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This is supposed to be our 'short' newsletter but with many goings-on it will turn out to be rather long. First and foremost, we thank all of you for your patience following our launch of the changes to some of our NomadMania regions in our last newsletter. We especially thank those who worked with us explaining what was wrong so that we could then get it right.
It has taken a while to get everything in order, as the NomadMania website is incredibly complex, but we believe that all major features are now correct on both the desktop and the app versions of NomadMania. Please let us know if this is not the case with you and we will investigate. We are aware that flags are still not perfect, and this will take some time to sort out as it's more complex than it appears. Once again, you can read all about the changes to our Masterlist and M@P lists here! Make sure you update your profiles and do check your totals!
We remind all of you, if you are still experiencing issues, please log out and then log back into your profile; and ensure your app has been updated with the latest updates ~(if not, please reinstall it). This should ensure all maps and features are working well based on the new updates.
In this edition, apart from our interview, we have an extra special feature which we think you will like! And here are a few announcements.
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Firstly - we need your help! Ever used a great guide, a fixer or someone who truly made a difference as part of your travels? Later in May, we are planning a major overhaul of our Fixers section and as part of our update, we want to present guides or Fixers who you believe were outstanding. So, please write to Milana (milana@nomadmania.com) with a short text, maybe a photo and some contact details of a Fixer who you felt needs to be appreciated! It doesn't need to be necessarily in a 'difficult' country. Please note if you suggest someone who is not in our 'Fixers' section already, we will then add that person. Thanks for your contributions!
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Recently we received news that one of our scholarship recipients from Donetsk, Yevhen, managed to flee the country and is now heading to Belgium after a month in Italy. We offered to help the way we could and we gave him a temporary position as a UX/UI designer with NomadMania. He will hopefully help us improve some old issues that we had no time to address by now and we honestly hope that he will manage to find something in Belgium as well.
If you are in a position to help him find a more permanent position or you are simply looking for some UX/UI help, you can check out his portfolio here.
In the mean time, employing Yevhen meant putting a pause on our regular cooperation with another Ukrainian, Artem, who is currently stationed in Lviv.
He was on a lookout for a more permanent position as well, but you might guess that it's tough luck these days. That is why we would kindly invite you to hire him if you need some of his expertise. NomadMania, as well as some members of our team who had hired him privately in the past, can vouch for him being reliable and good at what he does. He specialises in branding, but has so much more to offer. Let us also note that he did most of NomadMania website design (not the app though) and all other related graphics since 2019. Finally, here is what he has to say about himself:
"Here's my website with portfolio and testimonials. Also, my portfolio on Behance.
I am a web designer, a traveller and a digital nomad, currently based in Lviv, helping the country as much as I can.
I have extensive experience in logo & branding, printing design, web-design & elements (icons, infographics, slides, banners), implementation on Wordpress with the help of visual builders, adjusting settings using CSS, HTML and plug-ins."
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Meanwhile, our UN Master from Slovakia Lubos Fellner wishes to remind everyone he has two hotels in Bratislava where any Ukrainians can stay for FREE.
And in more travel-related territory, on May 26, Lubos is embarking on a unique expedition to the Brazilian Amazon which will take in tribes not contacted before, according to him; the expedition requires a certain amount of fitness and ability to endure tough conditions but is a truly unique one - though it's at short notice, if interested, get back to Lubos asap (or to us and we all forward our message).
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Our newsletters are actively read by at least 6,000 people - some of who are the biggest travellers ever. And that's why we would like to 'open' our 5th of the month newsletter (the 'shorter' one) to any announcements you may have about, well, anything to do with you or travel. Written a book? Organising a trip? Offering help? Opened a guesthouse? Want to celebrate a travel achievement with the world? Let us know. NomadMania will ultimately decide whether to publish an 'announcement' but we feel it would be a good place to start with these; and possibly if this gains traction we may introduce an announcement board for all of you to use!
Finally, though covid is still very much among us and we always urge caution, we are going to start encouraging any volunteers to set up meetings for NomadMania members wherever they want. The rules are simple - the host who could be any one of you just lets us know he wants to host a meeting (ideally at least 3 weeks in advance), and states the time and the place; we post this in the next newsletter as well as our Meetings section (now empty); the host is obligated to be at the stated place and at the stated time - and hopefully an interesting social event will come up!
As a starter, our team in Warsaw announces a NomadMania meeting last week of June. Follow our website news flash and Meeting section for more details in the future.
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Ted Nims is an avid traveller who recently became a driver to the ones in need. He drives people forced to leave Ukraine from the border to Polish cities (and beyond). |
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When travelling becomes a neccessity |
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Ted, can you tell us how come you are now in Poland? Don't you live in the US normally?
I am American and split time between Chicago, New England, Costa Rica and the rest of the world. I’ve been traveling a lot in Africa lately and had planned to return to Africa this March, but after seeing some of the news stories on Ukraine I felt like if there was ever a time to try to pay it forward, this was it. I’m trying to visit every country in the world and of the 50 UN countries I haven’t been to yet, a handful are on a spousal ‘protected list’ that my wife wants to visit with me. As Poland is on that short list, I had to get an exception, but Renee was totally supportive of me doing a solo humanitarian trip to Poland with the understanding that someday we will go to Poland together for a more traditional trip. Oh, and I had to promise Renee that I wouldn’t go INTO Ukraine on this trip – just to the border towns in Poland.
How did you start volunteering as a driver, aren't you usually just travelling?
I saw a story on NBC about G2A, a Polish gaming company that converted their Rzeszów office headquarters into temporary lodging for Ukrainians. The story introduced viewers to 72-year-old Grandmother Ms. Alla, who was working with her granddaughter Iryna in Chicago to come to America. Through G2A I was able to contact the granddaughter in Chicago and offered to bring her grandmother a care package as part of my trip, but she has a wonderful family, and her grandson was already on top of it coming soon to bring her the necessary things. The Ukrainian Village area of Chicago is close to our Chicago home, so Renee and I also went to a popular Ukrainian diner in the neighborhood to leave word with my contact information that I would be happy to bring anything from the USA to Poland for friends or relatives of Ukrainians who fled to Poland. No one took me up on my offer though, so I flew to Warsaw on March 22 with no real plan other than to pick up a Hertz rental SUV and drive to the Ukrainian border to try to help.
When I arrived in Przemyśl, the main border crossing from Ukraine into Poland, I was expecting a chaotic scene. I was incredibly impressed with the border operation that Poland and NGOs had stood up there in a matter of days – unofficial driver pick-ups are no longer permitted. I was screened as a driver and, once approved, given a wristband with QR code that provided trackability between myself and the individuals I’d be driving. Since I was willing to take people to anywhere in Poland, within minutes I matched with two different families crossing the border needing transport. After scanning all our wristbands to link our journeys together, we were quickly and safely on our way. There are a never-ending stream of women and children needing transportation.
Can you share any pictures or stories of your experiences with some of the people you drove?
First and foremost, this picture is not ok. This is as far from ok as it gets. We’re smiling in the picture trying to make the best of it, but these are the first two families I picked up at the Ukrainian border in Przemyśl after registering as a volunteer driver. I prefer to call them families, not ‘refugees’. Tanya in the front seat was emotional and scared, she had gone through a lot to reach the border. Ira in the back seat is holding her one month old son, literally a child of war. Ira’s teenage daughter peeking out from behind my seat was the only one who spoke any English, so she got to pick the Spotify music on my phone for our drive. I dropped Tanya off in a small Polish town a 3-hour drive from the border where she will now live with a friend. I then I dropped Ira, Dasha & Dima off at the Warsaw train station where they met friends to continue their journey sans fathers.
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Then I returned to the Ukrainian border, planning to drive families to Krakow. But there was no one else available to make the longer drive to Warsaw for a young mother of three, so back to Warsaw for me. Dasha recently fled her home about an hour from Mariupol with her 2-year old in one hand, 3-year old in the other hand, and 5-year old walking alone as the new adult of the family, having to leave their Dad behind in Ukraine.
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There are plenty of donated car seats available at the border for us as drivers to use, but neither I nor the other volunteers know the instruction manual for such things. Fortunately, Policja have kids. I enjoyed seeing one policeman laughing while he took a personal cellphone pic of his ‘tough’ comrade holding the 2-year old, then seeing their fellow cadet try to entertain the 3-year old with a handpuppet through my car window while we were loading the car. Handpuppets > Handguns!
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I’m sure my friends with kids already know this, but I learned the import of having baggies on hand while making a drive with a sick child. That newly minted 5-year old ‘adult’ threw up a dozen times over our 5-hour drive. She pukes like a Ukrainian – she is tough, doesn’t complain, and will go on to do great things.
We got into Warsaw just before midnight and the family of four asked to be dropped off at the airport. They planned to fly to Finland the next day to stay with Grandpa. I didn’t like the thought of them sleeping on the airport floor and remembered there is a Marriott connected to Warsaw’s airport. A quick message to my wife and her work colleagues at InRule Technology generously contributed an airport hotel room for the night. I’ve never had a parting hug quite like that before and probably never will again. Like her young daughter, Dasha hugs like a Ukrainian. Strong.
Can you give us a quick "how to" for anyone reading that might want to help but they don't know how?
I did it 100% on my own not through any organization and not knowing what would happen, but it turns out it’s amazingly well-organized if you just fly into Warsaw, rent the biggest vehicle you can, and show up in Przemyśl. Poland requires Americans to have an International Drivers Permit. To get it in America, go to a AAA office with your driver’s license and two passport pictures, pay $20 and five minutes later you will have the IDP card.
All Ukrainians crossing the border at Przemyśl are taken via shuttle buses to a refugee center a few minutes from the border, where there is staging allowing them to coordinate their next move. The refugee center used to be a Tesco supermarket. To get there, use Waze and map to Media Markt (17 Lwowska, Przemyśl), park in their lot and walk across the street. You will see all the NGO tents in the center’s parking lot serving hot food to ‘refugees’. In that same lot there is an orange tent where you can register to be a volunteer driver, here is the link to initiate registration.
After taking a copy of your passport and finishing the registration on-site, they will give you a green wristband. Then go into the refugee center doors to the right of the building, stop immediately at the fence (don’t go past the police checkpoint) and tell anyone standing on other side of the fence wearing a yellow vest that you are there to drive. They will ask where you are willing to go and how many people you can take in your vehicle. I usually said three or four max, if some are kids, and they always ensured they matched me with the maximum because there is such a need. There is also a green tent where you can sign up as a general volunteer if you want to stay in Przemyśl as a general volunteer not driving.
I stored most of my luggage at a hotel in Warsaw to keep as much space available as possible in the SUV – that was important, the people I drove hardly had any luggage, but the strollers and child car seats take up a lot of room. There are plenty of donated child car seats available at the entrance to the refugee center. Important note: drive slowly in Przemyśl; there is a heavily enforced speed trap above 50 km/hr in town. One other tip, download music for the ride that kids would like – the ‘Pop 4 Kids’ Spotify playlist was what one of my passengers picked. Bring water bottles to offer passengers and plenty of snacks for yourself – I never really had a proper meal in Poland since I was always driving.
How long do you intend to stay there? Do you think it's the same in countries other than Poland (Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and Romania)?
I flew to Warsaw March 22 to do what I could to help for a week and a half. I was driving nearly all waking hours, surviving pretty much on peanuts and water in the car. It was exhausting, but each time I finished a drive I felt compelled to return to the border as soon as possible. When you see first-hand the people crossing the border in their greatest time of need, other things don’t seem to matter as much anymore.
I tried to do something similar in Moldova, which was more logistically complicated. The Chișinău airport isn’t technically closed but no commercial carriers are currently willing to fly there. And every rental car company I contacted in Romania has revoked their cross-border driving policies, prohibiting their rental cars from entering Moldova. So I flew to Bucharest, hired a driver from the region who I’ve used previously, and we drove to Moldova. I registered as a volunteer driver with an NGO called Moldova For Peace but they didn’t have any pick-ups needed at the time I was there. They said if we just showed up at the border there may be a need, so we drove to Palanca – it isthe busiest of the Moldova / Ukraine border crossings, below Transnistria, by the Black Sea, just west of Odessa.
We went to the border crossing location itself, as well as a refugee camp and the bus ‘station’. It was a different set-up than Poland but it was also well organized. At each location, we offered to the authorities to give a free ride to Romania to anyone whom it might benefit. Many of the people crossing the border at Palanca go to Romania and specifically Bucharest. When I was there in late March, we saw Ukrainian families walking across the border every few minutes or so; the border officials said it was 10x as many people three weeks earlier! UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, now runs free buses from Palanca to various places in Moldova and Romania. At the Moldova border they don’t have a good way of tracking private driver registrations to know who is driving whom, so they aren’t encouraging private drivers to transport ‘refugees’ since the numbers are now manageable with the UNHCR running three large charter buses and a few smaller buses each day.
Can you give us some certain recommendations for humanitarian organisations to which we could donate?
I’ve been asked that so many times! And I’ve received dozens of unsolicited offers of money and hotel rooms to support Ukrainian ‘refugees’. When I stopped by the American Welcome Center that’s run by the US State Department in Przemyśl, they said “we don’t advocate for any particular NGO”. I prefer to take that approach.
I know the Ukrainian churches by my home in Chicago are using donations to help directly. For those who are reticent to send money abroad or to large organizations, the exodus from Ukraine is large enough that I expect many of your readers, wherever they may be, will come across a Ukrainian ‘refugee’ in their daily lives. That may present the best opportunity to pay it forward directly by doing what you can to help them. And if any of your readers travel to the Ukrainian border and a similar situation arises that they need to book a hotel room for a Ukrainian on the spot, Renee and I have many people that would happily reimburse them.
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The NomadMania Interview: Radwan Ziadeh |
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Have you ever been pulled to the side at the border for a "random check" and then questioned before you were let into the country? Meet Radwan from Syria who has had this experience no less than 130 times, because this is how many countries he has visited on a Syrian passport! Read on and be amazed. Radwan is an amazing person and a traveller, a true inspiration.
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Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009 |
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Radwan, can you please tell us something about yourself? Where do you come from and how did your love for travel develop in the first place?
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First, thank you very much for this opportunity. I never imagined that I will be talking about myself, about my job or my travels.
I was born and I grew up in Syria. In the nineties, it was very, very difficult to travel because during the last president, who ruled Syria for almost 30 years, He adopted like the Soviet system of travel freedom. If you wanted to travel, you had to get a permission. So not only a visa for the foreigners to get inside the country, but for the nationals to be able to leave the country of origin. I remember my first trip outside of Syria was in 1999 to Jordan. At that time I was 20 years old. They requested the money, actually. My uncle had to put his money as a deposit for the government to allow me to leave. It was a value of 10,000$ at that time and it allowed me to leave the country only for one month. Had I not returned, my uncle would lose all the money.
That is why it was very difficult to travel then. But when the current president took power he loosened a little bit the restrictions on travel. This is when I travelled around the region for conferences, in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, etc.
My first trip into Europe to UK, London, in 2005. Before this trip also a lot was happening. When I applied for a visa for many countries, all got rejected and I was unable to travel for some time. It happened because in 2004, I applied for a visa to go to Canada for a three months course in English. They rejected my visa application and they stamped my passport with the rejection. They took one full page just for a rejection. And this is why when you present your passport to any other embassy and they see this, they will also reject your application.
After that, I remember that I locked myself in my room for 20 hours. I was super sad for this incident and for the reason that they discriminate against low income countries. But I think this incident pushed me to travel all around the world later on because it became a personal challenge at the time and at the same time, it became actually a source of enjoyment and fun to go around the world with the same, Syrian passport.
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So this bring us to the next question. Do you still travel only with the Syrian passport?
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Yes. I have only Syrian passport, even now when I'm based in the United States. This helps because you have the residency card, but I still have a Syrian passport only and have travelled into 130 UN countries with the Syrian passport.
I can tell you that from every border of those 130 countries, I have story. They stop you at the border (completely randomly, of course) for an additional check. Even when I come back to the US, they do this sometimes, so I ask them how it's possible that every time it's randomly?
You will read the news, but no one will tell you how much the passport makes it difficult for the Syrian refugees, or for the Syrian citizen who are still holding the Syrian passport.
The Syrian passport ranks on what they call the passport Index as the lowest. It only allows you to travel to three countries around the world. In spite of all, that is the most expensive at 800$. And it's valid for two years only. The process to get it takes six months.
This is why I think we will use this interview to shed a light of how difficult it is for the Syrian refugees and Syrian citizens. The Syrian government makes it even more difficult. I know there is a lot of discussion on immigration and the refugee status with all the crisis in Ukraine happening today, but it also has to be linked to the issue of human rights of the other people to travel.
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What made you decide to travel only with the Syrian passport? Last time we spoke, you said that even if you would get the US passport, you would still continue traveling with the Syrian one. Are you planning to make something out of it? Like an awarenes campaign or a book or something? And how did being Syrian influence your travels?
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Yes, exactly. I have a lot of ideas on a book called Syrian passport. I'm looking for a publisher who would be interested to publish it. It will be a collection of my personal stories of travelling with the Syrian passport at every border of every country. I can tell you some examples.
There is a country within South Africa, Lesotho. So when I was going to visit South Africa, I thought, okay, I can use this trip to visit one more country. I applied for a visa to Lesotho, which is one of the world's poorest countries, at the time I think it was one of the 10 poorest.
But when I applied for the visa here at the embassy in Washington, they requested even my Syrian criminal record because of my Syrian passport. I was laughing, I mean, there's no way for me to get that. So I went to the US police and pulled up my record from here and I submitted it to the embassy here. I got a response two months later just to visit that one small, land locked country.
Of course, I got tons of rejections from other embassy of, because of my Syrian passport. But you know what, that's what makes it more fun. You develop a personal persistence to travel and it makes your travel more memorable and more challenging.
That's, I think what will make my book very interesting because it should allow other Syrian citizens to plan and dream of travel around the world. At the same time it would show the difficulties and the the double standards of the global citizen concept for low income countries' citizens.
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Do you have any specific travel goals? Is the goal only the book, or do you really want to see every country in the world? You're pretty high up already.
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I have several different goals from travel.
The first one, of course is to discover the world. I like reading books and this is my favourite thing to do. I read a lot, almost a book every week. I like to compare todays' to the old travellers that we had in the Arabic and Islamic tradition. One of the most famous travellers was called Ibn Batuta. The highest he could reach at that time was Denmark and he called the Denmark the ceiling of the world. Nothing up beyond Denmark was thought to exist at that time. When I read this book I learned how the travel gives you a sense of how much the world has changed and I compared how much we are fortunate with the new technology, new science and new transportation methods to discover areas that our grandfathers and grand grandfathers could not even dream of.
For example, I visited Alaska with my wife and kids. We flew into Fairbanks and then we drove for 450 miles to get to the North Arctic Circle and back. It was amazing to do the trip into the most northern area of the Earth in one day and compare that to Ibn Batuta who actually needed three months to reach Denmark, the ceiling of the world at that time.
The second goal is to actually get to know the culture through travel. Travel opens your mind and it opens your eyes into new systems of government. I'm a scientist and that's what helped me actually to compare different government systems and also to study the impact governments onto the development. We can take a look at the differences between, as one example, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both countries share the same island, but Dominican Republic is one of the most attractive countries for tourists around the world, especially from the United States, while Haiti is one of the most poor countries. Of course the difference comes from nothing about the national resources rather than how the government was set up. Government can manage the resources and make them attractive to the tourists and the people. And of course, they can make it functional to their own citizen to excel and develop.
My third goal is to see the impact of the travel to my kids and their development. I visited 50 US states of the US so far and all US territories, while my kids visited 40 states. They are 13, 10 and 9. They are getting to know challenging ideas and discover new things every day, which in my opinion makes them much more smarter.
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We know that you travel a lot and you also travel for work, but how often is that? How many days during the year would you say that you are on the road and how many days are you at home, for whatever reason?
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Yes. My travel started actually for work conferences
And then I got aware of using this extra travel time to visit countries close by. That's why traveling became a goal itself and to visit all 193 UN countries. It's a goal by itself because it's so much fun. And of course to learn from all of this.
It's unfortunate that because of COVID I was unable to travel outside of the US for almost the last three years. This is why, as I mentioned before, we took the time to travel within the US, along with my kids, to try and transfer the passion for traveling into those little kids, into discovering more. We visited Hawaii last December. We enjoyed the different islands in Hawaii and also we visited Alaska as I just mentioned. Quite a contrast.That's was great use of that time during the pandemic, I guess.
And a word for everyone - if you have a passion for traveling, there should be nothing stopping you from discovering and traveling, even in new cities or, as NomadMania points it out nicely - different regions, to make it more expanding. It's impossible, of course, for anyone to do all of these regions , but it's also more exciting, because you create new goals for travellers.
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Made it to Canada in 2007 |
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What would you say are your biggest travel interests when you go somewhere? You said that you are interested in the culture, but is there something that you do rather than other things? Do you rather hike or maybe go see museums in the city?
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Thank you for this question. I do my homework very carefully. Before any travel, I do a lot of reading about the country. I do a lot of research about the sites and decide where I should go. And of course I have to visit all the museums, especially nature or history museums. I'm a big fan of history and books, as I mentioned. So I always want to find out more about the history, the culture and the political systems. I spent a month in London, for example, and I visited 82 museums.
And after museums, I have to go to landmarks, including the World Heritage Sights. I'm a political scientist and I'm interested in the concept of justice so when I visited Chile, Argentina or Brazil, I went to the important sights where the crimes have been comited during the political fights there.
The third thing, of course, you have to try the food. You have to go to one of the local restaurants always and you have to interact with the local people. I use the public transport, rarely actually rent a car, to interact with the people, ask them questions. Sometimes you don't know the language and it's difficult to find someone that speaks, or even understands English. Then you use your hands, gestures and funny sounds, but you always find a way to communicate.
The last thing, of course, you have, can go to the cinema or theatre, if they have it. And then you have a total case. This is why in every country I have to spend at least 48 hours or three days, at least.
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What are some of your favourite dishes from the countries that you visited so far?
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I'm maybe biased because I belong to the Mediterranean cuisine. The Mediterranean cuisine is always my favourite. French, Italian, and of course the Syrian and Turkish. But then of course I enjoy the Thai food. Sometimes I find it interesting and better to try the cuisine outside of the country, rather than inside the country.
It happened with me many times. Maybe it depends on their restaurant you visit. For example I like the Indian food, but when I visited India it was horrible and too spicy for me. I got some health issues and this is why I changed my attitude towards the Indian cuisine. Since then, I tried it only outside of India, not inside India.
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Can you tell us what are some of the biggest surprises that you encountered on your travels so far? Probably you have many stories from the borders, but maybe some within countries as well?
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I wasn't aware of the rule that some of the countries do not allow to bring any fruits of vegetables in.
When I took a flight into Caras, Venezuela, I had taken three bananas with me. During the flight I ate two, but I still had one left when we landed at the airport. When we landed, three search dogs come into me. I got horrified and they search and they found this one banana. They decided actually to take me into the investigation unit. And then they transferred me into court because I violated the law. They said, the fine is $10,000 and I cannot leave and I cannot stay.
In the room there was also another American citizens, with the same cause - because of one strawberry. One. You forget it... It wasn't an enjoyable visit. The same thing happened with me when I was leaving Caras. They searched me, they said that I had drugs. I said that I never even smoked... This is what causes travellers to have to try and give bribe in some countries. I don't like to do that and it goes against my principles, but at some points I was forced to think about it.
I can also tell you a story of when I went to Costa Rica and I asked a guy to take a photo of me in one of the sites. After that we became friends and we still communicate until today, six years after. And this is why you never know what next travel can bring. Travel create friendship, a lot of memories from events you never expected. Imagine, someone takes a picture of you and they become your friend for life.
The valuable lesson I learned from all this traveling is to listen. As I said, I do my homework before I travel. I study the country and in everything that's very helpful. But for the countries I went to, actually I follow up until today. I listen to the news from around the countries because you create a sense of being attached to the country after visiting it. You become interested in their issues, you become a part and then you follow that. This is why I consider myself a global citizen now, interested in all the world's issues and affairs. It's impossible to follow all, especially coming from Syria. But I think being an international traveller and a global citizen is an amazing and enjoyable thing.
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Many big travellers, which are mainly from Western countries, unfortunately, invest a lot of time and money to get into certain countries, such as Syria, because it's problematic to get there. Do you think there's something that they could actually do, once they are there for the locals to inspire them to travel more, to tell them stories of travel or to help them in some other way?
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That's very important because we have to always distinguish between the culture, the people and, sometimes, the political violence done by smaller groups.
When you visit Syria for example, you have a lot of nice stories about the country, the cuisine, the oldest cities in the world. So you should actually talk about this country and how unfortunately it's being ruined because of the authoritarian regime which is still there.
Same thing when I visited Russia and Ukraine. I mean, San Petersburg is the most beautiful city in the Europe. And I feel sad now with all this happening. When I visited Kiev I discovered that it's a city full of life. I've done a lot of research even about the orange revolution in Ukraine. The news only focus on the conflict, on the bad things happening, because that's what they do. I mean, if you meet with the reporter, they don't care if you said, blah blah, good things. But they care about what makes it interesting, the bad things, that's what being a journalist is and I understand that, but being a traveler, you have to shed light on the good memories and the time you spent in those countries.
That's what creates a counter image of Ukraine today and of the people of Ukraine. In the same way if you go to Syria, every traveller has a mission to focus on, on the good things, on the good memories of those countries.
The only one good thing that I see about the Syrian civil war is that the Syrians are now spread around the world. I told you in my first answer how difficult for the Syrians it is to travel. They don't people to travel. Now the Syrian refugees, according to the UN, are in 136 countries. As one example, my aunt, she is 72 years old, she'd never left Syria in her entire life and she's now in Iceland, the country, she even cannot pronounce the name of. This is, as I see it the positive side of that. I see the positive of, of side of the Syrians being around the world discovering how things are made in industry, how things are done in the political systems where you take part in decision making and this is what I'm proud of. All the Syrians refugees around the world, how they're active on the social media, active hosting each other. If you go to Berlin today, it has more than 140 Syrian restaurants. They be able actually to open, authentic Syrian restaurants and to show the world the Syrian culture and the beauty of the Syrian people and the love they have for the Syrian people. I think, unfortunately that happened only because of the war. Of course, all their properties, like my house were destroyed. I lost a library which consisted of 40,000 books. I feel sad about the most important values from my library, but at least I see some silver lining to it all.
I think this is now the chance for being around the world and to start a new life. This is why the travellers have the responsibility, and the Syrian refugees also, to show their best of Syria from their hearts and in their language.
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How did your view of the world change with traveling? Did it become better or worse? Is the world better or worse when you travel?
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That's very important question. In the centre of my principal, as I said, I'm the global citizen. Traveling with the Syrian passport and my work showed me how, because of the past, the wars divided the world on the religion bases. Now based on that your identity depends on that, which passport you're holding or what life you are living. Especially for those from low income countries such as Syria or South Sudan. This is what we as travellers should be fighting for, for more equality.
This is why I appreciated your Low Passport Index ranking. It shows better which countries have it more difficult in terms of travel at least. As travellers we should fight for more equal opportunities and for opportunity for everyone, regardless of which passport they have is to be able to travel only for the fun of it.
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We have a signature question that we ask all of our guests: if you could invite 4 people from any era to dinner, who would your guests be and why?
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First one would be Ibn Batuta to revisit his travels. He is number one traveller in the world and his book has been translated into many languages. A conversation with him would show how much the world has changed, how much the human beings also changed. Now we are able to go to every spot in the world, where as he had to travel for three months to Denmark and he lost 36 of his men.
Second, I would invite a Syrian refugee to tell them that they are also able to enjoy travel regardless of the discrimination and to enjoy it simply. I always expect a secondary line when I land in a country, but I still find the beauty in it.
Third one would be my family. I want them to enjoy, travel and explore. It's always fun and also a good learning experience.
The fourth one would be someone who also believes they are a global citizen. As Marthin Luther King said "I have a dream..." I have a dream to take all these borders out and I believe in a global citizen. I believe in my heart that you can do it and at the same time we should actually learn, what Covid proved, that we are small world. Because what happens in China, can affect the whole world within days. That is why my dream is that one days we will have no borders and will be treated equally and your passport will not affect how you are treated.
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We thank Radwan for sharing his personal photos with us here at NomadMania.
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