Moron to Moron: two men, two bikes, one Mongolian misadventure (2013)
In July 2010, Tom Doig and his best mate Tama Pugsley cycled 1,487 kilometres across northern Mongolia from a small town called Mörön to a smaller town also called Mörön. Why?
Armed with spandex unitards, Chinese steel-frame mountain bikes, unidentifiable meat product and a woefully inadequate phrasebook, these two morons blunder into some of the world's most remote and beautiful wilderness - and triumph. Sort of.
For 23 brutalising days - two days longer than the Tour de France - Tom and Tama slog their way over muddy mountains and across desolate steppes, all the time struggling to avoid Mongolia's legendary hospitality. This hilarious, thoroughly shonky odyssey overflows with sweat, miscommunication and torrents of Chinggis Khaan vodka - named after Genghis Khan, the greatest warrior who ever lived.
Moron to Moron is a travel book like none other. It has it all: pleasure, pain, heartache, heartburn and the dried fermented milk of a horse.
... If you're not already convinced that you need to rush out and buy this book immediately, check out www.moron2moron.com, the blog that spawned the book.
(Note: book contains better writing, but blog contains more pictures.)
PRAISE FOR MORON TO MORON
'A perfect balance of observation and research, seriousness and out-of-this-world absurdity.'
—The Big Issue
'Delightful and disgusting ... ultimately triumphant ... Mörön to Mörön is a truly moronic and gratifying descent into the sensual.'
—The Australian
'If madcap adventure is what you're after, then Tom Doig is the John Birmingham of travel writing.'
—Ride On Magazine
‘Don’t read this book with a broken rib—you’ll ache from cover to cover. Should become a classic of Mongolian cycling literature.’
—Tim Krabbé, author of The Rider, The Vanishing and The Cave
‘Tom Doig is not your average traveller and Mörön to Mörön is not like any other travel book. Bowel-splittingly hilarious and irresistibly absurd, this book is for everyone who’s ever asked themselves the golden question of travel: Why the f**k not?
—Benjamin Law, author of Gaysia and The Family Law
'My husband asked me "What are you laughing at?" a lot while we lay in bed in the evenings. It was this book. I'm so sad it's finished I might go have a cry.'
—Melisa, random GoodReads reviewer
‘Funnier than Bill Bryson … Doig is Hemingway in a unitard.’
—Chris Flynn, author of A Tiger in Eden