The first edition of Sweet Travels, the program about the phenomen of travelling! Starting today with Vanuatu, the first destination of our journey.

Sweet Travels likes to take you to this country made up by 83 islands, in the Pacific Ocean, far east of Australia. From Vienna, it takes you 35 hours to get to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu.

On Efate Island, we talked to Kenneth Lango, who works for the Vanuatu government in the ecological field, and who dedicates hilmself to the tourism business. We talked with Kenneth about life in Vanuatu: culture, history – the impact of the colonial power and the reclaimed independence, about traditions and modernity, religions and rituals, about music and environmental issues, about the impact of tourism, and much more.

We asked him about his perspective of special challenges for Vanuatu, as it is a volcanic territory. There are earthquakes, and in 2015, a cyclone hit Vanuatu. How does Kenneth see the impact of climate change in Vanuatu? What about ressource management, and waste management?

Today Sweet Travels presents you impressions of the Pacific Island State Vanuatu, and the following editions of Sweet Travels will be about:
Australia, the so-called Red Continent,
Bangladesh, one of the highly dense populated countries in the world,
India, a country with the fourth largest railway network in the world,
Indonesia, an island state with more than 17.000 islands,
Ukraine, here we already move to the European continent,
Moldova, thorn between the EU and Russian influence,
Transnistria (Pridnestrovie), a country between Ukraine and Moldova, which is not officially recognized,
Romania, mostly the region called Transilvania,
Serbia, a country historically connected to Austria, and
Bosnia-Herzegowina, like Serbia another province of former Yugoslavia.

Playlist:
Jingle-Sound (“hunting2”) by neolein (https://freesound.org/people/neolein/)
Music (“Walking”) from the Score of the movie “Yolngu Boy”, composed by Mark Ovenden
and Local String Band from Vanuatu (recorded live in Efate):
Lukunaeva – Baofato
Lukunaeva – Gel Pentecost
Lukunaeva – South Epi
(Lukunaeva is: Armstrong, Edmond, Oven, Charly, Thomas, Kaltamat, Fred, Hebson)

Logo-Design by Katharina Wagner