The best way to see the gorge is on those trails or from the road a bicycle or motorcycle. I’ve written before about hiking and biking in Taroko Gorge.

Last Sunday my friend Mei Mei from Taipei came to visit me in Hualien and she mentioned that she hadn’t seen Taroko Gorge since she was in high school almost 20 years earlier. So, I had to take her for a Sunday motorcycle ride up the gorge. Before we left, I grabbed my Go Pro to see if I could capture the magnificence of the drive on video.

Music: Hearts on Fire by Scomber on CC Mixter

The post A Ride Through Taroko Gorge, Taiwan [VIDEO] appeared first on XpatMatt.

In honour of the opening of the 2012 climbing season on Mount Everest, here are ten quotes about adversity.

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.
~ William Arthur Ward

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
~ Horace

For gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity.
~ George Santayana

Adversity is the first path to truth.
~ Lord Byron

Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.
~ John Wooden

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.
~ Victor Hugo

You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
~ Walt Disney

By adversity are wrought the greatest works of admiration, and all the fair examples of renown, out of distress and misery are grown.
~ Samuel Daniel

By trying we can easily endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.
~ Mark Twain

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.
~ Thomas Carlyle

Lead photo by ` TheDreamSky

The post Ten Quotes About Adversity appeared first on XpatMatt.

Meet Dave Cornthwaite

Dave Cornthwaite is a 31-year-old English adventurer, author, and public speaker living an extraordinary life. He broke the world record for the long-distance skateboarding by pushing himself 5823 km (3618 mi.) from Perth to Brisbane, Australia, in 2006 (a record that was later broken by Rob Thompson). He has also published one book, BoardFree, about the epic journey. He has also kayaked 2350 km from the head of Australia’s largest river, the Murray, to the ocean, was the first person ever to skateboard the length of Britain, and was one of the first two people (along with his friend Sebastian Terry) to paddleboard across Lake Geneva.

But that’s nothing compared to what he has planned.

The Expedition 1000 Project

Cornthwaite, a Blue Ambassador, is in the early stages of the Expedition 1000 Project. The expedition 1000 project is a project in which Cornthwaite will complete 25 non-motorized journeys of more than 1600 km (1000 mi.) in an attempt to raise £1,000,000 for two charities, the AV Foundation, which builds much-needed infrastructure in East Africa, and CoppaFeel, which promotes Breast Cancer awareness, as well as to raise awareness about environmental issues around the world.

He also expects to cross three oceans and visit every continent and both poles.

Paddleboarding the Mississippi

Right now Cornthwaite is on the fourth of his twenty-five planned journeys.  He has already completed the above mentioned epic skateboarding and kayaking odysseys, as well as a 2247 km (1396 mi.) tandem bicycle ride from Vancouver British Columbia to Las Vegas Nevada with his friend Sebastian Terry.

Now, he’s attempting to stand-up paddleboard 3900 km (2400 mi.) down the Mississipi River in 90 days.

If he succeeds he’ll break the world record for long-distance stand-up paddleboarding.

Actually, he’ll crush it.

The current world record is 2425 km (1507 mi.) in 93 days held by extreme endurance athlete Tom Jones. Jones’s website says that his record-setting journey was “the physiological equivalent of running 1.5 marathons every day regardless of wind, currents, and weather.”  Tom Jones would actually know what that should feel like because he once ran one marathon every day for 121 consecutive days.

And Cornthwaite plans to paddle 900 miles farther than Jones in the same amount of time.

May the current be with him.

The Rest of the Expedition 1000 project

The Expedition 1000 project will likely take at least 5 more years, as it seems that Cornhwaite can only reasonably expect to complete three, or at the most four, journeys each year.  So, not everything has been planned. Below is a list of the completed, current, and planned future journeys.

Completed

2006

Skateboarded 3621 miles from Perth to Brisbane, Australia.

2009

Kayaked 1540 miles from the source of Austalia’s largest river, the Murray, to the sea.

2011

Rode a tandem bicycle (with friend Sebastian Terry) 1396 miles from Vancouver to Las Vegas.

Current

At the time of writing David was stand up paddleboarding 2400 miles down the Mississipi River.

Trips Currently Being Planned (distances and locations not yet decided)

2011

Whike (a recumbent bicycle with a sail on it) riding in a yet to be determined location

2012

Freecross (an epliptical trainer with wheels) riding in Euope

Wheelchair riding in Europe.

Bicycle riding in North America

2013

Paragliding in the Himalayas

Horseback riding in Mongloia

Skiing in Antarctica

2014

Rowing in the Indian Ocean

2017

Pedalo (paddle boat) from San Francisco to Sydney

What About the Rest of the Trips?

Dave has a long list of potential activities on his website for the rest of his trips including several that involve strange human-powered transportation devices I’ve never heard of like: the aquaskipper, chariot skates, the champiot, and the stringbike.

He’s also accepting suggestions from the public for other oddball forms of transportation to carry him on his journeys. But, before you rush over there with your hilarious idea, I have to disappoint you: the unicycle has already been suggested.

So has the pogo stick.

And the space hopper.

I really hope he tries the space hopper.

This is a primer for an upcoming exclusive interview I will do with Dave Cornthwaite. Be sure to check back for it, or subscribe for free so that I can send it directly to you.

The post Meet Dave Cornthwaite and his Expedition 1000 Project appeared first on XpatMatt.

Reindeer Sledding with the Sami People

The Sami people are an indigenous people spread across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. They have a long and close relationship with reindeer. It is known that that they have hunted them for more than a millennium. According some old Chinese writings, the Sami may have been riding them as early as 400 AD.

About 20,000 Sami live in Sweden today, and of them only about 900 are active reindeer herders. Like aboriginal communities around the globe, as modernization and industry push spread into increasingly remote areas, their traditional culture is being pushed out. In Sweden the main problem is that private interests want the Sami’s herding grounds for logging and mining (more information is available at the bottom of this post).

Now, like many indigenous peoples, the Sami are being forced to capitalize on their traditional way of life as a means of both making money, and preserving their culture. One of the most unique experiences the Sami offer is reindeer sledding.

If taking a reindeer sledding trip (which sounds awesome in it’s own right) will help out the Sami, then I’m all for it.

Lets put on our parkas and go lasso some reindeer.

Reindeer Herding Sami Photos

[nggallery id=50]

Sami photos courtesy of (in order) Nordiska museet, Jokkman, brainwise, and elmyra on Flickr.

Destination: Swedish Ice Hotel

I ran across the Swedish ice hotel, or Icehotel as it is properly called, while researching the Sami people. It’s one of the  most famous destinations for Lapland holidays. Icehotel is a hotel made completely from ice and snow. It advertises both heated and cold rooms, although I haven’t yet figured out how that is possible. It also has a bar named, not surprisingly, Icebar. They also offer skiing, dogsledding, horse tours, and wicked views of the northern lights.

A couple of the reindeer sledding trips I looked at take visitors to the ice hotel. I’m not big on staying in expensive novelty hotels—or any hotels at all for that matter—but this place is an ice palace. It must be done at least once.

Ice Hotel Photos

[nggallery id=49]

Icehotel photos coutesy of bjaglin on Flickr

A Few Swedish Ice Hotel Facts

• The Swedish ice hotel’s actual name is Icehotel
• Icehotel is located in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle.
• It’s made from 10,000 tons of ice and 30,000 tons of snow
• The hotel melts every summer and is rebuilt each winter
• It is built in phases. Construction begins in mid-November. The first phase is finished after about 3.5 weeks and the hotel opens. A new phase is completed each week until the hotel is completed around the end of December, after about six weeks total construction time.
• The hotel includes: 5 types of rooms, both warm and cold (uh, I mean freezing),
• The hotel has capacity for 100+ guests
• Rooms during the winter cost from $180 USD per person per night all the way up to $710 USD per person per night.
• The ‘hotel’ was first conceived in 1992 when there were no rooms available in town so some visitors slept in sleeping bags on the floor of the an art exhibition hall made of snow.

More Information

The Swedish ice hotel

The Sami people

Obstacles facing reindeer herders

Swedish Lapland

Reindeer sledding tours to the Swedish ice hotel

Lapland Vacations

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Tripbase recently started a project that has spread throughout the travel blogosphere. They asked a few bloggers to summarize seven categories of old blog posts, highlighting some of their most interesting content. Then, each blogger then nominates five more bloggers to do the same.

Thanks to Suzy Guese for the nomination! Here are my seven posts.

Most beautiful post: Ghosts and Angels on the Beautiful Island

By far one of the most personal stories that I’ve written on my blog, this post tells the story of a friend of mine in Taiwan who died and describes the haunted beauty of both the Taiwanese countryside and religion. The story, however, is ultimately about the incredible kindness that our Taiwanese friends displayed in the wake of the tragedy.

Most successful post: Professional Travel Tips

This was actually a list of tips that my aunt, a travel agent and veteran traveller, sent me before I went to Borneo. It became popular on StumbleUpon and has since brought more traffic to my blog than any other post. It think its popularity is related to tip #8, which suggests that you “buy really, really large ladies underwear (not the bikini type) and soil them with dirt or coffee and put them on top of your clothes” to deter people from looking through your bags.

Most controversial post: My Experience During the Vancouver Canucks Riot (on the Huffington Post)

I happened to be in Vancouver after attending TBEX ’11 for the riots after the Canucks lost game seven of the Stanley Cup finals. When they began I headed straight into them with my camera. This first-person narrative was one of the most popular pieces written about the riot on the Huffington Post and drew hundreds of comments in the first three days, many discussing the ethics of my presence at the riot, the legitimacy of blogging as journalism, and whether journalists should remain passive observers when they have the ability to intervene in unjust actions.

Most helpful post: How Can I Find  a Writing Job in Taiwan?

Everyone knows that you can get a job teaching English in Taiwan, but many aspiring writers are not aware that it is also a good place to search for your first writing job as there is less competition and less experience is required, compared to most English-speaking countries. This post outlines the main types of writing employment available and where and how to find it.

A post whose success surprised us: Adventures in Malaysian Borneo Part 1: Driving at Night with No Lights

This was a post that I wrote quickly, mainly for my friends who wanted to hear about my trip to Borneo and find out what kind of trouble I got myself into. My friends thought it was dramatic and funny and began sharing. Then everyone began sharing it. It’s definitely most popular narrative I’ve written, which surprised me because I put very little effort into it.

A post that didn’t get the attention it deserved: Four Questions For Rolf Potts

What can I say? It’s four questions with one of the most famous successful living travel writers in which we discuss Kerouac, Vonnegut, writing style, and the international drug scene–things I’ve never seen him write about elsewhere.  I thought it was a gem of an interview. Traffic to the page, however, indicates otherwise.

The post that made you the most proud: Kootenay Ski Culture

There are many posts that I’m very proud of (There’s Treasure Everywhere and Change were also contenders for this spot), but this is the most recent. I wrote it shortly after returning to Canada for my first extended visit in six years. I’m proud of it because I proved to myself that I was able to write a piece about my own culture as interesting as those I write about others. It also brought me the best-paying assignment of my career. Shortly after writing it, I sent this post to Kootenay Mountain Culture magazine because I thought they’d get a laugh out of it. I guess that they did, because they wrote back asking me to write the feature for their next issue.

Nominations

Here some bloggers to whom I’d like to pass on seven questions nominations:

Lorna of The Romantics

Carrie of My Several Worlds

Jeannie of Nomadic Chick

Richard of Lief in Taiwan

Unfortunately, those are the only bloggers that I know who haven’t already done this, so I have two nominations left. So, if you are a blogger and would like an invite, please just comment below and I’ll send you one.

The post The Seven Links Project: Seven of my Favorite Blog Posts appeared first on XpatMatt.

Get off the computer, book some low cost flights, and go on the adventure of a lifetime in South East Asia. Laos is often the last country people visit, but it should be the first. Laos is a beautiful country filled with lush green forests. It is often cited as one of the last South East Asian countries not to have been over developed for tourism. What will you be talking about when you return? Spectacular rice paddies and beautiful pagodas, or tubing in Vang Vieng? I’d say the latter is quite likely.

If you’ve ever been to the seaside (particularly the British seaside), you might have gone out to sea with an inflatable rubber tube around your waist. (You may even have floated out so far that you had to be rescued by someone else furiously paddling toward you with one round his or her waist). Anyways, this is the same, but in a river.

It can get a bit messy as there are several bars along the river which you can ‘tube’ over to. Whereeas you’d never bungee jump drunk or white water raft drunk, here you can float down the river drunk.

There is a health and safety question. Should people be allowed to embark their own adventures, even if they may present a (mild) dangerous to their self? Or should this sort of thing be regulated? Either way, a lot of people return saying they had a great time.

If you want to avoid the tubing scene in favour of one with less young partiers, there are many places in Laos to enjoy quiet kayaking, rafting, rock-climbing, and cycling.

There are some great tour companies who can take you kayaking and rafting in Luang Namtha or Champassak. They are quick to point out that they use the best safety equipment imported from Europe and the States. There are also zip-line and canopy walking tours as well as lots of trekking opportunities. From Champassak you can also visit the waterfalls at the Bolaven Plateau, which is impressive for its tranquillity given that it was one of the most heavily bombed places in Laos during the Vietnam War. One of the most humbling things about South East Asia is that wherever you are you will find people so peaceful and friendly that you cannot believe they’ve been through such terrible experiences. You can also visit the ruins of Wat Phou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, from Champassak. Then you can travel down the Mekong and see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins.

From Luand Namtha you can do the Ban Nam Lai trek, which takes you to a mountainous forest camp where you can see the traditional way of life of the Akha people. From Luang Namtha you can also take bike tours that last between one and three days. You can cycle through the countryside passing locals and seeing sacred sites.

In Luang Prabang you can climb Gecko Mountain. There are opportunities to learn to climb here, or for more experienced climbers, a private climbing permit is only five dollars.

Sophie Collard (@QunoSpotter) is a travel writer who you’ll find writing about the many elements of travel in various different places. She writes the blog qunospotter.co.uk which spotlights overland travel. She’s travelled over rails in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

Lead image provided by Sven & Moniek on Flickr.

Pakse Vacations

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ADVENTURES IN MALAYSIAN BORNEO

PT1: Driving at Night With No Lights

PT2: Lost in a Monsoon

PT3: Salvation in Sabah

PT4: A Mountain of Bat Guano

PT5: The Eye of the Elephant

My trip had failed. I had taken two weeks off from work to visit the Malaysian province of Sabah on the island of Borneo to find and photograph the elusive and endangered Bornean pygmy elephant in the wild and, hopefully, write an adventure travel story that would make my reputation as a travel writer.

This was my plan: buy a hammock tent, rent a motorbike, and drive from Kota Kinabalu to the eastern side of the province where the endangered Bornean pygmy elephants ranged. There I would inquire about how and where to find the elephants.

This is what actually happened. On the second night I ended up navigating the windy road up Mount Kinabalu on my motorcycle, freezing cold, in the fog, at night, with no headlights. On the third day, I got lost for eight hours in a monsoon and learned that it had been raining heavily in that area for weeks and that there was no indication it was going to stop.

This part of the story begins on the fourth morning in a dingy room in a cheap hostel by the harbor in a port town called Sandakan, about a four-hour drive from Kinabatangan Park, the place where I was most likely to find pygmy elephants.

I had arrived the previous night. Everything in my bag and on my person had been soaked during the drive. The only things that stayed dry were my camera and laptop. I was thankful for that. My travel insurance would not have covered their full value.

I had hung up my clothes on the door, bedframe, desk, chair, and curtain rods the night before, but they were still soaked. My passport, which I had fanned open on the desk, was still sopping. Outside the rain hammered on tin roofs with a loud crackle. Inside the air was so humid that I felt wet.

I went downstairs for the hostel’s complimentary breakfast. It consisted of Wonderbread, margarine, and jam. I met a sour British Couple who told me that the rain had kept them in the hostel all week. All tours were cancelled. I made a quadruple-decker margarine and jam sandwich and went back to my room.

I plugged in my laptop hoping to pass the rainy day blogging. The hostel’s Internet, however, wasn’t working.

With nothing better to do, I dwelled on my situation. Why hadn’t I checked the weather before coming to this country? Now I would waste my vacation in this dirty room and I would have to drive my motorcycle for two more days in the rain to get back to Kota Kinabalu for my flight.

Laying on my lumpy mattress and staring at the paint flaking off the ceiling, my thoughts turned to the last conversation that I had with my ex-girlfriend in Taiwan. It went like this:

“Where are you going for Chinese New Year vacation?” She asked.

“I’m going to Borneo. And you?”

“I’m going to Bali.”

“That’s cool. Are you going to take surfing lessons?”

“Yup.”

“I’ve heard the surfing is great there.”

“I heard that the surf instructors are pretty great too. I’m really looking forward to it.”

I munched my Wonderbread sandwich and imagined her in a sunny beachside bar filled with large-shouldered scruffy-haired Australian surfers. I abused myself this way for several hours. Eventually, I snapped.

I had not come this far to give up. Rain be damned, I was going to find some fucking pygmy elephants.

I did some pushups and sit-ups to get my blood circulating. Then I noticed that there was an air-conditioner in my room. I turned it on and arranged my belongings as best I could in front of its cool dry breeze. The room got cold quickly, but at least it was dry.

I went out in the rain to find a café with Internet access. There I looked at maps and planned my route for the morning. First I would visit the nearby Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. After that I would visit the Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary. Then, weather permitting, I would continue south to Kinabatangan Park and find a lodge on the Kinabatangan River that would have a guide and a boat to take me looking for pygmy elephants.

The next morning I woke up at 7 a.m., showered, packed, ate a quadruple-decker Wonderbread, margarine, and jam sandwich, and left. It was raining lightly and I made good time. I arrived at the orangutan sanctuary early for the 10 a.m. feeding.

I followed the elevated wooden walkway to the feeding area, which was an elevated wooden platform about the size of a large swimming pool. Two young women wearing rain jackets were already there. They turned to see who had arrived.

I laughed.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

They pair were two Swedish nurses that I had met briefly in on my first day in Kota Kinabalu. We had eaten breakfast together before I started my motorcycle trip.

“Heyyy!” They shouted.

We traded stories about how we had come to the orangutan sanctuary and chatted like we had known each other for years.  Travel is funny like that. Talk to another traveler for twenty minutes, and you’ve made a good friend. Run into her a second time somewhere else, and suddenly you’re old buddies.

People trickled on to the platform from the walkway. A few minutes after it filled up the first orangutan arrived. Everyone was silent. Several orangutans came to eat. I snapped photographs frantically, worried that they might be the only photos I would take on my vacation.

The girls invited me back to their hostel for lunch on the restaurant patio. Over lunch they suggested that I stay at the hostel and continue with them to Kinabatangan another day. I agreed of course.

I told the girls that I also planned to visit the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary. The idea excited them. The orangutan feeding had whet their appetites for anthropoids. The clouds broke and the sun came out for the first time in days.

The three of us squished onto my dirtbike. The publicly funded orangutan sanctuary had been well advertised and easy to find. The privately owned monkey sanctuary, however, was not so easy. It was located about 12 km off the main highway accessible only by unmarked back roads. We had only the directions that were told to us by the receptionist at the hostel.

We joked and laughed as we cruised down the potholed road beneath the first rays of sunshine that any of us had seen all week. We were the only vehicle on the empty road, which was lined with palm oil plantations and rolled over gentle hills until it disappeared in the distance.

The monkey sanctuary also had a wooden walkway, but this one lead through mangroves, rather than jungle, to a large covered platform. The alpha male greeted our group and led it to the platform where the guide fed him and people posed for pictures with him. Around the platform dozens of monkeys played in the trees. At one point the alpha male suddenly screamed sprinted off of the main platform, scaring the hell out of everyone near him, to chase away another group of monkeys that was encroaching on his territory.

I shot hundreds of pictures. The light was good and I knew that they would turn out well.

We returned to the hostel to find that a backpacking British couple and two tall blonde sisters from Holland had checked in. We all ate dinner together. Afterwards we sat on the patio drinking and playing cards. I sat next to the younger of the two sisters, a pretty business school graduate. She told me about an entrepreneurial school trip to Argentina she had recently taken. She was intelligent and charming. We talked for most of the night.

By the time we all returned to our dorm rooms the sisters had decided that they would come with us to Kinabatangan.

It seemed as though things couldn’t get much better—but they did. The next day I received an email that turned my nearly failed trip into the most successful expedition of my writing career.

Continue following my adventure in Adventures in Malaysian Borneo Part 4: A Mountain of Bat Guano

The post Adventures in Malaysian Borneo Part 3: Salvation in Sandakan appeared first on XpatMatt.

Today I begin my first bike trip: 1000 kilometers from Vancouver B.C. to my hometown of Cranbrook B.C., during which I will cross three mountain passes. I hope to average about 100 km per day and, after a couple of days off, finish in about two weeks.

Everything that I will take with me in the picture above. I have one bicycle that I bought for $100 here in Vancouver because my last one was stolen, one trailer that I bought fror $150, a hammock tent and sleeping bag, clothes, my camera, and my computer. That’s it.

Below is a picture of the route that I will follow today (courtesy of Google Maps). I will take the West Coast Express leaving downtown Vancouver at 3:50 pm and arriving at Mission at 5:05 pm. It costs $11.25 plus $1 for my bicycle. It will knock about 50 km off the trip. After I arrive I plan to ride the remaining 80 km to Hope where I will camp for the night.

Tomorrow I hope to bike the 120 km from Hope to Merrit. I’ll let you know how that turns out when I arrive.

The post T-1000 KM to Cranbrook appeared first on XpatMatt.

Surf through some  last minute hotel deals and pack your bags with waterproofs and hiking boots, this is going to be wild. New Zealand is a really diverse country. It’s home to the clearest rivers, the most awesome mountains, and to national parks spewing sulphur and covered in giant ferns like the ones in Jurassic Park. Aside from the greenery and volcanic activity the diversity includes, it makes it a perfect adventure travel destination.

New Zealand has operators who facilitate all kinds of adventure sports such as white water rafting, bungee jumping, skydiving, mountain climbing, heli-biking, and canyoning, to name a few.

In the Peel Forest, 150 kilometres south of Christchurch, you can go white water rafting in grade 5 rapids. A large amount of water flows from the Rangitata Basin into the valley and reaches grade 5 at the point where the gorge narrows sharply. There’s an optional jump from here off a ten-metre cliff.

In Queenstown, a great nightlife destination, not only can you see beautiful sunsets over a mountain where Lord of the Rings was filmed, you can go heli-biking–take a scenic helicopter ride to the top of and ride down all the way.

Next, why not skydive from 12,000 feet over Lake Wakatipu. You must do a tandem skydive unless you pull some strings (ha) so you’ll be harnessed to a qualified instructor.

After that you can fling yourself over the Shotover Canyons in what is possibly the world’s highest extreme swing. You’ll be flung over 100 meters on two identical ropes. You’ll be safely harnessed and there’s the option of ‘jump lessons’ if you’re nervous.

Just outside of Queenstown are the beautiful sky-coloured waters of the Kawarau River. You can bungee jump from the bridge that spans it. The bungee jump also comes with the option of being dunked into the water headfirst up to your waist.

In Doubtful Sound, you can take extended sea-kayaking tours. You’ll see seals and Fiordland crested penguins, which are called Tawaki by the Maori people of New Zealand.

If you want to book just one central hotel and travel to all these places, there are numerous options. Many people come also to New Zealand and actually purchase Campervans for the duration of their stays. There are numerous websites and billboards where you can find these vans and at the end of the trip you can sell your van when you are finished your own.

Another option is to rent a car for a week and go back and forth. If you only want to do a couple of the activities, this might be a good option. Otherwise you can book with a tour that includes accommodation and travel (of which there are many) and just book a hotel for either end of your adventure tour.

As long as you’re burning off calories doing adventure activities, it’s worth mentioning that New Zealand produce fantastic savoury pies. You’ll find them everywhere – even in petrol garages on the road.

About Guest Writer Sophie Collard
Sophie Collard (@QunoSpotter) is a travel writer who you’ll find writing about the many elements of travel in various different places. She writes the blog qunospotter.uk which spotlights overland travel. She’s travelled over rails in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. She once watched a guy being told he couldn’t bungee naked in New Zealand.

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