Abandon the Cube Travel Journal

Happy New Year from Abandon the Cube

abandont — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:33:57 +0000

We hope the New Year brings about lots of good things for all of our readers! Lauren and I will be in the US for the first quarter / half of 2010. We will spend our time writing, updating the website, and searching for sponsors while we are preparing for the 2010 Mongol Rally. We also hope to fit in some travel and sightseeing in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Please check back with us frequently and especially during the Rally!

Don’t be shy, if you happen to work for or know a company who might be interested in sponsoring our team, please send us their contact information or feel free to download and pass on our sponsorship proposal to them. Once again, best wishes for 2010 to everyone and thank you for reading / visiting our site.

~ Mike & Lauren

Caucasus and Turkey Newsletter Released

abandont — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:40:44 +0000

After a lot of hard work, Lauren has released our next newsletter. This issue covers the Azerbaijan, The Republic of Georgia, and Turkey. I have put it up on several areas throughout our site. It gives a nice overview our our trip through the area as well as some stories and selected pictures all wrapped up in a really awesome looking PDF file. I have attached a the file for those of you interested. Best Wishes for 2010!

Mike & Lauren

Abandon the Cube Caucasus and Turkey Newsletter <———- Click here to read!

The Movie Transsiberian

abandont — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:01:49 +0000

From the Beijing Train Station to the corrupt police on the far Eastern route of the Russian Trans-Siberian Railroad, the 2008 movie Transsiberian was enjoyable to watch having dealt with many of the same problems…ok minus the kidnapping part. Not so much for the plot as for the accuracy the movie portrayed when depicting a couples ride on a Chinese train and problems with Russian police. Although we did not go on the Trans-Siberian…yet, the movie was thrilling to watch as an American couple from Iowa, Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer, left the Beijing Zhan (station) headed for Moscow via a 6 day journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The train-station, gray colored everything, sleeper cars, and food carriages, were right on and I would believe it was filmed on location.

Emily Mortimer’s character was always planning a new route or travel adventure and walked around with a Cannon Digital camera around her neck throughout the whole film – which reminded me a lot of Lauren. The broken sleeper-car knobs that wouldn’t turn off terrible Russian music, the shared cars with strangers, the rude and short tempered train attendants, drug smugglers, and corrupt cops were a direct parallel to our experiences en route from China through Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan. Although the plot got extremely more creepy in comparison to the things that happened to Lauren and I, if you have traveled throughout the former Soviet Union, Russia, China by train, or are interested to see what it looks like, I think people would find certain aspects of this couple’s travel accurate.

Going through Kazakhstan we were hiding from the police as their boarded our train trying to avoid paying bribes, watching all the drug smugglers hide taped packages to their stomachs or under their beds, and arguing with the grumpy train attendants. Our train travel in China was pretty easy going and we had no problems, but the movie gave a good atmosphere to some of the fears you develop as you go into less safe areas ruled by corrupt cops and officials.

For a more detailed clip go to: Transsiberian Part I – watch from 4:10 to about 9:00 to see a little bit of what it was like.

Merry Christmas from ATC!

abandont — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:00:16 +0000

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I wanted to let everyone know how thankful we are to have so many dedicated readers. It has been a truly wonderful year! Last year at this time I was standing on the Great Wall of China with my sister, looking over the frozen desert and wondering that the year would hold for everyone. Now, a full year later, I stand in Washington, USA having traveled by land from China through Central Asia, the Caucas, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and across the USA. It was the adventure of a lifetime, and one that was in part made possible by some of our readers. We were very fortunate to have the time, money and opportunity to do a trip of that magnitude this year.

Next year will be equally as adventurous as 2009, with the Mongol Rally launching from Italy and terminating in Mongolia, after which we will travel to Thailand to look for work and write. 2010 is sure to be a great year for ATC, and we’ll be blogging about our travels as we go.

Thanks again for your commitment to reading our tales, we appreciate you and enjoy being able to keep in touch with everyone via the blog.

Merry Christmas!

~Abandon the Cube

Sking the Olympic Runs at Whistler, British Columbia

abandont — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:15:48 +0000

Whistler Village, Canada

For Christmas this year the family went to Whistler, BC, Canada to check out the slopes for the upcoming 2010 winter Olympics. Though it rained fiercely in Whistler, the summit was a blizzard of snow and fog. We jumped in the gondola and rode for what seemed like half an hour before reaching the summit. Our first run was a rude awakening, we were all out of shape. Its amazing how many muscles you don’t use unless you are carving up the slopes.

My first wipe out was a bit catastrophic. I was cut off (a normal occurrence on the slopes) and tried to veer sharply off to the side to avoid a full on collision. The skier rolled on down the hill unscathed while I proceeded to tumble head over heels into a pile thirty feet down the hill. I used my face as a brake with a repeated apply-pressure-and-release system until my head felt like a boxer had been using it as a practice bag. I think I chipped a tooth, but it was hard to really localize the pain.

Our second run was fantastic. I was back in the swing of things a bit more and I was really working on my technique when I realized we were on the Olympic run. The moguls were soft and covered in brand new snow. Having rarely skied in fresh powder it was a bit unnerving until I adjusted my ice-carving technique to suit the several feet of fresh powder.

We skied the entire day, from the lifts first run to its last, and braked only for a quick bowel of chili mid day. And now I’m off to ice my knees and calves and relax for day two at Whistler.

Beijing olympic closing ceremony