Chronicling our adventures in East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (1-3 weeks in each).
Highlights: Living out with the Maasai tribe, the great Wildebeest migration in Serengeti, Gorilla trekking with nearly extinct mountain gorillas, A little hunting trip with the Hadzabe bushmen, hiking (partly) Kilimanjaro, standing atop the highest pressure waterfall in the world, gorgeous beaches at Zanzibar, and SO MANY ANIMALS! Kenya: The capital city of Kenya, Nairobi, is probably where you will land. It’s chaotic and petty crimes are somewhat frequent. As a capital city, it is pretty standard, and hence missable. However, a day here is well spent at the David Sheldrick elephant sanctuary for orphaned baby elephants, a visit to the Giraffe sanctuary where you can feed Rothschild giraffes, and the very well stocked Nairobi Museum which has some pretty unique pieces, including the oldest known pre-human skeleton! Maasai Mara: The next day we made an early start with a car and an open top 4x4 jeep to Maasai mara, land of the Maasai tribe. On the way, we stopped to look at the grand rift valley, 7000km of trenches, whose tectonic plates continue to move and change the landscape around. The Maasai have a fascinating culture. The men leave home in their early teens to serve as Maasai warriors. During their warrier training, the group of boys travels on their feet for several years, mapping the surrounding lands, living off the land, fighting off animals, and sleeping in caves or on the plains. The Maasai believe that they are the ‘land people’ and that their god has gifted to them every cow that exists in the world. To this day, a Maasai will claim any cow in the world as theirs, wrongfully taken from them by greedy farmers. In order to assert their born right, as you might imagine, they need a lot of warriors! The Maasai people do not care for money, their wealth is measured in cows. When the Maasai boy is ready to become a true warrior, he must pass the ‘final exam’: the graduating group of boys must look a lion in the eye, and then kill it. If they succeed, they are declared men, and may return home to marry one (or more) women. The Maasai men gift their cows to the father of the bride, in the hopes of getting permission to marry their daughter. Sadly, he culture is largely sexist, as global society would view it, and the Maasai still practice female genital mutilation, a practice that is banned in several parts of Africa, but prevalent in the Maasai culture. We spent the next three days in Maasai mara in a Maasai women’s collective, started by a divorced woman to support women’s rights in the community. The days were spent doing game drives and checking out animals, and the evenings were spent walking the savannah, milking cows, singing, dancing and telling stories with the Maasai. Their culture is exquisite, their jewelry is stunning, and their ability to jump is world renowned. They are absolutely wonderful people, and I highly recommend their modest, but very comfortable homestay with many western amenities, that made for a perfect balance of adventure and comfort, while supporting a community that is trying to better for their daughters. Games drives in Maasai Mara were amazing, especially because jeeps were allowed to off road here. The network of guides were connected by radio, and so we managed to see all the big 5 multiple times. The highlight was watching a solitary cheetah catch a small deer. Cheetahs are sprinters, but not long-distance runners, and the cheetah typically will need to rest for around thirty minutes even before it starts to eat. We watched the cheetah (from 10 feet away!) guarding it’s prey, even as hyenas began to appear in the distance. Cheetahs are usually solitary, but Maasai Mara, uniquely has a group of five brothers that live and hunt together – the power of team work. I was mesmerized by this beautiful animal, which apparently is one of the friendlier ones, much like a house cat. Which brings me to the other highlight, a not so friendly cat, and apparently a rare one in the Mara – the leopard. After hearing about a potential leopard sighting on the guide’s radio, we zig-zagged through the Mara to make it to this tree along with five other jeeps. Lo and behold, the leopard was perched pretty on the tree, enjoying the freshly caught boar that he’d just dragged up the tree...just hanging out, passing us a wicked smile. Apparently you do not want to mess with the leopard, especially this one. The guides recognized it as the one with a scar across it’s face from a recent fight of dominance (I think). To the guide’s credit, all the cars were very respectful of the animals space. We saw plenty more animals – elephants that you could reach out and touch, giraffe’s giving you a lazy stink eye, the secretary bird mating dance, the cute serval cat, matriarchal hyenas scavenging prey (after the cheetah abandoned it) in order of their hierarchy with vultures not too far away. Lots of good stuff here and in the days to come! Lake Nakuru Next up after Maasai Mara, is the small park called Nakuru, known for it’s soda lakes that house flamingos and rhinos. Because of changing tectonic plates in the grand rift valley, water levels have apparently been increasing very rapidly in these areas. The changing water levels changes animal behavior as well, and we had a hard time spotting the elusive white rhinos, but did see a couple of black rhinos with their babies. We also saw a lot of cute flamingos! Hells gate and Lake Naivasha national parks The next day started with a visit to Hells gate national park, named after a narrow break in the cliffs, once the tributary of a prehistoric lake that fed early humans in the great rift valley. The coolest part about Hell’s gate is that we could walk (actually cycle) out in the open since it doesn’t contain any life-endangering animals! As we rode our bikes past a herd of water buffaloes (the most dangerous things out there), all 100 of them simultaneously lifted their heads to give us the death stare...after that close encounter with death, we rode to the gorge at the end which has a mediocre viewpoint and through which you can hike, but isn’t really worth a visit in my opinion. Then, we headed to lake Naivasha, is a soda lake, where we did a boat tour, which was very cool, mainly seeing hippos, gazelles, and several types of birds. The water levels here too have risen by several metres because of increasing water levels of the great rift valley. We spent another day befriending Kenyans and hanging out in local spots before making our way to the southern land border into Tanzania. Here, there’s the Amboseli national park close to the border of Tanzania known for its many elephants and Kilimanjaro backdrop. However, we were going to visit a similar park in Tanzania, so decided to save this one for another time. We crossed over into Tanzania and spent the night in Arusha, a convenient stopover town for Kilimanjaro and Serengeti. Tanzania Serengeti The most famous savannah in the world: the fabulous Serengeti! Its plains are expansive, the landscapes are picturesque, and the days are adventurous. Maasai Mara and Serengeti border each other separating only by the Maasai river. Every year, about six million Wildebeest make their way from one to the other, crossing the river, facing their most aggressive predators, hippos, lions, crocs. They are joined by zebras and gazelles, and thousands fall during the journey, especially at the river crossing. They birth babies in Serengeti and then make their way to Maasai Mara in search of greener pastures, literally. This grand wildebeest migration is the topic of many documentaries and definitely a sight to behold. No matter what time of year you go in, you will see plenty of Wildebeest in these parks to last you a lifetime. The Serengeti has some wonderful fancy stays inside the park, and we decided to splurge for a couple of days! Living in the middle of the savannah is exciting! We slept to the sounds of the hunting cats, and woke to the banter of the elephants... you never know when you might stumble upon a friendly giraffe. The Serengeti is much bigger than Maasai Mara, so I’d recommend maximizing game drive time, however drives here can only be done on pre-set roads, unlike Maasai Mara where offroading was allowed (which was way cooler). On the way back from Serengeti, we spent the day in the Ngorongoto crater, which is a wonderful little green enclave full of lush scenery, and SO many animals. You’ll see many many animals here, some with babies, some just hanging out. We had way better luck with rhinos here than we did in Nakuru. Honestly, Ngorongoro was my favourite gamedrive. Hadzabe bushmen After Ngorongoro, we made a short detour to visit the Hadzabe bushmen, which was an absolute highlight! These bushmen live in the bush, literally. They sleep in caves, hunt birds and animals for food, and cook them on a self-made fire. They live in wonderful communities that were completely isolated from the world until very recently, don’t speak a word of English, and have no clue what ‘tourists’ mean, truly. As skeptical as I was, it felt like very non-tourist-trap hang out with some cool bros that offered us bushmeat. While I was initially apprehensive of the experience being exploitative on them (which is definitely a concern with growing tourism), I soon came to realize that these bushmen had little value for money, and simply saw you as a visitor on their land, a friend. They didn’t sing or dance for us, simply went about their daily lives while we joined. I think they were quite confused to see us there, to be honest. We went hunting with them (and I’ll tell ya, this girl struggled to keep up with these men that were at most 5 feet tall – and I was running while they were ‘brisk walking’), where they caught 3 birds with a hand-crafted bow and arrow. Then they super casually made a freaking fire in the middle of the savannah and cooked and ate the birds. They seemed to feel pretty sorry for us as I showed no signs of being a capable hunter, and offered me some bird, which I politely declined. I was met with shock and confusion when I told mainstream Africans in the cities about being vegetarian, so I wasn’t going to try to explain this to the Hadzabe. This was an absolute highlight I only recommend this for the intrepid traveler – I don’t think they have particularly feminist values. Their cultures are different, so for your safety I would not recommend getting very friendly with them, especially if you are female. Manyara and Tarangire national parks: Next up is Manyara national park, known for tree climbing lions. If you’re very interested in seeing lions in trees, this is worth a stop, otherwise, the animals were far fewer than some of the other parks. However, the next park, Tarangire was worth the full day and more. It’s known for its elephants, that roam in large groups. Here we saw large groups of upto 40 elephants, walking right past our jeep, making eye contact knowingly, watching us as we watched them, and occasionally sniffing the sides of the jeep. Babies running behind their mums and rolling in mud, and then mamas helping them get cleaned off. Elephants are incredibly intelligent animals, and I could recognize a depth of emotion while looking into their eyes – life connecting with life, animal connecting with animal, over our joint experience of what it means to be alive. Arusha: After the past few days of animal watching, Arusha is a good center point to relax for a day or two. There’s a wonderful hike to a waterfall here, fairly off the beaten path, and you’re likely to meet only locals. There’s also a coffee tour enroute this hike, where you can make and drink that famous Tanzanian coffee. Once we recovered, we got ready for our day hike in Kilimanjaro. If you’re a hiker, and have more days I highly recommend the 4 day hike to the summit, as everyday takes you through a different landscape and different vegetation. However, we only had time for a day hike, and got rained on most of the way through the first rainforest section (which is apparently very common). Post-hike, back to Arusha to relax and maybe do some shopping before flying to Zanzibar! Zanzibar (beaches and more beaches): The beautiful emerald waters make Zanzibar is an island for relaxing, swimming and chilling. You could spend anything from 3-4 days to 7-10 days here. We spent a week, most of which I spent pretending to live Freddie Mercury’s life (yes, he lived here!). While the focus is on tourist seaside resorts, and the luxury relaxation experience, there’s a lot of activities to be done if you are interested. Here’s the ones, we did: The spice farm tour was cooler than it sounds. We went to a farm where they grew over 50 different types of spices, and smelled and tasted everything. Jozani rainforest with red and black colobus monkeys and several layers of rainforest trees. Prison island with big Seychelles tortoises (second largest only to the Galapagos toroises) followed by a snorkel around the market. Zanzibar was the center of the eastern slave trade. Visiting the slave market and the museum was educational. It is also the birthplace of Freddie Mercury, although his house is now a museum. Fumba island for water activities and snorkelling Stone town has an interesting vibe with narrow winding alleyways, and white houses, ideal for shopping. Sailing the Nglawa, which is a tiny sailboat about 2 feet across. S Seaweed farm, and tour a soap making factory, but these are probably missable. The Rock restaurant built above the water level at high tide, which is world famous, but frankly way overpriced. Enjoy Zanzibar at your pace, and then catch a flight to Kampala, Uganda. Uganda: Kampala Uganda's capital city - Kampala - is actually a pretty cool city. It has many chill cafes and homebrews, so we spent a month just hanging out in the city and catching up on work. It’s a very liveable city, I will admit. The comforts of being able to hire someone to cook for us was convenient, and felt a little bit like India. Source of the Nile and Murchison falls: We made a day trip out from Kampala to Jinja (the birthplace of the Nile). To be honest, it looked like any other part of the Nile... or any other part of any other water body. This is apparently THE place to do white water rafting though, but of course, we (Jacob) scared ourselves into not doing it. Murchison falls. Very cool, apparently the highest velocity waterfall in the world. There are two ways to view the falls- standing on top, or a boat tour to the base, and they are both AMAZING! On the boat tour we saw massive crocs, and some other animals. On the top, you can walk up (with caution please) to the edge of the waterfall, often shrouded in mist and rainbows. It was somewhere close to here that we did some Chimp tracking. Tracking these beautiful creatures, which are so much like you and I, and then laying down beside them while the two of you attempt to communicate in a universal language, is beautiful in a way words cannot describe. The alpha 'king' scratched his armpit while I scratched mine, and then we both just kind of hung out. Bwindi national park: Next stop is the stunning (no, really) Bwindi national park through some volcanic lakes and Queen Elizabeth National Park. You do catch peeks of wildlife while driving past. For a more elaborate game drive, I recommend spending a day or two here, but be warned this is probably not as good as the ones in Kenya and Tanzania. This drive goes right by the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (which is apparently a war zone - 2021) and kidnappings of tourists by DRC militants crossing over is not uncommon. The majority of trips go without a hitch though, but always best to keep an eye out. We got within 100m of the border and then promptly turned around and high tailed out of there. Batwa tribe: Bwindi national park was another highlight of this trip. The drive to, through, and from were all stunning, and we made several photo stops. I highly recommend the guesthouse, perched on the absolute top of a hill, with a view all around. For $100 a room, it was perhaps the best stay of my life. The host is a wonderful woman that was born in the village, went into the city to get educated, and is now back supporting the local community through her guesthouse business. Here we also visited the Batwa community, a tribal community that lived in the Bwindi forests, completely off the land, until they were kicked out by the government for conservation of the gorillas. They now live on the fringes, in the worst of both worlds. We asked the elders whether they prefer living in the jungle, or in the government provided homes. With a little nostalgic twinkle in their eye, they talked about the jungle, the land they belong in, the land they long to go back to. We danced all evening, and they taught me some cool moves, and then we left after donating a bunch of clothes to them. Our host told us with a laugh, that they cherish those clothes forever, and never wash them. Gorilla tracking: Bwindi is also where you can do the famous gorilla trekking! In the past decade, the mountain gorilla population dropped to around 2000. It is now on a steady upward trend thanks to intense conservation by the governments of Uganda and Rwanda, which are the only two places you can find mountain gorillas. The gorilla trekking permit costs $600 per person ($400 when we went during discounted low season), but most of this goes towards protecting the gorillas that have 24x7 armed guards to protect them against poachers. The gorilla hike itself was extremely cool, we were literally hacking through rainforest bush and sometimes sliding on our butts down super steep forest terrain looking for the gorillas. Once we spotted them, we had about an hour to hang out with them. We hung out with a group of about 20 gorillas, with some cute babies that kept trying to approach the humans, and the silverback (dad) gorilla kept pushing the babies behind him. One of the babies was entertaining himself by hanging off a branch on one arm and spinning back and forth – reminds me on my childhood hobbies. Almost to Rwanda If you want to make your way by road to Rwanda, this is where you can do so. There’s apparently cool volcanoes just over the border that make for some intense hiking and backpacking for the experienced climber. We were unable to cross, as land borders were closed at this time. Crater Lake Bunyoni: After saying goodbye to an amazing experience, we went to lake Bunyoni, which is also a crater lake, dotted with several very small islands, many housing a guesthouse each. We stayed on one such island in a hostel, who sent a little boat to pick us up and ferry us across. The owner told us stories of the ghosts of Bunyoni, and then sent us off to sleep in a remote cabin perched on the edge of the water. Not scary at all. We woke up the next morning happy to be there and happy to be leaving. I spent all morning just sitting at the entrance to my cabin with my feet hanging into the water, looking across the water. After a canoe ride back, followed by a car ride to Kampala, we were ready to call it a day, a week, a few months. We flew out a few days after, onward to the next adventure, but never forgetting all the wonders of East Africa!
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Central asia is often a blind spot in the conventional traveling community, but how cool it is! It’s made up of 5 stans: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which can often be done together over the span over several months (although be warned, Turkmenistan is notoriously difficult and expensive to get a visa into). However, if you only have limited time like we did, about 2-3 weeks, you probably only have time for a few of these. In the past few years, tourism in this region has received a tremendous boost and massive support from their governments. So now there are direct flights from London, Istanbul and Dubai to most capital cities, e-visas for most nationalities including Indians (except Turkmenistan), airbnbs and hostels everywhere and generally a growing English speaking community that supports socializing and cultural tourism. Now, despite being so close to each other, these countries are vastly different in climate, geography, and government: Uzbekistan: instagrammable blue mosques, silk road cities frozen in time from the 14-18th century, and architecture-tourism. Largely desert. Kyrgyzstan: mountains, alpine lakes, multi-day hikes, horse riding nomads and an overall great for fit outdoorsy people. Tajikistan: Even more nature. The Pamir highway (and the Wakhan corridor bordering Afghanistan) is a trip of lifestyle, by cycle or by car. But it also involves roughing it in local homestays without much luxury, long uncomfortable drives, and a general being okay with where the trip takes you spirit. And at least 10-13 days exclusively for the Pamir highway (with highway being a very loosely descriptive term). Kazakhstan: A massive country with spread out regions. Most people fly to and tend to stay close to the capital Almaty which is fairly modern and western and do day trips to the nature around. Turkmenistan: Dictatorship with soviet vibes, large statues, and the highlight – a man-made eternally burning gas crater – Darvaza. As far as I know, visas cost something like $3000, unless you request a transit visa which gives you three days to go via Turkmenistan into Iran and is a commonly used budget fix to visiting Turkmenistan if you plan to go to Iran anyway. We spend about three weeks in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan as the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan was closed due to border clashes, making it very difficult to cross the Pamir Highway. While both countries had their charms, and both countries were far easier to travel in than I thought, they have very different vibes, so we were glad to get a glimpse of two very opposite landscapes. We visited in June when Uzbekistan could get up to 40 Celsius, whereas the higher hikes in Kyrgyzstan got down to 0 Celsius, so be warned! Money: In both these countries, there exist ATMs in all cities, but they can charge upto a 5% percent (with 1-3% being more standard), so we found that cash is god. USD Euros and GBP are easily exchanged everywhere and for a shockingly good rate. For a budget comfort traveler, we budgeted about $30 per person per night, which was sufficient unless you want to hire a tour company. Food: Central asia is one of the most difficult places to find vegetarian food. That said, most guest houses provide breakfast and can provide dinner, and if you let them know at least one day in advance exactly what you dietary needs are, they will make it work. As a picky vegetarian, I had to mention explicitly that I would not eat vegetables cooked in animal fat, or wouldn’t eat chicken/fish or eggs, but given enough advance warning, even the most remote yurt stays made it work. Transport: Cities in Uzbekistan are connected by trains (high speed/medium speed, and soviet style trains). Tickets are cheap (about $10 a ticket on average in 2022), but the high speed ones do sell out days in advance. You can book them in advance online with ease, so I recommend doing so about 2 weeks before the trip, although if you miss it, the slow trains aren’t bad. In Kyrgyzstan, there isn’t really a concept of public transportation, but there are marshrutkas that leave at supposedly specific times, but will wait (sometimes for an hour or two on remote routes) to fill up. These are quite cheap ($5) and comfortable, but are long and unreliable. Renting a car is an option, and roads around Issyk kul can be done without 4x4, but if you want to drive to pretty views instead of hiking, you’ll need a 4x4 which is expensive (about $60-70 a day). In Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, and Bishkek you can also use Yandex (Uber equivalent). Language: English is rare except in cities. Russian is a commonly understood language in all countries though. It helps to learn the Cyrillic alphabet so you can understand signs etc. We made our way mostly with broken Russian, hand gestures and google translate. In fact, we had a 5 hour conversation with a friendly local in a marshrutka entirely through google translate! Clothing: Uzbekistan is significantly more traditional than Kyrgyzstan. Loose skirts, cotton pants, and light colored blouses that cover your shoulders are acceptable. Short shorts can be seen in tourist areas, but you’ll stick out like a sore thumb. I wasn’t asked to cover my head in any madrassas, but had a scarf handy nevertheless. Kyrgyzstan is far more liberal. Shorts are normal, however, the weather is much cooler. If you plan on going hiking, rental gear (jackets, tents, sleeping bags) is cheap but HEAVY so it might be worth bringing your own if you can. Uzbekistan About 5 years ago, Uzbekistan was a very difficult country to travel to, with random border checks, police checks on hostels, limit on currency to be brought into the country. Most travel blogs I read were slightly outdated and reinforced some of these fears, but as of 2022, Uzbekistan is a breeze. No real immigration checks (in fact it was the easiest evisa to get), plenty to cafes, and a growing tourism industry. Tashkent: We landed in Tashkent and spent the day walking around. There isn’t that much to do here, but the opera house is famous for ballet if you can catch it. There’s also the amir timur square and museum with the central statue of Timur. We also went to Chorsu market, which was not very interesting for someone who has been to many big markets before and a little bit dirty. The highlight of Tashkent was the Hazrat Imam mosque complex where the Quran was allegedly written. Their turquoise tiled domes are only the beginning for what is to come in Uzbekistan. A day is sufficient for Tashkent. We went to Samarkand-Bukhara-Khiva next in that order, and flew back from Khiva to Tashkent, but you can also do it in the reverse order, which may be more impressive. We found truly mixed opinions on people’s favorite city, everyone we spoke to had a different preference, so I suggest visiting all three for yourself. Samarkand: Big, regal, blue beautiful. Samarkand was beautiful. On the afternoon of day one after out train from Tahskent we visited the Babi-Khanym mosque (can be seen mostly from the outside, paying to go inside only gets you photo ops), a mosque right next to it (worth visiting and free), Shah-i-Zinda the place of burial of several kings which is absolutely stunning and where all the Instagram photos are taken. The next day we visited the Registan which is massive, stunning, and gorgeous. Three large madrassas with a treasure trove of architectural beauty inside each of them. The square was apparently the set for military parades and executions alike. This will take half a day. The other highlight of the day was the inside of Amir Timur mausoleum, which was also stunning with gold plated ceilings and beautiful tiles. If we had extra time, we would probably try to hit the Ulugbek observatory. Bukhara: the next day we took the train from Samarkand to Bukhara in the morning. Bukhara is a true desert city, brown, dusty and full of clay, in stark contrast with Samarkand. We wandered around the streets of Bukhara, walking in and out of madrassas. Bukhara is much hotter than Samarkand. The highlight of Bukhara is the tower complex of Poy-i-Kalyan with two madrassas and a tower from which prisoners were allegedly thrown to their death many centuries ago. There’s also the Ark (fortress) with museums inside, but we didn’t find this to be worth it. Boro Hauz Masjid is also very pretty and free. Other than this, there’s a central square around a water body at Lyabi hauz square. The little attractions here and there are nice, but not very impressive. What’s nicer is to just walk around taking in the vibes. On the second day, we did a bit more strolling, and then went to the Palace of Moon-like Stars (Sitorai-Mokhi-Khosa - pictured above), which is beautiful and totally worth it! The palace has peacocks roaming the gardens and many beautiful rooms that are comparable in grandeur but contrasting in style to many European palaces. We found a day and a half to be plenty for Bukhara. Khiva: The next morning we took the soviet style sleeper train to Khiva, which was an interesting but not very comfortable experience. Khiva is entirely contained inside a walled city. Buying a day pass for about $10 gives you access to all the sights inside (palace, the ark, several museums-which are less impressive). They also sell an add on ticket to climb the tower and walls, but this isn’t worth it imo. Khiva can be done in one day but two days allow you to truly take in the vibes. We stayed at a lovely guest house just outside the inner city (itchen kala) walls called carousel hotel which was inside a madrassah fitted with western amenities. Khiva truly comes to light after sunset, when all monuments get lit up and evening fanfare and socializing begins. It’s very pleasant to walk around at this time. If you have a second day in Khiva, one can also rent a car and visit some of the desert palaces that are an interesting and unique day trip. If you have more time, one could also extend the trip at this stage to visit the aral sea, the site of a nuclear disaster, where you can see dried lakes and ships grounded in sand. I’m not a fan of dark tourism and this is fairly hard to get to, so we decided to skip it and head to Tashkent to catch our flight to Bishkek instead Kyrgyzstan: I loved Kyrgyztan for its nature, backpacker friendliness, liberal lifestyle and unique experiences! Bishkek: The capital of Kyrgyzstan is a very liveable but not very touristy, There’s a really nice museum of history and lots of western style cafes with veggie and vegan food (giraffe café, boon boon thai, sierra coffee) Song Kul lake: One of the highlights of Kyrgystan was a 3 day horseriding trek to Song Kul lake. We booked it through our hostel that was budget friendly and worked with local nomads in the area that set up yurt camps in the mountains during the summer. To get there one needs to take the 7am marshrutka from Bishkek to Kyzart, where the trek begins. The horse trek involves 4-5 hours of horse riding a day, all meals and night stay in yurts. We spent the first night in a beautiful valley and they second night right by song kul lake playing volleyball with the local kids. The last day was a terrifying climb atop a horse down a mountain pass. The horses in Kyrgyzstan (and animals in general) are treated very well, and my horse riding skills improved dramatically. A very unique experience, it’s one I recommend. Bokanbayevo: After song kul lake, we took three marshrutkas/share taxis from Kyrzart -Kochkor – Balikchy – Bokanbayevo for $10 each. One could also take a direct taxi there for $80. Bokanbayevo is a lovely town on the south shore of Issyk Kul lake, one of the largest lakes in Kyrgyzstan. With several yurt stays and guests houses right by the water and snow capped peaks visible on the other side, this is a relaxing stopover. Famous for all kinds of activities and a bit touristy imo. This is the only place (as far as I know) where one can watch an eagle hunting show. Eagles have been hunting companions for Kyrgyz people for centuries. Golden eagles are massive and these wonderful creatures are trained from a very young age to catch prey as big as fox or deer. Although a bit touristy, this was definitely a must visit for us. You can also watch a horse archery demonstration, book a Kyrgyz home-cooking class, and a yurt building demonstration here. The south shore of Issyk kul is much more charming than the north. Southern shore: the southern shore has several worthwhile stops between bokonbayevo and karakol. We hitched a ride with some folks that had a car which made it easy to do all the stopovers. But if not, one could easily split it up into a couple of day trips accessible by public transportation/hitchhiking with locals (which is extremely common). The places worth stopping at are: Skazka canyon, also called fairytale canyon (pictured below), with it’s steep wall-like rock formations, and colors reminiscent of a cross between cappadoccia and the artists palette from death valley. It’s fairly small though and walkable in a couple of hours. Barksoon waterfall: not accessible by public transportation. A short but steep hike to a set of three waterfalls. The second and third can be seem simultaneously from a viewpoint on a hill and are stunning, it takes about 3 hours to hike to these and back. Jeti Oguz: close to Karakol, the seven bulls, or seven rocks, best visited in the morning. The views from the short hill across from the seven bulls is stunning as well. This can be the starting point of a 5-day hike through Ala kul lake ending in Altyn Arashan. Finally we arrived in Karakol, a little town set up for outdoor tourism. The highlight in this region is the ala kul hike which takes 3-4 days, starting in karakol valley, up to ala kul alpine lake (at 3500m - pictured below), over the pass, and into the town of altyn arashan with the natural hot springs and back down through the altyn arashan valley. Unless you go in July – August where there are yurt camps, you will have to carry hiking gear. Hiking gear can easily be rented in karakol (ecotours) for cheap, but these aren’t western quality and are quite heavy. Expect the tent to be 4 kgs, sleeping bag to be 3 kg, and sleeping mats to be about 1kg. With this gear, hiking up the mountain at an elevation is TOUGH. It’s about 10000 feet or 3000m of elevation which I highly recommend splitting over 4 days if you have gear, but doable in 3 days. There are campsites all along, including at the lake (camping only advisable in summer), and yurt camps are available during on season. Most people end the hike at Altyn Arashan, enjoy the natural hot springs, which feel great after a particularly gruelling previous day. The next day is an easy stroll. The hike extends into Jurgalan valley, which was a gold mining town that’s been repurposed as a hike destination. This is an overnight trip from Karakol. Karakol also has some nice western style cafes (meeting point, lighthouse) for some comfortable recuperation. We then returned to Bishkek via the north coast of Karakol. If you have a few days to spare, one might consider breaking the trip down and spending a night here by the petroglyphs, but we skipped this, choosing to relax in Bishkek instead. Worthwhile extensions to this trip are a few days in Ala Archa national park (but only if you get past the crowds), or at least 3 days to get to Kel Suu lake+Tash rabat, which seems like a pain to get to, and needs a border permit (that any hostel can arrange in 3-7 days), but looks absolutely stunning. Alternately a three day hike around Lenin peak base camp also came highly recommended.
And with that comes the end of a trip of a lifetime! Lovely people, stunning nature, and aching feet! The kindness of people in this region, despite my very limited language skills, is commendable. I’ll definitely be returning soon before the region becomes a tourist hot spot, which I bet it will soon😉 Few road trips rank as high in stunning nature views as the NC500 drive on the northern coast of Scotland. I kid you not, the views did not stop amazing me through the entire two week drive. This trip needs a car, and is not for the faint hearted driver. It traverses roads along the northern coast of Scotland, through the Scottish highlands - any Outlander fans on Netflix? The land and water interweave forming jagged cliffs on which castle ruins sit, turquoise bay inlets, and tall mountains laced with purple and yellow spring flowers. In fact, the tallest mountain in the UK (Ben Nevis 1345m/4413ft) is on this trip, as well as the famous Isle of Skye! I did the road trip with a friend anti-clockwise (although most people do it clockwise I believe) since this fit in a bit better with where we wanted to end our trip. To be honest, the views on the counterclockwise get better and better as the trip went on, which we loved as it kept us waiting in anticipation the whole time! I will not go into too much detail on the day to day itinerary because the trip really is meant to be at your own pace. Since we were partly working while traveling, our trip was a bit more relaxed. The north coast is long and very windy (and there are occasional one-lane roads that requires a bit of finesse to maneuver). Manual transmission cars are common in the UK, and automatics are somewhat hard to come by (and often much more expensive). Often I found myself climbing a 20 grade road with a cliff edge on one side when another car came swerving down the cliff. We ended up at an impasse, staring at other awkwardly until one of us backed up into a small pull off. Again, driving some of these roads is not for the faint hearted (although you can avoid a lot of the one-track roads by picking longer routes - albeit missing out on the best views). The NC500 is popular for long-distance cyclists, although I can’t imagine this is very pleasant as there’s cars driving past/ honking at you literally all the time. We found google maps to be pretty accurate with giving approximate times, but I’d budget a lot of extra time during on-season. Note about stays: Airbnbs / local stays are SO beautiful, almost all of them were located in picturesque locations by lakes and mountains, but book way ahead (we booked about a month ahead during late fall, and found ourselves short of options). The NC500 is also not a very budget-friendly trip, overnight stays for two are about 100-200 GBP a night. Food is about 15-25 GBP a meal. We spent most of the time hiking, so we didn’t sign up for any activities, which there aren’t too many of anyway. This is very much a ‘hike out to nature’ kind of place. Now, onto the actual trip… the number of days you spend at each destination will very much depend on your speed and interests but this should give you an approximate idea (I tend to pack in my days): Start: Inverness - Inverness is a pretty non-special city. But makes a good stay before you set out on the NC500. I spent a weekend here and checked out Loch ness (no luck spotting the monster). The next day I made a half day trip to Rogie falls (a less visited site, short easy hike, and truly stunning falls). Inverness - John O groats. Drive time: ~3 hours Notable stops: Dunrobin Castle: fairytale-esque castle and beautiful gardens and a birds of prey show - entry 12 GBP Castle Sinclair Grinigoe: absolutely stunning castle ruins on a cliff - entry free John O Groats: The north-eastern tip of the UK. There’s a signpost which is little more than a very crowded photo-op, but nearby there is a lovely hike along the coast from Duncansby head to Duncansby stacks, pointy geological formations sticking out of the ocean. John O groats - Durness. Drive time: ~3 hours Some people choose to stay at Thurso instead of John O Groats, but Thurso is little more than a regular city. Notable stops: Melvich beach: Little known beach featuring beautiful waters, white sand, and an empty beach. Honestly, the lack of people coupled with first-views on the northern part of the coast may have made this my favourite beach. Torrisdale bay: Several short hikes, we hiked a short distance up a hill, and picnicked facing the bay. Do not follow GPS all the way, it will lead you up a random hill. Instead follow to the base of the hill, and you will be able to see Tongue: Pretty small town to fill up on supplies and snacks, and stretch your legs. Ceannabeinne beach: At this point I was starting to realize that all beaches are gorgeous up here, and they do not get old. Slightly more crowded than Melvich beach Durness: Small town, friendly people. The top attraction in durness is Smoo cave, about 100 steps to a small cave with multicolored walls (seriously, where do these colors come from). Looks a bit like a star wars movie. Small waterfall at the end of the cave. Apparently they sometimes do boat tours deeper into the caves on the water, but this was closed when we went. There’s also the Cocoa mountain cafe here (claiming to have the best hot chocolate in the world - not sure I buy that, but the hot chocolate was good, and the cafe is located in a quaint artisan market. An advantage of staying in Durness is that it makes is easy to plan a day trip to Sandalwood bay beach, which involves a long hike (2 hours each way at a leisurely pace) to a secluded beach with pink sand dunes. Take a picnic and relax. Durness - Ullapool: 5 hour drive through the scenic road that gets on the coastal road after Unapool (through Drumbeg and Lochinver) before coming getting back on the highway. The detour coastal route is slow and single track - I was averaging about 30 mph, but it’s worth the delay. Notable stops: Kylesku hotel for lunch with a view of the picturesque Kylesku bridge Achmelvich bay: Beautiful little hikes on green hills by the bay (take a picnic) lochinver larder: we arrived just after it closed, but I hear they have delicious pies. Ardvreck castle: Probably one of my favourite castles. All the remains of it is a small ruin on an almost-island surrounded by mountains. Time it at sunset for the best views. Bone cave: A car where early human bones were found? Ullapool: I stayed at the best airbnb near Ullapool with morning views of dolphins. The area around is mountainous and great for hiking, so plan a few days. We hiked up Stac Polliadh, which was a rewarding half day hike with amazing views. For those less inclined to hike, head to Knockan Crag natural reserve where you can get similar views with much less effort. A potential stop if you have extra time is Corrieshalloch gorge - but the views are pretty skippable if you’re pressed for time. Ullapool - Kyle of Lochalsh: 3.5 hour drive through the scenic route. We got to Kinlochewe through the shortest route on the highway which saved a bunch of time, but then opted to take the coastal path from Kinlochewe to Shieldaig, through Applecross and to Kyle of Lochaish. I HIGHLY recommend this drive if you are comfortable driving narrow roads on cliffs, you’ll catch some special views. We are nearing the end of the highlands at this point :( Notable stops: Coastal towns of Torridon: brunch/lunch Applecross: Frankly overpopulated town with a lovely cafe/garden named applecross walled garden, where you can drink tea in a treehouse. Belach Na Ba: The drive through the mountain pass (most people drive from east to west, but we found the reverse to give us some really good views on the eastern side, and besides you can pull over at any point to admire the views. Do NOT attempt this drive if you cannot get your car to start on steep cliffs without slipping. The entire mountain pass offered beautiful views of geological formations, sea, and nature with several pull offs. Kyle of Lochalsh: Pretty touristy, and nothing special. Provides affordable stays and serves as an entry point to Isle of Skye. If you can, I’d recommend staying on the Isle of Skye instead. Worth making the trip from here to Eilean Donon Castle commonly featured in the ‘welcome to scotland’ ads. Isle of Skye: I spent 3 full days on the Isle of Skye and they were just about enough to see all I wanted to.
I’d recommend three day-long driving loops in this order for a 3 day itinerary - if you only have do 1 day, do number 1: 1. one day top right loop: Hike the Storr, short hike to the brother’s point, kilt rock viewpoint, An corral beach (skip if necessary), Quirang hike (tough 3-4 hour hike that was the HIGHLIGHT of the Isle of Skye, the fairy glen (also very pretty, short walk that seemed enchanted in the dusk light and reminded me of the shire from lord of the rings) 2. one day top left route: Sligachan waterfalls, Fairy glens (swimming holes), talisker distillery is on the way if you are a fan of their scotch, talisker beach, dunvegan castle (I’d skip under time constraints) and finally the neist point lighthouse at sunset for stunning sunset views. 3. Bottom route: Anything you may have missed in day 1 or 2, and then hang around the beaches by the southern end of Isle of Skye. Drive to the aird of sleet for a coastal drive with relatively empty roads. Kyle of Lochalsh to Fort Williams: Mountains above 3000feet are called ‘munros’ in Scotland. Climbing these mountains is a sort of sport for many outdoorsy people called ‘bagging a munro’. Fort Williams is home to the highest peak in the UK: Ben Nevis. Here’s a shot to bag the tallest munro! Notable stops: Glencoe: Try the Glencoe Lochan Trail for an hour-long easy hike with views. Loch Achtriochtan viewpoint: this stretch of road winds through valleys and is a beautiful drive. Lost Valley hike: difficult (2 hours of constant uphill, but views get pretty good early on, so feel free to turn back part way). At this point we were largely out of the highlands and missing the views! We made our way to Glasgow through Loch lomond and the trossachs which was a good drive-by with occasional stops but not worth much more time in my opinion. From here head to Glasgow/ Edinburgh to make your way back to civilization and/or return the car. The wilderness keeps calling, you will return ;) In January 2020, I decided to bite the bullet and make the long and arduous journey all the way to Australia. Australia had been on my bucket list for while, and while both time and money were a bit limited (thanks job, and thanks job), I had an amazing time! *Disclaimer: this trip was done pre-covid, so some/many activities may have changed. Australia is a beautiful country, and Australians tend to be pretty laid back and friendly. There isn't so much of a crazy party culture (of the likes of Berlin), from my experience people preferred to kick back with beer and friends. The country is massive, and I wish I had more time (like many months more) to rent a van and drive through the Outbacks, but oh well... I was very interested in hearing about their relationship with the indigenous aboriginals (which sounded very similar to the stories of Native Indians in the US), but I won't get into that. Australia is very safe and tourist friendly, and did I mention...MASSIVE. I didn't have to rent a car except for longer trips from Melbourne (Great Ocean Road, and Penguins!), and the whole time in Cairns (Great Barrier Reef and Daintree National park are some of the highlights here). Car rental was quick and efficient, but remember, cars drive on the left side of the road (which I got used to pretty quickly). I flew into Australia from the United States with a multi-city flight booking. My plan was the following: wherever - Sydney - Cairns (reef + forest) - Melbourne - wherever. I spent about 4-5 days in each city (which in my opinion was plenty to do everything I wanted to, but I like to pack my days! ;) Sydney: I flew into Sydney late on day 1, and just chilled indoors the next day. Sydney had a 'big city' financial capital vibe, whereas we found Melbourne to be a bit more alternative and young. Everything in the city is easily accessible by public transportation, getting a day ticket is a good idea. The next day was spent at Bondi beach (where I caught some great waves) - Having watched a few episodes of Bondi rescue, I was excited to catch some familiar lifeguard faces, but this was not to happen (probably for the best :P ). There's a lovely coastal walk from Bondi beach to Congee beach (~4 miles) that makes for a fun half day. Keep an eye on the tides! There's plenty of cute (vegan) cafes right by the beach. If you're feeling like a relaxing day, head to the sauna and infinity pool at Bondi Iceberg (that pretty sits ON the water). The next couple of days we hung out around Sydney. I made my way to the to the Sydney Harbour Bridge (views from both sides are fun, so don't skip views from the part by Luna park - which in itself seems fun in a creepy-clown kind of way with free entry. You can also do the very popular activity of climb the harbour bridge if you want to check that off your list and drop ~$170 (Australian dollars) per adult. The climb is pretty safe, and you're essentially climbing up steps. As young people on a budget looking for a bit more of an adrenaline-rush than a stair climb workout, we didn't find the cost worth it. I was not about the miss the the iconic Sydney Opera House - book tickets in advance, we didn't. We started with a leisurely walk around Circular Quay and the Rocks, and after a couple of hours of leisurely strolling and several walking into cute-looking stores, ended up at the Opera House - gorgeous architecture and quick photo stop! After that we wandered aimlessly through the MASSIVE (and free) Royal Botanical Gardens before getting dinner by the water. While in Sydney, a great day-trip is the Blue Mountain National Park which is supposed to be beautiful with a lot of lovely hikes. You would need to rent a car for this one. I don't have too much first hand information, since unfortunately this part was mostly engulfed in fires when we were there. Other things to do in Sydney: visit the town of Manly, Taranga zoo, Australian museum, and Garigal park where you'll find lots of aboriginal carvings. Cairns: The gateway to THE GREAT BARRIER REEF #divegoals A three hour flight from Sydney landed me in the most anticipated part of the trip. I rented a car at the airport and kept it for the duration of my stay in Cairns, which I highly recommend. The town of Cairns in itself was ho hum, but it's a convenient location to stock up on supplies and petrol and rest for a day before heading into the wild. Cairns was stunning. I spent two days in Daintree Rainforest which is the oldest rainforest in the world...can you guess how old? 180 million years! Insane. That's goes way back to the time of dinosaurs. I drove all the way up to Cape Tribulation in the north - 'where forest meets coasts'. It took two days with PLENTY of stops at beaches and forest trails, and while the entire drive was stunning, I don't see any particular advantage of going all the way to Cape Tribulation if you're short on time (they views everywhere else were pretty similar). There is a tiny ferry on the way, which was super easy and fun and took about 10 minutes. I stopped for a Crocodile tour and Daintree River Tours which I booked on the spot (and highly recommend). They put us on boats and off we went along the water through the mangroves looking for crocs. We saw a massive one from about ten feet away, and went up pretty close (while still in boat) to a baby croc (5 feet long and ~2 months old) basking in the sun. It's perfectly safe and they seemed to be quite good about natural preservation. Other things to do in Daintree - lots and lots of hikes. After this, I took a day trip to the reef with Compass Cruises who were great and were relatively inexpensive. The trip there and back took about 3 hours each way, and I found my anti-nausea pills quite useful. It was my understanding that most cruises went to similar locations (which were all pretty good), and so dropping more $ on an expensive cruise wasn't really worth it. I have to say, the ocean floor I saw was spectacular! They make two snorkelling stops and I signed up to convert one of them into a diving trip (which I HIGHLY recommend if you have a PADI licence - you can also do a 5 minute trial dive if you don't have a license which is better than nothing). The ocean floor was literally one of the highlights of my life. I swam past several school of fish that swam literally all around me, several jellyfish (watch out for their stingers), a small reef shark, a big green turtle, a little nemo peeking out from the anemones...every color you can think of, it's there. It's hard to describe in words the sense of calm that washed over you in the underwater world! <3 * Disclaimer: The reef ARE getting bleached and my dive buddy told me that he was able to see visible changes in his dive sites in the span of a few years, so PLEASE get your shit together humans and do better for the environment. Also, don't wear lotion/sunscreen that kill marine life. The next day I spent going to the tablelands and Barron gorge national park. I stayed in an airbnb right by the beach, which was perfect. Other things to do: If you have more time, there's plenty of other stuff to do. I only spent a day at the reefs, but you could spend infinite amount of time there (at a cost). There exist half day trips to green island, but I heard the corals there were more bleached. I also heard Fitzroy island and Lady Elliot islands offered stunning diving and snorkeling opportunities, but they are a bit far for someone that gets sea sick. You can also visit Kuranda island which has a lot of theme-park like activities which may be fun for little kids (including koala holding), but was a little less wild than we were interested in. I would've loved to go to the aboriginal park too if I had more time. But we'll save that for another trip. Onto Melbourne. Melbourne: Melbourne was all you'd expect from a town with a high density of students. Cafes, art, live events... all that jazz. The birthplace of flat white, it's worth exploring all the quaint cafes and sampling coffee. Make sure to sample the MAGICK - a local Melbourne invention. I spent a large part of a day strolling through small streets lined with graffiti. But the best part of Melbourne were two incredible day trips: 1. The Great Ocean road: The stunning coastal drive, often compared the the drive on the Pacific Coast Highway in the US. The entire drive is stunning, although we set up very early in the morning and returned around 9pm. I'd recommend splitting it up into 2 days if you can. There's many little towns right on the highway for food/rest and views. The views throughout are beautiful, drives along cliffs with turquoisey blue -green water, what's not to like? The very top picks for stops are Loch Ard Gorge, Hopetoun falls, and the Twelve apostles. It's very worth making it all the way to the twelve apostles, they are truly stunning! 2. Phillip Island - Penguin Parade: This day was all about the animals of Australia, I was keen to see kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, tasmanian devil, and Australian penguins! About a ~1 hour drive led us to Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservatory. Visiting a wildlife sanctuary while you're in Australia is a must, they have a bunch of local wildlife that you will not find anywhere else, and they're much more animal-friendly than zoos in my opinion. We saw a bunch of koalas, lots of kangaroos wandering freely in an open space. You can buy food for the kangaroos and wallabies at the entrance and they'll come right up to you. I found myself unexpectedly facing a mama kangaroo with a baby joey in its pouch, eyeing me cautiously from a distance, before slowly hopping over to me and nibbling food from my hands. You can 'hold' the Koalas for a quick picture, I'm not sure how fun this is for the koalas, but I was content to watch them cutely scamper around (and mostly sleep). The sanctuary also had a lot of other local animals, wambats, wallabies, dingos, some pretty birds... After this stop was time for the part I was most excited for: the penguin parade! Woohoo! Phillip Island is home to an estimated 32,000 little penguins (the little penguins species is the smallest penguin in the world). The parade occurs every day at sunset at Phillip Island Natural Reserve (book in advance). basically mama and papa penguins go out into the water about once in three days to find food for their babies. They travel over 20km in search of fish, cephalopods and crustaceans. Once they're done, waddle back on 'rafts' to shore in groups at sunset. Then they follow specific paths back to the little penguin colony (each penguin family has it's own little burrow hole and address) where they feed their kids. Sometimes, penguins get killed in the water, and then the kids just wander about looking for them, which is pretty sad to watch. Unfortunately, I was told many of these orphaned penguins don't make it... such is nature. You can walk right beside these penguins on pre-marked walkboards once they get across the beach and back to their colony. Some of the babies come out for food and you can catch a little peak of the young ones. They were little cuties! Photography is not allowed once the penguins come out of the water for the protection of penguins against flash (we took this photo of a baby penguin before sunset). You can get the upgraded seats to be closer to the penguins to the penguins when they waddle on the beach, but this made a not-large difference to the viewing. The money from the tickets goes towards conservation of the penguins. Little penguins are only found in the southern part of Australia, and they are such adorable little things! I am so glad I got to catch them, even if that meant a long drive back to Melbourne at 9pm. Other things to do around Melbourne: day trip to Dandenong Ranges National Park, Queen Victoria market, Library, hang at the art galleries, try some world-cuisine, and do some shopping. At last my two weeks in Australia were at a close. I was tired, but also very happy to have finally made the trip out. I spend the last day packing up, backing up my photos, and getting ready for what would be another very long flight back home. Hope you enjoyed this read :) My approximate budget in Australia (in AUD):
An average breakfast: $10 An average lunch/dinner: $10-25 (depending on type of place) An average nights stay (airbnb / hostels with private room): $70 Car rental (for 5 days): $70/day with insurance (some personal insurances don't cover Australia, but yours might) I spent ~$20/day for discretionary activities like coffee/museum Internal flight Sydney - Cairns: $150 Internal flight Cairns - Melbourne: $250 Other activities: Compass Cruise on the great barrier reef: $130 Extra dive: $45 Crocodile spotting Daintree river cruise: $20 Penguin parade: $18 Moonlit Sanctuary (an average sanctuary is about this much): $25 Show at Sydney Opera House: $50 ‘What would my idea of an ideal world look like?’, I remember thinking three months ago, disillusioned by the daily struggles of mainstream society. Several vague ideas began to form… a world where everyone contributes to society and takes from it equally? Where there are no rich and there are no poor? Where people take care of the environment that takes care of them? Where acceptance is paramount and love is love? While the real world is still a far cry from many if not any of these, there are still places that come close to many of these values. Welcome to Twin Oaks!
A short drive from Charlottsville, Virginia, nestled in the woods, lies this modern day hippie commune. I did the 3 week visitor program at twin oaks, a prerequisite for membership in this society. Why should you care about membership here? Let me tell you why everyone should care. Twin oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing society. This means everyone that lives here works in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, health care, child care, basically everything everything required for normal human functioning. It is built on the fundamental idea of sharing. Clothes are shared, equipment is shared, lives are shared. Twin Oaks has a population cap of a 100 adults at any given time, plus upto around 20 odd kids. The gender ratio isn’t allowed to go over 60:40 in any direction. Twin Oaks runs two production facilities - tofu production and hammock production, through which it sustains itself. The people at twin oaks lives on less than minimum wage, and yet everyone has almost everything they could want for, and some more. How is that possible, you ask? Well, therein lies the secret of community living. All able people work a quota of 44 hours a week - self reported, typically in jobs of their choice, often taking on responsibilities that may be unconventional in mainstream society. Some people work in the tofu plant where they operate the machinery, produce and package tofu, managing a flourishing business without an MBA degree. Others work in the garden planting and harvesting and nurturing crops that then go into the kitchen. People in the kitchen are in charge of preparing food for a hundred odd vegetarians, vegans, gluten free eaters, and meat eaters. The dairy team is in charge of tending to the cows and milking them. Some work in childcare, or in unicorns - a summer school for kids 2-6 (named by the kids themselves), or in running the forest school, or teaching older kids science, math, history and any other skills they may want to. Some make hammocks, others go on fairs and sell the hammocks. Some build houses, others watch kids. I could go on and on, everything from watching your own kids, to emotional labor, to helping someone that is sick counts towards the ‘weekly quota’, because after all, the idea is to be a part of and one with the community - from each by their ability to each by their needs. The visitor period at twin oaks is meant to be a glimpse into the workings of a community that’s both ordered and chaotic at the same time. The visitors - all nine of us, ranging from 15 to 50 years in age were immediately ushered into the twin oaks culture. We were all more than excited to be a part of it. I even celebrated my birthday at Twin Oaks! We got to do chores - fun farm jobs, jobs we wouldn’t have been qualified for in the outside world - and meet quota, just like anyone else here. There is an huge push towards breaking conventional gender roles here. The building maintenance manager at Twin Oaks is a women, as well as the manager of the warehouse. Men are actively involved in childcare, kitchen and domestic duties. Initially, I was rather baffled by the fact that labor was self reported, or that you could essentially get trained on any job you like. ‘What incentive do people have to work if no one is checking on them?’ I thought. Oh but therein lies the fallacy. A sense of commitment and loyalty and nurturing what you consider yours is a far superior motivator than material incentives. Age is funny at twin oaks. Romantic relationships don’t follow conventional ‘age norms’ - I think part of it has to with the fact that all people, irrespective of age, are equals and share the same social rank here. I noticed that people work early on and well into their life, not because they need to - they are weaned off of labor through a retirement plan, but because they want to contribute to a society that provides for them. For every year past 50 that an individual ages, they gain a ‘free hour’. Kids start contributing very early too, albeit in fairly small amounts, and slowly get bumped up to full workdays at 18 years of age. I had a lot of questions about how kids are raised in an environment like this. Ideally, parents ‘apply’ for membership, i.e., ask the community for permission to have/adopt a child, since after all, the community on the whole takes on responsibility for the child. Are the kids that are raised here oblivious to the social skills needed in the outside world? Are they educated in topics that one may never need in a community? Do they run free without regard to order and rules? Are they sometimes confused by the lack of conventional two-parent family structures? I was skeptical early on, naively so. However, after spending a few days here, I grew to appreciate and, in fact, desire, a commune life for any kids I may one day have. Most kids here are homeschooled, although the community does pay for any kid that wants to go to local public school outside. The younger kids spend time at the rainbow school, and then have ‘primaries’ or one on one time with individuals that share responsibility in raising the kids. I thought it was cool that the kids are homeschooled in public school syllabus, but can imbibe whatever they want from the adults here. Kids are extremely well socialised since they spend a significant amount of time with adults that aren’t their parents. They understand concepts of sharing and respect and consent early on. Their ‘classes’ include things like film studies, building houses, forest school, mushroom hunting, and often, partly due to the focused attention they receive, they tend to be ahead of public school syllabus. I hung out with a few people here that were raised in the community, and are now adults there, and they were nothing short of lovely people that I admire. The people at twin oaks technically live under minimum wage. Funnily enough though they lack for nothing. The community pays for a lot of things, including medical bills that medicaid doesn’t cover, hormone therapy, legal fees for members etc. Everyone is respected, all gender identities and sexual orientations are welcomed and nurtured. Personally, I found particularly liberating the acceptance and love of the human body. I stopped shaving the whole time I was at twin oaks. Twin oaks also has an artificial pond on its property, where people may swim naked, if they so desire, in a completely non-sexual environment. The idea of non-sexualizing and appreciating the human body with all it’s flaws and blemishes is heartening in a world where people, particularly teenagers, are constantly battling self-loathing and pressures to conform to unrealistic standards of beauty. Twin oaks isn’t a miracle, it runs through the hard work and commitment of the people here, commitment to a better, more accepting, more sustainable society. On one of my last days here, I went for a long walk in the woods right in the backyard of the house I was staying at, and thought long and deep about what I gained from twin oaks. I think I truly did gain a different and wonderful perspective, an appreciation of the rural life, of knowing where my food comes from, of harvesting my own vegetables, for sharing things and emotions and love and drama, a desire for equality, appreciation for people that may think or act differently than me, and a deep mutually respectful bond with the earth and its land that sustains us all. But most importantly, I gained memories and people that I will never forget. People with stories that are funny and amazing and horrific and fascinating. The best (and arguably the worst) part of twin oaks are its people, the pillars that hold this place together with blood and sweat and tears and joy and love and pain. It’s hard to articulate all the things I have felt and experienced here. But like any other model, twin oaks isn’t perfect. As in any social environment, there exist complicated webs of inter-personal relationships, politics, and for lack of a better world, drama. However, it isn’t meant to be perfect, it’s merely a better alternative to the mainstream society that so many people feel alienated from. Utopia? Not quite yet I think. However a willingness to concede all hierarchy and power, and function solely from the perspective of global well-being is more than I can say for capitalistic society. And until we have utopia, almost utopia is our best bet. New lines on his palms
Years of toil turned his future The palm reader smiled These streets feel like home. Where writers sit crouched under dim streetlights, lost as much in thought as in misery, scribbling furiously into old yellowed notepads with frayed edges and incomplete stories. Where you’d expect to see a poet in ragged clothes at the turn of the meandering road, greeting oblivious passer-by’s with dramatic monologues about love and struggle and how art is worth fighting for. Where loud voices echo and drown in each other as women draped in the colors of the rainbow haggle aggressively with vendors offering an eclectic variety of mandarins, watermelons, the most exotic of incenses and cheaply made ornaments painted gold to create an illusion. Children in ill-fitting shiny clothes with one arm outstretched, clasped around the corners of their mothers' dresses, watch the chaos unfold in awe. They stop only occasionally to glance in anticipation at the magician holding what is believed to be an empty hat hidden under a sheath of pale blue silk, extended in anticipation in their direction, revealing only the form of what looks like a bird, before being dragged on along by an unreasonably impatient hand. The opulent clinking of metal against glass serenades the damsels with long braided hair giggling coyly at the boy in the turban wielding the glass. Old women, weary from their travels, with a basket placed precariously on their heads offer fish, dead and alive, at discounted rates. The strength of their voices is their weapon in competition, and the rancid odour engulfing the fragrance of their cheap perfume is their bane. Little boys run around chasing each other on tiny narrow cobbled streets, disappearing every couple of minutes, only to emerge laughing in a frenzy from amidst the unidentifiable tangle of pants and legs and skirts and desperate arms clutching on to their purses. Artists sit on bamboo mats at the corner of the street offering to sketch you, always making the you look marginally more attractive than you actually were. Feeding the customer’s ego always ensured a good tip and hence food on the plate that night for the children.
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Sanjukta Krishnagopal
This is where I put random musings created on cold rainy nights whilst typing away furiously on my laptop. I have been published in the 'creative writing' category' at the Unknown Pen, Youth Ki Awaaz, Terribly Tiny Tales, and Berlin Unspoken. I was also Chief Writer of the Department of Journalism and Media at BITS Goa. I also treat this space as a personal travel blog with practical information. If you are interested in talking about writing, I'd love to hear from you! Archives
September 2022
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