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“The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us.”
David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College commencement speech, May 21, 2005
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| A urinal in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma). Photo: Marcus Sortijas |
Travel writers have it easy. They get to see the world, express their creativity through storytelling, have adventures–and their company pays for it all! How sweet is that?
Seth Kugel, the current writer of The New York Times “Frugal Traveler” column, bursts that bubble in his article, How to be a frugal traveler. He answers the most frequent question he gets: “How can I get your job?” Kugel says the more relevant question would be, “Are you sure you could handle my job?”
Kugel then runs down a list of the common compromises that are familiar to vagabonders: sometimes dodgy accommodations, “traditional” bathroom setups like squat toilets, and privacy concerns if you stay in hostel dorm rooms.
This is the kind of piece I’d love to show to friends and family who assume travel is all effortless leisure. We’ve all dealt with how some people think our trips consist of sipping piña coladas by the beach every day. Travel is work, whether you’re a travel writer or not.
Roberto Rocha, one of the writers of the terrific Mojotrotters blog, had this example of hitting rock-bottom as a frugal traveler: What a $5 hotel in India looks like. I think we’ve all faced that problem at some point. You’ve arrived in town too late. You’re too tired to keep looking at more rooms. And the alternatives are too expensive. So you take the crappy room and hope you wake up alive the next morning.
Have you got any horror stories from your adventures as a frugal traveler? Please share them in the comments.
Over-organizing travel plans—where you’re in a different place each day due to a long checklist of things to see—can actually result in seeing less. Sure, you may get to all the monuments or museums you want, but while the checklist blinders are on, you could be missing out on a lot of local culture.
Recently, I was in the town of Todos Santos, in Mexico’s Baja California Sur. In between the must-sees, I took the time to wander around and get a feel for the area—set in an oasis on the Pacific Ocean. I assumed I’d run into a bunch of artisan shops, some street color and a pretty plaza.
At one point, I turned a corner and found a group of young girls in folklórico skirts on a stage in the plaza, rehearsing for an upcoming performance. Some of them were paying attention to the instructor, some looked like they didn’t want to be there, and the rest were distracted by my paparazzi actions and posed for the camera. They went through their moves, often reprimanded by their instructor—but time stood still. It was a moment of serendipitous discovery.
Had I been focused on seeing certain things on a timetable, I might have missed this moment. But even if you don’t run across something quite so dramatic on your travels, keeping your mind clear of expectations and a strict schedule can often open your eyes to things you’d otherwise miss.
I was a guest of the Mexico Tourism Bureau during my time in Baja California Sur.
Rice wine is a fairly popular staple of Asia. Its popularity, over history, has spread its way West and become a common enough spirit there. Rice wine doesn’t share the same fermentation process as fruit based wines, but rather undergoes a brewing method quite similar to beer. As with the brewing of beers, first the starch from the rice is processed into sugar, and then the sugar is used to produce the alcohol. Though with rice wines, these steps can occur simultaneously.
The most popular rice wine in the West is undoubtedly Japan’s sake. Sake is a clear rice wine that is served hot in the winter and cold in the summer. Most commonly sake is drank from tiny ceramic cups about the size of an espresso mug, and poured from a small ceramic flask. Sake can carry fruit and sour notes, and often carries a bit of a bight.
In Korea, the king of rice wine is makkoli. Makkoli is a sweet, milky rice and wheat based wine. Its texture and flavour are much milder than rice wines like sake. Makkoli is commonly served from a large metal kettle or bowl, and is poured or ladled out into smaller bowl-like cups to drink. As makkoli is most commonly served cold, the large kettle or bowl usually rests atop a bin of ice between pours.
Makkoli is available in virtually every eatery in Korea and can also be purchased in bottles from the local market or corner store – give it a good shake before opening. However, if you’re lucky enough to know someone who makes his or her own makkoli, this is certainly preferable. Well-brewed makkoli should carry a fine fizziness to it, rather similar to champagne.
These two wines are popular traditions that have made their way West. However, most Asian countries have myriad variations of rice wines and accompanying serving methods to offer. Among other places, one can also find rice wines in Vietnam, China, Tibet, India, and Indonesia.
(image credit: travelblog.net)
Age: Both 30
Hometown: Java, Indonesia and Ontario, Canada
Quote: “You can design your own life for yourself based on who you want to be.”
(more…)
There’s a lot of you-go-grrl-empowerment articles on the web and in travel magazines about women traveling on their own, toting their own backpacks and having exciting adventures. The general themes of these articles usually has to do with being brave and feeling safe walking the streets at night, making friends with locals, avoiding singles supplements or suspicious glances when you try to book a tour or go on a cruise. Very few of them deal with how you take the first steps into new-couplehood while you’re traveling, particularly with someone who’s not of your culture.
It’s pretty easy to find hook-up partners at hostels and budget hotels: any backpacker worth their salt can find another backpacker to share a hammock with, and some people seem to hit the road with that purpose in mind–here, I’m thinking of the British guy in the film Love Actually who goes to America because he knows his accent will make him more appealing to US women. But what about when you find that the hooking up has gone further than just a one-night stand, and you might actually have a long-term relationship on your hands? What are the next steps for long-term traveling girls?
Hopefully these tips are a good place to start for someone just starting a relationship as a longterm voyager…and might help people remember that there can be more to someone cute that you meet than a night in the sack.
“Like embassies, five-star hotels go to great lengths to isolate, and insulate, themselves from the host country. It is possible to spend many days at a five-star hotel engaged in all sorts of productive activities — holding meetings, eating meals, exercising, getting married, watching movies — without ever stepping foot in the actual country where you allegedly find yourself. This is no accident, of course. The hotel owners want you to stay put and spend money.”
–Eric Weiner, “Travel That Counts — or My Passport Is Better-Stamped Than Yours“, World Hum, May 26, 2009
We’ve mentioned several times before how common budget questions are when talking about long-term travel. Unless you’ve got a means for making money as you travel – whether through a web-based business or by taking odd jobs along the way – you’ll need to save up whatever you plan to live off of before you leave home. It’s not surprising this is a challenge for many people.
If you’re among the budget-challenged, then, does this mean you can’t take a RTW trip? Some have discussed taking out loans in order to travel (a practice frowned upon by Vagablogging readers), but if that’s not an appealing option you aren’t necessarily stuck at home.
By choosing an itinerary based around how much money you’ll spend in each place, you can make your travel budget last much longer. Yes, this can mean not including big-name destinations like the ones in Europe, but if the point is to travel and you aren’t so focused on where you travel, it’s a much more budget-friendly option. A recent BootsnAll article listed 5 countries you can visit for under $500, including Thailand, Vietnam, and Colombia, and another article featured 8 places that are cheap to visit once you get there.
Another thing to be aware of is that no matter where you go there are often free attractions and activities you can do – some of them will be among the main tourist sights in a place, while others will help you get off that beaten path we’re all so used to hearing about. This article listed 10 free ways to discover a destination, including finding the free museums, free walking tours, free outdoor concerts and movies, or the free festivals going on.
The bottom line is that not only do you not have to go into deep debt in order to take a long-term trip, you also don’t have to save up tens of thousands of dollars to make it happen, either. This month’s Round the World Ticket Watch newsletter focuses on budget-friendly destinations you can add to your RTW itinerary, so sign up in order to get that delivered to your inbox.
“I have found out there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
-Tom Sawyer Abroad, by Mark Twain
Couple riding a scooter in Bologna, Italy. Photo: H Matthew Howarth / Flickr
Naturally, we put up a front when we’re dating someone. We hide our flaws and try to present our best selves. But what happens if both of you are outside of your comfortable environment?
In this New York Times article, the CEO of Lonely Planet discovered his one true love by seeing how she stayed cool under fire: Calm even around Maoist guerrillas, the girl for me. (The NY Times seems to be hiding this article behind a paywall. I was able to access it through a Google search)
To be fair, this is an extreme case. Luckily, most couples abroad won’t have to face gun-toting revolutionaries. Still, Mark Twain got it right when he talked about how travel can reveal someone’s character like nothing else.
When you travel with your partner, you get to see their true personality. How they react to other countries, other cultures. What level of material comfort they require–or are willing to give up. Their views on politics, money management, and philosophy on life. It would be nice to get a honest preview of what they’re really like.
You tend to stick to whoever you’re with when on the road. So if you take a week together somewhere else, you’ll probably spend more time together than you would if you were both at home. Sometimes I joke to friends that traveling with someone is like fast-forwarding to what that person will act like after you’ve been married for 10 years.
Most importantly, you’ll see how well you solve problems together. Will your partner blame you for everything that goes wrong? Or on the other hand, they could be so efficient and capable that it’s easier than traveling by yourself. These are the kinds of behavior that can really make or break relationships.
Has travel helped you see a partner in a clearer light? Did you realize he/she wasn’t the right person? Or did a trip together reinforce your belief in your partner? Please share your thoughts and stories in the comments.
I just returned from a trip to Baja California Sur, Mexico, and the highlight of my trip was an hour-long boat trip to see the California gray whales in Magdalena Bay. Aside from a kayak experience when my little boat and I were just a few inches from a humpback whale, this was the closest I’ve been to a whale in the wild.
Magdalena Bay itself is approximately 50 miles across, and protected from the surge of the Pacific Ocean by two sandy barrier islands: Isla Magdalena and Isla Santa Margarita. While there are three small channels between the islands, there is only one large enough for California gray whales to pass through from the ocean to the bay. It’s here where the whales mate in winter, and females (called cows) stay behind with their calves until they’re ready to make the voyage north for the summer.
The best time to see the whales in Magdalena Bay is during the months of February and March. In the port town of López Mateos, there are a handful of operators with pangas that can hold up to six people, plus your boat captain. It costs 800 pesos (about $66.50) to take the boat out for one hour—regardless of whether you fill the boat. If you’re traveling alone or in a small group, it’s less expensive to get together with a few other people to share a boat.
I could have stayed out all day, floating on the water and seeing whale moms and kids swim near my panga. On the way back to López Mateos, a lone coyote ran along the water’s edge. There were no other animals besides whales, birds, fish and the coyote. It’s an amazingly wild place, and I’d go back in a second.
I was a guest of the Mexico Tourism Bureau during my time in Baja California Sur.
