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Couple going strong on Longest Driven Journey

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Worldwide home: Emil and Liliana Schmid in Taiwan with their car-turned home, the trusty Toyota Land Cruiser. Picture: EPA

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

IN 1984, Swiss couple Emil and Liliana Schmid travelled to the US to get away from the monotony of office work. They became hooked on travelling and haven't stopped since.

Now 23 years, 157 countries and 626,000km later, Emil 65, and Liliana, 66, with their Toyota Land Cruiser turned into their home, are still going strong in their record-breaking drive around the world.

The couple, who dropped by Brunei Darussalam in September, recently spent time in Taiwan after seeing Timor Leste.

"Taiwan has a unique combination of natural scenery and city life. A few hours from cities, you are at the seaside or in tall mountains," Emil told DPA.

"And Taiwan has beautiful temples and rich culture. I feel sad we are not staying longer."

Liliana said: "Another thing about Taiwan is that the Taiwan people are not sticky. They are friendly and helpful, but give you space. In some countries like India, locals hang around you and don't leave you alone. They can look at you for two hours."

The couple have since left Taipei for Hong Kong to visit the city as well as China and afterwards Papua New Guinea. Their Land Cruiser was shipped to Hong Kong a few days earlier.

More than two decades ago, Emil, a computer software engineer, and Liliana, a company secretary, decided to go to the US to get away from schedules for a year.

However, 12 months proved not to be long enough, and now, 23 years and six continents later, they keep prolonging their journey. They have returned to Switzerland only three times.

Living off their pensions, they now hope to visit every country in the world, and have just 33 of the 194 states recognised by the United Nations left on their list.

In 1997, they entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Longest Driven Journey", a world record they still hold today and almost certainly will for a long time to come.

Summing up their adventure, the couple said the biggest reward from the trip is that they had seen the beauty of the world and experienced boundless friendship from strangers.

The Brunei Times/DPA

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