When I was a little man I heard someone saying that the world is like a book, and if you haven't traveled, then you've read, but only one page. Ever since then the wanderlust bug has been endemic in me. But it was only over the last twelve years, that I have had the opportunity to really, really, read quite a few pages more of the book of our tiny planet - most times travelling unconventionally by bike, and later, in a mighty 4x4 that can drive through or over almost anything. I first rode my bike to China from Malaysia in the mid nineties. We were then the first bikers ever allowed to use the new Friendship Bridge over the Mekong between Thailand and Laos. A bike is quicker, and can go through many tracks that a car couldn't, so it was my preferred mode for exploring almost all of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, until that time in 2001, when I was invited to be a co-driver in the Petronas Adventure Team, to drive a 4x4 from Istanbul to Malaysia along the Old Silk Road. Having experienced the of air-conditioned comfort in a 4x4, and losing at least 3 buddies in 3 separate accidents, I decided that travelling by motorbike was passe', even though nothing could beat the sick satisfaction, nay, the stupidity of getting a speeding ticket for 253 kph on two wheels along the N-S Highway. I've always had this sick secret wish to strap a video camera to my chest, to record my speedometer dial as it climbs from zero to 300 kph in less than one minute. But I guess that part of my bucket list will have to remain unfulfilled ...for now. My Kawasaki ZZR 1100 at that time was the world's fastest production motorbike. Since that Old Silk Road adventure, I've garaged the bike in favour of the 4x4 as a safer and more comfortable means of seeing the world. I've done the Old Silk Road several times now, and I've driven over the Himalayas several times too, to Tibet, Nepal and India from Malaysia, and the other way round as well. I've camped in minus 5 degrees Celsius in the shadow of the North Face of Mt Everest, slept in hotels of a thousand stars while driving through the Sahara Deserts of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria, to Spain and Morocco, from Khartoum in Sudan. I've also driven across most of the major deserts of the world - the Salar de Uyuni in the altiplano of Bolivia, the largest salt flats in the world, the Atacama in South America, the Taklamakan in Xinjiang Uyghur, the Gobi in China, theNamib & Kalahari in Namibia, the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, and also the Dasht-e-Kavir and Kavir-e-Lut of Iran. In 2006 I needed nearly a hundred days to drive from Buenos Aires in Argentina, to Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Patagonia, Ushuaia to Punta Valdez and back to Buenos Aires, also in a 4x4. In Chile, a highlight of my life was to para-sail in tandem down the Andes in freezing temperatures, sharing the same updraft with an Andean Condor beneath my feet. The adrenalin rush was exquisite, much better than I got from piloting a two seater Cessna 150 from Kuantan to Hua Hin in Thailand, for an Air Rally there in the seventies.

When we were living in the UK in the eighties, I made it a point to imbibe the joys of travelling to my wife and kids by regularly exploring nearly the whole of Europe with them, in a motor-home. We couldn't go to Eastern Europe at that time because of the Cold War, and it was a highlight of our time in the UK, to be witness to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. And on a more sinister note, the tragedy of Chernobyl. I was then working in London for a multinational Oil and Chemicals company, and commuting regularly between London, Rotterdam, Breda and Marseilles, so Europe was like  my back garden. Of course a motorhome is more leisurely and comfortable compared  to traversing the Indonesian archipelago on a bike. I'm fortunate to have been able to see Egypt from the deck of a luxurious cruise ship on the Nile, and another time by driving from the Pyramids of Meroe in Sudan, along the Red Sea coast & deserts, to the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo. I've also backpacked in Bangladesh, and did Sri Lanka in a dilapidated van, in between picnic drives through New Zealand and parts of Australia, but probably my most audacious test of endurance was driving from London to Malaysia, not once, but twice. Each adventure  took more than 90 days, with the first trip going in a northerly route through Europe, Poland, Belarus Russia, Kazakhstan, and China to Malaysia, and the second time through a more southerly route passing Europe, Switzerland, Italy,  the Adriatic Sea, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan to India, and crossing  the Himalayas again through Nepal and Tibet, to China, Laos, Thailand, and back to Malaysia. Here's a typical view of the  northern Himalayas as we begin the ascent to the Kardung La Pass, the highest motorable pass in the world at more than 5000 meters.

I've also driven through all the great game parks of Africa, starting in Johannesburg, and  driving through Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania, visiting old Zanzibar, and then to the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and the Masai Mara, and Kenya, where we shipped our vehicles back to Malaysia from Mombasa. And the picture on the right is Lake Makat, which is the main source of water for the 50,000 animals, and several tribes of Masai and their cattle, who call the Ngorongoro Crater their home. The Ngorongoro Crater is the eighth wonder of the world, a fascinating international Biosphere Reserve where the Masai, their cattle, and the Big Five co-exist amicably together. Unlike the Serengeti and the Masai Mara, which sees the seasonal migration of millions of animals in search of water and grass, the animals in the Ngorongoro Caldera rarely move out of the area because there is water in Lake Makat throughout the wet and dry seasons. 

The maps below traces the routes I drove through in Africa and South America. 

There's only one more stretch I need to do. And that's to drive from Venezuela in South America, across the Panama and through Mexico to the Baja in California, across the USA and Canada to Anchorage in Alaska, from where our trucks will be shipped home to Malaysia. That's the last chapter, after which I can  truthfully say I've driven across the globe. In fact some of our trucks are already in Caracas, waiting  to begin that last  sector in 2011. I hope you haven't started puking yet, because I have to tell you that I now have a  collection of some 300,000 images in 12 TB of Hard Disks awaiting sorting, processing and compilation into coffee table books. I've done four books  thus far, and you can preview and buy them online from HERE, HERE and HERE 

The pictures here are only a tiny bit of what I have. They are my digitized memories of places I’ve been. Frozen moments of stuff I've seen. They are placed hereas a teaser and simply for your viewing pleasure. To show you what a fascinating place our little blue planet is. Hopefully you'll be moved enough, to quit working and making so much money, and instead, be like me, spend our children's inheritance (they are going to spend it anyway) and go see, smell, taste, hear and feel our little Blue Planet in person, before the march of modernization will  make every place sterile and uninteresting, just like our own cities at home.

I leave you with a thought to think about. At my age, several of my friends have passed away, from heart attacks and cancer, and Denggie, and motorcycle accidents. Most were professionals - doctors,  lawyers, accountants . And you know what? The day before the day they died, all of them were still busy in the office, making  more money for who knows what.  I say to you, the man with lots of money but has no time to spend it, is exactly like the man with lots of time but no money to spend. Both of them will never go anywhere.  And do remember, your money is not your money until you spend it. If you dont spend it, your children will......when you finally go to that one place everyone will get to go to....one fine day.....

I do hope that puke  bucket wasn't necessary after all. But now that you have it out anyway, why don't you start filling it with your own bucket list instead.........

Yusuf Hashim

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