By the time we got to India, we were knee deep into our expedition exploring the world consciously. For months, Adam, Marla and I had been quite literally living on top of one another. It takes a lot to be around the same people day in and day out—working together, eating together, and sometimes resorting to sleeping in the same room together.
Add into the mix no hot water, washing clothes in a bucket, sleeping on the ground, eating entirely foreign foods and lugging huge bags of heavy scuba and camera gear through airports, on dirt roads or through jungles. Needless to say, there are bound to be things that don’t go your way on a two-year expedition around the globe.
For as much as this journey has been incredibly epic, it’s also been an incredible amount of sweat equity and strategic planning. I thought I knew what hard work looked like from nearly 15 years in corporate America, starting businesses and building startups. But nothing has come close to the work that’s required to run a diving expedition.
Lost bags, delayed flights, canceled plans, partner rescheduling, constant rerouting, injuries, personal loss, you name it, we’ve experienced all of the above since hitting the road. Oh and I forgot to mention, juggling a full-time consulting business in between dives. We’ve come to realize that traveling is not that easy after all. It takes a lot to get to the places you want to go, meet the people you want to meet and live a fully nomadic life, as professional divers and new-age explorers.
By the time December was rolling around, we were all feeling like perhaps it was time for a break. Despite loving every minute of this expedition, thorns and all, it was undeniable that the comforts of a familiar homebase would be a nice change of pace from expedition life. With the holidays rapidly approaching, you can imagine what a single bump in the road could do to the psyche of a trio on the doorstep of the first major expedition milestone—our six month mark.
In overall terms, the level of incidents or mishaps has been surprisingly minimal over the course of those six months considering the ground covered and the pace of our operation. We thought that the biggest issue for us would be the weird foods we would encounter along the way, going to some of the more remote places on earth. But, we’d managed to survive living off the Solomon Islands beloved warm canned tuna for a week straight as it was our only option. We dined on giant clams fresh out of the sea in Vanuatu which had our stomachs in knots. We also managed to get down sea slugs and snails presented by the Ama freedivers of Japan which were far from something we’d personally choose to eat.
To contrast our somewhat strange and limited diet from previous stops on expedition, there was the impressive state of Indian cuisine. The food there was some of the best, most flavorful and exciting culinary experiences we had on expedition. We simply couldn’t stop eating. From the tandoori tikka platters to the stuffed paratha and cheese garlic naan; the steamed idli and masala dosa with coconut chutney and lentils and; the endless supply of fish curries of all kinds, we were on a culinary voyage with the locals leading the way.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise that our downfall was binge eating the spiciest most flavorful food in all of India. After day one, eating everything in sight and with no real consequence, we thought we had somehow managed to get off the hook easily. But it wasn’t until our second to last night on the Andaman Islands that we were in for a harsh, and at the time, unexpected surprise.
For hours, Adam and I went back-to-back throwing up in our shared bathroom. Thankfully this time we were in a room with a real bed, and Marla, bless her soul, was next door and only HEARD the carnage and didn’t have to witness it. I always thought Adam and I were close as a husband-and-wife-duo, but our mutual food poisoning brought us one tiny, little step closer.
It could have been the butter chicken. Or maybe it was the iconic dessert called the “sugar bomb.” It could have been the Indian dumplings called “momos” that we fell in love with and certainly over consumed. We will never know. But one thing’s for sure, we forged a deeper appreciation for pacing ourselves when it comes to devouring foreign, flavorful, unregulated foods.
With only three weeks left until our much-needed break, this was a reminder that expedition life is something you have to work for—physically, mentally and emotionally. When things are good they are incredible. When things are bad they are as rough and painful as they get. And these challenging times make you wonder “is it all worth it?” But, when you get to the next destination on the expedition trail, you meet amazing people that are safeguarding our last remaining natural wonders and protecting sea cultures, dive incredible sites and eat more of the spectacular local cuisine, all of the “bad” fades away.
Our 24-hour bathroom bender didn’t tarnish our time in India. It just made us appreciate everything a little bit more. I can’t speak for Adam on this one, but it certainly opened my eyes to what it means to be in a relationship with someone. It was another side of Adam that I hadn’t witnessed in the five years of us being together. Sharing an experience like that with your spouse is nothing short of telling, reminding you that you’re truly in it for the long haul—in sickness and in health.
It’s ok that not everything goes according to plan or the way you anticipated it. Sometimes, you’re going to have seriously bad stretches, and other times you’ll be basking in the sunlight thinking “is this my real life?” Most of the time, the critical and important learnings are the ones found in between and along the way—not at the final destination. That hard work will lead to some of the most eye-opening realizations that make life that much more exciting. The total picture, including the good times and bad, is what makes an experience as full and rich as possible.
Closing out 2023, we spent our time reflecting on six months of traversing the Eastern Hemisphere. Riddled with fond memories (and lack thereof), we couldn’t help but relish in the upchucking and all.
To be continued …
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