Travel Story #1: All alone at Mount Fuji… (during the outbreak of C19)
We need to go back. Way back for this story.
January 1st, 2020...
Oh, how has the world changed since then…
And my own life as well...
That guy on the beach there (me) had no clue what was coming…
I was attending the Unox Newyearsdive (a big Dutch event where thousands of Dutchies run into the bloody freezing ocean for fun). I was shooting as the press that day, with my mind full of new plans for 2020.
Oh, how those plans got changed!
The two-month World Trip - March & April 2020
Back then, I was still living in the Netherlands as a typical civilian, bored as hell, and hating the typical shitty weather. Something needed to change... My wife and I thought to scratch our travel itch by organizing an epic two-month World Trip. March and April of 2020 would be those months...
The World Trip planning was like this: Start in Israel>Jordan>India>Singapore>Hong Kong>Japan>Hawai>Texas>back to the Netherlands. 8 countries, 2 months.
We planned it all out, every day was meticulously planned to perfection. But boy, did C19 take the wind out of our sails!
Are we in a zombie movie?!
Countries were closing right after when we started our big World Trip. Jordan closed right when we were at the border. India closed after that. The whole world was having a massive panic attack!
The only place that was open at the time was Japan (because of the Olympics!), so we fled to Japan. While everyone was getting more scared, we were persistent in not panicking and we kept going. “We were not gonna lose our World Trip!”
Stubborn. Pissed. Scared. We kept going. To Japan, to Tokyo, the busiest city in the world... "What if everybody in Tokyo gets sick?" "What if we get really sick?" “What if this is the start of the zombie-breakout?!” "What if...". Doubts were there plenty. But we kept going!
Alone at Mount Fuji
Tokyo, the city of 40 million people, and the region of Mount Fuji were getting eerily quiet. There were fewer and fewer tourists (and Japanese) on the streets... Were we crazy to stay there? Yes. "But it's a World Trip. Our one big epic mega-trip, we can't stop. Right?!"
It was bizarre when we arrived at the towns and lakes of Mount Fuji, where there are normally hundreds of tourists, but it was just empty. The bus was still driving and the hotel was still functioning as normal, but it was just empty when you would walk outside near places like Chureito Pagoda and Lake Kawaguchiko. As you can imagine, it was great for photography, but it all felt quite creepy.
We kept going and going while the world turned into a very scary zombie movie. Funnily enough, we actually had the best time and totally fell in love with Japan during these bizarre weeks!
The end of the World Trip
At the end of March 2020, the world was really falling into a dark place. It all looked very grim, and everybody was returning home to their home country. People back home were going berserk and we had no idea where this was all heading towards. Were we going to be isolated in a small and expensive hotel in Tokyo for a couple of months with the possibility of getting sick? What if Tokyo completely shuts down because of this outbreak? You get the point. It was a scenario that made my head spin.
The return ticket normally was about 500 USD, but the next day it would have been 2500. And we didn’t know what would happen a week later. Was the ticket going to be 5000 per person? Or even 10.000?
We had to give in. We had to acknowledge defeat. Our World Trip has come to an end.
We flew back - no one was wearing masks back then and the flight attendants laughed it off and thought it would all be over in a week or so - and we just sat in our apartment for the month of April in shock.
Revenge !!
Buttttt... we didn't let this defeat crush us! No no no, we took this loss as a reason for revenge! After we came back home and the dust settled a bit in the Summer of 2020, we set out to SELL IT ALL. We sold ALL our stuff. The car, the TV, the bed, the knives and the forks, and even the Playstation. We sold it all. The only thing we had left was two suitcases and two backpacks. And a one-way ticket!
We set off to Mexico in January of 2021 to travel around the country for 6 months, which was epic!
This big move set in motion a total transformation of our lives. Strangely, thanks to C19, we made the move to become fulltime world travelers, and I went all-in on my true passion and calling; travel and culture photography!
Looking back years later
1 November 2024. It's almost 4 years later since that bizarre crazy outbreak, since we stood there all alone at Mount Fuji.
It has been the adventure of a lifetime, and the best decision we ever made. It was a risky one, but it really paid off. Almost 4 years later, I can proudly say I'm happier than I was back then, more content, and much wiser!
And finally... I can finally say I'm an actual world traveler and photographer. This has been a long (day)dream of mine, but I never thought it could become my reality.
Moral of the story: When life gives you lemons, you kick that sumb*tch in the ****.
Turn dreams into memories ya'll !
