Blog - Go Backpacking

Where to Find Cheap Coffee in Paris

This is a guest post by Rita. If you want to guest post on Go Backpacking, please read more here.

Did you silently scream "quel horreur" when you saw the bill after downing a couple of drinks at a restaurant? Or get frustrated when you can't find affordable grub near the Eiffel Tower? Chances are, well, you just didn't find the right places to go. Or know the rules.

Don't be put off- Paris can be affordable, and often in the most unexpected arrondissements (districts). So stop trying to sweet-talk your way through with the waiter. Just take the bill, pay and don't look back. Unless the waiter/waitress is breathtakingly cute and somehow asked you for your phone number.

Mind you, I'm no expert, but after living in Paris as a stagiare (worker/intern) for almost 2 years and living on a pittance, one is bound to know a thing or two about hanging out in the city with 5Euro (fine, make that 10) in your pocket.

Here are a few tips on how to live cheap (whether for a day, a week, or more) in Paris.

We all know how the French (and francophiles alike) are obsessed with their daily Joe. The rule of thumb, obviously, is trying out coffee in a Parisian cafe. The most important thing, however, is to know where you stand in a bar. If you are that short on cash, and still want that Parisian-cafe-experience, drink your coffee au bar.

Going straight up to where the bartender/barista/owner is, and drinking your coffee there, can save you anywhere between 50 cents to 2 Euro . Often, there are stools at the bar- and no Parisian dozes off into space with their coffee, like the people at Starbucks anyway. Stay more than 20 minutes at the bar, and erwell, paying up is your option. Call me a know-it-all, but I'm the only person I know who's stayed more than 20 minutes au bar (because I am terribly, terribly cheap).

Enjoying a late summer picnic on the Pont des Arts

Second thing to keep in mind: call. it. right.

Ask for your coffee the way a Parisian would. I haven't seen anyone getting ripped off because of lacking access to this lexicon, but I have certainly seen the quality of their cafe decrease as a result (indicator: amount of chocolate sprinkle or whipped cream on a cafe viennois. Very scientific).

Don't ask for an espresso unless you want to buy a Nescafe machine, for God's sake. That cup of magic black brew is a cafe. A macciato is a noisette. A latte is a creme. And cappucino is well, a cappucino. If you want a latte with lots of whipped cream on it? It's not creme avec...er, creme, but a cafe viennois. And a carafe (jug) or a verre d'eau should come for free with every coffee. You might need to ask for it, but every Parisian restaurant should serve tap water for FREE, coffee or no coffee with the order.

If grabbing a cafe and people-watching on a terrace in Saint Germain is your thing, be reminded that it IS an expensive area of Paris. If you insist on going to Les Deux Magots for your cup, a cappucino there is probably 5 Euro . A salade probably 15. So make sure you've got bills in your pocket. Some restos (that's right, they call "˜em resto!) won't take a credit card if your bill is too small. There are other options, too.

Take a walk around the area. From the exit of metro Saint-Germain de Pres, near the Cathedral and the Rue de Rennes there are quite a few cute bars. Hop in during happy hour and you might be pleasantly surprised. The true finds, however, lies near the Academie Nationale de Medecine and the Ecole des Beaux Arts.

Colorful macaroons at La Duree, Paris — Colorful macaroons from Laduree, Paris

You'll be happy to find a 1.2 Euro espresso ("Cafe") in the Bar Aux Deux Academie; or, a 1.50 Euro machiatto ("noisette") in a cute little bar on the corner of Rue des Beaux-Arts. And there are few others like them, too.

There's a secret joy to be surrounded by students and researchers from the ENA or the Academie while stealing a peek at the cute guy scribbling in his sketchbook on the stool next to you. Yes, I am that shallow.

And on your way to get there, don't forget to hop in Laduree- the French landmark of dessert heaven. Go to this location to buy macaroons and you'll skip the line at their store on the Champs Elysee.

The best thing about hanging out in the Saint-Germain area, however, is having a picnic on the Pont des Arts.

A wooden bridge normally filled by young people and beer-sellers, it is the best place for a relaxing picnic, a read, or a short break- all for free- while enjoying a magnificent view over the Seine River and the Rive Gauche of Paris. Keep in mind, however, that there are no supermarkets near the Pont des Arts, so go with a sandwich (better yet, bread and cheese and wine) to enjoy a lovely evening, before ka-chingin' it in the Parisian night life.

Let's continue with beer, grub, sandwiches, fromage and everything in between in our next encounter.

Mais oui.

-
About the Author: Rita has called Hong Kong, Toronto, Paris, and Brussels her home and is currently intern-ing again in Brazil before her savings run out. She enjoys sharing frugal-living tips, the joy of people-watching, and embarking on the search for sushi in every city she travels to on her blog (http://rita.nomadlife.org). Follow her on Twitter @ritapang

Photos: Picnic and Macaroons by Rita. Cafe by David Lee.

ESL Lesson Planning: Forget the Grammar; Give Thanks Instead

Thanksgiving. The word that evokes such a variety of emotions: the warmth of family reunions, that unique tryptophan-induced exhaustion, the intensity of shopping the day-after sales, the perfect satiety after second helpings of pumpkin pie.

Ask any American living abroad, and Thanksgiving is almost always bound to stir up fond memories of food and family. It is the one holiday we all share in all its overindulgence, and the one that doesn't seem to be matched in excess by any nation throughout the world.

As an ESL instructor, the holiday is a prime time to take a lesson beyond lists of vocabulary and surface grammar guidelines. While I was well-skilled in posing incessant questions to my students (no one improves without practice), when Thanksgiving arrived, I did away with the question marks. I quieted my students, upped the amount of teacher talking time, and instead of inquiring about their traditions, I shared some of mine.

Every course, whether ESL or not, needs a day or two that break from the norm. The holidays are an ideal time: half your students may have already left for their exceptionally lengthy vacations, and if they haven't, their minds may very well have. Everyone is distracted, preparing for guests or for travel, planning out holiday menus, brainstorming gift ideas for that impossible-to-buy-for uncle. What better time to forgo the present perfect in favor of a bit of culture?

A Thanksgiving lesson doesn't need to be expertly planned. Though the holiday is unique to our country, the concept of holiday gatherings is obviously not. As I described my national traditions, my students willingly chimed in with their own tales. I came out of those lessons having exchanged decorating tips and holiday recipes, in addition to a few embarrassing tales of that year someone had a bit too many pours of wine.

The beauty of a conversation-based class such as this is that grammar corrections inevitably pop up. So, the lesson will naturally develops an ESL focus, with a practical cultural twist.

Plus, an extra perk: one holiday lesson can easily be used for every course, no matter the level. With that lesson planning time freed up, there's no excuse not to dirty the pots and pans for a full international Thanksgiving feast. If you're brave, you can even ask your students to attend.

Friday Flashback - A Rushed Exploration of Delhi

Miscalculations. They happen with travel, which is why I always try and check out a destination in person before deciding whether it's worthwhile in my book or not.

Delhi, as I found out upon my arrival, and thus too late, was worth a lot more time then I gave it.

Doing the Delhi Hustle

Exploring Old Delhi - Jama Masjid and The Red Fort

Family Night

Bukhara - Delhi's Best Restaurant

India's War Memorial and Humayun's Tomb

Final Thoughts - Incredible India

Next, we're leaving mystical and eccentric India for the tropical beaches and islands of Thailand.

From the Editor: Thank You!

I've come full circle this Thanksgiving Day.

Two years ago, I was enjoying this uniquely American holiday with my parents while my brother was stationed in Iraq, near Baghdad. Last year, my brother was home and I was in the full throes of my trip around the world - on safari in Kruger Park, South Africa I believe. And today, my family is reunited under one house and I'm incredibly thankful for that.

I'm thankful for the travel opportunities I've had in 2009, specifically:

NYE 08 - Champagne, quiche, and French girls

Being hosted by my friend Laura in Paris, and ringing in the New Year at her friend's house party
Being hosted by my friend Stefan in Bern, Switzerland
Enjoying lunch atop the Swiss Alps in winter
Couchsurfing in Geneva, Switzerland
Being hosted by my friends Magali and Sebastien near Bordeaux, France
Getting front row ticket's to see FC Barcelona play at home in Camp Nou
Couchsurfing in Madrid, Spain
Couchsurfing in Bogota, Colombia
The chance to fall passionately in love with a city named Medellin, live with a sweetie named Maira, build wonderful friendships, and learn how to salsa
The ability to visit New York City regularly, for book launch parties and travel writer karaoke nights

I'm thankful for all of the help and feedback I've received from people regarding my travel blogs.

Pastries and chocolate - Barcelona, Spain

There are far too many people to name, but I'm going to throw a few out there anyways:

Gary at Everything Everywhere
Christine at Almost Fearless
Matt at Nomadic Matt
Boris at Travel Junkie
Jen at Mondo Beyondo
Kai at College Humor
Alisha and Sean at Sosauce
Adriaan at Colombia Reports
Michaela at Briefcase to Backpack

I'm thankful for everyone who responded to my request for contributors to Go Backpacking, especially the regulars.

Wine tasting with Magalie & Seb - St Emilion, France

Each of them is a pleasure to work with and they're helping to build this travel blog into something special:

Danielle at Around the World in 340 Days
Leslie at The Whole Plate
Lindsay at Nomadderwhere
Matthew Falk
Andy Green & Shelly
Andi at My Beautiful Adventures
T-roy at FOGG Odyssey

I'm thankful for every...single...reader of Go Backpacking!

And of course, I'm thankful for all of the wonderful sponsors and affiliates, whose text links and banners you can find throughout this travel blog.

Let's Be Adventurous: Solutions for a Picky Eater

" Let's be adventurous!"? I said. Andy cringed, " Are you sure?"? I immediately rolled my eyes at him, " Yeah let's order something new! What's the worse that could happen?"? Having that combination of words come from my mouth immediately sets us up for an interesting eating experience. We had no intention of living on the wild side that day but, sometimes the spirit moves us and just have to go for the culinary gold and try something new. As Andy and I sat in the little German restaurant and poured over the menu, we finally settled on a cheese and chive bread appetizer.

Our appetizer came out and did not look intimidating at all. I excitedly grabbed a slice of cheese and began to take a huge bite. Andy quickly suggested that we wait for our beer just in case we need to diffuse the taste of our food. " I don't need beer! It's be adventurous day,"? I triumphantly exclaimed. I took to making a huge chomping noise as I tried my cheese. Oh the cheese, did I mention I am the world's pickiest eater and in no way am I a cheese connoisseur? Needless to say, Andy was more then right; I should have waited for the beer!

The last thing we wanted to do was insult our hosts. So, ¾ of a beer later, we managed to choke down our cheese tray. The best part about our appetizer came after we finished it. I sat at the table with my hand over my mouth trying to choke down the rest of the cheese when I smelled something terrible.

" Andy, do my hands smell?"?
" What?"?
" Oh my gosh, smell my hands!!"?
" No! Why?"?
" They smell terrible! Smell them!"?
" Fine.sniff..yup, gross"?
" EWWWWWW!! Why do my hands smell?!"?
" Is it the cheese?"?
" I'm not smelling it! You do it!"?
" Fine.sniff..yup, it's the cheese."?

The cheese and bread mix left a terrible smell on our hands. It very much resembled how Tucker (our dog) smells when he comes in from the rain. We had to laugh; being adventurous definitely kicked us in the butt! The rest of our meal was just as eventful with the majority of my food being shoveled onto Andy's plate.

Andy and myself have a very interesting dynamic when it comes time to eating. More often then not, I am the one who decides to try something new and ends up hating it. To counteract both of us starving, we agree on one exciting dish and then one normal dish. This has saved me multiple times from starving to death, or a 100-yard dash to the closest bathroom. We both try new foods (let's be honest, Andy tries the new food and I take tiny bites and claim I am expanding my international food palette) and are fully satisfied, most of the time, when we leave a restaurant.

Our plan of attack has lead us to great food discoveries we never would have dreamed of trying in the States. Goulash and dumplings is now one of my favorite dishes, while Andy has grown to love eggs cracked in the middle of his pizza. Having a partner to travel and eat with is the only way I am willing to do things! If it weren't for Andy's good nature, I probably would have never stepped outside my comfort zone and tried new foods around Europe.

Every day is a new adventure when it comes time to eat in a foreign country. Whether you have a successful food day, or a failure of a food day, it almost always leads to great stories to tell later on. I always live by one rule, if I'm scared of my food after a few bites; I can always get ice cream later.

Forget a Guide, a Book... and Even a Map

I know, I know, this is all very unexpected.

Why would a book reviewer, and travel book reviewer at that, suggest not to bring along those books on my own trips?

And, my gosh, let's not even begin questioning why on earth she would think it sound advice to tell me not to bring a guide.

Or even a map. Ha!

Well, I'm not exactly telling you that you should or shouldn't do anything. But please consider my proposition.

Why? Because some of my best travel experiences have been spent without any of the three.

I know that studying abroad is supposed to be an academic joke.

Most universities do not equate the credit to that of their courses offered on the main campus, which translates to an easy class, a pass/fail grading system or a little bit of both.

Studying abroad was not like that for me. By the time midterms came around last semester, I was stressed and in desperate need of a vacation.

Thankfully, spring break began the day after my last exam.

My best traveling companion and I had previously booked hostels in our three destinations (Dublin, Budapest, Florence) and bought plane tickets to and from each random European city.

We had the essentials covered. And before we knew it, we kissed our classes goodbye (for a week) and hopped on our plane from Baden-Baden to the Dublin airport without a care or worry in the world.

There was some method to our madness: All we had wanted to do was go to Budapest to visit my neighbor's family and see the city from the inside out, through the eyes of the Hungarian locals.

But you, of all people, most understand the way that discount airlines work... without any logic.

And so, I placed my perfectionism and planning tendencies behind me as we found the cheapest flight in (and out of Dublin) and the cheapest flight out (to Florence).

We "planned" our entire 8 days of traveling without an agenda, and yet we achieved everything and more that we had set out to do.

We saw the sights in Dublin as we walked aimlessly through the streets.

But we also got to know Arklow, a small coastal town that we chose randomly on the train map in hopes of finding the essence of Ireland.

We visited all of the historically- and contemporary-influential places in Budapest.

But we also tasted the best hot chocolate we had ever had and realized the beauty in tragically forgotten buildings.

We took the tour of Florence offered by our hostel and even spent a long morning in the world-famous Uffizi. But?

It was raining, we were tired of tourists, we walked up to the hill before us, higher and higher until we found it.

We soon learned that "it" was the Bardini Garden, and we were, at that moment in time, it's sole visitors.

We continued on to the Boboli gardens after, of course, but we remember our secret garden most fondly.

"How, then, find the courage for action?

By slipping a little into unconsciousness, spontaneity, instinct which holds one to the earth and dictates the relatively good and useful.

By accepting the human condition more simply, and candidly, by dreading troubles less, calculating less, hoping more."

-Hendric Freder Amiel

Be spontaneous.

ESL Lesson Planning: Controversial Topics

During my first week as a newly donned ESL Instructor, I participated in an orientation workshop, a requirement for recruits from one of the schools where I worked.

The meeting was basically an express version of the month-long TEFL course many of us had recently completed: the school covered its bases by sufficiently "training" us in one afternoon; we teachers handled the boredom of repetition by following the three-hour meeting with the reward of happy hour.

Towards the workshop's end, the senior teacher leading us pulled out an old, spiral-bound binder.

It was a photocopied mess, clearly well-used but absurdly out of place next to the gloss and color of Cutting Edge Intermediate and International Express.

This unassuming binder, we were told, would become our lesson planning bible.

We would fight over it, laugh over it, give thanks to it.

We would consistently fail to find it on the library shelves because one of the 200 teachers on staff would undoubtedly be leafing through its worn pages.

Initially, I brushed off those lofty words. But within two weeks of attempting to juggle my new schedule of twenty unique lessons a week, I became a believer.

The book's title was Taboos and Issues, and inside, it held thirty-two fully planned lessons that spanned from abortion and homosexuality to which nationality made the most irritating tourists.

That book saved my ESL life on many an occasion. Visitor in town and no time to lesson plan? A shy student who needed to practice conversation?

Dread at the thought of spending another hour on the proper use of the present perfect?

There was undoubtedly a taboo or an issue to photocopy and pass around.

Lesson planning is a downside of the teaching profession in general: you have to take your work home, but you are only paid for your hours inside the classroom (or your student's office, as is often the ESL case).

Taboos and Issues made our lives easier.

It did the planning for us. It let us use our brains when we couldn't fathom correcting more spelling mistakes.

And it prepared our students for the real world. The high school courses my students had already completed didn't cover the vocabulary for the pro-choice or -life debate.

But the next time they entered a bar outside the Czech borders, I'm confident they were able to sustain a conversation well beyond, "What's your favorite hobby?" I'd qualify that as a job well done.

An American in Hiroshima

This is a guest post by Joel Putnam. If you want to guest post on Go Backpacking, please read more here.

Japanese forest as seen from the bullet train — Picture this Japanese forest going by your train window

The bullet train jolted me awake at about 250 km/hr. After an all-nighter climbing Mt Fuji, I'm not sure anything else would have done the trick. But the sudden shake sideways, caused by another 250 km/hr train passing us in the opposite direction, was enough.

First thing I remembered upon waking was being annoyed with myself. My JR rail pass expired at midnight. I'd wanted to get to Shimonoseki in time for the ferry to Busan, Korea. But I'd missed a subway by five minutes, causing me to miss the first train, causing me to miss that day's ferry. A five minute delay snowballed into a full day's delay. I wasn't pleased.

I groaned, rubbed my eyes, and looked out the window. It was quite a view, all bamboo forests and hills. They gave way to a village made entirely of rice paddies and traditional Japanese houses, like something out of a childrens' picture book.

From there we went into a tunnel, and back into the hills. Then came a second traditional Japanese farming village. Then the third, after another tunnel. I got out my camera as we went into the second tunnel and got it ready to take shots of what I expected to be the fourth village on the other side of the latest tunnel. That's when a tone sounded and an announcement came through the speakers for the next stop: "Tsugi ekewa Hiroshima. Hiroshima desu..."

I lowered my camera. There would be no ancient farming village on the other side of this tunnel. Anything made before 1945 would be gone.

We pulled into the Hiroshima station and I looked outside at the rain. Do I get off? I might still make it onto tonight's ship, if I happened to get a fast local train connection to town, and then begged. Even if I didn't, I wasn't sure I wanted to see this place in the rain. What would there be left to see?

I was pretty much convinced not to go, until I thought of something my father told me a long time ago: that in life, he'd always regretted the things he hadn't done far more than the things he'd done. I picked up my new bag, squeezed past the people boarding, and stepped out of the train.

Paper lanterns made by children and floated in the river to commemorate the victims of the bomb. The collapsed one was one of the sadder things Ive seen in some time. — Paper lanterns made by children and floated in the river to commemorate the victims of the bomb. The collapsed one was one of the sadder things I've seen in some time.

It was hot. The bad kind too. Not scorching, but just muggy enough to make you feel sticky. I walked downstairs into the station and picked up a free tourist map, wandering vaguely towards something described as the "Peace Park."

I read about an event or two planned on the back, where families of the victims of the atomic bomb would gather at 6:00pm to launch paper lanterns with messages for peace down the river in honor of the 64th anniversary of the bomb.

August 6th.

I looked at my cell phone to check the time.

Thursday, August 6th, 6:15pm.

I've seen demonstrations for peace before, but usually they're either political or filled with the kind of guy who, when I asked for tips on traveling through Laos, turned his blond, dreadlocked head to me and said "Love. Just... open yourself to Love... all around you."

The only building in Hiroshima to survive the atomic bomb.

This was different. I saw families walking down the street with their kids, who were drawing on pieces of paper, getting ready to send them out across the water. Pieces with Japanese flags, American flags, and simple words.

They wrote their messages, attached them to floating bottoms with candles, and sent them down the river under the shadow of the "atomic" dome - the skeletal beams of the only structure to survive the nuclear explosion.

I wondered if that was really what it took to bring people together with an answer, a quiet demonstration that they saw death and destruction a long time ago, they know an alternative, and they want to honor it.

I saw a group of people around my age holding signs that said "Free Hugs." I walked up to one of them and asked a man why the signs were only in English, and not in Japanese. He told me in broken English that it was an international symbol that the Japanese people knew too.

My grandfather and great-uncle both served in the US military during WWII. We've always been proud of that. Still, my great-uncle has a few things to say about the Japanese that I don't care to repeat in public. Many of these guys probably had grandparents in the Japanese military. Who knows what some of them say about people like me and my family.

All I know is their grandchildren were there to honor peace, and they wanted to give hugs, and their signs were written in my language.

I caught the ferry to Korea the next day. I don't mind the delay anymore.
----

Joel Putnam dreamed of seeing the world and having big adventures when he was little. Now he's out doing it. If you've got the time and the curiosity, read some of his stories and tips at jtrek.blogspot.com.

Photos courtesy of Joel Putnam.

The First DC Travel Tweetup

On November 12th, the Liberty Tavern in Clarendon, VA was ground-zero for a DC travel tweetup of epic proportions.

The call to share a few beers, and travel yarns, was made by Stephanie of Twenty-Something Travel and yours truly here at GoBackpacking. I arrived first, to a bar packed with Arlingtonians enjoying a Thursday night happy hour. I scoffed at the $15+ premium beer menu, and truffle pizzas.

Stephanie (@20stravel) arrived next, which gave me a chance to get to know my lovely co-host one on one. She was soon followed by Sonia (@pupologist) and her husband Mark, who had recently returned from a trip to Italy.

We were then joined by Sarah (@volunteerglobal) who works for the Peace Corps, and finally Alex (@thebudak), who is working on his Master's at Georgetown.

It was a lot of fun to get together with local travel bloggers and put faces with the little photos which flash across Twitter all the time.

Unfortunately, we missed Marilyn (@Marilyn_Res) from National Geographic, who arrived but could not find us. I may have to bite the bullet and wear a name tag (or a big blue bird hat) next time to ensure that doesn't happen again.

The next DC Travel Tweetup will actually be in the capital, and should be announced in the next few weeks.

Friday Flashback - India's Golden Temple & Pakistan Border Ceremony

As my time in India drew to a close, I made a mad dash from McLeod Ganj to a few special sites further west.

The Golden Temple in Amritsar is literally a temple made of gold, and the number one pilgrimage site for Sikhs. Despite the overcast weather, it was still a sight to behold.

Later in the afternoon, I attended the India-Pakistan border crossing ceremony which I had first seen on Michael Palin's "Himalaya" TV series. It was one of the coolest experiences of my entire trip.

Sikhism's Golden Temple in Amritsar

The Surreal India-Pakistan Border Ceremony

My Last Indian Train Ride

Next week's Friday Flashback will cover my posts from Delhi, and then it's off to Southeast Asia to see what kind of trouble I got myself into last year.

Destination Asia: Packing Ultra-Light

" You're an idiot,"? was the exact reaction I got from my mom when I told her that I would be packing ultra-light.

What do I mean when I say I'll be packing ultra-light?

Well I'm trading in my 65 liter Eagle Creek Explorer LT for a Futura 28 Day Pack, and that is the only bag I'll be taking on my 4 month trip to South-East Asia. OK, so now you think I'm an idiot too, don't you?

It's not an original idea and it has been done successfully before.

I first heard of this style of travel through a series of blog posts on Gadling called Life Nomadic.

I was intrigued to the learn of author Tyan, who has been a huge proponent of this style of travel, having traveled this way for years.

I've always traveled light. On my first trip, my backpack weighed in at under 20lbs, fully loaded.

I smirked every time another traveler would walk into my hostel wearing a 90L monster packed to the brim with whatever didn't fit hanging off the side like a traveling salesman.

Scaling down my gear to a 28L pack may seem impossible but really it's not, the golden rule is light, thin clothes and less of them. That coupled with upgrading my gear to the smallest option available will make it possible.

For example, instead of taking a day pack I'll be taking a Kiva Key Chain Pack, which is a full day pack that will scrunch up into a little zippered package small enough to fit on a key chain.

For my trip to Cuba, I used an even smaller bag as a test.

Though I was staying in one place throughout the entire trip, it wasn't a true test, but it did assure me that my plan was plausible.

But why would I want to put myself through the strain of having to do without?

Besides the obvious advantage of not hauling around the extra weight, I will enjoy several other benefits, mainly that I can take everything I own everywhere.

I probably won't always, but if I ever feel that my room isn't secure then I won't suffer when I take it with me.

I will also be taking my pack on treks with me.

In particular, if there is a trek that follows a point A to point B route, then usually guest houses will arrange for your bags to be sent to your destination.

Maybe it's just my obsession with reading horror stories, but I don't like the idea of parting with my only possessions on the continent for extended periods of time. By packing ultra-light, I won't have to.

Considering I'll be on approximately 11 flights in the next year, across multiple countries and carriers, packing this light will allow me to keep my possessions within arm's reach at all times.

If my bag were to get lost even for a few days it would be a monumental setback. Doesn't skipping the baggage claim after a long flight sound like a little slice of heaven?

The most enticing reason for me to travel ultra-light is the sheer challenge. It will make me a more disciplined, and efficient traveler. Even when I want nothing more then the roomy comfort of my old bag, I will have no choice but to persevere.

Travel is all about pushing yourself and your comfort zones, and what better way is there to do that than by taking the road less traveled?

Below is the video explaining how to pack ultra-light that inspired me to push myself.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Thanks to my love for his masterpiece, Into Thin Air, I was already on Krakauer's side before I even picked up its predecessor, Into the Wild. I knew it would be a story that would tempt, scare, and awe me.

The Storyline

Starting from the book's cover, the outcome is apparent to the reader: the protagonist, a 24 year-old Emory graduate, dies. Where does the story unfold from here?

McCandless' Letters to his Road Friends

Krakauer reveals the perspectives of the people who became integral parts of McCandless' quest: the electrician who dropped him at the mouth of the Stampede Trail outside Healy, Alaska; the hunters who found his body; the jack-of-all-trades who employed and befriended him in South Dakota throughout the two year journey; an old man who felt so connected as to ask to be his guardian; and the tormented family still writhing in painful loss at home in Virginia.

It's an investigation where the main mystery is the state of the human condition, and the reader asks, "What compelled Chris?" It is through the tales of these personal encounters with McCandless that the reader can decide if he was narcissistic and stupid or in touch with something most of us try not to channel.

McCandless mailed many letters to road friends, kept journals and wrote thoughts in book margins, which help the reader to deduce further his mental state. One such letter to his friend, Ron (an older man whom McCandless met in Salton City, California), illustrates his passion to inspire those bound by habit to security to do something invigorating:

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future."

The Author's Presence

Not only does Krakauer question these real-life characters in their surroundings but describes every landscape and lifestyle vividly, enough to prove he's been there and absorbed McCandless' experiences viscerally.

Jon Krakauer's National Bestseller

And if the craft and accuracy of his writing aren't enough to prove Krakauer is the right person assigned to the story, then the final affirmation comes from his own stories about paternal relations and outdoor challenges of the body and soul that relate to McCandless. It's through his own solo experience in the Alaskan wild, climbing the Devil's Thumb and traversing the Stikine Ice Cap, that Krakauer impresses the drive of man's primal allure and connection to that which has great potential to kill him.

Chris' Art of Travel

Many say McCandless took on more than he could handle and underestimated the magnitude of Mother Nature, but had he survived [and sidestepped his tiny, fatal mistake] would people have considered him so childish?

Is survival the test of someone's philosophical or inexplicable purpose?

The essence of the narrative, what McCandless sought for those two years as a vagabond, is a means to happiness. If you don't mind a good spoiler, these two excerpts demonstrate the evolution of his viewpoint from journey to final words:

[In his letter to Ron while en route to Alaska] "You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships...We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living..."

[Note found in the margin of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Paternak, the last book he read] "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED"

What was certainly magnified by Krakauer's text was the reality that we humans harbor primordial desires, and it seems we're on a sliding scale with respect to how much we allow these feelings to be heard and acted upon.

It is my belief that travelers and the like-minded are more responsive to those "calls of the wild." Unconventional living forces a constant reevaluation of one's life [and one's mortality], and when we are closer in mindset to our own expiration, it seems we connect closer to the motivations of our primitive ancestors.

Thanks to the realities described by Krakauer, we can assume McCandless died understanding a lesson that seemingly takes half-centuries to comprehend; one could call it a priceless lesson, but since his life was the cost, was it justified?

Case in point, it's a good book. Read it.

One to One: Teaching (and Gossiping with) Individual Students

When glancing through the makeshift syllabus on the first day of my TEFL certification course, I distinctly remember one title catching my attention. "1-2-1: Teaching Individuals."

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or grimace at the nineties-era number speak. The abundance of flannel and male ponytails often made Prague feel firmly rooted in 1995, perhaps proudly hanging onto the country's first decade of self-governing freedom. So, abbreviating " to"? with " 2,"? while cringe-inducing, was probably appropriate.

My course instructor informed us that one-to-one courses are some of the most common in the European ESL market, not only because they can build a teacher's repertoire (and income) with private lessons, but also due to their usefulness to the student. This variety of lesson is a student's best opportunity to practice.

I walked into my first individual lesson exactly as any overprepared, spontaneity-fearing person would: with a perfectly timed lesson plan. Opening the door of the business at which I was teaching, I climbed four flights of stairs to the attic office, where I would spend the next ninety minutes alone with a government customs officer three times my age.

Yeah, he probably wasn't interested in filling in the blank with a noun or a verb.

Likewise, neither was the twenty-five year old secretary whose broken sentences detailed the questionable substances her boyfriend had stashed under their mattress. The near-fluent newlywed whose wife was about to give birth to their first child? Same.

Therapist and gossiper wasn't part of my "1-2-1" education, but in chatting about my students' lives, I realized most of them wanted to do one thing: speak. Maybe they confided secrets in me because speaking a foreign language felt as though they weren't revealing them at all. Maybe they looked to our hour together as an escape from the stress of work. Maybe they were simply taking advantage of an awkward twenty-two year old.

Whatever the reason, I found justification for ditching the lesson plans for long chats and spur of the moment grammatical corrections. My individual students got to practice for the real world. We could hold discussions as they might with business colleagues, or we could gush the way they would over a beer with a friend. We didn't speak English for a grade, we spoke it for reality.

Sure, ninety minutes is a long time to listen to a single person talk, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit to dreading a select few each week. But these lessons were an opportunity to craft a course that my students would truly remember, because for once, we did what they wanted. Even if TEFL is only a means to an expatriate adventure, we are still teachers, and it never hurts to make an impact along the way.

Traveling Tucker - Road Trip Edition

Tucker enjoying fresh air — Tucker takes in the scenery

Traveling with a dog has its ups and downs, highs and lows, fun times, and frustrating times. More then often, the joy of being able to go for a walk with your dog in a new city, watch them smell all the new smells available, and seeing another side of the city is well worth the effort.

We are going to start small and build up with our talks about Traveling with Tucker. The best luck we have had in introducing Tucker to a life on the road is short trips around Iowa.

The majority of his mileage and socialization have come from Andy loading him up into his '92 Beretta and traveling 3 hours to visit Shelly on movie sets across Iowa. Tucker has been going on small road trips since he was 3 months old.

Prior to taking the big leap and cooping him up in the car for 3 plus hours we tried small car rides around town. Most of which ended badly with Tucker attempting to bail out the passenger side window while the car was in motion. Needless to say, we were nervous on how he would handle his first cross-Iowa expedition.

Tucker took his first long trip in the back of Shelly's Escape in his kennel. He was given toys, treats, and towels to keep him busy. He cried nonstop for the first hour and a half of the three-hour ride. He got a break from his kennel to eat at a rest stop/park. Like any good dad, Andy walked Tucker around for him to go potty trying to prevent any accidents from happening in the car. Forty-five minutes later, still walking, no potty. So, Tucker was loaded back up into the car where he proceeded to whine for another thirty minutes. Thankfully, Tucker made it to the hotel without any accidents! The rest of the weekend went so smooth that we have continually brought Tucker across Iowa for the past four months.

Tucker likes air conditioning — Tucker's first hotel experience - he promptly crashed in front of air conditioning for an afternoon nap.

Andy deserves the credit for figuring out the magic combination to getting Tucker to sit in the car and not try to break out. Tucker ALWAYS has to go for a long walk before we go on a trip otherwise he will be the worst backseat driver known to man. He has a tendency to wiggle his way up onto the center counsel and lick anything or anyone within his reach. As you can imagine, it's a bit distracting to have such a large dog licking the side of your head while driving.

We also find it best to take Tucker directly to a park after such a long car ride. We would rather he exercise his legs and empty his bladder somewhere other then our hotel room.

In our short time with Tucker, we have learned to look at hotels in a completely different way:

The air conditiong is always better in the hotel then it is at home.
The best way to make new friends at a MOTEL; let your dog wander into their room.
The most interesting things about hotels can be found in the parking lots.
If you are curious about your new surroundings, simply explore!

What type of road trip you take greatly depends on the personality of your dog. Knowing your dog's limitations and temperament will determine where and what type of trip you will take. We suggest things based off of the knowledge of our dog. We know that all dogs are not the same so please don't get discouraged if your dogs don't react the same way as Tucker in situations!

Short road trips are a great way to teach your dog how to handle new situations and build up to longer even more exciting adventures!

The Importance of Hooking Up Abroad

French guys in America, English guys in Spain, Spanish guys in France, and Argentinians in, well, Argentina. Traveling abroad, among other things, is about hooking up.

Telo in Argentina, where tourists go to hook up abroad. — Telo in Argentina

Are girls sluts if they sleep around? (Don't answer that.) Are they tramps if their repertoire includes people of other languages, countries, and cultures?

Absolutely not. In my opinion, they're resourceful. I should clarify what this "hooking up" business is, exactly.

Not until I traveled abroad did I realize that I had a PG-rated conception, and so I'm using the term as such. Hooking up in my eyes was making out. Anything past that was, well, something past that.

"Yeah, dude, I totally hooked up with Roberto in the middle of the dance floor last night," I told Caroline, a hostel roommate. "You WHAT?"

Come to think of it, I've gotten more strange looks than I've deserved over the years. I shouldn't over-generalize. Some people are committed (maybe even faithful), celibate, or unlucky at gettin' lucky.

Just like single or promiscuous people miss out on things by not settling down with one individual, those who don't hook up while traveling miss out as well. Hooking up, in my eyes, is learning. Traveling and living in hostels is life in fast-forward.

People are constantly coming and going, which has its pluses and minuses, but knowing you have just two coinciding days with some 28-year-old Australian may make the seven-year age gap less off-putting as you consider the question, "what's the worst that can happen?" and rationalize, "I've got no time to waste."

It's the perfect opportunity for trial-and-error; a chance to do things that are far less appealing when involving a co-worker or classmate you'll see come Monday. And how much about the world will you learn from someone who lives in your neighborhood compared to a member of the opposite sex from another country?

Impotence warning in Brazil. — Impotence warning in Brazil

The benefits extend past the obvious. Hooking up removes a wall and opens a door. Let the knowledge flood in.

There's nothing like the insight gained lying side-by-side in a twin hostel bed on pilling sheets after sleeping with a Brazilian, hearing mumbled Portuguese/Spanish about how they haven't felt so relaxed since they found their pet monkey after it escaped from their Copacabana balcony to a playground when they were twelve years old.

It sparked my interest. A month later, I found myself in that part of Rio de Janeiro with an Israeli who taught me how to cook shakshuka and to let my "independent girl" guard down.

I spent a few hour-and-forty-five-minute blocks of time in "telos," more or less sex hotels, which are a cultural staple, with a Buenos Aires native. I learned about idioms and local bands. And I took two-hour local buses to his suburban neighborhood, which I would never have visited had I not "known a guy."

I'd rather hear about childhood memories and be shown around by a local than read the "culture" and "where to go" sections in the Lonely Planet guidebook, and I think most people would concur.

Considering the experiences, the language, the stories, and the cultural understanding that come with it, I think all who have done so have to agree that traveling abroad wouldn't be traveling without hooking up.

Introducing T-roy: Forget Obligation Go Global...it's my odyssey!

People often ask why I have a hyphen in my name and although my parents didn't do drugs the real truth is a friend gave it to me as a nickname back in high school. By birth, my name is Troy Floyd but for reasons of wanting to be unique, I kept the hyphen.

I come from a small town in heartland USA located in Licking, Missouri with a population of only 1,500 people and that's counting the prisoners. I've heard all the jokes and used to just tell people I'm from Lincoln, as it saved me 10 min of introduction time on having to explain my hometown's weird name (and no, the school's mascot is not the beavers!).

Growing up, I wanted to travel but always thought you had to have rich parents or be old or retired. When I was younger, my top 3 places to go to were Brazil, Italy, and Germany.

I made it to Germany when I was 21 and drank beer at the Oktoberfest, courtesy of Uncle Sam and the US Army.

I finally got to travel on my own for the first time in Italy in the summer of 2005. I spent two weeks there with my cousin and we went to as many places as we could in that small amount of time.

After that, I knew I was hooked...I needed more travel. I finally got out of the military and took a job that gave me a free ticket to travel anywhere in the world for 2 weeks, every 4 months. The only drawback to this job was that I had to work 12hr days, 7 days a week!

After the first year, the money was good but it was the travel that I loved. Spinning the globe and throwing my finger down, thinking to myself "Huh, Bali, Indonesia. Never been there, why not!" was a great feeling. I stayed with the job for another 2 more years and in that time I got to travel to almost 20+ different countries.

It wasn't until I went to Australia that I realized that the job wasn't giving me enough of what I wanted. I mean how does one see Oz in 2 weeks? It was then that I realized to be happy I needed to quit and travel as much as I could.

Of course, this is a catch-22 because the more I travel, the longer my list grows. The more I talk with other backpackers, the more I find out about new, secret places I haven't been to.

I quit my job in April 2009 and moved to Thailand for 3 months. I used Bangkok as my hub and traveled as much of Asia as I could.

I then moved to Quito, Ecuador and have been doing nothing that relates to anything responsible but loving life. Still, haven't made it to Brazil yet...but I see that changing soon in the future!

I started my own website/blog to track the people I met, to show the world the things I see and to keep me busy since I don't have a job. I use a Canon DSLR 5D camera for all my photos and travel with about 5 lenses and my handy Mac book for editing. ½ my luggage weight is due to photography gear, but I think it's worth it, and love showing my readers the beauty of the world.

If anyone has a camera-related question, I'd be more than happy to answer questions but do admit I'm no expert.

To keep up with me more, check me out at my website, or on Twitter and Facebook:

Friday Flashback - McLeod Ganj in Northern India

After missing out on the opportunity to visit Tibet due to the pre-Olympic riots in Lhasa months earlier, I was excited to finally reach McLeod Ganj in Northern India.

Home to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the largest community of Tibetans outside of Tibet, it was the perfect place to rest my weary bones for a few weeks.

It turned out to be one of my longest stops on the whole trip around the world.

I explored, I trekked, I learned, I meditated, I shopped, I reunited with friends from Nepal, I ate delicious Indian curries and Tibetan dumplings, and dropped out of a Tibetan thangka painting class (because I'm such a rebel).

Making My Way to McLeod Ganj (epic 24-hour journey from Agra)

A Teaching by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (priceless experience)

Class Schedule: Thangka Painting and Tibetan Cooking

Arranging a Trek to Indrahar Pass (7-part trekking series)

It wasn't all fun and games. As with the rest of India, there are the poor and destitute seeking money on the streets.

In McLeod Ganj's case, those people were often lepers, missing one or both of their hands.

It took the daily encounters with the poor to a whole new level.

I'm not sure I ever got use to seeing them hold out their arms for change.

Tibetan Acupuncture and Massage

My Daily Life in McLeod Ganj (food, Khana Nirvana Community Cafe, Ex-Political Prisoner Talk, Public Audience with 17th Karmapa, Euro Championship 2008)

Marie Arrives (Reuniting with a friend from Nepal)

Steve's Birthday, My Departure

Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad

I promise I don't only read travelogues and memoirs by women, it just happens to be that I've consequently read many of the sort.

Still, there's certain safety concerns and precautions that I would assume cloud the mind of female globetrotters more so than their male counterparts.

This book, Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad, is a testimonial to just that.

The writers of these 22-short stories are teachers, international businesswomen, mothers, and students (like I was).

They've traveled and settled in places as far as Borneo; they've lived alongside the coasts of Greece and within the family homes of Egypt.

Others have moved to neighboring countries like Mexico or placed their roots in the so-called familiar such as Australia (in reality, the English language is the only similarity, and about half of it at that).

Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad literally and honestly makes its way around the world.

It should be no surprise then, that this book lured me in from the start.

I don't recall having doubts, but if I had, the back cover alone would have eliminated them:

Expat taps into the bewilderment, joys, and surprises of life overseas, where challenges often take unexpected forms and overcoming obstacles (finding Drano in Ukraine, shrimp paste in Prague) feels all the more triumphant.

Featuring an astonishing range of perspectives, destinations, and circumstances, Expat offers a beautiful portrait of life abroad.

There is a difference, you see, between traveling and living abroad, one that I have experienced first hand.

I've had the opportunity to visit multiple beautiful places and cultures around the world and yet have only had the unique honor of living in three international cities.

I am not saying that this is a small amount, for I am aware that the majority of people can go their entire lives without making a home outside the borders of the United States or Canada, I am just pointing out a contrast.

This contrast is similar to many expats, a certain period of time in one country, maybe two, and it is certainly true of the writers in this book.

To live as an expat signifies that you not only observe the culture, you experience it, you don't only practice the language, you learn it, you don't only taste the local cuisine, it becomes your primary sustenance.

Whether you yourself have lived it or not, Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad is an inspiring must-read.

Any reader with a passion for travel can understand the transforming effects of cross-cultural experiences; these memories don't just tell the stories of our past, they dictate our future.

And this alone will continue to motivate us to step outside our comfort zones time and time again.

As risky as it may be, there is no other way to find yet another home that we never knew existed.

Crafting an ESL Schedule, or the Art of Saying No

The morning after sending my resume to four prospective Czech language schools, I awoke to an equal number of enthusiastic interview requests. If anyone has experienced the far harsher task of job searching in our current economy, let this be the first indication that teaching ESL places you in a very faux reality.

Still, ego boosted with three on the spot job offers, I began the teacher's life by quickly learning my first lesson. See, language schools are typically comprised of two varieties of staff, and sadly, we foreigners belong to the lesser group: the starry-eyed, inexperienced, uncommitted. The schools are fully aware that our dedication to our jobs (and quite often, their cities) will be transient.

The other group gets a bit more clout; they are the administration, the natives that corral new students, legalize we foreign workers, and most significantly, assign students to teachers. These all"“powerful course managers are perhaps the first hoop through which a newly minted ESL teacher must dive.

Here's where that middle school peer pressure education comes into practice. Many of us were recent college graduates who spent four years failing to remember the meaning of " no."? But in that first meeting with a course manager, I learned that " no"? was an ESL life skill I had better recollect.

Armed with pages of names, locations, and if you're lucky, a course level, course managers hunger to scrawl over every white space on a teacher's schedule. That may seem a humble task, but sadly, you, and your sanity, are not the priority at hand.

In my first meeting, charmed by the manager who complimented my most un-Czech curls and professional smile, I was easily wooed, and I left with a piece of paper that made my kindergarten scribbles looks like pristine spreadsheets from Microsoft Excel.

7 AM across the river on a Friday morning? Well, the students are so, so kind. 8:30 PM the night before? Well, they've been searching for a teacher for so, so long. Four ninety minute lessons, back-to-back, straight through lunch? Well, students always offer coffee and water, food is for the weak.

I worked at two schools in Prague, and when my meeting at the second arrived, I had one mantra in my brain: just say no.

Yes, you obviously need to accept some courses - but you don't need them all. I can promise that schools will always have more lessons to offer. Time and sanity, on the other hand? Those may run out, and when you're living abroad, both are far too precious to waste.

___

ESL photo courtesy of http://bmcnally.aupairnews.com/files/2009/03/books_00210724220_stdjpg.jpeg

Introducing Andy & Shelly - Traveling Couple & Dog Lovers

Hello Everyone. My name is Andy and my fiance's name is Shelly. We hail from the Midwest, specifically Iowa. Yes, Iowa.

Home of farms, pigs, corn, and the best state fair known to man!

Shelly works as a costumer in films and I work for a financial company here in Iowa as an underwriter.

We know what you are thinking, " What do two corn-fed twenty something's know about traveling?"

Well, Shelly has always been addicted to traveling and I have recently caught the travel bug with my first backpacking trip through Europe.

Up until this year, most of my travel experiences have been road trips with my family, while my fiance has been over to Europe and down in the Caribbean multiple times.

Her previous experiences (and let's be honest, constant pestering) led us to our first European Excursion as a couple. Traveling as a couple for 2 months in a foreign country is a huge learning experience both culturally and personally.

Unfortunately, when we got back from our European adventures we both needed to find "big kid" jobs.

In the process of becoming "big kids" we thought it would be a great idea to get a dog. Somehow we settled on a Newfoundland.

Our darling Tucker resembles a mini horse, weighing in at one hundred pounds at just six months old.

We have had a few experiences traveling with the big guy around Iowa but plan on adventuring out of state in the near future.

Below is a picture of Tucker taken by Shelly's awesome colleague Greg Frieden.

Traveling to us is an adventure.

Having the freedom to navigate a foreign country/state, experience new foods, and liquors, and being together, is a thrill we live for on every trip we embark on.

Traveling is our way to escape the real world and enter into our own zone where the stresses of everyday life can't reach us.

Shelly and I are thrilled to join the Go Backpacking family and share our experiences with the community.

We will be writing together and will be posting articles on traveling as a couple, traveling with a big dog, the United States and Caribbean travel, beer and other liquors found throughout the world, and other advice that we feel is necessary.

We will be posting soon.

Cheers

So, How Do I Become A Couchsurfer?

Couchsurfing is an excellent way to find a cheap place to stay in Tokyo, Japan — Couchsurfing in Tokyo (photo: Dave Lee)

Q: Sounds great, so how do I become a Couchsurfer?

A: Okay, so I have intrigued you enough to want to join the project, but where do you begin?

First, I urge you to get on the site and browse through some members profiles, in order to become familiar with everything.

Also, it is probably a good idea to start with looking at members that live in your area, since hopefully, you will soon be meeting up with them.

Definitely check out the most active profiles to get a sense of how to fill yours out.

Once you have spent some time doing this and you are ready to officially join, click the " Sign Up" button on the top right of the screen.

Please keep in mind that you do not have to go full force in the beginning.

This is a free site with absolutely no commitments required.

There are many options you can choose depending on how serious you are.

You can simply meet for "coffee or a drink" and you do not even have to offer your couch!

Or you can jump in full steam ahead and offer your couch immediately.

Just know that Couchsurfing is a very personal experience and there is no one pushing you to do anything.

Create A Profile

After registering, you will need to create your profile.

Again, it is solely up to you how much information you offer, however, keep in mind that the more information you share the better it is for everyone because it improves your odds of finding a trustworthy guest and for people to think you are trustworthy as well.

Putting up some pictures of yourself is essential.

Couchsurfers need to know who they are looking for when they first meet you and it only adds more to your trustworthiness.

Build References

The next key thing is receiving your first reference. The more references, the better.

Getting the first few can be difficult, so it is helpful if maybe you have a friend or travel partner that can sign up at the same time. This way you can leave mutual references for each other.

Attend Meet-ups

If not, start going to the local Couchsurfing meet-ups. You can do this by searching the " groups."

Once you join a group you'll be alerted to any gatherings or events in your area.

The Charlotte group seems to have events once a week, whereas when I lived in NYC there were many events to choose from every single day.

This is a fast way to make a lot of friends who are potential positive references!

Contact Ambassadors

Another suggestion is to locate the local " Ambassador/s."

An Ambassador is a member who has a lot of experience with Couchsurfing and has proven to be a valuable resource to the site and to the area where they reside. They will definitely be a wealth of information.

Remember, move at the pace in which you most feel comfortable.

I encourage you to join the group closest to where you live if nothing else.

I strongly believe that once you have dipped your toes into the Couchsurfing water you will quickly want to dive straight in!

Next week, I will be answering the question: "I am now officially a Couchsurfer, but is it really that safe?"

Destination Asia: Where to Start?

So you've decided to travel to a faraway corner of the Earth, but you have a lot of planning ahead of you, and you're lost on how to start.

Well, I can help, I may have been called over prepared on several occasions, but I've never been caught with my pants down.

When you're traveling, you want to be surprised by only the good things that happen around you, not when you unintentionally anger the locals by mistakenly calling the Czech Republic Czechoslovakia.

Before I can nail down a single detail, I need to get a feel of the country or region that I'll be exploring.

Luckily in the digital age, travel information has never been easier to come by and generally has never been of higher quality, if you look in the right places.

The problem is that there is too much information for one person to wade through effectively.

I take the spaghetti approach to travel research, throw everything at a wall, and see what sticks.

All the resources in this article stuck.

Wikitravel

The Holy Grail of travel information is Wikitravel, like Wikipedia for all things, travel this site is written by other travelers all over the world and continually amazes me by how accurate and insightful its content is.

99% percent of destinations are covered and if your destination isn't, then add it for other travelers to build upon.

If you need to know the top destinations in the country, and what they have to offer, Wikitravel is your Sherpa.

With Wikitravel at your side, the need for a guidebook is greatly diminished, though I would still suggest getting one for your pre-trip planning.

Lonely Planet has never steered me wrong, and I've been using Southeast Asia: On a Shoestring as my planning guide.

One of the most valuable sections will be the "Get in" section, unlike guidebooks which often offer only a few options and outdated prices, Wikitravel will usually cover travel options that you won't find elsewhere.

Lonely Planet

Speaking of Lonely Planet, they offer several other services that are valuable.

The Lonely Planet website is an excellent resource for basic information, and they are continually adding articles and other valuable content.

Without it, I would never have planned a three-day moto trip in Northern Thailand. Be sure to check it every once in a while for new content.

It is also an excellent guide for seasonal weather information.

Exponentially more valuable than their website is Lonely Planet's Twitter feed.

Users submit travel related articles by tagging a tweet with #lp and a team of Lonely Planet staffers review all the links and post the best of the best through their Twitter Feed.

This opens a whole new world of resources as you will find articles that would be lost in the noise of the blogosphere, let Lonely Planet do the filtering for you.

Be warned that if you follow their tweets, your do-before-you-die list will become substantially longer in a short amount of time.

UNESCO

UNESCO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, and as part of its duties, UNESCO designates locales around the world as World Heritage Sites.

These sites are named for their cultural, historical, or natural significance, and are always a great day out on the road.

If you're looking for the best attractions in a country the UNESCO website is a great place to start.

I've never been disappointed by a UNESCO site.

Though sites aren't present in every country, there are 890 sites worldwide, so the chances are that the country your visiting has several on offer.

Whatsonwhen

Some of the most memorable when times traveling are found at festivals when the locals are out and are exuding their culture.

Whatsonwhen.com is a global directory of festivals and events.

I dare you to search, the amount of information they have is stunning. If you can alter your plans slightly to attend a festival, I doubt that you would regret it.

Travel Etiquette

Every country has different customs and cultural norms; unless you're traveling with a local, then you may get caught in a few sticky situations. Travel Etiquette aims to help you act like a farang just a little less.

Travel Etiquette has a host of articles detailing the norms and no-nos for countries all around the world.

If you dropped a coin in Thailand, would you step on it to stop it from rolling?

I would hope not, that coin bears the likeness of the King of Thailand, and even the smallest sign of disrespect towards him will land you in hot water.

BootsnAll

The best information that you will ever get is from your fellow travelers, that is why travel forums like BootsnAll are so important.

All travelers love to share their experiences and wisdom, and as a result, these forums are a bottomless pit of information.

If you can't find the answer to your question with a search then, by all means, sign-up and ask away, your fellow travelers are willing and able to answer.

Bloggers

Before you can make any decisions, you'll need to be aware of the costs associated with a trip. Dave's cost sheet is an excellent way to understand the financial responsibilities of travel for your destination.

Travel Books

Of course, the web is not the end all be all of the information, books still offer a wealth of quality of information.

In addition to my guidebook, books such as 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List are an excellent reference, though I would skip the hotel suggestions.

Books that focus on other travelers experiences are a valuable way to learn about life in another country, Travelers' Tales Thailand: True Stories gave me a unique perception of what it's like to be a traveler in Thailand, but only time will tell if it checks out.

As a political person, books like Confessions of an Economic Hitman and The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy provide a unique and in-depth understanding of the West's involvement in the region and the repercussions that those actions had.

For instance, The Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia received aid from Canada, and after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Canada supported a coalition government in Cambodia that would have included the former brutal dictators.

Though not pretty, I'd much rather be an informed traveler, over a blissfully ignorant one.

If your still short on information, Wikipedia and Flickr are great backups. Flickr is especially valuable as a simple search will bring out the true beauty of any destination, even Winnipeg.

Here are a few other useful resources:

Friday Flashback - The Taj Mahal & Red Fort in Agra, India

On the overnight train from Varanasi to Agra, I saw my first purple sunset and met a Parisian by the name of Laura, who would eventually show me around her home town.

Agra surprised me in that even the budget backpacker hotels had stunning views of the Taj Mahal, at least on the rooftop where meals were served. While you can visit the icon of India as a day trip from Delhi, I would consider it a shame to not spend at least 24 hours in Agra, taking in the building during various stages of day and night.

Specifically, you can try your hand at shooting monkeys off the rooftops or flying kites at sunset with the locals.

Arriving in Agra

The Taj Mahal

Agra Fort And Kites At Sunset

Flickr Photo Set: Varanasi & Agra

Why I Hate the Indian Bureaucracy (Part 2)

And that's when I got the help I couldn't do without. I used the last of my funds to get a cab from the edge of town I crawled to to get to the bar where I met two Peace Corps volunteers, mutual friends of a sorority sister, and agents of my temporary salvation.

I took the weekend off from harassing embassies and enjoyed the hospitality of two fellow compatriots. And I finally found a good ATM, hence my relief.

[Written over a beer after the first successful ATM transaction:]

"Relief, and that's all that spills out as my hand shakes and body tingles; such a small scale scrimp session, but I had no way of putting cash in my hands and saw a future filled with problems.

Leaning on the hospitality of others was my only way out of a week in a bus station and walking 20 kilometers with a 20 kilo pack on a road not made for pedestrians.

The luxury of this cold beer was hard earned and all the more appreciated, beyond its already praised existence. Thank you, Stanbic Bank, for your loyalty to MasterCard and for not giving up on me."

That week would have been much less glamorous had I not met these new friends. To give you an idea, I was contemplating sleeping in the bus station.

I did it the first night, curled up next to about 100 mothers and children, holding my bag straps around my legs and resting it on my feet like a penguin's egg. I awoke with the imprint of Under Armour on my cheek, but it wasn't half bad for a few hours' sleep.

Monday, I arrived at the High Commission office in time for the afternoon pick-up of my visa. The receptionist was beautiful and incredibly sophisticated, but for the sake of my story and memories, I remember the woman who made me cry three times as a "vacuous troll."

She made a miscalculation on my visa fees, forgetting roughly $30, and couldn't process my request. My flight was 24 hours away. Her cryptic explanations didn't satisfy me, and I lost it - a sobbing that ignored the discomfort of the four other people in the room and the signs that forbade erratic or unhelpful behavior. I can't help it; sometimes I bust.

Once again, the High Commissioner came out to silence my hysterics and try to assure me that coming first thing tomorrow with more money would possibly get me results.

James, my new friend and chauffeur, let me vent my troubles and offered advice while he drove me back to the hostel. He provided grandfather-like sympathy and even took additional money off the already agreed-upon, reasonable taxi fare.

He agreed to take me in the morning for the last attempt before I had to launch into Plan B, a complete change in flight plan to Nepal.

That last night, I reflected in a crowded bar:

"I've been late before for events, in dangerous places I shouldn't have been, but I've never felt the imminent stress of my physical existence and its acceptance in its space more than I do right now. Today, I broke the emotional seal, observed by many who have never seen a woman cry..."

The morning came. I was equipped with more money and my evacuation plans. Osmosis took my anticipation to the front seat and transferred the jitters to a hopeful James. He forfeited the profits of the morning to wait for my verdict in the parking lot.

Inside, the woman took my money, gave me a receipt, and then announced that today was not my lucky day. At this point, the two people behind the plastic partition waited and winced for the sobs they knew were surely on their way.

And then a breakthrough. The head honcho asked, "You are from Indiana. Is that near Chicago or Houston?" It was roughly 2 a.m. when he dialed the authorities in the Windy City, leading me to believe he finally flexed his administrative muscles to sidestep the agony of watching me cry one more time.

My hand was jotting mid-sentence in my journal when he reemerged from the back with a smile, holding my thick, blue passport. I wrote in big, bold letters, immediately:

SALVATION
RELIEF
WATERWORKS

Seven hours to take off, and I got clearance. The guard at the gate, by now knowing who I was and the details of my trials, gave me his heartfelt congratulations.

James saw my cheerful stride and started the engine, his massive jowls frozen in a smile. I went back to the hostel, announced my success to those who knew of the bureaucratic struggle, and gave out lollipops like it was my victory parade.

I guzzled three beers, threw on my bag, and went to my flight, but not before falling asleep at the airline gate with my bag perched on my feet, sweating out the Mosi lagers that rewarded my exhaustion and my triumph.

Have you ever run into a situation with difficult embassies abroad? Leave us a comment and let's commiserate together.

Without Reservations: The Travel of an Independent Woman

Before embarking on my 340-day traveling adventure, I was beyond nervous. Not only do most students not study abroad for a complete year, but they definitely don't do so alone. Most programs are large, it is nearly expected that you will know at least one or two people... the Chile program, on the other hand was only in it's second semester. And so I flew out of JFK airport with 9 other strangers, got to know them for a month in Ecuador and then met the other 3 once we reached our destination in Santiago.

This personal challenge to meet new people, new friends, in a completely unfamiliar setting is what led me to pick up Alice Steinbach's novel, Without Reservations: The Travel of an Independent Woman. Before purchasing I noted that I loved the delicate cover and genuine character. What I didn't realize, was how much warm nostalgia the travel book & memoir would evoke as Steinbach wanders through European cities for months on end without a true agenda.

Those familiar with Paris, London, Oxford, and various Italian cities won't miss the surface descriptions of those lively and dynamic places. However, those of whom are less experienced as European travelers, may feel as lost as Steinbach in the beginning of the novel.

An overworked journalist with a Pulitzer-prize, she begins with a bout self-reflecting boredom. She is clearly accomplished, her children have grown, and she finds herself bored with her habitual and uninspiring days. She uses travel as her time "to take chances. To have adventures [and] to see if I could still hack it on my own, away from the security of work, friends and an established identity."

She truly gives herself time to rediscover her passion and her zest for life, her joie de vivre, if you will. This alone is relatable to most women who are expected to balance the role of caregiver with a successful career and happy home, but as a reader from a younger generation, I was also able to resonate with her honest insecurities which she overcomes daily. Furthermore, the postcards she sends to herself, which begin each chapter, encompass a sentimental piece of advice or memory for the reader and Steinbach alike.

If you're looking for to read the story of an adventurous traveler, you may be disappointed with her calm yet pleasant international experiences. However, if a light read of a warm journey of emotion is your cup of tea, then I'd recommend you pick this up. As you slowly but steadily make your way through this beautifully written narrative, the jet-setter on a home-locale break will surely be able to find a place of peaceful travel contentment.

Why I Hate the Indian Bureaucracy

Near the middle of my travel notebook are three pages labeled "Problems," which outline the state I was in when I arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, on my last week in Africa. They were evacuation plans from my very vulnerable state and the continent. During this trip, I also dealt with the complexities of obtaining an Indian visa.

The first worrisome truth: my ATM card wouldn't work in the country, a country more expensive than my home. Without cash, I couldn't afford the hostel accommodations, taxis around the sprawling and scorching city, or the ever-increasing price of my Indian visa "possibility."

Able to afford one night at Chachacha Backpackers, I made the most of the resources at my disposal: I boiled water in the kitchen for hydration, washed clothes in the outdoor basins, and asked the hostel staff for detailed instructions on internet and grocery locations to avoid taxis.

Luckily, my MasterCard was accepted for the internet time I used to contact local friends who could help me. ShopRite also let me swipe for a week's worth of food: six eggs and a few cups of rice.

The second worrisome truth: the visa to India was virtually guaranteed to take longer than my coming flights would allow. The wise advice is to obtain visas before that first wondrous jet out of your homeland.

As a penny-pincher, I aimed to be, I refused to obtain an Indian visa at home because it would have meant purchasing a one-year visa, instead of the minimum six months, to keep my travel dates valid on such a visa.

And so I tried, across the globe, to wrangle this coveted visa as a nomadic, budget-minded foreigner, but I was never in the right place for long enough.

With a week between trucking in Africa and my flight to Delhi, Lusaka was the only option at the end of this dusty road.

It's safe to say that, at this point, I had done my research on Indian visas, and the High Commission in Lusaka knew I was on my way, or so one would believe.

Any other establishment would have seen my preparation and advance notice as thorough and helpful, except maybe the BMV.

So, one can imagine my stupefied state when the indifferent receptionist reported that the duration of the process would last up to three weeks, the same woman who had told me three days earlier over the phone.

When the High Commissioner addressed me personally, albeit in a robotic tone, that I was "up poop creek," I made my first frantic reach for the motherland in five months. I ran blurry-eyed to the US Embassy.

There are few things more annoying than a company, operation, establishment, branch, etc., whose employees abandon their human instinct to help others and refuse to do or say anything that isn't in their well-articulated job description.

These are the same people who expect everyone to know the details of their operations, while also making sure to inform you of the painfully obvious truths they assume you've forgotten or aren't smart enough to know prior.

Once again, I'm talking about immigration (and the BMV). The American Embassy wasn't all that concerned with me.

I've never had a genuine need for the embassies abroad, and I assumed this fragile situation, with one expiring visa, another visa's complications, and the always entertaining money troubles, would merit a sympathetic, "Get it done" attitude.

Though my tears and hyperventilation were real, I allowed them to get a bit pathetic and theatrical to get me the thing I needed: the backing of the American government.

As Frida Kahlo once said, "Never trust a limping dog or the tears of a woman." I got help. But it cost me.

There were fees out the wazoo to India, and I found myself leaving the Indian High Commission with the equivalent of about $80 less than what I needed to survive at the bare minimum for the next five days. Was this the end of my visa troubles? Not at all.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of Lindsay's "Why I Hate the Indian Bureaucracy" tomorrow.

Post by contributor Lindsay Clark of Nomadderwhere.

Introducing Leslie: Travel Addict and ESL Survivor

Leslie Brand

Four years ago, I called myself a traveler for the first time.

I was a junior in college, not yet two decades old, and three weeks into my first semester abroad (location: London), I was itching to explore.

A short AIM conversation with a friend studying in Paris later, and the following weekend, I jetted off Ryanair-style for 58 hours in Dublin.

Six of those hours were spent sleeping; otherwise, I remember every minute, a rare feat in Ireland.

There was the raw chill in the September air, the lush green beyond the city limits, the velvety thickness of my first Guinness.

Most important, though, was the adrenaline: I felt alive.

I have never been one of those lucky ones who knew exactly what I wanted out of life.

I'm an overachiever with an ever-present artistic streak, but I am also indecisive.

But, since that first trip of my first study abroad semester, I have been sure about one thing, and that is travel.

That's why I followed that semester with a second (this time: Prague).

That's why I got on a plane to Israel 36 hours after throwing my graduation cap in the air.

That's why I went back to Prague for a full year of post-collegiate life and work.

Studying abroad is one thing, but working is an entirely different animal.

For many of us, it is the only way to realize the international adventures our rootless spirits so desire.

And so, newly awarded B.A. in hand, I ran back to Prague two years ago, ready to become the just-graduated cliche: an ESL instructor.

After a crash course in TEFL, I bonded with the city's many expats over the obscure locations our schools sent us to explore, the intimate secrets our students insisted they share, and the realization that the English language simply doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I'm very excited to be joining the Go Backpacking team, and I'll be posting weekly on the grand experiment: the ESL life abroad.

Ups, downs, and mispronunciations, there are never enough words to fully tell the tale. I'll do my best, and I hope you'll read along!

So, What Exactly Is Couchsurfing?

Q: So, what exactly is Couchsurfing?

A: Let me begin my answer by quoting Couchsurfing's mission statement, as I believe it succinctly sums the project up:

Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time.

Sadly, many people mistake this awesome travel community for simply free accommodation, when really the goal is to create an international network of friends with the common interest being the love of exploration.

Yes, one of the many benefits of Couchsurfing is that it makes travel more affordable, but the most meaningful benefit is that connection you make with your host/s or with other Couchsurfers; the cultural exchange that takes place is priceless.

And the hope is that this cultural exchange will in some way make the world a better place through:

"rais[ing] the collective consciousness, spread[ing] tolerance, and facilitat[ing] cultural understanding (1)."

One of the biggest misconceptions about Couchsurfing is that it is only a hospitable exchange.

This could not be further from the truth.

There are approximately 1.4 million members worldwide (even in places such as Antarctica!).

Thus, you will find that most cities have a Couchsurfing group.

These groups have regular local events that you can participate in and are wonderful opportunities to share your travel stories and to make new friends and potential travel partners.

Plus, it is a great way to get your travel fix when you are not able to travel.

The site also features collectives that are held around the world every year.

These collectives sometimes have up to a thousand attendees.

An example of this is the next collective that is being held in Rio, Brasil in celebration of New Year's Eve.

There will be events days before and after the holiday too.

It is anticipated that this will be the largest collective to date.

I will make sure to report back, as I am attending!

Another way you can use the site is by contacting other members in the city you will be traveling in to see if they can either offer advice on what to do and see or, and this is the best part, if they might be interested in meeting for a coffee/drink, as well as possibly offering their guide services.

You will find that most Couchsurfers love helping you in any way they possibly can.

Make sure to search the online forums for even more invaluable advice.

DC Travel Happy Hour

Recently, I've had the chance to meet a lot of wonderful travel enthusiasts, writers, editors, photographers, bloggers, and tweeters in New York City and Washington, DC. Topics of conversation often included travel (duh!), media (print and online), blogging, freelance writing, non-conformity, and Moo cards.

With that in mind, and an excitable co-host in Stephanie from Twenty-Something Travel to share in the experience, it is time to take a hand in organizing a tweetup.

If you're reading this and live in the DC-metro area, Stephanie and I would like to meet you!

Click on the twtvite banner below for further details and to RSVP. Please use #dcthh hashtag in your tweets so we can track this event.

World Hum & Art of Non-Conformity Happy Hours

Busboys & Poets in Washington, DC — Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC

I was lucky enough to cross paths with a handful of travel bloggers during my trip around the world, and it was a lot of fun to meet the people behind the travel blogs I'd been reading.

I find it at once striking and strange that you can get to know a person through their writing.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend two happy hours and meet many new and interesting people in the Washington, DC area.

Travel Writers

The first happy hour took place in The Saloon on U Street and was a get-together of World Hum contributors, travel writers, and friends. I arrived at about 6:30 pm, as suggested by Michael Yessis, a co-founder of World Hum who lives in the area.

While sitting at the bar, I realized that aside from a photo or two from Twitter and his blog, I had no clue how to identify Michael from the other patrons.

At least the bar was small because it made approaching random strangers and asking them if they were traveling writers a palatable task.

Five approaches and a few awkward laughs later, I met Michael, Julie Ross, and Andrew Evans.

Throughout the evening, we were joined by Adam Karlin, a writer for Lonely Planet, Chris Gray, Travel Editor for USA Today, Chris' husband, and Joanna Kakissis. They had just returned from a trip to Bangladesh.

Plus, there was Benjamin Spatz, who, after returning to the States after a few years in Liberia, was as confounded by his new Blackberry as I was when I got mine.

The conversations were great, as you might expect from such a well-traveled group, and also touched on the changing face of travel writing and media.

Non-Conformists

A few days later, I enjoyed attending the Art of Non-Conformity gathering at Busboys and Poets on 5th and K Street.

As a reader of Chris Guillebeau's blog by the same name, I'd seen photos of past meet-ups and knew there could be a big turnout.

I went early, arriving at about 6 pm on the dot, and the first reserved table on the second floor was already full.

A kind soul vacated their seat to join the group, which also gave me the chance to talk a little with Chris before he'd have to start mingling with the new arrivals.

In his invitation, Chris mentioned, "The best thing about AONC meetups has absolutely nothing to do with me -- it's about everyone else who shows up."

I didn't believe it until I began to meet other attendees!

I got to know the lovely Jen Lemen of Mondo Beyondo and the friendly Justin Premick of AWeber (an email service I use for GoBackpacking's weekly newsletters).

I met many others, including Nicholas Kralev, who writes for the Washington Times, and Thursday Bram.

I couldn't bring myself to mingle fast enough to meet even half the people who showed up over the three-hour event.

During the night, perhaps at the end, as the tab was being closed out, I remember telling Chris about going to Gary Vaynerchuk's recent booking signing for "Crush It!" and feeling inspired by the guy.

If Chris could garner that kind of response from the people who come out to meet him, including next year when his first book launches, he'd be in great shape.

He responded that "it's all about building relationships."

It wasn't until I reflected on the evening later that night that I realized he had done just that with as many people as possible, and without knowing it at the time, with me as well.

Hey Rich People! Enjoy Polar Exploration on Legendary Icebreaker

Polar Exploration with Quark Expeditions

I received the following e-mail from Quark Expeditions recently:

Dear Dave,

If you've been promising yourself that one day you will explore the polar regions in an icebreaker, delay no longer. Our flagship, Kapitan Khlebnikov, will end her career as an expedition vessel in March 2012, returning to escort duties in the Russian Arctic.

The End of an Era expeditions begin with Khlebnikov's final west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, from July 18 to August 5, 2010, and end with an exploration of Antarctica's Far East, December 6, 2011 to January 5, 2012. In between, the icebreaker will return to the High Arctic, Ellesmere Island, and Snow Hill Island, home to Emperor Penguins.

Now is the time to sightsee in helicopters. Cruise bird cliffs in Zodiacs. Savor meals as tasty as any served in a fine restaurant. Now is the time to treat yourself to the ultimate polar adventure aboard the legendary Kapitan Khlebnikov.

We have invited a number of special guests to mark the End of an Era. Each is passionate about the polar regions and looking forward to sharing their expertise with you.

Since polar exploration is high on my list of unfulfilled and exotic travel experiences, I was curious to see what such an adventure would run me. Greenland is fairly close to the East Coast of the US, so I clicked on the Ellesmere Island and Greenland: The High Arctic trip.

And that's when the sticker shock turned my icebreaking explorations into a pipe dream for the foreseeable future.

The price range for a 16-day expedition aboard the mighty, nay, legendary Khlebnikov is $13,990 to $23,990.

Friday Flashback - The Ganges River and Ghats in Varanasi

Varanasi is a pilgrimage site for many Hindus in India (and around the world) as it sits along the holy Ganges River. Along with Old Islamic Cairo in Egypt and the old part of Kathmandu in Nepal, Varanasi offers great photographic opportunities with every step.

These two Varanasi posts include a lot of my favorite shots, while the side trip to Sarnath offers views of the site where Buddha gave his first sermon.

Hot, Hot Varanasi

An Early Morning Visit to Sarnath

A Sunset Stroll Along the Ghats

Destination Asia: So Many Questions

Why are you going? When are you going? Where are you going?

These are always the first questions I'm asked when I tell someone I'm planning a trip. The when and the where are the easy parts, the why is somewhat more complicated. As with any big decision there were multiple factors involved.

When I returned from Europe in June, 2008 the only thing I could think about was travel: where, when, how? My initial intentions were of returning to Eastern Europe or trekking through Central Asia. Unfortunately Central Asia is too volatile right now and getting even more so.

Eastern Europe was thrown to the wayside when a backpacker friend of mine suggested South East Asia.

His answer to Why? The full moon party on Ko Pha Ngan, and treks in the jungle were the first things he mentioned, both of which perked my ears right up. I knew that South East Asia had a well worn backpacker trail and that it had ample amounts of everything I was looking for: wilderness, an alien culture, a handful of countries that can be traveled overland, danger, and a great party scene.

Although I had the time of my life in Europe I had an immediate drive to top it. When I stood in the German Alps, I told myself that I would find a place even more beautiful before it was all over. I'm still looking...

After watching an episode of Top Gear which featured Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, I knew Asia was in my future. Europe lacked the danger and adventure that I now crave, and to cure that I would need to push my limits with a venture into Burma.

Asia will be a trip of many firsts for me both in culture and length, which I think is what ultimately drew me away from Europe and set my compass towards Asia. In my mind, Europe will always be there but Asia is currently in the middle of a tourism boom and rapid industrialization, much like Cuba. I consider it necessary to see Asia now, before its countries become further developed and industrialized.

Then the questions turned to when to go and where to go. My departure in April of 2010 made sense as I'm taking a second gap year from university along with several other factors. The length of my time off will allow me to accumulate enough funds for a 4 month trip and allow me to make another small trip in February.

After reading about the area and finding this blog, I started to get a good feel of the region and what each country had to offer. I formulated a route that would take me through Thailand, Burma, Laos and Cambodia. As I began to plan, I reconnected with a friend I had first met in Berlin, who conveniently lives in Singapore. With a open invitation from my friend, Malaysia and Singapore were both added to my route. As these things go, the trip continued to expand in my mind to include Vietnam and balloon to 4 full months abroad.

Often after I answer these three questions, people ask me what I'm going to be doing, almost with a tone of disbelief at the amount of time I will be away from home. Although my answer is usually a simple "backpacking around" my mind always starts to race from destinations to adventures: trekking in the Lao jungle, fishing in the world's oldest forest, exploring ruins in Cambodia, volunteering in Laos, and so many more.

As a traveler I'll always seek the next experience, the next story. To experience is to grow, to grow is to live. I hope you`ll follow along with me over the coming weeks as I dive into the details.

Next week, I`ll be writing about how to research a country you know little about.

Couchsurfing Uganda: A Mzungu in the Midst (Part 2)

Post by new contributor Lindsay Clark of Nomadderwhere.

The first mission of the day was to make it to the city, as the locals do, wandering up weaving lames and jumping garbage heaps until Entebbe road appeared, in all its smoggy splendor. On the way, I began to re-experience the wonder of being a walking spectacle, the extreme and never-before-seen minority, an Average Jane celebrity.

Children ran around in circles, announcing to their kin the presence of the "mzungu" in their midst. If I responded to their screams, waves, or salutations, huge smiles formed on their faces before they darted home to giggle behind their working mothers.

The taxis: one driver, one screamer, and a 14 passenger bus that almost always breaches the legal limit of riders. They get you from A to B, though you may be sitting on someone's lap. These services are offered at a wonderfully reasonable price: 20 minutes of bouncing around Kampala for 30 cents.

Kampala is the result of a tribal collision and explosion, a city smashed with basic homes and millions of people breathing in a nicely concentrated formula of oxygen and diesel exhaust. Not many people own cars, so it's a bit of a mystery as to why the air is opaque. It's deceiving, but everyone is always on the move, which is why the population calls for the organized chaos of the taxi parks.

They all crowd and congregate like hungry coy fish, drivers jumping for passengers and squeezing through openings not big enough for their cars. You could find a ride to anywhere and meanwhile purchase peanuts, beer, scrunchies, and hair extensions while waiting in your seat by an open window.

Of course, where there are people, there are people selling crap - the biggest taxi park bumping butts with the biggest mad house market. Massive bags of rice and spices, washing soaps and appliances, second hand clothes and dried sardine heaps, and about forty men with wedding proposals for my very eligible hand.

I grasped my bag, half hidden under my shirt, and skillfully maneuvered away from the forceful arms trying to grab my attention. Weaving through the roughly covered maze of stalls, I had to laugh at the exclamations people would shout: "Hey Mzungu!", "Marry me?", "Come come you buy something!", "Lips!". Paul loved the show as well.

It was all a pulsating whirlwind erupting around me. I had to step back and get a hold on where I was. We climbed a closed up shopping center to view the sudden wash of rain that swept the littered streets and nearby music festival in sight. The city was impressive, in a shocking way, as I couldn't believe such a tattered place existed. The essence of "shambles," but it was mysteriously hypnotizing nonetheless.

From a cathedral on a nearby hill, the improved view gave me a sight more removed and peaceful, where I could finally see the urban rain forest at arm's length. It was a smoggy mess, a sore on the terrestrial crust, but viewing the palms and rolling lushness with raw sugar cane sweetness tossing in my mouth made me find a twang of admiration for the basic nature of Kampala's exhausted inhabitants. I had a strong desire to stop time and paint the most complex picture of each tiny moment that were cultural time-bomb slaps in the face. This is Africa.

Meals of plantains by candlelight and chapatis by rooster crows hugged my stomach with simple fulfilling pleasures only possibly by my mental smiles, thankful I was seeing such a real experience. Authenticity, my friends; there's no substitute.

My last day in Kampala was all about family. We strolled to Paul's aunt's home on a nearby hill where I got my first real chicken coop experience. Given it wasn't in the back of a truck after hitchhiking in the countryside, but it still satiated an odd desire to see feathers fly.

I fed little piggies palm leaves and stepped over coffee beans drying on the ground. Baby goats chased each other and dove under the full utters of the mother, only until Paul wrangled one for a quick pet of its soft cowlicked coat.

Just then, Paul's niece came running down the red dirt road from school and joined us for the jaunt back to his abode. We all ate a quick bite of potatoes and avocado before I had to skidaddle. I introduced the young eyes of Latisha to the world of photography and let her snap it around the family compound. She was so quiet, but after sharing a smashed airplane Mars bar and clicking the camera shutter, she was glittering.

As I left Masajja for Jinja town, a shower smoothed the rough appearance of Kampala and left the bright red dirt and clean green lushness vibrating in my enamored eyes. Uganda was already a glowing memory and in Kampala nonetheless.

Have you couchsurfed in a foreign country? Leave a comment and let us know if your experience was good or bad.

Couchsurfing Uganda: A Mzungu in the Midst

Post by new contributor Lindsay Clark of Nomadderwhere.

The first time I flew into NYC at night, the infinite stretch of lights had a deep impact on me - seeing the development and magnitude of the world from a pilots-eye view.

Alike, yet opposite, the moment occurred with the descent into Entebbe, Uganda.

There were minutes of time I saw not one single light in the darkness. What was below me was simply nature, no embellishments.

After immigration, I dawdled around the exit, hoping my first couchsurfing host would recognize me from my profile picture since unfortunately my previously given description of "brunette girl with all the bags" was not valid at the time [thanks to lost baggage].

Paul found me and took me away from the probing taxi drivers and towards the capital city of Kampala.

I knew I made a fantastic decision to couchsurf when my drive from the airport got me closer to the real Uganda than I ever could have gotten otherwise.

As we chatted through the hour-long drive, I realized the scene outside was unfolding something so eerie and intense.

The dust of the streets created a fog through which car headlights revealed hundreds of wandering silhouettes.

Things didn't feel so familiar anymore, as I realized the streets were littered and webbed with people, even out here in the dark of night, somewhere on a stretch of highway. Finally came the realization, the zing I sought for months:

"Wow, I'm traveling."

Paul lived in a village right on the edge of Kampala, one called Masajja, which was connected by dirt roads, all veined and rutted by the wet season's downpours.

The first few bouncy minutes brought to mind Ace Ventura on his jungle rides through Africa, singing Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang with head bouncing from the passenger's seat across and out his driver's side window. I needed a helmet there in the back seat.

The Ssenoga family, Paul, and siblings live in a home attached to a few rooms, which they rent out for their income.

My travel goal of never using a squat toilet went out the window when I got a look at the compound latrine.

I was in no way discouraged though, as I knew my immersion was deeper than I could have anticipated (and that doesn't mean I fell in).

Though I hadn't slept in about three days, I stayed up to chat with my host about his family, his village, and life in Uganda.

Outside his window, the sun was far set, but the neighborhood was still throbbing.

On the corner, a man made a stand to sell chapatis (essentially flour tortillas) for cash flow.

Boda-boda drivers (guys with motorbikes) surfed the dirty waves while trying to find passengers to transport and charge.

In this community, everyone was a family man and every one an entrepreneur.

The noise was a constant, but at 2 a.m., when I awoke to roll over, I could have heard a rooster toot in the next village over.

Old MacDonald lost control of his livestock as they all crowded around my window to oddly awaken me in the morning.

Roosters were crowing every thirty seconds, goats were screaming like little children in agony, motorbikes streaking across my sightline and every human being on the block took to the streets to get it done, whatever "it" was, as they had been since 4 am.

I drew my first breath at 8:30 am and sought some relief at the long drop.

One cannot wander in there half asleep without losing a leg to the earth's dirty mouth and cracking your pelvis on the wet cement surrounding the hole.

I sure do have a delightfully poetic mind.

And then I walked miles to sit on someone's lap all the way into the city.

Introducing Danielle - Travel Fanatic & Foodie

Hello world! I would consider myself pretty well-traveled for a 21-year-old, because, well, I suppose I should start from the beginning...

As an American college student with a multicultural background, my fascination with travel and cultures, languages and food had already led to many international excursions. But simply visiting different places wasn't enough for me.

In addition to studying magazine journalism, I also spent my first two years advancing in my comprehension of Spanish and beginning to delve into French. With fluency in two languages just over the horizon, I took a leap of faith and signed up for an entire year, two academic semesters, or 340 days studying abroad.

During that time I lived with three different host families, attended multiple universities, became close friends with Ecuadorians, Chileans, and many French, while also bonding with fellow foreigners. Not to mention that I found three distinct and wonderful homes away from home.

And, if that weren't enough for me, I've also had multiple opportunities to travel, to get a taste of other South American and European cities and countries, and explore places I had only yet dreamed about going.

I accomplished more than I thought possible on my trip of a lifetime, having lived and traveled abroad; I have gained an intermediate fluency in Spanish and French, I have found my place is various cultures, I have tasted some of the most delicious, and oftentimes, healthful foods that the world has to offer. And since being back, I have done my fair share of travel-reading as well. You know, gotta feed the travel bug somehow.

Now that I'm home again, changed forever, I'm in the process of finishing up my college degree, figuring out what the future hold for me career-wise, and finding my place again in the U S of A. I am so honored to be one of Dave's first contributors and share my past and present experiences with like minded, travel-enthused individuals. Maybe doing so will be able to help us both find our next destination.

Until next time!

Friday Flashback - Stress & Meditation in Bodhgaya

34 hours.1 taxi.1 share jeep.1 overnight train.1 bus ride.3 autorickshaws.1 bicycle rickshaw.

In 20 months abroad, my longest continuous period of travel was the trip from Gangtok, Sikkim to Bodhgaya.

We passed a young woman in a bright, flowing silk sari talking to a man and my mind couldn't reconcile how such a beautiful woman could coexist with the filthy streets.

It was not easy, however the payoff was the opportunity to sit and meditate in the same place as Buddha when he attained enlightenment. Powerful stuff.

Looking back at these posts, I believe they capture some of the most fascinating moments of my backpacking trip around the world. Chai tea on the train. Uncomfortable bus rides. Public urination. Sleeping on the property of a Tibetan Monastery. And even a Bollywood movie being filmed.

Pilgrimage to Bodhgaya (includes my first train ride in India)

Monasteries and Mahabodhi Temple

Meditating Under the Bodhi Tree

Expat Life in Chengdu, China

I lived with Charlie for two years in Virginia. After we parted ways, I began saving for my RTW trip, while he was establishing a new life in the Sichuan Provence of China, learning to speak fluent Mandarin, and building a career as a professional DJ.

I was lucky enough to visit him for two weeks on my trip around the world, and see first hand how well he had adapted to life in China. Enjoy!

GoBackpacking: Why did you choose to leave your job as a graphic designer in the USA and travel to Asia?

Charlie: I got bored. My life turned into uninteresting routine and I had to break out.

I could see colleagues who, through decades of meaningless office toil, had lost something very precious. I decided that no matter what the cost I wouldn't befall the same fate.

Asia was one of several candidates - it turns out that it suits me well so I've been here for several years.

You now call Chengdu home. What were your first impressions of the city upon arrival, and how does it differ from the other large cities in China like Beijing or Shanghai?

Chengdu has a unique charm that's difficult to describe. It's at once a bustling metropolis and a very friendly laid back place.

Chengdu, and West China in general, are vastly different from cities on the east coast including Shanghai and Beijing.

Personally, I wouldn't choose to live in the megacities on the east coast because to me they are too much of a compromise. Shanghai and Beijing are so developed and westernized that I don't really feel like I'm in China.

When did you realize you could earn a living as a DJ instead of the more common approach of teaching English?

I quickly realized that there are many paths to earning income besides teaching English.

Music and DJ'ing were things I had been involved with for years before coming to Asia so it was a natural fit.

The truth is that there are countless opportunities overseas at the moment if you can produce a competitive product or service - teaching English is the easiest path which is strewn with many people who do it because they don't see or don't want to pursue the other options.

What challenges did you face while learning to do business within China's nightlife and entertainment industry?

As far as doing business, the most difficult part was adapting to the language and culture.

Learning to fend for myself as an entrepreneur and not allow people to take advantage of me just because I'm a guest in their country.

Staying productive and pushing forward is sometimes a challenge when I vacation several months out of the year and don't have anyone making a schedule for me.

These have probably been the biggest challenges but I don't see them as very unique to the music industry in China.

Where were you on May 12, 2008, when the magnitude-8 Sichuan Earthquake struck near Chengdu? Have there been any lasting effects or has the region fully recovered?

During last year's earthquake, I was on Qing Cheng Shan which is one of the birthplaces of Daoism.

That day I was on a motorcycle excursion with several friends and the earthquake hit when we were making our way back down the mountain.

We were trapped in a section of the mountain with about 100 locals and had to hike down the mountain which took 24 hours.

During most of this time, it was raining and there were constant and powerful aftershocks as well as no roads due to landslides taking them all out.

A few months later I returned to the mountain to retrieve my dirt bike which was where I left it.

To this day the part of the mountain that I was on (the backside, called Hou Shan) is closed due to the damage it sustained.

Are there any misconceptions or stereotypes about life in China you'd like to clear up?

It's difficult for me to address misconceptions about China because I rarely interact with people who have no exposure to China.

Before arriving in China several people were stunned to hear that I would willingly commit myself to China but I did and do consider those people to be narrow-minded.

China isn't for everyone but I've found that it's a wonderful place that I'm happy to find myself.

With that said, I'm sure I could say the same of many other countries as well.

Ping-pong in PJs at a Chinese spa (~3am) — Ping-pong in PJ's at a Chinese spa (3 am)

Do you have any tips or tricks for learning Mandarin?

My number one tip: speak and hear Chinese all day. Don't just go to Mandarin class and return to English when you finish.

Whether this means finding a companion or friend who doesn't speak English or surrounding yourself with non-English speakers, this is the quickest path to proficiency.

There are many aids which will speed the process, the most important being your own motivation and fascination.

From the very beginning, keep a journal and write down every word and phrase you learn.

I haven't taken a single lesson in Chinese but my skills have eclipsed those of Chinese language majors in the States.

I don't believe that speaks to my natural intelligence as much as my learning methods.

For more information on how to quickly become proficient in foreign languages, I recommend checking out Tim Ferriss' blog. I've utilized a lot of his methods and found them to be very practical and effective.

Beyond China, which countries would you like to visit next and why?

At the top of my list is South America. It's a region that I haven't personally explored and it interests me because, like Asia, it's developing very quickly.

The fact that most of the continent speaks a single language makes it very accessible as well.

Also on my list is Iran - I have a lot of Iranian friends and Iranian politics are of particular interest to me.

Like China, I believe that Iran has the power to destroy popular misconceptions about people and culture that linger in the back of my own mind.

Gap Year Support: Resume To Interviews

I first learned about Resume to Interviews earlier this year in Medellin, when I ran into the owner, the man behind the scenes.

We kept in touch after going our separate ways, and when I finally began looking for a job back in the States, he offered to put his services to the test in exchange for a review.

I welcomed the help, as I'd taken the easy way out and left on my trip around the world without taking the time to add my accomplishments from the prior 5 ½ years.

The first thing I did after receiving the offer was to check out the website. I was immediately drawn to the Testimonials page.

It was filled with a long list of quotes from satisfied customers, such as:

" Just got a job offer yesterday for a company that I sent my resume to 6 days ago. Many thanks for the excellent resume! If nothing else, the design is well worth the money. Having an easily readable and flowing resume is incredibly advantageous."?

The site layout is clear and uncluttered. Pages include a FAQ, Terms of Service, basic tips for writing resumes and cover letters, and interview advice.

Satisfied with the customer feedback, I accepted the owner's offer and forwarded him the resume with which I'd been struggling.

I asked for two different versions - one that emphasized my recent travel writing/blogging experience, and one that emphasized my professional management and customer service experience.

I knew I had been on the right track with the content to include. However, the design and organization were "schizophrenic" according to my Dad.

Frankly, I'm incredibly self-assured about what I can offer the right company. I am confident I can come up with great ways to leverage my recent travel experience in an interview. And I have former bosses who would be happy to help with great recommendations.

However, none of that matters if I can't present myself clearly and professionally via resume.

Four days later, I received the revamped resume that would serve as the basis for specialized versions. Downloading the new resume and opening it up was a real "Wow" moment for me.

It was immediately obvious that the new layout resolved the problem I'd been having with organizing content, and I also thought the new font (Garamond) was an improvement.

I edited the regular version and returned it, and the specialized copies I sought were created, which I then edited at least once more. The owner responded within a day or two on each occasion and provided final versions in two standard formats, Microsoft Word, and PDF.

Resume to Interviews specializes in Gap Year scenarios and the Testimonials page reflects the success his customers have experienced in landing jobs.

The cost for a new customer to have a standard resume created within five days is $65.

Faster delivery is available for an extra $10, and going a step further is same-day service for an extra $20. Additional services include phone consultations and cover letter assistance and critiques.

While I have yet to land the perfect job, I am happy to endorse the services of Resume to Interviews for helping me present my experience in the best light possible.

Mediabistro Seminar: How To Pitch An Editor

A chance to write for AskMen.com about Medellin fell into my lap this past Spring, wholly the result of building a noticeable web presence through Medellin Living about what it's like to live in Colombia as a foreigner.

When I delivered, in spite of a very tight deadline, the managing editor suggested I pitch a few additional ideas. I knew I had a golden opportunity.

Of course, I had no clue as to how to pitch editors at the time. No...clue. So I shot from the hip and fired off a few sentences on a variety of ideas.

Perhaps I was already a proven entity by then, or perhaps they just needed content. Either way, they gave me two more stories - one of my ideas and one of theirs. I was lucky.

A few weeks ago, I attended my first Mediabistro seminar on the topic of pitching editors. It was held in a very small theater in Georgetown, with about 15 people in attendance.

Carl Hoffman, a contributing editor with National Geographic Traveler and Wired magazines, gave the class.

Prior to class, I had already read through the 17-page outline (twice). In and of itself, it was worth the price of admission.

Carl brought the outline to life over the next two hours, finished with a Q & A, and stuck around to let a few of us talk his ear off while we had the chance.

Also, he opened himself up to let us send him pitches for feedback in the future, which I believe is incredibly generous.

To give you a feel for the material we covered, here are a few quotes from the outline:

Generally, only amateurs write articles without assignments, because professionals don't want to chance wasting their time writing stories that may not be purchased or published.

Question is always what is the story, and then why you?

You don't just pitch to publication. You pitch to a particular section of a publication, and ideally to the editor in charge of it.

Socialize. No question that it's easier to sell work to editors you know personally.

I left the seminar feeling empowered. I had already gained 1,001 stories from my travels, and now I had a blueprint for submitting professional pitches to editors.

A National Geographic Evening With Simon Winchester

Lonely Planet's Guide to Travel Writing

The publishing world may revolve around New York City, however National Geographic calls Washington, DC home. As a result, they frequently host live events which draw engaging crowds to the theater in their headquarters.

Last Thursday night, I answered the tweet of Don George, former editor of Lonely Planet, and made the commute into the city despite cold temperatures and driving (ok, drizzling) rain. The talk with Simon Winchester, British author and editor of The Best American Travel Writing 2009, was preceded by a reception. Not knowing anyone, but clearly amongst my people (aka the well-traveled), I grabbed a complimentary beer and introduced myself to a few of the other guests.

When the lights began to flicker, we headed for the theater. Two armchairs were placed on stage, with a world globe in between. I was impressed with the turnout, since $25 per ticket isn't chump change.

A brief introduction was given by Keith Bellows, editor of National Geographic, and then Don and Simon took the stage. A big part of the reason I attended the event was to hear more of Simon, as I enjoyed his comments at the book launch party in New York City the week before.

The evening turned out to be quite pleasant, with Don effectively interviewing Simon in a relaxed and lighthearted manner. A lot of time was spent discussing how Simon is approaching the process of writing his latest book, a biography of the Atlantic Ocean. A question and answer session occurred at the end, and then the two authors were available for book signings.

I decided to make this the occasion that I picked up Lonely Planet's Guide to Travel Writing, which had been updated earlier this year. Since I was buying the book, I had to get it signed as well.

When I reached Don, I made sure to mention the NBC News piece by Wendy Rieger in which we both appeared back in Fall 2007 before my trip around the world. The video is conveniently embedded below for a good laugh at my expense.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHRDDLX9F-U&feature=player_embedded

Contributors Wanted

(Last Updated: March 3, 2011)

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Go Backpacking.

As one of the top independent travel blogs, we receive pitches from potential contributors on a daily basis. In order for you to better understand the kind of content we like to publish, and ensure the best chances for your article or photography to be accepted, please read on.

Before submitting an article, please make sure it:

reflects quality advice or travel stories based on your first-hand experiences.
is able to be used exclusively at Go Backpacking (ie. do not ask us to republish an existing post from your blog).
includes a headline, body text, author byline, and at least one image.
does not infringe upon copyright laws, in regard to either text or images.

Table of Contents

Topics
Text Formatting
Contextual Links
Post Length
Editing
Byline
How to Contact Us

Topics

Articles that work best on Go Backpacking reflect practical travel tips people can apply while planning or embarking on their next trip. Photography essays on a specific theme also have the potential to do well.

We are currently interested in (but not limited to) the following topics:

Planning tips: personal finance, budgeting, what to pack, gear tips/reviews
Stories from countries not previously covered on the blog (check the "Destinations" category)
Volunteering, working, and/or living overseas
"How to" articles
List-style posts (Top 5, Top 7. We no longer accept "Top 10" articles.)

A few of Go Backpacking's most popular posts in 2010:

Top 10 Travel Movies to Get You Going in 2010 (guest post)
How to Avoid Bed Bugs While Traveling (guest post)
10 Secret Items to Pack as a Woman on Your Next Trip (guest post)
Photo Essay: Winter Street Scenes in Bern

Text Formatting

If you have your own WordPress blog, our preference is that you draft the post there, and email us the HTML code which ensures your preferred formatting will remain intact, photos will be captioned, etc.

If you do not have access to WordPress, your article can be sent in Microsoft Word, via Google Document, or in plain text.

Subheadings: use the <h3> tag, or bold them so they stand out from the normal text

Contextual Links

In the context of your post, you may want to include links. Whenever relevant, a link to another Go Backpacking article is appreciated. If relevant, you can and should link to other authoritative websites that do not belong to you. Unfortunately, we are not prepared to allow contextual links to your own website(s) as this opens up the floodgates for lower quality contributions.

Hyperlink your preferred anchor text, or include the URL in parenthesis immediately after the words you want linked.

Images

Every submission should include at least one image, which is used on Go Backpacking's home page, as well as throughout the archives in a thumbnail format. Ideally, 2-3 images are included per article, while photo essays are made up of 8-12.

Article images should be a maximum of 580 pixels wide
Photo essay images should be 925 pixels wide
We prefer horizontally-oriented images as they fit better within the text
It is your responsibility to ensure proper credit is given when using photos that are not your own (ie. licensed via Creative Commons)

Whenever possible, please provide URL's to reference the images you want to include. This means the actual image is hosted on your own site, or a photo sharing site such as Flickr or SmugMug. If this is not possible, the images should be attached to the same email as the article text, and should be no larger than 2 MB each.

Post Length

Blog posts are typically 500 to 800 words in length, however this is a rough guideline. Use as many words as are necessary to convey your ideas or story. We can also accept and run a finite series of posts on a particular topic or trip.

Editing

All posts that appear on Go Backpacking are reviewed for proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Headlines may be altered to ensure the post has the best chance of being successful.

Byline

In appreciation for your time and effort writing a great guest post, we want to help promote your blog or website. Author bylines appear at the end of every guest post. Include a one or two sentence biography, along with no more than 2 links to sites such as your primary blog or social media profile (ex. Twitter).

IMPORTANT: Please mention up front the link you want in your byline. We do not allow links to commercial sites, or blogs designed solely to drive affiliate sales.

For top-notch advice on guest posting, read 9 Ways to Become an Exceptional Guest Poster or 10 Proven Steps to Snag a Guest Post on an A-list Blog.

How to Contact Us

To get started, share your ideas via our contact form.

« Previous Page