Guest Nomad: Festivals for Pyromaniacs

This week’s “Guest Nomad” is  Lauren Girardin. Lauren recently traveled around the world, sharing stories, photography, and original artwork on Ephemerratic along with Todd Berman, an artist and nomadic educator. When Lauren isn’t traveling, she uses her marketing and communications, web design, storytelling, and strategic planning skills for good causes. You can follow Lauren and Todd on Twitter @ephemerratic.

To most backpackers, Burning Man may be the best known festival involving massive displays of things on fire. But, if you can’t get to the Nevada desert, the world has plenty of other quirky, folksy festivals perfect for pyromaniacs.

Zurich’s Sechseläuten: Burning the Böögg

For the pyromanical tourist, the highlight of Zurich’s Sechseläuten celebration is the burning of the Böögg, a 11-foot tall snowman effigy packed with straw, cotton, and explosives perched atop a towering bonfire of kindling.

There are a host of events during the Sechseläuten weekend, most involving Swiss citizens dressed up in medieval getups parading around town, and armies of horses, camels, and children.

The day of the burn, the Böögg is erected facing the clock face on the Church of St. Peter, so he can watch his final hours tick away. As the city bells ring at 6:00 pm, the townsfolk light the bonfire.

The Böögg dies when its head, stuffed with fireworks, explodes. The faster the cranial combustion, the more warm and sunny the upcoming summer will be. Afterwards, crowds of locals settle in along the Limmat River for barbecues of wursts cooked over piles of the Böögg’s glowing embers.

2010 Sechseläuten: April 18-19

Antigua’s La Quema del Diablo: Burning the Devil

A mix of the pagan and the Christian, La Quema del Diablo is an annual purification ritual that heralds the Christmas season in Guatemala. Though a country-wide celebration, the best place to enjoy the flammable festival is in Antigua, located in Guatemala’s south-central highlands.

In order to cleanse themselves of evil, bad luck, and household clutter, locals set fire to mounds of junk and trash that has accumulated over the year. Town priests at the Convent of La Conception set ablaze a larger symbolic papier-mâche devil, giving Lucifer a taste of his own damnation by hellfire.

After the night of fire, the locals will be purified for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a big day for devotees of the Virgin Mary. La Quema del Diablo ends with smoke, ashes, and the devil banished until next year.

2010 La Quema del Diabolo: December 7

Cheung Chau’s Bun Festival: Burning the Ghost King

Each year, the rural island of Cheung Chau near Hong Kong hosts a huge annual Taoist festival to chase out evil spirits and pestilence. Loud Chinese Opera performances, thundering drums, vegan meals, a mad scramble up a tower in search of buns, and of course, the burning an effigy are all part of the ghost-banishing festival.

The Bun Festival culminates in the burning of a 20-foot tall paper effigy of Taai Si Wong, the Ghost King. Like a Pied Piper of the dead, the Ghost King is first paraded around the village in hopes that all ghosts will follow the Ghost King.

At midnight Taoist priests perform the Great Offering to Ghosts rite, singing and chanting before sending the ghost King back to the underworld by setting it on fire.

Unless you’re suspicious, women should attend in masculine disguise, since tradition says for a woman to see the face of the Ghost King is considered bad luck for a her family.

2010 Bun Festival: May 1

Tags: Antigua, burining the boogg, burning man, burning the devil, cheung chau, la quema del diablo, nomad, Travel, Zürich

Book Review – Imagine: A Vagabond Story

One of the perks that comes along with this website is the occasional free piece of travel literature that arrives at my doorstep. I have had a few that bored me to tears and put me to sleep, while others left me wanting to pack my bags and get on the first flight out of JFK to any far-off destination after reading them.

Imagine: A Vagabond Story is without a doubt the latter. Grant Lingel was like many lost and confused college graduates that had really no idea where the next chapter of their lives would take them. Being locked away in some dank cubicle for the rest of your life can often times be just as bad as a life sentence in a maximum security prison for people with the travel bug.

Grant decided that he wanted more out of life and by more that meant packing his bags and heading off to Mexico. Sounds crazy right? Well it is, but in a good way. This guy truly is a nomad! Imagine documents his time spent not only in Mexico, but also Belize and Guatemala. Three locales that are filled with great characters Grant meets along the way.

Grant has described the book as “a memoir of sex, drugs, and salsa dancing.”  This truly is remarkable story about an extremely spur of the moment kind of guy that makes some amazing friendships along the way.

From start to finish I was loving this book. Now while I will not give away any juicy details of Mr. Lingel’s escapades that occur quite often throughout the book, I am sure that you will definitely drop your jaw a few times at some of the trouble (both good and bad) he finds himself in. Let’s just say it is not every day you find yourself on a beach in the middle of the night with three women. Enough said.

On that note, be sure to head on over to the official website of Imagine: A Vagabond Story for more information or visit Amazon.com to purchase a copy. Trust me you if you love travel (and I would hope so or why else would you be here) then it is surely something you will enjoy as well.

Tags: Antigua, grant lingel, guatamala, imagine: a vagabond story, mexico, Travel

Book Review: Patients Beyond Borders

As a freelance writer I am privy to many cool perks when it comes to my job. I set my own schedule, barely ever wake up before 8am (unless I am on assignment) and can take that three way weekend at the last minute if I feel like it. Oh and then there are the real goodies. From reduced and sometimes complimentary travel, to articles written about my website on top media outlets like New York Times & Travelocity. Oh yeah, travel writing as a means for living (or sometimes surviving) in New York is something I particularly enjoy. But one thing I do not get with my gig is health insurance.

Yes, like some estimated 46 million people living in the United States of America, I am without insurance. So when I need to do anything from dental work to blood tests it comes right out of the ol’ nomad piggy bank. I am often puzzled at why such a great country like the U.S.A. is without a universal health plan. I mean shouldn’t my country care about ALL Americans and not just a select few that are “lucky enough” to afford or get insurance through their job?

Well with President Obama in the news a lot lately concerning his plan to overhaul the way in which this country deals with health insurance, I figured that it was the perfect time to talk about a great book that I came across a few weeks ago.

Patients Beyond Borders is a fascinating guide to affordable world-class travel. Well I’m sold. Okay maybe I wasn’t sold that quickly, but after going through this nearly 400 page book, it indeed changed my opinion about getting medial procedures done outside my country.

I must admit that I have had work done overseas. While on my last trip to Poland, which is well known for it’s amazing dentistry, I had some work done at an insanely high tech, super clean, and very professional dentist office. I was blown away with some of the gadgets this dentist was packing. Stuff that would make my dentist back in the States drool. After I had all of my work done it costs me about $325 (roughly 1,100 Polish zloty)! The same procedure would have cost me easily $3,000 back in the United States.

Now this is not a bash USA article, as I am a true blue American that loves my country and would not want to live anywhere else. It is just that I am frustrated with the way my government has dropped the ball and mistreated so many hard working citizens. They have turned their citizen’s health into big business.

What makes author Josef Woodman’s Patients Beyond Borders so enjoyable, and why I think you need to pick up a copy, is that not only is it informative and very well put together, but it is also an extremely easy and enjoyable read. This is not some boring and dry medical book. Some interesting features in the guide include:

• This completely revised book provides information on the world’s best international hospitals and clinics. Patients Beyond Borders locates the top overseas hospitals, including fully American-accredited clinics in 21 countries.
• By reading this book, you can save anywhere from 30-80% on most medical procedures.
• Assist you with working with health travel agents.
• A comprehensive “Do’s and Don’ts” for successful and safe medical travel.
• Provides readers with a helpful hospital & treatment finder.
• 10 must-ask questions for your in-country MD.
• If you think getting medical work done overseas is right for you, this guide will show you how to plan & budget your trip.

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Here are just some of the interesting notes that I learned while reading Patients Beyond Borders:

• Currently, at least 28 countries on four continents cater to the international health traveler, with more than 2 million patients visiting hospitals and clinics each year in countries other than their own.
• Governments of countries such as India and Thailand have poured billions of dollars into improving their health care systems, which are now aggressively catering to the international health traveler.
• Some of the most-traveled health destinations include Mexico, India, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, Panama, Costa Rica, Antigua, Barbados, Hungary, Turkey, Jordan, and United Arab Emirates.
• Some or all of your travel expenses may be tax deductible. This of course depends on your income level and cost of treatment.

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To pick up a copy of Josef Woodman’s all new revised and expanded edition of Patients Beyond Borders, visit their website by clicking here. You can also tweet with Mr. Woodman at @JosefWoodman.

Tags: Antigua, barbados, Costa Rica, hungary, india, Jordan, Korea, mexico, new york times, Panama, patients beyond border, Taiwan, thailand, turkey, united arab emirates