News – January 2008 (Hong Kong, January 26, 2008)
- Website statistics: In December we were able to welcome on our website 42'853 visitors who did 1'423'565 hits.
- (November = 59'849 visitors – 2'496'417 hits – both figures were a new record)
- The visitors are coming from about 100 to 118 different countries!
- Record day since 12/17/1998 - the birthday of our website: 11/5/2007 = 13'407 visitors and 787'456 hits
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- That our eight-week stay in Hong Kong comes slowly to its end makes us not unhappy! It was actually never our
- intention to remain such a long time in this hustle and bustle. Only a chain of coincidences delayed constantly our
- departure. At the beginning, we tried by all means to get a vehicle entry permit for China and Macao. But without
- organizing everything three months ahead at the China International Travel Service or a licensed tour operator and being
- forced simultaneously on paying thousands of US$, there is no chance – even not for only two to three days. Once we
- had to accept defeat, we devoted all our efforts into our next destination: Papua New Guinea. It was clear from the
- beginning that PNG (how Papua New Guinea is called) was going to be tough regarding an entry permit for our car. But
- it's not only the bureaucratic hurdles – if these can ever be solved – it's also the internal security situation (the dangerous
- criminality of the "Rascals") and the fact that the responsible government doesn't care about it, what means that we would
- have to cope with it completely on our own. We figured that out pretty soon, but still had some hopes and illusions that
- PNG hasn't yet become a "no-go-area". Hence, more than 160 emails have been exchanged alone in Hong Kong
- between the French freighter line CMA-CGM, PNG's Tourist Promotion Authority and us. Quite a long time it appeared
- that we can join the freighter vessel on its way from Hong Kong to Lae. But suddenly, somebody in PNG placed a
- stumbling block in our way. Tenaciously, we tried to hold on to our idea of visiting this otherwise extraordinary country and
- fought our way through the jungle of Southeast Asia's and Australia's low cost carriers, because a flight with the
- semi-state-run airline Air Niugini was definitively way out of our budget. Barely having found a half-way satisfying
- solution, new stones – this time rather being similar in size to smaller rocks, originating from a quarry in Hong Kong –
- obstructed the course. It isn't astonishing that during such an exhausting progress, the feelings start to run high while the
- tolerance is declining. As a result, accusations and allegations are made, and the mountain slope starts sliding down
- definitively. Not to run into a catastrophe – be it a bureaucratic one that is resolvable only with a lot of money, or
- perhaps even a life-threatening situation – we had to pull yesterday the emergency brake in informing all parties
- concerned that our planned Pacific trip is cancelled!
- Bang! In principle, we are sorry for the many people, who were in line with our unique idea to cross the Pacific with a
- car while expanding simultaneously our Guinness World Record of "The Longest Driven Journey". They invested their
- valuable time. On the other side, we seem to be in a corner of the earth, where individualism isn't encouraged at all.
- Hence every idea, which differs from the so called normality, is frown upon. At the same time, we had to discover that,
- either here in Hong Kong with our Papua New Guinea project or back in June 2007 with the Philippines plan, the
- otherwise well and successfully prepared execution failed in both cases due to relatively "non-important" show-offs
- suffering from an inferiority complex and a fussy-egoistical behavior. With our limited means and not backed by any
- logistical help at all, we reached the limits of our possibilities. The number of those people, who support without any
- ulterior motives, is very slim nowadays – particularly here in East Asia, where the way of life is (unfortunately) almost
- all about money.
- Whereto now? Yes, that's what we currently are working on .With the amount of money, which we would have invested
- just into the first leg of the Pacific trip, we are able to ship comfortably to any part of the world – that's what we found
- already out. Where this will be, we cannot determine yet, but it will be soon mentioned on our homepage.
New Reports/Pictures
- SOUTHEAST ASIA: mouse over picture shows comments
- click a picture to see details
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| + our Taiwan Trip, 1st part | Kaohsiung-Kenting-Taitung – Oct. 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 6th part | Kalimantan – July 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, within the 5th part | Tana Toraja (Toraja-Land) – June+July 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 5th part | Sulawesi – June+July 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 4th part | Sumba, West Timor – May+June 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 3rd part | Lombok, Sumabawa, Flores – April 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 2nd part | Bali – Jan.-March 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 1st part | Sumatra, Java – Dec. 2006 |
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| + our Borneo Trip | Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, Kalimantan – Sept.-Nov. 2006 |
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| + our LandCruiser on a "Rejuvenation Cure" | in Miri/Sarawak - the East Malaysian province on Borneo Engine/Body: June-Aug. 2006/Transmission: Sept. 2007 |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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