Travel Blogger Relay — Go #TeamPurple
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Indian tourists look on in disbelief as I masterfully moonwalk in front of the Taj Mahal
Saweeet! I was just passed the virtual baton in the latest craze sweeping the travel blogger community: the amazing, fantastic, awe-inspiring and life-changing Travel Blogger Relay, hosted by Low Cost Holidays.
My task? Sort through memories of every place I’ve been, every cool thing I’ve seen, and every messed up experience I’ve had.
The goal? Assign a Bronze, Silver and Gold medal to my traveling life. Damn. This is going to be tough…
And here we go…
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Bronze:
A City Guy + 15 Days in an Vegan Reforestation Commune
Cleaning off supplies after a dirty and muddy first work at Sadhana Forest in India
I was born in New York and always have lived in big cities. While traveling, this means that even the little things put me far out of my comfort zone.
So imagine my surprise when I found myself loving every minute of my stay in an Indian vegan commune focusing on reforestation, permaculture, and living off the land.
For two weeks we worked hard, planted trees, cooked and ate raw vegan food, participated in fascinating workshops, drove a rickety scooter, built dirt dams, dug trenches, experienced the highs and lows of a commune, and woke up reeeally early.
Below is a video walk through of Sadhana Forest, showing the communal kitchen, farmland, bathrooms, infrastructure and some of the amazing people I got to know.
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SILVER:
FIRE! and My Night Saving a Thai Bungalow Village
This story might be my absolute craziest of all time, but the Blogger Relay is about our best travel memories: not the most eff’ed up ones. That’s why I award the silver, not gold, medal to the time I became a firefighter and helped save a burning Thai bungalow village at 3am.
A 2 second exposure of the final two bungalows blowing smoke and flames into the sky at 3:28am
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The burned out shell of the first bungalow to catch fire, along with the other two huts still ablaze at 3:17am
“We need a fire extinguisher,” she said as the guesthouse owner was franticly searching her dark and powerless room for a cell phone. What they needed was the fire brigade. What they got was us.
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Meanwhile, in an effort to save the third and final hut, the others had formed an assembly line from the river and were busy passing buckets up. The goal was to get it wet enough that the fire wouldn’t catch.
I snapped a few more photographs before putting down my camera and joining the front line of the bucket brigade.
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Standing by while my wife ran into a burning building was not an option, so I followed them in with only a headlamp to light the room. Inside, we were met with disarray and a floor full of Christian’s belongings strewn every-which way.
“It’s just not worth it. We gotta get out of here,” Carrie and I shouted through the growing heat, smoke and roar of the fire…
Christian escapes across a bamboo bridge after running into his burning bamboo hut to save his favorite sweatshirt
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{ read the whole story here }
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Runner up: the time I chased a naked Thai thief out of my hotel room and through the River Kwai at 3am. (why does all the crazy stuff happens at 3am?)
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GOLD:
Living in a Remote Nicaraguan Village
The Estelli Express, a refurbished American schoolbus, is the best way to get in and out of Murra. Here, it’s waiting for passengers during a town celebration.
The year was 2005 and I had never been away from home for more than a month.
Meanwhile, my girlfriend (now wife) Carrie was volunteering in Murra: a remote Nicaraguan village. I quit my job, sold my stuff, booked a round trip ticket, and came down for a two week visit.
Murra was located a four hour rickety chicken bus ride from the nearest phone, Internet, or supermarket, so you can imagine how overwhelming the idea of staying was for this “city guy who liked his comfort zone.”
A panorama of Murra – a small town in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua
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As I cancelled my ticket home, what surprised me most was how quickly my comfort zone had adapted to the world around me.
A rainbow over my next door neighbor Nayo’s house in Murra
For the next seven months, I helped Carrie in her projects and started my own. Some highlights including forming community groups to break down gender barriers, tutoring students in English, and working with a women’s bank.
My days were spent picking coffee, planting corn, traveling around Nicaragua, and even helping carry furniture through ankle-deep mud.
To say I returned home a changed man would be an understatement. I still look back on my time in Nicaragua as the most influential experience of my life. I’ll never forget the kind, generous, and humble people I befriended, and look forward to my eventual return.
{ walk the streets of Murra via this photo gallery }
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Children wait for their parents to head up into the mountains for a funeral in Murra, a small town in Nicaragua
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Whew, time to pass the baton…
Best of luck to my fellow members of #TeamPurple! — taken at Wat Worapho – Ayutthaya, Thailand
First, a shoutout to Neil at Backpacks and Bunkbeds for recruiting me.
Then, another yeehaw to Caroline at Traveling 9 to 5 for passing me the baton.
And now, without further adiu, I can pass it on to Emily at One Trailing Spouse.
To the rest of #TeamPurple, I can’t wait to read your entries! We’ll meet again at the finish line, but for now it’s time to kick back and watch the rest of the race with my buddy, the Buddha —>
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Like travel blogger memes? I’ve participated in a few others:
Brilliant stories and so fascinating… With amazing bloggers like yourself on Team Purple.. We better win!!
Thanks Raghav!!! I’m feelin like we’re in it to win it :)
Nicaragua sounds a worthy winner, 2 weeks turning into 7 months, thats a great story.
Your pictures are all so amazing … but what you captured for your silver entry is very sad. Do you know what caused the fire?
Thanks for your kind words, Neil! And, of course, for recruiting me :)
To answer your question, it was an electrical fire that started in the hot water heater while someone was taking a shower. No one was hurt, but the shower’er said that all of a sudden green electric flames began going up and down the wall. Next thing she knew, the wall was on fire. Minutes later, my wife and I awoke to the cries of FIRE… and thus began my story.
Great stories. Seven months in rural Nicaragua sounds incredible! (And the naked Thai thief story cracked me up, btw)
Thanks, Callie! :) It really was the best experience ever. Naked Thai thief…not so much, though until the Thai fire, it was my craziest experience ever.
Wow amazing stuff! I definately wont be able to live Vegan village…I’m a lover of dead animal meat unfortunately…You saving the Thai village is an absoulutely inspiring story, you are now my new hero Greg!
Thanks so much for your comment and kind words. I too am a lover of all things that once moo’ed, oink’ed, or clucked, so the transition to vegan was an especially interesting one… though I will admit, I rode out of the commune and into town for some tandori chicken on more than one occasion…
Some great stories there and I absolutely love the photo of you moon-walking in front of the Taj Mahal :)
Han
http://www.hannahandtheworld.com
Thanks so much Hannah!! Yeah, that’s probably my favorite pic of me from this trip so far. The guys staring at me on the left side crack me up every time. Yes folks, this is happening :)