01 – About

At the time of starting this trip, I was 37. I am from Cornwall, but live in Ealing in West London. I took a sabbatical from my boring local government job between the beginning of 2007 and mid-2008 to go on an overland trip. The planned route included Morocco and across North Africa, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Tibet, Cambodia, Vietnam, and eventually home via miscellaneous places ending in –stan.

Once on the road, circumstance militated in such a way that the route became Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Israel (without the car), Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Myanmar (Burma – without the car), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia (without the car), Eastern Russia, Kazakhstan, Western Russia and fast-forward home again.

Why do the trip at all? It’s something I have been thinking about for a while – partly because I like travelling and partly owing to the tribunal case:-

http://www.unison.org.uk/disabled/news_view.asp?did=2453

http://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.690195.0.councils_appalling_treatment_of_autistic_worker_in_landmark_case.php

Even before winning the case, my career wasn’t exactly flourishing and there is only so much enthusiasm one can maintain for a dead-end job.

People with Aspergers (AS) aren’t supposed to be very keen on travelling, preferring the steady routine of home life. However, I have found that for me travelling is one of the closest things to a cure for AS. My first girlfriend used to tell me I couldn’t read people and I could never understand what she was on about. I can well remember how I magically became able to read people during my travels between 1993 and 1995. Becoming able to pick up non-verbals from people was like another eye had opened. Just like China was the place where we learned fast how to eat with chopsticks because we had to, picking up non-verbals as a way of understanding what was going on was something I found myself developing when with people I couldn’t communicate with verbally. Perhaps it is like someone who develops other senses to compensate when they become blind.

I guess another reason for doing this trip is to prove that AS needn’t stop a person from travelling. I hope anyone with AS who reads this can take comfort that a person with AS can still do a challenging trip and perhaps be inspired to do something similar themselves.

Lots of people have questioned why I want to go to the countries I’ve chosen, rather than Africa or South America. Sub-Saharan Africa doesn’t really appeal to me, for some reason, and neither does South America. But I know that I’m missing out by not going to these places so I guess they will be on my list sooner or later. Many people have also wondered whether it’s safe to go to the Middle East given Bush and Bliar’s dog’s breakfast in Iraqistan…..on that we will have to wait and see but I guess I will have to keep my head down, reiterate my anti-Iraq war credentials and hope that the German-style number plates might diffuse any dodgy situations. If anything does go wrong, I am indebted to Jeff, who has so kindly and thoughtfully provided me with some choice Arabic translations!

AKBAR KHALI-KILI HAFTIR LOFTAN = Thank you for showing me your marvelous gun.
FEKR GABUL CARDAN DAVAT RAEH GUSH DIVAR = I am delighted to accept your kind invitation to lie down on the floor with my arms above my head and my legs apart.
SHOMAEH FIKR TAMOMEH GEH GOFTEK BANDE = I agree with everything you have ever said or thought in your life.
AUTO ARRAREGH DVATEMAN MAMO SEPAHEH-HAST = It is exceptionally kind of you to allow me to travel in the trunk of your car.
FASHAL-EH TUPEHMAN NA DEGAT MANO GOFTAM CHEESHAYEH MOHEMA RAJEBEH KESHAVAREHMAN = If you will do me the kindness of not harming my genital appendages I will gladly reciprocate by betraying my country in public.
KHREL JEPAHEH MANEH VA JAYEII AMRKAHEY = I will tell you the names and addresses of many American spies travelling as reporters.
BALLI, BALLI, BALLI! = Whatever you say!
MATERNIER GHERMEZ AHLIEH, GORBAN = The red blindfold would be lovely, excellency.
TIKEH NUNEH BA OB KHRELEH BEZORG VA KHRUBE GOYAST INO BERGERAM = The water-soaked bread crumbs are delicious, thank you. I must have the recipe.
BA BODENEH SHEERELL TEEGZ = Truly, I would rather be a hostage to your greatly esteemed self than to spend a fortnight upon the person of Cheryl Tiegs.

Also have a look at this website, just set up by a chap who came to see me in London to pick my brains about overlanding and to buy some of my equipment. Harry Purcell went straight from not even having a driving licence to getting one, driving across Europe, taking the ferry from Marseille to Algiers and then driving through Algeria in less than ONE month! www.across-then-up.com

If Harry can unleash a torrent of invective against the negative aspects of the people and places he encounters and make it look funny, maybe I should drop being so PC and leaving out all the bad bits. So what if it reads like ‘And another thing – Overlanding according to Jeremy Clarkson?’ He’s absolutely right, really. Websites where people rave about ‘the culture’ and how ‘spiritual’ it all is, while glossing over the sordid nitty-gritty of how they got ripped off or messed about through sheer stupidity get a bit samey after a while. If Harry can give them both barrels then so can I! I guess the main thing is to make sure it doesn’t read as though the writer has gone in with a bad attitude (which isn’t OK) as opposed to developing one as a result of experience (which is). This is something I became more aware of, following the posts I wrote about our disastrous experience with Arkno Tours in Libya. Certain people seemed to get in their heads that the angry things we wrote about Arkno AFTER how we were treated proved we had a bad attitude BEFORE it happened.

Harry also isn’t wrong about ‘journal’ websites getting a bit monotonous – ‘Day 3 – woke up, had banana porridge and yoghurt for 100 Rupees at the Bob Marley café with all the other gap year backpackers clutching their Lonely Planets like talismans. Went to the temple, fed the monkeys. Got a picture of me with the Taj Mahal in the background. Had Pad Thai at a stall on Khao-San Road for 50 Baht. Spent the evening in the internet café. PS – don’t tell Daddy I’ve maxed out the credit card’ etc etc. Will do my best to give impressions rather than day-by-day accounts of where I went and what I did (unless there are specific happenings worthy of mention).

Why travel by car, rather than public transport? This is definitely not the easy option. It costs more and there is a lot more risk involved. Balanced against this is the freedom to go wherever you want and when, but another contradiction I have had to grapple with whilst on the trip is that I have basically done the Lonely Planet trail, but under my own steam. In a lot of places, it’s not always that easy to avoid relying on the Lonely Planet (or similar guidebooks) to find sites to visit because of language. And from experience, places not in a guidebook tend not to be in it because there is nothing to see there. That being said, as long as you don’t expect to see anything specific in terms of museums/temples/galleries etc etc, I have found my best experiences with people have happened in places NOT frequented by tourists.

Another phenomenon/problem, call it what you will from travelling by car is that of keeping a diary. If someone else is driving, you tend to use time travelling to read, catch up on your diary and so on. But if you’re the one doing the driving, you are about as inclined to sit down and write things up after a long day’s driving as a chef is to cook when he gets home. This makes it a bit hard to remember details. It is like this verse from the poem ‘Despondency’ , by Matthew Arnold

Thoughts light, like gleams, my spirit’s sky,
But they will not remain.
They light me once, they hurry by;
And never come again.

After the trip, I eventually sold Landy in October 2008, using it just once for camping after I got back. It is not often that I buy a car, put 40,000 hard miles on it and then sell it nearly 2 years later for more than I paid for it. But that is what happened. Against this, of course, was the exit of the car symbolising the passing of an amazing time. But the car went to a good home – someone who overlanded with it through
Africa.