I lived in the Philippines for 6 months, taking language classes and generally spending my savings, and I had some time to kill so I thought I’d take up diving. The Philippines supposedly has some of the world’s best dive sites and everything there is relatively cheap. I’m not a great swimmer or daredevil, but I’m generally up for anything once and it turned out to be good fun.
Dominican Republic; Coast-to-Coast Mountain Biking
The Dominican Republic’s mountainous interior and long stretches of unimproved roads make for perfect fat-tire odysseys. This 12-day, 284-mile supported ride on dirt lanes and singletrack takes you across four mountain passes, through sugarcane plantations and tobacco fields, and beneath 10,414-foot Pico Duarte, on the edge of Armando Bermœdez National Park.
In January 2002 I headed to China as part of a world tour that I was doing by myself. It had been a lifelong dream to see and walk the Great Wall of China. With all the photographs I had seen in my life I had to get there. When I arrived at the foot of the Great Wall it was just the most amazing sight.
