Take six Japanese, one Chinese, all young, female and studying law at Chuo University in Tokyo.
Subtract any experience of participating in a serious road trip across one of the harshest desert environments on the planet.
Add a host of potentially alarming variables such as snakebites, sandstorms, heatstroke, irate rhinos, bandits, lost luggage, vehicle malfunctions, culture shock . . . and a dauntless American professor. Then top it off with a consistently debauched escort: me.