I bought this 3 DVD set a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver. It is 10, 1 hour episodes of "The Long Way Round" as produced for TV.It is the best $24 I have spent in a while.
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are best mates, and they decide in April 2004 to set off on 2 BMW R1150GS's on an motorbike journey of epic proportions from London to New York overland going east. 115 days.
I won't say too much about the journey to spoil it, but there really are some remarkable and interesting places in far eastern europe. The "Road of Bones" for example, is a 2000km stretch of Siberia from Yakutsk to Magadan that was built by prisoners during the Stalin area. It is said that every meter of road required the death of a prisoner, and the bones of 100s of thousands to possibly millions of people's remains lie embedded in it today.
One thing that bothered me a bit about the journey is the amount of support they had. It really was a large team going across the world, but it was just those two guys that were filmed mostly. I have no idea how much that would have cost, but it would be in the millions, and that fact alone makes a trip exactly like that out of reach for most of us. Just having the crew behind them a couple of days made all the difference I reckon. I felt it would have been more incredible if they had gone it totally alone. I guess, Ewan doing that trip would have been a nightmare for his agent.
Count the times Charley says "Fantastic!"
My Singapore based mate Brent and I have talked about doing an epic Journey on bikes, but I
think ours would consist of flying to Hanoi and buying 2 new Russian Minsk 100s (About $600USD new), and riding with all our gear down Vietnam, into Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and down the Malaysian peninsula to Singapore, where I think we'd set fire to the bikes on the causeway (I don't think they'd let us ride them in - it is Singapore, you know). I don't think we'd have cameras strapped to our helmets. Much.Minsk Owner in Hanoi
Minsk Factory
Ewan is such a dude, he really is one of those guys that we all see part of ourselves in on this journey. Some times I found myself a little confused as to why people recognised him, he seems so down to earth you forget how much of a star he really is.Talented guy too. I still think his version of "Your Song" in Moulin Rouge is one of the most passionate spine tingling songs I have heard, and considering he's not primarily a singer that is quite an achievement.
I recently saw him in "The Island" and while I am not big on sci-fi, I though that movie was great.
Oh, he's Scottish too, and most Scot's I have met are alright. (there you go Sandy)
Ewan's Bio/Filmography etc
Long Way Round Official Site
