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sometimes those who wander are a l ittle lost

August 2015 Issue

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Green to Blue, Free to FallTwo sisters on a journey through Southeast Asia

Tour Du Mont BlancA ten day hike around one of Europe’s highest peaks

Why You Should Move to Italy...And what you should pack for the trip

What You Don’t Know About TravelingThe moments unseen by Instagram

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Sitting, Waiting | by Christiana Mecca

Volunteering with injured and abused elephants in the Jungle of Cambodia

The Tour Du Mont Blanc | by Christiana Mecca

A ten day hike around one of Europe’s highest peaks

Blue to Green, Free to Fall | by Christiana Mecca

Two sisters on an adventure through Southeast Asia

Natural Glow On-the-Go | by Christiana Mecca

Natural products for beatufiul and healthy skin found anywhere

Why You Should Move to Italy | by Christiana MeccaWhy Italy is waiting for you and what you should pack for your trip

What You Don’t KnowAbout Traveling | by Christiana Mecca

The ins and outs of the moments that are not pretty enough for Instagram

The Best Items for Any Journey | by Christiana Mecca

A Packing list for backpackers to luxury travelers

Sleeping with the Mayans| by Christiana Mecca

Sometimes there is no better way to see the sunrise than from the top of a Mayan Temple

Falling in Love On the Road| by Christiana Mecca

Falling in love is wonderful, falling in love on the road is ...

Life’s A Beach, Right?| by Christiana Mecca

Taking a look back at where the travel bug began

Psssion Passport| by Christiana Mecca

Moments captured through a lense

North England and its Forgotten Pieces | by Christiana Mecca

The parts of England less talked about

Miniature Matters | by Christiana Mecca

A story about a story in your backyard

Why You Should Run Away | by Christiana Mecca

Working out while traveling the world

Who Takes Advice From a 22-Year-Old? | by Christiana Mecca

New outlook on shi* situations

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stood at the edge of the wooden roof deck impatiently waiting for my turn to jump off into the not-

so-clear green water of Ha Long Bay. Two stories of Junk boat was below me. A few of my new friends splashed and laughed beneath, occasionally tossing words of encouragement up into the air like frisbees waiting to be caught. “What’s the worst that could happen?” and “Do a back flip mate,” were the only sentences I could comprehend. Moving my toes to the edge of the brown planks, I reached back for the white peeling railing that looked less than trustworthy

I had been struggling with sea sickness from the reckless combination of a hangover, rocking salt water waves and cigarette smoke for over an hour now. Despite the height, jumping was the closest cure and there was nothing I wanted to do more.

My big toes nakedly hung off the edge. I released the security of the railing, now my right hand wrapped around my musty, brown, tube-top bathing suit and my left plugged my nose. An incredibly dorky, yet practical position for jumping. I could feel the heat of the sun radiating off my back and shoulders. Taking in one last deep breath I closed my eyes, trusted the words of encouragement, caught that frisbee and jumped, off the boat and into the warm Vietnamese air.

Ha Long Bay was a place my sister and I had been anticipating for about a year. For eleven months we worked as nannies and stayed in on weekends waiting to splurge on a summer of backpacking Southeast Asia. The bay in the city of Ha Long, known as the “descending dragon bay” was the icon of our trip. Images of sharp, sporadic, limestone cliffs became the desktop to our computers, the backgrounds of our phones and the photo representing our count-down until May 27, 2013, the day we took flight from JFK airport. It showed the freedom that crept closer to our reach as the months faded by.

When you jump, life as you understand it changes. Your senses are enhanced, you become more alert. The sun becomes brighter. You can taste the salt evaporated in the air, you can see the bright lime-green

I

own for 2 months this summer. I told her that when I was in Vietnam, I stood at the edge of a wooden roof deck. Don’t look down, just jump.

The answer to why we travel is different for everyone.

According to Pico Iyer, “We travel, initially to lose ourselves; and we travel next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate.”.

My sister and I thought we were traveling to see the world but we quickly realized that our trip was about how we interpret the world and how our souls fit in it. In mid jump we came to realize how little possessions matter and how much more there is to life.

For anyone planning on backpacking through Southeast Asia, I would recommend bringing nothing but an empty backpack and possibly a few toilet paper rolls. Anything you need you can buy there and the less you have the more free your fall is.

moss, the noise of buzzing crickets surrounds you. You are aware of the 2,000 islets in the distance that stand proud after 500 million years of formation. The mucky screen that has been obstructing your point of view is lifted and it’s like you are now looking through a freshly Windexed window.

You’re free, in the moment, the shackles you didn’t realize you wore vanish and you gracefully fly through the sky, weightless, over the sea that looks like a million diamonds strewn across a blue blanket.

Friends encourage you to take that leap, but wait below to ensure your safety. In this moment, I’m happy, I’m myself, loving life without fear of death. I know who I am and I am confident in my abilities. I have fallen in love, with the people, with myself, with the world I am in.

Then before you know it the free-fall is over, and your feet kick through the sheet of clear water, the same water that was a not-so-clear green color seconds before. You are submerged by the cool, blue refreshing wash of the ocean. The marine world, one completely different from your own, a place you cannot stay forever but is a surreal gift while you are there.

You know it is quickly approaching, it is romantically mesmerizing but over too fast.

My cousin asked me if she should go backpacking through South America on her



The Elephant In The RoomElephant Livelihood Initiative Environment (E.L.I.E.) was founded in early 2005 and was officially

registered with the Cambodian government after much negotiation in June 2006.

ELIE’s primary goal is to improve the health and welfare of captive elephants in Mondulkiri Province. The secondary goal is to work with the owners or keepers and the problems that face them. To achieve the



primary goal, ELIE started with programs that monitored the captive elephant population and provided veterinarian care to elephants that were in need. To fulfill the secondary goal, ELIE provided assistance, advice, practical and appropriate education to the local people oriented at improving the techniques used with treating working elephants.

Mondulkiri presents many distinct obstacles in improving the health and welfare conditions of the captive Cambodian elephant. Poor road conditions cause many villages to be only accessible in the dry season. Lack of education and changing traditions is causing a degradation in elephant husbandary knowledge. The unique animist belief system does not allow reproduction of captive elephants and a suspicion of modern medicines and veterinarian technique makes the treatment of elephants, in the field, difficult.

ELIE’s answer to this was to change track by starting what is now known as the Elephant Valley Project (EVP) in 2007. Previously, ELIE spent all of its time travelling between villages to assist in elephant care, but now through the EVP, the elephants and their mahouts can come to our valley for short or extended stays. This means we bring the elephants and people to us rather than go to them. Initially, the EVP was not sure this would work but they have made huge successes since the 2008.

Elephants are able to generate a large income for their owners, but in many cases the elephants are not receiving proper care. ELIE has seen elephants that are dehydrated, emaciated, over-worked and some that should clearly just be retired but have to continue to work because of that very large income that they can create. Since the creation of the EVP, they have been able to bring the elephants used in transportation, logging, hunting, and tourism out of villages where there are poor working conditions, and employ the mahouts, their families, and the elephants at the project, which, in turn, allows the elephants time to rest, recuperate, and escape human activity.

Out of the fifty three captive elephants left in Mondulkiri, nine are now full-time residents at the EVP. The Project also sometimes have further elephants briefly visit the project for medical check-ups or for shorter periods of rest and recuperation. This work is difficult, slow, and often comes up against many years of learned behaviour and centuries old culture that is contrary to the modern

elephants husbandary practices seen across the world.

Elephants can come to the sanctuary on three programs for rehabilitation: short term rest and recuperation programs, long-term compensation programs, and retirement programs. Families come with their elephant to look after them, or mahouts are sourced and trained from the local community of Putrom, also creating more local employment.

Volunteers also come from all over the world to volunteer in the jungle of the Mondokiri Provence. Volunteers are welcome to stay at the project, located deep in the forest. The accomidations are simple, endearing, wooden structures containing bunk-beds, bathrooms, a modest ktichen and a lounge room overlooking the jungle’s canapoy.

Daily local women cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for the volunteers. Most of the food at the project is grown nearby or is purchased in town from the local morning market.

After lunch, tired, well-fed tourist nap, read or enjoy quiet card games with new friends in the lounge room. The sound of a dong awakens sleepers an hour after lunch and reminds the volunteers that they are there to work.

The Elephant Valley Project offers a sanctuary not only for the elephants but for the visitors as well. It is a drastic escape from reality an incredibly opportunity to experience wildlife along with animal behavior in its most natural state.





Contact Me:[email protected]

(201) 953-5336

TheYoungestWanderingMecca.comTheWanderingMecca.com

@T_Rex1227@TheWanderingMecca

About Me:I am prone to wander. Over the past few years I’ve wandered around Central America, Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia twice. I ’ve learned about the Mayan civilizations in Guatemala, the wind farms in Indiana, the Pol Pot Regime in Cambodia, the rise and fall of Rome and much more than I ever expected. Many say traveling is addicting but for me I believe that travel is simply the greatest way to learn. It offers a chance to see the world through a different filter. I seem to grasp ideas quicker while hightening my senses. When I am away from home I smell the steaming fish in the markets, see the expressions on the unique faces I walk past, hear the songs those people sing and taste the salt in the air near the seaside. It is a humbling, frightening, childish feeling that forces me to grow.

My family is a big part of who I am and why I feel comfortable traveling on my own. My father caught the travel bug early and found himself hitchhiking through the Middle East, train hoping in Europe and driving around Eastern Africa. My brother and two sisters followed in his footsteps and as the youngest of the four children it was difficult to resist following along.

After traveling for 8 months I returned to Boston University to recieve my degree in Photojournalism. Both my camera and my journal is and always has been my travel companions. They capture those moments I one day may forget and give me an opportunity to share my memories with the world.


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