Ben's Adventures : Pistol squatting all over the world

Pistol on Koh Nang Yuan, Thailand

Crossfit. I am obsessed. For me it is not a fad, it has become a calling and one that I love to pieces and wish I had discovered many years ago.

One of the most easily recognisable crossfit exercises is the pistol squat. A one legged squat with the other leg shooting out like a pistol's barrel. Hense the name!

Recognisable in almost any attire and even in silhouette. It is also an easy exercise to do while travelling as you need no equipment whatsoever.

I am not sure why but it seems to be a great one to take a photo of when you are overseas or in a random location.

This is what I have been doing over the past few months and finally have enough to write a little piece about it.

Festival of San Fermin pistol. Just after the bull run, Spain.

I am not too sure where I was when I did my first overseas pistol. But that one suddenly opened the flood gates and many photos followed.

After running with the Bulls in the Festival of San Fermin I managed to get a cheeky pistol in the arena just before a young steer was released. I was utterly buzzing by this point and am quite amazed I remembered at all to get this photo. It’s amazing how much adrenaline courses through your veins when you do something incredibly dangerous.

Ukraine

Riot battered and edgy Kiev was the next pistol location. What made this one harder was it was in jeans.

Pistol at Maidan Square, Kiev, Ukraine

Banners were draped over Maidan Square and the campsite or freedom fighters were noisily singing and chanting and smoking and generally looking menacing just in front of me.

However I managed to pull a pistol squat off at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant the next day.

In the background you can see the reactor number 4 hidden underneath its aging and crumbling sarcophagus and the new one being painfully slowly built.

Away from danger and places of dark tourism the pistols squats have come out at places of utter beauty.

Koh Tao in Thailand up the top of a hill overlooking the waves hit the rocky shore and also in front of one of the most beautiful mind blowing things I have ever seen. The Taj Mahal in Agra, India.

Pistol at Chernobyl powerplant, Ukraine. Reactor number 4 can be seen int he background

In India I may have become a little pistol carried away and got photos at Fatepur Sikri. The abandoned city, many are not sure why it was abandoned but Akbar the Magnificent who built it was rumoured to have 500 concubines!

A pistol was seen at the Holiest city on the River Ganges, Varanasi. Although It had to be done quickly before another person tried to sell me a boat trip.

Pistols even popped up in Delhi and at tombs.

Taj Mahal Pistol

The lesser known Humayun’s tomb in Delhi was one such place. A beautiful tomb which inspired the Taj Mahal.

Pistol outside Humayuns tomb, Delhi

After posing for that photo I turned round to look at the tomb. There standing maybe 200 meters from me was a guy with a long beard. We wore robes and a head scarf but was in a t shirt. He looked local but also traveller and I couldn’t tell where we was from. What made me look at him was he was busting out a couple of pistols and waving at me. Then he simply stopped and disappeared, so I will never know who the tomb pistol photo bomber ever was.

I look back at my travels and wish I had known this move so I could have done it at places such as Petra, the Serengeti, Victoria Falls, Stonehenge, Uluru, Table Mountain, Angkor Wat, and On the River Nile or in front of the Sphinx and the Pyramids.

Although maybe if I had would the novelty have worn off?Maybe it has and may I have pistol squatted the novelty photo to death. I recently went to Milan and didn’t do one there. So maybe I am all pistol squatted out?

Only time will tell.

In the meantime it back to crossfit……….