It’s a moment of truth for Isaac Stone Simonelli – a journalist, a traveler and… a magician. His four-sided dice tumbles across a table. If it lands on a “1”, he leaves that day for Myanmar, “2” to Laos, “3” to Cambodia and “4” to Malaysia. With a triumphant smile, Isaac looks up from the table. The dice shows 1.
Most travels begin with a set destination and a time frame. Most travel plans take into account budget limitations. But not Isaac’s one-year travel project. “Dice Travels”, because that’s what it’s called, started with a premise.
“It’s 365 days of living chaotically, tempting fate, enticing serendipity and letting go of free will-if such things exist,”
“The premise is simple: allow dice rolls to determine the majority of decisions faced while motorbiking across the world with a limited budget, for an entire year. It’s 365 days of living chaotically, tempting fate, enticing serendipity and letting go of free will – if such things exist,” Isaac says.
This is not a real-life adaptation of George Cockcroft’s cult classic “Dice Man”, where the antagonist, Luke Rhinehart, disregards his moral compass and sets down a truly random path of destroying his professional life, his family life, raping his neighbor and fostering a cult of unethical dice fanatics. Mr. Rhinehart lives by a single rule, and that is the rule of the dice. Once the numbers are fixed, and the dice are casted, there is no turning back. No matter what.
“ There are many of us who’ve grown bored with the doldrum, who yearns for something different.”
Dice Travel is not that type of proposition. If uprooting one’s life completely, disregarding obvious professional advancements and financially running yourself into the ground can be described as modest, then this is a much more modest foray into the unknown – if only in comparison with Mr. Rhinehart’s exploit.
“This is a chance to travel the world at whim, giving sets of options to the dice and letting them make the final decision. It’s very easy to come up with four or six options of what to do, what movie to watch or what restaurant to go to, but sometimes very difficult to make the final choice,” Isaac explains. “We don’t want to take the blame for the movie being bad or the restaurant sucking.”
“The same idea goes for travel. We don’t want to risk our holiday being miserable by getting too far off the beaten track. We’re afraid of ruining our own vacation because most of us work more than 300 days in a year just to have a few precious days off. So, we take the path that guarantees a pleasant experience. We stay at hotels with a high probability of meeting our expectations, take part in activities we are pretty sure we will like and try food we are positive we’ll enjoy.”
There is nothing wrong with this type of traveling. People have been doing it quite happily for decades. However, there are many of us who’ve grown bored with the doldrum, who yearn for something different. The struggle is taking that initial step. That’s what Dice Travels is about.
It’s about breaking patterns, and slowly expanding yourself beyond previously self-inflicted constraints. Too often, people have never tried one type of food or the other, simply because they fear they won’t like it. Well, if the dice is rolled and it orders a dish that sucks, it’s the dice’s fault. But more often than not, the new flavors and textures are a pleasant surprise.
However before the die took the reins, Isaac made one last conscious, and crucial choice – to travel by motorcycle. “After doing a three week motorcycle trip from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, it became clear to me that motorcycles are the best form of transportation when you’re traveling. They allow you to explore more off-the-beaten track attractions, meet more locals and see more of the country. This allows you to see everything between destination A and B – and there are plenty of wonders between nearly any two travel points,” he says. “Given the premise of ‘Dice Travels’, which is to handover many decisions to the dice, going by motorcycle seemed only natural.”
But of course, there is a catch. While the Dice Travels’ premise talks about one year long journey, its budget allows only for an estimated six to eight months of travel. How will Isaac manage to fund the rest of the trip is still a bit of a mystery, though he’s not opposed to rolling up his sleeves and doing some honest work.
“I don’t know what exactly will happen when I run out of money, but the project will continue, the dice will continue to be thrown every day. However, it might have to determine what work I do for a month or two as I save up in some foreign country. Ideally, Simonelli’s Magic Traveling Show will be able to provide some funds while I’m on the road,” he says with a sly smile.
Once a magician, always a magician. Among the clothes and other travel essentials packed on the bike, Isaac has dozens and dozens of magic tricks for on-the-go performances.
“Even if it doesn’t make money, it’s a great way to interact with people and break the ice. For many tricks you don’t need to speak at all, magic can transcend language barriers and connect people,” he explains.
“No matter what though, the dice will be in charge for the entire year. It will be choosing where I go, what I do and what goes into my belly.”
Isaac admits that the project is not for everyone, but encourages everyone to add some dice games to their next travel plans, and not only there.
“Why not? Give it something simple like where to eat out of the top five places listed on Trip Adviser. Or let it decide something funny and completely random. In fact, each day dicetravels.com puts up six options that people can roll between and do that day. You don’t need to be traveling to play,” Isaac explains.
“When you think about it, traveling is about gaining a new perspective and breaking your daily habits. The dice makes it easy to do that, even if you aren’t traveling. So go ahead and give them a throw.”
Daily updates of Isaac’s Dice Travel adventures can be found at dicetravels.com, as well as on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at Dice Travels.
