"Real travelers need psychological and physical endurance," says globetrotter Ma Chunghsin, adding that "a good sense of direction and language skills can come in handy too."

The agile, slightly built 60-year-old is something of an expert on the subject. Sporting a beret, threadbare jeans, and with his ever-present camera, Ma recounts 20 years of travel tales that seem almost beyond belief.

In that time, he has conquered seven oceans and five continents, and more than 150 countries. He has studied Sanmao, a well-known Taiwanese authoress who once toured the Sahara Desert alone. He has explored the Nile, trekked in Pamir, and traveled from the Arctic to the Antarctic to celebrate the Millennium. As part of the National Expedition Team of China in 1996, he caused a sensation with a photograph of himself on the South Pole, standing naked at minus 40 degrees Centigrade.

"I didn't take that picture to cause a sensation," says Ma defensively. "In that setting, I just couldn't help myself. The colors were remarkable. Glittering white, shining blue, raven black. In the light of the sun, the land looked like something out of a fairy tale. Drunk with the wonder of it, I wanted to sample the cleanliness and isolation of the last pristine ecosystem on Earth next to my skin."

Ma's next challenge is the Amazon. But he is looking forward to marveling at the lush, tropical rain forests, and listening to the sounds of exotic creatures.

Born in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, Ma became a mountaineer during his college days in Taiwan, when he conquered many of the island's peaks. He opened a backpacker hostel in Taiwan, which opened up the world of the globetrotting for those who shared his passion.

Ma was 30 when he closed up his business, packed his bags, and hit the road. "The world surprises you every single minute when you're out on the road. Even your dreams are different from those you have at home," Ma says.

There was never a dull moment. In Athens, he was offered free accommodation, but his host turned out to be a transvestite who kept scores of cats and had an obsession with women's lingerie. "It takes all kinds to make a world, after all," Ma laughs.

Traveling offers not only close encounters with alternative lifestyles, but also allow one to chance upon enlightened souls.

Eighteen years ago, Ma met a Swiss painter in Nepal. "It was as if I'd known him before," he says. "His name was Teo. But everybody called him 'Baba,' which means sage. We talked about Bach, discussed the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. We just hit it off."

If meeting saints and cross-dressers are some of the unexpected pleasures of road life, unexpected dangers are one of the downsides. In 1983, Ma was caught in a cross-fire between India and Pakistan troops while on a trek through Pamir, and was jailed by the Indian army on spying charges. After a three-day confinement and a US dollar "payment," he was released. "I was lucky to be able to return in one piece," he says.

Ma doesn't count on luck to be with him every time, and writes a new will before each dangerous journey. His family has already become accustomed to his high-risk journeys, and his travel has cost him two marriages. He is single now.

"It may be that vagabonds are not entitled to love or marriage," he says. Prod him a little further, however, he confesses that there's plenty of romance on the road. But something is still missing. "I met some very nice girls," he explains, "but I'm only passing-through. So it can't work for us." But he's still nurturing the hope that he will find that soul mate who can travel with him and share his love of new places and experiences. "When you're standing on the beach in Athens, or by the Rizin Lake in Kashmir, taking in a gorgeous view, you really want someone you love to be there with you. And that's when I feel lonely. My only comfort is music," says Ma.

As if a missionary, converting tourists to travelers, he says, "The problem with being a tourist is that you are invariably taken to all the commercial tourist destinations. You're deprived of nature's beauty that awaits those who take the unbeaten track. On a package tour, there's no time to delve into the local customs. It's a pity, gaining a shallow understanding from a fleeting glance."

Ma recently began writing about his travels. He plans to publish 10 books, chronicling his experiences on the Silk Road, Shangri-la (which Ma places in Ladakh, in northern India), Tibet, the Himalayas, South America, the Amazon, the Nile, the Aegean Sea, the Golden Triangle and Antarctica.

He is enthusiastic about the upcoming trip to Amazon, and is currently organizing a six-member team -- all between the ages of 25 and 40. On his latest trip to the city, he has just found one man and one woman who qualify. Ma is perhaps so strict because he knows what dangers lie ahead. This is his third trip to the Amazon. He rolls up his jeans to reveal a deep-cut scar, self-inflicted to save himself from the potentially lethal snake bite. "In the Amazon, creepers lash themselves to tree trunks and marshlands. Piranha (man-eating fish) infests every river. Everybody who enters the Amazon should carry a sharp knife. But the rain forest not only intimidates, it also exhilarates, not from day to day but from moment to moment. With a 50 percent survival rate, I'm raring to go, a little bit deeper than before."

(eastday.com September 30, 2002)