What are the most meaningful encounters you've had while traveling? Here's my most memorable moments.

I’m Anniina Sandberg, a cultural anthropologist and founder of an Indigenous-led travel company called Visit Natives.

For me, travel has always been about expanding the way I see the world. Learning something new. Stepping outside what feels familiar, and sometimes even sitting with emotions that are not easy. Discomfort, confusion, vulnerability. The moments that stay with you are rarely the easiest ones.

I’m not looking for something polished or effortless. I’m looking for something real.

I wanted to share four encounters that have stayed with me. Moments from different parts of the world, each rooted in Indigenous-led experiences, that challenged me, shifted my perspective, and changed how I understand travel.

The Dance I Was Invited Into in Papua New Guinea

I was in the Highlands near Goroka, watching the Arunumuna women’s dance, standing slightly to the side like you often do when you don’t want to interrupt. Then one of the women came up to me, took my hand, and pulled me away from the edge. They started asking if I wanted to dress like them.

It felt like a huge honor. For the next two hours they dressed me slowly, adding feathers, flowers, and different natural materials I didn’t even recognize. After that they painted my whole body with red plant-based color, from head to toe, and then we danced together.

What stayed with me just as much was what happened after. Everything had to be undone. The paint washed off, the layers removed. It took another couple of hours, with two women helping me clean my skin as carefully as they had dressed me.

We didn’t share a language, but it didn’t matter. There was something very human in that moment. The way being invited into something, and sharing it physically, can bring people close without needing words.

The Scooter Ride Across the Maasai Savanna in Tanzania

This happened in a Maasai village in northern Tanzania. I was spending time with the women while the men were away herding cattle, and at some point we realized we needed maize from the nearest village.

There was one motorbike in the village, usually driven by men, but this time there were no men around. So I ended up driving, with one Maasai woman sitting behind me, guiding me across the savanna because I had no idea where to go.

We rode together to the village, bought the maize, took it to be milled, and came back to cook. The whole thing was already funny enough, but the best part came later when the men returned and had already heard from people nearby that two women had been racing around the savanna on the motorbike.

We laughed so much that day. There was something very simple and joyful about it. Two women solving a problem together, without waiting for anyone else to come and help.

The Bowl of Reindeer Blood in the Snow

In northern Norway, I was once out on the tundra with Sámi reindeer herders when a reindeer was slaughtered for food. In the Arctic cold, everything freezes quickly, so before I had much time to think about it, I found myself sitting in the snow, stirring a bowl of warm reindeer blood so it would not clot.

At first, the situation felt almost absurd to me. There I was, in the middle of the tundra, mixing reindeer blood in a bowl. But later that same blood became sausages and pancakes, and to my surprise, they became some of my favorite foods from the whole journey.

What stayed with me was not the shock of it, but the respect around it. Every part of the animal was used. People worked together naturally, without waste, without drama, and without separating food from the life it came from. Being included in that process made the experience far more real than simply watching reindeer from a distance.

The Most Beautiful Toilet Walk of My Life

In the Sahara, there was no toilet, of course. If you needed to go at night, you simply walked out into the desert, far enough from the nomadic camp to feel alone.

One night I woke up and stepped outside. Because there were no trees or buildings, I walked a little farther than usual, until the ground dipped and the camp disappeared from view.

And then I looked up. The whole sky was full of stars. Not the kind of night sky you see near towns, but something enormous and almost unreal. There was no artificial light, no sound, nothing moving around me, only the desert and the sky.

Then I saw one shooting star. Then another. Then a third. I remember standing there in the dark, completely still, thinking that this had somehow become the most beautiful toilet walk of my life.

It was such a small, ridiculous moment, but maybe that is why it stayed with me. Travel does not always change you through big ceremonies or dramatic encounters. Sometimes it happens when you step outside in the middle of the night and realize the world is far bigger, quieter, and more mysterious than you remembered.

These are just a few of the moments that stayed with me. The kind you cannot really plan, and that only happen when you travel slowly, with the right people, and with enough openness to step into something unfamiliar.

If you are curious to explore this kind of travel more deeply — I’ve put together a guide called the Best Indigenous Travel Experiences in the World (2026 Guide) to what I believe are some of the most meaningful Indigenous travel experiences in the world right now.