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When you’re on the road long-term, or permanently, there are a few important details to contend with. While you may not need to pay electricity and gas bills any more, you probably still have a credit card bill, bank statements (hopefully), possibly a cell phone bill, and potentially important documents (I’m currently locked in a wrestling match with an old insurance provider involving lots of letters). So what do you do with them if you have no fixed address, or aren’t going to be in any one place for a long time?
“Travel is a form of digression, a digression from daily life. We travel for difference, and so we concentrate on those things — the buildings, the food, the people — that distinguish this place from that, and not on what they have in common. On the one hand that lets us see what the inhabitants themselves no longer can, the things they take for granted, bedding perhaps, or ways of giving change. On the other, it ensures that we not only highlight but even exaggerate the differences between places, for what most strikes us are the exceptions to the normal run of our lives. And in consequence nearly all travel writing depends upon metonymy. Or perhaps upon cliché. It identifies those aspects of a country or a culture that differ from other countries, other cultures, and then identifies that part with the whole. Nobody writes about Italy, for example, and notes that many telephones do work, except against a background assumption that most of them won’t and maybe even shouldn’t; not if they’re proper, pre-cellular Italian telephones. No, the writer concentrates on those that don’t work because that’s what tells him that he is indeed in Italy and not Illinois.”
–Michael Gorra, “The Golf Courses of Berlin,” The Smart Set, April 9, 2008
As much as possible, I try to stick to public transportation: buses, subways, etc. But sometimes you just absolutely have to take a taxi. This Forbes Traveler article has some tips on how to avoid scams. It also has a slideshow of The World’s Worst Taxi Rides.
Here are some of my personal tips for taking taxis:
–Try to find an official taxi stand or taxi counter. The taxis there will be official taxis that are regulated by the government, so they’re usually okay. Stay away from “Gypsy” cabs and illegal taxis.
–Hail a moving taxi. Any taxis that are loitering around are more likely to be a rip-off, especially at airports and luxury hotels. A moving taxi is more likely to be a regular one with regular prices.
–Walk into a nice hotel and ask the clerk to call a taxi for you. Or check your guidebook for the phone numbers of reputable cab companies and call one up. It might be more expensive, but your personal safety is worth it.
–Have small bills and spare change. Before a big night out, I try to buy something small from a convenience store or supermarket, to break a big bill. Useful for taxis and for settling the restaurant bill with your friends.
Do you have any taxi horror stories to share? Post them in the comments.
Over the holidays, I watched a video marathon of By Any Means, a TV series which follows actor Charley Boorman on an adventure that takes him from his hometown in Ireland to Sydney, Australia. The catch? Boorman and his party had to avoiding commercial air travel as much as possible. They mostly traveled by land and sea, with the mode of transportation depending on what was suitable to the country they were in. Overall, they used 112 modes of transport as they went through 24 countries.
I was able to watch Boorman’s earlier adventures with Ewan McGregor, namely Long Way Round and Long Way Down. This may be an impulsive choice, but I think By Any Means is my favorite so far. Like the other shows it contains the nuances one encounters during long distance travel. The difference is that By Any Means allowed the team to interact with more people along the way - probably because they took public transportation and made a more diligent effort to learn more about each location’s residents.
At some points, you get the impression that they’re just rushing off from one place to another. Perhaps this is unavoidable, especially when you think about budget and time constraints. Also, since the show focuses on modes of transportation, it’s only natural to get the feeling that Boorman and his team are always on the move.
Overall, I loved how the show served as a reminder that one does not need to rush about in airplanes to get anywhere. When you make the right preparations and you’re not pressed for time, you can easily have an adventure where the journey becomes just as memorable as the destination.
The show originally aired on the BBC in September 2008. If you didn’t catch it then, you can look for the DVD or view some excerpts at YouTube.
Happy New Year! Got any travel-related resolutions for 2009?
If not, or if you need a few more, check out this list that the Matador Network put together. The list is broad enough to apply to just about any traveler, but also just specific enough that following it might shake up your vagabonding routine and expose you to some new experiences.
My favorite? Probably #9: Learn a language.
Beyond Matador’s list, I’ve also made a few specific resolutions of my own. I’ve got an extended visit to New York City coming up, and I plan on making time for lots of museums, long walks, live music and good food. After that, I’ll be heading back to Barbados, where I hope to work on my (extremely primitive) surfing skills and get more comfortable with public transit on the island.
I’m also resolving to get away from the computer a little more this year and spend time out there in the non-digital world, wherever I find myself.
With that goal in mind, this will be my last post here at Vagablogging. I’ve loved writing here for the last year-and-a-bit — so thanks very much, and here’s to happy travels in the new year!
How’s this for an inspirational story? It can be hard enough to find the gumption and resources to travel the world. But how about giving it all up to personally fight poverty in Bangladesh?
That’s what 27-year-old Torontonian, Shawn, did when he started The Uncultured Project. He was originally inspired in 2006 at Notre Dame, where he heard a lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (author of “The End of Poverty”). What Sachs stressed and what Shawn took away was the importance of creating change with small, simple steps.
So Shawn withdrew from grad school, liquidated his savings, and took off for Bangladesh, to roll up his sleeves and do as much as one person can to help end extreme poverty. It’s amazing what he’s been able to accomplish so far: he has handed out disaster relief and school supplies, reconstructed homes, helped to prevent malaria, provided scholarships, and created jobs. With the help of YouTube videos, he shares stories from this journey with us.
It’s definitely not the easy path to take. Others might’ve stayed on at Notre Dame, where he was pursuing a Masters & PhD degree in Sociology. Others might’ve run away after witnessing suffering and death, or after finding out that they face organ failure because of water contamination; or after getting the 3rd degree from relatives who don’t quite understand their motivations.
Shawn has essentially given everything he has for this project—tapping into his entire savings, and now tapping into his parents’ savings. The donations that he collects goes directly to the people he’s helping. If you’d like to give your support, you can contribute via PayPal. Let’s hope that he can keep it up for a long time.
It used to be that the Sunday edition of most newspapers was a gold mine of travel information. The internet largely killed the need for the Sunday Travel section, but there are still some notable newspaper travel desks that continued to publish insightful and helpful articles on destinations around the world.
Once of my personal favorites has long been the San Francisco Chronicle’s travel section, which, admittedly, I mainly read on the web. While the Chronicle’s Travel section doesn’t appear to going anywhere (thankfully) its long-time editor and noted travel writer John Flinn has stepped down.
If you’re a fan of travel writing and have ever searched the web for great travel writing, you’ve no doubt come across Flinn’s stories. He’s something of a rarity among newspaper travel editors, eschewing the Top Ten ______ to do _____ stories in favor of more in-depth writing, often about obscure locales than most papers fail to recognize.
Tomorrow is Flinn’s last day at the helm of the Chronicle’s travel section, though in an interview with World Hum, Flinn says he plans to continue writing, mainly for magazines.
However, while you’ll probably be able to still find your fix of Flinn’s writing (albeit perhaps not on a weekly basis), he offers World Hum a bleak outlook for the future of travel writing.
In a few years, do you think newspaper travel sections will look like they do today?
I don’t think so. I think the longer narratives that were the foundation of most newspaper travel sections are starting to fade away. Papers want more “top ten beaches”-style content, and lots of “charticles.” That’s not always a bad thing—there’s a lot of information that can be better conveyed in a list or a graphic than in a narrative. But I think there’s a growing assumption that readers don’t have the attention spans to wade through an 1,800-word travel narrative, no matter how well it’s written.
Personally I find the Top Ten-anything approach to travel writing nearly worthless — I’d much rather hear about someone’s actual experience than a simple list which is based on little more than aggregated opinion (or, if you’re more cynical and consult a list of recently opened resorts, you’ll find top ten lists are often suspiciously well-aligned with adverts and brochures).
I also know from first-hand experience that, despite what newspaper editors might think, there are plenty of readers out there who also prefer longer, more narrative writing. Thankfully, while it might be disappearing from the Sunday Travel section, there’s plenty of it to be found on the web.
[Photo courtesy of World Hum]
When you are planning a long trip, cross continent, you can never have enough information. I remember a friend in Spain would make me see him for coffee for a year before he actually left for his RTW trip. He just wanted reassurance, support, chat, my guidebooks, website links, anything, because taking that final step is not the easiest thing to do, especially when you are leaving behind a full-time job and family.
So on that note, here’s another website that will certainly encourage those wanting to take the plunge, or who have taken the plunge: How-to-travel-the-world.com. It’s got a good amount of basic information and support, and more importantly, the content has input from various long term travelers (although it is not clear who they are), and is edited by Matthew Kepnes of webiste Nomadic Matt. I had a few issues loading the site pages, but that could be an issue with the local servers here in Dubai.
Since I’ve just quit my vagabonding stint and am still in the transition slump, I went straight to the “Coming Home” section, which does not often exist on travel websites. I liked what I read, so here’s an excerpt:
“Coming home from traveling around the world is the hard. There’s a mixture of emotions: excitement, anxiety, fear, joy, and nervousness. After the honeymoon is over and reality sets in, people are left feeling a little lost. You spent a long time preparing for the road, a long time on the road, and then suddenly, it’s over. Just like that. It’s as though someone slammed on the brakes to your life and, for many people, that can be kind of depressing. Coming home is more about coping mentally than doing anything.
Coming home is about adjusting back into the world you left and focusing on taking what you learned and applying it to your daily life. Many long term travelers end up leaving, afflicted by a virus that will never be cured. Others stay home because their trip taught them they missed the most was what they left behind. Either way, we all come home eventually and we’ll need to know how to cope with that experience.”
Yup. That’d be true. Check them out when you have a minute, especially if you’re planning a trip.
Everyone needs to pack, no matter where you’re going. And if you’re anything like me, you use lots of scraps of paper, or maybe one page of your journal, criss-crossed with scribblings, and then you forget something anyway. On my last trip out of the country, I forgot earplugs; “No big deal,” I thought. “I can sleep through loud tribal drumming, people shouting, and street festivals…I’ll be fine.” I forgot about people who snore. Two of the girls in our dorm decided to hold Snoreapalooza 2008 and, while it may have been audible from the street, Party Central was my room.
So here are some ways to make your packing easier:
“As a host community adapts to tourism, its facilitation to tourists’ needs, attitude, and values, the host community must become more like the tourists’ culture. That is what tourists in search of the exotic and ‘natural’ vacation setting mean when they say a place has been ’spoiled’ by tourism, i.e., those who got there before them and required the amenities of home. Anthropologists are often in the forefront of those who deplore the dilution and adulteration of traditional culture. However, the alteration of one culture by another has always been a fact of existence. Some societies have remained in relative isolation from others for long periods of time, but in this century virtually no community is immune from outside contact, and the tourist is more ubiquitous than any other kind of representative of other cultures.”
–Theron Nunez, in Valene L. Smith’s Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism (1977)
