Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Marcel and Chiara of Overland Vagabond

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Marcel and Chiara of Overland Vagabond · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. My name
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: is Ashley Jordano and I'm senior editor at Overland Journal
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and Expedition Portal. Today I'm joined by two as they
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: call themselves, crazy Swiss Overlanders that have come all the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: way from Switzerland to Saudi Arabia and I have the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: great fortune of being able to speak with them in
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: their overland rate today and we're going to talk about
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: their journey over the last several years, how they've made
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: their way from Switzerland to the Middle East. So thank
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you so much for joining me ourselves and Kiara, maybe
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: you can just talk about yourselves a little bit and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: introduce yourselves and tell us how I made it.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Overland Journal audience. This is Marcelle speaking and Kara will
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: introduce herself in a short moment. We call ourselves Overland Vegabond,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: you know, the Begabonds, people without a home that are
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: roaming around around the world. And as a matter of fact,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: we started with our journey and we see five five.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Six years ago, twenty eighteen, twenty.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Eighteen, that's the moment we sailed off from Switzerland. I mean,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I don't want to talk too much because car also
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: should say something, right, yes, never mind. We in twenty eighteen, Yeah,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: we departed and the ambition those days was to go
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: around the world one time, at least one time, and
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: we arrived after eighteen months or so. We arrived in
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Singapore just before the COVID started. We took a break,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: but we were never able to get back to our
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: car anymore. And that's why when actually our dream to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: go in one go around the world, yeah, faded away.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Back to your question, what are we doing here while
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: we are having a second attempt. We started four months
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: ago roughly from Switzerland, and we are attempting to reach
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Cape Town in the what we call season four and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: season five of our journey. And so far we have
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: yea a right in Saudi because we were not able
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: in Africa to get through Sudan and Ethiopia, so we
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: took the Middle East routs Arabian Peninsula. So far, we
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: like it a lot. But why doesn't Kiara also say something?
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Why are you telling me a little bit about where
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you guys are from in Switzerland?
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Okay, we are from the south part of Switzerland, the Ticino,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: but actually we never lived in Ticino. We spent our
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: life in Singapore. So Marcell was working in Singapore. I
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: was a housewife taking care of my our daughter, and
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: after twenty twenty years, we decided that it was it
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: was enough time to change the lifestyle. So our daughter
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: went to university in UK and we decided to do something,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: something crazy.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: How did this idea come about? So you're working in
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Singapore and you have a dream to overland the world.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Where did this come from?
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: But actually the crazy idea come from alf.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: You know, you make choices in life. I wouldn't say
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: it's a dream, but it was a kind of an
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: attraction that I would not have to or I mean,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: let's put it that way. We are really lucky people.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I mean I've been working hard, Yes, we have been
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: putting some money aside. The lucky is in the fact
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: that I don't have to work until my year of retirement.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: The official year of retirement, which many countries is around
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: sixty five years old. I was fifty six fifty seven,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and I decided, I think we have done enough in
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: terms of career, in terms of you know, having an
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: executive job in big companies and these kinds of things,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and we wanted to discover something a bit more humble,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: something simpler, something that allowed us to discover ourselves and
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: ourselves discover discovered the world. I mean, we have been
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: traveling in so many places, but we actually did never
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: understand and never grasp the content of what we had
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: visited and the people we had met.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I think that was so you were traveling before this,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: but you just didn't Was it not enough time or
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you didn't have a vehicle or something to get to
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: where you wanted to.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Go, or the vehicle is the mean to perform your
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: dream if you want. In my function, in my career,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: in my job, in my profession, I was traveling essentially
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: almost every other other week. One week at home, the
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: other week I was traveling. And if you travel for business,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: you know it's it's not just the way you can
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: really learn learn the country or get to learn people
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: in a specific place. And the attraction was there, I
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: mean we wanted to if I can speak of both,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: we wanted to have a certain life. If you want
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to be there is you know, the early years until
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: you know you are twenty twenty five five years old
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and you you have the middle section, which is a
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: big career. You have to work and you have to
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: make money, and so well, this is now our served life,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: and we want to enjoy it in a different way,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: you know, not in having to care about making money,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: but really having the option, having the luxury to travel
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: the routes which sometimes are also.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Quite dangerous, not complicated.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: No, I would say, unique.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, and did you have to convince?
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Oh?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, yes. It cost me a bottle of wine, a
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: very expensive one.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I think this was about six years ago, seven maybe
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: seven years ago. I thought, okay, now obviously I get
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I have to get the partner, my partner on my side, right,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: So it went for a dinner, and when the bottle
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: was empty, I obviously introduced intention. Kiaga was you know,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: immediately agreeing. Was with such a plan the day after
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I started already do you know doing the old planes.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: And one of the things we had to obviously decide
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: was to get a vehicle and exciting how the vehicle
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: has to be is actually quite an interesting process.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what goes into it? That is for sure? Did
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: you see this coming? He sat down?
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Were you like, oh, yeah, something like going on? Yeah,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: something is going on? And I also, yeah, maybe I
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: was like a boat or a car.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: That was the question.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: I didn't know which one, but I know something was
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: was coming.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: When the bottle of wine came out.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Not really the bottle of wine, but I will think
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: something is happened here because you did talk.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: We talked about this earlier about how you were trying
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to decide whether.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Boat or yes.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Right, So why did you end up choosing the vehicle
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: as your platform for travel?
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Well, both are actually in a good way of traveling
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: the world. But you have to kind of understand what
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: you like most. Are you liking, you know, more the
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: water and being able from port to ports to enjoy
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the freedom on sea, or are you more interested in
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: discovering what the land has to offer? You know, the
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: mountains and the deserts. We are passionate.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: I love I love deserts.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: With a boat, you can't you can't, you know, see
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: a desert. It doesn't work.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: What do you love about the desert? I know you
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: guys are so passionate about the desert landscape, and we've
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed speaking with both of you about like all
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the different desert scaves that you've seen all over the world.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: But the desert is they're peaceful, they're nice there, they
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: have history, they I don't know. They are they what
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: we say? They are fascinating or what is the world?
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: I don't know?
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  Speaker 3: In English? And we love we love the desert. It's
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: it's nice. I can we can spend many days inside
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: the desert.
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  Speaker 4: Then that it's never enough. It's amazing.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: It's maybe a contrast. I mean we were born in
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Switzerland in the south where there are still quite important mountains,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: so we are mountaineers, if you can say. And the
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: desert is pretty much a contrast to being in the
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: mountains because it's all flat. Normally there are dunes, but
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: it's essentially flat. Right. But what is also very amazing
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  Speaker 2: is the fact that you may be hours of kilometers
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: away from getting another human being or finding another human beings.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: You are destined, you know, you have to cope with
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: nature in a very extreme fashion. If you take the
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Dashlot in Iran, this is probably the hottest place on
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Earth where the temperature can go above fifty degrees celsius. Wow,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know, fairrenheit, I don't know, but it's known
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: to be the hottest place on ours. Right, and you
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: go there, there is no one else. You have a car.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: If it breaks down, you are in trouble. Yes, right,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: and this kind of challenge is what is very kind
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: of intriguing to me.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I like that. So speaking of challenges, you agreed that
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: you were both going to go over land together, yes, world,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and the vehicle was the next step. Maybe tell us
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a little bit about which vehicle did you choose and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: why and how did it come together.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: First, we tried to fund the pick up.
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  Speaker 3: The choice was that the first choice actually was the
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Toyota High Looks because we were in Singapore. We went
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: on the Asian part and look and the Eye Looks
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: we would like to have in Europe, it was not possible.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: So we choose the fourth Ranger and was a good price,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: a good deal, so that it was the Ranger. Nice
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: after it was the Shelf.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I mean to be honest. There is actually a YouTube
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: video I can't remember whether it's it's season zero, episode
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I think two or three, where I explain the process
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: of choosing you know, your own rig, your own vehicle,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: which by the way, can be completely different from person
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: to person, from couple to couple, of family to family.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I try to several times to highlight the fact that
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: you need to understand your own requirements first, are you
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: using it to do what? What are you really pursuing.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Do you want to just do off road all the time?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Do you want to, you know, do long kilometerns. Do
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: you need a certain comfort or are you more sparklanic
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: in the way you install your equipment. These are all
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: things you need to understand first. We went through the
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: process to understand our requirements and eventually, while the result
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: is what you see here, it's a compromise. Obviously we
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: would like to have more space, you know, more better
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: toilet if you want or But on the other hand,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: we wanted to be also quite quick, quite agile in
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: the way we traveled. I mean, we can travel like
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: a normal car. It goes theoretically into a container, and
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: it was one of the requirements, so we can chip
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: it across continents. Things may change or other people may
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: have different requirements, so the outcome would be a different one.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Besides spitting in a shipping container and being agile, what
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: were some of the other requirements that were.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Important to you, Well, obviously all terrain. I mean, we
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: want to be able to visit deserts as an example.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: You can't do that with a normal camp. You need
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: specifically equipped four by four rig that is capable of
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: doing that. Yeah, there are other requirements like just to
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: be reliable. We had Scara explained we had to opt
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: to get this for the Ranger, which is by the way,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: not an American but it's a European or Australian better
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: say type of vehicles. But we have traveled in several
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: countries where this brand and this model and make doesn't
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: exist at all. You know, you traveled through Iran through
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know, two mainy stances Bakistan. These are kilometers
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: and kilometers you drive and if something happens, you are
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: in trouble because there is no workshop who is going
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: to repair anything because this car does not exist in
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: those countries. So that was a compromise. I would have
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: liked to have a high Looks.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Did you buy the Ford in Singapore and you buy
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: it in Switzerland? How did you well?
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: The entire planning lasted about four years planning and built,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: sorry I have to be Planning and built lasted about
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: four years. Two years was the planning itself and two
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: years to build. Now the platform had to be bought
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: after two years, and by that time we were about
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: to ship everything from Singapore go back to Europe. So
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: we bought the further ranger in Germany because it was
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: just easier to get it there, right, and we imported
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: it into Switzerland. We drove it straight to Vienna close
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: to where the cell, which is you know, the camper
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: side of the car was started to be to be molded.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: And that was the year number three. The cell got molded,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: attached to the to the frame and so on. And
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: the fourth year that's when I took over and I did.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I did the entire interior and also also the change
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: to the vehicle. You know, new suspension, new shocks, new bumpers,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: the winch and usual stuff.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Right, which suspension did you go in?
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Originally I didn't use the stock once because they were
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: not rough or tough enough, so we bought the old
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: man Emil that's an Australian product. Unfortunately, after forty kilometers
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: the shocks are completely Now I have the second version
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: of you know, the the heavy duty shocks which are
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: cone is and hopefully they will last until until South Africa.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, stole you said front and rear bumper.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the front bump bumper because we had to host
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: a winch, right, and so you need another bumper and
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: the rear bumper is I mean, they're all custom made.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: And the rear bumper is actually a air on air
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: tank because it when when I let the compression run,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: it actually fills my rear bumper with air, which is yeah,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: it's something a bit particular to to this build nice.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So you had the vehicle and the cell for the camper,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and the campra was became empty. Is that correct?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And then you built it out yes. And you took
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of inspiration from boat building and how boats
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: are built for the interior absolutely.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, being close to North Italy and the Lo
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Como Lake, you know this is an area where there
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: is lots of craft craftsmanship about boat building. Is there
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: is a lot of people that know how to build
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: the interiors of those of those boats. And we Copyle
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: took over some of these techniques and technologies in making
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: the interior of ourselves. You can see lots of wood,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: it's teakwood, and you can see usual stuff that you
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: normally would see on a sayable definitely.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. How did you decide where to cut everything? I
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: guess did you did you come in and say, like
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the sink here or the kitchen.
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: Here, No that was Marta. No, no here is Marcel.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: There vehicles inspired you? Or did you kind of sit
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: in the camper as an NPHL.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: And visualize or no, I mean I just cussed it
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: also with the guy who knows to you that built
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: the shell, because we had obviously to prepare things a
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: little bit for what was to come. But there are
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: a few rules that you have to follow. So everything
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: which has weight, which is heavy, you try to keep
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: it between the two axis axles. Yeah, okay, so you
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: don't put any big weights to the very end for
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: the very back. The kitchen is quite light. That's actually
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: white when death the bed was clear. I mean it's
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: you know, the front side where we can sleep very comfortably.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: I have to say, yeah, we sleep very well.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: It's very comfortable, actually much comfortable than the one at two.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: Yes, important.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I like how I don't think I've seen a lot
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: of overline cameras that have this kind of rounded shade.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: And with the ranger, you're quite narrow obviously easy to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: fit in tight spaces to a certain extent.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: And the nice things is sleeping with the stars.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, have a window right above your.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Head, Yes, so it's a nighttime, it's it's wonderful.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a window of our head. But we
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: also can open complete to the roof the entire roof section,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: which is very good when it's hot. We could not
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: afford an acy simply because of weight reasons and AC
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: takes a lot of energy, so you have to have
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: big batteries and it's not something that goes into this
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: kind of build. So you need to have lots of
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: airth So we have ventilators, yeah, the roof the open
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: open the.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Roof, yes, and you have a heater.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: Oh yes as well?
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Which one do you have? It is a true six D.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: If I'm not mistaken or respect for this kind, I
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: mean it's it's incredible. In five minutes, I can turn
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: this into a sona nice.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: That's great because you've been in some really cool places.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: We have been, yes, yes, oh yes.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: So tell me about to have a vehicle build done.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: You're ready to go. This is season zero, I believe
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: on your YouTube channeling documented all of this. And you
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: go to leave, You do a few countries and eure upright,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and you're learning along the way. What did you learn
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: from the I guess.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: Now the test the trip.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: We went to friends actually just for or two weeks
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: if not wrong. So we just went to the nord
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: of friends just to check the car, if it was good,
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: any problem, just to be to understand how things are working.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: And yeah it was, it was okay. Actually, what kinds.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Of things did you learn? Do you remember?
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's a long time ago. You have to think
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean essentially we tested that everything works. Yes,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I mean feeling water, you know, or you know. I
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: mean there are simple stuff that you need to know
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: how they work.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: And also because if you.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Find yourself somewhere in Central Asia and you have to
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: know how things if things actually worked the way they
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: were planning to.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: Actually, after we came back, I changed all the organization
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: of the kitchen. I change everything because it was not
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: on the way I like it, which into a lot
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: of things actually, but at the end it was I
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: think September we were ready to start our journals.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: Ready, we say, yeah, yeah we have You're never ready.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: It was time to meet, yes, and okay that is
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: back in twenty eighteen eighteen. Yes, you know. Our our
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: dream was to drive from Switzerland to Singapore then continue
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: to Australia, then South America, North America, then Africa and
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: back to Europe. That was our our dream.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the plan was led and all the things happened.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And as I was mentioning before arrived in Singapore,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: you know, our dream came to a halt.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: But not in Singapore, in Johore in Joe Barrow.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, so take me through. Did the trip in France
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and you learn these things. We arranged your kitchen and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: then it was time to go.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: And then did you go?
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: So we start from Italy, No, from Switzerland. Sorry, we
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: start from Switzerland and we arrived season one. It was
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: until Marcello marcel.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Okay, we split our entire journey into what we call seasons.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Season one was from Switzerland to Georgia, Georgia, not Georgia
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: US Georgia, Georgia in Asia. And I would say the
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: highlight of that street was about two months that we
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: spent in Turkey, which by the way, is a fantastic
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: country to visit. I wouldn't do it in the winter,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: but anytime close to the winter is fantastic. And you
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: can choose, you know, north or south if you want
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: more cold, more warmer weather.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: What did you enjoy about Turkey, Because I've heard a
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: lot of people say they really loved her for a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: variety of reasons. Why do you like it?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, it's the closest you can get
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: out of Europe from home, right, I mean, the moment
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: you cross the both for us, you are in Asia.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: And probably you know you heard it before, but we
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: have a special affection for Asia. Having been living twenty
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: years in Asia, getting into the same continent again was
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: a bit of spa was special. The nice thing about
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Turkey is first of all from a cultural site. I mean,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: there are so many, you know, Greek Roman old cities
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: that you have to visit and one is just more
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: beautiful than the next, than the other one. The food
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: is good, the people are nice. The infrastructure is actually excellent,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: I have to say so. The roads are paved above
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: two thousand meters, which is excellent.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: You have a tree gy coverage everywhere across the nation.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: It's fantastic. The only part where we felt its still
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: it had still to be developed. And then talking about
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: twenty eighteen was the Kurdish area. But having visited again
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the cur distant when was there three months ago October
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: I can see a major uptight in these last two
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: three years since we were there a lot the first.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Time in terms of infrastructure. Yeah, all right, So you
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: got to Turkey, Turkey.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: From Turkey, actually you cross into Georgia and it was
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: close to Christmas and for us time to have a
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: first break. I mean, our philosophy is that we move
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: the vehicle across the globe and whenever we feel we
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: need a break, we go back. We go back home.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: We fly back home, leaving the vehicle where it is
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: and take two three months in order to digest and
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: to recharge, digest what we have learned seeing and recharge
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: of our own batteries.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: So I think you said earlier every four to five
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: months or something like that.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: Something like that, Yes, which I think is.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: If you can do it, it's a good idea, like
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you were saying, to process what you've seen, what you've learned. Yeah,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and you have great see family.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly your friends or family that you you have to
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: see from time to time.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Do you get lonely on the road just the two
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: of you ever?
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: No, I don't fit at all. No, no, not at all.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: I mean we are quite open and we like to
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: approach people and talk to people. If you have that
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: kind of attitude, you will never be alone.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: True.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, everywhere we go we found the nice people. It's
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: fantastic traveling related because really you have friends everywhere. We
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: have friends everywhere. Actually, it's amazing.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: And having those breaks to go back home and see
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: friends and family.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: Probably that is it.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, a little bit of a chard, Yes, come back fresh.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because after five months you start to say you
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: just see a nice place, something very nice, or an
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: archaeological site, and you start to say, yes, nice, very nice.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Okay, another one.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: So it's really time to stop because you don't enjoy anymore.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: What are you? What do you have? So it's time
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: to really have a break.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, So you made it to Georgia, had your break,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: and came back.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: We came back in March.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: We paid a fine of six hundred euros.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Six hundred euros because we overstayed on the car of
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: the car.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask about that. Have you ever
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: had an issue like not being able to find somewhere
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: to leave your vehicle?
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: No, that's not the problem. But sometimes you just don't
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: know all the rules. And Georgia, yes, Georgia allows you
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: ninety days and we overstayed. I mean the vehicle over
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: state stay one hundred and twenty days or so, we
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: have to pay a fine bar okay, anyhow, Georgia thereobai Jan.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: First highlight was Iran. I know that some of us
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: are not allowed to travel freely true Iran, but I
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: can say it is an amazing country and the people
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: are are extremely nice. So that was one of the
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: highlight of season two. The second highlight would say was.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: The Pamir, the Pamier Highway. Yes, when you.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Start to I mean obviously it's the Silk Road. You
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: go through roads Pakistan, Sammar Khan and all these nice places.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: But once you start the Vakan Corridor and you go
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: up three four thousand meters and you reach this plateau
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: which is like the roof of the world. I mean,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: it's it's just amazingly beautiful. And that's the Pamir, Pamir Mountain,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Pamir the highway Permi, which is not a highway, Oh no,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: it's actually a track for hotels. That's that's what the
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Pamir Highway is. Then you go down the other side
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: and you reach Kilgittstan, which is Switzerland of Asia. Everything
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: is green, there are pastures all over the place beautiful.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: And then we ended season two in the other team,
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: which is in in Kansastan, Kansastan being the number four
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: five because country in the world.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Huge, amazing. What was it like keeping track of documentation
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: and for all those border crossings, was it difficult or well.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: In comparison to what we experienced these last few months
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: we are talking now actually right, you know, going through
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: some of the Middle East countries, I have to say
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: it was fairly easy, very easy. If you can cross
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: a border within three four hours, I think, I mean
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: to us easy border cross yes, but I mean the
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: former Soviet Union countries they are pretty organized, well organized.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: And did you need to get visas or did you
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: need to get visas and countries and the seas beforehand or.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean most of the countries allow you to
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: organize either the visa electronically or on arrival. But there
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: are three countries in our first three seasons that where
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: we had to get the visas up front. One was Iran.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: There is no way you can or at LEAs there
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: was no way before you could get the visa outside
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: of your home country. Okay, the second one was Russia
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: and the third one was China, and we'll come when
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: we talk about season three. Yeah, the problem is that
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: when you get your visa in your home country, it's
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: normally only lasting or you know, it's expiring normally after
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: six months. So what happened and that's actually the reason
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: why we also put in the brakes when we came
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: home from Almaty. We flew home to get the Russia
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: and the China business so we could go for another lake,
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: which was in season three.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Right, and what about a karnae? Did you have to
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: get a carne at all?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Yes? You need a karne for not many countries, but
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: definitely of those I just mentioned Iran, that's a must.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: You guys are so fortunate that you can travel really
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: like you were saying, through Iran, because I know British,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: American and Canadian need to hire a guy that goes
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: with them more have restrictions on travels.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's unfortunate. M Yeah, maybe this will will change
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: one day.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see ip So just crossed.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: So you end up in Almati, Kansastan, Right, that was
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: the end of season two. We started three months later
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: in July, so we started three months later from Almati.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: We drove north. We went into Siberia, into the Altai area.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: We didn't spend a lot of time. Frankly, in Siberia.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: It was very hard to spend as much.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: As we could. We got one month's visa in Mongolia,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: and we wanted to have thirty days in Mongolia, and
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: we had an appointment at the Mongolia China border that
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: we could miss. It was the tenth of September. We
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: had to be there. So eventually we stayed only only
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: two weeks in Siberia, but it was enough to learn
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: the Altai area.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: Very beautiful, yes, wonderful, and then one month in Mongolia,
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: which was fantastic.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: That's the paradise of every overlanders. That first of all,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: there are no roads. There are only directions. So when
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: you go from one place to the other, you just
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: had one place head towards that place. There is no
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: road to follow. You just follow a track, the track
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: that goes closest in the direction you want to go.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: And the best thing was the washboard of Manson.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: It's not the best thing. The best thing is that
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: when it is five, six, seven o'clock, and do you
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: think oh, maybe we should find a cab. Wherever you are,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: you just stop and that's where you put your cab.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: It's one huge campground. Yeah, and okay, apart apart from that,
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: I mean the landscape.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: Their beautiful, fantastic.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: We started to visit one part of Mongolia which is
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: not known at all, which is the Altaiser, and what
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: we experienced in that one week was sensation. The second
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: I would say high in Mongolia was the go byes.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: We crossed the gob you know, in each direction. You
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: were a bit crazy because we were alone. You know,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Mongolia is quite tough on the vehicle. Of three cars
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: that go to Mongolia, one breaks down completely, the second
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: one has some major failures that need to repair, and
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: the third one, yeah, gets through unskated. We had absolutely
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: no problem.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that came.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: The crossing of China from north to south is from
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: her and not.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: So you met up with a few other trials.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: You can't you can't do that on your own. You
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: need a guide. We were actually I and another lady
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: from Germany. We organized a group of four cars and
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: the four of us hired a guide and with the guide,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: forty days we crossed the entire China. That was tiring
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: because you do a lot of kilometers. China is not small,
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: right and and frankly, you know, forty days are I
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: mean every day you have to travel about.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Wow, what was it like having a guy there? How
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: did that work? Logistically?
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: We were extremely lucky. I mean we were on our
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: own normally for one or even two days, and after
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: two days we met the guide and we go and
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: have dinner together and we are let alone again for
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: another two days. Really very easy, extremely easy. And the
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: good seeing the guide was organizing the entry tickets for
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: all the sites, visitsing you know, so yeah, doing a
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: lot of things that we could not as Europeans because
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: we don't speak the language.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: And how did you track down a guy?
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Social media's.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: A lot like Facebook groups, And.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we ask around and eventually we found this company
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and the guide. Because every company has a number of
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: guys and all are equally good. I think the one
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: we found was.
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: Really really good and nice.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those Facebook groups can be really helpful Overland Middle
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: East Facebook group. That is how I found you, guys,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: That's how we met. That's how I found out a
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: lot of information about this area before we decided to
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: come to saudist so it's really helpful. I think it's
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: awesome too, because you get to connect with other people.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: It's not like thea where sooner or later you bump
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: into another overlander, because it's it's just one way. Right
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: in Asia or even here in the Middle East, you
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: don't see at the overlanders. You are essentially on your
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: own unless you know, you know someone that is traveling
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: in the air and you can make an appointment, you
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: can meet, you know, but it's very tough to meet
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: other overloads.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it's a whole different ball game over here realizing.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Or at least the way we travel because you know,
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: we are now in middle of January in Saudi Arabia.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: It's probably not actually say the best season to do
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia, definitely not December, but the country is so big.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: So just to complete we did China. After China, we
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: went into Laos for the first part because you know,
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Laos and Thailand are two countries which are very known
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: from top to down. We went first the first time
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: to Thailand just to visit places we know pretty well,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: like Chang Mai, Chiang Ryan, just to tick them off
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: with our own car instead of having a rented car.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: So then we went.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: Back into into Laos.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Into Laos, we met some friends there which were coming
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: also out of China. Then we traveled south, we crossed
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: into Cambodia, we went back to Thailand. From Thailand, we
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: went into Malaysia and then our trip was coming to
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: an end because I mean, this season was coming to
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: and we actually were quite fast because that's an area
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: of Asia we know, we know where very well, and.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: The countries are getting smaller, yes, China.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Our target was to reach Singapore, which means Johor.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe Singapore is the only country in the
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: world that does not allow overlanders vehicles. The moment you
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: have either a kitchen or a sleeping capability, the car
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: is not allowed to enter. So we parked just outside Singapore,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: which is Johor, and that was the end of season.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: Three twenty nineteen.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: It was Christmas nineteen. We flew home with the intention
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: to get back in February. February the twelve, and in
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: the meantime, COVID came up and we didn't see the
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: car for another eighteen months. It was just stuck in
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: Malaysia and we could not fly to Malaysia to pick
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: up the car.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Where did you park it?
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: We park it to some friends, very good friends, so
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: just live with the car at the place. And the
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: car was safe. But under the rain and under the sun.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: That was the problem, that effect thanks especially the rain.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: But when the car came back came back actually Marcel
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: was doing a lot well.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: There have been in the last few weeks before the
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: car was shipped back to Europe, there has been some
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: heavy flooding.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: In Malaysia in the area and.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Our car got flooded as well. It was full of
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: water and as you can imagine with all the wood
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: that we have, I mean, everything was moldy and stinky.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: It took me three months to repair it. The most
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: important thing is that it took us about eighteen months
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: until we got the car back from Malaysia. Thanks to
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: our friends, we managed to get it onto a ship
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: and to rural We shipped it to Bremerhaffen in Germany.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: So did your friends have to drive it on or
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: did you end up being able to come?
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: And it was just to move it from Joebarro to
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: the port. It took me six months. And I'm not
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: joking because first COVID every counter implements restrictions in its
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: own way, and Malaysia they decided to block the interstates.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: That means you cannot move, you cannot drive, you know,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: from one country within Malaysia or let's say, from one
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: province to the next province. So these, you know, two
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: months until this would happen. Then when it was ready
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: to be driven to the port, the port was about
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: three hundred kilometers away, there was no ship. The ship cancels,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: you know, so no vessels. No vessels, yes, And the
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: moment the vessel was available, the drivers turned down and said, no,
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: I'm not driving the car anymore because of fear, because
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: of COVID and all the stores. Sure, so eventually I
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: to attracted from Joebarro to Port Clang which is the
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: court of Equala Lump, and finally make it. It made
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: it on a vessel, and the months later it was
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: in Germany.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: So what did you do for those eighteen months? That
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: must have been tough because.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: You had well we gained weight for sure.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was it was boring at home, Yeah.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: I mean what I was doing most of the time
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: is editing videos because they had enough material. And so eventually, yeah,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: a few YouTube videos got up uploaded. Oh yes, yeah,
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it was about planning what was coming next,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: what was you know about to happen next. So I
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: had to buy all the pieces, repair all the repairs
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: to do, and eventually once that was done, I started
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: to plan what we are doing now, which is season four.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: In season pun okay, did you leave again from Switzerland
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: or from Germany on.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: The next From from Switzerland, we left on the fifth
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: of October. We left Switzerland, so we just Italy, the
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: Balkan Turkey again. After it was the Iraqi courdistant. After
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: we trifle from the Iraqi Courdistan to enter in the
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Iraqi and the Arab part, but it was impossible, so
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: we went back to Solomania and tried to go to
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: Visa for Iran from Iran, just a transit visa for
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: a five day visa. After a long discussion and waiting
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: and waiting, three attempt Yes, after three attempt we got it.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: So we went to Iran five days and finally we
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: entered in a basara in Iraq.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: So this is where things get very interesting.
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: Oh yes, because I.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Don't think a lot of people have gone through Iraq
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: as over ladders and you were saying that you think
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: that possibly you guys were the first in almost thirty years.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: First of all, you need to know Iraq has actually
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: the northern side, which is the kurdistant and the Kurdish
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: side of Iraq is something that you can explore as
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: an overlander. So when we talk about the real Iraq,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: we talk about the Arab side of Iraq. That's where Baghdad,
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: jeff Bazar and these cities are. And as you correctly say,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: I think it's about thirty years that no one is
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: traveling that that count.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Let's do this, let's go.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Well, that's our adventurous spirits, right, someone had to do
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: it first.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Sure, and we possibility.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: We felt prodestinate in the sense that you just don't
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: drive to the border and you knock the door and say,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: yeahs can we get through? That's we prepared district for
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: about six months, and we obviously got in touch with
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: the consoles of Iraq in Switzerland and had long conversations
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: with them and eventually they helped us to understand what
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: is the procedure to get through Iraq. And it's actually
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: something that the country Iraq has not been pursuing before
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: these days and now they want to open up a
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: little bit, and yeah, we were probably just the first
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: doing that.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: So what did that? What those procedures entail six months
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: of planning and research, and.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: The fact is is that Iraq is willing to open
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: the borders to travelers like us. So the procedure is
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: essentially to arrive at the border and explain them what
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: they have to do. But the fact is really that
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: no one knew what to do when we arrived.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Gotcha, because why would they because we were.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were the first one, and no one knew
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: that back that being the capital of Iraq. The fact
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: that government is actually interested, you know, in having foreigner
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: traveling through their country, but they don't know that at
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: the border, okay, So it was absolutely not easy to get.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: And the first I mean the broad crossing from Iran
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: to Iraq to an entire day. I think we arrived
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: at the hotel in Basara.
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: It was about eleven eleven o'clock in the nineteen night.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: And we started very early in the morning, so it
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: took us I don't know, fifteen.
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: Hours, sixteen seventeen hours, yes, and then comes.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: The crossing of Iraq, which is we've overlanded in over
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: fifty countries. This is really really another dimension in terms
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: of challenge, in terms of difficulty of traveling.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: What did you have to traveling throughout the country.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: Well, it's ambivalent. On one side, you have extremely nice
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: people when you go to the villages.
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: I mean you can explain, yes that the people are
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: very kind and very warm.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: They open their house, they give you.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Food, they give you every I think you are li
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: king and the queen. Really it's something amazing. They're wonderful.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: So the people, the villagers and so on are extremely
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: nice to be with. But to move around you have
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: to go through main roads that are filled by checkpoints
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: and checkpoints. We saw some checkpoints here, those here in Saudi,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: those in Iraq are of a complete different nature. You
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: get stopped in any case every time, and if you're lucky,
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: in ten to fifteen minutes you can go on. If
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: you're not lucky, you wait two three hours until they
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: let you go.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Wow. And I know for a part of the checkpoints.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Usually it can happen that you drive another kilometers and
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: you get to the next checkpoint which does not talk
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: to the previous checkpoints, so you start the entire procedure again.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: The difficulty for us is that you actually don't know
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: what they are checking.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was going to ask you.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: They take the passports, they make pictures of all our passports,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: and there are a few other papers that we have
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: with us, and then start, you know, the entire process
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: of talking to the superior, talking to the superior of
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: the superior, talking to the general, talking to I don't
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: know to whom they talk, and eventually, you know, they say, yeah,
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: you can go. It's very it's very tedious.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Who is manning the checkpoints? Is that military? Is it?
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: Who are the group? I guess it is a military
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: check points? Okay? And what are they You don't know
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: what they're What are they looking for? Are they're there
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: to protect whoever is going along the highway from.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: I mean they always say it's for your safety that
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: you know they check you. Yeah, we don't understand. We
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: regularly understand exactly what what they they want to check.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: How many days did you spend an.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: Era in the Arab Iraq so from Basara to the
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: Jordan border. Yeah, we spent in total about ten days. Okay,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: I think that's that's enough.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was gonna say, did it feel worth it
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: for all of the checkpoints and the paperwork and the
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: time people to experience those beautiful sides and chat.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: With It's an adventure challenge that we wanted to undertake
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: and we are extremely happy that we did, and we
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: opened the road to be very friend because it's the
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: only way you can drive today a car from Europe
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: to Middle East without having to ship it.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: I mean Syria would be another way, but it's closed.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: You don't drive to Syria this day. Iran. There is
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: a ferry from Iran to study Emirates. Since COVID, this
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: family is not working, or at least it's only working
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: in part the car, but you can't go. I mean
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: it's a fairly anyhow, the only way on road to
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: come from Europe, to drive from Europe to the Middle
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: East is to Iraq.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: I thought it was really interesting that we were chatting earlier.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: You were saying that a couple of other groups have
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: actually now come through Iraq into Q eight or.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: You mentioned these overland Middle East group.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, the Facebook, that's.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Where I posted just a short article about our experience
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: to drive to Iraq. I don't know how many people
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: have asked me questions how did you do it? Yeah,
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: but a lot. And as a matter of fact, two
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: months later a German couple has done the same. However,
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: after three days I think they turned into Kuwaiting. They
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: didn't go. They didn't go any longer in through to Iraq,
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: which is understandable. I mean, Iraq is really a tough,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: very tough country to overland.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: And how did you find accommodation there? Like, how did
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: you were you camping? Were you not camping? Were you
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: doing hotels there? Did you feel safe?
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: There are places you have to go into a hotel
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: simply because there is no way you can find a
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: camp a camping ground, camping spot, where to stop where
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: you are not spotted by someone.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: The problem is if you stop somewhere, it's a matter
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: of ten minutes, half an hour and you will have
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: the police. They are checking around or close to the
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: big cities. It's impossibly impossibly you have to go into
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: a hotel. But the good thing is when you go
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: into the small villages. So in the Marshes, which is
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: in the south of Iraq, there are many such little villages.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: You just drive into those villages and normally you will
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: see a big house in the middle in the moody
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: there that's where the shake of the village is normally
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: hosting his guests. And once the shakeh accepts you as
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: a guest, you are protected by him. There is no police,
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: no office, no military or whatever that can harm you.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: He takes responsibility and there you can camp. You can
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: camp in his will, you know, and he tells you
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: what to do. It gives you access to his house.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: You can do everything.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: That's fascinating. My other question was about preconceived ideas about
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: a place. So I raq is somewhere. I think that
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: globally we have preconceived ideas about what that country is like.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Did you have any of those when you went in?
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: And how did the trip through the country change them.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: You can't avoid it to have preconceived opinions about a country,
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: simply because our opinions are influenced by the medias and
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: the way how things are presented to us. Luckily, and
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: it's just one way, but luckily, there are social media
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: platforms that allow you to gain experience from people who
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: have traveled before you. That works as an example for Iran,
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: and I mean everyone you know in the Western hemisphere,
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: since Iran is probably one of the worst places to go.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, but it's apart from being fantastic from
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: a landscape perspective, people are doing nice, really really really nice,
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: friendly and overwhelming, which is totally the opposite of what
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: the media will tell you. Yes, now, Iraq is a
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: different pair of shoes because there are not many who
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: have traveled Iraq and it has obviously nothing to do
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: with what Western military forces have been doing in those countries.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: You have to kind of find out, I would say,
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: your own. You have to make your own experience. While
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: for certain countries the social media platforms can help you
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: have a more balanced opinion or a more objective opinion
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: before you travel into the country, this was not really
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: possible in Iraq because no one has traveled in Iraq before,
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: at least not the way we have done it. So
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: we had to rely on our own gut feel and
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: our own experience and having traveled in a number of countries,
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: the moment you are opened, the moment you have a
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: smile on your face, the moment you are honest and
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: you are yourself. Ninety nine percent of the cases you
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: will find that you will have a very positive feedback
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: from the people, right, and this happens everywhere.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, I always. I think there's a quote about you
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: don't judge the people of a country based on their
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: government or yes, right, absolutely, So okay, so you got
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: through trailblazing, then what next?
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: Then the intention was to obviously go into Jordan, because
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: that's the best way of exiting Iraq and in Jordan,
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: and we did that. We went into Egypt, which was
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: a nightmare.
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: No, it was nice, No, no, not Egypt.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: Sorry, the border crossing was challenging, absolutely challenge.
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: That's twenty four hours.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: That's where we spent twenty four hours on the border.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: We slept on the border. I mean, we don't have
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: to go into the detail, but that's the kind of
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: border crossing that as an overlander you really don't want
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: to have no truth.
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: But we managed.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: Egypt is actually very beautiful.
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a very nice country to.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: Travel a part of you know, the usual checkpoints and.
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but it was quite fast the checkpoint and but
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: you get escorted yeah one yeah, yeah, police car in
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: the back.
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: There are areas you are not allowed to travel on Europe.
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: Our plan was from Egypt to drive to Sudan Ethiopia
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: and then go straight towards not straight, but gently towards
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: South Africa. We knew Ethiopia was a challenge by the
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: time we departed from Switzerland, but Sudan was actually something
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: that we had not expected before. There has been a coup,
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: a military coup in Sudan, and Ethiopia is essentially a
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: civil war going on with the border result closed. So
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: our intention to drive down the African continent down towards
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: south along the east coast vanished. We had to make
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: a U turn, which has not been easier at all.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: It has taken about one week of organizing our exit
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: from Egypt back into Jordan. We wanted we wanted to
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: get from Egypt straight into Saudi Arabia, which was not
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: possible because of COVID, and the only way we could,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: you know, get back to this site the Arabian Peninsula
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: was to travel again across the Sinai with a four
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: by four and then from Nueba, which is Sinai, ferry
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: it into Akaba, Jordan. Unfortunately, no four by four has
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: done that before, or at least not in the last
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know, five to ten years. So we had
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: to get the permits to drive our own vehicle through
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: the Sinai which took us for four days, and once
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: we had the permits, we made it through. And that's
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: another article we put, you know, in Facebook, just to
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: explain how other Landers could do it in the future.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Nice. So, yeah, you're traveling in a really tricky time
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: in tricky places and blazing through and you made it
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: into Jordan.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, back into Jordan. The choice of Jordan was also
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: because it was Christmas, so we spent the Yeah, we
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: could enjoy a little bit of Christmas. You know, in
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: the Arab countries it's not as easy as you can imagine,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: but Jordan has some Christian community so was good and
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: preparing our crossing into Saudi Saudi was meant to be
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: a short tree pill the doors now has become a
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: highlight of these times. Yes, we will spend probably about
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: two months, and I think we enjoy every single minute
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: in Saudi. It's fantastic.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: It is incredible meet exactly here we are. I had
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: seen you guys in the overline Middle East Basic book
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: group and then followed you i think on Instagram at
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: some point and I had been following your journey through
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: the area and I saw your your post on that
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: Facebook group about Iraq, and I was like, what is
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: going on? What are these crazy people?
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: No?
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: No, like it's incredibles, like a testament to patience and
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: tenacity and resourcefulness that you're going through these areas, but
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: people haven't gone during a pandemic. At the same time,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: it's it's not easy to travel right now, so it
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: gets pretty cool. Saudi, right, saudis place is special, really special.
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: Amazing, It's amazing. Yes.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I wasn't prepared for Saudi to be frank apart from
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: a few places, you know, I had, I had not
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: a real clear clue of what Saudi was, and I thought, well,
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: it's essentially a big desert, empty and boring. You're traveling
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: Ashley, Surprise after surprise.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: It is one huge national park. It is yeah, right,
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: and it doesn't finish to surprise you.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, it was like Overlander Paradise. Like almost every single time,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: like you were saying about Mongolia, you could just pull
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: over somewhere incredibly beautiful to camp and there's no one
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: really there. Most of these places are empty or not
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: very many people around, so it's really special here. I
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: feel like there's so much to see, so much history,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: people are incredibly welcoming and friendly. I've never experienced that
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: enthusiasm before. And a diversity of terrain, Like we just
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: went through this waddy togetherle of days ago that was
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: like an oasis in the middle and there's water running
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: through it and it's green and beautiful and these big
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: orange cliffs, and then you know, the next day you're
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: in the dunes or you're in a volcanic area. Like
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: it's overwhelming.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, yeah, that's what I said, I think
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: to you two days ago. Right, I'm afraid actually to
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: move off into going to an out the country because
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: I kind of fear that I won't experience this anymore. Yeah,
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: you know, so I'm a bit afraid actually to leave
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: so Saudi. But I mean, obviously we will do it, and.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: Oman is supposed to be incredible.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, One is our next country, and we will probably
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: finish in the Emirates in Dubai and close our season four.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: That's why we take a break right close our season
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: four in Dubai and then continue our journey from Kenya.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: We will ship our vehicle to Kenya and drive from
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Kenya to Captoun.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Fun plans on the horizon. It's very exciting. It'll be
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: really nice to watch you guys continue on your journey. Yeah,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you kier about how if you
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: have any travel tips for women traveling throughout the Middle
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: East that have come from the West, because I found
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: when I was researching for this trip, I was a
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: bit unsure about like what to wear or how to
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: how it would be received, you know, if I don't
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: have a head scarf.
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: On or But I think if you are in a
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: big city, you don't have really to cover yourself.
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: The people in a big city they are more open.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: But if you are visiting a small village, a small
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: village especially, it's nice that you cover a little bit.
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: You don't really need to wear a Yeah, but just
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: you know, just cover your under your knee, maybe put
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: a scarf sometimes. Also if it's not required, it's just
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: you know, sometimes the people they are looking at you
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: like you are coming from another planet. So it's just
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: a little bit of respect to the local people. But otherwise,
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: like a woman, I don't have a big problem. It's okay.
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: Yes, I think.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: South is opening up itself. Yeah, five years ago was
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: more much more difficult for a woman to travel. Definitely
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: a Western woman. Yeah, Saudi, but today I would say, yes,
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: you have to be respectful.
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit of respect to it because you
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: are visiting the country. But other wife is a I
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: don't feel it's okay, no problem.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel that way as well. And I think,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: you know, wearing loose clothing was one thing that I
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: heard that was important. Yeah, like nothing too low cut,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: so like kind of a looser top and no like
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: tight pants, no, or wear something over top, like you
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: have a great it's like a geen dress.
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, is a long dress.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: And and some time, if I really in a small
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: small village, I put my scarf and it's all. And
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: now you have also to wear the mask, so it's
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: it's okay.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You have an abaya, which and abaya like listeners
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: aren't familiar with it is which I wasn't either before
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: I came to this part of the world. But it's
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: like a long black robe and you can pick them up.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: I think I got mine in Saudi.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: I also I also picked it up here in everywhere
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: you go in a small market, the more you can found,
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: the you can found it easily.
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: It's not a problem.
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: Actually, I come with my things from Europe, and it
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: was a little bit of color.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, it was interesting because I was trying to watch,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: well Richard would like watch the reactions of like the
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: men that were passing me by, just to kind of see.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: And it seemed like if my hair, like I have
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: long hair, and if it was out, I think they
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: kind of would like look and do a little double
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: take and then like look away. And so sometimes if
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: I had a scarf over my hair, I drew less attention.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: But it's not required.
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: No, it's not required.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: I have to wear an abio. We don't have to
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: wear a headscarf here. No, they can drive. It's legals
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: for women to do.
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: The only things is sometimes when you go to the
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: restaurant that you are not allowed to sit down with
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: the with the men.
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: So they just.
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: Ask you please just go with your husband to the
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: family room.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: So it's but okay, no problem for me, because they.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: Have in restaurant of the restaurants, like you were saying,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: there's a family section, yes, and then there's there men's
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: yes and as well, so you kind of get shuttled
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: over to that, which is fine. I think it might
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: be more difficult sometimes if you're traveling, is a solo female.
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: I think yes, but it's a it's a for solo female.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: They just you go there and they come to pick
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: up your owner, so it's not is not a big deal.
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: I think the.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: Cool thing too, is that we get to see a
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: side of things that you know, like Richard doesn't get
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: a chance to see. Like we got invited to somebody's
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: house and he kind of got shuttled the way into
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: this back room and he got to hang out with
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the husband and the boo and I got to hang
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: out with the mom and grandma and the kids, and
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: got invited in the kitchen, and you get to see
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: them without.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: Yes, I got the I got the same experience. Yes, yes,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: And what's that like for you?
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: It was nice because you know, I was really courious
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: to see actually the local local women here because they
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: are covered, so it's and they.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: Are nice ladies. They are really pretty ladies.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, beautiful, Yes, And I think I would say like
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: ninety five, maybe even ninety eight percent of the local
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: women here seem like they're full yeah, yes, all covering,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: so you don't you really see eyes. And that's that's it.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: I just saw maybe two three ladies without with the open.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: Yes, covering.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a special experience for sure. There was a
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: lot of Google Translate happening when I was over in
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: their kitchen.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: Sorry she she was talking a little bit of English.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Yeahs oh.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: It's normally women are more educated in terms of English language.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: So that's something I experienced. If I see a couple
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: and I have to ask any question, I normally try
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: to ask indirectly, obviously, because you're not supposed to talk
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: to the lady, but you try to get her a
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: chance to answer, because she will understand English. He will
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: maybe not understanding.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: That's been our experience as well. It is interesting in
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the first few days when you arrive and you don't
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: really know like what how to interact. Sometimes like your
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: eyes a little bit nervous and intimidated almost, and I
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: didn't know how, but it's like a human it doesn't.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: After a few days you know how to communicate and
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: how to manage everything.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: It takes time, but it's it's good. What have been
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: some of the highlights for Are you guys traveling through
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Saudi like history wise or to see like specific spots
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: or food or what do you think is your is
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: the highlights so far.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: In terms of in terms of history. I think we
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: haven't seen yet the really highlights in Saudi, or at
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: least compared to what you can see in Egypt, in Jordan,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: you know, places like Petron. Saudi so far hasn't yet
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: offered a comparable highlight historically speaking.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: Seems to be like woven into everything.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, but yeah, I mean a castle or you
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: go and see some you know former I mean, everything
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: is a structured in a way that is almost you know,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: Disney words type. It's too nice, you know, I miss
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: a little bit, is you know, let it be how
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: it was and let it show how it was before fact.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: They just do it a bit too much. But again,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: the Norse is not supposed to offer a lot of history.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: It will be actually in all the South and they
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: have a few places, a few spots that obviously you're
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: going to visit, starting with Jeda. Jeda. Jeda has has
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: a few very very nice historical sites to visit. Food,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: sorry not, It's pretty much the same everywhere you go.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: I would say there are two things. One are the people.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: As you're saying, people are very friendly, the Bedouins. They
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: invite you everywhere in order to have a cup of
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: tea or they want. You know, they are very so
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: the people and the landscape. I mean those deserts, some
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: of the deserts are just fantastic.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: But no, no, I'm the same opinion. Food is not
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: is good good food, but maybe after three months of
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: Arab food, it's enough.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 4: Chicken. Yes, it's not even the Arab food.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: I say, it's a mix of Syrian, Bangladesh and Indian food.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: So it's actually maybe we try local food. But this
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: kind of local food you have, you have it only
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: when you are invited in someone house, yes, but outside
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: of the wife is a mix of food.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: We have been invited by a local family. That family
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: has been very nice in terms of offering us all
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: sorts of really Arab dishes. But you can't buy them, right,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: you know, you have to be invited. You can't go
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: to a restaurant and enjoy the same culinary experience.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had really good Syrian food and realcity and
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: that was the gentleman that invited us over. That was
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Syrian food. It's not actually the same. It was delicious. Nonetheless,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: lots of different influences from the side of the world
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: here too. So take me through a typical day in
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: your life. And I think that that is a hard
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: question to ask because every day is so different, but
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: you have certain rituals or things. They're the same.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: Wake up, breakfast, coffee, coffee. First things is the coffee.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: The first things morning time is coffee.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: What kind of coffee do you?
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: Yes, that is the typical Italian coffee with the MoCCA.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: She makes a killer cup of coffee.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: So we do the coffee and after we after breakfast,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: we try to be already in around twenty thirty minutes
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: and we start our journey, or we already have decided
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 3: what to do the night before, or we just go
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: inside the car and we drive. Martha go ahead.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: Just to clarify one thing, I mean, I know that
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: especially the non Overlanders, they believe we have a perennial holiday.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask, I was going to say,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: what is about overlanding? Yeah, not on a holiday, It's
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: a vacation. Sorry.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: Continue, So I try to explain that this is absolutely
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: not a holiday. The holiday is when we take a
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: break and we go home. Yeah, that's our holiday when
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: we are over landing. I mean, I feel this is
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: a full time job, it is for sure, Okay. Apart
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: from the six months it took me to plan the
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: strip Switzerland to South Africa, I had to find probably
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty or three hundred sites. A part
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: to the fact that it took me about six months
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: to plan the strip from Switzerland to South Africa and
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: I have pinpointed about three hundred places that we wanted. Okay.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: Obviously you have to choose which is the place or
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: the places you want to put on your list, and
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: you have to do a lot of reading, a lot
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: of research. So this is something you do before that.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: But once you are on the road, I mean every
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: day you have some challenges. You know, bits where do
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: I get water to fill my tanks? When I get diesel?
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: Where can I get grocery and the grocer is here.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: It's not like going into a mall in Canada right now.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: It is sometimes it is a challenge.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 3: It is you have to check two or three small
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 3: shop to found them.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: Four o'clock, okay, Soudi is very easy. Drug countries where
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: at four o'clock you really have to find a cab,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: a place where to spend the night. And it's not
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: that easy. It's not that easy. Every day you have
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: a number of challenges to solve. I find it's very rewarding.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: But again it has nothing to do with holidays.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: No, I confirm for sure. Everything is like trying to
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: figure things out. Oh yes, talking about word at water
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: and obviously, like from our experiences in Latin America, you
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: can get water at some fire stations or the store
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: or or whatever. But here is different.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: So we are in a desert.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 3: Today we get water in the desert, but actually we
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 3: and you find it.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 4: Yes, actually it was.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 3: Now we know that if we go close to this
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 3: kind of mosque, there is the tank and the filter
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 3: and we can have the water from there. But when
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: we enter, it was like, oh now where we can
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 3: get some water?
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, gravity fed those those water tanks. And frankly
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: takes one hour to fill our tanks, you know, until
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: you have to pipe sorted out. It takes one hour
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: just to feel our water tank.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, everything does take longer. I feel like you're not
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going to put my dirty laundry in my washer
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: dryer and it will be done.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 4: That is an that is another problem.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: But here here in Saudi is easy because wherever you
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 3: go in a in a part hotel or in a
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: hotel somewhere, there is a laundry. Every everywhere you can
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 3: found the laundry or dry cleaning, whatever you call it.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: In some places it is expensive or you don't tell it,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: so you have to go back like you you know,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: the old time hand wash. I really want to go
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: to Alaska, that I want to do it.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 4: Yes, why, I don't know.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: I like the idea to spend sometimes in Alaska with
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: the snow coled the dog. Now, yes, but you know,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 3: it's nice to have all the experience together and you
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: can compare which one is the best or not which
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 3: country is the best, because all the country are the best.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: They are nice, but the experience, yes them, or the moments.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, we will eventually visit all continents. It will take
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: us another three four years. But this is a project
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: that we will complete for sure unless as long as
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: we are in good health. Yes, we are going to
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: do this. That's now. The question is what we will
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: be doing next.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: You really lucky.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: Now, every continent has a number of highlights, or every
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: season as we call it, has a number of highlights.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: So I can tell you you know, which would be
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: the highlight in season five because I have planned already
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: and I know already which is okay. You know, next
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: will be Australia. Yes, we have been different times or
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: several times in Australia, but there are a few areas
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: we would like to join the dots because we have
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: seen the dots, but not what is in between Patagonia
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: or Central America or North America Alaska. She said, there
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: are many beautiful places. But what I'm trying to figure
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: out now is which are the places we will revisit
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: because we need to have a story after the story, right,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: So since one of our missions is to share what
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: we see with our own eyes, you know, the question
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: will be which friends are really going to include in
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: our next big amazing.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: I love that people want to find you on the
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: Internet or they want to watch your YouTube videos at
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: the Premiere Highway or of the vehicle build or through
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: the Balkans. Where can they find?
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: We are called Overland Vagabond. We have obviously our Overland
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: Vagabond dot com site and that's from there on you
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: can find, you know, all our social presences in Facebook,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: Instagram and Twitter. That's where we communicate while traveling. So
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: we write one or two posts per week with lots
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: of pictures. The moment we are not traveling, we work
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: on editor deals and that's where YouTube and Patreon channels
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: are being active overland. Vagabond is what the way how
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: to find us in all those places perfect. Patreon is
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: for the very close friends and family, but obviously everyone
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: who wants to know more about what we are doing
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: is welcome to join us on Patreon. They enjoy a
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: number of services that are unique. For instance, we are
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: traveling now and they can see in the real time
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: where we are. They can send us in real time
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: you know, questions or yeah, we do special videos for them.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: I try to post every two months specific message about
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: what is going to happen next, so they have an
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: advantage over all the others because they know exactly what
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: we are about to do. I mean, I don't know
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: how long it will take to publish these podcasts, but
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: there are not many people who know that we are
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: targeting to drive to South Africa. That's an insider info.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: But our Patroon people they know it, they know it
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: are they know it all.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: to chat with me and for coming on the Online
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: Journal podcast. I super appreciate it, and it's been really
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: lovely to talk to you and hear about all your
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: experiences trailblazing through the world.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: It's very nice to meet you, Ashley, and thank you
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: very much.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you everybody for joing that time.