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April 2008 THE NEWS FROM JUPITER Sold Out in Vancouver Hi, I'm on the road again. I started my run in Vancouver and the first night was ... A SMASH HIT Hundreds came to Michelle's AntiSocial Shop, which was anything but antisocial that night, and many couldn't get in. Some came 35 miles to Langley the next day to join another huge crowd at the library in the afternoon. I feel enormously privileged that so many want to come and hear my tales, and I've done my best to give them an enjoyable experience. My own edition of Dreaming of Jupiter is out and it's an opportunity to get around and show my face. If you'd like to know what people thought of the book, check it out on Amazon.co.uk I have put together a show that contrasts my impressions and experiences then and now in various parts of the world, like the Sudanese desert, sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Australia, and so on. The next events will be in: Seattle, on Tuesday April 22nd, hosted by Touratech, 4021 Airport Way South, at 6.45 pm Tigard (Portland), on Wednesday April 23rd, at the BMW of Western Oregon shop, 12010 SW Garden Place at 7.30 pm - this one in combination with my friends, the McCarthy's, at the Moto Classic Triumph shop Call 503.597.7097 or go to www.bmwor.com Eugene, on Thursday April 24th at at the BMW of Western Oregon shop, 2891 W 11th Avenue. 7.30 pm Call 541.338.0269 or go to www.bmwor.com Humboldt State University, on Saturday April 26th, at 3 pm in the Fishbowl room of the library. I assume it will be easy to find. To get there look up directions on this site. www.Humboldt.edu I will be selling books at the 49er Rally in Auburn, on Memorial Day weekend, doing shows at he big BMW rally in Gilette, Wyoming, July 18-21, and at the AMA mid-Ohio meeting July 25-27. I'll also be showing off at Andy Goldfine's Really Boring Rally in Duluth in August, which promises to be a huge yawn from start to finish - a good thing because I really enjoy yawning. I'm sure there will be more - and I'll do my best to keep this space up to date. Now it's confession time. When I was travelling around the world and sending back dispatches I was fairly free with my opinions, particularly around the time of 9/11 and after. Many of you encouraged me to speak out, and I was happy to take up the challenge. There's nothing like writing things down to clarify the mind. But it's also easy to go too far . . .so there is something I need to get off my chest. One of the finest, and most intelligent books I have ever read was called Saturday, by Ian McEwen, who also wrote Atonement. In Saturday, which seems to take place around 2003, the protagonist, a neurosurgeon, reflects on the rights and wrongs of deposing Saddam Hussein and seems to conclude, on the basis of some first-hand accounts of Hussein's ruthlessly sadistic acts, that it would be right to get rid of him. I don't know if this was actually McEwan's position: the character is fictional, but the arguments were persuasive. I think there were many people, without much knowledge of the Middle East, who might have felt the same. Back in 2002/2003 when the assault on Iraq seemed inevitable, I was travelling through Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal and India. I had very little background on the issue, getting most of my information from CNN and the BBC. I also thought it would be a good idea to get rid of Saddam, and I said so. It was not so long since that sickening business in Bosnia, and I wished we had intervened there a lot earlier. I had traveled extensively and thought I knew more than I did. Fortunately my opinion had no effect on the course of events, otherwise I would feel even more ashamed than I do. In fact I had never been in the Middle East, and was entirely ignorant about Shia and Sunni beliefs and the differences between them, or the tribal nature of Iraqi society, and so I had no idea of what could follow when the lid came off the boiling pot. I had no faith in George Bush, but I did have great respect for Tony Blair's ability and intelligence, and felt that if he was for it then it was probably because he thought it could be carried off reasonably well. To be fair to myself, I did have misgivings before we went in. Now that I know a lot more, I feel duped, outraged and betrayed, and I daresay there are millions who share my feelings. One or two people were bitterly disappointed in me at the time and haven't spoken to me since. I am equally disappointed in Tony Blair, and wouldn't want to speak to him either, but really what I thought then hardly matters now. I am not running for president or pretending to be an international statesman. But I just cannot forget that the men and women who rammed that war down our throats with lies and scare-mongering had access to all the information they needed to show them that it would be a disaster. They then compounded their perfidy with astounding incompetence. And today those same people are still running around, holding highly important jobs in vital institutions, with all the trappings of big money and exaggerated respect. Which is why, against the background of the 4000th American gravestone, I hope to be able to vote for Obama in the USA; and in Britain, where I also have a vote, I hope there will eventually be someone I can decently vote for too. MORE

Thirty-five bikers joined me on the final lap, and escorted me back to my starting point in Dorchester, which I left two and a half years earlier. So, how does it feel? Well, I can hardly believe it's over. I have ridden 54,000 miles on this BMW, and at least 5000 more miles on two other bikes.

I've been through 48 different countries, survived two bone-breaking accidents, fallen in love again, and seen what astonishing changes have taken place in the world since I was there last


My first ride around the world ended in 1977. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be setting off on that same journey 24 years later.

Then I was already 46 years old. To do it at the age of 70 would have seemed impossible, but that is just what I've been doing.

This new adventure began in January of 2001. It took me the length of Africa, around the Americas, through New Zealand and Australia, and across Asia to Europe.

Why follow the same route that I took before? Because after 25 years I was still haunted by the memories of exotic places and wonderful people I might never see again, but most of all because it was a rare opportunity to see, close up, how the world has changed in a quarter of a century.

What I did not count on, of course, was how much the world would change while I was on the road.

As you follow my journey you will find out what nine-eleven looked like from Brazil, and you will get a different slant on how the new waves of war and terrorism affect the world.

All in all, it has been a stunning experience: always intriguing, not always comfortable, but charged with all manner of insights that have given me, I think, a privileged view of where we are all heading.

For three years I recorded my adventure, in pictures and words, on my web site. Now I have put the whole thing on a CD, and expanded it with a good deal of extra material.

Following it on the web undoubtedly gave it the virtue of immediacy but it is so much easier to read and enjoy on a CD. You will find a wealth of detail that you would have missed.

I think I can safely say that nothing as comprehensive as this has ever been attempted before.

Here are a few sample pages to whet your appetite:

From Colombia | From Egypt | From Kenya From Sudan | From Australia | From Bali
Travel the World with Jupiter, Again! To find out a lot more about the route I took, or about the bike I chose and the equipment I took with me, or how the idea of this adventure evolved, please click on this picture.

Read the Books : Buy the CD

Here it is at last, part three of the Jupiter trilogy. We have the hard back edition published in England in 2007 by Little, Brown. This is available now from the author for $35, plus shipping and handling. Please send an email to tsimon@mcn.org so that we can tell you what it will cost to get a signed, dedicated copy sent to you. Coming out in APRIL the soft-cover edition of Dreaming of Jupiter. It will hit the stores priced at $24.95. We've changed the cover, for the fun of it really. It is in the same format as Jupiter's Travels and Riding High, but it also includes 16 pages of color. You can get it from your favourite book shop, but it will also be available directly from the author, signed and dedicated. Just send an email.

First of all there was Jupiter's Travels	Then came Riding High	Jupiter Returns on CD (auch auf Deutsch)	Gypsy is back!
For 25 years this book has been a favourite for travellers of all kinds, but in the world of motorcycle travel it has been a true phenomenon. This illustrated edition is available at book shops in the USA for $24.95. You can also buy a copy directly from the author, signed and dedicated to you. Click on the cover for more.	The Jupiter journey lasted four years. There were far too many stories for just one book. Riding High tells the rest of the story, and also why it was so difficult, afterwards, to come home. Click on the cover for more. When you've read Jupiter's Travels you'll want to follow it up with Riding High. $16.95 in the USA, also available directly from the author.	Ted Simon repeated the journey, 25 years later (see above). The web site he maintained throughout that 3-year journey is here, on this CD. There are 350 pages, plus close to a thousand pictures which you will never see in print. It works just like a web site, except that on your own computer you can move around at lightning speed. Enjoy it for itself, or as a brilliant accompaniment to the third Jupiter book, Dreaming of Jupiter, which is now available in hard back. Click on the disc for more. Only from Ted Simon, in English and German.	We have found a small stock of unsold copies, so we can offer them again, for $25 plus shipping and handling. This is the startling, hilarious and sometimes painful account of Ted's 1,500 mile tramp through Eastern Europe, looking for the influences that shaped his early life, and finding poignant traces of his lost father. Click on the cover picture for more about this much-admired memoir.

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