Everyone everywhere is always trying to tell you how to survive plane trips – the problem is, many times those people are not giving you advice you can actually use, telling you things you already know, or pushing products they got for free (and haven’t actually tried them out over and over. Everything can be great once).
So, after logging in thousands of miles, sometimes days in a row on a plane, I’ve decided to do my own basic list… and I can tell you this: don’t get on a flight longer than seven hours without a sleeping pill, drink lots of water (duh), and these six items will change your life if you have to hop on a long, cylindrical metal tube hurtling through the air. Note: I found, bought and paid for all of these on my own and have tried them out on countless trips.
Yes, I know it’s hot out — summer usually is — but not in Greenland. Ever. And it certainly wasn’t anywhere near hot in April, when I went there to film a story for “A Broad Abroad.” Being terrified of the cold and not exactly a “mountain climber”/hike-outdoors-in-the-snow kind of girl (I am much more an après skier than an actual skier), I was concerned.
(Photo by Corbis/Erik Mace/Yahoo)
So, I checked with some friends and, thanks to their help, was dressed appropriately. In the end, I may have looked like the Michelin man or the kid from A Christmas Story, but I was warm. And this, my friends, is how you dress for the Arctic:
For a good base layer, start out with some solid long underwear like the Women’s MTF4000 Leggings from Hot Chillys. (Photo: Hot Chillys)
Step 1: Base layer — long underwear
You can use any kind of long underwear, but I prefer the Hot Chillys brand — it has fleece on the inside and hidden key pockets and Uniqlo. (It’s cheap. And good.)
A pullover like the Women’s La Montaña Zip-T will keep you nice and warm. (Photo: Hot Chillys)
Step 2: Insulating layer — pullover sweater or fleece
In the Middle Eastern country of Oman, in the ancient northern town of Nizwa, history comes to life every Friday as an ancient, fascinating form of banking takes place.
It doesn’t involve ATMs or bank accounts, but rather livestock.
Since the Queen of Sheba, not much has changed at the Nizwa cattle market, except perhaps the mode of transportation used to get the livestock to market. Standing in the shadow of the Nizwa Fort, hundreds of cattle traders and buyers surround a circular area. Goats, then cows, are paraded around, and a loud, lively bidding process begins.
Photo: Nizwa Fort (Kristina Cafarella)
The fatter cows and goats are sold for meat and the studly ones for breeding, but most of the livestock is sold for investment.
“I will buy this goat today and then sell it for more next week,” a man called Mahmoud said of his most recent purchase, describing a physical version of what modern day traders call flipping.
Mahmoud’s purchase, an adult long-haired goat with one horn that was chewing on his pant leg, set him back $400 — but he was hoping to get $600 for it within the month.
Baby goats with their umbilical cords still attached are snapped up for around 100 rials (at an exchange rate of $3 per rial, that’s expensive). Cows, because they cost more to maintain, are at least six times more.
And high-quality animals can cost more than a car.
Last week a goat sold for the rial equivalent of $6,000, my guide Qais said. “It was a breeder. But most are sold for a few hundred rials, fattened up, and sold again within a few weeks for more money.”
On the southeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula lies an oasis of calm inside the storm of the Middle East: Oman. Named in almost every publication’s 2015 next big destinations list, and despite being perched precariously between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the sultanate is peaceful, religiously tolerant, and welcoming.
Of course I had to go check it out for “A Broad Abroad.”
I wasn’t disappointed.
The waterfront in Muscat. (Photo: Thinkstock)
Small towns dot the country that are straight out of “The Arabian Nights.” Sinbad the sailor was from here, as well as the famed Queen of Sheba — who is rumored to have once had ownership of the Ark of the Covenant. The whole country is like a fairy tale come to life, with hidden oases around every corner. But unlike the leaders of the other Westerner-friendly country on the peninsula — Dubai — Oman’s sultan refused to tear down historical buildings and instead, upon taking power in the 1980s, focused on infrastructure (there are paved roads crisscrossing the land that are so free of potholes my cameraman kept exclaiming, “What is this? Why don’t we have roads like this?”). All new buildings are done to fit in seamlessly with historical structures.
The Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman. (Photo: Thinkstock)
The tallest building in the country, in the capital, Muscat, is only 17 stories high, and although there are modern conveniences, outside of Muscat life goes on much as it has for more than 1,000 years.
I’ve never really thought much about jade. Perhaps it’s because in New York (where I currently reside) there are thousands of jade bracelets for sale on almost every street corner for around $5. That, and I’m not really a bracelet girl.
But I was schooled hard in Mandalay, Myanmar, where I hit the world-famous jade market. Deals for the finest jade have been haggled there for hundreds of years.
While we gear up for Art Basel in Miami – where everyone will OOOH and AHHH over graffiti art in places like Wynwood Walls and in the galleries – the real talent lies south of the border in Oaxaca, Mexico. Here, in almost every street, are miles of graffiti art, intricately painted Alejibres wood sculptures and embroidery most collectors would die for. It is the new Beco de Batman, and the secret of art collectors everywhere. Thank you to The Muddy Boot for taking me on the ultimate art tour of Mexico. Towns visited included Oaxaca and the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, where the masters of the Day of the Dead “carpets” (sculpture made of sand and flowers) reside. In this town, the main road leading from the cathedral to the cemetery is lined with Skeletal graffiti and shops that make special burial carpets – which can cost up to $300 a pop and only stay up for one day (a lot of money when your average annual salary is only $1K a year).
The area also specializes in textiles – hand dyed and hand woven carpets or wall hangings which are intricately embroidered. The process can take a year depending on how large the carpet/hanging is. For anyone who loves art, this is a must see.
In Oaxaca there is also a history of textiles, with finely done embroidery
This doll was in a 500 year old church outside of Guadalajara. Spooky much?
Close up of a Oaxacan Alebrijes Wolf
Mexican Alebrijes wood art
It’s like a Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden album cover
From death to life
The yellow skull face takes up one entire wall
Ole, my lovely Alebrijes toro!
Montezuma’s ultimate revenge
And the butterflies filled the air…
Graffiti art goes to new heights in Zapatita
The fish from the Old Man and the Sea
This skeleton is clearly of the Kardashian line.
The tiny town of Zapitita, Mexico is the capital of Day of the Dead actvities in Oaxaca.
I can’t believe you ate the apple!
Death is a party on Day of the Dead
If Karl were a piece of Oaxacan Alebrijes art, this would be him.
It takes one worker over six months to embroider a plaque like this which is two feet by two feet.
Chichi is cool for so many reasons – chief amongst which is: it has the largest indigenous market in Central America. Clearly, I had to go. And I was not disappointed. Mayans, for miles around, come in every Thursday and Sunday to sell intricately sewn textiles, death masks, chickens, dolls, sweaters, chotchkes, you name it, all at the foot of the 400-year old church of Santo Tomás. The church is built atop a Pre-Columbian temple platform, and K’iche’ Maya priests still use the church for their rituals, burning incense and candles and in really special cases, they burn a chicken for the gods. It’s kind of amazing – especially as I’d assumed all the Mayans died out years ago. I was wrong. Thank God. [Ed note: Mayan rituals are a lot like voodoo rituals – involving chickens, blood, candles, booze, cocaine, leaves and fire. I think it must be a universal fact that pluralist gods liked to party. A lot]. There was also a sick restaurant area in the middle of the market which served the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, hands down. Don’t tell Aunt Dee I said that. She’ll be pissed.
I’m not really a hoarder, I swear. But I do like to buy things that remind me of my trips. And I usually do well – not too much, not too little. But then there’s the stuff that got away. There’s not many things that I regret not purchasing, but there are a few items that I’ve passed up that I still think about. Years later, like some dude who asked me out in my 20’s and I said no and now realize I probably should’ve given him a shot. How effed up is that? Anyhoo – I present the list:
1. The Tuareg ear cuffs. These things are all the rage right now (except they are knock offs being sold by designer labels for hundreds). And I could’ve had them first. UGH. There I was in TImbuktu, haggling my butt off and I just got tired and walked away. I saw a few more cuffs over the next few days, but thought, “I’ll come back.” And then the Civil War started and I had to leave. (Story on that later). It now KILLS me to see them on another woman’s ear. BUT – the woman below is selling hers on Etsy. I suggest you order a pair.
