Matador Network's Blog, page 2241

Luciana and Miguel

Image: Eduardo Amomrim

A FEW YEARS BACK my house lease was up, not to be renewed, and I found myself desperately needing a place to hang my hat. When I was offered the chance to inhabit an abandoned house on a large plot of beautiful land at the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, I was naïve enough to think I was moving into a place where the only difference was that I would be invited to some killer authentic asados by my very gaucho neighbor who owned the place.

Little did I know I was about to enter not just a new house, but a whole new world. One where men still handle problems directly with a knife or shotgun, and where, in my opinion, too many women understand that what’s expected of them is not much more than keeping their mouths shut, the mate water heated, and their legs spread wide open on demand by their husbands.

Not exactly an ideal environment for an independent, outspoken, ‘peace-and-love’ liberal woman to end up.

I found myself living on this land because my best friend, Alejandro, had been close to the gaucho, Miguel, for years; through him, I was accepted as extended family that needed help. While Ale is originally from the city, he throws a knife with more accuracy and less hesitation than even the fiercest of the gauchos, and thrives for long stints in the middle of nowhere with little to no resources outside his stubborn spirit. He is treated like one of them. Ale’s recommendation of me was good enough to get me a house.

All went well in the beginning, although the culture clashes were obvious. My choosing to paint the interior walls purple and red and yellow and orange was met with a confused shaking of the head. The contemporary art sculpture of a butterfly that Ale and I whimsically assembled one afternoon out of scrap roofing materials and posted in the front yard…even more confusion. (Mental note: Gauchos in general do not have a finely tuned appreciation of whimsy.) And let’s not even touch on my on-and-off vegetarianism in a culture that lives off goat and cow.

While I can’t say I ever felt entirely welcome (gauchos aren’t exactly world famous for their warm, affectionate nature), I did feel fully tolerated at first. I was an alien of sorts, an exception to the rule. Miguel didn’t really know what to do with me, so he took Alejandro’s lead and treated me how Alejandro did.

Suffice it to say, then, that I was treated much differently than the gaucho’s wife, Luciana. I got invited to ride horses into the mountains with Ale, Miguel, and Miguel’s brothers. I drank whiskey, hunted, and played truco (a card game) like one of the guys. I was never once looked down upon; I was actually treated like an equal.

It was fine when I was just with the guys, but when I was offered a cigarette or the bottle of wine at an asado, for example, when Miguel’s wife was ‘forbidden’ by him to smoke or drink, I would feel the weight of my special status within her glare.

Part of me felt like cheering her on every time I saw her question her husband. Part of me was very scared for what might happen after, when I was not there.

Resentment turned to curiosity, and soon enough Luciana started to show up on my doorstep almost every afternoon. We would bake bread together, drink mate, talk about our kids…and always the talk would eventually come around to my lifestyle. “So, Ale lets you have other male friends…?” (Um, yeah. I am friends with whomever I choose, male or female.) “You work. You make your own money?” (Last I checked, no prince on a white horse showed up to whisk me away and pay my bills, so yup. I work. A lot.) “You travel by yourself?” (Often. I love nothing more than to hit the open road by myself).

Soon my house and our afternoon talks became a sort of refuge for her, and day by day I could see Luciana challenging long-held beliefs about what her life was ‘supposed’ to look like. Luciana had a friend buy her a pack of cigarettes, and she would hide them in my backyard and sneak a smoke in the late afternoon, when Miguel would not be around. She asked to go into town with me one day to hang out with me and some of my girlfriends. Although in the end Miguel told her that she had to stay and mind the house, it was a huge step for her just to vocalize her desire for girl time. She took the initiative to get a job picking garlic in the fields, even made arrangements to be able to take her young daughter along with her, but this step towards economic independence was seen as an insult and a threat. The next thing I knew, her excitement about the job morphed into resignation that it was not going to be ‘allowed’ to happen.

I began to see massive tension building in her household. Part of me felt like cheering her on every time I saw her question her husband. Part of me was very scared for what might happen after, when I was not there. And a big part of me was scared to be seen as a cause of their marital difficulties. As I saw how he tried to keep her stifled, my relationship with Miguel slowly began to deteriorate. I started to keep my distance from him (especially after he shot my beloved dog point blank one day, but that is for another story).

Luciana grew up as a goatherd, living deep in the Andes with her grandmother. Not educated in any traditional sense of the word, she had always assumed she would live out every day of her life working her grandmother’s land. When Miguel passed through on a horse one day, and whisked her as a teenage girl 150km away to his land, for her that was a breath of fresh air and a huge shift in what she had expected of her life. But now she dared to dream even more.

I found myself questioning if she was better off having met me or not. She admitted to me that before having met me, she had not dreamed much, but she had basically been…content. I felt as though I helped spark her to dream, to dream big and to dream loudly, but as a result she was becoming less content with her current lifestyle by the day.

Alejandro approached me one day, ashen, to tell me that Luciana had just begged him to drive her back to her grandmother’s farm and not tell Miguel. He was torn. While Ale supports the freedom of any person to go after their dreams, male or female, he also knew the culture and temperament of Miguel all too well. He knew that meddling in his marriage, helping Miguel’s wife to leave, would be seen as grounds for shotguns to be loaded and knives to be sharpened, and that none of us — Luciana, Ale, or I — would be immune from Miguel’s anger.

I felt horrid, like I was somehow personally responsible for breaking up a marriage and tearing apart a family. I felt like it was my fault that people I cared for deeply were now in a situation of potential danger. I also felt like I had, in my own way, said a giant “fuck you” to a man who had been nothing but kind to me, a man who gave me a house to live in and access to a place within gaucho culture I am sure few women have been able to experience firsthand.

At the same time I felt inspired, like I was maybe somehow personally responsible for breaking up a shitty marriage where the woman received zero respect and where she lived in fear. Like I had triggered a friend to start dreaming big and to think of better possible realities for herself and her daughter.

Is it okay for me, as a foreigner, a complete outsider, to harshly judge actions within another culture I can’t ever pretend I fully understand, and may never be able to?

That week, Luciana decided to stay put and I decided to leave. To be honest, it broke my heart to hear that she would stay. But within that was a great lesson for me personally. Author Steve Maraboli has said, “When we are judging everything, we are learning nothing.” Once I could stop judging her and Miguel for a second, I could understand with more clarity that everyone must be accountable for themselves and walk their own path. You can inspire, you can give resources and support, but every individual will implement change only at the pace and in the form that feels right for them. Call me overly optimistic or downright ignorant, but I choose to trust that people do the best they can within the level of consciousness they have at the time.

After a while I learned to not question too much if what my presence had awakened within her family was ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ I had tried to act with respect towards all involved. I had been available as a friend to both Miguel and Luciana. I had tried my damndest to understand both of them, even though as a female dreamer who had recently left her own husband and confining marriage, it was much easier for me to relate to Luciana. I may have opened someone’s mind to a larger world of possibilities and someone’s heart to dream bigger, but at the price of creating friction and discontent. So be it. I accept it.

But along with lessons learned, I was also left with a pile of questions I’m still working on. Is it okay for me, as a foreigner, a complete outsider, to harshly judge actions within another culture I can’t ever pretend I fully understand, and may never be able to? Are some things, such as extreme machismo, universally ‘wrong,’ or is it not that black and white? How arrogant am I to assume that my chosen way of life is somehow better than what others choose? Would a life on her own, separated from her husband, with no education, money, or support, really be all that much easier or better for Luciana and her daughter?

I once read, and it stuck with me, that “to love a person enough to help him, you have to forfeit the warm, self-righteous glow that comes from judging.” Luciana, whether you are still married, if you are goatherding with Grandma, or whether we cross paths on some random beach somewhere and laugh about how your past seems lifetimes behind you as we finally share that bottle of wine you were not ‘able’ to enjoy before: Know that I love you and I care about you. Know that you impacted me just as much as I may have impacted you.

Every time I put my thumb up along the side of the road and am facing infinite possibilities of where I might end up that day, I think of you. Knowing you has made it easier for me to vow that my happiness will never be dependent on any other person, let alone a man, and I thank you for that. I learned that there are perspectives to gain from every single person who appears in our lives — and often, most so when we initially feel ‘against’ or ‘different’ from that person. You deserve happiness, Luciana, but you also deserve to choose in what form that happiness comes, without being judged by your friends.

23 kickass sci-fi vessels [pics]

We’re in the 21st century, well beyond the year 2000. Where the hell are our flying cars? Why is commercial space travel not a thing yet?

Despite our best efforts at imitating the jet packs, hovercrafts, and newfangled flyin’ machines (even the experience of zero g) we read about and saw in movies as kids, they pale in comparison to all the incredible means of travel promised to us by decades of science fiction.

While some of the once-fantasies of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells have been realized by modern science and technological advances, here are 23 kickass vessels and vehicles we’re aching for the R&D teams to hurry up and develop.

1

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
"It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs." Need I say more? Probably not, but I’m going to. Maybe the most famous sci-fi spaceship of all time, the Millennium Falcon ain’t pretty, but it’s such an iconic vessel that I’ve always dreamed of traveling on it. Shooting down TIE fighters from my own turret, making the jump to light speed, even letting the Wookiee win. After all, it may not look like much, but it's got it where it counts, kid.
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2

TARDIS (Doctor Who)
If you’ve seen Doctor Who, then I know that you (like me) yearn for that WHOOSH WHOOSH sound to signal the appearance of the TARDIS in your backyard so you can be whisked away for an adventure out among the stars. As if it weren’t enough to control both space and time, the ship (disguised as a 1950s police box) is bigger on the inside and contains an ever-changing array of rooms, from a library to a swimming pool. It’s hard to imagine getting cabin fever in the TARDIS.
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3

USS Enterprise (Star Trek)
Probably the only sci-fi spaceship that could ever contend with the Millennium Falcon in terms of fame, the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek series is no less beloved and (in its many incarnations) has certainly seen more screen time. I’m not a Trekkie myself, but I'd definitely be in awe if I could travel the galaxy on the bridge of the Enterprise, provided it was being captained by Patrick Stewart.
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4

The Batmobile (Batman)
“But the Batmobile exists!” you say. “You can buy one on the internet!” I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you there—you can buy cars disguised to look like the Batmobile on the internet, but the REAL Batmobile, with all its bells and whistles, all its state-of-the-art bat-tech, is still just a sci-fi fantasy that our technologies have yet to fully approximate. But one day we'll be able to build the Batmobile. And then it will be mine…Oh yes, it will be mine.
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5

Heart of Gold (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
The Heart of Gold is the first ship in the galaxy to be equipped with an infinite improbability drive. While the science behind it is a little beyond me, Douglas Adams explains that “as soon as the ship's drive reaches infinite improbability, it passes through every point in the universe, thus allowing the ship to go anywhere without all of that mucking about with hyperspace and what not.”

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6

Light cycle (TRON)
Growing up a fan of video games, I couldn’t help but find everything about TRON super cool. The concept was super cool, the techniques used to make the movie were super cool, and the content itself was super freaking cool. I've wanted to ride a light cycle since I was a little kid, watching the 1982 original. Not only could the glowing bars transform into the most amazing motorcycles ever imagined in cyberspace, but they could become planes too (and I think the best part for me was knowing that the machines served no higher purpose than the pursuit of fun).
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7

Podracers (Star Wars)
Probably the closest a sci-fi vessel has ever come to imitating a horse-and-carriage setup, Star Wars podracers are tiny cockpits attached by long cables to two huge engines, meant for ultra-fast land races across desert terrain. Sure, the races are dangerous, but for the Tatooine equivalent of the Indy 500 how could they not be?
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8

Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle)
While it may be a loose interpretation of a sci-fi vessel, Howl’s Moving Castle is no less fascinating than any of the other vehicles on this list. A seemingly autonomous hodgepodge of metal and timber with a mismatched set of eyes and what appear to be big steel chicken legs, the Castle is powered by a magical fire named Calcifer. While most of the Castle’s interior remains a mystery, its most enticing feature is the magical door that opens on a different place every time you turn the dial.
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9

DeLorean (Back to the Future)
Okay, let’s be honest—the DeLorean is a dated car. It's boxy and ugly, which is barely helped by the gull-wing doors, and it never really gained any traction in the auto industry. However, Doc Brown and Marty McFly drove that garish automobile into the history books (no pun intended) when they used it as their time machine in the Back to the Future series. Granted, most of the series revolves around the DeLorean’s inability to function properly for one reason or another, but I can’t imagine crash landing in the 1950s any other way.

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10

Nautilus (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
The Nautilus, originally from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, might be the original sci-fi vessel. An ultra-powerful submarine, very scientifically advanced and capable of extreme speeds, the Nautilus has been recreated several times since the original story. By far my favorite was the steampunk-y rendition from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with its clean lines, silver scrollwork, and minimalist interior. But no matter what it looks like, there’s no ship within which I’d rather visit the depths of the ocean.
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11

The invisible plane (Wonder Woman)
Wonder Woman’s invisible plane is the butt of a lot of mockery (but, personally, I can’t see why). It’s an Invisible. Plane. Sure, you’d literally run into it every now and then, but you could travel huge distances at great speed in secret, and it even travels through SPACE! Plus you’d never get a parking ticket—just try really hard not to forget where you left it.
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12

Battlestar Galactica (Battlestar Galactica)
Classified as a “Battlestar” (a battleship/carrier hybrid starship), Galactica represents the Colonial planet Caprica. Though the ship survived the Cylon attack largely because of a case of technophobia and not because of any outstanding military might, it boldly undertook the epic quest of leading surviving civilians to the legendary planet called “Earth.”
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13

Serenity (Firefly)
Serenity is the Firefly-class transport vessel that gave the beloved Firefly TV series (and subsequent movie) its name. Sure, maybe all of the crew's antics aren’t entirely legal, but I’d trade pretty much anything to serve as a space cowboy under Mal Reynolds. Much like the Millennium Falcon, Serenity is an older model that needs a lot of TLC to keep running but laughs in the face of those that doubt it.

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14

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)
Life on the Nebuchadnezzar never looked particularly comfortable or luxurious, but I think a little bit of stark reality is a fair tradeoff for a lifetime of unconscious servitude in the Matrix. Don’t get me wrong—those goo pods looked plenty comfortable (until you woke up) and the Matrix does sort of approximate real life (even if it’s not), but I think the chance to be on the front lines of the battle against the machines sounds way more epic.
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15

Silver surfboard (The Silver Surfer)
The Silver Surfer’s silver surfboard (say that 10 times fast) is made of the same impervious, cosmically powered substance as his skin. It can travel through space (including black holes) as well as time and is controlled entirely by the Surfer’s mind. It even has the ability to attack, absorb, and imprison enemies. I’d love to see the look on someone’s face as I brain-piloted a giant silver surfboard at them.
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16

RLS Legacy (Treasure Planet)
Disney’s Treasure Planet never got much hype. It was a weird little movie with an overdone premise and not enough interest. But its take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale was just innovative enough that it supplied not one but TWO sci-fi vehicles on this list. First and greatest of the two is the RLS Legacy (RLS being an abbreviation for Robert Louis Stevenson), a giant sailing ship capable of space travel, with huge solar sails powered by starlight. Maybe not the most probable or convenient way of getting through space, but you have to admit it looks pretty grand.
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17

USS Planet Express Ship (Futurama)
The USS Planet Express is the delivery spaceship from Matt Groening’s Futurama universe. Functioning as a sort of interplanetary FedEx truck, the ship can move faster than the speed of light, simply by shifting the entire universe in relation to itself, a function accomplished by its dark matter engine. If you want to pilot the Planet Express, make sure you know stick—apparently it’s operated by an automobile manual transmission.
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18

Valley Forge (Silent Running)
In a post-apocalyptic world, I think one of the best places to be would be on a starship preserving all of the remaining living specimens from Earth. That’s the purpose of Valley Forge, a space freighter with the eventual intention of repopulating the planet with its own native species. Sort of a Noah’s space ark, the Valley Forge isn't the prettiest ship on the outside, but the view of space from the tree canopies inside one of those bio-domes would be unrivaled.
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19

Terrariums (2312)
The terrariums from Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 are a little-known but very intriguing concept. The story, set in the future, has humans living on Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, and the terrariums are their means of transportation throughout the system. Created from hollowed-out asteroids, these terrariums are designed to mimic the various human biomes and are present in almost every asteroid in the solar system.
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20

Voltron (Voltron: Defender of the Universe)
I’ll admit it—my memories of the Voltron cartoons aren’t great, and for a long time I thought Voltron was just some robot dude doing its own robot thing. Turns out, that’s not the case—Voltron is the super-robot that’s formed when a whole bunch of other robots (all piloted by people) piece together like a giant fighting robot puzzle. And if I had to choose, I think the way I’d want to save the world would be driving giant robots with a bunch of my best friends.
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21

Solar surfer (Treasure Planet)
Closely related to the RLS Legacy, but on a smaller scale, this second vessel from Treasure Planet is also powered by a solar sail but utilizes that power in a different way. Rather than pulling a giant boat through space, the solar surfer behaves much more like a wind-surfing rig. With its one-man board, tiny engine, and steering control, the solar surfer is simple but elegant, and from a “fun” perspective is probably second only to the hover board.
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22

NSEA Protector (Galaxy Quest)
In most respects, the Protector is a very intentional parody of the USS Enterprise. In fact, its technical name, “NTE-3120,” stands for “Not the Enterprise.” It differs in a few key ways: First, everything that happens on it is a good deal funnier than most of what happens on the Enterprise, and, second, it invariably must contain a very aggrieved Alan Rickman in an alien skullcap.
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23

Hover board (Back to the Future II)
I know I wasn’t the only one whose heart was broken when this turned out to be a hoax.
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Don't sue airlines for dumb mistakes

Photo via argonavigo

I KNOW SOME PEOPLE like to travel spontaneously, and not plan anything at all, but there are times when a little trip planning really is necessary. For example, when booking flights. If there is a specific destination you want to visit, it’s important to make sure you know what airport you are landing in, as well as how to spell it. Apparently, that information was nonexistent for Edward Gamson, who thought he was going to Granada, Spain — but ended up on the island of Grenada instead.

Now he is suing British Airways for the cockup, because the airline won’t refund his $4,500 First Class tickets, claiming that the mistake was made by the booking agents. While that may be true, British Airways really isn’t to blame. Gamson had a million opportunities to figure out where the hell he was going, before realizing he was en route to the wrong country.

Even if I’m completely exhausted, anxious, or running late, I can easily identify where in the world I’m going after checking into my flight, glancing at the gate screen while waiting to board, or hearing the announcement by the crew, before the flight has even taken off, that it will take nine hours to reach my final destination.

Maybe this was his first time out of the country, but I would hope Gamson could deduce that a flight from London, to Spain, would be a lot shorter than the trip he took to get from the USA to Europe. Not to mention, who pays for first class tickets for what would have been a two hour flight? It’s not even enough time to enjoy the complimentary champagne.

 

7 expats on the power of travel

IN MY TRAVELS, I’ve come across dozens of people from all corners of the earth and walks of life who left home, never looked back, and now couldn’t imagine their lives any other way. Some had advanced degrees and six-figure salaries, others meant to backpack for a few months and simply never stopped. What they all have in common is a shared belief in the power of travel, similar experiences of the doubt faced at first, and an unequivocal faith in the story they’ve since begun to live out.

Caitlin (Canada): Bartender in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

Her story

I’d been traveling for four months before coming to the Perhentians. Originally, I was only supposed to spend one month in Thailand and then head over to Australia to get my one-year working holiday visa, but I fell in love with Southeast Asia. So I was on a boat tour up in Koh Phi Phi and one of the tour guides there actually said he owns a bar in the Perhentians in Malaysia. We got to talking and he asked what I was doing. I told him I was a cocktail bartender back at home…I went to school studying wine and spirits and making cocktails, and he just says, “Well, do you want a job?” So I said, “Okay!”

Traveling is the most unpredictable thing I’ve ever done. Every time I tried to make a plan, something else happened, and it has almost always ended up working for the better. Sure, some days are for the worse. I mean I’ve had stuff stolen, gotten sick — this stuff happens. But then you meet the most amazing, amazing people and live out these experiences that are beyond compare. So many people say they can’t afford to travel, but honestly I’m living happily here with probably about 10-20 ringgit a day in my pocket (around 3-7 USD). And especially if you work somewhere, you start to know the locals, become part of the community, and you save even more money not paying the “tourist” prices.

Her advice

If money is your biggest worry, once you have your plane ticket you’re set. You can easily survive on a very, very low income. Even if you read the Lonely Planet books, they’ll give you tips for how to live on 1500B a day in Thailand (45 USD) — everyone I was traveling with was easily having a great time on half of that or less.

Jessica (San Francisco): Owner of Elephant Books and Coffee on Koh Lipe, Thailand

Her story

I’ve been on Koh Lipe for about three years. I came on vacation with my friend and, well, never left. People think I’m completely nuts. Some people understand but…like my parents are still just like, “Oh honey, when are you going to get tired of this and come home?”

I got to this point where I basically had my dream job and I was in my favorite city in the whole world doing what I thought I wanted to do at my dream ad agency, and it was just not making me happy, which was a tough realization because I thought I wasn’t that qualified to do anything else. It was just something I was going with and going to work every day and trying to just do it and be responsible and do what you’re supposed to do in America.

Then my friend and I went to Isla Mujeres in Mexico for Christmas. I was flying back around New Year’s Eve — it was turning 2010 — and there was this really, really drunk guy behind me and he just kept slurring, “A decade, a decade, the millennium, a decade,” like on and on about how it’s been 10 years since the millennium. Listening to him, I almost had a panic attack on the plane, I totally freaked out. He was right — how did that happen? The time was just going by so quickly. I was 37 at the time and just realized I was so not satisfied with my life, doing what I was doing. So I decided then and there I was just going to quit my job and travel for a year. If I’m honest, it actually took like eight months to talk myself into it…I kept thinking “No, no, no you’re not that crazy.” I kept having to work up the courage to go quit my job. Then I did.

Her advice

My best advice is for anyone feeling like that, just don’t talk yourself out of it. What would you be doing otherwise? And it doesn’t have to be this ‘gap year’ for 20-somethings who want to travel the world before they settle down. I’ve met so many people who are around my age who have done the same thing, or are traveling with their families, people who just wanted to see something new.

Dan and Mark (Australia): Dive instructors in France and Greece

Their story

We were working in Australia on small yachts, taking backpackers around the Whitsundays. We always wanted to do our dive instructor course but couldn’t afford it, so we headed to France to work on superyachts. A few years later we had the money, so we quit our jobs and headed to Thailand to complete our dive courses (and have a lengthy holiday flashpacking around Thailand).

The Dive Master in Koh Tao is heaps of fun. You sort of structure your course the way you want it and for the instructor certification, it was a bit more intense but we got through it and of course there is a big party afterward. Koh Tao is the biggest diving island in the world: It chews out more dive professionals than anywhere else in the world, and that way, if you want to become a dive professional you’re working with hundreds of people getting qualified every day. And we did our freediving courses in Indonesia before even coming to Koh Tao — which means just fins, a mask, and one breath.

Their advice

Honestly, you just have to be flexible. If you can’t afford to travel or do what you want to do, change something so that you’ll be able to. And be open to opportunities, you really never know who you’ll meet or what might happen. The people we’ve met in Thailand, they’re just incredible. Everyone’s incredible. And it’s been an epic time.

Steve (United Kingdom): Backpacker for 18 months and counting

His story

Unfortunately, I graduated during the recession. I studied physical geography and, well, most of the geography jobs are public funded by the government and they cut those straight away. So I got a desk job with a bank, did that for a year and a half, hated it…I’m very interested in the environment, nature — the hills, caves, the paddy fields, the climate — and so I wanted to go see it. All of it. So I quit my job, booked a flight to Las Vegas, and I’ve just been traveling since.

His advice

What motivates me to keep going is a combination of the people you meet and the stuff you’re just never going to see at home — the world’s biggest caves, standing on the edge of an active volcano as it’s billowing out smoke, seeing these guys in Indonesia who carry 80kg of sulfur 5km up from this great sulfur lake — I can’t even pick up 80kg — and they’re carrying it on their backs with just a bit of cloth over their face to protect themselves — things like that.

Traveling lifestyle is just about embracing it. You can’t make excuses, you just have to go do it.

Roman (Switzerland): Founder of environmental conversation project on Koh Lipe, Thailand

His story

I used to work in IT security and now I organize a project to collect garbage and to educate kids about the environment. I’m also a dive instructor and play music — I travel with a full-sized keyboard.

After working for about five years in a company in data security — protecting Swiss private banks and big companies — it just got boring, old…I knew inside I needed to try something new. So I quit that job with no plan other than “let’s go travel for a year.” I bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok without looking at any maps, reading any guidebooks, making any arrangements. In fact, it turned out I showed up directly in the middle of monsoon season. Everyone was like, “What are you doing?” So I went south to an island to do some diving courses and then the next stop was Koh Lipe and I got stuck here. My whole journey ended after two islands.

This year was my second season back on Koh Lipe, and the first day I came back we all went to a small beach and everybody started taking pictures and I walked a bit down the beach and it was just covered in trash. The image stuck with me. So a few days later I started talking around, meeting some local people, and tried to figure out how we could help do something without getting too involved in local politics…and then we just started this program. Now we run a weekly cleanup project that attracts dozens of volunteers and we provide ongoing education to local children about the environment and pollution — information they otherwise wouldn’t really get.

His advice

I think that if travel is something you even think you want to do, you can’t just play it over and over in your head. You can’t tell yourself “in a few months” or “next year.” You should quit your job and go. You’re going to find out it’s the best thing you’ve ever done.

Charly (England): Owner of Goodtime Adventures on Koh Tao, Thailand

Her story

I had just finished uni, worked for a year in an office and God, I absolutely hated it. I knew I wanted to travel some more and that was that. So I booked a round-the-world ticket and about halfway through it I got to Koh Tao and I’d done quite a bit of diving before and I wanted to do my dive master course, which is awesome here. So I thought, I’ll stay three weeks, do my divemaster…and it kind of went from there. I got a job, met people, met my now husband, and then we started our own business here about six years ago.

Her advice

The best advice I can give people is to travel. Just do it. You don’t have to come here…go everywhere. The world’s huge and it’s so easy to see nowadays. It’s easy to travel and it’s safe. There’s no need to be afraid, you’ll meet so many like-minded people, and you’ll learn so much more traveling. I loved uni, but I must say I learned a hell of a lot more exploring the world and doing things that scare me a little bit — feeling alive.

Ricky (Algeria): Owner of Backpacker Samui Hostel on Koh Samui, Thailand

His story

I’m a chemical engineer by trade, I got my degrees in France. When I finished school I worked one year for Clarins and then went to work for L’Oreal in the States where I had the opportunity to get my MBA as well. After almost 13 years in the States I quit my job and came to Thailand in 2009.

I wanted to be my own boss. Especially when you work for a corporation of over 10,000 employees, there was this point where I just felt like a number, even though I know I contributed to some big projects that were worth millions and millions, overall, I just wanted to depend on myself.

His advice

Now I’m living anybody’s dream, I mean I’m in paradise! But seriously, I’m an extroverted person and I’ve always wanted more from life than what I was doing. Especially in the States, not many of my coworkers or even my friends had the chance to travel. You have to get out, get off your couch…you have to experience the world.

All images by author

Abandoned town becomes bike park

In 1985, the Argentine town of Villa Epecuén flooded, and it remained underwater for long enough that when the waters finally receded, the town stayed abandoned. It’s been a ruin of a ghost town ever since, so naturally cyclist Danny MacAskill decided it would work best as an absolutely sick course for stunt biking.

MacAskill manages to turn the piles of rubble and pipe into a veritable playground, albeit a playground only open to the supremely skilled. If it were me on that bike, I would take a spill and puncture my jugular on rusty rebar.

3 characters in Afghanistan

Photo: Vladimir Potapenko

For the past couple years, I’ve been working in Afghanistan as a contractor. I’m a little bit from everywhere — which also makes me from nowhere. Averaged out, I’ve never lived more than a year in one place over my quarter-century existence. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned through all this traveling, it’s that it’s just as important to keep your ears and heart open as it is your eyes.

Here are three unforgettable characters I’ve run across traveling in Afghanistan.

‘Roided merc

“Beast” is a ‘roided-up, rock-and-rolling, former Special Forces now turned mercenary who holds on to love with open hands. You don’t quite know what he’s up to in this world, and it sounds like he’s still busy trying to figure it out himself. He loves good lit — TS Eliot, Sartre, Wilde, and Kerouac are just a few on his bookshelf. He thinks he loves his wife too, but it’s doomed, he claims. They cheat on each other too often. He wants to go back to school and study philosophy, but how could that support his (soon-to-be ex-) wife and two baby girls in the States? Kicking down doors and taking people out isn’t a highly marketable skill back home.

He has a sort of down-to-earth charisma, and you can’t help but like him. Every day he rolls the dice and wagers his life. He gives life, and he takes it away. I’ve witnessed him patch up a gaping-eyed stranger leaking liquid life through ten holes riven by Taliban bullets — all while hot metal continued to tear through the air around him. But if you mess with him or his boys he’ll just as adroitly empty a clip into you.

Once, in another conflict-riddled corner of the world, an opponent managed to put a bullet in him. It so boiled the blood of a comrade thudding through the sky above that she rained down fury on the enemy, leveling a whole city block. On the chopper, racing to medical attention, his teammates patched him through to his wife via sat-phone. He recounts her composure affectionately: “She made sure I was OK and then told me, ‘Rock on, baby.’” He recounts this with a dreamy grin. This is the woman his open hands have been holding on to. “She’s the toughest and most beautiful woman I’ve ever met,” he says. But is it really her that he’s holding on to? Or is it a romanticized, bleeding-heart notion of ‘holding on’ that he’s holding on to?

I pray Beast hangs up his battle-rattle, goes back to school to study philosophy, and lives out his life to an old age. But something tells me he’s destined to go down, guns blazing, hunting terrorists in some remote corner of the world.

North Korean / Uzbek lit lover

Fearing exodus, Uzbekistan denies its average citizens visas to most decent places. So to escape a forced marriage at the hand of her strict Muslim father, beautiful, young, diamond-eyed Laila fled to Afghanistan where she found a job serving drinks at a private compound in Afghanistan.

Laila has an interesting background. Years ago, her North Korean maternal grandparents saw the mene tekel on the wall and fled to Russia. They wound up prisoners in a Siberian work camp for several years before they were relocated first to Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan. Laila’s father, a Muslim Azerbaijani, came over to Uzbekistan with the Soviet military back when these penumbral regions fell under the USSR’s awnings.

I once offhandedly quip a Mark Twain line to Laila. Her eyes sparkle, her head tilts, and she responds, “Samuel Clemens?” I fall in love. She’s well versed in English and Russian literature and is trying to teach herself to read Spanish for some reason. She vividly recalls Bible stories surreptitiously read as a child before her father learnt her secret and destroyed the forbidden book.

Laila’s mother and baby brother are back in Uzbekistan. Since her father left them, they rely on her meager income for survival. She makes $300 per month as a barmaid and, it’s whispered, a “little on the side.” In a place like this, her lithe form and angel face make that a sad but not unlikely rumor.

One day Laila disappears. Extended inquiry reveals she’s been fired and sent back to Uzbekistan.

It’s been half a year now. Rumor has it she finally submitted to that forced marriage. I wonder if her eyes still sparkle.

Dreaming Afghan driver

“Abdullah,” I say to the Afghan driver as he speeds through Abdul-Haq circle, “what’s your best memory?” I clutch my M4 as I scan the rivulets of bikes, beards, and burkas trickling through the sea of Kabul’s ubiquitous Toyota Corollas. I’ve been playing this question-and-answer game with him for years now. It gives me a feel for Afghan life and builds our friendship. After a moment of silence he replies.

“This is Afghanistan,” he answers slowly. “We don’t have best memories here.”

I’m not going to argue with him. The last story he shared was of a childhood memory of the Taliban interrupting a sporting event at the city soccer stadium. They dragged out and publicly decapitated two men found guilty of something — probably of owning a television or something.

After a while he speaks up again and asks, “If I ever go to America, will they let me work, if they know I am Afghan? You think maybe they let me be a dishwasher?”

Years ago, Abdullah signed up to work with the Coalition Forces under the impression he and his family would eventually get US visas in return. Though he risks his life daily by collaborating with the ‘infidels,’ the visa has failed to materialize. He dons a full-face scarf as he drives us through the city, in hopes he won’t be recognized, but the risk to him and his family is still almost palpable. It’s not fair, but most likely Abdullah will never see the US.

Abdullah pulls past our compound gate, where some time back a coordinated Taliban attack claimed the lives of, among others, about 18 Afghan children on the way to the girls’ school nearby.

“Tashakor, braadar. Khoda Hafez,” I tell Abdullah as I hop out of the vehicle. Inshallah, he will find a best memory.

Normal friend vs. friend from NYC

Photo: Jim Pennucci

1.

A normal friend will give up in an argument when they know they’ve been bested.

A friend from New York City will always have the last word.

2.

A normal friend will take a leisurely stroll with you.

A friend from New York City power walks.

3.

A normal friend complains when the price of milk goes up.

A friend from New York City gets excited when they can find a gallon of milk for less than $5.

4.

A normal friend will invite you over for a nice, homecooked meal.

A friend from New York City will invite you over for a nice, cooked meal…from whatever takeout place is their favorite on Seamless.

5.

A normal friend knows that Judaism is a religion.

A friend from New York City can explain the various sects and which neighborhoods they live in, gets off from work for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover (even when they aren’t Jewish), and knows where the best kosher delis are.

6.

A normal friend will flip through magazines with you.

A friend from New York City is probably the editor of the issue you’re currently reading.

7.

A normal friend looks both ways before crossing the street.

A friend from New York City doesn’t take traffic into consideration when (jay)walking and will in fact throw a stare of death at any vehicle that dares to challenge them.

8.

A normal friend will go shopping with you.

A friend from New York City will be your personal stylist.

9.

A normal friend isn’t afraid to stay in on the weekends, especially if they’re trying to save some money.

A friend from New York City will drag you out of your apartment to go drinking, dancing, or whatever, no matter how broke you/they are.

10.

A normal friend complains about their 30-minute commute to work.

A friend from New York City will travel over an hour to their job, by subway and/or bus (and sometimes ferry, if you’re from Staten Island), and be like, “No big deal.”

11.

A normal friend will be disappointed when their favorite sports team loses, but secretly knows they lost because they just aren’t that good.

A friend from New York City will defend their favorite sports team to the death. It doesn’t matter if the Mets, Islanders, or Jets lose basically every game.

12.

A normal friend gets excited when they spot a celebrity on the street.

A friend from New York City will roll their eyes and say, “You know I hooked up with James Franco last week, right?”

13.

A normal friend will meet up with you for a few happy-hour drinks after work.

A friend from New York City will be dancing on the bar, three Long Island iced teas in, by the time you arrive.

14.

A normal friend will celebrate your birthday by singing “Happy Birthday” to you.

A friend from New York City will scream “IT’S THIS BITCH’S BIRTHDAY — EVERYONE BUY HER A DRINK!” on the street, and at every bar you go to.

15.

A normal friend will go with you to experience Sleep No More.

A friend from New York City will go with you to experience Sleep No More…for the 17th time (BECAUSE IT’S JUST. THAT. GOOD).

16.

A normal friend will say something like, “Bushwick — that’s a dodgy area, right?”

A friend from New York City will reply with something like, “I’ve had my iPhone stolen like five times in Bushwick, but it’s still the coolest place to live in New York City!”

17.

A normal friend will stick up for you when someone hurts your feelings.

A friend from New York City will ask where you want them to hide the bodies.

An adventure traveler's bucket list

EVERY TRAVELER HAS THEIR OWN “bucket list,” whether they call it that or not. You can’t travel and not make mental notes about the next places you want to go, the next things you want to do. Obviously, the point is that it’s personal. I can hardly tell you what should be on your bucket list, as mine is likely totally different from yours.

But if you’re into extreme travel — or, if you’re the type to cringe at the thought of bros shouting “EXTREME!” while they crash into things, let’s call it adventure travel — there are some absolute must-dos if you want to cement your status as a globetrotting badass. A lot of the other lists along these lines give you specifics (Climb Everest! Ski K2!), but the point of adventure travel is making it your own, and doing something you’ve never done before. So fill in the specifics yourself. But here are some things you absolutely must do.

1. Bungee jumping

Photo: Nicholas Baltenneck

The bungee jump is an absolute essential — the where is up to you. This photo is at the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland, the jump made famous by the movie Goldeneye. The world’s highest bungee jump is at the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado (at a whopping 321 meters), but I always recommend the jump I did in Chapada Diamantina in Brazil, at the Gruta do Lapão, where we hiked through a cave, swam in the pitch black, and then bungeed back into the cave mouth.

2. Skydiving

Photo: Or Hiltch

Like the bungee jump, the skydive is a must, but the where is virtually limitless. The picture above is over Lake Taupo in New Zealand, but other popular destinations include Cape Town and Hawaii.

3. Cliff jumping

Photo: Steven Worster

You can do this anywhere there are cliffs and deep water. In fact, this is the one thing you’re most likely to have done already. Because why wouldn’t you? Cliff jumping is great, as long as you’re safe about where you jump. Most spots are reasonably close to the water, and if not, the worst case scenario (again, if you’re being safe) is you do a bit of a belly flop and earn a sympathetic beer from your friends.

4. BASE jumping

Some of us (read: me) do not have the cojones for BASE jumping. The acronym stands for “Building, Antenna, Span, Earth,” which are the four surfaces one typically jumps off of. Obviously, get comfortable with BASE and with skydiving in general before trying it — this one is a particularly dangerous sport. But some of the jumps are absolutely incredible. The video above is the highest BASE jump ever, from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

5. Shark diving

Photo: Willy Volk

To be honest, as humans, we exaggerate the danger we face from sharks. They generally only kill six people a year, while we kill tens of millions of them. But that doesn’t make being in the water with them any less primally terrifying. One way to do it is in a protected cage, but extra points for freediving with the sharks. Near Cape Town, South Africa, it’s possible to dive with great whites.

6. Hang gliding

Photo: alobos Life

Hang gliding has a somewhat “unsafe” reputation, but that’s largely because it’s such an old sport, as far as air sports go. It’s been around since the 1880s, back when aeronautics wasn’t particularly well understood. Now, the death rate for hang gliding is similar to that of playing soccer or running a marathon. When you pick the place you’re going to hang glide, try and pick a spot with a good view. Unlike skydiving, you may be able to spend a substantial amount of time in the air, and you want something cool to be looking at.

7. Rock climbing

Photo: Kiliii Fish

I’m not gonna lie, rock climbing makes me queasy. But it’s a huge international sport, and there are a ton of different variations on it: artificial climbing walls you’re used to seeing in recreational areas, and then actual outdoor rock climbing. This includes bouldering (ropeless climbing on large rocks), free climbing (climbing with ropes that are there for safety, but not for assistance) and, most terrifying, free soloing (climbing without any ropes and, if it’s not over water, with the serious potential to be killed in a fall).

8. Portaledging

Photo: Maria Ly

Really hardcore rock climbers will often spend a number of days climbing a single face. Obviously, this causes a problem: Where do you sleep? Rock climbers used to use hammocks — which are obviously risky if you’re a restless sleeper — but now they use portaledges, which are basically tents they set up hanging from the rock face.

9. Running with the bulls

Via

Okay, so this one is location specific — you pretty much have to do it in Pamplona, unless you want to just go out to a farm and piss off some bulls on your own. It’s also a bit problematic if you’re an animal rights person, as the event ends with the bulls being slaughtered in bullfights. That said, the running of the bulls in Pamplona is one of the most iconic yearly travel events. It can be deadly — 15 have died since 1924, and people frequently are gored by the bulls. If you want to get the experience without the risk, read Hemingway’s “Pamplona in July,” or The Sun Also Rises.

10. Surfing

Mickey Smith and Astray Film’s short film above about surfing is the best advertisement I’ve ever seen for the sport. I’ve never been able to surf myself — I’ve never lived near the sea — but it’s at the absolute top of my to-do list.

11. Ziplining

Photo: go.biwako

I recently went ziplining over Bootleg Canyon in southern Nevada with Flightlinez, so I’ve gotta recommend that. Four ziplines over a couple of hours, overlooking the expanse of the Mojave Desert? Yes, please. That said, there are some incredible ropes courses out there. Jungle ziplines in Costa Rica, where you can fly along the canopy with the birds and monkeys, or maybe just out in your local woods. Either way, ziplines are awesome.

12. Sailing across a major body of water

Photo: Caneles

Sailing is not usually considered an “extreme” sport, but it requires a ton of skill and requires your almost constant attention. I was going to put “sailing across an ocean,” but let’s be honest — that’s not likely. The main reason sailing isn’t more widespread is the sheer cost of the sport, and logistically, crossing an ocean would be incredibly difficult. If you want some inspiration, though, check out our interview with Jessica Watson, the youngest person to sail around the world solo.

13. Hiking the Triple Crown

Photo: Jeffrey Stylos

The Triple Crown consists of three of America’s best-known trails: the Pacific Crest Trail, which follows the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas from Washington to Southern California; the Continental Divide, which follows the Rocky Mountains from Montana down to New Mexico, and the Appalachian Trail, which takes you from Maine to Georgia. It will take you a few years at least to do all three — altogether, we’re talking around 7,900 miles.

14. Making it to both the North and South Poles

Photo: Scott Ableman

This one is another logistically tough feat to pull off. The North Pole is covered in shifting ice; Antarctica, while an actual continent, sees the most extreme weather on the planet. And a lack of infrastructure in both places makes them tough to get to. So you’ll have to be creative — maybe try snowmobiling, or flying, or dog sledding.

15. Skiing / snowboarding

Photo: Zach Dishner

The sport itself is practically everywhere — people have skiied down K2 in the Himalayas. The safer (and also probably more fun) bet is to go to Colorado, the Alps, or Banff. You could also set yourself a goal of skiing in every mountain range where it’s possible, you could set a total ski distance goal, or whatever — skiing and snowboarding have to be on the list.

16. The Rickshaw Run

Photo: The Adventurists

The Rickshaw Run is awesome. Your team is given a starting point and an ending point — nothing else in the way of a route. You spend two weeks trying to get to the end point, but your rickshaw (which your team pimps out) is probably gonna break down, and you’re gonna have to figure it all out on the road. It’s sort of a race, but honestly, who gives a shit who wins? The sign-up is here.

17. Water skiing

Photo: Banana Watersports

This is one of the easier and less dangerous items on this list, but skiing as a sport is too much goddamn fun to not put on your bucket list. Like snow skiing, there are a ton of variations on it: You can also go kneeboarding, tubing, wakeboarding, or barefoot skiing.

18. Whitewater rafting / kayaking

Photo: Domaineg

Another must. Whitewater rafting can involve as much expertise as you want it to. Basically, if you know how to swim, you can find rapids that are safe for you. That said, a worthy goal would be to be able to master Category V rapids (considered the expert level before VI and VII, which are much more dangerous), or possibly to take a trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Sign up now, though — the wait for that one is often up to two years.

19. Stormchasing

This one’s for the photographers and videographers, but it still counts as “extreme” because it can be particularly dangerous, especially when you’re near rotating supercell storms like the one in the video above. Supercells can quickly turn into tornadoes, and a recent stormchaser also got struck by lightning. That said, massive storms like these can make for some amazing photos.

20. Wingsuit flying

Wingsuit flying is a variation on skydiving / BASE jumping. You have a suit that gives you a little extra lift, and thus means you can “fly” — or, if we’re being more accurate, “glide” — while diving a bit more. Stunts like the one above are extremely dangerous, and experts die on a fairly regular basis doing wingsuit jumps, but packaged into a simple skydive it would be a good deal safer.

21. Zorbing

Photo: Glenn Brown

This is easily the silliest item on the list, but zorbing is where they put you in an air-inflated bubble and then push you down a hill or out on the water. It’s basically a human hamster wheel and, unlike virtually everything else on here, involves very little skill. But goddamn, it looks fun.

22. Crossing a continent on a bike

You can obviously choose whether you want to go on a bicycle, or motorcycle it up a la Che Guevara, but biking across a continent is a badass trip no matter where or how you choose to go. Extra points to those who find a solid route through South America, Africa, or Asia. Alex Chacon, in the video above, has gone on to take his motorcycle through Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia as well. Check out his map here.

23. Mountaineering

Photo: Matt Kowalczyk

My vote, personally, is against climbing Everest. For one thing, the price tag is $50,000 to $90,000, and you’re not guaranteed to reach the top. Plus, recent events have proved that Everest expeditions may be getting less safe for sherpas thanks to the crowds — this year, 16 sherpas died in an avalanche. Besides, who wants to climb a crowded mountain? Their are plenty of very tall mountains that are easy enough for beginners to climb.

24. Cave diving

Photo: Imgur

Really, all scuba diving should be on this list, but cave diving has even more of a claustrophobic element to it, in that you can’t just go straight back up to the surface. It’s also some of the most beautiful diving. There’s a lot of it in Central America; the photo above was taken in Quintana Roo, Mexico, but another good spot is off the coast of Belize.

25. Circumnavigating the globe

Another must, if for nothing else than the awesome map souvenir you’ll be able to get out of it. There are a lot of ways to do this, but extra street cred to the people who take more difficult paths, whether that’s traveling around the world only by human-powered means, traveling by sailboat, traveling by motorcycle, or — god help you — walking, this is a long trip and an experience of a lifetime. If you don’t want to spend a few years planning and executing this trip, you could also buy cruises that’ll take you around the world, or you could fly or take trains.

Exploring East Greenland [pics]

This piece originally appeared at Sidetracked and is republished here with permission. Sidetracked Adventure Travel Magazine is an online journal featuring a collection of personal stories of adventure travel, exploration, journeys, and expeditions.

Greenland is a country divided by the ice, with the west and east both linguistically and historically very different. By far the majority of the population, 52,000 out of only 56,000 people, lives in the west, and since this is the world’s largest island it actually makes us the least populated country in the world.

One of the great benefits of a land as vast as Greenland is the opportunity to be a domestic traveler and feel like you’re going off the edge of the map.

Before recently moving to Greenland’s capital Nuuk, I lived in Sisimiut, the second-largest town in the country. 5,500 people live on a tiny, rocky promontory just north of the Arctic Circle, and to us “over here” on the west coast, generally East Greenland is “over there.” In fact, the west Greenlandic word for East Greenland is “Tunu,” which means “the backside.”

For me, as for so many other people, traveling is all about exploring the “backsides” of our world.

In mid-July last year I arrived in the main airport of Kulusuk, a gravel airstrip outside a village of about 250 people, via Reykjavik, which is the easiest way to get there. Greenland to Iceland and then back to Greenland — that’s how to start a domestic journey around here. I hooked up with a group of hikers trekking through the mountains along the huge Sermilik Ice Fjord for four days. I was thrown headfirst into the adventure with a five-hour boat ride through ice-packed fjords and sounds, and dropped off in a camp so remote that all locals carry a gun for polar bear protection.

From our inland position we trekked south along Sermilik to the tiny village of Tiniteqilaaq, right on the edge of the ice fjord, where people live off hunting in the rich fjord waters. At times along the trek the locals ferried us across narrow straits and along too-rugged-to-hike coastlines in what outsiders often think of as a roadless land — but up here the roads are waterways, flight paths, dog sled routes, and snowmobile trails that require ancient knowledge combined with modern navigational equipment.

A small boat navigates the maze of icebergs in the Sermilik Ice Fjord near Tiniteqilaaq. All photos by author.

The jagged peaks of the Tasiilaq backcountry are dotted with glaciers and rise straight out of the fjords.

A sled dog in Tiniteqilaaq looks out over the Sermilik Ice Fjord from its summer home.

Hikers on Tasiilaq island climbing onto a ridge overlooking the ice fjord and the ice cap on the horizon.

Three local youths from Tasiilaq on an evening climb to the nearby Sømandsfjeldet.

Reaching the trail’s end we came to Tasiilaq, the main town in the region. With a population of 2,000 people, it is the center of the district, and it is a place where people move if they follow the main pattern of migration.

A local hunter from the village of Isortoq invited me on a seal hunt a couple of nights later. Together with his friend Lars Peter, we combed the coastline around town unsuccessfully for six hours on a beautiful summer night. “That’s just what seal hunting is like,” Michael shrugged, powering up his 19-foot boat before carefully pushing and shoving a path through the floes of sea ice that drift south from the Arctic Ocean and block the coastline from the Denmark Strait for much of the summer.

A local tour boat shuttling passengers between the airport in Kulusuk and a trailhead in the Tasiilaq backcountry.

Paulus and his grandson prepare to travel through the Sermilik Ice Fjord in their 16-foot open boat.

Camp managers Michael and Lars Peter on an early morning ride between two hiking camps deep in the Tasiilaq backcountry.

Subsistence hunters on an evening hunt in the summer sea ice near Tasiilaq.

Local hunter and camp manager Lars Peter on a summer morning commute among icebergs traveling from town to a hiking camp in the ice fjord.

An iceberg doubled by the calm waters of the Sermilik Ice Fjord in East Greenland.

Hikers looking towards Tasiilaq island and the mountains they will have to cross in the coming days.

Back in Tasiilaq for the weekend, I was sucked into the hectic atmosphere of the East Greenland Football Championships — as hectic as it gets with 400 people, or about 10% of the entire population of the east coast clustered around a small gravel surface stadium blasted out of the rock.

People come from the surrounding settlements to the main town for this annual event, and the entire town is turned into one big football tournament for weeks, complete with DJs spinning the favorite tracks of team supporters, makeshift food carts selling everything from hot dogs and noodles to dried fish and seal, and scores of people dressed in the colors of their home team and faces painted with team names and slogans.

IT-80 football club supporters from the village Isortoq, with just 80 inhabitants, at the annual East Coast Championships in Tasiilaq.

A crucial penalty goal in the Old Boys final at the 2013 East Coast Soccer Championships in Greenland.

A crowd of supporters gathering in the football field to celebrate the final game of the 2013 East Coast Championships.

Further adventures followed in the coming days before I eventually boarded a flight that traveled over the same landscape I had spent the past two weeks crossing on foot and in boats. Looking down over never-ending ridges and deep fjords and being able to understand the vastness, remoteness, and ruggedness of this place suddenly seemed like the best way to see anything, anywhere.

I headed back out via Reykjavik, which felt like the largest and most bustling city in the world after a deep dive into a region of Greenland not very many Greenlanders have visited.

5 ways to be a greener traveler

Christian Arballo

1. Travel slow.

The slow travel movement was started somewhat separately from just trying to reduce environmental impact. It was initially an attempt by travelers to more fully immerse themselves in the places they were traveling by spending more time in a place and allowing themselves to get to know the people and culture, rather than flying in, ticking items off a tourist to-do list, and then flying out. But as it turns out, slow travel is pretty compatible with ecotourism.

By moving slowly and intentionally, you’re likely to spend less time on forms of transport that emit a lot of pollution and greenhouse gases. You may even choose to bike or walk from place to place, if you have light enough luggage. And ultimately, human-powered means of travel are the most environmentally friendly ways of getting around.

2. Know the traveler’s hierarchy of carbon emissions.

If you have to travel in a way that leaves a carbon footprint, try to keep it as small as possible. The Union of Concerned Scientists put together a handy guide for the best way of doing that, and while the best method of getting from place to place changes depending on the number of people you’re traveling with and the distance you’re going, there are some basic rules you can follow.

First, the worst way to travel is almost always by airplane in first class. You’re taking up a lot of space on that plane, and the plane is spewing a lot of bad stuff into the atmosphere. Second, the best way to travel in pretty much all of the scenarios is to take a motor coach. Yes, buses have carbon emissions, but you’re sharing those emissions with dozens of other people. Third, if you have to drive, carpool, and always drive in the most fuel-efficient cars possible. Check out the other tips and travel methods here.

3. “Take only photos, leave only footprints.”

This aphorism changes depending on what you’re doing — for scuba divers, it’s “Take only photos, leave only bubbles” — but the basic sentiment remains the same. The rule is usually geared towards people taking part in outdoor activities, and basically means, “Hey asshole, don’t leave your plastic water bottle in the woods in Yellowstone.” But it can just as easily apply in cities. You should still try to recycle as much as possible, and you should still never litter.

4. Use water like there’s a finite amount of it.

Peak water is a thing, and it turns out those of us living in the developed world use a lot of it unnecessarily. It’s estimated that the minimum amount of water needed for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sanitation per person per day is 13 gallons. The average person in the US uses between 65 and 78 gallons. Honestly, this is an average you should try to work down a bit in your daily life even if you’re not traveling, but it’s important to remember while traveling, too, especially if you’re in a country that struggles with water scarcity.

Most of the ways of doing this are fairly simple. Follow the “If it’s yellow, let it mellow” rule in your hotel or hostel, make sure the hotel doesn’t wash your towel every day, turn off the water in the shower when you’re not rinsing off, turn off the water while you brush your teeth, and so on. For more tips on how to conserve when you travel, check out this post at The Frog Blog.

5. Do your research before you leave.

If you’re planning a short trip or an excursion, make sure you read up on the places you’re going ahead of time. Does that dive shop take care of the local reefs? Is that hotel a known polluter? Is there a way I can give back to the community I’m visiting while I’m there?

Keep in mind that just because something claims to be “ecotourism” doesn’t mean it’s actually helping the environment. Ecotourism is still a niche of tourism, and some less scrupulous tour operators will use the label to pull in well-meaning tourists. You should also keep in mind that many of the ecosystems you travel to may be quite fragile, and that your desire to “get out into nature” and having a low impact on the environment around you may not coincide.

For example, if you were to travel to a national park, you may want to leave the trail to get away from any trace of humankind. But there may be an environmental reason the trail goes through one section of the park and not the other. Know the rules and then follow them when you go.