Live Limitless

Adventure, Business, Travel

Adventure

Making Dreams Happen, 150 Days At A Time

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Road to 150

It’s interesting how life works at times. Last year I was miserable. With the local economy crumbling all around me, I felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t find a job, my condo dropped in value by almost 35%, I got hit with a special assessment of $45,000, and had to rent out my apartment at a loss of $500 per month. Life really sucked. While staying hopeful was difficult, I kept telling myself to keep thinking big. After all, I get most of my inspiration from living limitless.

Around Christmas time, I started thinking of what I could do in 2017. With a 9% unemployment rate affecting my city, the chances of getting a decent job were pretty slim. As far as I could tell, this wasn’t going to improve for quite some time. So, I began thinking of other cool things I could do. As a travel writer and photographer who’s always wanted to create a travel show, I began thinking of big ideas. Then, one felt like a home run. 2017 just so happened to be the year of Canada’s 150th birthday. The country was celebrating it in a big way. I have a Canadian travel blog called Must Do Canada. What would be a cool thing to do to celebrate Canada’s big birthday?

Then it hit me. A 150-day road trip. But not just any road trip. A multimedia road trip where we feature iconic attractions, local delights and interviews with everyday Canadians about what they feel makes Canada the great country that it is. This is actually something that I have been asking myself for the last few years. As someone who has spent many years backpacking around the globe, I’ve come to realize that Canada has a pretty darn good reputation everywhere I went. Whether I was talking with someone in Asia or someone in Europe, most people look up to Canada for one reason or another. Some admired our vast nature and low population while others admired our kindness and openness. Some people dreamed of exploring Canada as a tourist while others dreamed of immigrating here and beginning a new life. Regardless of the reasons, it was obvious that Canada had done something right. [Read more…] about Making Dreams Happen, 150 Days At A Time

Why Everyone Should Explore Their Own Backyard

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This past December, I finally hiked to Johnston Canyon in Banff National Park. Despite living only two hours away, I had never even heard of Johnston Canyon before. Sure, I go to Banff and Lake Louise fairly often but I had never explored other activities and adventures in the area. I’ve been to 38 countries over the last seven years and yet I had never visited this beautiful place, which is basically in my backyard. Look what I was missing! It’s incredible!

Johnston Canyon Alberta

My first true hiking experience was near Queenstown, New Zealand, which is 13,000 kilometres from my home city of Calgary, Canada. New Zealand was the first country I visited on my first long-term trip overseas. My cousin joined me for the first three weeks and we decided to spend three days and two nights hiking along the Routeburn Track, passing by soaring mountain peaks, gorgeous waterfalls, and huge valleys. It was the experience of a lifetime to pitch our tent each night, carry a big 20-kg bag with all of our food and supplies, and just enjoy the wilderness of a new country. The irony of it all is that my home city of Calgary is just 200 kilometers away from the Canadian Rockies, which offers some of the world’s most stunning scenery as well as a plethora of hiking opportunities. Yet, my first hike took place in New Zealand. [Read more…] about Why Everyone Should Explore Their Own Backyard

Tanzania Safari Disaster – How A Beautiful African Safari Became One Of My Worst Travel Experiences

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Elephants in Tarangire

When one thinks of an African safari, thoughts of wild plains filled with giraffes, lion’s and elephants likely come to mind. After all, it’s one of the best places on Earth for wildlife encounters. A safari was something I had always dreamed of doing but due to the high cost, I had no immediate plans of making it happen. Then, an email arrived in my inbox.

The email came from an African safari company in Arusha, Tanzania called Tan-Pride. According to the email, I was talking to the co-owner, Greyson, who was interested in expanding internationally. He read my blog and wanted me to be their Canadian partner. I was intrigued by the offer but my “scam radar” went on high alert. I had to do some research to make sure it was a legitimate company.

I started with their website, which was very dull. Most links didn’t work and it certainly didn’t bode well for a company offering $4,000+ tours. I couldn’t find any reviews online, which also seemed odd. At this point, I would have turned down the offer but then I found a woman in one of my travel-related Facebook groups who also operate a safari company out of Arusha. After explaining the situation, she had her husband look into the company for me. After a few days, he confirmed that Tan-Pride was real. He confirmed that they had an office and a fleet of vehicles, although he also mentioned that the vehicles were not maintained to his standards. [Read more…] about Tanzania Safari Disaster – How A Beautiful African Safari Became One Of My Worst Travel Experiences

How Bali Changed My Life

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Mount Batur Bali
Bali’s Volcano…

Back in 2009, I did something that I had been promising myself for many years. I embarked on my first long-term trip to New Zealand and Australia. For five whole months, I explored two new countries and challenged myself in ways I never imagined. I jumped out of an airplane, bungy-jumped off of the Auckland bridge, abseiled into caves, climbed a volcano, hang-glided over the sea, witnessed the twelve apostles, and scuba dived with sharks at night. Reading this makes me seem like some sort of adventure junkie, but I actually wasn’t…at the time. Sure I had slowly been exploring life’s possibilities and trying new things like white water rafting in the Canadian Rockies and riding as many roller coasters as I could, but still, I was a relatively shy guy who wasn’t really into adrenaline sports or thrill-seeking.

When I first landed in New Zealand however, I felt like a new person. I had this new zest for life. I had this incredible adventure ahead of me and I was free to do with it as I pleased. It was only 7 AM when I pulled up to my Queenstown hostel after an early flight from Canada when I noticed an advertisement for sky-diving. I figured “what the hell?”, and immediately signed up. Less than 30-hours after landing in a new country, I was up in a small plane, getting ready to jump out at 15,000 feet. [Read more…] about How Bali Changed My Life

Why Now is a Great Time to Visit Nepal

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Poon Hill Hike Nepal
Looking through the trees at the Himalayas

The Ultimate Guide to Nepal

Any normal person would have given up. It was like the universe was telling me not to go. Not only had Nepal experienced a devastating earthquake a few months prior but it was now dealing with a fuel crisis, which was causing heaps of problems for both locals and foreigners.

We were actually in Istanbul, Turkey (Sept 2015), and it didn’t look like our plan for Nepal was going to work out. We had approximately two months before returning home and our initial plan was to visit Nepal for three weeks followed by one month in India. After all, both my wife and I had always wanted to see Nepal and during this crisis, the people could use the tourism dollars more than ever. After all, tourism was down by close to 80% thanks to the problems mentioned above. [Read more…] about Why Now is a Great Time to Visit Nepal

An Unforgettable Adventure to Golden Rock and the Inner-Beauty of Myanmar

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Inle Lake Fisherman Myanmar

After a beautiful hike to Inle Lake, we jumped onto a bus to Bago. There couldn’t have been a bigger contrast. Our 3-day hike to Inle Lake was quite peaceful, skirting by small villages and tea plantations as well as spending nights in a small local home and monastery. Once at Inle Lake, we cruised across the smooth glass-like water, stopping by craft shops and watching fisherman cast their nets into the water. We stayed a couple of nights in the small town of Nyaung Shwe as well, relaxing for much of the time. Bago, on the other hand, was one of the noisiest cities I’ve ever experienced. Our guesthouse, which was right off the main drag, was the perfect place to fully experience the smorgasbord of endless vehicles, motorbikes, and people walking along the dusty street, amplified by their persistence of playing the horn. Like in India, locals were laying into the horn as if their lives depended on it. Standing on the balcony and looking down upon the chaos, we felt like we were in a movie. You know, that bustling scene that transports you to a distant land that you never knew existed. Gone were the scenic landscapes of Inle Lake. It was back to city life. Sort of. I mean, it’s not New York. [Read more…] about An Unforgettable Adventure to Golden Rock and the Inner-Beauty of Myanmar