Traveler Profile: Sigurd Haugbro
Name: Sigurd Haugbro
Age: 21
Country of Origin: Norway
Occupation: Divemaster
Location of Interview: Roatan, Honduras
Fantasium: So you're here in Roatan - what brought you here?
Siggy: I came here to do my divemaster. I met some awesome people that told me that this island was a good place to do your divemaster, and it certainly is. The original plan was to do a few months here and then travel a bit. But now I'm just going to do the whole instructor thing.
Fantasium: You just kind of fell in love with it.
Siggy: Yeah I did. And I really love the teaching part of it. You know, you come for diving, and you discover that teaching is the coolest part.
Fantasium: Tell me a little about your background, what you did before this, and what brought you here.
Siggy: My diving career started when I was living in Tanzania as a kid for 1 & 1/2 years. My dad and I did our open water together. That was my 12th birthday present. I went diving with my dad everytime we went on vacation, like twice a year.
Fantasium: So your dad was a diver and that's how you got into it.
Siggy: Yeah. When I stopped going on vacation with my dad I kind of fell out of diving because I didn't have anyone to dive with. When I was 18 I started to travel the world. I was living in Vietnam and my family came and visited me, and my dad was like "Do you want to go for a dive?", and I was like "Fuck yeah!"
Fantasium: Before this, you mentioned you wanted to be a nurse, right? Or you still want to be a nurse?
Siggy: I still want to be a nurse at some point. When I grow up you know?
Fantasium: When I grow up. I love that.
“Being a diver is kind of like being a rockstar. And then if I become a nurse I’ll be a superhero.”
Siggy: (Laughter) I really don't look at myself as an adult, you know?
Fantasium: I know what you mean. I don't even look at myself as an adult and I'll be 28 this year.
Siggy: Exactly.
Fantasium: Still, having that goal, something that is overarching in your life, is important.
Siggy: Yeah. I always tell people that as a kid, I wanted to grow up and be a superhero, I want to be a rockstar. I'm still holding onto those two dreams; being a diver is kind of like being a rockstar. And then if I become a nurse I'll be a superhero.
Fantasium: Do you have a really awesome traveling story? One that really stuck with you and made an impact?
Siggy: Probably the most dramatic one, that's the one that sticks with you right? When I was hiking at Everest Base Camp in Nepal, after finishing university my friend and I travelled Nepal together for a month, and then we went hiking for a bit more than two months in the Himalayas. We did Everest Base Camp, some other glaciers, just discovering that area. The hiking there is amazing. We were the last group up on the mountain for the season, so it was really cold and really clear, and everywhere you looked you have the ten tallest mountains in the world. They are around you, at all times. It blows your mind.
The dramatic point was when I got altitude sickness. That's the turning of events. It was our last day before going back down the mountain. We had seen everything we were supposed to see, and done all the peaks. We were down at 4000 meters, we had been at 5500, they say it had something to do with winds, and change of pressure, and suddenly I had vertigo. Everytime I moved I puked, and everything in my body was hurting, especially in the back of my head, and I spent the whole night in pain. Then I woke up and I had to go down. I was still in a lot of pain and puking. I couldn't eat anything. They were talking about getting a horse, and [saying] maybe we could get him down by horse; you know, your brain just goes into survival mode. I like to think I'm a very polite person. But at that point I was like NO. You get a little bit of panic. I was like no, I feel like I'm dying right now. Please get me down right away. They said just walk it off, and I stood up and I just puked everywhere. I was like I can't walk it off because I can't fucking walk! So they were like OK, we will get the helicopter.
It took them six hours from me saying please get me down to getting picked up. I was really, really freaking scared. And I was thinking, I'm so far away from the ocean. That was a thing that was going on in my mind. The ocean is far away.
Fantasium: Why was that such a big thing?
Siggy: I don't know. It got in my head that we were in a landlocked country and that we're far up. I just wanted the ocean. There's something safe about the ocean, which is a strange thing to say.
Then, the helicopter arrived, I was crying because it was so beautiful and I was in so much pain at the same time.
Fantasium: But at that moment you knew you were going to be ok.
Siggy: Yeah. Finally all of the tension released. We landed in Kathmandu and I started feeling better.
Fantasium: If you had to give a piece of advice to somebody who was maybe scared to travel or get out of their comfort zone, what would you tell them?
Siggy: People give advice all of the time. Everyone has advice. You and I are pretty similar. But me and someone else, we are very different. For me, the easiest thing I ever did was buy a plane ticket and go somewhere else and travel.
Fantasium: So your advice is just buy the ticket.
Siggy: Just do it! It's so easy to say, just do it. But it's literally easier than being at home. Back home you have obligations, you have a work, you have to worry about rent, about getting paid…
Fantasium: You have so many things, like you said. A house, pets, family, responsibilities...
Siggy: Once you go on a trip, you put a backpack on, and you leave all of the stress at home. It's freedom. You can start easy. It's about getting new impulses.
My favorite thing to do when I go to a new country is just find a local bar and just drink and look at people. Usually people will start talking to you in broken English. Then you just drink together and you kind of learn about the scene. It's so interesting to hear about a normal person's life in some other country.
Fantasium: Right. When you go somewhere new, for you, this is vacation. For them, this is their life.
Siggy: I was doing a bike trip in Vietnam on the Ho Chi Minh Road, and I don't remember the name of the town, but it was middle of nowhere. I had been riding for five hours without seeing anyone. Then I came to this town. I stopped at a hotel and checked in, and then I went to a bar and got some food just to look at people. I ended up having the most fun night with these construction workers. It was Saturday, so they had Sunday off. And these people drink a lot - the men drink a lot. So I was talking to them, they had local booze that they had made themselves, and we were DRINKING. We were getting super fucked up. And then they were like, "Let's go to karaoke!", and I'm talking big fucking dudes, strong men. And they were like "Let's go to karaoke and sing!" And I thought it was so funny. So I jumped on the back of one of their bikes and I went to karaoke. I was kind of thinking, "You know, maybe you shouldn't do this alone." But I still did it. And I had the most fun night just singing stupid songs with Vietnamese men. (Laughter). That was beautiful.
“You put a backpack on, and you leave all of the stress at home.”
Fantasium: Is there anything else you want to add? Anything else that's important to you, whether it has to do with traveling or life.
Siggy: It's so easy to generalize people who don't do what you do. To look down on people who have a "normal" life. And I think that is something, a lot of travelers are very much like, "Oh I have the perfect life and you should do this. Everyone who works in an office they are wasting their lives.” And you know, I think that. But, that would be a waste of my life - that doesn't necessarily mean it's a waste of someone else's life. If you want to work as an accountant, then that's awesome. The world really needs accountants, and it needs lawyers - and it REALLY needs people who make beer. Those people are the most important.
Fantasium: Yeah. If anyone who makes beer reads this, don't quit your job. Because we need you.
Siggy: Don't quit your job! Never travel, stay where you are, make beer.
But I feel like that's an important thing to remember, is that our lives are really awesome, but it doesn't mean you're a higher caste than anyone else. It's important to respect everyone for what they do. As long as they are nice people.
Fantasium: Cheers to nice people.
Siggy: Cheers!