Hiking Trips | Venture The Planet

An Adventure Over the Remote Papuan Mountain Jungles Into the Rarely Visited Villages of the Last Penis Gourded Tribes-Dani and Yali

by Matthew Allison | May 28, 2009 | Mountains, Asia, Expeditions, Hiking Trips, Most Unique Travel Experiences, Rainforest

One of My Greatest Trekking Adventures May 2009: I first learned about Papua and its tribes of penis gourded men from a documentary. The idea of a tribe of men wearing nothing but penis gourdes to be honest seemed absurd to me and I couldn’t believe that such a...

Tracking Wild Tigers and Orangutans with a Live Goat as Bait-But in the End the Goat Became Our Friend-Sumatra

by Matthew Allison | Sep 1, 2008 | Asia, Hiking Trips, Rainforest, Wildlife

Gunung Leuser National Park September 2008: I have been obsessed with tigers for as long as I can remember. There stealth, power, elegance and beauty is beyond compare and I have tracked wild tigers in Siberia, India, Nepal, Southeast Asia and finally here in Sumatra,...

Back Country Adventures with Grizzly Bears in Denali National Park, Alaska

by Matthew Allison | Jul 25, 2008 | Mountains, Hiking Trips, North America, Most Dangerous Encounters, Wildlife

If someone were to ask me which American National Park is the wildest, I would say Denali National Park. First of all, it is in the State of Alaska, which automatically makes it wild, then there are the other factors that help it to solidify this designation in my...

Traveling Overland via Public Transport in Search of the Great Central African Jungles to Discover a Treasure Trove of Wildlife in Lobeke National Park & Being Charged by a Silverback Gorilla

by Matthew Allison | May 11, 2007 | Africa, Expeditions, Hiking Trips, Rainforest, Tribes/Unique Cultures, Wildlife

May 2007: My goal in Cameroon was to travel across the country to the Congo rainforest. I wanted to visit Dzangha Sangha National Park in the Central African Republic or Noua`balé-Ndoki in Republic of Congo (RoC). Noua`balé-Ndoki was my first choice because it seemed...

Trekking Deep into Mountains of the Isolated Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan to Visit the Layap People and Penis Temples

by Matthew Allison | Nov 23, 2005 | Asia, Expeditions, Hiking Trips, Most Unique Travel Experiences, Weird Travel

November 2005: I am not Buddhist but to me being in the Himalayas is a spiritual experience. it is hard to not feel God when you are surrounded by the highest and most majestic mountains on earth among peaceful Buddhist cultures and monasteries where monks devote...

Road Trip Across the Fairytale Land of Mystical Castles, Mountains and Superstitions-Transylvania

by Matthew Allison | May 17, 2005 | Haunted Places, Europe, Hiking Trips, Tribes/Unique Cultures

May 2005: My girlfriend and I rented a Dacia, small Romanian made car, and drove around Romania for a week with an emphasis on Transylvania, a mountainous region (average elevation 5,000′) in central Romania steeped in superstitions about werewolves, and...