When I parked my car for the last time before beginning this crazy journey, I knew that driving a car in the next 11 months was very unlikely, but I didn’t realize that riding in one was too. By this point, month five, when someone says transportation, I no longer think car, rather I expect some kind of contraption that somehow runs to show up and ask us to pile on. Anything and everything from planes, to buses, to vans, to tuk tuks, to sleeper trains, to ferries, to uber, to sungtows, to motorcycle taxis, to jeepney, to trikes, to tractors… Part of the World Race experience has been discovering new means of transportation. Wearing a seatbelt isn’t a thing so get comfortable to being unbuckled… And you might as well get comfortable to tight squeezes and not being able to breath because I promise, no matter how small the vehicle and no matter how many of you there are, you will fit. Trust me.
And I learned day one in Cambodia, for the sake of your own sanity, you’re better off if you don’t look out the front window. Street laws are commonly not a thing, and if it moves it has a place on the road. Also, keep your arms in the window at all times. You’ll learn this real quick the first time you are just centimeters from getting your arm completely ripped off by the vehicle passing while the on coming traffic is just a couple yards ahead. Also, learn to share. Because you will share all your transportation with random strangers. And when you hear “public transportation” don’t expect a handy bus system (except for some rare occasions) expect rickety old vans about to break down or a tiny car that looks like just a car….. For all I know public transportation might just be paying the neighbor guy to take us… Who really knows anyway. And on the rare chance you do get a car with AC… Holy Cow you won the lottery! Embrace it, enjoy it, and make your ride longer than originally planned. And if you get the chance to drive, do it! (Sorry AIM) because you’ll remember the time you drove a van full of people through the dirt roads of Zimbabwe with pot holes the size of elephants every two feet, at night, on the left side of the road, in the right side of the car, with people all over the street, unoccupied children running into the road, and a backseat driver telling you you’re going too fast and gunna pop a tire, then too slow, then too fast, until they make you pull over and switch. Yeah you’ll remember that moment rather than the millionth time you sat crammed in the back. Long story short, some transportation is awesome and some is very much the opposite. But embrace ALL of it because it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s new, and it’s unique. And if you ever get the chance to take something other than a car… Do it!
