At first glance, Melissa Khedar seems to be an ordinary official in Canada’s senior care sector. But, clad in a smart pantsuit–blouse combo and comfy flats as she sits down for her interview, the life enrichment professional of twenty-plus years quickly reveals another side of herself once the tape recorder begins to roll.
“While it’s true that senior life enrichment is my vocation, my real passion is traveling the world,” she says, her smile broadening, before offering up a bit of extra information. “The next regions on my bucket are East and Southeast Asia. Very soon, I plan to visit Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and the Philippines!”
Asked the natural follow-up question about how precisely she determines where she wants to visit when planning a vacation, it’s clear Melissa has thought this matter through in detail, and she does not hesitate to reply. “I pick a spot, pick a time of year—usually it’s in the fall or beginning of the year—and then start looking at flights and travel packages. I don’t often go with travel groups, as I like the flexibility of seeing unique sites and meeting the locals while traveling. I like to think of myself as less of a tourist, and more of a world traveler.”
A neophyte to globetrotting she is not. Over the course of her life, Melissa Khedar has explored quite a few of the planet’s comeliest corners, some of which are quite famous, some not so much. Under the category of the former, she has been to see the London Eye, the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum in Rome, and Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town in South Africa. She has even plunged into the depths of the Pacific Ocean to view the Great Barrier Reef with her own eyes.
On the more obscure side of Earth’s geography, Melissa Khedar has ventured off the beaten path in the country of Columbia, just beyond the town of Guatapé in Antiquoia province to behold the natural marvel of El Peñón de Guatapé, a granite monolith known locally as ‘La Piedra’ or ‘The Rock’. She has also made the trek halfway around the world to Tongariro National Park on the North Island of New Zealand to drink in that park’s breathtaking namesake, the mighty Mount Tongariro.
And not every one of her trips is strictly for the purpose of sightseeing. In February of 2024, Melissa participated in a mission to Paraguay sponsored by her church, Oakridge Bible Chapel, in partnership with Operation Mobilization, a Canadian faith-based foreign relief organization. There, she joined fellow parishioners and other compassionate souls in rolling up her sleeves and pitching in to help repair critical infrastructure and distribute much-needed supplies to a host of remote and underserved South American villages.
All totalled, Melissa Khedar has trod the ground of 38 nations and 27 American states. Never a stickler for a concierge or any of the other trappings inherent to fancy hotels, she has spent a good chunk of these trips living out of a rucksack and sleeping inside a canvas tent staked to the ground. As you might imagine, traveling in such a manner has a way of lending itself to some interesting anecdotes.
“I was camping in the southern part of Florida in 1992—just enjoying myself in the thick August heat amongst the cypress swamps and salt marshes, and spying the occasional gator—when a police car whipped into view with its lights flashing and sirens wailing,” she recounts, dialed into full storyteller mode. “It turns out that law enforcement was dispatched to the exact place I had chosen to camp with orders to evacuate everyone. Not three hours later, Hurricane Andrew made its cataclysmic landfall.”
Did such a harrowing experience sour Melissa on the concepts of either camping as a means of travel or travel itself? Upon being posed this question, she replies emphatically, “Not one little bit. I actually found it to be exhilarating, if not a little terrifying. I don’t think there’s anything that could actually deter me from wanting to keep exploring the world. It truly is the great passion of my life.”
That much is abundantly clear. As is the fact that Melissa Khedar, much like the historically devastating hurricane featured in her last story, is something of a force of nature herself.
The article Melissa Khedar: Portrait of a world traveller first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.