Adventure Travel 101
Recently we’ve had a lot of questions from people asking us how they can start adding adventures into their travels. People have asked if it is scary to do the things we do and how can they put adventure into a vacation when they don’t have a lot of time” We’re here to tell you you can!
We live by our motto “Anyone Can Do it!”
When we first started travelling, we did it the way many Canadians do. We bought a vacation package to the Dominican republic or Mexico, we drove to Florida and laid on the beach and we flew to Europe to check out museums and historical sites. Adventure didn’t even cross our mind. It was an adventure enough just visiting the destination.
The Trip that Started it All
Thailand Was our First Adventure Travel Experience in 2000
What we love about travel is that we are inspired to try something new. We have more courage when we’re travelling than when we are at home and being in a foreign land where prices are cheaper, it is easier to step out of our comfort zone and take on a new challenge.
In the 1990′s our excitement was heading out to the midnight opening of a new blockbuster movie. After coming home from 5 weeks in Thailand in January 2000, we woke up from the fog and started living our lives to the fullest. The new millenium was the time for Dave and Deb.
Change Your Life
Planning a trip of a lifetime can change a life. We had 5 weeks in the land of smiles and we had never done anything like it before. We had never taken an unorganized trip before. We had always played it safe.
All that Changed in Thailand.
Armed with a hand drawn map from my friend Lana who had been to Thailand and India for 6 months the year earlier, we set off on our first backpacking adventure.
We were afraid.
Bangkok at Night
We landed in Bangkok in the middle of the night and caught a taxi downtown. We did everything wrong. We didn’t take the designated taxis and ended up paying too much. We didn’t have a clear address of where we were going and we didn’t know how to say hello in the local language. We were easy pickings for getting scammed.
We were let off on a deserted street and walked for hours looking for Kho San Road. We finally found our place at 2:00 am and all they had was the worst room in the house. We didn’t know to ask to see the room before paying so we slept on a dirty mattress with no sheets and had a hovel of a bathroom with a shower hose hanging over the scary blue squat toilet.
What the heck did we get ourselves into?
In The Early Days we Weren’t ready for this, make this a squat Toilet and it was too much
I awoke early in the morning and forced Dave up. We had to get out of here and I wasn’t taking no for an answer. We booked a bus south the Ralaiy in Krabi province and breathed a sigh of relief as we left Bangkok. It wasn’t an easy start, but things got better.
There’s nothing wrong with changing your plans
An Upgrade Can Make Travels Much Easier
We admitted to ourselves that we weren’t prepared to stay in budget hostels and shoestring guesthouses and we upped our budget. We decided to move up a leve in our accommodation from and we were now midrange travellers. We found a very nice bungalow on Railay where we’d spend the next week. There is no reason in travelling if you are not having fun. We had full time jobs at the time, so we could afford to up our budget a bit. The important thing was to enjoy ourselves. If we stayed in crap for the next 5 weeks, we’d probably never travel again! Now we could enjoy ourselves.
Taking the First Step
Railay had everything that we needed to get our feet wet in adventure travel. We hiked through the jungle to The Lagoon Lookout and climbed high on a cliff to overlook the island. Today this would be a very tame hike for us, but then it had all the elements of adventure that we could dream of. We saw monkeys in the wild for the first time. We were hiking through an actual jungle on a tropical island for the first time! We slipped on rocks, climbed up ropes and we stood atop a cliff overlooking the most spectacular view we had ever seen.
Give Yourself Credit
We were proud of ourselves for venturing out into the jungle by ourselves. We had never done anything like it before. Sure there are other people that have crossed the Amazon by themselves and faced pythons head on. But this was our adventure. This was our quest to push ourselves farther than we had ever gone. And this was the trip that inspired us to keep on going.
Try Something New
It seemed that everyone that came to Railay was here to rock climb. We had never climbed anything in our lives but as we watched people scale these spectacular jagged cliffs, we felt the urge to join in on the action. So we signed up for a 1-day fun climb.
I was terrified.
I felt my legs shake as I climbed higher asking my guide to keep the rope tight so that I wouldn’t fall. I held on to the cliff for dear life and when I needed to rest, I held onto the rope thinking that would save me if I fell.
I remember later in the afternoon we went for a hike through Phra Nang Cave. It was here that we saw bats for the first time hanging from the ceiling. This was awesome. We climbed up bamboo ladders in the dark and I couldn’t believe that we were actually on the other side of the world doing all these crazy things!
It was when we came out from the cave that my heart pounded. We were going to rapell for the first time in our lives! We let our guide do everything for us. He tied us in as we clung to closely to the wall avoiding stepping out too close to the ledge. We listened to his every word as he told us how to lower ourselves to the ground and we prepared ourselves mentally for that first step out into nothing but air.
Just Do It!
We were afraid, we were very afraid. But we did it anyway and after we finished our day, our adrenaline was pumping. We were thrilled to have tried something that made us feel empowered. We felt energized and excited for the next day and we couldn’t stop talking about every single detail at dinner.
You’ll Be Hooked…
After our amazing couple of days in Railay, we wanted the adventure to continue. We signed up for sea kayaking and we hiked through more caves, we went to Khao Sok National Park and rode an elephant for the first time. We trekked through more jungles and took in as much of Thailand’s natural wonders as we could.
Acceptance
We had never travelled for so long before and before leaving Canada we thought that 5 weeks would be too long. We thought we’d be bored, we thought we’d spend too much money and we thought we’d miss home. None of that was true. We spent less in 5 weeks of Thailand than we did in 1 week in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera. We didn’t think of home once in that 5 weeks and we were never bored. As a matter a fact, we wanted to stay longer and see more!
Taking it home…
Canoeing in Algonquin Park in Canada
Not everyone can become full time travellers like us. And not everyone even wants to become full time travellers like us. However, everyone wants a more fulfilling life and after that trip 11 years ago, our lives changed forever.
Instead of spending our weekends drinking coffee at The Second Cup after watching a matinée at the movies. We signed up for indoor rock climbing at Joe Rockheads in Toronto. We became avid rock climbers and have now climbed in many places around the world. We have revisited Railay 2 times since 2000! We went on outdoor climbing trips with friends near home in Ontario and camped on the shores of Georgian Bay at night.
A year later, we took up scuba diving and became rescue divers. It was another year later that we went to Central America to pursue our Dive Masters.
Scuba Diving in Georgian Bay, Ontario Canada
For 8 Years we travelled for a few months at a time during the winter and came home inspired to try even more new things in Canada. We took white water kayaking lessons on the Ottawa River, we learned how to lead climb outdoors and how to set up our own top rope routes so that we could go out anytime we like and rappell or climb by ourselves. We bought mountain bikes and started going regularly to hardwood hills and were eventually inspired to cycle the continent of Africa. We canoed Algonquin park, took an adventure racing course, learned how to orienteer spent every weekend outdoors either hiking through the Bruce Trail or bouldering on the Niagara Escarpment.
Life Can be Fulfilling No Matter Where You Are.
We learned that we could live a fulfilling life no matter where we were. Adventure became our way of life and whether at home or abroad, we always tried something new. We used to always say, “I’d like to try that someday.” Now we say, “Let’s do that next week!”
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Well said! One of my favorite travel quotes is from Rick Steves:
“Fear is for people who don’t get out very much”.
I know it sounds a bit condescending, but I don’t think it’s meant to be.
To me it means once you finally force yourself to get out there and explore on your own, the fears you had will quickly melt away!
Hi Matthew, you are so right. Whenever we try something new there is always a pang of fear or trepidation, but to go ahead and do it does indeed melt all your worries away. Afterwards you wonder what you were so afraid of! I like that quote. I will have to use it sometime when I am in a profound situation
I’m such a city girl but I’m finding I want to spend more and more time in the country hiking and biking etc. I never thought that would be my style but things change. Your blog is a great inspiration to me.
Thanks Andrea. We found that we changed as well. We barely left the city for a while there, but after travelling, we found ourselves leaving the city nearly every weekend. Even if we were home for the winter, we went snowboarding, cross country skiing and snowshoeing. It’s fun when you take the first step. I’m glad your enjoying your new found adventure bug!
Fantastic story about how your adventures started. Loved reading this as you shared both the ups and downs of doing this. People can relate to this and I appreciate your honesty. Look where you are now! It all has to start with that first step!
Hi Jeremy. So true, all it takes is a first step. We always say just take baby steps. You don’t have to rush into jumping out of airplanes or going to the summit of high mountain peaks. Just visiting a market in India or navigating the streets in Cairo can be an adventure. Thanks for the kind words.
Great article and so true! I had similar experiences when I first went to Malaysia, unprepared and afraid. Just dived right into the depth and took it as it came. You’ll learn your way through it!
Thanks Roy. I think most people feel the same way when they first start to travel. What was terrifying then is old hat now. But if we didn’t take that first step, we’d never be where we are today. I’m so glad we faced our fears and now I can handle the showers over the squat toilets. I don’t love them, but I can handle them
Watch it! When you get home you might even start missing them lol
Love this! I have always been a big fan of your site and it’s good to read about how it all started! I love how you share your mistakes and mishaps. So true about if you don’t have fun and don’t enjoy it, then don’t do it. I sometimes get caught up in the trend and want to do what other bloggers are doing but realize it wasn’t me! Thanks for all the inspiration.
HI Amy, thanks so much we’re big fans of you too! Yes, we had a lot of mistakes and mishaps along the way. We have had many more since then too! I agree with you, it is difficult to step away from what everyone else is doing and think that you should be doing that too. We are the same way, when you see something that others are doing, you think that you should do that too since it is working so well for them. Every so often we have to remind ourselves that we are in this business because we love to travel and if we start to not love it, we better re-evaluate what we are doing and change it. Staying true to ourselves has been a difficult challenge, but also the most rewarding.
“Life can be fulfilling no matter where you are.” Love this.
Too often the dialogue skews toward, “if you aren’t traveling, you aren’t living.” Something we try to be very mindful of is that, even as avid travelers, travel is just one piece of the NVR life we have created for ourselves. The whole premise behind our philosophy is that one shouldn’t need an escape from “real life.” The path to fulfillment starts by building a life that you don’t need a vacation from, just as you two have done.
Thanks Guys, I agree. Too often you hear traveler try to tell people that they have to travel to be fulfilled. I couldn’t have said it better than what you just said. One shouldn’t need an escape from real life, One should just seek to make their life fulfilling and exciting no matter where they are. Cheers and thanks for inspiring us right back. We love reading your articles and what you two are up to each day!
You guys are awesome and an inspiration for us all. I think if you want to do something, just do it, don’t postpone it forever while being miserable for doing so. Now if adventure is something you don’t want in your life, that’s different.
Thanks so much Laura. You are absolutely right. We only use adventure travel as an example because that is what we like to do, but the moral of our story is to enjoy life to the fullest no matter what you want out of it. If someone doesn’t have a desire to do adventure travel they shouldn’t have to. Just as long as they follow through on their dreams and make the most of their time here, that’s what’s important. Cheers!
That bathroom looks very familiar.
It’s great to hear how it all started for you guys. I figured you were always the adventure couple! I love the photos of you guys rock climbing.
Thanks Christy. We weren’t quite as adventurous before 2000. In the 90′s we went to a lot of movies, worked hard trying to build our careers and the most we did was go rollerblading on the sea wall in Vancouver, play tennis in Stanley Park and watch a lot of live music at nights. We didn’t think about mountain biking or rock climbing while we lived there. I wish we did though!
looks like a good adventure
I second you on your love for Railay … limestone karsts, water that almost glows, a beach that isn’t overly crowded (unlike Maya Bay).
It was my absolute favourite beach during the five months that I spent in SE Asia last winter, and I can’t wait to go back!
Great post!! Makes me realize how much more adventure I have yet to find
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I can’t imagine either of you scared of anything!
Love that photo of MBK center — shopping there is an adventure too!
Great post which my hubby should read. He is always trying to budget but if it means I am going to be comfortable, then I do not mind paying that little extra.
Hi Natalie, it’s true. We’re all on a budget and have to keep an eye on not going out of control, but enjoying yourself and being comfortable is very important. We didn’t start staying at 5 star hotels, we just upgraded to a more comfortable room adding about $20 onto our daily budget. It didn’t break the bank, but we had a great time.
Totally agree and LOVE your points. Anyone can do it- and even if it is totally scary, just do it anyway. The reward is so worth it!
Hi guys, I can really relate to this. Learning to rock climb changed the way I looked at the world and led to all sorts of other adventures.
Hi Natasha, That’s awesome. It’s true, when I saw that there were all these people out there living a rich and exciting life on the crag, we were like, “we have to start doing exciting things with our lives” We only watched people be adventurous on TV or in the movies. it was time for us to start living instead of watching.
Adventure definitely is a way of life! I also believe that once you open yourself up to the opportunity of experiencing it, adventure is everywhere, for those who want it!
I don’t know how I didn’t stumble across your blog earlier, but I am glad I finally have! Love reading about all your adventures!
All the best from a fellow Canadian traveler!
Well said Rachel. “Adventure is everywhere, for those who want it!” I love that quote. Great to meet another Canadian as well. We have to get more of us out there in the world. We’re being overshadowed by the awesome Aussies, Dutch, Germans, English…etc that travel like mad. We’re hoping to inspire more Canucks to see the world and glad that you are too!
This is the kind of stuff I wish I had money to do when I was younger. Now when I go on vacations I just do the normal sightseeing thing. I probably could do some of the things in the article but I am the youngest in a group of traveling friends and there is no way the others could do any of this stuff and i don’t think it would be fun to do alone.
Hi Mark, thanks so much for your comment. I know that you can still have an adventure, travel on its own is an adventure and you are having one by simply getting out there and enjoying it. You can go on a wildlife safari or take a helicopter ride at any age. Dave’s parents just went to Hawaii and took their first helicopter ride and found it absolutely thrilling. If you want to try something alone, hiring a guide is an excellent way to go. We have had many friends set out on their own and hire a guide to take them rock climbing or trekking for a few days. You make a new friend, learn about the culture and have an amazing adventure. You can do it too, and you may be surprised, maybe your travelling companions just may want to come along!
Hi Guys,
Love the site as your adventures identify new places for me to go. I am not as adventurous as you two, but do enjoy seeing this wonderful planet of ours. I am planning a trip to Borneo next year and am keen on going to the Pinnacles (I can live with the leeches for a few days having been to New Guinea before). However, I am not great with heights. But your enthusiasm makes me take on board the “face your fear and you will conquer it” theme of your site, so think I want to go nonetheless.
Looking forward to reading about your next adventure.
Hi Maritn, I am so excited for your trip to Borneo. You are going to love it. It is still one of our favourite destinations on earth. Between the Orangutans and Climbing Mount Kinabalu it was awesome. It was spending time in Gunung Mulu and climbing to the Pinnacles that was really special though. They are out of this world and the trek and boat ride and staying at camp 5 add to the experience immensely. You’ll have to let us know how it goes. Face your fears, you won’t be sorry. I was a little intimidated of the Pinnacles because i heard it was a very tough and scary climb, but as I was doing it, it wasn’t at all what I expected. It was fun and beautiful and not scary at all!
You guys rock. You have done everything we can only imagine doing and more. Well done on all your successes to date. We are trying to follow in your footsteps while making it our own adventure as well. Just recently I have decided that I am going to quit drinking (well not entirely but not have benders anyway) as I am sick of just sitting inside hungover during the weekends when there is so much of the world out there to see and experience. Thanks again Dave and Deb for helping us out as well.
Hi Cole, that is a great idea. Not to quit, but to make sure to have enough energy to enjoy the outdoors as well. There is nothing worse than ruining a beautiful day while stuck in bed after a night of partying. Life’s more exciting when you can remember what you did!
Interesting to hear how you guys got where you are now with your travel lifestyle. I completely agree that you have to be honest with yourself about your travel style. Although I’m doing the low-budget hostels thing, I know it’s not right for everyone.
Thanks Stephanie. You are so right. What is right for one person isn’t necessarily right for another and all too often we travellers tend to compare ourselves to our fellow globetrotters. But it is better to do what’s right for yourself rather than what you think you should be doing. We used to think that there was a “right way” to travel, but there isn’t at all. Travel is different for everyone and that is what makes it awesome!
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After meeting you guys it looks to me you travel because that’s what you wanted to do when you grow up
We all have the path we take until we find what we really love doing. It’s probably because to most of us it takes time until we manage to get to your bottom line – instead of saying “I’d like to try that someday” to say “Let’s do that next week!”
Y’know, this is a great post…inspiring. Everyone says “smell the roses,” but few of us really do. I’m glad you are. I’m right there with you. Be safe, and have fun!
Peace,
Nancy
Very inspiring article! I really hope you inspire more people to get there and go outside their comfort zone a bit.
Thanks Jade, we hope so too. Life can be a lot of fun once you open yourself up to new opportunities. I know that you are definitely living life to the fullest!
Very inspiring article. Thailand was our first major trip together also.
You certainly have done a lot.
This is very inspiring, and actually makes me feel better about traveling to Thailand!!
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Really great to hear how you guys got started
oops — sorry. I meant to say, you always think of people as fully formed, and it’s really great to hear how you discovered adventure for the first time.
YAY!! i agree – we try to avoid budget hotels, etc. it’s nice to have something cozy to come back to after a long day…
Agreed. Hostels are great for those on a budget, but it is nice to have a comfortable place to sleep when your traveling.
Love this post! Thailand was my first big solo trip to a developing country. I’m glad I chose it; it was the best country to start with! I agree, it’s all taking the first step and then another and another, sometimes, without looking too far ahead.
I like what you said about making changes when you need to. Changes to hotels (tho it’s always a bummer when a budget place doesn’t work out) and itineraries!
I love that you made Thailand your first destination as well. It is a great country to get your feet wet with independent travel. It has everything. It’s a great budget destination, it has culture, adventure, great beaches, scenery, nightlife…it has it all!
I love this post D&D! Those sketchy bathrooms are always a time you have to stop and ask yourself – “Damn! What have I done?’
We are getting ready to set off on our own adventures and I can see ourselves going through many of these steps/emotions or trying to prepare ourselves to prevent going through them.
Such a lovely and honest post. Your trip sounds amazing! If this doesn’t encourage people to take the first step I don’t know what will x