It’s a new year and with it comes the promise of new travels and new adventures! To get your travel blood pumping, we’ve asked “Sup,” as he's known around the office, to reflect on some of his prior travels.
So, Sup…
What is the kindest thing anyone ever did for you while traveling?
When someone let me stay at their place while traveling around is probably the kindest occurrence. I've been invited to stay with a family that had a one-room apartment in the Muslim area of Ahmedabad; the family had a little newborn baby, talked pretty openly about the "race riots" that happened a few years ago, and gave me a hard time when I tried to give them a gift for letting me stay there. I've also been invited to stay at friend's parent's home in a little Romanian village. A bunch of ex-Israeli soldiers in vacationing Barcelona let me crash at their flat after exploring the city with them. It makes me think not everyone is as closed off as we think they are, and it inspires me to be a little less shy about opening my door at home.
What’s the most fascinating subculture you’ve ever encountered while traveling?
The Gandhians in India. They all idealized Gandhi and still were trying to make a difference in the world and had a pretty good system of passing on the ideals of cause and changing it down the couple of generations since Independence.
When I close my eyes I can smell and taste:
The manure pit behind the dorms of the sanitation institute where I was staying in Ahmedabad in 2005. One of the travelers in my group had found out that they could make a few gallons of biodiesel to power a rickshaw from the monthly output from the humans in the dorms and the cows in the stable behind us.
One travel expense that is always worth the money is:
Travel insurance. Only had to use it twice when I got grounded after a thunderstorm in Chicago and I used it to get reimbursed for a night in a hotel and got to buy a set of clothes when my baggage got lost for a couple days
The most incredible attraction I’ve ever seen is:
The Taj Mahal.
The best meal I ever had while traveling was:
At my heavily fortified hotel in Kabul. The street vendor down the alley made the best kebabs and Afghan bread.
The first time I felt like a traveler and not a tourist was:
My trip to Romania in 2004. First time I traveled alone and felt like talking to everyone.
