Can I Get Your Number, Baby?
Photo by author
I’ve just turned twenty-two and I’m still in high school. This is my fifth year enduring the popularity contests, the mind games, the lunch groups, the bungling adolescents– just like Jerri Blank in Strangers With Candy I will see it all again. Only this time, I will be on the other side of the world. I will be on the other side of the desk. I will not understand a good ninety-five percent of what is going on around me. I will be a lone girl occasionally looking out over a sea of salacious teenage boys. I will be…an English teacher in Japan.
The Concept of Havuu
For many Americans, their ideal vacation is to visit a big city–e.g. New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, Rome. For most Mongolians, it is quite the opposite. The perfect vacation for residents of Ulaan Bataar, the capital city and my home while teaching at Chinggis Khaan University, is havuu, a Mongolian word that roughly translates to ‘the countryside’. It is that seemingly endless expanse of land that begins at the city limits and extends far beyond the horizon. Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country on earth with a land area of 600,000 square miles, more than twice the size of Texas and almost the size of Alaska, but a population of only 2.5 million–roughly that of the Denver metropolitan area.
Kodumudi and the Cauvery
Photos by author
A City of Deception
Photo: Flickr/Pavangupta
God’s Own Country : Kerala, India
Photo:Flickr/Blackfin2
Walking through the narrow roads in God’s own country, one realizes the true majesty of this state in India. Patched with the parrot green carpet of the paddy fields and the thick stripes of coconut trees, Kerala is truly God’s own country. Among the 14 districts of the state, Pathanamthitta is a hub for many educational institutions and religious places.
Random Shopkeepers Call Me Brother
Photo: Flickr/miiglea
I spend my days strapping Syrian and Lebanese preteens into flight simulators, and fall asleep at night while packs of stray dogs rumble outside my bedroom window. Such is my life in Turkey.
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.
Yangshuo and the Dragon’s Backbone Terraces – Overland in Southern China
Drooping willow tree leaning over noisy stream: check. Cobbled street lined with swaying red lanterns: check. Cyclist wearing conical hat wobbling down said street: check. Everything I had come to expect of a tiny Southern Chinese town; Yangshuo is a popular backpacker hangout stuffed with character and teeming with small cafes. But the most striking characteristic of Yangshuo is its natural environs, settled as it is amongst atmospheric karst mountains. These tall, thin, rounded, limestone peaks are the epitome of the romantic images people tend to have of China, formed from patterned plates in their grandmother’s house.
I had caught an excellent sleeper bus there from Shenzhen. Upon arrival in Yangshuo, my friends and I were instantly struck by the sight of the ethereal, mossy-green peaks. We were also immediately inundated by hotel touts – in particular, one persistent chap called Larry who was dressed in a rather snappy suit. He corralled us into going to his hotel which was brand new and obscenely cheap. We explained however, that we wanted to look at other hotels to compare. Within minutes hotel touts approached us, but as they got near they would look worried and back off. We soon realized that there was shouting coming from just behind us, accompanied by a buzzing noise; looking over our shoulders, we saw Larry following us on his moped, aggressively warning off the other touts. When he noticed us looking at him, he stopped mid-rant and his face broke into a huge beam. His persistence won us over, and back to Larry’s hotel we tramped.
