Going off to the Third World to trek through wilderness or visit otherwise remote areas seldom trod by tourists is, for me, the most rewarding travel. Europe has its obvious attractions and allure, but you spend a lot of time rubbing elbows with other tourists. The same is true in the Third World, but only if you visit large cities. In either case, the only local people you`re likely to meet are workers hired to serve you, such as hotel and shop clerks, waiters and waitresses, taxi drivers and tour guides.
Going to the Third World and getting to remote areas, however, is something entirely different, something truly and unforgettably exotic. The farther off the beaten track you get, the more travel amenities you`ll have to forgo, things like air-conditioned rooms, inner-spring mattresses, hot water, telephones and electric lights.
But in trekking to regions seldom visited by Westerners, you`ll be in for a treat. After traveling laboriously to be among exotic people, you turn out to be every bit as exotic to them as they are to you. As a rare foreigner in a remote locale, you at once become an oddity and a celebrity, and local people will seek you out to experience your foreignness. You`ll give yourself the opportunity to mix and mingle with people and cultures you thought existed only in the pages of National Geographic.
After 20 years of roaming the globe as a journalist, much of it in the Third World, I find my most vivid travel memories are from the seldom-visited hinterlands where work has taken me. They include rubbing shoulders with camel-riding Tuareg nomads of the Sahara in Timbuktu; drinking coca tea with the descendants of the Incan Empire along the Bolivian shores of Lake Titicaca 14,000 feet up in the Andes; sitting crosslegged on a floor in front of a roaring fireplace while eating legs of lamb in the desert fortress home of a Baluchi prince in Pakistan; playing cards in lantern light in a thatch-roofed home of a hospitable farm family that took me in during my visit to their jungle village in the Philippines.
Such adventures are not, to be sure, to everybody`s taste. This sort of travel requires a bit more planning and preparation than the standard European tour, and it is not without risks.
First, there is the problem of disease in remote Third World areas. You may be entering regions that harbor such diseases as malaria, typhus, yellow fever or hepatitis. Long before embarking on such a trip, you should go to an immunization clinic that specializes in travel inoculations. Ask what kinds of shots you need, and get them.
And, obviously, if you are on medication at home, be sure to have more than enough of your prescription for the trip, and keep it in a suitably protective water-tight container. You may have difficulty getting the medicine in Third World locales.
When packing clothes for the Third World wilderness, remember that you won`t spend much time lounging in ritzy hotel salons, so don`t take more than one set of fancy duds. On such trips I don`t take anything very fancy; I usually wear a sport coat, tie and nice pair of washable slacks on the airplane. This outfit comes in handy in large cities, where you might need to gain entrance to posher restaurants before or after your adventure in the boonies. The sport coat, too, is handy for carrying travel documents, plane tickets and other odds and ends while getting through airports.
Other than that, I pack only clothing that is appropriate for remote areas. Rugged but comfortable shoes certainly are a must. If I`m going to a tropical climate, I often pack a pair of washable sneakers for slogging through mud, preferably an old pair that can be thrown away before leaving for home.
In fact, if you are really roughing it, don`t be embarrassed to pack old clothes for the journey. Anything you wear is going to take a beating, and you`re not going to impress anybody with your sartorial splendor trekking through a desert or jungle. Besides, you might want to leave clothes behind when you come home to create luggage space for trinkets and trophies.
I prefer to pack chiefly blue jeans for such trips; they`re rugged and comfortable. For places with no laundry service for travelers, jeans wash out and dry easily and look just fine. I take wash-and-wear shirts for the same reason, long-sleeved ones. In cool climates they obviously are warmer, and in hot insect-infested places they offer more protection from sun and bites. For tropical areas I often take along an absorbent sweatband for my head and a few large handkerchiefs for mopping my brow.
It might sound silly, but I also like to carry a baseball cap. They are cool, the visor really is effective, and you can always stuff it in a pocket or a camera bag. Besides, they are extremely well thought of in most parts of the world, much the way American blue jeans are coveted in the Soviet Union. The unlikeliest people will approach you in the unlikeliest places to try to buy your cap or swap it for some local product, so you might consider taking a couple of extras.
Wherever you travel, whether to the Third World or to Europe, don`t overpack. One large suitcase will be adequate for any trip, and if you`re taking along camera equipment, a good camera bag as well. Anything more is a headache in airports, not to mention a backache to carry.
Having said that, I probably am guilty of overpacking. Counting the clothes I`m wearing, I usually take four pairs of slacks, five shirts, six changes of underwear and socks, along with the extra pair of shoes.
As for toilet items, I pack the same things I would for any destination, plus a few extras. I always take a supply of the most powerful insect repellent available, usually in lotion form rather than aerosol because it`s more compact. I also include a good supply of water-purification tablets for places where I don`t trust the water and can`t ensure that it`s boiled properly before drinking. Both items are available at any good pharmacy or outdoor outfitters shop.
I`m blind without eyeglasses, so I almost always take an extra pair. I say almost always, because I forgot the extra pair on a trip to the Andean highlands of Bolivia and promptly stepped on my sole pair in the middle of the night after leaving them beside my cot in an archeological camp. They broke at the bridge, and I spent much of the next two weeks walking around wearing just one lens, looking, I`m sure, very weird. An extra pair of glasses is essential, or, if you wear contact lenses, a spare pair of those.
What partially saved me in Bolivia was having a tube of quick-setting, extra-strong glue. Each night I`d glue the glasses together. Had the break been in a less-critical part of the frame, I`d have been fine for the remainder of my stay. As it was, I usually rebroke the glasses every day while pressing them to the viewfinder of my camera and had to reglue them every night. The glue, however, is often handy for making temporary repairs on all sorts of broken gear, including toothbrush handles.
For much the same reason, a Swiss army knife with screwdrivers, a can opener and a corkscrew are good to have. This sort of trip is what they were invented for, and they truly do get used. I`ve never owned the gargantuan model, which comes with fork and spoon, but I`ve seen other experienced travelers with them, who say they`ve used the fork and spoon often and wouldn`t be without them.
One other thing that comes in handy, even on a luxury tour to civilized places, is a half-dozen Ziploc plastic storage bags. If you have to pack a wet item such as a swimsuit just before getting on an airplane, the rest of your suitcase is protected. If you`re in a tropical climate, they are useful for storage.
I am not much of a photographer and wouldn`t presume to advise others on the subject, other than to recommend taking the most rugged and reliable equipment you have. If it breaks down in a remote area, you simply are out of luck.
A photographer`s vest with lots of pockets is a good investment because it keeps the weight of your gear evenly distributed and frees your hands for hiking over rough terrain. A roomy camera bag is a necessity for me because I pack all my camera gear and film into it while traveling on planes. That way expensive gear will never disappear with lost luggage, and I can insist that it all be examined by hand at airport security gates so the film isn`t damaged by X-rays.
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I also like to take along a Polaroid camera and plenty of film when going into the hinterlands. The natives in developing countries often are wary and downright offended by Westerners snapping their photographs. You often can appease them by snapping their pictures with your Polaroid and offering a print on the spot.
Other essentials for the boondocks usually can be picked up in larger towns and cities anywhere in the world before you head out: toilet paper, soap, towels, a flashlight and spare batteries, and candles. I always have a good book and a deck of cards with me, too, to while away idle moments.
Obviously you`re going to have to eat during your adventure. If you`re on an organized tour, you probably will be well provisioned. Even so, if your means of transportation into remote areas allows you to take a little extra along, you might want to shop the local markets for a small cache of emergency rations. You may run into a meal now and then that you deem wholly unpalatable. I try to grab some tinned food such as sardines, salted nuts, biscuits, peanut butter and a small jar of instant coffee. Such a cache has more than once kept me from going to bed hungry.
While in the boonies, I try to keep one complete set of clean clothes in reserve throughout the adventure. That way when the trek is over and I arrive back in a real city with real amenities, I can wash away the grime of the trip in a hot shower and put on something fresh to wear to a good restaurant. The feeling is terrific.
Most people on a trip to a remote area will be on an organized tour led by experienced guides well versed in languages and customs. If you`re contemplating such a trip but aren`t on an organized tour, be careful. This is especially true if you, like me, are not multilingual. Don`t blunder into a remote area of the Third World without a congenial guide who can also serve as an interpreter. First, you might find yourself in a place where nobody speaks your language and, if nothing else, find yourself sorely lonely after a few days. Also, listen to your guide while traveling because you might naively and innocently violate local customs and suddenly find yourself in trouble or perhaps even real danger.
A friend and I, for example, once were stoned-as in having rocks thrown at us-in a mountain village in southern Mexico. Our crime was that we were rich foreigners who, unaware of local protocol, did not ask permission of local officials to photograph the bustling village market during its weekly market day. We quickly stopped shooting pictures, of course, and once we had spoken with some local people, I brought out my Polaroid and handed out a dozen or so instant prints. After that, we were welcome, but we could have avoided a dicey situation had we come with a knowledgeable guide in the first place.
All of which is to say that the most important thing to take with you to remote areas is an abundant supply of humility. Reaching hard-to-get-to places to see people and cultures that few outsiders will ever see is, in the end, a fantastic privilege, one that mandates the Golden Rule: ”Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” No matter where you go, no matter the circumstances of the meetings, if you treat your hosts with simple human dignity, you will be a welcome guest and the recipient of unforgettable memories.