Kiji on Morondava Baobab Street, the most photographed spot in Madagascar

Before Kiji broke his spinal cord playing rugby at the age of 17, more than 20 years ago, he had a dream. He wanted to cycle around the world.

After he became paralysed, he did not change his dream. "Everyone has a childhood dream. Many people give up for some reason. After I broke my spinal cord, I thought I had nothing to lose anyway. The worst had happened.

"Nobody knows what will happen in the future so I decided I would do what I want."

That was the easy part. The most difficult part were the people around him "who saw me as poor, miserable, unfortunate".

"Whatever I wanted to do, people said no – you are handicapped. I told them, it is okay – if a person wants to do their own thing and are responsible for their own actions, they should be allowed to do it."

Disappointed in Japanese society, he decided to take his first trip which was to California – his aim was to study English. He stayed with a family, an experience that was to open up his world.

Because it was a big family – the mother had married three times and had children of various skin colours and ages – "they had no fixed thinking. They did not see me as wheelchair-bound but as me – it was a colourful family."

When he asked if he could go hiking with them, they did not bat an eyebrow. "They changed the hike but hiking is hiking – hilly, narrow, bumpy. My classmates helped carry me and I reached the top of the hill."

There, he learnt his first lesson. "It’s not important what I can or cannot do, more important is what I want to do or don’t want to do. Our want is more important than ability."

So over the years Kiji has travelled everywhere as he’s wanted to do since he was young. His second trip to Korea was a hard one. "Many people did not help. Younger people were very kind, older people seldom helped us. A taxi refused to take me. I hear it’s changed now but back then, many, many hassles."

And that, to him, is more important than whether a country has the physical infrastructure for the disabled. Of course, having the minimum requirements for disabled access helps but for Kiji, it’s the attitude of the people that’s more important and that determines whether a destination is accessible-friendly.

In this first trip to Singapore, which he rated "medium" for accessibility, he found that people have no time to help. "People are not so interested in others, they think only of themselves and there’s not much flexibility. There are many rules."

Kiri in Egypt

He found the people in the Middle East the kindest. "They have no facilities but it is easier to travel there because everyone is so kind."

In Uzbekistan, he said, people kept wanting to give him money. Once, when he hailed a taxi and put up his hand, the taxi driver stopped and put money in his hand. Everytime he wanted to buy ice cream, they gave it to him. "That was very good. I got a donation everywhere," he laughed."“People help each other there, there is no social services."

And for Kiji, it is the kindness of strangers that have given him the most memorable experiences during his travels.

In Myanmar, an old lady insisted he went up Mt Popa, one of the country’s most religious monuments. She said it worked miracles. And so they devised a sack out of a "sarong", thread a pole through it and carried him up the 1,518m mountain. "In Myanmar, people have time," said Kiji,

In Germany, when he wanted to go to the top of Neuschwanstein Castle because he wanted to ride a horse carriage, officials told him he could not go by wheelchair. Behind him, a queue was building up. He turned to the people in the queue and asked if he should go or should not. They said yes and they then passed him like a baton up to the castle.

"Sharing beauty and impressions with each other is more joyful than experiencing it alone," he said.

In New Zealand, they allowed him to bungy jump. In Las Vegas, when he wanted to skydive, they said no. "The New Zealanders said no problem. Normally the harness is around your ankle but they put the harness all over my body."

Jumping was the easy part, he said. Climbing up the stairs after the jump was more difficult and two men carried him to his wheelchair that was waiting in the middle of the road.

"The price was the same even though it took a lot more work with me. They have great pride in their product."

Kiji’s stories are varied and wonderful. Like the time he crashed his car into a woman’s apartment in Malta and the first thing the woman does is offer him orange juice, asking, "Are you alright?"

Or the time in the Philippines when he wanted to view the rice terraces on a mountain and they pulled him by water buffalo. By the end of the trip, he was so dirty "I just washed my body in the river."

"People think I have a lot of money to travel. I am middle class, I think. I invest in myself. Travel is my job – I am writer, guide, teacher, consultant. Do whatever you want because you don’t know what will happen next."

Learn more about Kiji at Travel For All – a Fllying Wheelchair from Japan

• Photos courtesy of Kiji