Talking Travel with Pico Iyer and a book give-away

by Jamie Rhein on

When I first read Pico Iyer’s book Video Night in Kathmandu, I was hooked. Reading Iyer’s words is a trip down streets that you may have traveled before but have not found the words to describe. When you read his prose, the tendency is to say, “Yes, that’s it.” For places one hasn’t been, he draws you into the scenes as if you are there looking at the world through his perceptive eyes.

Seven years ago, I met Iyer, who lives in Japan when he’s not traveling the world, at a writers symposium in New Delhi. As usual, there was a bit of trepidation in saying hello to a person whose work I admire. Like, what if this person I think so highly of turns out to be a jerk? There was no need for such concern. Iyer is as gracious and warm as his writing.

As fate has it, I was able to reconnect with him this past summer via e-mail. In between his recent trips to Sri Lanka and New Delhi to attend literary events earlier this year, Iyer answered my Talking Travel interview questions. In subsequent e-mails, I found out that we have a mutual admiration for Kentucky, Thomas Merton and Johnny Depp. Yes, they are connected. More on that later. That post is percolating.

In the meantime, here’s the interview where Iyer gives his impressions of honing into the essence of place, the Country Bear Jamboree, Atlanta, and more.

Bonus: This Talking Travel interview comes with a bonus for Gadling readers. This month Iyer’s book The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama came out as a Vintage Books paperback. His publisher, Random House, will give away two copies of the book (shipping included). See the end of the interview for contest rules and how to win. Look for the book review on Wednesday.

1. What are your earliest memories of travel as a child that captured that sense of excitement and wonder?

I am walking down the street in Oxford–a grey street of red-brick houses–towards the local sweet-shop, and something in me recognizes that, though this place is the only one I’ve known, and though I feel the same as every one of the five year-old boys around me, it’s not mine, and therein lies a promise, a possibility.

I am being driven by my parents through the Alps, the first massed snow I’ve ever seen. I am stepping into a fancy lobby in a big hotel in Belgium (my father must be at a conference), and realizing the pleasure of rooms not one’s own. I am setting foot in Reykjavik Airport, during a transit stop on the cheapest flight then across the Atlantic, and faces are crowding in against the window to see a woman dressed in a sari, an extraterrestrial, as she might be in Iceland. She is my mother.

[photo taken by Alefiya Akabarally at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka this past January.]

2. One quality I’ve always admired about your writing is your ability to tap into the personality of a country. What advice do you have about tapping into the essence of a place?

Places are like people, with personalities just as distinct, and a travel writer, of course, is someone who aims to create not just a photograph of a place but a portrait. My advice would be to walk and walk and walk, as soon as you arrive, when the place is still new to you and every perception is fresh–the mind has not yet begun to settle into prejudices or arguments.

Take down everything and remember that anything (an Internet cafe, a Golden Arches, a shop selling TVs) is interesting, and revealing of the society around it. And try, wherever possible, to remember that you’ve come all this way–even if it’s only to another state–to enter a foreign state of mind, a different sensibility. The joy of travel is not being reminded of your assumptions, or being confirmed in your beliefs, but in being led out of them, to something utterly other and, perhaps, unfathomable.

3. As a person who is a master at picking just the right words to evoke images and moods of a place, how have you observed a particular country’s use of language influences the personality it projects? Or, do you notice these differences?

Alas, I travel only with English, broken or occasionally patched together again, and I’m not sure I am sensitive to the words around me at all. As you know, I did write a whole chapter in my book Sun After Dark on how India has remade the English that the British Empire brought to it, so as to create a new language, thoroughly Indian, richly spiced, funny and charming and freighted with innocence, that is the first step towards the remaking of English literature we’re seeing in countries such as India. People worry that the world is growing smaller, but my experience is that, even as two hundred countries speak English, that simply leads to 200 often mutually incomprehensible forms of English.

[photo of Iyer talking with writer William Dalrymple at the Jaipur Literature Festival this past January. ]

4. Although most of the time I read your work, I feel a certain aura of safety. In Sun After Dark you give an account of your trip to a prison that did not go so well. Was your danger radar off that day? What WERE you thinking?

I travel in search of difficulty (or at least of contradiction and unease and challenge)–and apart from that prison trip, that book describes a night-time drive through the mountains of Yemen, from which I thought I’d never emerge, visiting Ethiopia, where I was staying in a hotel next to the most wanted man in the world, bumping through the haunted night in Cambodia and walking into privation and near-revolution in Haiti. I have been lucky enough to live in relative safety–and comfort and peace–all my life, so when I travel, I am trying to go to places as different from my gated privilege as possible. I want to see what the world is like for the 99% of my neighbors in my global village who are not lucky enough to live in a resort town in California or in placid and very protected Japan.

That’s why I’ve spent 26 years now in war-zones and revolutions, as a journalist, and why the places I seek out are generally places of great strife or seeming suffering (I write this in Sri Lanka, where my guide here from my last trip was gunned down on his way to work three weeks ago). Some people work very hard in an office, and when they travel they want nothing but peace and ease. Many refugees, propelled out of their homes by war or threat, long only to get back to the places they’ve been obliged to leave. I am just a regular person who’s never had to fight for my life and who isn’t burdened by the pressures of the office, so when I travel I want to go to South Africa, to Beirut, to Cuba, or to anywhere that will remind me that my cosy life is not the norm.

5. What do you do to hone your senses so that you avoid bad situations, or do you think you’re more likely to go with the flow and hope for the best?

I do listen to my intuition, and assume that it always knows more than I do. Though I do seek out difficulty, I don’t want to place myself needlessly in the way of danger; I see no value in people from relatively safe places courting death just for the thrill of it. But travel is not about physical movement; it’s about trying to journey out of your assumptions into the eyes and shoes of another. If it can be done without harming the other, or yourself, it can only be good; if not, then one has to ask why one’s doing it.

6. As much as traveling can create the sense that one is connected to the world, it can also create the feeling of being unsettled. What do you do to stay grounded and keep track of yourself in the process?

I tend to be too settled, so I seek out being unsettled–at the very least, that can test the ground I have. Everywhere man is settled, as Emerson says, and only insofar as he unsettled is there any hope for him. I hope I have solid ground within me–I do after all spend two months a year in a monastery, and eight months in a monastic life in Japan (a two-room apartment without cellphone or printer or World Wide Web or car or bicycle), and I have been living in these simple cells now for more than 16 years, so I feel that I am rooted, as much as I need to be, in what is real and stable.

But to stay too long in these places that I know as well as my heartbeat would be to risk complacency, blindness and inertia. So I try to force myself out of my grooves, feeling that groundedness is what I have, unsettledness what I need.

7. With all the locations you’ve written about, what location totally surprised you-a place where you expected one thing, but found something completely different? Either for the good or the bad.

Atlanta, Georgia is, on paper, one of the great global players on the planet–the home of CNN, Coca-Cola, Holiday Inn and Delta Airlines. But spending weeks and months on end there in 1996, at the time of its Olympic Games, I wondered if it was global beneath the surface. I suppose I expected, I hoped for an easy acquaintance with the larger world of the kind one finds in a Miami or a Vancouver; but I found (with apologies to those who know Atlanta better than I do) a small town’s idea of what a big town should be, and a sense of power without a corresponding sense of confidence. Atlanta began to seem to be a force on paper more than in its heart or global imagination.

8. Is there a piece of travel wisdom someone told you that you took to heart? What was it?
The Dalai Lama always suggests that there’s no virtue in looking backward–the future is what we can change–and I suppose that is what has guided me in my traveling life. Most of the travelers I love and learned from are in some ways journeying back into the past, to explain the present; I, by making most of my central travels to places like Los Angeles Airport or the state of jet lag (or even to the monastery) have always pointed myself towards the future. My interest is not in what the world has been but what we can make of it, especially those 21st century citizens who are, to some degree, children of possibility (alarming or pretentious as that phrase might sound to some).

9. Wherever you go, from what I gather, you seem to feel comfortable. Are there settings that feel odd to you? Ones where you ask yourself, how did I end up here anyway?

I like being by myself, so I’m not always at ease at big parties or among large groups of people. And, having grown up with movement, I haven’t always excelled at placing myself within a home, a family or a community. But I see any of these discomforts as something to be cherished, ways of confronting what, left to myself, I’d try to avoid. I suppose I do see every situation or setting as a possibility, and to fight against it would be to do it, and myself a disservice. Better to see what one can produce together.

10. When you arrive back home after a long trip, what are the things you do to slip back into your at home routine?
Alas, my home routine very quickly slips back into me. Within 36 hours of my return–certainly after one full day at home–I am back at my desk, taking walks (on foot and in the imagination), gobbling down tea and yogurt, going to sleep again at 8:30 p.m. Jet lag helps keep one unsettled and out of joint for a while, but left to my own devices I can very quickly resume the routine that I took the trip to break out of. Indeed, it’s the persistence and power of routine that probably these days moves me to travel, as I would never do otherwise.

11. I tend to see you in unusual locations-the almost off the map sort of locations. Let’s talk about mainstream.

Have you ever been to Disney World or Disneyland? If so which ride was your most favorite and why?
I go to Disneyland–and to Tokyo Disneyland–all the time, and I grew up on Space Mountain, while sustaining a lingering affection for the Country Bear Jamboree. My traveling life was probably begun in the frenzy of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and I screamed for a good (or bad) eight years or so at the Matterhorn, but it’s the country-and-western jingles of the fiddling raccoons and drawling bears that may have made (or unmade) me for life.

I should say that I do spend most of my life in mainstream locations–if monasteries count as such–and I think that they are just as interesting, rich and rare as Easter Island or North Korea. In my experience, the destination has never been very important; all that matters is the awakened eye you can (or cannot) bring to it. As Thoreau famously put it, to paraphrase a bit, “It matters little how far you go, the farthest commonly the worst. The only important thing is how alive you are.

12. And one more. Is it a small world after all?

It’s a huge, heterogeneous, endlessly various and surprising world, only made small by our illusions that distance has disappeared. I think the differences and distances between places are now perhaps as great as they have ever been, partly because of the illusion of closeness.

To enter the contest for the chance to win a copy of the book The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

  • Simply leave a comment below telling us one of the places where you’ve traveled that made you wish you could capture its essence on paper.
  • The comment must be left before Monday, March 23 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  • These two random winners will each receive a copy of the paperback book The Open Road, (valued at $14.95)
  • Click here for complete Official Rules.
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, including the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.

A Self Indulgent Interview with Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa

by Mike Barish on

I won’t interview just anyone. I’m Mike Barish, after all. I like to speak with dynamic, interesting, foward-thinking people who fascinate me. In the past, I interviewed Mike Lee, head of one of the country’s most exciting and up-and-coming underground eating clubs.

This time around, I scored a major coup. Well, maybe coup isn’t the right word given the position of my subject. I had the great honor of interviewing Helen Zille, the mayor of Cape Town, South Africa. Ms. Zille was named 2008 World Mayor, which is essentially the International Mayor of the Year award. And GOOD magazine ranked her number one on their list of the most innovative and effective civic leaders in the world.

South Africa stands out as an example of positive development on the African continent. And in 2010, South Africa will become the first African nation to host the World Cup.

Mayor Zille was kind enough to indulge me and I found her to be honest, frank and quite humorous.


You have been the mayor of Cape Town for over two years. In that time, what changes are you most proud of?

In such a short time it is not possible to complete any major projects, but I am very happy with the progress we have made in our preparations for 2010 [for the World Cup]. Some people never believed we could get our new 68,000 seat stadium ready on time [photo at right], especially given all the legal, geological and financial complications around the site. But we are on schedule now, and that is something to celebrate. I am also happy that we have been able to clean up the City’s supply chain management department and other key areas of financial management. There were a lot of problems with corruption that we have now addressed. Then there is the increase in delivery capacity that we have achieved by introducing a new organisational structure for the City’s 22,000 staff, which was a major achievement. We filled 2,800 vacancies and introduced a whole new set of reporting lines and management structures to ensure greater efficiency. And we have accelerated the rate at which we have been able to deliver services, having tripled our investments in capital projects from R1 billion [approximately $107.2 million] per year on average between 2002 and 2006 to R3.2 billion [approximately $343 million] in the past year. This means more public projects and infrastructure to help Cape Town grow as a world city. It also means improved services to the poor, like an increase in subsidised housing opportunities for the poor from an average of 3,000 per year between 2002 and 2006 to 7,000 in the past year. All of these things indicate greatly improved efficiency and productivity in the City.

The 2010 World Cup is rapidly approaching and South Africa will be the first African nation to host the event. How are the preparations coming along?

As I have mentioned above, we are on schedule. But it remains a very challenging project.

Any advice for travelers making their way to Cape Town specifically for the World Cup?

Make sure you leave lots of spare time to explore Cape Town. There is a lot to see and do here and you don’t want to miss out. And invest in a Vuvuzela if you want a uniquely South African soccer souvenir.

Cape Town came in third place when it bid on hosting the 2004 Summer Olympics. Does Cape Town still have Olympic aspirations and will you make a bid for the 2020 Games?

With a new stadium and improved public transport we would certainly be better placed to do it than we were in the 2004 bid. But let’s first see how the World Cup goes!

Earlier this year you received the 2008 World Mayor Award. Why do you think you won?

I was very surprised to win the award, and naturally I was thrilled. I believe that I won because of the great team I have working with me in my office, in the City of Cape Town administration, at home, and in parliament. These kinds of awards are never solo achievements.

Did you get a trophy or plaque that you make everyone look at when they visit you? Maybe a medal that you always wear around your neck?

I received a very uniquely designed metal trophy, which we have on display in the mayor’s office. But I definitely don’t make anyone look at it.

If you were giving a tour of Cape Town to your new best friend (let’s call him Mike Barish), what are the top five places that you would show him?

It really depends what my new best friend finds interesting. We haven’t known each other long so I can’t really say! But if you forced me to choose for you, I would have to say Cape Point, Table Mountain [photo at right], Table Bay (including the V&A Waterfront and Robben Island), and some local performances. This time of year I would take you to watch the Minstrels perform on the Grand Parade – about 20,000 take to the street in parades that include incredible costumes and a whole range of musical instruments. I would show you the different sides of Cape Town so that you could come to understand some of the history, culture and economics of Cape Town, so I would include a visit to the Muslim area of Bo Kaap, the cosmopolitan and highly developed Atlantic seaboard, and the communities of Khayelitsha and the Cape Flats.

I love street food and I hear that the Gatsby is the best street dish in Cape Town. What do you like on your Gatsby?

I actually prefer salomies – and I like a good lamb or chicken curry on mine. A Gatsby is a huge roll with chips and other things on it like pieces of chicken or steak. A salomi is a Cape Malay flat bread rolled around a curry filling.

People often have concerns about crime in Cape Town. What have you done to ensure the safety of both residents and travelers in your city?

We have built partnerships with businesses and the police in most of the major commercial and tourist areas in Cape Town to boost street patrols and keep these areas safer. We are now building similar partnerships with neighbourhood watches to curb crime in residential areas. The City has a very small police force. The main policing function, as well as the criminal justice system, falls under the national government. That system needs a serious overhaul in South Africa.

Many airlines charge passengers to check luggage, so it’s cheaper to just bring one carry-on bag. That means you have to pack lightly. What would you recommend travelers pack in just one bag to help them enjoy a visit to South Africa?

My recommendation is don’t bring anything, just money. Then you can buy some proudly South African clothes when you get here! But seriously, it is not as bad as that! In my experience most airlines allow you a certain weight before they start charging. It is usually about 20kg per person, and then an extra 5kg carry-on luggage. If you are limited, I would say that in summer make sure you bring some swimwear, shorts and t-shirts, and a hat, because it gets pretty hot in Cape Town between December and May. But always bring an umbrella and some warm clothes, because once in a while we get hit by cold wet days, even in mid-summer. Cape Town’s weather is very changeable, and we can also get wonderful hot days in winter too, so bear that in mind if you are coming to the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Do you get to take much time off? Where did you go on your last vacation?

Normally no, but I am happy to say I just had a two week break in the Eastern Cape with my family, which has been my first real holiday since becoming mayor nearly 3 years ago. We went to Keurbooms River, which is a forested coastal area near Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route. It is a great place to relax and enjoy some peace and scenery.

What place in the world that you have yet to visit would you most like go to?

There are so many I can’t limit it to one. I would like to visit South America, and see cities like Bogotá in Columbia. Bogotá was able to overcome many of the similar developmental challenges to those which we currently face in Cape Town, especially around crime and urban decay. I would really enjoy learning more about how they did it.

Back in April of 2008, you were in New York to address the United Nations. Did you have a chance to do any sightseeing while you were here? What were your favorite places?

I didn’t have much time to do sightseeing, but I was very happy to see the UN headquarters, which is definitely one of the sights I would have wanted to see anyway.

As I am sure you know, America’s economy is not doing so well, so I have had to start traveling on a much tighter budget. When I come to visit Cape Town, do you think I could sleep on your couch?

You would have to fight with my sons’ friends for the space.

Many thanks to Mayor Zille for her time and graciousness. Special thanks, as well, to Robert Macdonald, Spokesperson for the Mayor of Cape Town, for his efforts in coordinating this interview.

Talking Travel with Tim Ferriss (again) about his new TV show: Trial By Fire

by Justin Glow on

Tim Ferriss has come a long way since we first interviewed him a year and a half ago. His book, The Four Hour Work Week, was released in the wild where it quickly rocketed to the top of all the Best Seller lists. So we weren’t too surprised when we learned of his new TV show, Trial by Fire, debuting tonight on the History Channel. I sat down with Tim for a quick chat about the show:

JUSTIN: Give me the quick run down on your new show: Trial by Fire.

TIM: The concept is simple: each week I attempt to master a complex skill — something that would usually take 10+ years — in one week. It debuts today, Thursday, December 4, at 11pm PT/ET on History Channel (check www.history.com/schedule to double-check local times).

I have access to the world’s best teachers to “hack” the learning curve with both traditional and experimental approaches. I then have a final “trial by fire”, when I risk life and limb to see the results of all the training in a real-world test. It’s a fun 60-minute show filmed in HD with some of the best TV folks out there; lots of humor and also hardcore training and accelerated learning techniques. People will be able to apply a lot of each show to mastering any skill in their own lives.

J: Did you personally select the skill to challenge in the pilot episode? If so, what made you want to try yabusame?

TIM: Among other things, I pitched the show concept, developed the name, and picked the first challenge: yabusame, or Japanese horseback archery. I lived in Japan for a year in high school, and once you see yabusame, you’re hooked. I’d always wanted to experience it, and this particular samurai sport is a winner-takes-all endeavor. Full gallop, no hands, no safety gear, and you land on poles and get trampled if you fall. If you’re going to film a pilot, you have to make it worth watching, right? There is no simulated danger — it’s the real deal and it’s obvious when you watch. Few non-Japanese have even seen it, and it’s a national event twice a year when riders run the gauntlet. Definitely worth checking out.

J: What are some other challenges you’d want to try if the show is picked up?

TIM: There are a ton, as this is basically what I spend my time doing anyway. Setting new landspeed world records, pulling off museum heists, free diving with Great White sharks, etc.. The list is huge, all of them will be ridiculously difficult, and I will definitely crash and burn more than once. That’s part of the thrill and challenge, I think. If I don’t fail on occasion, I’m obviously not pushing the envelope enough.


Trailer for Tim’s new show, Trial By Fire

J: How does giving yourself a challenge like this help you learn more about a place and its people?

TIM: It forces you to be aware in the present tense. In other words, it’s impossible to do what we most often do: travel in body while our mind remains preoccupied with something back home. Training for an all-or-nothing test is beautifully simple: No e-mail, no internet cafes, no traveling around the world just to IM with friends back home — 100% training with natives 24/7 or you get hurt. I like that. It’s a return to basics. A week of full-time training is like a two-month vacation; you come back refreshed and will a better radar for minutiae. As in Fight Club: the volume on everything else gets turned down. This is true whether it’s a physical task like rock climbing or a mental task like learning to calculate like a human computer. The singular focus allows you to connect with people and culture without distraction.

J: Do you think the concept of your show can be practiced among regular travelers as a way to learn more about a place and its people?

TIM: Absolutely. Use pursuit of one skill as a vehicle for connecting with the people — or a sub-culture — of a foreign culture. Argentina? Try tango. Austria? Try chocolate making or music. It could be anything. There are world-class performers everywhere. Get curious again. Rediscover that childhood desire to explore and learn new things. People will help you, and it’s easily the fastest method for learning foreign languages. 3-4 months is all you need for conversational fluency non-tonal languages.

It’s possible to become world-class in many things in relatively short periods of time. It just requires a high density of practice over those short periods. Even 1-2 weeks can be enough to become better than 90% of the world’s population at a cool skill, a skill you can retain for the rest of your life. All it takes is mindful deconstruction and a brief but intense singular focus.

J: Thanks for your time, Tim!

###

Trial by Fire will air 11pm ET/PT this Thursday (tonight) on History Channel. For more show information, and a live video Q&A post-broadcast, visit www.fourhourblog.com.

Talking Travel with Tim Patterson

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Tim Patterson comes from the Rolf Potts School of travel writing– thoughtful, funny, and talented. But above all else, he’s a traveler.

It seems Tim is constantly on the move, whether it’s to Cambodia, Bhutan, or Uruguay. He shares his love for travel on a number of sites, including Brave New Traveler, Matador, and his personal site, Rucksack Wanderer. Tim’s a great guy and (lucky for you) a great interview.

He recently took the time to answer a couple travel-related questions via email…

1. Brave New Traveler takes a different approach to travel than a lot of other sites. What are you trying to accomplish with BNT, and were you surprised to find such a wide audience for your message?

Most travel sites are focused on destinations. This isn’t a bad thing – travel is about going someplace new after all – but the destination focus does contribute to the idea of travel as just another marketable commodity.

The BNT team finds the thought of buying a travel experience ridiculous and sad. We see travel as a spiritual journey, an almost sacred way to find our place in the modern world.

We published a really popular collection of 50 Inspiring Travel Quotes recently. Here’s one of my favorites, by Miriam Beard:

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

That quote sums up our attitude at BNT pretty well.

Am I surprised to find such a wide audience for this content? Absolutely not. People are hungry for essays and articles that go deeper than commercial fluff.

2. I want to become a guidebook writer but don’t know where to start. Any tips?

Read “Smile When Your Lying” by Chuck Thompson. Maybe read “Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?” by Thomas Kohnstamm. Definitely read “A Job With Travel But No Vacation” in the New York Times.

Guidebook writing is hard work, especially if you need to live on a guidebook writer’s salary. Plus, online destination guides like TravelFish and interactive travel magazines like Matador are cutting into the traditional guidebook market.

Start out small. Build an audience. Don’t take rejection personally. In the immortal words of Judge Elihu Smails, “the world needs ditch-diggers, too”.

If you’re a solid writer, check out open assignments on the Matador Bounty Board. At the moment there are over 20 open assignments that each pay $25 a pop.

3. What kind of research do you conduct before heading to a new destination?

It depends on why I’m traveling and for how long. I usually read up on travel literature before going someplace new. For Patagonia, I read Bruce Chatwin. For Los Angeles, I read T. C. Boyle.

I rarely buy guidebooks, but I’ll camp out in a bookstore for a couple hours and flip through Lonely Planet, Fodor’s and Rough Guide to get a sense of the place.

If I’m going to stay for a while, I look for sublets and short term rentals on Craigslist. If I’m passing through, I check out Couchsurfing.

It’s rare, though, that I’ll make firm itineraries. You can never be too prepared for a journey, but leaving room for serendipity is important, too.

4. Many first-time travelers are reluctant to embrace solo travel, and they worry that they’ll spend their entire trips in depressing isolation. What can you tell them to allay their fears?

Yeah, you’ll be lonely and miserable sometimes. But you’ll also learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible. You’ll be totally free, just you in the world, with no outside pressure or expectations. This is scary. But it’s also exhilarating.

Also, you won’t ever be far from company. Travelers are social creatures, and locals are eager to show solo visitors hospitality. All it takes to make friends is a smile and some trust.

5. Finally, where are you now and what’s keeping you busy these days?

I’m sitting in my underwear at my desk in humid Saigon at 6 pm on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve been here for about a month, but will soon move on to Thailand, Laos and northern Myanmar.

I’ve never felt at home in big cities, or even large towns, but I like Saigon. There are delicious family-owned restaurants and coffee shops on every corner. I do yoga at a studio down the street and then float through the swirl of the city in the monsoon rain to a bowl of hot beef noodle soup with herbs and lime.

Before Saigon I led a rugged travel program in Cambodia with the visionary organization Where There Be Dragons.

Dragons wants me to scout, design and lead a new Mekong River semester program for 17-22 year olds that would follow the river from Tibetan headwaters to the Delta in Vietnam.

This is a dream job, but I’m also really fired up on my work for BNT and the Matador Network. The Matador community is really thriving and I couldn’t ask for more inspiring colleagues.

Finally, I’m in the process of closing on 2.4 of the prettiest acres you’ve ever seen, right in my hometown of Craftsbury, Vermont.

Someday I’m going to build a cabin with a big front porch and a woodstove, put my rucksack on a hook by the door, plant lots of sunflowers, sow potatoes, load up a bookshelf with all the best books and really ground myself in the one place and one community that, for me, is truly home.

Talking travel with the mayor of Stockholm

by Aaron Hotfelder on

I think everyone pretty much has a crush on the Swedes. It’s been towards the top of my must-see destinations for a long time. Here to talk about his favorite city–and his homeland–is the mayor of Stockholm, Sten Nordin.

Why Stockholm now?

Stockholm is at its most beautiful in the summer, when the sun stays up for most of the day and night, it’s warm and the city is alive with people and activities.

Stockholm has more cultural offerings per capita than any other city in the world but there is also plenty of history, nature, sports activities and gastronomic delights to indulge in. Stockholm has something to offer for every type of visitor.

With the low dollar, can Americans afford Stockholm?

Absolutely! Stockholm is definitely an affordable tourist destination. The city is small enough to walk across so there’s little need for transportations. Lunch – even in the most luxurious restaurants – rarely exceeds $25, and entrance fees to museums etc. are considerably less than in other European cities. So, yes, Americans can definitely afford Stockholm!
What’s your favorite pub in Stockholm?

There are some great watering holes in Stockholm – from the medieaval pubs and cafés of Gamla Stan, to the plush bars and clubs of Stureplan. A recent addition to the Stockholm bar scene is the skybar at the top of the former tax office “Skrapan” on Södermalm. The Och Himlen Därtill bar and restaurant, located 84m above ground, offers amazing views over the Stockholm skyline. It’s a great place to start an evening out with some tasty cocktails.

Hotel? Restaurant?

Stockholm offers a wide range of hotel options, from the luxurious Grand Hotel in Blasieholmskajen, boutique hotels such as Rival in Södermalm (owned by ABBA’s Benny Andersson) to more humble hotels and hostels. There are plenty of stylish hotel offerings available, so whatever your budget is you will find good alternatives.

Among the more quirky accommodation options is the af Chapman ship, now refurbished into a hostel, and Långholmen, a former prison, where hotel guests have replaced inmates in the prison cells.

As for restaurants, it’s almost impossible to pick out Stockholm’s best eating establishments as there are so many! A recent addition to the Stockholm restaurant scene is Mathias Dahlgren at Grand Hôtel. The restaurant has received rave reviews from food critics everywhere and its interior design and food creates a distinctly Swedish atmosphere.

Another favorite is 1900 which offers modern versions of traditional Swedish food, and classic Stockholm institution Berns which offers everything from traditional fayre to sushi. Fredsgatan 12 is another example of innovative Swedish cooking, while people eat at Prinsen to sample good old traditional food, like your mother used to make it.

Sturehof is a classic brasserie in the heart of Stockholm, offering a great array of choices, mostly with a Swedish and/or French twist. And not to forget, Operakällaren is one of Stockholm’s best and most popular restaurants, offering everything from luxurious dining to quick lunch options.

These examples are all in central Stockholm, but there are many more restaurant options to be explored if you venture out to the other islands making up inner-city Stockholm. I particularly like eating in one of Stockholm’s many waterside restaurants!

A great invention, which you should always look for when you’re getting hungry, is ‘dagens lunch’ (‘lunch of the day’). Usually served between 11-3pm, ‘dagens lunch’ always good value and normally includes salad, a hot main course, coffee and drinks for about $10 to $25 depending on where you go. It’s a great opportunity to discover high-end restaurants, such as Operakällaren, where lunch is offered at about a tenth of the price of dinner.

Then, in the afternoon, opt for a ‘fika’, coffee and cake, in a cosy café. That’s what the Stockholmers do!

Your top five favorite attractions in Stockholm?

The green, leafy island of Djurgården hosts some of the best attractions in Stockholm, and really does offer something for everyone. This is where you’ll find the Vasa museum, home to the huge Vasa ship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. On Djurgården, you will also find the Rosendals Trädgård working garden and restaurant, the Skansen open-air folk museum and zoo, Gröna Lund’s amusement park, the Waldemarsudde estate and gardens of the ‘painting Prince’ Eugen, and the Nordic Museum, which focuses on Sweden’s cultural history. It is also a great location for a stroll along some of the most stunning sceneries of Stockholm.

Your ideal weeklong itinerary in Sweden?

Spend a day or two going out on a boat exploring the amazing scenery of the Stockholm archipelago, and make a daytrip to the beautiful island of Drottningholm, where the Swedish royal family lives. You can easily spend a day in Djurgården with all its museums and activity offerings, finishing off with dinner and drinks at Josephina or Villa Källhagen in the sunset.

If you want to explore further afield, the university town of Uppsala is just an hour away by train, and the 1,000-year-old city of Sigtuna, which plays an important part in Sweden’s early history, is also a perfect distance away for a daytrip.

Any advice to passing off oneself as a Swede?

Stand on the right on subway escalators – this is something all Stockholmers do. The left “line” is for those who are walking up or down the stairs!

You have one of the cleanest and most educated cities in the world. So what’s the top challenge Stockholm faces in the next five years?

Our aim is to develop Stockholm further, to facilitate everyday life for its citizens and to make Stockholm Northern Europe’s most attractive location for people and businesses looking for quality of life, growth and a vibrating knowledge-based society.

What are your favorite weekend getaways from Stockholm?

The Stockholm archipelago is a must! It consists of some 30,000 islands and stretches all along the coastline north and south of Stockholm, and 60km out in the Baltic Sea waters. Many of the larger islands, such as Vaxholm, are built-up with permanent residents but there are also many islands that are no more than a few metres wide.

Sandhamn, Grinda, Vaxholm, Möja, Furusund and Utö are some of the most well-known and visited islands in the Stockholm archipelago, and are all perfect get-away locations for a summer picnic and swimming. The closest archipelago island, Fjäderholmarna, are only 20 minutes by boat away from central Stockholm, and boats run from quays at Slussen and Strömkajen in the middle of the city.

Your favorite vacation destination in Europe?

Apart from Stockholm and the rest of Sweden, of course, I must say that France is one of my favourite European destinations.

Welcome to Stockholm!