Challenge Yourself - Task 1 of Sndbox Summer Camp: Travel, Food & Homesteading QUEST 1

The other day when @anomadsoul told me about the Sndbox Summer Camp quest, I was in two minds about entering it. I know there are a lot of great travellers on Steemit, and to be honest I can't really call myself a traveller, just someone who likes to go on holiday, so what chance do I have? Then I looked at the quests - make a video in a crowded place??? I thanked him and closed the post. Yesterday I re read the post again. Actually, it didn't seem that scary, it would be fun, I don't seem to push myself enough nowadays, and what do I have to lose (apart from a being bruised a bit for not getting through, which puts me in the same boat of hundreds of others)? So here I am.

I sort of stumbled on the travel thing when I started blogging two years ago. I don't have much other interests that I can talk about in detail. I can't cook, draw, sing, dance, take brilliant photos or write beautiful poetry ..... so writing about my travels seemed like the logical thing to do. Most importantly, it allows me to document my experiences, where I've been, what I've done, all before I go to la la land when I grow old.

The Chinese has a saying "To walk ten thousand miles is better than reading ten thousand books". Travelling is about seeing with your own eyes, interacting with people, exploring a piece of history, experiencing different cultures, appreciating art, touching the architecture with your own fingers, and more importantly broadening your horizon.

My earliest recollection of travelling is probably when I was about 6 or 7 visiting Hong Kong from UK with my parents. Of course I don't remember much from that trip other than it was a long long flight in those days (it was a long time ago). Since then I've managed to get around a bit. In fact I did a quick count for this quest, and I've been to 43 countries, out of 195 in the world!!

My travels probably really picked up when I started working in Hong Kong. Our office was the Asia HQ of a UK company, so I got to travel around Asia quite a bit. Apart from all the normal Asian countries, I also went to Dubai, Oman and South Africa which weren't on the top of my holiday list in those days (apologies to those from these countries). Since then, whenever I've had time (and money) I'd go away, mostly around Asia when I was in Hong Kong, and then all around Europe when I went back to the UK. I'm a casual type of traveller, I book my flights and hotel but don't plan what to do each day. That defeats the purpose of a holiday if I still have to follow a schedule. Holiday is about relaxing and going with the flow. However, I don't do beach holidays lying by the pool all day. I like to go on holiday knowing that I've learnt something new about the place I just visited.

Out of all my travels, there are three places that are my favourite. Finland, Peru, and Jordan. Or to be more specific, Northern Lights, Machu Picchu, and Petra.

I'm fascinated by the beauty of the Northern Lights, and stood in -30 degrees for over an hour just watching the dance in the sky. It was absolutely mesmerizing.

Machu Picchu is where I pushed myself, trekking a whole day to get there. A lot of people do the whole four day trek but I knew I couldn't do that. What's most important in life is to challenge yourself, not compete with others. The sense of achievement when I caught my first glimpse of Machu Picchu was beyond words.

Jordan is a place I'm glad I went in 2014 before the Syrian situation got out of hand. My driver told me they used to take visitors across the border for a day trip, but now it's too dangerous even for the locals. On my visit to Petra, there was a massive downpour overnight which caused flooding and we had to be evacuated by trucks. Luckily I had already been the previous day and that was my return visit.

I haven't got round to share my Jordanian and most of my Peruvian experience yet. I have so much to write!

After joining Steemit last year, I continued to blog about my travels. Then I discovered there are so many great travellers here. But remember what I just said? Challenge yourself, not compete with others. I expanded my travels virtually, through reading other travellers' post, and taking part in their experience. I got involved in various projects as Steemit is a community as well as a blogging platform. The first project I joined was the Steemitworldmap. If you claim to be a traveller and haven't heard of it, well……😕 Everyday, I, @martibis along with @choogirl plough through over a hundred posts that are pinned onto the map and select a bunch to feature on the Daily Digest. That's why I know there are so many brilliant travellers here. Then every Sunday I write a weekly summary of all these post for the Chinese community, another community that I am part of. If you follow me, you will know that I blog bilingual in English and Chinese. One of my aim on Steemit is to bridge the Chinese community with the rest of Steemit. The other place I hang around a lot is the Steemit Traveller room on Discord. I mod there, and there is always a great bunch of passionate travellers sharing their travel experience and tips, and chit chatting in general.

There are still many places in this world that I want to go, such as Bhutan, Iran, doing the Trans Siberian railway, Vanuatu, Brazil again (you'll understand why from the photo) and Greenland. Life is a never ending journey.