News
July 27th, 2010
Dispatch from the Road: Rally London-Mongolia, Part 9
In some ways, the story of team Ambulance to Mongolia began on a snowy Russian playground more than twenty years ago.
Kazan in those days was a hard-scrabble place. Despite its substantial scientific community (including many nuclear physicists), the city was in rough shape. Most people lived in cramped concrete block apartments that had fallen into disrepair, and gangs of petty criminals controlled the streets and fought each other, defied the police, and terrorized the locals.
So it was unfortunate that Misha’s snowball found the face of the son of a neighborhood gang leader. It was even more unfortunate that when the 18-year old older brother came looking to avenge his brother’s bloody lip, Misha fought him off with the nearest weapon at hand: a sled.
It was not until Misha saw the big guy a few days later with his jaw wired shut that he first sensed there could be adult-proportioned consequences for his child’s play. And there were: the gang leader issued an “attack” order for the scrawny 12 year-old, something that no one in Mikhail’s family took lightly. To keep him safe, they kept him home.
He missed the next six months of school.
“And there is the school.”
Mikhail pointed, and we turned appraising eyes towards a building glowing in the setting sun.
“Wow, it is strange to be back.”
Misha’s family left Kazan for the United States when he was 14, but his ties to the place remained strong. The city was the one stop he knew would be on our team’s route.
It was also the promise of visiting Kazan that had, in part, enticed Parag to join the team. The capital of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, Kazan has a history that goes back more than a thousand years yet touches on themes that seem eternally modern. In the 1550s, the city was sacked by Ivan the Terrible and its mostly Muslim residents persecuted; in 2005, it saw the completion of a mosque that is reported to be the largest in Europe outside of Istanbul.
Kazan is also emblematic of modern Russia: from its perch on the banks of the Volga (largest river in Europe!), Kazan and Tatarstan have fared well under the longer economic leash allowed the provinces by the current administration in Moscow (though a regional proposal a few years ago to switch from the Cyrillic to Latin alphabet was too much for the national government to take).
It is not the city that Mikhail’s family left in 1991. In fact, cleaned up and with its wide boulevards and pastel buildings, Kazan reminded us of a seaside town.
So all in all, a worthy destination. First, though, we had to get there.
It is about 650 kilometers—or, as I have come to think of them, “clicks”—from Vladimir to Kazan. We indulged in a quick photoshoot in front of Vladimir’s famous church (results to be posted soon) before setting off on what was a slog of a drive.
The roads we were on now were basic double-lane highways, with frequent potholes and only occasional passing lanes (and these almost always on uphill stretches). Most of our fellow travelers were tractor trailers, some pulling a double load. In a heavy ambulance without a lot of pickup (read: any at all), maintaining a good pace could be both difficult and stressful.
“I totally get the trucker diet,” I said, not for the first time on the trip. “It’s so much work wrestling this thing that you think you’re burning up more calories than you probably are—and that you deserve to eat anything you want, regardless!”
I remembered actually grunting as I slammed the ambulance into third gear driving through Poland. Parag had cocked an eyebrow at me from the passenger seat.
“Some things require a woman’s touch,” I told him. “This … is not one of them.”
Happily, Michele was also willing to throw her weight into the work. And I mean throw: with her slight 5’3 frame, even things like opening the back door and releasing the parking brake were going to take oomph. But after a day of watching us put the Land Rover through her paces, Michele was ready to roll, and she eased out of a gas station like a pro.
FIND OUT HOW THE REST OF THE DAY’S JOURNEY WENT…
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July 26th, 2010
Octogenarian Woman Speeds over 100 MPH to see Younger Lover
Judith Slade, 81, from Australia was caught driving 164 KPH (nearly 102 MPH).
The Australian Herald reported that she was arrested and when asked why she was speeding she said “she did not wish to be separated from her secret lover, with whom she had spent the weekend.” Her lover is also reported as being “almost half her age.”
Slade’s car was impounded and the police were trying to get her license revoked. They also imposed a 30 KPM (nearly 19MPH). limit for her. Slade responded with: “What difference would it make if they took my licence from me? I’ll just buy more cars and they can take them away, too. I could buy another one now just to fight this and cruise past the police station, and say, ‘Here I am’.”
Although we don’t advocated speeding, we kind of love this woman.
July 24th, 2010
Dispatch from the Road: Rally London-Mongolia, Part 8
Drive Like A Woman Editor-in-Chief, Michele Shapiro is setting off on a rally from London to Mongolia. She will be driving with Parag Khanna, Mikhail Zeldovich and Jen Mueller. Jen will be starting with the team in London and Michele will be meeting the team in Moscow and will switch places with Jen. The team will be driving a 1991 Land Rover Defender ambulance. Upon arrival in Mongolia the team will donate the ambulance to a local hospital. Drive Like A Woman will be posting dispatches from the journey.
Moscow-Vladimir:
-Written by Jen Mueller
“Dude, you have to slow down! That’s another cop! Oh, man, OK, now he’s flagging us down. Just … pull over.”
Michele and I looked up in interest as Parag brought the ambulance to a stop on the shoulder. Mikhail turned around in the passenger seat, eyes slightly wild.
“The first thing we try is nobody knows how to speak Russian, OK? We only speak English!”
“I think we can do that,” I agreed solemnly.
We watched the police officer slowly walk up to the ambulance. He came around to Mikhail’s side of the car, realized that the steering wheel was in the wrong place, approached Parag’s window, and said something.
“Hello,” said Parag.
“Здравствуйте,” said Mikhail.
Hello?
“What happened to not speaking Russian?” I asked in—keeping in character—English.
Mikhail shrugged. “He seems OK. Here, just show him your international driver’s license.”
Parag dug it out from the bag we passed up to him. The cop looked at it, said something else to Mikhail, handed the documents back to Parag, and walked off. We looked at Misha.
“What happened?”
TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED CLICK READ MORE…
July 23rd, 2010
Best Car Alarm—A Pink Vehicle
A study out of the Netherlands shows that bright colors tend to deter car thieves. The reason, the study concluded, is that people don’t want to buy bright colored cars and thus the color effects the resale value.
According to the study, 80% of cars stolen were black, blue or silver/gray. The study looked at cars stolen in the Netherlands during 2004-2008. Out of 109 pink cars none were stolen.
The question we are left asking—why are there 109 pink cars in the Netherlands?
July 22nd, 2010
Dispatch from the Road: London-Mongolia, Part 7
Drive Like A Woman Editor-in-Chief, Michele Shapiro is setting off on a rally from London to Mongolia. She will be driving with Parag Khanna, Mikhail Zeldovich and Jen Mueller. Jen will be starting with the team in London and Michele will be meeting the team in Moscow and will switch places with Jen. The team will be driving a 1991 Land Rover Defender ambulance. Upon arrival in Mongolia the team will donate the ambulance to a local hospital. Drive Like A Woman will be posting dispatches from the journey.
Rest day in Moscow:
-Written by Jen Mueller
“Oh, crap! Parag, it’s after 8!”
I had woken up, looked at my Blackberry, and lain back down before even registering what I had seen.
“Uh oh. I’ll email Misha,” said a groggy Parag.
The last thing that Mikhail had said when we left his apartment the night before was, “OK, I’ll see you at the ambulance at 8:30. Make sure you set your alarm.”
Shoot, shoot, shoot.
David, our host, was in the shower; I was meant to have asked him to call a cab. I began throwing on clothes. Parag stumbled into the kitchen and packed me a quick breakfast. We had both slept fitfully through a Moscow heat wave, and I felt like the haze had entered my brain.
Misha sounded just a touch under frantic when he called a few minutes later. I was still waiting for the cab that had finally been ordered. “Jen, you were supposed to be here already! Look, you’re going to have to go out and flag a taxi down on the street, OK? Just hurry!”
Luckily I had the address written out in Cyrillic. I ran downstairs and waved my arms at oncoming traffic.
Our first day in Moscow had passed in a fog of sleep and work. Parag and I were crashing with Misha’s friend David, an American expat who described himself as having been in Moscow too long to return to civilized society. And then he changed the bed sheets and found us clean towels for us.
In the evening, we had gone to the charming garret apartment that Misha shares with his fiancée Amanda, also an American expat. We climbed out on their roof and looked past the onion domes of the nearby Cathedral of Christ the Savior to the more distant turrets of St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square. The sunset made it unbelievably scenic. After a while, we clambered back inside to enjoy some traditional yuppie fare: pan-Asian take-out. (Sushi!)
We also reviewed the plan for the following day.
“I don’t want to be Jinxomatic here, but the ambulance hasn’t broken down in two days,” Parag noted.
“Right, but this is the last point where we can definitely find someone familiar with Land Rovers,” Mikhail said. “My friends know a garage that can look at it.”
We agreed that a check-up made sense. Because Parag had to get registered in the morning (an annoyance for travelers staying more than three business days in Russia and a cash cow for the government), Misha and I were in charge of this expedition.
Mikhail did not give me much grief for my late arrival; the sweltering traffic was punishment enough. It took us well over an hour to reach our destination across town.
Our mission had become a local family project. The secured lot where we were parking our car for free is owned by Misha’s friend Andre. (On a side note, it also happens to be attached to a factory that used to make antiballistic missiles and, before that, bicycles). On the other side of town, Andre’s sons Nick and Anton, both undergrads at the University of Miami, were waiting on a busy street corner to direct us to the garage. They had spent much of the two previous days running around Moscow looking for parts that we still needed, and now they were staring at the Land Rover as if it were a fictional creation sprung to life.
“Thank you guys so much for all your help,” I said as they moved around to Misha’s window.
Anton shrugged with a smile. “It’s not a problem. It’s for the kids in Mongolia, you know?”
The Land Rover was a star attraction at the garage— along with Nick and Anton, about a half a dozen men gathered round, alternately taking pictures, peering under the hood, and speaking earnestly in Russian to Mikhail, who was getting a crash course in car repair.
At some point, Mikhail glanced at his Blackberry.
“Whoa, I have a half a dozen messages from Parag.”
Parag was having quite the adventure himself…
CLICK READ MORE TO FIND OUT ABOUT PARAG’S ADVENTURE AND THE TEAMS NIGHT OUT IN MOSCOW…
July 21st, 2010
Dispatch from the road: Rally London-Mongolia, Part 6
Drive Like A Woman Editor-in-Chief, Michele Shapiro is setting off on a rally from London to Mongolia. She will be driving with Parag Khanna, Mikhail Zeldovich and Jen Mueller. Jen will be starting with the team in London and Michele will be meeting the team in Moscow and will switch places with Jen. The team will be driving a 1991 Land Rover Defender ambulance. Upon arrival in Mongolia the team will donate the ambulance to a local hospital. Drive Like A Woman will be posting dispatches from the journey.
Lithuania-Moscow:
-Written by Jen Mueller
This is the story of how we woke up in Trakai, Lithuania and 24 hours later pulled into Moscow, Russia. As with any extended period of sleepless activity, at a certain point time begins to lose its narrative flow. Let me therefore summarize our trip with this set of pointers, reflections, and insights for those who may be contemplating a similar feat:
1. When the alarm goes off at 7:30 and you feel like you’ve been hit with a ton of bricks, stay in bed. You have a long drive ahead of you. The right time to get up is about the fifth time that Mikhail asks.
2. If you have a certain international-man-of-mystery charm about you, you can pay a Lithuanian lati hotel bill with an assortment of euros and pounds. (Kudos, Parag.)
3. Parking enforcement doesn’t patrol all that frequently in Trakai (hurrah). But you’re right, you do have a few coins left lying around that could have paid for it; you’ll find them four days later.
4. It takes roughly a half an hour to walk across two bridges to Trakai Castle, look at the ticket window, make a few witty comments, and walk back. (This can be accomplished more quickly if one of your number is not still nursing a broken foot.)
5. Do not leave your Blackberry on the dashboard of the car. It might go flying out the open window when you take a sharp turn.
6. Blackberries: surprisingly indestructible.
7. You didn’t forget your registration papers at the dealer in Poland; they’re wedged under the front driver seat. Definitely best to pull over and tear the car apart looking for them before driving to the border though.
8. Blackberry GPS is great, but it never hurts to run into the gas station to peek at one of their maps too (sorry, Misha).
9. If you must stop for lunch in Daugavpils, Latvia (Mikhail’s mother’s ancestral home), there’s a great gas station to the left off the main strip that features not only delicacies such as Mexican burritos, fresh carrot sticks, and yogurt shakes, but also a purple florescent bathroom with both adult and child-sized toilets. (Video coming soon.) Just accept that you will never understand why.
10. Get ready to take your Land Rover into its natural environment: extended stretches of the road to the border are not paved.
11. Just because you cruise past a few kilometers’ worth of parked trucks at the border, don’t expect that you are actually going anywhere.
12. If one of your team disappears to talk with fellow waiting motorists about the cause for the long delay at the border, he may have gone native by the time he returns. Feel free to remind him that his shirt does in fact have buttons.
13. When the cars in front of you start their engines, spring into action! Jump into the car! Slam the doors shut! Make sure no one tries to pass you! Drive forward three feet. Repeat.
14. You have filled out all of your forms wrong. Even if you filled them out correctly, it is still wrong. Don’t even think about crossing anything out; go back and do it again.
15. The guys you are traveling with may suggest that you try to work your feminine wiles on the border guards. This works better if (a) you are not covered in sweat and grime, (b) you can speak the language, and (c) the guards are not female.
16. For reasons best known to themselves, Latvians make it even harder to leave their country than Russians make it to enter. At least it makes all of the bureaucratic nightmares that you’ve gone through to get to this point worth it. When they insist that you need a document that you do not in fact need, it helps to have a Blackberry handy to pull up the relevant law. (Bravo, Misha.) They will change their tune quickly.
17. You buy insurance for Russian roads at the border. For a small truck for a month, the cost is roughly $55. Thanks to some of the aforementioned bureaucratic nightmares, you paid more than ten times that amount for less than a week in Europe. (“Life is clearly worth less in Russia!” Parag concludes.)
18. After clearing Latvian customs, prepare to wait another few hours for the Russian border guards to get to you. None of your teammates will agree to pass the time by making a movie of you crawling forward on your stomach through the long grass in a staged border assault. There will be some more inching forward drama though.
19. When the Russian guard searches your vehicle, make sure he quickly finds your teammate’s stash of mini bottles of artisanal liquors from a distillery in France; he will suddenly have eyes for nothing else. Before you bribe him with one of the bottles though, make sure it isn’t the one (the only one!) that the owner actually wants.
20. At 11:30 on a July night, it is just getting properly dark in Russia. It will start to get light again around 3am.
TO READ MORE POINTERS CLICK READ MORE…
July 20th, 2010
New Syndicated Show for Lyn St. James
Legendary driver Lyn St. James will launch a new show called “Accelerate with Lyn St. James” which will appear on NewsProNet. NewsProNet provides syndicated video news to online media sources and local broadcasters.
The show will be comprised of 2 minute segments and will debut in January. St. James is not just the talent she will also be the co-producer and scriptwriter. The show will be produced 3 times a week for syndication.
The content of the show is mostly of a service nature such as “driving safely, auto maintenance and ownership.” We’ll definitely be tuning in!
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