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Eating a Tarantula in Cambodia

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eating fried tarantula

It’s not like I grew up wanting to eat a big hairy spider but when I was looking through The Travel Book getting inspired for my trip to Asia, eating a tarantula in Cambodia popped out as something really unique and cool to do. I have a fear of spiders so eating one seemed like a stretch, which is what I love to do.

Cambodia was our first stop on our 10-month Southeast Asia trip we did back in 2012. From day one in Phnom Penh to the next week in Siem Reap and Battambang, I asked everyone if they knew where I could find fried tarantulas. No one had them. There were other fried bugs all over the place (I ate some on a bus trip) but maybe tarantulas weren’t in season or something. It seemed like my dream of french-fried-spider-legs was not going to happen.

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Trying Out for an Olympic Team

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Back in the day when I was going to college, I thought it would be cool to try out for an olympic team. I don’t know why I would want to put myself through that, especially with no chance of making a team but it sounded cool. As a Canadian who grew up under the Northern Lights playing hockey, I’ve had many dreams of scoring a goal and helping to win the gold medal for my country.

That of course won’t ever happen BUT as I was walking around the hallways of my college one day, I noticed a poster advertising try-outs for the Canadian olympic speed skating team. Sure, I had never speed-skated before but at least I knew how to skate pretty well.

This was my chance. I jotted down the date (a Saturday morning) and made sure I was ready for it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned. My original plan was to have a good nights sleep but when I came home Friday night, my roommate was throwing a party. Since I wasn’t going to sleep with all the noise, I decided to join in on the fun. Everyone thought I was crazy to wake up and try out for an olympic team. Many were already amazed that I had acted in a movie and it was this night that I realized how different I was from many people. I was a dreamer. Someone wanting to experience life in so many ways.

Saturday morning, I woke up and went to the try-outs. The morning consisted of weight-training and cardiovascular tests. I’ll always remember the bike. The evil bike. A stationary bike hooked up to a TV screen. It was only a 1-minute bike ride racing against the computer but they told me it would be the hardest bike ride of my life. I scoffed at it, wondering how hard 1-minute could really be.

Well, it was hard. Very hard. After a few seconds of warm-up, the tension kicked in and everyone around me started shouting to encourage me to keep going at full strength. By the end of the bike, I could barely walk. I was told to jump on the regular stationary bikes and peddle softly to avoid building up lactic acid in my knees. Everyone else was wiped out too. But before I made it to the other bikes, I walked awkwardly to the bathroom and puked my guts out.

But hey, I did it. I lived!

Next was the on-ice try-outs. I laced up my skates and did numerous laps around an olympic rink. This was difficult but nothing compared to the evil bike. I actually didn’t do that bad, but as expected, I didn’t make the cut. They said my skating was strong but just not strong enough to be olympic-material within two to four years.

So you won’t be seeing me with a Canadian olympic medal anytime soon but I did cross something off my crazy life list. Trying out for an olympic team and with no sleep!

Move into My Own Apartment

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Less than a week after moving to a new city, I found the coolest apartment that I could afford. Since I wanted to live nearby the college I was attending, I would walk the streets all day knocking on houses with rent signs and marking down numbers to call.

Eventually, I got a call back telling me that the current tenants of a penthouse were moving out early and needed someone to take over the lease. A penthouse sounded expensive so that was my first question. I was told $900 for a 2-bedroom. Although this seemed cheap for a penthouse, it was still quite expensive for just myself. I agreed to see it however and as soon as I did, I knew this was the place.

Sure it was old and dated but it was literally one block from college, had a loft-style design, sun windows, three balconies, two bathrooms, and a fireplace. It was also spitting distance to the most popular student bar in the neighborhood. Done.

Not only was that the start of two incredible years but it also lead to another incredible story of how I met one of my best friends. While I was walking the streets looking for rentals, a car pulled up and a the passenger asked me what I was doing. When I explained the situation, he said he was also looking for a place and to call him if I needed a roommate. Eventually, I did call him and we met for a beer. This lead to one of my best friendships to date. It’s not very often, you meet a good lifelong friend walking up and down a street!

You never know what’s going to happen. That’s the beauty of life. Follow your dreams and keep an open mind and a good attitude. Big things will happen.

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Moving into my own apartment was one of my bucket list items when I was younger. Of an initial list of 100 amazing things to do before I die, I’ve now completed all of them! Check out the list. The List 2.0 is even crazier and it’s coming soon.

Adventures in Huasteca | A Side of Mexico Almost No One Ever Sees

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I looked down at my watch. Wait, that’s not true. I looked down at my phone. The time was 7 am. We had just reached the bus terminal of Ciudad Valles after a 9-hour evening bus from Mexico City. I had slept maybe 2-hours but was excited to get back into nature and see some awesome friends we hadn’t seen since our university exchange in Malaysia back in 2012. After weeks of traffic and concrete in the world’s second-most-populous city, it was now time for beautiful waterfalls, turquoise waters, and subtropical rainforest hikes.

Ricky and Andrea, two friends of ours that happen to be bamboo architects, and our friends we had come to visit picked us up to go back to their house for breakfast. They had already booked our first adventure, which was just-so-happened river kayaking at 10 am. We ate breakfast, I grabbed an energy drink and we made way to the first of many beautiful tranquil rivers for the following week.

Tumul WaterFall

We joined up with some American kayakers who have a business in Mexico during the winter months. They gave us a rundown on how to operate the kayak and told us we’d be going down class-2 rapids. After paddling around one of the biggest waterfalls in the area, we got started. When the first rapid came, we fell off in an embarrassing fashion. Karla got massive scrapes all the way from her bum to the middle of her leg and I got lucky with just a bruise. Nothing big, though her cuts looked horrible. After that, we got the hang of it and only fell out one more time, thankfully in deeper water. We had only kayaked once before in calm waters so this was a completely new experience and a fun one at that.

It was incredibly scenic. The water was a light blue. The sky was blue. The jungle ferns draped over the edges and had an almost “Indiana Jones” feel to it. Mini waterfall after mini waterfall, we made our way down the river for a couple of hours, finally disembarking near someone’s farmland, where some other locals had been paid to drop off our vehicles for us.

Success.

tumul waterfall huasteca

After a delicious but greasy lunch of Mexican gorditas, it was time for another waterfall adventure.

This time we were going to be jumping off of nine different waterfalls, starting from a mere 3-meter drop to the biggest drop of the day at 9 meters. Some of them we could slide down like waterslides and after the last one, we had a big surprise waiting for us. We were able to swim behind the waterfall. Crouching down in a cool, dark cave while looking out from behind a powerful waterfall pour down in front of us was as magical an experience as it gets. I wanted to stay for hours and just be in the moment. This was another first for me and definitely something I’d love to do again. After a good five or ten minutes, we crawled to the left and eventually leaped through the waterfall and back into the cold waters.

Over the next week in Huasteca, we never stopped. It was adventure after adventure. We went paddle-boarding for the first time in small ponds and also upriver to see a massive waterfall towering above us. We took the kayaks again to a different river and also paddled upstream to Tamul waterfall, the biggest waterfall in the area. We then said bye to water activities and went hiking through a magical subtropical rainforest to reach a staggering 200-meter sinkhole in the middle of the mountains. This area is famous for sinkholes with the most notable one being the Cave of Swallows, which was featured in BBC’s Planet Earth and many National Geographic articles. We went to the one that almost no one ever sees, which added to the experience of it all.

Huasteca Sinkhole

After spending a night in some beautiful cabins in a small tranquil mountain village, we embarked on another new adventure – mountain climbing. The goal was to see an incredible view from the top but the rain caused too much mist for any view to be seen. Though this was disappointing, it was really cool to strap on a harness with real mountain climbers and make our way up a steep mountain. I was told that I was a natural so who knows – maybe I’ve found a new activity to fall in love with. We then continued on to a surreal castle built by Edward James near the town of Xilitla. This magical place is built into a natural waterfall and was meant to resemble “the Garden of Eden”. All Rocky and I could talk about was designing a liveable town just like this. Paradise.

I love trips like this.

While it wasn’t a new country (I’ve spent about six months in Mexico during the last five years), it was a new area and a place that almost no tourists ever see. The only tourists that make it to this area of Mexico are hardcore adventurers like the kayakers we met from the States. Most opt for major cities or beach resorts.

They are missing out and this could be great for visitors from couples to a great family holiday in Mexico.

This place was like walking into a National Geographic documentary. All the locals are super friendly and not-yet-damaged from mass tourism like those from Cancun and Riviera Maya. It actually reminded me of my time in Asia, driving through tiny villages and farmland and witnessing little villages with happy families. There are so many beautiful cities in Mexico, some of which are vastly unexplored.

Edward James Castle xilitla

After about five months of work and city life, this adventure was just what I needed. Adventure, thrills, good people and the odd bottle of Victoria beer. I tried some new adventure sports and grew as a person, which is just what travel is about, no?

When was the last time you tried something new or had your heart rate increase from excitement? Let me know in the comments – I’d love to hear about it.

My friend Ricky is building incredible bamboo buildings in the Huasteca region and we’re thinking of organizing an adventurous and unique tour in the next year or two. Would you be interested? Leave a comment if you are and you’ll be first in line when they happen.

PS: Don’t forget. I’m going to be releasing a book in 2015 called Limitless Travel. It’s going to be the ultimo travel resource book teaching you how to find the cheapest flights, how to become a travel hacker, all the different modes of transportation, different types of accommodation, best travel gear, and much more. It’ll be free for the first 5 days once released so make sure you sign up here and be the first to know about its release.