8,000 miles, 13 border crossings and 39 train trips… all in just two months. We sat down with avid adventurer Nick Pulley to chat about his epic train journey from England through South Asia. Here’s what he learned along the way.
When I spoke to Nick Pulley, a few weeks after he returned from his epic no-fly trip, he still had his out-of-office on—literally and in mind, it seems. Anyone who’s had any sort of life-changing or transformative travel experience will relate to the comedown that accompanies an extraordinary travel high; this one from a trip that saw Pulley, founder of Asia specialist tour operator Selective Asia, take the train from his hometown of Brighton, England through Europe and into Iran, Pakistan and India.
His journey technically started years ago as a 17-year-old backpacker who fell in love with Southeast Asia, a region he’s regularly returned to and lived in. His adventures have seen him travel from the heat of Namibia to the chills of the Canadian Arctic, but Asia has remained his first love. Inspired by people and place, he tells us what he learned over two months on a transcontinental adventure of 8,000 miles (12,880 kilometers).
“There are so many preconceptions about places. Sometimes, I feel we live in this ivory tower, where we only believe the narrative we’re given, be it by media or government.
I certainly realized I was projecting what I thought people were thinking about me. When I caught someone staring at me, I saw anger or suspicion in their face, but after a day or two, when I smiled, they smiled back. People were by far the highlight of my trip—and from a destination perspective, Iran, hands down. I’d go back in a heartbeat. People are not their government.
As a tour operator, I’d encourage clients, when necessary, to look beyond the headlines and social media streams when it comes to making decisions on the places they visit because there are valid alternative narratives that should be included in decision-making.”