Archives May 2010

It’s official! We’ve finally ironed out our route details to the finest detail. We have decided to head from London to Paris, and from Paris to Luxembourg. After a break, we’ll head to Nuremberg and the Prague for the 2010 Czech Out Party, which we’re all very excited about. From there we head south to Bratislava and Budapest before entering Romania for a few castle tours and vampire stalking. We then head to Chisinau and then into Ukraine to the famous port city of Odessa. From this point on the trip gets really interesting. We head due east through Russia, hugging the Black Sea coast until we enter Kazakhstan. We’ll cut inland and aim directly for the Aral Sea inside the Uzbek border. We’ll cut across Uzbekistan and then re-enter Kazakhstan heading north into the mountains. Back into Russia for a moment before entering Mongolia and racing across the open Steppe to Ulaanbataar. Yup, that’s what we’ll be doing this summer, driving across 1/3rd of the distance around the trodden earth. If none of this made sense, check out the nifty map we made (yeah, I should have led with that!):

View Central Asia Route Map created by ATC for the 2010 Mongol Rally

This map is awesome, and really shows the distance and scale of the land we’ll be covering. Some 8-10,000km through 13 countries in a car that even Mickey Mouse would say is too small– a 1.5l engine auto. Below is a picture of a rally car from 2009, ours will be very similar.

If you are more interested in the car, aka- how to buy, register and insure one in Europe, or even cooler (if that is possible) a post on all our awesome media coverage, or possibly the list of woe-is-me updates we made when we were feeling down, then check out these other posts or head to the Mongol Rally and Sponsorship pages, which explain it all.

Abandon the Cube has been extremely fortunate to be featured across the web and in print media while in the USA. Below are some of the media mentions we’ve received this year. We’d like to thank everyone for taking an interest in our Mongol Rally team, and for taking the time to write about us and our mission to raise money for Mercy Corps – Mongolia.

Nisqually Valley News – “Abandon the Cube Preps for Insane Race” Yelm, WA

Rockford Register Star – Article Coming Soon!!! Rockford, IL

And across the web on the following sites:

Far West China – “Mongol Rally 2010: Help Support Our Neighbors”
Fox Nomad – “Racing from the UK to Mongolia for Charity with ATC“
Nomadic Chick – “Mongol Rally – ATC Needs Your Help.”
A Pair of Panties and Boxers – “ATC and the 2010 Mongol Rally”
Ottsworld – “Help a Mongol Out…”
Flip Nomad – Interview – “Meet the Nomads, Lauren of ATC”

Please take a moment to look through some of these online stories or check out our print media. If you’d be interested in running a story on our team, we’d be interested in helping! Please contact us to get the ball rolling!

For the 2010 Mongol Rally, we’ll be buying our car in the UK and then licensing and registering it to leave the country almost immediately. We’ll also have to accumulate a bunch of documentation to appease the sundry border guards along the 12 border crossings, and import documentation for bringing the car into Mongolia. For an American, these tasks are not without their challenges. Since we’ve done a bit of research and have a clear idea of what the steps to accomplish this are, we’ve decided to outline it here in the hopes of saving someone else a massive, British-accented headache.

Buying the Car. There are several locally recommended car dealerships in the UK that seem pretty legitimate, trusted and versatile. Check out Gumtree, and  Autotrader to get you started. London’s Craigslist is another interesting option, as is the London eBay.

Registering the Car. The first step is to make sure your seller fills out and gives you the V5 form. You then give this form to the DVLA (the British DMV). Like the American DMV, this one promises long lines, frequent delays, and excessive and seemingly redundant amounts of paperwork. Then the car is in your name. Yay!

You’ll also need something called a MOT certificate (Ministry of Transport) that shows your car meets the minimum standards for safety and environmental protection. The seller should ensure the car already has this, and it is passed on to you. Better to buy a car that already has it then deal with the hassle of getting your car tested yourself.

Insuring the Car. Apparently every country on the planet has different rules about what needs to be in your car, what shape your car needs to be, and how to insure it. For example, cars in France have to have high-viz gear and an emergency triangle in the car. One way to deal with this is to get a carnet for the car, but that costs money. Or, you can find out each country’s laws individually and attempt to meet them all. Regardless, you’ll be buying random crap to stuff in your trunk to appease border guards.

You’ll also have to have the car insured. Coverage for the EU rarely extends into Russia and the ‘sSans. Rumor has it that you have to buy insurance at the border for these countries anyway, whether insured by a UK or EU provider. Our plan is to get insurance that covers us in Europe, and buy insurance at the borders everywhere else. If anyone has a brighter plan, we’d literally love to hear it!

Exporting the Car. As a foreigner buying a used car in the UK intending to export it, you’ll need to fill out a form (big surprise) called the VAT410, which gives you tax exemption. You might need to check with HM Revenue and Custom’s to ensure you have the right form for what you want to do.

Importing the Car. Luckily for us and other Mongol Rally teams, the rally admin are dealing with this. If you are going solo, keep in mind that it takes about a month to get the required paperwork for importing a car into most countries. If you have any info on how to do this, let us know so we can share with the whole class!

Finally, the car is yours and you are legally covered to ride. Only problem is that your car now has the driver’s seat and wheel on the right-hand side.

And now the age old question of how to get from A to B. We’re headed from the USA to Europe, and one would think with our strong historical and economic ties that finding a way over the pond would not be such a hassle. Nevertheless, we’re finding it a bit of a pain to get from the East Coast of America to the West Coast of Europe without stepping foot in an airplane.

Booking Websites: There are literally hundreds of websites dedicated to helping you find amazing cruise deals, but they would not be in business if they were not making money off of the bookings. In general, we found the services to be almost useless. You could use your generic expedia or orbitz, but they rarely return any real deals, and pretty much just summarize what you’d find by doing the looking yourself.

It is amazing how the internet, which simply has not been around that long, has replaced an entire occupation– travel agents. I would adore calling someone on the phone and giving them my desired departure dates and a budget and seeing what they come up with. Essentially, websites like travelocity make their occupation futile and redundant and I find that sad because travel agents were such amazing people with their own personal experiences backing up their advice and bookings. I guess travel blogging and booking online are somewhat similar.

Cruises: Usually repositioning cruises take place in the spring or fall, when ships need to move between warm water in winter and active tourism ports in summer. That means taking a transatlantic in the middle of the summer will not leave a whole lot of options. For cruise companies, the money is in the Bahamas and Mediterranean. You can find more info on this amazing blog post about the top ten cruise blogs. You can also find some help on My Cruise News.

Airlines: So, if cruises cost too much, should we fly? Flying across the Atlantic isn’t exactly affordable either! Flights are running a mere $100 to $200 less than a 7 night, all inclusive cruise. That seems like a no brainer to me, considering the available R&R on the ship versus the tedium and stress of flying. Airlines are quickly making themselves an unaffordable product, lets hope alternatives like ship travel are increased to take up the slack! A quick tip- you can often find cheaper flights if you book through a European website rather than an American one.

Freighters: One of the innovative areas in travel that has taken up some of the slack is freighter travel. We’ve looked into this pretty extensively. You can go through several sites like the following: www.freighter-travel.com; www.freighterworld.com; and www.freighter-travel-review.com or try to find a freighter leaving by contacting your departure port. Most freighters can only take between 2-12 passengers and have age and health restrictions. The average cost is about $100 a day, and transatlantic crossings take a minimum of 9 days in most cases (making the cost nearly equivalent to cruising).  However, if you have the money and lots of time, you can see some exotic ports and have a relaxing and casual cruising experience.

So, thats the skinny on our options of getting from America to Europe. I’m still hoping Cunard will call me and offer me a free cruise for saying how wonderful they are. They are so wonderful, utterly delightful and fantastic. . . . . I’ll be waiting by the phone.

We get a lot of questions about how we manage different aspects of full-time travel. To answer them, we’ve put together a special Resources page on the website that will hopefully help people find out if they can Abandon their Cubicles, how to do it, where to get the things they need to do it successfully, and just some general information on traveling. We’re not claiming to be any authority on the topic, we’re just hoping to help! here’s what the new page covers:

Is It Feasible. The ‘should you?’ the ‘could you?’ and the ‘how to do’ of abandoning your cubicle. Whether you are thinking of a leave of absence to travel for a few weeks or months, or a full out Jerry Maguire storm out,t hen this will help you assess if now is the best time, and some of the things to consider before you flick off your boss.

Insurance. Lots of people need this to travel. Although we don’t personally have any travel insurance (yet) we’ve checked out some of the options and we have a few links posted that could maybe provide you with what you are looking for. Coverage for a short-term trip shouldn’t run you more than $250, so be wary of people who charge by the month or who promise you year-long coverage for less.

Visas. These little stamps can cost you big bucks, and be a royal pain. But thankfully there are some easy ways to tackle visas like nifty visa services. For some countries (Russia) you’ll have to use a service if you want it done right, fast and without hassle. For others you’re better off doing it alone. We give you some tips on the resources page, as well as at the bottom of every destination page.

Guides. Seasoned travelers always have their favorite guide books, and hardly ever deviate from those. We use a mix of our favorite guide book (which we won’t give a free promo here) and online sites like travel blogs for the area, or wikitravel. We have more info to be found about guides on the resources page!

Languages. The number one thing people ask us about is how we get around without speaking native languages. The answer is that we try really, really hard to learn. We do that with language guide books, i-touch programs, online sites and a lot more. Its important to us to try to talk to people in their native tongue, and we use a lot of different resources to try to achieve that aim.

Equipment. People get really excited about the equipment we use. We’ll meet someone on a camping trail and spend the first fifteen minutes talking supplies before we even get around to introductions. A good tent can make or break the whole trip, and everyone who travels full time has very strong, very serious views about cook stoves.

Expat and Teaching. Many people go overseas for a change of pace to look for an expat-style job or to teach English while they enjoy the local culture. We have some resources for you to do both, including how you can get your teaching certificate (which we did last year, just in case!).

Social Media & Staying Connected. We also listed some nifty travel websites, travel tools online, and ways to stay connected with your loved ones while on the road.

So, to see all that info and more, check out the new Resources page!

We have been extremely fortunate in who we have come in contact with through Abandon the Cube. We’ve met so many amazing travelers, as well as great writers, photographers and people on amazing missions across the planet. While we’d love to tell you about everyone we meet, there literally isn’t enough space for the high praise we’d want to laud on some of these worthy travelers. Nevertheless, here is a glimpse at two travel writing teams and how they have chosen to spend their lives on the road fighting for a cause.

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We were recently contacted by two inspired travelers named Bernard and Danielle who have been traveling throughout Africa interviewing local farmers, NGOs, and community groups who are working to alleviate hunger and poverty. They operate a travel blog site called Borderjumpers. Danielle, who is a livestock and sustainability expert, is traveling across the continent for Worldwatch, a USA-based think tank. She talks with farmers about their ongoing projects, their efforts to combat hunger and poverty, and the sustainability of their work. Bernard is an expert on local labor movements and communication, and travels with Danielle helping to discuss important issues with locals in every African country. Their mission is to visit every country in Africa and talk about farming, labor movements and the future with everyone. You can learn more about these travelers by visiting their travel blog. While they are traversing the continent they are uploading blogs when they find internet. We encourage you to check out the duo’s work and link to their site!

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You might also be extremely interested in learning about Josh, who created and runs Far West China, a travel blog and information site about Xinjiang, China. Xinjiang is a little mentioned area in the world’s most populated country, and one that is distinctly different. A primarily Uyghur, Muslim area, Xinjiang is home to Kashgar, Urumqi and Dunhuang– just a few treasured locations you’ve probably heard of. Josh writes extremely well researched guides to attractions in the area, like his ebook on Turpan. Josh not only keeps up with local news, local travel info and local culture, but he is an active advocate for the Uyghur people. His passion for China’s far west province has landed him an endearing spot in our travel hearts. Check out his blog, check out his site and definitely grab a peek at the newly released ebook.

So much has happened in such little time, and yet so much remains undone! With the Mongol Rally launch date fast approaching we’re quickly losing sleep over the amount of work needing to be completed before our piddly rally car can promenade out of London.

Remaining to be done:

• Visas. We literally have none. Although, by the time you read this we’ll be well on our way to filling out the gruesome paperwork required for all of these lovely entrance tickets. We’ll need visas for 5 countries along our route, so we’re hoping no one turns us down!
• Car. Yes, that’s right. We don’t have a rally car yet. Would you like to donate one? If so, we gladly accept provided it has an engine. We’re working on finding a car in the UK and dealing with the issue of where to store it until our arrival and how to start the registration process from afar.
• A method of arrival. We are hoping to take a boat from the East Coast, USA to Europe, and we’re busy searching the internet for cruise deals, freighter travel that is affordable or even a rickety dinky that we can paddle across the big pond.
• Money. Yup, we still don’t have a whole lot of that green stuff. However, we’re hoping someone extremely wealthy and wonderful will donate a bunch of that right before we leave. Its for a good cause, and Mercy Mongolia would be as happy as we would if a huge sponsor stepped in!

Already done:

• Team mates. On the up side, we are ecstatic to have Bill on the team, and we have every reason to believe a 4th team member will be joining us soon.
• Equipment. We also have almost all the supplies we need for the 10,000 mile journey, which is great news because without the car we might be hiking the 10,00 miles (and we’re well equipped to do so with all the survival stuff we have!)
• Route. We’ve ironed out our exact route and we have even put together a decent time line of where we will be and when! Nifty what information you can find online, as well as all the cool tools available for trip planning on a massive scale. You can find some of these tools listed on the Resources page.
• Communication. Lauren is busy learning Russian as quickly as a brain can hold that knowledge. We also have all the language apps one i-touch can hold, as well as a few PC programs for language acquisition and a nifty phrase book for Russian. When all else fails, we’ll do as the Italians do and gesture!

That’s where we are, folks! Wish us luck on the insanity that is about to ensue as we get our butts to the UK and get this rally underway!

Abandon the Cube has been around since 2008. While we’re not into celebrating a massive birthday party for the website or the concept, we’re excited about reaffirming our travel philosophy and taking stock of where we are, where we’re going and what we’ve seen.

By Ground Travel. By now you’ve all learned that we like to travel primarily by ground transport. Any flight across open land or water leaves the earth beneath you undiscovered, which we find goes against the spirit of how we enjoy experiencing the world’s most unexpected places. Over the past two years we’ve formed this website of travel tips, destination guides, humorous pictures, influential travelers who have inspired us and more so that we could share what we see and hopefully encourage other people to abandon their cubicles and see some of the world’s least trodden paths.

Time as the ONLY vital factor. To date we have inspired no one to quit their job. People look at us with raised eyebrows and wonder why any sane person would throw away security and comfort in exchange for several meals a day made out of rice. To us, time is the one thing that can really be stolen from you while you are on this planet. Nevertheless, people still think that if you work hard now by the time you are 45 you’ll be able to retire. In reality, who has ever retired at 45? The plan simply doesn’t work. Meanwhile, you throw away the best time in your life working, stressing and acquiring status, money, security, etc… but you can’t get that time back. Its a trade off and an unfair one in our opinions. I’m personally willing to work longer in life rather than abusing the time I have now. They say youth is wasted on the young, but I’m hoping they won’t say that about us. The reality of the situation is that society is designed to ensnare people. Right out of High School you have either college loans to pay, or else housing so you are independent. Now you have a car payment, insurance, health costs, food, your cell phone and internet….. even if you wanted to quit your job you can’t because you have bills coming in. That’s the way it is designed, and to an extent that’s why the machine of our economy works. However, if you take away all the things that require you to have a job then you no longer are in need of one. I do some writing for money here and there and make enough to cover my college loans. Outside of that, traveling full time costs us less than any apartment would, and we pay for that with money we saved while working in Shanghai for a year. We were able to save so much because we did not have a car, cell phones are pay-as-you-go rather than a 2-year-death-contract and we choose an apartment that was extremely affordable (if not minuscule). We figured out a way to Abandon our Cubicles and still meet our obligations, and that makes me confident that you could figure that out as well.

Experiences are Everything. I suppose it goes without saying that we weigh experiences very highly. We signed up for the 2010 Mongol Rally, as you know, because we saw the experience as an amazing opportunity to meet new people, have a great and daring adventure and travel 1/3 of the earth’s surface by land. Planning is still underway and we launch July 26th from London. Experiences and relationships are so important, and we hope to have an amazing adventure meeting amazing people on the Rally. Likewise, we’re excited about the new experiences coming our way after the Rally when we backpack through South East Asia and hopefully land in Thailand for a while as a place to kind of rest for a while, look for a part time job and save up so we can have more adventures down the road.

Reflections on an Amazing Year. Its is easy for us to say that 2009 was one of the best years of our lives. We left Shanghai on May 1st, 2009 and traveled by land all the way to Seattle, USA by December. In that half a year we saw and did so many amazing things that we’re likely to always look back on 2009 with a whimsical smile. From visiting Kashgar in summer, to driving across Uzbekistan with a giant; from standing near a burning crater in Turkmenistan, to living in a tent in Turkey during Ramadan; from roughing it in a cheap Bulgarian hostel, to riding a luxury cruise ship through the Virgin Islands. We nearly circumnavigated the globe (minus only the Pacific Ocean aspect of returning to Shanghai). That is why 2009 was a rich, and beautiful year. We’re hoping that the 2010 Mongol Rally that takes us from Seattle (where we are now) to Thailand via land and sea is as enriching, enchanting and captivating as the adventures of ’09.

When ever you get to the point, if this actually happens, that you feel like there isn’t anything else you could do to top what you have already done, come look at our new page of Influential Adventurers and Explorers.  Lauren put together this list of some absolutely amazing trailblazers, some of whom are classic and some who are modern and not so well known, yet.  I want to take a moment to mention some of my personal favorites, but I urge you to check out our entire page which is complete with books and movies which were written about or by the explorer or adventurer.

Zheng He Painting

An ode to China, probably because of personal ties and interest in Chinese history – Zheng He.  There have been several books written about him recently and a lot of research about his accomplishments under the Yongle  Emperer.  He commanded a fleet of around 300 ships and over 20,000 men and possibly sailed as far as the Americas. See:  1421: The Year China Discovered America.  Moreover, he did all of this without his genitalia as he was a Eunuch.  Quite impressive if you ask me.

Zheng He and Christopher Columbus Ship Model

Not only was his fleet probably the largest of his time, the size of his ships was 10 times that of European mariners of his time period.   We were lucky to see Zheng He’s tomb in Nanjing when we visited in early 2008.  For connecting China to the rest of the world and bringing back cultures from every end of the known world, as the time, to the Emperor, Zheng He deserves a place on our list as a recently well known explorer.

In Expedition 360 Jason Lewis, a modern day adventurer, circumnavigated the globe by human power only – absolutely no engines at all.   He taught children while he traveled and raised money for charity along the way.  Hats off to such a brilliant accomplishment.  It is great to see people of our time still finding things that have not been done before and pursuing the impossible.  Jason wrote about some of his experiences in a book titled: Flightless: Incredible Journeys Without Leaving the Ground.

Benedict Allen

Benedict Allen is another personal favorite, and recently discovered adventurer of our times.  Instead of using all the fancy gadgets we have now, Allen has reverted back to the way of the original explorers in an almost necessary way.   His ability to leave his laptop and GPS behind deserves him a spot on our list.  Allen relies on embedding himself with indigenous people and learning their ways and culture and hoping they, and sometimes children, will take him in and teach him their ways.  He uses the skills they teach him to get through their terrain and survive in their environments as well as get him from A to B. Into the Abyss.

If you have any more influential and perhaps not so well known adventurers / explorers to add, please comment below and we will add them to our Influential Adventurers page on www.abandonthecube.com.

Trying to Hug a Redwood

I’ve always wanted to go to the Redwood National Forest in Northern California.  While we were out in the Pacific Northwest, we decided that it would be the perfect time to go.  So we packed up the car and picked up some friends in Eugene on the way down.

After the Greyback experience in Oregon, we packed up and crossed the border into California the next day.  Immediately, we were forced to pull over and go through a sort of customs.  We were a little concerned, as we had an entire car full of trash containing beer and wine bottles from the previous night of camping.  Luckily, a very mild Department of Agriculture employee walked out and asked us if we were carrying any fruits into California.  I paused, not wanting to get the apples we had saved for breakfast confiscated by the Agriculture Gestapo, but said, “we have some apples.”  Apparently, you can not transport citrus or avocados into California. Luckily we got away with the apples and continued our weekend venture down to the Redwood Forest.

The drive down to Crescent City was beautiful.  We went through several forests and drove down roads which wrapped around downs and large hills for the duration of a little more than an hours drive.  First thing we noticed was the curve speed / warning signs in California are not really recommendations like most places in the US.  You pretty much have to go exactly that speed, or less, around the curves to avoid rolling your car.  It was a pretty intense drive.  Right before you reach Crescent City, if you are coming form the North, you will go through a redwood forest grove with a small pull over area for cars.  We highly recommend you stop here and take the 3-5 mile hike through the groves.  It was well worth it and had trees that were completely different than elsewhere in the forest.

Fallen Redwood

We also did the famous “drive-thru tree,” which the Park Ranger was pretty upset about and said they would never do that to a tree.  However, this tree is on private property and it is still a good experience to drive an entire vehicle, in this case a van, through a tree with plenty of room to spare.    There are signs all over Highway 101 for the tree; the 101 is a highly recommended as it goes right through the national and state parks.  Make sure you stop at the information center in Crescent City as the rangers there will give you the perfect trip tailored to you time schedule.

They also recommended several camping spots in the State Parks.  We chose one and drove off 101 for about 30 minutes and came to a cliff overlooking the Pacific.  We parked our car, and hiked all of our supplies up the hill to find a phenomenal campsite surrounded by redwoods with a view of the ocean.  We could hear the Pacific rolling below us all night long while laughing and talking over a few drinks.  The majesty of the redwoods and their unworldly presence was an amazing experience making it easy to understand how sci-fi and fantasy writers have used the Redwood Forest as inspiration for their books and movies.  Planet Endor, in Return of the Jedi was filmed in the Redwood National Forest.  A perfect set for what truly looks like another world.