by Whitney Youngs

After a year of traveling around the world, Hermosa Beach resident Rif Haffar recently completed a personal account of his experiences visiting 45 countries on six continents spanning 52,000 miles.

Entitled, “Away From My Desk,” Haffar’s 303-page book was recently printed by Ameera Publishing and will be available in bookstores by next month.

Haffar and his girlfriend, Tracy Cigarski, both of whom currently live in Hermosa Beach, left the United States by plane in September of 2000 and flew to Lisbon, Portugal, where they traveled on motorcycle to Morocco, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Austria and Greece.

“We shipped the bikes over from Virginia,” said Haffar. “We went along the Mediterranean Ocean and we had a roughly planned itinerary in the sense that we really had no schedule, we were on wheels and we barely had any of our belongings with us.”

Haffar drastically altered his lifestyle when making the choice to see the world. The decision was prompted by his unexpected termination at work due to a hiring change at the firm. Haffar worked for a telecommunications company in New York City.

At the time, he lived in Manhattan, attended Broadway shows and dined at classy restaurants. Haffar then lost his job when his company hired a new CEO who then brought in his own vice president of marketing.

“I was given a nice severance package and asked to go away,” he recalled. “From the moment my job disappeared, I began planning for our unlikely sabbatical. I had always wanted to see the whole world and this seemed like the time to do it. This book is a diary account of the trip.”

Following their time in Europe, Haffar and Cigarski traveled to the Middle East and wandered around numerous cities in Turkey, Lebanon, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Haffar said one of his favorite countries was the small country of Oman.

“It is a tiny Muslim country which is not on a lot of people’s tourist lists,” he said. “It is a fascinating country which is very hospitable and clean.”

Haffar — who speaks fluent Spanish, French, Arabic and English — said he was most out of his element during the third leg of the couple’s excursion in Asia. Haffar and Cigarski explored many cities in India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“Laos, which is a small communist country, was a surprising favorite where the people were just lovely,” Haffar said. “With very few exceptions, I loved every place for some reason or another. India was like nothing else. It is a wild, exciting, strange and mystical country. On the one hand you hate it for it bureaucracy, filth and corruption; but on the other hand there so much to learn in India. It will shock you.”

When Haffar and Cigarski left America, they decided to create a Web site where Haffar could post their progress and observations for friends and family members. It was while traveling that Haffar thought of using the Web site entries for a book.

“The Web site was cheaper than trying to consistently call our friends and family,” Haffar said. “I had a deadline every week where I sent my stuff to a Web master. The diary had grown to 750 pages by the end of the trip. I boiled it down to the essentials. I had always thought about writing a book anyway.”

After leaving Asia, Haffar and Cigarski traveled to Australia and New Zealand. The couple spent most of their time traveling to cities around the globe by way of motorcycles, which they shipped to each continent. The longest they stayed in any particular place was 10 days. Haffar said the trip was exhausting from constantly being on the move.

“It was an entirely different experience to travel by motorbike,” explained Haffar. “You’re not seeing the world through a windshield and it becomes a completely absorbing experience. New Zealand is perfect for motorbikes with its good roads. The language barrier was obviously not an issue there and we were confident that eating the food wasn’t going to kill us.”

Haffar and Cigarski left New Zealand and flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the South American continent, where they wandered around in various cities in Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Panama, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize.

“Almost everyone I know and presumably people I don’t know at one point or another, talk about the idea of getting out of Dodge for an extended period of time,” said Haffar. “It had been on my mind for a number of years and traveling on a motorcycle seemed very appealing.”

Haffar hopes that readers of “Away From My Desk” will have a better grasp of various countries around the world that they may never have a chance to visit in their lifetime.

“Most people will probably not have the opportunity to leave work to travel,” said Haffar. “I think for those who are armchair travelers, when they finish this book, they will have developed a sense of these places.”

Upon returning from their yearlong trip, Haffar and Cigarski agreed to settle down indefinitely in Hermosa Beach.

“Our last stop was Belize before coming back to Los Angeles,” Haffar remembered. “Tracy’s sister lives in Hermosa Beach so we had a natural connection here. The city knocked our socks off, and we wanted to come back and live here for a while.”

Those interested in talking to Haffar may call him at 372-1858.