Friday, May 09, 2008
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CURRENTLY WATCHING: "LONG WAY ROUND"
Okay, I am not currently watching “Long Way Round” as I write this. But, I recently purchased the documentary DVD “Long Way Round” (which by the way I highly recommend) and I watch it when I am at home. It is also a book. This is a 2004 real life and ultimate road trip taken by Ewan McGregor, a Scottish actor and Charley Boorman, an English actor and adventurer. They ride their BMW motorcycle from London, England to New York, New York, a 19,000 mile trip total. Yes, you got that right. They rode from England to Western Europen through the Chunnel then through Ukraine, Russia, Kazahkstan, Mongolia, Siberian part of Russia and the Russia Far East, then they take plane to Alaska, ride through Canada, then down to the US and into New York. You may ask why did they do this ride? It was to benefit UNICEF (an arm of the United Nations that provides relief to needy children around the world).
The official website for Long Way Round is http://www.longwayround.com/intro.htm
The DVD is 3 disc with a total of 10 episodes. Thus, far I’ve watched episodes 1-4. The next place I will watch them go to is Mongolia. I found their travels through Kazakhstan quite interesting. You get a glimpse of the real Kazakhstan, unlike the fictional glimpse from the movie “Borat.” Kazakhstan is a vast country and the culture was somewhat familiar to me. Back in 2004, I went on a short term missions trip to neighboring Krygyzstan which their culture is very similar to that of Kazahkstan and the people are very much related, practically cousins and even look alike. But, I'm a world traveller by heart and love to see the different scenaries around the world and different cultures.
This has to be the ultimate road trip-something I would like to do myself, but realize the many obstacles you will face and the expense of such a trip. The closest thing I’ve done was a cross country driving trip from California to Pennsylvania back when I was in college. I drove with my older brother from California to Pennsylvania one summer. My brother was driving back to Philadelphia where he was going to return back to medical school (and he wanted his car there) and my parents did not want my older brother to drive alone on the cross country trip, so I accompanied him. We drove through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia into Pennyslvania. It was neat seeing the landscape change. I remember when we were in Oklahoma, this Native American man approached us (Oklahoma does not have a lot of Asians there) and he asked what Indian tribe we were from. I thought that was hilarious.
Anyhow, back to the “Long Way Round”, well, I think after watching this I will watch the sequel “Long Way Down” which Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman teamed again last year in 2007 and document their motorcycle ride from Scotland through Europe down to the very southern tip of Africa (Capetown, South Africa).
THIS WEEKEND:
Since this month here in America is Asian-American heritage month and this week is Taiwanese-American heritage week, I plan on attending the "Taiwan Fest" in Los Angeles this weekend which will be a celebration of Taiwanese-American culture. I plan on volunteering also. Then, of course, Sunday will be Mother's Day. Got to spend time with mom and go to her church.
Anyhow more planned to come…
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