It Can Get Scary at Times

     Flash floods, broken down cars, insect conventions, robbers of all kinds, and a few other distractions can be part of the Third World experience. These kinds of happenings make such travel both adventurous and dangerous at times. One should not minimize the dangers of independent travel in certain parts of the world. The only question is whether the risks are worth the anxieties. As one who comes down on the side of risk, I still marvel at a few scary events that came along on my journeys around the globe. There were at least two that were clearly life threatening but which I lived through and which became conversation at cocktail parties and items of interest in my book. At the times they occurred, I would have been quite happy to avoid them, yet they have been among my most colorful and interesting stories ever since.

      Quite a few years ago in the Province of Xinjiang in far western China, we were driving over dry, harsh hills toward the capitol of the area after many weeks of touring. We were coming from a town known as one of the most arid places in the world when we encountered a sudden storm that rapidly filled the ancient river bed which ran alongside the temporary, dirt road on which we traveled. It was not very long before the desert scenery was enveloped by dark clouds, heavy rain and the rising river. At one point, the river reached the roadside right in front of us and we faced a choice- either try to drive through a large, growing stream to reach higher ground, or sit there and pray that the rain would stop in the next few moments and we would not go floating down the river as did some other people as well as lots of trees and other flotsam. We decided to forge ahead and the motor stalled right in the ditch before us. We were trapped as the water began to engulf our car.  Fortunately, the driver of a van just ahead of us saw what was happening, got out of his vehicle and tossed a rope to our driver who had made his way to the front of the car. The driver tied it onto the bumper and the van pulled us up to higher ground where we were safe. We lived through the worst moments but were stranded with little food or drink along with dozens of Chinese cars and trucks as the road collapsed before us and behind us. As luck would have it, road workers got through to us two Americans and we were rescued and taken through the desert on a back road to a small city. We felt bad leaving our new Chinese companions stuck where they were but all of our pre-made arrangements required that we do so.    

      The only event that came close to that one was our experience in a van returning us from a rainy visit to Tikal in Guatemala to our hotel in Belize. We left late from the Mayan site and were driving slowly on a muddy and desolate road toward the border. All was fine until we saw a man in the middle of the road. He was wearing a red bandanna and pointing an AK-47 right at the driver telling him to pull over. The driver was clearly very frightened and told us all (we were seven tourists) to do whatever the bandits said and give them whatever they wanted.  The van came to a sudden stop; two men in similar guise came on board carrying machetes and guns which they pointed at each passenger in turn demanding all the valuables we carried. We were glad we had learned not to carry anything of value in our Third World travels, so we had little to lose besides our lives. They moved quickly, took whatever they could and all three quickly disappeared into the jungle alongside the road. It was clear that they did not want to spend any more time in that spot than necessary, and neither did we. No one got hurt and only one passenger had made the mistake of wearing things she valued.

      There were other similar titillating scenarios from an attempted robbery on a back street in a small town in Bolivia to a broken propeller on our houseboat on a river leading into the jungle of Borneo, from attempted pickpocketing in a couple of cities to encounters with folks who were decidedly unfriendly and threatening. These events were all part of taking chances in order to experience the Third World and learn about how others live on our planet. Were they worth it? I am not a mountain climber nor do I plumb the depths of our oceans by diving deep below. So the happenings I describe were about as close as I am likely to get to the adventures of people who seek thrills that way. But I did not pursue such experiences; they just occurred as I journeyed to discover the riches of Third World travel. And that is part of such exploration. You bet it was worth it. I would not trade a single one of those scary episodes for a week at the beach. What would I talk about at cocktail parties?

Onlookers, Pushkar Camel Fair, India

Stretching Your Limits in the Third World

     One does not need to climb mountains or explore deep caves to test personal limits and increase confidence and independence. Travel in the Third World alone offers the opportunity to check out your capacity for survival if you wander about independently and take some chances. One of the main differences in Third World settings and travel in industrialized areas is how much the traveler is protected by the surrounding environment. To put it simply, the Third World does not take care of visitors to the same extent; you are much more on your own. As I write these words, the first image that comes to my mind is a swaying rope bridge I crossed in a remote area in Southeast Asia. A small group of fellow hikers and I were told there was a lovely waterfall on the other side of the bridge so most of us crossed over, obviously one at a time. One man was afraid of heights but he took a chance and went with us. As we crossed, we became aware of an enormous drop below us where the earth had parted many years earlier. We saw the waterfall and made our way back to the main path. The man who feared heights stood on the other side paralyzed by his discovery of the distance to the ground below the bridge. With encouragement, he finally made his way across and we all went traipsing farther along. His trauma was partly due to the absence of any signs indicating that there was a gorge so far below but we all were nervous crossing the swaying, vine-covered structure. I could not help but think about what the last time might have been when an engineer (or even a local townsperson) inspected the bridge we had just risked our lives to cross for the sake of a waterfall. Rope bridges turn up in lots of Third World settings from treks through the Thai countryside to gaps in jungle trails in Indonesia or South America. One either crosses them or misses the fun or the view on the other side.

     Another similar challenge that I recall was boarding ships in Vietnam, Borneo and other places by walking on an exposed plank over water which was either deep or polluted or infested with some undesired inhabitants. I remember a day on the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea when we arrived at a village we wanted to visit and found a thin, fragile wooden bridge at the entrance which crossed a swamp. It looked very unstable and offered only one rope for balance. One crossed it or did not visit that village. After coming so far and being in such a fascinating place, there was really no choice. On another trip, a ride around a lake in Sumatra presented a similar challenge for us and for our car as well. A bridge consisting of a few loosely connected logs and very shaky side rails appeared before us along the road. We got out of the van while our guide helped the driver stay on the logs and we followed along on foot gripping tightly to the unreliable sides. I recall vividly walking along through rice fields in Bali another time and encountering a large log which connected a gap in the path we were on. It looked a bit too challenging for us initially and we debated retracing our steps until a local woman came along from the other direction carrying a large basket of goods on her head. She walked across the log without hesitation or nervousness at all. That inspired us to do the same although with significantly less certainty. We saved backtracking a couple of miles had we not done so. Such bridges and logs and other hazards exist in the Third World in reasonable numbers. The traveler is certain to encounter such obstacles.

      But there are many other challenges along journeys in out of the way places. We have witnessed stones and boulders blocking our path along "highways" in the mountains of Pakistan. We have driven on unpaved, mile high roads around curves with no markings and no way to discern oncoming traffic. We have come close to running out of gas in deserted rural areas where no one made sure there was a supply available anywhere near where we traveled. Of course all of these challenges exist in countries where the medical facilities are often minimal or absent. Should the traveler sustain injuries, he is on his own. That is just the way it is.

     Yet here I am. My wife and I made it through all those challenges and we are better off for the experience. We know that people can survive and even enjoy themselves without all the protections that customarily surround us to make our lives safer and our health more secure. We do not advise timid friends to follow in our path but we attribute much of our travel satisfaction to the confidence we have gained in surmounting such challenges just like the millions of people do every day who live in such places. We have learned that conquering obstacles is good practice for the daily demands of life and helps to keep our usual challenges in proper perspective.

Valle de la Luna, Bolivia