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While I was passing through Hong Kong, I met a lot of backpackers at my hostel who were caught off guard by the airport shutdowns in Bangkok. This was due to the massive anti-government protests taking place. One Korean traveler in particular was worried it wouldn’t just ruin Thailand for him, but potentially his whole Southeast Asia jaunt, because he was planning to get his plane tickets and tourist visas in Bangkok.
Kuala Lumpur would be a good alternative gateway to Southeast Asia. Most countries in that region have an embassy there. An even bigger incentive is that it’s the main hub for Air Asia, a Malaysian low-cost airline that serves that region. Flights can be unbelievably cheap if you catch one of their special promotions.
Another alternative is Hong Kong, which has a huge international airport with connections to everywhere. When I picked up a plane ticket to Shanghai at Shoestring Travel in Tsim Sha Tsui, I noticed a sign saying that they offer visa processing for Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Also worth checking out.
Online social networking has revolutionized the way people communicate via the internet. Even travelers can benefit from this by using Facebook, one of the leading social networking sites out there. Here are some ways you can use Facebook as part of your travel experience:
Find people who have been to your destination. One thing I love about Facebook’s search feature is that it’s comprehensive. The results usually start with the people in your contact list, the groups you’ve joined, and the people who are part of your network. This means that, if, say, I want to search for “Tuscany”, one of the first results that will come up are your friends who mention Tuscany in their profile (usually because they live there or have been there). This will be followed by people within your network, as well as groups that are based in Tuscany. Doing this can be a good take-off point for your research, especially if you’re looking for an insider’s perspective.
Participate in groups. There are many active groups on Facebook which allow you to communicate and interact with other travelers. Here’s a list of travel-themed groups you can join:
Get in touch with people you meet on the road. It’s possible that you meet some new friends while you’re traveling, and Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with them - especially if you forgot to ask for their email or phone number. All you have to do is look up their name to see if they have an account.
Record your trips. Applications such as the Trip Advisor App and Where I’ve Been allow you to place pins on a virtual map to mark the places that you’ve visited. You can also mark the places where you want to go. This map can be placed on your profile and shared with your friends.
As fun as that sounds, it seems like there are downsides to these applications. The Trip Advisor App is notorious for leaving out several cities, while Where I’ve Been has its own minor quirks.
Point to your travel blog. Many travelers have their own blogs. Personally, I use Facebook to bring visitors to my blogs, either through the status message or through an application called MyBlogs.
If you have a blog with Travel Pod, there’s a handy application on Facebook that allows you to integrate your TravelPod account with your Facebook profile.
These are some of the simplest ways travelers can use Facebook to their advantage. Have you ever used Facebook in a travel-related way? Kindly share your experience with us by leaving a comment.
A friend just told me that she was already wrapping holiday gifts. Mind you, not just writing out her list, but checking off items. Not just buying gifts, but wrapping them.
Just as ahead of the game, it seems, are several websites—ready with gift recommendations for travelers, would-be travelers, or friends-of-travelers. Here are a few of the more intriguing ideas I’ve found (and not just blow-up pillows or passport holders):
• Aquapac Compact Waterproof Camera Case: A clear, waterproof case, so that you can shoot underwater with your own camera, not one of those poor-quality disposable gizmos. ($30. Posted on The Travel Writer’s Life.)
• Quik Pod DSLR: An extendable/collapsible, hand-held tripod that adds a bit more distance in those at-arm’s-length self-portraits. ($50. Posted on MSNBC.)
• USB Rechargable AA Batteries: Eco-friendly batteries that recharge from a USB port.
($18. Posted on Bright Hub.)
• BackTrack GPS Navigation System: A straightforward GPS unit with a compass-like digital face and geo-tagging to help you find your way. ($73.95. Posted on MSNBC.)
Then again, I’m also a fan of the simple ideas, like travel magazine subscriptions or a laminated wall map with dry-erase pens for trip-planning. Or even better, the altruistic and soul-satisfying ideas, like contributing to someone’s dream through DreamBank, which Perceptive Travel tipped me off to. Consider it a kind of registry for gifts not usually found at Macys or Pottery Barn—like trips to visit family in Argentina or to take a language course in Italy.
For more ideas, you might want to check out the gift guides posted at Concierge, Go Green Travel Green, BootsnAll, and Chicago Tribune.
For Americans, nothing feels quite so foreign and exotic as a long rail journey. The U.S. simply doesn’t have much in the way of rail lines and, even in those places where we do, very few people use them.
I’ve traveled a good 4000 miles by train in my life and not so much as a mile of it was here in the States (unless you count subways, which I don’t). I wish the U.S. train system would get its act together, but until then, train travel is one of the many great reasons to go abroad.
For those seeking the ultimate in train travel, two epic rail journeys spring to mind — the Trans-Siberian railway and the Orient Express.
But there are many more than that and Matador Trips has a look at the world’s ten most spectacular train trips. Yes, both the Trans-Siberian and the Orient Express get a mention, but there are some other, lesser-known gems in the list as well.
For instance, Switzerland’s Glacier Express sounds intriguing:
the Glacier Express has a reputation for being the slowest ‘express’ in the world - but it’s also one of the most beautiful. Linking the two mountain resorts of St. Moritz and Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, the journey covers 291 bridges and 91 tunnels.
At its highest point, the Glacier Express reaches 2,033 meters (6,670 feet) in altitude at the Oberalp Pass as it travel through some of the most stunning mountain scenery Europe has to offer: alpine meadows, mountain streams, snow peaked mountains and glacial valleys.
For some more scenic train journeys, check out Matador’s list and if you have a favorite train route that didn’t make it in the Matador roundup, be sure to leave a note in the comments.
[Photo via Jsome1, Flickr]
So I’m back in Dubai after a week in Mumbai. I was there when the terror attacks happened; awful, awful, but I won’t get into a rant about that.
I got into the city last night, and I’ve already been at work a day. It all feels surreal, like I never took 3 years off, like I was in some sort of coma all this time. Did I really live in Spain for 3 years? Why am I back here now?
Over the last week of transition and traveling, although I’m not fighting my decision to end my living abroad experience, I am feeling like I’m nowhere and am not recognising who I am. I feel like I’ve become introverted, and am not being able to talk about all the things I am feeling or thinking, even though I want to. Probably because I’m not being able to put things into any concrete or comprehensible form.
I haven’t yet called friends to say that I’m back. I’m not in the mood to socialise (very unlike me).To those who have called me, I’ve not been able to talk beyond the small talk. I feel that there is a large gap between my life in Spain and my life here in Dubai. A gap I don’t know how to fill.
I’m neutral bordering sad, but not depressed or negative in any way. Maybe I’m confusing neutrality with numbness, the type that comes with leaving behind what you loved. I suppose it’s just a matter of time before I snap out of it and get back to my normal self, but till then I’m okay to be with myself as I resolve all my mental and emotional chaos.
Extended travel and continuous change, as exciting as they are, definitely take their toll. I like to call it personal growth.
Should I be worried that I’m already thinking where I’ll go to live next?
When I took a meditation course at the Kripalu Institute (which offers a live-in volunteer option for anyone who might want to work, live, and study yoga in the Berkshires) back in 2007, my teacher pointed out that the popular mantra, Om nama Shivaya, is an invocation to Shiva, the god of change. “Change isn’t always positive,” she said. “So you can pray for change. Just be willing to accept the consequences.”
Now, with Mumbai hotels under terrorist attack and the Bangkok airport unexpectedly taken over by protestors, travel plans might suddenly face a visit from the god of change himself. What is there to do when things suddenly and rapidly gang aft agley?
Flight Network specializes in cheap, discounted last-minute fares in case you need to jet out of somewhere. Also check the local cheapie airlines:
Always have a backup hostel/hotel in case the first one is unexpectedly full or gone (I once broke into an abandoned building in Berlin because it was where a hostel was SUPPOSED to be, according to the LP guidebook). Local information booths can actually help you find last-minute places to stay: check train stations, bus stations, and, as a last resort, police stations. Always carry a CRISP American $50 bill stashed away somewhere; some SE Asian countries will not change US money if it has rips, tears, or looks bedraggled (notably: Bhutan, Myanmar).
Some train stations and airports allow you to sleep inside. Some throw you out. Find out which kind yours is if you have the last flight or train of the day (notoriously delayed or invisible). ALWAYS bring snacks with you on any bus/train/plane/boat trip. Especially in more meandering countries, a trip might unexpectedly take twice or even three times as long as predicted, and it saves having to depend on small children leaning in the windows of your train compartment, trying to sell you fried chicken.
As always, the most important thing to remember if sudden change throws a wrench in your works is: don’t panic. This is not insurmountable. If you are in immediate danger, attempt to get yourself out of the situation rapidly (for example, in a city under terrorist attack, leave the city to ANYWHERE outside the city) before making contingency plans. Keep your wits about you and avoid acting irrationally out of fear. Remember: chagne is neither good nor bad at its heart…it’s what you do with it that makes it one or the other.
“When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship’s whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, I don’t improve; in further words, once a bum, always a bum.”
–John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley (1962)
Yesterday I left my guidebook behind and went walking with no destination in mind. Climbing a path up a mountain I left the shops catering to tourists, along with the other tourists (and locals) behind.You’re living in a city abroad, and you have a free weekend coming up. Where to go? Trazzler, a website by the people behind Twitter and Blogger, sets out to answer that question.
A combination of social network and travelogue, it contains user recommendations of where to go and what to do. Trazzler is a cross between Facebook and Lonely Planet. In fact, they already have a Facebook application. They create a traveler profile of you and try to recommend trips you might be interested in, like art museums or adventure treks. The descriptions are a bit light on logistical details (addresses, prices, etc.) because the focus is on the travel experiences. You can also write your trip ideas and post them online.
I think Trazzler is a good place for would-be travel writers to hone their craft, as you’re supposed to capture the feel of a place in fewer than 140 words and provide a good photograph. Some of the pieces on the website are so well-written, they should be in guidebooks.
As the website itself says, you’re free to take your particular obsession, whether it’d be restaurants, hiking spots, etc. and create your own “beat.” Instead of stressing out over pitching topics to a travel editor, you can just do travel writing on your own terms. Trazzler wants to know about the cool places that you’d recommend to your friends. Trazzler’s Writing Guide also makes for an excellent primer on travel writing.
On a recent trip to Bohol, an island in the Philippines, I found myself riding at the back of a motorcycle in the mountains of Sevilla and Sikatuna. The roads were steep, stony, and unpaved. But the view held lush shades of green and the mountain breeze felt cool running against my legs. Knowing that an accidental move of a few inches would cause me to plummet to my death, I thought “This should be in the guidebooks.”
Many travelers have had similar experiences. When they research a destination, everyone tells them about the monuments, museums, restaurants, and the beaches. No one tells them about the lesser-known adventures that are waiting to be discovered. But they’re there. With a little effort, the diligent traveler can find them.
The easiest way to find uncommon routes and activities is by taking public transportation and, occasionally, getting lost. While there are some places where you shouldn’t take this risk, such as areas heavy with gang wars and armed conflict, there are many places where you can do this without feeling vulnerable. Look at your map and find the small towns that no one is talking about. Odds are, you’ll find something worthwhile there, something more fulfilling than yet-another-monument.
I find that it’s also useful to look for someone who isn’t new to the place, but isn’t native to it, either. Someone who is new to the area might not have the information you need, while someone who has lived there all their life might see everything as mundane and ordinary. You need to find the person in between - someone who has explored the place well, but with an eager perspective.
In-depth historical research also comes in handy. It’s always interesting to visit caves where revolutionaries hid, obscure cafes where famous people stopped by, and small rivers where early settlements flourished. Herds of tourists usually don’t visit these places, especially if they’re out of the way.
It may be easy to assume that just because a guidebook doesn’t mention a place, there’s nothing to see or do there. I actually find the opposite to be true. If you commit a little time and diligence to less popular destinations, they can lead to the most pleasant surprises you’ll encounter on your trip.
How do you find new and out of the ordinary places to visit?
