Raw Travel host Robert Rose discusses the rewards and pitfalls of the growing trend of Voluntourism on San Diego Living.
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Raw Travel Premieres Season 2
“RAW TRAVEL” SEASON TWO PREMIERES WITH BIG GROWTH SPURT
– Successful Debut Season Leads to Big Growth & Proves Popular Among Variety of Viewers –
NEW YORK, NY: October 1st, 2014 – AIM Tell-A-Vision® Group (AIM TV) announced today that the syndicated television series Raw Travel® will debut its 2nd season this weekend in over 113 cities representing 85% of the U.S. and almost 100 million homes signifying a big growth spurt for the series.
Thanks to a successful debut season that saw the show quickly become one of the most watched authentic travel & lifestyle shows on commercial television, the series added an additional 40 markets to its affiliate list including Washington DC (CW), Cleveland (NBC), San Diego (CW), Dayton (CBS), Baltimore (Fox), Richmond (ABC), and Honolulu (My) among several others.
In addition to over 50% growth in the number of cities served, the show received station and time period upgrades in a variety of markets such as Houston (NBC), Philadelphia (My), Tulsa (Fox), Knoxville (NBC) and more, giving viewers more access to Raw Travel than ever before. Viewers can visit www.RawTravel.tv/wheretowatch for a complete listing of cities, affiliates and time slots.
One of the keys to Raw Travel’s growth was the show’s demonstrated ability to reach traditional broadcast audiences while simultaneously attracting new, young and hard to reach viewers like the sought after 18 to 34 year old demographic and millennials, a rare feat in broadcast television.
Raw Travel’s upcoming fall episodes will showcase authentic and alternative sides of popular destinations such as such as Krakow, Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary and Brooklyn, NYC. The show will also continue its specialty of shining the spotlight on less traveled, more “raw” and off-the-beaten-path destinations like Slovakia, Serbia, Romania & Bulgaria. While filming Executive Producer & Host, Robert G. Rose, and crew traveled like typical budget travelers, and continued their theme that travel is not just for the wealthy or famous, travel is for everyone.
“Raw Travel’s touchstones of respectful and authentic travel combined with adventure sports, underground music, social responsibility and environmental sustainability really connected with viewers, especially young people, many of whom seem to share my personal and idealistic view of the world. We’re helping shred the myth that young viewers won’t tune in to broadcast programming.” Rose says. “I couldn’t be more humbled and inspired from the reaction of passionate viewers of all ages. Besides, my mom says Raw Travel is ‘awesome’, so there you go.” Rose continues.
Raw Travel’s Season Two spring episodes will also feature treks to burgeoning travel locations in Southeast Asia and North American destinations such as Utah, Louisiana Cajun Country and more.
Raw Travel is an adventure travel & lifestyle series showcasing the rapidly growing wave of socially and environmentally aware, independent travel. The series weaves together themes of ecotourism, voluntourism (giving back) with underground music and authentic culture in a way unique to U.S. television. More information can be found at www.RawTravel.tv and viewers can visit www.RawTravelTrailer.com for a short video preview of the upcoming episodes from the fall episodes.
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ABOUT AIM TELL-A-VISION GROUP
AIM TV is an independent content, production and distribution company founded by media executive and entrepreneur Robert G. Rose. AIM TV aspires to produce and distribute positive, compelling content that reflects its mission of presenting Media That Matters. Visit www.AIMTVGroup.com and www.RawTravel.tv for more information.
First of all a big thank you for making our first season a big success. We exceeded almost every expectation and we couldn’t have done it without our very loyal friends, family, fans, affiliates, advertisers, vendors, staff and wonderful travel peers.
Hopefully we spread a little good, positive energy as well, something TV and we all could always use more of. I sincerely hope our “Give Back” segments struck a chord in a few folks and maybe, just maybe some lives have been improved as a result.
As we expand into Season 2 and 110 cities and almost 100 million homes we hope you’ll enjoy our more diverse locations (North & South America, Eastern Europe & Southeast Asia) and will follow our journey as we hopefully improve production and not only entertain a bigger audience, but impact them as well.
Here is a small taste of what you can expect during our Fall 2014 Season.
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Daytrip to Vienna
Of all the places in the world I’m hoping to visit before I get my passport stamped by that big customs & immigration office in the sky (or below?), Vienna, Austria was never on that list. I don’t know why. It just never occurred to me.
I mean what few times I’d thought of Vienna I think I thought of high culture, classical music, maybe some sausages and well… to be 100% honest… Hitler and the horrors of World War II. It was a casual, cavalier but not a hostile ignorance.
I wasn’t knowingly spreading this ignorance to anyone, because I knew I didn’t know the real Vienna and only had a vague idea of what it might be like planted in my head by however many years of (mostly) U.S. media osmosis. I had not so much as considered a Wikipedia search on the subject and since I wasn’t heading there anytime soon, there was no need to do a quick study of the facts was there now? Wrong.
During our Eastern European shoot for Season 2, we were heading to Bratislava, Slovakia (another place I knew absolutely nothing about before visiting) and Vienna was a mere 50 minutes or so by train or boat away. As you can see, for me at least, ignorance is no excuse for not visiting a place. Otherwise I’d never go anywhere. Point of fact, I submit that it could be one of the best reasons to visit.
“Will I like it? Who knows? I don’t know anything about it. Let’s go!” So we did, if only for a few hours.
Lucky for us our new pal Marek from our earlier shoot at Cafe Finska in Krakow, Poland (our very first stop on this journey) heard we were heading to Vienna. He heartily recommended we reach out to UK ex pat and travel author Duncan J.D. Smith otherwise known as the Urban Explorer.
Duncan is an extremely likable chap and a consummate gentleman. I could tell that when we first met him at the train stop in Vienna. He had graciously and unexpectedly spent his own money for train day passes for the entire crew. Cut my production cost and you have my gratitude. Do so while showing me a genuinely good time and you have a pal for life.
Duncan knows his stuff not only about Vienna but several ports of call in Eastern Europe including Budapest, where we were heading next. He hooked us up with one of his “Only in Budapest” guidebook as a parting gift. I would read it cover to cover on the train ride there. It would almost be like Duncan being there by our sides, whispering little know facts and anecdotes about places and sites we might not otherwise consider.
But back to Vienna, being with Duncan the actual author & guide in Vienna was immensely valuable to us. Duncan took us to those hidden spots right under the tourists’ noses that they almost always miss, even if they have another guide.
From the Tostmann Trachten Shop & Cellar, a traditional Viennese clothing store that offered much more than meets the eye in their basement (watch the show to find out) to Beethoven’s courtyard (I drank water from the same water fountain the great composer did many years ago) to showing us the grittier side of Vienna at the Graffiti walls down by the Danube, I was beginning to sincerely wish we’d allocated an entire episode and 5 days to Vienna.
Duncan was one of those rare fact-filled but funny on camera guest that every travel host hopes for. I could relax and just have fun and hopefully have somewhat witty conversations and question and answers with Duncan on camera and the show just produced itself.. well, almost.
Not to say there weren’t moments when I was like “uh, huh.. this is exactly what I expected in Vienna”. Like when an arrogant prick (no pun intended, as you’ll see) of a Viennese took umbrage at our filming down in the historic, Mens’ Toilette downtown.
1) We had permission
2) The toilette had a unique story.. but I forget what it is at the moment (watch the show)
3) It was completely empty when we began filming
4) Our cameras were respectfully not pointed in anyone’s direction…
but this chap comes down and with a booming and authoritative voice says “that’s quiet enough.. cut the camera… your finished.. this is not Kazakhstan this is Vienna”.. The last part I think is what really pissed me off (no pun intended) and I was ready to go toe to toe with this arrogant ass who had no authority whatsoever on either the toilet or our filming there.
But Duncan, being the gentleman that he is, somehow channeled his anger into something positive (a trick I’m still trying to master) and defused the situation.
We got our shot, the arrogant A^%hole finally left us alone and what’s more, we got the entire thing on camera. Scott, our camera guy told me later “I only cut when the guy who’s writing my check tells me to cut”. Great philosophy Scott and a good move. This toilet shot would have probably never made the cut, but now you can be guaranteed that it will.
But, for me at least, the most unexpected pleasure in Vienna came with a visit to the Prater Amusement Park .
Not only was it a blast, but after our toilet incident, this was exactly what the doctor ordered to get me to humanize and like the Viennese people again and to understand, they have families, love their kids and are not just about high culture, history and lecturing to camera crews in toilets about civilized society. They need to shake it and have a good time too.
This amusement park is a feast for the senses. Don’t drink too much caffeine (or do any hallucinogens) before hand or it might just put you over the edge.
When you’ve had enough of “low culture” of serpent headed amusement rides or “freak” shows, I recommend you grab a pork knuckle at the famous Schweizerhaus at the fairgrounds along with a beverage of your choice. After all this I can honestly say, it was a fun, amazing trip to Vienna.
Like almost all first time destinations, I want to now go back, sans camera crew, and maybe explore on my own. But for this first time, I’m sure glad we had Duncan to guide us and show me a side of Vienna I’m 99.9% likely to have never seen had he not agreed to show us around.
Vienna is not an obvious “Raw Travel” destinations. It’s certainly not budget nor off the beaten path but you can see it Raw Travel style and we’ll show you how, when Bratislava / Vienna premieres this November. Stay tuned!
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Bratislava Man…. Save Us Please!
Bratislava got off to a relatively bumpy start. We were ripped off almost immediately on arrival by a dishonest taxi driver (gasp!) at the bus station where we arrived from Prague. As it would turn out our hotel was just around the corner. But our taxi driver decided to take a circuitous route in the opposite direction that took about 15 minutes and cost $20 euros (had we done our research we actually could have walked 5-7 minutes or at most paid $3-$4 euros for a taxi).
Now before you wonder how seasoned travelers like the Raw Travel Crew could possibly fall for such a brazen and obvious ploy, please keep the following in mind.
– We were a TV crew of 3 folks with luggage and equipment.
– We were on the run so much with limited internet access, that I am still weeks behind on this posting.
– There was precious little information on the web about Bratislava’s transportation options.
Truth be told, I actually did know better than to trust a taxi driver at the bus station, a notorious trolling ground for “taxi sharks” (so named for their circumventing trains & bus stations in search for fresh “prey”) … but after walking away from the original guy and shopping around to the other waiting taxis a couple of times, we found no other taxi driver willing to drive us for less. They either did not or pretended not to understand us. Indeed it appears they were all in on the scam each waiting on their own victim as opposed to making an honest living.
To add insult to injury the taxi driver in question even went so far as to punch the address of our hotel into his digital radio receiver pretending it was a sophisticated GPS device (we only realized this later).
The driver was no gentleman robber either. He was crude, rude and probably would have charged us more had I not been questioning him about the route as soon as I got suspicious and threatened to get out then and there. He mercifully stopped circling and finally pulled up to the street over from our hotel. No, he would charge us 4x to 5x the going rate but wouldn’t even take us the few feet down the street to our hotel.
Immediately after unpacking we headed down the street to search for food and discovered to our surprise that the bus station was actually less than 1/16th of a mile from our hotel. We realized with a mixture of humor and outrage we’d just been conned.
We considered confronting this “gentleman” on camera but alas, we had precious little time for revenge and each time we happened by the bus station he was nowhere in sight (perhaps his take from us was enough to take a few days off). Oh well, $20 Euros is not the end of the world for sure, but no one likes getting conned.
Our hotel was just about a mile outside the main old town and city center which would also prove to be a mistake for several reasons, mainly the fact that we were lost much of the time. This occurred because the map we were provided with by the hotel only showed the city center (even though they sat outside of it) and it proved to be fairly useless as most of the streets were either unnamed on the map or things were scaled like a coloring book with landmarks way out of proportion to actual distances.
The hotel itself was a somewhat extravagant expense for us (we usually stayed in apartments but there were precious few available in Bratislava for some reason), but it turned to be mostly a false luxury. It reminded me of so much modern art. It looked good upon 1st glance but upon closer inspection was really just a mess.
They advertised air conditioning (it was super hot during our visit) and while our rooms did have a thermostat with a green light on the wall when the AC was switched “on”, as best we could tell there were no vents in the room and nothing happened. When I complained the AC wasn’t working, they simply said, “Oh it’s working”… and that was that. No investigation… nothing. We strongly believe the AC Thermostat was a prop and nothing more.
The staff, however, made up for these inadequacies by trying really, really hard to accommodate their lost and now slightly pissed off English speaking guests. They mostly failed, but I still must give them an “A” for a heck of an effort and I have to admit they were endearing in their incompetence. I really think they tried their best and while this isn’t little league baseball, I have to say that goes a long way in my book.
The fact that we were lost so often was doubly frustrating when you consider how small Bratislava is. Especially in comparison to the capital cities we’d visited so far. But the trams were easy to jump on and off and we ended up using them as often as possible. People were fairly generous with directions, young people in particular. Many of the older folks (even ticket agents at the train station) would simply wave you abruptly away if they didn’t speak English and would not make an effort to communicate. However, this may have been a consequence of 3 travelers with cameras which often puts folks on guard. In the few times I was able to get out on my own, I found almost all Bratislavans eager to help (case in point, when purchasing shampoo in the local grocery store, it was a team effort with lots of help from employees and other customers alike… none of which spoke English), regardless of language ability, which gives me hope to return again someday on my own.
I don’t want people to get the message that Bratislava is bad. To the contrary, it’s actually quiet lovely and after navigating the huge metropolis and throngs of tourists in Prague, it was a welcome break to be off the beaten path just a bit. I found Bratislava’s old town very charming and while the castle was bound to be underwhelming compared to Krakow and Prague (almost are compared to these), we were treated to one heck of a tour with our new pal Brano from Authentic Slovakian Tours. Brano is part of a group of young Slovakians trying desperately to get Bratislava up to speed on their tourism offerings and infrastructure. His tours are first rate and his company is growing as a result.
Another guy doing his part is Bratislava Man! No Bratislava man (AKA Tomas) is not a superhero but he is a good guy and even though we hooked up with him towards the end of our journey he did prove really helpful in getting us out of jam when we arrived to interview a local band Kto Chce Co Chce (Do What You Like) on the outskirts of town and were greeted by a screaming, unreasonable, English speaking (but once again pretending not to) security gal.
Evidently the rehearsal space we were directed to was now a non-functioning, old chemical factory from back in the communism days and the security folks must have thought we were spies from the Cold War era. When she saw our cameras she basically flipped out. Eventually, thanks in no small part to Bratislava Man we were able to film and were treated to a great rehearsal from the guys.
Another cool thing about Bratislava is the wine. Just being a few miles from the border of Austria means that if you like Austrian wines, then you’ll probably equally love Slovakian wines for most likely, a fraction of the price. The climate is similar. The only difference being that in Slovakia, the wineries were state owned for many years until the fall of communism in 1989, so there was a blip in time when wine making in Slovakia meant putting out as much of the cheap stuff for the masses as possible. No more, however and the centuries old craft of wine making in Slovakia is back and better than ever. There are wine tasting bars all over Bratislava and we sampled the more modern style Trunk Wine Gallery owned by Vladimir Raiman. Mr. Raiman was as hospitable and knowledgeable as could be about Slovakian wine making.
In a way Bratislava felt like it is still trying to recover from the very heavy hand of Communism. The capitalist edict that the customer (or in this case the traveler) should be treated with respect is a bit foreign concept and left mostly to the younger generation of folks.
Folks like the laid back guys at the Wild Elephant Hostel. The owners and guest at the Wild Elephant were super cool. They allowed us freedom to shoot and interview their guests at will and we hope to offer some insight for some of our viewers just as to what a hostel experience REALLY entails. They even offered us rooms and I kind of wished we had taken them up on it. After the interviews and a great meal (which I was able to “kind of” help them prepare) they were kind enough to take us on a tour of the town.
Ironically, the 2005 horror film “Hostel” was based on a fictional hostel in Bratislava and the owners of Wild Elephant told me that was one of the best things that could have happened to their business and Bratislava tourism in general. Many non regional visitors in particular, come to Bratislava specifically to visit a hostel and I suppose to see if they get chopped up as many of the protagonists in the movie (we did not and to my knowledge everyone we interviewed left Bratislava safe and sound).
I was feeling much better about Bratislava. But once again a dishonest taxi driver would try to ruin the good vibes.
It was time to leave, so on the way out of Bratislava we learned our lesson. We asked the hotel to call us a taxi. We were quoted a rate of $8 Euros. When we arrived to the train station the driver said “$12 Euros”… I of course protested and said it was $8 Euros. He acquiesced.
I gave him a $10 Euro Bill and simple math would dictate he owed me $2 Euros. Instead he returned me a single Euro coin (Both $1 Euro and $2 Euros come in coins) I suppose thinking I wouldn’t notice.
Again, I protested and again, he agreed and quickly gave me my other $1 Euro which I had been intending to use to tip him. Not anymore. This time it’s mostly on camera and if you watch this fall, you’ll see the drama unfold on Raw Travel.
Despite these small annoyances, which by the way are as likely to happen in other parts of Eastern Europe if you don’t plan ahead, I still think Bratislava is a good spot to visit and I encourage you to check it out on your own.
But the tourism folks & governmental leaders of Bratislava need to be aware that until they get a handle on their out of control taxi drivers the travel & tourism industry may very well continue to struggle. It’s not fair for travelers to pay much more simply because they are ignorant upon arrival. Take it from me, they will get clued in quickly and when they do, will see Bratislava from a slightly more cynical point of view, as I have. Which is a shame because Bratislava has a lot to offer.
For the sake of our friends at Authentic Slovakian Tours, Bratislava Man, Wine Trunk & Wild Elephant, I sincerely hope Bratislava’s taxi & tourism industry get their acts together soon.
UP NEXT: One very cool thing about Bratislava is it’s close proximity to Vienna, just 60 miles away and what would prove to be a great day trip for us. I’ll cover that next.
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Prague, Czech Republic
Prague, Czech Republic is magical but overrun with tourists in the summer months. Although it made our lives more difficult in some respects, I was none the less happy that we had booked an apartment in District 10 on the outskirts of town rather than in the heavily trafficked Olde Town. The street our apartment was located on roughly translated to “uranium” street, so named in the cold war, which gives you a tiny hint to the utilitarian, communist past of this now thriving tourists mecca.
We arrived sleep deprived (are you sensing a theme here yet?) from an overnight train from Krakow, Poland. The trip was a “red eye” and we had reserved a sleeping compartment for all three of us. The compartment was tight, the train had no dining or bar car so we promptly flipped the beds down and tried, pretty much in vain, to get some sleep.
I’ve taken several trains in my lifetime and they usually are calm, monotonous things, generating almost a lullaby of white noise (in fact there is a “Train” effect on my white noise app on my i-phone), but not on this train. The clamoring of the tracks felt like it was just below us (perhaps because it was and always is, but usually doesn’t sound thus) and the constant starting, stopping as we pulled into one town after another made sleep upon the narrow, fold out metal bunks with wafer thin mattresses just next to impossible. We all pretty much just catnapped during the 7 or so hour journey from Krakow.
Taxis in Eastern Europe are, by and large, an under-regulated mess resulting in thousands of over charged fares from unsuspecting (and in our case, even suspecting) visitors to airports, bus & train stations on a regular basis. Indeed, travel pros though we may be considered, we were not immune to this scourge of corruption that has been allowed to fester and grow as the former iron curtain countries pursue the capitalist’s dream of ripping off their fellow man.
Luckily, our kindly and hospitable apartment host, Pavel, had arranged for us to be picked up by Tic Tack Taxi, a somewhat respected transportation company that is reportedly trying to help revolutionize the taxi, bus and transportation system in Czech Republic.
Our taxi ride from the train station to Pavel’s was semi-luxurious (a leather seated Audi with an extremely polite English speaking driver with GPS and even free bottled water for each of us) with the fare a fraction (about $10 U.S) of what a taxi hail or worse the taxi line at the railroad station could have run us.
After meeting Pavel, our super gracious host on whom we would all come to rely heavily upon, we all crashed for a couple of hours and decided that it was extremely inefficient from a work POV to take overnight trains. We’ve since sworn them off but we’ll see if this trend sticks the remainder of our journey (as my friend, coordinator and part time travel planner Margarita pointed out, it saves tremendously on the cost of lodging for one night).
We would have slept longer but we had arranged to meet Gaelle, a French expat now living in Prague and author of Zoukside Down. Gaelle is a dance teacher and ardent enthusiast of Brazilian Zouk Dancing, a style of dancing that has recently taken hold in Prague. Gaelle agreed to show us around some of the more basic touristy sites in the old town before we were to head to a Zouk Party to watch her in action. The party was hosted at a lovely hillside restaurant that offered some absolutely amazing views of Prague at the magic hour of sunset.
If you think it’s unusual to feature a French native who dances Brazilian in an Eastern European, well, I must admit I had my reservations as well. But what we’d quickly find out on this trip was that Prague was full of ex-pats from all over the world. It is truly an international city of the highest order.
There were literally bucket loads of Americans, Australians and others living and working in Prague and thus speaking English was almost never a problem with the exception of when we went back to our apartment in the almost 100% non-touristic District 10. By the end of the journey, this would become a fun game with the locals who, while not exactly smiling, warm people were simply wonderfully patient when dealing with us funny speaking foreigners and almost ended every awkward difficult conversation with a smile of some sort.
In District 10 we ended up frequenting a lovely little ice cream parlor (we witnessed ice cream being consumed at most every time of day, even seemingly for breakfast at 8 or 9 am) and café that served the small, exotic handmade sandwiches and desserts. Pointing and holding up the number of each sandwich was the only way to order. It was surprisingly efficient by day 3 or so.
But the highlight of our trip was perhaps meeting Ladi, a local Hungarian who runs the Bunker, a former nuclear bomb shelter designed and built for communist party leaders. Today it’s a really cool government subsidized community & event space and communist museum.
The Bunker hosts concerts and gatherings on a regular basis but the communists’ museum was my personal highlight. Seeing all these relics from the Cold War brought back memories and it occurred to me that it appeared that either I had missed the vast majority of the paranoia of the cold war (I heard that it most likely peaked in the 1950’s and 1960s) or the East was just much more prepared than the West. For example almost all the Metros in Eastern Europe we road had been built very deep underground. In case of nuclear attack, they could serve as an impromptu shelter for hundreds of thousands of members of the “working class” who could not fit into one of the bunkers.
The biggest kind of “what the…..” moment came when we saw the “Baby in a Box” display, which was a wooden box (imagine a small casket with a clear, vinyl see through cover) and a wooden foot pump to pump oxygen). The idea of the Baby Box was that in case of nuclear attack, a baby could be housed in the box and the mother (or father or surviving loved one) must hit the pump every 15 minutes or “no more baby” as our funny and expert guide, Ivan “The Hilarious” so eloquently observed. This s really brought the potential horror of the cold war into focus for me.
Growing up in the fear of total destruction of the 1980s, I’m very appreciative of the fact that we can all have a chuckle about these things now. Back then we felt truly threatened and though the source of the threats may have changed, is mankind any less threatened today?
Ladi & Pavel were like long, lost pals. Ladi had lived in Florida (playing in a rock band there) and Pavel had been a photographer in the former Czechoslovakia prior to the fall of communism and later he worked for the Associated Press as one of the few premiere photographers covering the Velvet Revolution as it unfolded and helping to tell the story of what was happening to the west and the rest of the world.
Both were invaluable to our largely smooth travel through Prague and to both I owe a debt of gratitude.
I like Prague, a lot. And though the Prague Castle, Charles Bridge and history of the old town are nothing short of awe inspiring, that’s not why. I like Prague because of people like Ladi, Pavel, and the regular folks like the sales clerk at the local Foto Escoda (a local photography store) who was so helpful to us when we had to replace a lens for the camera. The countless other locals who made us feel at home I can’t thank enough; people like Eleska Mertova of Segrasegra clothing designing some very cool bike clothes out of recycled bicycle inner tubes.
Or the fine folks at the Cafe in the Dark where I and my cameraman Scott were able to experience TOTAL darkness and get a feeling for what it was like for the sight impaired folks of Prague while raising money for them. Or Veronica our beautiful and informative guide at the Loreta Museum or Woody from the local band Rocket Dogz who toured us by the cool cats at Lucky HazzardClothing. I hope to someday be able to return the favor for their generosity of their time and spirit.
It was good that we had Krakow and Prague to begin with because next up were Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria. They were to be our very first real challenge and bump in the road on this journey. Thankfully, we were beginning to gel as a team both in terms of our travel and our production chops.
Stay tuned for our adventures in Bratislava, Slovakia and yes, Vienna, Austria (Raw Travel Style) up next.
For more photos from our travels through Prague, please visit our set on Flikr HERE.
Anyone who has lived or even traveled to the Big Apple probably knows that slow walking, camera toting tourists mixed in with fast- walking-with-urgent-purpose New Yorkers is a toxic mix.
Then why, oh why do the tourists & locals alike end up mashing together at the very same, very crowded very touristy overpriced spots…. Times Square, Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty.
PLEASE STOP IT NOW! I’m not screaming, I just live here but I didn’t always, and I want you to not do what I did when I visited. Don’t take a taxi everywhere or think that if you leave the “safety” of mid to lower Manhattan you’ll get mugged instantly or figure the subway is just too complicated.
Raw Travel is out to change what it means to be a tourist in NYC. We’re asking for locals, yes you…. be you transplant like me or native, to show our good friends, our visitors some Northern Hospitality by showing them a REAL New York City experience.
Where do YOU take your friends and relatives when they visit? How do you help your guests get beyond the money sucking, tourist traps this city is full of? Is Chinatown worth visiting? Is there any authenticity there? Where in Brooklyn would be good to go? Or Queens? Or, gasp! Staten Island or da’ Bronx? Nothing is off limits guys and there is no idea too strange.
Look, we don’t want to be different just for the sake of being different but we do want to show NYC visitors a unique and different way to be a traveler, not a tourist. We want visitors to feel a little what it’s like to be a local for a few days and find out why so many people risk and sacrifice so much just to live here.
Food, Culture, Music, Authentic Neighborhoods, Giving Back… we want to include it.
Send us your ideas and maybe you and /or your idea will be featured on Raw Travel TV. But do it soon. We begin taping next month and plan to have a rough agenda mapped out in a couple of weeks. Oh and be sure and read the legal stuff below, before you send anything.
Alright.. I feel the cobwebs starting to clear… and spring time slowly but surely is heading this way. Let’s make this the most unique & kick butt travel episode ever produced about New York City. It’s your time to share some of that pent up knowledge of secret finds, cool spots, etc. So what are you gonna do? Keep it selfishly to yourself? or help us help these poor lost souls clogging up Times Square at this very moment.
Spread the word.. and don’t Fuggedaboutit now!
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Here is a little preview and a web segment from our Mexico City Episode. You can read about our experiences while filming on location here.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO:
DAY 1
Mexico City began with a rumble, or more specifically, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake late Saturday night, early Sunday morning. I felt our hotel room dip and sway before the crew had ample time to say “what the????”. Things in the room clanged and clattered as the entire building moved back and forth for what seemed like forever, but was probably 15-20 seconds.
Sheer fear (we were on the top floor) and awesome power is the only way I can describe it. No injuries, no damage, just a serious blast of adrenaline making it hard to sleep. Despite having spent so much time in California, this was my first earthquake.
Had it not been for the earthquake, I would have definitely slept the sleep of the dead. Sleep has been a stranger to me this past week as I was super busy coordinating the shoot and preparing an 8 week journey through Mexico and Central America that has been months in the making. It will show on camera with some serious eye baggage and I feel like I’ve been run over by said earthquake. But keeping it raw and real.
Our hotel is conveniently located in Zocalo, smack in the very center of Mexico City where the epicenter of the Aztec Empire once stood. In fact, just a couple of blocks from our hotel in the middle of Mexico City sits the remains of the Aztec Templo Mayor (Major Temple).
The center is crowded but a great place to make home base as we were able to walk around the 1st couple of days to get to the major sites. I took part in an ancient Aztec cleansing ritual to start the trip off right. The Shaman was super cool and blessed the remainder of our trip. He must have done something wrong because 3 days in and I already have a case of Moctezuma’s Revenge. May as well get it over with I suppose, but if this keeps up we’ll be targeting some toilet paper sponsors.
OK on to more pleasant matters. On the weekends, the Zocalo reverberates with the sound of drums as Aztec dancers show off moves that have been passed down over the centuries. They dance for hours on end for tips (propinas) from the crowd.
Next we made our way to El Chopo market which has to be one of the most unusual flea markets I’ve ever seen in all my travels and one you won’t likely find in any standard tourist guide. This market has been going on for 30+ years but instead of fruits, vegetables, etc. this one is full of all kind of underground music and paraphernalia like band T-shirts, Doc Martin shoes, anything and everything having to do with underground culture. Though it’s underground it’s also very official and very huge and crowded. There are probably more tattoos and piercings per square foot in El Chopo on any given Saturday than at a Metallica concert.
You really can’t visit Mexico City and not notice the influence of underground culture. It’s in your face. It seems every third or fourth young person is sporting some kind of tattoo, piercing or expression of a rock & roll lifestyle. I’m left wondering if they are somehow paying homage to their Aztec roots or is the California Chicano culture influencing Mexicans or visa versa.
To my knowledge, El Chopo has rarely if ever been covered by U.S. television (it has on BBC). Luckily we had trusted local pals to guide us there and tell us when it was safe to pull out our cameras. At first I was on edge and tense but the feeling quickly wore off as we got to know many of the vendors and attendees. Mexico City is a city of contrast and perhaps nothing illustrates this contrast more than El Chopo.
That night we headed over to Garibaldi, which is basically an area where scores of Mariachi bands and musicians gather to be hired out by locals. Mariachi music is everywhere but if you tire of the audio sensation, you can hop over to the food section and grab some tacos or other authentic Mexican food. We did, and I’ll just say LA is good but Mexico City is the real deal.
And yes, I did resist the temptation to purchase an over sized mariachi hat. For now.
DAY 2
We began the day at Torre de Latin America (Tower of Latin America) one of the tallest landmarks in Mexico City and the first “successful” towers to be built in this seismic region to withstand the numerous earthquakes.
Renzo made his way to the top to grab some aerial shots of the sprawling city while Moses and I strolled around to gather some b-roll at the Palacio De Bellas Artes (Palace of Beautiful Arts) and adjoining Paseo por el Centro Historico (Passage of the Historic Center) and park. The park is incredible and full of beautiful, classically designed water fountains that soon filled up with young, screaming kids cooling off on a hot summer day, (until a police officer firmly but kindly shooed them to another fountain made just for kids to cool off on a hot summer day).
We then made our way over the Lagunilla market which is also off the beaten path and was just as big or bigger than El Chopo but was a bit more of a traditional flea market. Lagunilla offers up things to eat, drink and wear and appeals to a more mainstream clientele but that doesn’t mean the items on offer are boring. Not in the least. Among the items I spotted were antique stuffed Jaguar tigers, rare mineral rocks, one of a kind design T-shirts, ancient artifacts and more… much more like Chapulines.
Though I normally shy away from fried food, and specifically eating insects in any form, my crew and some convincing locals were enough for me to try some Chapulines, which is basically fried grasshopper. It’s marinated with lime and hot sauce but… add all the condiments you like, I’m still not digging it.
To rid ourselves of the aftertaste of fried grasshopper we headed to a local food market to partake of a massive but cheap and more traditional meal at one of the other local fruit and meat markets (always a good spot to grab an inexpensive authentic meal in Latin America).
Then it was off to one of the highlights of our trip so far, as we headed to the southern part of the city to XoChimilco (pronounced Chochimilco). XoChimilco was once where the Ancient Aztecs navigated and lived on the canals. Today the canals are where travelers, families and friends gather on colorful, rented boats to eat, drink and be merry and listen to live Mariachi or traditional Norteno music.
While being rowed down the canals, smaller canoes and boats pull up beside to sell food, drinks, souvenirs and… you name it. Our boat was named Violeta and we were fortunate to be on the river just as the sun was setting which made for some pretty outstanding footage.
On the way back to the hotel we headed over to Frida Kahlo’s old neighborhood of Coyoacon, an absolute treasure of a neighborhood where you can stroll among upscale Mexican families enjoying the park and unique Mexican sweets like churros.
SO FAR SO GOOD
I was surprised at how calm, safe and serene this large and supposedly chaotic capital city actually seems. Police (unarmed by the way) and security are highly visible in all areas and after 3 days of roaming all over town we’ve not had one instance of even a hint of danger.
Anytime you are rolling around a strange place with video equipment it is easy to be paranoid, but I have to say, (I don’t think these words will come back to haunt me either) Mexico City feels as safe or safer than Buenos Aires, Rio, Bogota or Lima.. and given my last few days there with the mass shootings and gun play, safer than Santa Monica, California.
Traffic in Mexico City is no paradise but it’s not that horrible either. In my opinion, Los Angeles and other North American cities are much worse. They have a rent-a-bike program called “Ecobici” which seems very popular with the locals. The Metro (Train) system is easy, safe, cheap (around 30 cents U.S. per ride) and convenient. We’ll be weaning ourselves completely off of taxis very soon to both save money and to travel in a more eco-friendly manner.
COMING UP
Tomorrow, it’s up early for another day of shooting. We have a lot ahead of us including shooting the famous “Lucha Libre” wrestling where rumor is my producer is trying to arrange a match with lucha officianado, “El Kiss”. Today I bought my mask and have been practicing some moves.
We’re also arranging some Aztec language lessons and hopefully, if things come together, we’ll be teaching some recycling tips at a local school and a visit to the iconic religious site of the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Mexico City.. I wasn’t counting on the earthquakes or the fired grasshoppers, but I’m still very glad we’re here. Stay tuned!
RAW TRAVEL IS BACK IN PRODUCTION AND GEARING UP FOR OUR OCTOBER 2013 DEBUT IN THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONALLY.
THE CREW CONSIST OF YOURS TRULY, ROBERT ROSE – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, CAMERA & HOST, RENZO DEVIA – SR. PRODUCER, CAMERA & EDITOR, MOSES NARANJO – PRODUCER, CAMERA & EDITOR AND A HOSTS OF LOCALS WHO ARE HELPING US OUT ALONG THE WAY.
WE ARE TRAVELING TO 7 COUNTRIES INCLUDING MEXICO, GUATEMALA, BELIZE, HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, COSTA RICA AND PANAMA CITY. THIS IS THE FIRST ENTRY FOR MEXICO CITY WHERE WE’LL BE STAYING ALL WEEK. MORE INFORMATION AT WWW.RAWTRAVEL.TV AND WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/RAWTRAVELTV
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