Travel Video Of The Day
Travel Picks of the Week 11/09/07
Photo : Flickr/Dagg2008
Fall foliage viewing, or ‘leaf peeping’ as it is popularly called, is a substantial source of tourist income in areas known for dramatic fall colors. In Vermont, USA alone, 3.4 million visitors spend nearly $364 million a year, according to sales estimates. Fall colors have been surfacing late over the years, and Dave Gram discusses the possibility of climate change being responsible for the delayed colors.
A Thrilling Encounter With Customs Agents
It was the mid 1990’s and the US embargo with Cuba was in full effect. Travel to, and trade between, the two countries was nigh impossible. Scraggly rafts washed up on the South Florida shore with alarming regularity. The Elian Gonzalez episode was still a few years away, but everyone could see something like it was in the offing.
It’s possible that the travel bug is genetic. My parents have always been avid travelers, and while it has been a long time since we have done so, my childhood was highlighted by a handful of trips to far off places. We went to Mexico a few times and to Colombia once. My dad’s work as a doctor has taken him to almost every corner of the globe, and sometimes the rest of us would get to tag along. This was only because such family trips could be written off as ‘medical missions.’
Kona Falls : Thiruvallur, India
After tasting hot dosa, vada, idly with groundnut chutney and steaming coffee served with the aroma of Chennai, the breakfast induced energy in me for a long journey. Packing my kit with camera, water bottle, writing pad and towels, we left early just after dawn before the mercury could soar higher.
My affectionate friend Dwaraknath and his family members were courteous and their hospitality knew no limits. I knew him only as a colleague, a brotherly and jovial friend, but not as an enthusiastic car driver who eagerly agreed to sit behind the wheel.
Traveling with foot-in-mouth disease
I was in Cambodia touring the temples of Angkor. My guide Ree, was staring at me with a look of utter horror on his face. I was smiling broadly before I realized I had made one of life’s awful tourist gaffes.
Come Strangers, Stay Free, Part Friends
Photo : Flickr/Ansari
For most travelers, the single largest expense following plane tickets is accommodation. Even at the low end, hostel sleepers will spend between $10 and $20 per night for their bed in a dorm-style room. Over two weeks, that adds up to $140-280; over six weeks, $420-840. Two weeks of hotels runs $700-1680. Now imagine you could free up that amount of money to continue your travels. Where else would you go? How much longer would you be able to travel?
Three years ago I discovered a way to reduce my lodging costs to zero. I did this by becoming a member of the Hospitality Club. HC is the largest free international network of hosts and travelers. After registering and creating a profile, you can search the database for potential hosts in your destination of choice. You contact your selections via the website (or email or even instant messenger, if they’ve listed their details) and negotiate your potential stay. Then you show up, make friends and stay happily ever after . . . or something like that.
Eat Local!
Even while traveling, that familiar mantra rings true. Eating local is not only better for you, it’s also better for the environment. A good way to help offset your carbon travel footprint (something that is in the back of our minds all the time now) is to eat food grown and produced locally, thus eliminating carbon costs.
Not only that, it also gives you a great feel for the locale you’re visiting. Scotland would not be Scotland without the haggis. Japan would not be Japan without the tuna. France would not be France without the wine and cheese.
I am always dismayed when I see travelers eating at such American institutions as McDonald’s and KFC. Oftentimes these places are overrun by white faces far from home, each one gushing at how their fast food morsels taste ‘just like home!’
Why travel across the world to get the same crappy KFC basket that you could have gotten two blocks from your home? It will never make sense to me.
If you’re a picky eater, or a eater unwilling to overcome misconceptions, then plan your trips accordingly. If you don’t, or are unwilling, to like Chinese food, don’t go to China! I have met people who proudly proclaim that they eat little more than bread and water because they just don’t do Country X’s cuisine.
Tip of the day: try not to be one of those people.
Nylon Burns Feel Like Adventure
I have never before saved a hot air balloon in distress. But now, I feel, is my time to shine.
Taking the Heat
In my last article I mentioned how much it pained me to leave behind my swank US wardrobe items when I came to teach here in Dakar, but as far as fashion goes, at the moment all I can say is that I try to wear as little as I decently can in front of my classroom full of (predominantly Muslim) students. The little black NYC suits have not left the suitcase, and the idea of wearing jewelry or makeup – anything extra at all - is anathema to me. My students are no doubt convinced that I AM a shapeless sundress!
Travel Writing Contest - Only 2 Weeks Left !
With only 2 weeks left for the $125 Traveling Stories Magazine (TSM) Writing contest, I am thrilled to say that the TSM project is not only working, but is starting to really pick up momentum. It is always tenuous seeing whether what seems to be a great idea will actually find community support.
Traveling Stories Magazine has now motivated over 30 travelers to write and share their tales from the road providing valuable reading and wisdom with fellow TSM readers. Personally I have been taken through learning to lie in India, soaring high in a hot air balloon in Africa, philosophical quandaries about rebels in Afghanistan, and face to face with grizzlies in Alaska. All this from the confines of my Veterinary School’s Library. The perfect prescription for the dreaming traveler!
