Unpacked by Afar | Travel Smarter, More Responsibly

Afar contributing writer Emma John road-trips the Great Victorian Bathing Trail, uncovering the best spa towns in Victoria, Australia—from thermal springs on the coast to century-old bathhouses inland. A traditional spa vacation was never Emma John's thing—she needs to be on the move to relax. So when she set out to explore Victoria Australia spas along the newly opened Great Victorian Bathing Trail, she brought her road trip instincts with her: 250 miles of driving, looping from Melbourne down to the Mornington Peninsula, across Port Phillip Bay by ferry, and back up through the best spa towns in Victoria, Australia—Hepburn Springs and Daylesford. On this episode of Unpacked, host Katherine LaGrave talks with Emma about what she learned when a self-described spa skeptic spent a week soaking, swimming, and drinking mineral water across the state with Australia's highest concentration of natural springs. THIS WEEK'S GUEST Emma John is a contributing writer to Afar based in London. For her story on the Great Victorian Bathing Trail, she looped through Victoria's most notable bathing destinations—geothermal spas, sea pools, mineral springs, and lakes—timing her trip around a six-week cricket series between Australia and England. What began as a well-earned reward after weeks of demanding sports coverage turned into a deeper reckoning with what wellness travel actually means. IN THIS EPISODE Why Victoria, Australia, has the country's highest concentration of natural mineral springs, and how the Great Victorian Bathing Trail links geothermal spas, sea pools, and lakes across the state Alba Thermal Springs & Spa on the Mornington Peninsula, where automatic doors and unfamiliar bathing etiquette left Emma completely disoriented—and how she started letting go of the need to get it "right" Hepburn Springs and Daylesford, the twin towns at the heart of Victoria's spa country, home to 80 percent of Australia's mineral water and the 1895 Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa—Australia's oldest Drinking straight from the source: the sulfurous Soda, Locarno, and Sulphur Springs pumps scattered through Hepburn's town park, and why locals still fill their bottles there every week A 45-minute private mineral bath that changed Emma's mind about "forced relaxation"—and the moment she realized her real obstacle wasn't the spa, but her own instinct to rush The layered history beneath the trail: a walk with guide Rob Hyatt of the Koorie Heritage Trust, who explains how the Yarra River's true name is Birrarung, and how Lake Daylesford's creation displaced the Dja Dja Wurrung people from land and water they'd relied on for generations Why Emma's top recommendation for skeptics isn't a spa at all: the Searoad Ferry between the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas, where a pod of wild dolphins showed up uninvited Dinner at Kadota, a Japanese restaurant in Daylesford run by chef Aaron Schembri and his wife Risa Kadota, plus an unplanned stop in the town of Trentham that Emma's still thinking about CHAPTER MARKERS 00:00:00 Introduction: A Road Trip Built Around Water 00:04:00 Hepburn Springs: Australia's Oldest Bathhouse 00:08:00 The freedom of road trips and letting go 00:10:30 The history of these Australian waters 00:17:00 The Searoad Ferry and an Unexpected Pod of Dolphins 00:19:00 Drinking the Springs in Hepburn's Town Park 00:22:00 Kadota, Daylesford, and an Unplanned Stop in Trentham 00:23:30 How Emma's Idea of Wellness Changed LINKS & RESOURCES Emma John's Afar story: An Australian Road Trip Built Around Swimming, Soaking, and Sauna Alba Thermal Springs & Spa Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa Lon Retreat & Spa Koorie Heritage Trust Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Travel journalist Kathryn Romeyn shares how to find Thailand off the beaten path—from Nan Province night markets to Khao Sok's rainforest—plus the best time to visit Thailand if you want fewer crowds and lower prices. This week on Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene explores Thailand off the beaten path with journalist Kathryn Romeyn, who's covered Southeast Asia since 2014 and calls Bali, Indonesia home. Kathryn returned to Thailand again and again since her first real trip in 2018, and wrote Afar's guide to seeing the country differently. In this episode, part of Unpacked's Off the Tourist Trail series, she and Aislyn dig into Bangkok's overlooked neighborhoods, the north's least-visited provinces, and—critically—the best time to visit Thailand if you want to skip both the crowds and the price surge of high season. THIS WEEK'S GUEST Kathryn Romeyn is a Bali-based travel journalist who has covered Southeast Asia since 2014. After spending years visiting nearly every other country in the region—Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam—she finally gave Thailand a real chance starting in 2018, and has been chasing its lesser-known corners ever since. IN THIS EPISODE Why finding Thailand off the beaten path means letting go of five-star expectations—and how a $50-a-night, family-run guesthouse can outshine a luxury resort The best time to visit Thailand: why the shoulder seasons (roughly March–July and October–November) beat the crowded, expensive December–January peak, and why to avoid the hot, rainy August–September stretch Inside Nan Province, in Thailand's mountainous north near Laos—road-tripping through opium-turned-coffee country, staying in teak bungalows, and meeting a local guide from the Karen community Local flavors worth seeking out: sai oua northern-style sausage, chicken wings crusted in makhwaen (a wild jungle pepper related to Sichuan pepper), and the tamarind crunchy shrimp at Thanyamundra that Kathryn can't stop thinking about  A nightly ritual in Nan: communal floor dinners at bamboo khantoke tables between two illuminated temples, complete with live folk music and unmatched trash-sorting discipline Why Koh Yao Noi—a small island with one gas station and one doctor—offers an escape from the group-boat crowds hitting Phuket's more famous islands Skipping the standard Phuket–Krabi–Chiang Mai loop for Khaosok National Park where limestone karsts rise out of Cheow Lan Lake and langurs swing through the jungle canopy Why hiring a private guide or outfitter (like Smiling Albino or Red Savannah)—rather than a big-group tour—unlocks the kind of moments you can't find with an internet search CHAPTERS 00:00:00 Rethinking Thailand's Reputation 00:02:00 A Freelancer's First Real Trip 00:07:00 Getting Lost in Bangkok on Purpose 00:11:00 Island Escapes and the Road to Nan 00:16:00 Guesthouses Over Five-Star Hotels 00:21:00 Night Markets and Local Food Secrets LINKS & RESOURCES Kathryn Romeyn's AFAR story: How to See Thailand's Wonders Without Feeling Like a Tourist Thanyamundra Organic Resort Nan Seasons Boutique Resort Cape Kudu Hotel Koh Yao Noi Smiling Albino Red Savannah Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The spices in your cabinet are probably five to seven years old—and that's not an accident. On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene sits down with Sana Javeri Kadri, founder of Diaspora Spice Co., who spent nine years dismantling a 500-year-old system and replacing it with something radically different: direct relationships with regenerative spice farming partners across India and Sri Lanka. What starts as a question about how old the spices in your cabinet really are unfolds into a conversation about colonialism, cultural erasure, and what it actually takes to trace a turmeric root back to the family who grew it. THIS WEEK'S GUEST Sana Javeri Kadri founded Diaspora Spice Co. in 2017 at age 23, after discovering that the global spice trade—largely unchanged since European colonization took hold roughly 500 years ago—left farmers earning almost nothing while spices sat in warehouses for five to seven years before reaching store shelves. Sana built the company around regenerative spice farming partnerships, working directly with 140 farmers across India and Sri Lanka to source turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, and more, paying farm partners an average of 4x commodity price. Sana splits time between Mumbai and the Bay Area and is the author of The Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook, a book five years in the making and built entirely around the farm families behind the spices. IN THIS EPISODE How Sana Javeri Kadri traced the spice trade's roots back 4,000 years—and how colonization, not commerce, is what broke it roughly 500 years ago Why regenerative spice farming partnerships let Diaspora Spice Co. pay farmers well above commodity price, and what that income jump has meant for farming families year over year The 14-month search for pesticide-free cardamom, and what it actually takes to find a handful of true regenerative spice farming partners out of dozens of samples collected Inside Eko Land's cinnamon and clove processing facility in Kandy, Sri Lanka, where quality control means tasting bark from individual trees—and why true cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) is almost impossible to find in the US What 9 years of relationship-building with Pragati Turmeric farm partner Prabhu Kasereni has looked like, from a 23-year-old showing up unannounced to writing a cookbook credited entirely to the farmers themselves CHAPTERS 00:00:00 The Age of Your Spice Cabinet 00:03:00 The 500-Year-Old Trade Problem 00:10:00 Building Diaspora and Regenerative Farming 00:18:00 The Search for Cardamom and Pepper 00:26:00 Pragati Turmeric in Andhra Pradesh 00:34:00 Cinnamon and Cloves in Kandy 00:42:00 Nine Years, One Family's Story 00:48:00 The Cookbook and What Comes Next INKS & RESOURCES Diaspora Co. The Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook Pragati Turmeric Guntur Sannam Chilli Stay connected Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and View From Afar, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel. Unpacked by Afar is part of Airwave Media's podcast network. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An African safari doesn't have to mean a traffic jam. On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene travels to Tanzania's southern circuit—visiting two parks most first-time safari-ers never consider—and discovers what happens when you trade the famous Great Migration crossing for a dry riverbed with not another human being in sight. To get there, she consulted Elizabeth Gordon, co-founder of Extraordinary Journeys, who helped reframe what an African safari could be. What followed was eight days in Ruaha National Park and Nyerere National Park: a walking safari with a guide who reads the wind with a pouch of ash, a river full of hippos and crocodiles that Aislyn took to calling "danger soup," and a fly camp on a lake where a ranger stayed up all night speaking hippo so she didn't have to. Come back next week for a bonus episode about what happens when a lion leaves the park—and meets a herd of cattle. THIS WEEK'S GUESTS Elizabeth Gordon is the co-founder of Extraordinary Journeys, a bespoke travel company designing African safari itineraries—and trips throughout South America and Asia—for travelers who want more than the standard route. Born in Kenya to a mother who joined the Peace Corps, earned her pilot's license, and built a house on a game park outside Nairobi, Elizabeth grew up between Kenya and France, studied in Beijing, and managed safari camps in Namibia before launching the company with her mother. Pay Mbaryo is a walking guide and naturalist with Nomad Tanzania in Ruaha National Park. A farmer's son who grew up in the Gorongosa district, he has spent 15 years in the bush and navigates unmarked wilderness using what he calls a natural GPS. In a decade of guiding, he has never once had to use his rifle. Gerald is a guide with Nomad Tanzania in Nyerere National Park, in his fourth year on the Rufiji River. He can identify a hippo's path out of the water by sight and smell—and he was the one who handed Aislyn a hippo skull to explain exactly why you don't want to be in that path. IN THIS EPISODE Why Tanzania's Southern Circuit—specifically Ruaha National Park and Nyerere National Park—offers a better African safari experience for first-time visitors than the Great Migration crossing: fewer people, better guides, and wildlife that doesn't know you're there What a walking safari in Ruaha actually feels like: reading the wind with a pouch of ash, approaching a mother elephant and her calf without being detected, learning to make a toothbrush from a tree, and discovering the Small Five How Pay spent 15 years learning that birds, buffalo, and elephants are all sharing information with one another—and why walking safari means becoming part of that conversation rather than watching it from a Jeep The Rufiji River at Nyerere: a wide, curving expanse of "danger soup"—filled with hippos and crocodiles—and what an afternoon on the water teaches you about the elephant as a keystone species What fly camping looks like when Nomad's team digs a bathroom into the sand, rigs a hot shower, serves gin and tonics under the stars, and a ranger stays up all night so you can fall asleep to the sound of the hippo brass band CHAPTER MARKERS 00:00:00 Introduction: African Safari, But Different 00:04:00 Why the Southern Circuit 00:08:00 Arriving in Ruaha 00:12:00 Walking Safari With Pay 00:20:00 The Small Five and the Keystone Species 00:26:00 Nyerere and the Rufiji River 00:33:00 Danger Soup: Life on the Water 00:38:00 Fly Camping With Hippos LINKS & RESOURCES Extraordinary Journeys Nomad Tanzania Nomad Kigelia Camp, Ruaha Nomad Sand Rivers Camp, Nyerere Ruaha National Park, Tanzania Nyerere National Park, Tanzania View From Afar—Great Migration episode Stay connected Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and View From Afar, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel. Unpacked by Afar is part of Airwave Media's podcast network. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the end of this century, half of the world's 7,000 languages could be gone. On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene hands the mic to travel writer Lucy Kehoe for a conversation about saving language with journalist Sophia Smith Galer, author of the new book How to Kill a Language. For Sophia, saving language is personal: her Italian grandmother spoke Emilian, one of Italy's Indigenous tongues, and it's quietly slipping away. To understand what we lose when a language dies, Sophia traveled from the mountains of Oman to the hills of California, seeking out endangered languages and the communities fighting—or grieving—for them. She and Lucy get into why these languages matter to every traveler, how language and landscape are woven together, and what it means to travel thoughtfully to a place whose language is at risk—beyond learning a few phrases. It's a conversation about treating language as part of the culture we come to experience, and about meeting it with curiosity and respect rather than as something quaint. THIS WEEK'S GUESTS Sophia Smith Galer is an award-winning journalist and author whose new book, How to Kill a Language, traces the forces—colonialism, globalization, migration, and war—pushing thousands of the world's languages toward extinction. Multilingual in English, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic, she reported it across California, Oman, Ghana, Ecuador, Italy, and Greece, meeting speakers of critically endangered languages in person to capture not only their words but their connection to a place. Lucy Kehoe is a London-based journalist who covers travel, food, and the environment, with a particular interest in how people relate to landscape and place. IN THIS EPISODE The statistic that stopped us cold: by 2100, up to half of the world's 7,000 languages could vanish, and the rate of loss is expected to triple over the next 40 years Why a language is far more than a way to order coffee—Sophia's case that it holds the past, present, and future of a people connected to a place, from Oman's Jibbali (with distinct words for animal versus human shelter) to a California tribe down to 12 adult speakers What it really asks of travelers: not memorizing phrases, but bringing respect and dignity to an endangered language, and asking who profits from "language tourism" and whether speaker communities are truly part of it Where to find language on the road—Planet Word in Washington, D.C., the Armenian alphabet monument outside Yerevan, a Ukrainian language tour in Kyiv, and Oman's frankincense heritage experience The range of feelings Sophia found among speakers themselves—pride, determination, and quiet resignation—and why she believes the fate of each endangered language belongs to its own community to decide 00:00:00 A Grandmother's Vanishing Tongue 00:04:00 Why Endangered Languages Matters 00:06:00 Words Shaped by Place 00:10:00 Tourism Done Respectfully 00:16:00 California's Last Speakers 00:24:00 Ladino, Museums, and Hope LINKS & RESOURCES How to Kill a Language by Sophia Smith Galer — buy on Bookshop Sophia Smith Galer's website Lucy Kehoe's website Planet Word, the language museum in Washington, D.C. Armenian Alphabet Monument, outside Yerevan Museum of the Frankincense Land, Oman Stay connected Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and View From Afar, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel. Unpacked by Afar is part of Airwave Media's podcast network. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices