Laos. We were standing on the scars of war that was fought long ago, but in many ways, still goes on. Those scars might easily open any second if we didn’t watch our steps.

From 1964 to 1973, the United States of America constantly planted seeds of destruction here. More than half a million B-52 missions delivered two to 5 million tons of explosives to block the flow of North Vietnam’s People’s Army through Laos territory to help the Arvins.

This went on every eight minutes. 24 hours a day. For nine years.

Every eight minutes. 24 hours a day. For nine years.

More ordnance was dropped on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the world war two.

Up to 30% of all those lethal devices did not explode. Unexploded ordnance – UXO – remains in the Laotian ground, still killing people or worse, leaving them alive after shredding them violently apart and crippling them for the rest of their lives.

The US government funded this nine year rampage from seizing control of the Golden Triangle’s opium fields, taking heroin trade back to the home country and selling it to the black ghettoes of America.

This same UXO played a major role in the Cambodian tragedy during the Red Khmer reign – slave labor, malnutrition, poor medical care, and executions went on unhindered, because the country’s borders had become virtual minefields with the 266 million sub-munitions released from American cluster bombs.

Madventures took part in UXO LAO, the Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme. It was a crash course in cleaning up someone else’s dirty laundry.

In the Amazon rainforest we were introduced to a Giant Leaf Frog, a fellow who some of the western doctors seem to think is a key to finding cure for AIDS and cancer. To the Indian tribes of the Amazon, the frog provides a different kind of healing altogether.

The secretion from the frog is used in order to enter the altered state of consciousness.

The poison is applied to self-inflicted burns. The indigenous people of Amazon claim to become better hunters through the frog’s “hunting magic”, which increases ones strength and endurance. This sounded exactly like the kind of mojo we wanted to try out, but our shaman Don Francisco didn’t want us to participate in the Poison Frog Ceremony so close to the Ayahuasca session.

We were relegated strictly to the observer status. The tribesmen started a bonfire, where they heated up sharp arrow-like sticks. They burn small holes into their arms and legs with the sticks, removing the outer layer of their skin. The toxin mixed with human saliva is applied to the wound. The spit will activate the poison of the frog, we were told.

The euphoria-inducing “venom” from the large frog enters the hunters’ bloodstream. The physiological response is very intense, and although not exactly hallucinogenic, they seem to be ready for everything after the bite of the flame and the poison. The tribe’s young boys seemed to be the most avid hunters and fiercely unafraid of the poison’s side effects, which include massive bouts of regurgitation. The hunting party is armed with traditional four-meter blowguns and poison darts, but also with modern rifles.

Come the evening, we feasted on the hunters’ prey, cooking the monkeys they caught on an open fire. The brains were considered the most delicious of the delicacies…

To spend a night at the cemetery sounds like a teenage prank, but this sort of thing has nothing to do with juvenile kidding in the cemetery of Cementerio del Norte.

This burial ground is not your average final resting place for it is not populated by the dead alone – very alive and breathing squatters roost among the tombstones and mausoleums. Among them are gravediggers, caretakers of tombs and other official nine-to-fivers for whom the city has allowed housing in the burial site, but most of them have no work and no place else to go.

Some estimates say there are close 10 000 people living among the dead. When we visited the site we talked to several dwellers, some of them residents of the cemetery for 15 years now, who all were in opinion that the number is not that high. They said there are approximately 300 families living in the cemetery.

For odd jobs, cemetery dwellers don’t have to pay for their “house”, electricity or water. The house is often a self-made shack or discarded mausoleum, where the relatives of the deceased have stopped visiting – apartment tomb, if you will.

If they thought of living among the dead men gives you heebie-jeebies, there are no ghosts here, the tomb dwellers assure. Only bones. The people living here can not afford to be afraid or superstitious. But that doesn’t mean they don’t believe in higher power.

“It helps a lot if you have faith for all the things you do,” one of the tomb dwellers told us. “I have faith to survive. If you have hope, you will live, if you don’t have hope, you will die.”

]]> http://www.madventures.tv/blog/2010/07/16/life-with-the-lifeless/feed/ 0 http://www.madventures.tv/blog/2010/07/14/madventures-in-the-uk/ http://www.madventures.tv/blog/2010/07/14/madventures-in-the-uk/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:18:24 +0000 Antti Pesonen http://www.madventures.tv/blog/?p=408

Madventures comes to the United Kingdom this thursday. Channel is FIVER, time is 11:00pm. Here’s the schedule for the whole season.

1.      Philippines – Crimes and Crucifixions (15th July)
2.      Amazonas – on the River of the Shamans (22nd July)
3.      West Africa – Blood, Spirit and Voodoo (29th July)
4.      South East Asia – the Long Road to Burma (5th Aug)
5.      Hindustan – the Sacred and the Forbidden (12th Aug)
6.      Ex- CCCP – From Radiation to Revolution (19th Aug)
7.      Papua New Guinea – Warriors and Cannibals (26th Aug)
8.      China – The Quest for True Kung Fu (2nd Sep)
9.      Nippon – Robots and Samurais (9th Sep)
10.    Yemen – The Caravan to Empty Quarter (16th Sep)

2009, the year in review: what happened? Only everything, that’s what!

But we are not here to compile a list of what went right, let’s just say that it was the best year in the history of the show. If you are reading this, you are most likely one of the people we are very grateful for having been there for us. We can travel the world by ourselves but to make entertainment out of it, obviously we need someone to correspond with, to be our soundboard and our audience.

A cliché maybe but without you we are nothing, so thanks  a bunch for being there, buds and budettes!

A lot of youz are asking about the next season, which must be a some sort of sign that we did something right, so it would be verrrry, very insolent not to answer those queries – the best we can.

And the answer is…well, only Jah knows when and if at all there is going to be another season of Madventures. The name of our production company may be GimmeYaWallet Ltd. but we have never done anything with the main purpose of making money – you will see something new from us when the mood and inspiration hits. We’ve got plenty of ideas, some of them even good, but there are no signatures on dotted line or deals done in the dimly lit backrooms.

And let’s not forget that 2010 will be the year when Madventures premieres in most countries, so let’s  not get ahead of ourselves.

The time certainly runs on a whole different level, when you’re involved with something as intense as Madventures – it feels like we warp drove through the last 12 months, so now it’s time to chill. Not too hard here in the snow-covered, frozen solid Finnish winter wonderland we call our home.

Of course, you don’t have to dig on baby Jesus to have yourself a merry little Christmas – it doesn’t matter what you call it, there has always been a celebration at the end of the year.

To quote unknown thinker “the best holiday is the above the ground day”.

So that in mind, see you next year. Next decade, actually!

Peace.

Riku, Tunna and the Mad Squad

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.

In of addition to its natural beauty, Cambodia has its share of some seriously bleak locations. The top two competitors of the questionable honor of being the most horrifying place in South-east Asia are the Killing Fields and the infamous Tuol Sleng S-21 prison camp, also known as the Hill of the Poisonous Trees.

This former high school was turned into a house of torture, where an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned from 1975 to 1979.

Through such techniques as waterboarding and other torture methods, S-21 was the final waypoint of the suspected enemies of Khmer Rouge regime before the trip to Choeung Ek extermination center.  Estimated 2 million people disappeared or were executed by the Khmer Rouge in four years.

Everybody thought everyone else was grass and said so, just to save their own lives.

Kang Kek Lew (Kaing Guek Eav), better known as Duch, the leader of this institution and of the Khmer Rouge special branch is being tried by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for his crimes against humanity.

Duch is now 67-years old. The prosecutors in the case are calling for 40-year sentence.

In his on-going trial, Duch has said he is saddened and sorry of his actions.

Of his confirmed 14 000 prisoners, twelve survived.

Twelve people.

He is sorry.

-

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.

Let’s talk about Khat – and to talk about it is only natural, since Khat and conversation go hand in hand in Yemen. Sure, it might strike us gringos a bit odd that the whole country would just throw in the towel after lunch time and spend the next two to three hours chewing these leaves of stimulating effect. But the main reason to do so is largely social. This is the time when men gather together to make decisions, talk politics and ponder the mysteries of life.

Such gatherings are something that is missing from our culture – or is at least they are very occasional and even then, they aren’t as large as the typical Yemeni ones. The Khat parties we attended had dozens of people there, talking about all aspects and problems of their lives with each other. Nobody was overtly intoxicated (except perhaps yours truly, because the rush from the leaf was a bit too much for unaccustomed), the effect Khat had on the chewers was more coffee- or mildly amphetamine-like stimulation that kept the conversation going and the mood positive.

Like anything natural, the fresh produce is always more enjoyable. The khat you can buy from the cities tends to be less than fresh and more dry, so if you have the chance to travel to the valleys and mountains where khat is being farmed, this maximizes the enjoyment. And don’t just chew it in your own company – strike up a conversation and become a part of true Yemeni tradition!

R

Want to see our whole trip in Yemen? Order the DVD here.

Gulf of Aden kind of hit the headlines globally at the same time as we sailed to Yemen. The pirate activity was soon to hit its height but we managed to avoid the cut-throats on our feeble tub. I tell you, the “ship” in question would have been useless in outrunning their guns and boats. Madventures does not recommend sailing too far into the open sea without proper horse- and firepower.

We were loaded in a car as soon as our feet touched the ground in Aden and we started the jeep ride to the capital city of Sana’a. We heard about the recent US embassy bombing by Al-Qaeda and wouldn’t you know it, our first real scare was soon to follow. I made the mistake of pointing my camera to the presidential palace.

Next thing you know, the car door was yanked open and guard screaming loudly in Arabic jumped into the backseat, pointing his assault rifle in my general direction. I didn’t need a translator to understand I was meant to put down my camera and put it down RIGHT NOW. I did as my gut feeling (Read: soiled pants) told me to do and turned the camera off.

Thinking back, it might have made some interesting material for the show, but they would have confiscated everything anyway, if we had got arrested. And honestly, jail time was least of my worries right then, I truly believed this guy was about to put a bullet through the back of my head in the name of national security.

We avoided the incarceration. There was a bit similar situation a couple of days later, when our driver asked if we wanted to see the house where Osama Bin Laden’s father was born. We thought he meant from the high cliff, where we had a perfectly nice view of the village anyway.

No, our driver pulled over right in front of Muhammad Bin Laden’s childhood home’s door. I don’t know if the guys who started to gather at the scene with their AK-47’s were family, but cousins or not, we felt better to hightail out of there before they got too interested in who the two white boys with cameras were…

T