Going Full Nomad in Mongolia – It Can be Done!

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Pfro

This summer, I fulfilled a lifelong dream: visiting Mongolia. I’d read about Genghis Khan and his conquests for years and had always wanted to visit — a bucket list dream come true, if you will. I decided to do a road trip, as, 800 years after the Great Khan died, over one-third of the population still leads a nomadic lifestyle, living in gers (yurts), with their cattle (camels, cows, goats, and yaks) roaming the fields outside. Not much has changed over the years except for the method of transportation. In the older days, the ger would be wrapped up and put on a camel’s back for the move to fertile fields, while today, it is loaded up on a truck.

How to Be a True Nomad: Milking Camels in Mongolia

My chariot on the ultimate Mongolian road trip — an old-school, soviet-style van with no shocks and no seat belts. (Photo: Paula Froelich)

And, as there are few hotels outside of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, one must rely on the Nomad Code to survive. Which basically means rolling up on an unsuspecting family and asking to spend the night.

My guide, Timor from Intrepid Travel, explained.

“If someone comes to your door, you must give them food and shelter,” Timor said. “Or they might not survive. And the next time you are traveling, they will give you shelter — or you might not survive.”

Welcome. Yurts, or gers, like this are seen throughout the country. (Photo: Paula Froelich)

The first ger we rolled up to was outside of the singing sand dunes. It had been a long day and I had climbed a 50-meter-high sand dune. I was hungry, dirty, and tired. Thankfully, Ankhaa, the owner of the yurt, was hospitable.

Ankhaa in his ger, looking very Jean Paul Gaultier. (Photo: Paula Froelich)

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WATCH: The Hunt for the Louisiana Swamp Monsters

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Pfro

According to Cajun legend, deep in the Louisiana Swamp is the Rougarou — a large, werewolf-like half-man, half-beast creature who preys on people who venture too far into its terrain.

WATCH: The Hunt for the Louisiana Swamp Monsters

Photo (modified) by Angie Garrett/Flickr. Design by Lauren DeLuca for Yahoo Travel.

Regarding this legendary beast, History.com says, “The Cajun legend of the Rougarou can take on multiple forms. Originally derived from French stories of the ‘loup-garu,’ or ‘wolf man,’ the monster is most commonly described as a bayou-dwelling werewolf with glowing red eyes and razor-sharp teeth. The beast is usually said to be a cursed man who must shed another’s blood in order to break its spell and reassume human form, but the tale varies according to the teller. In some versions, the Rougarou can turn its victims just by locking eyes with them; in others, it takes the form of a dog or pig rather than a wolf. Still others paint it as a shape shifter that can assume different human and animal forms at will. Because it can switch its appearance so easily, some even conflate the creature with the legendary Skunk Ape of southeastern U.S. swamp lore. In most Louisiana parishes, the Rougarou myth is employed as a kind of cautionary tale. Children are told that the fiend will come for them if they don’t behave, and Catholics are warned that it hunts down those who break Lent.”

A rougarou on display at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. (Photo: praline3001/Flickr)

Since I was in that neck of the woods, I decided to try and see it for myself and check out another supposedly tall tale — the ginormous DinoGator, an alligator that measures up to 50 feet long. Think Lake Placid on steroids.

Ready for my monsters.

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Americana Rules! Inside The Best Little Carnie Museum In Louisiana

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Pfro

I love Americana. The Big Ball of String versus the Largest Ball of Twine? Yes please! Every state has its oddities and awesomeness. Texas has The Beer Can House in Houston, Washington has the ginormous Milk Bottles in Spokane, California has the Cabazon Dinosaur statues, Oregon has the largest Paul Bunyon statue and Louisiana has… the Abita Mystery House.

On the road from New Orleans, LA, to Biloxi, MS, is the small town of Abita Springs, where John Preble set up his popular and odd roadside attraction, the Abita Mystery House.

WATCH: Americana Rules! Inside The Best Little Carnie Museum In Louisiana

The entry to the Abita Mystery House.

Open for over 15 years, the “Mystery House” – also known as the UCM Museum, is a maze of buildings, starting with a vintage gas station (now a gift shop – more on that later), a hot sauce house that is home to every kind of hot sauce in the world (supposedly), and an exhibition hall which houses miniature small town scenes that poke fun at traditional Southern life including Mardi Gras parades, UFO landings, alligator wrestlers, Carnivals and more.

But the real precious items are in the House of Shards – where real live carnival exhibits, once seen on the road and believed by millions to be genuine artifacts are on display.

The original Merman!

Mixed in with a huge “Bassigator” (a fearsome looking half bass, half alligator animal that needs to appear in a SciFi movie stat), and a “real life UFO landing!” that consists of an airstream trailer with aliens plotting world destruction on the inside, are the old time fortune telling booths. Pop in a quarter and you get your fortune – which usually exhorts you to spend more money, naturally.

Leroy has some serious chompers.

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My New Hero: This Lady Saved 300+ People During Hurricane Katrina

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Pfro

When many people think of Hurricane Katrina, they think of New Orleans — but the Big Easy wasn’t the only place devastated by the storm. Ten years ago, right as the hurricane came ashore, it made a sharp right turn and headed straight for the Mississippi Gulf Coast — plowing into towns like Pass Christian, Ocean Springs, and Biloxi.

Few people in Ocean Springs, Miss., expected Katrina to be so strong.

Hero: This Hotel Manager Saved 300 People During Katrina

Donna Brown, the hero of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Photo: Mario Framingheddu.

“We’d lived through other hurricanes before,” Donna Brown, the manager of the Gulf Hills Hotel, said. “But, as the hotel is on high ground, we always were full during the storm alerts from neighbors. Every room was full that night. But nobody expected it to be as bad as it was.”

The Gulf Hills Hotel, which housed over 300 people after Hurricane Katrina. During the storm, the entire golf course and everything surrounding the hotel — with the exception of the hotel itself — were underwater. (Photo: Courtesy of Gulf Hills Hotel)

As the water started to rise, Brown ordered everybody inside. During the major surge — with a wall of water coming toward the hotel and everything surrounded — she saw a family struggling to survive.

“It was a family from down the hill,” Brown said. “Four elderly adults and two dogs in a small boat. One man was trying to lead the boat, the dogs were in the boat, and the others were hanging off the boat.”

Brown quickly organized a human chain and dragged the people to safety.

“They stayed with us for months,” Brown said.

The banquet hall normally hosted weddings, but more than 120 people slept on its floor for over three months after Katrina. People slept on old blankets at first, until Walmart donated pallets and cots. Because it wasn’t a designated shelter, the Red Cross and government agencies wouldn’t donate supplies. (Photo: Courtesy of Gulf Hills Hotel)

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Inside New Orleans’ House of Dance and Feathers

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Pfro

Tucked away in the Lower Ninth Ward, just blocks from where the levee broke, is a unique museum, even for New Orleans. Located in a building in the back of 1317 Tupelo Street is the House of Dance & Feathers — a rough-and-tumble museum dedicated to the Mardi Gras Indian tribes. Founded by Ronald Lewis, the head of the Choctaws, the museum is full of feathered headdresses, intricately beaded chest plates, glittery costumes and, in the corner, a case of water worn shoes, that, despite the wear, still hold their fabulousness.

“Those were my shoes that were all ruined by Katrina,” Lewis said. “Ostrich, alligator — thousands of dollars of my good shoes just ruined. I used to wear them during the parades, but now I place them there to remind people of what was lost. They’re still too nice to throw away.”

10 Years Post Katrina, NOLA’s House of Dance & Feathers Dances Back to Life

Lewis hand-beaded this chest plate and saved it from Katrina.

Ten years ago when Katrina hit, Lewis’ home and museum were covered in flood waters.

“I lost pretty much everything that I didn’t take with me,” he said. “I grabbed these beaded works and a few other things, and my wife and I fled. When I came back it was all gone.”

Lewis and his wife spent almost a year with family in Thibideaux, La., before coming back to New Orleans and rebuilding from the ground up — with help from “the great people of America.” Lewis, like many families in the Ninth Ward, didn’t receive direct compensation from the government or the Red Cross. “Fortunately, I was on NPR and so donations came in,” he said. “Don’t get me started on the government ‘funds’ or the Red Cross.” He shakes his head. “I don’t like to dwell on bad feelings.”

Just last month, Lewis finally put the finishing touches on his house and museum.

Ronald outside his museum. (Photo: House of Dance & Feathers)

“I’m trying to keep this culture alive. It started in slavery, when the slaves were allowed out on Sundays — the only day they could congregate — to Congo square and they would beat the drums with the Indians. We learned form the Indians and started our own tribes — which march in Mardi Gras and in weekly parades from September to May.”

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Raging Out in Sidney Which Got Wild And Weird for Vivid (not the Porn Company)

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Pfro

For two and a half weeks in late spring every year, Sydney takes over the mantle of City of Light (sorry, Paris). The city-wide Vivid Light festival transforms Sydney “into a wonderland of ‘light art’ sculptures, innovative light installations, and grand-scale projections for all to enjoy — for free,” promises the website. “It is a magical celebration of light-design excellence and the world’s largest outdoor ‘art-gallery’: a unique Vivid Sydney experience.”

And it is wild. The facades of public buildings appear to come alive — taken over by (video) vines and (projections of) the ocean. Forests of fluorescent trees sprout up by the waterfront and musical steps that rival that famous scene in the movie Big are everywhere.

It is magical, transformative, and fun. If you’ve ever wanted to go to Australia, book your ticket for the end of May so you can check out Vivid. It is worth every free penny.

The Stolen Generation: Australia’s Dark and Tragic Past

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Pfro

Imagine this: You have a child playing in your front yard. As you watch through the window, a van of policemen pulls up. They walk past your front gate and take your screaming child away. You never see your child again.

And it’s all legal.

The Stolen Generation: Australia’s Dark and Tragic Past

This man never knew his real family.

Aboriginal pupils in the junior class of St. Joseph’s Catholic Mission school at Hammond Island. (Photo: Alan Lambert/The AGE/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

This is what happened to Deanne Kenyon’s grandfather and countless other Aboriginals in Australia from 1906 up until the 1970s — all because of the color of their skin. Children who were very dark were allowed to stay with their parents, causing many indigenous people to dye their children’s skin dark using the sap of the milkwood tree. But if a child looked as if he had any white ancestry, he was taken away. Some, if they were white enough, were adopted by white families, but the majority were sent to harsh missionary schools, where they were purged of their history, past, and memories and taught how to “fit in” to white Australian society.

Aboriginal Elder Nancy Hill-Wood from Sydney holds a protest banner in front of Old Parliament House on February 11, 2008 in Canberra, Australia. Aborigines arrive in Canberra for apology to the stolen generations. (Photo: Andrew Sheargold/Getty Images)

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How to Swim With Crocodiles

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Pfro

Because, boys and girls, this could actually come in handy. I swear. for full croc awesomeness:

Inside the Cage of Death: Swimming With Australia’s Monster Crocs

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Pfro

Ever since I was a child, I’ve had both an obsessive fascination and fear of saltwater crocodiles. They are one of the only creatures alive today that have been around since the prehistoric time of the dinosaurs — in fact, they are considered by some to be living dinosaurs. Since coming back from the brink of extinction in the mid-20th century, anyone venturing into the Australia’s northern territory can see one … just look on the river banks — or the beaches (crocodiles have been known to surf the waves around Darwin, not kidding). But considering they are expert stealth predator, and several people die every year from croc attacks, how close can you get? Pretty close, it turns out.

WATCH: Inside the Cage of Death: Face to Face With Australia’s Monster Crocs

Yes, you can get this close. And yes, it is terrifying.

But before I hit something called the Cage of Death, I’m going to ease into it. Outside of Darwin, on the banks of the Adelaide River, are the Jumping Croc Cruises, where for $30 dollars you can hop on a flat-bottomed boat with roughly 20 other tourists (no dogs allowed, for obvious reasons) and cruise down the muddy river looking for crocodiles, preferably at feeding times (late morning or evening).

This guy was about 20 feet long … and very hungry.

Boat staff on the boat lure crocs from the riverbanks by attaching red meat to fishing lines and tapping the water with it.

“They feel the vibration in the water and come,” said our baiter, Kyla. “We like to make them jump so they work for their food and burn some calories. The exertion it takes for them to jump cancels out the calories from the meat, so they do still have to hunt in the wild.”

Crocs on the cruise jump as high as five feet for meat — and have been known to jump even higher.

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Everything in Australia Wants to Kill You

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Pfro

Everything in Australia Wants to Kill You

Photo by 167/Brooke Whatnall/Ocean/Corbis. Design by Erik Mace for Yahoo Travel.

It’s a weird, fun fact that as beautiful as it is, everything in Australia wants to kill you. Or at least hurt you real bad. Take, for example, spinifex, the tall grass that grows throughout the desert plains. From far away it looks soft and supple – swaying in the wind.

But this is no Andrew Wyeth bed of grass: spinifex has spikes, thorns, and when it’s dried out it is so strong it can pierce most flip-flops. At least you will (presumably) survive spinifex barbs in your foot. Which is more than I can say for pretty much everything else in Australia.

Paula, risking it all in Australia. (Photo: A Broad Abroad)

There are too many to list. Camels in heat will bite your head off? YES THEY WILL! Kangaroos may try to eviscerate you with one back claw judo swipe? HECK, YES THEY WILL! That cute fluffy looking bird will try to peck your eyes out? YOU BET IT WILL!

So I decided to keep it simple and compiled the top 10 things that will kill you — just in case you happen to head to the land down under and need to know the worst things to look out for.

But you may want to travel in a bubble suit, just in case.

Related: G’Day, Mate! How to Speak Australian

Tales And Tips From Around The Globe