Episode 66
May 21 , 2019
66. Biker and Producer Antonia Bollingbroke-Kent; Tuk Tuk from Bangkok to Brighton, Motor-Biking Frozen Siberian Rivers and Silk Road Adventures with Joanna Lumley
Antonia Bollingbroke-Kent balances a life of – big adventures with producing wonderful TV shows such as Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road Adventures. She once drove a bright pink Tuk Tuk from Bangkok to Brighton, did battle with 1000 semi-wild Mongolian horses in the footsteps of Ghengis Khan and nearly froze to death attempting to drive a motorbike and sidecar to the Russian Arctic. Often guided by her Granny’s mantra of ‘Do nothing, say nothing, until the police arrive’ Silk Road Adventures Antonia regales some brilliant travel tales over a cup of tea in her Bristol Kitchen.
On this episode we cover:
‘Tuk Tuk to the Road’ – Antonia’s epic overland journey from Bangkok to Brighton
Her friend Jo’s mental health problems leading to the trip
Wanting to raise awareness and money for mental health
Giving up her job as a producer at ITV to go on the journey
The intense planning that went into the trip
Starting the journey in hospital in Bangkok
Crossing China being very scary (and taking a very long time)
Having to drive on dirt tracks and dangerous mountain roads
The late night storm they didn’t know whether they’d survive
Driving from Thailand across the border to Laos
A month in China and into Kazakhstan
12 countries, 12,561 miles
Crying all night the day before they got home
The surprise greeting from the guards at the remote border between China and Kazakhstan
Cheap hotels, camping and staying with families
Trying to hide the bright pink Tuk Tuk in the middle of the Kazak steppe
The shocked reaction to them in the middle of nowhere
Being driven off the road by curious locals
Driving across the Gobi Desert
Being trapped by an earthquake and turning it into one big party
Doing karaoke with lorry drivers
Sleeping under the Tuk Tuk for two days
Ted Simon, Jupiter’s Travels ‘the interruptions are the journey’
Breaking down in Crimea and having to stay there for a week
Hanging out with the descendants of Genghis Khan
The marked transition in character and culture when crossing Europe on the Ukraine-Poland border
McDonald’s, Tesco disappointment
Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium
The brilliant journey on Eurostar with a Tuk Tuk
Driving around the M25 in the freezing cold in the Tuk Tuk
Her Granny’s saying ‘Do nothing, say nothing, until the police arrive’.
Her adventurous childhood in Norfolk
Travelling Thailand aged 18 and coming back with bright green hair
How once you’ve tasted big overland travel journeys it changes you
How if you don’t have the time to take months off you can take smaller adventures
Setting up extreme adventures with The Adventurists
The Mongol Rally horserace following in Genghis Khan’s footsteps
Finding and training 1000 semi-wild horses in Mongolia
Her midwinter Siberian motorbike adventure in minus 36 degrees
Tom Morgan and Buddy Munro Channel 4
Trying to get a Ural motorbike and sidecar up the frozen river Ob
Wearing tweed and thinking they were going to die
Being given a huge frozen fish to take on the motorbike
How regular breakdowns of the Ural bike actually kept them alive
The Khanty–Mansia living in wooden houses by the river
No running water or sanitation but plenty of vodka
Returning to TV work to fund her adventures
Producing World’s Most Dangerous Roads for the BBC
Travelling with Joanna Lumley Silk Road Adventure series
Filming a series with Tom Hardy on elephant and rhino Poaching Wars
‘No comment’ on what Tom Hardy was like!
Her book ‘A Short Ride in the Jungle’ on her solo journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail on motorbike
The military supply route used during the Vietnam War
How a single footpath became a 12,000 mile network through the jungle
The trail still being heavily contaminated with unexploded devices
A dangerous and remote experience
Having ‘a few near misses with cluster bombs’
The Americans bombing Laos every 8 minutes for a decade
The millions of millions of UXO dropped
The remote tribal areas where ‘the war is still everywhere’
Two American former pilots she went off track with
Finding an unexploded live bomb at her feet
400 people still being killed in Laos a year
Meeting people who had lost sons, husbands, wives when ploughing the land
Driving the Pink Panther – a 25 year old motorbike
Every day being so exciting and scary and unknown and making her feel alive
How a very curious person has led to her exploration
The human urge to see what’s around the next corner and over the mountain
Trying to have adventures in every day life and look at the world with fresh eyes
Alastair Humphrey’s on The Big Travel Podcast and #microadventures
Silk Road Adventures – the company she runs with her boyfriend Marley
Building a portable sauna and tugging it around techno festivals in Europe
Starting by doing motorbike trips in Tajikistan
A passion for travelling in places where there aren’t many travellers
Specialising in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Palestine, Iran and the Caucuses
Her book about travelling through Arunachal Pradesh in North East India- the Land of the Dawn Lit Mountains in the Himalayas
A three month solo journey across remote lands with restricted access
The invisible fold no one goes to
The most ethnically diverse place in South Asia, 30 different tribes
The local animists who worship hundreds of different gods
Constantly trying to appease this pantheon of spirits
Meeting the first local girl to climb Everest
Being trapped for 3 days in a festival of animal sacrifice and shamanic chanting in a tiny village on the Tibetan border
Massive opium bongs, and tripping over the guts of oxen and pigs to the background of Shamanic chanting
Eating leaves instead of animal guts
Just like Glastonbury
Not wanting to spend five days vomiting under the Shaman’s hut
Being 18 and trying opium in Thailand
How people get the wrong idea about The Royal Geographical Society
Their amazing map rooms and libraries
Winning a grant to do an expedition to remote North East India and Burma travelling through the lands inhabited by tribal head hunters
The Naga tribe who fought for the British
Ursula Graham Bower – still the only female commander in the history of the British army
How head hunting happened until comparatively recently
Lisa’s head-shrinkers in the family (!)
Lisa’s granddad and the hallucinogenic drugs
How places ‘at the edge of the map’ telling stories that haven’t been told before
Wanting to explore Northern Pakistan and Lebanon
The Baalbek ruins in Lebanon
Staying in the Palmyra Hotel in the footsteps of Nureyev
The song that makes her get off her motorbike and dance
