An unforgettable moment at the Ice Camp Eqi

I was taking a nap on the long couch, facing the huge windows.
Feeling a little chilly, I opened my eyes without moving.
Right then, a small chunk of ice on top of the glacier started falling off to the fjord, with rumble sounds.
I blinked my eyes, still not moving a bit.
Am I dreaming, or is it really happening?
I saw the ice residues from the calving still flying into the fjord.

Amazing view from the hut at the Ice Eqi Camp giving me a great feeling of serenity.

Right. I remember having checked in to the hut—too luxurious for a hut—about an hour ago, right opposite of the Eqi, one of the most productive glaciers in Greenland.

Rewind a couple hours back.
I was on the boat, which parked a few hundred meters away from the glacier, feeling so humble and small in front of the huge glittering white wall, watching the glacier calving real close, and experiencing “iceberg tsunami.” I was in awe of nature.

Here it goes again. Kaboom.

I straightened up, and reached to my camera. Too late.

It always cracks when my camera is off, and it almost never happens when I’m ready to take a shot. Just like life. Perhaps that’s why it’s more thrilling.

[This is what I barely made in the boat. Because of the strong wind, you won't be able to hear the so-called "thunder" sounds, which is to me more like building-collapsing sounds.]

My favorite island, Jeju

The TV program, “2 Days and 1 Night,” always inspires me to visit some places in S.Korea or to write about my past trips. Last week’s show also reminded me of my trip to Jeju Island in the summer of 2008.

If someone asks me to recommend one place to visit in S.Korea, I would definitely say Jeju Island. (Of course, if you want to feel the “dynamic Korea,” then you should visit Seoul.)
I’ve traveled so many places in the country in my life. When I was young, nearly every Saturday morning I was sitting in the backseat of my dad’s car and a few hours later, I found myself in a new place. And that tradition doesn’t seem to have faded away. Last weekend I was all over Gangwon province, eastern S.Korea, with my family. But I’m telling you, I haven’t revisited other places as much as Jeju. Although S.Korea has many other beautiful islands, but Jeju always shows me its new charm every time I visit the island.

One of my favorite places in Jeju is the Gimnyeong Beach, northesatern Jeju. It’s the whitest and finest sand beach in the island (Note: Jeju is a volcanic island, and some beaches have black sand.) and the water is the color of emeralds… It would be easily mistaken as one of the beaches in Southeast Asia. I hadn’t heard of the beach before, and it was a pure luck that I stopped by there on my way to Seopjikoji, eastern Jeju, from the airport, along the coastline. Ever since, it became one of my top beach destinations in the country.

Gimnyeong Beach, June, 2008

Another my favorite destination is the wood trail near the Mulchat Oreum. The oreum itself that uniquely has a crater lake is certainly a must to visit. But I love the wood trail more than the oreum, particularly when it’s foggy. (I think that trail is the Saryeoni Forest, but I’m not sure. I should check that out next time I visit Jeju. Another excuse to go back! grin.)

(Note: Mulchat oreum is closed until the end of this year.)

One of the oreums I really like is the popular Abu Oreum, eastern Jeju. I visited there with my friend @getthefish in 2000 and luckily we met the land owner at the entrance of the oreum and got allowed to hike up to the peak. (Note: The area is privately owned. Not sure if the owner decided to completely open it to the public now, but it seems like many have visited there without much trouble.)

View from the top of the Abu Oreum: A ring of cedars in the crater. I remember that we had to hike up the peak twice to take this picture as we found we had no films left only on top of the peak! (Yeah, there was a thing called a film camera.)

And if you like forest, I also recommend Bijarim Forest where you can see hundreds years old bija, or nutmeg trees. The huge, strong standing trees are just overwhelming.

Bijarim Forest

And really, try to visit the island every season. Jeju will definitely show you all different colors of beauty: Spring (flowers!), summer (beaches!), fall (foliage!), and winter (snow!!!). Ah… I should go back soon.

Is it media’s responsibility to raise awareness of the importance of tourism?

That was one of the main topics during the first day discussion at the UNWTO conference on Tourism & Media today. (Thanks for the live streaming!)

Some twitter friends shared their opinions on the topic:

I don’t know if it’s media’s “responsibility,” but I believe the media can help raising awareness of not just the importance of tourism but also responsible tourism. (Although, how effective the media coverage would be is another story.)

Three years ago, when I told my friends that I was going to study sustainable tourism, one pointed out that the two words—sustainable and tourism—are contradictory to each other, as once people start visiting a destination, they cannot help ruin its environment no matter how hard they try not to. Perhaps she is right. People always consume resources and produce wastes. But we can try to reduce its negative impact, I argued.

In a similar context, that was a dilemma to me when I covered travel section for a daily newspaper back in 2006. Once a piece on a travel destination is published, there are often higher chances that more—a lot more—people visit the place; the area gets developed dramatically to accommodate increasing visitors; and the destination loses its charm and in worst scenario, the environment gets damaged.

I’m not the only one. When I met Jonathan Tourtellot, founding director of National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations and geotourism editor of NG Traveler magazine, in 2010, I asked him how he balances the two—the role of informing people of a destination and concerns about the negative impacts the articles may cause. Jonathan said not writing about destinations isn’t an option. Even if he doesn’t, someone will write about it anyway. So instead, he tries to note responsible ways of traveling in his articles, he said.

As the twitter friends argued, it may not be media’s responsibility to raise awareness of the importance of tourism or responsible tourism. It’s just that there are some journalists who feel responsible for what they write about.

+ Other good reads:
Why aren’t more bloggers writing about responsible travel?
Responsible (and local) tourism for travellers

 

Air Greenland provides unusual in-flight experience

When I read MSNBC’s blog post Frontier Airlines eliminates free chocolate chip cookies, I was naturally reminded of Air Greenland that also provides complimentary chocolate chip cookies. Actually, it gives candies and coffee as well for domestic flights.

Air Greenland's complimentary chocolate chip cookies and coffee.

I think it was my first experience to pick up cookies from a basket when I first flew to Greenland. Complimentary snacks I’ve got until then was mostly nuts or pretzels that are individually packed. I found even that quite interesting. (What wouldn’t be, to a girl who was super duper excited about going to Greenland for the first time.)

And then, I saw the flight attendant, and the only, delivering coffee and cookies to the pilots. I could see her opening the cockpit door with the snacks in her hands, and talking with the pilots. I could have a glimpse of the cockpit.

A glimpse of the cockpit, while flying to Ilulissat from Kangerlussuaq

So when I was on a trip to Ilulissat, North Greenland, with my friend Sei, we asked the flight attendant if we could see the cockpit after landing. She asked the pilots and said fine. So, we had a chance to see the cockpit real close, and to talk with the copilot. He is from Iceland and has been working for the airline for a couple years then. He didn’t mind us taking photos of the cockpit, and added if we wanted to come back to the cockpit on our way back home, just ask the flight attendants. I think we could even sit on the pilot seat if we asked.

Inside of the Air Greenland cockpit

Sei from Phoenix, AZ, said, “I think we’d get arrested in the U.S. just for asking permission.”

Another unusual experience was that for some domestic flights, passengers and cargoes are placed in the same space, without any, uhmm, partition.

In the flight to Narsarsuaq from Nuuk. By yoonmee

When Yoonmee and I flew to/from Narsarsuaq, South Greenland, from/to Nuuk, we flew with the cargoes right before us. We tried to find our own check-in luggages from the pile, laughing. On the way, the plane stopped by in Paamiut and all the passengers had to get off for about 10 mins to unload some of the passengers and the packages that may include food, necessities, or postcards. We joked that perhaps the postcards we sent from Qarqortoq are probably flying with us, being buried somewhere in the pile.

And when I thought I took nearly every kind of small planes that the Air Greenland has, it showed me I was wrong. My last domestic flight in Greenland, from Nuuk to Kangerlussuaq, had a very strange seat plan. The first front seats were rear-facing: Imagine the group seat for four at a train, with not much legroom. You got it right. Funny, no? I wonder what purpose having such seats can be.

I haven’t visited East Greenland, and far North yet, and am wondering what interesting experience the flight might provide. Perhaps another excuse to go back to Greenland. grin.

Destination image and the media

I get Google Alerts on Tourism Media. Google sends me a list of articles that has both tourism and media once a week.
Yesterday, the list included two interesting articles that tourism authorities blame the international media for tarnishing the image of the countries, and as a result, dropping the number of inbound visitors.

Al Bawaba’s Foreign media reports ‘killing Bahrain tourism’ and the Sunday Times’s Foreign media ruins Maldives’ image as a safe haven for tourists. 

It sounded so familiar to me. That’s what S.Korea used to complain about for years.  They said, the photos international media choose for their articles, for example photos of union workers wearing red headbands, sitting on the streets, striking, make the society look unstable. True. Photos can dramatize the situation. And true as well with crisis news reports. Media may cover crisis outbreaks huge on page 1 or as top news, but no one would treat things-got-better stories as important. Destination managers may find it unfair. But it’s the way it is. They should find ways to reduce its negative impact before the negative image sets in, instead of just complaining. Because once an image is set, it’s hard to be replaced. If it’s a bad one, even more so.

Again, Korea.
Yes, Korea is still technically at war, and there’ve been a few gun fights near the maritime border, but in fact, visitors as well as residents here hardly feel the war atmosphere in the country. When the North shoots missiles, SKoreans don’t even blink their eyes. They go to work/school as any other day, and few (perhaps only the media) talks about it. The stock market doesn’t get affected much either these days. But yet, according to the result of a recent survey on the image of SKorea to foreigners, which was highlighting that the K-pop ranked the second, No.1 is still the Korean war.

Bahrain and the Maldives may be upset with the tarnished image by the media. But it’s not the time for them to sit and complain. It’s time to try reduce its negative impact, and make sure the negative image doesn’t stick to their national image. They may find some loss for now. It’s unavoidable. Accept that and make sure it doesn’t last forever. Try to honestly show how attractive other parts of their country still are despite the clashes in certain areas. Perhaps they’d like to use the media—not just traditional media but also the social media, bloggers, travelers. There’re more ways to directly communicate with outsiders than before.

+ Interested in reading how SKorea’s trying to polish its national image? See What’s in an image? For Korea, a lot.

“Our sun is shining on you”

This morning, my Colombian friend Eduardo posted the following to his Facebook wall.

Ever heard of the band “Nanook”? Well, they are from Greenland and I don’t understand their lyrics… But man do I enjoy their music… Definitely recommend it.

As soon as I saw his status, I couldn’t help playing the Nanook* on. I was in fact working on a Greenland assignment. Couldn’t be more perfect.

Listening to “Seqinitta Qinngorpaatit (Our sun is shining on you),” one of my favorites, I realized I’ve never talked about Greenland’s music here.

When I first listened to the songs of Nanook, one of the most popular bands from Greenland, I have to confess, I was very surprised at its modern musical style. You couldn’t tell it’s Greenlandic at all, if you just heard the music. It was a shock in a way. Please bear with my ignorance, but I had kind of expected that Greenland’s music would be igloo-y, if that makes any sense. But instead, it’s like, what, Coldplay, to some extent (and with a bit of exaggeration). Yet, it still has Greenland’s own sentiment in it. I became a big fan of their music and gave their CD to Eduardo when I visited D.C. last year from Nuuk. (Your FB status made my day, mi amigo! Gracias!)

Later I expanded my experience in Greenlandic music not just to such young musicians, as Simon Lynge and Nive, but also to some old bands like Asuki from the early 1970s. In fact one of the Asuki’s members is an older brother of the father in my homestay family. (Well, it’s not surprising. In this small community, almost everyone is related somewhat to each other.)

Okay, no more words from me. Listening is believing.

Here are some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Nanook—Seqinitta Qinngorpaatit

Simon Lynge—Love Comes back to You

Asuki—Inuulluarna Mattaliit

So, how do you like them?

*Nanook literally means polar bear in Greenlandic. You can probably see the band members at Atlantic Music, the only record shop in Nuuk, if you’re lucky. I particularly like them because they insist singing only in Greenlandic.

For more information about Greenland’s music, visit here.

Greenland Beach Party 2032 (interview)

I posted a blog about the long-shot beach party in Greenland long time ago. And I just remembered that I haven’t posted my brief interview with Anders Rønnow Bruun, the creator of the event yet. Ooops.

Anders is a 18-year-old Dane, living in Copenhagen. He’s a member of the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark. The interview was done in August, 2011, via Facebook message.

Q. When did you create the event on Facebook?
A. It must be around autumn of last year (2010).

Q. I assume that you got inspired by the global warming, but what was the moment or the thing that made you create the event?
A. Honestly there wasn’t no particular event that made me make this event. I was just sitting with some friends in my biology class. That was where we came up with the idea.

Q. Is there a reason that you specifically chose July 16, 2032 from 2 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. for the event? Or you chose the date randomly? And why Nuuk?
A. Nuuk is the capital of Greenland and that’s why it’s the only city i can remember.

Q. Do you actually plan to hold an event in 2032 even though Greenland wouldn’t have such a tropical beach then?
A. That i would not know, but I’m young and who knows? There is an awful lot of time to plan it eventually.

Q. How did you develop your interests in the global warming?
A. I think most Danes are concerned about the environment, but the economic crisis in Europe has made it a less discussion subject sadly… But worst of all, the COP15 was a terrible setback for the fight against global warming – and i was going to a school very close to the conference [venue].

Q. Do you plan any other campaigns to raise people’s interests in the global warming and encourage them to act to slow down climate change?
A. Maybe, maybe not. if i get a good idea, I will!