RIKU: This is totally up to Nat Geo & their providers. They even have rights to air
Madventures in North Korea, but I’m pretty sure there’s only one guy in the
country who has the satellite subscription, if any… Would be pretty
psychedelic!

TUNNA: According to my limited knowledge there are 195 countries in the world. So 189 out of 195 is pretty good? We miss six countries, DAMN IT!

RIKU: Some nice feedback we’ve got from Kuwait & Philippines, so in those areas they’ve started already.

TUNNA: It feels pretty amazing, yet surreal to think somebody could be watching Madventures in Nauru island or in Bhutan!

2. This is a question from MIKKO RANNIKKO: How old were you guys when you
started travelling and how did you get excited about it, and secondly, is there
going to be a fourth season or not? I’m excited about travelling already, thanks
to you guys, and I’m only 17! Keep travelling!

TUNNA: I started travelling around Europe by train when I was sixteen.

I spent the next four summers exploring our own great continent. It soon felt that
Europe just wasn’t enough and I wanted to go farther. When I finished college at
the age of 20, I right away took all my savings from the bank, sold
everything I owned, and bought a one year open ticket to India.

This was in 1994, when traveling to countries like India wasn’t at all as common as it’s nowadays.

The world somehow felt much bigger back then and Asia was way more
distant than it is now, mainly because of the lack of communication means.

There were no cellphones or Internet. If you wanted, you could really be unreachable and
above all, unaware of everything that was happening in the world outside your
travels. That was very liberating for me. I spent the next six months in India,
exploring the amazing otherness of Hindustan. I fell in love from the first
moment and ever since then I’ve been totally addicted to travelling.

I’m very, very happy I could even make a living out of it eventually!

RIKU: I got excited about travelling at the age of 6, when me and my family moved to
Srinagar, Kashmir. We stayed there more than a year and lived a while also in
Pakistan. My dad worked for the UN that time and stayed in the mountains, I
went to school in Srinagar and my younger siblings & mom were at home. The
Happy Valley was a lot more chelaxed place those days, I could walk by myself
on the streets.

Also the 2-month return trip through Iran, Kurdistani areas, Turkey & rest of Europe had a huge impact on me as a kid.

3. This one’s from TANJA GRAHAM: When is Season 1 getting subtitles??!!! Soon please =o)

TUNNA: I just watched couple of episodes from the season 1 after a long time and
boy, it’s been awhile, almost 8 years! It’s really interesting to see how things
change. And especially how you change yourself!

We wanted to show that there are alternative ways to live. It’s possible to
escape from this rat race and be free! We’ve won in the planets birth place
lottery and hence it’s possible for almost everyone in the west to take a
break, leave this hectic babylon behind and travel. Some brave ones even end up
doing it for good!

Freedom and questioning the western work-retirement-death plan’s validity was the main theme of the first season.

What was the question again? oh yes, the english subtitles… Riku can propably
answer to that…

RIKU: This one is difficult… If some international channel would be willing to air season 1 , we could be able to print a new dvd for that w/subs! Season 2 has English subs and naturally the latest, S3 comes with both Finnish & English subs.

4. So, the season 3 is done, the DVD is done – have you been able to relax at all?

TUNNA: I’ve been working with our UK episodes which are supposed to be ready before I
leave to Mother India in two weeks!

And after a long time I’ve finally been able to pause a bit and do regular
meditation. That’s the best therapy for our deep and dark Polar nights. The
light, it comes from inside!

RIKU: I have been returning to read Jared Diamond’s Pulitzer winner Guns, Germs and
Steel, which pretty much explains why the world became what it is now. Highly
recommended!

Then I got a recommendation in Twitter by @jcalsj to check out a
weird series called Xavier The Renegade Angel. I just got the DVD on Friday so
maybe I’ll dive into that crazy stuff this weekend!

5. It’s Thanksgiving weekend in the US, everybody’s counting their blessings. What are you thankful for?

RIKU: If only I could genuinely do this every day, would be good to appreciate some
things on a daily basis… Thanks a million to the billion, but most of all,
I’m thankful for all the love that is around me & my family!

TUNNA: I’m thankful for the fact that the world is heading for the better direction than
it was just one year ago.

I’m thankful for all the people in the world who have enough strength to fight
against the injustices of this world.

I’m thankful for the fact that I am a human, and have possibility for conceptual
thinking and potential capacity to make this world happy.

I’m thankful that humans have a concept of compassion.

I’m thankful for knowing the fact that all the actions of men, wether good or
bad, come from their desire to be happy.

I’m thankful for all you great people out there, who believe that TV can be
something else than just plastic nonsense.

-

1. What is the situation with the promised Madventures Soundtrack?

TUNNA: I’ve been immersing myself deeply in the DVD making lately, so to be honest I don’t have a clue.  Riku?

RIKU: Yes, right now the DVD has taken all our time, but in January we’ll be able to
tell more about the upcoming Madventures Soundtrack album, for sure!

2. Who do you consider the most inspirational people you’ve met and why?

RIKU: This is an interesting question, as after a few minutes I couldn’t get one
single above-the-others situation in my mind – that sounds like a perfect proof
of my narcissism. Of course meeting wise or charismatic people is always
inspirational in a way – like meeting most of the ones we’ve interviewed in
Madventures. But right now I’m more into suffering from lack of inspiration.
It’s November in Finland…

TUNNA: Myself during the Ayahuasca experience. Lately, my Buddhist teacher.

3. This one goes like this: Riku answers about Tunna and vice versa:  
What’s the one thing people probably wouldn’t believe about Riku/Tunna?

TUNNA: Though he looks and acts like nothing would scare him, Riku is terribly afraid of all animals, even the smallest ones. He also frequently files his fingernails.

RIKU: Tunna may casually enter a wine shop and spend FORTY-FIVE MINUTES deciding which
grape or chateau to choose for dinner, then pick up few bottles, maybe even que
for a moment but then – turn around, return the bottles and leave the shop
empty-handed, as none of the wines were, after all, perfect!

Given the fact that most of the directors of the world are perfectionists, that
shouldn’t be difficult to believe, though.

4. If you could go boozing with any historical figure, alive or dead –  
who’d you choose?

RIKU: That would for sure be Hunter Thompson, but most probably I would be under the
table way too soon.

TUNNA: Siddharta Gautama after the enlightenment.

5. If you could ask one question from the people who are reading this, what would it be?

RIKU: What’s is your favorite scene in Madventures and why?

TUNNA: What’s the most bizarre & interesting thing or clip that you have bump into in the web lately?

Do you want to answer these questions? Do so in the comment section below, in Twitter or in Facebook.

1. So what you guys have been up to since we last talked to you?

RIKU: Mostly just recovering & dropping painkillers, as I had an operation last
Friday… Got a Lounge-Book laptop stand though, so I’ve been able to
coordinate the DVD publishing & pre-ordering issues straight from the comforts
of my futon. That is, all the work has been taken care of by Tunna & the Mad
Team!

TUNNA: Editing our UK episodes. Yesterday I bought plane tickets to a remote Island
deep in the tropics!

2. You make television – but do you really watch it? What are your favorite shows or favorite kind of programs? What do you hate?

RIKU: No TV on a daily basis, but then again I do check out stuff every day in the
web. I just yesterday got the pre-ordered Peep Show season 6 on DVD – that’s
one of my favorite comedy shows.

My all-time favourite (Non-Finnish) tv shows shortlist would maybe include
Wonder Showzen, The Tribe (was it called Going Tribal in the US?), The Office &
Extras, Summer Heights High and Jam… And I can’t wait to continue my BBC’s
Planet Earth blu-ray marathon. The best movie ever made is by the way
Koyaanisqatzi and right now my favorite shorties are made by the French posse
Kourtrajmé.

Hate? I don’t bother to hate crappy TV that much, I’m sometimes curious to watch
almost anything, even TV Shop sometimes as it’s pretty psychedelic! Oh, as a
professional journalist, I of course have to hate Fox News!

TUNNA: To be honest I don’t really have too much time to watch Tv. But when I do I
usually watch quality documentaries. If I love some show or a series I usually
buy it on DVD and watch it when I have the time.

What I really hate in television are reality shows exploiting people. Big
Brother is one of them. You put a bunch of people in one place, irritate them
and then get them to scheme against each other. These shows are based on
pure greed.

In general I hate TV being so conventional and predictable. Networks are
dependent on the advertisement income and therefore have to please as big
crowds as possible. And, when you have to please everybody you have to make
lots of compromises and be very careful that nobody gets angry and change the
channel.

Luckily there are some brave producers who believe that television can be
something else as well. You shouldn’t underestimate the viewers. I believe
there are many of us who demand edgy and more honest shows instead of this
plastic shit where you can’t do or say anything cause your viewers might get
angry.

The highlight during the last few years: Wonder Show Zen (MTV)

3. You’re always preaching the joyous gospel of traveling, but there must negative sides to it too. What are the worst thing about traveling?

RIKU: Of course there’s always the negative side. Difficult to answer shortly, we’ve
written a lot about this in our book… Some things: in case you fly, there’s
the obvious global environmental hazard. It’s possible to reduce that though,
by supporting the carbon neutral traveling NGO’s and by staying abroad a longer
time and keeping your standards there a lot lower than at home – that is no AC,
minimum use of electricity, public transport etc etc. Everyone should keep
these in mind…

Then there’s the inevitable change, the impact of mass tourism for the people &
the environment in a particular location. More travellers are aware of how to
travel sustainably, less negative the impact. Here’s one good text about it.

We of course believe that both on the individual & the global level the positive
sides overrun the negative ones!

TUNNA: In Papua New Guinea we were arguing with Riku if it was right for us to be
there. Somewhere where no white men had been before. Are we planting the seed of
babylon by being there? Should we just leave these people alone and isolated? Do we
change something permanently when they see our cameras and computers? Yes and
no.

Everything changes and that’s a fact. But how it changes, that’s everyone’s
responsibility. We believe that awareness will help to preserve these fragile
cultures which are very vulnerable and will be destroyed soon if awareness is
not raised.

4. What can we expect from the DVD? Give us some details.

RIKU: For our international friends probably the biggest difference is, the DVD
episodes are 50%-100% longer (so-called “1-hour TV eps”), completely uncensored
Director’s Cuts by our own wizards Tunna & Jussi. And a lot of extra for sure.
Here’s the details.

TUNNA: Much longer and totally uncensored episodes! Because of the slot length we were
forced to cut our American episodes to commercial 30 minutes which is only 20
minutes of actual material! We had to cut away great scenes which are now
included in the DVD episodes. As there were no slot requirements anymore we
were able to edit as long episodes as we wanted.

Though we had a great producer in the travel channel who tried to push it to the
limits, we were forced to censor some of the roughest material that couldn’t be
shown on TV – but now everything will be as it is!

10 new behind the scenes episodes! As we were shooting we kept the camera
rolling all the time and managed to get lots of behind the scenes material. We
edited that material together and actually ended up making 10 new episodes of
out of it. These Behind the Scenes-episodes open up the actual episodes a lot and it’s really
funny stuff, too! You can see what a sissy Riku really is when he’s not playing his
macho role. Of course, you can also see what happens to me when Riku finally gets revenge
and wakes me up, very rudely…

5. If the backpacks would have to be packed like RIGHT NOW, where would Madventures travel and make the next episode?

RIKU: I’d say Bhutan. That would be the slowest, most zen-like Madventures episode
ever. Pure chilling in a country which introduced the Gross National Happiness
index… That’s what should be in order right now, slowness.

TUNNA: Bhutan it will be, and the theme is: The great art of chilling out.

1. Ryan asks about your music tastes, what are your favorite groups and artists (and if you know the band Quarashi)?

Brett Wolgemuth also  wants to know what’s on your playlists, so let’s play a game of DJ Shuffle – hit random on your mp3 player and fess up what 3 songs come up first.

TUNNA: I’m omnivorous about music.

For me music might be anything from Hardcore punk to Shamanistic chanting. It depends on the mood and the moment. Swedish pop in the morning, downbeat chill-out when I’m working, Mano Negra for a party, electro for everything, Finnish folk music when I’m homesick.

If I want to get rid of the stress I either listen to Tibetan prayer chants or go to a Psytrance forest party and dance my stress away. It really depends on the mood.

Damn, I don’t have my player with me right now. Let’s do this some other time, okay?

About Quarashi? I am afraid I don’t know any Icelandic hip-hop groups. We have pretty nice underground rap scene here in Finland as well. Most of them rap in Finnish though, so all you English speakers you won’t probably get much out of them.

RIKU: I’m old skool. Mostly it’s maybe reggae, something like Sugar Minott, but it could be also Miles Davis or Gene Vincent or Public Enemy or Bruce Springsteen or Dick Dale.

I’m not that much into electronic music, but then again some Viral Radio dubstep in Amsterdam or just hanging out as a fly on the wall in a jungle trance party has been really brain-opening…

When I’m traveling, I try to grab some local tunes with me. I’m not a world music expert by any means so I ask around. Nothing beats some decent Bollywood Masala mixtape or Manish Vyas when traveling in India.

In Africa, it’s been (of course) Fela Kuti or some other west coast artist – last time I found Afia Mala in Togo. She’s great!

And when I’m homesick, I want to listen to Finnish language.

My all time favourite is Dave “Isokynä” Lindholm, Finland’s answer to Bob Dylan (even though he’s better songwriter than Dylan, I think). Also it’s been weird to listen to Finnish Lapland’s indigenous Sami people’s songs when recovering from Ayahuasca in the Amazonian rainforest.

Nowadays, the best music in Finnish is hip hop, in that genre I might even recognize some newer artists. Here’s one of my favorites (there’s plenty of fantastic linguistics around in this scene in Finland): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ1IAlFeqPw

Quarashi – I had never heard of these Icelanders until now. Gotta check them out!

My iPod…let’s see the lottery results:

1. Lou Reed – Caroline Says I

2. Björk – Who Is It?

3. The Doors – The Unknown Soldier

Have to admit, I skipped Björk in 20 secs…

2. Jahcure wonders if you will ever visit Honduras, especially the tropical island of Utila?

TUNNA: Unfortunately we haven’t been to Central-America at all. I think it could really be one of the options for Madventures in the future!

We travel by intuition, choosing the places we visit using intuition. Honduras has always sounded very interesting and tempting to me.

After a quick wikipedia-ing Utila, it absolutely looks like a place I could imagine hanging up my hammock for a couple of months!

RIKU: Haven’t been traveling much in Central America, so should some day go to Honduras, too!

3. Maddy has a question for Riku: My boyfriend and I were wondering – we see you heat up the filter on your cigarettes before you start smoking them, what is the reason? We are curious!

TUNNA: Riku got that ridiculous habit while doing time in a Russian jail.

RIKU: Yeah, it is a ridiculous habit but not from prison. It stuck with me on those glory days of high school, when I – like the most of us – started smoking because we wanted to be popular among our peers. A very eighties move.

Then again, I guess it sterilizes the filter a bit, so when traveling in the tropics, it might even prevent from diarrhea!

There’s so many positive sides to smoking!

4. What is your opinion on couchsurfing?

RIKU: Hospitality exchange is definitely recommended. There’s Couchsurfing,

Hospitality Club, Servas etc etc, but it could be any network you like – for example people you’ve met virtually and who share the same interest, same hobby etc.

TUNNA: Couchsurfing is a great way to travel! When you visit a different culture or a foreign country that way, you get much deeper connection with local friends and reach completely another level.

I wouldn’t travel anywhere anymore without getting to know somebody beforehand.

5. Was the placenta for real? Isn’t that illegal?

TUNNA: Placenta is one of the most mythical human organs. In our culture many people never see it, even when they give birth. In the west this magical support system of a baby will be disposed as pathological and biohazard waste. For me it seems somehow inappropriate and ungrateful for this organ, which has been keeping the baby alive, to be dumped in the waste bin.

In many cultures Placenta is treated with respect and honor.

All cultures have different beliefs about the placenta. Many 
considered it the baby’s caretaker — in the Ural Mountains when the
tribes clothed the newborn, they also gave the placenta a little shirt.

In Siberia the soul of the placenta visited the babies in their sleep.

But Maori women of New Zealand buried the placenta immediately after childbirth, so it couldn’t harm the child. In Norway, mothers attacked the placenta with knives, believing it to be a terrifying monstrosity that must be killed.

In many cultures, placenta was preserved and saved for the child to eat when he or she reached one year birthday.

For me the thought of eating placenta was really gross in the beginning but when I read more about it, I found that it was actually a great opportunity for me to give some respect to this magical and mythical organ.

I’ve always hated the taste of liver and other inner organs. Placenta tasted exactly like that but much stronger, and the thought of eating human flesh didn’t do it much easier. Though it wasn’t the easiest snack to swallow, it really was a kinda holy moment for me to ingest it.

After eating it I got a strong rush from it and felt like being high, maybe because of adrenalin, but most probably because Placenta is very, very nutritious, superfood in its very meaning! If you are expecting a baby, I strongly recommend to give it a go!

RIKU: Fortunately it’s not illegal – why should you not be allowed to eat your own or your loved one’s placenta?

Actually this scene has had some activity in the 70’s & 80’s, at least that’s what the nurses told me when I picked up the one donated to us. They said it wasn’t rare that the placenta was kept in a fridge before the mother left the hospital and packed the organ with her.

Here’s some philosophy and great recipes:

http://www.mothers35plus.co.uk/placenta-recipes.htm

1. What exactly the phrase “Travelers can’t afford to be atheists” means to you? What is your relationship with religion?

TUNNA: I don’t belong to any church whatsoever and I was raised as an Atheist. Nowadays I’m kinda syncretistic, I believe there’s absolutely some bigger energies and powers than just us. It’s not necessarily an old man sitting on a cloud or a guy with an elephant’s head. Every religion is aiming for the same goal – to make people love each other and to respect one another.

The more you travel the more you understand how important it is for people to have something to believe in. Faith gives you hope and without hope you’ve got nothing. And I’m not talking about organized religion here, especially not the church.

I also understand Marx’s thesis that religion is opium for the people. I’ve seen enough suppressed poor people who are not rising to demand their basic rights as human beings because the church has lured them not to do so: be humble and you will get to paradise or higher cast in the next life.

Religion can be used and is used very efficiently to suppress people. It’s a great tool of exploitation for the greed and those in power.

Faith is in your heart and religion is in the church. Faith gives people hope. And world is just too unfair place to live in without hope.

As I travel it’s also very much about respecting the local traditions and customs. I want to honor the things people consider as holy. And to be honest when I have to pour the rest of the moonshine for the ancestors in Togo or do the morning Puja before I climb the mountain in the Himalayas I do so because I believe that it really matters and has some significance for both myself and the culture I visit.

And Madventures-wise, I really want to make it sure that all the winds will be blowing on our side!

RIKU: It’s not at all easy to answer this one in short. My personal attitude towards religion and spirituality is very ambivalent.

At times I admire some religious teachings or the inner peace some religious people seem to have achieved. Then again I fear many fanatics, but most of all I loath the corruption very often present in religious systems. Myself, I’m not a believer nor an atheist.

When traveling in the third world, you can’t help noticing how strongly religion and spirituality are usually present in the everyday life of the people. It’s very different from the modern materialism we Westerners are mostly used to.

Many times I’ve been wondering what kind of effect it has to a person, if you e.g. pray five times a day with your neighbors or do the morning pooja at 5 am at a local temple every day before going to work. Of course it might be often that it’s just another ritual of that particular culture, or many of the faithful may just simply think of their own business while they reluctantly fulfill this task. But still, the fact is they are systematically dealing with issues like life and death or sins and virtues on a daily basis. Believing comforts many people there – and it also keeps up structures of oppression.

A traveler can’t afford to be an atheist? Well, of course it was Tunna who said that in the show but I’m down with that. For me, it means that mostly in the locations we travel, religion is always omnipresent. On their turf, I can’t just simply deny it.

If I wish to understand them better and maybe learn something from them, I’d better be open for everything – that includes religion, too.

2. Thomas is about to visit St. Petersburg and wants to ride a recon vehicle like you guys did it in the episode. How can he do it?

TUNNA: I think it’s better Riku answers this – I don’t remember the exact details.

RIKU: As we said in that episode, everything is possible in Russia if you cough up enough

moolah. You’ll find many companies by simply googling something like “driving

Soviet tanks and shooting Kalashnikovs in St Petersburg”.

3. You will time travel. Where, when and why?

RIKU: Finland, Iron Age.

Why? Finland was one of the last strongholds of animism in Europe, and I believe that still has some impact on us. Most of all I’d want to witness a ceremony for hunted bear, as I guess it was one of the most important rituals.

I’d love to hear how the music and singing were like, to have a sauna and probably get drunk and beaten later. And if I forgot to mention, it should be in summer.

TUNNA: I would get a Tibetan Rinpoche with me. We would travel to the late Paleolithic era to give people some true wisdoms from Buddha.

Maybe this would change history and make the world today a lot more peaceful and different than it is now.

On the same trip I’d like to give high five to a Neanderthal dude, another human species that coexisted with our human race. Give it a thought, another human species coexisting with us only 20000 years ago…

4. Tell us a little bit about your tattoos, Riku? Do you have any, Tunna? If not, would you like one?

TUNNA: Riku got his while doing time in Russian jail. For me tattoos are so last year, I’m into extreme body modification. Maybe an extra arm or something…

RIKU: One of my tattoos is a knight, or actually a lancer.

I took it as a reward when I got in the University to study journalism. And that’s what I became after studies, a freelancer.

Then there’s one by my friend Ässä, with my motto, the words Ignis Artis Aeturnus in it. Those wise words are from a tombstone in a Helsinki graveyard…

And then of course there’s the sak yant, the protection tattoo made by a monk in a temple we filmed in in Thailand. Let’s see if there’s more some day…

5. Best thing about this very day is…?

TUNNA: It’s 4:20 at the moment and I bought plane tickets to Mother India an hour ago!

RIKU: It’s Friday, for God’s sake, and so far we are alive!

Here’s this weeks 5 Q’s and 5 A’s, submitted by the viewers and answered by yours truly, Riku & Tunna.

1. Kelli asked if there were any special precautions to take before entering Pripyat?

TUNNA: What ever you do, don’t forget to wrap your genitals in aluminium foil!

RIKU: Most important of all, you have to know the rules of the place.

Always carry a Geiger counter  with you. Watch your steps. Especially never ever walk in thick vegetation. No digging the ground. Do not leave ANYTHING on the ground even for a short time. Beware of the collapsing structures. Do not touch anything. Do not even think about taking a souvenir with you.

When you leave the zone, you’ll have to throrougly clean your car tires and your boots.

The officials make you go through a measuring gate. If it beeps, shit into your pants and wish a throurough shower helps.

2. Many viewers are interested in the Mafia guys of the EX-Soviet Union tour? Some have wondered who are they working for and where are all their tattoos?

TUNNA: These Guys were active in Mafia scene during the nineties. Nowdays they are honest builders of a new brave Russia…

Umar, our connection (The guy who looks like he’s could be an extra from The Sopranos) was running a hotel/restaurant/sauna in a very remote place in the middle of nowhere by some god-forgotten roadside. I’m willing to bet Russian IRS doesn’t even know the place exists.

The first thing that you see when you enter the place is a huge mounted bear!

We went to sauna with these old school gangstas and the tables were filled with zakuski, vodka and brandy. The Russians never drink alcohol without food.

Riku still had the leech bites on his stomach. Umar and the other ex-mobster were explained, what all the blood was about but one of our hosts were in the john when the story was told. Umar demanded that we would play a practical joke on this guy (Who by the way looked and acted like battle hardened boxer, half punch drunk, half ready to make you punch drunk). The “joke” was that some Russian skinhead had stabbed Riku.

The boxer bought it hook, line and sinker. Next thing he was putting on his clothes. When asked, he said he knew everyone in town and would find the guilty party, then let him taste his own medicine. Umar said we would have time for it later and commanded the guy back to the table to have even more vodka.

I guess Umar got a few laughs out of it, whereas we kind of just waited when we could tell the truth – very uncomfortable situation. Of course, Umar waited until late in the evening before telling the boxer no stabbing had ever occured.

RIKU:  We’d like to emphasize that these guys were ex-mafia. At least that’s what they kept saying to us. As far as we know, they were legit entrepeneurs – running construction, logistics and transport companies. Businessmen. Hmmm…What was Tony Soprano’s business again?

Oh yeah, the tattoos, some people have asked about that before.

Tattoos play a big role in Russian underworld. There’s a great photobook by Kovács Ákos & Sztrés Erzsébet about that topic, unfortunately available only in Hungarian and Finnish… Anyway, the Russian “Thieves’ Guild” (There really is one and that’s its real name!) is centuries old and their tattoos are complicated signs of membership, ranks, punishments etc. Almost everyone who has something to do with the trade or has been doing time, wears tattoos. Almost. But our humble hosts were Dagestanese, from the restless Caucasus. Which means that they were moslems. No tattoos for them!

3. Bryan Monroe asked about The International Madventurist’s Manual, the book that came out in Finland in 2007. Will it ever be published in English?

RIKU: Hopefully! It’s 350 pages, so it’s quite an effort to translate & to do a new layout accordingly.

Maybe a publisher in the US could get involved if there’s enough of you guys interested! It would be cool, as it is – and I’m speaking frankly– one of the best books ever written about independent traveling.

TUNNA: True that – I always take it on wherever I go. I actually use it to remember what I need to pack with me to survive the day to day, or how to build a ground pipe or if I need to use the Swahili equivalent for the phrase “Fuck off, tool – I know Karate!”

4. Taken from the Travel Channel’s Facebook page: “Won’t be tuning in to watch people eat what I think of as pets, that’s for sure.” How do you plead?

RIKU: There is a huge world out there, where keeping an animal as a “pet” is not necessarily a choice. But it’s useless to give dead men medicine – opinions vary, but usually they are the end to thinking.

TUNNA: Meat doesn’t grow on the shelfs of the supermarkets.

RIKU:   If someone gets to question her/his own opinions and POV’s or there’s a discussion about the various ways or the world after watching Madventures, we’re happy. We also know the show is not everyone’s cup of tea. Fortunately, for some, there’s always American Gladiators keeping up the family values!

5. We’re in a bar. What will you have?

RIKU: I’m a boring man with my miserable mannerisms. A beer it shall be.

Sometimes I try to escape my imaginary straightjacket and fool around – then it’s a shot of vodka (lukewarm, please!) but more often Jaloviina (“Noble spirit”, kind of a Finnish Brandy). Lukewarm and straight up, please!

TUNNA: A bottle of some nice Super Toscana red. And a shot of Beluga vodka, Grey goose or Belvedere. Quality over quantity.

Hey, you’ve got a question? Tweet it, write on our forums, go to Facebook or comment on the blog – we pick 5 Q’s for every friday…

R & T

1. Many viewers have asked about the music of Madventures. Riku gave away a few tidbits in the forum discussion already, but can you elaborate on the subject in here too?

RIKU: This is definitely Tunna’s and our editor’s, Jussi’s turf. They first discuss the tone, the drama and of course the location of  the episode with our composer Zarkus.

Then a few weeks later this genius emerges from his cave with some killer tunes!

Also some cool Finnish bands have produced tracks for us.

I’m happy to say we can finally put them all together as a compilation – the Madventures soundtrack album, out before Christmas…

TUNNA: Music has always been one of the most important building blocks as we are trying to construct mood and atmosphere to fit the subjective experience we have had with a certain culture.

Even though we are talking TV, reproducing such experience is difficult to do with visuals alone, because a traveler uses more senses than just sight to experience his surroundings.

The tastes, the sounds, the smells, the feel of tropical air on your skin – they are all individual parts of the foreign culture that make the whole. These senses are not easy to convey with mere words. But as the saying goes, music truly is the universal language everybody understands.

We believe, that through music we can transmit all senses and sensations that are integral to a travel show.

In TV, music is often underused, very fast put together and conventional. We try to steer away from that with the fusion of electronic and ethnic sounds to amalgamate our own backgrounds, the travel experience and the feel of the foreign culture.

Amazing musician called Zarkus Poussa composes most of the Madventures music.

In addition we have a group of very notable underground artists producing tracks for us.

2. It’s lunchtime. Your choices are: Balut, bat or Mangrove worm – what will it be?

RIKU: If I’m on the move, my choice is Mangrove worms: a light snack, fresh-and-salad-like (it tastes like asparagus, really)!

If I’m a bit pifflicated or having the morning after, it shall be balut. With lotsa salt and a pint chaser.

Bat sucks actually, never had a good one yet.

TUNNA: Put them all together – that would make a nice burger!

3. First foreign country you ever visited? How old were you?

RIKU: For some odd reason it was Belgium. This was 1976 so I was two years old. After the trip, for months I kept asking the local bus drivers in Finland if the line’s destination is Bruxelles, which made these harsh men’s day and amazed my mom. I still remember their incomprehension and laughter. I used to have a verystiff upper lip before I went to school.

TUNNA: Norway, age of 2. This is one of my first memories, by the way. It’s from a back of a car, flashback of my uncle vomiting on me. No, it wasn’t some sick emetophilia fetish scene. He just got the motion sickness and wasn’t quick enough to open the window.

I happened to lie on a car seat right next to him and on the path of his ralph…

4. Last good book you read?

RIKU: Yesterday I finished one of my favorite Finnish author’s, Kjell Westö’s new novel and it was of course great story – an analysis of my hometown Helsinki and it’s dwellers after the war and into this new era of international influences.

How isolated this nation has been, and still is quite often!

In English, the last good one I read was Aravind Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’. Excellent but controversial portrait of India and it’s dark side.

TUNNA: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: Joy of living

In his first book, Mingyur Rinpoche combines Tibetan Buddhist wisdom with the latest breakthroughs in Western medicine to reveal the scientific basis for how we can achieve enlightenment, relaxation, and happiness through meditation.

5. What is the meaning of life?

RIKU: I’ve never been a fan of science fiction, so at least it’s not fucking 42.

Still looking for the answer.

TUNNA: An end to suffering.

What is your favorite scene from this season’s Madventures?

RIKU: Can’t name one, gotta go with at least three – most positive and negative ones.

Never feared a scene as much beforehand as Ayahuasca ritual. Many a books I read, plenty of documentaries I watched but still I was completely terrified the first moment we met Don Francisco the curandero and I realized we’re going for it, for real.

The second one is the roof jump in St. Petersburg. The whole day I was petrified, I was 100 % sure one of us would die in the progress.

Those two were prime examples negative turning into positive and I guess it shows in the actual episodes as well.

But the easiest one and the most funniest one for me was – as I don’t normally shoot scenes myself was Tunna eating leeches filled with my blood in Russia episode. The wimp manned up!

TUNNA: Every scene is a favorite and over the top in its own way. But the highlights for me must be the crucifixion ritual in the Philippines, that weird zentai fetishist dude crushing stuff in the Japanese love hotel and midnight Aghori puja in India, where some of the scariest sides of human nature manifested themselves.

If you’d have recommend a country one should visit during his or her lifetime, what would it be?

TUNNA: Use your intuition. Do not necessarily go where others go.

RIKU: India.

The fictional character most like you?

RIKU: Mostly it’s Passepartout from Around the World in Eighty Days, but I wished it was Marco Polo. Which I claim is a fictional character.

TUNNA: Tarzan.

Where will you travel next?

TUNNA: India.

RIKU: Iceland. I have a crush on islands and that’s the last one of the Nordic countries I haven’t visited.

Why the hell you do the things you do in the show?

RIKU: Sometimes things I do are comical, but I don’t do it for humor. I do it for the story and the story is always better when you can add your own experience into it.

TUNNA: Harder it is to understand a culture, more important it is to understand it.