Travel Experiences (Master List)
Read More
Scariest Drive Lake Hovsgol to Ulan Bator, Mongolia - 2000 Stranded in northern Mongolia with a group of 16 Americans after a freak snowstorm in August. Four hours rough mountain drive from the nearest airstrip, which turned out to be closed anyway, due to the snow. Had to assume leadership of the group to determine a way out. American embassy was too far away in the capital and wouldn’t help. Tried to hire one of the three large Russian helicopters in the country but they were either out of service or in use by ministers. Ended up having to hire local drivers with Russian jeeps and minibuses, (bouncing baby prams with engines!), to drive 17 hours further - back to Ulan Bator to meet our departing flights. Drive through the Mongolian grasslands in the pitch black of night; no lights, no moon, and in many cases not even any road; just driving through fields on gut instinct! Some of the local drivers had been drinking before and were driving so crazily and fast that everyone would lurch and bounce into the ceiling of the jeeps whenever we crossed rutted tracks. Really didn’t think that all of us would make it back alive.
Scariest Flight Djibouti to Addis Ababa– 1998 Had to pay exorbitant amount of cash for a ticket at a bombed out, dusty shopfront in a near abandoned part of Djibouti town. No receipt, no ticket, just a rubber stamped piece of paper! Check in on the tarmac for the airport security personnel and the drunken Russian pilots to inspect everyone’s luggage and more than a few firearms! Boarded the aged DC-8 or similar. A steeply inclined take off disclosed the fact the floor was made of loose metal plates, no carpet and not even screwed down, so that they all shifted constantly during the bumpy flight over barren wasteland between the two capitals. The gaps between the plates allowed plenty of opportunity for a cavalcade of cockroaches to join us on the upper deck as well.
Second Scariest Flight Pointe Noire, Congo Brazzaville – Luanda, Angola - 2007 Taxiing into our parking position next to another plane upon arrival, the pilot cut it too fine and crashed into the neighbouring parked plane. The whole plane lurched to the left and a five foot end of the wing fell off onto the tarmac below! I was glad not to be continuing on that flight/plane!
Most Frightening Wildlife Experience Stromness Harbour, South Georgia, British Sub-Antarctic territory - 2011 The day starts early and I set off with a small group on a long hike to the waterfall at the back of a long valley. It seemed an idyllic setting of a long flat valley with a serpentine streambed passing down through it to the beach, and periodic hillocks with picturesquely positioned herds of reindeer atop them. Pausing for many photos of this beautific setting, the group soon gets stretched out, with most of the others far ahead of all but three of us stragglers. Soon we come across an extremely aggressive fur seal: large, sharp toothed and bloody mouthed, who refused to be dissuaded from his/her mission to attack us. Going after each of us successively, neither sticks, nor shouting nor clanging rocks in front of its nose would do any good. We ended up spending the next 20 minutes trying to fend it off, with our calls for help to the rest of our hiking party far ahead, going totally unheeded. I was the last to have to deal with this beast individually. It chased me across the stream twice, came to within 6 inches of me and constantly lunged forward so many times that I though sure I would be bitten. Holding hands above my head, clanging rocks together, shouting, nothing would stop it. I even got blisters on my hands from so much rock banging. Every step backward was met with a further lunge forward from it to match me. It was the most frightening moment in my life. It continued for so long that I was consciously thinking, well, I'm going to be bitten, but what do I do then? Continue to let it bite me? Run? Fight back, what? (We'd been told previously that seals can "run" up to 35 miles a hour!) Until then, I couldn't imagine being in such a hopeless situation. I was extremely lucky this time. Eventually it seemed to be a bit distracted by the others and I was able to inch backwards bit by bit. I spent the rest of the hike to the waterfall at the end of the valley in a state of shock. Such a narrow escape. There was something seriously wrong with this seal. We learned later that the same seal had attacked another group and cornered them with two other “seal accomplices” for 15 minutes. One person fell down and had their jacket's hood torn off by the seal; again with none of the usual abatement treatments working. It was from this point that the seals ceased to become "cute" and I became extremely wary of all future encounters. I can only imagine how bad it would be a few weeks later, when the next trip comes through this locale, and these same seals are so much bigger, and even more aggressive.
Scariest Hike Bandiagara Escarpment, Dogon country, Mali - 2000 “Easy but Deadly” On a day in 52 degrees Celsius heat, a group of us had been trekking all morning over mountainous areas in the tribal Dogon country. I’d suffered an ankle injury, which I only learned later were two severed ligaments. Apprehensive of the further upcoming ‘major’ hike planned for the afternoon, we asked our guide what to expect. His response: “Easy but Deadly.” In other words, it wasn’t very strenuous, but one misstep would send you careening over the edge of the cliff face, or into a gaping rocky chasm, with no hope of rescue. The hike to the Telem ancestral burial caves of the Dogon’s predecessors was exhilarating and profoundly memorable, not just for the cultural artefacts, and scenery, but by the pre-commencement “set-up” from our guide!
Funniest Experience Western Jamaica – 1978 Hopelessly lost while driving in rural southern Jamaica, after midnight in the pitch black. Stopped to ask directions from a person walking along the side of the road. Rolled down the window and stuck head out of window, and before I could speak, her eyes popped out and ran away screaming, thinking she’d had a close encounter with some great white ghost!
Most Unexpected/Serendipitous Paris, France - 1985 I was sent to Paris for a few days by my company to assist/consult on a project in Singapore, for which the furniture was coming from France. In my taxi ride from the hotel to the office in the morning, we passed by the Pont Neuf bridge, which was miraculously “under wraps” by Christo, a famous conceptual artist. I had no idea that this had been planned, and only installed for a short 2 week period. One of my favourite artists from university days, it was miraculously coincidental that this significant event, which I later learned was years in the planning, was happening whilst I was there. Later in the day, I received a call at my French colleagues’ office, from two old friends whom I had worked with in Chicago at the start of my career, but had not spoken with in a long time. They were visiting Paris, and as they knew I was a big fan of Christo, they had tracked me down through my Singapore office, wanting to share their experience with a catching-up phone call. Imagine their surprise when they learned that I was there in Paris as well! It turned out to be truly memorably serendipitous weekend.
Sickest Sacsayhuaman, Peru – 2008 I’ve been blessed with good health for most of my travels and never really experienced anything debilitating; until Peru that is. A potent combination of roast Guinea Pig, too many Pisco Sours and high altitude made for an explosive combination, knocking me out for days and requiring strong medical intervention to relive. Who would have guessed?! Word to the wise, choose only One extreme sport: Rodent for Lunch, Excessive Libations, or Thin Air Exertion.
Sickest - Second Place Pico de Lages, Azores, Portugal - 2001 Whale watching in the Azores is a long standing tradition. My experience however was coloured by an abnormally long ride in a zodiac, straight out to sea through dense fog, then idling for hours waiting for the whales to show themselves through the murky “peasooper.” The result of this prolonged waiting amidst the cloying diesel fumes and not-so-gently rocking of the boat was of course, me spending most of the ‘watching’ period over the side “offering up” the mornings’ breakfast.
Most Unusual Overseas Work Experience New Maadi (Cairo), Egypt – 1983 Working on a new building construction project in a small town outside of Cairo for a month. Having worked late at the site one evening, I walked out about 3AM, and had to walk a few miles to a main road to pick up a ride or taxi. Unfortunately, for most of this way I was stalked by various packs of menacing, growling and rabid-looking dogs, each protecting their own distinct patch of territory. Managed to keep my cool, and pass from group to group before being attacked, but it was one the most unnerving and helpless times that I have ever experienced.
Toughest Pulau Bintan, Snake river near Tanjung Pinang – 1985 A seemingly simple excursion up the Snake river on a weekend trip to nearby Tanjung Pinang, Bintan resulted in one of the toughest experiences that I’ve ever encountered. The trip to the temple at the end of the river is several miles of dense mangrove swamp lining both sides of the river. After visiting the temple, and shortly after boarding the small wooden boat to return from this excursion, the motor dropped off the back of the boat, irretrievably lost in too deep water. Alone, with no other boats in the vicinity, and no landing possible along the dense mangroves, we were forced to remove the wooden floor boards and use them to paddle our way out, down the entire stretch of river, about 4 hours of exertion, in the height of the midday sun. Only after reaching the bay where we entered the inlet, were we able to flag several local oarsmen boats to ferry us back to Tanjung Pinang safely.
Most Fervently Patriotic Wagah Border Amritsar, India/Pakistan - 2007 By far, the most outspoken enthusiasm you’ll ever see anywhere, is much in evidence at the Wagah border between India and Pakistan outside of Amritsar. I was there for 60th independence anniversary celebrations and the atmosphere was absolutely electric.
Worst Accommodation Experience Cosmopolitan Hotel, Cairo Egypt - 1975 The combination of eerie night-long clanking sounds of a 19th century iron cage lift, echoing amongst vast cavernous areas on the upper floors of an aged tiled building, (think “The Shining”), 45 degree heat, ‘herds’ of cockroaches scurrying on the floor, all conspired to inspire terror and sleeplessness during my first ever stay at an overseas ‘budget’ hotel.
Best Accommodation Experience Unfulfilled! Still looking for this one - it's hard to meet my exacting standards with a perfect combination of atmosphere, space, facilities, style and location!
“Something’s in the Air” Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Yugoslavia) – January 1990 A planned family ski trip to the former Olympic grounds of Sarajevo turned sour when we arrived in January to find that snowfall was non-existent, despite ‘guarantees.’ The spirit of misinformation and sullen brooding anger of the local populace continued to ensue throughout the remainder of the trip, which was re-purposed as a driving holiday throughout Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. We noticed these characteristics in so many of the people, on so many levels; it was just too prominent to ignore. Of course history now shows that only a few months later, the country erupted into a disturbingly prolonged and bloody civil war. Seems that you can always ‘sense’ these things are coming.
Most Difficult Place Visited Guinea Bissau - 2008 I’ve not found that any one particular place is more difficult, as long as you have time and/or money. There’s always a way, and almost always someone to help you. If difficulties were to be highlighted, it probably comes down to logistics. It IS difficult to plan travel in advance to countries with less-than-mainstream languages and limited tourism appeal or development. In these cases, One has to be comfortable with an “arrive and see what happens” attitude. And yes, sometimes the surprise IS good! By far the most difficult for me from this perspective was Guinea Bissau. My “last stop,” it was incredibly difficult, and uncertain right down to the last minute, to plan travel to this country which requires visas but has only two embassies elsewhere in the world, speaks only Portuguese and has no internet presence to speak of, let alone tourism infrastructure; (i.e.: non-existent).
Most Dangerous Place Visited Afghanistan - 2008 Aside from a few isolated incidents, I’ve never really felt very threatened in most of my travels. In most cases, I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to schedule trips to avoid civil war and other significant strife. I’ve always found that even in potentially dangerous or uncomfortable situation, it’s often a matter of positive attitude that can carry you through unscathed, (even in Afghanistan; as the photo in a family oriented public park attests to)!
Most Spoiled by Tourism/Development Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Many trips from 1991 to the present To my mind, I would consider this to be Dubai. Certainly from my design sensibility if not my travel focus. Not so much as development displacing the intrinsic merits of an indigenous culture, but more to the fact that so much of the development is ill conceived, poorly designed/detailed and often downright ugly!
Biggest Sacrifice - 1987 I’ve also been lucky not to have had to sacrifice much in my life to achieve my travel goals. Cumulatively I’m sure it would be considered an expensive goal, but the in depth cross cultural understanding and knowledge of the world gained from it to me, is priceless. Definitely to be considered an investment, not a sacrifice. Ritual sacrifice on the other hand, as shown in the photos from Tanah Toraja, Suluwesi, Indonesia is another story, rich and bloody of course, altogether!
Best “Spectacle” Mass Games Pyongyang, North Korea - 2007 This certainly has to be the “Mass Games” held annually in Pyongyang. Tens of thousands of acrobats, dance performers and musicians perform and compete with another twenty thousand card holding grand-standers to enact mind-bendingly complex displays rivalling the best jumbo-tron electronics!
Most Treasured Souvenir (Artefact)/Best Purchase Shiraz, Iran - 1999 Found and purchased from a reluctant merchant in the back room of an ancient caravanserai souk, a 5th Century BC Official Seal from a Field General’s Staff during the time of Cyrus the Great. The incised metal patterns along its spherical surface create a relief pattern when rolled in moist clay, marking the tablet with this official seal, confirmed genuine by the Oriental Institute of Chicago, leading experts in Near Eastern cultures.
Best Group Trip Anak Anak Krakatoa, Sumatra/Java, Indonesia – 1991 An “expedition” I put together with 16 friends to scale the summit of Krakatoa. 12 of us made it the top caldera, after several hours of ups and downs on the scrabbly rock and cinder cones. The 4 hour boat journey from the west coast of Java was a particularly arduous on the night time return, through rough seas and foul weather.
Best Birthday Present - 2008 The “Palace on Wheels” train excursion through Rajasthan. An exceptionally civilized way to travel. Unpack your bags a week or 10 days in your own compartment. Full day visits to new locales each day, with the train transporting One effortlessly to the next spot through the night.
Extra Extra - 2007 Flaming Crater, Darvaza, Turkmenistan video footage Popular YouTube Video with over 1 million views to date (Video Channel: www.youtube.com/user/madexpat) As an avid photographer and more so videographer, I’ve often posted collections of visuals from my trips on the net. I’ve been surprised to learn which aspects of these trips interest people most. By far the most popular is video footage of strange phenomena, which has achieved some commercial success as well. My “Flaming Crater” footage has been featured several times in Japanese, Spanish & Brazilian television programs, as well as part of a Google advertizing campaign!
