Travel Experiences

MRP @ Argentine Islands, Antarctica - Jan. 2003

MRP @ Antarctica - Jan. 2003

I’ve had many eclectic experiences: trekking to lost cities and wandering wilderness; enjoying decadence in fabulous cities and rowdy beers in mud shacks; meeting a range of interesting individuals; seeing social injustice; enjoying tasty foods, exotic alcohol and sex; visiting mosques, temples, churches, world wonders; watching weird street scenes, wild animals, blazing sunsets slowly washing ocean waves; and also …

  • - Arrested in Kurdistan for 30 hours, accused of being a spy by Saddam’s military, Iraq (1989)

  • - Surviving a massive cyclone – 250 km/h winds - that took 138,000 lives, Bangladesh (1991)

  • - Hitch-hiking the empty, endless, surreal Sahara, across Algeria and Niger (1991)

  • - Hitching the bleak, Tibetan Plateau, over the Himalayas, Tibet to Nepal (1994)

  • - Hitching from England to India, via Europe, Iran, and Pakistan (1990)

  • - Zig-zagging around the stunning continent of South America (2002-03)

  • - Antarctica, by ship - landing, visiting penguin colonies and research stations; whisky & iceberg over New Year (2003)

  • - Long, forested, Trans-Siberian Railway route, stopping-off everywhere, Beijing to London (2005)

  • - Journey across remote, vibrant, fascinating West Africa (2007-08)

  • - Stranded, broke, living with political refugees in Lagos, Nigeria (1991)

  • - Chillin’ with Sadhus – Hindu holy men; exploring psychedelics at Goa-trance parties, India (1990)

  • - Crazy, colorful Carnaval; mugged at knife-point(s) in Rio, Brazil (2003)

  • - Working for United Nations Peace Keeping Forces; traveling in helicopters; living with locals; across all of East Timor (2000-02)

  • - Xmas Day in the ancient, rock-hewn, mountain churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia (1994)

  • - Crazy police encounter – busted with grass but released, Colombia (2003)

  • - Amid riots in Jerusalem (1989); India (1990); Bali (1999)

  • - Escaping / illegally leaving on a fishing boat from Indonesia (1999)

  • - Enjoying with friends the Reading Rock Festival, England (1989)

  • - Living on remote, giant sand-dune and lake beaches; buying a plot of land, northern Brazil (2003)

  • - Living and working on the friendly, Arabian Gulf island of Bahrain (1998)

  • - Partying with a remote Akha tribe, near the Chinese border, Laos (2008)

  • - Trekking, staying upon the table-top mountain of Roraima, Venezuela (2002)

  • - Harassed by police for being a ”tourist” in Tibet (China 1994); Algeria & Nigeria (1991)

  • - Assumed missing in Peru (2002) and dead in Cambodia (2005)

  • - Snorkelling with sealions and penguins, Galapagos Islands (2003)

  • - Crazed Voodoo ceremony with the “Crocodile man”, Togo ( 2008 )

  • - Gunfire, silence, stoned, amid the temples of Angkor, Cambodia (1994)

  • - Stopped by Egyptian Airport Security as a suspected “terrorist” (1994)

  • - Among giant heads; partying with a hippy-rasta family, Easter Island (2002)

  • - Voyaging down the Niger on a timeless, desert river journey to Timbuktu, Mali (2007)

  • - Skydiving; football matches, nightclubs in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2002)

  • - Mountain-biking down ”the world’s most dangerous road”, Bolivia (2002)

  • - Exploring and sleeping out 3 days, amid the tombs of Petra, Jordan (1989)

  • - Drugged, abducted, robbed, and ditched in Russia (2005)

  • - Monday market at surreal, mud mosque of Djenne, Mali (2007)

  • - Travel by cargo ship from Papua to Java, Indonesia (1999)

  • - Trekking while drinking, in the snowy mountains of Patagonia, Argentina (2002)

  • - Fishing for piranhas, while drinking tequila at sunset, Amazon, Bolivia (2002)

  • - Safari in Masai Mara; flamingos on mass on Lake Nakuru, Kenya (1994)

  • - Hitch-hiking the desert, from Amman Jordan to Baghdad, Iraq (1989)

  • - Trekking with mule to the last, lost Inca city of Vilcabamba, Peru (2002)

  • - On acid on top of snowy, rugged Mount Seorak, Korea (2006)

  • - Robbed by hotel staff, while suffering dysentery, Pakistan (1990)

  • - City night-lights vista; Hong Kong (2008)

  • - 12 crazy hours in a taxi, across a war-zone, Cambodia (1994)

  • - Misty mountain Inca Trail, hike to Micchu Picchu, Peru (2002)

  • - Narrowly-avoiding a flash-flood accident, Morocco (1991)

  • - Hitching around rugged, Southern New Zealand (1997)

  • - 6 months crazy-living in a  400-year-old church, Diu Island, India (2004)

  • - Roaring water and spray, darting swallows, drunk with girlfriend, Iguazu Falls, Brazil (2002)

  • - Thunderstorm in the mountains of the Sahara, Hoggar, Algeria (1991)

  • - Snowing at sea, on route to Puerto Williams, Chile (2002)

  • - Ashanti King’s colorful, tribal ceremony, Kumasi, Ghana (2007)

  • - Long bus journey ends in accident-death-drama, Iran (1990)

  • - Elephant trekking (while drinking whisky with local babe), Cambodia (2005)

  • - Epiphany, priests in ancient colors, the masses all around, Asmara, Eritrea (1995)

  • - 4WD journey from Chile, over the Andes, to the salt plains of Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia (2002)

  • - Opiated, village stay with Hmong hill-tribe, Vietnam (1994)

  • - Meeting Baye Fall and rasta musicians and artists of Goree Island, Senegal (2007)

  • - With the chief & wives drinking, amid the mud-castle houses of Tamberma Valley, Togo (2008)

  • - Debauchery with a local chick, amid the mighty temples of Bagan, Burma (2001)

  • - Hiking extreme ends of the Great Wall,  Jiayuguan & Simitai, China (1994 & 2005)

  • - Sleeping in the sand amid the Roman desert ruins of Palmyra, Syria (1989)

  • - Meeting again with old friends: Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London (2005)

  • - Romance on the Nile, with a beautiful, older woman, Luxor, Egypt (1994)

  • - Erie, volcanic, gloomy Deception Island, Antarctica (2002)

  • - Drunken, horse trekking to a mighty, frozen lake, Mongolia (2005)

  • - Conned into a crazy baby-food scam, Nigeria (1991)

  • - Traveling the scattering of quiet, South-Western islands, Korea (2006)

  • - Suffering altitude sickness in stunning, mystical Tibet (1994)

  • - Trekking the mountains to the lost city of Cuidad Perdida, Colombia (2003)

  • - New Year’s 2000,  atop the 3-colored volcano lakes, Flores, Indonesia

  • - On the Galata Tower, prayer call across Istanbul at dusk, Turkey (1989)

  • - Staying in a village, above the Grand Canyon of Guinea (2007)

  • - Chillin’ on two of the 4000 Islands, amid the Mekong River, Laos (2008)

  • - Volcanoes and lunar landscapes, Atacama Desert, Chile (2002)

  • - Sanaá roof-top-panorama of the old city, under storm, drinking tequila, Yemen (2005)

  • - Crossing mountain canyons to the towering monoliths of ancient Axum, Ethiopia (1995)

  • - Slow, paddle steamer journey thru the Ganges deltas of southern Bangladesh (1991)

  • - Staying amid the steep, mountain rice terraces of Batad, Philippines (2008)

  • - Traveling the southern  Arabian Peninsula, across the desert and arid mountains, from Yemen to UAE, via Oman (2005)

  • - Zillions of crazy, sexy, shiny Bangkok nights (1994 – 2008)

  • - Swimming alone, on golden, palmed islands, Guinea-Bissau (2007)

  • - Sleeping on the streets of turquoise-mosque-domed Isfahan, Iran (1990)

  • - Visiting the ex-”Blood Diamond” zone of Kono, Sierra Leone (2007)

  • - Living a wild, artistic, 6 months on coastal Cambodia, Sihanoukville (2004)

  • - Stay with villagers on the Euphrates River, deserts of Syria (1989)

  • - Fired from work, to then hitch-hike the length of Israel (1990)

  • - Total porn-star sex with “Pinky” in Monrovia, Liberia (2007)

  • - Pushed out of a country; refused entry by soldiers into Chad (1991)

  • - Tense, bleak, Cold War DMZ, dividing Korea (2006)

  • - Loving the Taj Mahal, with my (then) love, on a quiet day, Agra, India (1990)

Have I missed anything? Sure !  And what else do I want to do? Plenty …

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