Jupiter's Travels

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Gone were the interesting anecdotes and interesting people, in its place we get introspection and self analysis and almost self pity. Interesting it was not. Catalogue Titles Authors Readers Unabridged Fiction Classic Fiction Modern Classics Contemporary Fiction His books and long distance riding inspired the actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in their 2004 journey from London to New York on motorcycles ( Long Way Round), during which they arranged to meet Simon in Mongolia. There was a war. I was hoping it would be over by the time I got there, but it wasn’t and it became more and more of a threat as I approached. It did pose a few problems, mainly because of the Egyptians themselves. The populous was all het up about Israeli and Jewish spies and so on. I got arrested twice when I was in Alexandria because people thought I was a spy, but it was dealt with anyway. I was concerned, especially at the frontier because I had a visa that said you could cannot cross the frontier overland into Egypt. I thought they’d shoot me or something like that. But they were actually very nice, they were lovely.” The interesting thing to me is how completely different everything that had happened to me in life up until then was from the journey. I mean, there was nothing in my life that would have predicted that I would have anything to do with motorcycles, or that I would want to ride one around the world. It came almost out of nowhere.”

Drama Shakespeare Other Drama Other Poetry Junior Classics Young Adult Classics Collections& Sets Unabridged Following my old path made it more of a journalistic journey, as I had something by which to compare it all. It was a daring thing to do because I felt the news was inevitably going to be bad. I start the book with that idea, a quote by Paul Valéry: “The future is not what it used to be.” Anyway this book details Ted's amazing journey, the highs , the lows and the unbelievable adventures on the way. At the time I remember reading of his progress but little else so when this book came out I devoured it in a very short time. I think in the ensuing 40 years I have read it once since. Given that at the age of 69 Ted retraced his steps ( Dreaming Of Jupiter) was the result, I think its about time I gave Ted the courtesy of re-reading this original unbelievable travelogue and of his sequel. When my mother was due to give birth to me, her first and only child, she insisted on going home to her mother in Germany, and so I was born there and brought home to London at the age of three months. Thus I acquired the habit of travel at an early age. On to the book. What a boring, self-indulgent novel. Ol' Ted decides to go slummin' through the third world in some misguided attempt to test himself. Once underway, his special brand of bitter negativity slowly swallows every paragraph. His suspicions and mistrust permeate all of his interactions. The countries flow by as little more than overblown customs headaches. The rare happy moments end with a caveat. As much as you'd think the trip should be the focus, it's only ever about the author.Try as I would to imagine a rosier future, I could see only ever-increasing numbers of people determined to seize on the resources of the earth and pervert them into greater and greater heaps of indestructible concrete and plastic ugliness, only to look and learn and retreat in penitent dismay before the next wave of 'developing' citizens. And there seemed to be nothing that I or any individual could do that would make it a jot of difference to the outcome." p.214 I strongly suspect Ted Simon, who’s now in his late eighties, is too much of a gentleman to brag about his achievements, so I shall do it for him. Forty years after Jupiter’s Travels was first published, it has been read by millions. It remains one of the most important and influential books ever written about motorcycle travel, inspiring generations to go forth and explore. They are different from other men, these road builders. Some kind of esprit de corps animates them, as though the roads and bridges they are making are only the physical symbols of a desire to help the world along." p. 108

I had no idea how long it would take, or what sort of an experience it would be. I felt I knew nothing about the world, and the trip was a way for me to see what was going on. In the end, I was gone for four years, and passed through 50 countries. The voyage became the basis of my book, Jupiter’s Travels.

“What’s extraordinary is how long it has survived”

And so I have reduced my rating to 4 stars and removed it from my favourites shelf. I do feel very guilty, but I'm sorry but it wasn't as good as I remembered. The first 2/3rds of the book were great, descriptions of people and places, tales of his travel and how the bike was doing or not as the case may be, and then at probably only a third of the way around the world we leave all of those descriptions behind, whole countries are not mentioned or receive only a paragraph, we get hardly anything of Northern India and Nepal. The last 5,00 or so miles through Asia and up to Turkey and then into Europe don't even get a map.

Ever since my original journey I have been learning more about its significance. The idea that I might be making it for others, as well as myself… It seems that when you raise yourself up to achieve something beyond what is needed just to live day by day, the energy you generate has an effect on those around you.” However, when Ted rolled into Egypt early in his journey, he found more pressing matters than road conditions were of concern. I also enjoyed how classically 70's his story is - right down to that awesome photo on the cover. Ted Simon shared his thoughts willingly, and with honesty - there are some odd thoughts, some awkward encounters, and admittedly, that he could have edited those out to make himself look better. I liked that he didn't do that. In late 1973, sponsored by The Sunday Times, Simon began travelling around the world on a 500cc Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle. For four years he travelled over 64,000 miles (103,000km) through 45 countries. Most accounts from his trip are detailed in his book, Jupiter's Travels, [2]But I also felt changed in the ways he describes. Sure, my own 'trip' was a much shorter version, and factor in everywhere I've been it's still just a fraction of the ground he covered. But as he's concluding the book, and talking about finding the meaning, and finding even if there is a meaning... Have you ever stopped what you're doing, thrown it all down, and gone to look for that meaning? With the aim of discovering how the world had changed in the intervening 28 years, on 27th January 2001, aged 69, Ted embarked on a second journey. This time he rode a BMW R80 GS over 59,000 miles through 47 countries.