Men's Journal

Letter From the Editor

- GREG EMMANUEL Chief Content Officer

OVER TWO decades ago, I chased after my now wife across the globe. I learned a lot about love—but I learned even more about how freaking big this blue ball we live on is. Young and without a lot of travel experience, I flew blindly from New York to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Singapore, from Singapore to Jakarta, and from Jakarta to Bali. Landing in Bali, 36 hours after leaving home, I didn’t know what to expect. There were no travel blogs to point me to the hip restaurant­s and bars, no Google Maps to help me find the hostel, and perhaps most frightenin­gly, I wasn’t even sure the girl would be there to meet me at the airport. (Communicat­ion wasn’t so easy back then.) I think we were both surprised. Her by ultimately not minding me crashing her own adventure, and me by what an instant adventure it was. My first memory of this new country was a strange toilet and my lack of understand­ing of how to even “operate” it. (Google “mandi” for more detail.) The mundane surprises were replaced by more divine ones, like riding motorbikes through endless rice paddies, snorkeling crystal clear waters off hidden cove beaches, and slurping down ungodly spicy goat curry until tears streamed down our faces. There is a lot to discover 10,000 miles away from home. In that spirit, for this year’s annual adventure issue, we decided to highlight epic trips in every corner of the big blue ball. No surprises, we uncovered an embarrassm­ent of riches: From camping with the Mursi tribe in remote Ethiopia to cruising with whales near the South Pole to surfing giant waves in Tasmania, we collected stories of adventure from all seven continents. Of course, in any issue of MJ, the epic journeys are just the tip of the iceberg. This month, you can also read about alternativ­e Italian wines, stylish travel gear, the state of hybrid cars, the newest stars of Major League Baseball, and how Daniel Craig got ripped (again) to play James Bond. To top it off, contributi­ng editor Jesse Will profiles the great actor Sam Rockwell, an iconoclast who is finally getting his due. It’s a big, big world—get after it.

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