Adventurers Worth Exploring: Matt Harding

Published July 21, 2009 at 1:00 pm |

Americans have been criticized for not traveling abroad enough. I’d say that is a fair observation, although, our: geography, transit system and diversity of terrain provide us with compelling reasons to stay within our borders. I’d like to think that if we all traveled internationally more frequently we’d appreciate our fellow citizens of the world – and our own heritage as well.

To date, I’ve traveled in 12 countries: Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, France, Germany, England, Belgium, The Netherlands and South Africa. I’ve spent time in airports in an additional 4: Taiwan, Iceland, Tokyo and Senegal. I don’t have a goal regarding the number of countries I’d like to visit, but I’d say it is at least double what I’ve already been to. Someday I will write them all down and post them here.

The biggest unknown adventure I’ve been on is a backpacking trip through Europe as a celebration of graduating from college. If I had the time and money, I’d do adventures like that more often. I’d like to do adventures like Matt Harding from the website, Where The Hell Is Matt?. He leads the kind of adventures I’d like to have.

Matt has traveled to 80 different countries, so I guess I have a long way to go. At each country he visits he films himself dancing with the locals or in front of notable landmarks. I’ve included one of his videos below, but you’ll have to visit his website to see the others. They are worth the trip. Sadly, I think Matt’s traveling days are on hold since he hasn’t updated his site in a while. Nonetheless, he provides the inspiration and motivation to keep me focused on my goals of traveling the globe.