Book Overview

In 2007, two friends -- Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran -- embarked on a race around the world without using airplanes. Steve traveled West, and Vali traveled East. The first guy who circled the planet and make it back to Los Angeles would be declared the winner. The prize? A bottle of the finest Scotch they could find.

Not being just ordinary guys (both are writers for television comedy shows), they were able to get a book advance to bankroll their trip. The result was this book, which chronicles each man's journey.

Steve -- the more serious of the two and the one committed to racing by following the rules -- starts his trip on board the container ship Hanjin Athens. As such, he is able to definitively answer the question: Is fourteen days on the Pacific a grand, romantic adventure or crushingly boring? To quote Steve:

The short answer is "crushingly boring."

By the time we left port, it was clear that the greatest danger facing me wasn't pirates or storms. Or sharks. Or giant squid, Or flesh-eating jellyfish. Or being raped and stabbed by sailors. Or string rays.

It was keeping my idle mind from destroying itself.

After this journey, Steve takes a road trip through China (including a gut-wrenching but hilarious night at the Peking Opera) and ends up on a train that takes him through Mongolia (with a brief stop at Ulaanbaatar , which he affectionately dubs "A City for People Who Hate Cities.") Along the away, he becomes obsessed with drinking fermented mare's milk. (Wonder what fermented mare's milk tastes like? Here is Steve's description: "Get some half-and-half and a can of warm Sprite. Mix the two in a glass. Let sit for a few days on top of your radiator.") He then boards the Trans-Siberian Railroad and meets Vali at the "halfway" point in Moscow.

Meanwhile, Vali starts his trip driving to Mexico with a attractive woman he has hired to help him navigate and translate the country. (Did I mention they have a side bet on who can do the most awesome things during the trip -- The Awesomeness Contest? With "awesome" being defined as "meeting and romancing the most beautiful girls possible.") Vali's goal is to visit the world's premier designer of jet-packs, which Vali intends to purchase and use to fly across the oceans. However, jet-packs cost $250,000 and can hold only 30 seconds worth of fuel, so he is forced to scuttle this plan. After driving north back to the United States, Vali breaks the no airplane rule and flies to Brazil, where he joins a Brazilian graffiti gang. (In Rio, he begins having his trip-long problems with travel visas and document.) From there he jets to Europe and visits London, Paris ("Beneath my awestruck face my blood boiled. I was furious Paris was not overrated."), Berlin and Warsaw -- before meeting Steve in Moscow.

In Moscow, the two meet for a "truce day," in which hijinks, practical jokes and obscene amounts of drinking set the tone. They then depart and go their separate ways.

Steve hits St. Petersburg and Finland before visiting Sweden, where he spends some awesomeness time with a lovely Swedish lass named Ingrid. He then takes a week-long jaunt around Western Europe before boarding the Queen Mary 2 (or "How I Crossed the Atlantic, or, Six Days Trapped on the World's Most Luxurious Floating Nursing Home!"). (This part of the travel narrative includes a guide to "Paris for Weirdos.") Once he reaches New York, the final part of his journey is accomplished via Amtrak and riding with a long-haul trucker.

Meanwhile, Vali hits his stride and travels to Cairo, Amman, Palestine and Dubai -- wrapping things up with an eye-opening stay in Cambodia. (His description of the temples of Angkor made me want to add it to the list of places I must go someday.) He then jets home to Los Angeles.

Who makes it to LA first and wins the race? Who cares? It is the journey that matters.

My Thoughts

This is not your standard travel narrative. This is a travel narrative written by two very funny, sarcastic men who will remind you of every immature doofus you've ever known. Thank Goodness!

This book was such a fun read -- I was pretty much laughing throughout. Although there are moments of seriousness and you'll learn a bit about the countries they visit, the goal of this book is not to educate -- it is to entertain. And the authors are wildly successful. (The book flip-flops between Steve and Vali's accounts of their trip so you get a roughly approximate feel for what they were doing at about the same time during the race.)

I just loved this book. I don't think there is anything more to say about it -- I tried to include a taste for the spirit of the book in the book overview so you'll have a taste of what you are in for so if what you read was appealing, get the book today. OK ... here is one last excerpt just to whet your appetite. It is from Steve and describes "The Cultural Wonders of Ulaanbaatar." I picked this part (though I pretty much could have opened the book anywhere and started typing) because I think it perfectly captures the tone of the book and the mocking relationship between Steve and Vali.

There are only three things in Ulaanbaatar worth seeing. One is the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan, which, according to my guidebook, has "an extraordinary array of stuffed animals." I did not visit it. I can see stuffed animals in Vali's bedroom.

Second is the Museum of Natural History. The dry air of the Gobi Desert is good for preserving fossils, so this museum has its pick of dinosaur skeletons. It's totally awesome. Probably. I can't say for sure, because it was closed when I went. I tried the old "but I'm a famous paleontologist from the prestigious United States Institute of Dinosaurs who has traveled all the way here to see the dinosaur skeletons but am only here for one day!" routine, but the guard understood me just enough not the believe me.

The third thing to see in UB is the Gandantegchilin (or you can just get away with "Gandan") monastery. This is the only one to which I can give my wholehearted personal endorsement.

My Final Recommendation

A hilariously funny read. I loved it and recommend it wholeheartedly. If you are seeking a straightforward travel narrative, this is not for you. However, if a well-written, tongue-in-cheek, smart-ass, laugh-out-loud travel narrative disguised in the form of a race around the world is your cup of tea, this book is a no-brainer. Buy it now. You'll love it! ( )

This is a non-fiction book that takes the idea of Around the World in 80 Days and updates it, sort of. Two friends decide to race around the world, with the stipulation that they can't use air travel.

One goes east and one goes west and they are supposed to return to California. The winner gets an old bottle of alcohol. Both are involved in TV writing and seem to think they are funny. So the whole book is written to be one laugh after another. Sometimes it is funny but often it is forced and becomes tiresome.

Steve is OK, but Vali is smarmy and not funny at all. He makes inappropriate comments about women, he seems to take drugs, and he cheats and uses 10 airplane rides.

On top of that the book has a reality TV feel to it. I actually think they decided that it would be too boring if both did the same thing (honest race) so they decided to have one cheat to build up tension, suspense, anger and give different stories to tell. In short, they didn't think an actual book would be interesting enough, they wanted to jazz it up, which as a reader I find insulting.

The stories are told back and forth by Steve and Vali in very short snippets. Which is a blessing because it makes this book fly by.

Some of their travels and adventures are interesting, but most are not. They are forgettable. You can't really remember where they went or what they did once the book is over. Furthermore like any travel book not written carefully it becomes about the authors and not the locations/cultures/people they visit.

Finally for me there was no real suspense or investment in the race or the winner. In fact at one point Steve turns down an interesting adventure because it would interfere with the race and make him lose. Boo hiss.

I read this for a RL book group, and would not recommend or read anything by them again. ( )

I liked The Ridiculous Race, but can't say that I loved it. The book's premise is that two friends propose a race around the world the only rule being that they must travel without airplanes. So far, this sounds like the premise of a Burt Reynolds/Dom Deluise romp, but I guess these guys are a step above that duo.

What ensues is a mildly entertaining travelogue as these two men travel the world. For the most part, the book reflects typical American discomfort at anything outside of our own experience (I think all humans are like this, though, so don't make me out to be anti-American). There are times, though, when the two men make some interesting passages in places like the West Bank and Mongolia.

In the end, I found the authors a bit too snarky for their own good. It read as if they were trying so hard to be funny, that they often missed out on a lot. They tried so hard to do things like fly around on jet packs, that their observations wound up being superficial. Nothing ever really jelled for me and I never grew to know or like the authors.

In the end, I think my own expectations for the book just didn't meet the reality. I knew it was supposed to be a goofy travel book, but expected something else, something more insightful. So as a genre book, The Ridiculous Race works. Just don't set your expectations much beyond that. ( )

I'm a big fan of funny books, and a big fan of books about exotic travel locations and experiences. This book was the perfect read for me! It's organized into very small anecdotes written by one or the other of the authors about their experiences racing around the world from opposite directions and using only ground transportation. The two authors, who are obviously great friends, have the kind of snarky rapport that you only find when two really funny people (both of them write for sitcoms) like each other and know each other really well, and so are completely comfortable making totally personal and insulting observations about each other. Add to the hysterical snarkiness some great stories about horseback riding in Mongolia, hanging out with a graffiti gang in Rio, or buying terrible suits in Moscow, and you've got a winner. There were times when I was reading this book that I laughed nonstop for pages, and times that I laughed so hard my eyes teared up. I found myself reading passages aloud to people around me, and telling all my friends, family and coworkers all about every funny thing that happened. (Sorry, everyone.) All this adds up to one thing: I am telling everyone to read this book as soon as possible! ( )

Very funny and entertaining way to read about the world. ( )