Boston Rob, Dennis Anderson talk "Around the World in 80 Ways"

(CBS) "Survivor" winner "Boston" Rob Mariano is off on a new adventure.

The four-time "Survivor" veteran and two-time "Amazing Race" competitor is traveling the globe again for his latest TV venture, "Around the World in 80 Ways."

The History Channel series teams Mariano up with monster truck driver Dennis Anderson for a round-the-world trip - with the catch being that the duo can't use the same mode of transportation twice.

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Mariano said his history on "Survivor" and "Race" was good preparation for the show.

"I think the Race gave me the foundation that I needed to travel the world internationally," he said. "The lessons that I've learned on 'Survivor,' being that it was such a social game, being able to adapt to situations came in handy. If you're not able to adapt to situations and be able to think outside the box, [come up with] creative solutions to things, you're gonna get squashed."

Anderson felt less prepared when the journey started. "The first two or three weeks of going around the world, I was thinking, "Maybe I bit off more than I can chew here,'" he recalled, "But after the journey went on and I was going to the next means of transportation, it just got better and better."

The rules of the journey made them think carefully about how they traveled, Mariano added.

"Of course we take a commercial airliner, but once you do to that, that's off the list," he said. "So you think about other ways to get across oceans - like, "OK, well, we took the commercial airliner. Can we take a fighter jet? Can we take a hot air balloon? Can we take a blimp?"

"We did crazy stuff, slow stuff, fast stuff - Ferraris and mules and oxen and elephants," Anderson said.

The trip took the pair through locations including Brazil, Namibia, Dubai, India, Thailand and the United States. And while it wasn't a competition, Mariano and Anderson say they developed a friendly rivalry while filming the show.

"The interaction between us - elbowing and knocking each other down and picking each other up," Anderson said of him and his travel partner. "One day, we're buds; the next day, we're enemies."

Mariano recalled a time when Anderson was suspended in a basket 300 feet above over San Francisco's harbor, and he just left the monster truck driver hanging up there for an hour. Anderson tried to retaliate by making Mariano dangle from a rope hanging from a helicopter, but the "Survivor" winner enjoyed water-skiing behind the chopper.

"I think he thought this was going to get back at me and I was going to be all upset about it, but I ended up loving it," Mariano said.

"That's what really pissed me off about it," Anderson quipped. "I thought I was getting him back!"

"Around the World in 80 Ways" premieres on the History Channel on Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT. Watch a preview below: