{"id":29488,"date":"2019-03-03T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T00:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flashpacknew.wpengine.com\/?p=29488"},"modified":"2023-03-23T12:32:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:32:29","slug":"near-death-travels-ambulance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flashpack.com\/us\/solo\/travel\/near-death-travels-ambulance\/","title":{"rendered":"This man nearly died twice and now travels the world in an ambulance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Be inspired by the amazing true story of Ian Dow, whose TWO near-death experiences changed his life forever<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare for anyone to have a truly life-changing moment; for someone to have two, well that\u2019s quite something. Meet Ian Dow.<\/p>\n

Not only has Dow experienced an unlikely Double Epiphany, but\u00a0he\u2019s taken those moments and run with them. Run and run and run, through nearly 70 countries, with very little money and \u2013 for the last couple of years \u2013 in a converted ambulance. He’s not so much seized the day as seized the globe.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a man for whom the travel bug hasn\u2019t just bitten: it’s completely consumed him \u2013 gnawed at his flesh and bones \u2013 and he couldn\u2019t be happier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s such a perspective-changing experience that you come back from a big trip a completely different human being with different judgments and different morals and different ethics,\u201d says Dow, in a Californian drawl that sounds even more relaxed than your standard Californian drawl – which is saying something. \u201cI see that as what makes the world a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how did the Californian reach this state of bliss? Let\u2019s visit Epiphany #1, which happened up a mountain when he was just 22.<\/p>\n

Near-death experience number 1<\/h3>\n

\u201cI was originally a competitive snowboarder,\u201d says Dow. \u201cI wouldn’t say professional, but I was competing in lots of contests and doing pretty well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d had a perfect day. I was landing every trick I had. I ended up jumping over a rope and off a cliff. The sun had hit my landing location perfectly the whole day before. It exposed some rocks. I landed on those rocks and I broke my scapula, the left side of my back.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember lying there and looking back up the hill. There was a divot in the snow between these two rocks, where my head had hit. I barely missed hitting my head on those rocks. That was the first epiphany: thinking that I wanted to go back to school and go travel to see the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those of us who have never had an epiphany \u2013 i.e. most of us \u2013 the idea is intriguing. Is it clear or vague? Does it happen instantly? Does it pop into your head a few days after the big moment? Does it appear as writing on a piece of burnt toast? Dow explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was struggling even to breathe,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I remember that thought just came straight into my head: that all I cared about at that point in my life was snowboarding and it almost killed me. There were other things that I wanted to be doing with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time to carpe diem<\/h3>\n

This spark caused an explosion. Dow spent two years at community college and working at a restaurant, all the time dreaming of travelling.<\/p>\n

His first trip began with him buying a six-leg ticket that took him from Los Angeles to Oceania, Asia and then Europe. It was a grand tour that took in 50 countries over 18 months.<\/p>\n

Not bad for a first go and all the more remarkable for the fact that, even as a solo traveller, he did it on just US$16,000, picking up some useful travel tips along the way.<\/p>\n

Learning those travel hacks<\/h3>\n

\u201cYou can use couchsurfing.com<\/a> and resources like that to find free accommodation. Eat with the locals at local places, because it’s cheaper and better quality. And find out the things that the locals do for fun \u2013 they’re free or cheap rather than getting consumed with skydiving or zip-lining or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resisting things like that must have been tough for an adrenaline junkie snowboarder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d find other ways,\u201d says Dow. \u201cOne of the things I would do regularly is rent or buy motorcycles. That was my favourite way of travelling. I’d strap my things to the back of the motorcycle and then just take off with no destination and just drive in a direction until I found something amazing.”<\/p>\n

The life-changing effect of travel<\/h3>\n

Like all good things, though, the trip had to end and Dow returned to his home town of Newport Beach, California. He found it tough going. Not only was he going from a world of 10 dollar accommodation to one of US$2,000 a month rents, but, as anyone who goes away for a long time knows, he returned to a place that seemed to be in stasis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really excited to return and to tell everybody my story,\u201d he says, \u201cand try to inspire my friends to go out and see these wonderful places, and experience these wonderful things that I’d been lucky enough to experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was really difficult. A year and a half isn’t that long for most people when they’re in their routine, so most people hadn’t changed at all, yet I was a completely different person. Then I received an offer to be an art director on a film in Hungary.\u201d<\/p>\n

With flights paid for, Dow planned to use the return leg to do quite the opposite. It was to be used to fly onwards to Asia, to continue his travels.<\/p>\n

The heartbreak moment<\/h3>\n

Even when Dow became romantically involved with Julia Pietrucha, a Polish actress working on the film, it didn\u2019t stifle his wanderlust. Instead, she ran off to Asia with him. They spent three months travelling together before she returned home and he bought a motorcycle in Vietnam, spending a month touring the country alone.<\/p>\n

Eventually, they settled in Poland for a few years, where they married, lived the celebrity life and wrote music together. Sadly, it didn\u2019t end well, and Dow returned to the US, once again an unhappy but a resourceful man.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I returned, I had one suitcase<\/a> that I’d come across the pond with,\u00a0and almost no money,” he says. \u201cI bought a motorcycle from a friend up in Washington state. I had US$1,000, a hammock and my motorcycle. I just cruised around the Pacific Northwest for the whole summer, sleeping in the woods and trying to clear my mind. Basically, reflect on my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Man’s best friend<\/h3>\n

This was not, obviously, a sustainable existence, unless you\u2019re Ed Stafford<\/a>. Dow needed some kind of life. He got one in the form of a job at a medical marijuana farm in northern California.<\/p>\n

It was a decent enough life. He slept in his hammock, lived on the farm, rode his motorbike, helped out around the place, doing everything from setting up security systems to hiring farmhands. He also developed a close relationship with the farm dog, Rhino.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them at one point that if the dog ever has puppies, I need one of them because I loved the dog so much,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Be careful what you wish for. Two weeks later, it emerged that Rhino had been a bit too horny (sorry) and was now an expectant father. A few weeks after that, Dow had his own small furry son, Dino (rhymes with Rhino, see?).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat changed everything because now I’m a guy by myself with no place to live and a dog. The season was over, so I was about to leave the farm and all I had was a motorcycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Near-death experience number 2<\/h3>\n

Cue Epiphany #2. Out riding that bike on wintry roads, Dow had a crash that nearly did for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI separated my shoulder and almost slid off of the cliff. Luckily, it was pretty muddy and the mud grabbed me, so there was a potential for something worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like seeing the divot between the rocks, staring into the cold abyss was a call to action for Dow. At first, he toyed with the idea of buying a van and converting it into something he could live in.<\/p>\n

Then he spotted an ambulance being sold on eBay by a charity. He saw that it had an hour left on the auction and was in his price range. He bid US$2,800 and, to his surprise, won the auction.<\/p>\n

How to buy an ambulance<\/h3>\n

He now owned an ambulance \u2013 ironic for someone who\u2019d already spent more than enough time in one. All he needed to do was collect it from Missouri.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know it was in Missouri when I bid,\u201d he says. \u201cIt turned out to be in wonderful condition.”<\/p>\n

Dow and his father drove the ambulance back to California, where Dow began work on converting it, bit by bit, with no solid plans (which is clearly an Ian Dow trait).<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t going to scrimp on quality, though. Oh no. With only 47 square feet of floor space, he decided he might as well use the best materials possible. Gathering small pieces over time from local shops, he ended up with a solid teak floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI approached the project as my first home,\u201d he says. \u201cI was going to sleep in it, so I gave it all the elements that I see as creating a comfortable home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result was the kind of thing that would have Kevin McCloud drooling<\/a> rapturously. Park it in central London and it\u2019d fetch seven figures.<\/p>\n

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On the road again ma\u00f1ana!! Bringing @_cadalso to the airport in Managua where he’ll fly back to San Francisco for 2 weeks then come back and find my somewhere on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. We still have some deals brewing down here in Nicaragua but nothing’s set in stone yet and the road beacons. Honduras here we come! #dinodoggy #ambulancelife #vanlife #traveldog #honduras #overland #overlander #dogslife#adventuredog#vanconversion#vanlifers #vanlifedog#vandog#vantravel#vanlifetravel#vanlifeideas #vanlifestyle #vanlifemovement #overlandlife<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by Ian Dow<\/a> (@vanlife_ian_dow_travels) on