We are Jonathan Murphy and James MacKay, respectively.  That’s us in Siberia circa 2012 on the Mongol Rally. It was the best time of our lives. We drove a Vauxhall Astra 11,000 miles from Goodwood, UK, to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A lot of crazy things happened along the way and it was crazy fun. Ever since then we’ve been going on equally epic adventures all over the globe and trying to document them here on this blog. If you can read you’ll probably be entertained.

What to expect? Well these adventures are largely unplanned and we generally just figure things out as we go. As a result the trips tend to get incredibly random. We like it that way and have been known to purposely stoke the chaos of it all after a bevvy or two.

Here’s an incomplete list of the trips in chronomagical order:

Blog series written – PARTy, SEA, SASS, BEEF, Taiwan on!, Japan

Blog series coming soon – Jordan, Ireland, Scandinavia, Sri Lanka Rickshaw Run, Morocco Monkey Run

The Mongol Rally

We picked up a right-hand drive piece of shit in England and drove it through 20 countries to Mongolia. Crossed mountains, rivers, and deserts. Broke down a zillion times and met 3 zillion awesome people. It was legendary.

20 Countries: England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czechia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia

Blog series not available – Some day we’ll down a few drinks and document it.

The PARTy – Pan-American Roadshow of Tomfoolery

MacKay drove from Debert, Nova Scotia over to Redlands, California to pick up Murphy. From there we drove south directly into a category 5 hurricane on the Baja peninsula. Finally crossed into mainland Mexico and sampled roadside tacos all the way to Central America. Didn’t get kidnapped. Gave the car away to a guy in Panama and flew to Colombia to meet Drisdelle. Made our way South all the way to Santiago, Chile. MacKay continued on to Patagonia.

13 Countries: Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile

SEA – South East Asia

This one started in Bangkok. No car this time, just backpacks and whatever transportation we could figure out day-to-day. We went counter-clockwise through Vietnam, Laos, back into Northern Thailand, Myanmar, and then Malaysia. Drank some Kobras, ate some bugs outside Angkor Wat, found a Shit Mitt, rode ATVs, scooters, highspeed boats, dune buggies, hot air balloons around Old Bagan, and jetskis in the Malacca Strait. Everyone got really sick and somehow survived the whole shebang unscathed.

6 Countries: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia

The SASS – South African Self-drive Safari

Blog series in progress (I know, I knoooooooow!!!)

Murphy and Peter Adams dicked around Wakefield then visited Peter’s sister in Dubai. They flew from there into Joburg to hang with Waldo, who they’d met on the Mongol Rally. From there they drove across South Africa full of beers, belts and spaghetti and rode the Garden Route into Cape Town. Cooney and Drisdelle flew in and everyone piled into an absolutely badass, double-diesel, off-road, camping equipped Ford Ranger we nicknamed Belinda. North into Namibia to Sossusvlei and Etosha, across the four points to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, over to Victoria Falls, through the Kafue and ended in Lusaka, Zambia. Met the most interesting man in the world. Safari animals everywhere, we spotted the big five, had a few major run ins with some of them and it was as epic as it fucking gets.

6 Countries: England, Dubai, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia

The BEEF – Bitchin’ Eastern Europe Foolishness

This was originally intended to be a jaunt to complete the eastern countries of Europe that Murphy and MacKay hadn’t been to yet in a nice wholesome circle (Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia). Instead we flew to the Czech Republic, did the first four then beelined to Munich and went south through all of the Balkan countries we hadn’t been to yet. And then for some reason we crossed the Adriatic and ended up in Rome.

Oogie joined for a stint in the beginning. We hit a ton of whacky museums, had a sobering day in Auschwitz, caught a fat guy doing fat guy stuff off a wharf, sabotaged Vilnius, had a Kiek in de Kok, won a Shithead tournament, crashed a Bosnian birthday party in Austria, learned about Ass Antlers, returned to the Nis fortress, high fived Alexander the Great, hit the Journey of the Stone, started an Albanian dog posse, visited Pompeii, met up with Simon, Cheryl and the seven secrets in Bologna, and went to the Colosseum and The Vatican. It was a lot.

16 Countries: Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Italy

We’re Gonna Taiwan On!

Associate Adventure Detectives Drisdelle and Queebs sprang into a two-week tour of Taiwan then flew to Hong Kong to meet up with MacKay and Green Bao. Sun Moon Lake, Taroko Gorge, Taipei 101, Lots of good food, betelnut nightcaps, Family karaoke, sketchy border town karaoke, a giant Buddha, and a Hello Kitty flight.

Countries: Taiwan and Hong Kong

Japan Trip

Jonathan and Queenie flew to Japan and spent three weeks going around the island during the height of fall colors. Tokyo red light district, Golden Gai, the Robot Show, went to groundhog, bird and maid cafes, met up with an old friend in Osaka, went to a comedy night, 3 days in unreal Kyoto, visited Himeji castle, went to an island filled with bunnies where they made chemical weapons, stayed in a sex hotel, had bukkake udon, visited Chichu museum and Benesse House on Naoshima, learned about Momotoro, teared up at the Hiroshima Peace Park.

Most importantly: Jonathan and Queenie got engaged on this trip. There may have been bacon and egg costumes and Mt Fuji in the background. Extremely romantic.

Jordan

Blog series not yet written

Murphy and Cooney are joined by Danny Mac on a two+ week jaunt around Jordan. Arak and beers in Amman, muddy buddies in The Dead Sea, Wadi Mujib spelunking, crusader castles, The Baptism of Jesus Christ, an insiders tour of the mosaics of Madaba, moon domes in the otherworldly Wadi Rum, and three mind-blowing days in Petra.

Ireland

Blog series not yet written

Jon and Queenie finally visited the Murphy homeland and took a two week road trip around the whole island, including Northern Ireland. Moni joined for the Dublin, Kilkenny and Cork bits. Kissed the Blarney, drove the Ring of Kerry, got soaked at the Cliffs of Mohr, plastered in Galway, climbed Slieve League, found Hollywood and the Dark Hedges, Quberted the Giant’s Causeway, hit the Titanic Museum, spotted some Spice Girls, and got a locals pub crawl out of Chris Murtagh in Belfast.

Scandinavian Road Trip 

Blog series not yet written

Murphy and MacKay rented a car in Copenhagen and drove a loop up through Norway past the Artic Circle to Tromso, over to Finland and all the way down again. Through Sweden and back to Denmark. Met up with Mikkel (whom we’d met in Vietnam on the SEA trip), found some good metal bars, invented Dave Rave, drove the Oslo to Bergen fjord bonanza, Viking cosplay, crossed the Lofoten Islands, caught the Northern Lights from a glass igloo, got to the island of Bornholm, Santa’s Castle is Closed! wee oh woop!

4 Countries: Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden

Sri Lanka Rickshaw Run

Blog series not yet written

Part 1 – Bali
The full complement of Adventure Detectives (MacKay, Murphy, Adams, and Drisdelle) spent two weeks bombing around Bali on scooters. Met some seriously incredible people, stayed in some baller places, hiked Mt Batur, had a few minor scooter mishaps, took a lot of killer band photos, didn’t pretend to be religious, fell in love with arak mojitos, had a rooster massage, and stormed the after hours warung scene.

Part 2 – Sri Lanka Rickshaw Run
We flew to Sri Lanka and met up with Waldo and Shane, whom we’d met on the Mongol Rally ten years prior, and participated in another one of The Adventurists escapades: The Rickshaw Run. Our two teams, Oolong Suckers and Srinanighans, got rickshaws and took them clockwise around the whole island. We teamed up with a couple of fun Scandinavian girls and occasionally some classic Canadian boys along the way. Epic launch and finish line parties, met a ton of fun ralliers and wonderful locals, had many feats of athleticism, stayed at Helga’s Folly, explored a lot of temples, hiked up the Lion’s Head, hit the beach, played some three man, went on safari, and caught a lot of majestic sunrises. 

Part 3 – Singapore
Murphy hit up Singapore on the way home from Sri Lanka for a 4 day solo stint. Stayed in Chinatown and went to Tanjong Pagar and Little India, caught the light show at Marina Bay, had Michelin star hawker food, checked out the National Museum, became an Avatar, went to some of the best ranked bars in Asia and caught the death of one (rip Enclave). 

Morocco Monkey Run 

Blog series not yet written

Part 1 – Portugal and Spain
Jonathan and Queenie fly to Lisbon, rent a car and drive it up the coast to Porto, then turn inland towards Spain. The rest of the gang will meet up in Madrid (MacKay, Drisdelle, Adams) and head South into the Andalusian region to visit Granada, Cordoba, and Seville. Queenie flies out and the boys make their way further South and cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Tangier, Morocco.

Part 2 – Morocco Monkey Run
The detectives meet up with Shane (of Mongol Rally and Rickshaw Run fame) in Marrakesh to participate in the Morocco Monkey Run. We’re taken out near the border of Algeria and given 50cc monkey bikes. We take these across the Sahara Desert, up the Atlas Mountains, and back down into Marrakesh over the course of a week. Everyone gets the shits and we encounter thunderstorms of biblical proportions that wash out most of the roads on day one. This trip might have been the most difficult yet.

Part 3 – Tunisia
MacKay and Murphy continue on from Casablanca to Tunis and spend 4-5 days exploring Carthage and whatever else Tunisia has to offer.

Korea

Happening in 2025

Murphy is flying to Taiwan and then immediately to Korea to meet MacKay and find out why the hell he spends so much time in Korea. Then they’ll go back to Taiwan to visit Kinmen island which is just off the coast of mainland China.

The Dilliwhackens

Besides the big trips, we’ve included dozens of articles on less epic jaunts to places like Mexico, Korea and Japan, as well as a few throwback posts telling of tales from before we started this blog.

Along with our regular blog posts here, we also post random stuff to our Instagram account, @DistanceFromNormal, our Twitter account, @DistanceFNormal, and once in a blue moon we post videos to our YouTube channel. You can reach us through email via distancefromnormal@gmail.com.