Is traveling a virus, a disease? Once you get exposed to it it seems to nestle itself in your body and there seems to be no cure. Never tried it? Not infected yet? Maybe you should never do it, as to not get “sick”?
Nah! All I can say is, you’d be nuts not to get out there and do what people have done for millions of years; explore your surroundings, i.e. your planet (and beyond if you can afford it, like Guy Laliberte from Cirque de Soleil, exploring space for a lot of cash.) There’s simply nothing like it. It develops your personality, it creates a bigger and better understanding of other people and their backgrounds and could eventually lead to world peace… Ok, that may be stretching it a little, but hey, it could happen.
In any case, I can highly recommend you get up and go. I traveled the globe quite a bit, and did so in sustainable, green ways and less green ways. Unfortunately it is not always possible to travel green, since the bright minds of technology are obstructed by (less bright) minds of the oil industry. But I have seen my share of our wonderful planet, and I am far from done seeing it.
To give you an idea of my travels in random order:
- extensive rock climbing and mountaineering (Alpinism) in the Swiss and Austrian Alps over the years,
- One year sabbatical by bicycle (7 months) and other means of transportation around the Globe, visiting Netherland (no -s please), Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, the USA, New Zealand (N&S), Thailand and Laos,
- A three week visit to the tropical island of Aruba,
- Separate trips to Thailand and Laos of at least a month each,
- Six month of cycling in France, Switzerland , Germany, Greece and Netherland, studying cycle tourism’s best practices (Report available at request,
- Train ride from Denver Colorado to San Francisco, camper vanning ( is that even a verb) to Los Angeles and back,
- Mountaineering expedition to Nepal for 8 weeks, climbing Yalong Ri and Parchamo, two unknown mountains in the Everest Region of 5900 and 6300 meters none the less. (That is 19,357 and 20.670 feet for the non-metrics),
- Exploring Death Valley and winter camping at altitude over night,
- Ice climbing frozen water falls in Austria with my good friend, exploring not just the terrain but myself in the process,
- Wild camping in the south of Portugal and Spain while exploring the inner most secrets (oh, and don’t forget about the tapas) of these two amazing European countries,
- After having been invited by the Colombian government I spent 10 days (way too short!) in beautiful Colombia, visiting Carthagena, Bogota, San Andres and Providencia Islands,
- Skiing Switzerland, but I can’t wait to skip the crowded pistes and start tour skiing,
- West Canada (British Colombia, yes, where the Olympic Winter Games are happening right now) and USA by old school bus, connecting with locals and professional travelers,
- and the list goes on and on, cheez, I must be getting old…;-
If this list did not inspire you, don’t worry, I am a very outdoorsy kind of person who doesn’t mind breaking a sweat. But there is something for everybody out there. Don’t just watch it from your sofa on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet or YouTube. Participate! Go out there and evoke change by asking questions, meeting people, having fun, sharing parts of your life with others who do the same. And make sure to let me know what you did and how you liked it. But remember, don’t say I did not warn you about that travel bug! Happy travels.
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