T R AV E L
O N E H U N D R E D
TRAVEL ONEHUNDRED COLLECTOR'S EDITION
100
JULY AUGUST
OUTPOSTMAGAZINE.COM $4.50 CAN/US. DISPLAY UNTIL SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
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COLLECTOR’S EDITION 09/06/2014 8:42:15 PM
TRIPPING
The
Space-Time Travel Continuum
By Ryan Murdock
You go away for a long time and return a different
person—you never come all the way back.
- Paul Theroux
We
come back changed because travel exposes us to new ways of knowing and seeing. But it’s more than that. In the same way that physical exercise strengthens the body, solitary travel, and the pains and hardships that accompany it, hone and temper the inner being. A force of will is forged in the barren deserts that we walk, surrounded by crowds of unseeing strangers. Thrust alone into a strange culture, with no one to guide you, the details of life leap out. You realize that guidebook authors and TV authorities are no smarter than you—they’ve simply been published. You come to feel, deep in your bones, that with your brain and a little effort you can get by in any situation. Each time you set out to make solid the hazy apparitions of your own vagabond dreams, you test your limits and you earn that currency called Experience. You learn to trust your Self. Few lessons at home are so vivid and so lasting. The friendships you make through travel also develop in a sort of compressed time. In a week you can reach a depth of familiarity that would take a year under normal
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circumstances. Maybe it’s because time is limited: we’re more open, more willing to share, less afraid of judgment. Relationship development is a process of mutual self-disclosure, after all. Or maybe time really does alter as we travel. Perhaps relativity, and theories of time and speed and distance, apply to the traveller as well as the particle. Years of experiences are crammed into a few weeks or months on the road, while back home life plods along at workday speed. Travel growth is accelerated: you live a lifetime in a moment, and you come back changed. It isn’t really a compression of time, but rather a broadening and a thickening. And those full moments are timeless. When in their thrall we are outside of time, no longer measuring our death, or staving it off. I believe this is the true meaning of eternal life. (And we don’t have to go abroad to capture it.) Travel taught me that if I stopped time—if I learned to live each day in those moments between ticks—then my life would truly begin.
08/06/2014 1:06:11 PM
y M
dad used to say that brevity is best, and though anyone who knows me would muster an ironic chuckle at that notion, I do take some comfort in the fact that my dad also said “life begins at 40”—thankfully, I’ve still time to master the brief yet. Indeed, life is so often expressed in moments and years that for a travel magazine to celebrate anything centennial is certainly a milestone deserving of recognition. Outpost has been adventuring across the planet for almost two decades now, and in that time has amassed quite a few moments of our own—with this our 100th issue, a special collector’s edition, we’ve brought together some of our long-standing documenters of travel and adventure to reflect on their own dream destinations, travel projects and milestones. This summer is also filled with more arrivals for Outpost as we launch a new website, a new e-newsletter, introduce new online columnists who are sure to entertain, head off to Mont Blanc for a rather extended scenic run, and enhance the Outpost Travel Center to make it even easier for you to get out and see the world and save big time doing it. All physics aside, time—like life—is both long and short, and whether your travel bucket list is one or the other, I hope this 100th collector’s edition of Outpost is a great addition to your future planning.
ISSUE•100
ONEHUNDRED
Publisher/Editorial Director MATT ROBINSON matt@outpostmagazine.com Editor DEBORAH SANBORN deborah@outpostmagazine.com Creative/Art Director SERGIO DAVID SPADAVECCHIA david@outpostmagazine.com Senior Writer/Editor & Special Travel Advisor SIMON VAUGHAN simon@outpostmagazine.com Associate/Online Editor DANIEL PUIATTI dan@outpostmagazine.com Gear Editor PAUL AUERBACH Editor-at-Large (Asia) JEFF FUCHS Editor-at-Large (Europe) RYAN MURDOCK Hostelling International Editor ERIN THOMPSON Contributing Editors BILL ROBERTS, FINA SCROPPO, EVAN SOLOMON, IAN WRIGHT
Tan your mind, Travel for life. Matthew Robinson Publisher/Editorial Director, Outpost
WIN Malaysia a TRIP for TWO Spectacular
Guaranteed to exceed your wildest adventure dreams Read all about it on page 39
Victorinox Swiss Army Contest
MacGyver had paperclips, Batman a utility belt—all you need is a Victorinox Swiss Army knife. Go to outpostmagazine.com/contests for a chance to win the latest and coolest from Swiss Army’s DELÉMONT collection
AND IN OTHER CONTEST NEWS… The winner of the Qatar Airways ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME to Thailand is
Jana-Renee Jonsen of Langley, British Columbia. Congrats Jana-Renee—don’t forget to tell us all about it! And a big thank you to our sponsors: Qatar Airways, Intrepid Travel and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
OUR FACEBOOK AND TWITTER PAGES ARE YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR STAYING UP TO DATE ON ALL OUR LATEST NEWS. Like us at Facebook.com/outpostmagazine Talk to us on Twitter — twitter.com/outpostmagazine and check out www.outpostmagazine.com for more travel
Contributors This Issue WILL ALLEN, ROBERT BRODEY, SOPHIE KOHN, RYAN MURDOCK, COLIN O’CONNOR, JOE SANBORN, DARIO DE SANTIS
Sales Manager GREG DAVIS
greg@outpostmagazine.com Director, Integrated Publishing Programs
DAVID FRATTINI
Outpost [ISSN: 1203-7125] is published six times a year by Outpost Incorporated at 250 Augusta Ave., Suite 207 Toronto, ON M5T 2L7 Editorial and Business : 416.972.6635 Advertising: 416.972.6527 info@outpostmagazine.com - www.outpostmagazine.com Individual Subscriptions Canada: 1 Year [6 Issues] $20 CDN, 2 years $35 CDN USA: 1 Year [6 Issues] $30 US, 2 years $50 US Intl: 1 Year [6 Issues] $40 US, 2 years $60 US Subscriber Services: 416.972.6635. Although Outpost rarely does, subscriber lists may be made available to fully screened companies or organizations whose products may interest our readers. To be excluded from these mailings email circ@outpostmagazine.com, or write to the above address. Subscriptions to Outpost are also available through memberships to Hostelling International in British Columbia and Alberta for just $35 CDN. Contact HI at 800.661.0020 Publications Mail Agreement #0040017920 Postmaster send address changes & undeliverable copies to above address. We acknowledge the financial support of the G vernment of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF). Copyright 2014 Outpost Incorporated. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Printed in Canada. Outpost is a member of Magazines Canada. Made possible with the support of
CMCA AUDITED
COVER MONTAGE PHOTOGRAPHERS: OUTPOST/SERGIO D. SPADAVECCHIA, COLIN O'CONNOR, TOMOKO GOTO FOLLOWING SPREAD PHOTO MONTAGE: OUTPOST/SERGIO D. SPADAVECCHIA, SIMON VAUGHAN, COLIN O'CONNOR, D. SANBORN, NAOMI FINLAY, PHOTO MONTAGE PAGE 73: OUTPOST/SERGIO D. SPADAVECCHIA, COLIN O'CONNOR, JEFF FUCHS, TOMOKO GOTO, JOHN ZADA
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100 O N E H U N D R E D 3 Mailstop
Funny, we don’t feel 100
7 Tripping
The Space-Time Travel Continuum
10 On the Fringe
More under-reported, quirky-human, natural-world stories
13 Local Knowledge
18
A thankfully not so bloody mess in Fiji
Be Still My Desert Heart
In the patch of the SAHARA DESERT where Sudan converges with Egypt and Libya lie traces of a once vibrant distant past
34 MEC’s The Traveller’s Edge Why We Kayak
39
Spectacular Malaysia
From jungle-clad hills to azure waters to old-growth rainforest, Team Outpost explores MALAYSIA and discovers a land of endless adventure
56 Out From the Darkness
The new ALBANIA—gorgeous, friendly, exotic and cheap
122 Backpacker Buzz from Hostelling International Road Tripping the Great Canadian Sasquatch Route
128 Outpost Traveller
Connecting you to your next adventure
O utpost at 100!
72
To celebrate 100 issues of Outpost Magazine, we’ve called upon our team of expert trekkers and travellers, writers and photographers, to reveal their very own TOP 10 must-do-or-see-in-a-lifetime lists
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KNOWLEDGE
Story by Simon Vaughan
What a Coup Our special South Pacific correspondent goes to Fiji and gets caught up in a thankfully not so bloody mess
GETTY IMAGES/BRAND X PICTURES
T
he door slammed shut behind me with a resounding thump, followed by the staccato click of the lock and the pounding of my heart. I stood in the hallway sporting a small towel clasped anxiously around my waist, staring malevolently at the cause of my trouble: the newspaper that lay on the floor mere inches from my grasp. Just as I prepared myself for the elevator ride of unclothed shame to the lobby, I spied a cleaner. With a grin concealed as barely as my unmentionables, she let me in and I scurried away with a bashful thanks.
Despite the trauma of the experience, I continue to request morning papers and when the hotel doesn’t offer the service, I head out to the kiosks of the world. I have long believed that there’s something sophisticated about sitting at a sidewalk www.outpostmagazine.com
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cafe in corners foreign, reading the local news over a morning pastry, though preferably not in a towel. Some newspapers are legendary and world famous, like Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post or Jamaica’s Daily Gleaner. Others are more modest and often lead with the story of a missing cow or the success of the local netball team. Classified ads are a great source for the cost of living or to find out about local events. If you’ve been travelling in an Internet-free zone (yes, there are still a few such spots on the globe!), the local paper may even allow you to catch up on news from home. It’s truly amazing how far a little local knowledge can go in making new friends. Taking a genuine interest in what’s affecting them will always be sincerely appreciated.
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“
Pullquote
Just knowing that an election is coming up in a few months time—without taking sides—can make you friends for life with everyone from the empanada sales guy to the cleaner who lets your near-naked body back into its room. And of course, there’s a practical benefit o paying attention to local current events: namely you can know when things are beginning to go pear-shaped, as some would put it! Fiji is the epitome of a sun-baked, lush, tropical paradise. Sitting in the South Pacific some 4,630 kilometres east of Australia, it’s comprised of 332 islands and numerous islets and atolls, as well as countless perfect beaches. For Aussies and Kiwis it has long been their Mexico, Cuba or DR—but for those of us from other hemispheres it is a once-in-a-lifetime dream destination. When I learned that I was being sent there to attend a travel conference I shrugged my shoulders, admitted that life was tough and then consoled myself with the knowledge that if I didn’t go, someone else would have to. And so I selfl ssly bit the bullet and headed a very long way west and south. My hotel was located on a small island just yards from Fiji’s idyllic main island of Viti Levu. It was connected by a short causeway, lined with white sand beaches and serenaded by the sound of crashing surf from distant coral reefs. The waters were clear and teemed with starfish and sea cucumbers and the manicured grounds shaded by swaying palms. As I unpacked my bag I flicked on the TV looking for the local news. Alas, all was not idyllic on my idyllic island. I must confess that as a boy weaned on thrillers, the idea of being caught in a coup in some cobwebbed tropical corner of the world had long struck me as jolly exciting. The reality of human rights abuses, looting and general anarchy played a very distant second to the thoughts of sitting in a packed bar beneath a slowly oscillating ceiling fan, surrounded by time-ravaged war correspondents drinking absinthe from dirty glasses, smoking cheroots, comparing scars and regaling each other with bawdy tales of previous conflicts as bullets whizzed by outside. As I grew older, the romance of human conflict waned and was replaced by more practical concerns, such as being unable to properly apply hair gel in the dark if the power was inevitably cut during a coup. But perhaps deep inside my still-boyish mind, there remained a slight lust for adventure that, although I would be loathe to admit publicly, tingled my toes. Until I was placing my boxers into a chest of drawers in Fiji and watching news reports of an imminent...coup d’etat! This wasn’t my first flirtation with coups. That had come in Kenya when an explosion had rocked Nairobi while the president was abroad. The authorities, fearing the blast was a coup attempt, had ringed the city with spiked roadblocks and the airport was overtaken by heavily armed soldiers. It turned out that the blast was just an accident at a construction site, but a few years later I was in Zambia shortly after a genuine coup effort. The country was still in lockdown; roadblocks were present every few miles and there was a dusk to dawn curfew. Fortunately, the restrictions didn’t prevent me from getting from my tent to the campsite bar. Fiji is not considered amongst the most politically unstable countries in the world but it had certainly had more than its fair share of upheaval in recent years. As I folded my socks I recalled a few years earlier when a Fijian businessman had overthrown the democratically elected government and held the prime minister and cabinet hostage for several weeks. One of the reasons that it had stuck in my head was because a young backpacker had managed to gain access to the coup JULY/AUGUST • 2014
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» PHOTOS: (SPREAD) VIEW OVER WAYA ISLAND; (INSET) TRADITIONAL HOMES IN NAVALA VILLAGE, FIJI
www.outpostmagazine.com
06/06/2014 2:44:01 PM
„
Hea
BE STILL MY DESERT We
were completely exposed on a stony ridge above the Selima oasis—five Land Cruisers spread out in a line—deep in the Sudanese Sahara. The sun had reached its morning peak, and every dusty piece of chrome was reflecting our presence with jagged flashes of light. That’s not a comfortable place to be when you’re staring down the barrel of a .50-cal. machine gun. Our guide, Moez, the man who had arranged our cars and permits, had a friend in the Sudan military. They were expecting us to pass by this remote outpost—the last place we were likely to see anyone before venturing into the deep desert. So I didn’t really think we’d be shot at. Still, the silence was tense and unexpected. We had been told to approach slowly, and to stop on the ridge and flash our lights until someone gave us permission to drive down—presumably by firing a shot in the air. But the sandbagged machine-gun post was unmanned and no one saw us. Moez got out and conferred with Andras, our team leader. Had communications broken down? We were hesitant to approach, because the unexpected appearance of five Land Cruisers so far out in the desert would be met with suspicion, if not panic. Moez stood on the running board of the lead car with his arms raised, waving a white T-shirt. Then he gave the signal to move ahead. Slowly. In first gear. We crept down the stone track, past the decaying remains of military trucks, most without engines or tires. Only two cars were in anything resembling working order. No one noticed us until we were right in front of the gate. • • • You might be wondering what the heck we were doing out there, so far from the villages of the Nile. It’s not like anyone accidentally wanders into the Selima oasis. It takes great effort to make it that far. But it was less than a third of the way to our destination. Our target was Jebel Uweinat, an isolated mountain that appears suddenly from the vast featureless desert on the three-cornered border of Sudan, Egypt and Libya. When it comes to the Sahara, I don’t think it’s possible to get any more remote than this. The mountain was so far off the caravan routes, which followed widely spaced water holes to the east, that it was only discovered in 1923 by the Egyptian explorer Ahmed Hassanein Bey. What he found there was astonishing. Uweinat’s valleys were densely populated in prehistoric times. And today its barren stone is an absolute treasure trove of rock paintings and engravings, depicting vast herds of cattle, strange round-headed human figures, and even the occasional giraffe. These prehistoric echoes speak from a time in our very distant past when the Sahara was fertile. When it hosted an abundance of life.
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In the patch of Sahara where Sudan converges with Egypt and Libya lie traces of a once vibrant distant past defined by some remarkable people and astonishing events
» THE FIRST UWEINAT CAMP AT KARKUR TALH—NOT ANOTHER PERSON AROUND FOR HUNDREDS OF MILES
09/06/2014 4:25:35 PM
eart
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Story by Ryan Murdock Photos by Tomoko Goto
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PHOTOS: OUTPOST/COLIN O'CONNOR, WILL ALLEN; WATERFALL, GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/ONAIRJIW
VISIT MALAYSIATRAVELCENTER.COM... SAVE BIG TIME... AND GO
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07/06/2014 12:05:22 PM
WRITTEN BY SOPHIE KOHN AND SIMON VAUGHAN
Malaysia
has been drawing travellers, adventurers, traders and explorers for thousands of years. Many were so pleased by what they found that they stayed, forging a nation that’s a rich mosaic of cultures, religions, traditions and languages and as historically diverse as any country on the planet today. Located in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is comprised of Peninsular Malaysia, a beach-lined, jungle-clad finger of land that winds 740 kilometres (460 miles) from its southernmost tip to its land border with Thailand in the north; and East Malaysia, which perches on the island of Borneo and boasts 2,607 kilometres (1,620 miles) of idyllic coastline as well as forests filled with orangutans, monkeys and spectacular birdlife. The first residents of Malaysia were the indigenous tribes, or Orang Asli, who are believed to have arrived on the peninsula perhaps 40,000 years ago, and whose descendents can still be found throughout the country. Next came the Malay people several millennia ago and a little later, Chinese and Indian settlers. Although Islam is the country’s official religion, Malaysia is defined mostly by secularism. Its constitution calls for the protection of all religious beliefs, resulting in skylines that mix magnificent minarets with towering Hindu temples and breathtaking Buddhist statues. From the 16th to the 20th century, present-day Malaysia was ruled by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, all keen for a share of the region’s rich natural resources. Finally gaining its independence from Britain in 1957, remnants of European colonial rule are still evident, further adding to its grand ethnic mix. Nominally ruled by a king, the head of government is the democratically elected prime minister, and together they form a constitutional monarchy not unlike that of the United Kingdom. Today, more accessible than ever, Malaysia attracts adventurers as effectively as it attracted settlers in centuries past. Whether hiking tropical jungle in search of sun bears and leopard cats, or swimming crystal clear waters alongside whale sharks and sea turtles, Malaysia is a paradise for every lover of wilderness and wildlife.
Follow Team Outpost as we whet your appetite for discovery and adventure, then visit our Malaysia Travel Center to wet your feet for real.
G E T I N S PI R E D, YO U R A DV E N T U R E S TA R T S H E R E
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ALBANIA
T
OUT From the Da
he ferry sails buoyantly on the cobalt-blue waters of the Ionian Sea. From the deck of the ship, my friend Lorenzo and I catch a glimpse of the silhouette of Saranda as it appears on the horizon: framed by a long waterfront, and buildings that stretch back to the slopes behind.
We are about to discover Albania, one of the few European countries we haven’t yet been to and it’s very unknown to us. We know very little about it: the country was ruled by the Communist regime for nearly half a century—from 1944 to 1992—and during this period was virtually isolated from the rest of the world. Today Albania is one of Europe’s least developed countries, and a great number of Albanians have emigrated, and keep emigrating, to seek a better life. The info we’d gathered just surfing the web and listening to the (often implausible) stories from people who’ve been there offered us a vague and contrasting picture of the country—we really don’t know, even as we start out, what this trip holds in store for us. After a while I am crossed by a feeling of both anxiety and excitement, which only a brush with the unknown can give. As our ferry moves closer to the harbour, I recall the reactions of disbelief from people when I said I was going to Albania: “Why the hell are you going there?!” and, “You’d have to be mad!” Their skepticism motivated me even more to go; I’ve always liked a challenge. In spite of these skeptics I have three travel mates with me on the trip: Lorenzo, an old friend; Angeliki, my girlfriend, and her friend Chrysa. Angeliki and Chrysa will be coming to Saranda by car from their home country of Greece.
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» THE CASTLE ON TOP OF THE ACROPOLIS AT THE ANCIENT CITY OF BUTRINT
08/06/2014 8:35:33 PM
Darkness Story and Photos by Dario De Santis
Gorgeous, friendly, exotic and cheap—closed to the world for almost 50 years, Albania is now basking in freedom and beckoning travellers in
www.outpostmagazine.com
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2014 • JULY/AUGUST
06/06/2014 4:50:18 PM
O N E H U N D R E D Over the past 100 issues,
O utpost Magazine has travelled the world in styles best described as rustic to comfy. We’ve scaled and soared, sailed and toured, rafted and biked, paddled and hiked, trekked and tracked, GPS’d and mapped, walked and jogged, video’d and blogged, snowshoed and climbed, written and, uh, rhymed.
W
e’ve taken a look at hundreds of countries and thousands of rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, deserts, valleys, jungles, plains and mountains. We’ve done our best to leave only footprints and take only photos, and even when things haven’t gone quite as planned, we’ve returned home raring to hit the road all over again. The world has changed since Issue#1 hit the newsstands all those years ago—and so have we. Countries exist now that didn’t exist then, and others have disappeared from atlases altogether. We have technology that was unimaginable just a few years ago that is now as
commonplace as a pair of socks, and what turned our crank then barely gets us off the couch today. Outpost’s suitcase full of expert adventurers and discoverers, writers, photographers, designers and techies have all put their journals and backpacks down to come up with their own TOP 10 travel list of experiences, dreams, wishes, tips and toys. Some of their picks you’ll easily recognize—are popular and even iconic; others are obscure, more remote, far off the beaten path. But all have been chosen to inform, inspire and entertain you—to help you Tan Your Mind and Travel For Real.
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Tracks, Trails and Treks to Keep Body and Mind in Motion
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/ IANVORSTER
By Paul Auerbach, Gear Editor & Senior Writer My father is fond of saying you can’t do everything, which is odd because he seems to do everything. But prioritize we must. Here’s a list of 10 hikes I aim to do before my feet fail me. It’s a mixed bag, I know, but so is my brain. I typically look for treks between six and 10 days long, reasoning that I need a few days to get used to life on the trail, and that after about 10 or so life on the trail becomes intolerable. Having said that, there are a few treks approaching 20 or so days on the list, and I think it’s something everyone should try at least once. The good news is that there are places on this list that would have cost a fortune to get to years ago but now are pretty accessible. The world is shrinking, after all, and it’s not all bad news. My advice is to make your own list, then pare it down to one or two preferences. Honestly, the lists I find manageable usually have just one item, two at most. You can’t do everything—but you can do everything on your list, if it’s short enough. JULY/AUGUST • 2014
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GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/JUJUYOC GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/MARTINM303
ONE
1
CORDILLERA RE AL, BOLIVIA
South America could have its own top 10 list. And the Cordillera Real is not just for crazy climbers anymore. Highaltitude trekking in the northern section of the Cordillera Real promises spectacular vistas and significant challenges. The Illampu Circuit typically takes about eight days and is definitely worth considering. You could also elongate your stay in this incredible Andean dreamland by adding multiple sections to your itinerary.
2 TWO
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ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT, NEPAL
It’s a long way to fly, but this 250-kilometre trek is famous for its beauty, and I’ve always wanted to get to Nepal because there’s a Brit there who owes me some money. The route crosses incredibly diverse topography, from peaks to valleys; and runs through rice paddies, jungle, bamboo forests, deep canyons and the stunning range of mountains it’s named after. I’m told that if you can get acclimatized to 5,000 metres of elevation (gradually), it should take about 20 days to complete.
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WELCOME TO 10
THRILLSEEKER SKY-IS-THE-LIMIT
COUNTRY By Robert Brodey, Thrillseeker Contributor
GLOBAL ADVENTURES
will have you airborne, underwater and even underground. I’ve also included a number of sports that have cropped up in recent years, which speak to the ever-evolving lust for adventure. To be thrilled is to be actively present in the moment—for me, that never gets boring.
ROBERT BRODEY
Over the last few decades, I’ve had the good fortune of adventuring extensively around the world—from canyoning in New Zealand to hanging from cliffs to photographing rock climbers in Costa Rica. My top 10 thrillseeking list takes you to places both near and remote, with activities that
MIND-BLOWING, SPINE-TINGLING,
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, G,
T
11
ELEVEN www.outpostmagazine.com
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THE BIVOUAC E XPERIENCE, ARGENTINA OK—the truth is, I don’t know how to get this thrillseeking mission done in my lifetime. While hiking in the Fitzroy Massif in southern Argentina a few years back, I became obsessed with scaling the granite face of Mount Fitzroy. It would be a thrill to wake up and watch the sun rise from a bivouac sack secured to its granite face. I just don’t know how I’d get down from there. Besides, with the region’s notoriously fickle weather and wind gusts of up to 150 kilometres an hour, it may be best to sit this one out.
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W
hen a Glimpse
of Fur, Feather or Fin is Worth the Trip Alone
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/HANAFI JAMIL
By Simon Vaughan, Senior Editor & Special Travel Advisor
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21
ome people head to Paris for nothing more than a visit to the Louvre and a few minutes of jostling in front of the Mona Lisa (been there, done that, have the bruises to show for it). But for me, there are few things that will get me to remote and far-flung corners of our planet as quickly and eagerly as a good wildlife sighting. I’m quite happy to trek for hours—and sit for longer—just for a brief glimpse of something rare and exotic or wild and dangerous. I’ve ticked off a few of my faves, but there’s still a bunch to go. Here’s my guide to wildlife spotting for the Outpost Big 10, drawn from firsthand experience and future wish lists.
TWENTYONE
TIGER
There are six subspecies of tigers in the world and every one is classified as endangered at best and functionally extinct at worst. There’s never been a better time to see a tiger in the wild—not merely because we may not have an opportunity at all for much longer, but also because the only thing that makes a tiger more valuable alive than dead is tourism. The most populous tiger is the Bengal, and the best place to find one is in one of India’s national parks and reserves, like Corbett National Park, Bandhavgarh or Ranthambore. There’s never a guarantee of seeing any wildlife—especially one so endangered—but these parks offer the best chance of success. Just make sure that you give yourself enough time not to leave frustrated and disappointed.
RESPLENDENT QUE TZ AL
I have wanted to see a resplendent quetzal in the wild ever since I drew one using almost every coloured pencil in my box when I was about five years old. (Yes, I was a peculiar child—haven’t changed much.) Found throughout much of Central America in thick cloudforest, the resplendent quetzal is a medium-size bird that makes up for any deficiency in size by being amongst the most colourful, grand and well, resplendent of any bird in the world. It was of such great significance to the Mayan civilization that rulers would don the bird’s plucked tail feathers, and killing one could lead to your own demise. I once searched in vain for one in Costa Rica—but I don’t give up easily and will return to find one with more time and a better guide next time!
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GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/CHEPE NICOLI
TWENTYTWO
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3
Going 10 Local the Hard Way By Simon Vaughan
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We arrived at Namibia’s Fish River Canyon after a long drive across an arid and sun-baked southern Africa landscape. Shortly before sunset, we gazed across the rugged fissure as it gradually filled with impenetrable shadow. As the sun finally disappeared and took the canyon with it, we stood in the darkness gazing awestruck at an incredible celestial display overhead, watching intently for shooting stars and satellites. On the drive back to our campsite, I stared skyward until my neck locked. Reaching down for my water bottle I carefully undid the top without my eyes ever straying from their cosmic duty. I hoisted the bottle and took a generous swig, the bottle obscuring my view for just an instant. “Look,” someone shouted. “There’s one!” I dropped the bottle while my companions oohed and aahed but alas, the show was over and its star had already left the building. While all around me excited exclamations of “magnificent” and “best-ever” filled the air, I could only stare malevolently at my water bottle.
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“To err is human, to forgive is divine,” wrote the English poet Alexander Pope. When the mistake is your own and the only one affected is yourself, there’s little you can do but mark it down as one of life’s little lessons and move on. Or you can write about it and share your mishap with the masses. Here are 10 nuggets of Local Knowledge, each learned the hard way…by me.
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NE VER OPT FOR THE SINGLE SUPPLEMENT WHEN CAMPING IN AFRICA
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As an experienced camper, when the Kenyan safari guide offered me my own tent I jumped at the chance for a little privacy. My first night under canvas in Africa was in a national park teeming with lions, elephant and buffalo, and after pitching my tent the darkness closed in bringing with it a chorus of hyena chortles, distant roars and unknown grunts,
shuffles and sniffs. The great explorer’s courage (that would be mine) evaporated with the day’s equatorial heat, and by the time I climbed into my fragile shelter—utterly, totally and abysmally alone—I was a nervous wreck. Every rustle of wind on canvas, every creak, snap, groan and snore sent my heart into palpitations. If only I’d had a tent mate, I mused, as I still lay unwaveringly awake at 2, 3, 4 a.m. By night two I was a veteran solo camper and found the sounds of the African bush wonderfully soporific, but memories of that first sleepless night still send chills up my spine.
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NE VER GE T DRESSED IN THE DARK
With gear stowed and my beloved Gore-Tex boots dusted off and laced up, I headed to Iceland. Several mornings later I awoke to the sound of rain lashing my tent. With hood fastened and rain pants donned, I ventured into the maelstrom. Within minutes my socks were saturated, toes numb and feet squelching in protest. I could feel the warmth fl oding from my body as quickly as the water flooded into my boots. The discomfort continued for the rest of the day, and that evening I surveyed my vengeful piggly-wigglies, all cold, white and wrinkled. My tried-and-true boots had finally expired and I still had ten days of hiking ahead. I tried putting my feet in plastic bags within my boots, but that produced as much moisture inside the bags as the straggling grey clouds produced outside. The boots are now long gone, but my toes still like to cramp in the middle of the night just to remind me of the torment I inflicted on them.
It’s a long way from Canada to Thailand, all that much further when you fly via New York City, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. Travelling on a ticket that included a space-available upgrade to business class, I had carefully chosen attire that provided comfort without endangering my chances at a detour to the comfy seats in the pointy-end. I had gotten up in the predawn hours and dressed in darkness to protect my precious sleepy eyes. I sat in the departure lounge contented that my outfit straddled the difference between economy class comfort and business class conformity. And then I noticed—oh horror of horrors!—that I was wearing one black sock and one brown sock, and would be so disproportionately attired for the next 36 hours! Not only did I know that my international reputation for sartorial elegance had disappeared, but if the agent at the boarding gate was a fashionista, with it went my chances of an upgrade!
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From the Archives: By Matthew Robinson Publisher, Outpost Magazine
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Our customized expeditions start simply. A raw idea, a spark of history or science, a love of adventuring, a desire to expose the unseen corners and mysteries of this little ball of earth and water we humans share with so many species. For the past decade, Outpost Magazine has worked with a cabal of talented and intuitive adventurers, editors at large, writers, photographers and travellers to bring you original stories and exciting new adventures. I always look for something compelling in every new expedition and am particularly fascinated by untold history, little known narratives, underexposed places and cultures. Through our expeditions we seek to recreate epic journeys and retell ancient stories that have defined human existence for millennia—here’s a snapshot.
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THE SOUTH DAKOTA BADL ANDS, U.S.A. (ISSUE 50)
In the waning days of the Second World War, with an Allied invasion of Borneo imminent, more than 2,000 British and Australian POWs were forcibly marched by their Japanese captors from the port city of Sandakan over hundreds of kilometres through dense tropical jungle to the island’s interior. Only a handful survived that brutal trek, and those who did were executed, even as the bells signalling the end of the war rang across the world. Sixty years later, Team Outpost and a troop of Australian soldiers took to the Borneo jungle to retrace that fateful trek, and to help shed light on a newly emerging story. Lest we forget.
OUTPOST/FRANK WOLF, KEVIN VALLELY
When Team Outpost hit South Dakota’s Badlands National Park, ancestral land of the Lakota, we were half expecting it to be prairie-flat. Instead, we found a place that may indeed be mixed-grass prairie but feels more like a desert, composed not only of grassland but mudstone, siltstone and stunning sandstone outcroppings that jut from the land like giant tentacles. We trekked, camped under black Dakota skies, and fell in love with the roaming buffalo and bighorn sheep that call this place home.
THE SANDAK AN DE ATH MARCH, ISL AND OF BORNEO, MAL AYSIA (ISSUE 52)
We started in Auckland, the capital of this compact country almost at the bottom of the world. Our mission was to test drive any and all adventure on offer, and we came back weeks, not days, later to happily report our findings. We tramped across the trails of a country defined by its multi-day treks, investigated the art of abseiling, zorbing and wwoofing, went kayaking and scuba diving and horseback riding. And even touched an 800-year-old kauri tree in an ancient rainforest. Our writer called it the holy grail of adventure travel trips in a land known for inventing wild and wacky things to do—boy, was he right.
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Literary By Ryan Murdock, Editor-at-large, Europe
Journeys of a Lifetime
The possibilities of literary travel are as endless as the library shelves. You can chase down significant sites in the life of your favourite author, soak up the landscape that shaped his or her imagination, or visit a 3D world of characters brought to life. Be warned: it does take a lot of research to prepare for such a journey. But compiling the clues and turning them into maps can be just as rewarding as the trip itself. Here are my top 10 literary journeys of a lifetime (or at least, my lifetime!)—most of which I’ve done, a couple I dream of doing.
SE ARCH FOR L AWRENCE DURRELL IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE Lawrence Durrell was a British novelist, poet and travel writer with a painter’s eye for landscape. Best known for The Alexandria Quartet, he lived the last two decades of his life in a village called Sommières, in the Languedoc region of France, just to the west of Nimes. During that time he also wrote a novel sequence, The Avignon Quintet, set in nearby
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Provence. Many of those locations still exist, and tracking them down is a fascinating exercise in literary detective work. Rent a car and get yourself a copy of The Mediterranean Shore: Travels in Lawrence Durrell Country by the painter Paul Hogarth. And set a course for the Pont du Garde, The Camargue, Avignon and Sommières. You’ll see this region in a fresh and interesting way through Durrell’s eyes.
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Beat Generation novelist Jack Kerouac painted scenes of his hometown in several of his books. Visions of Gerard, Maggie Cassidy, Dr. Sax and Vanity of Duluoz are entirely set in Lowell, MA. Kerouac’s life and his fiction intersect in those cracked mill town streets, until you have trouble remembering which is which.
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You expect to see him duck out of the tenement at 136 University Ave. for an evening stroll to the smoke-filled saloon of the Pawtucketville Social Club. When the breeze dies down you can still hear the maniacal cackle of Dr. Sax bouncing around the grotto behind the Franco-American school. And the tracks of recent pilgrims can also be found at Jack’s gravestone in Edson Cemetery, strewn with offerings of long-dead roses, pens and soggy cigarettes.
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Destination Twins to Twist Your Mind and Tongue
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If the price seems too good to be true, or it takes only a couple of hours to reach the other side of the world, there’s a reasonable chance that you’re not going where you want to go! You’re not the first to make such a mistake—even Christopher Columbus mistook the Bahamas for India in
1492, thereby creating the whole West Indies/East Indies thing: so don’t be ashamed, but do be aware! Here are 20 destinations that it’s worth double-checking before you whip out the plastic and head to the airport, ferry dock or train station.
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Alas, a simple mistake—and no fewer than two confused questions, three misheard announcements and a badly crumpled and barely legible ticket—led him to board an aircraft bound not for Oakland but to Auckland, New Zealand, a considerably further distance away. His error was discovered, but not until he was airborne and hundreds of miles over the Pacific.
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One is home to Kiwi fruits and the other one...isn’t. In 1985, a California student was heading home after several months in Germany. He flew via London, England to Los Angeles where he was due to change aircraft for the final 541-kilometre hop to Oakland, California.
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By Simon Vaughan
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One eats haggis while the other...prefers witchetty grubs. At one time a frequent home to the Scottish royal court— and also former home to the famous Stone of Scone upon which the Scottish monarchs were crowned—Perth was once known as a capital of Scotland. Today it is probably better known internationally as the birthplace of actor Ewan McGregor, though the literary set might still think of it as “The Fair City” thanks to Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott’s
The Fair Maid of Perth. On almost the polar-opposite side of the world lies its namesake in Western Australia. Named after its Scottish forebear, Australia’s fourth-largest city sits on the Indian Ocean and Swan River, and is surrounded by spectacular coastline and awe-inspiring outback. Located closer to Jakarta, Indonesia than to its in-country sister city Sydney, Perth became known as “The City of Light” in 1962 when everyone turned their lights on as U.S. astronaut John Glenn passed overhead on America’s first orbital spaceflight. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/TRAVELLINGLIGHT
PERTH, SCOTL AND AND PERTH, AUSTRALIA
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One has shamrocks, shillelaghs and leprechauns, and the other...doesn’t. A British businessman instructed his secretary to book him and his wife a week’s vacation in a seaside cottage in Donegal. The secretary had the couple’s passports and credit card information on file and with some effort found a delightful seafront property and direct flights. It was only on the way to the airport that the boss took a closer look at the itinerary and decided that eight hours was a little excessive for a 400-mile flight from London to the northwest of Ireland. The busy pair fortunately realized that DKR was not the airport code for Donegal after all, but for the capital of Senegal, West Africa. Thankfully, the error was noticed before the couple took to the air and new arrangements were hastily made.
One has a large Italian population and one...has an even larger Italian population. Toronto is not only the largest city in Canada, but also one of the most multiculturally-diverse cities in the world. With more than half the population born outside the country and almost half having a mother tongue other than English, it’s never a challenge to find an interesting international eatery in Toronto, regardless of your taste. And with more than 475,000 claiming Italian ethnicity, Toronto has more than twice as many Italians as the Italian city of Taranto! Located in Puglia in southern Italy, Taranto is tucked in where the heel meets the sole of the Italian boot on the Ionian Sea. An ancient and strategically important city, it’s also the ancestral home of Quentin Tarantino!
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TORONTO, CANADA AND TARANTO, ITALY
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One is the gateway to one of the world’s best jazz festivals, while the other...isn’t. In 2012, an American couple decided to visit Senegal in West Africa on vacation. They booked their flights with Turkish Airlines and headed off to Istanbul on the first leg of their route. In Turkey’s largest city, they connected to their Dakar flight only to discover once airborne that they were flying due east, not southwest. “Are we headed to Dakar?” they plaintively asked a flight attendant. “Yes we are,” she answered, “Bangladesh.” Upon arrival in the bustling South Asian city, the airline flew them onto Africa, with their bags following several days later.
One hosted the 2000 Olympic Games, while the other...didn’t. It was August 2009 and grandfather and grandson were headed to Australia to see kangaroos, koalas and a particularly nice opera house. Their first leg from Amsterdam took them to Halifax, Nova Scotia where they connected to a direct flight to Sydney. Alas, the much smaller propellerdriven commuter aircraft that should have set their alarm bells ringing didn’t take them across the Pacific, and a short while later they arrived in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Instead of throwing another shrimp on the barby, the dynamic duo settled for Atlantic lobster, before returning to Holland the next day.
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DONEGAL, IREL AND AND SENEGAL, WEST AFRICA
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Photography wishes from micro to MACRO to everything in between!
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few years ago I moved from Italy to Canada, and jumped almost immediately onto Outpost’s magic carpet. Since then, I’ve had the honour of being a chief photographer for several opXpeditions—to Newfoundland and Labrador, Jordan and Nunavut among them. Whether desert overlanding or Dead Sea swimming, exploring ancient cultures or Exploits River rafting, I’ve loved every moment spent behind my lens, every minute designing Outpost’s pages. I can’t wait to see where I’ll go next, where we’ll go next, as we delve into Gaia’s greatest secrets, one expedition at a time. The world is such an amazing place, so beautiful to photograph—it really takes so little to discover it. If I had a photo wish-granting genie, I know where I’d want to go and what I’d want to record. Here is my top 10 must-shoot-in-my-lifetime wish list. What’s yours?
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AUSTRALIAN BUT TERFLY SANCTUARY I love detail, precision, texture, depth. Shooting in extreme macro you can capture every single detail of one of the most delicate and colorful creatures on Earth—the butterfly. In Australia, where in a puff of genie smoke I’m flying over the intense red of Ayers Rock, past wallabies and giant bats and landscapes that stretch under the southern hemispheric sun, we head for Kuranda, Queensland on the east side of the country. Waiting there for my magnifying lens is the incredible electric-blue Ulysses butterfly, the majestic yellow and fluorescent green cairns birdwing butterfly, and more than 1,500 other species. If you have a full-frame camera you’ll enjoy the detail, depth of colour and texture of each butterfly. A challenge to photograph them all.
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Everybody knows that food is a quintessential part of a great travel experience. So we asked our online readers to tell us about their favourite, or just fantasy, foodie travel experience for the chance to win a $400 MEC gift card and an opportunity to be featured in our 100th issue. What a response we got! With hundreds of snapshot stories and sumptuous suggestions, it just goes to show how food and travel share a powerful and sensual connection—from one person’s fire-grilled, paprika-spiced prawns before a seaside siesta to another’s beans and hot dogs on a camping trip. Here are our 10 favourites:
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Travel Dream Cuisines
MONTENEGRO
- Brittany Mallett
FRANCE
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The meal dreams are made of: flammkuchen and Riesling in Ribeauville in northeastern France. I remember the way the fresh fromage blanc melted into smoky schinkenspeck (bacon) that was dancing with caramelized onions on top of [a] perfect crust. It was served on old wooden cutting boards, still singing with the heat of the wood oven, whose smoke mingled with the voices on the small restaurant patio and footsteps on cobblestones, echoing off the village’s 16th-century stone walls. - Dia Davina
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Eating hot pot on the banks of the Mekong [River] in Vientiane, Laos with a group of friends I met three weeks earlier in Vietnam. The hot pot was made of clay and was heated over coals; you sit on the ground and pay for a plate of raw meat, which you then cook in the hot broth in the pot. It was delicious, and so much fun to do it at night with the stars on the banks of the river.
- Michael Burton
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My husband and I were married in 2010 and we skimped and saved on our small wedding so we could afford our dream honeymoon. Our most memorable foodie experience was in Kotor, Montenegro. Wandering through the gorgeous medieval city, we found a tiny restaurant in the side of an ancient stone wall, and ordered blindly from a menu in a language we didn’t understand. We ate fresh squid and sautéed spinach by candlelight, sopping up the last of the lemon/garlic/butter sauce with fresh baked crusty bread. It was the perfect meal, and we still often reminisce about it.
My dream meal would be at a secluded villa in Jamaica on the water overlooking Blue Hole Lagoon, enjoying ackee and saltfish, just-baked johnnycakes covered in butter and marmalade, and freshly squeezed ortanique juice for breakfast, while watching the sun come up to burn off the morning mist. All the while looking at the emerald waters and listening to the surf on the reef, feeling the warmth of a tropical morning.
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My favorite foodie travel experience is my fiancé and I travelling without plans just south of Rome, and stumbling across a phenomenal villa restaurant peaked high above Lake Albano, Italy. Homemade beautiful cheese-and-mushroom filled ravioli with a light lemon cream sauce, followed by a deconstructed mille fleur topped off with a beautiful bottle of locally produced white wine from the hills of Lake Albano. As we walked off dinner, we came across a peach festival finishing for the day…what a treat!
- Alisha Slauenwhite
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You say ravioli, I say tortellini..
MOROCCO I’ve been experimenting with the tagine I received for Christmas. It’s tough to find the proper spice and ingredients in rural Ontario. My fantasy foodie travel experience would be to taste the authentic cuisine of Morocco, with a focus on the country’s classic dish, the tagine. Salted lemons and ras al hanout, from Casablanca to Marrakech. Shopping for spices in the souqs. Bring on the couscous!
- N Lalonde www.outpostmagazine.com
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By Dan Puiatti, Associate/Online Editor
DIGITAL TIPS AND TECH TOOLS
TO KEEP YOU HAPPY
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echnology moves fast. It seems like just yesterday I was cursing a phone number with a nine or zero in it and struggling to fit my finger in the rotary dial. Back then if you told someone that we would all be carrying mobile pocket touch screen computers with cloud-based storage, voice recognition and 41-megapixel cameras they would’ve had no clue what you were talking about and probably thought you were some kind of lunatic. And while I’m thankful that the age of rotary phones is a distant memory, I know at the same time that keeping pace with technological progress can be difficult. Fortunately, my obsessive nature has made it fairly easy for me to stay atop the latest tech tools and trends, and so I figure I might be able to contribute something meaningful to society by sharing some of the tools and services I have discovered over the years, and continue to use.
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But before I share my insights I want to start with a few precautions about using technology both when travelling and at home. First, since many of the tools mentioned on this list require an Internet connection you should always be aware of data rates both internationally and domestically. If you plan to use your data connection internationally be aware of data roaming charges—these can quickly add up! To deal with international data roaming in advance you might consider buying data at a flat rate. Rogers Wireless, for example, offers a $7.99/day flat rate for 50MB of data when travelling to the U.S., $9.99/day for 20MB/day in Europe, and $9.99/ day for 10MB/day when travelling in Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Oceania. Alternatively, you could try to avoid using your data connection altogether. Hotels, bars, fast food restaurants, coffee shops, airports and
libraries are all great starting points abroad for seeking out a WiFi connection. Of course, finding a WiFi access point is not always possible, so be smart about your data usage and always prepare in advance by knowing your data rates. If your device supports it, set a data usage limit and warning so that your device notifies you when you are approaching your daily limit. Second, as any savvy traveller will tell you, always be aware of your surroundings when using tech in public—it can quickly draw attention and sometimes be of the wrong kind! Finally, remember: as with all technology there is the opportunity for it to fail, break or generally produce a variety of hilarious bugs; and there’s always the chance you’ll find yourself in the one Internet-free blackhole left on the planet. Try to have a backup plan. With all of that out of the way I can now proceed with a clear conscience. So without further ado, here’s my list.
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ORGANIZE E VERY THING!
Now that you know everything the moment it happens… it’s time to keep all those things you know organized and accessible—forever. Evernote is, as the name suggests, a way to create and store notes online forever—or as long as Evernote exists. With this tool you can easily create notes from either the desktop, mobile or web version of Evernote. Each note you create can be categorized with tags and synced with your mobile devices for remote access. Usually when I start researching a trip I like to scour the Internet for reviews and articles that relate to my destination, take these articles and categorize them by destination, add relevant tags (travel, weather, accommodation), then store them so I can access them easily from my mobile device. Bonus: you can even share the notes with the people you’re planning the trip with. Bonus-bonus: Evernote has a web clipper extension for your web browser that transforms web articles and pages into clean, clear and easy to read copies of the page. Evernote: www.evernote.com
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STAY ON TOP OF E VERY THING
Have you ever wanted to know everything the moment it happens? I have! With Google Alerts it’s almost easy! Google Alerts is a content change detection and notification service. What is a content change detection and notification service? Basically a service that emails you when a word or phrase is published online. Prior to heading to Peru last year I created a Google Alert that would notify me of any articles published online with the phrase “travel advisories Peru” (quotes included). Any time an article would appear with that particular phrase, Google would send me an email with a link to the article, its source, and a few sample lines. Additionally, you can customize the alerts to come in once a day or as they happen—this is really handy to stop from being overwhelmed when following a popular topic. I also use Google Alerts daily to notify me of sports updates, stock alerts and news stories. Creative uses include monitoring political situations, health advisories and storm predictions prior to travelling. Google Alerts: www.google.ca/alerts
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KEEP YOUR PHONE SAFE
Have you ever lost your phone only to discover it days later wedged between your couch cushions in the regal presence of some chips and loose change? If you know this feeling, it’s time to start using your phone’s remote device manager. Most phone manufacturers, likely having experienced the same style of couch shame, have worked hard to ensure you can quickly and accurately locate your phone with GPS, or make it ring to help you find it, and even delete all the information on it if you suspect it may have been stolen. NOTE: Never try to recover a phone you suspect may have been stolen while travelling. Your unfamiliarity with your new surroundings may lead you to interactions with the locals that may not have been part of your original itinerary. Better simply to mitigate your losses and consider it gone, then remote wipe your data. Trust us on this; it’s just not worth the risk. Android: www.google.com/android/devicemanager iPhone: www.icloud.com Windows: www.windowsphone.com/en-us/my/find Blackberry: protect.blackberry.com
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DIGITIZE YOUR DOCUMENTS
Paper and plastic documents are subject to being lost, so why not turn those physical documents into glorious data? This is probably one of the easiest things you can do to keep your documents safe and accessible. Simply scan or take a photo of the specific documents—your passport, license, health care card, boarding pass, immunization record—then upload them to a cloud storage service. A cloud storage service keeps your data stored remotely and allows you to access it through a secure web connection as opposed to storing it on a local hard drive. There are many services out there that offer cloud storage: Google Drive, for example, offers up to 15GB of free storage, which is more than enough to store your documents. Additionally, many of these cloud storage services have apps to allow you to easily access your documents on a mobile device. And why not save a copy of your uploaded documents on Evernote too? Google Drive: www.drive.google.com Dropbox: www.dropbox.com
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Traditional customer service not quick enough for you? Send a Tweet. Today many companies use social media as a supplement to traditional customer service. Many of these companies also monitor social channels 24/7 with a dedicated social media team. So, if you are having a tough time getting through by phone, or email is simply not fast enough, consider sending a Tweet to the company you’re trying to contact. While they may not be able to solve your problem in 140 characters, sending a Tweet will often get them to take notice of your particular issue and may even help garner a quick response from their customer service team. The whole process is really quite simple: find the company’s Twitter profile (@OutpostMagazine, for example) and send a Tweet starting with the company name—for example, “@OutpostMagazine I love you guys so much and could never take any issue with you ever.” Twitter: www.twitter.com JULY/AUGUST • 2014
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Ever have one of those dreams where you’re soaring high above the world naked? Forget dreams, do this instead! I can not leave out Google Earth—it’s by far one of the best ways to spend a rainy Sunday. Google Earth is a fully interactive and navigable virtual earth that you can access through a desktop application, web plugin and mobile app. What makes it really special is the stunning 3D presentation, extensive location directory, and the ability to download plugins that dramatically enhance the amount of information and experiences available. For example, you can download a plugin that lets you explore cities and buildings in 3D, or download a topographical map that overlays the topography onto a plot of land. Google Earth even allows you to explore the area around your destination through photos and points of interest submitted by other Google Earth users, perfect for examining areas around your destination for some cool off the beaten path photo opportunities. Google Earth: www.google.com/earth
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HOSTELLING INTERNATIONAL CANADA
BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA REGIONS
BACKPACKER BUZZ THE SASQUATCH ROUTE: A ROAD TRIP THROUGH THE BEST OF THE WEST By Anthony Brook
If you are visiting Western Canada, you are likely to fly into Vancouver. There is a myriad of sights, restaurants and adventures to be had here. It deserves at least a couple days of your time; probably more. It can be a pricey place to play—but no worries, Vancouver has three great hostels to choose from. HI-Vancouver Downtown, as the name suggests, is downtown, but it’s on a quiet, treelined street away from honking horns and the boom-boom of night clubs. This being said, great restaurants, pubs and the beach are only a few minutes away. If boom-boom is your thing-thing, then you will want HI-Vancouver Central, right in the heart of the entertainment district on Granville Street. The bright lights of the big city are right outside your door. Maybe the beach is more your speed. Head out towards the University of British Columbia and stay at HI-Vancouver Jericho Beach which is, you know, right beside, Jericho Beach. After submersing yourself in Vancouver’s culinary delights, cultural diversity and dramatic scenery, it will be time to leave Canada’s most talked-about city behind—it’s time to be refreshed by the interior of B.C. and southern Alberta. You have a few choices of how to do this. The most direct route is to follow Highway 1 east (Trans-Canada Highway, JULY/AUGUST • 2014
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TCH), up the Coquihalla highway to Kamloops. Rejoin the Trans-Canada and pass through Revelstoke, Golden, Lake Louise and Banff, before ending in Calgary. It will take about 12 hours. If that drive is a little too long for you and you're looking for a good stop halfway, check out HI-Shuswap Lake and get some rest for the trip ahead. If you have the time, avoid the Coquihalla and remain on the old Trans-Canada, heading north to Cache Creek and then over to Kamloops. On the way you can stop at Hell’s Gate Air Tram, where you’ll get a true appreciation of the power of the Fraser River. Some of Western Canada’s best whitewater rafting is also right there on the Thompson River. In contrast to rafting options further east, the Thompson is big and deep and warm. There is all the excitement without the log jams and hypothermia of the Rockies. A third option is to head north from Vangroovy, have a quick stay in Whistler, pass through Pemberton and embark www.outpostmagazine.com
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HOSTELLING INTERNATIONAL CANADA
BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA REGIONS
TRAVELALBERTA
After about three hours of driving you will be in the Canadian Cascade Mountains, and it’s about time for a break. Manning Provincial Park is waiting. From jagged mountain peaks, to rivers, lakes and hiking and biking trails, Manning has a little bit of everything to help wash that urban film away. Camping is available, and like all B.C. provincial campgrounds is inexpensive and well cared for. As you head east, you’ll quickly notice the landscape and fl ra change. The mountain feel will give way to the dry heat and rolling hills of the interior. Soon you will have the choice of diverting to the 3A to Penticton, or continuing on directly to Osoyoos. Because there is time, let’s assume Penticton.
on the Duffy Lake Road. This is a very different experience and you should be ready for a rougher, but passable road. It climbs thousands of feet from Pemberton over multiple steep switchbacks. Once your altitude has been gained, you won’t be looking at the mountains, you’ll be in them. The road can be driven to its termination in Lillooet in just a few hours, but why rush? Take advantage of the many FREE B.C. forestry rough campsites and have a real wilderness car-camping experience. After Lillooet, you eventually rejoin the TransCanada at Kamloops. If you have lots of time, avoid the TCH altogether. Just after you pass Hope, B.C. turn off and follow Hwy 3, The Crowsnest Highway. At Hostelling International we call this the Sasquatch Tour. This pretty road will twist and turn and go up and down all the way across southern B.C., just a few miles north of the U.S. border. You’ll pass through high deserts and high mountain passes; big lakes and little lakes, small towns and smaller ones. Don’t be in a rush because nobody else will be.
Penticton is a medium-sized town of 32,000 people. They are here because there is so much to do. Boats, bikes, climbing ropes, tents, skis, hockey sticks, and most importantly wine glasses, are vital tools for happiness in the lower Okanagan Valley. The warm climate and moderating influence of a large warm lake makes for great wine country. B.C. wines are famous around the world, but like most purveyors of fine liquors the locals keep lots of the good stuff for themselves. Wine tours, either commercial or self-directed, are a great way to pass the day and sample some vintages you won’t find on the store shelves. While enjoying Penticton’s 2,000 hours of annual sunshine why not stay at HI - Penticton? It is a renovated 1908 heritage home in the downtown core. You can park the car and stroll to restaurants, pubs and the beach. It’s not uncommon to come for a night and stay for a week. To get back on the main trail again, take the 97 south to Osoyoos. The town is named after the local First Nations people of the same name, and means “narrowing of the waters.”
FINN O'HARA
www.outpostmagazine.com
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