Pam's blog

Hey Baby, It's the 4th of July

2008-07-03T10:59:11-05:00

Like lots of Americans, you may be thinking "backyard BBq and trek to the nearest fireworks display." It's a good plan, a classic really. This unlikely patriot prefers to avoid the crowds, but this year, since we have house guests, we're going old school and joining you for the grilling and the oohs and aahs. There's a beach promenade just over there, we'll head down a little before dark with enough time to a walk a mile to the good views, just in case - it's a popular spot.

I love seeing how traditional American pastimes get translated by those living abroad - here are a few links:

If you're in London and feeling independent, isanngo has a list of Cool Things for American Expats for the 4th.And here's a blogger in New Zealand on her family plans...

[our girls...]are learning the Pledge, "America, the Beautiful", and, of course, "The Star-Spangled Banner." The only problem is that I keep crying everytime I hear the national anthem and I can't explain why -- it's a far more emotional song for me now, as an expat, than ever before. Plus, we're making a giant American flag and indulging in some true American picnic foods: Friday will see us eating fried chicken and potato salad (just like you!) but we'll be doing it in front of the heater with hailstorms outside (I'll never get into these reversed seasons!).--Welcome to Munchkin Land

On Letters from Estonia, blogger Aarne got to attend the ambassador's Fourth celebration - on the 16th of June.

I had received an invitation to the Fourth of July bash through a fellow expatriate, and I figured it would be fun to see what kind of a party the ambassador from the United States would throw.

If you're up for braving the holiday crowds, ABC News has a list of terrific destination - seeing the fireworks at Mount Rushmore, okay, how cool is that? Or you can go to Monticello to hear the President speak - an event that's steeped in history (and nuisance due to the extreme security our President requires.) It's an event I'd love to attend (though not this year, not this President) for the sheer wonder of hearing the declaration read at Jefferson's home.

And hey, if you happen to be flying and planning on firing your shotgun into the air once you arrive at your destination, the TSA wants to remind you about the rules for flying with bottle rockets and sidearms. Um.

A few last words of common sense advice if you're traveling this weekend: Give yourself plenty of extra time to accommodate traffic and crowds, wear sunscreen, for the love of the USA, don't drink and drive, keep the small ones a safe distance from the explodables (and even those grown should use extreme caution) and, as always, travel light.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

Train Talk

2008-06-26T08:58:14-05:00

When it still looked like I was going to make it down to San Francisco for BlogHer, I researched taking the train instead of flying. I liked the idea of looking some time staring out the window at the blurry countryside, watching the light fade while still in motion, then crawling into a rocking bunk for the night.

I've had some great trips by train - I've traveled by train from Hanoi to Hue in Vietnam, and from Rome to Venice and Venice to my (then) home in Austria, from Dehli to the Himalayan foothills, from Florence to Amsterdam... I love the space on trains, the close quarters at mealtimes with strangers, the sound of the whistle late at night.

I was disappointed when I found out that to do the trip by rail would cost me between two and three times as much as the flight - if I wanted a sleeper. Without the sleeper, it was quite a deal, but my not 22 year old self just isn't up for overnighting in coach class rail seats, no matter how much better they are than airplane seats. I also looked into flying one way and taking the train back for a fall trip to Florida - it takes about a week and costs near 1000 dollars! It would be cheaper to drive and camp out every night!

This is disappointing at best, but I have hopes that train travel in the US will increase in popularity as air travel becomes more of a nuisance and car travel too expensive. Rail doesn't seem to be waging the war on liquids or nickel and diming us with fees, or X-raying our wonderbras at the terminal. Rail travel is comfortable and leisurely, if slow and far too expensive, still.

Gridskipper points to an NPR story about rail travel increasing in popularitypopularitiy as gas costs rise.
Kotke mentions that trains should be *the* way to get between any big city pairs.
Euro Cheapo posts about the bargains to be had on night trains in France
Simon Says has great - and odd - stories remembered about train trips
Lady Vervaine has a series of blurry pictures that evoke that train window feeling

I still take the train to see my family when I'm going solo - it's
cheaper and easier than driving the five hours south, but if there's
just one other person, the expense outweighs the convenience. I don't think the train can replace air travel all together - sometimes there's just not enough time or the routes aren't viable. But when those things aren't a concern, wouldn't it be nice to have a choice?

Monday Travel Reads: Packing Gadgets, Saudi Arabia, French Kisses, & Carlin on Air Travel

2008-06-23T15:25:26-05:00

Good advice for travelers carrying a bunch of technology with them on Web Worker Daily. As you're packing your (one carry on) bag for BlogHer (you are, right?!) , keep this post in mind. Sure, you want your digital camera, your laptop, etc... but what can you leave behind? How to Travel Light with Web Working Gadgets.

Traveler Matt goes to Saudi Arabia and writes about women's rights. The catch? He didn't meet ANY women while he was there.

An unmarried man in Saudi will never see the face of a woman to which he is not related. With arranged marriages the norm, a groom will see his bride’s face for the first time only after the ceremony. The bare arms of a woman is as unknown and holds as much mystery as any other part of her body.

I thought there was a lot missing from this story and I still can't help but wonder what it is really like to travel there. It's off the list for me - there are few places I'll avoid because of politics, but Saudi Arabia is one of them.

This cracked me up, but good, but mostly because I always get it wrong. Gadling has published a map showing exactly how many kisses on the cheek are appropriate when greeting in different regions in France. Smooch smooch smooch.

Finally, here's George Carlin on the absurdities of air travel. Not safe for work, full of profanity, politically incorrect, and yeah, funny, from This Just In, Budget Travel's blog.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

Let's Just Get Naked

2008-06-19T10:03:30-05:00

Oh no, another "cation" word, this time, it's the "Nakation" - travel for nudists. Courtesy of Fly Away Cafe:

Nakations. Nude vacations, while once seen as a narrow travel niche, have grown into a $400 million dollar industry. The American Association for Nude Recreation is a good starting point for information on this vacation trend.

Nakation options run from rustic camping retreats to upscale resorts offering the very best in fine dining, spa services, and guest accommodations. Most resorts are family friendly, some offering specialized kids programs. You’ll also find nude cruises, nude spas (either nude as the standard, or special nude weeks), topless pools (okay, not really nude) at top Las Vegas hotels, and the occasional nude flight.

Someone, please make it stop.Not the naked, you go ahead if that's your thing. But the ridiculous semantic branding of our travels. Enough with that. However, it does seem to be a trend. More on naked travel (really!), Via Gridskipper, a nude beach that's in danger of having to put some pants on, already:

In the summertime, the beach offers a different view: naked sunbathers. Southwest Cove is one of the most famous nude beaches in the country, but there's a move under way to make people put their suits back on.

For decades, people have come to visit the beach, which is listed in nudist guides and on Web sites. All are welcome, naked or not, while cameras without permission and sexual behavior are forbidden.--My Way News

Thinking that getting down to basics might be the vacation for you? Road & Travel debunks the Top 7 Myths About Nude Vacationing.

Myth #7 You must lose weight before visiting a nudist resort. This is the biggest myth of all. Many people think nudists are all models and body builders. Where, in reality, they are normal people. They are tall and short. They are thin and not thin. They are all ages from 20's to 70's. They are all professions. And they are democrats, republicans, and nonvoters. Everyone is welcome to vacation at nudist resorts.

And in case you don't think it's a "real" trend, even the New York Times wrote up the increasing popularity of destinations that let you leave your worries and your swimsuit behind.

Today, America’s increasing obsession with health and wellness may be contributing to the rise of clothing-optional vacations. “Americans have moralized healthy bodies,” said Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, who has studied moral emotion and judgment. He added that “a case could be made that people are traveling to these places to be pure for moral reasons — to achieve harmony in nature.”

Me, I'm kind of a prude, though probably not more so than most Americans. I was pretty uncomfortable with my in-laws at the sauna in Austria - I didn't know those people all that well at the time and oh, look, there's my husband's family. Naked. Oh. But I envy the lack of inhibition and vanity. Over time, I've become used to the mixed saunas, the shared locker rooms, the whole "hey, we're just naked, it's no big deal" attitude.

But I still don't think I'm going on a nude vacation, but if you are, well, enjoy and report back, okay?

A quick note/warning: If this is something you're truly interested in, be prepared for search results with some NSFW content. Try "nakation" (ARGH) or "naturist" in your search terms.

Photo from Nudist Ralph.

Staycation, Holistay, Whatever. It Means You're Staying Home.

2008-06-16T11:21:27-05:00

When you give up that big trip because 4 bucks a gallon puts an uncomfortable crimp in your wallet or airfares are too ridiculous or that unexpected stint of unemployment took a bite out of your travel budget, it is not a staycation or a holistay, it's staying home. It's the chick flicks and ice cream bandage of financially wounded travelers, a day trip to the water park instead of a cabin at the beach for a week. Staycation? Holistay? Meh.

Me? I'll call a staycation what it is, a bummer! You can watch the embedded clip and surf the web all day during your staycation, but how would that differ from work? Actually, I take it back: Staycations are awesome, especially when you consider that next year due to a failing economy you'll be taking a workcation. You heard it here first.--Wallet Pop (Click through for the Daily Show on "holistays." Ouch.)

The marketing mails are thick and fast, folks trying to sell me an overnight at the Four Seasons in my own town to make up for the fact that the budget won't accommodate a much lesser hotel in San Francisco. There's no reality based math here, and hey, day trip to the water park for a family of four isn't going to leave you much change for souvenirs, either.

But with gas prices forecast to climb as high as $4 a gallon and recessionary fears fueling consumer uncertainty, the couple decided to scrap their travel plans and stay home.

So have some of their neighbors. The tightknit group of friends in their 20s and 30s said they are spending less time on the road in their gas-guzzling SUVs and minivans -- which are big enough to haul kids, a weekend's worth of toys and diapers, and coolers filled with juice drinks and snacks.--LA Times

Lowe's has also embraced the term, announcing that the concept "is gaining popularity with families who want a stress-free way to enjoy time together without breaking the bank".

The retailer, wrestling with the effects of the housing slump on sales, helpfully listed products such as barbecue sets and hammocks that could create "a paradise in your own yard".

The marketing push is based on growing evidence that Americans will travel less this year.

One sign of that came in a recent survey of more than 2,000 US residents by Rand McNally, the leading US road map publisher, which found that 57 per cent of Americans planned to shorten their holidays and stay closer to home this summer.--Financial Times

But let's face it, it is what we're doing this summer at my house, staying home. Why? It's a combination of things, but mostly, it's the fact that I have freelance work booked out through August and we're applying a certain ruthlessness to how we choose to spend our limited travel dollars.

At Gadling, they're unsympathetic, in fact, they think we're blowing it by not going ahead and traveling anyways.They're always high on the snark and they've got a point, but we don't know what their other obligations are. We suspect they're not quite as financially obligated as we are.

Are you kidding me? This has to be one of the lamest trends in recent memory. I understand times are tough but there are plenty of creative ways to make that trip to California or even, YES, Europe, happen this summer. Use your frequent flier miles. Cut back on that bottle of wine at dinner. Pack a picnic lunch instead of eating out. Skip a few trips to the bar. My point is this - travel is one of the most important experiences you can have during your lifetime. If there's a place you really want to visit - don't let finances or getting time off at work or fears of terrorism be your excuse.--Gadling

In principal, I don't object at all to the idea of enjoying your hometown to the fullest. And I think that a lot of the advice coming out around "staycations" is useful for people suffering the doldrums of sameness at any time of year. [Vagablogging - Strut - About] It's the frenzy of marketing that makes me a little crazy, the sugar coating of disappointment as an excuse to sell me more stuff I don't need. Hanging a hammock in my yard is not going to make up for missing Chinatown. I'm just not that simple.

While we like a nice nest to fly out of, we're driven by travel. Because it's our number one favorite way to spend our money and our time, we're extremely thoughtful about making our travel choices. The "staycation" is no substitute for adventure in strange new places, we are not fooled. But we do stay home, lots, because it makes it possible for us to get away later. We try to travel off season, when things are a little cheaper. We camp - that saves us lots of money on accomodations and food (and I'm a fine campsite cook, so there's no deprivation). We book when prices are low (again, typcially off season) and we make all of our household purchases from a carefully considered point of view.

Since we are always looking forward to the next adventure, staying home is not a deprivation, it's part of the process of getting away. It's not a staycation, it's not a holistay, it's just life.

What's Your Dream Vacation?

2008-06-12T10:11:46-05:00

I had a dream once, I remember it quite well. I was living on barge with my sweetheart. It’s what we did for a living - he was a river barge captain, we delivered freight via the canals of Europe. It's funny that my subconscious should settle me with so much contentment on a boat - after all, I get seasick and am a little claustrophobic. But on the barge of my dreams, I was supremely comfortable. It was roomy and conditions were seldom rough. We had a nice cabin and a good kitchen and there were lots of windows. The best part about it was that while we were always off to somewhere new, we were also always at home.

Peripherally related, I also remember a conversation with my stepmom after she'd returned from a retreat. I'd arrived to visit my Dad while she was gone, she arrived home a day or two later with that post vacation mixture of relaxed and excited. I made some remark about how retreats weren't for me. "Don't you ever want to get away from it all?" she asked. I thought about it for a while and decided that actually, no, I didn't. "Get away from what?" I said, thinking about our trans-Atlantic lives, my freelance job that lets me work at home, our unbelievable adventures...

It's difficult for me to think about vacation in that classic 10-day-junket-to-[pick one: exotic, sunny, beachy, cultured, your choice]-location sort of way because travel is such an integrated part of our lives. But if I do set my head to it, I know that yes, sometimes I do just want a break, a weekend in Vancouver, Canada, or a week in Kona on the Big Island with nothing to do but take pictures, play the ukulele, and eat mangoes. Sign me up.

But when I think "dream vacation," I think big. If I could have anything I imagine, anything at all, I would go for unlimited resources and a good chunk of time, say, three to six months, no, longer still, with no booked agenda and a bottomless credit card that someone else has to pay for.

I'd head to the airport with one small bag, [camera kit, lightweight laptop, swimsuit, change of clothes] my husband, and I'd book the first flight West to Hawaii. As soon as I felt fully stocked up on Aloha, I'd opt for Fiji, then New Zealand for a few weeks of vagabonding in a camper van, Indonesia to see the temples of Borobadur, back to Vietnam and Cambodia, Thailand to spend some time working with the elephant rescue foundation, and oh, my brain is already running off to China and Japan and maybe Korea because I know nothing about it and then, for the finish, India, traveling by first class rail, drinking hot chai from glasses while the country side rolls by. To go flashpacking with plenty of dosh and plenty of time, that's my dream vacation. Big deep sigh here.

That's not, I realize, everyone's idea of a vacation, and I'm all too aware of the intermittent fits of exhaustion, frustration,and utter over-stimulation to be experienced in the midst of all that. But to have the money to do that sort of adventure, the possibility to stay in nice places while still wandering the surface of the planet with not much more than a small backpack, that's my idea of the dream vacation. Don't get me wrong, when I see the ads that show happy, thin, attractive people in beach chairs, I think, yeah, I could do with some of that. But if I could truly have my dream? A beach chair isn't going to do it for me.

What about you? What if you could go anywhere, do anything? What's YOUR dream vacation look like?

Blah Blah Blog says Australia
Scrapper Days wants Vegas in Hawaii (that sound you hear is me screaming, but to each her own)
Carmen's Creative Chatter says Ireland, or maybe Costa Rica

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View. Photo: the writer, hard at work on her Hawaii guidebook at Polihale Beach on Kauai.

More in the American War on Tourism

2008-06-09T09:56:22-05:00

Travelers who don't need visas to enter the United States will be required to register online with the U.S. government at least three days before they visit, a security regulation set to begin next year.--AP/Google Officials say the change in the program is needed to protect against individuals who pose a threat to the United States, even though they come from a country that is friendly to America.--ABC News

Start rant. On a broad level, treating tourists like criminals is bad for diplomacy. Citizen diplomacy is something I am deeply passionate about, I happen to think citizen efforts put government efforts in to shame. All the humans I've met on a face to face basis, from Pakistan to Phnom Pehn, are able to separate governments from people. They all seem to shake their heads in the same sad manner - "Man, your/our government is whacked..." and move on to talk about the things we all have in common - and, more often than not, express their extreme desire to visit the US some day. Acting as though those people - the ones who want to see our National Parks, shop in our mega-malls, and wonder at our diversity - does unimaginable damage to our credibility in the world.

On a personal level, my family is full of foreigners and my life is full of foreign friends. In-laws from Austria, old friends from Germany, new friends from Italy - all countries affected by the new law - show up here, wanting to see how we live, bringing odd little things that are hard to find in the US and returning back to their homelands with equally odd little things - and impressions of an America that is friendly, open, welcoming, and almost meets the fictional idea of our great nation that we so like to believe is true. Putting obstacles in between those visitors and late, jet laggy breakfasts at my kitchen table does nothing to increase our security, deters sensitive travelers from visiting at all, angers me, and oh, I'll just say it, stinks of creeping fascism: "Papers, please?" End rant.

From the producer of our poorly-orchestrated increased airline security measures (”Only Terrorists Carry 200 ml of Toothpaste”) and the creator of the color-based national security threat chart (”Like Clockwork, Orange!”), a new move certain to alienate our closest friends and allies: starting January 12, 2009, all travelers to the U.S. who travel without visa restrictions (15 million people annually) will now be required to register themselves and their travel plans online at least 72 hours prior to travel or be denied boarding on their chosen air or sea carrier.--Less Than a Shoestring

The truth, it seems to me, is that this is a solution in search of a problem. Checking the background information of passengers might prevent the dumbest would-be terrorists from boarding US-bound flights, but I'm not sure those are the ones we need to be concerned about. Any remotely sophisticated terrorists, like those of the 9-11 attacks, will be able to find ways around the new regulations. What the new rules actually do, rather than make the US demonstrably safer, is create another hoop for foreign travelers to jump through before they visit (and spend money in) the United States.--Gadling

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing to hide. But the thought of logging my passport number into a computerized system 72 hours before I’m set to go, to wait as my name is checked against a terror watch list, raises visions of all those zombie-like automatons wandering around that fictitious world of George Orwell’s. According to the article, the Europeans are balking, too, with concerns about what will happen to the collected information and how long it will be held.--Write Away!

You will soon see the nations that are being harassed by Homeland Security retaliating against Americans by doing the same thing to us. So don’t bother looking for any “last minute” deals on travels -- sure they might be there but unless you register on line three days before hand (which you can’t do with a lot of last minute travel deals) you can’t go. And that will make travel for everyone a little more expensive. How? Right now the travel industry often fills empty spaces with last minute deals to reduce any loses from being under booked. If that becomes more difficult then those cost get recouped by higher fees.Classically Liberal (note: absolutely a rant, but with sharp conclusions)

Homeland Security says we've got it wrong. From the Department of Homeland Security blog (can we take a minute to say that again: DHS blog?!?!):

Of course, no policy achievement in Washington is complete without press that doesn’t quite get it right. To be clear, this is not a visa; it is a substitute for forms that visa waiver travelers already fill out, and it is based on an Australian reporting system that has never been seen as a visa by other countries. Nor does it require 72 hours notice for travel to the U.S. It is recommended that individuals who plan to travel under the VWP apply for their ESTA as early as possible so as to avoid last minute problems. ESTA has been designed to accept applications for last minute and emergency travel.

What the new proposal looks like (and the Telegraph has a lot more background) is a means of applying for visa waiver over the Internet 3 days before you travel. This gives the US authorities a lot more time to check you out, and hopefully avoid stupid mistakes like denying entry to kids who have the same name as someone on a terrorist watch list. It also means that if a problem does crop up they might be able to let you know before you travel, and give you a chance to sort things out before you leave. And it looks like the whole process is going to apply for a two-year period, so once you are approved that should mean 2 years of relatively hassle-free travel.--Cheryl's Mewsings

But, let’s look at the bright side of the law.
In reality, the tourists and businessmen will not be providing any additional information than they fill in on the I-94W paper forms normally passed out on-board airplanes while winging their way across the Atlantic or Pacific. Plus, rather than having to fill out the form every time one visits the U.S.A. this electronic data will be valid for multiple entries over two years.

Is the DHS program “streamlining” the system? Yes, and in the long run, making it easier for multiple reentries.--TripSo

I'd like to believe that the DHS is telling the truth about this program, that it's the same program that already exists, only moved to a high tech implementation. But the DHS is still denying boarding to travelers for ridiculous reasons, still putting passengers on no-fly lists, still dealing with the issue that two people on the planet might have the same name - I feel nothing but distrust for the digitization of more personal data. Perhaps this is a step forward in visa management, but I sincerely doubt it. A government that's suspicious of more than three ounces of toothpaste and a bottle of water is not one I feel comfortable trusting.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

Round the World Families

2008-06-05T09:41:56-05:00

So, you want to bug out. You want to quit your job or take an excessive amount of leave, rent your house or sell your stuff, take the kids out of school, chuck it all, and, while your kids are still young, see the world. And you're thinking, "yeah, right, that's not going to happen." Well, sure, if you think about it like that. Round the World (RTW) family travelers are making mincemeat of your objections and having incredible, maddening, marvelous adventures with the entire family in places as different as Cambodia and Alaska.

Here's a family at the end of their round the world trip - The Bowman Family's World Travels, answering the question of when to take your family on the big adventure:

Another thing I have learnt is to do stuff when you want to and don't put it off. (Until you've got more money, kids are grown up etc) Watching some people around us dealing with terminal illnesses gave us the push to go and do this trip instead of putting it off until Ali and Maisie were older. I'm so glad we did as we have now experienced all this cool stuff with them

Six in the World are back to traveling again after completing their amazing adventure, with a lot of philosophy about travel and life.

We travel, however, for distinctly different reasons. The point is not so much to leave something behind as to discover something new, to experience something deeper. We hope to learn more about the world and ourselves by changing our surroundings and challenging our assumptions. This is what we both sought and achieved in taking the kids and “leaving it all behind” for 11 months. Though our days were full, even busy, no two were the same and each offered new insight.

Here's one family just starting out, the Vogel family, on the Alaska to Argentina route... by BIKE.

I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff – about to throw myself off into the abyss below. No safety net, no idea how far down, no nothing. Just jump, and hope like hell that someone reaches out His hand and catches us. I’m not sure why I feel this way – this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve taken off for an extended trip.

And another, on Bangkok to Krakow - "8179 Kilometers, 201 Days, 7 Times Zones, 4 Years of Musing, 2 Dreamers and A Baby..."

Not long to go now. We’re packing up our house getting ready to stay with our parents before our farewell trip to New Zealand next week. TV, washing machine and fridge, all gone. All of the accoutrement’s of stability traded in for a backpack each and a duffel bag. This feels different to simply moving to another house, packing up our things, only to set them up again in a short while. The finality is actually quite refreshing. Now the task of squeezing our mountain of travel clothes, books and gadgets into a couple of back packs and a duffel awaits, crossing our fingers and toes that it all fits!

Finally, here's a family right in the middle of their travels - Soul Travelers Three - and faced with the immediate need for, yikes, dental work. It's true, emergencies happen, big and small, but this family dealt with it and survived to travel another day.

It is not a pleasant story, but it does have a happy ending. I wanted to share it, so others who worry about such things happening on the road can know that it can be just as safe as handling it at home. I think the major key is finding dentists that are highly recommended by people you trust who have used them for years... just like you do at home. Between the three of us, we have had to get quite a bit of dental work done on the road ( mostly in Spain). The good news is we got first rate care at super bargain prices, so we also saved a bundle than if we had done it at home.

Thinking that an RTW family trip is on the cards for you and you're crew? There's a great FAQ page on Armageddon Pills, but first, here's WHY they call the site (and the upcoming book about their adventure)

While traveling around the world as a family, we attempted to cross the Bolivian salt flats and got stranded with no more than a bag of peanut M&Ms. How they saved us is how they came to be known as Armageddon Pills.

Yup, gas costs a fortune, air travel is a hassle, there's a lot going on a work right now, the kids are too [your adjective here], there are a million reasons not to take your family traveling. But these families looked past all that and found that there were a million and one reasons TO take the family out to see the world. They all share the how and why and best of all the what, on their blogs. Check them out.

Photo from Active Travel Vietnam on Flickr.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

Monday Travel Links: What's In Your Bag? What's Not?

2008-06-02T09:20:09-05:00

File under "want but can't afford" - cashmere travel jammies. No, really. On Trusty Pony.

Funny because we had exactly this conversation on our trip to Asia:

My girlfriends all want to know: How many pairs of underwear am I taking on our around-the-world journey?

On The Wide Wide World. My answer for long term? Five sets, cotton only.

Speaking of keeping it to a minimum, Zen Habits has a great post of tips on how to simplify your travels.Always a good idea, given the challenges of language, the TSA, culture barriers, and expectation. There's also the tiniest packing list I've ever seen. Even I'm not packing that light.

In case you're still not sold on the benefits of leaving [fill in the blank] at home, Innstyle Montana has a great round up of reasons to travel light from great sources like National Geographic Traveler and Rick Steves.

Finally, Jaunted posts the "ladies" packing list, suggesting that One Bag doesn't really understand What Women Want.

You've heard it before, not just from me, and now with airlines charging you for your luggage and the total unpredictability of ever seeing your stuff again, it's more and more critical to be able to fly carry on only. We made two long trips recently, Hawaii and Southeast Asia. For Hawaii, we overpacked, for SE Asia, we erred on the underpacking side. There's only one place I regretted underpacking - in North Vietnam when we were just too cold. But every time we had to schlepp our increasingly heavy load to the rental car, the airport, from the baggage claim... I regretted overpacking.

What are you leaving out of your bag next time you head for the airport?

Meet Some Expat Bloggers from Our Blogroll

2008-05-30T09:33:48-05:00

It's not exactly traveling, it's not exactly staying home. Expat bloggers walk the line between living somewhere and being a foreigner and they do it every day. I have a soft spot in my heart for the expat bloggers, having been one myself for so many years. I envy those living in vibrant foreign cities and I sympathize deeply with the difficulties of choosing the expat life, regardless of how romantic and perfect their "home" imagines itself to be. There's a rich crop of expat bloggers in the blogrolls here at BlogHer, meet a few of them:

Florida Girl in Sydney is just that - she blogs about her migrated life in Sydney Australia and in this post, discusses something near and dear to me: experiencing anti-American sentiment:

But I'm having a very different experience here. Sitting in a restaurant, hearing the people next to me say terrible things about Americans. Or while at the register in a nice department store (thanks David Jones for the great shopping experience) having the clerk tell me (and my American friend) how obnoxious Americans are and how ridiculous everything from the U.S. is. Um, I guess our ploy of telling her we were from Canada backfired... we got it even worse.

Rudders at Home is and American in London. In this post, she talks about how it's hard to decide if you're a tourist or a local and the weird feeling of being both.

I’m not a complete foreigner, any more, but it’s taken a long time to get to this place. I think becoming a local is a scary thing. For me, it means a certain level of permanence has been achieved, and I’m not sure I’m ready to admit it yet - even though five years is proof enough and extremely hard to ignore. I think I prefer to feel like a tourist.

Je Voudrais une Croissant is living in Paris, the most romantic city, and in this post, writes about the stuff that Just Drives Her Crazy. A lot of it is stuff you'd notice as a tourist but since you'd just be passing through, it would be easy to blow it off.

Linguism. If this isn't an acknowledged form of discrimination, it should be. I speak French. I know, not perfectly. Not even close to perfectly. But that does not mean that I appreciate people switching into English the moment they hear the slightest trace of an accent, because 99.9% of the time, it's blatantly clear that they're not doing it to be nice. They're doing it to say, "I know you're a foreigner, and I'm better than you and I think I can speak your language better than you can speak mine and would you like some spit with your café au lait?"

Roaming Aussie Mum is an Australian living in Mexico - in this post she talks about how the bloom comes off the rose and you can take things for granted. If you're lucky and observant, the magic comes back now and again.

When you’ve been living in a place for a while, you get used to a lot of things that were so noticeable to begin with. Going on holidays in Mexico has often reminded me of some of these things and walking through the Main Plaza and market area of Alamos I noticed again how colourful and alive everything is here.

[Photo: Expat dinner in Buenas Aires from blmurch on Flickr.]

I can't speak for these bloggers, but I can tell you that in my expat life, blogging helped me stay sane. It helped me connect with people who understood the feeling of displacement that comes from living in a country not your own, that feeling of "WTF?!?!" that pops up now and then when locals don't notice or question something that seems outrageous or just weird to you. The expat bloggers I met were the friendliest folks I encountered while living abroad. Go say hi, I'm quite sure they'll welcome you to their virtual homes.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View. Her husband is the expat now.

On Meeting My Fellow [Travel] Bloggers

2008-05-29T09:41:24-05:00

This week I had the great pleasure of hooking up with Mary Jo Manzanares of Fly Away Cafe and Beth Whitman of Lipstick and Wanderlust. We're all in the Seattle nearby, we all blog about travel, and we all like snacks at the best table in the house during happy hour. Over a plate of nachos and miscellaneous alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, we talked about - not in this order -

Where good bloggers come from
Search Engine Optimization and writing for machines vs. writing for readers
Traffic, traffic, traffic
Twitter and other social networking tools
Where we're going on our next travels
Our respective day jobs, varied as they are
How we can hang out with the other travelbloggers in our area
The realities of earning money while blogging
The politics of travel writing

... oh, and a bunch of other stuff - including the type of writing we like to do. I found that topic particularly interesting because Mary Jo is totally committed to the short blog post and doesn't really want to do more, Beth is finishing up her next full length book, and I'm more of a feature story writer, happiest at 1200-2500 words, though I love, love, love to do audio, too. Beth is working with video, Mary Jo wants to try it out, but I'm not sure that video is where I'm heading. Lots of good stuff, interesting topics, like minded women, a good time was had by me, certainly.

I love getting to meet other bloggers in 3D, I love it so much that I hopped a plane to spend a weekend with a blogger and her husband in Antwerp, that I skipped the morning sessions at BlogHer last year to have breakfast with a blogger I'd never met from Spain who was in Chicago, that I've invited a blogger from Germany and her entire family to stay at my house this summer, and am actually hoping she'll take me up on it. I fantasize regularly about going Around the World in 80 Blogs - though with airfare being what it is I'm going to need a very generous sponsor.

Sure, there's lots of ways to beat the stay at home blues when you're not traveling. I do a lot of reading and plan my escape, but from now on, I'm adding "hanging out with other travelbloggers" to keep the gray at bay.

What about you? Did you ever go anywhere on a lark to meet an unknown blogger?

TravBuddy: A travelbloggers meetup in Amsterdam.
Palm Springs Savant: Rick meets visiting blogger Olivia from Italy
Lucullian Delights: Ilva meets fellow food blogger Jeni, also in Italy. Nice pics on this post.
Freelance Writing Jobs: Should you meet another blogger in person? (My answer, an unequivocal YES!)

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

New Fees: One More Reason to Travel Light

2008-05-22T09:11:10-05:00

By the end of the year, he told shareholders, American would be slashing its seat capacity by more than 10 percent, grounding as many as 75 of its aging and fuel-guzzling aircraft, and next month begin charging most fliers $15 to check a bag.--Seat 2B

In case you're not clear on what that means, that's 15 dollars to check ANY bag, not your second bag full of stuff you picked up while traveling. That's your basics, the things you can't carry on because the TSA still sees more than three ounces of toothpaste as a threat. Your second bag? That's an additional 25$.

Chris Elliot asks some very good questions about the new luggage fees.

If American and other airlines unbundle the cost of luggage from your ticket, and you’re paying extra for all of your luggage, shouldn’t you get something for the money? At the very least, an immediate refund of the fee if your luggage is lost or “misplaced”? And maybe we should insist on drawing up a separate legal contract for the carriage of our luggage, including more compensation when luggage goes missing.--Elliot

And Susan at Wicked Good Travel Tips has a message for American Airlines.

If you need to raise prices to make up for high fuel costs - do it, have some b…s. We understand your industry is feeling the pinch in a big way - tell it like it is. I would rather pay $100 more for a ticket and be treated with some courtesy and respect, and offered something to eat on a 6 hour flight. If you want to be a budget airline with pay-as-you go services, ask Ryan Air to buy you out. Instead of trying to lure us to fly with inexpensive flights, you are encouraging me to opt out of the whole flying experience - it’s not worth the hassle.--Wicked Good Travel Tips

Gadling anticipates how this is going to affect our travel experience and surprise, it's not good.

Now, since nobody wants to pay an extra 15$, everyone is going to want to bring their luggage aboard, overhead compartments are going to jam up, people with giant luggage are going to clog up space and passengers are going to get testy. Of course the new rule doesn't apply to elites, but as several people on the underground pointed out, it really affects everyone on the aircraft. If the overhead compartments are full and the flight spends an extra 15 minutes on the ground sorting out luggage issues and appeasing passengers, the entire plane is late, right?--Gadling

There's plenty more snark to be found directed at American's new fees. Our overseas budget airlines travelers are less sympathetic - they've been shelling out baggage fees since Ryan Air decided it was okay to nickel and dime their passengers for every little things. But given that the the fees are here and that they only likely to increase, what's a traveler to do?

In many cases, it may not be practical to travel carry on only. Then, you'll just have to shell out. There's no getting around it. But there are plenty of circumstances in which a single carry on bag is plenty - and I'm here to tell you, it's totally doable.

Since it's getting to be that time again and I know lots of you are planning your long weekends in San Francisco for BlogHer, I'm going to take the liberty (and vanity) of reminding you that last year, I went to BlogHer with One Carry On Bag. That included my laptop and more clothes than I needed for the three days I was in Chicago. BlogHer Fashion editor Susan Wagner has repeatedly posted terrific travel packing tips, check out her posts for advice from someone way more fashion conscious than I.

For the record, we tend to leave the house extremely light and come home a bit heavier, and that's not just from eating exotic treats. We have learned that there's nothing we need that we can't get at our destination (excepting meds, those should always be carried on), that we can do without whatever we've forgotten for longer than we think, and that we can pick always up an extra bag for cheap to check the additional stuff we've picked up on our adventures.

Also I think the fees are ridiculous. Charging customers to check one regulation size and weight bag is just a fare increase. It's a PR blunder to handle this in a way that's a clear inconvenience for passengers. A fare increase to cover costs of travel is a reasonable measure, but a decrease in service makes this traveler think I'll work a little harder to compare fares and, when paying full price, will opt for one that includes the essential service of getting not just me but also, my belongings, from point A to point B.

Photo: Luggage highrise by Jibby on Flickr. Check it out full size here.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

Ooo! Ahh! Oh No! Exclamation-Worthy Travel Posts

2008-05-19T15:47:58-05:00

Ooo. Ahhh. Whoa. Oh no they didn't. Etc... here's a Monday roundup of travel related items that made me exclaim out loud, starting with "please, no..."

So you’ll probably understand that I’m none too impressed to hear about the future development plans in Cusco, Peru. This town is the standard starting off point for a journey to the ruins of Macchu Pichu and a place regrettably haven’t got to yet, but really want to. But unfortunately, as tourists start making a beeline for Cusco, so do the fast food franchises. The news goes that KFC and McDonald’s have already bought sites and are currently remodelling; KFC is going to be right on the main square of the old town. Travel Rants

This one's more of an "ewwwwwwwww" than a "oh nooooo" but it's groan worthy all the same...

Imagine walking into a bakery and reaching for a loaf of bread… only to find severed heads, hands and feet resting on the shelves. It’s not something out of the movie Saw but a real bakery in Bangkok that creates grimly realistic body parts from dough--Travel Happy

Just to mix it up, here's a little "awwwwwww...." with, yup, pandas. I can't help it. They're freaky cute.

On a March afternoon, there are so many pandas in the "kindergarten pen" here that it's hard to keep track of their antics. One is attempting a handstand while three others are playing king of the hill. These carefree cubs, a record 19 from Wolong's breeding season, are part of the dramatic comeback for a symbol of conservation: the giant panda.--Gadling

File this one under "Wow!" - I am totally digging Jamie Sue's posts from Patagonia, Pata-freakin' gonia and I am pretty much sick with envy. I mean, look at the open road shots in this post, plus, she's a great writer...

More driving through the steppe emptiness of Patagonia. One morning I look at my hands and see that I have blisters and I think, how did I do that? These strange blisters arc across the edge of my palms. What did I do? I get into my car, put my hands on the wheel, and realize they line up perfectly with the arch of the steering wheel. I have blisters from driving and the backs of my hands are so tan that it seems the palms must belong to some other whiter person.--Jamie Sue

Finally, under "Uh uh, not on my watch" Perceptive Travel posts about the endangered state of the postcard.

Turns out that while those at home still check their mailboxes daily for glimpses of foreign lands, we travelers are too busy blogging, emailing, and photo-txting to find the time to sit and put pen to postcard.--Perceptive Travel

Here at Nerd's Eye View, we're not going to sit idly by and watch while the postcard slips into extinction. If you wanted to do more than just send a post card to a friend (and really, that would be enough, do it today!) you could participate in my Postcard Revival Project, or start your own. When did you last get a postcard? When did you last send one? Postcards are fantastic things and we shouldn't let them disappear. To the revival of the postcard, I say this: Woo hoo!

Image from miguev on Flickr.

The 2D World Traveler: Our Visit with Flat Stanley

2008-05-15T10:41:30-05:00

He arrived a bit travel worn, but he sat quietly until we could spend some time with him and the weather improved. He's not really set up for rain, and we've had too much of it. Then, I was too busy to show him around, so he just hung out, not asking for much. I felt kind of guilty, I'd said I would host and then, the work I'd been waiting so long to get finally started, so there was little time. I took him with me to Ukulele Sunday and out to the software ranch, but I couldn't really pay attention to him and do what I needed to get done at the same time. Finally, we had a beautiful afternoon and I was able to clear my desk. We all got in the car and headed down to admire the view at the waterfront.

We were delighted to host the easiest house guest in the world: Flat Stanley. We know he was in Germany before he came here, though he had a stopover somewhere in Minnesota on his way to our house. He arrived with a short explanation from his home in Worthington, Ohio. It's our job to show him around, take some pictures of him seeing the highlights of our city, and then, send him on to somewhere new.

I love the idea of this, it's a little bit like the garden gnome in Amelie, though more educational. We'll scribble a little writeup about Seattle, print our photos, maybe toss in some postcards, and send a trip report back to Flat Stanley's host school. The kids learn about new places from the people that live there, which is a great idea because individuals see their homes so differently than encyclopedias do. It's geography made real, what's not to like about that?

Truth be told, I am outrageously envious of our 2D friend. Off he goes, on his cheap postal service fare, carrying nothing but his sleeping bag (a manila envelope) and his letter of introduction. He arrives at the welcoming home of strangers who show him around and then, whoosh, where he goes next is anyone's guess! I find the whole idea so thrilling that I would like nothing more than to BE Flat Stanley. The human Flat Stanley, going to wherever my hosts deem is the next destination - what an awesome adventure that would be!

Flat Stanley elsewhere:

In New Jersey with FoodShed Planet
Flat Stephanie with my friend Di in Belgium
Flat Stephanie in Ireland and Amsterdam
Flat Stanley in Prague on You Tube
Official Flat Stanley home page

Photo: Me with my new 2D friend at the beach near our house. We posted him to Honolulu, the lucky so and so!

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

How to Keep Your Travelblog Alive When You're Not Traveling

2008-05-12T10:12:52-05:00

The web is a graveyard of travelblogs, musings of gap year students, summer road trippers, one time round the worlders who thought it would be fun to share their stories while they were wandering. Travelers return home, cull their photos, flood the Flickr stream one last time and then... nothing. That's fine for most, but what if you want to keep the travel enthusiasm going when your wallet is empty and your adventures limited to to the backyard? There's plenty left to write about, even for the travelblogger at home. Here are a few suggestions that will keep your blog alive the next time you're off.

Go local. It doesn't matter where you are, people live there for a reason. Take your readers on a tour of your hometown as though they were your houseguests or you'd just arrived. [Four Neat Things about My Home Town on Neatorama]
Read and write. Many a traveler seeks solace in books. The travel journalism section at the book store or library is a great place to find adventure, even if it's someone else's. Don't overlook the classics, after all, Huck Finn and Alice in Wonderland are travel stories too.[Armchair Travels on Stuff]
Seek the exotic at home.We're lucky in that if we go south just a bit we find Vietnamese communities, to the north,there are Korean and Indian neighborhoods... ethnic diversity is right out side our door. A few years back a friend and I attended the Scottish Highland Games, a mere 1/2 hour drive from here, and earlier this year, we attended the Cambodian New Year's Festival, just two miles away.
See it all as a trip. Even the shopping mall suburb has a story. Find the tiny community museums and learn about the place before the townhomes. [On Vagabonish, a terrific post about Surviving the Suburbs.]
Find the festivals and fairs. A quick search of my local paper's festival calendar turns up a Norwegian Festival, a Native American cultural event, something called Viking Fest (horns and helmet, anyone?) and that's just on the first page. Spring and summer are here; what's on near you?
Travel on your stomach. Think about how much the food you eat defines a place. Food and travel are excellent companions, why not try to write about your dinner. Seafood is an inseparable part of Seattle, as are the Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants in the International District. Food that's distinctive to where you're from can be as interesting as food from far away places. [Starter tips for writing about food on Creative Writing Corner.]
Plan your next trip.There are a few travelbloggers I read who published the exhaustive details of their planning phases before they even stepped foot out the door. I can think more than one blog where I found the reading at the planning more compelling then the travel writing.

Just about anytime you go from A to B, there's the potential for adventure. Keep your eyes open. Remember the details you observed when you were in Buenas Aires or Stockholm or Hanoi and look for them at home. Think of writing about travel as writing not so much about the act of being in motion, but as writing about PLACE. Then, look at where you are. If you're still a traveler at heart, you'll have no trouble bringing that enthusiasm to continuing your blog, even if you're standing on your own front porch.

Hat tip to Suzanne R. who asked about this issue. Photo: Mall of America from daylapt on Flickr.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.