Two actors travel around the world on BMW motorcyles. The book reads like a diary, with each actor writing alternating chapters. They get homesick. There are personality conflicts with their support crew, David, and Russ. They traverse some horrid off-road areas. They meet some locals. They are sometimes beset by paparazzi. They stay in hotels/motels, private homes/gers/shacks/etc., and when the need arises, they camp in the tents they have with them.

It's not stellar travel writing, it's more of a bit of fluff, but not a totally unappealing bit of fluff. If you're a fan of the actors, you might enjoy this more than the average reader. I had no idea who they were, or what movies/TV they had done, so, that wasn't a factor for me.

Sufficeth to say, Paul Theroux has nothing to fear from these two writers. ;)

3 Stars = I liked the book.

I loved the notion of this story, but basically found the entire saga to be a bunch of whinging about their free bikes, with support, and getting all emotional about being away from their families for a few months. Consequently, I've avoided all other variations on their themes, and dive into other people's adventures instead.

This book was kinda boring and whiny for a couple of rich dudes on bikes with a film crew following them around.

I really enjoyed reading this. The show was recommended to me by a friend. I hadn't seen it, but found the book in a little free library and decided to give it a go as my nonfiction travel book of the year. The first section was devoted to choosing their motorcycles that they would travel the world with, and I was not interested in that, so it was slow going. But then they went, and I was really interested in their travels and the people they met. Highly recommend.

Best of their books. Great stories with real people. Funny to boot!

One of the most disappointing travel books I've read. They went on a pretty cool adventure but Charlie's chapters drove me nuts. They sounded like whiners to me. And what's with driving across Canada from North to South and not making mention of it except for a car accident?

I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book. Although I think bikes are nice to look at, as a car driver, anything on two wheels on the road annoys the hell out of me. So the idea of going around the world on a bike wasn't particularly appealing. I thought it would be dull. I was wrong and I flew through this in two days.

I love Ewan Mcgregor and this book allows you to see a different side of him to his movie star personality. I have no idea who Charley is but I enjoyed his point of view none the less. Both of them seemed like grumpy old men. They did moan and cry a lot. At one point I wasn't sure they were liking any of it. But they would keep reassuring the reader every time something amazing or beautiful happens that it was all worth it. I think the most amazing thing about this book is how complete strangers came to help them whenever they needed it and this wasn't just because they were film stars as lots of the people didn't know who they were but did it out of human kindness. Makes you feel better about the world.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys travel writing, bikes or any one who fancies Ewan, though he doesn't look great with that beard!

Great book. This book is not necessarily all about the bikes and blokes that ride them, but it is more about the places, the people, and the moments. Ewan and Charlie travel through some of the most remote and poorest regions of the world, but wherever they go, the people are gracious and kind, offering what little they have, including food, liquor, and shelter.

Ewan rarely plays his "Obi-Wan" card - only when it's a must. For most of the journey people have no idea who he is. He is just a guy riding through occasionally in need of help and often needing a place to stay and a meal.

As the guys travel through Kazakhstan, Serbia, Russia, and Mongolia, they realize it's not about getting from one point to the next, but about all those moments in between.

Really well written in alternating voices of Ewan and Charlie. Just a great book!

A great read for anyone that loves travel, literary travel and adventure. Even if you aren’t a biker, you will appreciate the ups and downs that make travel such a rewarding experience.

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman love riding motorbikes. This travel log tells of the ride from London, East around the world, via France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Alaska, Canada and New York.
This non-fiction travel book recounts the difficulties getting the ride off the ground, finding sponsors and the heart ache of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman leaving their wives and young children for this three-month epic ride.
The distances they needed to travel every day were enormous to achieve the planned ride in three months. Cameraman Claudio rode most of the journey with Ewan and Charley making the TV documentary that was the foundation of the funding for the trip. David and Rus and a doctor travelled in a vehicle as back up. Support staff organised all the visa and documents necessary to complete this journey.
The trip was a huge undertaking that is captured the book. The TV series was interesting too.

Recommended for YA 15+ readers who dream of motor bikes and road trips.

Read and reviewed by Judy Wollin June 2020

Full disclosure:
1. I love Ewan McGregor and would enjoy doing naughty things to him. Preferably while he talked in his Scottish accent.
2. I watched this TV series.
3. I am reading this book not because of #1 and 2 so much as the fact that someone said that she'd read in this book (or sadly the subsequent one) that he and his wife had an open marriage and I became determined to get to the bottom of this. Which I suppose does relate to #1 if not exactly #2. This is not embarrassing to admit at all. Really.

Anyhow, long story short, if you've watched the series you don't exactly need to read this book, and were it not for #3 I probably would not have. The series, BTW, was great. The book doesn't exactly tread a lot of new ground if you've watched the series, although that said I actually quite liked it. Not at first - at first I was like, PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU LOVE MOTORCYCLES, I JUST WOULD LIKE TO SKIM YOU AND READ ABOUT OPEN MARRIAGES. But then I gave into it and just read it and quickly it was good and interesting.

Okay, I suppose as I come to think of it I might be wrong a little bit - maybe I did learn a little behind the scenes good stuff from the book, what with books tending to be more introspective and all that. I mean, I learned that there was a struggle between Ewan & Charley and the support crew. And that Ewan loves camping (and motorcycles), although otherwise doesn't really consider himself much of a man's man. Charley also loves motorcycles, but decidedly does NOT love camping. He has also got a bit of the Irish temper and likes to yell at people a bit, whereas Ewan is more of a pouter. Although Ewan once he's over it is 100% over it, which is suppose is nice.

Isn't this exciting? I thought so. Okay, I also got some insight into their time in the Ukraine and why they were so scared at that Ukranian dude's house, which I remember maybe most of all from the series (imprinted in my brain due to Ewan's playing the guitar and singing Running to Stand Still in a display of inhuman hotness). Which is mostly that the Ukranian dude and all his compatriots were enormously gun-happy mobsters that they basically didn't feel they could say no to, and somehow that didn't come through as clearly on screen as it did in here, which was cool.

And I learned why they loved Mongolia so much, which in the series somehow also didn't come across to me as well. Because to me Mongolia seemed a little god-forsaken, but to them first of all A. it was more than anywhere else devoid of the trappings of fame bullshit, so they could really disappear and just be normal people (albeit normal westerners on huge motorcycles, which is fairly insane for there, but still) and more importantly B. because Mongolians really seem to have a spirit of warm niceness and helpfulness. I guess it's mostly a nomadic culture, and it seems that as a result there is just very much a culture of helping out people who are in need if possible.

Basically what I am saying is that their bikes would break down or something all the time, and honestly whenever it happened a random batch of Mongolians would be passing by and they would just stop, stop what they were doing/where they were going, and get about the business of helping them. Just like random batch of Mongolian dudes see two white dudes with huge motorcycles and they would just stop everything, come over, be like, here, want to pet my horse?, and then sit down and fix the motorcycle for them. This happened so often in Mongolia it seems that Ewan and Charley really got to the point of believing, you know what, we'll get there, things will be okay, if something goes wrong, someone will come along and help.

Some of this is explicit in their story, and some of it I'm deducing (they said that this happened, but I'm connecting point A and B in deciding this is one reason why Ewan in particular loved Mongolia). But the bottom line is it seems like being there in a way really made them come to believe in and trust in the goodness of people and that you aren't alone in the world and things will work out. At least sometimes (we all know not everyone is good). Or at least if you're in Mongolia. Which, either way, is a really powerful and awesome lesson to learn - that fundamentally, no matter if you are in the middle of effing nowhere, you aren't alone and someone will likely come by to help and things will be okay.

Also things I learned: Ewan and Charley both missed their families a lot and basically moaned about it to each other/in their heads the whole time. Which is actually fairly sweet, although not amazing reading. And that as I suspected there is no mention of Ewan having an open marriage, although there is still the second book to confirm that. There are rumors of that about/on the internet, but not in this book and as he seems quite private about his private life (as he has every right to be), I doubt strongly there will be a "Oh Eve and I like to have it off with the odd other person every now and again" in the second book.

In short, it was actually a more interesting read than I'd originally bargained for. And I now have this little bit of amusement in my brain that while it probably was in the series, was overshadowed by my all-encompassing memory of the U2 singing:

As he and Charley and Claudio stop for an impromptu skinny dip in a snow-melt-fed Kazakh river:

Ewan: "Aaagh! Where has my penis gone?"
and later
Ewan: "My feet are so cold! Complete penis disappearance!"

Wasn't sure what I would think but I really enjoyed this book. I found the honestly, struggles and triumphs of Ewan, Charley and their team to be interesting and realistic. The little first hand glances in to parts of the world rarely appreciated by the west in general were fascinating. If you like bikes and / or adventure travel in general, well worth a read.