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- Sep 21, 2011
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Boston Rob and Dennis Anderson to star in ‘Around the World in 80 Ways’
We recently spoke with Survivor’s most recent champion and three-time player, Boston Rob Mariano, who will be starring on Around the World in 80 Ways, a new series that premieres on Sunday, October 2nd at 10 p.m. on HISTORY®.
All Survivor watchers know that Boston Rob can play a competitive game, but how will he fare in Third World countries as he attempts to travel the world using 80 different forms of transportation?
Unlike Survivor and The Amazing Race, Rob says Around the World in 80 Ways is different in that “there is no prize. It’s all about the journey.” Rob dished on where these journeys will take place and what his chosen forms of transportation will be, and let’s just say he’s not kidding around.
Boston Rob’s wingman, Dennis Anderson
Rob didn’t go it alone, he had a sidekick, Dennis Anderson, creator of the monster truck, Gravedigger. The interesting part is that Dennis has never traveled outside of the United States and let’s just say he wasn’t exactly “cultured” going into this. On the other hand, Boston Rob’s been around the world on Amazing Race and Survivor so he’s got a bit of experience in the traveling department and was much more comfortable with the transition. Regarding Dennis, Rob says that, “every day was a challenge for Dennis,” and that he was like “a fish out of water,” in his new, foreign surroundings. He adds that Dennis didn’t know things that are common knowledge to regular travelers, such as not to eat certain foods in Third World countries. “Eating food in India from a street vendor, you know it’s going to make you sick, but it didn’t stop him,” he mused.
Adding to the difficulty of filming in foreign countries, it took over 10-weeks to complete filming for Around the World in 80 Ways, about twice what Boston Rob is used to. Time took it’s toll and “three weeks into it Dennis wanted to pack it up, ” says Rob. “Being able to adapt was critical.” Eventually Dennis did his adapting with the help of video phone calls to home, making it seem as though they weren’t quite so far away and they continued on.
Around the World – Where and What?
So where exactly did Boston Rob and Dennis Anderson go, and what bizarre forms of transportation were used? Brazil, Peru, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Dubai, India, Thailand, and the United States are all visited on the show, and forms of transportation range from donkeys, to barrels, to hang gliders and even self-made transportation. One of Rob’s greatest moments on the show, he says, was when he took a hot air balloon over the Serengeti during the region’s annual “great migration.” Another, going “heli-skiing,” where you ski, but with ropes attached to a helicopter. You can’t say this guys doesn’t have steel huevos.
Boston Rob’s Culture Shock
I asked Rob if anything came as a culture shock to him while filming Around the World in 80 Ways. I figured if a man who has traveled abroad so many times was shocked by something during this 10-week trip, it would have to be something pretty outrageous – and it was.
“Our itinerary was mostly up to our own ingeniousness, and so we traveled Tanzania on a boat.” The usual two day trip took four. “There were three classes of people on the boat and the third class was literally like a scene from Titanic where they lock passengers down below.” He went on to say that there were probably 600 people down there, and a total of 2,500 on the boat. “They were sleeping on top of each other. I was thinking, ‘This is World War I archaic.’ But yet it was completely normal for them. When you look through their eyes it’s not as shocking. No matter where we were it was about perspective.”
Around the World in 80 Ways premieres October 2, 2011 on HISTORY.
