8 Travelers, 3 Plastic Cars and $300,000 to Raise

The Trabant Trek team in Budapest, just before embarking on the 15,600-mile, 20-country trip in July, clockwise from left: Tony Perez, Zsofi Somlai, Carlos Gey, Dan Murdoch, John Lovejoy, Marlena Witczak, Megan Calvert and John Drury. They hope to raise $300,000 for Cambodia's homeless children. (By Michael A. Moore)

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By Dan Zak

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 23, 2007; Page N06

As you read this, three local guys are driving from Germany to Cambodia in a Trabant. A Trabant is a squat Soviet-era car built in East Germany and discontinued in 1991. It's made of plastic. Its horsepower is 26. It is, as the guys say, an oversize lunchbox running on a glorified lawn mower engine.

The guys are John Lovejoy, Tony Perez and John Drury, globe-trotters with ties to Washington. (Perez and Drury, both 26, were born in the area. Lovejoy, 27, and Perez graduated from Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington.)

During backpacking visits to Cambodia the past five years, they were struck by the plight of the country's homeless children, whose population grows by 1,200 every day in the capital city of Phnom Penh. They decided

to embark on a road trip to raise money for and attract attention to the

problem, which they say backpackers observe but soon forget.

The guys are leading a caravan of three multicolored, 20-year-old Trabants on a zigzaggy 15,600-mile route through 20 countries to raise $300,000 for charities that help Cambodia's homeless children. They are a little over 6,300 miles into the trip, and as of press time they were $294,000 short of their goal; in both respects, they have a lot of ground to cover. They've named the endeavor Trabant Trek.

Throughout the trek, the guys have been posting video and blogging on their Web site and MySpace page. Both are accessible via http://www.trabanttrek.org, where donations are accepted. Additionally, a friend of the group is hosting a happy-hour fundraiser Oct. 11 at 5:30 p.m. at the Big Hunt (1345 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-785-2333). All of the $10 entry fee will go to the charities.

Lovejoy, Perez and Drury (plus five multinational 20-somethings they've met in previous travels) left Zwickau, Germany, in July. They aim to ride into Cambodia by November. Right now, they're probably somewhere in Kyrgyzstan. We were supposed to catch Lovejoy by phone while they were in Azerbaijan but -- irony of ironies -- his SIM card was stolen by street children. So instead, we've chatted back and forth via e-mail. Here are some edited excerpts from the three of them as they traveled from Azerbaijan to Tajikistan.

Describe a typical day and week.

Lovejoy: On average we probably stop every third day somewhere, but drive between 200 and 600 kilometers most days. In a group of eight, it is hard to get everyone moving in the morning, and we often end up driving well into the night. Hotels have been few and far between. We have spent more time in people's homes and camping -- oftentimes on the sides of the road -- with the intention of saving money.

Perez: Basically the only time that we really have a real bed and shower is when we arrive at a major city and cannot find a place to camp. Even in some of the cities, we have found empty parking lots to set up our base. On the longer routes, we switch drivers constantly and make sure that everyone is awake and alert.

Are you stopping in specific places or just drifting along the route? What are your tasks?