I live in one of the most adventure-friendly towns – if not countries – in the world: Queenstown, New Zealand. So it’s no surprise then that my day-to-day life (and consequently this blog) is filled with quite a bit of adventure.
When I first began backpacking almost three years ago, I very often explained my love of traveling and seeing the world by the following phrase:
“I love experiencing the unknown.”
I often find it’s the unknown – or certainly the unplanned – events in my travels that stand out the most. It’s these experiences and challenges that bring meaning to going forward with little plan as to where I’ll end up. While many perhaps can’t relate to being comfortable without a five, three, or even one year plan, I live for the excitements that come from a flexible life filled with travel and experiencing the unknown.
As I look back on my previous year of travel, these are the unexpected highlights that stand out most; unexpected yet rewarding and exciting moments that come from living a life filled with travel.
While spending about two weeks in Bangkok during my time backpacking in Thailand, I based myself out of a excellent guesthouse in an extremely un-touristy area of the city. Each afternoon I would wander down a nearby soi to find lunch from a street vendor.
One afternoon I came across a table filled with local Thais, dotted with a couple bottles of Johnny Walker Red, and overflowing with mouthwatering Thai food. As I stepped back to try and capture the moment with a photograph, I was motioned over to the table.
I spent the majority of 2010 working and backpacking in New Zealand. It’s truly a fascinating country; a microcosm of world where you can experience beaches, glaciers, mountains, and deserts all within an afternoon’s drive.
A highlight of my experience in New Zealand was buying a 1984 Toyota Hiace van (who was named Max) with my then girlfriend. This work-van – turned – campervan, with 422,000 kilometers (almost half a million miles), became home for three weeks while we explored New Zealand’s top backpacking destinations.
One crisp, Fall afternoon on New Zealand’s South Island, Max, Nicole, my parents and I were climbing a hill just outside of beautiful Queenstown when Max began to smoke. It proved to be Max’s last ride, yet I’ll remember much of New Zealand as viewed from behind the steering wheel of this epic van.
Adventurous Kate and I spent about two weeks on beautiful Koh Lanta island in the Andaman Sea just off the coast of Thailand’s southern Krabi Province. Koh Lanta is a relaxed island paradise with white-sand beaches, clear blue water, and hospitable locals.
One warm evening we found ourselves listening to a local band and sharing a bucket of Sang Som, Red Bull, and Coke with a Singaporean bar owner; as we watched him chain smoke cigarettes, we listened intently as he explained a side of Koh Lanta the average visitor certainly doesn’t see or experience.
Koh Lanta, according to the bar owner, is very much an island controlled by a local mafia family; a place where you ensure you don’t step on the wrong person’s toes. The result? Well, we were told stories of murder where the island police simply looked the other way …
Minutes later a shirtless, slightly muscular, albeit friendly looking man walked into the bar. “That’s him,” our Singaporean friend said, “he is the mafia boss.”
One afternoon at the pub in Queenstown, myself and the rest of the crew from NZbyBike.com were enjoying Friday pints when my boss told us he was going to have to pull out of the Otago Rail Trail Classic.
This annual mountain bike ride takes in the very best of New Zealand’s Otago Region along the Otago Rail Trail. While I hadn’t been on a bike since wine tasting in Marlborough almost six months back, I volunteered to take his place.
What followed that weekend was nine of the most grueling hours of my life. This already monumental challenge was exacerbated by a killer headwind in the final 30 miles. Nonetheless, I finished and can’t begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment.
During my time exploring Bali I was invited by a local to attend a traditional Balinese cockfight. While I had no interest in witnessing roosters fighting to a bloody death, I couldn’t bring myself to turn down an invitation to an event that plays a very important role in Balinese culture.
After the cockfight, the young man who invited me along insisted that I return to his home to meet his wife and young child. Their home was no more than a single roomed shack in the jungle outside of Lovina. As we sat on the floor drinking tea, his wife tended to their infant daughter while my host gave me a gift of a seashell necklace.
Shortly thereafter they served me lunch in their outdoor kitchen; a spicy beef stew that had been prepared over an open fire earlier that morning.
It’s moments like these that I travel for. Unexpected moments where you realize most people are kind, the world is small and not nearly terrifying as most make it out to be.
A world I look forward to exploring more in 2011.
Can you relate? I’d love to hear of unexpected yet memorable events from your travels in the comments section below.
Two weeks ago in my December Update, I announced the first contest ever run on Backpackingmatt.com. I teamed up with HotelClub.com and would be giving away a $200 hotel voucher as well as $50 of cold, hard cash.
I received 10 Facebook Likes, 81 retweets, and 63 excellent entries. Some of you hoped to use the voucher at the start of your RTW trip, some of you wanted a weekend away, and one entrant wanted to host a New Years Eve party for travel bloggers in Bangkok.
To select a winner, I entered the numbers 1 – 63 in Random.org. Each number coincided with your comment number.
Cailin had this to offer as to where she would use the $200 HotelClub.com voucher:
In February I am planning a trip to Australia and visiting Asia (for the first time ever woooo!) I would definitely use the HotelClub.com voucher while on that trip.
If you have any Asia travel tips for Cailin, please leave them in the comments section below.
Thanks to everyone for the entries – expect more of these on Backpackingmatt.com in the coming year.
The Cliffs of Moher in County Mayo, Ireland. The cliffs stretch for 8 kms and rise dramatically to 200 meters above the sea. You can view the cliffs from the viewing platform which requires a paid entry. Otherwise, you have the option of hiking the cliffs yourself. This photo was taken midway through the hike.
Have a photo you’d like featured here? Send an email to matt@backpackingmatt.com and I’ll feature it with a link back to your blog.
Alisha over at Sosauce contacted me a couple weeks back and expressed her interest in interviewing me as part of Sosauce’s Travel Talk series. I was flattered and thought it was a terrific idea.
In their Travel Talk interviews, Alisha seeks out travel bloggers and other members of the online travel community and interviews them on their experiences traveling, writing, and their involvement in online travel. She’s interviewed names such as Mike Barish and Matador’s Julie Collazo so needless to say, I was excited she also picked me.
Sosauce is a social networking site for Travel Geeks, and is home to travelers who are enthusiastic about sharing their travel experiences with the world. Sosauce is also a meeting ground for like minded travelers who have an interest in making connections with other cultures. They also provide applications to help travelers share their photos and stories with the world.
Check out what Sosauce’s Blog.
And of course, don’t forget to check out my interview here.
Backpacking Matt 
