Travel wisdom from a man who trekked across Asia without using a plane: NPR

Omar Nok embarked on a nine-month journey from Egypt to Japan with one rule: no planes.

It turns out, he says, that this restriction is not a restriction at all. He has camped on the Great Wall of China, rode horses through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and “chilled” with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Using other modes of transportation “allows you to see more of the world,” he said.

“It’s more eventful. Something could happen along the way,” Nock said. “I want to see as much of the world as possible and not skip anything.”

Nok, a 30-year-old Egyptian-German based in his hometown of Cairo, said he quit his regular job in the finance industry so he could use his time (and the money he saved) to travel.

Until this trip, he had never traveled east of Egypt. Last week — 275 days later — he arrived in Tokyo to finish the 28,700-mile zigzag route he began in February.

To get there, he traveled by foot, hitchhike, bus, train, ferry, motorcycle, boat, freighter, bicycle, camel, and horse. He avidly documents his daily adventures on his Instagram account, which has grown to over 750,000 followers. His only essentials were a backpack weighing less than 28 pounds and containing about a week’s worth of clothing.

“Spoiler-free” travel plan

When it came to planning her trip, Nok had her destination mapped out in detail, but her daily itinerary was loosely mapped out. He tried not to research every destination. He said knowing yourself a little while traveling helps you keep your expectations in check and stay open to new people, places, and experiences.

“The places that stick out to me the most are places that I hadn’t seen photos of beforehand, or maybe it had been a while since I saw them,” he said.

Instead, he puts his faith in the locals, and in himself.

“Let’s say I’m hosted by someone and I know that in advance. In that case, I don’t look anything up. They tell me what to see and do there. ” he said. “That’s because we try to avoid spoilers as much as possible, for example.”

“When I find a place I’d like to visit someday, I always save it on my map,” he added. “My map is full of bookmarks, and I trust my past self, who placed the bookmarks in the first place, to go see the place.”

Hospitality and connections in unexpected places

He said it was impossible to enter some countries without preconceptions. For example, his perception of some countries in the Middle East and Central Asia was colored by news reports that had long portrayed the region as a dangerous and conflict-ridden region. But real-life experience overturned those expectations, he said.

He left with a different impression. During his travels to Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, Nok was impressed by the warmth and generosity of the local people.

“I think they have something in common. Hospitality is like a norm in their culture. It’s not just a good thing, it’s more like a norm,” he said. “A country that most people would probably be hesitant to visit actually has some of the friendliest people you could ever meet.”

His first night in Iran, with the help of a language translation app, was a perfect example of that. He arrived in Nowruz during the Persian New Year, a peak period for hotel stays and travel.

“By the time we got through customs, it was 1 a.m.,” he recalled. “So, we don’t have accommodations and we can’t connect to the internet because of internet restrictions there and stuff like that. So we’re like, ‘Okay, what do we do now?’

As I was sleepily backpacking down the street, I was stopped by a local. “He was curious and after asking just a few questions, he offered to give me a ride and give him a ride somewhere that had accommodations,” Nock said.

“Obviously, for 99% of people, that’s a big no,” he added. “But I followed my instincts, and my instincts told me he was a good person and just wanted to help.”

“He said to me, ‘Hey, why don’t you come stay over at my house? Call your brother, call your friends, let’s have a fun night, evening.’

After they had dinner together, the host insisted that Nokk stay in bed while he sat on the sofa.

“It was like my first day in Iran, so it was like a great welcome,” he said. “And it was also representative of the people I met there.”

Early on in her trip, Nock made her private account public after being encouraged by a friend. He said his post encouraged positive dialogue in the comments section.

“We saw it everywhere, in the comments, all the time. Our viewers on the journey learned that there are good people everywhere. It doesn’t matter what country, race, or religion. We humans have more to offer than ourselves. We have a lot in common.”Differences. ”

He hopes to turn his online popularity into sponsorships to fund future travel.

As soon as he crosses the finish line, he plans to return to his home in Cairo to rest and prepare for his next adventure.

how does he get home?

“I already booked the flight,” he said. “It was weird at first. It was weird because I had traveled so long and then I was like, ‘How am I going to book another flight?'”