Featured traveller: Robert Barker – BJJ Globetrotters
Age: 40
Belt: Purple
Profession: Student / hospitality (hotels)
How many years in BJJ: 10
Other martial arts: Green belt in Japanese Jiu Jitsu, experience in various other wrestling/grappling arts I picked up while travelling
Where do you live: Currently living in Perth, Western Australia
Where are you from: Petawawa, Ontario, Canada
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: I have over 200 hours of tattoo work covering my body… everyone fixates on my beard or moustache.
Robert Barker – BJJ Globetrotters
Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
When I first started my travels and the Panda’s Odyssey blog, it spawned from my childhood conversations with friends about where to travel and what styles to train in, based on the Street Fighter V cartoon series. There was also a Canadian series hosted by an Aikido black belt who travelled and trained for a week in different martial arts, called “World’s Deadliest Arts”, that my friends and I would talk about.
This past year, however, has been fuelled by a different urge. I travelled across Canada (again) and then over to Australia because of school and work. I’m currently studying a double major Bachelor of Commerce at Curtin University, and I decided to come here because I have friends to train with and I hope to set up shop near a beach one day.
Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
This past year, I took a road trip across Canada as I moved from the west coast back to my hometown. That’s a 5000 km road trip. I took my time, visited friends and family along the way, and drove the whole distance in two weeks. I would have loved to take two months to visit and train with more people along the way, but COVID put a stop to that. I was lucky enough to be able to drop into a new school, as well as meet up and train at two schools I first visited in 2017 when I began Panda’s Odyssey. It was great to meet up with friends I made along the first trip, and catch up on what’s been going on the past five years since we last trained. Of course, talking BJJ and COVID politics came up, and I was able to see how everyone has dealt with the lockdowns across Canada, both as members of the sport looking to train, and as gym owners looking to keep their business alive.
Once I was re-situated back in my hometown to begin my first semester of university online (I do not recommend taking classes on a 12hr time difference), I began teaching and training at a gym there, Evolution BJJ Pembroke. I’ve been close friends with the Evolution guys while travelling all over Canada, and now I was able to be a part of the club and not just a drop-in visitor. Teaching and training on an army base is a different animal – there’s a noticeably higher level of aggression. It was quite the experience to apply my teaching style and knowledge to a different audience. Part of learning as you move up the ranks I guess, but I must have done well enough, since during my time there I was awarded two stripes on my purple belt.
Just before the holidays, I was surprised with good news that I could finally move to Australia. So I began my plans to move to Perth, Western Australia, 18,000km away from home. Why Perth? Short answer is because I can. I want to work in hotels and run tourist events in a warm place, preferably near or on a beach. Long answer is this: since first putting together the idea of my world backpacking experience, maybe even before coming up with the name Panda’s Odyssey, the first person to reach out to me online was Luke Docherty, who invited me out to Perth. As I went on my Odyssey, Luke began his own travel experience, Free Rollers, where a small group of people holds a 2-week training camp at a top-level gym somewhere in the world. I finally met him on his first trip to San Diego where we trained two, sometimes even three times a day at University of Jiu-Jitsu. We also dropped by Victory MMA, Atos BJJ, and 10th Planet. Ever since then we talked a lot about running camps, with a gym and a hotel to tie it all together.
Over the past two years, COVID shut down Luke’s Free Rollers plans, so he opened a gym, Taurus BJJ. On weekends, when I don’t have my head in the books or at work, I head 90 mins south of Perth on public transport to his gym to have some great rolls with the guys. Once my schedule allows I’ll be there more often and may even teach a class. I might also check out some open mats closer to me once in a while, but Taurus will be my home gym while I’m here, so if anyone makes the trek all this way, come visit us!
Robert Barker – BJJ Globetrotters
What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
I love the experience of seeing new places, and being able to travel and explore a city I’ve never been to before. I also love trying new foods. While I’m not the most open to trying anything when it comes to food, I do love to eat. Of course I also love meeting new people – new friends to share stories with, to train with on the mats, and to show me the city and where it’s good to eat.
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
Sunsets and sunrises at a new view are always worth travelling for. I think the coolest thing that I enjoy about travelling is being able to find common ground and connect with people all over the world. Sometimes it’s not always easy to make that first icebreaker, but usually I end up with a new friend anywhere I go.
As far as training goes, I’ve gained a collection of tidbits of knowledge from my travels, and they have proven to be quite useful when teaching at a new place. I’m able to relate a different view of the technique, or concept, or whatever we’re talking about, and it tends to resonate and set off fireworks. Helping someone make the connections to finally make sense of Jiu Jitsu is worth travelling for, to gain that knowledge and share it to others along the way.
What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
I always expect things to go unexpectedly while travelling, I see it all as an adventure, or a series of adventures, good or bad. But the most surprising thing is that I still run into people who follow me on IG and have read my blog/watched my videos. Speaking of my blog, I should probably update that…
Robert Barker – BJJ Globetrotters
Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
I would like to think I’ve found ways to travel cheaply, or at least stay within a budget, but I know people who are way better at it then me and are more deserving of the term “budget traveller”. As far as planning a budget, Google is a valuable tool. Look up the prices of things, hostel/hotel stays, restaurants, even the flyer to the local grocery store of where you plan on visiting. From that you can estimate how much accommodation and food will cost.
For my backpacking trip around the world, Panda’s Odyssey, I used spreadsheets to track all my expenses and keep within budget on my stays. It was more just monitoring finances than anything – it was quite basic really. For my trip across Canada I stepped up the spreadsheet skills. I had a budget I wanted to keep within, but also really wanted to travel in comfort within that budget. So not only was I tracking daily expenses, separated into categories like food, gas, lodgings etc., but I also had a total tally for each category, a total for all expenses, and a “budget remaining” total. So basically I could enter my breakfast receipt into a cell, and in turn all the totals would add up and show me how much I’ve spent for food that day, over the total trip so far, and how much money I had in my budget for the remaining trip. That was a lot of fun to come up with, and it really helped monitor my daily spending.
If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Take every chance you get. Even if it fails, you had an adventure and gained experience, and now you have a story to tell. Do nothing and you have nothing to learn or share. Nobody wants to listen to stories about chances you didn’t take.
