Turn Off Your IPod: 41 Sounds You Can Miss While Traveling

In Berlin…

• the sound of the city’s myriad scars suppurating noisily just beneath its surface

In Marrakech, Morocco…

• from a perceptive late night bbq hawker in the Jemaa EL Fna (somehow sussing that i was English despite not opening my mouth): “come and eat here my friend it is the dog’s bollocks”

Candice Walsh, Associate Editor

In St. John’s, Newfoundland…

• man slamming door angrily, screaming, “AT LEAST I DON’T WASH MY CLOTHES IN THE FUCKING SINK.”

Nick Rowlands, Associate Editor

In Cairo, Egypt…

• this conversation in Khan al-Khalili bazaar:
  Tout: Hey, what you looking for?
  Tourist couple: La shukran (“no thank you”, as in I don’t want anything go away)
  Tout: I have la shukran – what size do you need?
• the horns and squealing brakes of thousands of cars that would have ended (or at least put a big fat dent in) my life if I wasn’t using my ears as much as my eyes to navigate the streets

David Miller, Senior Editor

In Patagonia, Argentina…

• paisanos asking if you’ve seen a horse around anywhere
• after dark, late, when the barrio’s finally quiet: dogs barking, then the sound of hooves along your street

Hal Amen, Trips Editor

In Shanghai, China…

• firework explosions echoing through every little alley and off all the art-deco and neo-classical buildings of the Bund during lunar new year celebrations

Kate Sedgwick, Nights Editor

In Buenos Aires, Argentina…

• a 15 year old kid on the sidewalk saying loudly to his friend, “La concha de tu hermana!”

And from the Twitter crowd…

• @spencerspellman: the crosswalks in Dublin, Ireland, which make me feel like I’m in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader
• @kirsten_al: the sound of the subway trains in NYC; the ocean at night in Mexico; the wind when riding a cable car in San Francisco
• @SeaSunDodger: campfire in South Africa…I could hear hyenas yipping and two elephants fighting in the distance. I’ll never forget that.
• @ljgolden: the sound of cowbells in the Swiss Alps. Makes me all misty-eyed just thinking about it.
• @coqui2008: the sound of the Coqui frog in Puerto Rico
• @GabiMGarcia: the sound of dial-up internet working in Cuba
• @MeghanHicks: Berber men in the Moroccan Sahara who get each others’ attention by shouting “Alalalala!”; 4am rooster crows in Guatemala City’s center; barking zebras in the Serengeti, like a dog with laryngitis; Costa Rican jungle filled with tree frog chirping loud enough to make your ears ring

And, lastly, my own:

• wind rustling the bamboo forest on the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek in China
• the cicadas in Melbourne at night, which start and end like clockwork
• the kookaburras in Sydney, which to me sound like laughing monkeys
• the yelling Cubans packed in the back of big trucks as they pass me on my bike, shouting things like “hola!” and “mas rapido!”

What have been some of your favourite sounds when you’ve been traveling?

Community Connection

When you must listen to music, iPod is not the only choice of player. Check out Michelle Schustermann’s 12 iPod Alternatives.