He tried all kinds of crazy ways.
They wouldn't let him in.
He could have just said he was a Nobelist and wanted to speak in Moscow -- if they would let him go to Tuva.
Too easy.

With Feynman -- it was the 'struggle' or process of getting there that was more important than getting there.

Do you look at your assignments as a process ?

The process doesn't have to be fun.

Dang it - life is not fun ! It is an incredible, challenging day-after-day process. Neat.

I don't want my life to be fun -- i want it to be an interesting process.

"So you think you know every country in the world ?" RF said.
"Okay then, what ever happened to Tanna Tuva ?"
"Tannu what ?" said Leighton. "There is no such country."
"Sure there is," said RF.

A quick inspection of the Encylcopaedia Britannica revealed a place called Tuvinskaya ASSR ( USSR ? ) to the north of Tannu-Ola mountains, bang in the heart of Asia. Though then a part of Russian Federation within the Soviet Union, once it had been an independent country called Tannu Tuva.

"Look at this," said Feynman pointing at a map of Asia.

"The capita is spelt K-Y-Z-Y-L. We must go there!"

So began a quest that lasted a decade to reach Tuva.
Leighton and Feynman's enduring fantasy was to meet a nomadic Tuvan standing before his yurt. Their holy grail became Kyzyl's monument to the "centre of Asia." erected in the 19th century by a mysterious English explore who had determine that the town was at the geographical centre of Asia.

Leighton and RF tried many ploys to get to Tuva. They even enrolled as delegates at a throat-singing conference to be held in Hovd, Mongolia. Throat-singing, a bizarre style peculiar to Tuva, involves making two notes simultaneously. Alas, the conference was canceled at the last minute.

At any time during the quest, RF, a Nobel-prize-winning physicist, could have gotten to Kyzyl by pulling strings -- contacting physicists in Moscow and offering to give a series of lectures, for example.

"But that way would have been like riding to the summit of a mountain by helicopters," says Leighton.

During the 1980's, Richard was often distracted from Tuva. Now only did he serve on the Rogers Commission, set up to investigate the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, but he also underwent several major operations for abdominal cancer. Feynman, as Leighton observes, was living on borrowed time.

In 1988, Leighton and Feynman pulled off a coup, bringing to LA "Nomads of Eurasia," an exhibition that included ancient Tuvan artifacts. The Soviet authorities would be sure to reward them with a trip to Tuva, they reasoned. But on 15 February 1988 - just three days before an invitation arrived -- Feynman's borrowed time ran out (HE DIED).

Leighton went to Kyzyl without Feynman, and stood before the monument to the centre of Asia. "It seemed like RichardÕs grave," he says. Tuva or Bust ! is Leighton's story in his own words. The distinctive voice of Richard Feynman, so charming in the other books is all but absent. Nevertheless, "Tuva or Bust !" is an engaging read. Leighton provides yet more insight into the mind of Richard Feynman, for whom the unexpected made life worth living.

"As it turned out, most of what happened on our quest got us no closer to our goal," says Leighton., "But had we not embarked on the journey, we would have missed it all."