BIG big BiG thANk U

7 Months +

17 Countries - ish

a car swap  2 people originally starting out and 28,306 Km’s

easy…didnt have the run’s once, happy days

BIg big thanks toooooo; mum, dad, uncles and cousins, david for his PR shiz, HyungJin and Woo Chul for making it happen, translator lady at Gunpo, Gumjung middle school for letting me quit…and goeun soek for being my hero…Soy for giving WonKee a family name, Simon Amor for his infinite knowledge and previous Mongol rally skills, Lyuba, Roman and Saha  for all the help getting won kee off the ferry into russia (4 days !!!!), The weird but hilarious guesthouse in Bishkek,  david at stan tours, Iran, Ben Brown and Brown family for support throughout, Matt Moseley who was going to come but then chris became an arse - sorry Matt, two dutch girls, sAZEEKY, The Russian police for being interested in our passports excluding the borderguards the Uzbekistan border guards for not stamping us out the country, the uzbek metro police for stopping everytime we took the metro, the Mafia mechanics for fixing our car at 1am, Arther Brezac for being a nice french man, Sisi Xiong for a life yet to come, Tamuna Margvelani for housing me for 2 months in Georgia and being great in many ways, Vanessa, Sebastien and maxim helping me adapt to european ways with a lovely sunday roast, Iraj, Hossein Fakhraee thank so much for making my stay in Iran very comfortable, Nima you joker hope your not in prison, Joel and Shaun, All the crazy cyclists, Molly Anderson for accompanying us to the fireman’s ball,   Ivana Tanja Benny at art hostel Skopje, Francis Plourde, everyone in Kosovo who helped me and Francis gain a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the place, Jeeva Martin and Jochem for music and entertainment, Appleby’s, Rachael for letting me sleep in her house until i left Korea, all the hitchhikers all the people i have been a shamed not to mention, the fair and just mechanics of this world, Tracey Stark for publishing my dyslexic dribble and making me laugh many times, all those who followed this journeyshermeny, Kelly Edwards of Macmillan cancer support and general nice-ness, Rob Sutcliffe

…and my hero/home/tank Kang, Won Kee

£50 raised

from the welcome home raffle, thanks to all those who bought tickets and ended up with either;

a pink korean tshirt that says ‘im not a russian girl’

a bit of road from Siberia

scabies cream

a dirty Workman’s hard hat from an old nuclear test site in kazakhstan

a used mug from an Iran fire station

broken car bits

and the grand prize an excellent fujifilm s8000fd digital camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just done my washing at mums house

i used bold tablets in 3 loads, 2 colour and 1 white wash - im hoping my jeans will dry in time for the P A R T Y tonight in Brum, which is happening at 8.30pm on suffork st, near new street…the bar is called ‘island bar’

check there website if your coming http://www.bar-island.co.uk/

sorry ive been a bit rubbish on the blog since i have been back all of 4 days, its been odd, overwhelming and very familiar to be back in the UK…its all very lovely but it does appears that most people want to comment on my weight, its a bit tricky to not be a stinky rag-a-muffin when you’ve lived in a car and have nothing but an overdraft to eat! for the last 7/8months lol, thanks again for all my phone calls and messages my homecoming has been most warm. cheers

today is a good day to put an end to this durney!

at 7pm GMTime i should be in the middle of that wet bit that stops my little island of birth joining the euro and continually waving its two fingers at our more sexy and cheese loving cousins;

at 9.30pm UK time me and Won Kee all being well should have completed something quite special.

For this and the people who have made it so I am eternally grateful.
To new friends and old ones, those on the road and those far off it…its been a journey of wandering, intrigue, oddness and well an itch I cant seem to scratch for want of better words… i have been lucky enough to enjoy all that is and was from east to west for over 7months in practice and over a year in planning.

I’m a lucky man of that I have no doubt. I’m lucky to have found myself doing what i said i would… but luck aside none of this would have been so if it weren’t for many people especial two chingu’s
Hyung Jin and Woo Chul… these chaps got seoul2b going and because of that i couldn’t stop,,,whatever the obstacles in the road…life is for living after all.

HyungJin thanks to you for that long day spent all over Seoul seeking out Won Kee, and for all the other shiz you gone a did you hero’s hero you, hope china is working out.
Woo Chul thanks for hooking up many other things, mechanics, pimping my ride, stickers and shiz and your energy for the project and big up ya dad too…i miss your lolly pop head - big wet love and happy cranking to you both.

I’m not entirely sure where Rob is but i think its Rotterdam… in short, well it was fun while it lasted, and it would have been a giggle to see it through together, but ay well such as life mate, hope life is treating you swell.

and and and last thing,almost,,,, to the memory and spirit of those that my journey was in aid of. I shall forever use your lives as stepping stones for a life well spent. i hope i have done you proud.

so blah blah blah ……………I’m probably home by now! c u soon

Whala!

hahaa so here i am in Paris…and big thanks straight away to Vanessa, Sebastian and little Maxim for letting me stay at their apartment. And for my first sunday roast in years!

Won Kee has been excellent as have the boarder crossings…i spent all Thursday ripping through Italy waking up just outside Grenoble, not realising i was in France…as their was no passport check for border police at 11pm.

happy days! and so it is for me to say that soon i shall be on my way - to blighty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have a ferry for the 28th! see you soon

italy - france - home

think im getting a boat to italy tonight…and hope the crossing can be as easy as it was geting in the EU last time ‘Greece’. From Bari, Italy… where i will land in the stupid hours of the morning i have nothing else to do but listen to my full charged ipod and try and beat my 9/10 hour driving recored…

hope to be in paris soon

2 more countries then home!

The crossing into Albania was excellent…not a penny paid and no one asked for the car insurance doc’s that i don’t have coz they don’t exist – probably shouldn’t put this on the web but what the hey…
Won Kee is doing well…i was advised by the mechanic i found in Macedonia to have some more work done to stop the gearbox exploding and leaking all kinds of oil and bits.
Time, money and blind faith had me ignore his advice. There is bit of a squeak from somewhere which i have know reasoned with myself, considering what i have accumulated on this journey it may well be an animal of sorts feeding of the crumbs that Won Kee has accumulated from varying hitch-hikers, myself, Canadians and sheep.

When I return to the UK there is one small thing that i haven’t mention.

As we where a little short of money for this trip and cutting corners became a skill of seoul2b’s we only temporary exported the car…which means we didn’t pay a $7000 USD exportation fee…instead we nodded our heads to a man who gave us some paper work saying that Won Kee has to be back in Korea by September 19th 2009!

I’m sure it doesn’t really mean a thing!

Anyway please view the pic below for my detailed plan to be back in the UK before MAY 1st where my buddies have arrange bit of a party - ->>>> PARTY

Happy Easter

Currently in Kosovo… probably not the best place to be for Easter…but a place none the less. Kosovo is a place hoping to be a recognised country…there are many different cultures here with a big Albanian presents…Serbians and the other cultures, Albanians, Turks and Bosnians have a lot of bridge building to do literally and mentally.

Listening to the realities of the people who inhabit Mitrovica was well…there are no words to explain in depth or justice for that matter as i cant relate any experience of mine to whats was 10 years of hell.

Rather than centering on what was…the 50,000 dead and 2,000 missing…men and boys from the age of 12/13 being taken away and many executed at their front door in the Serb cleansing that was and still exists …people move on. They have lived the worst that man can do and now its time for hope to be recognised like Kosovo as change.

Shutka

‘…at the cross roads, where we were, turn left… when it starts getting dirty and gypsies are dancing in the street then your in ‘Shutka’… dont worry they wont steal your car. ‘Diete’ my German mechanic in Skopje, Macedonia.

Shutka is the largest Roma settlement in the world. Having been inspired by mother Teresa for the day and questiong the morals of photographing a few Roma street kids in the capital I thought I should find out more…with the car in repair again what else is a lost soul to do?

below are photos of a few out of the hundres of the people i met:

slight delay

this use to be in my car