Photo: kevindooley

How exactly do you define inspiration?

It’s easy enough to fall into the push and pull of everyday life, just trying to get through the day and hoping for the best.

Or, on another level – which I’m sure many of you can relate to – larger dreams keep you on course, slogging through hours on a computer at work, then maybe back at home on your blog, followed by being “social” via media just to stay in the race.

Inspiration sometimes (often?) gets lost along the way. Thing is, we all need that spark, at different times, at different levels. Sure, there is always a minimum fire burning somewhere inside, otherwise you wouldn’t get out of bed. Still, the larger, smack-you-directly-in-the-face-with-its-awesomeness needs to present itself and be accounted for to ease us out of those slumps.

Is that why so many of us travel? Does inspiration mostly come from getting outside of our little worlds, connecting with people of other cultures (even if it’s that culture just south of yours), throwing ourselves into new territories that beg our synapses to fire just a bit faster? Ah, the rush…it makes the drudgery of everyday life a bit more worthwhile.

Maybe, sometimes, it’s worth taking a look back. I was amused by a piece on Boing Boing about a computer scientist who credits My Little Pony with leading her into the field of science. Although I’ve personally never made a connection between dolls and math, Sherry Turkle apparently spent hours as a child braiding the horse’s pink mane, dividing and subdividing the hair in order to create new styles (or, outcomes).

Was her life’s calling showing itself through playing with the doll, or was playing with the doll developing her skills? The answer doesn’t really matter; what matters is that inspiration can come in the smallest forms, in the most obvious of places. The recesses of our brains holds that first inspiration, even when we feel we are lacking.

Searching For My Own Inspiration

My inspiration – scary, but true

I had to dig around a bit in trying to recall my initial inspiration for writing, which ebbs and flows depending on what is happening in my life, what stories I’ve read (or not read), where my energy falls on a particular day.

Travel memories certainly stimulate my mind – I can easily go back to moments in Africa, where the Earth seemed to expand out in front of me like the never-ending drive through the dusty bush, or walking for hours around London, enjoying my anonymity as I took in the history my home country will never possess and eavesdropped on the accent that I covet.

I could go back even further to the first flight I remember taking to Germany when I was around four-years-old, the flight attendants “adopting” me (probably due to the curly blonde hair and blue eyes I had at the time), one holding me on her lap at the back of the plane and helping me with a puzzle game. I was out of my element, and happily connecting to the world through a new and exciting approach.

But the reality is – and I can’t believe I’m actually going to write this so that it’s recorded for posterity’s sake – it was in fact the TV show, Full House, that first got me writing. Yes, the show that unveiled the Olsen twins, but it was in fact “D.J.” (Candace Cameron) on which I developed this huge friend-crush. I desperately wanted us to be best friends, and my inability to make that a reality inspired me to pour my heart out into a story about our adventures together.

I was so overcome with the desire to write about this fictional friendship at nine years old, that I had no other choice but to create. So sometimes, when I’m stuck with no inspiration, I do my best to visualize my way back to that place and that desire, because I know it still resides inside of me. That’s my own “My Little Pony.”

Now the question is, what’s yours?

Share your own inspirations, whether recent or from your childhood, below!

Community Connection

Over at the Traveler’s Notebook, Editors David Miller and Joshua Johnson are always coming up with inspirational questions and tips to keep you writing. And if you want to be consistently inspired to take your travel writing to the next level, check out MatadorU.

In typical Bill Watterson style, the strip above weaves philosophical debate between the antics of Calvin and Hobbes. This particular comic caught my eye, as it seems relevant to travelers.

Often, it seems the reason people decide not to travel is a fear of the world outside their borders. With few exceptions, they believe that most people are out to do them harm (that humanity is essentially evil).

A traveler, on the other hand, tends to believe the opposite. They embrace visiting other cultures and lands, because they trust that most people are out to help them; they believe humanity is essentially good.

The third option of course: is the people are crazy. This implies that the question itself is problematic, because you can’t possibly understand the motivations and worldviews of everyone. To judge humanity as mostly good or evil means you have to pass judgment, which says more about yourself then anyone else.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: alicepopkorn

In my first year of university, I’ll never forget the moment I was browsing the shelves, thinking about my next class.

I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. I was more interested in passing the time. Various covers caught my eye briefly, before my gaze and thoughts continued on.

Finally, just as I was ready to leave, I found myself drawn to a particular book titled “The Zen Commandments.” Aside from the clever play on words, there wasn’t anything that particularly stood out… yet I felt compelled to pick it up. And buy it.

On the bus ride home, I cracked open the pages and began reading. I didn’t stop until the bus driver had pulled up to my stop and I’d almost missed getting off.

Turns out, the book was my first introduction to Eastern wisdom, presented in a witty and entertaining format by the author, Dean Sluyter. I had never encountered the idea of “the present moment” or the joy of watching your breath. Though I’d been baptized in the Catholic church, my family had shed organized religion early on in my childhood – hence I’d grown up technically agnostic.

But it all changed when I read that book. I guess you could call it the start of my spiritual journey, or more appropriately, the awakening of my spiritual self.

Get A Spiritual Life

Blogger and spiritual coach Tom Stine recently shared his own story behind the origins of his spiritual journey. He writes of a doctor’s visit:

After a thorough examination that lasted over an hour, Norm and I sat down to chat. As we neared the end of our time together, he looked at me and said, “What do you believe in?” I had to ask him to repeat the question because, well, no doctor had ever asked me such a thing. I said, “Well, you’re born, you live, you die. Nothing before or after. No soul, no God, nothing. I guess you could say I’m an atheist.”

Norm looked at me with a kindly smile, and said, “About 5% of the population believes as you do. And that’s okay. But statistically, people who believe in something beyond themselves tend to be healthier and happier. The research is pretty clear on that score.”

Then, he absolutely floored me with what he said next: “I’ve examined you thoroughly, and as far as I can tell, there isn’t anything physically wrong with you. You are quite healthy. Yet, you feel lousy. If I were you, I’d get a spiritual life.”

I’ll never forget the next words out of my mouth: “How the hell do I do get a spiritual life?!”

With that, Tom began an exploration into his spiritual life, and has been profoundly changed ever since.

Starting the Journey

That’s how it starts…with a doctor’s visit, or a particular book in your hands. From such humble origins, nobody can predict where the path with take you, who you’ll encounter, or the place you’ll end up.

But if anything, the spiritual journey is a willingness to delve inward, listen to the inner voice, and surrender to the flow of life.

I suspect many BNT readers have their own stories on the start of their spiritual journey (or spiritual awakening).

Share in the comments: how did the spiritual journey begin for you?

Community Connection

Don’t miss “20 Questions for Every Spiritual Seeker”, and the classic “Art of Spiritual Travel.”

Photo: pareeerica

The New York Times recently ran a story about unemployed Japanese men who sleep in tiny bunks that are stacked on top of each other.

Shocking? Sad?

My initial reaction was that sleeping in Japanese capsule hotels is no big deal. Capsules are safe, clean, and centrally located, with traditional Japanese baths and easy access to fast public transport.

I’ve stayed in Japanese capsules a couple of times, though my favorite budget accommodation choice in Japanese cities was always the 24 hour internet cafe with private cubicle.

After all, who needs a full-on hotel room when you just want to sleep for a few hours? You’re in Shinjuku, man!

But there’s a difference between crashing in a capsule for a night, and using one as a home of last resort.

Home – reduced to a tiny locker in a vast, heartless city – is a deeply saddening idea.

The importance of how we look at our homes is the powerful message in The Recess Ends, an excellent new documentary film about the American recession.

The Recess Ends opens with a man talking about homes. He speaks about Americans who’ve stayed inside their big homes for the past decade and are just now starting to emerge, take stock of their communities, and take true ownership over their collective future.

Worldwide, billions of people are losing their jobs, losing their homes and losing their livelihoods. It’s happening in rural Africa, India and China, and now it’s happening in rich countries like America and Japan.

Most Americans and Japanese, though, are still rich enough to barricade themselves in shrinking homes, getting more and more frustrated and alone.

Reflecting on shrinking Japanese homes and The Recess Ends reminds me of one of the most profound lessons of travel – that home is not a building, an apartment, or a bunk.

Home is a community. Home is a refuge. Home is wherever our loved ones live.

What does home mean to you? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: bigaila

The School of Life is a fascinating education, made challenging by a quirk of human nature:

Knowing a lesson isn’t the same as knowing how to employ it.

Myths contain essential lessons of human existence. Read properly, they teach how to live a life, and how to live it with others; they reveal an order to the universe, as well as mysteries within it. But while we can learn the morals, seeing them at work in our own lives is a separate discipline.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell created a modern map for the journey of life in his Hero Monomyth. (See my three-part series on Heroic Travel).

The Hero Monomyth provides mythic landmarks for how to leave a familiar place, enter the unknown, and return home with transcendent knowledge. These markers appear in life events all around us, but it takes a keen eye to recognize the mythic in the mundane.

Now, to illustrate how such themes appear in real life, let’s create some everyday examples and run them through the Hero Monomyth.

1. The College Student: Jenna’s 19, and in her first year of full-time study. She’s done well as a part-time student, but doesn’t have a clear idea of what she wants out of college.
2. The Accident Victim: Mary was a track all-star, but after a car accident the doctors said running is out of the question. She refuses to accept this.
3. The Traveler: Blake’s using the last of his savings on a motorcycle tour of the West Coast. Something keeps pulling at him to do this, but for the life of him he can’t figure out why.

Separation

At the start of her semester, Jenna feels like she’s following a call to adventure. She loves the freedom of being on her own, but she enjoys it a little too much. Jenna begins to procrastinate in her studies, refusing the call of what she’s supposedly at college to focus on. “So what?” she says. “I can handle a little partying. I earned it.” Her routine has changed drastically by semester’s end, and she spends her weekends sleeping off the excess of the night before.

Mary’s having trouble following her therapy schedule, so she holds the key at the end of her necklace and thinks of Dad. Before he died, Mary’s dad gave her this key. It belongs to his 1969 Mustang, which he rebuilt as a kid. His friends said he couldn’t do it, but he saved up, bought the parts and did it all himself. “You make your own truth,” he told her. The key is a supernatural aid, reminding her she can do anything – and it makes her feel fast.

Blake is excited to finally cross the threshold of the open road – “there’s no going back now,” he said. But so far, everything Blake touches turns to crap. A tank-slapper early on caused him to drop his bike – he was okay, but the entire left side looked like hell, and the muffler was hanging on thanks to a bent up coat hanger. This was truly the belly of the whale – there really was no going back.

Initiation

Mary’s therapy isn’t working. Her knees are getting worse, to the point where even walking is agonizing. The road of trials is sheer misery for her: “Why am I failing? What am I doing wrong? Who am I if I can’t run anymore?” She takes it more slowly, not pushing herself like she always has. She listens to what her body is telling her, tries patience instead of force. It leads to a meeting with the goddess, in learning the serenity of healing – a side of herself she never knew existed.

By the end of her first year, Jenna’s close to flunking out – but she’s having such a blast with sex and libations she doesn’t care. She’s definitely not the wallflower she used to be. But one night she wakes up in a strange man’s bed, and can’t remember how she got there. She realizes she’s going way too far. Her new lifestyle is a temptress: she’s in danger of losing herself.

In an atonement with the father, Blake realizes why his dad loves travel so much. All the rough weather and unexpected problems have been worth it. Blake finds an unexpected, almost mystical boon to his tribulations: he puts himself in the hands of fate, and makes it through every time. Blake discovers not every aspect of life must be planned – it can be wild and unpredictable, and something magical comes from accepting that.

Return

After learning to welcome the unexpected, Blake doesn’t want to return. He imagines his return to “real life” will be flat and unappealing. He faces a choice – but for now, he doesn’t have to make it just yet.

Jenna made an important discovery: the whole meaning of going off to college was to learn it’s her life to mess up, and no one can clean it up but her. She’s ready to get help, but the hole she dug herself is pretty deep. She needs a rescue – some guidance to prevent sliding backward. Her parents support her, and she values her studies in an entirely new way. She feels like she’s crossed a second threshold – the growing pains were necessary to help her discover what’s important in her life.

Mary has learned there are some things she simply won’t be able to do anymore – but swimming isn’t one of them. Originally part of therapy, Mary finds she enjoys it more than running. The demons of her fear mastered, she resolves to be a sports therapist – to help people who suffer a setback realize “You make your own truth.” And the truth will set you free.

The End of the Road

It’s important to understand the Hero Monomyth isn’t a step-by-step instruction. Some themes will be more emphasized than others. The Hero Monomyth’s real benefit is to help orient yourself on your path.

The art of the Hero Monomyth is the origin you set for your journey, and where you set your destination. It’s often difficult to tell where one journey ends and another begins – one road leads seamlessly into another, then another, and the many more beyond that.

But there are pivotal events in everyone’s life where the path is clearly blazed; with practice, you can learn to identify the signs in between, so the mythic twists and turns work more decisively in your favor.

How have you seen the Hero Monomyth at work in your own life? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

We’re ripping out a page from the popular Notes from the Road series over at the Traveler’s Notebook and asking you to take a moment to sketch out something that probably crosses your mind now and again: A Personal Manifesto.

When I happened upon Gwen Bell’s, author of the Unconventional Guide to the Social Web, process the other day, I immediately became excited at the notion of going through my own.

Check out her guide on the myriad of ways to go about developing your own manifesto.

Here are a few highlights of possible road-map choices:

Vision Map

Yep, this means breaking out the magazines, scissors, and glue. Good magazines, with positive images, by the way. Cut out pictures of what you want in your life, whether that includes traveling the world or owning a yoga studio. Don’t forget to write yourself a little note about your beauty.

Put it all together in a systematic or wonderfully haphazard fashion on a big piece of cardboard, and hang it up on your wall. I also like Bell’s suggestion of scanning the map in order to have a travel-version.

Life List

Life list, bucket list, whatever you want to call it – just write down a 100 things you want to do before kicking well, you know, the bucket. I like the look of Maggie Mason’s (the inspiration for Bell’s list), and the idea of having mine sitting pretty on my computer and crossing through the ones I’ve completed. Oooh, I want to stop writing this post and go do it right now.

Digitized Goals

Bell provides a link to an online questionnaire, which can be helpful for those of us that need prompts. Or cut-offs. Plus, who are we kidding – haven’t most of us forgotten how to write in cursive anyway?

Microactions

To continue the tradition I began of stealing ideas from the Traveler’s Notebook, take a look at their new series, Micro Notes, in order to get primed for this one. I know I can sometimes be wordy in both writing and speech (have you noticed?), and often, the best way to get things done is to define them with brevity. Index cards, short lists, to the point=making things happen.

Finally, here’s one I’m adding to Bell’s list:

Visioning/Meditation On Your Goals

A former dance teacher of mine will freely tell you that without a doubt, “visioning” her future every single day has led to her dreams becoming a reality. After passing the bar exam, Vicki decided to chuck the lawyer-life and pursue her true passion, dance. Now, she along with her business and life partners throw one of the most consistently sold-out club nights in San Francisco, Non Stop Bhangra, and her dance troupe, Dholrhythms, performs up and down the Western Coast of US and Canada.

Vicki has had a daily routine of reciting and meditating on her dreams, and says that everything that has come to fruition began as a thought in this process. In other words, don’t forget the power of intention.

Since fall always feels like a good time for introspection, I’ll be working on my manifesto this weekend, and then will post some of my results and musings at my blog, Living Holistically. I’m hoping to see some of yours, even just bits and pieces, too.

Add parts of your manifesto to your personal blog, and then come back here and paste the link in the comments section below!

Community Connection

While developing your manifesto, don’t forget about the beauty of transparency in your writing, whether for yourself or others. David Miller takes a look at the importance of Material Transparency in creating a personal brand.

Photo: gadl

It’s a tough day for travelers who like to explore outside of “acceptable” countries, as Iran charged the three American backpackers detained in July with espionage. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them.

So I was glad to come across something a bit positive happening in the world.

Project Explorer, who provides free cultural education programming for kids and teens, is posing the question, “What does it mean to be a global citizen?” They are asking that people make and upload a video answering this question with their own thoughts or experiences.

So far, the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Russell Simmons, and Ziggy Marley have posted their answers. Also, many other lesser known – but just as important activists – such as Scott Harrison of charity: water and John and Charles of…well, Chelsea, add their two cents on “possibility and action” and the importance “being nice.”

Find more videos like this on ProjectExplorer.org’s Good Global Citizen

Now comes your turn. We’re challenging BNT readers to make a video and add their own take on what it means to be a global citizen.

Where To Go For Answers

Need some inspiration? Beginning with desire in the form of a journal entry or a video can ultimately lead us to answers. As Valerie Ng explained in her article, Why I Disobeyed My Family and Traveled the World:

I documented my grand plans for international travel in a Spanish essay in high school…[after traveling abroad] it became increasingly apparent that the world was a fascinating place, and I wanted to acquaint myself with the myriad of cultures inhabiting the earth.

Or, look no further than Daniel Harbecke’s piece, How Travel Will Save The World. In it, he explains, “The belief that humanity is encompassed within a single community is called cosmopolitanism…[it] has come to mean “worldly” or “sophisticated,” but in the original sense meant a universal love for all people that rejects borders.”

And, if you have kids in tow, or plan having them in the future and hope to make them a global citizen, check out Karen Banes’ piece, The Educational Value of Long Term Travel with Kids. In it, she notes:

Kids on the road learn naturally. They learn about physical and human geography, world history, religion (although not just the dominant one in their country of birth), wildlife, nature, environmental issues, campcraft, cooking, art and science. They also learn manners, tolerance, and respect for other cultures. They learn to make friends, and say goodbye.

After you make the video and upload it to Project Explorer site, be sure to post the link in the comments section below.

BNT headers through the years.

I remember clearly the day I knew I’d start Brave New Traveler.

I was walking with a friend (and co-worker at the time) Allison Cross, and I was telling her about this idea I had for a travel magazine. Only it wouldn’t be what most travel magazines are about: hot deals, package tours, cheap flights, etc.

This magazine would be about “why we travel.” It would explore all elements of this question, along with the experience of change that is inherent in every journey.

Allison agreed it was an intriguing idea. She asked what I would call it. I’d played with a few ideas over last week, and the one I’d chosen now rolled easily off my tongue:

Brave New Traveler.

A week later, on Oct 10, 2006, I wrote my first post. Considering today’s date, that means we just celebrated our third anniversary.

The content of BNT has certainly expanded over the years. The concept of “inner travel” has grown to encompass not just personal change that happens during travel, but also back home.

After thousands of articles and comments, I like to check in with the readers from time to time. I like to know what’s working, what isn’t, and what you’d like to see more of. It helps myself and co-editor Christine better tailor content that continues to push boundaries and minds.

So this is your chance, dear reader, to let us know what’s on your mind: the good, the bad, and the ugly (hopefully not too much ugly). And thanks again for sticking around. A magazine is nothing without its audience.

Give us your feedback! Tell us what you think of BNT and what you’d like to see in the future.

Photo: viaj24h / Feature photo: wandering angel

You’re sitting in a dirty alleyway, perched on a bright blue plastic stool eating the best bowl of noodles you’ve ever had.

A group of fanny-pack toting tourists shuffles by, following their guide’s umbrella and craning their necks to hear her narration. You let out a chuckle, happy to be on your own, free of the constraints of an organized tour and content in the knowledge that they have no idea what they’re missing.

You return to your hole-in-the-wall guesthouse, only to find that the tourists and their umbrella are staying on your floor.

The tour group mentality has always been an easy target for anyone who travels, making us feel better about our own adventures and providing a convenient Other to poke fun at.

It’s getting harder and harder though, with companies like Urbane Nomads billing themselves as “travel mixologists” and blurring the line between hardcore travel and hand-holding tours.

According to them, they’ve:

“turned the typical tourist itinerary on its head- taking the tourist through a city’s back alleys, revealing its seamier (and/or more interesting) side , continually testing the limits of accessibility in travel or using a local folkloric legend as a premise for an itinerary revealing current social and political problems.”

The Back Door Philosophy

Up until recently, almost all tour companies have presented their services with an image of ease and relaxation – you can’t open an issue of Conde Nast Traveller without seeing the words “style” or “luxury” – but what they’re selling is ultimately far more about leisure than travel.

Going it alone and spending as little money as possible provides a far richer experience, something everyone’s idol Rick Steves has always espoused with his “back door” philosophy.

It’s true that a lot of backpackers do it on the cheap purely because they’re broke, but most at least pay lip service to this idea of staying close to the ground.

Rightly or wrongly, travelers often feel like their journeys are constantly under siege by everyone else’s.

Think of the backpacker who laughs at you for paying 140 Baht for a guesthouse when he only paid 115 – we’ve all met that guy and a lot of us have been him. Examples like that come off as a little insane, but that sentiment is a common thread even among veteran travelers.

Much as we’d like to play the part of the hardened vagabond, we’re all afraid of everyone else cheapening our “authentic experience.”

From what I can tell, Urbane Nomads actually does threaten to do that.

Urbane Nomads is offering tours that guarantee life-changing experiences without having to exert yourself to get there. It’s presenting hardcore adventure – placing yourself in unfamiliar and unexpected situations for the purpose of discovery and personal development – as something that can be done free of worry and hardship.

This is totally antithetical to the things I’ve come to believe through traveling. Adventure isn’t just about the highlights; it’s the everyday misery and difficulty that produces the best stories and clearest insights.

Departure From The Urbane

If, in twenty years, this sort of thing becomes the norm, will anybody really value travel as a holistic experience anymore? If it’s acceptable to watch a Mongolian polo match on the steppes and go home to a perfect cosmo in your five-star hotel bar, have you learned anything about yourself, Mongolia or travel?

Camels in Mongolia / Photo: mooney47

Sure, no one will stop you from riding a bicycle down the Karakoram Highway, but as writers, artists and photographers we all know that it’s never just about us. If the image of adventurous travel as a series of dizzying highs and backbreaking lows is watered down to a flattened, five-star package tour, where will you and I fit?

Of course, there are two sides to everything. As dire as I’ve made it sound, there seem to be some great things about Urbane Nomads.

It’s run by one person, not a huge corporation, which makes me believe that their commitment to sustainable, ethical and personally enriching tourism is sincere. Their owner says that, “Under her guidance, the itineraries and destinations offered by Urbane Nomads reflect a concern for the social, cultural and historical nuances of the destinations visited.”

It’s also probable that, before this company existed, their clients would have spent ten thousand dollars on a luxury tour of Western Europe instead of hot air ballooning in Burma.

As a concept, I think Urbane Nomads is the sort of tour company we’d all like to run. It’s the “urbane” part that bothers me.

Adventure has always been a departure from the urbane, and if we begin to blur the lines between everyday comfort and eye-opening experiences we stand to lose the most important aspect of travel: to transform ourselves.

Community Connection

Check out F. Daniel Harbecke’s classic The Last Article On the Tourist/Traveler Distinction You’ll Ever Read. Also don’t miss From Tourist To Travel In 5 Easy Steps.

What do you think? Am I being too hard on companies like Urbane Nomads? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: catusbones

In my early 20’s, I almost became a nihilist. An existential nihilist to be exact, which argues “life is without meaning.”

I based my belief on the reality I saw around me (or at least on the news): war, violence, and death was everywhere. In the face of such suffering, I couldn’t understand why anything “mattered.” The only logical explanation was that the universe had no purpose.

I quickly realized this mentality was a deep, dark hole, and decided to continue exploring other beliefs on the nature of existence.

Now, looking back 8 years later, I realize it would have been interesting to chronicle my worldview at that time. Like a spiritual diary, I would have been able to study where I came from, and better understand my personal evolution.

Recently, I came across 20 questions that eloquently serve this purpose. Featured in the 2005 documentary film One, these questions were posed to various spiritual leaders of today: from Deepak Chopra, to Ram Dass, to the Dalai Lama.

I realized answering these questions myself would provide a snapshot of my beliefs today. And if I did the exercise again in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years… who knows the insight these polaroids will provide?

If you, dear reader, would like to join me, here’s how:

Instructions

Copy and paste the questions below into a blank document or blog post. Answer each question with as much detail as you like, then publish your answers on your personal blog.

Leave a comment below with a link to your post.

20 Questions For Every Spiritual Seeker

1. Why is there poverty and suffering in the world?
2. What is the relationship between science and religion?
3. Why are so many people depressed?
4. What are we all so afraid of?
5. When is war justifiable?
6. How would God want us to respond to aggression and terrorism?
7. How does one obtain true peace?
8. What does it mean to live in the present moment?
9. What is our greatest distraction?
10. Is current religion serving its purpose?
11. What happens to you after you die?
12. Describe heaven and how to get there.
13. What is the meaning of life?
14. Describe God.
15. What is the greatest quality humans possess?
16. What is it that prevents people from living to their full potential?
17. Noverbally, by motion or gesture only, act out what you believe to be the current condition of the world.
18. What is your one wish for the world?
19. What is wisdom and how do we gain it?
20. Are we all one?

Remember, post a link to your answers in the comments below!

Photo: spammo91

Everyone has a guilty pleasure. Maybe you sing along to Kelly Clarkson when no one’s looking, watch Golden Girls reruns, or spend afternoons on the couch reading celebrity gossip magazines. The point is, you know you shouldn’t, but you can’t help it.

But sometimes it feels good to just air it out. Tell the world proudly, without a hint of shame, “Yes, I wear women’s panties and I don’t care what you think!”

Guilty pleasures are about something more than meets the eye. They can act as a window into the internal self; who we are beyond our cool guy (or gal) exterior. These pleasures are what make us real, flawed, human, and just plain fun to hang out with.

After all, who wants to be around Mr. Boring/Perfect all the time? Give us the guy who somehow tracked down the Facts of Life and You Can’t Do That On Television DVDs any day. Or the chick who secretly prefers a bacon double cheeseburger and a beer after a long hike.

Just for kicks, we’ve compiled a list of our travel guilty pleasures. So, here you go. Take a deep look into our souls…and offer up your own guilty pleasures in the comments.

Come on, we know you want to get it off your chest!

The Matador team shares their guilty pleasures

Carlo (@vagab0nderz): Mine’s a literal guilty pleasure. In China I could not get used to the blatant staring. I tried to ignore it, but eventually gave up and started to snap. I turned to striking up one way conversations with the starers, speaking in loud English of course. “Hey. How’s it going? Like what you see? Anything else I can do for you?” That sort of stuff. For me it was a pleasure in that I wasn’t holding the feeling inside anymore, but letting it go. The guilt was from me being a bit rude. But they never understood anyway. Or did they?

Photo: 摩根

Christine (@livingholistic): When I was vegan, demanding we go through hell and high water to find me meat-free, dairy-free, honey-free, food (definitely my pleasure and not anyone else’s who was traveling with me!). Nowadays, it’s probably drinking coffee and eating whatever the hell I want and saying, “I’m on vacation, damnit!” (even if it’s more like four months of travel).

David (@dahveed_miller): I love getting my hair cut in local places when I’m traveling / living abroad. A couple standouts: Punta Abreojos in Mexico. A woman there gave me a haircut, then without me mentioning a shave she whipped out the razor. Ok. That’s cool. When she was done I looked in the mirror and she’d fully styled me out with the haircut, shave, and a tight little mustache. I left it for a day.

Eva (@evaholland): Cheesy souvenirs. I am powerless before their tacky, silly, Made-in-China charms. However, I’ve recently limited myself to semi-useful items like fridge magnets, mugs and notebooks. That helps to reduce the clutter and post-trip regrets, a little.

Hal (@halamen): I’m gonna steal one from Teresa. Though I usually try to keep the accommodation costs down, sometimes I splurge for a room with cable TV to catch up on all that quality programming I’ve missed.

Another, allowing myself to think I’m better than the backpacker passing through town for a couple days, just ’cause I’m staying for a month. In fact, I’m experiencing this one as I type and can say it generates a lot more guilt than pleasure.

Photo: dawvon

Ian (@ianmack): Busting out the guidebook. Of course, I often ask other backpackers/locals for the hidden hole-in-the-wall gems… but when I’m stumbling off an 8 hour bus/boat/plane ride, the guidebook recommendations are gospel.

Jen: Any restaurant, anywhere, that serves bottomless sodas. I admit it, I’m an addict, but I bristle when I have to pay for more than one hit.

Juliane (@JulianeH): The boys. What can I say, I’m a bit of a dog. I love checking out each country’s eye candy.

Julie (@collazoprojects): Because I’m blonde, lots of locals in the countries I frequent (Latin America, mostly) think I don’t speak Spanish fluently. I’ll let them chatter on for a few and then edge in on the conversation and totally get off on their surprise that I speak Spanish. I’m addicted to the way the dynamic suddenly changes and I’m brought into the fold. I’m also really addicted to digging into a place and staying a while and becoming as local as a gringa can become.

Josh (@joshywashington): My guilty travel pleasure is wistfully watching some local beauty round the corner and out of sight wondering what it would be like to be with her, or be her…

Photo: telethon

Kate: Being mistaken for native by English speaking tourists. I might let them haltingly stutter for a bit longer than necessary in a foreign tongue before I reveal my dastardly English speaking ways.

Lola: Patches. Not just any ol’ country patch, but really cool, simple ones with nice edges that I can easily sew onto a fleece jacket or top. After sewing on the first 3, the rest have joined (and keep joining) the “pile”. Apparently I don’t have enough fleece tops.

Michelle (@StrayNotes): Mine’s kind of like Julie’s, but kind of the opposite, too! I whip out the Portuguese when I don’t want someone to know I speak English. Here in Korea, it’s not unusual to sit next to someone on the subway that wants to practice their English with you. (And usually, they need a lot of practice!) I don’t want to be rude, but teaching English six hours a day is enough for me! So “não falo Inglês” has come in handy a few times.

Photo: permanently scatterbrained

Nick (@pharaonick): If a taxi driver catches my eye whilst I’m trying to cross the road, I’ll let him screech to a halt, as if I need the ride. I’ll then saunter up to him and ask where it is he needs directions to. Naughty, but you take your small victories where you can!

Ross (@rossborden): McDonald’s. Besides the occasional Egg McMuffin at 6 AM on the way to a Tahoe day trip, I literally don’t ever eat at McD’s in the US, but when traveling this is not always the case. Sometimes when you’re in a train station, or it’s late and nothing else is open, or you’re simply starving and don’t feel like taking a gamble on some little hole in the wall across the street, McDonalds provides predictable regularity that I crave.

And more often than not, between tearing into my Quarter Pounder with cheese and stuffing handfuls of golden fries into my mouth, I strike up a conversation with some cute locals. I went to a McDonald’s in Stockholm at 2 AM and it was like a discotec in there. Right at in the center of the nightlife district, this place was three stories tall and packed with young people straight out of the bars. We ended up chilling in there for 20 minutes after we’d finished eating, shooting the shit with a bunch of college students.

Sarah: Doing nothing at all. Spending entire days reading or camping out in a nowhere city, and giving a pass to all the traveler-themed things I should be doing (seeing orangutans, visiting temples, doing something “cultural,” etc.)

Teresa: I love staying in hotels. Even cheesy chain hotels. I love the tiny shampoo, the white towels, watching horrible American TV on cable. And when they give you one of those teeny coffee makers? Aaaahhh.

Photo: chidorian

Tim (@TCPatterson): I can’t stop myself from pulling the odd prank while on the road. In Japan I would sometimes go fishing with a fly-rod in parks and shopping malls. A ¥1,000 note makes great bait, and I would catch everyone from old ladies to salary men. No hooks of course, just tape, though once my line got tangled in the spokes of a man’s bicycle.

In Boulder, Colorado, I switch it up and go hippie fishing instead, replacing the money with a joint rolled with oregano. One time a bum chased that joint 3 blocks down Pearl Street. The best spot for hippie fishing in Boulder is the back steps of the Downer.

Tom Gates (@waywardlife): Pizza. I’ve been collecting my Worst Pizza pictures over the past six months, during my trip. No matter how bad I know it’s going to be I still can’t resist ordering it when I’ve overdosed on local cuisine. So far Chile takes the lead with this beauty. Note that the cheese is not melted and that the ham (cold) is about an inch thick. And yes, those are cherries on top.

Don’t be shy, tell us your dirty little secret below!

With special reporting by Carlo Alcos.

Photo: Bhaskar Banerji / Feature aperturepriority

“Life can be pretty surreal at times. And travel is no exception to the rule,” write Dave and Deb, the bloggers behind The Planet D.

In recent post, they chronicle a few of their most surreal travel experiences.

We seem to have some of our strangest experiences when we are on the road. Some of them are completely out of our control and we just have to hang on and enjoy the ride. While others have been completely our own doing. A momentary lapse of reason if you will. Either way, they make for some fun stories around the campfire.

Which got me thinking…

Without a doubt, the most surreal travel experience I had involved snow, hot springs, and 3 mailboxes out in the middle of the desert, no houses in sight.

It was mid-May, and we left at 5 o’clock rush hour east of San Francisco, heading up highway 80 towards Lake Tahoe. Hot air came in through the cracked window as we sat in traffic, but I simply relaxed in the passenger seat.

A friend had led this trip many times before, so for once, I was able to completely let go of the reigns and just sit back and enjoy.

Due to a game of “let’s point out all the weird, dreamy stuff we see” (which is pretty easy to do once you start paying attention – pink buses, guy dressed in drag on the side of the road, etc.), several hours passed quickly, and I noticed the air change as we climbed into the Northern California mountains.

Snow And Heat

Suddenly, I noticed snowflakes falling lazily onto the windshield. I literally felt as if I had been transported to another part of the world.

Then the darkness began to set in as we made our way past the brightly-lit casinos on the Nevada side of Tahoe, turning off the road onto a dirt path.

My friend drove the switchbacks through the small bushes and what resembled tumbleweed. I wondered, “How the hell does he know where we’re going?”

Abruptly, we came to a stop at the end of dirt path, and he said to me, “let’s go.”

Out of the rented four-wheeler (it was always his approach to rent, knowing some serious damage might happen to the car in the places we were going) we jumped, and in the dead of night, made our way to a tiny, hidden pool of hot water.

Did I mention it was still snowing? That quickly became the fastest I’ve ever stripped. But I couldn’t believe the feeling of sitting in the middle of nowhere, the snow hitting my face as I warmed my body in the hot spring.

After grabbing a hotel room that night, we headed south to Saline Valley, located right beside Death Valley in California. We had to make a stop by these incredible sand dunes, where the most insane wind I’ve ever experienced made our hike to the top and along the edges a bit scary (and sandy in the teeth), but hardly prepared me for where we would transpire just a couple of hours later.

Oasis In The Desert

Mail call / Photo: Bhaskar Banerji

My friend had often told me of this “oasis in the desert,” but I couldn’t believe it until I saw it.

In the middle of Saline Valley, a humongous desert landscape surrounded by mountains, were two natural hot springs with friggin’ palm trees and grass surrounding them.

Apparently, hippies had been trekking there since the 60s, and somehow planted grass in the middle of the desert, with volunteers keeping it up over the years.

Because it is so hard to get to, and there are no signs, only those who know-the-way make it there. Which made the existence of three lonely mailboxes (what the hell are those doing out there?) all the more bizarre.

On that short, two-day trip, I felt a spiritual connection to the Earth that I had never known before. But I also found myself wondering… was it all just a dream?

What is your most surreal travel experience? Share your stories below!

Sneaking extra people into the hostel? / Photo: superciliciousness / Feature photo: jungleboy

I was at the local curry shop near my office to grab some butter chicken and naan to go. Their lunch time special offered students a $1 discount.

At the cashier, the petite Indian girl asked me if I was a student. “Yes,” I replied.

Now, I am about as far away as student as you can get. There I was, 33 years old, dressed in pin striped slacks, brown dress shoes, and a collared button down (with silver cuff links no less). I was clearly lying.

Didn’t matter anyhow — she asked for my student ID and I had to back out of my master plan. “I don’t have it with me,” I said, as she rung up the regular price.

I felt somewhat ashamed. Up to now I have no idea why I even said yes. It might have been traveler’s instinct.

This got me to thinking about the ethics of travelers and our schemes to save money while on the road. Hard-bargaining aside, there is a plethora of dollar-saving tricks that are out there, and many travelers use them without a second thought.

1. Student discounts

Bypass admission? / Photo: jungleboy

This is a popular one. Almost every attraction around the world offers students of accredited schools a student discount. I have it on good authority that it is possible to acquire false student IDs to take advantage of this practice.

Maybe more common is the use of an expired card. I have never owned or used one myself, but I can say I’ve claimed student status to save a few Euros.

2. Act like a local

Some countries have two-tiered pricing for attractions, which means it’s one price for citizens and an extravagant price for foreigners. In Russia, a visitor can expect to pay anywhere from two to ten times the local’s entrance fee.

The museum island of Kizhi is a tiny piece of land on Lake Onega. Once on the island, you must pay to wander around the fascinating wooden structures.

As an experiment, my wife sauntered up to the window and, in her best Russian, simply said dva (Russian for two). A silent exchange of tickets and rubles was then made. She passed the test.

We paid 1/5 what we should have. (I would have done this myself, but her German heritage was a safer bet than my Filipino background to pass as a Russian.)

3. Bypassing admission checkpoints

Word of mouth among the traveler’s circuit is a great way to spread information. You learn all sorts of things that aren’t in a guidebook.

Money saving secrets? / Photo: retrotraveler

In a cafe in Lijiang, China, while thumbing through a visitor’s diary, most entries were about the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek, which we were about to embark on. One entry caught our eye. It was a tip to save money.

The gateway town to the start of the hike is Qiaotou. As you enter the gorge you must pass through a checkpoint where a fee is collected. The tip in the diary was this:

In Qiaotou, get a taxi to take you to Jane’s Guesthouse, which is just past the checkpoint. If you and the taxi driver play it right, the guard won’t know you’re in there and hence, no fee.

We decided to give this a try. Upon our arrival we found a driver who understood what we wanted – it was clear this is a common tactic. He got us to duck down in the back as we drove through the checkpoint undetected. (An alternative to this is to go very early before the guard starts his shift.)

4. Free rides on the Eurail and other public transit

I’m not sure if this has changed at all, but when I bought a 10-trip pass back in 2004, to validate the trip all you had to do was write the date in one of the boxes on the pass. I’ve heard through the grapevine that there are some travelers who use pencil and then erase and reuse. (Or they don’t validate the ticket at all).

This also applies to other transit systems around the world. It’s a risk getting caught, but if you don’t speak the local language, the frustration experienced by the transit worker trying to book you usuallys mean you get off scot-free.

5. “Surprise” guests

A way to save money on accommodation is to spread the costs across a lot of people. Makes perfect sense. But what about when you straight up lie and book a room for two of you, then sneak three others in under the cloak of night?

Or, what about sneaking guests into your hostel and sharing a bunk with them?

6. The faux complaint

There are those who invent complaints about service in order to get upgrades or freebies. Our own Julie Schwietert even followed someone’s Twitter that shamed an airline. The person ended up with a seat upgrade and, later, a free flight, by unleashing a stream of real-time bitching about the company’s service.

The question of right and wrong

There are 1001 more ways out there that travelers can (and do) use to scrimp on some dough. While my wife and I have never considered ourselves overtly devious, at times we have taken advantage when the situation presented itself.

I would say there is a line to be drawn. Not a black and white Sharpie fine line, but a blurry, wavy, grey line that is dependent on the circumstance.

Have you ever misrepresented yourself in order to save money? And have you ever thought about its ethical and moral implications? Share your thoughts below!

With dire headlines constantly in the news, it’s easy to feel the world is becoming darker. But if you look close enough, you can see the emergence of unity experiments, all over the globe.

These are creative thinkers, artists, and activists that have come together to promote peace and mutual understanding. Once such group is the Global Oneness Project, who in their own words, are dedicated to:

“…exploring how the radically simple notion of interconnectedness can be lived in our increasingly complex world. We’re traveling the world interviewing people and highlighting organizations that show the diverse ways oneness is expressed in the fields of sustainability, conflict resolution, spirituality, art, agriculture, economics, indigenous culture and social justice.”

The above short film is their flagship piece, answering the question “What would a global transformation look like?”

Watch the film and share your thoughts in the comments!

Summer’s the peak season for taking a trip. Every year, when the days start to heat up, it’s a perfect time to go somewhere new – whether to a sun-drenched beach on a distant shore, or a uniquely creative vision in a darkened theater.

This past summer, editor Ian MacKenzie wrote one of the most popular articles in BNT history: “The Red Pill: 10 Films Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind.” The response was phenomenal – everyone had an opinion, if not their own films for the list.

“My original intention was to compile a list of films that applied stylistic themes and narratives to hint at greater truths about our society, culture and world,” Ian said in an e-mail interview.

“I picked these movies because they were either cult favorites or generally popular. If they had been too obscure, many people wouldn’t have been able to relate and contribute to the discussion.”

And contribute they did! It’s even been suggested the list be expanded, and the comments keep coming.

Stirring Up Discussion

Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut

“I hoped the list would do well, but I had no idea it would reach as many people and garner as many comments as it did. Of course, I’m happy it worked out and that it stirred up some healthy discussion,” said Ian.

While most comments were supportive, others were less enthusiastic or flat-out rude. Some people seemed to take it personally that their movies hadn’t been suggested, or that the films weren’t the greatest examples of world cinema.

“I think some people took the list as ‘the only mind blowing films out there’ instead of a list that was compiled through my subjective opinion,” Ian said. “I certainly have other films I could have added to the list (Holy Mountain, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Ghost in the Shell) but wanted to keep the list to 10.

“I appreciated many of the suggestions from readers who ‘got it.’ Others just posted movies they personally found enjoyable, but not necessarily ‘mind-blowing.’”

The Lists

As of October 12, 2008, here are the movies readers chose as “mind-blowing.”

Some titles may surprise you (perhaps suggested jokingly), while others easily qualify beyond the original 10 films.

But keep this in mind: it’s a subjective list. People have different tastes, sometimes finding value in unusual places – after all, who doesn’t have a “guilty pleasure” or two? While reading these lists, it’s wise to see where people were coming from, not criticize them for having an opinion you don’t share.

What makes these films “mind-blowing,” anyway?

Most likely, there was at least one moment where you began to think differently. Whether you went there alone or with a theater of people, no one can take that trip away from you.

American Films

1. 12 Angry Men
2. 12 Monkeys
3. 13th Floor, The
4. 1408
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey
6. Adaptation
7. After Hours
8. AI
9. Altered States
10. American Beauty
11. American History X
12. American Psycho
13. Andromeda Strain
14. Angel Heart
15. Apocalypse Now
16. Arlington Road
17. Army of Darkness
18. Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford, The
19. Ballad of Jack and Rose, The
20. Baraka
21. Bedazzled (1967, 2000)
22. Before Sunrise
23. Before Sunset
24. Being John Malkovich
25. Being There
26. Bermuda Depths, The
27. Bicentennial Man
28. Birth
29. Blade Runner
30. Blood Simple
31. Blue Velvet
32. Boy and His Dog, A
33. Bride to Terabithia
34. Buffalo 66
35. Butterfly Effect, The
36. Castaway
37. Cement Garden
38. Center of the World
39. Children of Men
40. Chopper
41. Citizen Kane
42. Clockwork Orange, A
43. Closer
44. Code 46
45. Colossus: The Forbin Project
46. Coma
47. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
48. Constantine
49. Contact
50. Cool Hand Luke
51. Crank
52. Crash
53. Cube Zero
54. Cypher
55. Dancer in the Dark
56. Dawn of the Dead
57. Day of the Dead
58. Day the Earth Stood Still, The
59. Dead Man
60. Deer Hunter, The
61. Defending Your Life
62. Déjà vu
63. Demon Seed
64. Diary of the Dead
65. Diary of the Dead 2
66. Dr. Strangelove
67. Dude, Where’s My Car?
68. Easy Rider
69. Ed Wood
70. Elephant
71. Elephant Man
72. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
73. Equilibrium
74. Eraserhead
75. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
76. eXistenZ
77. Exorcist, The
78. Eyes Wide Shut
79. Face in the Crowd, A
80. Fahrenheit 451
81. Fail-safe
82. Falling Down
83. Femme Fatale
84. Fifth Element, The
85. Finding Neverland
86. Five Easy Pieces
87. Forest, The
88. Forrest Gump
89. Fountain, The
90. Four Rooms
91. Frequency
92. Full Metal Jacket
93. Funny Games
94. Game, The
95. Gattaca
96. Girl, Interrupted
97. Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The
98. Graduate, The
99. Green Mile, The
100. Groundhog Day
101. Gummo
102. Happening, The
103. Harold and Kumar Escape Guantanamo Bay
104. Heart of Darkness
105. Hemp for Victory
106. Hostel
107. I, Robot
108. Identity
109. Idiocracy
110. In Dreams
111. Inherit the Wind
112. Inland Empire
113. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
114. IT
115. Jacket, The
116. Jacob’s Ladder
117. Joe Versus the Volcano
118. Kill Bill
119. Kill Bill 2
120. Kiss of the Spiderwoman
121. K-Pax
122. Land of the Dead
123. Life of David Gale, The
124. Liquid Sky
125. Lord of the Rings
126. Lord of War
127. Lost Highway
128. Love, Liza
129. Machinist, The
130. Man From Earth, The
131. Mars Attacks!
132. Memento
133. Men in Black
134. Metropolis
135. Milagro Beanfield War, The
136. Miracle Mile
137. Mothman Prophecies
138. Mulholland Drive
139. My Dinner with Andre
140. Naked Lunch
141. Natural Born Killers
142. Nell
143. Night of the Hunter
144. Night of the Living Dead
145. Nines, The
146. Ninth Configuration, The
147. Nirvana
148. No Country for Old Men
149. Omega Man
150. One Hour Photo
151. Othello
152. Others, The
153. Pan’s Labyrinth
154. Parallax View
155. Party Monster
156. Peaceful Warrior, The
157. Pi
158. Pink Floyd: The Wall
159. Planet of the Apes
160. Prestige, The
161. Primer
162. Psycho
163. Pulp Fiction
164. Punch Drunk Love
165. Pursuit of Happyness
166. Putney Swope
167. Quiet Earth, The
168. Razor’s Edge, The
169. Repo Man
170. Requiem for a Dream
171. Reservoir Dogs
172. Revolver
173. Rollerball
174. Royal Tenenbaums, The
175. Running Scared
176. Running with Scissors
177. Rushmore
178. Saving Private Ryan
179. Scanner Darkly, A
180. Seconds
181. Seven
182. Seventh Seal, The
183. Shawshank Redemption
184. Shining, The
185. Silence of the Lambs, The
186. Silent Running
187. Sin City
188. Six Ways to Sunday
189. Sixth Sense, The
190. Slaughterhouse Five
191. SLC Punk!
192. Sleuth
193. Sliding Doors
194. Snatch
195. Society
196. Sorry, Haters
197. Southland Tales
198. Straight Story, The
199. Strange Days
200. Stranger than Fiction
201. Talk Radio
202. Tarnation
203. Taxi Driver
204. Team America: World Police
205. Terminator
206. Thank You for Smoking
207. They Live
208. This Is Spinal Tap
209. THX 1138
210. Total Recall
211. Toys
212. Trainspotting
213. Trigger Effect, The
214. Truckers
215. Unbreakable
216. Usual Suspects, The
217. V for Vendetta
218. Vanilla Sky
219. Vanishing Point
220. Videodrome
221. Village, The
222. Wag the Dog
223. Waking the Dead
224. Watership Down
225. What Dreams May Come
226. What the Bleep Do We Know?
227. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
228. Where the Buffalo Roam
229. Wicker Man
230. Wild Bunch, The
231. Wisdom of Crocodiles, The
232. Wristcutters: A Love Story
233. Zombie Strippers

Foreign Films

• 23
• 8½
• Amores Perros
• Audition
• Avalon
• Bad Boy Bubby
• Baise-Moi
• Bliss
• Blowup
• Blue Spring
• Breaking the Waves
• Carandiru
• Cashback
• Chungking Express
• Cidade de Deus (City of God)
• Cube
• Cube 2
• Dancer in the Dark
• Death Note: The Movie
• Delicatessen
• Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man)
• Dot the I
• Dreams
• El Topo
• Europe Trilogy
• Festen
• Following
• Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby
• Funky Forest
• He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
• Human Traffic
• Idi i Smotri (Come and See)
• Irréversible
• Kontroll
• La Cité des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children)
• La Double Vie de Veronique
• La Trilogie
• Le Decalogue
• Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain
• Life is Beautiful
• Man Bites Dog
• Mathilde
• Mbi (We)
• Microcosmos: Le Peuple de l’Herbe
• Mitt Liv Som Hund (My Life as a Dog)
• Motorcycle Diaries, The
• No Smoking
• Oldboy
• Once Were Warriors
• Open Your Eyes
• Romance
• Run Lola Run
• Sans Soleil
• Santa Sangre
• Seul contre tous (I Stand Alone)
• Shine
• Spoorloos (the original of the Vanishing)
• Stalker
• Sweet Movie
• Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
• Tae-Guki (Brotherhood)
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man, The
• The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
• Holy Mountain, The
• Quatermass Xperiment, The
• Science of Sleep, The
• Tin Drum, The
• Tricouleur or Blue, White, Red
• Visitor Q
• Walkabout
• Y Tu Mamá También

Anime

• Akira
• Ghost in the Machine
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
• Paprika
• Perfect Blue
• Serial Experiments Lain
• Tekkonkinkreet

Now there can’t possibly be any worthy movies excluded from the list…or are there? Share in the comments!

Carving up the globe. Image from Emory Libraries

I sometimes find myself at odds with the concept of nationalism. This is much more apparent when traveling abroad.

Suddenly, it’s easy to believe that, as an ambassador for your country, you have certain immutable qualities shared by all people from your humble area of the planet.

Canadians are polite. Americans are arrogant. Germans are efficient. The list goes on.

That’s the relatively benign side of nationalism.

The ugly side manifests itself as the belief that your people are somehow “chosen” in the eyes of God, or the universe. And with the declaration of “you” the idea of “them” quickly follows. A separation grows between the shared human community.

As Carl Sagan wrote in his1974 book, Broca’s Brain:

Much of human history can, I think, be described as a gradual and sometimes painful liberation from provincialism, the emerging awareness that there is more to the world than was generally believes by our ancestors. With awesome ethnocentrism, tribes all over the Earth called themselves “the people” or “all men,” relegating other groups of humans with comparable accomplishments to subhuman status.

Such views or their equivalent are only slowly changing, and it is possible to see some of the roots of racism and nationalism in their pervasive early acceptance by virtually all human communities. But we live in an extraordinary time, when technological advances and cultural relativism have made such ethnocentrism much more difficult to sustain.

The view is emerging that we all share a common life raft in a cosmic ocean, that the Earth is, after all, a small place with limited resources, that our technology has now attained such powers that we are able to affect profoundly the environment of our tiny planet.

With that in mind, consider the following question:

What good is nationalism in a global society?

Let’s get the discussion going. Share your thoughts in the comments!

And if you’ve got an idea for upcoming “Ask The Reader” questions, send me an email.

Photo by Jayray24

From time to time, I’ve posted various articles directly asking the readers to give their opinions: from “did you achieve your travel dream?” to “what’s the worst thing that’s attacked you?”

Now I’ve decided to make a concerted effort to challenge you more frequently, starting right now.

The issue I’m asking is the age old dilemma faced by many travelers in poorer countries of the world.

We’ve published a few articles in the past on this issue, including:

• Matt Harding’s Moral Dilemma
• The Secret To Avoid Beggars
• Lessons Of Hope From “The Kid” Of Saigon.

One camp usually says “Yes, it’s the least you can do for their suffering.” While another steadfastly believes “Giving to beggars only perpetuates the problem!”

But imagine, for a moment, the situation as it usually happens. You’re high on life, exploring a new city street for the first time, eyes never resting as you survey the colours, hear the sounds…until suddenly, you’re confronted by a voice.

You turn. It’s a person. A human being. They softly ask you for money…to help their child get food, to replace their leg blown off my a land mine. They ask for money because they know you have it.

Your mind races over a number of questions: is this person really poor? Are they faking it? Will my money make a difference? I’m just a tourist, why is this my business?

Or perhaps you feel guilty. After all, you’re living it up on vacation. You have so much and this person has so little. Will you really miss a few dollars from your pocket?

When you’re face to face with a very simple question, the answer becomes more complex.

How do you decide whether or not to give to beggars?

Let’s get the discussion going. Share your thoughts in the comments!

And if you’ve got an idea for upcoming “Ask The Reader” questions, send me an email.

A sponsored post is an article that has been written expressly because a company has paid for content.

In most cases on Brave New Traveler, our sponsored posts have been written by myself or co-editor Tim Patterson, and have offered an objective eye on the service/product. At no time were we “easy” on them because they paid for the post – we tried to offer a look at the service/product, and leave the reader to decide if they wanted to check out the companies’ website.

But some readers weren’t happy. They believed the posts were deceptive because they look like regular content, and were written in our signature tone and style.

A Change Of Tone

And so, after some discussion, Tim, Laura (our advertising manager) and myself decided we would continue to publish sponsored posts, but that we would no longer write them in our own style/tone. After all, if the posts are essentially advertisements, why not make it obvious? The first sponsored post in this format was 5 Reasons To Stay In A Timeshare, published last Sunday.

Again, we received criticism from other readers because they felt the posts were still deceptive. Even though every single post has been identified right at the beginning with the line “Please note: this is a sponsored post” some readers still view it as schilling for a company.

In an effort to remain fully transparent, I would like to argue our case for choosing to publish sponsored posts.

The Reality Of The Web

The truth is, I created BNT to provide a forum for excellent online travel content, and offer it for free.

However, that doesn’t mean I think our writers should work for free. From the very beginning, my goal was to earn enough money through various forms of advertising to pay for our content, and in July of this year, I achieved that goal.

Anyone who has ever tried to make money online, quickly realizes it doesn’t come easy. Unless you cram your layout with flashing banners, google adstrips, contextual text links, and affiliate referrals, it’s pretty difficult to earn more than a few bucks a month.

Currently, while small in number and frequency, sponsored posts provide the most income for the site. And that makes them tempting, because it means we can have a cleaner layout. It means I don’t have to hide affiliate sales links in the content. And it means that our writers can get paid.

Pay versus Product?

Yet I understand how sponsored posts can hurt our reputation as a quality source for travel content.

That’s why I’ve kept these posts to a minimum (less than 8 since the site launched over a year ago) and they always remain relevant to travel (which is why you don’t see sponsored posts about gambling or pharmaceuticals). And as always, the posts have been clearly labelled as sponsored, and not regular content.

So how to proceed? I’d like to hear your feedback on sponsored posts: whether you agree with them or not. I want to know if you have ideas on generating alternative income for BNT, and how we can keep publishing brilliant new writers, and share them with an ever growing audience of conscious and intelligent travelers.

Thanks in advance.

Ian MacKenzie is editor of Brave New Traveler. Aside from writing, he spends his time exploring the fundamental nature of existence and wishing he did more backpacking.

Or at least that’s what we’re led to believe when listening to local guides with a macabre sense of humour.

During my travels, I’ve survived encounters with deadly Fijian sea snakes, tarantulas in Australia’s Outback, and even a face-to-face stare down with some local Vancouver deer.

So I suppose it was only the universe balancing itself out when it decided to hide a wayward scorpion in my T-shirt on my Costa Rica honeymoon.

The setting: lush, thick jungle miles away from the nearest city. The accommodation: Pacuare Lodge, a stunning eco-location offering beautiful bungalows and no electricity.

A Unknown Assailant

On our first morning at the lodge, Karen and I decided to go for a hike with our guide. My shirt had gotten wet from the previous day of rafting, so I’d left it to dry on the outside patio, where I retrieved it when dressing for our hike. I threw the shirt on and began walking down the stone path.

Suddenly: a painful jab in my shoulder. I spun around. Had something landed on me? Perhaps a rabid humming-bird or giant mosquito? Again, a jab. No, a sting! Multiple stings!

I spun around like a man possessed, ripping off my T-shirt and throwing it to the ground in a single motion. The stinging immediately stopped, revealing the assailant must have been between the shirt and my skin.

I cautiously used a stick to push aside the fabric, showing a particularly smug scorpion nestled in my clothing. “It’s a scorpion!” I exclaimed to Karen.

She immediately flew into a frenzy, fearing if the variety in Costa Rica were as poisonous as their Mexican and Australian cousins.

We ran to find our guide, Pascal. Breathless, I mouthed “Scorpion! Stung me! Am I dead?” He checked my scars, asked if I was allergic to scorpion stings. “I dunno,” replied. “I’ve never been stung by a scorpion before.”

“Okay,” he said. “I think you’ll be okay. But just so you know, the pain will get worse for a few hours before it gets better.” He made a upward incline with his hand to illustrate. Comforting, I thought.

A Lesson Learned

Was it as painful as he described? Yes. Did that stop me from asking Karen to take a few photos after I knew my life would be spared? Of course not. These are the experiences that make good stories later.

And on top of that, the attack had put “the fear” into us for the rest of the trip, compelling us to be extra cautious to avoid the snakes, bullet ants, and other crawlies that made their homes in the jungle.

What about you? Sparing anything too grisly, what’s the worst insect/animal attack you’ve been privileged to experience?

Share your stories in the comments!

When you were growing up (or hitting your mid-life crisis), did you have your own personal travel dream?

Was it scaling Mount Everest? Dining under the glow of Paris streetlamps? Lying on the sand in Koh Samui?

For me, I didn’t begin traveling until the end of high school. My family couldn’t afford to take any fancy vacations overseas, so I had to watch with envy as friends returned from Disneyland, Mexico, and other exotic climes.

But in truth, it wasn’t the dream of Mickey Mouse or all-inclusive hotels that danced in my head. It was the vision of standing on a remote beach, somewhere in the South Pacific, surrounded by warm, glassy waves, with nothing but endless horizon before me.

It was my dream to stand on the edge of the earth, (or at least feel like it).

While reading the blog of Vancouver musician Matthew Good, I came across an entry describing the realization of his own travel dream – to stand before the Roman Colosseum.

“I was there, you see, in the city that, since childhood, I had dreamed of seeing. I wanted to run my hands along the rough bricks of the Colosseum, walk up Palatine, walk through the ruins of a civilization that I had long studied and been fascinated by. But in the three days that followed it was like trying to walk with knives being shoved in my stomach.”

Unfortunately for Matt, he was extremely ill at the time. And his travel companion unappreciative. Still, he offers some sage reflection:

“Looking back on it, I’m thankful that, despite the circumstances, I was able to see that place with my own eyes. [...] In the end, what we do in this life comes full circle. I’ll get mine just as all of you will get yours. Just make sure that no matter what happens in-between, that you get to touch your wall.”

What was your travel dream? And did you ever find it?

Darren Barefoot posed this question in advance of his discussion at Northern Voice, a blogging conference I attended this weekend in Vancouver, BC.

He expected a few hundred replies to his online survey. He got over a thousand, answering questions like “Why Did You Start Blogging?” and the inevitable for many, “Why Did You Stop Blogging?”

For my own answers, I confess I’ve had a number of blogs over the past few years, all of them personal (until Brave New Traveler).

Aside from my obvious interest in technology and writing, I felt blogging was a way to share my thoughts on various topics, from movies, to news, to politics – basically blogging whatever was on my mind.

I kept these blogs up with relative frequency and minimal readers (like the majority of other blogs on the web). But I made myself a promise: I would stop blogging the day I realized I had nothing to say.

Who Has Anything To Say?

Granted, the definition of saying something with “meaning” depends very much upon your audience. The blogger can only put out what they believe has value. The readers decide what’s valuable to themselves.

Some bloggers, of course, don’t care if they have 1 reader or 1000. Blogging for them isn’t about “spreading their thoughts” into cyberspace, it’s more a personal diary that allows them to back-up their brain, practice their writing, or any number of other motivations.

Darren told a great story about how he worked for a few summers at the Victoria information office helping tourists decide how to spend their vacation. They would ask him, “What’s there to do here?” to which he would be forced to list off a number of choices until one caught their interest.

It wasn’t until months later that Darren finally gave up and asked the tourists a question of his own: “Why did you come here?”

If they didn’t know the answer to that, they had no business being in Victoria.

An Open Discussion

And so, I thought I would pose this question to all of Brave New Traveler’s readers, many who author blogs of their own.

Why do you blog?

Whether you write a personal blog, travel blog, business blog, art blog, or any blog at all — please introduce yourself, your blog, and share your answers in the comments below. Thanks!

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