Transcriber: Daniel Moore You know what, it's about time
that ideas share the same stage Okay, my name is Robin Esrock. You know when you watch travel shows, you see these shows on TV
and you see some guy, running around the world,
doing all these amazing stuff, and you think who the hell gets that job. Well, I created and I host
a TV show called World Travels. We filmed it in 36 countries, you can see it here in Canada
on OLN and City TV, and it's in 21 languages, and over 100 countries
on travel channel worldwide. I'm a travel writer,
the show follows me as a travel writer. I've been the columnist
for The Globe and Mail, MSN, Sympatico, The Vancouver Sun, and I'm here to talk to you
about how to travel. I once asked 1,732 people
from 46 countries in every conceivable background, three questions about their lives. One of the questions was "Finish the sentence: I regret ... " Now, a few people said, "I regret not working harder" and "I regret not being more successful." One guy said, "I regret
not driving a nicer car." No. The most universal, common answer
that I received was "I regret not traveling more." And travel means many things
to many people, right? It's a form of escape. It could be a business
opportunity and obligation. the way to connect
with cultures and languages and - hey man, sure - it's definitely a way
to bring seduction into your life. (Laughter) Eight years ago, I set out on a journey
that hasn't really stopped. And along the way,
I've learned some truths, and it's these truths that I would like
to share with you today. Starting with the fact that those of us
who traveled for a long time, well, we're either running away
from something, or we're looking for something, and certainly, I was looking. Like many of you, perhaps,
I'll stare out the window at my desk job and I'll constantly daydream
about the life I wasn't living, the places I wasn't seeing,
the people I wasn't meeting. I had an OK job,
but I really wanted to travel, you know, like I did in my early 20s
when I went backpacking, but it just seemed kind of
irresponsible to quit my career and going to do such a thing. I mean, society was telling me:
okay Robin, you're turning 30 years old, it's time to settle down, make some dough and enter
the Godforsaken housing market. (Laughter) Well, my journey began around the corner,
literally, on Alberni Street. I was on my way to work,
driving my scooter, and this car comes out of nowhere
and just drives straight into my bike. I execute this spectacular swan dive
over the handlebars, trash the bike and break my kneecap. The pain was excruciating, and it is that moment, without doubt,
the best thing that's ever happened to me. We need these kind of wake-up calls to remind us that we
are not getting any younger, and while the world
isn't going anywhere per se, we most certainly are. That accident made me think,
and it literally bought my ticket. 12 months later, I received a 20,000
dollars insurance settlement. Hey! It's not millions;
it was just 20,000 dollars! but, you know, if I was prepared
to sleep on floors and avoid expensive countries. I booked one of the best deals
going in the airline racket, it's called around-the-world ticket, and I visited 24 countries
on five continents in 12 months. Now, immediately, the intensity of travel
in my first few month in South America, this exposure to new people,
new ideas, new cultures began to put some things into perspective. Our lives are mitigated by routine, right? The routine that tells us when we wake up,
when we sleep, when we eat, when we work out, when we can schedule
some fun in our lives. Now, for 12 months,
with all my possessions on my back, no itinerary and a vague long-term goal about just returning to Vancouver, alive. Decision-making began to take on
a new significance, because every morning I wake up,
and I think where I'm going to eat, where I'm going to sleep,
where I'm going to find a clean toilet. Now once the base of that hierarchy
of needs was met, a deeper, familiar crisis
began to settle in. I found myself once again
looking out that window, thinking "Well, should I go
to that town or this town? Should I hang out with these
people or those people?" I'm second-guessing my decisions,
I'm smelling that greener grass. You know when there are
so many decisions to make, sometimes it's just easier
not to make any, and you feel that acuity
when you travel independently, and you feel that acuity when you don't. I call it a decision paralysis. And then when we do make a decision,
we second-guess it, you know, we questioned it, it's such and I've got
like an undercooked burrito, okay? (Laughter) Sometimes I wasn't sure
if I should jump on that chicken bus, or over that chicken bus. I was kicking myself -
I was in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil - and I was supposed to join a friend
on a night bus going up north. I decided to spend a few extra days
in Rio - I mean, here I am - exploring one of the most beautiful
vibrant cities in South America, if not the world,
and I just could not groove with it, because what I was thinking about
was that night bus and how I should have been on it because of the amazing experiences
that I'm probably missing if I were. A few days later, I go up north
and I catch up with my friend, and I find him as white as a sheet. Turns out that the only thing I missed
was a certain tragedy. The bus that he was on had
a head on collision with a truck. He escaped with minor injuries,
but six people died, including the passenger
seated right next to him. And from that moment, I mean, I began to realize that whatever decision
I make has to be the right decision. I'm not one about to talk about
religion and energy and what not, but it's just like you have to believe
that whatever decision you make is the best decision
you can possibly make, and from that moment I realized that wherever you are
is where you're supposed to be. And, immediately,
everything got a lot easier. I welcome to La Paz, Bolivia, and the rather dilapidated
house of democracy. One of the legends on the gringo trail is to mountain-bike down the world's
most dangerous road. It was, the first time I visited,
before they put in a new highway. 150 people die every year on this road
as packed buses and trucks, and about 2,000 tourists, for that matter, have gone over the edge
on this 2,00 foot cliffs never to be seen from again. And it's pretty fun, I can tell you
it's fun riding that so close to the edge; it's as much fun as it is standing
on the edge of this red carpet wondering what's going
to happen if I step over? They told me not to step over. (Laughter) So you get down to the bottom,
and then you realize that you actually have to get back on these same buses
and trucks that go over the edge, and this time you're not in control,
there is no comfort there, you have to just close your eyes and pray to God that the driver only
had five or six beers, and not 12. (Laughter) So I get back to the city,
and I take a minibus, and because I can't speak
a word of Spanish, I get dropped off high in the hills
in one of the city's worst slums. Shut! ... Okay! I believe that travelers become victims
when we look like victims, so I stiffened up, and I assumed
what I call my Jason Bourne, James Bond mode, right? (Laughter) Because those guys always
look like they are in control, that they know where they are going, plus, they can snap your neck
in like 24 seconds, right? So I start walking down this road,
absolutely crapping my pants, and, up ahead about thirty feet up ahead
I noticed a local walking down, and it gives me some comfort, because I think that if I can just
stick with this guy, maybe I can get out of here, you know,
so I start following him. Without turning around, he noticed
that someone is following him, I mean, we are in a slum,
so he quickens his pace. I'm not going to let this guy
get out of my sight, you know, (Laughter) so I quicken my pace, and within like a couple of seconds, you have two guys running down this hill, (Laughter) you know, through markets,
through traffic, but always 30 feet apart. (Laughter) Now, it wasn't the first time
that I've been lost on my travels, and it certainly wasn't the first time
my local has come to my aid. When you read the newspapers, you would think that the moment
you get off the plane, these guys are waiting for you. (Laughter) If it bleeds, it leads, you know, especially, when you read anything
about developing countries. It's just all you hear is the bad news, and that's one of the reasons
why I love being a travel writer, because very often that's the only
good news you will read anywhere! Well, I've now been
to 107 countries on 6 continents, including hot spots like
Colombia - kidnapping! Ethiopia - whoa! Sri Lanka - terrorism! Papua New Guinea -
strange guy with pointy stick! (Laughter) And I've never been, get this,
I've never been robbed or attacked, I've never been other than minor illness,
I've never been physically ill, or threatened, and this makes me either extremely lucky or as I like to believe
just one of the vast majority. My experience has taught me that people would rather help you
than hurt you. Locals take great pride in showing us,
the traveler, their world. Whatever the culture, you wouldn't believe the lengths
of hospitality that people go through. The friendliest country in the world
in my experience - Albania, Albania! You know, sure, there are places
where we shouldn't go, absolutely, absolutely, but travelers are seldom targeted. Locals might want to kill each other, but they don't go after us for anything
other than petty crime, and petty crime can be dismissed with just
the most basic amount of common sense. Okay, not saying that people
won't attack, if provoked, and yes, I'm not going to tell you
there aren't bad apples, no deadly pieces of sushi
on Granville Street, (Laugher) there's rogue bears in the woods, and there's airline seats,
but just don't lean back! (Laughter) There are places to avoid
and we have reasons to be cautious, sure, but if I do find myself
in a situation, I have some very powerful
weapons in my backpack. No, lose the guns, bring a smile. Smiling, there's something about smiling
that just projects warmth and honesty, I call it kind eyes,
you see it all the time, it's just like a softening of the soul, it's why we love traveling
in places like Africa and India, even though it can be very challenging. The locals that we meet,
the people we meet, they disarm us with their warmth,
with their friendliness, you know, with their appreciations,
life's basic pleasures. I mean, it's such a contrast when you go to a major North American city
or Western European city, and you feel like an intruder,
like an outsider. I've smiled with poof! Maori bouncers in New Zealand,
he wanted to throw me out of bar, and I've smiled
with Maasai warriors in Kenya, I've smiled with ... (Laughter) men in strange hats! (Laughter) that's the testicle festival in Montana. I've smiled in dens with man-eating
saltwater crocodiles and swimming with great white sharks, and I even smiled with kids
holding armed ak-47s. I smile when I'm nervous,
and I laugh when I'm scared, because it sure beats
screaming and crying. You don't want to hear me scream and cry. Now this few experiences
like hardcore independent travel to make you hear, and more importantly,
listen to your instinct. How many times
have you guys heard a story: something bad happens to someone out there
and they blame themselves, because they knew beforehand
to avoid that situation. They shouldn't have eaten
the pink chicken. (Laughter) They shouldn't have gotten
into that taxicab with the driver slurring his words. They shouldn't have
walked down that dark road in the middle of the night, and they shouldn't have believed
the fire docked in Taipei when he said, "Robin,
this isn't going to hurt!" (Laughter) Trust your guts. The more we use our instinct,
the more we hear it, the more we use it, and the more we use it, the more chance we have to avoid whatever
it is that's trying to save us from. Use your gut, trust it, listen to it, it works so well when you're out there, and it works so well
when you're here as well. Now, I've been fortunate to chase
my passion to a degree of absurdity. I've run around the world
ticking of one bucket list after another, and I believe that my success in a very challenging,
very competitive industry - travel media is due to applying these truths
that I've learned out there into my daily bizarre world. And here's one of the best
lessons that I learned, people you meet
create the paradise you find. It's all about the people,
and the paradise, literally. I'm on assignment in a 2,000 dollar
a night ocean villa in the Maldives. Spectacular, yeah? and I'm having miserable time. The whole place is kitted up
for honeymooners and for romance, and I'm there by myself
dealing with a relationship disintegrating back home. Cry me, crocodile tears! I was miserable, I was lonely, so I ended up sneaking away
to the staff quarters and having a couple of beers
with the cleaners, and that was fun. Paradise islands
and epic festivals, wild parties. It doesn't mean much
if you're not connecting, and you're not sharing
with the right people, because people we meet on a journey
out there, on our journey in here, shape the world, shape the way
we look at everything. It could be a Rasta priest that I met
in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. This guy was living off-grid, and yet, we had this wonderful debate
about the merit of RFID chips. An elder in the Cook island,
he takes me into the mountains, and he teaches me that anytime
I'm feeling stressed, don't take a Tylenol,
put yourself in nature. In Ecuador, the shaman freaks out, he tells me I'm cursed, and he goes into this whole ceremony,
blows vodka in my face, a real concern to get rid of this curse. In Transylvania,
I meet the 74 year-old farmer, who teaches me how to dance
with my heart and smile with my eyes. On the streets of Ethiopia,
I meet street kids who believe that if they work hard enough,
one day they could run in the Olympics, and you know what? Some of these guys did. And as much as I travel around the world,
it's my friends mean the world to me, and they take me to places
I'd never thought I'd get to. These are all people that make you
want to get off the couch, switch off reality TV,
and start participating in reality itself. Now I've recently returned
from one more epic journey. This time, I visited every province
and territory in Canada to tick off the ultimate list of things
to do before you die for my first book it's called The Great Canadian
Bucket List, and once more, I've emerged
at the end of this crazy journey, elated, safe, healthy, inspired by the people and the places
and the creatures that I've met in this beautiful country; that is way too big to call a backyard. The lessons that I've learned
to my travels keep applying to the world
that I live about daily life, because I don't believe
that we ever stop traveling, and I don't believe we ever stop growing. So I'm going to leave you
with one more piece of travel, travel wisdom. Two little words that have helped me
when I really needed them, like, when I jumped off
the Sky Tower in Macao, this is the world's highest
commercial bungee jump. Two little words that help me when I'm really trying
not to soil my shorts, like when I'm in Chernobyl. I spent the night in Chernobyl
holding a Geiger counter, hoping I'm not going
to turn into a mutant. (Laughter) You know, they were there for me
when I came face to face with death, deep in an ancient burial cave
in the South Pacific, they were there with me
when I came out there 12 minutes ago, in front of 2,000 people
at the largest TEDx ever held anywhere. Two little words, so important, which is why they put these words on the cover of what I think is one
of the best guidebooks have ever written. Whoa! Two little words that helped me when early this summer
my wife sent me a text message. And, precipitating what I think
will be the craziest adventure, out of all of them! Don't panic! (Laughter) (Applause) So I came out here and said
I'm going to teach you how to travel. I said, "Well, don't panic!" Surround yourself with good people, and just know that people
will rather help you than hurt you. Listen to your instinct, smile, and, you know, before you
go on any journey, make sure you pack
the right state of mind, whether or not you're traveling,
whether you're staying at home. And okay, don't forget your toothbrush. Thank you. (Applause) (Cheering)
Don't Panic :)