The Moment Collectors ASIA – Exploration Quarterly Magazine Review
Exploring Overland – Exploration Quarterly Magazine is a new magazine. I love how they do things. They target anything to do with overlanding, be it 2 or 4 or more wheels. They are well worth checking out.
I was delighted when they said yes to reviewing ‘The Moment Collectors ASIA’. What a fantastic review. Blown away. This is from their current issue.
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Storytelling is as old as the human race. How many tales of travel and adventure have been shared around campfires since we emerged from the savannas and took up the gift of speech? Invariably in each tribe or family group there would have been a master storyteller, much-prized for bringing the world of afar into the home camp and round the campfire each evening.
Round-the-world adventure motorcycle veteran Sam Manicom is one of those much-prized master storytellers, and we are lucky that he is also an author, so you don’t have to find him at a campfire to hear his stories. He has written four books about his own travels, all of which are engaging, compelling celebrations of the art of adventure travel.
In 2022 Sam began a series called The Moment Collectors. In these anthologies, he invites 19 fellow motorcycle travelers to share a particular story, a slice of some adventure. The first, which did not focus on a particular geography, was a great success, and thus inspired a second in the series. Herewith we review the October 2024 release, The Moment Collectors – Asia: Twenty Travellers’ Tales from the Most Diverse Continent on Earth.
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One of the first things I noticed about the book is that half the contributors are women. When I started Overland Expo in 2009, there were not a lot of women adventure riders in print. Most of the famous books and articles up til then were written by men—Ted Simon, Chris Scott, Jeremy Kroeker, Boorman and McGregor, and don’t forget Ernesto (Che) Guevara. Lois Pryce had just come out with her book Lois on the Loose; Lisa and Simon Thomas were in the midst of their epic rides and publishing stories; a version of Theresa Wallach’s impressive 1930s ride was out; and we knew about Elspeth Beard’s round-the-world ride in the 1980s but she hadn’t published any book yet (Lone Rider came out in 2017 and is a fantastic read; Elspeth provides a foreword to Moment Collectors Asia).
But thanks largely to small rallies sponsored by HUBB chapters around the world (Horizons Unlimited is an old-fashioned bulletin-board internet forum), over the next 10 years thousands of women (and men) were inspired to take up two wheels, and we saw more and more of them in print. By 2018 around half the adventure motorcycle attendees at Overland Expo were women. Not everyone can or wants to write a whole book, so the anthologies compiled by Sam are a wonderful way for us to hear from adventurers we might otherwise miss.
I really like the first-person voices of the stories. This makes it intimate, like you are invited along on rides. Nearly every contributor is slightly mad (British English for “crazy, but in a good way”)—is this true of all adventure riders? Perhaps—I’m not sure I know any really serious adventure riders who would clock in as “normal.” Humor pervades many of the tales, some with outright guffaw-inducing moments. And another thing I noticed that made me inexplicably happy: none has huge social media followings. They are out doing things, experiencing the world in person and meeting people face-to-face rather than growing followers or taking selfies of themselves doing naked yoga on their motorcycle or Land Rover (yes, it’s a thing, and it makes me sad that young women adventurers resort to this to gain followers; I find myself asking, “What would Elspeth do?” Definitely not naked yoga on her BMW).
Art by Simon Roberts enhances the tales in Moment Collectors.
Engaging sketches by Simon Roberts who contributed a story as well—provide a cohesiveness to the tales, which are varied as much by the experiences as the writing, some of which is a little rough around the edges perhaps due to communicating in their second (or third) language or because not everyone can write to the level of Ted Simon (nor should we expect them to). But I love that Sam gives them a place to share their stories, regardless. Every story is a great read, though some shine more than others.
Below I share some of highlights that made me smile, laugh out loud, or do a double-take (as in, “What? Really???!”).
Adventure Before Dementia by Chris Donaldson
This is a poignant chapter, as later in life Chris is now facing the body- and mind-destroying Parkinson’s disease after a lifetime of adventure. Instead of resigning himself to it, what did he do? Decided to re-create his 1979 attempt to ride from England to Australia on the same Moto Guzzi Le Mans café racer (“attempt” because during his first ride, the revolution in Iran caused a sharp-right-turn and he ended up in Cape Town, then North America, and then all the way to Argentina). Yes, definitely mad, in that good way. So this engaging, often hilarious story chronicles Chris’ more recent ride to Australia through Europe and Asia.
“The difference between travelling and vacationing, is that when you are on holidays you want to see the sights, but when you’re travelling, you want to experience the country.”
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“Motorcycles give us back that sense of freedom we had when we were kids on our bicycles. When you go for a ride, you are in touch with the wind and the rain, the engine noise and the road surface. In fact, all the stuff that car designers have spent the last 100 years removing!”
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“ ‘Of course, you will make an offering to the temple.’ Well, that woke me out of my trance. Shit, he really tried to convert me, and he nearly succeeded. I got quite carried away! ‘If you can give me $20 for forgiveness of all your sins, that would be fine,’ he said. ‘For all of them?!’ This seemed like a bargain to me: $20 for complete absolution. I was sure my Protestant vicar at home wouldn’t do a deal like that. ‘But do I get a refund if it doesn’t work?’ ”
The Taxi Driver of Tabriz by Fern Hume
Definitely in the spirit of Elseth Beard and Lois Pryce, Fern took off alone from England to ride to Nepal via Central Asia and China; this included several weeks in Iran. She embraced the very different Iranian culture, and had some truly special experiences. After becoming seriously ill and thus delayed, she needed to extend her visa. The resulting antics were baffling and funny.
“ ‘Why on earth do you want to travel there?’ Many people I’d told of my plans pictured Iran as somewhere a solo woman traveller should perhaps not make a first-choice destination, but my research told me otherwise. In any event, a personal trait of mine is a dogmatic desire to prove people wrong.”
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“Any journey would be interesting, but hey, I reasoned with myself, let’s push and take a slightly more challenging but potentially rewarding route. After all, surely adventure is about stepping out of comfort zones and overcoming challenges?”
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“Thanking him and grabbing the form, I headed out to the waiting area to fill it in. All was well until I got to a tick box for women only. I needed permission for the extension from a husband or father/family member. This would be tricky. Knocking on the Commander’s door, I explained the predicament. ‘No problem,’ he said. ‘Who brought you here?’ ‘A taxi driver.’ I replied. ‘Well, he will do!’”
When Life Gives you Lemons, Make Shikanji by Maria Schumacher with Aidan Walsh
When their round-the-world motorcycle journey was dashed by a seriously broken BMW in the Republic of Georgia, Maria and Aiden decide to fly to India, buy something local, and head into the Himalayas to make up for the lost dream of riding the fabled Karakoram Highway. I found their tales both heartwarming and heart-stopping (the first excerpt is just after Maria is nearly run over by an aggressive Tata truck driver).
“We pull over for a tea just as the chai stall is packing up. I sit down, trying to calm myself and stop the involuntary waterfall from my eyes. A couple of Tata drivers on break have been watching us. They give us two little plastic bags of chai, which they had bought for later. They look skinny in their torn, sweat-stained vests, and I suspect it’s the only lunch they’ll afford today, but they insist that we should have it. That’s India for you: a constant rollercoaster of extremes. First the ice-cold nastiness of the pushy driver; moments later, the infinite kindness of two others.”
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“The small shops selling henna tattoos, hippie clothing and handmade bracelets do not disturb the local life. It is the end of the season, and the village is preparing for winter. Hay and herbs are drying on the corrugated iron rooftops, smoke is rising from cooking fires and women in several layers of colourful skirts are milking woolly yaks in the streets. A friendly shop owner recommends a homely family-run guest house where we can safely park the bikes in the backyard. It gets cold at night, but we are cosy under a pile of blankets. In the morning, the young daughter is sitting on our bikes while mum grooms her hair with a simple comb.”
Lady Preggers and the Hero of Mongolia by Jeffrey Franz
This was hands-down my favorite story, told with the highest level of adventure prose—Jeff’s writing could be likened to Ted Simon on acid. He shares obscure literary references and personal and meaningful philosophical meanderings. And his Mongolian journeys are epic: with a carefully curated lightweight small-cc motorcycle (Suzuki DR-Z400S) and minimal kit, he literally crosses some of the most remote wildernesses on the planet, with the goal of meeting nomadic people who inspire him. (Fortunately, Jeff wrote a full-length book, The Trans-Asia Endeavour, so I can keep reading his excellent prose.) The lede sentence below demonstrates his storytelling prowess. How can you not keep reading?
“Children draped all over me. Children draped all over my bike. Children licking my camera. How did it come to this?”
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“Turning toward that front door and the unseen person behind it, Lady Preggers detonated in a fury of quick-fire Mongolian verbiage akin to a six-barreled Gatling gun. Her barrage continued, rising in volume and rapidity, all in one breath: a stunning display of shock and awe that, by every law of the natural world, should have shattered the door asunder into a thousand splinters of wood.”
The Old Road of Bones by Sherri Jo Wilkins
Sherri Jo is an evocative storyteller, and her tale was one of the stories that had me shaking my head a lot, saying “Whaaaat?” The old “Road of Bones” is a colloquial name for the R504 Kolyma Highway, which connects Magadan with Nizhny Bestyakh in the Russian Far East. The road was built during the Stalinist era by imprisoned laborers, and it is said some 250,000—and as many as 1 million—died during its construction and their bones are buried beneath the road, which is built up above the permafrost (neither the numbers nor the presence of bones is confirmed, as records of the transport of prisoners to the north as laborers are not publicly available).
Sherri set off to Russia via Japan and Korea, and her ride is even more impressive as she had almost zero dirt or mud riding experience and the Road of Bones during summer is one of the most difficult rides on earth. Hands-down she is one of the most gutsy riders I’ve ever encountered, and we’re lucky she shared this epic ride. The excerpt below is pre-Road of Bones as she is transiting Japan, and a great example of her storytelling style that will keep you reading on the edge of your seat.
“When night fell in pouring rain, a red neon ‘Hotel’ sign shone through the gloom at an exit. I pulled into the private parking area. My motorcycle had its own bay, undercover; I wished more hotels had such nice parking. Inside, there was no attendant. There were photos of rooms on the wall in front of me, and a phone. I called the attendant and luckily, she could speak some words in English. Guests had to choose a room number from the wall display, if it had a green light, and pay once inside. Different but easy—so I thought. I carried my luggage into the room, and the door shut behind me. It looked clean and luxurious. The bed had a glossy yellow satin cover, with golden bedside lamps; the room had a marble floor. Hungry, I was glad to see a vending machine in the corner of the room. But it sold adult toys, not food. The penny dropped. This was a Love Hotel. Needing food, I tried to open the door to get out, but couldn’t. A different person answered the wall phone. Frustratingly, we couldn’t understand each other at all. Feeling trapped, I panicked. Making it worse, there were bars on the window to prevent escape without paying.”
