Project Hitchhiker | travels, stories and adventures in lifestyle design
welcome to my blog
Project Hitchhiker is the online creative outlet of Mike H.
Mike’s adventures have taken him across 3 continents, including driving a motorcycle for 6 months across Southeast Asia, hitchhiking across Canada and Japan, and walking 1000 miles along the coastline of Nova Scotia.
Mike’s passions are music, travel and motorcycles (in that order).
Mike’s dislikes include writing about himself in the third person.
This site is a collection of his travels, stories and adventures in lifestyle design.
As most experienced outdoor enthusiasts know, it’s usually some combination of two elements that put us into the most dangerous situations: 1) underestimating the proposed adventure and 2) overestimating one’s own abilities. Which brings me to this story.
I’ve recently started a new job and have a new home for the next ten months. Seems to me a good time to reevaluate what’s important to me, set priorities and really focus on the next big goal: buying my freedom.
I’m a shameless promoter, I know. But I need to take this time to point out a few friends that are accomplishing awesome things right now.
Firstly, there’s my buddy Dave Lowe over in Vietnam who released his first travel novel, the hilarious Sandwiches Should Never Taste Like Cow Crap. I read a bunch of the advance chapters when he was editing it and I laughed my ass off.
I had a dream a few nights ago that I was living in a frigid cold snow cave. When I awoke, I looked outside my tent to see a blanket of snow covering the desert sand floor and the stunted pinion pine trees. The afternoon before, the scorching 40 degree sun had cracked my lips and burnt my neck a bright crimson red.
The other night I got wasted drunk with a few close friends and had a great time. Even better was waking up in the morning, and realizing that I had received a drunken present of — a book of Lists.
Have I mentioned that I enjoy making lists? And particularly crossing things off lists?
Thank you Dylan.
Best. Gift. Ever.
It reminded me that about 3 years ago when I was living in Japan I made a List of Things I Want to Do Before I Die (I later changed the list to Before I’m 35 because it seemed to be a better time line).
Below is a copy of what was in the word file.
I actually got to cross off a few, which is fun.
100 Things I Will Do Before I turn 35
Experiences/Adventure
Bungee Jumping
Sky Diving
Scuba Diving
Motorcycle Canada to South America
Motorcycle India
Hitchhike/Boat-hop around the world
Race in the Iditarod (Alaskan Dogsled race – 1150mile)
Spend a Week at Burning Man Festival (Black Rock City, Nevada, August – Labor Day Weekend)
Join a band and tour on a hit single in a foreign country
Get a traditional tattoo in Central Borneo and Central Africa
Hitchhike to the North American Hitchhikers gathering
Magic Mushrooms (someone recommended that I include paints and crafts, or outside)
Opium tea (I actually didn’t think this one would happen; and no, never again)
Join the Mile High Club
Walk across Nova Scotia, both coasts
Get invited to one of Hugh Hefner’s Famous Parties
This one is of Kim and I on our $300 motorbike in Southern Vietnam, off-roading, crossing a river and checking out some waterfalls… just before we got arrested and detained for the better part of three days (story coming soon).
The dirt roads that we drove on for the first week of our trip were a little hairy at times. We crashed twice — once while trying to dodge a rogue cow and another time trying to slowly cross a wooden bridge. The funny part was that Kim actually got the crashes on video (she used to take a lot of videos while we drove — something about being bored because she couldn’t see around my big helmet).
I’m going to post the crash videos (they’re pretty hilarious) as soon as Kim emails them to me.
(UPDATE: The videos were on Kim’s laptop, which got stolen…)
Oh yeah, and that picture of Kim driving: She’s faking it. I didn’t let her actually drive the bike until much later on in the trip…
