Why Adventure Travel?

“…so many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day, to have a new and different sun.” -Chris McCandless – “Into the Wild”

While I probably have a larger hippocampi thanks to all the extreme activities I have done, it’s honestly not the foremost of my goals in adventure travelling.

This world is big and beautiful and there’s a lot to be explored. I feel like a child out in nature, where the world is my playground. Wanderlust is a very real feeling - the more I wander and wonder about the world, the more I lust after adventure. The world is ever-changing, landscapes evolving, wilderness pushed out to its edges with city-fication, how do you experience the “alternate” reality as a city-born and bred dweller?

On the topic of curiosity, the addiction (if I may call it that) to adventure travelling is about looking at life with beginners’ eyes, everything you encounter, is new, is different. Going on an adventure makes you look inwards as much as you look outwards. You are self-reliant, fortified inside yet in embarking on this journey, you make yourself vulnerable to the elements and the people - there is a connection you feel with strangers that may not speak your language, have a different viewpoint, lifestyle. And you realise there is no right or wrong, just different. In embracing the unfamiliar, the differences, you also see the similarities.

Part of the drive is spiritual in an atheistic soul-feeding way, to see a place through a local’s eyes and I end up being reborn, different from when I just started and with new knowledge.  In the process I gain some kind of enlightenment in an agnostic way about myself, I feel a strong connection with the struggle and the nature: one step at a time; to push myself even when my body or my mind is asking me to quit. These experiences made me earn my faith and belief in myself.

The other part of it is telling the story of locals through a different lens, through adventure. Not everyone lives in a city, with bright lights, water & sanitation on demand. Various cultures have different foci of importance and I enjoy discovering as much as I enjoy sharing through my youtube channels and photographs.

I enjoy going further and deeper than most; not knowing what to expect, not knowing who or what will cross my path. - In my extreme treks, I love remote locations, entering new worlds on foot. Venturing into wild landscapes and isolated cultures one step at a time, I feel the beauty of walking – immersed in the landscape, seeing how it changes with every step, appreciating nature, culture, people, the change in smell, the movement of air, every little thing that would have escaped my notice in the city, is amplified when I am in a completely different landscape.

Besides travelling on 2 feet, I love 2 wheels. Travelling on a motorbike is a one-of-a-kind experience—you can get close to everything: the weather  - have you had raining beating down on your ungloved hands? It can feel like mother nature is throwing stones at you! The exhausting ride through mud tracks in the Amazon, the smells of the different trees, the soil, the sights, and most importantly, the people. 4 wheels are great but there’s something to be said for 2-wheel adventures – a bike literally breaks down the physical barrier between you and people.

After each trip I have a deeper appreciation for the extreme splendour and extreme ruthlessness that is mother nature. I have probably had windburn, sunburn, altitude sickness all at the same time on the sacred mountains of China, but the reason I keep going back to my amazing adventure travels is because I can give myself fully to the moment - having planned the route completely then also to knowing that I can deal with anything unplanned; to not fully know or understand what we are about to engage in and just to give yourself to the process and it’s so challenging. That challenge transforms you, makes you dream bigger, be more confident and appreciate the world all that more. Everyday is full of risk and full of reward. Anything you don’t need is stripped off you, physically, mentally, emotionally. It’s refreshing.

That, and I possibly feel very accomplished packing my bag in under 30 seconds after the 147th time.

Start 2018 with Mark Twain’s advice “Explore. Dream. Discover.”