The Amazing Race – Travel Lovers’ Porn

        Yep, I said porn.  Because that’s essentially what the Amazing Race is – Travel Porn.  It’s exciting.   It temporarily allows you to live vicariously through someone else, doing things so out there you might not have even fantasized about them.  It teaches you new tricks to try in real life.  And it satisfies that travel craving, while leaving you wanting more.  The best part is that, instead of having to go back into the special part of the video store, you can get it for free Sunday nights on CBS.

          For you uninitiated (shame on you), the premise is simple: race around the world with no advance knowledge of where you’re going next and very limited funds, completing various tasks as fast as possible, and if you finish first you get a cool million dollars.  If you finish last at certain checkpoints (called pit stops) you’re eliminated.  That’s it.  This is proof positive that the journey is the attraction more than the final destination, as the ending is usually one of the most  anticlimactic parts of the whole race.   But on the way you got to see just how cool the world is.

            I’m insanely jealous of the challenges they’ve gotten to do over the years.  I won’t lie, I would totally blow off my job/friends/whatever to be able to do what the racers get to do.  After seeing it on the race, I tried ziplining and, as you’ve probably noticed from my past posts, I’m hooked.  Now I just want to push my boundaries farther.  Over the years they have rappelled down Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janiero, climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, navigated the chaotic train system in Mumbai, herded llamas in Peru, made noodles in  Macau  and shopped at street markets in South Africa.   According to the previews, next week they’re climbing the Singapore Flyer giant ferris wheel in Singapore.  It’s nuts.  The general public may  not  have access to all of the incredible things that the racers get to  do, but for the most part the places are acessable, and with a little bit of research  you too can  enact  your own Amazing Race.  They show some off the beaten path  locations/attractions that you might have missed otherwise  and  I  have to admit that occasionally at work when someone will ask  me what there  is to see in Coober Pedy, Australia (amongst other random destinations that I  don’t know anything about and have definately  never been to) I draw on what I’ve  seen on TAR and  answer that there are opal mines and houses built underground to escape the heat.   It’s helped me finalize more than one sale, let me tell you. 

             Despite the fact that it’s essentially a game show on a global stage, The Amazing Race is at it’s heart a travelogue, and, just like Globe Trekker or Rick Steve’s Europe, it gives you a glimpse at the conditions, attractions, and people of places all over the world.  India is always a good example, as so many of the racers go there expecting nothing but  poverty and crowds, but leave surprised at the resilliance of the people and the beauty of the countryside. Through their eyes we see it, too, and gain a greater appreciation.  I had never heard of Wat Po, the temple of the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok until I saw it on Season 1, but it blew my mind and that one episode gave birth to a fascination with Thailand that I still have to this day.    You can bet your ass I made sure to go to that temple and take craploads of pictures when I finally made it  to Bangkok.   

            The  racers might be doing everything at warp speed, they’re still traveling and facing the same trials and tribulations that we all do on our vacations.  They have to fight with the same flight cancellations and lost cabbies we all do, and watching them deal with these we can learn  – both from their mistakes and  their successes.  Case in point: never be rude to an airport ticket agent. They have  your vacation in their hands, and with one  little keystroke they can  sentence you to a fifteen hour flight in the middle seat in the back that doesn’t  recline and is right beside the squirming kid.  In season 2 when everyone was jockeying for flights from Iguassu Falls, Brazil to Cape Town, South Africa, team after  irate team was told there was no space on the  earliest and most convenient  one-connection flight via Frankfurt.  That is, until Danny and Oswald, the fabulous, suave and super polite guys from Miami asked.  Suddenly seats miraculously appeared and they cruised to a happy first place, all because they were the lone rational team.

     Finding a local guide is another great tip that teams commonly use.  Granted, on the race teams, particularly Mirna and Charla, will do everything short of kidnapping locals to get their insider information.  Please don’t do this.  Ask nicely.  Leave a tip.  But this is still an awesome idea.   Locals know more about the destination than anyone, and they’re usually just as excited to learn about your hometown as you are to learn the ins and outs of theirs.  This can get you from point A to point B much faster and tip you off to new, out of the way places that you would not have otherwise ever known about. 

      During all of this, the teams are navigating all these stressful challenges with their friend/partner/relative.  I always say the test of any relationship is a vacation, because your communication skills tend to shut down when you’re stressed and fatigued.  The “villans” in each season are not usually the teams that are horrible to other teams, but the teams that are horrible to one another.  The classic example is Jonathan and Victoria in season 5, where he not only screamed at her the whole way, but actually physically shoved her in anger.   Just watching the way these teams melt down serves as a reminder  not to act  like that to your friend/family member/anyone, no matter how jetlagged you might be. 

         And my personal favorite tip the I’ve learned from TAR: “Rapido” does not mean fast in every language.  It’s not that teams haven’t tried, but when you’re in Windhoek, Namibia, the cabbies are just going to give you a “stupid tourist” laugh and continue moving along at whatever speed they want to.  That being said, it’s always a good idea to learn a few words in the local language.  I’m not suggesting taking the Berlitz course or anything, God knows the teams usually can only learn what they get from the other passengers on their inbound flight and they get around pretty well, but a simple ”yes”, “no”, “thank you”, “how much?” and “where’s the bathroom?” can get you a long way.  Particularly the bathroom one.

          I could go on, but really, you just have to watch it yourself.  Even if you don’t glean anything more from the show than some pretty destinations and a whole lot of fun, it’s worth it.

Tags: 108 coin ritual, Bangkok, fun, interesting, Jet lag, The Amazing Race, Tips, travel, travel porn, Wat Po

You drive like crazy

        It seems like the most convenient thing to do.  Why bother having to sort through bus and train schedules on your trip when you could just rent a car and go where you want when you want?  Hold up there a minute, Skippy, make sure you know what this entails or you could be dealing with more hassle than you’d ever anticipated.  If you’re from Canada and heading down to California for Disneyland, for example, then I wholeheartedly encourage a car rental.  You’re familliar with the makes and models of the cars on offer, you know the basic road rules, as they’re the same up here, and you can read the street signs.  These three criteria are not going to be met everywhere, though, so I recommend doing a little online research before you even consider getting behind the wheel. 

    First off, the majority of rental cars internationally are standard transmission.  You need to specify an automatic at time of booking, and be prepared, they’re usually a higher price due to their uniqueness.   So if you can’t drive stick and don’t want to wind up like those Amazing Race contestants repeatedly stalling out in the middle of traffic and enduring the wrath of the locals, you have two options: either practice a bit before going (driving your cousin’s borrowed standard around parking lots for a few hours is so much cooler than learning all the bad hand gestures the hard way on your trip) or cough up the extra cash and get one you can drive.

               Similar to this is the “check which side of the road your chosen country drives on” rule.  I’ve had clients who were perfectly capable of driving standard, but kept missing gears in New Zealand as they were shifting with their left hands while remembering to drive on the right side of the road.  This is also why renting a car in London to drop off in Paris is not possible, as your steering wheel is not going to magically switch sides mid-ferry crossing, and there are a lot of people out there that think the side the wheel is on dictates the side they should drive on.  A client asked me that once, if they could follow the French or the English road rules while in France with an English car.   I am not making this up.  Luckily, I didn’t have a car rental company that would allow him to do this itinerary, so I was spared from having to explain to him that the French don’t like cleaning up after hundreds of tourists killed in head-on collisions near the port of Calais.

      Similarly, if you can’t read the street signs, or understand the basic laws of the road, don’t drive.  When in destination you’re subject to local laws, and ignorance is not a legal defense.  Legal matters aside, by driving yourself you also have to navigate yourself to your destination, so learning the local words/signs for things like “stop”, “road closed” and “if you drive down this road you will be shot”  are a good idea.  I’ll get you started.  “Ausfhart” is German for “Exit”.  There, I’ve just saved you hours of driving down the Autobahn, giggling to yourself and wondering why all roads lead back to the town of Ausfhart while the city you’re looking for never appears.

       Then there’s the little matter of practicality.  Some places it’s actually more inconvenient to have a car than take public transport, particularly if you’re spending a prolonged time in a major city centre.  London is a great example of this, where just driving into the city centre will cost you GBP$7 per day as a congestion charge.  Then there’s the horrendous lack of parking, high traffic congestion combined with the crazy streets that can change names every block or just stop for no reason (not kidding about this, taxi drivers have to study maps and test-drive the city for years before they get their license – passing a test ominously called “the Knowledge”), and when you add it all up it’s enough to have you thrown up your hands in exasperation and abandon your Hertz in the middle of Trafalgar Square in favor of the Underground.  At least on the train you know you’ll eventually wind up at your destination.

      All this being said, a car rental can be a great way to get from one place to another, moving at whatever pace you choose to, as long as it’s under legal limits.  It gives you the freedom to buy that ten-gallon jug of drinking water on sale at Target because you know you don’t have to carry it all the way back to your hotel carefully balanced on your head.  You can reach so many off the beaten path places that major transportation links might not get to.  So rent away – I have some great rates! – but make sure it’s the perfect decision to make your dream trip all you want it to be

Tags: Amazing race, Ausfhart, car rentals, England, France, German, international, London, Tips

You’ve come to visit, now what?

             Okay, friends/relatives have come to visit.  Great.  It’s so good to see you.  Now what the hell am I going to do with you?  Why is it always so hard to find things to do with out of town guests?  

               Don’t get me wrong, Vancouver is the best place on Earth (you don’t really think I’d live my whole life somewhere that sucked did you?), but the concept of showing someone around always causes my mind to blank.  What about the aquarium?  No, too dorky.  The art gallery?  Too boring.  Shopping on Robson St?  Cousin Steve would rather run out into oncoming traffic than endure that.   Hell, I even find myself vetoing things I’ve never done, and thus can’t make an informed decision about,  like hiking the Grouse Grind, just because I think it might involve too much nature.    It’s like suddenly dating your city again, where you look too closely at all the features that attracted you here, and suddenly you’re nitpicking them about that cowlick, faint odour of cheese or habit of playing with their forks at the dinner table.   

                It’s that pressure to be perfect, the “look, my city is so freaking awesome that living anywhere else is just a waste of space”.  Why do we do this?  Chances are Great- Aunt Bessie is just happy to see me, and my living room, a cup of tea and some chocolate digestive biscuits would make her happy as a clam.  I don’t have to spend a week’s salary on that boat cruise around Stanley Park.  But I want her trip to be memorable!

               The worst part about this is that I completely fail to take into consideration that my loved ones might actually know what they want to do already.  The wonderment of my company might have been what brought them out here in the first place, but that doesn’t mean they want to spend all their time with me playing tour guide.  God knows, when I’m the visitor I’m constantly trying to make sure I’m not imposing on them too much, while still seeing all the “must-see” attractions listed in my Rough Guide. 

           Aargh.  I know I’m not alone in this.  So what’s the perfect solution?

Tags: guests, sightseeing, Tips, vancouver

Vacation Anatomy part 2: The trip itself

           Okay, so now you’re off.  All your worldly possessions are crammed in your wheeled nylon sidekick, you have a complimentary bag of peanuts in your pocket and your camera batteries fully charged.  I’m not going to tell you how to travel, that’s a very personal thing and can vary dramatically from person to person.  But I am going to say: enjoy every second of it.

               Whether you’ve been to the destination a dozen times before or it’s your very first, the most important thing is that you have fun while you’re there.  Without a doubt, everyone gets out of a vacation exactly what they put into it.  Happiness is contagious.  Regardless if you can communicate with the people around you or not. a smile is universal and can go farther than you think in breaking down barriers.  Things have a tendency to go awry on vacations (be it a late plane connection, mislaid luggage, a disappointing city tour or even simply getting lost), but the secret shared by all great travelers is to not let that event ruin your whole trip. Far too often I’ve seen it where something goes a bit off-track at the beginning of a vacation, and, despite the fact that the matter was resolved, the passengers continue to mope about it for the remainder of the trip.   All this does is bring them and the people around them down.  Move on.  Roll with it.  Don’t rob yourself of enjoying your hard-earned vacation.  You spent a lot of time and money on this, you deserve for it to be great.     

              Remember, the  joy is in the details.  Even a trip to the supermarket can be fun if you look at it from the right angle (”They have seafood tempura flavoured chips?  Cool! ”, “It called Coke Light here instead of Diet Coke!”) and revel in all that your destination has to offer.  Then, no matter where you are and what you’re doing, you’re guaranteed to have great memories of your vacation. 

            But eventually you have to go home, which brings us to Stage 3…

Tags: BlogSherpa, enjoyment, luggage, memories, Tips, travel agent

Vacation Anatomy part 1: the anticipation

               I’ve been sitting here, staring at this computer for hours wondering what to blog about.  From what I can find through google, most travel blogs are only for the duration of each person’s specific trip, so nobody has to write to fill the time in between vacations.  That got me thinking: why?  What is it about the “gap” days/months/years that fail to inspire bloggers?  Granted, the most interesting part of any vacation is the time you’re actually on it, but the joy of travel is so much bigger than just the dates you book off from work that it deserves some attention, too.  My Mom always told me that “every vacation comes in three parts: the anticipation, the actually going, and the talking about it afterwards”, and she’s right.

           The anticipation is the longest and hardest to define part of every vacation, as it can take many forms.  It starts with that first niggle at the back of your mind that you’d like to go somewhere, as, even before you’re actually planning anything, you’re already anticipating it.   Watching that episode of Globe Trekker when they go to Brazil, or even seeing the Batchelorette go to Hawaii; hearing your friends talk about how much they loved Vegas; whatever it takes to get your travel motor running. 

         This then leads into the inevitable (and highly enjoyable) internet search phase.  Depending on how research-centric you are this can take an hour or months before you decide “yep, this place has exactly what I’m looking for in a vacation” and you drop by to see me at work.  I have tons of friends/clients who don’t do any research at all, they just decide to go someplace and book it, and on the flip side, there’s an equal amount of people who end up with that giant binder of yahoo printouts and know down to the second what they’re going to do.  I’m somewhere in the middle.  I like my research, knowing what the must-see sights are and exactly how to get there (on public transportation, if possible.  Skytrains/subways/buses rock), and knowing all about my hotel and it’s location, but I’m not staying up nights obsessively googling. 

           And now you’re booked.  Fully committed.  Non-refundable.  I love the feeling you get when your official tickets are in your hot little hands for the first time, it really hits home that “Holy crap, I’m going to _______!”  This is awesome!  I need a moneybelt!”  This segues into the giddy phase, when just the mention of your destination (or travel in general) can cause you to drift away into daydreamland, a far away look in your eyes and a stupid grin on your face.  Think of that TV commercial where the kid’s jumping on his bed wearing a snorkel as his parents book the tropical vacation.  That too could be you!  This is one of my favorite phases, as I love that happy, swimmy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Come to think of it, it’s a lot like prepping for date (but with more non-emotional baggage), you’re all excited, but you still have to remember everything you need to do/buy/take with you so you have the best time.   

            And before you know it all the days have been checked off on your calendar, you’re all packed, you’ve got someone watering your plants for you and it’s time to enter Stage 2…

Tags: BlogSherpa, Tips, travel agent

What strikes fear into the heart of every travel agent…

          “That’s not how my name’s spelled on my passport.”

Or, even more terrifying,

           ”That’s not the name on my passport.”

          Aargh!  Names are like travel kryptonite, the one thing that airlines don’t like you to change once the ticket has been paid for, at least not without a sizeable fee (and we’re talking hundreds here, people).   From what I hear (this is back before my time in the industry) you used to be able to book a ticket using just an inital or a random name and then, if that person couldn’t/didn’t want to travel, you could just change the name and you were good to go.  Not any more.  Especially not since 9/11.  Every country wants to know without a doubt who the heck they are letting onto their soil, and this is not taken lightly.  If you show up at the airport and your ticket doesn’t match your passport (or ID, depending on the destination), you’re not going anywhere, plain and simple.  That’s why we always, always, always ask for your name as it appears on your passport.

              “Binky” might be cute, and I’m sure you like it better than your legal name, but it’s not going to get you on a plane unless it’s the first name on your passport.  Not the middle name either (for all intents and purposes, middle names are to airlines like olives are to martinis, nice and decorative and easy to ignore), but the first.  And it doesn’t matter if the people at Visa were happy to issue you your credit card to that name, either.  Until they become a legal governing body (okay, with the way we all love our credit cards – me included – this could happen eventually…) it’s not going to help you get to Lima any more than your library card would.  On a side note, firearms licences are never a good idea to show the people at airport check in, it just makes them double-search your luggage and eye you suspiciously for the duration of your flight.

        Typos can happen, although rarely.  If they do, we fix it.  We’re professionals, we might be hyperventilating as we do it, but we’ll make sure you get on that plane.  On the other hand, if you’re not 100% sure of what name appears on your passport, or your friend’s passport, go home and reconfirm it before putting your money down.  The second that ticket’s issued, any change, no matter how small, is going to cost you big.  I’ve witnessed friendships fall apart over this, when one friend gets a little over-eager and books the tickets with the names they think are right, only to discover their best friend has always gone by their middle name, and now it’s going to cost CAD$400.00 to get the ticket reissued.  The friend with the wrong name doesn’t want to split that bill, since it wasn’t their fault the names were spelled wrong in the first place, but the friend who made the mistake either doesn’t have the money for the fee or resents the friend for not being understanding and helpful.  From there it just spirals… you get the point. 

        Oh, and if you’re looking at tickets on EBay or Craig’s List, I hope it’s for decorative purposes only, because there’s no way that CAD$50.00 ticket to London is going to actually get you to London.  Unless, of course, you actually do happen to have the same legal name as the seller, but I have yet to see this happen.  If anyone knows of a time it has, please let me know, I’ll pass it around the office and it’ll become the stuff of travel legends.

         So before you part with your hard-earned money, check your passport and make sure you know what name the government would like you to go by, or you’ll be parting with even more of that money and earning yourself (and your agent) a world of unneeded stress.  You would never believe the amount of Tums I go through.  Really.  But if we work together and get the names right in the first place, we’re golden.

Thanks

Tags: BlogSherpa, names, Passports, Tips, travel agent

Zen and the Art of the Moneybelt

     In the travel world there are two camps: the Debit card withdraw-it-as-you-need-it people and the Moneybelters.  I am firmly a Moneybelter.  On my list of must-haves for travel, my moneybelt is right up there with my passport and air tickets.   There’s a certain confidence that comes with knowing at all times that my cash is safely down my pants.

           That said, I am one of those women who can’t – and won’t – function without my massive purse (is that a lettuce in there?  And a curling iron?  And a pair of pants? Honestly, all things I either currently have in there or have within the last week), where I do keep my spending money.  For that day.  Whatever excess cash I have is happily nestled in my moneybelt. Should anyone steal my baby, er, my purse (I’d take them out.  Really.  No one messes with my purse.  But it’s the principle…) I’d still have enough cash to get a taxi to the police station, buy some food to sustain me for the long hours spent filling out police reports in some random foreign language, and taxi me back to the hotel afterwards.  A moneybelt will never replace a purse, as it’s just awkward reaching down your pants when you try to pay for your bag of chips at the minimart (especially in some countries, where this could be punishable by jail time).   If the hotel has a safe, I use it, too, for any currency I may be carrying for different countries, or just to keep the bulk of the wad in my moneybelt from being too noticeable.  And for my passport.  But there are times when you need to have your passport with you, and when it’s down your pants in it’s nicely zippered compartment, I know I’m not going to reach into my purse for a mint and accidentally drop it to the curb.

        Speaking of passports, I always keep a copy of mine in my moneybelt, too, just in case it gets lost or stolen.  It’s also a good idea to have a photocopy of the person you’re travelling with’s as well, and to have them carry a copy of yours.  The liklihood of you both getting ripped off at the same time is slim, and having that copy will make it so much faster at the consulate to have a replacement ordered.

      I know they’re not cool looking, and they do evoke images of those old couples with the matching khaki pouches on strings around their necks, but everyone should seriously invest in a moneybelt.  Besides, unless you have random people looking down your pants (and you know who you are), nobody’s ever going to see it anyway.

             I should also add that I’m a strong advocate to travelling with (at least some) cash, and not relying solely on my debit card to make withdrawls as I need it.  Firstly, this is way better on your budget, as you know exactly how much you have and aren’t going to just be randomly spending until that magic machine on the wall stops giving you bills.  Secondly, if you’re cashless and nowhere near a bank, your taxi driver in Calcutta or Bangkok or New Jersey is not going to take debit.  Or, most of the time, credit, either.  Nor are they going to understand you when you try to climb out of the cab at the bank, telling them that you’re just going to get some money and be able to pay them when you get back.  This last one is never, ever a good idea.  Cash is so much more convenient.  Yes, you have to be mindful of where your money is at all times, but you should be doing that anyway, right?

       Taking the local currency is also a big plus.  I’m not saying take nothing but Colones to Costa Rica, but the local currency is guaranteed to be accepted everywhere (the American dollar is a good emergency fallback – you’d love the look of “what’s that, play money?” you get if you try to use Canadian!- but who knows what exchange rate you’re paying) and I, personally, just find it a sign of respect to the country you’re visiting to recognize their culture and not ask them to recognize yours.  Plus, you get to play with all the different funky-looking monies out there.  They’re totally fun.  Like in Hong Kong, where they have 3 different, but equally effective $10 bills, so you have to keep double-checking that yep, that too is $10.

         The moneybelt just rocks.  If the situation was bad enough, it probably could save the world, though at the very least it could really save your back someday.  Join me.  Become a Moneybelter!

Tags: BlogSherpa, money, Moneybelt, personal safety, theft prevention, Tips