Interview with Dave and Deb of The Planet D
According to your blog, you both moved from Toronto to Vancouver to become famous musicians, so how did you both end up traveling the world?
Well, clearly we failed at becoming famous musicians so we had to find something else to do with our lives:) It was landing our jobs in the film business that opened up our lives to travel. During the winter months Canada's film industry slows down so we would travel during that time. Soon travel defined us more than our careers and we began to look for ways to turn our passion for seeing the world into a living.
With each trip that we took we wanted to see more and coming home became more difficult. It was hard for us to adapt back into our lives when we had just witnessed the most amazing sights and experienced so much. We wanted the travel to continue and thus ThePlanetD was born.
Did the both of you have a natural affinity towards traveling and outdoor adventure or did the both of you develop that passion over time?
It was something that grew over time. Like many people our first trips were package vacations to the Caribbean and tours of Europe. It was when we took 5 weeks to explore Thailand that we realized we love adventure travel. We went rock climbing for the first time, we trekked through jungles and went sea kayaking. When we came home from that trip, we signe up for scuba diving lessons, joined an indoor rock climbing gym and bought mountain bikes. From that moment on, we were always filling weekends with something exciting like camping, climbing, canoeing and snowboarding during the winter months.
If you had to choose one favorite destination, which one would each of you chose?
That is a tough one, but we still have an affinity to Sri Lanka. We spent a month there right after India and couldn't get over how much we loved it! We made great friends there and fell in love with the people. It has everything a person could want for a winter getaway. Great beaches, culture, adventure and gorgeous scenery. We loved seeing the tea plantations, joining the Adams Peak Pilgrimage and surfing in Hikkaduwa. We would definitely go back.
What has been the least exciting destination the both of you traveled to?
We have found every place that we have visited exciting. If we've never been there before, we look forward to exploring it. I know that sounds like a cop out, but really, we get excited whenever we step off the plane.
If the both of you had to choose any celebrity or celebrities to travel with for one week, which would you choose and why? Also, where would you go?
I always answer the same to this question. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. First of all they do great things with their humanitarian projects so I know that we would be doing something good for the world and second of all, since they are celebrities, they would have access to places that we would never get to see. We would probably we able to meet diplomats and world leaders and of course we'd be staying in luxury suites that we could only dream of staying in! I think we would like to go to Cambodia with them since Angelina Jolie is so well associated with it there.
What are some of your upcoming destinations?
Next month we are going to Jamaica to do some adventures with Tourism Jamaica, and we may be going to Kenya in December. That is still in the works though as we have some commitments in Canada with some of our sponsors. We are going to Italy in April to speak at the Travel Bloggers Unite conference and then after that we will be traveling around Europe and the Middle East.
Has theplanetd.com changed your life? If so, how?
ThePlanetD has completely changed our lives. We are finally working at something we are passionate about. We don't work at our old jobs anymore and we have had the opportunity to see and do things that we have never thought possible. We are meeting inspiring and exciting people and we have joined a community of travel enthusiasts that we just love.
We are more excited about life than we ever have been since starting our website.
What has been the most surprising destination the both of you been to? Meaning, you had a specific mindset about a certain destination but it was totally a differnet experience than you had imagined.
Kazakhstan. We didn't really know what to expect when driving through that country. We thought that it would be barren and quite frankly, boring. It was completely the opposite. The landscape was beautiful, the people were friendly and welcoming and the cities were amazing. The capital Astana was a modern mega city rivalling Shanghai for it's unique architecture. We enjoyed ourselves so much there that we are hoping to be able to go back soon to explore even more!
In ten years, do you see yourselves still traveling the world or slowing down?
We will definitely still be travelling, however we will own a home and split our time between Canada and other destinations. We see ourselves traveling for a month or so and then coming home for a month or so.
Who came up with the motto "Anyone Can Do It" ?
I have no idea! I think that we both had the same idea in mind. We wanted to inspire people that way that we've been inspired by others. If people can relate to what we are doing, they will have the courage to try it themselves. If they think that only rich people or uber athletes can live a life of adventure, they will never try. But if they see two regular people like us doing it, they will be inspired to live their dreams as well.
If you could offer advice to a "newbie" world traveler couple, what advice would you give?
Compromise. Be open to what the other wants to do. If you are dead set against something but your partner really wants to do it, go ahead and do it with them. you'll be amazed at how much you will enjoy opening yourself up to new opportunities. We have found that by travelling as a couple we have been able to do things that we never thought we would try. We inspire each other and push each other to do more. It has made our travels a lot of fun. While it might be terrifying when we step out of our comfort zone, it feels amazing afterwards to see what we have accomplished. Just be open to everything and up for anything and be willing to talk things over. Communication is key.
Deb and Dave
Travel Couple Dave and Deb are well known adventure travel personalities Blogging their way around the world on ThePlanetD.com. Recently they have started a weekly segment with CTV where they talk travel every Friday on CTV News Express with Dan Matheson and Jacqueline Milczarek. They have been featured in such publications as BBC Travel, AOL Travel, The Toronto Star and Fox News and rank consistently as one of the top Travel Influencers on the Internet. They inspire their readers through their motto “anyone can do it” and constantly take on unique and exciting adventures such as cycling the continent of Africa in the World’s longest cycling race and driving ? of the way around the world in the Mongol Rally.
You can follow their adventures at www.theplanetd.com on Twitter @theplanetd and on Facebook at The Planet Ds Round the World Adventures