This was a complete dissapointment! i am addicted to travel, i love bikes and i even liked ewen mcgregor before this. i had easy rider aspirations set aside for this book, but gave up on page 105, after not being able to tolerate any more of these two moaning gits whingeing and their unadventurous outlook towards travel.
The fact that they employed an office load of people to look after them, had state of the art gear, GPS, had contact with officials along their route as well as an accompanying team of doctor, mechanic, cameraman and producers, kind of detracts slightly from any form of real experience. This would not be the case if they had set out to make a documentary about the cultures and people of the countries they visit, however they are too consumed with themselves and their petty quarrels to really engage the reader in any sense of travel.
This was one of the worst books i have ever read! just dont bother with it. ultimately it is just a banal account of two actors on bikes, written without creativity or flair, and ewen mcgregor just keeps goin on about his stupid i-pod!
As an englishman, i would appreciate it if any foreigners would refrain from judging me and my fellow countrymen by these pampered, self obsessed, drab faux-adventurers.

I didn't read the book but am interested in doing so after watching these WONDERFUL episodes.
I figured I'd read what everyone has written on this but after the first 4 of 5 dreadfully lengthy negative posts, I stopped reading.
Since I actually saw the show and know what it's about, I'm just going to rely on the Obvious that I will like this book because it's the same journey as the show.
You all need to stop your whining and negative talk.
I'd love to do what these guys did. the adventures they had, the people they met. Yes they did have support vehicles but they didn't ride with Charley and Ewan. They only met up at borders where entering countries may become difficult seperately. Yes they did have people to work on their bikes when they needed it, but it wasn't anyone from their group. they were locals of the towns they were visiting.
If you were on a journey like this and your bike broke down, would you just say Hmmm, I can't have it fixed or it will pamper my experience because I didn't do it myself? or would you get the bike fixed so you can get on with the trip which is the whole point. the breakdowns were just obsticles, the same as the mud holes and road conditions. THAT'S THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF THEIR TRIP, To experience all there is to experience in the 20,000 miles of journey they are on.

For those of you who actually know what they're talking about and know what they're interested in, Please watch the DVD (Should be available in USA on Feb 15th from what I've seen. I'd recommend the book but I haven't read it YET. But I definately will.
I was amazed that two actors that COULD be living pampered lives with the money they make in movies, etc instead decide to go on this long trip without Plans to stay in hotels and such each night. Plans to be part of the elements around them. Yes people along their way offer food and shelter for them, but why turn it down, it's not like they were just laying back and relaxing. They bust their buts riding all day and Naturally need sleep, if you're offered a roof over your head for the night by people that you meet along the way, why turn it down? I mean, meeting people and seeing sights, etc is the purpose of the trip.

I apologize for this being so long winded, but I don't want people to be mis-led by the negative posts.
thanks for listening, Enjoy.

Poor Ewan McGregor. He's an actor. He gets paid lots and lots of money to act. Poor Charley Boorman. He's also an actor. But unlike Ewan, he was born to a wealthy English film director. It's so stressful for the both of them that they need to get away. Far away. As far from the pressures of their pampered lives as possible. And so, they do. After planning a trip "Round the World" for several months, they buy some BMW motorcyles... Oops. Scratch that. They GET some FREE BMW motorcycles and, with the funding of BRAVO TV, a well stocked support crew, and the most patient cameraman on the face of the earth, head out from London. At first the trip is a joy -- sightseeing, autograph signing -- yay. But then the hard part begins. Bad roads, no four-star restaurants, no pristine toilets. They have to camp. Charley doesn't like to camp. He's afraid of spiders, you see. He maybe should have stayed home with his little girls. HEY! I forgot to mention. Ewan and Charlie are both married with very small children. But this trip was so important, it was worth leaving them all at home to do this potentially life-threatening trip. (Although, the worst that seemed to happen to Mr. McGregor was a really bad mosquito bite on the forehead, and to Charley, a strained back). Still, they ran into quite a few men with guns -- not exactly a secure situation. Oh, and did I mention how much they missed their families? They write about it quite a few times -- aching for their wives and kidlets. Sick over it. Yes. Not quite enough to ditch the trip and go home, though. But let's face it -- they're actors. "Selfish" goes with the territory. Their wives must have the patience of saints to put up with this nauseating three-and-a-half-month self-indulgence. As for their little girls -- well, they don't really have any choice, do they? Unlike other reader reviews, I am not impressed by their undertaking in any respect. I have been a fan of Mr. McGregor's films for a long time, but this is more about his true personality than I care to know. He's so self-centered, that at one point, after Charley becomes injured, he's determined to finish the trip alone (oh, not quite alone -- there's the ever-patient Claudio, the cameraman, who has to put up with their bitching and moaning and finger-pointing the entire time). Now, Ewan ditching his friend is only evident if you've seen the t.v. series, but what the heck kind of a person abandons his best friend to go off and finish the big trip alone?? Oh yeah. The friendship thing. While it's obvious these two are "fast" friends, it's also equally obvious who the top banana is. McGregor gets most of the attention, while Charley waits in the wings for the autograph session to be over. (I'm sorry. I'm focusing on the negative, here.) There are also times McGregor is extremely generous toward his friend, like when he tries to get the OTHER free bike. Ewan goes to bat for Charley over the KTM, but the deal falls through. I have to say, I did enjoy the first couple chapters, where the boys describe how they fell in love with motorcycles. And there is one particularly entertaining chapter about their stay with Igor, a man with a beautiful voice and an even prettier machine gun. All of Igor's friends have guns, too. Hilarious. Bet his wife loved that one. I know I would have if it were MY husband. After all, the two experienced foreign lands that most of us will never see. And it affected them greatly. At least, for the length of time they were in the city/country. After much reflecting upon each group of people (at least McGregor does a lot of reflecting), one poorer than the one before, Ewan is grateful for the opportunity. But it doesn't seem to stick with him. He's immediately bitching about the roads again. In fact, he's very up and down throughout the entire ordeal. At one point, after getting hit by a car in Calgary, he describes how he feels "elated". Then later, in the comfy hotel room, he experiences a deep depression, thinking how his death would have affected his family. (It took him this long??) Then later, all that annoying reflecting out of the way, he's high again. Bizarre. I watched the t.v. series with a sense of adventure. But after reading the accompanying "journal", I'm just not sure why they did it. If McGregor was trying to get away from his life of fame, why did they sell the series to BRAVO? Why did they take cameramen? Why didn't the two of them just buy a couple of bikes and go out and experience the world? Maybe someday they'll be grown up enough to do just that. But if that's the case, I hope they'll see that their families come first, which I have heard McGregor state over and over, but apparently, sadly, isn't true. Throughout the book, he says one thing, but his actions are contrary, and make his words meaningless. Ah, well. So much for Hollywood magic.

As a motorcycle rider I wish I could take a trip like this with support teams along with me. I bought the book thinking they did this all on there own. While what they did is still a big acheivement this trip is far from what most people could do. A much better book is Dave Barr's Riding the Edge, in which he rides around the world on old 1972 Harley-Davidson. Barr is alone most of the trip and is a double amputee. No support teams for him.

This is word-to-the-wise about compromise wrapped up in the clothes of a motorcycle travelogue. It's a great idea-McGregor gets an itch to ride around the world with his friend and fellow actor, Charley Boorman. Just the two of them on the open road, travelling incognito, meeting the locals, etc.

Unfortunately, like most dreams, this one didn't survive contact with the real world. Financial and professional contraints meant that the trip had to be planned and executed in an unrealistically small amount of time. They decided to pitch the trip as a potential television show in order to get financing and planning resources. This was probably neccesary in order to make the trip happen, but it drastically changed the nature of the journey.

Instead of two blokes on the road together, now the journey was two blokes and a cameraman with a large support crew behind them and fixers at every border to ease the problems with dealing with the locals, not to mention quite a bit of publicity preceding the blokes, so that "meeting the locals" oftentimes meant "media event." What evolves, then is that the book is less the story of this larkish journey than of the tension between the original vision of the trip and the reality of it.

Everyone gets on each other's nerves, of course. It doesn't help that the planning was extremely amateurish. It quickly becomes clear that the fixers and support crew were an blessing-they'd never have made it without them. McGregor and Boorman know quite a bit about riding bikes, but almost nothing about fixing them. Since both actors need to get back to work, they really don't have the time to linger in the places they're visiting. Their cross-continent journey is really more of a race, and a gruelling endurance race at that.

The authors alternate telling the tale, and their voices are distinct and their writing clear. You never really forget that you're reading the words of a couple of celebrities, but then again, most of us wouldn't have picked up the book without the famous names on the cover. Ewan, in particular, mentions his films on many occassions. He's an actor, sure, and that's what he knows, but it does make him seem less a "bloke" and more a "star."

I think it's fascinating and really refreshing that a couple of actors would take the time off for an adventure like this, even if the original vision of it was very little like the reality. It's a huge risk, both physically and career-wise, for these gentlemen, and I respect that enormously. My biggest gripe, I suppose, is that they didn't seem to have very much fun doing it. Between the compromises and the hard work work (often a result of naive planning), they seem to have had a very unpleasant time of it. It's an impressive accomplishment, biking around the world, even with a support crew and fixers and all, but I just wish they're been a little more joy in it.