Author Archives: Erick Redcloud

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.

Free At Tanah Lot - Indonesia

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.

Cute Anime Girl

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.

Two Happy Street Kids

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.

Gogobot ScreenShot

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.

HotelsTonight ScreenShot

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

SutroGuides ScreenShot

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.

Eat24 Screen Shot

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.

Onavo ScreenShot

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.

Cruces En Zipaquierá Salt Cathedral - Bogotá

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.

Pretty Kashmiri Eye After some Kashmiri Tea - Srinagar

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.

My Friend Gazes Across The Water

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

Face Your Fears: Travel More

So I ask this question all the time. “What stops you from traveling?” The responses are always the same every time. “I don’t know if I can get the money.” “I dont know if I can get the time off from work.” “I do not know the language.” “I don’t want to travel alone” What it all boils down to is the four letter F word, the one that holds back from so many things… FEAR.

I will have to admit traveling used to fear me too. As a matter of fact, my first trip to India to meet one of the dearest friends in the world (and still my dearest friend in the world) was my first time traveling outside of North America and I was scared to death. It was one of the few times I have ever had butterflies in my stomach and for a good reason too. The trip did not quite go as planned. It failed miserably and my fears were in the right place. What happened you ask? Let me tell you the quick version of the story.

A Horror Story

My flight in Chicago was delayed 3 hours which made me late to the “MAZE” known as Heathrow; which caused even more of a delay. The airline was kind enough to set me up on a different flight that would have me arrive almost 24 hours after original to India. My friends were going to be at the airport waiting for my arrival in the New Delhi Airport. So I requested the flight to be rerouted to arrive earlier. It would still be behind my original arrival time but not a full day behind. Four hours after my original arrival, I had landed in New Delhi International. I made my way to the luggage carousal and waited for my luggage and waited some more and kept waiting. My luggage was lost. I had my information of my hotel and reservation in my luggage (and new lesson was learned here).

My Friend who waited for me to arrive into New Delhi

I filed a missing luggage claim and exited around 4:30 am to catch a taxi; my friends have already left at this point and so did all the taxi drivers. Some local guys were “nice” enough to help me. As I started walking to their car I knew what I was doing was not totally right here. I was low on options and had to do something. They took me to a “tourism center” where they lied about reservation of my hotel and then took me to another one. The hotel owner charged me 10x times the cost of my original place, yes I was being ripped off by a very common scam. I paid the extra price due to jet-lag and wanting a place to just sleep for the night.

After paying the outrageous (yet fine price for an American) I got to the room I was able to contact my friend who was wonder where I had been. The trip was so much better after being with her… until I had to leave. My flight back home was cancelled (and thus this trip started my hatred towards American Airlines). I was forced to buy another plane ticket because I could not make the rescheduled flight provided. Eventually I made it home safely thanks to friends in India and family back home.

Taj Majal Minaret - Agra India

Why?

Why am I telling you this story? My job is to inspire people to travel, not to make them scared to travel. It is true, you have right to fear travelling. Things will happen. Things will happen that are out of your control. Those things are only small things. I was with my best friend in the world, one who would make me forget about all the things that had happened before I saw her. We had fun exploring the Taj Mahal and relaxing in the mountains of Rishikesh. The fact is that I got through it all with friends and family to help. Things are gonna happen, ESPECIALLY when traveling. I learned this from that trip and since learned how to be more prepared.

Facing Fears

That trip did not stop me. I faced other fears after as I started to travel more. With my lack of ability to swim, I swam in the ocean of Philippines. I faced my fear of trying a language I never tried before in Indonesia. I faced my fear of traveling alone by visiting Colombia on my own with my very broken Spanish. I faced my fear of heights by parasailing through canyons and over cities. I faced my fear of open oceans by speedboating past a storm to get to secluded area of Panama. I faced a fear of my blindness by caving through a dark cave w/o glasses or contacts. I faced my fear of flying… by just plain out traveling.

Parapante Through Chicamoche - Colombia

Conclusion

Traveling can insight fear, but even more so it can make you conquer your fears. I have since learned 4 languages, taken amazing ariel photography, meet an amazing life long friend (who speaks mainly spanish) and just learned a lot more about life. I know you have had those fears when traveling. I know you have learned a lot after facing them. And it feels good huh? It just seems right afterwards. So what can I say? Face those fears and travel more. Go take those chances, take the unsafe route. Learn more about yourself and travel more.

Have you had a fearful story like the one here? I want to know your crazy stories. What fears did face? 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

Travel and Photography Inspiration - How I Became A Travel Photographer

Nothing says amazing like capturing an amazing view while suspended way above air looking down on a beautiful canyon. Amazing is capturing a beautiful woman standing in front of a romantic scene of a giant waterfall. Amazing is clicking away at a beautiful secluded beach scene that you will only see a few times in your life. Amazing is capturing a culture that you have never experienced and sharing it with everyone else through photography.

Parapante Through Chicamoche - Colombia

The Travel Photographer

Photography is amazing. Travel photography is even more amazing. The job of a travel photographer is to tell a story about people and places to entice others to visit. And although I am no expert at it, I try my best to entice others to travel. Why? Because it is hard to pass up the experiences and views that I have come across. It is amazing when others can also experience what I have seen and done. That is why I created this website to begin with. I want other to explore the grandiose waterfalls of Iguazu. I want people to know how it is to experience the extreme passion when dancing Salsa in Colombia. I want and enjoy the friendly nature of the people of the Philippines.

Funny Paniki - MacArthur Philippines

The Beginning

How did I start off? Well I never thought I would have gotten into photography. I thought I was not artistic enough or even could learn to use a camera. Aperture? Shutter speed? ISO? It seemed so sophisticated and complicated to me. What are all those dials for? Why are there so many buttons? I am certain I was not alone. I know you are saying some of the same things or said some of those same things at one point.

I started off with simple point and shoot digital camera at the age of 19. Nearly every year I would upgrade to a slightly better one. I have always been a fan of Olympus and always went with them. That then is when it happened. My girlfriend at the time invited me to visit her in India. I seized the opportunity and said HECK YA. Travel way across the world to be with a girl I loved and experience a new culture? It was a no brainer. But I figured my point and shoot camera would not due for this trip. I wanted to document it and with a higher quality photos than the snapshots I was taking with my point and click cameras. So that is when I purchased my first DSLR. It was a Canon Rebel t2i. I had ditched my Olympus (and recently returned back to Olympus) for a Canon DSLR. I wandered India grasping shots of the experiences I was having through out the land. I was documenting the faces and people I was meeting and framing to the views around. I tried to get the artistic shots of beautiful places like the Taj Mahal, but I would have to admit, the photographs were mediocre at best.

Early Photography Taj Majal Minaret - Agra India

Persistence

Most of my time was spent trying to learn my new camera and at that time I had no concept of photography techniques. After my trip I found that my photography was lacking. I was studying Graphic Design at the Academy of Art University at the time and was learning a lot about space and shapes and how people perceive communication. At this time I was also noticing how my photography was lacking. At this time I found that it was time to learn more about camera techniques. I taught myself my camera through Youtube videos and posted my photography on travel photography websites and asked for feedback to help me improve.

Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong and India again, I started pushing my technique more and more. I forced myself to travel on my own, with friends and meeting people who invited me to their country. I took photos, not just a few but A LOT. Same shot, different angles, experimented with the lighting, settings and tried some new dials on the camera. I was gaining new insights and different skills. All of this was self taught with no schooling in photography at all.

Second trip Korean Folk Village (still Learning)- Yongin

The Break

I was visiting my ex-girlfriend in India, the girl who was my girlfriend the first time I was in India. We were to visit the town of Ladakh. To make a long story short, she had to leave and I was on my own to travel to Kashmir. Her family set me up with a guide. Kashmir is rarely visited by most Americans, due to the bad press it gets. But there I was in Srinagar, in one of the most beautiful places in the world. There I documented story of an amazing area that many have no experienced outside of India or Pakistan. When I returned I entered the photos into a contest. I did not win, but I did get noticed. At that time man contacted me from a publishing company asking to purchase the rights to some of my photos. This was a break into the industry I was looking for. They bought my photography and it was published in a new magazine. From there other started contacting me do some work for them. I was now starting to get paid to travel and to photograph.

Fisherman on Dal Lake - Kashmir India

The jist of this story? I am not a trained photographer. I never knew I was going to be a photographer. Heck my schooling is in Architectural Engineering and Graphic Design. What made what I do happen was devotion and persistence. I then started this website. I wanted others to accomplish their dream. To be a photojournalist, journalist, traveler, photographer… what ever it is. This is why I am starting to make a new commitment to this site. I will start to be offering more articles of photography. To help those learn the skills, become persistent and accomplish their dream. Look towards the beginning of next year for classes on photography and tools for photographers.

Why?

Why did write this article? I want to let you know the following:

I started off not knowing what I was doing as the most of us do.
Persistence with a passion to improve is a great way to accomplish a goal.
I love traveling, I love photography and I want others to love them too.
I want to let you know I am here to help you accomplish your goal to travel and photograph.

So what is a dream you want to follow? What goal have you added persistence to? Did you ever get a lucky break? I want to know. I want to share you story. Leave a message below, send me a tweet on twitter, or post on my facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let me know, we want to share it with others.