Interview with a World Traveller

Just recently I was interviewed on ArtSocket and oringally published here. I was asked 21 questions about my travels. Below is the re-produced interview which was published from their blog.

Ian in the Everest Mountain Range

Art is a journey. Same-old is the opposite of creativity. Every single artist, musician and photographer that I know longs to discover something new - and what is a better way to do that than to go somewhere far far away?

Meet Ian Chow, my friend and someone I look up to when it comes to actually going to places most people only dream about. He is here to share his wisdom and experiences about being far far away from home.

Where are you now?

Currently, I’m back home in Toronto.

How many countries have you visited so far? How many cities?

17 or so countries and far too many cities to even care to count. Some countries though are weird, like Hong Kong, is that China or not? Or North Korea and South Korea, is that ONE Korea or not?

4x4 and camping in back country Ontario

Sunset on the lake. Mirrors!

So its been a few weeks since the last post. We stopped at volunteering at Nepal right? Don't worry, I'll have the Nepal trek up soon. It's a big one. And I'd like to have everything in order for that.

In the mean time, I came back to Ontario and headed out last weekend to do some 4x4 off trailing to find a camp spot in the back country. Azure production swung this piece quickly together from the footage we took. 

We went with our pup through some rivers (which the water was far too low for), mosquito filled bush whacking (because we missed the actual portage route), and took the 4x4 through (when we realized we could drive into the lake and haul our gear out instead of back tracking upstream through the rapids)

Well, enjoy!

Monkey gods and boulders

Hampi

Boulders in Hampi

As much climbing as we’ve done, nothing prepared us for the limitless amount of boulders that Hampi provided. The bus ride in from Hospet (the closest big town to Hampi) provided us with a view with the extent of boulder problems that sniffed out.

We get off the bus and tried to find our way to a pre-booked hostel called “Goan Corner”. The first few rickshaw drivers we met explained to us that “The Goan Corner is demolished” – Seriously? Demolished? It was hard to believe. In our Lonely Planet guide book, they explained that rickshaw drivers would say something like that and take you to a “better and cheaper hostel” for you and they get a commission for it.

We shrug it off and truck our way to the ferry to take us across the river where the Goan Corner supposedly was. We march around a huge rice paddy field to find at the end of the rainbow and found *drum roll* the Goan Corner.

Running away from the heat

Ooty Hill Stations

Tea plantations in Ooty

We retreated back into Tamil-Nadu, the first province we entered in the beginning of our India chapter. We retreated to higher grounds, running from the hell fire that’s scorching the plains before the humidity comes to bake it into a sauna. At 3,000 meters, the night air drops to a very comfortable 19 degrees. An inviting change after suffocating 34 degree nights at the bottom of the mountain.

Ooty is the highest hill station in India and one of the most popular. Hill station started with the British trying to find a way to escape the killing heat of the South Indian summers and found that the high mountains provided ample relieve. As already a retreat for the rich, this area is re-known as a tourist area, however, surprisingly not completely destroyed by tourism yet. (thank goodness)

As a British safe haven, it also doubles as their tea plantations. And over the years, this area transformed into a tea plantation capital of South India, only next to Darjeeling in the North.

Chasing beaches and innocuous trance music

Sunrise in Kanyakumari

So nothing from the previous post actually made it through. Dare I say, it all fell apart the moment we got off the bus. First and foremost, our time estimation was completely wrong. We entered, once again at 3 in the morning to some unknown city called Kanyakumari. We’re trying to wake up as were being ushered into a hotel that is ridiculously too expensive. A huge flag warning should've gone off when another tourist ran back shouting "No thank you, that's too expensive for me!"

We took our chances slash we were zombie-fied following our guide. Originally it was going for 2000 rupees, at least. That's about 40 usd a night. Nowhere in India charges that much for a mid range hotel. After much deliberation and Ian hesitating, the manager gave in for 600, about 12usd.

Backpack-istan

So, we started by flying into Chennai and heading straight for Mallahapuram, or otherwise known as backpakistan. Malla is a small, slow paced port town that seems to run on tourism. The little town consists of a few streets notorious for budget hotels and restaurants serving delicious local and foreign cuisines, specializing in freshly caught seafood. When dining at any of the street or sea view restaurants, watching other travelers wondering by while you wait for your meal, it becomes inevitably clear why this town is known as "backpakistan." The city itself used to be huge port that enabled trade with many parts of the world, including china, Persia, Rome, and other nations, but the main attraction in Mallahapuram is the Archaeological site that surrounds the outskirts of the little town. It consists of amazing monolithic carvings of temples and sculptures carved out of a single piece of rock (apparently the second biggest of its kind in the world with the first being in Cambodia). Here you also find Krishnas butter ball (a big circular boulder seemingly balancing on a slanted slab.) It is said that the British thought the positioning of the boulder was dangerous and tried to move it with 10 elephants, but still it didn't budge.There is also a magnificent temple at the shore(aptly named the shore temple) that really is a spectacular site to behold at either sunrise or sunset.

This is my Canada - Top 10's

Blogger roulette!

Packed already to go!

Started with Pamela from Spunkygirl Monologues, we're supposed to tag 3 people in our blogs showing some great places to visit in Canada. I was tagged by Claudia from Travelling Moms. Guess Ian will be writing about Canada!

Here we go!

First, find a friend, and start checking off the list at the bottom. I took my best friend, Damian, and did a bicycle tour in the maritimes. We flew to St.Johns Newfoundland and pedaled our little legs all the way to Ville de Quebec. Just a little over 2,100 km covered in a month.

A week in North Korea in 9 minutes

In front of Kim Il Sung's statue

As it were, fittingly enough, I post this on South Korea's presidential election day; to announce a new video. Explorations sneak peak into one of the world's most secretive countries, North Korea. Aka, D.P.R.K. (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)

Yes, you are allowed to go in. Yes, you are told where to take pictures. Yes, they confiscate your camera in certain places. Yes, you can laugh and jeer at the tourists on the South Korean border at the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone).

Click this link if you just want to see the video and  Picture gallery. Otherwise you can see it at the bottom of the blog.

This is Ian's North Korea story... condensed and highlighted:

The summer in 2010 was retardedly hot in Seoul. Or so I thought, 2012 beat the crap out of 2010. I decided to hit up somewhere northern and cooler. The original plan was to head to Mongolia, but given a week, there were too many things to do. Last minute switch of airplane tickets from Ulaanbutar to Beijing. My second visit to Beijing that year. And this time, I didn't miss the flight.

To get to North Korea, I had to fly into Beijing, then take an 18 hour train ride (which I didn't know at the time). We arrived at the North Korean border at Dan Dong (no joke) and had to take a train across the river and into North Korea. This bridge is the opening shot in Explorations original introduction video. Once across the border, armed guards boarded the train. The Chinese tour group went ahead leaving the white people and the token Asian guy behind on the train.

Rock climbing in Korea: Where we climb

Climbing in Insubong

Climbing in Korea has become such an extensive part of our lives here in Seoul. If you followed us, you know we continuously post these pictures up with us on this mountain. We have a few rambling videos on climbing on "Insubong"; here and here. We have several albums of pictures dedicated to climbing in Korea on our Facebook pages. We even have an album of climbing pictures here. We think it's about time for us to release some more information of what we're doing here, climbing-wise.

The information isn't by any means secret. But if you're wondering what we're climbing or if you're reading this blog sniffing out climbing routes in Korea, keep reading! This could be a great round the world idea for you to start your outdoor travel adventures!

WHAT IS THERE TO CLIMB?

Climbing Insu-bong in winter via Go Deok Gil

There are a lot of climbing gyms in Korea, but most of them are bouldering gyms. We're not really gym rats... Korea is a very mountainous country. Dont' know where to go in Seoul? "Bukhansan", on the northern edge of the city, a city which few would think of as an "adventure getaway". Rock climbing in Seoul is actually very accesible. The city literally wraps around this mountain which is in a national park called "Bukhansan National Park". This is a very popular park for Seoulites. The peak in the mountain we climb is called "Insubong" which is across from the main peak called "Baegundae". From the summit of Insu, when you look across, it looks like an ant hill. Easy access (but complicated to get there) and a plethora of different routes attracts a lot of climbers to Insubong.

Everest trek with peak climb

A view of Lobuche peak

As time is drawing faster to an end to our chapter in South Korea, our plans are starting to come to a more solid fruition. Explorations leaves South Korea in February 2013 and as some of you know, our first stop is India. We'll spend 2 months stomping around India. Starting from Chennai we head down and around the cape. Then we head up into the desert, through central India and east toward Nepal where we'll possibly walk across into Nepal. At which point, it'll be some epic outdoor travelling adventure!

This Nepal trip is decked out to the max. We'll be doing a himalayan tour with a trek up to EBC (Everest Base Camp) and then a push to an altitude of 6,100 meters. To give you an idea, EBC is approximately 5,700 meters and planes fly at approximately 9,100 meters. The peak we're climbing is clocked at 6,100 meters. We'll be heading up to the Eastern Summit, via the Southern Ridge.

It's snowing! Videos!

Ian shredding some dirty pow in Niseko, Japan

It took a long time, but finally the back breaking work is done! Well more of finger breaking, eye straining, computer crashing and a lot of frustration later we have our newest travel video out! As Christmas is just around the corner and we've been gone for so long, some of you might forget who we are! This is just in time for the holiday spirit! Reminding you we're still around.

We have a few updates which are all video related! Keep reading!

We started a library of our vidoes of great places to travel! Mainly because we went there and thought it was pretty damn cool. You might find some interesting tourist destinations around the world that you might not have considered checking out, or see some interesting mash of cultures you wouldn't expect!

This library of video can be found in two places. First our YouTube site (dur) and second our video page on our blog! Our video page is now updated! Go check it out! The only difference on YouTube; you get to see a thumbnail of the video you're going to watch.

Explorations is blogging?!

Moustache party!

We have a Facebook page but why the blog?

Well, first off Facebook is primarily our friends and family who, well, can use Facebook, in the sense that they have an account and look at it actively. But some of our older generation companions aren't exactly the most adept in social media. We would like to share our experiences through a more familiar medium, just plain ol' good ol' straight forward reading off a website and seeing a few pictures.

Of course we won't neglect the Facebook page, we'll be combining the powers of the internet to, hopefully, share to everyone.

Secondly, we don't really write on our Facebook page, mainly because it's not the best medium. So we figure it would be easier on this blog!

Third, we're no longer restricted by the confines of the social media that has now consumed our daily lives. It was pretty restrictive, lots of things had to be done through an actual computer before we can post things up. We're test running different ways to publish our adventures through soley our smartphones, for when we start moving around for real in India, Nepal and Africa, we might not have the luxury of a full on computer most times to update you guys.

When North and South meets in the East - Finally the plan revealed!

Here we go folks! To our friends and family, here is a brief summary of who we are (for those in South Africa and Canada who don't know us yet!). And finally, what we're doing! This is incredibly exciting for us to tell you!

Who we are

When Christa, the South African, from Kwazulu-Natal stepped off the plane into Korea for her second round in Korea and when Ian, the Canadian, from Ontario signed for his 2nd year teaching in Korea, they didn't know what the future had planned for them.

Deep intertwined with an almagamation of South African and Canadian Chinese culture, the two are pounding out and exploring each other's cultures in a completely different country; Korea. Adventure travellers at heart, they start with their host country, climbing some epic peaks!

Collectively, they have visited some of the most off-beaten track places shared experiences across numerous countries. The list includes downhill biking descents in Switzerland, biking 2,000 kilometers in Canada, sailing down the Atlantic coast of America, visiting North Korea, ascending peaks in South Korea, trekking up volcanic mountains in Indonesia, climbing in Vietnam, scuba diving in Indonesia, snorkelling with whale sharks in Phillipines, and skiing in the most Northern Japanese island... just to name a few adventures!

The plan!!

With their smiliar mindset and personality, the dynamic duo plans a 6 month long journey deep into India and Nepal and more! A rough itenerary includes:

• Exploring and volunteering in India
• Trekking and climbing the Himalayas
• Mountaineering expedition, a peak marked at 6,110 meters, higher than that of Everest Base Camp
• Ian exploring Christa's home in South Africa
• Safari expeditions
• Finally landing in the Middle East to continue the world's exploration

With this set out, they will document their trials and tribulations, review places and equipment, and of all - share their life changing experiences so we can all see more of our playground that is the world. Stay tuned!

Love you all!

Christa and Ian