Posted on 10 August 2010
Tags: bike, Caspian Sea, Cycling, Ganges River, Keiichi Iwasaki, Mount Everest
If you think riding the stationary bike at the gym is exhausting, imagine riding your bike 28,000 miles through 37 countries in eight years. Tired yet?
Keiichi “Kei” Iwasaki , 36, of Japan began such an adventure when he grew tired of working at his father’s air-conditioning company. ”I thought to myself that ‘My life will soon be over before I do what I want to do!’ so I decided to start this trip,” Iwasaki told the London Telegraph.
Iwasaki left his home in Maebashi, Japan in April 2001 with just 160 yen, around $2, in his pocket with the intention of biking through Japan. He enjoyed the trip so much that he caught a ferry to South Korea. He has since been robbed by pirates and arrested in India, nearly died after being attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet, and narrowly escaped marriage in Nepal.
Iwasaki’s bikes (he’s on his fifth now; two were stolen and two were broken) have been his main form of transportation throughout the journey. He says he does not want to fly because “I wanted to see and feel everything with my own skin. With bicycle, I can always feel the air and atmosphere of the place.”
, other than the occasional ferry, the only time he did not ride his bike or walk was when he used a hand rowboat. He first used a rowboat to travel from the source of the Ganges River in India to the sea, a distance of over 800 miles that took him 35 days. Iwasaki decided to also row the Caspian Sea when he was passing by and “I just wondered ‘how big Caspian sea is?’ so I tried to [cross] using hand rowing boat again, it takes 25 days,” he wrote.
He counts his biggest achievement as climbing Mount Everest from sea level without using any transportation, the first Japanese man to do so. Iwasaki is currently in Switzerland waiting to climb Europe’s highest peak, Mont Blanc.
Iwasaki funds his travels by performing magic tricks on the street. He plans to travel to Africa, through the Americas and finally, back to Japan. He believes the rest of the trip will take him five years, after which he wants to write a book about his adventures.
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By Sarah Langdon
Posted on 23 July 2010
Tags: Brighton Beach, Caspian Sea, Cenito, Crete, England, Hawaii, International Travel deals, Iran, Jose Ignacio, Lizard Island, luxury, Malaysia vacation, Matala Beach, Naples, North Queensland, O’ahu, Sipadan Island, travel article, travel blogs, travel videos, Uruguay, Waimea Bay
From quirky to quaint, bizarre to beautiful, our writers stretch out on some of the world’s most unusual beaches.
Andrew Heasley: Sipadan Island, Malaysia. Touted as one of the top 10 diving spots in the world. Among the most spectacular sites is the “turtle graveyard”: a yawning cave entrance at about 25 metres that opens into a labyrinth of caves.
Jane Reddy: Lizard Island. The island, 28 kilometres off the Far North Queensland coast, is a jumping-off point to some of the world’s best diving on the Outer Great Barrier Reef.
Paola Totaro: Cenito, Naples. Cenito is a mere thumbnail of sand, an ethereal ribbon among the Posillipo cliffs, shaped by the tides and the vagaries of nature. Sometimes it is there, many times it is not
Bruce Elder: Matala Beach, Crete. This is the beach evoked by Joni Mitchell, who stayed here when she fled to Europe after breaking up with Graham Nash. In Carey from her album, Blue, she sings of the Mermaid Cafe and the warm winds that blow in from Africa
Richard Jinman: Brighton Beach, England. Brighton Beach isn’t what you would call a beauty spot. It has pebbles instead of sand and water the colour of a dead fish’s eyes. o matter. I adore the place and come here as often as I can.
Hamish McDonald: Caspian Sea, Iran. It was October 2001 and for me the War on Terror had hit a lull. Holed up in Tehran awaiting clearance to get to the Afghan border, I hankered for a swim in the Caspian Sea.
Daniel Fallon: Waimea Bay, O’ahu, Hawaii. Hawaii has always meant big-wave surfing. The concept of “Waimea Bay” was introduced to me as a nipper growing up next to the shore-breaking dumpers of Coogee Beach.
Kendall Hill: Jose Ignacio, Uruguay. It would be nice to think I was one of the first to discover the laidback allure of Jose Ignacio but the truth is Martin Amis, Naomi Campbell and Mario Testino beat me to it. They were the pioneers of the jetset crowd who now flock to this intimate beauty spot.
With So many cheap flights,cheap hotels,& Airline tickets available for International Travel deals,from Budget to Luxury. Booking Vacation packages online, is EASY.
