NoBoundaries.org: An Around The World Travelogue » What It’s Like

What It’s Like: To Have A Poisonous Cobra On Your Back in Varanasi India (Video)

Andy — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:06:07 +0000

We present the next in, a crowd favorite, our video series ‘What It’s Like’ (Raw, un-cut, unscripted videos showing you what it’s like). This video comes from my adventures on the streets of Varanasi, India, the holiest Hindu city in the world, a pilgrimage destination that houses one of the most eclectic collections of people in the world…including real snake charmers and poisonous cobras.

What It’s Like: To Have A Poisonous Cobra On Your Back in Varanasi India from Andy Stoll on Vimeo.

(Click the Vimeo logo or on the ‘HD On/Off Button to click through to Vimeo and you can watch the clip in HD!)

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See some of the most recent other ‘What It’s Like’ videos:
See the streets of India through the eyes of Guest Traveler and Photographer Shikha Khanna with her amazing candid portraits of Indian street kids.
See some of my photo from Indian in a gallery called Indian Light.
These videos are intended to give you windows into places, read about another window I found in Cambodia

What It’s Like: To Have A Poisonous Cobra On Your Back in Varanasi India (Video)

What It’s Like: In A Tibetan Dance Club

Andy — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:11:57 +0000

If I were to say the word ‘Tibet’ to you, it would likely conjure, in your mind, images of temples, monks and mountains. It’s unlikely it would make you think of dance clubs. To assist you in such future visualization exercises, we bring you the next in the ongoing series of ‘What It’s Like’ videos, this one from Lhasa, Tibet. Breaking with normal form, in which I usually do not add much commentary to these videos, this one requires a bit of a setup.

After seven days of touring monasteries and temples, praying with monks and crisscrossing the Himalayan foot hills, we decided to try to get a glimpse of the contemporary life of young Tibetans and found ourselves chasing an invitation to one of Lhasa’s most popular dance clubs.

We arrived fashionably late and after the formalities at the door, we entered a cavernous room full of hundreds of rowdy, young Tibetans, mostly between the ages of 18 and 30—all crammed in circular booths drinking what else but cans of cheap, full strength American Budweiser Beer (Tibet is the country outside of America, where I’ve seen (and drank) the most of America’s favorite King of Beers).

We found a table on the upper floor, one of the last left in the place, despite it being only 8pm. Over the next six hours we’d be entertained with all types of amusement, including traditional Tibetan dances, karaoke, stage plays, pantomimes, drummers and singers (some of Tibet’s most famous), among other things. Every four or five acts, a Tibetan pop hit would explode from the speakers and the crowd would rise from there beer can covered tables to cram the stage for an all-out MTV Grind-style dance party, returning to their seats every single time after just one song. More amusing acts would follow, then once again a club-wide, single song dance party would ensue. I was actually quite impressed, as I realized a few hours into the evening, that they had not played a single American pop song, an experience you’d never have in Beijing, Bangkok, Buenos Aries, Pretoria, Paris or Perth. All the entertainment at this thumping Tibetan dance club was, surprisingly, Tibetan.

The menagerie of spectacle, the heavily pulsating lights, the cheesy re-creation of the Potallah Palace (the home of the exiled Dali Lama) on the stage backdrop under the clouds of cigarette smoke, left my head in a drunken state of confusion akin to a hallucinogenic trip on acid, on crack—or maybe it was just the Budweiser.

As our host would explain to us, the entertainment lineup would be the same night after night, the same songs, plays, performers and dances. Despite the fact that the audience could lip sync to all the songs, knew all the punch lines of the plays (and still laughed) and had done the same dances a hundred times over, it was all because everyone—all 400 people in that club—were in fact just waiting for one performance, and then its likely most people would leave for the night.

The promoters of the club were smart and put this one performer on stage about 3am. The anticipation of arrival grew as the hours passed on and the beer cans emptied. I knew we couldn’t leave until I figured out what had all these young Tibetans so damn excited, to come each night to put themselves through a show they’d seen a hundred times before and to drink beer that was about a half step up in flavor from the other ubiquitous Tibetan drink: butter tea. This performer, I figured, would have to be a show stopper.

I’m not going to tell you what happened at 3am, you’ll just have to watch the video and see who arrived for yourself.

Click here or the video player above to see the video.

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Learn more about my 7 Days In Tibet or read some short stories
See my photos galleries of Tibet in widescreen or regular size.
See past videos on ‘What It’s Like’:

What It’s Like: To Cook Chinese Cabbage In A Restaurant In Tibet

Andy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:04:14 +0000

Raw, mostly un-cut video from Tibet in the on-going ‘What It’s Like’ video series. Click the video image below to view (can’t see it, click here to go directly to Facebook).

What you can do now:

Leave a comment on the video in the box below.
See past videos on ‘What It’s Like’:
Learn more about my 7 Days In Tibet or read some short stories
See my photos galleries of Tibet in widescreen or regular size.
These videos are intended to give you windows into places, read about another window I found in Cambodia

What It’s Like: To Fire A Machine Gun In Vietnam

Andy — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:27:31 +0000

The next in a series of raw, mostly unedited videos called “What It’s Like.” This one from the jungles just outside Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. (Can’t see the video below? Go directly to Facebook the video hosting site by clicking here.)

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What It’s Like: To Climb Down Angkor Wat (Video)

Andy — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 11:09:44 +0000

The next in a series of raw, mostly unedited videos called “What It’s Like.” This one from Angkor Wat in Cambodia. (Can’t see the video below? Go directly to Facebook video by clicking here.)

What you can do now:

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See photos from Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples.
See photos from another climb up another ancient monument: The Great Wall of China
See past videos on ‘What It’s Like’:

What It’s Like: To Walk Through A House In A Fishing Village In China (Video)

Andy — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:44:19 +0000

Shot in Xun Zhou, China, the rural fishing village I visited, it’s my version of MTV Cribs: China. If you can’t see the video player below, click here.

What you can do now:

Please leave comments about the video below
See some photo from my visit to the island.
See a short video about What It’s Like: To Buy A Duck in Xun Zhou
“Are you a Bush or a Clinton?” Read more about my arrival on the island.
Read Andy’s previously posted story “The Tower of Babel: An Instructive Guide”
See past videos on ‘What It’s Like’:

What It’s Like: To Buy A Duck In China (Video)

Andy — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:47:44 +0000

Shot in a very rural fishing village of Xun Zhou, China, the noboundaries.org team heads out on a mission to buy a duck with no supermarkets in sight. No commentary, no real editing—it’s raw and uncut (the video, not the duck) so you might know “what it’s like” yourself.

Click here to see the video or click the video player below.

What you can do from here:

Leave a comment about this video in the comment box below.
Read more about the fishing village in my story, “The First American In China“
Suggest a topic for a future “What It’s Like” video by contacting noboundaries.org.
See past entries ‘What It’s Like’:

What It’s Like: At The World’s Busiest Intersection (Video)

Andy — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:44:28 +0000

[Introducing a new feature on NoBoundaries I'm calling "What It's Like," each installment will bring to you a different first person experience that I've encountered while on the road. I'm going to provide very little commentary, and just give you a chance to experience it for yourself. Please leave comments.]

This is a short video of the famous intersection in the Shibuya Ward of Tokyo that is reportedly the world’s busiest. WOW! That’s a lot of people…and it looks like that at every crossing. Shibuya is the fashion center of Tokyo, it has a great energy about it and, in my opinion, is best experienced at night. (It reminds me of Time Square in New York City.) This intersection is featured in the Sofia Coppola film Lost in Translation.

(This video was taken by my brother Adam, check out the website of his time in Japan.)

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Leave a comment about what else you’d like to see as a “What It’s Like” Video or read comments left by others.
Check out a really AMAZING Quicktime VR Panorama of the same intersection (from another perspective) by Ian Orgias of ImageWorks VR.