Two older but avidly adventurous German aviators stopped in Cambodia briefly this month as part of a trip that will take them around the world in 80 days, spreading goodwill along the way.
Grandfathers Uwe Thomas Carstensen, 60, and co-pilot Hans Christian Albertsen, 59, first met as schoolboys in their native Schlesweig-Holstein, but it was more than half a century later that they hatched their daring plan to fly a single-engine Cessna 206 around the planet in an odyssey they call Globeflight Rallye.
With retirement upon them but childhood dreams of adventure still intact, the windmill engineer and the builder threw caution to the wind, decided that they had put aside their flying fantasies for long enough and plotted a course that would see them make around 30 separate hops to guide the tiny plane around the globe.
Cambodians watching their arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport were first dumbfounded and then laughingly incredulous when the two men arrived and promptly leapt from their cockpit to push their winged warrior, decorated with painted roses and christened 'Marie' in honor of Carstensen's wife, across the tarmac.
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It's a reaction Carstensen said has become familiar during their journey through exotic destinations including Turkey, Dubai, Pakistan, Myanmar (also known as Burma) and Australia. Countries including Japan, Alaska and Greenland still lie ahead before them before their scheduled return to Germany on September 13.
When people ask why, Carstensen said he likes to ask "why not?" The journey is believed to be only the 139th attempt to circle the world in a single-engine plane. No one knows how many have attempted it in a Cessna 206.
"We both enjoy life and love flying around Germany and Europe. We worked out that when you break this journey up into legs of 1,200 nautical miles, it is possible to fly around the entire world," Carstensen said in an interview with EAS shortly after arriving in Phnom Penh from Malaysia. "We thought it was a fantastic idea. A great chance to taste all the different cultures and experiences the world has to offer."
The pair's three-day Cambodian stopover ended when they departed for Hong Kong and then Taiwan, but not before they fitted in a visit to projects run by local non-government organization Indradevi Association, which is a partner of the German Foundation for World Population (DSW). During their visit to Kandal province they met local school children and talked with them about the dangers of drug use and HIV/AIDS.
Humanitarian work, said Carstensen, was an integral part of the dream for both men. "When we thought this up, we knew we wanted to do something that was fun and challenging for us, but also helped other people and helped us to understand the places we were traveling through a little bit better," Carstensen explained.
"This has been a wonderful experience, but it will also be very nice for both of us when we get home and we can be with our families again," Carstensen said. But there is one more real highlight for him before that day, he added; visiting his equally pioneering 88-year-old father in Vancouver, Canada along the way.
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