The only Indian to be awarded the Ness award by Royal Geographical Society, UK for mountaineering and polar expeditions and encouragement for youth exploration, Mandip Singh Soin, founder and managing director, Ibex Expeditions, is all set to lead an expedition to Antartica in February, 2017. His love for the outdoors has taken him trekking, skiing and exploring around 45 countries and six continents. Speaking to Express TravelWorld, he shares about his latest adventures By Saloni Bhatia
A mountaineer, explorer and motivational speaker, Soin is also an adventure specialist. The award winning travel company, Ibex Expeditions is led by him and his wife, Anita Soin. Their passion towards the environment has directed them to work with various collaborations in order to raise awareness about eco-tourism. Their well planned trips are customised in a way that leaves the traveller in awe of the country. Sharing about the company, Soin said, “The concept of Ibex was already born in 1979 and for the first 10-15 years, we focused on mountain expeditions, treks, exploring new areas and then we got into jeep safaris and wildlife. By later in the 90s, when Anita joined me, we got into customised trips and started organising culinary journeys, artist tours and photography trips. Along the lines we thought the idea is not to go big in numbers, but to restrict ourselves to stay customised and give people an in depth experience that inspires them. We always like to pepper in some ideas for depending on what the client’s profile is.”
For someone who followed the adventure trail at the age of 14, Soin has come a long way in changing the travel segment in our country. Talking about his efforts to promote eco-tourism, he shared, “From the beginning we have been very conscious about the environment. It was the right thing to do and we helped government make the policy. I think our travel industry doesn’t need be a cheap cookie cutter industry, where you have to keep very high profits. Everything can be balanced if done responsibly, because in case you offer a cheap trip, it simply ruins the experience of the traveller. It is the duty of the organisations who are offering these trips to be aware and inform others as well.” Soin’s last expedition was to Peru, covering the iconic Machu Picchu and Amazon forest. He expressed, “What we did again with Peru was a combination of going to the iconic Machu Picchu, but also doing a trek and through the Amazon. Where most people go on the Northern part of the forest, we picked the Southern part. We also spent two nights at a research centre as part of the trip. So we designed it in a way that it would give us the Taj Mahal of Peru along with a great experience. We rafted down the river and also walked with the local community and stayed in one of their homes as well.”
He added, “One of my best expeditions was to the Arctic. It was a special expedition and we were measuring the hole in the ozone layer at that time at 80 degrees North Arctic area. We were based there for a month and we could see the sun going from one point to the other as there was 24 hours of daylight. Now I am really looking forward to the Antarctica expedition under the 2041 campaign. That is the year when the Antarctica treaty would come to an end and will be negotiated. The current treaty says that no country can own any part of Antarctica, so there is no mining apart from the research activities. And that is the way we would like it to be. The idea is to take the travellers who are conscious about the environment and become more aware this journey”