In his travels, Jeffrey Polnaja has been shot at, lost in the desert and had his motorcycle stolen or hit by trucks.
But none of those things have deterred the Indonesian motorcycle rider from attempting to complete a solo ride around the world.
Polnaja passed through Prince George this week on the second leg of his Ride for Peace, a journey he began in 2006.
Years ago, while watching television with his family back home in Indonesia, Polnaja was struck by a question from his young son.
"He said, 'hey dad, what's going on with this world?'" Polnaja recalled. "He said, 'you're always telling us about loving people and to love each other, but we see people killing each other on TV.'"
The idea of dedicating a motorcycle ride to peace came from his 10-year-old son. "I was amazed," Polnaja said. "How can this little boy speak about peace?"
A lifelong daredevil, Polnaja was intrigued by the idea and by 2006 had sold his company, acquired a couple of sponsors and set out from Jakarta for a 72-country jaunt through Asia, Africa and Europe that ended in London, England, three years later.
He returned home a hero, receiving a lifetime achievement award from the country's motorcycle association, and kept busy giving presentations and writing a book on his experience. But Polnaja wasn't through.
Last spring he set out again from Paris, to begin the second leg of his journey east through Siberia, Korea and Japan before sending his bike across the ocean to Vancouver to tackle North America.
He was one week into his ride when he hit a snag that caused a three-month delay.
"Unfortunately, my bike was stolen in Amsterdam," Polnaja said. While losing one's motorcycle is problematic at the best of times, for Polnaja he felt as if he had lost a friend.
"That bike had so many stories for me," he said. Those tales include dodging bullets in Afghanistan and losing his way in a Pakistan desert, injured and without a working navigation system, thinking it was the last ride he would ever take.
But Polnaja has made new memories with his new bike and continues his journey, as the first Indonesian to make such an excursion.
While in the city, Polnaja stayed with the Sandahl family, an association he made through friends he made while staying in Vancouver for five months waiting for the weather to warm up enough to continue his ride.
He will return to the city later this month after driving to the northern tip of Alaska before carrying on east.
"Prince George is like a base for me here," he said. "I've made good friends."
According to Polnaja. Indonesians look fondly on Canadians, and have ever since Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau visited the country in 1971.
By the time his ride wraps up in late 2015 or early 2016, Polnaja will have also hit Central and South America, New Zealand and Australia.
"I would like to inspire the young, inspire them to catch their dream," he said. "Nothing is really impossible. It's only impossible until somebody does it."
