Far From Home
An immersive travel and culture documentary podcast hosted by Peabody award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian. Each episode reports fascinating stories from faraway places, making listeners feel like they are there. Past episodes include road trips from the UK to Mongolia, visits to Iran, explorations of abandoned buildings in Chernobyl, and participation in a hallucinogenic healing ceremony in Peru.
Episodes
On the Ground in Ukraine with Terrell Jermaine Starr (with Making Peace Visible)
While I'm taking a break from releasing new episodes, I wanted to share an episode of another great podcast I heard recently and that I thought all of you might enjoy. The show is called Making Peace Visible, and it features conversations with journalists, peace-builders, activists, and scholars on the front lines of peace and conflict. Making Peace Visible also aims to analyze how the me
Human Library
In the Nørrebro neighborhood of Copenhagen, there's a small building with a garden and wooden seats. It's the Menneskebiblioteket or Human Library, where the "readers" and "books" are actually people having deeply personal and intimate conversations about topics that might normally be considered off-limits or taboo in polite society. It's staffed by volunteers whose life stories and exper
Balloon Hats (repeat)
When he was growing up in Southern California, Addi Somekh wasn't quite sure what to do with his life. But he knew from a young age that he wanted to "spread warmth" and make other people happy. On this week’s episode, the unusual story of how Addi’s quest to do just that set him off on a worldwide mission to make people laugh. Addi and his friend Charlie hatch a plan to travel around the
Citizen of the World
When he was 26 years old in 1948, Garry Davis did something that would make the rest of his life really complicated.Over the next six decades, he’d be detained and imprisoned 34 times in 9 countries, dragged off the floor of the United Nations General Assembly, and gain millions of followers, all while confronting countless bureaucrats who had absolutely no idea what to do with him.What s
Foreign Aid
Over the past few months, President Trump has taken a sort of a slash-and-burn approach to much of the U.S. government, and among the many taxpayer-funded programs he’s axed has been American foreign assistance distributed through the Agency for International Development or USAID. That’s billions of dollars that helped with things like Ebola prevention in West Africa, malaria testing in M
Hitting the Ice
Montreal is a city often split between English and French languages and cultures, but one thing that almost all residents can get behind is cheering on their beloved hockey team, the Canadiens. This isn't just your run-of-the-mill, sports-crazed city, however. The love of hockey here runs much deeper. It's tied to both the history of the game's creation as well as the identity of the Queb
Man Without a Country
The current conflict between Russia and Ukraine is now entering its third year, and it’s been a humanitarian disaster. According to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, it’s displaced nearly 7 million Ukrainians globally. And on the other side, an estimated 900,000 Russians have also fled their country for various reasons. Among them are economic migrants, conscientious objectors, an
Christmas in Puerto Rico Revisited
As we wrap up another year, I'm re-sharing an episode I originally released back at the end of 2020 about a holiday tradition I got to witness while I was visiting Puerto Rico. I often travel over Christmas and New Years, and I love seeing how people in other places have cultural practices that are different from my own. This was one of those experiences. My friend Rob took me to a parran
World Reacts to Trump
As I spent time abroad over the past few months in the lead-up to the American presidential election, I was struck by how often news and politics from back home seemed to be on the minds of all the locals I met. It’s like no matter how far away I went, it was impossible to escape! On this episode I reflect on how important what happens in the United States is to people the rest of the wor
Winging It
I'm still working on my next episode, where I'm asking listeners around the world to send me short voice memo recordings from their phones, talking about how people where they live have reacted to the recent American election results and how they think a second Trump presidency would impact ordinary folks in their country. If you have any thoughts or observations you'd like to share, ple
Canadian Cuisine
If you travel around Canada, you’ll find lots of regional dishes, but there isn’t really a strong national culinary identity the way there is in Italy or Mexico, for example. So I embarked on a quest to figure out how exactly to define "Canadian cuisine" beyond the stereotypical maple syrup, poutine, and butter tarts. The answer turned out to be much more interesting than I ever could hav
Christiania bonus episode
In the course of reporting my documentary about Freetown Christiania -- Copenhagen's famous anarchist commune -- for the 99% Invisible podcast, I took two trips to Denmark and recorded many hours of interviews that unfortunately ended up on the cutting room floor. In this bonus episode of Far From Home, I present some of the highlights as well as some additional context and backstories of
Freetown Christiania
In 1971, a group of squatters took over an abandoned military base just across the harbor from downtown Copenhagen, Denmark. They created a politically autonomous anarchist zone -- in other words, a commune -- with its own flag, marching band, and consensus-driven governance process, and they decided to call their community Christiania. The thousand or so residents were free to do pretty
Season 4 Trailer
In this era of wars, conflicts, and polarized politics, talking to strangers has never been more important. A new season of episodes launches Tuesday, October 8th.(Thanks to Ali Lemer for editorial support)On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinating stories from far-flung places like Iran, Chernobyl, and Mongolia. For more info, visit farfrom
Eclipse Chaser
After missing the opportunity to see the last total solar eclipse in the United States back in 2017, I decided to add this experience to my bucket list and vowed I would do whatever it takes to see an eclipse in the future. A few weeks ago, I got my chance. Joined by my brother Drew and his friends Jeremy and Claire, I drove up to the woods of northern New Hampshire, and together, the fou
Every Country Without Flying
Thor Pedersen always felt like he was born too late. He grew up in a world where other people had already done most of the amazing things, like venturing to the North and South Poles, climbing the highest mountains, following the longest rivers, and exploring the depths of the deepest seas. But in 2013, at the age of 34, he discovered one record that no one had yet managed to achieve. So
Prison Rodeo
After releasing my last episode where I shared stories from my time in Oklahoma many years ago, I came across one more short radio piece in my archives that I thought some of your might enjoy. It’s about another cultural phenomenon unique to Oklahoma that I experienced: the world’s only behind-the-walls prison rodeo. Before a stadium of 9000 cheering fans, a hundred inmates from around th
Stories From Flyover Country
Two decades ago, I was just starting out as a public radio reporter, applying for literally every radio job opening I saw, and somehow I ended up getting hired by a small station in Norman, Oklahoma. Given that the culture, politics, and geography were so incredibly different from anything I’d been exposed to up to that point. moving there from my home state of New Jersey almost felt like
18 Years in Rome (with The Bittersweet Life)
If you listened to my last episode, you heard the story of my friend Jamie Yuenger, an American who moved from New York City to the Netherlands and was struggling to make the transition and figure out how to fit in. Following up on that theme, today I’m sharing a recent episode from my friends at The Bittersweet Life podcast, where co-host Tiffany Parks looks back at the past nearly two d
Stranger in a Strange Land
From the age of 24 until she was 37, Jamie Yuenger lived in New York City. While she started out having a complicated relationship with the city, she grew over time to love her adopted hometown. Then a few years ago, she fell in love with a Dutch guy named Piet and decided to move to the Netherlands to be with him. That meant she’d be starting over in a new country where she didn’t unders
Off the Beaten Jack
Last winter during the pandemic, Jack Boswell started to reevaluate his place in life and realize that at the age of 31, he still hadn’t chased his real passion of being a Hollywood screenwriter. So he decided to quit his job and hop on a plane where he lived in London to head to Los Angeles and give it a go. But instead of flying directly there, he figured he’d instead land in Boston and
Turkmenistan Revisited
As you may have seen in my feed, I recently teamed up with my colleagues at NPR’s Planet Money economic podcast to report a story that prominently featured the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan — which is probably one of the most obscure countries in the world, and certainly not a place that most of us hear much about, much less visit. Only about 10,000 tourists a year cross its borde
The Salvage Car Silk Road
A few months ago, a friend of mine named Oraz who runs an autobody repair shop in Turkmenistan came across a kind of puzzle. A new vehicle had just arrived on his lot. A white Lexus SUV. He could see by the registration sticker that it came from my home state of New Jersey, but the even stranger thing was the shape it was in. It was practically brand new, unlike like the dented and mangle
Ayahuasca Reexamined
I’m always open to listener feedback on Far From Home, and I heard from someone recently who’s given me a new perspective on one of my past stories and forced me to see things in a new light, so I wanted to share it with all of my listeners.
Several years ago on the show, I featured a series of stories about Lucho, a traditional medicine man from Peru who describes himself as a "curander
What Shelter Means to Me
While I’ve been hunkered down these past few years, avoiding traveling and staying home while I rode out the pandemic, I’ve been incredibly lucky that I’ve had a safe and comfortable place to live. But what has this experience been like for people in living situations that failed to provide basic levels of safety, privacy, and comfort?
On this episode of Far From Home, I play an episode
Refugee Stories
Over the past 2 months, more than 5 million people have left Ukraine, and another 6-and-a-half-million have fled their homes and are now displaced elsewhere within their own country, making this Europe’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Neighboring countries are struggling to keep up with the exodus, but they’ve generally been fairly welcoming, which many critics have point
Ukraine
On this episode, I speak to Savelli and Olexander, two Ukrainians who’ve suddenly had their lives upended after the Russian military invaded their country.
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On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinating stories from far-flung places like Iran, Chernobyl, and Mongolia. For more info, visit farfromhomepodcast.org
Revisiting Central Asia
Central Asia is not a place that most Westerners know or think about very often. But now that I’ve been there, my ears perk up on the rare instances when it makes the news, as was the case on two separate occasions over the past few weeks. In light of recent developments in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, I re-play excerpts of some episodes I featured several years ago on the first season of
Cell Phone Santa
Take Santa Claus. Then ditch the red suit and the flying reindeer, and you’ve got a guy who’s all about giving. On this last episode of my third season, I tell the story of the time my dad tried out the role and got more than he bargained for!
This story originally aired many years ago on NPR’s Day to Day. Thanks to my editor Russell Lewis.
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On Far From Home, award-winning public
COVID Stories Part 4
Nearly 2 years into the Covid-19 pandemic, new waves of infection continue to spread around the world, and the Omicron variant is causing renewed fears in places that previously thought they had the virus under control. So I’m releasing another episode in my series where I check in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of what things are like where they live. This ti
Playing Tour Guide (with The Radio Vagabond)
Having grown up just outside of New York City, I visited most of the big tourist attractions like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center when I was a kid. But when you spend a lot of time in a place and get to know it well, you start to discover some really cool but lesser-known areas, and those are the ones I always like to share with friends when they c
How did I end up here?
When you travel, it’s inevitable that you’ll occasionally have weird or random experiences, where you might have certain expectations before you arrive at a place, but then you’re totally thrown for a loop. Sometimes it’s frustrating, and other times it ends up being a pleasant surprise, but either way, it’s unexpected, and there’s this moment where you can’t help but stop, take a breath,
The Stories of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, President Bush vowed revenge against the perpetrators, but not everyone found his words comforting. Around this time, a small but vocal group of people got together to speak out. They were the parents, spouses, siblings, and children of people who were killed in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and they said they
Stockholm Norms (with Here There Be Dragons)
Knowing the rules and being able to navigate them can be a big part of feeling safe in any city. On this episode of Far From Home, I share an episode from another great podcast I recently discovered called “Here There Be Dragons,” where host Jess Myers speaks to residents of Stockholm, Sweden trying to figure out the norms, how to use them, and how to change them. Will they have to bend t
Revisiting the Mongol Rally
July 17th, 2021 marked the fifth anniversary of the day my brother Drew and I — along with our friends Jane and Rosi — set out from southern England on an 11,000 mi (18k km) road trip across Europe and Asia. Over the seven weeks that followed, we’d cross 18 countries, 8 time zones, 5 mountain ranges, and a few deserts, before eventually ending up in Ulan-Ude, Siberia, just north of Mongol
Out of Your Comfort Zone
When you travel – especially if you’re in a distant and unfamiliar place – it’s inevitable that sooner or later, things will happen that are beyond your control. You’re thrown a curveball and you’ve got to do your best to stay calm, be creative, and improvise. On this episode, I feature two stories from friends of mine who got caught in unexpected and frightening situations outside their
Tuning in the World
COVID-19 has closed borders and made travel difficult if not impossible for many of us over the past year-and-a-half. But radio signals don't need passports or plane tickets. They circle the earth, bouncing off the atmosphere. So even if you’re confined to your home, it’s possible — with a good antenna — to listen to voices from the other side of the world. On this episode of Far From Hom
COVID Stories Part 3
On this episode of Far From Home, I continue my series where I’m checking in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of the many ways COVID-19 is affecting people and how their governments are handling the pandemic. This time we hear voices from Tunisia, Switzerland, Cameroon, Antigua and Barbuda, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. If you’ve missed the previous two instal
Revisiting Chernobyl
April 26, 2021 marks the 35th anniversary of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the former USSR — which remains the worst nuclear accident in history — so I’m re-releasing an episode from my second season where my friend Donna and I visited the site of the explosion and toured abandoned buildings in nearby villages. You can read more about my trip and see photos and
Oklahoma City
Each year on April 19th, residents of Oklahoma City commemorate the anniversary of the 1995 bombing in their city, which prior to September 11th bore the distinction of being the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. On this episode of Far From Home, I dig into my archives to share two stories I produced about the bombing from back when I was a reporter at a small public radio stat
Revisiting Belfast
Over the past week, violence has once again broken out in Northern Ireland. During one skirmish in Belfast last Wednesday, rioters threw Molotov cocktails, several police officers were injured, and a double decker bus was hijacked and burnt to the ground. It was the latest flare-up in long-simmering tensions between Catholic nationalists — who are calling for a united Ireland — and Protes
The Sounds of Silence
Over the past year, COVID-19 has had all sorts of ripple effects that most of us never imagined: Air pollution plummeted as people stopped flying. Companies closed their office buildings for good as working from home became the new norm. And here’s another change you might not have thought much about: The pandemic has radically altered how the world sounds.On this episode, I’m joined by B
Te Araroa
Having hiked the Appalachian Trail, Justin and Patrice La Vigne thought they knew what they were getting into when they decided to embark on Te Araroa, a 2000 mile path across New Zealand. But they ended up being blown away by the kindness and incredible hospitality of the people they met along the way. If you’re interested in learning more about their journey, you can visit their website
Foreign Correspondence
I’m taking a break between seasons right now, but I’m popping back into your feed with a special bonus episode I’m sharing from a really great podcast called Foreign Correspondence. It’s hosted by Jake Spring, who’s a journalist for Reuters based in Brazil. On his program, Jake does fascinating interviews with other journalists around the world, and on his latest episode, Jake interviewed
Japarican Christmas
On this final episode of Season 3, I return to where I began 2020 in Puerto Rico, on the last trip I took prior to the pandemic. I join my friend Rob at a parranda — the Puerto Rican version of Christmas caroling — except this parranda has a unique twist.
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On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinating stories from far-flung places like
Close to Home
COVID-19 may have forced most of us to take a break from traveling for the foreseeable future, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some really cool places to discover right in our own neighborhoods. On this episode, I join about a dozen suburban adventurers on an exploration of Toney’s Brook, a local stream that flows through — and under — the town of Montclair, New Jersey, close to where
Day of the Deceased
While Americans were celebrating Halloween and heading to the polls, Peruvians were busy commemorating El Dia de los Defuntos, the day at the beginning of November each year when they remember their deceased relatives. On this episode of Far From Home, I visit one of the world’s largest cemeteries on the outskirts of Lima, Peru as thousands of people flock to their loved ones’ graves to e
COVID Stories Part 2
On this episode of Far From Home, I continue my series where I’m checking in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of the many ways COVID-19 is affecting people and how their governments are handling the pandemic. This time we hear voices from Lithuania, South Africa, India, Ghana, and Guam.
If you have a unique perspective or experience on COVID-19 from your part o
New Orleans 15 Years Later
You probably missed it amid everything else going on in the world recently, but last week was the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, so on this episode, we’re staying within the U.S. for a change and going to New Orleans, revisiting what the storm was like for residents of the city and looking at parallels with the current situation with COVID-19.
Katrina left lasting footprints on N
COVID Stories Part 1
On this episode of Far From Home, I’m beginning an occasional series where I’m checking in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of the many ways COVID-19 is affecting people and how their governments are handling the pandemic. This time we hear voices from France, Haiti, Brazil, the UK, Peru, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.
I’m hoping to do more shows like thi
The Island No One Owns
If you want to build a house on the Caribbean island of Barbuda, you can just put up a fence wherever you want, and have it. You don’t pay for it. You don’t sign for anything. You just have to be Barbudan. Barbudans have held their pink sand paradise “in common” since the 1800s. No titles. No paperwork.
But on the heels of a major disaster, the Prime Minister has come up with a new plan.
Green Book
From the 1930s to the 1960s, Black motorists driving across the United States and Canada often brought along a copy of The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, which was a sort of AAA guide that told them which gas stations, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses were safe for them to stop at, and which areas they should avoid. Publication eventually ended after the passage of the Civil Rights
Double Your Bubble, Double Your Fun
If you were forced to quarantine as a result of COVID-19 and could only hang out with members of one other household, who would you choose? On the latest episode of Far From Home, writer and filmmaker Mike Hickey tells me how a government experiment that limited the number of people he and his fellow residents of Newfoundland, Canada could interact with forced many people to make difficul
Traveling While Black
In light of the recent protests for racial justice across the United States and around the world, I chat with two African American friends about what it’s like to travel as a Black person, both in their own country and abroad. The stories they tell are sometimes funny and sometimes sad, but always eye-opening, and they shed light on what it’s like to constantly stick out from the crowd, e
Pandemic Diary (with On Spec)
As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, I speak with Istanbul-based author and journalist Fariba Nawa about what the situation is like where she lives in Turkey. Then I play a recent episode of her podcast, On Spec, where she tells the story of her photographer friend Hilaneh Mahmoudi’s personal experience battling the virus.
If you enjoy this episode, check out Hilaneh’s photo
Finding the Helpers (with The Bittersweet Life)
As the world is consumed by COVID-19, I check in with author and American expat Tiffany Parks, who lives on the outskirts of Rome, to get a sense of what things are like in Italy right now. Then, in my quest to find positive stories to share in this dispiriting time, I play an episode of The Bittersweet Life — the travel podcast Tiffany co-hosts with her friend Katy Sewall — about so-call
No Place Like Home
With a global pandemic, canceled flights, and closed borders, many travelers suddenly found themselves trapped in foreign countries, trying to figure out how to get home, even if they thought they were taking all the necessary precautions. I share the story of one of them. And I tell what happened when the virus recently came to my own household.
Select music in this episode was licensed
Touring North Korea with The Radio Vagabond (bonus episode)
While Far From Home is on a break between seasons, I’m popping into your feed from time to time to share segments from other shows I’ve enjoyed that I think all of you might like as well. Today I’m featuring an episode from The Radio Vagabond podcast, where Danish radio producer Palle Bo tells stories from his travels, kind of like I do. This time he goes to a place I’m not quite brave en
Revisiting Iran
In light of the recent political developments that briefly brought the US and Iran to the brink of war, I’m re-releasing an excerpt of a story I produced for the first season of Far From Home. It’s about the time a few years ago when I drove through Iran with my brother Drew and our friends Jane and Rosi as part of an 11,000 mile road trip we took across Europe and Asia, raising money for
Junkanoo
The historical accounts are a bit fuzzy, but the way the story is commonly told, Caribbean slaves in the 18th century gained a day of freedom two times a year, on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) and New Year’s Day. They made costumes and played music to celebrate, and over the centuries, that tradition evolved into what’s now know as the annual Junkanoo festival, an all-night parade
Mother Russia
While driving across Russia on my way home from the Mongol Rally (the story I documented on the first season of this podcast), I had several conversations and interactions with people in Russia and Kazakhstan that surprised and even baffled me. So on this episode, I call up Charles Maynes, an American public radio journalist based in Moscow, to help me interpret and understand Russian cul
Meet Your Maker
This week’s episode is a bit different from what I normally do on the show. I’ve been getting a lot of questions and comments from listeners recently, so I thought I’d spend some time today answering some of them and sharing a bit of the feedback I’ve received. Some of you were also curious about my background and how I created Far From Home, so in the second half of the program, I’m feat
Haiti: Ten Years Later
This upcoming January marks the tenth anniversary of the massive earthquake in Haiti. It came on a Tuesday afternoon, 12 days into the new year, and destroyed or severely damaged a quarter of a million homes, killing more than 100,000 people. Eight months later, in September of 2010, I traveled to Haiti with several journalist colleagues to document the country’s slow recovery process. On
Balloon Hats
When he was growing up in Southern California, Addi Somekh wasn't quite sure what to do with his life. But he knew from a young age that he wanted to "spread warmth" and make other people happy. On this week’s episode, the unusual story of how Addi’s quest to do just that set him off on a worldwide mission to make people laugh. Addi and his friend Charlie hatch a plan to travel around the
Before It's Too Late
I feel like several of the trips I’ve taken in recent years have been to places people have urged me to go while I still can, or at least before things change. On today’s show, I visit Cambodia, which is one such place that’s changed dramatically, where the present no longer looks like the past. First I go to Angkor Wat, which had just 8000 tourists in 1993, but 2.5 million by 2018. Then
Ayahuasca - bonus episode
As a follow-up to my last episode, I present the story of my friend Dennis, who also tried ayahuasca in Peru and seemed to be immune to its effects.
Select music in this episode was licensed from composer Anthony Kozar under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinating stories from fa
Ayahuasca
In the previous episode of Far From Home, I visited Lima, Peru, where I met a traditional medicine man named Lucho. This time, I accompany him to a healing ceremony where he uses a hallucinogenic brew called ayahuasca. I also speak with an anthropologist to learn more about the history of shamanism. Visit my website to see some photos from the ceremony.
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On Far From Home, award-win
Medicine Man
Lucho is a traditional medicine man who describes himself as a "curandero," or someone who heals. Using medicinal herbs, archeological relics, and hallucinogenic plants (as well as some special powers), he claims to have rid himself of diabetes and his father of cancer. He regularly travels around Peru treating people with all sorts of ailments. On this episode of Far From Home, I travel
Another Brick in the Wall
In 1998, political leaders in Northern Ireland signed a peace agreement they hoped would end the Troubles, a 30 year period of armed conflict between Catholic nationalists and Protestant loyalists. Decades later, the situation has improved, but cities like Belfast remain divided by dozens of fences and walls separating the two communities. And removing them isn’t going to be easy. On this
Learning to Throat Sing
Throat singing is one of the world’s oldest forms of music. It’s practiced by indigenous groups in several parts of the world, including South Africa and the Canadian Arctic. But mostly when people talk about throat singing, they’re referring to the style performed in the remote Russian republic of Tuva, which the local people call khoomei. It’s an ancient practice created by the nomadic
The Largest Fish Market in the World
For more than 80 years, Tokyo, Japan’s Tsukiji fish market had a reputation for supplying some of the freshest and best quality seafood anywhere. But over the decades, it had become overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe. After years of planning, the city decided to move the market last fall to a larger and more modern facility about a mile-and-a-half away. Despite the obvious benefits, ther
Visiting Chernobyl
If you’ve seen or heard about the recent HBO dramatic miniseries about Chernobyl, you might have wondered what it’s really like there today. I take a trip to the abandoned villages surrounding the reactor to find out for myself. Read more about my visit and see photos and videos on my website.
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On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinati
Far From Home: Season 2 trailer
People often say it’s a small world, but there are giant parts of the planet that most people never think about and billions of stories they’ve never heard. On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian visits some of those places, documenting his unexpected adventures and chance encounters with interesting people wherever he goes. For more info, visit farfromhomepo
24: Looking Back
After driving 11,000 miles over the course of seven weeks, we finally reached the finish line of the Mongol Rally, and everything was suddenly over. There was no more waking up early to hit the road, driving 12 hours to make up for lost time, and arriving at our destination long after dark. No more tow trucks or tow ropes, restaurants serving meat from another strange animal, or sleeping
23: The Finish Line!
We’d spent 7 weeks driving nearly 11,000 miles across Europe and Asia, and although we were nearing the end of our journey, we still had a series of challenges ahead. Our route in the coming days would take us across some of the roughest terrain we’d encounter our entire trip, and our car problems would continue, but after hearing stories from some of the other rally teams, we realized ou
22: The Longest Day Ever
After a series of bad decisions, my brother and I had ended up stranded with our friends at the bottom of an incredibly steep and rocky hill in a really remote part of Mongolia. We’d sent a text by satellite to the American embassy in Mongolia’s capital who dispatched a rescue team, and when that team couldn’t find us, they sent a second team. Help finally arrived after dark, but this wo
21: A Costly Mistake
After getting stuck driving across a shallow river in Mongolia, my brother and I make the fateful decision to veer off the main path onto another trail that seems like it might be easier. Unfortunately, it’s not long before we realize we’ve made a terrible mistake. Now we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere, with no other signs of life for miles in any direction. Having exhausted all our
20: The Going Gets Tough
Mongolia is a place of wide open spaces and little vegetation. It’s the the land of Genghis Khan, nomadic culture. and yodeling dance music. It’s a country that’s twice the size of Texas, but with only 3 million people, it has the lowest population density of any nation on earth. It’s also a place with notoriously bad roads, where the main east-west routes are often little more than track
19: One Surprise After Another
When my brother and I told friends we’d be driving across Kazakhstan, we got plenty of jokes about Borat, but we were about to find out that the real-life nation of Kazakhstan was almost nothing like what was portrayed on the screen. Far from being backwards and uncivilized, the country we experienced was fascinating, friendly, and full of surprises. Read more and see photos on my website
18: Wrong Way
We were in an extremely remote section of eastern Tajikistan, and we’d just received news that our car’s engine might not last much longer. Left with few options, the best we could do was to keep going, keeping our fingers crossed that our luck would hold out. In the midst of it all, our route was about to take us over a mountain pass that was nearly 3 miles high. Then we end up getting h
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