Rolf Potts's Blog, page 12

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Can you recall, dear comrade, when we tramped God’s land together,

And we sang the old, old Earth-song, for our youth was very sweet;

When we drank and fought and lusted, as we mocked at tie and tether,

Along the road to Anywhere, the wide world at our feet.

Along the road to Anywhere, when each day had its story;

When time was yet our vassal, and life’s jest was still unstale;

When peace unfathomed filled our hearts as, bathed in amber glory,

Along the road to Anywhere we watched the sunsets pale.

Alas! the road to Anywhere is pitfalled with disaster;

There’s hunger, want, and weariness, yet O we loved it so!

As on we tramped exultantly, and no man was our master,

And no man guessed what dreams were ours, as swinging heel and toe,

We tramped the road to Anywhere, the magic road to Anywhere,

The tragic road to Anywhere, such dear, dim years ago.

Original article can be found here: “The Tramps,” by Robert W. Service (1907)

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Wander through the 11th arrondissement of Paris toward the dead celebrities of Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and there’s a decent chance you’ll stumble across a small gallery called “Le Musée du

Fumeur.” Unlike the hallowed halls of the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay, there is no tyranny of expectation in this tiny, smoking-themed museum. No smiling Mona Lisa or reclining Olympia dictates where the random tourist should focus his attention. Thus left to meander, the drop-in visitor may well overlook the more earnest exhibits here — such as Egyptian sheeshas or Chinese opium pipes — and note the small, red-circle-and-slash signs reminding guests that, in no uncertain terms, smoking is strictly forbidden in the Museum of Smoking.

In spite of this startling contradiction, there is a notable lack of irony in Le Musée du Fumeur, which crams an eclectic array of international smoking-culture relics into a 650-square-foot storefront near Rue de la Roquette. Inside the glass display cases, hemp-fiber clothing competes for space with 17th-century smoking paraphernalia and sepia photos of American Indian chiefs posing with peace pipes. Around the corner, a looped video about Cuba’s cigar industry flickers above 1920s-era etchings of cigarette-toting debutantes and scientific drawings of tobacco plants. Out front, the gift shop hawks highbrow cigar magazines alongside glass bongs and rolling papers; DVDs produced by High Times perch on the same shelf as pamphlets on how to quit smoking. A curious-looking machine, the “Vapormatic Deluxe,” which apparently allows one to inhale plant essences without creating secondhand smoke, retails for 299 euros.

In a more provincial part of the world — rural Moldavia, say, or a Nebraska interstate exit — such an unfocused array of smoking esoterica might well be relegated to some dank basement, advertised by fading billboards and listed in guidebooks alongside Stalinist monuments or concrete dinosaurs. But this is Paris, and the displays here are sleek, self-serious, tastefully illuminated and studiously clean; soft jazz mood-music alternates with piano and harpsichord compositions as you move from display to display. The closest thing to pure whimsy is a psychedelic mural painted in the back room — an oddly smoke-free scene, wherin cats strum guitars, flying robots clutch cans of beer, and busty women hitch rides from VW camper vans.

The ostensible purpose of Le Musée du Fumeur is to demonstrate how global attitudes toward smoking have developed and transformed over the years. Yet its cluttered formality can leave visitors with the impression that smoking is in fact an archaic practice, long-since vanished from mainstream society. And given current trends, it might not be long before cigarette smoking indeed does become extinct — at least in the public spaces of progressive, First World cities like Paris.

Not too long ago, public smoking bans were regarded as a uniquely American phenomenon — a puritanical gesture, held in ridicule by any self-respecting, Gauloise-puffing Frenchman. Over time, however, the public health burden of smoking-related illnesses has spurred a number of industrialized nations to follow the American example. When the initial steps of a public smoking ban took effect in Paris this February, French opinion polls reported that 70 percent of Parisians were in favor of the prohibition.

With the rites of public smoking thus endangered, it’s tempting to conclude that a smoking-themed museum is a great way to preserve an increasingly marginalized social ritual. In truth, the opposite is probably more accurate: To paraphrase what sociologist Dean MacCannell said a generation ago about folk museums, the best indicator of smoking-culture’s demise is not its disappearance from public areas, but its artificial preservation in a place like Le Musée du Fumeur.

Moreover, it may well be that a museum is not the truest medium in which to commemorate something so habitual and prosaic. Social critic Lucy R. Lippard observed that museums are inherently alien to the artifacts they contain. Lippard noted that many people are “far more at home in curio shops, which slowly become populist museums,” home to relics and life-ways that are “displayed in a relaxed and random fashion…in ways far more attuned to how we experience life itself.”

As of now, the populist, curio-shop equivalent of musées du fumeur can be still found in the smoky confines of cafés, restaurants, and nightclubs in Paris — but only until January 1, when the smoking ban takes full effect, and anyone caught lighting up in such places is subject to a 75-euro fine. After that day, a million populist museum curators will be forced to puff their cigarettes on the street corners of Paris, and the Musée du Fumeur will become a slightly more potent curiosity.

Originally published by The Smart Set, August 6, 2007

Photo Credit: °]° via Compfight cc

Original article can be found here: Le Musee du Fumeur: Paris

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iluv2globetrot.com

Age: 33

Hometown: Detroit, MI

Quote: “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move”.

Robert Louis Stevenson

How did you find out about Vagabonding, and how did you find it useful before and during the trip?

I learned about Vagabonding through a friend of mine and found that it spoke to me on different levels as a traveler at heart that loves trotting the globe.

How long were you on the road?

I’ve been living the expat lifestyle for over 5 years now.

Where did you go?

I’ve resided in South Korea for 3 years and travelled extensively through Asia in the process to places such as Cambodia, the Philippines and China. I’ve also lived in Oman a year. Additionally, I was as a graduate student in Germany and South Africa with a most recent trot back to Oman.

What was your job or source of travel funding for this journey?

I’ve taught English abroad to source my travels.

Did you work or volunteer on the road?

I’ve worked and volunteered. I volunteered for a Ngo while in South Africa researching and have taught English abroad.

Of all the places you visited, which was your favorite?

Australia

Was there a place that was your least favorite, or most disappointing, or most challenging?

Honestly I can’t say I’ve really been disappointed by any of the places I’ve trotted to. I take each destination with a grain of salt and welcome any challenges as a chance to grow as an individual.

Which travel gear proved most useful?  Least useful?

I find that as long as I have a good pair of trekking shoes and a scarf, I’m good for most of the places I’ve visited (thinking India and through SE Asia like Cambodia).

What are the rewards of the vagabonding lifestyle?

I feel that the rewards of living this lifestyle are that I’ve come to terms with who am and have grown so much as a person in the process. I’ve met some amazing people from around the world and now feel like such a global citizen.

What are the challenges and sacrifices of the vagabonding lifestyle?

One of the biggest challenges for me is being away from my friends and family for an extended period of time. Life does not end for those back home because you are away and I have to get used to trying to bridge the gap while I’m gone.

What lessons did you learn on the road?

I’ve learned to appreciate more than ever the little things while being away. People are too consumed with things and not experiences nowadays and I take so much great pleasure in the experiences that I have had while trotting the globe and the amazing relationships that I have made with people I would not have the opportunity to meet while staying put at home.

How did your personal definition of “vagabonding” develop over the course of the trip?

My definition of vagabonding would be allowing yourself the opportunity to bond with people and cultures in a unique environment separate from your own.

If there was one thing you could have told yourself before the trip, what would it be?



Walk in your purpose with confidence. I would have convinced myself to do it earlier actually.

Any advice or tips for someone hoping to embark on a similar adventure?

I would tell them to just do it. Set your goals and go. Don’t let fear deter you from living the life you want and to experience new things.

When and where do you think you’ll take your next long-term journey?

That is the million dollar question. I’m still debating if I can see myself staying another year in the Middle East or trotting to a new destination as either an ESL teacher or on the non-profit sector, what my MA program focus is in that I’m currently completing. Stay tuned to I Luv 2 Globe Trot to find out.

Read more about Nicole on her blog,  I LUV 2 Globe Trot, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Are you a Vagabonding reader planning, in the middle of, or returning from a journey? Would you like your travel blog or website to be featured on Vagabonding Case Studies? If so, drop us a line at [email protected] and tell us a little about yourself.

Original article can be found here: Vagabonding Case Study: Nicole Brewer

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In northern Vietnam lies this gem of a city where French food and fashion meet Vietnamese culture and vermicelli. Sometimes overlooked as it’s not as big of a hub as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi offers a taste of authentic street food and genuinely good prices.

Hanoi has a huge range of hotels on offer from $4 a night for a shared dorm to much, much more at some of the fancier establishments in the French quarter. We’re at a solid $14 USD a night which has a western bathroom/shower and includes breakfast. With only a few minutes walk to the old quarter, we’re at the heart of the city and don’t need to rent scooters or bicycles. For lunch we eat street food, sitting on tiny child-sized plastic stools along the sidewalk: maybe a bowl of phở or a sweet and savory bun cha, each costing somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 dong. A bowl of fruit salad mixed with coconut cream, tapioca balls, and jelly cubes with crushed ice will only run you about 20,000 dong as a sweet snack to tide you over until dinner. Dinner may set you back you a bit more but can still be done affordably. We often eat phở on the street for 50,000 dong, but there are many restaurants serving western fare as well as Vietnamese and French for a bit more. Household items can be bought from corner shops (we bought electrical tape for 5,000 dong, the equivalent of about $0.25 USD) and shopping for clothing and handicrafts is plentiful but requires a lot of hard bargaining. Beer is the cheapest I’ve ever seen at 20,000 dong or less.

Anything that moves is eaten here. A few times we’ve seen the word for dog on the menu and then steered clear. The cuisine of Hanoi is incredible but there might be a few too many options for my tastes. Also spotted were some toads in cages waiting to be sold for food and various crickets on menus.

Breakfast at our hotel is a simple crusty baguette and fried eggs with burnt coffee mixed with sweetened condensed milk. We head out for the Cong Cafe, a four-storey coffee house that serves traditional Vietnamese favorites like egg coffee as well as the typical coffee house fare like americanos. Decorated like a Viet Cong bunker hideout, you can enjoy the wifi with an egg coffee while sitting on burlap sack pillows against a bullet-pocked wall. Grab a banh mi sandwich for lunch filled with BBQ pork and pate. After getting some work done, a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake is a great place to people-watch as all the newly married couples head here with photographers for their wedding photos. Dinner at our favorite phở place at 49 Bat Dan Street (we ate here 3 times in one week) is a hectic wait in line that snakes onto the street, but it is ultimately worth it as we watch the owner chop hunks of beef off and drop them into our soup. Perhaps we indulge in a Ha Noi beer during dinner and then head back to the hotel for the night.

Amazing street food with unbeatable prices at every turn. The traffic is crazy and crossing the street takes some practice, but once you’ve mastered the confident stride into chaos, you no longer need to wait for a green light to tell you when to cross. Whether or not a shop has what you’re looking for, they will help you find it no matter what, even if it means going to get it from another shop for you or pointing you in the right direction.

In just one week we’ll be splitting off: Tony will head back to Canada and I will hop a flight to Bali where I’ll eventually make my way to Gili Trawangan for a couple months. To follow along, head over to Unknown Home and check us out!

Original article can be found here: Vagabonding Field Report: Hanoi, Vietnam

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“At a much deeper, more metaphysical level, foreign news should offer us a means by which to humanize the Other — that is, the outsider from over the mountains or beyond the seas who instinctively repels, bores or frightens us and with whom we can’t, without help, imagine having anything in common. Foreign news should find ways to make us all more human in one another’s eyes, so that the apparently insuperable barriers of geography, culture, race and class could be transcended and fellow feeling might develop across chasms. Many a high-minded news organization has inveighed bitterly against those who resent the influx of immigrants from other countries. But this view proceeds from the assumption that a reflexive suspicion towards foreigners is a mark of Satan rather than a common, almost natural result of ignorance — a fault which news organizations have an explicit ability to reduce through a more imaginative kind of reporting (as opposed to ineffective, guilt-inducing denunciations of bigotry).”

–Alain de Botton, The News: A User’s Manual (2014)

Original article can be found here: Foreign news should offer us a means by which to humanize the Other

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What happens when the education you receive on the road starts to make you question the lessons you learned before you left?

History is one of those subjects that never fails to look a whole lot different once I’m in a different country. Despite the tragedies that occurred in the region during my lifetime, I don’t remember learning much about Central America. I knew the region officially spoke Spanish. I knew that much of our fruit was shipped in from various countries in the area. I heard whispers about those fruit companies but I was too nervous to admit ignorance so, I never really understood what the whispers meant. In my textbook, there was a paragraph about Reagan’s  “failed policies” in the region. I memorized the words, regurgitated them on tests and never really understood what was behind the big hulking bush everyone seemed to be beating around. I am embarrassed to say that I never even really put two and two together as a kid to realize that the ancient Mayan civilization that conjured up mysteries in my head were from Central America.

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one. Was I?

As an adult, I learned more about American policy in Central America and was confused as to why I had never learned about it in school. I formed conspiracy theories on a government hiding facts from the masses to hide their awful mistakes and stay in power. When I finally touched Central American soil, I realized that the reality of why I had never learned about things like the genocide in Guatemala and the Contras in Nicaragua was far more devastating. A very quick exploration into the reality of what was left behind in these areas makes it clear that the people affected were simply not considered people. They were enemies; the other; a symbol of a greater monster the US thought it was fighting. The people who lost limbs, dignity, and lives were nothing more than obstacles to be removed in the pursuit of certain international goals. The truth stung as it became clear. It made me question a lot about the “education” I received. You can’t put that in a 9th grade history book.

Similarly, I was thrown completely off guard when I visited Kolkata for the first time and found that Mother Theresa was not as revered in the region as she was claimed to be. Christian or not, every kid in the US knows who Mother Theresa was and knows that everything she did was saintly. Right? Apparently, not so much. Refusing to give medicines or medical care to the poor and ill, rough treatment of wards, babies whose wrists were tied to their sides, physical punishment for infants in her care, and a complete separation of any child with a known disability were not my idea of what this “saint on earth” had been doing. I currently hold a more balanced, if complex, understanding of Mother Theresa, the human, and her work. At the time, however, I found it unsettling and frustrating that no one wanted to talk about the complexities of being a human being who is seen as a walking icon of perfection, help, and love. It seems humans have a hard time worshiping their heroes if they show signs of being human. That  is a conversation I could have really learned something from as a young person.

Yes, history has a way of looking a little less absolute once you are standing on different soil, surrounded by different vantage points. Similarly, science, medicine, human rights, and art are all areas of study where I have found myself thrown off kilter once I left the confines of the US borders.

At some point, I started wondering- does everyone question their schooling, just a little, when they travel to new countries? Does everyone see gaps, inconsistancies, or lies in the textbooks they remember?

It seems the answer is, yes.

I have met travelers who were embarrassed to admit that they truly thought Indians worshipped cows in the street before the went to India themselves; travelers who thought antibiotics were where it was at for every medical professional in the world before discovering ancient holistic practices on their journeys; travelers who couldn’t believe the difference in opinions over how to speak English “correctly”; travelers angry at language teachers who had promised them they were fluent based on textbook quizzes and state exams drafted by non-native speakers; travelers who cried when they visited memorials to genocide victims they never knew about. It seems that everyone I have met along the way has had at least one moment of questioning the education they received before they left their home countries.

And how could they not? Every educational system must ultimately pick and choose what to share with students. Even if, in an ideal world, the very human hand that guides the education of the masses had every desire to share as much information as possible with students, choices would still need to be made. The amount of knowledge available to any human being on earth today is staggering. One only need consider the constant flow of information that is available, literally at our fingertips, to become aware of just how much one person could take in in a lifetime. At some point, a conflict, hero, or medical option will get left out of the textbooks.

And this is precisely why travel is so incredibly important.

Those moments of confusion over the lessons learned before, the ones that no longer jive with your current world experience, are incredibly valuable. More valuable than most people realize. Understanding that educational systems are limited, that making one educational choice means not making another, that the facts we learn are filtered long before they get to us, is the first step to understanding what an education truly is. That understanding opens the door wide to an entire world of learning and, hopefully, keeps us aware that education is never really “complete”.

Questioning those lessons that came before is usually a struggle. There is confusion, then wonder, then possibly anger or frustration, and then once again… wonder. Wonder that the world is actually that complex, that ‘bad guys” and “good guys” don’t exist simplistically, that between the black and white pages of a textbook is whole lot of gray, that there really is that much to learn.

In my experience, travel is the catalyst for an insatiable thirst to know. That knowing takes time but, thankfully, so does travel.

Original article can be found here: Lessons learned on the road vs. lessons learned in school

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The day that smart phones became available, travel changed forever. Immediately, my smart phone became my watch, my alarm clock, calendar, address book, notebook, mirror, and even my flashlight, lessening the number of devices and the weight I needed to carry. As more and more travel apps became available, my smart phone quickly became my most valuable travel accessory. But with literally thousands of apps related to travel, figuring out which are truly useful can be daunting, so I put together the following list of my favorite and most beneficial apps:

Maps With Me:

Maps with me

Maps With Me allows iOS and Android users to download detailed maps of countries on their phones, so no wifi or cell connection is needed to use them. Once downloaded, users can zoom in on any city or area of the country, right down to the smallest street or attraction. The quality of their maps is so good that I am able to follow along as I ride trains through remote areas, to make sure I don’t miss my stop in countries where I don’t speak the language.

XE Currency Converter:

XE Currency

One of the most confusing issues that travelers deal with is currency conversions, but with XE Currency Converter, the process is simple. This app provides live exchange rates and historical charts with wifi access, and the most recent rates are stored for offline use. The app is available for iOS and Android. The free version allows tracking 10 currencies simultaneously, while the pro version ($1.99) allows  for 20 currencies, though both versions show the conversions for 180+ different currencies.

Mobile Passport:

MobilePassport

First launched for Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and now operational for Miami International Airport, this free app lets you lets you skip the Custom and Border Protection line. Simply set up your profile in the app, then upon returning to the U.S., launch the app and answer CBP’s questions and go straight to the “Mobile Passport Control” express lane at the airport – no need to fill out the customs and immigration forms! CBP intends to expand the app for other U.S. airports.

Google Translate:

GoogleTranslate

Gone are the days of struggling with languages you don’t speak in foreign countries. Now the free Google Translate facilitates translations in 90 languages. The app uses computer programs to perform the translations, so they are not always perfect, but in my experience they are good enough to be understood. Select the language and either key in or use your finger to write the words for which you wish a translation. Pressing the speaker button will speak the translation aloud. The newest feature of the app allows taking a photo of a sign written in a foreign language, which is then translated on the screen.

Skype:

Skype

An oldie but still a goodie! The free Skype app allows phone calls to be made over any wifi network, using smart phones, tablets, and computers. Calls between people who have Skype accounts are always free, no matter where in the world they are located. Calls to a person who does not have a Skype account are extremely affordable, costing just a few cents per minute (charges vary according to country). I maximize Skype by purchasing a subscription that provides me unlimited free calls to any landline or mobile in the U.S. or Canada, and by purchasing a Skype U.S. phone number that allows friends and family to call me no matter where in the world I am for the cost of a local phone call.

WhatsApp:

WhatsApp

The only communication problem that Skype does not solve for me is texting, so for this function I turn to WhatsApp, a free chat/texting app that sends free texts worldwide whenever the user is connected to a cellular or wifi network. In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages. The first year is free, with a charge of 99 cents per year thereafter.

1Password:

1Password

To ensure security, it’s advisable to use different passwords for every site, but doing so presents another problem – how to remember all those passwords. My preferred app for password storage on my phone is 1Password, which creates strong, unique passwords for every site, remembers them all for you, and logs you in with a single tap. Everything in your 1Password vault is protected by a Master Password that only you know. The free app encrypts all your data using authenticated AES 256-bit encryption and auto-locks to protect your vault even if your device is lost or stolen.

SignEasy:

SignEasy

When traveling, life doesn’t stop, and occasionally I have needed to sign a document. It has always been challenging to find a way to print out the document, sign it, and then fax it off, especially when in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language. SignEasy allows me to access and sign documents on my phone with my actual signature, wherever I am in the world. The free app works with 15 different file formats and works with popular cloud storage services such as Dropbox and Google documents. You can fill up your paperwork on a iOS, Android or Kindle device and seamlessly switch between devices to carry forward your paperwork. All your files remain safe even if you lose your device or even if it’s stolen.

TunnelBear:

TunnelBear

Whenever I perform sensitive activities on my phone, such as Internet banking, I take extra measures to ensure my IP address is hidden and my data is not visible to hackers by using the free TunnelBear app, which connects my phone to a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). It also has the added advantage of getting me around censorship in countries like China, where sites like Google and Facebook are blocked sites.

Kindle:

Kindle

Last but not least is my Kindle app, which I use to read the 10,000 or so books I have stored on my phone. Though it is commonly believed that the Kindle app can be used only to read books purchased through Kindle, this is not true! It is easy to load any book on Kindle. Simply connect your phone to a laptop or computer where your books are stored, launch iTunes, and when your device appears, click on the app tab. Scroll down until you see the Kindle icon and drag and drop any mobi formatted books onto the icon.

These are my favorite ten smart phone travel apps, but I’d love to hear about any others that you’ve found particularly helpful when traveling.

When Barbara Weibel realized she felt like the proverbial “hole in the donut” – solid on the outside but empty on the inside – she walked away from corporate life and set out to see the world. Read first-hand accounts of the places she visits and the people she meets on her blog, Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel. Follow her on Facebook or on Twitter (@holeinthedonut).

Original article can be found here: Must-have smart phone travel apps

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“We were leaving not just a place but a consciousness — one in which the “I” was different for the Asmat than for me. It was group, tribe, family, tied together in ways difficult to grasp. For me, as an American, “I” is the biggest, most important unit. For us, freedom is everything. The right to do as we please, unbound by clan or village or parents — to move two thousand miles at will, to make a call home or send an email or say hi via Skype. We can reinvent ourselves, changes churches or religions, divorce, remarry, decide to celebrate Christmas or Kwanzaa or both. But these men in Otsanjep are bound to each other. To their village and its surrounding jungle, to the river and the sea. Most people will never see anything else, know anything else. I kept wondering if I was as guilty as Michael [Rockefeller], also filled with a Western conceit that I could just walk into a place and not only get it but also dominate it. Could I make the Asmat spill their secrets? Would they ever? Should they?”

–Carl Hoffman, Savage Harvest (2014)

Original article can be found here: People from cultures that prize individualism tend to misapprehend cultures that don’t

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In the remote southwestern Ethiopian town of Jinka, Charles Veley and I were drinking araki sorghum whiskey in the bar of a dirt-lane guesthouse full of Mursi tribesmen and their families. Mursi women are usually recognizable by the clay disks that stretch their severed lower lips, but on this night, in an informal setting (where families had paid the equivalent of 20 cents a person to sleep on the packed-dirt floor), most of the women had removed their ocher-painted plates. Their lower lips sagged around their chins as they nursed babies in the dim light; the Mursi men, who had checked their fighting staves at the door, silently watched television and sipped araki.

For most of the Mursi, this town of 22,500 people, a minimum two-day walk from their villages, is the biggest metropolis they’ll ever know. The next day they would trade their butter and grains for manufactured goods at the Jinka market, but on that night, as they watched Ethiopian music videos on a flickering black-and-white TV, they seemed as giddy and disoriented as I felt in this peculiar setting. We were all travelers here, it seemed, each of us far from home in our own way. In fact, the only person who looked completely at ease was Veley, who worked the room like a V.I.P., casually flattering and flirting as he bought Mursi women drinks. Dressed in quick-dry trekking pants, Hi-Tec boots and a crisp white button-down shirt, he acted as if he were walking through a climate-controlled R.E.I. store instead of a smoky, lamp-lit room with grimy turquoise walls and the rich, rotten aroma of fermented sorghum and hand-cured goat leather. “This is why I travel,” he told me at one point in the evening. “For moments like this.”

For Veley, a 43-year-old San Franciscan, travel is no part-time endeavor: over the past nine years — ever since he resigned as a vice president at the software company MicroStrategy, which he co-founded — he’s logged almost three million miles and spent nearly $2 million in an effort, as he puts it, “to go everywhere in the world.” This seemingly quixotic project has won him a fair amount of notoriety in travel circles. I first met him in a television studio, where we were both serving as experts for a Travel Channel special on classic world destinations.

Despite my own passion for travel, my fascination with Veley’s project isn’t exactly a matter of common interest. My first book is an extended argument for the merits of slow travel and downplays the notion of counting countries as an arbitrary exercise. When Veley invited me to join him on a journey to East Africa, I accepted out of sheer curiosity about what drives such an endeavor, and about what a Charles Veley journey might actually look like.

In just eight days of travel, I watched Veley negotiate a series of buses and hire cars from Kampala up to the isolated Ugandan province of Arua, which shares a porous border with Congo. I accompanied him on a bone-jarring, daylong Land Cruiser journey across the semi-autonomous southern region of Sudan, along roads that were cleared of land mines less than a year ago. I waited as he climbed into an air-traffic control tower in the flyblown Sudanese city of Juba and negotiated our way onto a chartered aid flight to the Kenyan frontier town of Lokichokio. I followed along as he raced to meet a chartered boat to cross Kenya’s Lake Turkana into the Omo River valley in Ethiopia. Veley tackled all of these challenges with uncanny skill and obvious relish, but I have yet to divine exactly what motivates him. Whenever I asked him why he feels called to travel in such an exhaustive manner, his answers were frustratingly vague — “I travel so much because I can,” he told me once.

At a certain level, Veley’s project has been an effort to set world records and distinguish himself as a sort of extreme traveler, a far-ranging geographical trophy hunter. In 2003, at age 37, he became the youngest person to visit all 317 countries and provinces recognized by the Travelers’ Century Club, an organization of globe-trotters who’ve visited at least 100 countries or territories. A year later he approached the Guinness World Records to certify his status as the world’s most traveled person, only to discover that the Guinness authorities had discontinued the category, because, he said, they could no longer agree on an objective standard. “It was like finishing a marathon to discover that all the officials had gone home,” he told me. “It was very frustrating.” Unable to find an organization to verify his “most traveled” claim, Veley created his own arbitrating organization in 2005, a community-driven Web site called Mosttraveledpeople.com that has more than 4,800 members. Veley hopes to make the site the final word on the topic.

Our journey into East Africa, however, was not making Veley any more traveled than he was before — at least not by the standards of Mosttraveledpeople.com, which makes no geographical distinction between the isolated tribal corner of Ethiopia we went to and the rest of the country. In fact, while Ethiopia was the sixth African country Veley visited in just over two weeks (he’d spent time in Rwanda and Burundi the week before I joined him), none of those countries constituted a new visit, according to his site’s ever expanding master list of “countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups and major states and provinces.” Instead, this African journey was what he called a “go back,” a return to places he had seen only briefly before. Such is the paradox of racking up so many countries in such a short span of time: once you’ve collected enough geographical entities to declare yourself the most traveled person in the world, the next step is to go back and actually experience those places for more than a day.

Veley made no excuses for the expensive whirlwind nature of his initial visits. “One way to look at this is to think of the world as a giant buffet table,” he said. “I wanted to go everywhere, to taste everything first so I’d know where I wanted to come back to for seconds and thirds. I’m doing that now — coming back for more — and it’s really enjoyable.”

Attempting to sample every dish from any buffet table might seem compulsive, but other Mosttraveledpeople.com members I talked to noted that this was not unusual for people who collected countries. “There is a degree of compulsion to this kind of travel, but I think any collection is by its nature compulsive,” noted Alan Hogenauer, who at 568 regions visited is tied for No. 5 on the Mosttraveledpeople.com list. “I think it’s the dogged pursuit of something valuable as opposed to some irrational pursuit.” Lee Abbamonte, a 30-year-old New Yorker who is trying to break Veley’s record of becoming the youngest traveler to reach all the countries on the Travelers’ Century Club list, added that list-driven travel tended to create its own unique worldview. “I don’t consider myself obsessive or compulsive, but sometimes you have to be both when it comes to traveling,” he said. “Most people look at my itineraries and think I’m nuts, but for me that’s the only way to go.”

Since Veley has a wife and three children under the age of 6 back in San Francisco, he covers a lot of ground fast and rarely lingers in places. “Maybe if I was single I could take my time,” he said. “But with a family back home, I’m always on the clock.” Indeed, Veley on the road didn’t resemble Livingstone or Magellan so much as a multitasking American office manager. At one point, when he and I visited the headwaters of the Nile near Jinja, Uganda, he called home on his iPhone to discover that his oldest daughter had just won a ribbon for learning how to swim.

In a way, Veley’s continuing quest to visit each corner of the world is intriguing not because it represents something extraordinary, but because it symbolizes an increasingly quaint notion: a world that might be somehow added up into something knowable, quantifiable and coherent. Once Veley had finished hobnobbing with the Mursi tribesman in this dim little Ethiopian inn, he told me about his plans to return to Iran and Tunisia and his desire to one day sell Mosttraveledpeople.com to a neutral administrator. “It’s not just about the list,” he said. “The more places I go, the richer my regional understanding and the more data points I can bring to bear on relating to people in that next new place. I find a great thrill in imagining a trip in the abstract, then turning it into reality.”

The spreadsheet mentality of Veley’s mission is seductive, but it also struck me as ironic. In an era when ease of transportation and ubiquity of information makes mere arrival at a place less of an accomplishment than it was a generation ago, experiencing one place in depth would seem to be as much a challenge as chasing an ambitious, list-driven itinerary.

After our time together, Veley was scheduled to make his way north to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he would embark on 24 hours of connecting flights to the central Pacific. There, he planned to spend three weeks on a boat traveling 2,500 miles from Samoa to Tuvalu, hitting a number of islands along the way, including three new outposts (Swains Island, the Phoenix Islands and Baker and Howland Islands) that would bring him a little bit closer to completing his master list.

“The list is just a tool that helps me set priorities and stay motivated to see new places,” he said. “It’s not about declaring yourself the winner and being done. For me, there is no done.”

Originally published by the NY Times, November 16, 2008

Original article can be found here: Mister Universe

My Site

wildjunket.com

Age: 32

Hometown: Singapore

Quote: Wherever you go, go with all your heart. – Confucius

How did you find out about Vagabonding, and how did you find it useful before and during the trip?

I’ve been reading Vagabonding since I started travel writing in 2008. It’s got some inspiring travel essays and useful travel tips especially for long-term travelers.

How long were you on the road?

I’ve been on the road since 2008 when I started my blog and began my travel writing career. What started as a six-month trip through Latin America eventually became a nomadic lifestyle and I’ve been traveling ever since. In the past year however, my husband and I have set up a home base in Granada, Spain, and although I still travel at least once a month, it’s good to have a place to kick back and refuel for the next adventure.

Where did you go? 

I’ve been to 90 countries across seven continents to date – most of which were visited in the last decade. This year alone, I traveled to Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Brazil, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Sri Lanka.

What was your job or source of travel funding for this journey?

Since 2008, I’ve been making a living from freelance travel writing and my blog. I started out by attending a guidebook writing course in Guatemala organized by VIVA Travel Guides, who later invited me to stay on and write for them. From there, I picked up fundamental writing skills and began writing for publications in Singapore, and eventually international channels such as CNN Go and BBC Travel. My adventure travel blog, WildJunket, has also been an important channel through which I make connections, display my work and generate extra income.

Did you work or volunteer on the road?

During our travels, my husband and I did a three-month volunteering stint in a small village near Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We taught English and also helped to reconstruct a school which was in bad shape. It was definitely a life-changing experience as we learned valuable life lessons from the students and friends we made there. The experience left me humble and grounded, and it also taught me to appreciate what I have in life.

Of all the places you visited, which was your favorite?

That’s a tough question to answer! I can’t just pick one. I’m a wildlife buff and my favorite places are definitely those with abundant wildlife such as Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and Madagascar. I also loved tracking gorillas in Uganda and seeing polar bears in Arctic Norway – I’ll always remember the moments when I locked eyes with these animals. Coming face to face with animals in the wild is just such a moving and intimate experience.

Was there a place that was your least favorite, or most disappointing, or most challenging?

Our trip to Halong Bay was quite disappointing as it was just packed with tourists and non-environmental conscious operators. The beauty of Halong Bay is undeniable but sadly local authorities are not doing anything to protect the environment.

The most challenging place would have to be India, although I do love the chaos, colors and immense energy! My husband and I are heading back there in two months’ time to do the Rickshaw Run, a 3500km rally across the country on tuktuk (motorized rickshaw) and we can’t wait! We’re currently raising funds for charity as part of the rally goal – if you’ll like to donate to a good cause, please head over to our fundraiser page.

Which travel gear proved most useful?  Least useful?

I’ve been traveling with my Osprey Waypoint 65 backpack for years and it’s never failed me. It’s been my best travel companion and I love just comfortable and lightweight it is. I also never travel without my Eagle Creek packing cubes. They reduce the size of my baggage and make things much more organized.

What are the rewards of the vagabonding lifestyle?

For me the biggest reward is to be able to indulge in the biggest passion of my life (travel!) and make a living at the same time. I’ve never felt this type of freedom and accomplishment in my previous jobs and I would never trade this lifestyle for anything in the world.

What are the challenges and sacrifices of the vagabonding lifestyle?

The biggest challenge for me has been juggling work and personal relationships while traveling. From 2011 to 2013, my husband Alberto left his full-time job to join me in my business and we ran a digital magazine together. We worked extremely hard to make sure it was the standard we wanted it to be but we made a lot of sacrifices along the way. Our relationship suffered and we weren’t as excited about traveling as we used to be. In the end, we made a choice and Alberto returned to his old job while I continue this vagabonding lifestyle – now our relationship has never been better.

What lessons did you learn on the road?

I’ve learned so much from traveling, but the biggest life lesson is probably that people are people and we are inherently good. Visiting forbidden places like North Korea and Iran has taught me that reality is often very different than what appears in media and that we have to visit and see for ourselves to judge.

How did your personal definition of “vagabonding” develop over the course of the trip?

When I started out, I wanted to see everything. That meant waking up early to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat, dashing up to Macchu Picchu with the crowd and spending 10 hours a day in Paris just sightseeing. Now I’ve learned to slow down, take my time to experience each place and interact with locals to truly learn the story behind each place.

If there was one thing you could have told yourself before the trip, what would it be?

That anything is possible if you work hard enough and believe in yourself. Before quitting my job and leaving my hometown for that trip through Latin America, I never thought that I would be able to lead this lifestyle or make a living from travel writing. It hasn’t been easy but it’s a journey that’s truly worthwhile.

Any advice or tips for someone hoping to embark on a similar adventure?

I’ve written a book entitled The Adventure Traveler’s Handbook with the aim of sharing tips and advice for people embarking on adventures or journeys around the world whether beginners or seasoned travelers. The biggest message I want to convey is for readers to open their mind to possibilities and not let anything stop them from pursuing their dreams.

When and where do you think you’ll take your next long-term journey?

I don’t think this journey will stop anytime soon but I’ll like to slow down in 2015 and spend more time working on projects. That said, I already have plans for a long overland trip in West Africa and the Americas (Cuba, Haiti, Costa Rica etc).

Read more about Nellie on her blog, Wild Junket, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Are you a Vagabonding reader planning, in the middle of, or returning from a journey? Would you like your travel blog or website to be featured on Vagabonding Case Studies? If so, drop us a line at [email protected] and tell us a little about yourself.

Original article can be found here: Vagabonding Case Study: Nellie Huang