24,000 kilometers, seven months, one man and his Vespa. In July 1992, the Italian Giorgio Bettinelli sets off from the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, his sights firmly set on his destination: Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in Vietnam. The adventurous journey takes him via Istanbul and Tehran, including through the desert of Balochistan to Calcutta, Rangoon and Hanoi. He crosses a total of ten countries - Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Laos and finally Vietnam. This is the account of a great adventure: Bettinelli tells of gruelling roads full of potholes, toil and torment, of strange encounters along the way, but also of boundless freedom, unforgettable landscapes and new friendships "on the road". A journey through a tragic and yet stirringly cheerful world that is both opulent and beggarly.