Trans World Expedition

A "year of living dangerously" his website calls it. A little pretentious but he is referring to his attempt at driving around the world in a Toyota Land Cruiser and when I say "he" I mean French born Associated Press arts director Nicolas Rapp. It's an admirable feat, one I myself, if circumstances were different and I could walk away from my life for a year with no repercussions and had an extra $50 grand laying around to blow, would consider seriously. I'd love to see the world and all it has in it. Don't know if I'd make such a big deal out of it, making myself out to be a pioneer on the "last true adventure left on Earth". Yeah, he said that one too.

Ok, so he'll be leaving NYC sometime between Nov. 2 when he quits his job and Nov. 15. He'll be heading down thru the southeastern US and into Central America, where he'll ship his car and catch a plane to Colombia. Then drive down western South America and then catch another boat to South Africa. Up thru Angola & Nigeria then across into Spain, hugging the Mediterranean into Turkey. From there he hopes to be able to avoid issues crossing the border into Iran and use military escorts thru Pakistan. Next comes India, Bangladesh & Myanmar, which he'll probably fly over, and then comes friendly Thailand, after which he'll skirt between Malaysia & Indonesia onto the west coast of the US, arguable the most dangerous place he'll visit.

If you ask me he's missing ALOT. If I were to take myself across the world in a car I sure as hell would miss ALL of northern Europe, not to mention Japan, Alaska and most of Canada, some of the prettiest places to drive. He is driving after all and not just collecting frequent flier miles.

I guess you can call it living dangerously. I mean, he will be traveling thru areas heavy with violent crimes, the yellow fever, religious tension, political kidnapping, cholera, not to mention how most everyone outside of the US doesn't have Americans at the top of their cute & cuddly list.

But all his fame & glory-hounding aside it is a very cool thing to be doing. He'll probably die somewhere along the way, which will be sad but it is an "adventure" now isn't it. I wish for a simpler time when trips around the world actually meant something and weren't a commercial or a reality show waiting to happen. But don't get me wrong, if anyone were to ever hand me $50 grand to send myself on a trip around the world, I'd do it. I probably wouldn't contact the world media before I did so, but I'd go.