Estonian teacher on intriguing world travel

Oct 06, 2013 News

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–    Journey began two years ago, 38 countries already seen

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, rather than by the ones you did, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover,”- those were the words by Mark Twain which motivated an Estonian teacher to leave the comforts of his home to explore “the greatness of the world”.
Tarmo Tamming is 53-years-old and has been driving to various countries since

2011, in a bus which is just about 20 years old. Despite some of the challenges he talks about, the man declared in an interview with Kaieteur News that “it is all worth it.”
He explained that apart from meeting and befriending different kinds of people and learning about the unique cultures, travelling the world has given him a new perspective about life and has made him realize that people, no matter which part of the globe they are from, are all the same.
The countries that Tamming has visited thus far include Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somaliland, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, South-Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Republic of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Guyana.
Tamming arrived at Lethem around midday last Wednesday, and will be leaving Georgetown sometime this week, to go to go to Suriname, but surely not before visiting the majestic Kaieteur Falls.
Tamming said that he chose to visit the countries where tourists usually do not visit, to extract the beauties of each, and later sharing his experiences and discoveries with others. He, however, chose Guyana mainly because of the Kaieteur Falls and the famous pristine forest.
Tamming said that he has been making notes and taking pictures of every place he has visited so far, and plans to one day pen a book, inspiring others to invest in traveling, which he believes is a lot cheaper and more fulfilling than having the nicest house and the fanciest car, while going to work for the same company, doing the same job over and over again.
Prior to the commencement of his journey, Tarmo Tamming was a teacher specified in the area of Microsoft training, and used to teach persons from big companies all that there is needed to know about Microsoft programmes.
He described his as a modest, simple life; a married father of two. Both his son and daughter are married, and he explained that his wife did not think that travelling the world in a bus was a wise idea.

However, he was determined to follow his dreams. His family has visited him once, when he was in Argentina.
Tamming believes that the one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd, while those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.
He was previously living in Keila, Harjumaa, Estonia. Officially known as the Republic of Estonia, this is a state located in the northern part of Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km).
The Estonians are a Finnic people, and the official language, Estonian, is a Finno-Ugric language closely related to Finnish, and distantly to Hungarian. Tamming admitted that while he knows a little English, he finds it hard to understand it in some places, like here in Guyana.
Estonia’s population of 1.3 million makes it one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Reflecting on his two years of traveling, Tamming said that it wasn’t easy. He recalls spending uncomfortable nights in his vehicle, and worrying about having a safe place to sleep during his visits to almost every country.
He said, however, that in some cities, he would stay in hotels. While in Guyana, he had been staying at Tropicana Hotel located at 177 Waterloo St., South Cummingsburg, and popularly known as ‘Jerries Restaurant and Bar’.
So far, Tamming noted that he has been enjoying his stay here in Guyana, highlighting that it is good to see people of different races, with different cultures, living in one place.

He said that he wants to leave this world, knowing that he has lived life to its fullest.
“I am not the same person I was when I first started,” Tamming said, noting that his experiences so far have turned him into a much more humble person who now has a more open mind to other traditions, races, religions, and personalities.
The explorer plans to complete his tour of South America by the end of this year, after which he will go back home and decide on where to go next.
“The most important thing is that I was able to see most of it. There are people who have lived in one state all of their lives; but that is not living, it is existing. To live, we must go places; see things…meet new people – that is fulfillment. This world belongs to us all, so let us explore it, and live in the true sense of living.”
In concluding, Tamming emphasized that the world is not as unsafe as many may think, and that human beings are a lot more considerate and helpful than some people may imagine.

 

 

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