I’ve learned over the years that two of my biggest fears are small planes and heights. 2020 saw me begin my attempt to conquer both with my first tandem and solo skydives. In Summer 2021, I became a fully certified sky ninja!

I hadn’t been in the West African nation of Benin for very long before I found myself having beers with a local Voodoo Priest. The encounter eventually led me to an alcohol-feuled Voodoo ritual deep in the countryside. It was not an experience I will ever forget, to say the least.

Deep inside the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan lies a massive crater that’s been on fire since 1971. After spending a week in the capital Ashgabat, we made the treck to see it first hand. It was freezing cold in that desert at night, but at more than 20 meters deep and 60 across, the heat from the crater was enough to keep us up all night star-gazing and sipping local cognac.

I had the privilege of joining the Hockey Foundation to attempt (successfully) to break the world record for the highest altitude hockey game. A nasty case of altitude sickness coupled with an allergic reaction kept me from playing in the game, but I was there huffing on oxygen canisters in solidarity! In fact, a good chunk of the players never made the journey from our base camp in Leh. High-altitude hockey is no-joke!

We had our suspicions, but our local hosts refused to confirm anything in advance. Much to our surprise, we hadn’t been allowed to leave our hotel all day. When it came time to leave for the Mass Games, we went through a tonne of security checkpoints – even by North Korean standards. Just a few minutes before the performance started, our suspicions were confirmed when North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un walked into the stadium to a surreal standing ovation!

It may come to you as a surprise, but North Korea does have a growing entrepreneurial class. Shortly after I graduated law school, I found myself alongside a Singaporean NGO at the Unjong Park Special Economic Zone. While there, I gave a lecture on sanctions to a group of aspiring entrepreneurs. To finish off the lecture, I had teams split into groups to develop pitches for fictitious products. When they were ready, they entered the tank…

Two of my best friends from Kenya are Tuk Tuk drivers. As a goodbye present when I left the country, they took me on the Tuk Tuk ride of a lifetime. From Diani Beach, we made our way (at very low speeds) approximately 500km to Nairobi. It is believed to be the unofficial Kenyan record for longest journey in a Tuk Tuk (at the time). Along the way we stopped to push the Tuk-Tuk up a mountain to visit a friend, much to the surprise of local villagers who had never seen one before!

When you spend as much time exploring shady places as I have, things are bound to kick off eventually. The honest truth is, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been robbed or attacked by people with weapons. But I have learned that if you can keep your cool with a gun to your head, there’s not going to be much inside an office building that throws you off!

After crossing the border from nearby Bujumbura, I didn’t have too many transport options for onward travel. From the window of my decrepit hotel room in the town of Uvira, I noticed a military convoy preparing to move out. A few minutes later I found myself traversing one of the most dangerous roads in the world in a truck full of Congolese soldiers.

Rural Uganda may not sound like a adventure sports hot spot, but the rapids are world class and a dedicated group of local kayakers are out there pushing limits. I didn’t know much about Kayaking when I arrived, let alone how to roll. But after a few weeks of learning from the masters, I was taken out to tame the mighty rapids. “No swim boss, I know, he didn’t even swim” – my main coach to the local kayakers. It seems expectations were low.