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Race Across the World BBC2

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Old Mar 3, 2019, 3:10 pm
  #1  
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Race Across the World BBC2

Long-haul travel the hard way – no flights, no phone, no plastic. Few would say no to a trip to Singapore. But for the contestants in this travel challenge series, getting there requires a lot more than sitting on a plane for 12 hours.They must complete the 12,000-mile journey without boarding a single flight, and without the benefit of smartphones and credit cards. For the first pair of travellers to reach Singapore, which will take an estimated 50 days, there’s a prize of Ł20,000, but it will be hard-won.
A very interesting show. How I would do the 1st leg: get an EU railpass for EUR 216 which is valid all the way to Greece.

How would you have done the trip?
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 10:25 pm
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Sounds not dissimilar to a game show “Lost”, aired in the UK in the early 2000s. Groups of contestants were blindfolded and dropped off in really remote areas and had to get back to London with basically no resources. I haven’t seen it since broadcast but remember it being rather good.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(game_show)
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 6:33 am
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I agree, would be a good route to take.Ł250 seems to be able what people spent on the the first leg.

Was a good episode, seems like a key to success could be to find transport you can sleep on while traveling.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 8:35 am
  #4  
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London to Port Kelang, 28 days on a container ship - The CMA CGM Marco Polo voyages from Europe to Singapore and China

Port Kelang to Singapore - 8 hours on a train. https://goo.gl/maps/mmizHZtF9Pw

Next case?
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 8:42 am
  #5  
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I was going to say cargo ship, but someone beat me to it!

I really enjoyed the show 'Lost', a stand out memory was the frequent flyer who had BA look him up on the computer and then they comp'd him the flight back to London!
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 8:44 am
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Ahhhh you all need to watch the show! You have to reach intermediate checkpoints along the way, and you don’t know the checkpoints until you reach the previous one.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 9:43 am
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OK, rules are no plastic, but is there any limitation on how much money to bring along?

Just out of interest for the imaginary travel, this kind of excursion might not be my piece of cake
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 12:36 pm
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Originally Posted by emma69
I was going to say cargo ship, but someone beat me to it!

I really enjoyed the show 'Lost', a stand out memory was the frequent flyer who had BA look him up on the computer and then they comp'd him the flight back to London!
I would have thought trains would be quicker?
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 1:50 pm
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Ł1300 total, no plastic or cellphones.

There are apparently some "work" opportunities along the way as well.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 1:54 pm
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Reminds me of the 80s show 'Around the world in 80 days' with Michael Palin which incidentally was BBC original. That is fun to watch even now.
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Old Mar 5, 2019, 4:05 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by abla
Reminds me of the 80s show 'Around the world in 80 days' with Michael Palin which incidentally was BBC original. That is fun to watch even now.
Albeit Michal Palin traveled a far greater distance, his travel budget Ł/mile would maybe exceed what the participants in this gameshow are allowed?

Slightly OT, as the time frame would be wrong, but the Orient Express does it's yearly Paris-Istanbul in August this year (and 2020 too). The travel budget for two would grab 80% of the amount winners would get. Of course, there are some less comfortable distances left from Istanbul to Singapore
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Old Mar 5, 2019, 11:38 am
  #12  
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I remember the show "Lost"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(game_show)

There was an American and UK version, neither involved the BBC (the UK version was Channel 4).

I recall a large amount of criticism at the time - I don't think the producers thought about the irony of a bunch of "rich" people in a race having to essentially beg from people who had nothing. Bad optics.
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Old Mar 5, 2019, 7:47 pm
  #13  
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Originally Posted by catlike
You have to reach intermediate checkpoints along the way, and you don’t know the checkpoints until you reach the previous one.
I liked this show the first time I saw it. When it was called The Amazing Race.
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Old Mar 7, 2019, 7:55 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by emma69
I really enjoyed the show 'Lost', a stand out memory was the frequent flyer who had BA look him up on the computer and then they comp'd him the flight back to London!
I found this Youtube channel where four of the five episodes are uploaded. Watched them all through over the last few days and there's quite a bit of flight blagging going on....
https://www.youtube.com/user/MrJsb79/videos
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Old Mar 7, 2019, 10:01 am
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Originally Posted by CPRich
I liked this show the first time I saw it. When it was called The Amazing Race.
I haven't watched the show but from the descriptions it seems it's a bit different from The Amazing Race. I don't think TAR had a total overall budget and I think tickets were pre-reserved for folks because I never saw anyone at an airport trying to figure out airline schedules. That's why you got teams bunching up at airports even though some folks arrived a significant period ahead of time.
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