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The best of travel seems to exist outside of time, as though the years of travel are not deducted from your life.
–Paul Theroux, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (2008)
Today is my last post on Vagablogging. After nearly two years of being a freelance writer, I’ve gotten to a place where my plate is overfull—and I have to make room.
Thanks to you all for your comments and feedback over the past 22 months. Thanks also go to Rolf, Scott and the Vagablogging contributors for the opportunity to work with such wonderful travelers and writers.
I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as too much work. But even though I have a job I love and wouldn’t change, the key factor is remembering that work/life balance is just as important as it was when I was working in a cubicle. It’s often easier to forget that important element when you’re responsible for your own workload and the mortgage is due, or you’ve got debts from that dream trip.
And while making room for new things sometimes means you get to say goodbye to things you’re happy to get rid of, it also encompasses saying “this is not goodbye, but see you later” to the good experiences as well. It’s what pushes us when we’re traveling to move on to the next destination even when we’re having a good time where we are.
Though it’s been slightly neglected recently, my personal blog, Danger Jill Robinson, will be home to my thoughts on travel as well as existing projects. Stop on by and don’t be a stranger.
Thanks again and ciao for now.
“Abandon your mobile phone, laptop, iPod, and all such links to family, friends, and work colleagues. Concentrate on where you are and derive your entertainment from immediate stimuli, the tangible world around you. Increasingly, in hostels and guesthouses one sees “independent” travelers eagerly settling down in front of computers instead of conversing with fellow travelers, they seem only partially “abroad,” unable to cut their links with home. Evidently the nanny state — and the concomitant trend among parents to overprotect offspring — has alarmingly diminished the younger generation’s self-reliance. And who is to blame for this entrapment in cyberspace? The fussy folks back at base, awaiting the daily (or twice daily) email of reassurance.”
–Dervla Murphy, “Murphy’s Laws of Travel,” from Paul Theroux’s, Tao of Travel (2011)
Cairo, Egypt
“Spirit,” wrote the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, “is not in the I but between I and you.” He wrote this in a 1923 essay translated into English as I and Thou. Here’s another line from the essay: “Egos appear by setting themselves apart from other egos. Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons.”
Buber’s way of looking at our existence is, for me, helpful to consider, and it has ramifications for how we approach travel and what we emphasize in it. His essay also touches on the difference between “experience” and “participation,” the former for him being something within an individual and the latter something between individuals. I suspect you can find Buber’s influence on my own terminology in an interview at Travel Blissful a couple years ago. After sharing some particularly meaningful travel memories, I said:
It is the men, women, and children in the places we visit, not inanimate things, that allow us to relate to (and not just experience) the world. I don’t at all want to knock experience — I love it! — but it’s important to be aware that traveling in the name of “having experiences” isn’t the same as traveling to participate in the world. The one is rather self-referential; the other is more interested in being a part of a community, even if only in a very modest way.
This is my final post for vagablogging, and I wanted to leave you with these tidbits from the mind of Buber. I also wanted to leave you with one final photograph. I took it in Cairo, about an hour after Mubarak’s resignation was announced and a mass of Egyptians had taken to the streets in celebration. In the photo a little girl’s parents are holding her hands as they walk away from Tahrir Square, into a suddenly wide-open, unknown, and hazard-filled future. In looking at her face I’m reminded of why I have no interest in travel narratives in which someone is trudging through the world to conquer it or to rack up isolated experiences to cart back home like trophies. I’m drawn instead to stories in which someone is connecting to other people, carrying an interest in their wellbeing and our shared future, and can articulate that. The issues of today — and children like this smiling Egyptian girl — desperately need people, including travelers, who want to be constructive participants in relationships and history.
In the year ahead I’ll continue working on my photography, and maybe even edit some more of a book manuscript I hope to one day publish (here’s an excerpt). Blog-wise, in the near future I plan to resume regular postings at joelcarillet.com/photoblog, and I’d love to have you check in on me there from time to time. I will be in Southeast Asia most of the fall.
All the very best, everyone.
Three guys looking at a smartphone. Photo: Dave Fayram / Flickr
Many of my best travel experiences have come about through recommendations from friends. The Taiwanese guy who took me to a stylish lounge bar in Taipei with the hidden entrance; the Australian expat who showed me his favorite ramen restaurant in Tokyo; and the list goes on.
Thanks to the Internet , old-fashioned word-of-mouth is now exponentially more powerful. Instead of being limited to our own circle of friends, we can tap a website’s entire community for good information. Many of these new websites were featured in this article in The New York Times: Crowd-sourcing for travel advice.
The sites themselves have varying business models. Some are independent social networks, while others are add-ons to Facebook and existing platforms. So you might end up getting advice from strangers, or from your own friends.
How do you feel about using these tools? I prefer to reach out to friends I’ve met on previous trips, since I’m more likely to get a good response. These friends know me and my travel tastes, so their advice is more likely to be a suitable fit. But it’s hard to pass up on accessing the collective knowledge of a bigger community.
On a related note, the social media news website Mashable.com. produced a great video on how to use Twitter Advanced Search to mine tweets for travel information. The trip-planning section starts at 1:14 minutes in:
What websites do you use to research for trips? Please share your tips in the comments.
Note: Today I’m featuring a guest post from Sarah Von Bargen, who writes about travel (and many other things) at the excellent lifestyle blog Yes and Yes. Keep an eye on her Radio Yes podcast, where she and I will chat about long-term travel in an upcoming episode. Here, Sarah shares four key tips for volunteering overseas:
There are lots of great reasons to volunteer while you’re traveling: You can work alongside locals, earn a bit of good karma or just have something to do other than sunbathe and look at ruins. Finding the right program isn’t always easy. After 25 countries and eight different volunteer programs, here are a few of the tips that I’ve picked up along the way.
1. Decide what you want out of the experience
Are you volunteering as a cheap-o way of finding accommodation? Do you want work experience? Are you really, genuinely concerned about the plight of the star-bellied sneetch? Or are you looking to hook up with a cute, dreadlocked idealist with an adjective for a name? Valid reasons, all. Once you’ve sussed out your motivation, it’ll be easier to find a program that’s right for you.
If you’re more concerned about the cheap lodging, it’s easy to find work-for-lodging exchanges with just about any hostel in the world. Just pop round and ask at the front desk what their policies are.
WWOOF and Helpx are also great resources if you want to organize something ahead of time. If you’ve got a cause that you’re passionate about, just try googling that along with ‘volunteer opportunities.’ When I punched in the words “volunteer sea turtle rescue” I got heaps of results!
2. Decide what you can afford
Oddly, some volunteer programs are incredibly expensive. We can probably agree we’d rather not pay someone to work for them. Of course, if you’re volunteering in a developing country, many organizations can’t cover your living costs and will ask you to pay your own way. However, these costs should be very minimal, since room and board in those countries is quite reasonable.
Free or cheap volunteer options in Europe are a bit harder to find because, well, doesn’t everyone want to hang out in Italy over the summer? But they are out there, if you give the internet a good scour (like this one restoring medieval houses!). Here are links to some free/low-cost volunteer programs in developing countries. And here are a few more.
3. Do your research
Of course, before you commit to anything/buy a ticket/send a deposit, you should know what you are really, truly getting into. Ask your organization for the email addresses of former volunteers and ask them for their honest opinion about the experience. Look into the local climate/culture/crime-rate/culinary style. You could easily find yourself involved with a ‘great’ program in a cold, rainy, dangerous city where only meat and potatoes are served – when you might prefer a ‘good’ program in a sunny, gorgeous city full of smiling people.
4. Keep in mind the ethics of international volunteer experiences
As we’ve established, the reasons to volunteer are many and varied. If you’d like to volunteer because you’re passionate about a cause, think before you spend any money. If you’re a marketing exec who cares deeply about the educational opportunities of Peruvian girls, instead of spending $1,000 on a plane ticket and attempting to teach the girls yourself – consider donating that money to an established organization that addresses those needs. Your $1,000 will give employment to a trained, local teacher who will be able to help those girls, and the surrounding community, more than you could have.
If you do choose to volunteer for your chosen cause, you’ll be most helpful if you volunteer within your area of professional expertise. NGOs need help with their websites, schools and hospitals need to amp up their marketing and fund-raising skills, refugees need physical and emotional therapy. Sure, it’s not quite as sexy as building a school in Africa with your bare hands or releasing baby sea turtles into the ocean, but you’ll be more helpful and affect more change. And isn’t that the whole point?
Age: 24
Hometown: Birmingham, AL
Quote: “Vacations are comfortable, adventures are not.”
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Have you ever been frustrated with your travel bag? Thought, "hey, you know what? I could do better than this"? Well that’s exactly what Jeremy Cohen and Fred Perrotta were thinking somewhere in the middle of their extended trip through Europe. At the end of the trip they decided to take matters into their own hands and founded Tortuga Backpacks, which has now launched its flagship pack — the Tortuga Travel Backpack 45.
Tortuga Backpacks were kind enough to send along a Tortuga Travel Backpack 45 pack for me to test.
The pack consists of two main pockets, two side pockets and two small stash-style pockets on each of the hip belts. There’s also a hidden pocket inside the main pocket for stashing your valuables. The Tortuga 45 also includes something I consider a must have for travel packs — a zippered cover for the shoulder straps and hip belt.
I didn’t get a chance to test it on the road, but the pack had no trouble holding everything I brought with me on a recent trip around the world. The Tortuga 45 also meets the size requirements for carry on luggage on most airlines, so you’ll never need to check it unless you want to. The padded back and hip belt make the pack comfortable even when it’s loaded down, though do bear in mind the emphasis on "urban". I wouldn’t want to walk ten miles with this pack, but for walks from the train station to the hostel you’ll be just fine.
The pack is made of ballistic nylon, which means it’s tough enough to stand up to the rigors of city travel, though you probably wouldn’t want to hit the Appalachian trail with it. The nylon also means the Tortuga 45 is water resistant (though not water proof). I stuck it in the shower for 20 seconds or so and it managed to repel most of the water. Suffice to say if you’re caught in a brief rain shower you don’t need to worry.
Overall I liked the Tortuga Travel Backpack 45. It’s a bit on the boxy side compared to some packs, but it’s definitely functional. My only real gripe is the size of the logo. It’s big. Really big. But I have a known allergy to all branding/logos/labels (even for brands I like) so that may just be me.
If the logo doesn’t bother you and you’re in the market for a new pack, well, we’re giving away our review copy of the Tortuga Travel Backpack 45 (which, as noted, has been briefly exposed to water, and few walks around my neighborhood, but is otherwise brand new). Just leave a comment below telling us where you’re headed and how long you’re going for and I’ll randomly select one lucky winner next week.
Congrats to our winner Jim Johnson
The Tortuga Travel Backpack 45 is available from the Tortuga Backpack website and costs $250.
While packing for my next trip, I came across the ticket stubs from my last trip. It’s not an uncommon occurrence, but this small discovery caused all the memories from that trip to come flooding back as if it had been just yesterday—and not five weeks ago.
I don’t know if the gray sky today has given my brain a tinge of melancholy, or if there’s another reason behind the ease at which I fell into daydreaming. We all have our memory triggers. For some, it’s a smell that can bring back even the slightest memory we think we’ve tucked away for good. For others, it’s a sound, or combination of them, that best holds a memory of a place. Other senses, too—whether taste, or sight, or touch—all come into play when we’re reminiscing about our travels.
It reminds me of an essay in World Hum from Pico Iyer about why we travel. A particular section describes how, after his first trips to Southeast Asia, he would lie awake and play back his experiences in his memory, page through his diaries and look at his photographs.
Anyone witnessing this strange scene would have drawn the right conclusion: I was in love. For if every true love affair can feel like a journey to a foreign country, where you can’t quite speak the language, and you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re pulled ever deeper into the inviting darkness, every trip to a foreign country can be a love affair, where you’re left puzzling over who you are and whom you’ve fallen in love with.
I re-read that essay every once in a while, and the last time I read it was on that most recent trip—the one from which I found the tickets. Appropriately, it’s a country that I fell head over heels in love with, which is likely why it’s so easy for me to touch those memories.
Regardless of which particular senses trigger your travel memories, do you actively seek them out (like keeping mementos on your bookshelf), are you surprised by them when they come knocking on your door, or is it some combination of the two? Let us know in the comments section.
“One of the cul-de-sacs that a travel writer has to continually watch out for is the pervasive assumption that poor people are intrinsically nicer than rich ones. It looks silly in print but on the ground, in the dust, it’s more seductive. A fond belief that poverty is synonymous with dignity, that kindness, politeness and humor as shown by the less privileged is somehow quantitatively more valuable because they come tempered by hardship. And there’s the balancing assumption that all those things that come from rich people are consequently worth less because they’re bought and paid for with such ease, that their happiness is less real because it’s sullied with money and possessions. What we end up with is a cartoon version of the Sermon on the Mount. An unhealthy belief that poverty is of itself ennobling because riches are demeaning.”
A.A. Gill, AA Gill is Away
