What Season is it?

By Steve Bouey in

June 10, 2007 – 10:43 pm

When we first left Denver back in February, it was the middle of winter and as we drove through Vail, we were treated to probably the last snow storm we would see for quite some time. I was browsing a local Denver news site the other day to check in on what has been going down in the mile hi city and noticed that the weather forecast called for temps in the 80’s. It struck me pretty hard that it is now summer back home and that I have been gone for nearly 4 months. Time has been flying by for me and without the changing of the seasons to keep my mental clock on track, you really do start to loose track of time pretty quickly.

For us, the temperature has pretty much been the same since we left. I would estimate that the average temperature for the duration of TWBR to date has been somewhere around 90. We experienced some cooling off in southern Australia, but as soon as it did, we were headed north along with the "gray migration." (In Australia, when it gets cold in the south, thousands of older, retired folks pack up their RV’s and drive north to Alice, Darwin and Queensland for a few months in an annual phenomenon known throughout  Australia as the "gray migration.") 

Here in SE Asia, and particularly in countries close to the Equator such as Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, the weather is pretty much consistent all-year round with the exception of the wet/dry seasons. This consistent weather pattern makes it even easier to loose track of time in my opinion. We were talking with some people from Singapore the other day about the changing of the seasons and they assured us that Singapore also experiences four seasons: hot, hotter, hottest and hot and wet. Currently it is the "hottest" season and typically May is the hottest month, although the hot and wet season has apparently been lingering around and we are greeted every day to some pretty significant afternoon deluges. The wet weather is something I guess we had better get used to since we happen to be heading north on the tail of the monsoonal flow which brings lots of moisture to the region but little relief from the heat.

It was nice to experience some warmer weather once we left the states, but I have to admit, I am missing the cold a bit right now. At a minimum, being witness to the shift from winter to spring and spring to summer would have kept me more mindful of the amount of time I have been away from my home, friends and family. However, at the same time, here in the tropics -where time seems to stand still while speeding  forward – at least you know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, what to wear and what time to run for cover.  

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Malaysia, Trip Thoughts | Comments (1)

What to Eat and How Much Heat

By Steve Bouey in

June 9, 2007 – 10:42 pm

I love being in South East Asia. For someone who likes to experiment with food, this is truly a culinary paradise. When I talk about experimenting with food, I don’t mean that you have to go to extremes, although I have managed to dine on various types of snake meat, some brain, the most foul smelling fruit on the planet, and some of the spiciest food I have ever ingested to date. By experimentation, I mean the shear variety of food that is available to you here in SE Asia.  You can choose from an endless menu of Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Middle-Eastern and European food. All of these options are dwarfed by the numerous varieties of Thai, Indonesian and Malay dishes that are served up by the food hawkers that line many of the side street and back alley markets in cities such as Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

for you. If you really want to get lit up, try some Thai style Tom Yum soup. If you like spicy food, this is not a problem as restaurants and vendors alike will heat things up. Even McDonald’s serves up hot chili sauce with it’s fries. If you prefer to keep it healthy, a plethora of freshly squeezed juices are served pretty much everywhere and the wet markets (fruit market) abound with exotic and delicious varieties such as star fruit, dragon fruit, lychees, mangoes and the often discriminated against durian fruit… it smells so bad that it is usually forbidden to eat in public places and buildings.

The prices make the food even more enticing. A healthy serving of Curry Laksa will cost you about 3 Ringit ($1), a kilo of lechees about 2 Ringit and a hot bowl of Bakso soup from a vendor in Indonesia can be yours for about 500 Rupiah ($0.05) Whatever your taste bud’s may fancy, they are sure to find something to become addicted to in SE Asia. For me, I would have to say it has become the Curry Laksa… a tasty Malaysian dish with thick noodles, chicken and seafood served in a spicy coconut curry sauce… it hits the spot every time.  

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Food, Malaysia | Comments (0)

Did You Know? (The Number 4)

By Steve Bouey in

June 8, 2007 – 10:43 pm

Given that we are learning a lot about the different places and cultures we are being exposed to on the World by Road, we thought that it would only be appropriate to share some of these tidbits of information in what we hope will be a weekly blog called: Did you Know? So without further ado, here is the first installment.

You already know that the number 13 represents bad luck back in the States to the point that many hi-rise buildings don’t officially list having a 13th floor. Well, people here in Malaysia don’t really have a problem with the number 13. Not true with the number 4. In SE Asia and predominantly cultures in the region with a Chinese influence, the number 4 represents bad luck, death and all that is bad so you won’t see too many buildings with a 4th floor listed here. In fact, we were told that some of the Chinese gangsters here in Kuala Lumpur even incorporate the number 4 into the name of their crew (Four Horsemen, etc.) to add to the intimidation factor.

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Malaysia | Comments (0)

Endau Photos

By Steven Shoppman in

June 6, 2007 – 11:27 am

We have photos from Endau Rompin National Park.

Click here.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Malaysia, New Photos | Comments (0)

So you want to know a little about the trucks.

By Steven Shoppman in

June 5, 2007 – 7:51 am

We have our trucks page finished, or rather started.  Soon we will have regular updates on this page, along with statistics about the trucks performance.  So far we could not be happier with their performance.  So check out the page, we have a photo gallery with a bunch of photos as well.

Click here to check out the Trucks Page.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Expedition Updates | Comments (0)

Weekly Update

By Jimmy Swift in

June 5, 2007 – 1:11 am

With in only minutes of our trucks rolling off the ship in Singapore we crossed the boarder into Malaysia. We made a b-line for Malaysia’s capital city Kuala Lumpur to meet up with our new Malaysian friend Wan. After a few days in Kuala Lumpur hanging with Wan and trying to get some much needed work done, but we found it impossible to get anything done. When in the presence of Wan you generally wake up the next day not feeling so hot.

After KL we headed to Endau-Rompin National Park were we set out into the jungles to hang with the Orang Asli people (tribal people). Endau-Rompin is a beautiful untouched rain forest, and one of the few left in Malaysia. The Steve’s trekked deep into the jungles to find a waterfall as i sat back at camp nursing my everlasting headache.

We will be in Thailand in the next few days so keep watchin.

By Jimmy Swift | Posted in Expedition Updates, Malaysia | Comments (0)

What’s the name of that street?

By Jimmy Swift in

June 4, 2007 – 5:24 am

Img 0071For most of us when we think of driving around the world, we think of the open road where there’s no other cars and no real traffic laws. I feel thats going to be the case for 70% of the trip but the other 30% is filled with the joys of trying to navigate in some of the worlds biggest cities. This type of driving brings me back to when i was on vacation with a girlfriend in Ireland. We rented car and proceeded to find our way to a hotel in Dublin, after spending about 2 hours driving around in circles in the heart of Dublin we ended up getting a different hotel due to the fact that we just psychically couldn’t get there thanks to one way streets and poorly marked roads. 5 years later i find myself in the same situation, this time my girlfriend is Bouey… which shouts out street names in the same tone as my x. The city is now Kuala Lumpur rather then Dublin, but the street names and stupid one way roads are the same. There really is no good way at getting better at this cause every city has a different layout. So i guess the only thing we can work on is just relaxing and remembering that tomorrow we will be back in the middle of nowhere, where the traffic laws are the ones we make up and the road is where we point the car.

By Jimmy Swift | Posted in Expedition Updates, For some laughs, Malaysia, Trip Thoughts | Comments (0)

Does Anyone Know Why Shipping Cars is So Difficult?

By Steve Bouey in

June 1, 2007 – 11:08 pm

Luckily we did not ship our cars from Australia to Indonesia, because even shipping them to the largest and arguably, most efficient port in the world – Singapore – is proving to be a strain on my mental sanity. I am sure most of you are well aware of the difficulties we had in shipping the Toyotas from the States to Australia. After that experience, we thought that we had seen the worst. Well, I won’t necessarily say that our current situation is worse, but it is equally as frustrating.

On May 4, we dropped our trucks off at the port in Darwin and flew off to Indonesia to wait out the two week transit time. The vehicles were supposed to be packed and loaded on a ship bound for Singapore on May 10, with a scheduled arrival date in Singapore of May 19. The process of dropping off and shipping our cars from Darwin was informal at best. After leaving the Toyotas with the container company, all we had to show for what constitutes 99% of The World by Road was a hand-written piece of paper indicating the depot had received the trucks and was going to put them on a ship bound for Singapore. In some situations, an informal process can be a relief, but when we are talking about 10’s of thousands of dollars worth of Sequoias and Tundras and more importantly, our livelihood,  one would expect to have a little more to show for it than an hand-written receipt.

I was assured by the shipping company that once the vessel had sailed, I would receive a formal Bill of Lading and and invoice for the shipment via e-mail. As I mentioned before, the vessel was supposed to arrive in Singapore on May 19, so I was a little more than concerned when I had not heard or received anything as of May 17.  By this point, we had already purchased plane tickets to Singapore and I was flying out a day earlier to take care of the necessary paperwork to clear them through customs and get them street legal in Singapore and Malaysia. After contacting the shipping company, they informed me that the trucks had not even left Darwin yet as the ship had been delayed by a week. Now, from a customer service standpoint, you might think that this would be important information that we as customers should know about. Apparently not.

I guess it could be worse. We could be stuck waiting somewhere less conducive to getting work done. Singapore is nice, albeit expensive, and there is plenty to do to keep us occupied. In fact, one of the main things that has occupied our time is trying to pay for the shipment of the trucks since our bank in the States won’t initiate an international wire transfer without you physically being present, and the shipping company won’t accept credit cards or checks. Instead of exploring the city-state of Singapore and checking out all that it has to offer, Shoppman and I are spending time sitting in shipping offices and learning that even banks in the financial heart of half the globe can boggle the mind with how difficult they can make a simple transaction… luckily we are able to forge our own signatures and have the ability make up fake local addresses… don’t even ask.

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Shipping | Comments (0)

Update May 30th, 2007 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

By Steven Shoppman in

May 30, 2007 – 11:07 pm

We are now starting a routine of regular video updates.  So here is our first one…go easy it was our first time doing this and we only did one take. 🙂

You can watch it here on our site with the link below or on Stage6 in higher quality.  http://stage6.divx.com/The-World-By-Road—Around-the-World-by-Two-Trucks

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Expedition Updates, Malaysia | Comments (0)

TWBR and the “Mayor” of KL

By Steve Bouey in

May 30, 2007 – 11:12 am

As most of you know, the ship ferrying our cars from Australia to Singapore arrived a week late, so we were forced to find something to occupy our time for a few days. We decided to cross over into Malaysia and take a taxi up to Mersing which is the departure point for Palau Tioman (Tioman Island). Tioman is a beautiful island in the South China Sea where many local Malaysians go to escape city life for the weekend and relax.

On the evening of our second day on Tioman, a lively group of individuals invited us to a barbecue they were throwing on the beach. The group was from Kuala Lumpur or "KL" and were vacationing on Tioman for a few days. We graciously accepted their invitation and were treated to one of the biggest and best barbecues any of us have ever experienced. The deliciously marinated chicken, lamb, crab, barracuda and stingray meat was carefully tended to by Eszkandar who also managed to mix up some drinks in-between flipping the feast before us. It also helped that he is a part-time bartender at some of the hot spots in KL.

Eszkandar’s wife Ruby managed the tunes on a laptop, complete with huge floor speakers, and "DJ Rubes" kept the music flowing all night long. The whole extravaganza was orchestrated by a guy named Wan Kamal. It wasn’t long before we realized that Wan and his crew knew how to have a good time. Now you might think that it is a pretty normal occurrence for people on vacation to throw a barbecue and have a few drinks, but the hospitality shown to us by Wan and his friends was far from anything most of us had ever experienced. We were treated to a never ending supply of meat and refreshments and when we wanted to return the favor, Wan refused saying that we were guests in his country and it was his duty to ensure we have a good time.

After spending a few more nights on Tioman and once again being the recipients of Wan’s hospitality, we returned to Singapore to fetch the cars. We told Wan we would be going through KL in a few days to drop Caki off at the airport and get some work done and with that, he gave us his number and told us he would show us around town when we arrived.

As promised, we met back up with Wan for Caki’s last night with TWBR and is was a night to remember. Wan, Eszkandar and DJ Rubes picked us up and took us to Planet Hollywood. (Don’t judge… it was a good time and warrants another blog entry) Eszkandar used to bartend at Planet Hollywood and Wan knew the managers very well and as such we were treated very well. After eating, we went to one of the hot clubs, Aloft, and we soon realized that Wan had a lot more friends. With Wan leading the way, the TWBR entourage breezed right into the club, avoiding a sizable line filled with people who had just parked their Ferrari’s and we walked straight into the VIP section. Upon finding the VIP section full, Wan spoke with the owner of the club, another close friend, and before we knew it, some other people were forced to give up their table. It was then we realized that we had met up with the unofficial mayor of KL.

We went out with Wan a few more times in KL and he assisted us in doing everything from investigating CB radios for the trucks to providing contacts of potential expedition sponsors. When we told him that we were headed to Subang to meet with a guide outfit we hoped would lead us through some of the national parks here in Malaysia, Wan insisted that we stay at a resort where he could give us the "corporate discount." It just so happens that Wan’s jurisdiction extends beyond KL and as a result, we are getting some work done for $40US per night at a 5 star resort.        

From the beginning, we wanted to get off the beaten path as we drove around the world. KL is pretty much right in the middle of the beaten path, however, the trip is also about meeting local people and we definitely lucked out. Thanks to Wan, our time in Malaysia has been much more memorable, we have some great stories and experiences to share and we have done so for practically nothing. We have heard some rumors from people who have seen us out with Wan that he is somehow a member of one of the Sultanates. Whatever the case may be, Wan has treated us like royalty and we look forward to returning the favor when he comes to visit after we return to the states.

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Malaysia, Trip Thoughts | Comments (0)