The eagle hunters of Bayan-Olgii – as they sit there on their horses, dressed in fox furs, their weather-beaten faces under the traditional fur hats, and each one wears a golden eagle on his leather glove – that is an archaic, powerful image. The backdrop to this supposedly ancient hunting spectacle is the Mongolian hills covered in snow. One could think that Genghis Khan would soon be riding around the corner.
But of course time has not stood still, even in far western Mongolia, where Kazakhs who fled here from Russian imperialism still master and practice the art of hunting with golden eagles. But the beautiful and exotic-looking pictures, which sometimes show a hunter who transports his eagle not on horseback but on his Chinese motorcycle, have been seen in various magazines before. And in the text of the journalist Debbie Pappyn it is also to be learned that the recordings were made during the Eagle Festival, which takes place here annually in September and which, in contrast to the more well-known Naadam Festival in the capital, still flies “under the radar” of most tourists . Only photographers and filmmakers come here.
A ger, the steppe and beyond that the mountains. This is what the Mongolian stereotype looks like. But of course there is an enormous rural exodus of semi-nomads into the big cities.
(Photo: David de Vleeschauwer)
Nevertheless, in the “How to Go” section, which Pappyn puts behind each of David de Vleeschauwer’s twelve series of pictures, together with information on how to get there and accommodation options, you can book a three-day Eagle Festival package for 350 euros. It’s possible to stay in a yurt with an eagle hunter: “Call it couchsurfing,” but don’t forget a warm sleeping bag.
And at this point, as a reader of a book entitled “Remote Experiences”, one is a bit disappointed for the first time, since one had actually expected the photographer and reporter to go there, with great deprivation, where hardly anyone has been, or at least where it is is difficult, you have to earn your experience through long marches and bad food.
But the further you leaf through the thick book, it becomes clear: This is about off-the-shelf experiences, albeit very exclusive ones. Experiences – Experiences is the new currency in luxury tourism. Because what better way to draw attention to his friends from social media on Instagram than with three nights with the eagle hunters in Mongolia or the transhumance sheep drive in Abruzzo or even with a package tour including a minder through Stone Age communist North Korea – including a bit of creeping ?
David de Vleeschauwer: Remote Experiences. Extraordinary travel adventures from north to south. Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2022. 424 pages, 50 euros.
(Photo: TASCHEN)
De Vleeschauwer’s pictures are very good, classic reportage photographs that make you want to dream away, but also to drive away. Perhaps the disappointment comes from the fact that the forewords of some English-language travel journalists and best-selling book authors deal with the topic of “remoteness” in a philosophical way, while the texts of the lifestyle author Debbie Pappyn (Monocle) treat the twelve goals relatively superficially and in summary. Apart from the fact that the topics of CO₂ and the harmful effects of long-distance and luxury travel are commented on in three sentences. Pappyn doesn’t write reports, locals hardly have a say at all. They are better travel guide entries that are geared towards usefulness for the potential subsequent traveler and not towards a deeper understanding of the people and regions visited.
The foreword by award-winning travel book author Stanley Stewart gives an idea of how things could be done differently. For example, he rode a horse 1000 miles through Mongolia and had a real, deeper experience: he felt as if he had “shed several layers of skin from the old life” and only retained the essence of life: “I had adapted to the nomads’ priorities: a good camp, water, grass for the horses and the prospect of nice weather.”
You won’t find anything like that in “Remote Experiences” because it’s about experiences that can be consumed much more quickly. There is, for example, the journey with the Russian nuclear icebreaker to the North Pole. A drone photo shows the wealthy passengers in yellow overalls standing in a large circle around the North Pole marked with a red pennant, and to make matters worse there is a waving polar bear with a crew member probably hiding under its fur. Such photos also say a lot, but more about the travelers than about the destination.
Or there is the exotic series of pictures from Papua New Guinea, which the author sells to us as “untouched”, i.e. untouched by foreign influences. But it’s hard to believe that the men and women wear their terrifying masks, feather headdresses and little raffia skirts quite by accident on a dreamy white beach. Even less when the practical information states that the “charming lodge” in the Papuan highlands even has “electric blankets” ready. Secluded and exotic, yes please, but we don’t want to do without a certain level of comfort.