Wander Woman: A Travel Podcast

A Simple Life

• Phoebe Smith • Season 2 • Episode 7

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Embark on an adventure to Shimokawa, in the heart of Japan's Hokkaido region, where this small town is breaking new ground in the world of sustainable living. Phoebe Smith will take you through the streets and forests of this pioneering community, uncovering how they've transformed from a lumber-dependent economy to a beacon of environmental harmony. From making chopsticks (to avoid the millions that go in landfill each year), to powering homes and public buildings using locally made biomass, using weeds to produce natural essential oils, and taking people to fish for (and then eat) an invasive species, she asks if this could be the blueprint for a better life?

Also coming up:

How to learn a new language - fast; Discover the top 10 places for whale watching;  meet adventurer and author a new book Ash Bhardwaj who answers the question - why we travel? In our regular gear chat it's all about choosing insect repellent for your travels;  be inspired by Onguma Reserve Manager Jonathan 'Yona' Strijbis who dedicates his entire life to protecting the endangered black Rhino in Namibia; and in our Wander Woman of the Month - learn about 'wandering writer' and translator Sanmao.




Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Speaker 1:

On this month's Wander Woman podcast.

Speaker 2:

The area of Shimokawa in total is equivalent to all of Tokyo. Wow, so it's like this humongous place with hardly any people.

Speaker 1:

I head to a to Japan's Hokkaido to meet the people trying to stop a population decline and create a sustainable city in every sense of the word. I also catch up with a man who puts his life and freedom daily on the line to protect a critically endangered species.

Speaker 4:

I want to tell the lions hey, we're here to protect you, we are here to help you, and now you're trying to kill us.

Speaker 1:

And I catch up with adventurer and author of the new book Why We Travel, Ash Bhardwaj, to discover his secret must-pack travel item.

Speaker 3:

It got me out of a real fix in Belarus, when I was detained by none other than the KGB.

Speaker 1:

Also coming up. My regular travel hack shares how you can learn a foreign language fast. In my travel gear, I talk insect repellent to keep off the little biters. Together, we can explore the top 10 places to watch whales around the world. And finally, I'll be revealing this episode's Wander Woman of the month, the traveler whose name is lost in the history books. You're listening to the Wander Woman podcast, an audio travel magazine, with me, adventurer Phoebe Smith, exploring off the beaten track destinations, wild spaces, wildlife encounters and the unsung heroes behind conservation efforts. Come wander with me.

Speaker 2:

OK, so the first part is you need to choose your wood, choose your wood, choose your wood. So you have a selection here and you can use any of them.

Speaker 1:

I'm in Japan making my own chopsticks more on that later in a small town called Shimokawa on the northern island of Hokkaido. It's not a place I imagine you'll have heard of I certainly hadn't in my travels around the Orient over the years. Yet that may change because this tiny township population around 3,000, is one of 11 settlements designated by the Japanese government as a future city, and not in the way we think of, as say Tokyo, being a futuristic city with all the technology and neon lights. But this is because, against the backdrop of a dwindling population, they have been challenged to create a blueprint for sustainable communities for the generations to come.

Speaker 2:

The area of Shimokawa in total is equivalent to all of Tokyo, wow. So it's like this humongous place with hardly any people.

Speaker 1:

This is my guide and translator, Jordan, at present translating for Kameda Shinji, who works for the town council. All the local people I speak to are voiced by her, as English is not widely spoken up here. Settled by the Japanese in 1901, Shimokawa was once devoid of people and home only to vast swathes of forests, with no villages or towns. Therein lay an opportunity lumber, in a similar fashion to the gold rush in the USA. By the 1960s, a thriving lumber industry existed here, exporting wood to the rest of Japan, and the population swelled to a whopping 16,000 people. However, cheap wood imports, a lack of regulation and a freak typhoon saw the town's fortunes change literally overnight. People began to leave by the thousands, and those who stayed were ageing. By the year 2000, there were just 5,000 people remaining.

Speaker 2:

During that big population decrease, the people who lived here started doing local efforts to increase the good image of Shimokawa.

Speaker 1:

The efforts came in a number of guises, from building a great wall to attract tourists, made, interestingly enough, in upcycling fashion, from rocks and stones unearthed when farms were being cleared, but also in setting out a pledge to become sustainable in every sense environmentally, socially and economically. This can be seen in the example of forestry, where every tree used must be replanted on a rolling cycle, but it doesn't end there.

Speaker 2:

When they cut down a tree and they make lumber, they don't immediately send it out of Shimokawa. They do their best to produce what they need to produce or what can be produced within Shimokawa itself and then sell those products. So they're not selling just lumber. When they do have trees that can't be used for making anything, in that case they will chip it and they will turn it into biomass.

Speaker 1:

The waste wood-fuelled biomass plant not only provides 68% of the heating and hot water for the town, but also allows newly migrated resident, Chicho Nakatani to utilise a by-product in her restaurant the shiitake mushroom that grows due to the heat the plant produces. Relocating here in 2021, she is just one of the many younger Japanese people who have chosen to make the place home, as the town councillor Kameda explains.

Speaker 2:

They have like three big benefits from it. You do get grants if you are a future city. Also, you get a lot of PR. There's a lot of videoing To help bring people to it and they're seeing a noticeable influx in permanent residents.

Speaker 1:

Numbers are not yet available for post-COVID, but by 2020, the population had grown in key ways. The number of people aged 15 to 64 had risen from 46% to 63%, and residents aged 0 to 14 had increased from just 2% to 9%, bringing young blood into the town. I met two of them the next day. The first was Fujisan, 38, who moved out here five years ago.

Speaker 2:

So he sees mostly people who are in their 30s. So they've done the Japanese work culture once and realised it doesn't suit them and burned out and want a slower pace of life and then moved here. That's what he sees most often.

Speaker 1:

Now he's a nature guide who leads forest bathing and other sustainable tourism activities In the forest. Weeding needs to happen to remove the smaller specimens, to prevent overcrowding, which can prevent other trees from growing to maturity Something he does and takes tourists to do too. But they don't just throw away what they pick. These smaller specimens are sold to an essential oil factory in town to be pressed and used for oils, and a few of them are left for the tourists to make their own oil too.

Speaker 2:

Today we're going to use the town's tree it's called todomatsu which is a sahaline fir, so sahaline, like the Russian island sahaline. There's a lot of overlap in Hokkaido with sahaline plants and Hokkaido plants, and some of the animals as well, so we're going to be cutting branches from sahaline firs in order to make the aroma oils.

Speaker 1:

We took the branches to a community hall where we boiled and distilled them ready to make our oil. While we did, I was introduced to a yoga teacher in her 30s who recently moved back here with her husband.

Speaker 2:

So there was the big earthquake in Fukushima, and when the earthquake happened, they both were really thinking about where should we go from here, what is a good place to live and where is a safe place to live? And so they travelled around looking for a good location and ultimately they talked and discussed it and decided that moving back here to Shimokawa was their best option.

Speaker 1:

Now, in addition to teaching yoga, she helps contribute to the Future City Plan, caring for the community by running a forest school to help teach children and their parents to play and engage in nature. But it's not only newcomers helping this town in sustainable practices. Kondo Tsuji, who I was making chopsticks with on the day I arrived, is in his 60s and he ensures all the wood he and his students use is otherwise unwanted another by-product of the public forest. By doing this, he hopes to keep billions of throw-away waribashi chopsticks, primarily imported from China, out of landfill. The next day, after making my own pair, I headed out of the town into a nearby place called Nishiyokopi, where I met a young family, Ryoko and Junpei Igota and their daughter, who moved here from Yokohama on Tokyo Bay back in 2005 to take part in yet another adventure activity that also helps the environment.

Speaker 2:

So right now we are in the mountains in Nishiokoppe and we're at one of the rivers here, and we are fishing for invasive rainbow trout and also native Yamame trout. In the past, before there was any sense of invasive species, they would come and have festivals out here, and so they would release them into the river so the locals could then catch them for events.

Speaker 1:

Once some fish are caught, the tourists are taken back to an old school, now renovated by another pioneering family, to provide quirky accommodation in the otherwise hotel-less village.

Speaker 2:

When he first moved in here, he really felt this was a place that could bring people together and he really believed in the power of that. So he wanted to renew it and give it back that power.

Speaker 1:

There, Ryoku and Junpei served up the fish tempura style. I asked one of the guests, as I don't eat fish, what it tasted like.

Speaker 2:

It's really good. Does it taste better than when?

Speaker 1:

we helped catch it, absolutely it does.

Speaker 2:

It's also very light and it's a white fish it's almost buttery, yeah, it's really good and it's an invasive species.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so taking them out, getting rid of them, the bad guys. We're taking them down. As well as the fishing business, this couple also run deer hunting through their non-profit organisation, because the population of deer has, unlike human residents, exploded beyond control since the extinction of the native wolf. When they arrived here, ryoko was saddened at the waste when the deer were culled, and so she trained herself how to use every single part of the carcass, including the skin.

Speaker 2:

When they're hunting they're taking a life and so it's like they feel like they should make use of everything. So he handles all of the food and the meat side and she handles the skin and everything else, and so he feels like they're taking a life, so it's just what they should do.

Speaker 1:

Now she teaches tourists how to craft key rings, wallets and wall art out of the skin that she has tanned. And it may sound odd coming from a vegetarian, but I truly admired their hunting here in Nishikoppe and indeed the whole ethos of the entire region up here around Shimokawa. It may not be a place filled with the high-tech neon lights and bustling crowds that everyone associates with Japan, but when it comes to Hokkaido and this tiny region up north, it goes to show that when everyone works together, even a place with very little people can not only be brought to life, but also show us the true way to build a city of the future. That was me in Japan, a truly unique place in every way. Spending prolonged time there in September last year, visiting a lot of the less well-known sites, made me wish I could speak Japanese as of now.

Speaker 1:

My only other language aside from English is pretty bad schoolgirl French, but I am desperate to improve it. Can it really be that tricky to learn as a grown-up? That's the subject of this month's travel hack how to learn a language fast. It can't be just me that's done it, pledged I'm going to learn a new language, downloaded an app and then tried to dabble in two or three at once. Well, that's not the way to learn. Instead, pick the language you want to learn the most and dedicate yourself to that one Once you have make an effort to flick through newspapers online every day in that language. Download an app like Duolingo, which is an excellent and fun way to learn the basics, and also try and check out some podcasts for language beginners. Perfect for those long runs or long journeys. You want to be able to listen to things, or read things, that are just beyond your level. Pick up a couple of non-fiction books about subjects that you really enjoy too, and, in your downtime, find a foreign language series on Netflix, turn off the subtitles and just go with it. The second hack makes perfect sense, but it's actually quite a new concept, and that's to focus on just the most common words and phrases you need. Building a vocabulary of the 200 most common words and phrases will see you through basic conversations in just about any language.

Speaker 1:

Another tip is to concentrate on pronunciation from the beginning, rather than hoping for the best and fixing it later. Understanding the nuances of a language will actually help from the start and make learning new words and phrases easier. Again, another obvious one, but surprisingly hard to do, is to start speaking the language as often as you can. Find a teacher near to you who can offer some structure, set homework and talk with you. Often. You'll find meet-up groups, too, that will focus on a single language. Meet-up, tandem and language exchange are a few examples.

Speaker 1:

While you may be hoping to converse for an upcoming holiday or an upcoming job interview, where you put conversational on your CV, consistency is key, not pressure, and that's the same when you're in a country too. Don't try to understand every word, mostly because you won't be able to, but also because you are starting with a general understanding and the detail will come later. Go with the flow, accept that there will be some confusion and don't be shy. They'll be impressed already and, more often than not, help you along. Finally, however, nothing beats an immersive experience. After six months or a year in a country, you'll be at a decent level. Even a month will help solidify the words and phrases you do have, while giving you the most important thing in speaking a second language confidence.

Speaker 1:

That was my Wander Woman travel hack the advice and insight I offer each episode to allow you to be a better, more informed traveller. Now someone else who is hellbent on us all being well informed is my next guest, Jonathan Strijbis, aka Yona, whose job it is to protect the critically endangered black rhino, something that is threatened because of the belief in Chinese medicine that the horn, made from the same material as our hair and fingernails, has special powers. He is reserve manager at Onguma, a 360 square kilometre segment of former agricultural land that has been painstakingly rewilded over the past 30 years by their conservation-minded owners, which borders the eastern edge of Etosha National Park in Namibia. I met him out in the bush to talk about what it takes to look after these persecuted species and ask him why he does it.

Speaker 4:

I'm Jonathan Strijbis. I'm the reserve manager of Onguma and also head of the anti-poaching department, and we are in the northern parts of Namibia, on the eastern side of Etosha National Park.

Speaker 1:

And tell me a bit about the anti-poaching unit. Why are people poaching these animals?

Speaker 4:

Well, firstly, I think they poach it because of the value of rhino horn. It's insanely expensive in the black markets it's about 69 000 us dollars per kilo for the raw product and if it's been worked you you get up to 120 000 us dollars per kilo. So you can imagine the, the money involved and I think that's the sole reason for for people you know po, it is just to get rich and yeah, it's insane amounts of money and unfortunately in Africa a lot of people struggle with unemployment and all that. So everybody wants to provide and the syndicates use that against our locals just to get them bribed, because the poachers never get that. That's the amounts of money I just mentioned. Um, they will get like maybe 20 000 namibian dollars for for rhino horn and you know the, the middleman takes millions, um so um, but yeah, 20 000 for for locals is a lot of money and they will never earn that working illegally. So yeah, unfortunately, I think that's the main and only reason. It's just money, money, money, money.

Speaker 1:

And tell me a little bit about the black rhino, because you don't own them on this reserve. You're just the custodians, right?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that's correct. In namibia there's no black rhino in private ownership. All the black rhino is owned by the government and they created this program called the black rhino custodian program, where if you have a farm you know bigger than 10 000 hectares and your habitat's in order and your waters are right and your security is in place and all that they put up a contract and then they will provide you Black Rhino and the incentive thereof is that on your reserve you have Black Rhino that you can show your tourism and it's a very successful program because all these little populations have been taken out of the bigger population. You're starting to create their own numbers, so know. So they're breeding because it's a new area and that's also the thing you know.

Speaker 4:

With all the people you know getting more and more in the world, the conservation areas get smaller and smaller. So we're forcing these animals into just small areas and you know you're gonna get overpopulated. So by taking out you know numbers on the bigger population and put them on bigger reserves, like ourselves, the numbers are expanding, so through that we contribute to the survival of the species. So it remains the property of the government. So we're looking after the black rhino and it's awesome for us to be able to contribute to the survival of the species.

Speaker 1:

And tell me a little bit about the personality, the average personality of a black rhino, because they're not the friendliest.

Speaker 4:

No, no, for sure they're not. They are very aggressive and I'm sure my anti-poaching rangers will tell you all about it. They are weekly, you know, chased up trees. So, yeah, a black rhino is a browser. That means he eats only leaves and branches and stuff. So you will normally find him in the thicket of the bush and nobody goes there really, unless you have got a road running through that. So from a young age they're used to not seeing humans, not hearing cars, because they're in the thicket of the bush and then comes out and it sounds safe to have a drink.

Speaker 4:

Um, so they're very aggressive, but that's just in their nature. I mean, um, being browsers, doesn't? I mean, kudu is also browsers, but they aren't that aggressive. Um, but yeah, it's, it's just they're born that way. They they're aggressive and likes to uh, you know, to charge at anything. That is not natural, you know. So, um, yeah, they they're very aggressive and and very dangerous. Um, I think, um, yeah, I want to say almost half of my anti-poaching unit has all been charged and hit by rhinos. And, yeah, luckily, with the rhinos, if it charges you and it gets you, it will just ruffle you up a bit and then run off, whereas the elephant will not stop until you pancake. So rhino will just give you a hit and if you felt like, okay, I got that guy, I gave him a hit, they will run away. So yeah, very grumpy, very aggressive animals, and we're here to protect them.

Speaker 1:

It makes me beg the question why? What is it about the black rhino that makes you want to kind of be part of this cause?

Speaker 4:

Well, I think it's. The species is on the brink of extinction, and to be able to be a part of their survival and be able to show future generations what a rhino looks like, I think that's a reward enough for us. It's a special group of guys that's doing the work and so how can I say selfless? There's not a lot of reward because we keep them secret. We don't know. You know poachers to know who they are, because then you're going to get poachers will go for their families, for information or bribe them. So it's a very rewarding job, but we are not able to show the world.

Speaker 4:

Well, the rangers specifically, I mean as a Onguma, we definitely show everybody what we do and how we protect them. Within itself there's also risk because we tell everybody that we do have rhino and anybody with weapons and the need for money will come. They know we have rangers in their arms, so obviously if they come, they're going to come with bigger firepower than we have. There's definitely a risk involved, but the reward for us is just to be able to contribute.

Speaker 1:

And they have a risk not just from the poachers but from actually just walking around in the bush.

Speaker 4:

Correct, and they have a risk not just from the poachers but from actually just walking around in the bush Correct. It's funny sometimes when I get calls for the guys you know the lions are attacking them and carrying away their stuff. It's like I want to tell the lions hey, we're here to protect you, we are here to help you, and now you're trying to kill us. And it's just nature and everything is from snakes to elephants. Uh, not too long ago we had a giraffe that wasn't happy with us in his, in his area. So everything that we look after is actually turning around and, you know, trying to hurt us. But you know, through good training and experience, we know how to handle these situations and never had an issue with, you know, having to to, for instance, like shoot an animal. That's, that's too dangerous. So it can definitely happen. But, yeah, it would be nice to get the message to the animals that we we're not. Yeah, we had to kill them and well, it's, it's. I think that makes the job so much fun now.

Speaker 1:

And what's the the best thing that a tourist coming to somewhere like this can do to help with what you're?

Speaker 4:

doing just by visiting um, because, uh, every tourist that visits us um included in the, in the, in the stay here um, they pay a rhino levy, um, and with that rhino levy we are able to, you know, get these guys training and training and obviously pay them their salaries and rations. Ammunition. It's a massive expense looking after these animals. It's about 4,000 to 5,000 US dollars per animal per year. So for any tourists coming here, the way they can help is just by coming here.

Speaker 1:

That was Yona, a man who has chosen to dedicate his life to protecting the critically endangered black rhino. Meeting him was one of the highlights of my visit to Namibia last year and made me truly appreciate the efforts put in to save such a beautiful species. Speaking of stunning mammals, we move from land to one of my favourite terrains, the ocean and this month's top 10 for the best places to spot, see and swim whales around the world. At 10, it's Baja California, mexico. This is the place to find close encounters with a grey whale. Between February and April, the females breed just off the coast and, to be honest, get a little bit bored so they bring their calves to the surface to check out the gawping onlookers aka us. It's a beautiful sight. My tip Sing and shout. They love it, especially journeys. Don't stop believing, so I'm told. At nine, it's Vancouver Island.

Speaker 1:

This is the place to see orcas, and lots of them. There is a resident population of around 250 here, and they are often seen even from the ferry to the mainland. You'll see orcas between May and September and March and April, and around 20,000 grey whales pass along the coast here too. In at number eight, we're staying in Canada, but this time headed to the east coast and Quebec. Plankton, it turns out, love the mouth of the St Lawrence River and therefore so do whales, and lots of them. Beluga, minky, humpback and blue whales all head to the food-rich waters to feed between June and September. At number seven we're following the whales south to Dominica, one of the few places in the world where you can actually get in the water with sperm whales and their calves who come here every winter, november to April. It's a race each year for permits, but if you do get one you'll feel as though you've won the lottery. At six we're going to the pleasingly named Ningaloo in Western Australia. There is also the opportunity to swim with whales here, with licensed companies. This time the beautiful singing humpbacks Some 40,000 pass by every year, particularly between June and October, and time it right and on a single visit you can swim with them, manta rays and whale sharks.

Speaker 1:

At five, you probably don't want to be dipping in the pretty chilly water, but we find ourselves on Scotland's west coast to spot a wide range of whales, including minke, humpback, fin, sperm and orca, but also the notoriously tricky to spy basking shark. Head to Oban or Torbemore on Mull between April and September for the best chance to spy one, we head to a more remote region for number four, the European island chain of the Azores. This archipelago, owned by Portugal and composed of nine landmasses, lies in the plankton-rich North Atlantic Ocean. As such, it attracts humpbacks, bearded short-finned pilot orca and blue whales. Head there in March to June for some of the best opportunities.

Speaker 1:

At three, we can take to the skies above the waters off New Zealand in the town of Kaikoura on the South Island. Spoon whales are in the waters here most of the year. Thanks to a mile-deep canyon along the coastline, the whales can be seen close to the shore. Book onto Air Kaikoura for a 40-minute whale-watching flight. Seeing them in the air alongside boats truly gives a sense of their enormous size.

Speaker 1:

At two, we stay in the Southern southern hemisphere and head to the western cape in South Africa. The seaside town of Hermanus, 120 kilometres from Cape Town, even has a whale festival held in September to celebrate the town's most famous residents, the southern right whales and a whale crier who blows on a kelphorn to alert people to the marine mammal's majestic presence. At one, it's Husavik on the northern coast of Iceland, in my In Search of Silence episode of Wander Woman way back in April 2020, I visited the former whale hunting hub, a place that is now the most important location for whale spotting in the country. I went with a company called North Sailing that used carbon neutral, silent electric boats, which meant the whales came close and stayed close, with no noise pollution bothering them and, of course, much less carbon emissions for the planet. There she blows. That was my regular top 10, where I get to choose my pick of the best experiences our planet has to offer.

Speaker 1:

I absolutely adore whale watching. In fact, I adore any wildlife watching but there is one issue that I often find when standing around waiting to see the wildlife, and that is mosquitoes. Handy, then, that this episode's gear chat is all about how to choose the repellent. You need to keep the little biters at bay. We've all been there stood out in the sunshine enjoying a walk, a safari drive or a beautiful spot where you've placed the tent, and then you hear it. That's right. We're talking biting insects, in particular, mosquitoes, midges and ticks. If you're headed somewhere where they are prevalent and, let's be honest, thanks to climate change, that's pretty much everywhere then you're going to want to invest in some effective insect repellent, but how do you know which type to buy. Listen up.

Speaker 1:

First thing to ask yourself is whether you want to go natural or chemical, because repellent falls into two categories those that use DEET and those that don't. Young children, pregnant women or those who suffer skin reactions should consider alternatives, the most common of which contains a mix of lemon or citronella, eucalyptus or a synthetic product called picoridin, a peppery substance. If going to a country with a high risk of particularly nasty insect-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever or zika, then experts say DEET, however unpleasant, is the better option. Generally, a maximum of 30% DEET is thought to be safe, especially in short-term use. You can buy some products with up to 100%. The report suggests that 30% could be as effective as 50% DEET products or higher. The natural formulas often smell nicer and feel better on your skin, though obviously you have to weigh that against the risk of contracting something potentially life-threatening.

Speaker 1:

Check where you're going on fitfortravelnhsuk to see what diseases the insects in your chosen destination carry. If you're facing only an annoying itch perhaps, go natural and remember. Whichever formula you go for, don't forget to top it up, as sweat will see it wash off, as will water-based activities, and do check how long after applying sunscreen, you should wait before putting it on. At the end of the day, while biting insects can be a pest, they are manageable and you should never be put off a destination by them. After all, bites and swarms do make the best travel stories.

Speaker 1:

That was my regular gear chat, helping you pack smart for your next adventure. Now, speaking of adventures, my next guest, Ash Bhardwaj, has had many. He's travelled 8,500 kilometres through 11 countries along Russia's European border, retraced World War II secret missions through Albania's mountains on foot, hiked 800km through India with Levison Wood on walking the Himalayas, even meeting the Dalai Lama on the way. And he walked 1,100km through Uganda and Sudan with Wood, again on walking the Nile. And now he's written a book asking a question that I think is pretty pertinent to us all. Ash, I've got your new book Why We Travel. It would be remiss of me to not start by asking you why do you travel?

Speaker 3:

Well, Phoebe, as I talk about in the book, there's 12 reasons to travel. There's curiosity, inspiration, happiness, mentorship, serendipity, service, hardship, empathy, healing, wonder, eroticism and hope. Those are my 12 reasons to travel.

Speaker 1:

And tell me how you first got into traveling. Everyone has like an origin story about how they get into travel and obviously you do adventures. And how did it all begin for you?

Speaker 3:

We didn't travel much when we were kids. I was raised by my mum and we lived in social housing. Mum was an income support, so foreign holidays were not part of our life. The only thing we ever did was take a ferry over to the Netherlands where my uncle lived in the Hague. But other than that, travel wasn't something we did other than bits and pieces around the UK. And then, when I was 17, I went to my local school, windsor Boys, not far from where you live, so you know it.

Speaker 3:

Mum discovered that they were doing a rugby tour to Australia, new Zealand and the Cook Islands and she'd been to New Zealand in the 70s.

Speaker 3:

So she got a second job as a cleaner to pay for my ticket and she just said I think this trip could change your life, and even if it doesn't, it's important to me that you have experiences like this.

Speaker 3:

And I just had to learn how to play rugby, which is actually quite hard if you've never played rugby before, largely because it hurts. And I got good enough to get a place on the team and so I went off to New Zealand and it changed my life, and you've been to New Zealand. You know what it's like. The first thing you notice when you turn up at the airport is that the signs are also in Maori as well as in English, and in a British colonized nation it's quite unusual for the indigenous culture to have prominence, and there's a bunch of reasons why that is the case in New Zealand, but I just found it really curious and I just started to ask questions about it, and that changed my life. It set me on a path that basically became my career, my love, my passion, my nemesis, because obviously trying to make a living out of travel isn't always the easiest thing to do.

Speaker 1:

In all these experiences, of going to all these incredible places. What's been your most memorable journey to date, would you say.

Speaker 3:

The thing about the form of travel that I've been lucky enough to do, or I've chosen to do, because I've given up, you know, financial security in order to just go away for long periods of time, and the key thing is serendipity. So if you give yourself time and space and just create opportunities, every now and again something cool happens. But you need the opportunity with space to jump on it and say yes. Meeting the Dalai Lama was pretty cool. Going to Ukraine in 2018 was remarkable because it just gave me an insight into things that you read about or see on TV or read about in an academic paper, but it just becomes very visceral and very real. Going to Crimea with the permission of the Ukrainian government was pretty awesome and getting a real sense of what intense propaganda does to people. And I was with somebody from Odessa and there was a Russian in Crimea arguing with him about what was going on in Odessa and he was like but I'm from Odessa, I can tell you these things haven't happened.

Speaker 3:

So that was a remarkable thing, but I guess the things that stand out more than ever have been my times in New Zealand, just because of that biculturalism and that ability to access Maori culture and the importance that it also had to my mum yeah, and you, you know, one of the journeys that you talk about which resonates particularly with me with, obviously, me writing a lot about pilgrimages recently was that you took your dad's ashes on a pilgrimage.

Speaker 1:

Tell me how that came about.

Speaker 3:

I didn't really have a choice.

Speaker 3:

So, as my dad's son, when he passed away, it was my job to take his ashes to India and put them in the river Ganges, and I didn't have a particularly good relationship with my father, we were estranged.

Speaker 3:

But I thought, you know, it matters to my relatives who I am fond of, so I'll go and do it for them but also be a nice reason to go to India and even if dad wasn't a great dad, it's a good thing for me to do, and so I had to do this journey to Haridwar, which is basically a town in the Ganges in northern India.

Speaker 3:

Put them in the river as part of a Hindu funeral rite, and I mean that was confusing because I don't speak Hindi and this ceremony is done in Sanskrit, which is basically like latin for india, and the outcome of it was that I learned about my indian heritage quite directly, because at this place I also basically hold a family tree going back 14 generations. So I certainly had this access to understanding that you had this 14 generations of people who'd come and done this ritual and suddenly feeling part of all of that, and it gave me a connection to my Indian heritage I hadn't really had before, but it was also part of a wider journey of you know, people call it post-traumatic growth, psychologists call it post-traumatic growth, dealing with difficult things in the past. So the immediate thing of dealing with grief usually, but also, for me, dealing with the relationship with my father, when it was an integral part of my journey of healing and overcoming all of that, which was extremely powerful and I think it's served me well, you know it's that sounds very utilitarian.

Speaker 1:

I think I'm a more content and happier person for having done that and so, of those 12 and I won't make your list them all again I feel like there should be some kind of test with it um, say, more alphabetically and or whatever, of all of the 12, is there one that you think probably is your biggest motivating reason for travel?

Speaker 3:

I think the keystone motivation is curiosity, because it's so instinctive in humans. It's the reason why we're a successful species, because it allows us to culturally evolve and adapt to our environment. So it's like it's our, it's the thing that gives us the edge over other species, right, so there's that. But it's also just that makes it innate. Kids are incredibly curious and it sort of gets knocked out of us when we travel, like you just have to go and drink and eat and have fun. But the curiosity why is this like this?

Speaker 3:

You've got questions of no importance, which is why is the font on that car number plate like that? Why do they drive on the left hand side of the road? And then you've got questions of some importance. You know, why do they speak Spanish in Columbia? Why are the maoris still prominent? New Zealand, but the first nations people of australia have been utterly marginalised. So these are things that you can learn about a place when you go traveling, and I think if you keep curiosity in mind, most of the other motivations can fall out of that and the final question I have to ask ash is what I ask everyone what's the one piece of travel gear that you never go anywhere without?

Speaker 3:

so it depends where I'm going. But if I'm going somewhere where I might end up having challenges with bureaucracy and I'm not recommending smoking but carrying a packet of cigarettes, I don't smoke. But Levison Wood told me this because he spends a lot of time crossing borders and he said it's amazing how much of a difference handing out cigarettes can make when a border guard is trying to stop you or a cop is trying to stop you. It got me out of a real fix in Belarus when I was detained by none other than the KGB, and that's in chapter eight of the book Phoebe, so you can learn more about it when you read the book.

Speaker 1:

I love it Tobacco and a bit of a plug. Thank you ever so much, ash. It's been a pleasure talking to you. That was adventurer and author Ash Bhardwaj. Do check out his new book why we Travel out now, and already it's nearly the end of the episode, so time for me to share with you my utterly incredible Wander Woman of the Month. I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard. Please do subscribe so you never miss an episode, and please, please, please do leave a review. It means so very much. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Phoebe R Smith. Go to my website, phoebe-smithcom, where you can sign up for my occasional newsletter and, of course, send me a message. Now this episode we head east, to Taiwan.

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Zhejiang is a province on the east coast of China little known to many outside of the People's Republic, but it was here in 1943 that a woman who would become known as the Wandering Writer was born. Her name was Echo Chen Ping, and when she was six, her family moved to Taiwan and away from the communist rule in China. She was a precocious reader, devouring books from far beyond the Taiwanese curriculum, reading anything she could get her hands on Little Women, tolstoy, cervantes Such was her obsession with literature that she would read at the expense of all other subjects and dropped out of school. So her father homeschooled her in the subjects she adored English and classical literature, piano and painting. She went to the Chinese Culture University in Taipei with the grand goal of finding the solutions to problems in life. Then, at the age of 20, she moved to Madrid where she would meet her future husband, jose Maria Cuero Iruas. She learned many languages, including Spanish, german and Japanese, and travelled extensively to Central and South America and across Europe, mostly alone. An incredible thing at that time.

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Of all the places she went, it was her time spent living in the Sahara that captivated her the most and cemented her reputation as a travel writer and translator, one known by the pen name Sanmao. Readers loved the way she entwined her experiences living with the local people of Western Sahara with an insight into the big love she shared with her now husband. Her book Stories of the Sahara was an immediate success and was reprinted four times in the first month alone. She wrote that the Sahara was her dream lover and it was a place she got to share with her real lover. Both were love at first sight. She writes about her arrival in the western Saharan city of A'nurin, it was dusk. The setting sun stained the desert. The red of fresh blood, a sorrowful beauty. The temperature felt like early winter. I'd expected a scorching sun, but instead found a swathe of poetic desolation. Sadly, her travels were cut dramatically short by the tragic death of her husband in a diving accident in 1979. She returned the next year to Taiwan and while she travelled for publishers and editors of newspapers and taught at the university, she never lived anywhere else. She spent her days writing and lecturing and translating. The location she visited, especially the Sahara and the Canary Islands, has led to a popularity among many Chinese tourists. She died in 1991, it's thought, by suicide.

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Overlooked, forgotten, abandoned are words that often get used to describe Sanmao, which is remarkable considering she sold more than 15 million books. While her name may not be a household one in most Western countries, she gave a voice to millions of Chinese and Taiwanese women who were encouraged by her single-minded pursuit of travel, adventure and knowledge. Over her short life, she wrote more than a dozen books and a column for a newspaper in Taiwan. She even wrote lyrics for songs. Her enduring work has only recently been translated into English for the first time and is a collection of essays called Stories of the Sahara, which I urge you to check out. With her clear, concise, honest and often funny accounts, sanmao opened up an unknown world to readers in China, korea, taiwan and Hong Kong who had never seen such cultures and places. Perhaps her most beautiful work was a song she wrote when she was living in the Canary Islands. In it she states the words that many of us can identify with. Do not ask me where I'm from. My hometown is far away. Why do I wander around? Wandering afar, wandering For the little birds that soar through the sky, for the creeks that rush between the mountains, for the endless grasslands. Wandering afar, wandering lands, wandering afar, wandering. That was our incredible Wander Woman of the month. I hope Sanm ao has inspired you as much as she has me. It really is such a privilege to be able to showcase these wonderful or rather wanderful women In the next episode of the Wander Woman podcast.

Speaker 1:

I head to Europe to walk the Camino de Santiago on a self-guided tour with my navigationally nervous friend, to prove that anyone can complete this most famous pilgrimage, and in comfort too. I also meet the man whose job it is to trailblaze new hiking routes for tourists and learn what it takes to make a good multi-day stroll. My travel hack will equip you with all the knowledge you need to switch from flying to rail travel on your next trip. I catch up with TV presenter Michaela Strachan to talk pilgrim routes and the joys of group versus solo travel. My Travel Gear chat will discuss the best kit you need to walk the Camino and I recommend the 10 best places for a culinary adventure. See you then. Wander Woman out. The Wander Woman podcast is written and edited by me, phoebe Smith. The producer and writer of additional material is Daniel Nielsen. The logo was designed by John Summerton. A multitude of gratitude to all the people I met on my journey and were willing to talk to me. It's because of you that this podcast is able to happen at all.