 |
|
Man building his life with Facebook blocks. Photo: Urs Steiner / Flickr
Social networks have made a dramatic impact on travel. During my first backpacking trip in 2004, I relied on e-mail addresses to stay in touch with the new friends I was making. I once met a girl in Paris. Later into my trip, I was shocked to run into her at my hostel in Edinburgh. What a small world!
That kind of thing would not have happened today. We’d have added each other as friends on Facebook, she would have put a status update on her profile saying she was in Edinburgh, and I’d have messaged her before my arrival. Since people change e-mail addresses more often than their social networks, adding people is a safer way to stay in contact. Work and school e-mails are notoriously temporary.
The travel startup Tripl created an infographic that appeared in TechCrunch: More Americans are on Facebook than have a passport. A sad statistic, indeed. The infographic says 50% of Americans connect with friends and family on Facebook, while only 37% hold a passport. It continues on to say that 72% of travelers access social networks while on the road. As someone who’s waited in line at hostels while guests are checking their Facebook feeds, I was surprised the number wasn’t even higher.
On the flip side, the statistics say that only 7% of travelers use mobile internet on the road. I think that’s due to the lack of universal standards in networks. Your mobile phone in one country often won’t work in another, because your telecom carrier handicaps your phone. That and the absurdly high cost of roaming charges. From interacting with backpackers, very few use mobile phones abroad unless they’re living abroad. I usually leave the phone at home and solely rely on public computers to reach my friends via the Internet.
In brighter news, it seems like about half of the users said Facebook photos inspired their trips, and also makes them visit friends who are living overseas. I will say that a trip is much richer if you have someone to meet up with over there, who can show you around.
How do you use social networks when you travel? Are they more help or hindrance? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
“Just look what gets written about Afghanistan. In an age when journalism is becoming more and more etiolated, when articles are becoming shorter and shorter, usually lacking all historical context, travel writing is one of the few venues to write with some complexity about an alien culture. An Obama speech, a foreign policy paper or a counter-insurgency briefing minimizes differences, and the same phrases like ‘failed states’ are used to link countries which are actually very different, such as Yemen, Afghanistan or Pakistan. What kills so many briefing documents and newspaper reports, apart from their tendency to exaggerate fears and aggrandize ambitions, is their aspiration towards imperial omniscience, and their impatience with everything that is intractable or mysterious. Travel writing provides a space for all these things.”
–Rory Stewart, quoted in the intro to The Best Travel Writing 2010
Age: 40
Hometown: Seattle, WA – USA
Quote: “The more flexible you are the more open you can be to amazing opportunities.”
(more…)
Cairo, Egypt
Part of the totality of a place is its politics, and in long-term travel you’ll likely pass through a variety of political landscapes that affect the lives of the people who call a place home. The Egyptian man above, for example, challenged the legitimacy of his President’s 30-year-old rule and on February 2 of this year had a flying rock rip loose part of his lip. (Interestingly, if you were to walk about 60 seconds to either his right or left, you’d find several travel agencies offering deals on Nile cruises, desert excursions, and Sinai beach resorts; they were, however, closed this particularly day, and most travelers were packed into the Cairo airport trying to get out of the country.)
Political situations are worth paying attention to, but not only in order to gauge the stability or safety of a potential travel destination. Understanding the basics of Thai politics, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the Colombian civil war will go a long way in helping you understand a country and will help you make the most of a visit there. Sometimes, of course, we go to a place knowing next to nothing but, once there, experience something that alters the course of our lives. A powerful example of this is the life of Sean Carosso, who while traveling in Africa in 2007 wrote the following in his journal:
I yelled at thieving monkeys and saw Nelson Mandela yell from stage. Cried in refugee camps and laughed during moonlight dances. Saw a baby born and parents buried. Went south to scream from the bottom of the world and made my way north to see Ugandan children become visible. Slept in mansions and huts, ate porridge and gazelle, swam with otters, fended off pickpockets and rarely showered, stopped, or stood still.
For two months, there was death and destruction,
failure and fear, adventure.wonder.motion.
But all around was a pervasive hope moving steadily
toward what could only be described as progress
Stories of change everywhere to be found. Until I walked into the chaos of Congo.
The so-called Democratic Republic of Congo, home to one of history’s deadliest wars.
Strange circumstances led me to her doorstop, but there I stood ready to see
what she might show my western eyes.
The following is what they saw.
You can read the rest of his entry and learn about the organization that emerged at www.fallingwhistles.com/story. It’s a powerful site.
The U.S. State Department’s Background Notes is one source for a quick political overview of a country. Idealist.org is a popular site for checking out volunteer opportunities, including ones that might intersect with political issues. For example, Bustan Qaraaqa is listed there; it’s a community permaculture project based just outside the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
When traveling, I usually consider the actual form of transportation just a means to get where I’m going. Certainly, there have been experiences that stand out, but for airplanes, buses and cars—it’s usually snooze city.
Hours spent on planes or most wheeled vehicles are like pressing the pause button on my trip. I’m not here, but not there yet. If I can gaze out the windows to watch the world zoom by, I will. Otherwise, I’m in a sort of limbo.
On my most-recent trip to Colombia, I took a long motorcycle ride with a friend to tour through a region near his home. As a passenger, I got to enjoy looking up at rich green canyons as we sped through them and had attractions pointed out to me on the way. And that experience has made me rethink my transportation boredom.
What made it stand out from my usual “ride to get there” mentality? Was it because I was with a close friend, as opposed to by myself or with strangers? Could it have been that I’d never before taken a motorcycle ride for fun? Perhaps it was a combination of being happy in the moment without thinking about where I was going and what was coming next.
Whatever the reason, that afternoon sits suspended in time in my mind. While simple, it may be one of the best travel experiences I’ve had in a while. And it’s caused me to consider how I approach the full travel experience.
“We tend to use the word “real” to differentiate what tourists see in a modern-day city or place, versus what the locals, who have a much deeper and intimate familiarity with its nuanced culture and details, know or experience. Few New Yorkers flock to Times Square for dinner on a Saturday night, just as few native New Orleans residents spend their time hanging out on Bourbon Street. They pride themselves, in fact, on knowing the little hole-in-the-wall neighborhood eateries, bars, stores, and music venues that appeal less to the masses and retain more of a particular group’s or neighborhood’s personality and character. The trouble arises when we try to clarify what constitutes the “real” character of a place beyond those basic distinctions. …On some level, it’s impossible to capture or define the “real” anywhere, because places are not just fixed buildings you can point to. They’re a melding of culture, viewpoint, character, detail and experience. And every person’s experience of a place, group, event or culture is unique.”
–Lane Wallace, What Makes a Place ‘Real’? The Atlantic, May 11, 2010
A man and woman using laptops on a train. Photo: Marco Raaphorst / Flickr
Working as a writer abroad is like tackling two dreams at once: writing and travel. Tough to pull off, though especially if you want to earn a living. Graham Holliday, an experienced journalist, laid out his strategies for success in this Slideshare presentation: Frontline Club – solo foreign correspondent.
My favorite advice was in slide #26:
Go somewhere cheap – especially if money is an issue – and go somewhere odd. If you’ve done your research and you’ve made contacts and you have fairly good inkling of what you’re going to be letting yourself in for – Just go.
Our very own Rolf Potts got his big break with Storming the Beach, when he was in Thailand. Matt Gross, the former Frugal Traveler columnist for The New York Times, got his start as a newspaper copy editor in Vietnam. Speaking from experience, my first opportunity in publishing was also serving as a copy editor, but in Taiwan.
It’s difficult to get that first assignment, though. When I applied for that job in Taiwan, there was a lot of competition from ESL English teachers who wanted to get out of teaching and into writing. If you’re a relatively recent university graduate like I was at the time, don’t expect to snag a journalism job abroad straight away. Especially in Asia, it seems like almost everyone does a bit of English teaching in the beginning before moving on to other work.
Some tips:
-Start a blog. Write a lot: the more, the better.
-Write guest posts on other blogs. The more prominent the website, the better.
-Monitor the media jobs websites regularly to see new openings.
Lastly, but most important: network, network, network. You can never know too many people. I find that my best networking is in casual settings, rather than formal events. I was once at someone’s house party in Shanghai, and nearly every person there was a foreign correspondent. Collect business cards habitually, and always follow up with an e-mail the next day.
Another thing about networking: most of my best opportunities have come from acquaintances I didn’t know that well, compared to close friends. I think it’s because these people were more outside my circle and in industries I didn’t get exposed to as often. Usually, my friends have similar backgrounds and careers as I did. Malcolm Gladwell talks about “the strength of weak ties” in his book The Tipping Point.
Do you work as a writer or journalist overseas? How did you get your job? Please share your stories and advice in the comments.
“One of the most important reasons to travel is to know what it feels like to be a foreigner.”
–A.A. Gill, AA Gill is Away
http://www.facebook.com/AaronsTravels
Age: 31
Hometown: Buena Vista, Colorado
Quote: “ Even though I was consistently traveling to new places, it’s amazing how just having a support system of friends and and a foundation of familiarity in one place can quickly engage the feelings inside of us that make us consider a place our home.”
(more…)
Perhaps you meant to spend a little more time studying Spanish before your trip, or if you did, your mind just happened to draw a blank the second you got yourself and your bags into the taxi.
¿A dónde quieres ir?
Uh… where’s that phrasebook?
Nothing’s better than speaking the language—even if you can’t do it perfectly. But for those who need a little prompt, taxis in Bogotá, Colombia, are ready for you.
Last week, on my ride from the bus terminal to the airport, I spied a green card hanging from the passenger seat in my cab. On it were English-to-Spanish translations of phrases that might be needed by a passenger.
I don’t frequently get around by taxi when I’m traveling, so this may be more common that I think. But if not, it’s a pretty cool idea.
Have you seen something similar elsewhere? Let us know in the comments section.
