In this Issue: Dance to the Beat of Mongolian Bling & Paddling Through the Laos Rainforest

This month we are featuring three stories based in East and Southeastern Asia and Central Africa – Mongolia, the Congo, Laos and Bhutan. Also be sure to visit our site for a visual blog by Congo Wildlife Adventures. While you’re there, learn more about the launch of a Mountain Protection Label, the Henderson Island Seabird Conservation Effort, and the Top 10 Developing Countries for Sustainable Adventure Tourism – a great article put together by our friends at whl.travel. We have also posted a video submitted to Oprah’s “Your OWN Show” of a Travel Talk Show Hopeful, check it out, you’ll be

Interviews and Personal Adventures

Special Features

Dance to the Beat of Mongolian Bling

Ask any youth from the Western hemisphere to name their favorite hip hop artists and they will probably rattle off a few names that come to mind. Ask their parents and grandparents and you would likely be met with a blank stare. Younger generations have come to assume that this culture gulf is wide and incapable of being bridged.  Nasanbat, a 52 year old Mongolian woman, however, can name the first hip hop song that became popular in Mongolia, a few of the bands and artists around town, and is probably more tuned into the industry than any Western youth. She is not the exception. In fact, in Mongolia, older generations know all about hip hop.

Hip Hop in Mongolia is largely of Western influence. As Mongolia struggled to gain independence from the Qing Dynasty, it began to be heavily influenced by its neighbor to the north, Russia which at the time was a socialist state (USSR). With the end of socialism and the start of a democratic revolution in the early 90s, the people of Mongolia began to explore their freedoms of expression and long for identity. Traditionally rooted as a strong music culture – it should be no surprise that they turned to music. Enter hip hop.  Enter Mongolian Bling.

Planning a year long journey throughout Asia, Benj Binks decided to document it. After taking a short film course, he was equipped to begin the voyage. Plans changed however as he remembered the hip hop music he had heard while working on the Trans-Siberian Railway. It was good, it was different. So Benj began to seek out the story, he began to understand the people behind these hip hop songs and he was there as hip hop went through a transformation, “There have been some interesting changes since I spent time there three years ago, you still see a lot of Western influence but there has been a ‘Mongoliazation’ of American music. They have adapted it to suit their culture. Yeah you still seem some pretty commercial music, but there is a lot with social and political commentary. It doesn’t hurt that their language suits hip hop extremely well.” So instead of documenting a year long journey, Mongolian Bling became Benj’s main focus. To provide expertise in their respective fields, cameraman Nacho and sound recordist, Steve came along.

Some artists like to think that hip hop actually originated in Mongolia. Throat singing has been a strong part of Mongolian culture since the Chinggis Khaan period (known more commonly in the West as Genghis Khan). Throat singing also known as overtone chanting allowed the Mongolian shamans who practiced it to create multiple pitches simultaneously when chanting producing similar beats to hip hop.

Much of the film focuses on Mongolian identity which begins to raise questions among viewers and their own personal identity. Benj, a native Australian, commented, “In Australia, white people have only been there for a couple hundred years, before aboriginal people occupied the land, but there is little evidence of their influence. Now compare this to Mongolia, their culture has been in existence for over 800 years. It makes you question your own background, I almost feel homeless. Westerners fantasize about the East, but complain about mobile phones being in these secluded areas. So how exactly do you maintain a culture but continue progressing? I think the Mongolians have found an answer and they are doing it very well.”

Be sure to check out Benj’s documentary later this year and also visit his website for up-to-date release information and previews: http://www.mongolianbling.com/

Or join the Facebook group here

Check out Benj’s other projects at http://www.benjbinks.com/

If you’re visiting Mongolia and would like to soak in a bit of their music scene, a few recommended bars and venues in Ulaanbaatar include UB Palace, Ikh Mongol (meaning Great Mongolia), and a pub called Grand Khaan.

If you would like a taste of Mongolian hip hop, check out some of the artists featured in Mongolian Bling: Gee, Gennie, and Quiza

Pinning Kingo’s Ultimate Survival on Sustainable Tourism

First published in the ATTA’s Adventure Travel News in March 2010

By Leslie Nevison, Director, Mama Tembo Tours

Kingo, a 300 pound (140 kilogram) Western lowland gorilla silverback, and his six wives and children, live in the protected rainforest of Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the northern Republic of Congo near its border with the Central African Republic. Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) began habituating Kingo fifteen years ago. At the time, gorilla research had been restricted to Rwanda’s and Uganda’s mountain gorillas, and very little was known about lowland gorilla behavior in the wild.

Compared to their mountain kin, lowland gorillas occupy remote and swampy forests and are hard to find. Wary by nature, they disappear in an instant at the first hint of danger. As unhindered observation is crucial to any wildlife study, habituation is a necessary scientific tool. With Kingo, habituation took ten years. Yet, creating this bond of trust with Kingo leaves him vulnerable to a human encroacher with violent intentions.

Just outside of Kingo’s Kingdom, a mere 16 square kilometer forested triangle, the surrounding forests are crisscrossed with logging roads. Logging, unless practiced responsibly, results in habitat loss. Logging roads also allow access to commercial poachers. Gorilla meat is highly prized in Central Africa in the misguided belief that it brings status and power. On a less critical note, any forest bush meat – gorilla, chimpanzee, mangabey, and antelope – is the means for growing human populations living on the shrinking boundaries of Central Africa’s forests to subsist.

Diseases such as ebola, habitat loss, and the bush meat trade are the leading threats to the remaining numbers of lowland gorillas in Central Africa. The good news is that the WCS released new findings in 2009 that put the number of lowland gorillas in Central Africa as higher than was thought. Gorillas make simple sleeping nests in the crowns of trees every night. Working from a morning count of these nests, scientists believe (and hope) that over 100,000 gorillas are holding on in the forests of Northern Congo. Even if this number is optimistic, it supports the need to push forward with conservation plans.

Kingo’s ultimate survival is pinned on sustainable tourism. When science is complete, visitors, only two at a time, will be (and must be) Kingo’s primary means of support. Kingo was first introduced to the world, fully habituated, in 2007, and since then he has become famous in writing, news reporting, photography, and nature film making circles. A great many of his guests have come from among these professions. But 2010 brings change. Although science will continue for years to come, WCS has established formal tourism guidelines and improved infrastructure and Congo Wildlife Adventures was launched by MTT Inc as the first ever ground operation in Brazzaville to facilitate visits for everyone to Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, and beyond to Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the neighboring Central African Republic.le viewing platform

Undeniably, Kingo is Nouabale’s showcase.

David Attenborough has said “There is more meaning in exchanging glances with a gorilla than with any other animal I know.”

But there is much more to this travel experience too. The forests of the Congo Basin comprise the world’s largest rainforests after those of the Amazon Basin. They are therefore among the last of their kind on the planet, and of remarkable biodiversity. Kingo shares his kingdom with elephants, buffaloes, leopards, chimpanzees, birds, and ten species of monkey. And while it remains adventurous travel to get to the forests, they are now accessible.

Travel here means to walk in pristine forest of towering hardwoods amid whining cicadas; to pole a pirogue along tributaries and streams of the Congo River; to observe wild gorillas at forest clearings; and to spend time with the Ba’Aka, the indigenous pygmies who have been the foundation of Central Africa’s conservation programs from the beginning, for without their preternatural relationship with and their knowledge of the forest and its wildlife, habituating the timid Western lowland gorillas would never have happened. There is a poignancy to the traveler’s encounter with the Ba’Aka because these men once hunted gorillas or tracked gorillas for others to hunt. Now they work as trackers for scientists and forest guides for tourists. It is easier to keep wildlife alive if men who hunted in the past for their livelihood earn a salary guiding you through the forest.

Beyond Nouabale’s forests, construction of a new road under a Chinese contractor is in progress which will link the north of the country and Nouabale’s once isolated forests to its capital Brazzaville. There is the worry that the road will serve as a conduit for the movement of contraband forest products. WCS worries how little time they have to establish a viable sustainable tourism program (perhaps no more than five years) in light of the enormous pressures from outside business interests. With so few roads in the Republic of Congo, and where internal air travel is costly and unreliable, improved infrastructure is a positive development. This road can certainly ease the way for Nouabale’s tourism, becoming another way that travelers can more easily travel back and forth to Kingo.

You can be a part of Nouabale’s new beginnings in sustainable tourism. You can be among the first to arrive.

Hike & Paddle through the Laos Rainforest and Raft through Buddhist Culture in Bhutan

Sixteen days may be two over your allotted yearly vacation time – but take those two unpaid – because when you join the expert leadership of John Yost, co-founder of Mountain Travel Sobek, to experience the remote rainforests of Laos and the ancient traditions of Bhutan, you won’t regret it. Yost has put together a trip traversing both South Asian countries that combines high quality adventure alongside true cultural immersion. Depending on the season, you will learn to cultivate rice, how to fish Laos style, and about the intricacies of silkworm weaving and production.

Paddling to the Locals in Laos

Laos is landlocked in a raucous neighborhood; surrounded as it is by Vietnam, Burma, China, Thailand, and Cambodia.  Two-thirds of the population live in rural areas and rely on farming, and it’s with these families that you will sometimes stay after a long day of paddling.  Check out the Lanten village of Ban Nam Khoy for an idea of what to expect.

Soaking in the Culture of Bhutan

After spending six days exploring Laos and a short respite in Bangkok, you arrive in Bhutan. A country that measures success by Gross National Happiness, a term coined by their former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck to preserve Buddhist spiritual values as they began develop and modernize aspects of their nation. In Bhutan, the expedition will take you up steep climbs to reach monasteries and fortresses built in the 15^th century but with practices dating back further. Some such monasteries include Cheri Monastery, or Goemba and Tango Goemba. After a few days of hiking, enjoy whitewater rafting in class III/IV rapids in the Mo Chhu valley.

Trip dates are set for Nov 20-Dec 5. Be sure to call 1-888-MTSOBEK (687-6235) and reserve your spot. You can also book a reservation online at their website (www.mtsobek.com). If you prefer to use a travel agent, he or she can book your trip at no extra cost and provide other helpful assistance.

Be sure to check out other stories Off the Radar has featured about Laos: Tubing the Nam Song River, flat tires, and a trip from Vietnam to Laos

Photo Contest

June, 2010 Photo Contest

This month see if you can name the airline whose name means “Dragon” that flies under this fiery logo. Be the first to send an e-mail to editor@travelofftheradar.com with the correct answer and we will send you some sweet Eagle Creek gear.

Last Month

Congratulations to Tom Wilson of Burlington, VT for correctly identifying Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires last month.

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