YESSSS!!!!! The Broad finally got a show! And it’s coming out every Monday and Weds….Let me know what you think!
Category Archives: Videos
Meet Candace: The Girl Cross Dressing Her Way Across Afghanistan
This is Candace – to local Afghans, Candace looks like a Hazara man. This let Candace get away with a lot. I was a little jealous.
One of the reasons I travel are the people I meet along the way. In Afghanistan I met Candace – a 28 year old Australian of Chinese origin – who about a year and a half ago decided to quit work and travel… cross dressing her way across the most volatile region in the world .
“I thought I’d only be gone for about six months but it’s been a year and a half so far,” Candace said. She started in India, made her way through Pakistan, China and into Afghanistan. Along the way, because of her hair and her style of dress, everyone assumed she was a man… which let her get away with a lot more than any woman could have. Candace and I met up at the Afghan Ski Challenge in Bamiyan where she agreed to be videotaped and, after the jump, she tells us what Afghans really think of white people and which tribe members makes the worst husbands:
Related: Avalanches, Death Threats and No Lifts. Welcome to the World’s Most Dangerous Ski Race
A Happy Homecoming
I obviously love to travel… but I love coming home to Karl Froelich even more. Especially as, every time he sees me again he reacts as if we’ve been separated for years behind the Berlin Wall circa 1982 and are reuniting for the very first time. Again. And again. There’s nothing like being really, lovingly missed. In the video above, I ambush Karl on the street after having been on the road for three weeks (in Afghanistan, Dubai, San Francisco and England)… see the adorably awesome reaction of a small dog who hasn’t seen his mother in three weeks.
After the jump, pics of the reunion:
Forget Sochi: Have Your Own Private Olympics (with Video!)
Photo courtesy of Atos International.
There’s so many reasons not to bother with the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia this year. Let’s count them, shall we?
1. The virulent anti-homophobia that has gripped Russia courtesy of Vladimir Putin (despite the most watched winter sports being dominated by the gays. I’m not here to out anyone but if a dude has custom ice skates on and and a matching lycra outfit, there’s a pretty safe bet to be placed that he won’t be sidling up to any Playboy parties anytime soon).
2. THERE’S NO HOTEL ROOMS – even for the people (media) who let Russian officials know they’d be coming, oh, A YEAR ago. From USA Today:
A stray dog inside the hotel, building dust everywhere and debris scattered all around. That’s what some Olympic-accredited visitors have found on arrival in the mountains above Sochi.According to the Sochi Olympic organizing committee, only six of the nine media hotels in the mountain area are fully operational. The accommodation for athletes, however, has not been affected by the problems.
3. This lady and all her bomb-happy pals – there are apparently, more than five – who are really, really angry at Putin and have threatened to blow some (read: any) shizz up. Oh yeah – and she made it through security.
Run if you see this woman.
4. And let’s not forget the fact that NBC, in an attempt to corral ad dollars into prime time, doesn’t like to run the Olympics live, so by the time you watch the main events they are already on the interwebs and the events the network deems unworthy (like mine and Putins favorite, rhythmic gymnastics) they don’t bother to show at all.
So, my duckies, I present an alternative for you – Chile. In August, all the Olympics skiers train their butts off at Valle Nevado (home of the aforementioned Man Stew) and Portillo ski resorts. Where you can watch Olympians do their things without crowds or bombers… and then party with them later that night.
Meet Penny: The Hedgehog Snatched From the Bowels Of the Bamako Death Market
Penny, the hedgehog snatched from the bowels of the Bamako Death Market
Fun fact: People in the West African country of Mali will say, “The country is 80 percent Muslim, 20 percent Christian but 100 percent Animist.” Which means that everyone carries amulets, “passports” (leather pouches) and rings that are all full of magical potions created by a witch doctor… and that are made with all sorts of animals parts. Which also explains why Mali has almost no wildlife to mention, as every animal has been hunted to the point of extinction (Which is awful, except for the times you are forced to camp on the side of the Niger River in No Man’s Land and have to get up to pee at night. The absence of crocodiles comes in handy then, and only then). The dearth of crocodiles in Bamako is even more ironic as “Bamako” is taken from a Bambara word meaning “Crocodile River”… not so much anymore, just saying.
A stall in the Death Market
The main Witchdoctor (aka Death) Market is in the capital, Bamako, where you can find every animal that roam(ed) the country in a state of decay. There are hippos, hyenas, snakes, birds, dogs, lions… and hedgehogs. All waiting to be ground up into powder, blessed and put into a pouch so the wearer can traverse the Sahara or the Niger safely. For $2 you can videotape the stalls and take pictures – all while trying not to gag on the smell which is… potent, to say the least.
So there I was, in the Middle of the Death Market, when a vendor pointed out a ball of bristles. It was a tiny hedgehog-y ball of life in a sea of death. It freaked me out – I mean come on, can you imagine being stuck in a pile of rotting corpses just waiting for your turn? UGH. So I started haggling and walked away with Penny, the hedgehog, who was a little expensive, but how often can you save a life for $20?
The full story, WITH VIDEO of the rescue and release, after the jump!
Things To Do In Iraq If You’re Mildly Acrophobic: Climb The Spire Of Samarra
The Spire of Samarra
One of the coolest places in Iraq is Samarra – which houses the 9th century Great Mosque of Samarra… and the huge Spire of Samarra, built in 859 by the Abbasid caliph Al Mutawakkil.
Unlike, say, in Rome or some sort of ancient place in the First World where you can only look at things from afar or behind glass, in Iraq, you can climb all over (and up) anything. So, naturally, I did. Despite having a slight case of Acrophobia (fear of heights). Because, really – when am I ever gonna get back to Samarra?
There is an apt saying about this city that comes from the Babylonian myth, “An Appointment in Samarra,” which signifies death – as in “(so and so) has an appointment in Samarra” – meaning you’re gonna bite it. Which has got to be about anyone climbing this thing. Because damn, did I come close. I walked all the way up the spiraling cone (52 meters high and 33 meters wide) up the spiral ramp (with no handrails thank you very much) which got narrower and narrower the higher you got. And don’t even get me started on the wind factor. One stiff breeze and you’re playing Icarus. By the time I got to the top I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. Especially when I ran into Steven on the way up (see video) and there was no way to go around him.
In the Al Qaeda clubhouse – with the Spire in the background.
But I made it. Without vomiting or peeing my pants or anything. I know – I’m as shocked as you are!
I must have gotten down somehow (I’ve blacked it out), and while hanging out in the middle of the the mosque courtyard, I took some pictures with our armed escorts and then was told to “hurry it up.”
“What’s the rush?” I asked, only to be told, “We gotta be out by five – in the evening the local Al Qaeda guys come here and hangout.”
For your viewing pleasure, after the jump, see pics I took from around Samarra and check out the video I took while climbing the Spire.
Eating An Alien Lung At Santiago’s Mercado Centrale
I love a food market, especially a fish market. Fun fact: After 8 surgeries on my ears as a child, my auditory orifices are shot so I can’t go diving. Even if I could, being from Ohio and Kentucky, every time I go snorkeling far from the shore I hear the “Jaws” theme pumping in my head. So, yeah. No scuba masks for me. Instead, I go diving by visiting fish markets. Which suits me just fine – that way I can actually touch the fish and check them out without having them swim away or, you know, bite me. Added bonus: Dry Diving means I also don’t have to worry about a bikini wedgie or that weird rash you get from a wet suit.
Yummy. I swear.
I haven’t been to my dream fish market in Tokyo yet, but the one in Sydney Fish Market was pretty insane – with almost everything in the ocean available to poke, prod and squeeze.
So I was pretty stoked to find the fish market in the Mercado Central in Santiago, Chile. My guide, Fanor (velascofanor@hotmail.com), even introduced me to a new sea specimen I hadn’t even heard of: Piure.
How To Survive High Altitudes (With Bonus Video!)
Coca leaves, I looove you!
I’m usually good up in the mountains – okay fine, there may be a bout or fifteen with HAF*, but nothing a few GasX won’t cure – but holy hell was I not prepared for what was about to happen in Peru or Chile.
High Altitude Sickness kicked in the first time for me in Peru. I was in Cusco at the market – not the big tourist one but the one waaaaay down the hill where the locals go – haggling my ass off over some alpaca skins when suddenly I wanted to die. As in crawl in the ground and call it a day. I got nauseous, light headed, dizzy and blacked out thinking, “THIS is how it’s gonna go down? Here?” I woke up to the guy I was haggling with standing over me and shoving what looked like bay leaves in my mouth.