Uncornered Market

From Remote Control Toilets to Konbinis: Japan First Impressions

Daniel Noll — Sun, 27 May 2012 16:10:57 +0000

When I first set off on the road many years ago, I did so to countries whose toilets were mere holes in the ground. I’ve come a long way – this time to Japan, a country whose toilets are virtual thrones of electronic feature-laden splendor, including some which make music, many which feature remote controls, and most whose seats are heated.

But I digress. (Why I am here on the topic of Japan, talking about toilets? After all, toilet talk is rather un-Japanese.)

Travelers and tourists are often taught to look to historical sites for cultural insight, but Japan evinces plenty of culture in the seemingly everyday. It’s clear that the country has a long and deep history — complex, with nooks and crannies, cultural twists and turns, and sweeping evolutions. However, while I’m tempted to share my first impressions of Japan’s Buddhist and Shinto shrines, I’ll instead first share the cultural bits in the current, the white spaces of travel.

1. The world’s most advanced toilets.

Ah, my first remote controlled toilet. My first heated toilet seat. And specially placed water jets to clean places you never thought to clean with a specially placed water jet. That’s a first, too.

Audrey muses that the Japanese invest so much money in their toilets because it’s their only alone time. OK, that and hygiene, and an appreciation for all things French, including the bidet. Or maybe this focus satisfies a Japanese inclination to innovate and perfect — in this case — all imaginable bathroom experiences into one unit.

When you gotta’ go, there’s never a dull moment in a Japanese toilet.

2. Salarymen: work hard, play hard.

In Japan’s cities, at any hour of the day or night, you’ll find men in dark suits and ties making their way. They are the Japanese version of businessmen, they are salarymen.

You’ll see them at pace making their way to work. You’ll see them consuming anime pornography on the train platform. Maybe you’ll even see them stumbling red-faced out of an izakaya (beer restaurant), giggling, on their way to the last train home that evening.

Japan: Work hard, play hard?

3. The konbini, the Japanese convenience store.

The konbini is the Japanese incarnation of the convenience store. From the outside, one might appear ordinary, but in Japan there’s something different.

Portable food, hand-packed and replenished multiple times a day. Onigiri, triangular rice parcels, bento boxes and an entire wall devoted to energy drinks. There’s even a section for plastic-wrapped white button down shirts for the salaryman who didn’t make it home from last night’s business-and-beer bender.

Japanese people spend a lot of time at work and on the go. Konbinis, their stores of convenience, fuel them.

4. Create space where there is none.

One of the prevailing images of Japan: a lot of people, and little space — particularly in the Tokyo subway. But even inside a Japanese train full of humanity, the atmosphere never quite felt claustrophobic. Nothing like in so many other places the world over, where noise pervades and people bounce off each other like pinballs.

In Japan, all those people seem to create space where there should be none. But how?

Quiet, respect and order. Mobile phones are turned to silent; no one talks on the phone in enclosed spaces. People speak in soft tones. There exists a respect for the space of others, and a willingness to do what it takes to maintain that order.

Just witness the disgorging of a packed train at rush hour and the hum of all those shuffling feet.

You just have to be in it to fully appreciate it.

5. Politeness and consideration first.

While bicycling in Takayama, Audrey almost ran into a young schoolgirl crossing the street. In response, the Japanese student bowed and smiled rather than becoming upset.

Even the elevators are trained. In one, after a crowd of people piled on, the LED display read “Sorry! This elevator is crowded!”

There’s a lot of “sorry” in Japanese discourse. No need to get angry where there is no need. No need to blame.

To some, this politeness and courtesy may seem robotic. To us, it was deliberate. In one instance, Audrey and I took the remaining seats on a train, on opposite sides. A Japanese woman next to me looked up from her book, said “change” and pointed to Audrey, indicating that she would move so we could sit together. In a flash, the woman moved and was immediately reabsorbed into her book, while Audrey and I were reunited yet again.

We witnessed this level of courtesy repeatedly. It was the rule, in no way the exception.

Some might find all this respect and consideration boring. We found it refreshing. And after a couple of weeks amidst it all, we felt spoiled. There’s only one catch: in order to feel like you fit, you must show it, too.

Fortunately, that’s not very difficult.

6. Pachinko: gambling with steel pellets.

The Pachinko parlor, where the pinball machine and slot machine collide. You’ll know you’ve found a Pachinko parlor when you open the door to find rows of people seated at vertical pinball machines, boxes of metal balls at their side, loading them amidst a deafening roar.

We went inside a Pachinko parlor to try it out. We were confounded. You purchase silver balls (reminiscent of large BB pellets) and insert them via a tube slot into the top of a machine with arcade controls. It’s supposed to be fun, we hear. And money supposedly flows if you figure out how to work the machines. We never did.

7. Everything is a process.

In a previous life, I taught statistical process control, a practice whose roots can be found in Japanese manufacturing. You’ll see the cultural manifestation of this art-meets-science everywhere in Japan, no less so than on high-speed trains. We sat in the forward car of one to get a clear view of the driver. He checked his plan, he drove his train, he checked the tracks. Then he repeated it all, sweeping his hand across his field of view to somewhere on the side of the tracks, to an end we never quite figured out. In any event, the motions were all deliberate. The checks all deliberate, too.

Little, if anything, is left to chance.

This isn’t about being robotic, but about doing things deliberately and understanding the process, as well as how that process influences the result.

8. No garbage cans. No trash, either.

How can a country with public spaces so clean feature almost no public garbage cans? This takes some getting used to. It also takes filling your pockets with a bit of rubbish or carrying your own little bags of trash.

In Japan it’s one’s personal responsibility to take care of one’s trash, meaning that you typically carry it with you until you return home or to a hotel. This is why you almost never see trash left behind on subways, trains or in other public spaces.

9. Vending machines galore.

The colors and design of Japan’s vending machines mesmerized us. Almost any drink imaginable is available: energy drinks, collagen drinks (for beauty, of course), beer, even little sake boxes.

Everything to drink, but nothing to eat. Why?

Drinking on the street is acceptable, while eating on the street is looked down upon.

10. A whole lot of words.

When it comes to their own language, the Japanese are a people of many words, especially it seems for the smallest of transactions or questions. Buy a bottle of water or ask for the location of a bus stop and you may be sitting there for several minutes listening to a sort of conversational routine that includes a summary of what is happening, what question is being asked, what the solution is, an alternative repetition of the solution, a third way, and then an offering of thanks and good day.

It confounded us at first to watch our guide have long conversations in Japanese, only to report back something as simple as, “The bus stop is across the street.”

11. Trains really do run on time.

You know the old chestnut about how you can set your watch based on when your Japanese train passes Mt. Fuji? Well, it’s true.

In two weeks of frequent train travel, only one of our trains ran late, by two minutes. Our guide, experienced in the ways of Japan, was shocked. We’re certain the employees responsible for the delay got a talking to.

12. Sidewalk braille.

Upon our arrival in Japan, one of the first features we noticed were all sorts of texture-coded yellow strips on sidewalks and inside buildings. We figured these lines were intended to draw walking lanes, to help provide order to the way people moved.

Our guide later clued us in that these were for blind people so they could walk comfortably through cities; different patterns and textures under your feet to signal stops, crossings, turns, traffic lights and the end of train platforms.

Brilliant. And considerate.

13. Presentation and design are king.

Head to the basement of any large department store to the prepared and specialty food area and you’ll know what we mean. Everything from the smallest piece of fruit to the most elaborate sushi bento box is beautifully displayed. If you’ve ever wondered whether it was form or function that came first, ask the Japanese and they might fairly tell you both.

The importance of presentation manifests itself most perhaps in Kaiseki dinners and Japanese tea ceremonies. In the Kaiseki dinner ritual, value is not only found in the beauty of what is being served, but it in the beauty, size, color and pattern of the plates and bowls in which it’s all displayed.

This is also echoed in the Japanese traditional tea ceremony, where the host takes an opportunity to leave the room so guests can discuss the merits of the instruments being used to serve the tea.

14. Onsen

For those of you who’ve been Japan, the word onsen is code for something special. For those of you who’ve never been, this is motivation. Onsen is the word for hot springs, but also describes communal bathing facilities. You can find them not only in nature, but also in many hotels and Japanese Inns. We enjoyed onsen several times along our trip, so much so that we almost took it for granted. When our hotel no longer featured onsen, we missed our twice daily dose of bathing.

With onsen, as with all things Japanese, there’s a process, there’s etiquette. There’s also relaxation and unwinding. And there’s a whole lot of cleaning going on.

15. Shy, but not closed.

Before traveling to Japan, we held an image of Japanese culture as one that is very reserved, almost closed. What we found during our travels, however, was something different.

Language can be a barrier, as many Japanese feel uncomfortable speaking foreign languages, especially English (or perhaps they feel unnecessarily imperfect in their mastery of it). However, if you initiate engagement you will find people who might at first come off shy, but who are eager to interact and do whatever they can to help.

Perhaps there’s no better example of this than the school children we met along our journey through Japan. Some needed a little coaxing, but most would eventually smile and laugh (and sometimes jump up and down and clap) when we would interact, answer questions and join in a photo-taking session.

Admittedly, this only barely scratches the surface of Japanese culture, a culture we could easily spend a lifetime trying to comprehend. But hopefully this gives you a taste of what a couple of interlopers — whose ideas of Japan were once confined to ink stamp vending machines and Lost in Translation — believed they learned in a short time.

—-

Have you been to Japan? What were some of your first — or lasting– impressions?

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | No comment

Panorama of the Week: Daisho-in Buddhist Temple — Miyajima, Japan

Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:48:12 +0000

When you enter Heniyokutu Cave at Daisho-in Buddhist temple, pause for a moment. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, details begin to appear — prayer offerings and written wishes tied to the base of Buddhist statues, Japanese characters tracing the bottom of the lights, faint smiles on many of the icons. In the dim light, there’s a feeling of peacefulness amidst it all.

Open up the 360-degree panorama below to see for yourself.

If you visit the island of Miyajima near the city of Hiroshima, be sure to carve out several hours to spend at Daisho-in Buddhist temple. Its grounds are covered in Buddhist statues of all shapes, sizes and decor. They’re not only a photographer’s dream, but they also tell the story of the diversity of symbols in Japan’s versions of Buddhism.

Be sure to hang around long enough, as it will increase the likelihood that you’ll catch a ceremony or two along the way.

Panorama: Henjyokutsu Cave at Daisho-in Buddhist Temple — Miyajima, Japan

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A Mother’s Day Slideshow and Message of Peace from Hiroshima

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Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 8 comments

A Mother’s Day Slideshow and Message of Peace from Hiroshima

Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:11:15 +0000

For this Mother’s Day, we are in Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Although the city was once a site of death and destruction beyond what we could ever imagine, the message here now is one of peace.

A reflection at the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima, Japan

Michiko, our volunteer goodwill guide at the Hiroshima Peace Park, explained how her mother was a survivor of the atomic bomb. Her mother told her how, as a young girl, she ran through the rubble shortly after the bomb trying to her sister, Michiko’s aunt. Her search was in vain, her sister was dead. Michiko’s voice cracked as she relayed her mother’s stories — of the completeness of the destruction she saw everywhere, of people begging for water on the streets, some literally dying of thirst.

But as Michiko shared the story of what happened to her family in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, she carried an even more important message for all of us today — one of peace. As she explained it, her mother instilled in her that we should all work together for peace, to prevent war, to prevent events like the atomic bomb from ever happening again.

With each mother’s wish for peace in a world that she passes on to her children, we hope we are getting one step closer to a more peaceful world.

So to our mothers who are far, far away from us today, and to all moms out there, we wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day.

Mothers from Around the World

If you don’t have a high-speed connection or you’d like to read the captions, you can view the Mother and Child, Around the World photo set.

Mothers featured in the following slideshow are from: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burma (Myanmar), China, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru, Thailand, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 7 comments

Panorama of the Week: Hurghada Fresh Market, Egypt

Audrey Scott — Sat, 05 May 2012 06:20:15 +0000

When most people think about the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, Egypt they likely imagine relaxing on the beach, scuba diving, adventuring in the desert, golfing, and lounging at a big resort. Hurghada does have all of that.

Rarely, however, does one think about fresh markets and a taste of local Egyptian culture. It’s there in Hurghada, if only you look hard enough.

You won’t find that local culture on Sheraton Street, an area which many people refer to as a souk when in fact it’s actually a street lined with souvenir shops and touts. Actually, we advise you skip this street altogether.

But if you do wish to catch a little slice of local life to go with your flashy new sunburn (er, tan), ask around for the local vegetable market. And when you arrive at the market, be sure make your way deep into the back sections where tourists rarely venture.

There you’ll find ordinary Egyptians making their way, shopping, playing with their kids and going about their daily lives. And you’ll be rewarded with human interaction and scenes like this.

Panorama: Fresh Market in Hurghada, Egypt

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Disclosure: Our trip to Egypt and the UNWTO conference is being provided by Egyptian Tourism Authority. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 9 comments

Next Up: Going Big in Japan

Daniel Noll — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:42:40 +0000

I have never been to Japan.

Audrey has, but she enjoys the distinction of having eaten a hamburger there. In fact, she requested it. Insisted even. Forgive her though, she was only seven, it was her birthday and she was tired of noodles. But she did wear a blue kimono to make up for it.

No, this is not Audrey.

When people inquire about where we’ve been and we tell them that we haven’t yet been to Japan together despite having spent almost two years across Asia, they express disbelief: “How have you not been to Japan?!?!”

In turn, we feel a void, a gap, like we really missed something and passed over a place we should have visited long ago.

Now it’s time to correct that.

Why Japan?

Our fascination with Japan goes back, in part, to an outing in San Francisco’s Japantown in the late 1990s. It began in a row of addictive Japanese vending machines, including a booth that spat out a custom-made ink stamp based on a photo snapped of us. The image of our faces was then framed by and filled the windshield of a car — as if we were driving, on the road again. That stamp transformed us back into little children, full of the glee of simplicity and novelty. We applied that stamp to letters, random pieces of paper, anything we could get our hands on. I’d include a photo of the stamp here – it was silly and entertaining and frighteningly lifelike – but it has long since been tucked into a box somewhere.

Cheesy photo stamp-making vending machines as motivation for a trip to Japan?

Yes. This and a host of other pop culture goodies, history and personal advice all helped to plant and tend the seed.

In 2007, at the beginning of our trip, we met a travel and tour consultant that specialized in East Asia, including Japan. Why the focus there? To him, Japan represented “the perfect society.” Courtesy and respect amidst human compression and tight spaces of modern day population density.

Japan, however, always eluded us.

Then in early 2011, we made plans to live in Japan for a couple of months. But, the tsunami and earthquake struck.

We vowed to keep Japan in our sights and visit as soon as we could make it happen. We also hoped to see how it has bounced back.

What Means Japan?

I feel a bit sheepish when trying to describe what Japan means to me. Outside of a reading of Ian Baruma’s then freshly published Inventing Japan: 1853-1964, much of my mind’s image of Japan has been back-filled from a collection of dated bits of pop culture and grade school superficiality.

Speed and light. Moments and tableau. Lost in Translation, loneliness amidst a sea of humanity. Bright lights, big city. Seinfeld gave us the image of Japanese men sleeping in drawers with Kramer. Japan speaks traditional and modern. Geishas, white faces, bold colors. Pokemon and Hello Kitty. Fashion and custom, twisting and temporal. Propriety, formality, and the ultimate in organization to sustain a population stitched into a societal fabric spread across islands. On the flip side, an apparent suppression of emotion so strong that it’s said to produce some of the most profound pornography on the planet. (I am also told by Audrey that I will not consume such content while we are there. Maybe when we return?)

I was recently asked in an interview about where I most wanted to photograph, and answered that although India is likely at the top of my list in terms of places I’ve been it’s Japan – my personal unknown — that I now have a taste to capture.

But the real challenge will be to understand the story, the people, and the culture behind all those images. Clearly, this trip is just the beginning.

Our Japan Itinerary

We take off for Japan this weekend! We’ll start off with G Adventures‘ Discover Japan tour.

The tour will take us from Tokyo to Takayama, Kanazawa to Hiroshima, then Kyoto before setting us down at the foot of Mount Fuji for a climb. Our route will be dotted with temples, mountains, sake breweries, and a dose of sobering history. The trains, we’re certain, will run on time.

We’ll follow that up with 4-5 days of hanging in and around Tokyo on our own.

I want to see those Japanese cities of organized compression, people pushed into and subsequently disgorged from subway trains in as timely a fashion as possible. I want to be among those people.

I want to sing karaoke. I want to lavish red-faced in a steam bath.

And of course, there’s the food. Massaged beef, udon and sushi so sweet. And yes, we’ll go to that famous fish market that is scheduled to close sometime soon. I can assure you: astounding amounts of sushi will be eaten.

In spite of these few “musts” I have in my head, I’m not quite certain what I will find. I’m leaving myself open to Japan and I’m thrilled by the opportunity to explore.

I also know that Audrey has come a long way. This time, she tells me, she won’t be eating any hamburgers. But she may just look for another kimono.

——-

Join us on our journey through Japan! You can follow along on Twitter at #dna2japan or on our Facebook page. Don’t worry, we promise not to post too many photos of sushi.

If you have Japan suggestions- food, sights, karaoke bars or otherwise – for any of the places mentioned above, especially Tokyo, please let us know!

Disclosure: Our trip to Japan is provided by G Adventures in cooperation with its Wanderers in Residence program. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Photo credits to G Adventures

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 33 comments

Panorama of the Week: Valley of the Whales – Fayoum, Egypt

Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:58:50 +0000

Whales with legs? In the desert?

That’s what you’ll find in the Valley of the Whales (Wadi El-Hitan) in Fayoum, Egypt. More accurately, you’ll find the over 35 million year-old fossilized remains of whales with short legs, appendages marking their evolution from land mammals to sea mammals.

It’s hard to imagine today, but the entire area you see in the panorama below was submerged, covered by the Tethys sea.

Makes you realize that our own human history is only a spec in the vastness of existence.

Panorama: Wadi El-Hitan (Valley of the Whales) – Fayoum, Egypt

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Disclosure: Our trip to Egypt and the UNWTO conference is being provided by Egyptian Tourism Authority. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 8 comments

Pyramid Hopping in Egypt

Audrey Scott — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:09:25 +0000

Do you remember learning about ancient Egypt in elementary school?

I do. I recall images of Cleopatra, mummies, hieroglyphics, and women with black bobbed hair and men dressed in kilts, all strutting. I remember pyramids that seemed too big to be real, as if aliens must have been the ones to deposit them in the middle of the desert.

And I remember an episode of Asterix and Obelix, a favorite childhood comic book of mine, where Obelix climbs onto the Sphinx, hangs on the nose and breaks it off. In response, all the vendors chip the noses off their ceramic Sphinx replicas to be sure they’d match.

Then I had the chance to see it all – the pyramids and the Sphinx after the nose job — in real life.

Saqqara, The Original Pyramid

Our guide, Maha, told us: “If you want to understand the pyramids, it’s best to begin with the original one: Saqqara.”

Dating back to 2,600 BC, Saqqara was the first pyramid built of its kind and the one from which all the other pyramids followed suit. However, Saqqara was built with steps, which later pyramid architects decided to exclude.

At the time of our visit to Saqqara in late December 2011, we virtually had the place to ourselves.

The Red Pyramid: Going Inside

Outside the neighboring village of Dahshur, not only did we also have the Red Pyramid to ourselves, but we could also actually go inside it.

Now this was cool. As in, “Wow, I feel like Indiana Jones” cool.

From an entry portal about two-thirds up the pyramid we began our descent — crouched down in a sort of crab walk, taking deep squat strides a couple hundred feet into the depths of the pyramid. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for ancient tomb raiders who didn’t have the benefit of wooden steps, handrails and head lamps.

The deeper we went, the heavier and more acrid the air became, as if it were spiked with ammonia gas. Maybe it was something natural from within the confines of those rocks, or maybe a few interlopers decided to leave their mark. Beyond the odor, the first room featured high stepped ceilings. This was the fake burial chamber to confuse thieves. We climbed another set of stairs to arrive at the real burial chamber, one that like so many others had been looted long ago.

Pyramids were no longer just a bunch of enormous blocks mysteriously stacked in mesmerizing geometric mounds. They were, in fact, hollow structures built to keep safe all that the pharaohs needed for their time in heaven.

We couldn’t walk normally for days after plumbing the depths of the Red Pyramid, but we highly recommend it, so long as you are not claustrophobic.

Giza Pyramids

When just about anyone imagines Egyptian pyramids, the image of the Great Pyramids of Giza is the one that usually comes to mind. What surprised me was how close those pyramids were to the modern day city of Cairo.

The first pyramid you see upon arriving at the complex — the Great Pyramid of Khufu – is the biggest and most famous. It also happens to be the place where many of the touts — of the camel riding and cheap souvenir variety – hang out. Like the scene out of Asterix and Obelix, I imagined each of them chiseling off the noses of their Sphinx replicas.

If you grin and bear it beyond the first two pyramids and up the hill, you’ll be rewarded with an iconic overlook and another much better opportunity to ride a camel (about $10 for 15 minutes).

The Great Sphinx

If our experience was any measure, late afternoon makes for a phenomenal time to visit the Great Sphinx. We were spoiled with soft light and a sky filled with feathery clouds. In this big sky context, the Sphinx seemed smaller than I expected, almost dwarfed by the size of the pyramids. But as I spent more time with it I became rather mesmerized by the magnificence and oddness of this ancient figure standing guard.

One thing we didn’t realize is that the viewing area stops the flow of visitors into the Sphinx interior complex around 4:00 P.M., while they promptly kick everyone out at 4:30. So if you’d like to have more time to try and master your perspective photo trickery pose of kissing the Sphinx’s nose, be sure to arrive a bit earlier.

Egyptian Museum

Although it’s not a pyramid, the Egyptian Museum is still worth a visit, at the very least to absorb the contents of Tutankhamen’s tomb. The stash is vast and impressive, complete with the Tutankhamen gold funeral mask that we all know so well.

But what really makes this exhibit amazing is to think that all this was the burial stash of a relatively insignificant, small-fry king who died when he was only 19. I tried to picture what burial tombs must have been like for powerful kings who lived fuller, longer lives. This just about tapped our imaginations.

Egyptian pyramids. I completed a circle, a trip traced from childhood books and fantasy to a visit in today’s reality. And yes, it was cool.

And although I feel like I understand all these icons so much better with a firsthand visit as an adult, the song “Walk Like an Egyptian” echoes in my head, and every time I consider the Sphinx, I think about what Obelix did to its nose.

—–

Slideshow of Egyptian Pyramids Near Cairo

If you don’t have a high-speed connection or want to read the captions, you can view the Egyptian pyramids photo slideshow.

What places did you study or read about as a kid that you were able to visit later on? Were they what you expected?

Disclosure: We were in Egypt in December 2011 to speak at the 4th Annual IOETI Conference in Cairo. Our trip and three-day tour were paid for by the conference organizers. As always, all opinions here are entirely our own.

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 16 comments

Panorama of the Week: Citadel Mosque in Cairo, Egypt

Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 06:00:55 +0000

Although the Saladin Citadel in Cairo was built in the 12th century to help protect the city from the Crusaders, the Muhammad Ali Mosque came much later, in the 19th century. Built in the architectural style of the Ottomans, the mosque has a feeling of wide open grandeur punctuated by chandeliers and cupolas.

Sit on the carpet in middle for as long as you need. Look up, look around and enjoy the peacefulness of the place.

Panorama: Muhammad Ali Mosque at Saladin Citadel in Cairo, Egypt

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 11 comments

Off to Egypt: A Little Bit of Work and Play

Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:22:11 +0000

We’re headed again to Egypt, this time to experience a taste of what it can offer in the way of adventure and adrenaline travel.

We will also present at the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Travel and Media conference. There, we will tie a real-time case study of this Egypt experience together with some of our prior travel experience to demonstrate the value to destinations of digital storytelling and engaging travel bloggers during challenging news cycles.

During our last visit to Egypt in December 2011, outside of another conference where we presented, our focus was Alexandria, Cairo and the pyramids nearby.

For this, our return trip, we’ll head in the direction of the Red Sea to experience something a little different. Here’s just a sample:

A hike through Wadi Al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales), a UNESCO site outside of Cairo, where we’ll be able to see ancient shark and whale fossils amidst the modern-day desert. Sites like these indicate the sweeping geological changes our world has gone through over time. Climate change has a long history, regardless of the cause.
Adventure sporting at the Red Sea city of Hurghada. In addition to kite surfing and parasailing, we hope to get a little down and dirty with a quad bike safari. To allow our adrenaline to settle, some much-needed spa time – yes, that incudes Dan, too — will follow.
A visit to Marsa Alam, a town that sits on the edge of the Arabian Desert and the Red Sea. We’ll enjoy a Red Sea diving outing just before the conference portion of our trip begins.

We will also enjoy these adventures with our colleague and friend, Erica Hargreave of Roamancing and Ahimsa Media. During our last visit to Cairo, we rode camels together, struggled equally to make Egyptian flatbread, and helped fend off Erica’s Egyptian admirers. Like us, Erica embraces the unexpected and is up for spontaneity along the way.

Erica and Audrey at Saqqara Pyramid near Cairo. Love the red boots!

Finally, we look forward to sharing all of this with you in real time on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and this blog.

UNTWO Travel and Media Conference: A Real-Time Digital Storytelling Case Study

In case you are wondering how we’re going to tie our Egyptian adventures into a UNWTO conference presentation, there is a method to the madness.

The most relevant background: an article we published earlier this year which encapsulates our thoughts regarding the perception of travel safety in some select current event flashpoints that we have visited in the last year. The piece is entitled How Travel Beats the Media Fear Machine.

Within the last 14 months, we have visited Iran and have also cooperated with tourism boards in Jordan, Greece, Mexico, and now Egypt. At times, each has faced tourism industry challenges due to travel safety and security concerns related to current events and the resulting media coverage and prevailing public perception that followed.

So when we heard that this year’s UNWTO’s 2nd Travel and Media Conference would focus on the theme of “Partnering with Media during Challenging Times” it struck us as a great fit for the way we view the world, travel through it, engage with it, and report on our experiences in it.

Together with Erica, we will share all of this in a discussion entitled “Real Time Digital Storytelling for Destinations During Challenging News Cycles” on the first day of the UNWTO Travel and Media conference (April 26, 2012).

Get involved!

We also hope you will engage in this digital Egyptian adventure to help demonstrate the power digital storytelling and delivering messages based on personal experience.

If you are curious about Egypt, or you have memories and content from a previous trip to Egypt that you’d like to share or highlight, we invite you to:

Follow the hashtag #WeVisitEgypt on your social media networks. We will continually update Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (@uncornered_market) throughout the journey. Please retweet or share what you find engaging and fun.
Ask us questions and interact with us through our social media networks. You can find us on @UMarket and you can find Erica at @Roamancing.
If you’ve been to Egypt, or you’re there now, please share your own photos, video and blog posts from Egypt using the #WeVisitEgypt hashtag. Not only will we do our best to retweet and highlight your content, but the Egyptian Tourism Authority (ETA) may also do the same.

However you decide to take part, we thank you for being part of our #WeVisitEgypt adventure!

Welcome aboard!

—

Disclosure: Our trip to Egypt and the UNWTO conference is being provided by Egyptian Tourism Authority. As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 26 comments

A Turtle Liberation: A Sad Story with a Happy Ending

Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:00:56 +0000

This is a story about a baby turtle and how we helped to set him free. It’s also a tale of working together and conservation gone right.

“Blood is heavier than water. The surface of this beach used to be covered in blood, turtle blood,” explained our boat captain, a former fisherman, as he pointed to a sandy beach just down the coast from where we’d launched in Mazunte, Mexico.

He continued, pointing, “See the ramp? It was used to send the turtle meat up for processing. We would take all the meat from inside the shells. Everything was used. Sometimes we processed thousands of turtles a day. The meat was then sent inland. That’s where the money was.”

But that was then, and fortunately this is now.

For the sea turtles of Mexico’s Pacific Coast, as well as for its people, this sad backstory comes with a happy ending — in the form of a little turtle like the one above having a chance to survive to full term, hatch into the world, and with a little help, make its way into the wild as nature intended.

From Turtle Harvest to Turtle Preservation

In Mexico, turtles were big business. If the turtle eggs themselves weren’t harvested, grown turtles and every last bit of their physical being were.

In response to declining turtle populations, the Mexican government placed a ban on turtle eggs in 1971, but it was largely ignored. An official ban on the harvesting of turtle meat and eggs followed in 1990, this time with greater enforcement. And although it’s impossible to put a full stop to turtle fishing, the turtle slaughterhouse has shut down and there are steep penalties for people caught trading in turtle meat.

During the transition, however, the Mexican government took into consideration those whose livelihoods depended on turtle fishing. In addition to helping families set up guest houses for tourists, the government encouraged turtle fisherman to offer turtle tours – for travelers to witness turtles swimming freely in the ocean — as an alternative and more sustainable means to a living.

These days, that same coastline where the ground was covered in blood now plays host to local families and tourists enjoying a day at the beach.

One bay over from where the turtle slaughterhouse had been located, the Mexican National Turtle Center (Centro Mexicano de las Tortugas) in Mazunte now offers tours to school groups and educates them about sea turtles and the principles of ocean conservation.

From turtle harvesting to turtle conservation in a little over a decade. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The Egg: Protecting Turtles from the Beginning

The center also monitors where various species of sea turtles lay their eggs and moves the eggs to protected areas along the beach. When the eggs are ready to hatch, the center then organizes “turtle liberation” (liberation de las tortugas) events at various beaches nearby.

When a turtle liberation takes place, they post signs around town announcing the time and location of the event. Everyone is welcome to participate – to learn firsthand about sea turtles, support the center with a voluntary donation, take a brand new baby turtle in hand, and release it to run free into the ocean.

Our Turtle Liberation

Just far enough back from the pounding waves of the ocean at Playa de Ventanilla, our turtle liberation organizer drew a line in the sand for us all to stand behind. He explained the conservation work of the center that helps protect sea turtles, from the moments when the adults deposit their eggs on the beach to when the babies are set free into the water.

Our organizer held up a large turtle shell, with the skull attached. “We found this two months ago. All the meat had been taken. People still capture sea turtles for meat. Our work is not finished.”

Then he went around with the basket of baby turtles, perhaps a hundred or more, to be released. They were tiny little things, crawling on top of each other, squirming to be free.

We could each choose one.

It was an oddly emotional event. In seconds, we developed an attachment to the baby turtles we’d chosen. They were so small, but surprisingly strong. Their instincts clearly led them; they wanted freedom to make their own way.

When we looked out at the water, the waves were so big and rough. They were more than we could take on. As tiny as our turtles were, we worried about how they’d ever survive.

But once we set them on the ground, they scampered toward the water with all their might. We were giddy, like proud parents, as we watched them disappear into the waves and swim away.

This would be the swim of their lives.

Not all of their brothers and sisters found the same initial fortune, however. Some hit the waves at the wrong time, were tossed about and landed on their backs in the sand. We took turns turning the lost turtles right side up, perhaps a little closer to the water to give them a head start on their life in the wild. After twenty minutes or so, all the turtles were in the water, the sun had set and we found ourselves on a natural high.

Sure, we had seen beautiful turtles in the museum earlier that day, but taking part in the launch of a baby turtle’s life into the wild was an entirely different experience. From blood on the beach to turtle liberation, an opportunity had been seized amidst challenge.

The following day, during our boat tour, we saw dozens of giant turtles swimming about, catching a breath at the water’s surface. Up, gulp, and back down. Large and graceful, they’d seen a few years.

We can only hope that when you take your boat ride someday, you’ll get a chance to see our turtles.

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Planning a visit to the Mexican National Turtle Center and a Turtle Liberation

If you are planning a trip to Oaxaca and the Pacific Coast, and especially if you have kids, consider paying a visit to the Turtle Center and timing your visit with a “turtle liberation.” Your kids will love you for it. And you will love it, too!

Because of the diversity of sea turtles in the area, you’ll find different species laying eggs throughout the year. We were in Mazunte at the end of March/early April and there were liberation events almost every day. However, we’ve been told that May to July is the high season for turtle hatchlings.

Don’t pay attention to touts selling “turtle liberation” tours for 100+ pesos. This one is easy to do yourself. Check in with the Turtle Museum (preferably at the beginning of your stay in the area) and inquire about planned turtle liberations. The schedule and location will depend on the condition and quantity of the hatchling baby turtles.

Our event was at 6PM on Ventanilla beach, just around sunset (also a spectacular photo opportunity). A collectivo or taxi from Mazunte to the road that goes to Ventanilla (2 km) should cost 5 or 10 pesos ($0.40-$0.80). From there you have a pleasant walk for 1 km. For a ride that gets you down to the actual beach, plan to pay a little more (e.g., 40 pesos/$3.20).

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Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 20 comments