Fremont native heeds passion to travel

By Beverly J. Lydick/Tribune Staff

He's back.

After spending nearly two years traveling around the globe, Fremont native Dean Jacobs has returned to his hometown, carrying photographs, stories and a better understanding of the world and himself.

Back in 2001, Jacobs seemed to have it all. A Fremont High School and Wayne State College graduate, he had become a sales representative for a major pharmaceutical company, traveling throughout the United States, buying a home in California and building up material wealth.

But eventually, the success of his life seemed hollow and less than spiritually satisfying.

"I did have it all, according to what society says you're supposed to have to be happy," he says. "But how many cell phones, televisions or cars do you need?"

In his heart, Jacobs knew what he really wanted to do - explore the world while he was still young and healthy.

"I didn't want to be diagnosed with cancer or some fatal disease," he says, and never realize his dream.

So he quit his job, sold his house and spread out a world map to chart his journey around the world. Jacobs has never been married and has no children, a situation he admits made such a drastic lifestyle change much easier.

"I basically had no one to worry about but myself," he says.

Jacobs did ask his brother, Dale, a certified public accountant in Fremont, to handle his financial and legal affairs while he was away, and in the event a mishap should occur.

"(Dale) was my connection to everyone back home," says Jacobs. "He made my trip worry-free."

Bidding goodbye to his family, including parents Marilyn and the late Charles "Windy" Jacobs, and sister Nancy Baughman, all of Fremont, Jacobs boarded a plane in Los Angeles on May 16, 2001.

His first stop - the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.

Jacobs carried a backpack, which weighed somewhere between 66 and 77 pounds, depending on where he was at the time, and two cameras, including a Nikon with a 28-200mm lens. He had selected high-quality, durable clothing to wear, and set a budget of $10 per day, an amount he exceeded in some countries and stayed below in others.

Over the next 22 1/2 months, he would cross the equator four times, shoot 3,000 pictures, and spend approximately $30,000 - which covered all transportation, lodging, food and other expenses.

Jacobs stayed anywhere from one week to four months in the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, India, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Denmark, Holland, Germany, France and Portugal.

"I wanted to see, to hear, to smell, to taste and to touch the world," he said.

He did - watching albatross fly in New Zealand, hearing the crash of Victoria Falls, eating crocodile, camel and kangaroo and riding a elephant in Thailand.

Jacobs saw the Great Pyramids, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Taj Mahal and Bethlehem. He walked over the Bridge on the River Kwai, boated down the Mekong River and paraglided over the Mediterranean Sea.

But what he talks most about is the people he met along the way - the Ethiopian villagers he taught to dance the Hokey Pokey, the intensity in the gaze of the Dalai Lama, the sympathy of the Australians after Sept. 11, 2001.

"I always wanted to be an ambassador," Jacobs says, but not the kind appointed by presidents. "I became another kind of ambassador - to sing and dance and to make friends."

While he realizes many people will never have the opportunity to take as much time as he did to see the world, Jacobs says they can still make the connection. "There are ways to bring the world to you," he says, "like National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. Anyway you can, go, see, explore the world."