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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectOKP Travelers: where's the furthest "off the grid" you've been?
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12741390
12741390, OKP Travelers: where's the furthest "off the grid" you've been?
Posted by PROMO, Tue Mar-03-15 09:15 PM
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?
12741417, http://wikitravel.org/en/Morro_de_S%C3%A3o_Paulo
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Mar-03-15 10:12 PM

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're r
12741424, two things:
Posted by PROMO, Tue Mar-03-15 10:22 PM
1. i didn't know there was a wiki travel, so thanks

2. that place sounds pretty awesome
12744113, probably the greatest night of partying in my life. It ended with me
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Fri Mar-06-15 01:12 PM
standing on a table in the middle of this club surruondded by people cheering me on as I air guitaring 'Seven Nation Army'.

I think I got a picture somewhere out there I'll throw up later if I find it.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're r
12741422, out in the middle of the Sahara Desert
Posted by gumz, Tue Mar-03-15 10:20 PM
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.
12741427, that is dope.
Posted by PROMO, Tue Mar-03-15 10:24 PM
i'm sure i've watched too much Bourdain, but i always think it's cool when locals welcome visitors like they did with you.
12741508, Depending on the country it's pretty common...
Posted by gumz, Wed Mar-04-15 07:00 AM
other cultures tend to be more welcoming to strangers/visitors
12741432, buddy, galapagos
Posted by gusto, Tue Mar-03-15 10:32 PM
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.
12741496, nice! i cant wait to dive there.
Posted by rawsouthpaw, Wed Mar-04-15 04:13 AM
12742696, Not sure if they let people go there, or am I wrong?
Posted by initiationofplato, Wed Mar-04-15 09:39 PM
12742702, they do, but you cant sleep on the island we slept on the boat
Posted by gusto, Wed Mar-04-15 09:57 PM
you have to have special permits and a licensed tourguide.
but yeah i got to snorkel with marine iguanas swimming next to me.
most pristine shit ever.
12741461, ok imma put yall up on game on the best worst kept secret
Posted by dba_BAD, Tue Mar-03-15 11:58 PM
in the camping game

so theres this park right

anza borrego

largest park in california

second largest in the COUNTRY

and nobodys ever effing heard of it

its massive

just a huge regional area

desert

but like

very diverse desert with all sorts of cutties to explore and different type of dunes and wind caves and crazy little gorges and whatnot

but the coolest shit is that unlike many parks that have designated campsites with like a table or fire pit or whatever

in anza borrego

you just adventure off into whatever nook or cranny you can find, and set up shop, wherever, total free for all

you gotta pack everything in, water, everything

and then you're on your own

its like being on mars, seriously

they have this massive wildflower bloom, which is like their peak season

but otherwise you can be out there and just not encounter a single soul

i pulled naturally forming crystals straight out of the ground

never seen a bigger brighter night sky in my life

its otherworldly

like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Fontspoint02262006.JPG/284px-Fontspoint02262006.JPG

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/anza-borrego-badlands-christian-heeb.jpg

http://www.sierralara.com/Adventures-in-Photography-2/2013-September-23-24-Anza/i-2kNw6R5/0/S/DSC_7810-S.jpg

http://sandiegowildernesstours.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/img_4891.jpg

http://www.abdnha.org/images/06_exploring/central/elephant_knees.jpg
12741462, that being said, i was definitely in the cuts in DR
Posted by dba_BAD, Wed Mar-04-15 12:05 AM
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
12741463, these pictures are amazing. i want to do this!!
Posted by akon, Wed Mar-04-15 12:16 AM

>
>like this:
>
>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Fontspoint02262006.JPG/284px-Fontspoint02262006.JPG
>
>http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/anza-borrego-badlands-christian-heeb.jpg
>
>http://www.sierralara.com/Adventures-in-Photography-2/2013-September-23-24-Anza/i-2kNw6R5/0/S/DSC_7810-S.jpg
>
>http://sandiegowildernesstours.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/img_4891.jpg
>
>http://www.abdnha.org/images/06_exploring/central/elephant_knees.jpg
12741478, that place looks so ill, and sounds even better.
Posted by PROMO, Wed Mar-04-15 01:33 AM
gonna keep this in mind. its also just a couple states away which is a plus.
12741483, RE: ok imma put yall up on game on the best worst kept secret
Posted by mrhood75, Wed Mar-04-15 01:47 AM
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.
12741484, The Illanos, Colombia (Gaviotas)
Posted by Castro, Wed Mar-04-15 01:49 AM
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).
12741716, I am greatly impressed n/m.
Posted by BabySoulRebel, Wed Mar-04-15 10:38 AM
12741485, Went off in the cuts in South Africa a lil but
Posted by mrhood75, Wed Mar-04-15 01:49 AM
Visit a few townships and smaller villages. Had a blast.
12741487, mountain hike in Ethiopia
Posted by Riot, Wed Mar-04-15 01:51 AM
Drive an hour or two outside of a sleepy town
hike a few more hours till youre a few thousand feet up

turn the corner and here comes a goat or skinny cow lazily strolling by on a 8" wide ledge
12741495, In the middle of a 15 hour train through the Burmese mountains
Posted by rawsouthpaw, Wed Mar-04-15 04:11 AM
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.

Here's the shot I made of them playing - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151557368157887&l=0be388a323

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.
12742013, I visited in 1998
Posted by lonesome_d, Wed Mar-04-15 01:03 PM
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.
12742691, word! and i definitely want to check that town.
Posted by rawsouthpaw, Wed Mar-04-15 09:11 PM
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.
12744290, nah, we were there for a little over three weeks
Posted by lonesome_d, Fri Mar-06-15 04:04 PM
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.
12741505, Tougaloo Mississippi
Posted by FLUIDJ, Wed Mar-04-15 06:14 AM
12741520, countryside of the czech repub
Posted by Crash Bandacoot, Wed Mar-04-15 07:55 AM
train from prague to munich, plzen and surrounding. it was like
another world. very vast, very green, beautiful lakes, a gem.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
instagram:
http://instagram.com/0kayndc

"There is much temptation to use what has worked before,
even when it may exceed its effective scope."

"Roll me further bitch"
12742807, i love south Bohemia.
Posted by shockzilla, Thu Mar-05-15 03:49 AM
It's so very pretty.
12741529, Camping in the West Virginia Appalacians
Posted by 8-bit, Wed Mar-04-15 08:39 AM
Not very far out, but it's the best I have.
12741549, Some relatively remote villages in Ghana.
Posted by SoWhat, Wed Mar-04-15 09:05 AM
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.
12741804, Womens cant have palm wine
Posted by DaHeathenOne76, Wed Mar-04-15 11:09 AM
in public unless its a wedding or a funeral.


*****************************************
huh
12741817, and i know why!
Posted by SoWhat, Wed Mar-04-15 11:13 AM
that shit was strong as fuck.

like drinking Cisco from a tree.

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.

LOL
12742854, We got it in the womens hut
Posted by DaHeathenOne76, Thu Mar-05-15 08:50 AM
So I know what you mean. I sat and stared at the fire for like 2 hrs contemplating the universe

Now I only mess with it during spiritual ceremonies.
*****************************************
huh
12742695, not the same place but i see some of these...
Posted by PROMO, Wed Mar-04-15 09:23 PM
mountainous "roads" they drive on in Nepal, Pakistan, etc. and i'm like, "nah, B."
12741754, Less than 30 miles from where I grew up.
Posted by placee_22, Wed Mar-04-15 10:51 AM
South Louisiana has some of the most interesting, remote ass places that you can find in the US.

anywere around here ---> https://www.google.com/maps/@29.912622,-91.227686,203972m/data=!3m1!1e3


12741796, Darou Mousty Senegal
Posted by DaHeathenOne76, Wed Mar-04-15 11:06 AM
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
12741931, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile (link)
Posted by StephBMore, Wed Mar-04-15 12:01 PM
Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pedro_de_Atacama

http://www.socialphy.com/posts/travel-leisure/8903/San-Pedro-de-Atacama_-Chile.html

http://2backpackers.com/2544/south-america/san-pedro-de-atacama-chile

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.
12742040, 9th Ward in New Orleans
Posted by vee-lover, Wed Mar-04-15 01:14 PM
12742056, ^^^ ain't lyin
Posted by placee_22, Wed Mar-04-15 01:23 PM
12742041, I did a three day trek in Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia (1998)
Posted by lonesome_d, Wed Mar-04-15 01:14 PM
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.
12742054, leeches? damn i'd be trying to shit hella fast. lol.
Posted by PROMO, Wed Mar-04-15 01:22 PM
12742697, ayahuasca retreat in peru
Posted by tomjohn29, Wed Mar-04-15 09:40 PM
12743486, Can you describe this? I am interested in doing this
Posted by soken, Thu Mar-05-15 05:03 PM
12742713, the middle of the Namib Nakluft desert in Namibia...
Posted by guru0509, Wed Mar-04-15 10:34 PM
it was scary as fuck and the moon was so bright it felt like the desert was being lit up by fluroscenet light bulbs


12742749, I have been pretty far out in the cut of Parque Tayrona
Posted by ConcreteCharlie, Wed Mar-04-15 11:47 PM
and also some mountainous pueblos of Antioquia. No internet, no phone, just chill.
12744056, crazy beautiful. i was there last summer
Posted by rawsouthpaw, Fri Mar-06-15 12:22 PM
during the world cup, playing futbol with other campers, sleeping in that gazebo on the cliff point, and tripping off of the wildlife.
12744309, yeah, it's huge too. one guy i know spent like six weeks exploring it
Posted by ConcreteCharlie, Fri Mar-06-15 04:29 PM
i wasnt that adventurous but i've been in it a few times.

i like san andres too but more of a lazy island feel to it.

sounds like we were in colombia at the same time but i was in medellin for the world cup. bitter memories of defeat lol
12744381, yeah i was in bogota! saw brazil deliver the grimy L haha
Posted by rawsouthpaw, Fri Mar-06-15 06:40 PM
12744391, LO DE YEPES SI ERA GOL!!!! How many times did I hear that shit?
Posted by ConcreteCharlie, Fri Mar-06-15 07:07 PM
Shit was offside but damn that switch between that and the free kick was brutal!

Bogota is aight, I dunno, weather is always shitty and it's kind of cold. But there is EVERYTHING you could think of here if you look hard.
12742756, Went to this beach in Qatar that was some distance from....
Posted by The Wordsmith, Wed Mar-04-15 11:54 PM
...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.



Since 1976
12742808, Nuku'Alofa, Tonga
Posted by shockzilla, Thu Mar-05-15 03:50 AM
shout out to Pele!
12742867, I keep it grid-adjacent
Posted by John Forte, Thu Mar-05-15 09:18 AM
12743491, never really been off the grid... big corn island, Nicaragua
Posted by luminous, Thu Mar-05-15 05:09 PM
is the most middle of nowhere i've ever been... lovely place.
12744262, Newburgh, NY
Posted by thegodcam, Fri Mar-06-15 03:36 PM
mind u, I've been to remote villages in Ghana, Senegal, Guinea and India
12744294, yo Newburgh for real for real frightened me
Posted by BabySoulRebel, Fri Mar-06-15 04:08 PM
12744323, my sister is from there
Posted by lfresh, Fri Mar-06-15 05:03 PM
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.
12744328, I go there frequently for the Hudson river cruises
Posted by luminous, Fri Mar-06-15 05:12 PM
12744321, http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/34916945.jpg
Posted by lfresh, Fri Mar-06-15 05:00 PM
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/34916945.jpg


campos de Jenesano, Colombia

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.