-Maryanne Williamson

 

 

Like so many great ideas before it, Huge In Asia was born out of desperation. In the Fall of 2003, with their lives alternating between the banal and the utterly depressing, Kai, Alan, and Nate decided it was time to take to the road. "I was living at home, I didn't have a girlfriend," Nate recalls bitterly, "So I asked myself: What do I have to lose? The next day, my car was stolen."

 

The group's first plan, which Kai pulled out of thin air while trying to get money from his parents, was to bicycle across the United States and build houses along the way with the charitable non-profit, Habitat for Humanity. By the spring of 2005, the trip had been altered: the home building had been done away with and the bicycles were replaced by motorcycles, which were deemed faster.

Then, on a balmy August night in 2006, Nate out of nowhere proposed that the three of them try to become celebrities. The idea was so simple, so perfect, that they broke into ecstatic laughter.  The laughter soon gave way to passionate weeping when they realized that Alan was not beautiful enough. "But then we realized that in Southeast Asia," says Kai, "people like Alan are novelties." Plane tickets were purchased that night.

 

And now, the big moment of departure is upon them. They've scrimped and saved and done some pretty regrettable things, but finally have the funds necessary to reach the Orient.  What they lack: fluency in Asian languages, any pertinent skills, and Japanese encephalitis vaccinations.  What they have in abundance: a sense of adventure and a desire to experience the extraordinary.

 

Over the coming months, HugeInAsia.com will document their pursuit of fame in Southeast Asia while highlighting different cultures and people they encounter. The team will release videos multiple times a week and write a daily blog.  Please join them as they discover the complex world without and the embarrassingly simple one within.