Entrepreneur and Adventurer – Arvi Bahal
Arvi is one of the most well traveled individuals on the planet. His professional experiences expand across a variety of fields but his connection to the world is grounded in his love for travel. Arvi has a long standing relationship with United Planet’s founder and he was pleased to sit down with us to discuss his yearning for adventure.
Listen to our entire conversation below:
Full Transcript:
Charlie: Welcome back to United Planet Radio. I'm your host Charlie Leitner. For those who don't
know this is a show designed to promote education sustainability and cultural understanding
through conversation. Today, we have Arvi Bahal who is a graduate of the University of Pune in
India. He was selected for admission to the National Defense Academy of India as an officer cadet in
the Indian Armed Forces. He currently resides in Beverly, Massachusetts. An unbelievable resume
of travel — he has worked on a tea plantation in north-east India, he has worked in electrical
manufacturing, hotel management, and real estate. How are things today, Arvi?
Arvi: Everything’s fine, thank you.
Charlie: Can you give us some insight on your background. Maybe go in to a little bit more detail
than I was able to go into.
Arvi: Sure. I was fifteen years old — well first of all, my full name is Arvinda Singh Bahal. My friends
call me Arvi, those are the first four letters of my name. Well, when I was fifteen years old after high
school, my family comes from an Indian background so I took a test, a service selection board test.
On married bases, I was selected to go to the National Defense Academy of India like West Point in
America. And I was a cadet there, I used to play polo for the Indian team and I fell off a horse and
fractured my skull and I'm deaf from my right ear so that was the reason I could not get the
commission in the army. So I was voted out so I came back home when I was seventeen years old
and I joined the tea plantation owned by a Scottish family called Andrew Yule and their sterling got
me and I had about 7,000 labor force and we had two managers and we manage which involved
plucking of tea, manufacturing of tea, auction of tea, tea tasting, grading of tea, and then most of
the Europeans were being told to leave India investments and all the local Indian people, business
people were buying the plantations and we would lose all the perks that we had when I worked for a
Scottish company. It needs service from gardener, with a body guard with a guard at the house,
everything. And when Indians were buying that, they were taking quite a few privileges that we had
— perks that we had. So I left and I started a little manufacturing business of clothing and I came to
America in 1975 to sell my wares that I was making and I liked it here, went back, got some stuff,
started selling to people like Lord and Taylor, different other boutique shops. and then I liked it
here, asked for immigration, and then I got my green card I think in 1976 and in 1980 — 81 I think —
I became a citizen and since then I had my manufacturing. I went to Taiwan because Indians'
presentation of the merchandise they were making was not good, the packing, the wrapping, hot
ironing wasn't that good so I went to Taiwan, met some people there, and started importing
sportswear from Taiwan. That led me to travel to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, so I was importing
stuff from there, selling them in America. And in 87, I was in West Palm Beach, Florida where I went
to show my samples to a golf company. I was making sportswear and there was a company called
Eagle Golf out of Canada and my samples were late in coming so I flew there to show them the
samples and I met a relate estate broker and I bought my first property there and I saw the turns
looked good so I started to real estate and since then I have been in real estate which gives me time
to travel because you have different managers in the building and not in the building and you can
travel and it helps pay the travel expenses.
Charlie: That’s great. That works.
Arvi: That's basically the background.
Charlie: Yeah. That's perfect. So, yeah. Let's get into the travel. What and where were your most
impactful travel experiences.
Arvi: Well, I have been to 178 countries…
Charlie: Wow, that's unbelievable.
Arvi: …out of 193. It's very hard to say which is my favorite and which is my least favorite, I’ve had
some good experiences and I’ve had some bad experiences. I mean, I would say sort of bad
experiences concern I suppose Nigeria would be one of the countries that I would not want to go
back again, but as for those other countries, I basically travel, I’m a people person — I like to travel
for culture, traditions — and China and India stick more with my mind even though I was born in
India, but every time I go there I learn something different and same with China because the history
of India and Chain go back 5000 BC or 7000 BC. It's amazing to go to a country and one region to
another they’re all Chinese, their traditions are different, the foods are different, same with India.
We have so many states in India. The dialects, the languages are different, the food are different.
You go to North India, the food is completely different than when you go to the South India.
Charlie: And what are the differences with the food?
Arvi: Well, South Indians like spicy, very spicy food whereas North Indians like spicy food but most of
the northern food is mild, it’s not as spicy and in North India they are wheat eaters where when you
go to South India they are rice eaters so there's a difference. You know most people will think curry
is just one spice. Curry is not one spice. Curry is a mixture of 20 different spices. You know, you talk
to westerner and they say, "Oh, I love Indian food because I love curry.” There is no spice called
“curry.” It's a mixture of many, many different spices and foods are different. Culturally, we are all
the same, but traditions and different parts of the region are different even in different countries as I
said. The world population is 7 billion. There are about 700 languages. But we all have one human
race, we all like the same things and dislike the same things, but it's the tradition in different
countries which makes it how we get to the happiness and how we decide what’s not good.
Charlie: Right, that's amazing. So what is your favorite country to go to?
Arvi: As I said, China and India and probably I'll go over and over and over again because I like to
meet people and learn different things.
Charlie: And you also circumnavigated Antarctica, is that correct?
Arvi: Yes.
Charlie: What is that experience like?
Arvi: Fantastic. I've been to Antarctica three times. Last time I was there, I went from New Zealand
to Argentina. It was a thirty day trip across the whole Antarctic. Saw icebergs bigger than a city
block, saw the Ross Ice Shelf which is about the size of France. At places, it starts at ten feet thick to
about a hundred feet thick. It goes on and on. It takes about three days to cross the whole ice shelf.
You can see it from a distance, you can't get too close to it.
Charlie: And you were on boat? You weren't walking on foot?
Arvi: No, no. we were on a ship. It's an ice-graded ship. It’s called Ortelius. I was on that but
comparing Antarctica, it’s beautiful in the sense that that it's peaceful, very, very quiet and nature at
its best. I've been to the North Pole also. Going to the North Pole, all you see is frozen ocean there
is no scenery. It’s just you see
Charlie: Really? Just chunks of ice.
Arvi: Just frozen ocean basically, but when you go to Antarctica, you see its mountains and hills
covered with white. It's beautiful.
Charlie: It's a white mass.
Arvi: It's a white mass whereas you see just a white flat surface like ocean, you can drive in Canada
in the roadside, go towards Alaska, and you’ll see this sheet of ice on the roadside so there's nothing
to see whereas Antarctica is beautiful, beautiful, and beautiful. I mean I'd love to go back there as
many times as I can. I saw emperor penguins, saw king penguins, went to — well South Georgia is
not Antarctica but still — went to Falkland Island, went to South Georgia Island, and went to
Shackleton's grave. It's amazing to see. You know, we, in the world of today, travel in luxury
compared to what Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen what they did to get to the poles, the hardship
them…
Charlie: Oh, yeah. It's unbelievable
Arvi: You know, I went to Scott's Hut at McMurdo Station. Imagine living there in a hundred and
fifty mile wind and minus sixty degree temperature and even colder than that and surviving a winter
there. It's amazing and we go on these luxuries and we still complain. Oh, there's no Wi-Fi, there's
no phone. I mean they had nothing.
Charlie: They had nothing.
Arvi: Imagine the sacrifice these people made to get to these places and how much suffering they
had. It's amazing. It’s a marvel.
Charlie: In what time of year did you go to Antarctica in those three times?
Arvi: Well, our summer is their winter and you can't get there because everything's frozen so when
it's our winter, that’s the time we go there. The trip that I took from New Zealand to Argentina, it
started in January and finished in February.
Charlie: Oh wow, that's awesome.
Arvi: Thirty days.
Charlie: That's amazing and I was told you were also scheduled to be one of the first people to travel
on Richard Branson Space Trips.
Arvi: Yeah, but I’m not one of the first because there are people ahead of me and I’m sure the
celebrities will go much before me, but yes, I have made a deposit on that and hopefully by the end
of 2018 or maybe 2019, my turn will come.
Charlie: How excited are you for that?
Arvi: Very.
Charlie: Yeah, that’s' probably going to be really cool, huh.
Arvi: I'm looking forward to it and you know people say, “Oh, you've been to so many countries and
outer space, you can see the whole world at once.” Having been to so many countries, have I seen
everything? No. As I said, I just came back from Cyprus and [inaudible] on the third time around and
I saw something different. One lifetime is not enough to see everything there is to see in this world
and I don't even think even three lifetimes is enough, but there is so much to do and see. It's
amazing. It's fascinating.
Charlie: Yeah, that's awesome. Now what would you say to someone to inspire them to get out and
explore the world?
Arvi: Well, in my view — especially in the western world, especially in America — when a kid
graduates out of high school, what do parents do? Buy the kid a car. I would rather give the kid
$5000, buy him a ticket around the world and just go, see you in a year. I think he will learn more
than he learns in college because in college, all they do is learn to be independent and drink and
whatever. You know, have party time. Of course when you specialize in a field, that's different, but
basically, college life teaches kids to be independent and to be on your own and take responsibility
whereas if a kid went and travelled around the world and saw what's available in the world and how
other people live. We in America live in a very rich country and we have gotten so stubborn in a way
that we think everybody else is wrong. When you travel around the world, you'll see how other
people think, what they accomplish, and how they live and they're surviving sometimes — if not
better — as equal to how we are. So they must be doing something right. We present ourselves to
be very happy. We are on top of the world. Of course, we’re a rich nation, strongest nation in the
Earth. I will not live anywhere else but America, but when you go to other countries, you see the
other ways of life which is not bad.
Charlie: No, absolutely not. And do you have any tips for people trying to travel on a budget?
Arvi: You see, there are good people and bad people in every country and we see mass shootings in
America. If you don't try to be a hero when you're travelling, don't look for travel. It's safe to travel
anywhere. Even if I say Nigeria was a bad country for me, it wasn’t bad, it was my fault. I saw a guy
who tried to snatch a purse form a lady and I took a picture of it and my driver just hit me on my
hand, put the camera down once the guy had left. He said I could be shot, but then I shouldn't have
done that. Sometimes curiosity, sometimes being too curious on what’s happening, where the
crowd is — you're there for one purpose to learn things and to observe things. If you just stick with
those things, I think every country is safe to travel to.
Charlie: What are the ten places you think everyone should see at least nice in their life?
Arvi: Okay.
Charlie: If they only have ten and you got to pick ten.
Arvi: You see, for an American, anything you see in Europe you can see in America. You want
German culture? You can go somewhere where all the Germans came. For that matter, look at
Irish. You want to the more Irish America in Boston better than Ireland. I would say go to countries
like India, China, go to Vietnam because we had a Vietnam war and most people know about it,
Cambodia, and Kuwait would be nice to see — all temples — other countries in south America,
culturally go to Brazil at the carnival time. That will be fascinating for people to see how they
celebrate. Go to a small country like Trinidad and Tobago or Barbados where you see how the
Indians came and settled in west cities and where the sugarcane plantations are. Parts of Africa are
beautiful, beautiful. Tanzania is — go to South Africa to see it's a very beautiful country. Cape Town
is beautiful. They had a [inaudible] museum there.
Charlie: It's eye-opening.
Arvi: It's eye-opening. It’s amazing. Most American’s would not understand how [inaudible] work
there.
Charlie: And how recent it was.
Arvi: How recent it was. It was fascinating. I mean, go to Israel. Fantastic. If you want to see
culture and how people live — I mean, of course, there's a problem going on between the
Palestinians and the Israelis — but when you walk on Via Dolorosa and one shop is owned by an
Arab, nest shop is owned by a Jew. They sit together and smoke their pipes together. Politics are
different, but the people are people. Friends are friends.
Charlie: Yeah, nobody cares about political stuff.
Arvi: Nobody case about all of that.
Charlie: Yeah, that makes…
Arvi: People talk about religion. Every religion in the world when you come to think of it, originated
in Asia even Christianity.
Charlie: Really?
Arvi: Yeah.
Charlie: Huh. I never knew that.
Arvi: So if you want to go to religious places….
Charlie and Arvi: Go to Asia
Arvi: Look at my religion secretly and go to Golden Temple. It's one of the most beautiful…
Charlie: And where is that?
Arvi: I'm sorry — in India, in a state called Punjab. Go to Angkor Wat religious temple and go to
some of the temples in Thailand. Go to Israel, it's a place of Christ’s birth, Bethlehem. It's amazing.
Charlie: Yeah. Can I add all of that stuff to my list? What about your plans for the future? Well
obviously you are trying to get on to that space trip, but other than that you have plans here?
Arvi: I have fourteen fifteen countries left. I'm going to India end of the month.
Charlie: Okay where exactly in India are you going?
Arvi: I'm going to see a Hornbill Festival.
Charlie: What’s that?
Arvi: It's in Nagaland. It's a tribal festival which takes place every year. I used to work in the
plantations right next to Nagaland but I never saw it then when I was there. It's like one of those
things "nearer to church, but further from God."
Charlie: Yeah, exactly.
Arvi: I was there, I didn’t see it so now I'm going to go see this festival. It's called Hornbill festival
and then from there, I'm going to go to Bhutan because they have another festival on December
13th I will go see that and December 17th I’ll come back. I've been to Bhutan. I don't know how
many times. I was a little kid on the plantation. I was 17-18 years old just riding my motorcycle, lift
the wooden barrier then go to Bhutan, never need to have a visa or anything. But never thought of
witnessing the festival, witnessing this. Now because I have seen other things, I want to go see that
so that will be a trip I'll go see then.
Charlie: And then is kind of big, broad question and obviously you kind of touched upon it earlier,
but three things you would tell people for a more united planet? We kind of ask that to everything
and we're just wondering what our thoughts are.
Arvi: Well, United Planet is a very nice NGO which send people to third world countries and even
second world countries where people need help and they send people there to volunteer, learn
about different things like how other people live and think. I think it's a great establishment, I'm
very proud to know the CEO, president of United Planet David Santulli. We are also members of the
Travelers Century Club, that's how I met him.
Charlie: And what's that?
Arvi: It's for people who have travelled a hundred countries or more. So David is the regional
coordinator for TCC for Boston area so we meet once a week for three or four months. I think
United Planet is a great establishment.
Charlie: Have you ever thought about writing about your travels at all?
Arvi: Well, I'm not writing about my travels because I don't think I’m that good a person to put
things on paper. What I'm planning on doing is when after I finish every country in the world —
another 14-15 countries — I want to publish a book, a photographic journey of my life just by legacy.
It will be photographs that I have taken around the world, unique places. It could be five pictures
from one country and no pictures from another country but unique places and I want to name it
Around the World and Beyond after I come back from France. I’ve taught about it and I'm working
on it.
Charlie: Yeah, that sounds awesome. Well thank you so much, Arvi. If you've got anything else
you’d like to say, this is your time.
Arvi: Know how fast you drive on a roadway, there's always somebody ahead of you. I may have
travelled so much, but there is somebody who has done much more than me. It's not a competition,
it's to satisfy my own urge to learn and see the Earth with the time have on this planet. But many
people who travel go "I want to go to all countries in the world.” It's a competition for them. For
me, it's not a competition. For me, I think it's more about learning things, meeting people, trying out
different food, living in different cultures for the time being and being a people person. I like
meeting people from different parts of life.
Charlie: Great. Thank you so much, Arvi. We really appreciate it.
Arvi: You're welcome.
Recent Comments