I have circled the globe for 6 years as a full-time digital nomad.
During these journeys, I have sat in a cage with three, 400-pound tigers in Mae Rim, Thailand. I almost lost my life in Muhammad, India after becoming dangerously dehydrated due to a wicked bout of giardia. I even fought a homeless dude in Granada, Nicaragua for my flip-flops.
But these 3 incidents are among my wildest travel stories from circling the globe.
1: Facing Down a Spitting Cobra in Bali
Bali.
The Island of the Gods is a popular tourist spot frequented by folks from all over the world.
When you stray a few miles from well-known spots like Kuta and Ubud you will experience a very different Bali.
During a 6 month long house sit in a huge villa I encountered a spitting cobra. Said spitter wormed into the chicken coop, having killed a hen and 2 chicks before we rushed to the cage with a shovel.
After our house, sitting mates helped draw him out our friend dispatched of the spitting cobra. But not until this hissing, intimidating, apex predator had lined us up in his sights, bobbing and weaving as if honoring a snake charmer, poising to blind us at any second.
2: Living in the Remote Costa Rican Jungle
My wife Kelli and I spent 6 weeks in a remote Costa Rican jungle on a house sitting job. Or I should say, on a house sitting expedition.
We were 3 miles from civilization, a 3-mile hike through treacherous, dangerous, deep jungle foliage.
I often walked around with a 2-foot long machete to hack away at jungle foliage or any tough creature that got in our way.
We saw toucans, Amazon parrots, Howler monkeys, Capuchin monkeys, 2 toed sloths, 3 toed sloths, bullet ants, poison dart frogs, centipedes, scorpions, snakes, army ants and many more animals during this month and a half visit to the jungle.
Picture a National Geographic show being in your backyard.
The lights never came on – no electricity in this hut – in the place but you had to be inside by 6 PM because when the sun went down, the lights truly went out. Pitch dark conditions.
We used an outhouse. No internet of course. Water ran 24-7, 365 via a rubber tube supplied from a local jungle stream.
During monsoon season I had to walk up the stream in waist-high waters as torrential downpours abused my body, needing to shake the rubber hose free of silt to purify our water supply.
I cared for an 80 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback in this house sit. These Navy SEALs of the canine world were bred to hunt lions. We once saw the dog – her name is Thunder – scale a 20-foot vertical cliff, pulling herself straight up the dirt as her muscles shown like heavy ropes throughout her body.
3: Battling a Huge Centipede in Thailand
He reared up, daring me to battle him with his ferocious mandibles.
I was peering into the primordial eyes of an 8-inch long centipede in Thailand.
I had not the need for pede. But he quickly undulated into the kitchen late one evening during the monsoon season.
After sending my wife and the dog we were caring for into the bedroom I grabbed a broom and slowly cornered the massive creature as he tried to hide from me.
I outed him, pushing him away from the base of a couch. He darted for the door. I grabbed a shovel, smashed him, and the peeved pede looks at me like, “Is that all you got?”
30 seconds later I tossed him in the air with the broom and batted him outside of the house, cricket style.
Just another day blogging in paradise.
About the Author
Ryan Biddulph is a blogger, author and world traveler who’s been featured on Richard Branson’s Virgin Blog, Forbes, Fox News, Entrepreneur, Positively Positive, LifeHack, John Chow Dot Com and Neil Patel Dot Com. He has written and self-published 126 bite-sized eBooks on Amazon. Ryan can help you build a successful blog at Blogging From Paradise.
