By: Dove
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Doctor, artist, entrepreneur, hobbyist, philosopher… you can attach many labels to New York’s Prince Malik, but there’s no question that you can’t box him in. When we spoke with the eccentric Gen-Xer earlier this year about his amazing car collection, we also found out that he is an active world traveler!
In his latest video “I Got It” featuring Fat Joe, Malik shows off some soothing tropical scenery, but it’s not even the tip of the iceberg for where he might actually pop up on vacation!
We tapped in to Prince Malik’s memories of his favorite places to visit in the world for UrbLife.com’s Carry On, and found out why he thinks people should be more open to traveling to other countries. Read on for some tips on great getaways!
**videos are from various YouTube users
Africa is number one, because when you go there, not only do you have fun, but you bring something back with you. I suggest everyone go there because when you come back, you appreciate yourself. You appreciate your country, you appreciate your life, and you appreciate McDonald’s!
When you go over there, you’re like, “Damn, these people don’t have clean water. If my water isn’t a certain temperature, I don’t want to take a shower. Then you’re like, “God bless America. We have luxury.” You try to help these people, because you have nothing to lose to change other people’s lives. It’s barely minimum. If I give them money it would change their whole week.
A town in Nairobi, Africa is my favorite place. Whenever I go there, I like to spend one night over there in the jungle. They don’t know what TV or cell phones are. To stay with them is so much fun. Your phone doesn’t work, no media out there.
It’s dark and you light it up with a fire. You eat the same thing you would eat when you go spear fishing. Pick up the fish and BBQ it. The tribe is one family. There is one father and then all of his kids. You would be surprised how united they are.
2. Stuart Cove and Nassau, Bahamas
My favorite place is the Bahamas. When people say Bahamas, they think of blue water, sitting outside on a chair, standing in the water, and maybe do BBQs. This place called Stuart Cove in Bahamas, what they do is give you little scooters and you go under the water and just circle around. You have a car on the street and you’re just running around, and you just see under water life. Fish going back and forth.
They have another program called Swim with the Sharks. They are blue sharks, they’re not dangerous. Fully licensed people train you. It’s a once in a lifetime experience, I think that everyone should do it. They take you to the dolphins to play with them. It’s all fun stuff. I usually plan my vacation for seven days. The first three days I relax and play golf.
Sometimes I stay on the Nassau side. My favorite place is Bob Marley’s house. You can rent the whole house and you can sleep in the bed that he used to sleep. When I travel, I don’t want to go to the famous place. I’m into history; I want to find it all. When and where it happened in that particular country… hundreds of man-made islands in the Bahamas. They don’t advertise that much, so people don’t know.
3. Dubai, United Arab Emerites
If I want an advanced location, I go to Dubai to see new buildings, see the architecture… all the national stuff. I suggest everyone go. They don’t have certain features over there like ski resorts. They don’t have the opportunity to build a ski resort so they figured it out and made it underground. It’s unique because people never heard of such a thing.
They have the media locked. Everybody has good things to say about Dubai. So when investors hear these things, everybody puts money in there. For instance, not that many people want to invest in the United States because of the [negative]media. Wall Street crashed, and everyone in the world heard it. We do this; we think people want to hear this stuff. We don’t know that we’re destroying ourselves by doing this.
4. Egypt
I have lots of funny stories about Egypt. They used to [con]people just to get money. It’s crazy. One of the gods was a god of war; he built a [space]under his chair. [People would come to the god and ask] “I want to have a boy as my next son,” and he would stand up and say “This man is asking for a son. What do you think?” The slave downstairs would say, “Alright he has to give this much money to you.” So he could get his wish. People would pay. Out of 100 people, 40 would have a boy. 60 would have to pay more to try again.
It’s very amazing to me the way these people lived, building the pyramids. The tribes would have gods also. They were all connected, but the little ones didn’t know sh*t so they figured out ways to make money. Then they would give the money to the bigger gods.
I was thinking on the place, that we’re doing the same thing now. Like we have a world union and we run the world and we have little people out there, small gods and we’re all united. We don’t mess with each other, I don’t want to get into politics, but is exactly the same thing in America. And people believe us. Think about it.
5. Cartagena and Bogota, Colombia
I like Colombia because those people are obsessed with America. I went to Cartagena and Bogato. That was fun – I went three times. I love their empanadas! They make this juice, they take fresh oranges and squeeze them and put carnation milk in and shake. It tastes awesome. I know a place in New York that sells it, but I’m not going to share it because the line will get bigger. [laughs]
It used to be really good. I get my medicine from there and it was so natural. Dominican Republic is becoming New York now with tall buildings and all that stuff. When I used to live there, we knew everybody. I lived there for four years.
7. Rome, Italy
Rome has a lot of history. It’s fun. People are so family oriented and are sweethearts. They love their guests. They will take you in their house and they don’t even know you, just so you can have dinner with them. There is a history there. They will tell you about their great-grandfather – 60% of us in the U.S. don’t know that. You know these people for a week and you feel like you’re family. You feel connected even though you don’t belong there.
Anybody who tells someone not to go certain places because people will hate you, blah, blah, blah because you’re from America is complete bullsh*t. I was told when I went to Moscow, “It’s bad, it’s Russia, and people will hate you.” I had no problem over there. I had a great time, people are so friendly.
Unless you’re worrying about politics, if you don’t know sh*t about the politics, don’t start. I think that people should travel, not by listening to other people, but have their own experience. I will never have the same experience that another person has. It’s impossible. I went to the same place three times and had a different experience.
Watch Prince Malik’s official video for “I Got It” featuring Fat Joe
Prince Malik “Makusa” ft. Lumidee
Find out more about Prince Malik on his official site PrinceMalikRecords.com, and follow him on Twitter @PrinceMalik
