Jesse M.

Top 3 Travel Tips

May 19, 2014June 1, 2014 Jesse M. Leave a comment

One of my main goals is to inspire others to travel farther and get more out of their journeys. These are the top 3 ways to do exactly that.

#1. Plan your next trip TODAY

I’m serious. Right now. Where do you want to go? Who have you been meaning to visit?

Pick a place and make it happen. Skip Thanksgiving if you have to. Put a big marker line on the calendar. Talk about it at dinner tonight. You’re going.

You’ve got one life to live and playing it safe is the most self-limiting thing you can do. By saving money early in life you are sacrificing your own potential – your potential to grow beyond your comfort zone, discover who you really are, and gain direct experience of the world.

“I refuse to walk carefully through life only to arrive safely at death.”

– Paulo Coelho

And the sooner you travel the greater the benefit – because you will benefit longer from the new doors that are opened, your new understanding of yourself, and the benefits of being open-minded and more well rounded.

Normally this topic is couched as a dilemma between spending money to travel and investing it “responsibly.” Now, I’m not saying be irresponsible – but fuck bank accounts. Bank accounts don’t live your life, you do. Invest in your mind, in your memories, in the stories you will tell and the person you will become. Nothing makes you richer or builds wisdom faster than your own adventures.

“Some people are so poor all they have is money.”

– Anonymous

#2. Stay with a local

This is the single biggest secret to get more out of travel.

Instead of just sight-seeing and inevitably feeling like a tourist, by staying with a local you get to go behind the scenes of a city, experience what their life is like, and build lasting friendships.

Nothing makes a trip better than the advice and hospitality of a local. Staying with a local has the obvious benefits of them knowing all the best restaurants and hidden places – but it also gives you a more authentic experience of life in that city. In my experience, staying with a local will overwhelm you with a sense of our shared humanity and will become the most memorable part of your trip.

Staying with a local will overwhelm you with a sense of our shared humanity and will become the most memorable part of your trip.

So tap into your network. Who do you know? Think harder. What about that college friend that moved away, or that distance relative who married a Moroccan? Scroll through all your Facebook friends if you have to. Talk to your coworkers and friends-of-friends. They want to show you their home country, I guarantee it.

If your network falls short, or you’ve already exhausted it, CouchSurfing is a limitless resource for finding eager locals. People from every country in the world now have profiles that you can contact and request to stay with. They will review your profile and if they agree to your stay you have free accommodations and the priceless advice of a local (and more than likely an enthusiastic tour guide).

#3. Just Say Yes

This is your chance to try something new and go beyond your normal limits (which are entirely self-imposed). Make a point to try things you don’t normally try. Find your curiosity for the world and allow yourself this chance to grow. You have every other day of the year to do your normal routine back home.

“Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”

― Benjamin Franklin

When you travel, open up. Go with the flow. You won’t see new sights if you follow the same path everyday.

So go get lost. Go explore. Go to that country you never thought you’d visit. Go with the flow. Open up. Say “Yes” to every opportunity, every side trip, and every unidentifiable dish. This is where the real magic happens; eating food you can’t identify, traveling places you can’t name, in a part of the world you never thought you’d visit. Just say Yes. You’ll be a richer person for it.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

― Neale Donald Walsch

P.S. – Screw Nancy Reagan

Everything you Need to Know about Chewing Coca

May 15, 2014June 1, 2014 Jesse M. Leave a comment

If you’re traveling to one of the Andean countries such as Peru or Bolivia you’re bound to run in to coca. Coca is famous as the plant used to make cocaine, but its leaves are far more commonly used as a legal, chewable stimulant.

Coca grows as a large bush with the leaves harvested for medicine, religious ceremony, and their special ingredient – cocaine. The raw leaves are chemically distinct from cocaine though – which require processing and a chemical reaction to produce cocaine in appreciable amounts. The raw leaves only have half a perfect of naturally occurring cocaine, which is well below the limit to not be addictive or produce Robin Williams style, manic outbursts.

The leaves do still produce a natural sort of high when chewed – a steady rise in mood and energy that cures fatigue, hunger, and altitude sickness. It’s sort of like sipping a double espresso, without the jitteriness or sudden urge to shit.

It’s sort of like sipping a double espresso, without the jitteriness or sudden urge to shit.

Coca is perhaps most famous as the namesake and key ingredient in Coca-Cola. Until the 1930s actual cocaine was included as an ingredient in the drink. Now coca extract is still used in the secret formula for its feel-good effects (and let’s be honest, the Coca part isn’t all that secret, you just didn’t know what it meant).

Coca is also sometimes confused with cacao (ka-cow) – the basis for chocolate. These are entirely different plants. Coca has nothing to do with chocolate.

Where to Find it

The best place to find fresh coca leaves is in a local market (assuming you’re in Bolivia, Peru, or Colombia). Look for the big sacks full of green leaves.

You can buy an individual sized bag for 1 Peruvian sole ($0.30).

One bag is more than enough to share between 3 people for a few days.

How to Chew Coca Leaves

First of all, you don’t “chew” coca leaves. It’s more of a wadding-up-with-your-tongue action.

In Quechua there are two words for chew: one having the common English meaning, and another describing the action used for coca leaves. The “coca chew” is a process that rolls the leaves into a ball and gets them wet with saliva. You should be using all tongue and no teeth. You’re not eating the leaves, you’re sucking on them.

To get started, pick out a whole leaf that still looks waxy and not dry.

Hold the leaf by the stem and place the broad part into your mouth. Bite down at the end of the leaf and pick the stem off to discard. Continue this process with about 20 leaves.

As you bite each leaf into your mouth roll it with your tongue as you wad it with the others. Once you have all the leaves in your mouth stick it between your cheek and gums, where it will stay while you swallow the juice.

Swallowing the coca juice is where you will absorb most of the coca so don’t try to spit it out. Andean people have been using it for thousands of years as a medicinal plant, it’s not gonna hurt you. You can leave the wad in for about an hour.

If you do happen to chomp down on the leaves you’ll notice a light numbing of your tongue. This won’t harm you, but talking like Daffy Duck isn’t really the intended result.

Coca Tea (Mate de coca)

If chewing is a bit much for you the coca tea is also rejuvenating. Coca is as commonplace as coffee in Europe – you will find coca tea waiting for you at most hotels and guest houses, right along side familiar packets like chamomile and black tea.

Coca leaves and chamomile tea bag

Coca Tea

The effects from the tea are more gradual and mild than chewing the leaves directly but it’s also a more convenient option. The taste is more plant-like than any green tea you’re had to but it’s not unpleasant.

Drug Tests & Legality

By all accounts – consuming coca tea will show up on a drug test. Same for chewing the leaves. Although you’re consuming about 1/10th the organic alkaloid present in a line of coke, that’s enough to test positive on a drug test.

The leaves and tea are also illegal outside of Andean countries. Don’t try to bring them back. Apparently the coca tea is allowed in the United States if it has been “decocainized,” but what the hell is the point in that? If you want to drink castrated tea just soak some tree leaves in your mug.

Machu Picchu will Blow Your Fucking Mind

May 15, 2014June 1, 2014 Jesse M. Leave a comment

The hype is for real – Machu Picchu will blow your fucking mind.

I’ve seen the Taj, sat in the Colosseum, climbed up the ancient steps of Tikal and the massive Pyramid of the Sun – but Machu Picchu takes the cake. No contest.

Temple walls made of massive, mortar-less, perfectly fitted stones stand strong 500 years after construction because they were engineered to be goddamn earthquake proof.

Water still trickles through the original aqueducts of the city as if the inhabitants had just stepped away. Temple walls made of massive, mortar-less, perfectly fitted stones stand strong 500 years after construction because they were engineered to be goddamn earthquake proof. While standing next to these stones thin clouds float by in a slow, ever-changing procession, reinforcing the ethereal power of the landscape. The rarefied air in this ancient cloud forest is thin but smells sweet. Crisp air combined with the surrounding horizon of even taller peaks makes stepping into Machu Picchu a dizzying, awe-inspiring, and powerful experience.

Machu Picchu was a university in the clouds, a religious Mecca, and an astronomical headquarters. It was a permanent city of 800 Inca nestled at a height of over 7,900 feet in the Peruvian Andes. Twice a year, the sun still rises between the sacred mountain peaks and the beautiful Sun Gate on the seasonal solstices. Surrounded by peaks of even greater magnitude it’s hard not to be overcome by a profound sense of reverence for the ruins, their settings, and the delicate harmony of the two.

The other thing you need to know about Machu Picchu is that it means “Old Mountain”, but if you accidentally leave off a “c” in Pichu it means “Old Penis.”

This is important, as you wouldn’t want to be caught tweeting that you “can’t wait to see the Old Penis;” something our guide kindly warns us about.

The trail we hiked was the Inca’s original trade route, their equivalent of an interstate between cities. Along the way we passed countless smaller settlements and ruins, the ancient way stations and Quik Stops on the route to Machu Picchu. Arriving via a 2 day hike on the original Inca trail, the first site of Machu Picchu reduced my small group to tears, new found spirituality, and euphoria. For a group composed of a former U.S. Marine, an aerospace engineer, and an experienced travel photographer – that’s saying something. The trek wouldn’t have been complete or even possible without the expert knowledge of our guide, Alex.

Machu Picchu

Mortar-less Architecture

That’s Fucking Machu Picchu

Alex

Hearing the beetles sing

Mushroom

A true man of the forest, Alex gleefully admitted his love for flowers, delighted over every insect we encountered, and was genuinely at one with nature and his surroundings. There was no false sense of separation, elitism, or superiority over nature for him. Alex knew he was one part of the greater ecosystem, and a protector of the earth to which he would one day return. He humbly echoed the teachings of the Inca in his talks and showed us how this philosophy is built into the very blueprint of Machu Picchu itself.

The Inca built around existing features to both supplement and accentuate their natural beauty. Rather than dynamite a natural crack or bulldoze a plateau to make a square, natural existing cracks were now part of their aqueducts. Mountain peaks became sacred seasonal solar checkpoints. Andean caves and crevices became elaborate ceremonial tombs. And as far as mummies go – 167 have been found at Machu Picchu so far. One Hundred and Sixty Seven! For comparison there were precisely zero inside the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

167 mummies have been found at Machu Picchu so far.

So even if you’re well traveled and road weary, or jaded about the manufactured hype for most places – I say go to Machu Picchu. And go now! The intensifying struggle between UNESCO and the Peruvian government about how many visitors to allow in each day is widely speculated to result in severe restrictions sometime soon.

But for now the doors remain open to this university in the clouds. And the people who visit Machu Picchu are still learning there, as the Inca did centuries ago. Today, something close to 3,000 people still come here to learn and be enlightened every day. The power of Machu Picchu is still alive. The Inca vision of reverence and harmony with mother earth can still be experienced and explored, for now.

Check out how absolutely exhausting the Inca Trail is, and how Chewing Coca Leaves can help get you there.

The Camel Diarrhea Scam

May 15, 2014June 1, 2014 Jesse M. Leave a comment

There are scams in every city in the world. Some are particularly dangerous, others are just fucking disgusting – like the one I fell victim to TWICE in downtown Delhi.

Even without being the target of scams, being in India is already an assault on every sense you have. Trash gathers in piles by the side of the road, where men and animals can be seen openly pissing. Every car and auto-rickshaw is blaring its horn at all times at the impossibly congested traffic. Power lines crisscross and tangle into knots above the street. Every piece of food is covered in spices, rendering even the most familiar food like an apple into spiced curve-balls for the taste buds. And the smell of really large animal shit is never far behind. With cows, camels, and elephants all sharing the road, it’s hard to tell which.

Power Lines

Chaat

Heaps of Trash

Cow in Traffic

Despite all of this, I was loving India. It’s fascinating how different a place can be, and I genuinely looked forward to my next jawdropping surprise.

Traveling is about experiencing something new, being utterly surprised, and seeing things you never knew existed. India is the world capital for all of that.

Two things in particular, though, really pissed me off. As trivial as it sounds, nothing pisses me off more than someone cutting me in line. Cutting me in line is like stealing from me while I watch. I can’t help but hate it. Maybe that’s my cultural bias, but in India, with 1.5 billion people, they can’t afford to be polite. So I just had to deal with it. At a close second is throwing shit on me. This is where the scam comes in: at the Connaught Place bazaar in the heart of Delhi.

Walking the concentric rings of Connaught Place is a must for every visitor to Delhi. Connaught Place is a huge marketplace of goods mixing the British-colonial past with a more traditional, open-air bazaar. The grounds are filled with hundreds of exotic vendors as well as aggressive hawkers trying to sell leather belts at “very good, special price for you.” Amidst this busy chaos a young man comes shouting at us, finger pointing excitedly, insisting to shine my friend’s tennis shoes. Not understanding why, we look down to see the most vile, greenish-brown shit all over his sneakers. I’m talking foul and textured shit-slime with visible scent waves wafting up from it. Looking around confused, all we could see where masses of people. How then, did a diseased camel just release gangrenous diarrhea all over his shoes?

Impressed by the sharp eye and helpfulness of this kid, we gladly paid him to “shine” the shoes for a handful of rupees. Knowing fully well that you can’t shine a pair of tennis shoes we were just happy to have him clean off the wretched shit-mixture, wherever the hell it came from. More than a little perplexed, we thanked him and were on our way. It didn’t occur to me until the NEXT time the invisible diarrhea-camel shit on us what was going on.

Working in teams of two, one boy carries a ladle of poop-sludge and finds the target – which is your tall, white ass

Working in teams of two, one boy carries a ladle of poop-sludge and finds the target – which is your tall, white ass that sticks out in the sea of all-black hair. In the dense crowd of people you won’t even notice him slinging it on your shoes as he passes by. With the first boy out of site, the second kid runs in insisting to shine your shoes. He’ll seem innocent enough with his meager tools for shining shoes but don’t be fooled – he’s part of the scam and is just there to take your money.

After suffering the shit scam twice the second kid didn’t get any rupees for cleaning my shoes.

Ultimately, it’s not a great deal of money to be scammed for, but having shit throw on you is probably the last thing you were hoping for on your trip. At the time I was downright pissed to have that unidentifiable shit-concoction anywhere near me – but now I’m just amazed at the tenacity of this scam, where you deliberately carry around shit, and then willfully clean it up, all for a handful of rupees.

Why Travel?

May 15, 2014June 1, 2014 Jesse M. Leave a comment

Traveling is one of the most transformative experiences you can have in life. I believe it’s also one of the greatest forces for positive change in the world.

I travel a lot but I can’t remember the last time I went on “vacation.” Travel is not an escape. It’s not a retreat into umbrella cocktails and Swedish massages. Travel is an embrace of the moment, an adventure into the world beyond your comfort zones, and an exercise in mind expansion.

I’m not talking about visiting museums or monuments either. I mean how getting lost, and being uncomfortable, not being able to speak the language, or shitting your pants on a third world bus teaches you really important things about life. When traveling, you don’t have any of the things that make you “you,” which makes you question who the fuck you are in the first place. You’re forced to do things another way, outside of your comfort zone. These experiences change you, irreversibly, and that’s a good thing.

“Safety and comfort are mortal dangers to the soul.”

– Sam Sheridan, A Fighter’s Heart

Be Open – Embrace Change

There is no greater path to personal growth than traveling. Nothing else will prove to you more that you’re not defined by the circumstances in your life. When you leave behind everything that makes up your daily life, you see that you’re free to be anyone, anywhere.

“You’re not your fucking khakis”

– Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

By stepping outside of your everyday life and seeing it from a new perspective, traveling ultimately teaches you more about yourself and where you come from than staying at home and being “yourself” ever could.

Traveling brings you face to face with a whole spectrum of different ways of doing things. This direct experience of the world begins to cast your home country in a new light. It starts to become clear that all the little things you took for granted in life are arbitrary conventions of the place you were born. Like what side of the road you drive on, what food you eat for breakfast…or even what makes you a man (Hint: it’s not watching football and fetishizing over meat).

You realize too that you weren’t born perfect, and that the norms and conventions you grew up with are not the only ways to live. It is only by embracing change that you can hope to be better.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

– Winston Churchill

The only way to change and grow is to be open. Nothing tears your mind open faster than traveling the world.

Finding Out What you Don’t Know

“The farther you go, the less you know.”

– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Although you learn lots of new things while traveling, you also start to discover just how vast the world really is; by encountering regions, sub-regions, languages and entire histories you never knew existed. You’re forced to do things you’re not good at and have never done before; like trying to speak a new language, or comprehend the process of a Turkish bath. With the vocabulary of a five year old and no idea about local customs you are reduced to a kind of functional-infancy. The whole affair is an exercise in your own ignorance – which can be really eye-opening and rewarding with the right attitude. These experiences develop a deeper appreciation for what you don’t know about the world – which will always out number what you do know.

There are more amazing places in the world than any of us know. But beyond amazing places there are different places; and experiencing different is what keeps you growing. Different makes you realize what you don’t know, what you didn’t know you could know, and what you hadn’t even considered. This is what matters.

“The best journeys in life are those that answer questions you never thought to ask.”

– Rick Ridgeway

By diving head first into that unknown you will rediscover the present moment, learn patience through pain, and foster the genuine wisdom of open-mindedness.

Every trip, no matter how short, is an opportunity to try something new and expand your horizons. Every trip is an investment in your mind, in your memories, in the stories you will tell and the person you will become.

If you’re excited to travel now check out my Top 3 Travel Tips.

The Bus Ride

May 15, 2014June 1, 2014 Jesse M. Leave a comment

Arriving in India induces immediate sensory overload. Huge crowds, doorless rickshaws, burning trash, spicy foods, abject poverty, animals in traffic, incessant car horns, men holding pinky fingers — everything is different, and baffling, and that’s what’s amazing. By the time I made it to India I was ready for something different in life. So I went seeking new experiences, whatever they might be…not knowing just how big it would deliver.

Golden Temple Causeway

Auto-rickshaw

And you’re afraid of your dentist

Delhi Street

India is a vast, monstrously populous, and diverse place, and I wanted to see it all. So despite feeling queasy from some questionable meals, today would be spent on a bus, traveling from Delhi up to Amritsar in the far north of India.

And there, two hours into an 11-hour bus ride, I literally and completely shit my pants.

And there, two hours into an 11-hour bus ride, I literally and completely shit my pants. In my adult clothes. On a packed, hot bus. With nine hours left in the halting, soggy trip. “Delhi Belly” had got the best of me, and what I thought was an innocent fart turned out to be the most wretched shit of my life. With wide-eyed surprise, my first thought was, “Holy shit – now THIS is a totally new experience.”

You can’t begin to comprehend how LONG those 9 hours felt. Every bump reminded me of how completely I had just shit myself, and how firmly I was past the age of being an adult. The road was already absurdly windy — like a Dr. Seuss cartoon — and the bus driver seemed to take every mountain curve as a challenge to see how far he could make me slide in my own shit. There was no AC to speak of, and the on-board entertainment was a looped recording of Miss Pooja’s latest Indi-pop song, which blared over and over non-stop for the entire trip.

Would anyone notice my dire stench? Would I get thrown off the bus in the middle of Punjab? Could I be arrested for this level of indecency?

I like to tell myself that no one noticed my condition, given the already significant scent of normal India, but there’s no way that’s true. For the remaining nine hours and countless more stops, not a single person tried to sit next to me. Flies materialized out of thin air to swarm around my seat. I was sure the conversations I could hear in Hindi, and Urdu, and Punjabi were all talking about the dude who just shat himself and couldn’t do anything about it. My only solace was a fresh newspaper, which I “borrowed” from the nice man sleeping across the aisle from me to sit on and absorb some of the squish. Since he was already snoring, I decided my ass had more immediate needs for the newspaper than his lap.

Baring threats to my personal safety, it really couldn’t get worse. For NINE HOURS I sat in it, upright and totally alert, giving in to a traveler’s rock bottom. And yet, being sick and fatigued, and wallowing in my own diarrhea was oddly freeing. When you’re reduced to such extremes there’s a weird process of letting go, of touching that void, and reexamining what you really are.

Certain things just aren’t as important once you’ve spent the equivalent of a work-day in your own dump.

When the bus came to its final stop I was free at last to step off into the fresh chaos of an Indian bus station. Luckily for me, I like the taste of motor coach exhaust and the warmth of crushing mobs, so this place was a welcome surprise. While taking in these surroundings I came to terms with my next realization: I was wearing my only pair of pants.

Being well beyond shock at this point, I made it to my hostel with cold, fixed resolve. I barely noticed how all the lights in the city were off, and thought only briefly about the poor soul to sit in the rickshaw after me. The lobby of my hostel was dark, like every other building in town, because Amritsar is prone to rolling power outages. Nevertheless, I made my way to my room to finally be relieved of my stink. After a long, tepid shower I prepared to do some good old-fashioned laundry-by-hand. This wasn’t one of those hotels that sets out a tiny set of soaps and towels either, so I’d be working with whatever was in my bag. So that night, huddled on my knees in the dark, I scrubbed diarrhea from my blue jeans with men’s shampoo and toilet paper squares.
In Fight Club they ask, “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?” I’d like to add, “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never shit your pants?” India will push you to your limits, and probably one soiled pair of blue jeans past them. But that’s a good thing.

We could all use a little crap in our pants to remind us we are human.

Obliterating your comfort zones can be rewarding, and India is full of these delightful new experiences.