The Experiential Journey
Before You Dive Into The Stories, Here Is Some Behind-The-Scenes Look:
My journey has made me realize that my greatest fear in life isn’t skydiving from insane heights, swimming with sharks, or even being locked in a cage in front of a crocodile. My real fear is living a boring life. That’s why I chase adrenaline the way others chase their morning coffee.
When I jump from a 192-meter tower in Queenstown or stand on a terrifyingly high bridge in Auckland, my heart pounds like crazy. It scares me every single time—the difference is, I’ve learned to move forward with fear instead of letting it stop me. It’s not going anywhere—I just turn it into fuel. Or that moment when I first dived into the Great Barrier Reef and felt like I had stepped into a Pixar movie as Nemo and Dory swam right past me. And then, suddenly, a shark swam a little too close for comfort, and time froze—just like in the movies.
It’s funny how much I love comparing moments in my life to scenes from films. What, don’t you have an imaginary camera you glance at in moments of realization? Mine is always slightly to the left :) So when I visited Hobbiton in New Zealand, it wasn’t just a “tourist attraction”—it was like stepping straight into my favorite movie, becoming a character in the story, living the fantasy. Or when I took a behind-the-scenes tour at WETA, where Hollywood’s greatest visual effects are created, and felt like a child discovering how the magician pulls off his tricks.
I imprint places in my memory through intense sensations. It’s never enough for me to simply “travel” through a new city, check off the Lonely Planet must-sees, and call it a day. I need to feel a place in every cell of my body. Whether it’s picking tea leaves in Chiang Rai, getting lost in mind-bending infinity rooms, or sipping cocktails in a hidden Melbourne bar accessed through the fridge door of an unassuming shop.
In my early years, I lived and breathed music festivals across the world. In fact, one of the main reasons I ended up in Mexico was Zamna Festival—an event that became one of the highlights of my life. A year later, I was dancing at a music festival in Fiji. But crossing the threshold of 30 made me wonder if I had “aged out” of all-night parties. So I found new ways to thrill myself at night—extravagant musicals like Moulin Rouge, or candlelit concerts featuring movie scores that brought tears to my eyes.
Then, I discovered that art has a power of its own to shake my inner world. I visited the Monet & Friends exhibition and learned that I don’t need to understand art—I need to feel it. That message has stayed with me ever since. At interactive exhibits like the Friends experience, I realized that pop culture has a unique way of connecting people—sometimes even more than so-called “high art.”
Sometimes, words fail to capture these experiences. How do you describe the sensation of the ground vanishing beneath you in a bungee jump? Or that exact moment when your breath catches as the airplane door swings open before a skydive? But I try. Because this is my experiential journey—not just the places themselves, but the emotions, the connections, the full presence I feel within them. These aren’t just “attractions”—they’re moments that shape me, define me, make me feel most alive.
Here, you’ll find short stories about extreme adventures and artistic experiences as part of Journey Beyond Borders 🌎 (Wednesday).
You can also follow The Journey Through Time 🕰️ (Monday), which presents my journey chronologically, and experience my most authentic moments in The Daily Journey 📆.
Come back here to read about the moments that pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me experience life at full intensity.