I wanted to die a few times. For the past five days or so, I have been… well, not well. I think I am starting to turn a corner, but after the roller coaster ride I have been on, I am not holding my breath, especially since one of my lungs feels like it has collapsed.

About mid last week, I felt fine and then almost instantaneously, I was hit with a noticeable fever. The fever was compounded by long periods of intense sweating followed by equally long if not longer periods of extreme chills. If I am not huddled in front of the air-con, I am curled up in a ball under a hot steaming shower. To make matters even more uncomfortable, my arms, hips and legs ache like they have never ached before. I feel like I am being used as a heavy bag by a championship boxer training for a title fight. I did manage to find my appetite somewhere in the last day which is nice, because I was not able to eat a single thing for nearly four days and the shorts I bought in Phuket are now about 3 sizes too big.

At first I thought what I had contracted was just a passing cold or maybe a case of the flu, but after 72 hours with little improvement and the fact that my gums were starting to bleed every time I tried to brush my teeth, I though I had better ask around. Believe it or not, many expat and US workers over here who saw me (yes we are still going out and trying to film stories) and listened to my symptoms smiled and told tales of when they too had been bitten by the odd mosquito who happened to be carrying  a bit of the old dengue fever with it.

I had heard of dengue fever, but I thought that it was more of a threat in Central America, Africa and India. As it turns out, it has a fairly sizable presence, actually epidemic, in the urban areas of SE Asia as well. After jumping online and looking at my symptoms, I am fairly certain that dengue fever is what my body is dealing with right now. Unfortunately, the only way to be 100 percent sure is to get a blood test and for those who know me… I won’t be pricking my veins to test for a disease that at this time does not have a treatment. That’s right, no cure no miracle treatment. Just rest, fluids and depending on how strong my immune system is, it might start to pass after a week or so. The good news? If it is dengue that I have contracted, I will now be immune from one of the four strains. The bad news? Since we are on the move on an expedition, we will probably be hanging out with the other three at some point.

Anyway, I am starting to feel a little bit better and for those who had to see the blood on my hands… literally… that seems to have tapered off as well. If it is what I think it is, I should have this thing licked in another few days. Luckily for me, I was in Bangkok when this thing hit instead of a tent on a lonely plateau in Mongolia.