Dec 28, 2022
Breaking Barriers and Traveling the World Alone
We’ve got one more conversation from Extraordinary Travel Festival, and I don’t think I’m offending any of my other guests by saying that I’ve saved the best for last. In fact, I’m sure they’d all agree.
Because the guest today is not only an inspiration for us all and especially someone who would say, “oh, I can’t go there alone because of this, that, or the other”.
100% Blind and 80% Deaf
Out of all the extreme travellers I met at the festival, my last guest in this miniseries with interviews from Armenia totally stands out.
He’s very well-travelled – he had been to 128 UN Nations when I met him in October, but that’s not what makes him unique. Tony is totally blind and 80% deaf in both ears. But that doesn’t stop him from seeing the world.
Most of the time, he travels alone. He doesn’t have a seeing-eye dog or an aid to warn him where there’s an obstacle or a hole in the pavement … or which local bus to get on, even in countries where most people don’t speak English.
How and Why?
The first time I heard of him, I thought of two questions: First of all, why? He can’t possibly get anything out of it when he can’t see the view. And secondly: How is that even possible?
Listen to the episode to hear that Tony gets so much out of his travels – which aligns very well with the rest of us: Meeting the locals, and learning about their way of living and the sounds and the smells of the place. Everything except the one thing of being able to see the place.
The Power of the Senses
Tony has a special gift. He’s able to sense a room without being able to see it. And I test that when I ask him to describe the room we’re in. A room he’s never seen. Hear how he gets it spot-on.
Tony the Author
Tony has written and published three eBooks about his adventures: “Seeing the World My Way”, “Seeing the Americas My Way”, and “Seeing a Slice of Southern Africa My Way”. You can order the books on Tony’s website, TonyTheTraveller.com.
He’s also a public speaker.
See his TEDx talk here.
Two more episodes this year
That’s almost this for this episode and almost all for this year, except for a Flashback Friday from The Philippines and another raw and uncut Vagabond Diary from Sydney on the last day of 2022.
We start the new year with several episodes from my visit to Saudi Arabia. And much more. I have so many plans with The Radio Vagabond in 2023, and I’m going to throw a lot more in your direction. So, make sure to click Follow or Subscribe or whatever it’s called in your podcast app.
I hope you can sense that I put a lot of work into producing this podcast, and I want to thank you so much for being with me on my journey.
If you want to give me a Christmas present this year, it would be doing a review in your app or sharing it with your friends. Simply just send a message to one of your friends who like to travel and tell them about The Radio Vagabond. Or share the player that I have for each episode on Facebook.com/TheRadioVagabond.
My name is Palle Bo. Have a happy new year. See you.