by Andrew Hyde
Rainy season it is. The taxi is two wheel drive and this is a four wheel drive road. But nothing seems to phase the driver: it’s pretty impressive, really. Gotta keep moving, hustling to make it. The map to the National Park includes a caricature of an atheist announcing himself to the slot canyons, as the devil lures around the corner ready to eat him. We turn left at the steam on the map, right at the atheist about to be eaten and then park at the viewpoint of the canyons. We arrive to this sign:
“TO OUR ESTEEMED CUSTOMERS THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT GORGE HAS BEEN CLOSED TEMPORARY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO UNAVOIDABLE CIRCUMSTANCE.
BY MANAGEMENT”
The man behind the sign confirms that the park is closed, although he can take us down to the outlook if we hire him. 500 Shillings later we are overlooking the gorge and asking questions about the “unavoidable circumstance” which turns out to be a flash flood. Not really a flash flood, as it was raining directly on the gorge two hours prior to the “flash” but a strong flood nonetheless. A Christian youth group had been hiking in it, during the rain storm, during the rainy season and many of the members had been swept away. Seven died. A tragedy. But “unavoidable circumstance?” Seems to be a bit disingenuous to those effected. Disingenuous to the word “unavoidable,” that is. But it looks like they are on it: according to the local paper the Kenya Wildlife Service is being pressured into changing the name of the park from “Hell’s Gate” into something that provokes the devil to kill fewer of the nation’s Christian youths. Kenyans generally have a first name and a Christian name that they use almost exclusively when dealing with tourists.
Our hired guide (Joseph) takes us into the closed off gorge and we see the red walled slot canyons weaving down into hell (or just another horizontally layered bed of strata). There is a peace to the area that I have not felt since landing in Nairobi. The earth speaks directly to the space new in reaching to the surface of the greater known object. Amazing to us but to the world, just a speck.
He tells us a story about the grand cuts of the world — how big, yes, but also how insignificant they are. If you scaled the earth down to the size of a billiard ball, he tells us, the mountains and canyons would be accurately represented by the smoothness of the ball — completely indistinguishable from the flat areas. Boiled down, the world fits in your hand and it is almost perfectly round. Boiled down, your memory of the last year is just as smooth. The world is massive, and I am here pondering just how big it is, how small I am and how enormous the universe is. Why do I ever worry about things?
The slot canyon ends with a boulder the size of a bus which the flood had just moved a few feet to block any chance of a path moving beyond it. A stark reminder about how malleable the world, and life, can be. We hike out of the gorge and see the white cumulous clouds billowing over nature’s skyscrapers. They simultaneously extend up while reaching down.
The way you see the world is, at least in part, based off of how others have seen it before you. A traveler is rarely the first customer. The actions of previous travelers effect my situation. My actions effect future travelers. Explorers.
Missionaries. Churches. Schools. Addicts. Backpackers. World Bank dollars. I must ask questions and mark future tourists in ways as I would hope to be treated, as hundreds have done before me. Perhaps it is my responsibility to ask annoying questions to salesman and don’t agree to buy anything. What is the weather going to be like tomorrow? Do you have a brother? How do I get coffee? How about in this direction? I feel like I need to fight off salesman and welcome people that want to show off their city and country.
We drive until we see a group of kids around a tourist couple. The kids are going nuts, jumping up and grabbing whatever they can from the couple, who are smiling but in a manner that is turning from joy to fear rather quickly. Above their heads is a giant sack of candy and the 20 kids are going to get it. Now why the couple thought this was a good reason, I do not know. But they were there, in a National Park with a bucket of sugar. Savior. Some of the kids see us and run franticly toward us asking for candy.
Carrorism. Careism. Carrism. We argue over the spelling of what we are going to call group we just met. They meant so well, really, they did. They came to save those not fortunate (to look like them?) and they did nothing but destroy the originality of dreams with those they cared about. They thought they solved the problem. The kids had candy and were happy. The problem they were trying to solve was mislabeled, and with the spreading of their message of their efforts “Saving Africa” most likely will end up in the destruction of the core issue they pretend to care about. It is hard to look poverty in the face. Brutally hard. The solution is far from easy; equally far from candy. What is the most destructive is to think you are a savior with the job of curing a disease flouting your experience of having watched a few medical shows on TV.
It rains for the rest of the day and we slowly make it back to town paying special attention to the pot holes and road washouts. I get out at a junction, thank the taxi driver who has almost doubled the agreed upon rate for the ride, and set upon an hour walk back to my bed. Poverty is said to be most easily solved by small businesses. The more small business owners I meet the more I see creeping toward the corruption of governments they hate.
A man proudly displays a toothpick in his white teeth. A sign of wealth, for the man with a toothpick is a person that just ate meat. A pick, a swirling of the tongue and a look of contentment. It is about to pour down on the shed and there is much to do tonight, or tomorrow. The traffic buzzes by those of us sharing the road as a path as it again starts to rain. Many in Nairobi walk a few miles each day as an alternative to the fares and stresses of the shared busses. I stand out in this line of commuters and have many opportunities to meet new people. A priest invites me to a football game. Another priest invites me to dinner. The third nice man I meet is also a priest (as it seems everyone is) and talks about the home he grew up in, “right next to Obama’s dad.”
The cars, tractors and busses are splashing up water on the walkers. The priests talk football with me. Manchester United is the local favorite (I’m more of a Manchester City fan, but don’t disclose this). The cell phone carrier offers United’s scores for free. You could be far in the bush of Kenya and know just how the Red Devils did in the match today.
When you introduce the highs in life, you introduce the lows.
Chapter 15
CAN’T EXPENSE
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
—Jawaharal Nehru
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
When I first began to inquire into traveling, my primary question was “can I even afford this?” If you think travel is expensive, you are most certainly not alone in such a sentiment. However, be open to proving yourself wrong in this feeling.
“You need to hire a driver before you land in Dubai, the cab is really expensive,” was the advise from a long time construction manager I met in Australia. So after about three hours of research I found someone that would pick me up for an agreed upon number of Dirham. The twenty minute cab ride would have been $20, which I bypassed with three hours of work to spend $15 on a car.
I fell for the trap: “It’s expensive.” Swindled again.
Walking around New York City one fall day, my friend and I stumbled upon massively discounted, last minute tickets to the classic Broadway show, The Lion King. Showtime was in 20 minutes and a guy outside the entrance had two extra tickets. For $40 a piece, we were given the opportunity to enjoy a spectacle of performance and see this award winning show — a show which regularly sells out at $210 a ticket.
“I don’t know” my friend offered, “it’s expensive.”
I have come to really hate that statement. Perhaps hate is the wrong word, but it does really irk me. I want to take that phrase, wrestle it down, dress it up in its Sunday bests, and put it on a police li
neup with a bunch of other statements and have it to be found guilty of all its crimes. Travel costs are just that: costs. The term “it is expensive” is one of the most overused and misplaced terms that I see travelers use.
In the end, we passed on the performance based on its expense. The total income for a single performance of The Lion King tops out around $250,000 (with 1,600 seats selling out around an average of $150 per seat). Our “expensive” tickets would have been equivalent to a mere 0.00032% of the groups’ fee to see the show. A steal. Nevertheless, the “too expensive” logic made total sense to my companion and we walked a few miles South to enjoy some street food in SoHo, instead. A huge part of travel is working hard for your ability to take time off, and arguably, this free and open time is just as worthwhile and valuable as the trip itself. You work hard just so you can say “yes” to chance opportunities that arise at the precise moment when you can actually enjoy them. You are not, especially while traveling, just paying for the product you are receiving — you are paying for the ability to experience that product now, tomorrow, or yesterday. The amount of time and capital needed to put on a production on Broadway, or open a restaurant, or start a touring company are all huge feats, and as such, enjoying their fruits will always cost money. How much is the casual participation in the accumulation of someone else’s life’s work worth?
A Colombian dinner for two rang in at $5 and my dining partner said: “This is expensive.” A Tokyo steakhouse’s prime cut and wine ran $172. This too, though with different people in a different place, was also was noted as being “expensive” with that same familiar and disdainful tone. How much would you expect someone to pay to participate in your life’s work?
Exchange rates fluctuate. Your tastes and expectations swell up and shrink. Costs are costs, and I am adamant that it is a very healthy habit to take the emotion out of it. Many cultures let you think that a bartering session is a solution, but costs are fixed, even when negotiated. My strategy on the road is to find an average rate for a day of travel within the country you are in and stick with that. Some of my best travel experiences have come from high dollar spends and some have come from random, free outings. Saying no to an experience based on cost alone is a sign of poor planning. Stay at a cheap hostel for a month and then stay a couple of nights at the Four Seasons. Both options will be part of your story, and hopefully not become the dominant theme in your experience.
The cost for a trip is relative to time and place (and respect for both).
You can plan on doing more excursions and eating out if you are in a country known for its cheaper exchange rates. If you need to meet your budget, simply plan on eating from food you purchase at a grocery store or a street vendor. The ongoing theme here is to roughly plan everything out. The difference between a five and six week trip can appear trivial to most. But it is completely possible to push every penny and stretch out a trip to eight weeks, if that is what you deem important.
When you are planning for your travels, figure out how much money in total you have to spend on your trip. If you have $2000, your budget might break down into something like this: airfare — $700; hotel/hostel/couch surfing — $25/day; food — $30/day; transportation/activities — $20/day. With this budget, your average costs tally to around $75 per day, allowing you to stay comfortably for about 17 days. Play around with your budgets, and be real with yourself about knowing roughly what you can and cannot do. If you have $2000, do not plan a trip for two months in a country you will average spending $75 a day. Of course, such a feat can always be done, but chances are you will be focusing more on your budget and less on the experience — which, one can argue, misses the point of travel entirely. Change your location, change your duration, change your style — but whatever you do, don’t get caught in the “it’s expensive” trap.
When I first began my big trip, I was extremely stressed out about how I was going to budget. Not keeping my spending in check in the beginning could have very well equated to a much nearer and abrupt end to my trip. I developed a strategy to fight the urge to overspend, and perhaps more importantly, to keep myself from thinking about cash too much. I would get a few days budget together in cash and put it into a few different envelopes: one per day. Perhaps load up every third day with 50% more for a tour, but find a way to know what you have to plan with. Every morning I added a new envelope to my wallet, and I was able to stay within my budget with ease. I have steered clear from many regrettable, late night drinking binges by knowing I only had $20 in my pocket. By keeping only what you want to and can spend on your person, your budget naturally shapes and contours the horizon of your possibility for the day: you are free to engage with whatever you please, so long as it is within the bounds of your physical and financial reach.
It is important to be weary of the fact that there are many traps hidden within budget travel — ones you might not even see or think of at first glance. The budget crowd is hugely marketed to, and without even realizing it, you can find yourself thinking that you are taking the cheap route and end up spending more. A couple in New Zealand, for example, may actually spend more money at a hostel dorm room than at a hotel. Though the hostel bed may seem like a sure bet at $10 a night, the bar tab that runs up at the conveniently located and way overpriced bar may end up tipping the scales to costing you more than a cheap hotel which encourages you to find the local dive bar, instead. The all day tour costs $80, but it also includes two full meals, all of your transportation and twelve hours of entertainment. The cheaper $40 tour does not include meals and only takes up half the day — setting you free (and hungry!) with hours left in your day. Two hostel dorm beds could easily cost the same amount as a cozy room at a bed and breakfast, which includes a whole meal. You simply have to put in the time and work the details out.
It is disingenuous to the core of how I travel to point and demand something, and if you don’t take the time to have an honest conversation about what you are looking to do then your actions are similarly disingenuous. Once you set it up and get on the road, it becomes easy.
I have to admit, my traveling style is very frugal. And perhaps it is more frugal than most. I generally don’t pay for a thing unless it is lodging, which is generally a hostel. I do budget for taking my couch surfing host out to dinner as a thank you. I try to eat where I see the most character, which tends to be a low cost and high food quality experience. My wallet stays in my pocket unless I have to make a purchase (with the emphasis of “have to”). With this style of frugality, I’m able to live in NYC for $35 a day-and completely crush my expected end date of my trip. The “expensive” meal in Colombia is savored as much as the Tokyo steakhouse and opens up a world of flexibility to explore with the people I meet, a true joy of life on the road.
Chapter 16
INTERVIEW: ANNIE LYONS FITZSIMMONS
I think many of our problems as a country would be solved if people had thick passports. There’s just no substitute for actually going and seeing things.
—Matt Damon
TRAVEL AS A PROFESSION
I’ve traveled with hundreds of others over the years. It has always been my experience that when you’re out there, you can see patterns in the characters of people much more quickly than in other contexts. I was on a trip on Vancouver, Canada when I met Annie who had an insatiable appetite for the industry of travel, from the writers to the waiters to the hotel owners, she loved it all. I’ve followed her blog for a few years at http://www.anniefitzsimmons.com/
What inspired your travels?
I moved around a ton when I was little and always was reading…books, magazines, anything I could get my hand on. They were so transporting and then I found out that I could actually be transported by hopping on a plane. I was also inspired by the journalists I met at my first job working in communications at a resort, the lives they were leading, traveling around the world, also by the writers in the magazines I loved.
You have found a way to travel as a career, is that corr
ect?
I can’t believe it, but yes I have. I’m still at the beginning of where I want to go and what I want to do, and am still muddling through life as a freelancer but I am a travel writer and blogger. When I graduated college, I had a journalism degree but never thought I was good enough to write. Now I’m submitting pieces for national travel brands and sometimes getting published without even a small edit, which is such a huge thrill. The moral there is that you have to at least try — I tried 7 years after I graduated, and am now experiencing a degree of success. The biggest misconception is that I woke up one day and started traveling and earning money. What is happening now is the result of years and years of knocking down doors (I call myself a human wrecking ball with some of them), networking and keeping in touch with people, and asking again…and again…and again. Like I said, I’m still at the beginning but hoping that I’m at the intersection of travel, writing, and media and what it means now and for the next 20 years.
When traveling for pleasure, what is your typical planning style? How do you estimate costs?