The Linger Longer: Driving the Trans-Siberian

August 25, 2009 by  
Filed under Linger Longer, Road Trip Russia

‘The Linger Longer: Driving the Trans-Siberian’, an epic 11,000 mile journey across Russia and Siberia in a £300 Ford Sierra.

Driving along side the Trans-Siberian Railway, the ultimate road trip adventure.

By Chris Raven and Simon Raven

Have you ever had the desire to jump in your car and keep driving, to wave goodbye to routine and commitment and drive into the unknown with your arm out of the window, hungry for adventure? Well, that is precisely what twin brothers and UK authors, Simon Raven and Chris Raven decided to do whilst stacking boxes of frozen oven chips in a minus thirty degrees freezer. With a squeaky foot pump and an SAS Survival Guide, the brothers fired up their rusty £300 Ford Sierra and headed east. Not being petrol heads and having very little knowledge of the internal combustion engine, with luck they hoped to reach Poland and maybe even the Baltic State of Estonia – where lived, according to legend, the most beautiful girls on the planet. After driving for six weeks and clocking up over 11,000 miles, quite literally living in the car, they miraculously arrived in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok in Siberia on the Sea of Japan. What they had in fact done was to drive  from the UK, across Europe through Russia following the Trans-Siberian Railway and drive the entire length of the amazing new Amur Highway before it was finished, which crosses Russia in a 6,200 mile swath of cracked tarmac and potholes. Along the way our trusty heroes drink vodka with Chechen criminals, escape highway robbery, trade banana flavoured condoms with Russian cops, meet the eccentric and plain weird at truck stops in darkest Siberia, endure torturous road conditions and have a race to the finish with the Germans. Surviving this journey by the skin of their teeth, the brothers are forced to confront their worst fears in this toe-curling comedy that is both gripping and surreal.

Buy it on Amazon!

(UK £7.19): The Linger Longer: Driving the Trans-Siberian

Amazon.co.uk: Click here to buy the ebook

(USA $13.99): The Linger Longer: Driving the Trans-Siberian

Amazon.com: Click here to buy ebook>

  • Listen to the brothers talk about their Russia experience on Radio 4′s Excess Baggage with Sandi Toksvig.

Chapter 1: The Cunnilingus King

Chapter 2: Daventry

Chapter 3: Thirty Below

Chapter 4: Long Face

Chapter 5: Bohemian Rhapsody

Chapter 6: Cliff’s Arse

Chapter 7: Arbeit Macht Frei

Chapter 8: Fresh Fish

Chapter 9: The 80′s Coming Back

Chapter 10: Fun Lovin’ Criminals

Chapter 11: Unavailable Funds

Part 2

Chapter 12: Land of the Tsars

Chapter 13: Animal Farm

Chapter 14: Coffee with the Cops

Chapter 15: Chasing the Trans-Siberian

Chapter 16: Bandits & Butterflies

Chapter 17: Pearl of Siberia

Chapter 18: Burn Baby Burn

Chapter 19: Guardian Angels

Chapter 20: The Amur Hellway

Chapter 21: The Final Frontier

Chapter 22: The Executioner

Part 3

Chapter 23: Lords of the East

Chapter 24: It’s a kind of Magic

Chapter 25: Foot People

Chapter 26: A Touch of SARS

Chapter 27: Back to Bateman


 

 

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