Interview With The Director Of “A Map For Saturday”

Written on October 15, 2007 by Tezza

Monday’s weekly guide to Travel and Recreation from 4EvaYoung.com

“I see myself speeding down the track that leads towards children and a mortgage and the same job for 30 years. And those aren’t bad things. I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to them now and I’m afraid that if I don’t do the things I can now I’ll never be able to.” - Brook Silva-Braga

If you have dreamed about kicking in your job and taking time out traveling the world then this is a story you’ll want to take note. Brook did what to many is the unthinkable, he traded in his high flying producer job at HBO, sold the big Manhattan apartment he worked so many years to attain and traded in the lifestyle the envy of many for a chance to see the world and live out of a backpack.

Ironically it was his boss that set the whole thing in motion inadvertently a year prior to his intrepid adventure. He was sent on assignment to Asia where a chance encounter with two guys from Northern Ireland changed everything for Brook. These two guys were in the early stages of their year long round the world trip.

While he had to return back to work after his short assignment, he was conscious of the fact that they were going to be wandering around the world for another 9 months. This made him realise that a long term trip was something that he wanted to do and less than a year later we are at the beginning scene of his documentary. We are presented with Brook waking up in the morning on the day he is about to walk into his office to tell his boss and colleagues that he is about to quit his job to travel for a year.

The documentary is professionally finished thanks to Brooks background in production and it is a very insightful account of the solo backpacking lifestyle and long term travel. I enjoyed “A Map For Saturday” so much I contacted Brook and he was kind enough to agree to an interview.

For someone who is undecided on whether they should pursue a career they no longer find enjoyable or to undertake a long term trip and escape the rat race, what would be your advice.

“Maybe in 50 or 60 years I’m dead, I want to say I had a good life” - Jens (A Map For Saturday)

I don’t think it has to be a choice between a job you don’t like and a long trip. I really liked my job a lot, but when I met a couple guys on an around-the-world trip it planted a seed in my head that it would be a really, really cool thing to do. After a couple months I decided it was something I had to do before I died, and if I were ever going to do it now—when I didn’t have a family or a mortgage—was the right time.

Can you explain why you chose to travel alone.

If you wait to find someone who can take a year off at the same time you can and wants to go the same places you do, it will be a long wait until you actually leave. The thing about traveling alone is the highs and lows are much more dramatic because meeting people—or being alone—is a much bigger deal. Of the folks I know who have done it both ways, almost all of them preferred traveling alone. There’s just so much more freedom in every decision you make.

Why did you decide to do a documentary of your travels and who do you think will enjoy it.

The only reason I could think of not to take the trip was the impact it would have on a career I’d been working towards since high school. So the movie was a way to justify going and to keep me busy while I was away. I think you need a project when you’re gone for a long time—music, art, whatever—otherwise you go a bit crazy after a while.

The comment people seem to make is the movie is a good way for former travelers to reminisce about their time away and a good way for armchair travelers to decide if they’re ready to take the leap. I hope people who haven’t backpacked before get an idea of what its like and why its so damn fun.

If you were to give advice on packing for a first time traveler embarking on a round the world trip what would you suggest they pack.

“It’s a simple way of life, you have everything on your back, material goods don’t mean as much as they used to. That’s something you take with you for the rest of your life.” - A Map For Saturday

Remember your passport and your bankcard, the rest are just details. Bring enough clothes for a weekend and you’ll have enough for a year (you can always buy more later). Scan your most important documents (passport etc) and store the files in your e-mail and on a disk you leave at home. Check your bank (and other banks) for their foreign withdrawal fees. Check the seasonal climate changes where you’re going so you don’t get caught in a month of bad weather. But don’t sweat the details.

The philosophy of long term travel is quite foreign to many people. You managed to only find a few Americans on your trip yourself. Most peoples concept of travel is taking a few weeks off for vacation at the end of each year and trying to cram as much as they can. What’s your thoughts on this rushed pace approach of travel.

I’ve taken plenty of one-week trips. They’re fun. But if you’re away long enough that you can’t count the days you’ve been gone or the days you have left, the trip becomes something different. You inhabit that world of traveling like moving into a new apartment; it becomes your home. My best memories of traveling are things I couldn’t have planned, and the less scheduled your trip is—and the longer it is—the more likely you are to encounter those wonderful, unplanned moments.

What did you learn about yourself on this trip that you didn’t realise before you embarked on your journey. You said “A normal life really doesn’t seem that attractive anymore. I can’t imagine not traveling again. I can’t imagine going back to a real job.” Can you explain your rationale for this statement and is that still your view today?

“Since I’ve been away I’ve realized that everything else is just material. That a job is just a material thing that gives me money. Where you live doesn’t matter. I’ve been living in a hostel for a year. I hope when I go back home I still think like that.” - Rebecca (A Map For Saturday)

What I realized—not just about myself but about the world—is that time and money are commodities with an inverse relationship; to get one you need to spend the other. And I realized, for me, time is a more valuable commodity than money, so I’d rather hoard free time than extra money.

Most travelers end up feeling the same way and its one reason why they find the return home so difficult, our society is built on the premise we should want more money so we can have more things, even if we don’t really have the free time to use those things.

You touched on it through your video when you spent a day tracking your expenses in Luang Prabang, Laos and compared those expenses with a more expensive city while in Sorrento, Italy. The contrast was significant considering that in Laos a day’s expenses came to $17.15 while Italy was closer to $96. I was wondering if you could speak a little more about the cost of your trip and your tips to traveling cheaply.

I traveled for 50 weeks and spent $20,000. I couldn’t live here in New York on 20 grand a year but I understand most people don’t have that amount of money hiding under their bed. The costs vary greatly by where you are: South Asia can be enjoyed on $500-700 a month but Australia and Europe will cost three times that much. I spent a lot of time (and money) in Europe and Australia so my average cost could have been much lower if I had stayed longer in Asia and South America.

Costs will tend to be high in the beginning when you’re figuring things out, but pretty soon you’ll learn how to cut costs. Mainly you realize you have all this free time so you can always take the slower, cheaper option and enjoy the ride. Backpacking makes you cheap.

Can you tell us about your favourite memory of your trip. Maybe one that didn’t make it to your Dvd but stood out as a defining moment on your travel.

My favorite memories now are things that didn’t make it into the movie because the things in the movie I’ve seen a hundred times now and have become sort of meaningless to me personally.

I remember riding a bike through the rain in the middle of the night to the train station in Rotterdam, Holland. I remember lying in the back of my friend’s van in Australia as we drove along the coast. I remember eating the greatest croissants each morning when I was living with this girl in the south of France; in the evening she’d come home from school and we’d go the market together and then make dinner.

I remember the juice shops in Copacabana and lunch place in Thailand and air-conditioned restaurants in India where only the rich people ate. But I also remember the street stalls in India where only a crazy tourist would eat but I never got sick.

I could go on for pages…there are a lot of things to remember from a year away.

How did you deal with the impermanence of travel. The constant change with locations, climate, culture and language. What did you learn about the world we live in.

All that change became normal, it became the backdrop on which I lived my life. The temples and museums became pretty redundant after a while but having this exciting, beautiful, changing world to navigate was addictive. Every day you had to use your head just to get around from place to place, it’s such a difference from the routines we form at home.

But the real, ironic, un-sexy thing I learned about the world is it’s all pretty similar. People who write about a given place seek out what makes it different and focus on it. So you hear about the specific nuance of all these places and think they’re living a different kind of life but in a lot of ways they aren’t. The flavor of the food or the details of the landscape may vary but people are people.

If you were to plan your trip again, what would you have done differently if anything. What would you suggest someone consider when they plan their long term travel trip.

“I just heard from so many older people how they wish they could have taken the opportunity and seen the world. I didn’t want to be 80 years old, I guess being stuck in the routine of life.” - Kate (A Map For Saturday)

You can buy a ticket anywhere on any day with anyone. You can go in the rainy season or the mosquito season or the cold season. You will come back and say how wonderfully you planned your trip, because there is no way to mess it up. So I’m glad I started in Australia and cruised around Asia and toured Europe and beached South America. Whatever you plan it will work out, you will meet amazing people and see wonderful things. The only trip anyone ever regrets is the one they don’t take.

Thanks Brook for your thoughtful answers.

Brook’s documentary can be purchased at his site: A Map For Saturday. You can also watch the trailer and his interview on ABC-Cleveland from an earlier post.

If your wondering what he is up to today, Brook never did go back to a 9-5 job. He has recently launched his latest exciting project - The Interviewpoint. He is continuing to utilize his production skills and the site does in-depth interviews with a variety of guests.

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Technorati Tags: Brook Silva-Braga, traveling the world, round the world trip, travel, documentary, solo backpacking, A Map For Saturday, trip

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