"OKP Travelers: where's the furthest "off the grid" you've been?"
Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity (or made it a priority) to travel much, but one of these days I'd like to take a trip where you're really OUT there, basically alone with yourself, your companions and nature.
I'd love to hear some world travelers tales of really being away from civilization. Did you come upon any great epiphanies? Were there native peoples that you interacted with? Did you come in contact with any crazy flora or fauna? Any crazy stories of just getting to your location?
2. "out in the middle of the Sahara Desert" In response to Reply # 0
I was 17...my Pops was working in Morocco so as a graduation gift he got me a trip to go out there and visit him. We took a few road trips out in the desert but this one Saturday we went way da hell out...ended up in the middle of nowhere and there was this small body of water that 4 fishermen where hanging out by. We parked the car and walked down this big ass cliff/hill to where they were. They invited us in their tent for tea and gave us fish to take back with us...that was dope.
5. "buddy, galapagos" In response to Reply # 0 Tue Mar-03-15 10:33 PM by gusto
back when it was semi reasonable. i was just ballin cause i was working for a startup and didnt have like any responsibilities. so i took my girl of 1 year to galapagos. it was pretty amazing. about 15 other people in my group. but was still pretty intimate being the only people on a particular island. ah the good old days.
7. "that being said, i was definitely in the cuts in DR" In response to Reply # 6
maneuvering here and there across the dominican republic, some spots feeling very remote
other than that, ive been many places, but even my nature adventures were popular destinations for many other eco tourist types, never felt too off the grid
anza borrego tho for sure
or even eco camping in the thick of mendo or humboldt, like off the beaten path in the redwoods
. http://perspectivesudans.blogspot.com/ i myself would never want to be god,or even like god.Because god got all these human beings on this planet and i most certainly would not want to be responsible for them, or even have the disgrace that i made them.
10. "RE: ok imma put yall up on game on the best worst kept secret" In response to Reply # 6
I fucking love Anza Borego. Growing up, my parents to us there all there time. Hell, they still go there to this day. I think they're going soon, but they're afraid they're going to miss the flowers blooming.
11. "The Illanos, Colombia (Gaviotas)" In response to Reply # 0
The Illanos used to be the Amazon rain forest until the Andes mountain range developed, and the Amazon river's course reversed from flowing to the pacific to flowing to the Gulf of Mexico/Carribean Sea.
Gaviotas is an intentional community in the middle of that area. A week after I got back to the States, the F.A.R.C. flew their last hostage through the same regional airport that I went through to get to Gaviotas (Villavicencio).
14. "In the middle of a 15 hour train through the Burmese mountains" In response to Reply # 0 Wed Mar-04-15 04:25 AM by rawsouthpaw
This is 2013, a couple years after political activists said it's all good to come through the country. People still couldn't really get cell phones, and there were vendors with a single rotary phone on a simple table roadside in their large cities. In the cuts though it was so damn beautiful just semi-hanging out of the train with my medium format making snaps and watching the terrain and sights change at different altitudes over the hours.
Hopped off the train for a minute when I heard there were locals at a village stop playing sepak takraw, an ILL SE Asian foot vollyball game I'd been searching all around for to watch and shoot.
Also Cuba and the mountains of the Philippines in an indigenous community. The beauty of being 20-25 meters underwater in Mexico chillin with sea life and underwater landscapes was/is always incredible.
Also on Zapatista lands in Chiapas last year for the 20th anniversary of their uprising, via permission of the Zapatistas.
it was definitely an interesting experience... in a lot of ways, much preferable to backpacking in Thailand or Indonesia was.
But yeah, we went on a 'trek' - basically hiking through tea fields way up high, staying in farmer's huts for a few days and... I got sick. Not sick to my stomach, but like some virus type of thing that gave me a high fever and chills and aches and pains and whatnot and lasted like a week. Need to find my journal since I can't remember exactly where that was... I think Pyin Oo Lwin.
32. "word! and i definitely want to check that town. " In response to Reply # 27
i'm probably headed back there this summer to go to the crazy northeast ruins/community of mrauk u. did you make it there? and there are some huge buddist shines within caves in the country too.
49. "nah, we were there for a little over three weeks" In response to Reply # 32
if memory serves we did -a few days in Yangon -overnight bus to Mandalay. That bus was hilarious. Few days in & around Mandalay, then up to Pyin Oo Lwin. -stayed for a night or two in the big old English guest house, near as I can tell now it was Candacraig, before doing the trek -back to Mandalay, ferry to Bagan, couple days there wandering the stupa fields -then I think we flew to Lake Inle and spent a few days just chilling there, paddling around on the lake, check the jumping cats, floating markets, floating gardens -can't remember how we got from Inle back to Yangon but you get the idea.
I took a lot of good pics on that trip. I should dig 'em up and start digitizing.
20. "Some relatively remote villages in Ghana." In response to Reply # 0
The mountainous roads we drove on to get there almost gave me a heart attack. I had to close my eyes. lol. And those kids called me 'obruni' and I got wasted on palm wine. Great time.
i had some and my mom didn't. and, of course, me being who am when they tried to warn me about how strong it'd be i was determined to have a double serving.
23. "Darou Mousty Senegal" In response to Reply # 0
Two hours outside of Dakar. All the resources are devoted to building and sustaining the The Great Mosque. The mosque is beautiful but squat toliets, no electricity, trekking to the well each day....um yeah ***************************************** huh
granted, we stayed in a spa hotel spot (that was amazing and had wifi and cable) but during the day, we'd go outside of the gate and it was basically like...so off the grid. we had access to nothing, no one speaks English off the resort. most indigineous people i ever saw, the food was so good and so cheap. i felt like i was robbing people.
29. "I did a three day trek in Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia (1998)" In response to Reply # 0
by 'trek' I mean traipsing around the jungle while a bunch of locals carried all the food and makeshift shelters; they also cooked, set up camp each night, etc.
So kinda cushy, really, but... If somebody had gotten killed, it would have been a while before we could have gotten word out.
As for how I liked it, well... mixed bag. I love hiking & camping & cooking out, so that aspect of it was cool. Didn't see much wildlife, though; one semi-wild orang, and a lot of elephant shit (but not elephants.) But some kind of thorny rattan grows everywhere and I kept getting the shit scratched out of me. And I got the shits. TMI but I have a very vivid memory of having the shits, squatting in the woods away from the campsite, and watching this bigass leech just fucking trucking its ass toward me across the vegetation I'd trampled. At one point I swear it rocked itself upward like a periscope, turned itself to focus on me and then just putting its head back down and keep coming.
So... yeah. I'm glad I did it, but between that experience and getting sick on the trek in Myanmar, I had enough of being completely out of touch.
The Wordsmith Member since Aug 13th 2002 17070 posts
Wed Mar-04-15 11:54 PM
39. "Went to this beach in Qatar that was some distance from...." In response to Reply # 0 Wed Mar-04-15 11:55 PM by The Wordsmith
...civilization. Been through the Indian reservation in Arizona. That mugg was middle of nowhere central. You could commit a murder out there and have a great chance of no one being the wiser about it. Down here in the South, I've been in some out of the way country areas and I'm not talking small towns either. Went out to the field when I was stationed in Germany where we were in the middle of a forest. That was when I learned that Germany not only had mosquitoes but their mosquitoes were just as huge as the ones in Florida and South Georgia.
53. "my sister is from there" In response to Reply # 48
reminded me of east ny in the 70s
i had no idea ~~~~ When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries. ~~~~ You cannot hate people for their own good.
the countryside/mountains above the town of Jenesano Colombia
thats where one side of my family is from ~~~~ When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries. ~~~~ You cannot hate people for their own good.
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