Monthly Archives: October 2013
What Ever You Do, Do Not Travel - Travel Advice
You have made the right decision. You have never travelled outside of your own city. That is fine. You have saved yourself from a lot worries. No headaches of political issues, money and security for your future. With “Obamacare”, a crippled economy and the need to save for retirement you are lucky to not travel. The hassles that come with travel are just downright unbearable and can create a lot of stress just from worrying about them. Beware, if you decide to go against this advice then be prepared to face headaches to come.
Worry About The Politics
Lets make this straight. Obamacare is confusing. You will have to spend all your extra time at home trying to figure out what “Obamacare” is all about. You need that time to figure it out, wandering off to a place to travel will definitely take away from that time. You do not want to be stuck in situation as many travelers are in. A person who will be living outside of the US most of the time will still be required to have a Health Insurance. You see many students will fall into a loophole since they will not be a resident of a different country. You are not a student you say? Still worry, who knows what other loopholes you might fall into, so just don’t travel.
Worry About the Recession
The recession is hitting, again. According to some analysts who are predicting the value of the dollar declining in the upcoming year. Then again there are always analysts who are predicting the value of the dollar dropping. So save your money as it will no longer go far. As we all know not traveling and not spending money is the best way to stop the recession.
Worry About Your Future
Why travel when you can be saving now for your nest egg? Since you are hoarding your money for the recession, might as well horde for later as well. To do this make sure you are working 40+ hours a week. Vacations will only slow down this process, so make sure that you do not take time off at all. When you are finally grey haired and wrinkled at the age of 35 from all the stress you will definitely look forward to why you are working to begin with…that nest egg.
Worry If You Don’t Take The Advice
Do not want to listen to my advice? Then feel free to feel the wrath of the repercussions. You might end up with more, friends, more life experiences and more insight on life.
Worry About New Friendships
What do I mean by that? Traveling has you making friends from all around the world. What comes with this is that your friends will always re-invite you to come back to see them. This can be put a hamper on you saving for your nest egg. Now that is something to worry about.
Worry About The Skills Gained
When traveling you might gain more life experiences. You might gain an understanding of things, but at the extent of things going wrong. Many travelers have learned much on their travels. You can learn to photograph, to negotiate, bargain, build a house or even learn a new language. All of this has come with a cost. You can be swindled, lose cameras, overpay many times or have to sleep on the streets for not being able to find a hotel. I would not want to wish this upon anyone. And even more importantly I would not want to wish this on you. Worry about those drawbacks, as they may not be worth the gain you may have.
Worry About Life Experiences
When you travel you may experience the lives of other people. Why is that a problem? Well you might find that people in Indonesia, Philippines, India or Colombia have a harsher life than you. They don’t have to worry about a nest egg. All they would care about is being happy with what they have today. There would be no need to save for your nest egg if others are able to not worry abut such things. So what ever you do do not travel.
Why?
Why I am asking you not to travel? Many people I have come across who do not travel, I ask the question, “Why not?”. The answer is “I might be looked upon badly at work”, “I am not sure if I can afford to”, “I do not want to go where I do not know the language”. It all comes down to WORRY. If you do not travel, you do not have to worry. You will also never have to worry about finding insight on life, gaining new life skills or even gaining new friends.
What makes you worry when you travel? Leave a comment below, send me a tweet on twitter using #pathlesstravels, or post on my facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let me know, we want to share your outrageous stories with others. Happy travels 
2014 Travel Apps - Onavo, GogoBot, HotelsTonight
There we were talking about the adventures we have all experienced. The foods and great places to camp. Enjoying the wine and appetizers. Enjoying talking about ancestry, cowboy rodeos and great bagels?…yeah the topics did get a bit off track, but it was still nice to hang around travelers from around the San Francisco area.
The event was put together by Sprint Mobile. The main reason to be there was to hear the panelists talk. The panelists consisted of Jared Simon of HotelsTonight, Ori Zaltman of GogoBot, Dick Jordan, Chris Bryden from Sprint and Moderated by Travel Editor for San Francisco Chronicle, Spud Hilton. The topic, 2014 Travel Apps. Where they are now and what to expect in the 2014.
What to look forward to
So what can the world look forward to in the future? Well, I like what the the COO and co founder of HotelsTonight said, expect to have your apps know what you want before you know. Ori confided back on this when he mentioned more personalization. This would be great when Chris Bryden mentioned he would like to see these when he parties too hard in Las Vegas and wants to draw more money from the ATM.
Apps and phones are starting to become more that way, with more customization and more personalization the phones start to learn your habits. It will be rather interesting to see an app recommend a place to me based on my previous travels, and some of them already do.
One of the challenges for apps in the future would be the one app that rules them all. But to be honest, ones that try to do that fail miserably. It is better to master one feature than to only give lackluster service to many features.
Another challenge I brought up to the panelists is multilingual support. Most apps are geared towards English speakers and makes it hard to get crowd sourcing information from non English speakers, the locals. Dick rang back with, “Then ask the locals” which is what I do most of the time.
But let us take a look at some many apps today that were talked about by some of the panelists.
Apps today
Gogobot
Ever need to plan a trip? Want to ask your travel agent some advice? But your travel agent has not been there before… but I bet your friends have. Gogobot is a website where you can get travel advice from your friends. Let us take Tripadvisor and Facebook and mash them up together, the result is Gogobot. User’s review and give advice to others to help you plan your trip.
The app was release a year or so later and has come a long way since it’s release. Started mostly as a photo sharing app, now allows you to not just share you photos but your trips and trip planning with your friends. With the new Tribes feature it also allows to connect with others who travel with your same style so you can see places fellow constituents also like.
The Gogobot app is free from the AppStore and GooglePlay store.
Hotels Tonight
Want a hotel tonight or last minute? Hotels Tonight is a great app to book a last minute hotel and get a cheaper price. In this case it actually pays to be a procrastinator. Hotels Tonight is the world’s first hotel booking made only for a phone.
How does it work? Hotels Tonight works with many hotels to get last minute deals to book a hotel. The app can be found on AppStore as well as GooglePlay store.
Sutro Guide Books
It is nice to have a guide book with you, but I cannot tell you how many times I have lost or did not bring my guide book because it was just too heavy or I was just absent minded. Now if I can only keep all my books in one spot…well, I can. Sutro Guide books are the answer to this.
These books are great offline books that you can access from your book. There other major brands who also offer their ebooks, but at the expense of…expenses. They are just pricey. Sutro is a great cheap alternative to get ideas of where to travel to so that you can later ask your friends on Gogobot
Sutro guide books are created by independent writers who are looking out for the best interest of you the traveler.
The Sutro Guides app is free from the AppStore the individual guides only cost $3-$5
Eat 24
So you are hungry after running around the city where you are staying. You want to pick up something to eat while you work on your blog, photography or just spend time with family. You dont want to deal with exchange rates of the country you are at when ordering the food. Check out Eat24.
Eat24 allows you to see the restaurants near you who offer delivery or pickup service. You can also place orders from the app as well. Even better, you can pay with your PayPal account. No need for conversion rates to worry about or foreign exchange fees from your bank.
After placing your order just get lost in the city and go and pick it up, actually eat24 offers a map view of the restaurant so that you can get there easier and it also integrates with your phones built in navigation app.
Eat24 can be found for AppStore, GooglePlay and Kindle for free.
Onavo
Are you traveling and want to manage your dataplan on your prepaid account? Perhaps you do not want to rack up too much roaming charges? Onavo is perfect for this.
Onavo is a data compressor that allows you to browse the internet w/o eating up your data plan. Onavo compresses data using a VPN server based in the USA. Onavo also tracks where you data is going to so you can adjust your settings accordingly.
Onavo was recently purchased by Facebook. Onavo is free and can be found on the AppStore.
Conclusion
From eating out, finding a place to stay or just helping your phone save data, there are some great apps out there for you to use already. But look forward to them personalizing your experience even more.
Do not forget to just put down your phone and just ask a local, as they are the best form of advice you can get from anyone, and it is always up to date.
So what are you some of your favorite travel apps out there? Would love to hear about those apps you cannot live without when traveling. Leave a comment below, send me a tweet on twitter using #pathlesstravels, or post on my facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let me know, we want to share your outrageous stories with others. Happy travels
Why Do I Travel? - To See Monuments? To Meet New Friends Around The World?
Nothing woos you like the view of the Eiffel Tower, The Obelisk of Buenos Aires or even awe of The Taj Mahal. These are amazing places to visit with amazing views for any tourist to see. I know why I travel. Although I have awed at the Red Fort and dropped my Jaw at Zipaquira Salt Cathedral, most of my time spent at these places were with my friends. These friends who had invited me to their home country and show me their life and culture. I travel to meet new friends from all around the world.
Short Stories In Manila
As I had mentioned before, I like meeting people. Visiting monuments is just a reflection of who the people are and their culture. But to really get to know a country is to get to know the people. What do I mean by that? I can tell you that I know people who have seen the Walls of the fortifide Intramuros an Rizal Park in Manila. Why see Manila like everyone else does? Two different friends of mine showed me a great time. One who showed me the college life and what college students do for fun in Manila, which mostly consisted of eating all night long and dancing. This was a way different than seeing the tourist sites.
Another other friend took me to the poor streets of Wagas in Manila to meet her cousin and show me how the life is there. It was very mind opening to eat in a cluttered back room of a store where a family of 4 fed me out of the goodness of their own heart. The streets around were filled with people whose bed was the street itself and people came to say hi every time some came to buy something at the shop. It was… warming.
Other Experiences
This did not just happen in Manila, but also in Bogotá where a friend took me to a Festival where we got to experience Colombian youths partying all night. Enjoying Kashmiri tea during tea time with a friend and his family in Srinagar was a relaxing pleasure. And experiencing a sandstorm in a family’s unfinished home in Jammu was something new to experience.
Where The Friend Ring Started
If it was not for the friends who introduced me to another friend when traveling, these experiences would have never happened. But how did it start? To tell you the truth, it started in chat rooms, a technology that seems to be dying. I visited a travel chat room where others would have meet ups and show visitors their home cities. These chatters eventually became friends of mine, who in turn introduced me their friends who loved to show off their home country and city. In turn I show around others who wanted to visit San Francisco or taste wine in Sonoma/Napa Valley. The only invested I had to do in this, was time to get to know people.
Now instead of going to Bali to trying to find an overprice place to stay, I can lay on the couch of my friend (although I prefer my own bed). Instead of worrying about my ability to speak Korean, I can rely on my friend in Busan who is happy being a personal translator and show what to eat and not to eat. The secluded white sand island that only locals know in Leyte, Philippines is a place my friend Jessa has been wanting to show me for a while now.
Some Tips Making Friends
Why am I telling you this? Yes it is nice to see the Obelisk in Buenos Aires, but even better with a local friend who will show you how to get double the exchange rate for US dollars. It is by reaching out of that comfort zone and just making a friend. How do you do this?
- Say hello
- Ask for help or the time.
- Ask where a good place to eat is.
- Ask directions somewhere.
- Ask them where they like to go for fun.
These are great ways to start a conversation. What next?
- Offer a beer/drink/water.
- Offer to buy them a dinner at their favorite place.
- Offer to share a taxi/ride.
- Cook a dinner.
- Teach them something you know well.
These are just some ideas on starting a conversation with your friend you know from abroad or a new friend you just meet in the city you are exploring. You would be amazed how much people love talking about their favorite places and how much they want to show it off to you. Take them up on it and enjoy the ride.
Conclusion
So travel, not to meet the monuments, but to meet the people, that is how you are going to enjoy tea time in Kashmir, or a festival in Colombia or secluded island in Philippines. Make friends who will want to share their world with you.
So are there places where you meet some amazing friends? Would love to hear those stories so we can share them with others. Leave a comment below, send me a tweet on twitter using #pathlesstravels, or post on my facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let me know, we want to share your outrageous stories with others. Happy travels