Have the Best Stories... Travel

Arguably the best stories in life come from travel. When our individual preconceptions clash with those of a foreign country, we are presented with surprise, humor and potentially unending degrees of confusion.

I had my first real taste of a completely foreign culture when I was 25. I went to Korea for a summer to teach English in small town in southern South Korea called Yeo-chun.

The experience was outstanding. I had an apartment that overlooked the seaside, made plenty of new friends, and took every opportunity to dive into the local culture –“when in Rome…”

However, everyday, there was something new that shook my preconceptions about the world and my place in it. Here are some of my stories.

English Classes: Teaching was one of the most fulfilling things I’d ever done. All of my students were absolutely fantastic. My classes ranged from kindergarten to university and professional levels. My students all progress at remarkable speeds with the exception of one thing. Regardless of their grade level, G's were pronounced like Z's and Z's as G's. And, if you worked to switch the two, they both came out sounding like "dwee", which is how V was pronounced.

Student Riots: I’d fly up to Seoul almost every other weekend to meet up with friends. A half dozen times throughout the summer, we’d turn around some random corner only to be engulfed in a thick cloud of tear gas. Almost every weekend, young adult students rioted against young adult soldiers. It seemed so ironic. Regardless, it was good fun to see my friends turn into a pathetic mass of tears. I am sure I looked just as sad. I think the store clerks gave us refuge just so they could share in the laugh.

Sun Tanning: Simple... sun tanning was considered indecent before May 31st and after August 31st. If you did it in the off-season, even by one day, expect to be frowned at. And by frowned at, I mean get a look of disappointment that’ll rip the very fabric of your soul.

Mosquitoes: They were organized, in numbers, and out to drain your entire circulatory system. I had an infallible layer of netting over my windows. Regardless, when I woke up in the morning, there were usually two dozen of them on my bedroom walls fat with my blood. I’d take my revenge, but my room started to look like something out of Amityville Horror. I had to think twice about adding “clean blood off my walls” to my desk top calendar at work.

Soju: Korea produces a rice-based spirit called Soju. To date, I have never had a worse hangover in my life. Certain brands should be labeled with that toxic symbol you see on bleach containers. The director of my school had to be hospitalized for a couple days for drinking too much one night. Strangely, I felt a touch responsible. In some ways I think my western ways may have been a touch liberal for him and the local community.

Kind Gestures: I left the school one late evening at the same time as one of my female students. Since it was dark, I decided I’d be responsible and walk her to the bus stop just around the corner. The next morning I was met at the school by two policemen who were there to extradite me back to Canada. Apparently, alleged fraternization with female students is a contemptible offense. To get me off the hook, it took the school director to explain western cultural differences and a guarantee from me that I’d never do it again.

Food: Food is not what food is at home. To highlight some of the differences, here are a few examples:
• Live seafood: A live octopus is taken out of its water tank. The tentacles are immediately cleaved off. You put one of the wiggling digits in your mouth, chew, swallow and chase it down with a shot of soju. It's a lot like doing tequila shots, but in reverse. When doing shots of tequila, you bite into a lemon to hide the taste of the liquor. With octopus, you take a shot of Soju to numb the feeling of the tentacle wiggling all the way down your throat.
• Stir-fried silkworm larvae (Bondegi): They are fried in a big wok and sold by the Dixie cup. You eat them as you would popcorn in a movie theater. A friend and I tried them together. The experience hardly lasted one second after my friend opened his mouth and I equated it to the textures and tastes in my mouth.
• Dog (Kegogi): Enough said.
• Raw livestock parts: Again, enough said.
• Chicken: You think you are safe with this one. Think again. Never count your chickens till you see it hasn't been boiled in a pressure cooker to the point it's turned into poultry gel.

Driving: Driving in Korea is a fine art. Drive fast and honk your horn at as many things as you can (moving or not). Shoulder checks are optional. Here’s a little anecdote. A friend and I went for a car ride with one of our adult students. He somehow managed to get into a fender-bender with the only other car on this nearly abandoned country road. My friend and I walked home willingly.

The Mentally Insane: I have not been able to confirm this. I’ve been told the homeless mentally insane are made to wear a white square eye patch over one eye. I saw the eye patch and the crazy person wearing it. However, it just seemed so very strange to be true.

Fumigation: Fumigation is done periodically throughout apartment complexes with infestations. However, if you can not understand evacuation warnings blasted out over outdoor loudspeakers in Korean, expect to find yourself lost, choking and near death as you stumble five flights, completely blind, down the only available stairwell to safety. (Note: Important! Fumigation smoke does not leave a thin layer of clear air one foot from the floor as we've all been told in case of a house fire).

Of course, stories aren’t really worth anything if you don’t share them. I invite you to share the moments that made you laugh, cry or shake your head.

Great Videos from the World of Travel - Part 1

Being in the travel industry, we come across some excellent video shorts related to travel. This week we thought we’d start sharing some of our favorite picks.

Enjoy!!
Stephen

Where the Hell is Matt (4:29 mins)


Vietnam Traffic Intersection (0:09 mins)


Secret Seats on Airplanes (1:28 mins)


Lyra Bird (3:59 mins)


Panama Canal Timelapse (1:56 mins)

My Favorite Backpack

As a follow-up to last week’s blog on packing, I thought I’d share a little story on the purchase of my favorite backpack.

Everybody comes across things in life they just have to have. I used to think I had to have my own a beach house loaded with every kind of sports gear imaginable, set in front of a pristine coral break where a dolphin, named Rah, would get me mixed up in varying degrees of shenanigans on the high seas.

However, the subject of wanting and having, all came into perspective around a black backpack a few years back when I went window-shopping with my friend Kevin.

It was mid-afternoon when we walked into a high-end sports superstore with the sole purpose of perusing through our individual wish lists. I was mainly into the biking section and Kevin was giving the climbing gear a good once over.

When I was walking back to meet up with Kevin, I stopped dead in my tracks in front of a counter near the backpack section.

I was definitely not in the market for a pack. But, what I saw... this thing was stygian black, titanium stitched, nuclear grade composite, polymersaturated majesty. In addition to being the prefect size for my laptop and papers, it had special compartments for rappelling gear and spent rounds. The knowledge of its existence carried my soul away to Stirling Lines in Hereford, UK. If I had been a policeman in a bust, I would pull this thing out instead of a gun and I would most certainly have got the same level of attention.

A tear formed in the corner of one of my eyes. If you read Men's Journal and you weep over the equipment section near the back of the magazine, you know what I am talking about.

I walked right up to the backpack. I contemplated picking it up, but I didn't know if some alarm would go off or some massive cobweb covered boulder would come rolling out of the ceiling to crush me. A split second before deciding I was going to go for it, Jeff the super-sales-clerk, wisps by, picks up the bag, holds it up in front of my face, and with a big-ole-smile says, "nice pack eh?"

Poor Jeff's prepubescent acne covered face looked like it had been hit a couple times by the boulder in the ceiling. I knew he'd grow out of it, but it was more than enough to kick me out of my trance. I followed the conversation and asked Jeff for the cost for the backpack. He showed me the price tag. The price, $210, was well over what I was willing to pay for a 30L backpack.

I was upset. The backpack caught my attention on such a profound level, yet there was no way I could justify the expense. The end did not justify the means. I was beat, and I loathed the feeling.

I sincerely thanked Jeff for helping me out, took one last look at the backpack, sighed, and went to the climbing department to find Kevin.

On the drive home I told Kevin about the bag and fumed over the price.

Out of the blue, Kevin came up some grand words of wisdom. He asking me how often I saw something that truly blew my hair back. I told him it rarely happens. He then suggested that, if in a couple of weeks the backpack still weighed heavy in my mind, I should go back and get it. I admit it; I felt a little man-crush on Kevin at that moment.

One week went by. Then two. The backpack was still at the front of my thoughts. I was clearly hooked because I caught myself doodling pictures of me and the backpack on scrap pieces of paper and daydreaming about hiking through the Himalayas with it. I even told some other friends about it. They all thought I had lost my mind --the thing was they had not seen the backpack and they did not know the reality of what I was talking about.

On the fourteenth day, I decided I could not stop thinking about the backpack and that it was time to go shopping. After two weeks of personal atonement, the end did justify the means.

To get into the mood, I put my credit card in my pocket, stretched, did a few push-ups, and walked out to my car. It was a good thing I recently put new spark plugs in the old Civic, because I was looking to break the land speed record on the way to the sports store.

With a big smile on my face, I made my way over to the counter where I'd last seen the backpack. I felt like a character from a 70's disco theme movie. My imagination when to a scene with friends everywhere cheering me on, while a skull-snaps groove played in the background among a hundred high-five's, head bands, tight pants, and pointing fingers. The sparkling ghost of Bruce Lee was standing next to the shades rack and he did the thumbs up thing as I walked by. Poetry I had once heard by D. H. Lawrence rang in my head, "The ebb and flow of the Atlantic tides, the drifts of the continents, the very position of the sun along its ecliptic. These are just a few of the things I control in my world", I was king!

It was too bad it all ended pretty quickly when I noticed that the backpack, I had so very much wanted to purchase that day, was not on the counter anymore. I checked behind the counter, but it was not there either.

I went hunting for Jeff D. Supersalesclerk. I knew Jeff wouldn't let me down. He had braces and was in pain and I knew he wouldn't think to impose the same on me.

I never found Jeff, but I did spot the name tag of the Sr. Manager of Outdoor Sports Superstore, who just happened to be walking by. I asked if he could please help me get one of the backpacks they had on the counter, which obviously must be stashed away in the storeroom.

I bet he used to be a Marine or something, because he seemed to know exactly what I was dealing with --that or he really liked impulse buyers interested in spending money on high-margin merchandise. With authority, he waved over the closest sales clerk, looked at her nametag, and asked, "Karen, could you please go into the back and see if there are any more of those backpacks we had on display."

The look on her face gave me chills. It was foreboding. It was like she was in possession of information she did not want to share.

Regardless, she left us and went into the back.

Things just weren't going my way, because she came out a few minutes later empty handed. She looked really sorry and told me that they had sold the last one that very morning.

Whatever Karen was trying to tell me, it was not sinking in.

I looked to the Sr. Manager for some answers, but all he could offer me was a self-negating smile that seemed to say both, "I am truly very sorry" and "there is no sale here; now’s probably a good time to leave”.

I was about to try to vocalize something when the Sr. Manager cut me off and excused himself. Before leaving, he let me know that Karen would be pleased to help me with any other questions I had.

I thanked him for his help and he left.

Suddenly, I was hit by a memory from grade school. I was at my desk laughing and kidding around with all my buddies. I was all smiles that day. We were supposed to be going on a much-anticipated field trip to the Zoo. It was a beautiful day. That was until our teacher walked in the classroom and informed us the trip had been canceled indefinitely due to a transportation scheduling error. Then, without batting an eye, she told us to take out our spelling books.

The same agony was back.

This was supposed to be a happy day. I played by the rules. I waited for two weeks and I wanted the backpack. I wanted my peace.

I took a minute to collect my thoughts. I simply had to accept they were out of stock for now. No big deal. I pulled myself together, turned to Karen, and asked, "Could you please let me know when you'll be getting another shipment?" Her eyes squinted like she was being asked to handle some highly-sensitive explosives. She took a step back and let me know that the bags were a one-time limited quantity special edition order.

My jaw dropped. What was I supposed to do with that information? What could I do?

I just had to accept that I had waited on something and lost. All I could do was try to make the best of it. I tried to chalk it up to experience. I thought to myself, the next time I really want something, I will buy it or walk away and never look back.

My attempt to rationalize the situation faded. It was too weak. The disappointment was overwhelming.

The reptilian part of my brain took over. I attacked the situation with boolean logic. I thought to myself, "If, I give up and go home, then, I will probably take a major blow on my self esteem, start drinking heavily, lose my job, buy a couple Nine Inch Nail CDs, and walk the streets mumbling something about pigs. Else, if I don't give up, then, I might get the bag."

I cleared my throat and turned to Karen. I told her I wanted the backpack and that I'd really appreciate her help in looking for some other options. Karen said she'd see what she could do and took off to look for her supervisor.

About a minute later, she came back with her supervisor, Rae. I explained the situation to Rae. You could tell Rae had been in her job way too long. She tried to handle the situation like a seasoned pro but seemed slow on the follow through. She basically covered what Karen had already told me and apologized for not being of any more service.

I decided to up the ante.

I asked if the backpack was distributed to their competitors across the road. I think I had hit a nerve, because Rae came to life after that. It was almost like she finally related the price tag to her commission and there was no way she was going to let the cash drop into someone else's pocket. She never answered my question. Instead, she took my name and phone number, and promised she'd try to get a hold of one of the backpacks for me.

I walked back to the car and got in. I knew I was leaving empty handed, but I was feeling a little better knowing there was still some hope.

About two weeks later Rae called me at home. She seemed so pleased to inform me the backpack had arrived. I didn't bother to ask how or why, I just told her I was on my way.

I put my credit card in my pocket, did some push-ups, and like Forrest Gump, "I was-a-running".

The backpack has proven to be well worth the trouble. When I brought it out for the first time, each and every one of my friends apologized for doubting me. I use it pretty much every day. Even though I am fairly aggressive with it, the backpack has never let me down. At a Halloween party last year, I used it as part of a S.W.A.T Officer costume. When I burst through the front door of the house, everyone who was doing things they weren’t supposed to be flew out the back door. I was vindicated.

Throughout this experience, I thought I had learnt a couple more things about perseverance and doing whatever it takes to get the things you want in life. However, after thinking it over more, I understood something more profound. I truly understood, for the first time, that anything worth wanting is really only worth having if it inspires imagination, humor and goodwill.

My next major acquisition... a beach house.

Stephen

How to Properly Pack a Backpack for Adventure Travel

A poorly packed backpack always leads to unnecessary degrees of suffering. Here are some tips for making it the least of your worries.

1) Maximization
You can fit more sand in a jar than pebbles. Use the same approach to packing. Use every ounce of space by stuffing loose items like your raincoat or tent fly, around solid items like your sleeping bag. It's important to get rid of any air pockets in your pack, as this will allow you to pack even more stuff.

2) Convenience
Clipping or strapping belongings on the outside of your pack can be a nuisance to you, as well as your fellow backpackers. There is a greater chance of hooking into things around you such as loose branches, or banging into people causing annoyance to all involved. Do your best to keep all your belongings inside your pack. This also helps keep everything protected from the rain.

3) Organization
Stuff bags are a great method for organizing your belongings. Stuff sacks come in a wide variety of colours, so a great way to pack your items is by utilizing a colour-coded system. This will make it easier to find what you are looking for. All you have to remember is your own system, and what you packed in each bag.

4) Weight Distribution
Make sure you balance your load and don't have too much weight on one side. All your heavier items should be packed closer to your back and your natural centre of gravity. If you pack all your heavy gear on top, you’ll be looking at the ground all day resulting in a sore neck, and not to mention missing all the scenery, like an eagle soaring high in the skies above. If you pack all your heavy gear at the bottom of your pack, your shoulder straps will constantly dig into you. Load too heavy to one side, and your shoulders, hips and feet will begin to ache. A properly loaded pack should feel comfortable on your back, and you should be able to stand upright without too much pressure on your neck, shoulders, back, or hips. The one time it might benefit to pack some of your heavy stuff at the bottom, is if your hike involves scrambling over rough terrain. This will help improve your balance and lower your centre of gravity.

5) Consistency
To make life easier on the the trail, try to work out a system and pack your backpack the same way each time. By finding a method that works best for you it will be easier to remember where things are in a pinch. Practice packing your bag at home. Perfecting your tent rolling technique and trying to stuff it into a compression sack should not be first attempted in the pouring rain out on the trail. The same rules apply for load balancing, this should be dealt with before the hike begins to avoid any unnecessary aches and pains.

6) Accessibility
Make sure the important gear like rain gear, warmer layers, sun screen, bug repellant and water can be easily accessed without taking your pack off. This is especially important for your water supply, as a water bottle in your pack is not very practical for keeping yourself hydrated. In an unlikely event, make sure that some of the essential equipment like a knife and waterproof matches are kept in at least two locations, one of them being on yourself.

7) Temperature
One of the downsides of backpacking is getting a sweaty back, especially when it comes time to taking the pack off. If there is a chill in the air you can become cold quickly as the moisture in your clothes evaporates. Having mesh back panels that vent can help, but when the back of your pack is lined only with plain fabric over smooth foam panels this can make for a sweaty hike. Try to wear synthetic fabrics that wick moisture away from your body. Also, try placing a shammy towel between you and your pack. The absorbent material pulls the sweat away from your body, which helps keep things dry.

Happy Trekking,
Stephen

5 reasons why I love Peru

I just got back from a week in Peru and it was just as captivating the 2nd time around. There are so many reasons I adore the country. Some of the highlights for me are:

1) The vibrant and colorful culture. From the intricate hand embroidered traditional clothing and hats, farmers herding their sheep and woolly alpacas, workers harvesting cactus to make a homemade mortar paste, the omnipresent flute player, underground fire pits for cooking potatoes, etc. I can go on and on.

2) The architecture. Everywhere you look in the Sacred Valley, the hills are marked with Inca Ruins dating back to the early 13th century. The cobblestone streets, alleyways and ornate doors and balconies of Cusco. The setting of Machu Picchu leaves ones mind boggled trying to figure out how this ancient city was built in the middle of a mountain range.



3) The children. They are just so adorable. Maybe it is the big smiles and smudged dirt on their faces? We had a chance to visit a local school and the soccer ball we brought lit up their faces. It was a great way to interact with the local children and make them smile even more. It was a highlight for many on my trip.



4) The diversity of food. I am not convinced the Peruvian cuisine is my favourite, but they have a great variety to choose from. Some must tries are the cream soups (according to Wikipedia along the Peruvian coast there are more than two thousand different types of soups), Paltas Relllenas (avocado stuffed with chicken), and ceviche. For those more daring, I was told the Cuy (guinea pig) is quite good. This is a specialty in the Andes that is prepared many different ways. Rumour is it is better fried than boiled. Be prepared for the chance it might come served to you still fully intact (i.e.: with the nails and teeth).

5) The outdoor activities. Hiking in the footsteps of the Incas following their old travel routes, rafting the Urubamba river through canyons with cactus, Inca ruins, abnormal sized hummingbirds and donkeys with views of snow capped mountains, biking through local villages swerving past wildlife (roosters, cow, sheep) and saying hello to all the people who came out of their house to cheer us on.

6) And last but not least, Lake Titicaca, just because of the name. For some reason it always seems to make people giggle. According the locals in Peru, the "titi" belongs to the Peruvians and the "caca" to Bolivia. For those who don't know, the lake is the largest commercially navigable lake in the world.