After throwing two darts and going where they landed, Svalbard and then Russia, we decided to do this as a full reality show, consisting of 12 episodes.
Which meant we had to throw 12 different darts, but we needed an epic location. We didn’t want to do it at home, and we didn’t want to do it at a social event.
We wanted to create an amazing experience that no many can do. So, we went to India, where my friend Matt had discovered years ago an amazing team of friends, the boys at Skynet, an IT company from Kolkata that partnered up with him to create Idea Vessel.
I went to India twice to meet and spend time with Arindam Chowdhuri and Satinath Mondal, two of the most amazing individuals you will ever meet. Intelligent, caring, family men, and extremely good at computers – running a team of 30 talented IT technicians.
Actions That Inspire Travel: Find Them
When we told Arin and Sat that we want to throw 12 darts in India, they got excited and promised they would provide us the best experience and set. And boy, did they ever do it.
During my first trip to India, we went for a visit to Arin and Sat’s hometown, Berhampore, in West Bengal. Berhampore has 500,000 souls, but my boys called it ‘the village.’
On the way there, we passed by a fantastic location: an abandoned 400-year old Temple, Katra Masjid, made out of red brick and imposing a powerful respect. In translation, Katra Masjid means the Market Mosque.
This historical place is also the tomb of Nawab Murshid Quli Khan, buried under the entrance staircase, and was built between 1723 and 1724. The Katra Masjid temple has two amazing large corner towers, both having loopholes for musketry.
We knew right away that we want to shoot the 12 darts there, as long as we can get permission to film in such an exotic, yet amazing place.
That’s what happened. It took us about a month after submitting a request to get a shooting permit before we went to India again.
It took us a day to film the dart throws, but we did it with style. Using drone shots, a couple of FS7s, and two GoPro’s. Watch the reduced 2-minute trailer below.
We were debating if we should make public the 12 destinations before going there, and even to this point…we haven’t yet.
One important aspect was that all 12 dart throws were genuine: we didn’t throw again when we hit a bad location, we didn’t reject any of the countries/regions we hit.
You will have to hit the Subscribe button on this page so I can keep you in the loop with spurts of travel inspiration, all the episodes and other amazing videos that we will do in every location.
What you need to know is that all 12 are countries/regions that not too many people go (most of them are remote islands and a couple of big popular destinations).
However, we decided to release the location of the first dart throw. I hit the map in the middle of Pacific Ocean, close to Polynesia. The closest land mass was Easter Island, which is one of the remotest islands in the world.
So… we went there!!! You can follow me on social media to see what happened in Easter Island, but I still have something to write about India.
Places To Visit In Kolkata
Kolkata and its suburbs have 14.1 million people, while the actual core of the city has about 4.5 million. The first time I went there I was in awe with the Victoria Memorial and wanted to throw the darts there, but we were not allowed on short notice, and a permit would take too long to get.
Historical structures like the Writers Building and the St. Paul’s Cathedral are amazing samples of the city’s royal past. On the other hand, make sure you visit the majestic Howrah Bridge, or take a ride down the Hooghly River from Princep Ghat in the evening.
If you are more on the religious side, Kalighat Temple and the Belur Math are good places to see.
Want A Beer In India? Be Smart Like I Wasn’t
I want to share with you a story that is embarrassing, but I had to go through – so hopefully some of you don’t.
I happened to have my birthday while in Kolkata. We went out to a fancy place with a few people. I offered to pay the bill before the waiter took our order. I just wanted to have a few brews.
While my guests and myself looked at the drinks menu, we saw that the bar has Heineken, Stella Artois, and Corona, which I was happy about, since I am a big beer drinker (as a soccer player, I need to hydrate myself a lot, you know?).
The only interesting part was that while the Heineken and Stella was about only $1 per bottle, Corona was about $4.
I was wondering why, but didn’t care much, so I let my guests order a bunch of Coronas, while I was happy with my Stellas and Heinekens. Blindfolded by the price.
Well…. the night went well, but for the next 24 hours I hit the toilet for about six times…my stomach was acting up. I felt like I consumed water, fruits, beer, and milk – all in the same time.
Next day, I shared my pain with a local friend, and he said: “Did you order Heineken and Stella here???” They are brewed by the real recipe, but they are made with local water, which is, well, Indian water”. Which, of course, sometimes may be a bit contaminated.
Corona is the only beer that is imported as is, and is not brewed in India. That’s why all my friends ordered Coronas!
Lesson learned, and hopefully you do, too, if you are there.
Feel free to leave a comment below or read my stories from Svalbard and Russia, where we went after we threw the first two darts. Or, you can check out my adventures in Colombia and Panama.
As promised, here is our Travel by Dart: Polar Faith episode shot in Svalbard. That’s where the craziness started. You can probably see today a bunch of people throwing a dart at the world map, but my idea and the actual ‘let’s do this s*#t” started back in 2011. And here is the proof.
Travel by Dart started as a fun project after my friend Matt asked me what would be an ideal life for me. I said, “I wanna throw a dart at the world map and go there whenever I want, with whoever I want.” That’s all we needed to say out loud. We went and bought a dart and a map, and we did it. The rest is history, and you know exactly where I am now since you are on this blog.
We threw the dart at his house, blindfolded, see video below. The debate was: who is going to throw it? We decided to both do it once, and to select the final destination (between the two) by flipping a coin.
I hit Azores, West of Portugal. Matt hit the map in the vicinity of North Pole. We flipped the coin and… the winner was the North Pole throw.
Longyearbyen, Final Destination For Travel Inspiration
Since our only rule was to travel to the closest land mass in case the dart hit the ocean, we ended up in Svalbard, a livable land mass that belongs to Norway.
It is an archipelago with over 2,600 people and about 3,000 polar bears, with the capital in Longyearbyen. Svalbard is also known by its former Dutch name, Spitsbergen.
We originally had eight weeks to plan for the trip. The first 2 weeks, we went down a huge rabbit trail with another concept, then held a focus group and found out we were in left field. We re-thought our process which left us with six weeks until the trip starting our plans all over again.
Getting close to the North Pole in December is not the easiest thing to do since there is pitch black 24/7 and the temperature is three times colder than your mother in law.
We had no money, but lots of ambition. After researching the Polar life in general, we discovered that the Polar bears’ species would disappear in the next 75 years, according to scientists. We created a website called Polar Faith and launched an online campaign to contribute. We committed to give $5 to World Wildlife Fund from any donation we would get, big or small.
Canada Goose came on board with providing all of our expensive arctic gear as soon as they saw our story featured in the media. Silver Jeans came on to provide us some fresh new clothes to look good on camera too.
A few cash donations came in through the website, but not really much; about $2,000.
That’s when we decided to take with us a professional videographer, our friend Matt Zinger, and shot commercials in the Arctic for eventual sponsors who want to showcase their business in a non-traditional setting.
Bingo! We got four big-hearted people who sponsor us with $1,000 each, and off we went to Svalbard! We floated the rest of the trip with a visa card and donated some cash as promised to WWF.
Facts About Svalbard
On our plane from Tromso (Norway) to Svalbard Matt ended up sitting next to a former General Manager of Svalbard Tourism, who loved our story. Within 24 hours of our arrival in Longyearbyen, we were meeting with the government agency to support our adventure and provide us with full gear and guides to go out and film 6 hours a day.
The amazing people at Svalbard Tourism (thank you Kjersti Noras!) helped us with dogsledding treks, snowmobiling, glacier climbing and took us to places we would never have imagined.
Did you know one of Chef Ramsey’s apprentices has the largest wine cellar in Scandinavia nestled deep in the permafrost with the best ice wines in the world?
Or that Svalbard is host to the $9 million dollars’ global seed vault, where cryogenic un-genetically modified seeds are stored just in case the world comes to an end?
Everything was fully organized for us, and we had a blast; all because we took a leap of faith and just went for it. All of this awesomeness was not only awesome for the sake of keeping our expenses ridiculously low but was instrumental in helping to transform the footage we had into a documentary pilot called Polar Faith. You can watch it at the bottom of this article.
What To Do In Svalbard
There are so many things you can do in Svalbard if you go there. We didn’t have enough time to do them all, but here are a few: dogsledding, snowmobiling, visiting the Global Seed Vault, or even diving in the almost frozen waters of the ocean. Let’s take a look at some of these.
Svalbard Snowmobile Tours
One of the most expected Arctic adventures we did was to get on snowmobiles. We were invited by our hosts to participate in a Svalbard snowmobile tour organized by Svalbard Snoscooterutleie AS. Oh, boy, what a day. For about six hours we had an amazing time. Here is the video, below:
Arctic Adventures: Polar Dip in -45
Kjersti Noras from Svalbard Tourism is one funny, charismatic individual. She told us, along with Hilde Falun Strom from Spitsbergen Travel (now Hurtigruten Svalbard), that there is a tradition in Svalbard that every newcomer has to do a Polar dip, meaning to jump half-naked in the waters of the Ocean.
Well, needless to say, we had to do it. I was so excited about it. Should I remind you that this was December, 200 miles away from the North Pole?
We manned up and decided to do the ‘tradition.’ The water was almost frozen, with pieces of ice floating around. Kjersti was waiting for us right there, with the car heated up at max.
Our dip lasted about 45 seconds, from the moment we ran into the water and jumped in the car. However, it felt like it was FOREVER. I couldn’t feel any piece of my body, including the most important ones.
After that, we went straight to a sauna at the place we were staying. Next day, Hilde gave us a diploma on behalf of Spitsbergen Travel, officially declaring us ‘real Polar bears.’
Dogsledding in Svalbard
One of the highlights of my life was dogsledding in the middle of an extreme location and weather, being pulled by 16 amazing Huskies. It was all thanks to Robert Nilsen and Svalbard Husky, his company. Robert took the time to give us an amazing experience that I wish everyone to try. Here is the video, below:
Both Matt and I had our own sled, while Robert was leading the way with a huge lantern and a gun, protecting us from the Polar bears.
If you visit Svalbard, make sure you connect with Robert. You can find him at +47 78 40 30 78 or email post at svalbardhusky dot no.
Svalbard Global Vault Seed
The general idea is that the Global Seed Vault’s mission is to provide a safety net against loss of diversity in traditional gene banks. It officially opened on February 26, 2008, and ranked number 6 on Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2008.
The Norwegian government funded the whole project and it costed about $9 million US to build. Another interesting thing is that storing seeds in the vault is free to end users, with Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust paying for the operational costs.
The number of total samples located in the Svalbard Seed Vault is 930,821.
The Vault has about 120 meters in length (390 feet) and features heavy security systems. Seeds are packaged in three-ply packets and heat sealed to exclude moisture. There is no permanent staff on site.
Dead People Can’t Be Buried In Svalbard
The reason the Global Seed Vault was built in Svalbard is that the island lacks tectonic activity and has permafrost, which helps preservation. It is also the reason dead people cannot be buried here. That’s why when older people get very sick they are transported on the mainland, Norway. Crazy!
One last super interesting thing about the vault is that it functions as a safe-deposit box in a bank. As Wikipedia explains it: “The bank owns the building, and the depositor owns the contents of his or her box. The Government of Norway owns the facility, and the depositing gene banks own the seeds they send. The deposit of samples in Svalbard does not constitute a legal transfer of genetic resources.
In gene bank terminology, this is called a “black box” arrangement. Each depositor signs a Deposit Agreement with NordGen, acting on behalf of Norway.
The Agreement makes clear that Norway does not claim ownership over the deposited samples and that ownership remains with the depositor, who has the sole right of access to those materials in the seed vault. No one has access to anyone else’s seeds from the seed vault. The database of samples and depositors is maintained by NordGen.”
Ice People, World’s Northernmost Alternative Newspaper
Believe it or not, Svalbard has a newspaper too, called Ice People, published by Mark Sabbatini. We had a great time meeting the man who published our adventure on their front page (out of the four :).
Mark used to work for the LA Times and now resides in Longyearbyen. Mark calls Ice People “the world’s northernmost alternative newspaper.”
If you are ever in Longyearbyen, connect with Mark and say hi for me. His email is marksabbatini at yahoo dot com.
How To Get To Svalbard
Svalbard belongs to Norway. The whole island has a population of 2,642, while the main settlements are Longyearbyen (the ‘capital,’ 1,800 inhabitants), Barentsburg (main Russian colony, 400), Sveagruva (210), and Ny-Alesund (100).
In order to get to Longyearbyen, you need to take a plane from either Tromso or Oslo. The options are Scandinavian Air and Norwegian Air, flying almost every day. From Oslo – between $150-350US each way there is a 4-hour flight, while Tromso – $100-$300 – is only one hour and 35 minutes.
Svalbard Cruises
You can also get there by boat, as a few companies offer cruises. However, a three-day cruise starting from Longyearbyen is around US$1,500, cheapest cabin, twin sharing.
There are also longer cruises, starting from Oslo. These may go up to US$9,500, for a 12-day trip.
Money in Svalbard
The currency used in Svalbard is the Norwegian krone (NOK), which is not surprising. This is also accepted in the Russian settlements such as Barentsburg. The equivalent of 100 kroner is $11.65US.
Svalbard is a tax-free zone, so a few shops in Longyearbyen sell products at prices well below mainland Norway’s.
Accommodation in very ‘cheap’ places gets you to $60/night while a basic meal costs around $15. However, these numbers can double if you stay in a full-service hotel.
Guided activities start at about $60 per day (trekking and kayaking) but can go to $120 and above for tours requiring specialist equipment.
Svalbard’s duty-free status means that alcohol and sports clothing, etc., are actually much cheaper than on the mainland.
Spitsbergen Polar Bear Tours and Other Attractions
What people should know is that the Polar bears are not the cute animals that you see on TV on the Coca-Cola commercials. They viciously attack people as they get hungry. A few months before I was in Svalbard, a group of British youths went through a tragedy because they didn’t respect the rules of the land.
They camped outside Longyearbyen. One night a Polar bear ripped the tent and killed a boy. Ever since, the local authorities set up strict rules when it comes to walking around the town and outside. You are not allowed to get out of certain zones of Longyearbyen, let alone outside the town, in the boonies.
You can only do it if you have a gun or if you have a guide with a gun. That is why during all the tours we did, we had someone with us, carrying a rifle. If you are in Svalbard, you have to obey the rules. Period!
However, I also want to thank Spitsbergen Travel back then (now known as Hurtigruten Svalbard) for their support. Hilde Falun Strom was great in providing us with information we needed, as the company specializes in amazing tours around the island. Safe, educational, and memorable.
You can contact Hurtigruten Svalbard at: +47 79 02 61 00.
Best Time To Visit Svalbard
I went to Longyearbyen from December 26 to January 8. Although you probably know this, in Svalbard there are six months a year when it’s dark (obviously, the winter), while from March to September is light pretty much all the time.
So, the best way to visit Svalbard is definitely the summer. There are hundreds of tourists visiting, while you can also see awesome locals like Stig Halvorsen and his friends parasailing over the archipelago.
Svalbard Aftermath
We came back home with amazing video clips, and soon enough we ended up with Travel by Dart: Polar Faith. It was accepted into the Global Visions Film Festival, the longest running documentary festival in Canada. Our first film placed 4th, and the media loved us. We were on every local channel that exists. International media outlets also started to smell a good story.
All these lead to a deeper motivation. A question that we found within ourselves arose: “If we could get everybody involved, could we make a difference in the world regardless of whatever cause we serve?”
There are so many things in the world that need fixing, could we travel the world trying to help and prove that world change really is possible?
This questioning brought us into getting ready for our next dart throw but with WAY more passion and desire to do it.
So, we did it again. Next dart we threw hit Russia. You can read the article HERE.
We just came back from our fantastic trip to Easter Island, where we filmed the first episode of the Travel by Dart TV show, airing next year.
Until the episode is ready, we will be posting a lot of images and videos (soon). We also wanted to take a moment to officially thank one of our most important partners in making this trip happen, Robertson College.
Not only the college supported the Travel by Dart crew to get to Polynesia, but also donated some custom-made backpacks, which we took to Easter Island and gave them away to the young students at Earthship Music School (Toki School)!
Above is just one of the many pictures we took there. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when we will have more news and when the episode will be ready.
“Over 70% of our students are born outside Canada”
Robertson College is one of the oldest educational institutions in Canada. It also has something very special about it. We invited Ramona Buda, Campus Director at Robertson College in Edmonton, to join us in the studio for a radio interview on the Sorin in the City show, aired recently on World FM 101.7.
Sorin: Ramona, what is so unique about Roberson College?
Ramona: We do have a high population of students that is of immigrant descent or brand new Canadiens. I would say over 70% of our students are born outside Canada. I think one of the reasons for that is because admittance into our college does not necessarily require that you have prerequisites such as the English 30 or Math 30 or Bio 30. It depends on the programs, of course, but if the immigrants have a certain level of English knowledge they can be accepted into the college without having to obtain prerequisites previously.
So you are a fully recognized college.
Absolutely. Therefore our students are eligible for student aid. As a recognized college we have to maintain very high graduation and employment standards. Just as an example of last year over 80% of our graduating students found jobs in their field of studies.
Can you talk a bit about your demographic? What kind of students you have regarding age or ethnicity?
Very good question. Most of our students are adults between the age of 18 and 40, but we have older students than that. I think the older student I had was a 70-year-old male!
What did he take?
He took health care aid, in order to take care of his wife. He wanted to improve his skills. Most of our students do have spouses and children. As mentioned, over 70% of our students are immigrants, the majority coming from Philippines, India, and some African countries.
What kind of programs do you have? What’s their length?
We have programs that are as short as five months in length – for our Health Care Aid, or Pharmacy Assistant Program. Others are as long as 11 months – for the Network Security Technician, Legal Assistant, Business Management. So, between five months and less than a year.
The economy was terrible in the last few years. How did that affect the enrolment into Robertson College?
We have seen an increase in the number of new registrations. I’m sure everyone is aware the economy has hit Alberta pretty hard. The unemployment rate is very high for our province. Many of the people that were laid off are now looking to get a career in a more stable, more secure environment. We have seen an increase in the number of students that are wishing to take health care programs: Health Care Aid, Medical Office Assistant, Pharmacy Assistant, Hospital Unit Clerk.
How many programs do you have?
We have different faculties. Besides the Health Care Faculty, we have Business Administration-Management, Community Support Worker, Network Security Technician, and Logistics and Supply Chain Management – which is being offered online. Most of the programs that we offer are definitely available on campus on 8-12kind of schedule or evening classes, but we also have the online option.
I know you have campuses in other cities. Which ones?
We have campuses in Edmonton, Calgary, Brandon, Winnipeg, as well as the online campus.
Tell me a student success story.
How much time do we have? I have so many. Every day we do hear success stories from our students, that we were able to change their life through education. Very recently I had one of my students – a mother of seven children. She graduated after giving it a try for a couple of months, struggling. When you have seven children they have to take priority and graduating is a little hard putting in that time. When she picked up her diploma, her eyes were in tears. She was telling us that she is the first in her family to graduate from college. And because of this college degree, she won’t allow other people to talk down to her. She is going to inspire her kids to go to college to get an education, but even more so, she was hoping that her family, her brothers were going to break the chain of substance abuse and violence. She was very proud and we, as a college, were very proud to give her an education.
I am writing this article right now about my one month stay in Brazil, where I had a blast – best trip ever, from paragliding over Rio de Janeiro to visiting the famous Christo Redentor statue. Please subscribe to my newsletter to receive the post when is ready.
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