[HN Gopher] The New Luxury Vacation: Being Dumped in the Middle ...
___________________________________________________________________
The New Luxury Vacation: Being Dumped in the Middle of Nowhere
Author : preetamjinka
Score : 25 points
Date : 2021-11-25 18:21 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| a1371 wrote:
| From the title, I thought this is about people ending their
| romantic relationship in a strange place.
| djbusby wrote:
| Does anyone remember that movie "the game" with Douglass and
| Penn? (It wasnt that good). It's getting closer every day.
| Aspos wrote:
| There are companies which offer such tours to Kazakhstan. They
| drop you off in complete wilderness, no other living soul in the
| radius of 500km. They give you all the gear/food/ammo, a bunch of
| coordinates with supplies pre-cached, a Thuraya satellite phone
| in case you decide to give up midway.
|
| It costs a fortune, though.
| spchampion2 wrote:
| This sounds like backpacking... which you can do for way less
| than $30k. A nicely equipped pack from scratch can be had for
| less than $1k. Add in a little more for food, airfare, and any
| accomodations before and after, and you can do a trip like this
| for a couple thousand dollars max.
|
| Of course prior wilderness experience is also essential, so I
| guess some people will want to spend extra for a special forces
| guide.
| dharmab wrote:
| $1k is a pretty nice pack. You could probably scrounge
| something together for a few hundred by leveraging used and
| clearance stuff.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Or find some ultra lighter offloading all their stuff because
| a 2gr lighter model came out.
| Overtonwindow wrote:
| https://archive.md/rrlu1
| hogFeast wrote:
| Suffering for people who have never suffered. This comes up on
| here again and again (the last one was why rich people do
| triathlons). People who have done well in life need to justify
| themselves with some organised (and usually artificial)
| suffering. No-one does middle-class guilt like a Brit.
|
| Also, this guy lives in Manchester. He lives next two spectacular
| national parks (Lake District and the Dales), and he goes to
| Morocco. Could have gone to the Highlands if you wanted remote.
| Inexplicable. Smh. Embarrassment.
| dane-pgp wrote:
| The idea of being dumped in the middle of nowhere seems like it
| has scope for much more vicarious entertainment. Imagine a
| challenge where a point on the Earth's land surface is chosen at
| random, and competitors are dropped there (at random times of the
| year) and told to reach the nearest airport. They could then sell
| the vlogs to a production company.
|
| Of course there would be rules about not starting in active
| warzones, or countries where you would be locked up as a spy, but
| I'm sure viewers would accept that. Also, it would be a bit
| unfair if a competitor had to start on a remote island, but I
| recently calculated that 99% of the Earth's land surface is
| accounted for by continents and islands no smaller than Sicily.
| The other edge case would be starting in Antarctica, but people
| do complete solo crossings of that.
| as1992 wrote:
| Not exactly the same, but maybe you'll find it interesting
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPCxI8eOnY&list=PLsplwj_Ee0...
|
| Group of people get dropped in a field in Amsterdam and need to
| reach Monaco in 5 days to win a 5k prize, the catch is there
| have no money on them so they have to rely on the kindness of
| strangers.
| globalise83 wrote:
| I recall watching a TV series just like that 20 years ago:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(game_show)#UK_version. Was
| very entertaining. I do think it has potential in the modern
| vlog world as well.
| dane-pgp wrote:
| I've also been thinking about a time-travel themed spin off
| to this idea. Imagine you were sent back in time some
| thousands of years, to a random location on Earth, and you
| had to communicate (via some fictional device) to a referee
| in the present day, telling them where you are, and _when_
| you are, in order to be "rescued"/win.
|
| Largely it would be the same challenge as the present day
| version, except you couldn't use vehicles (except riding
| horses/camels), and you'd have to navigate using only
| information that would have been visible at that time, like
| mountains, rivers, and long-lasting settlements.
|
| To enforce this fiction, the players could receive
| information from a team mate that had access to a 3D model of
| their location as it would have looked in the relevant
| historic time period. That team mate would then be able to
| instruct them which direction to walk in, and which
| geographical features to follow.
|
| Every night, players would try to observe the location of the
| moon and planets relative to constellations, in order to
| calculate which century, year, month and approximate day they
| are in. Of course, the players on the ground would know the
| answer, but would have to show how they worked it out, and
| their team mate would have to perform the same in a 3D model
| which uses a planetarium system for rendering the night sky
| of the intended period.
|
| To accurately determine their location without cheating, the
| player on the ground would have to find their way to a
| location which existed at the time, and whose exact position
| is known in the present day, such as the Parthenon or Stone
| Henge.
| dharmab wrote:
| This would be a fun short story from the perspective of a
| "native"
| globalise83 wrote:
| There is even an episode on Youtube
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-fTr31Hg7o
| everyone wrote:
| If the goal is "eighteen miles away" (even if its rough
| mountainous terrain) Why cant you just walk there in a matter of
| hours?
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| I guess Fyre festival was just a way for trust fund babies to
| experience the vicissitudes of surviving on cheese sandwiches.
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| Had to look elsewhere to find the cost. Looks like a trip like
| described starts at 30k minimum. Anyone know of any competitors?
| ryanlol wrote:
| Without fully reading the article, if you want to go somewhere
| really far out then Awasi Patagonia and White Desert are worth
| checking out. Antarctic Logistics offers some crazy multi-month
| expeditions too.
|
| Amankora in Bhutan is _very_ cool, but also very different.
|
| Africa obviously has tons of options too, but everybody goes
| there.
|
| It really depends on what you are looking for. There are lots
| of expensive ways to climb a mountain if you want something
| more extreme (but still controlled).
|
| My suggestions are kind of all over the place because I don't
| really know what exactly you're looking for. I could list
| hundreds of options.
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| Thanks so much for your response. I will research Awasi
| Patagonia and White Desert.
|
| I am interested in seeing what curated adventures are out
| there, reading first hand accounts of the experience, and
| considering them for myself. Doesn't necessarily have to
| involve a mountain and I do have a predisposition for wanting
| to try it DIY before relying on a guide but I recognize that
| that kind of thinking may need recalibrating outside of the
| US.
| ryanlol wrote:
| There are barely any useful public reviews for this kind of
| stuff*, if you're looking for something at a similar price
| point you will need a good luxury travel agent to work
| with.
|
| I would suggest that you avoid the big ones like Black
| Tomato or Mr&Mrs Smith, you will have a much better
| experience working with a boutique where you can know all
| the staff, and more importantly the staff will know you.
|
| * FWIW this is something I intend to solve next year.
| notahacker wrote:
| Suspect any Marrakech travel agent can knock up the same
| walking itinerary for <$300 with a private guide (or $30 if
| you're happy for a shorter mountain walk on a group tour..)
| though you might stop at a few more gift shops on the way.
| pomian wrote:
| If you want to go into the Canadian wilderness, a chance to go
| places where no 'man' has set foot before, for 30,000usd - I
| know a few guides.
| NikolaeVarius wrote:
| I'm having a very hard time taking this seriously since its a
| extremely long article about a simple fully managed 2 day hiking
| trip to go 18 miles, which any healthy adult should be able to do
| in 1 day with a full pack.
|
| At first, I was willing to give the writer the benefit of the
| doubt, but when I realized that the writer was getting
| Wood/Food/Water dropoffs regularly, is when I realized this thing
| is definitely for sheltered rich people.
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| I consider myself a healthy adult and I think 2 days for 18
| miles sounds commendable.
|
| The amount of elevation change does matter, too. I am talking
| about both the difference between the trip elevation and his
| normal living elevation as well as the total elevation change
| within those 18 miles.
| NikolaeVarius wrote:
| The Atlas mountains doesn't even break 14k feet, and there is
| no mention of an attempt to summit.
|
| If you're not even carrying your own food/water 18 miles
| should be a piece of cake.
| paganel wrote:
| 18 miles is ~30 km (for us, people who use the other
| measuring system), which, computed roughly, gives me a 6-7
| hours walk. Yes, it's expected of a person who goes on
| trips regularly to see that as a piece of cake but for us,
| town folks, it might not be that easy, in any case, not a
| piece of cake.
| gambiting wrote:
| Agreed, I'd consider myself a very passionate walker but
| 10-15km a day in hilly terrain is pushing it for me.
| 30km....maybe on flat terrain.
| Ratalala wrote:
| Everything is in the elevation. I'm rather fit, used to be in
| the army nearly ten years ago. These days I hike now and
| then. Last weekend I went on a wee tip, 25 km and 1400 m
| elevation; it took me 9 hours, not including my lunch break.
| Only carrying water for the day, the said lunch, dry clothes
| and a bit of gear ; probably a 10 kg pack. Mild weather and
| decent track. On flat ground, I would have halved that time.
| defterGoose wrote:
| For 30k though, you purchase the right to sue the shit out of
| the organizer if things go south. So, you know, really roughing
| it.
| NikolaeVarius wrote:
| 30k for this? Such an insane ripoff
| notahacker wrote:
| Yep. Marrakech is a cheap flight from London, and if you
| want to go to the Atlas Mountains you can probably find a
| guide to take you individually for $30, maybe $35 if they
| had to agree to walk behind you so you could feel like you
| were all alone.
|
| Then again, the sort of person that buys these trips would
| probably be upsold $30k worth of carpets by the end of it.
| gnu8 wrote:
| This is for people who are so rich that they've lost the
| ability to handle anything practical on their own.
| ryanlol wrote:
| Not the ability, but mostly the desire. It's tremendously
| liberating to just have a good EA, travel agent or
| concierge service taking care of everything for you.
|
| Looking for flights and arranging other practical stuff
| is work, no reason to do it yourself if you're filthy
| rich.
|
| I'm still not really sure why this particular package
| costs 30k, Black Tomato seems to have some unusually high
| margins for luxury travel. We'd probably arrange this
| kind of an excursion for much less money (as a part of a
| larger holiday, which would cost _at least_ 30k), but I'm
| not sure about the full extent of the support team they
| offer.
| bradleyjg wrote:
| The danger is that they can completely lose touch, and
| depending on what they do, that can make them worse at
| their job.
|
| I know of CEO that made several blunders leading to
| reduced retention that I'm convinced were at least partly
| a result of this dynamic.
| ganeshkrishnan wrote:
| Also the person camped/slept in a dry river bed which is one of
| the worst possible places to camp. A flash flood or torrential
| rain uphill can wash him out in seconds.. and I can see even
| the company had recommended him to sleep. Really ignorant to
| put him at risk like that. Always follow the river but maintain
| distance.
|
| You can see here how dry river beds flood
| https://youtu.be/oWHvi_tW-rg?t=206
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-11-25 23:00 UTC)