Category: Blog

One year and seven days ago, I wrote a post called “10 Ridiculously Offbeat Destinations.”

It was a fun list to put together.

Lucky for all you wild and crazy travel junkies (myself included), there are plenty of other wacky, ridiculously offbeat places around the world. Cheers to this second gathering!

Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve: Madagascar

Known also as Madagascar’s Stone Forest, the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve is a wild expanse of limestone cliffs, housing a remote and mostly inhospitable terrain–strange species of lemurs, wild birds, slotted canyons and preserved mangrove forests. The deep and brittle precipices were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. Check out more information and photos in this National Geographic article.

[photograph from National Geographic’s Stephen Alvarez]

Mount Huashan Hiking Trail: China

The ascent of Mount Huashan in China’s Shaanxi Province can be done in one of two ways–easy…or ridiculously and terrifyingly difficult.  Deemed one of the most exhilarating (and dangerous) hikes in the world, it is estimated that the ascent claims the lives of 100 people each year. The Chinese government has made considerable improvements to the trail, but hikers must still scale narrow and unsteady planks, nearly vertical staircases, and ladders that would make even Indiana Jones cringe in fear.

The wildest part of the Huashan Trail is the “Changong Zhandao,” a 13 feet long, 1 foot wide wooden path. I believe that is what is pictured above.

[photograph from Flickr user Verde PR]

Three Camel Lodge: Mongolia

One of the world’s most remote hotels, the Three Camel Lodge may not have 4 stars…but it’s got a heck-of-a view. Guests can stay in one of 45 hand-made gers, traditional Mongolian tents used by nomadic herders. Felt carpets, indigenous furnishings, and wood-burning stoves can be found inside, and guests can participate in a variety of activities–camel trekking, horseback riding and visiting nomadic Mongolian families.

Make sure to allow enough time to get there. After a two hour flight from Beijing to Mongolia’s capital, Ulan Bator, you must take a 60-minute prop-plane to Dalanzadgad, followed by a 90-minute drive along a remote dirt road.

[photograph from Flickr user jennifer_schuetz]

Lac Assal: Djibouti

Lac Assal, a crater lake in central Djibouti, is the deepest point in Africa and, behind the Dead Sea the second lowest land impression on Earth. Also, outside of Antarctica, Lac Assal is the most saline body of water in the world with nearly 34% salt content. Nearby, the original Planet of the Apes was filmed.

Mataveri International Airport: Easter Island

The only airport on Eastern Island, Mataveri International Airport in the South Pacific is considered the most remote airport in the world. The closest major city that can be reached by plane is Santiago, over 2,000 miles away. Travelers can also come via Mangareva  (GMR) in the Gambier Islands.

[photograph from Flickr user peace-on-earth.org]

Tanggula (Dangla) Railway Station: China

At 5,068 meters (16,627 feet), the Tanggula Railway Station is the highest railway station in the world. The region is completely uninhabited, therefore recently no passenger transport system has been available.

[photograph from Flickr user Calem]

La Rinconada: Peru

Another one of the world’s most extreme places, La Rinconada in the Peruvian Andes (5,100m or 16,732 ft) is officially the highest inhabited city in the world. Just over 30,000 people live here, many of them working at a gold mine nearby. The city has no running water or sewage system.

[photograph from Hildegard Willer]

Socotra Island: Yemen

One of the most alien looking places on Earth, Socotra Island lies in the Indian Ocean, between Somalia and Yemen, geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years.

Similar to the Galapagos Islands, the island flourishes with rare species of flora and fauna. Check this–a third of the plants and animals on Socotra Island are endemic…as in, they aren’t found anywhere else in the world.

Despite the fact that Socotra, one of four clustered islands, has around 40,000 inhabitants, the Yemeni government only recently built roads. Socotra is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.

[photography from Flickr user Martin Sojka]

Pripyat: Ukraine

Pripyat, Ukraine is an abandoned city within the “zone of exclusion” near the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, around 50,000 residents abandoned Pripyat, many of them dying from radioactive exposure.

Pripyat’s buildings haven’t been maintained for over two decades, giving the city an eerie, post-apocalyptic feel. Visitors can walk through an abandoned school, amusement park and hospital–seeing peeled paint, broken glass, rotting floorboards, and all kinds of interesting Soviet relics.

Guoliang Tunnel: China

Through the Taihang Mountains in China’s Henan Province, the Guoliang Tunnel twists and carves its way through towering rock. The tunnel is nearly a mile long and was opened in 1977 to traffic.

[photographs from Flick user Toxane]

There’s only so much you can learn from a guidebook.

In an attempt to pull travelers away from their Lonely Planets, to help focus one’s reading of particular cities and countries, I have created a new page on this blog, “Location Reading.”

My list of fiction and non-fiction books is far from complete. That’s where you come in. Please comment below, or better yet, on the Location Reading page, with your favorite travel books and authors.

Eventually I will create a review/ranking system, and I hope to format the list in a more user-friendly way.

Let me know what you think!

[photo credit to Lochaven]

Have an idea but not sure how to get it off the ground?

Consider a business incubator. Or a seed-stage accelerator. Or a startup program. Whatever you want to call it.

Here’s the gist. Each of these 6 programs is specifically designed to help early-stage startups get their idea up and running…the right way. From help with paperwork and business plans to access to VCs (venture capitalists) and entrepreneurial professionals, these programs are an amazing avenue for startups that haven’t gained traction, that are looking for a way to take things to the next level.

I first learned of these programs back in 2005, when I read that an old hiking buddy of mine, Sam Altman–founder of Loopt–had dropped out of Stanford and hooked up with Y-Combinator for additional support. Read about Y-Combinator and 5 other programs below.

Y-Combinator

Location: Mountain Park (Silicon Valley), California
Website: http://www.ycombinator.com

Certainly the most well known seed-stage accelerator company, Y-Combinator–founded in 2005–offers two 3-month programs each year to its applicants. In exchange for acception into the program, Y-Combinator takes on average about 6% of the company’s equity; $17,000 for startups with 2 founders and $20,000 for those with 3 or more.

As of early 2010, Y-Combinator has funded 172 startups, including Loopt, reddit and Justin.tv. Check out this interview (courtesy of mixergy.com) with front man Paul Graham to learn more.

Business Tips via Mixergy, home of the ambitious upstart!

Seedcamp

Location: London, England
Website: http://seedcamp.com

Seedcamp was created to “jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by connecting next generation developers and entrepreneurs with over 400 mentors from a top-tier network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR and PR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists.”

Their flagship event, Seedcamp Week, takes place each September. At the end of the event, 5 teams are selected to receive an investment, typically €30-50k. These winning companies are invited to stay in London for a further 3-month period to develop their idea with Seedcamp’s support.

TechStars

Location: Boulder, Colorado; Boston, Massachusetts & Seattle, Washington
Website: http://www.techstars.org

Founded in 2006, TechStars provides seed funding for teams forming web/software companies.  Similar to Y-Combinator, companies receive up to $18,000 and a flat 6% equity stake. Here are a few companies that went through the TechStars program: Travelfli, oneforty, DailyBurn.

NextStart

Location: Greenville, South Carolina
Website: http://www.nextstart.org

From the NextStart website:

Do you have a creative and unique idea for a new product, new venture, new business model? Do you dream about getting to know people who want to help you, provide a little bit of money, and teach you what to do next? If so, we invite you to apply to the NextStart program. If you are one of the start-up teams selected, we will provide you with a small $5,000 initial investment per entrepreneur (maximum $10,000 per start-up), office space for the summer, access to workshops and programs, and a network of experienced mentors who will help you refine your ideas and launch your business. At the end of the summer, you will have an opportunity to present your business plan to potential investors.

I haven’t heard much about this particular program, but if you’re in or around South Carolina, it appears worth checking out!

Bootup Labs

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Website: http://bootuplabs.com

Taking founders from “concept to company,” Bootup Labs offers an 8-month program with intakes of 6 startups in January and May. Based in Vancouver, Bootup Labs targets  consumer internet, mobile, gaming and enterprise internet businesses. Like other incubators, Bootup Labs offers a $100,000 convertible line of credit for 5-15% in equity.

The Difference Engine

Location: Middlesbrough & Sunderland, England
Website: http://www.thedifferenceengine.eu

What looks to be a spanking new digital acceleration program (and claims to be the first major one in Europe), The Difference Engine is a 16-week program that “combines investment capital of £20,000 (for 8% of the business) with mentoring, support and office accommodation with various other services provided by our partners.”

Their very first program starts this month (February 2010)! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out.

Think you’re in shape?

Imagine this: it’s three in the morning and you’re plodding through knee-high puddles. You’re hungry. The last time you slept was twenty six hours ago, and that was only for twenty minutes.

The pre-dawn air is heavy. Lengths ahead, past a patch of Alaskan fireweed, you hear distant ruffling, darting your eyes just quick enough to see bodies scrambling up the ravine. The first six checkpoints were tough, but this last one has taken nearly a day to reach. With seventy hours of racing left, it promises to be an exciting finish.

Welcome to the world of endurance racing, where elite athletes navigate and compete in courses hundreds of miles long. Equipped with ultralight, weather-resistant gear and using tools most laypeople have never even heard of, like UTM Grid Readers, prusik loops and gaiters, these athletes battle their mental and physiological limits for a first place finish. Training is intense. Strategy is meticulously rehearsed. As competitors plot through the course, bodies become nature-beaten and sleep-deprived.

In college, I raced a few Bonk Hard events in Missouri’s Ozark wilderness, and boy was it fun. Planning food, clothing and gear for a nearly 18-hour day–not to mention the training beforehand–was a downright awesome challenge. Never have I understood the term “fatigued” more than I did at the end of one race, the Bonk Hard Chill. My 4-person team, MAKE WAY, was the last able-bodied team to cross the finish line at 17h 40m. I remember eating cold spaghetti and having a hard time walking. And this was me in excellent shape.

Receiving course instructions the night before the race.

Endurance racing, or adventure racing, is a quirky subculture of ultra athletes that has, over the last thirty or so years, developed into a highly competitive sport. There are small adventure races like the Bonk Hard Chill, and there are ones much larger and more elite. Seemingly impossible events like the Vendée Globe, a non-stop round-the-world yacht race that can take upwards of three months to finish.

Thought by many to be the world’s toughest ocean race, the Vendée Globe takes place every four years. Leaving port off the coast of western France, crews head straight to Antarctica, where they circumnavigate the continent, always clockwise, and race back to France. Over the years, yachts have capsized. Competitors have been lost at sea. In the most recent 2008/2009 race, eleven teams finished. Nineteen did not.

Last-minute gear checking the morning of the race.

Land races are just as ruthless. The Badwater Ultramarathon is a 135-mile course that climbs from Death Valley to Mount Whitney; from 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in contiguous America, to 8360 feet above sea level, the trailhead to the highest. Due to the intensity of the foot race (again, deemed one of the world’s toughest), entry is by invitation only, and if you can believe it, demand to participate each year typically exceeds the number of available spots.

While the race organizers do not award prize money, any runner who completes the course in sixty hours or less receives a commemorative medal, and anyone strong (and crazy) enough to finish within forty-eight hours gets a belt-buckle. Yes, a measly belt-buckle. Year after year, even some of the most elite ultramarathoners are not able to finish.

In 2009, nearly forty teams of four competed in Primal Quest, one of the most prestigious expedition-length races in the world. Racers gathered in the Badlands of South Dakota to mountain bike, paddle, swim, climb, cave and foot-race their way across 557 miles of remote and unforgiving terrain.

What drives these athletes to endure such harsh conditions? How do they stay alert and focused? What does it feel like to complete an endurance race, to cross the finish line with your limbs still intact? I imagine only a few people in the world are qualified enough to answer these questions.

Let the training begin.

A couple of months ago I was nominated (by Angela Corrias – Travel Calling) to take part in a unique and collaborative online experiment called, “3 Best Kept Travel Secrets.” Started by the folks over at Tripbase–a new, personalized approach to travel planning–this exercise calls for travel bloggers to write about three obscure places they’ve been (restaurants, hotels, tours, etc.).

Katie Sorene, author of the original blog post on Tripbase, writes:

Been somewhere amazing you’d never even heard of? You want to let your buddies in on the secret, right? Read on for my top travel gems!

What’s interesting about travel is that the places / hotels / restaurants that everyone agrees are fantastic, are often not so fantastic.

And even if they are, it can all be a bit predictable.

Now what’s really fun is when you find somewhere obscure that is truly out of this world.

You can’t believe your luck to have stumbled across this travel gem. How could you not have heard of this place before??

You want to shout it from the rooftops.

So here goes… these are My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

Fortunately, my job has taken me to some fairly wacky destinations. Below are three that I would like to share with you.

Akagera National Park, Rwanda

An offbeat, cheaper alternative to the traditional African safari.

From Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, Akagera National Park is only a few hours away. Why pay $700+ to see Silverback gorillas when, for a third of the cost, you can hire a private driver and guide for a personal safari?

Last February, I found a hotel employee in Kigali that had access to a four-wheel drive vehicle and negotiated a $200 day trip to Akagera. We left at 6am, and on arrival at Akagera learned that the ~$30 entrance fee included a complimentary guide. SWEET.

The safari was amazing. We drove around for 5ish hours and saw a herd of elephants, a Masai giraffe, several Cape Buffalo, Oribi, Reedbuck, and an Olive Baboon that tried to climb into our car! If you have more time, you can arrange to stay overnight–lion spotting anyone?

Click here for: my blog post on Akagera National Park

Chernobyl Day Tour, Outside of Kiev, Ukraine

An intimate, exotic and informative tour of the world’s most infamous radioactive disaster zone.

Many of you out there have taken a group tour. I’ll go ahead and say it–Chernobyl is the wildest and most fun tour I have ever taken. For $180 you can hitch a ride from Kiev with Solo East Travel. During your1-2 hour drive, you’ll watch an American-made documentary about the Chernobyl disaster.

The tour group was small–no more than 17 people. We drove into the zone of exclusion to take pictures and to Pripyat, the ghost town next to Chernobyl known for its abandoned school, hospital and playground.

Click here for: my blog post on Chernobyl

Old City, Damascus, Syria

The most vibrant and dashing city I’ve ever been to.

Get lost in the narrow and twisting conduits of colors and smells and shops. Become wildly intoxicated with the periodic call of the muezzin–an exotic soundtrack of sorts, a strange, permeating presence you have to hear to really..well..feel. Take a trip to Damascus’ Old City, the oldest continually habituated place on Earth.

Syria is an enigmatic country, psychologically inaccessible to most of us Westerners. Hop off the beaten path and travel to one of the world’s most interesting places, bar none. Take it from me; the culture is overwhelming in the most pleasant of ways, the food (and sheesha) is ambrosial.

Click here for: my blog post on Syria