A 73-year-old Penn Forest college professor and his coming-of-age trekking companion have published a book about their year-long around-the-world hitchhiking journey, "'I Can't Believe We Are Still Alive' or Gerrit and Bill Hitchhike Around The World."

In 1961, Bill Roth and Gerrit Argento, two ordinary suburban Jenkintown, PA college students, felt that there was more to life than being middle class and going to college. Then, Suzie Wong changed everything."We saw the movie The World of Suzie Wong," Bill said. "It was about a Eurasian girl who meets a British artist in Hong Kong. They fall in love-but he learns that she is a prostitute, which is unacceptable."I had never seen a Eurasian before. I was hypnotized," Roth said to Gerrit as they left the theater, "She is the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen."Gerrit replied, "Instead of going back to school next year, let's go find her."At summer's end, as Bill was packing for college, the phone rang. "I have the tickets," Gerrit said. "The cheapest tickets across the Atlantic I could find. We are sailing to Greece, and we are going to find Suzy Wong."Each with $1,000 of summer earnings in his pocket, they were on a quest to find Suzie Wong-from Greece to Cambodia to Vietnam to Hong Kong.They worked when they could. In Australia, they earned survival money working in a slaughterhouse-Gerrit prodding the cattle into the chute, and Bill shoveling the entrails into a pit.After a truck ride along narrow ledges between Nepal and Calcutta, "We celebrated our survival with beers at a downtown nightclub," Bill said. "The owner came up to us-his first question was, 'do you guys know how to do the Twist?'"Gerrit replied, tongue-in-cheek, "I'll have you know that my friend Bill is the Twist champion of Philadelphia. He's been on American Bandstand."The owner smiled, obviously familiar with the TV show. In exchange for demonstrating and teaching the Twist in his club, he invited them to move in with his family and eat with them."We taught the Twist and became celebrities everywhere we went in Calcutta," Bill said.In Cambodia, Gerrit found first class lodgings for $3 a night. "There weren't any other guests in this hotel," Bill said. "As we were cleaning up, Gerrit came running buck naked from the hall shower with a bevy of girls in pursuit."They wondered what was going on, when the owner knocked on their door. He told them they were in a brothel. Bill signaled to Gerrit that it was time to pack."No, we want you to stay," said the owner. "We have a line of customers stretching down the block who want to come in and meet the Americans.""We became the official greeters," Bill said. "Customers came in with the girls to meet the Americans, and we would say something -none of them spoke English-like, 'the Phillies are doing well this year.'"They were having the time of their lives for two weeks. Then, a knock on their door. "Everyone has been hearing about the Americans living in the brothel," said the man in the suit. "The people in the embassy feel you are giving the wrong impression of Americans," he said. "You have two days to get out of Cambodia."Gerrit opted to fly to Saigon. Bill, who didn't have the $300 for the flight, met up with a fellow traveler, a German, who told him about an inexpensive taxi from Phnom Penh to Saigon… "But at the border, the Viet Cong will check your passport and you will be arrested," he said. "But Germans are okay. Can you speak German?""I know a few words, like danke schön," Bill replied.The German, who had a passing resemblance to Bill, offered to switch passports."He said we would meet at a place in Saigon, if I make it," Bill said, then the German added, "Don't ever speak English. They'll try to get you to speak English."At the border, when they questioned Bill in English, and he feigned ignorance of English and replied "danke schön" to the questions. So they let him pass. The driver, sensing that Bill would attract attention, positioned him between two large women, who succeeded in blocking other people's view of him.Eventually, when they made it to Hong Kong, Gerrit turned to Bill and said, "Now that we're in Hong Kong, how are we going to find Suzie?""I'll know her when I see her," Bill replied.Stopping at a bar for a beer, the Yankees caught the attention of a British girl, who told them, "We are having a fashion show. We have clothes for men, but none of the British guys will model. We need two men as models."They agreed, and from the fashion show they were invited to a police academy graduation. As the graduates were marching, Bill's eyes caught sight of a girl crossing the parade grounds-"the most gorgeous person I had ever seen, my Susie Wong."Her name was Lysta Gibbons, and like the fictional Susie Wong, she was Eurasian with a Chinese mother and a British father. "Not the movie's Susie Wong, but definitely good enough," Bill said.Almost as if following the Susie Wong script, Bill fell in love, and soon learned that Gibbons moonlighted in a bordello. One evening, she took Bill there. A former lover turned up, said that he was going to take her out of prostitution, and then pulled a knife on her. Bill struggled with the assailant, and was quickly assisted by the bordello security.As they left the building, the assailant's friend tried to run them over, knocking Bill's feet from under him causing him to land head first against a curb, unconscious.He awoke the next day in the bordello. The madam told him that his life was in danger and arranged passage out of Hong Kong.In parting, Lysta gave him a ring. Bill wore the ring for years until he lost it in the ocean. He often thinks of her. He is thinking of beginning a new quest to find the ring. "I imagined that it crossed the ocean and wound up on Lysta's beach in Hong Kong, and I am going to find it someday."For 50 years, Bill and Garrit have been telling the story of their hitchhike around the world. They finally agreed to publish it. Copies are available from Amazon.