May 2010

Songs for the Road No. 3: The Rough Road

by Ekua on May 25, 2010 · 4 comments in songs for the road

I wrote recently about the height of self acceptance. But inevitably, life insists on pulling me back down to depths of self doubt. Sometimes I feel that by being myself, I’ve resigned myself to a life of dissonance.

There are times when I wish I could be interested in “normal” things; that I didn’t have an innate desire to challenge myself or challenge other people’s ideas about the world through the exploration of it. I see how travel has shaped my interests and wants. I see the challenges of living in a world that is consumed with things I no longer give a crap about. And how I have to constantly explain why I don’t.

But for better or worse, through both choices of my own and choices of fate, this is the path I am on. When I need reminding of that and the struggle that accompanies it, this is the song I turn to:

“Would you prefer the easy way? No? Well, okay then… don’t cry”

So how to continue the hard way? With gratitude for having the courage to take advantage of and create incredible opportunities, no matter how crazy they may seem. With hope for a future without regrets. And with acceptance of my choices as ones that have helped me build considerable reserves of strength and led to indescribably sublime moments.

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Bay to Breakers 2010: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Funny

by Ekua on May 20, 2010 · 6 comments in California,local discoveries

It’s just before 8am on a mid-May Sunday morning in San Francisco. A girl stumbles out of a bus and loses the most recent meal she’s eaten on the sidewalk as if it’s a Saturday night. You see group after group of people in coordinated costumes role playing as if it’s Halloween. As you walk towards the bay, you see little corn tortillas covering the ground as if several tortilla-filled trucks collided and spilled their contents all over the street. What the hell is going on? It must be Bay to Breakers.

Bay to Breakers (B2B) is San Francisco’s annual race from the bay to the ocean. After the real competitors take off, it is one of the city’s most notorious WTF? events where people congregate to celebrate and indulge in absurdity. After years of not making it to the event, I finally attended my first B2B this past weekend. Now that I’ve been, I concur with the masses that everyone should try it at least once. Here were some memorable parts of Bay to Breakers:

Naked people

The Bad:
You’ll see exhibitionists at any large event in San Francisco, but at B2B, they are sometimes running.

The Ugly:
Someone in a trench coat may appear to be dressed, but to your surprise, he will give you a full frontal reveal when he turns around.

Baby strollers without babies

The Good:
Baby strollers equipped with stereos and loudspeakers blaring upbeat music for everyone around to enjoy as they walk or run.

The Funny:
A baby stroller full of little jello shots to share with fellow revelers.

Bathrooms every block or so

The Good:
Most people are not at B2B to race, they are there to party. No one stands a chance against the Kenyans anyway. The people who plan the event know what most people are there for, so they put up Porta Potties every block or two along the way.

The Bad:
Even with bathrooms everywhere, the lines are incredibly long. And as you start to get close to the front of the line, someone in a viking costume might invite five fellow vikings to cut in line with him.

The race course

The Good:
The race is almost entirely flat except for one hill on Hayes Street that goes by the Painted Ladies of Full House fame. This allows the people who are not racing (the bulk of the participants) to put forth as little effort as possible and focus on what they came to do: party.

The Funny:
Many do not make it to the end of the race at the ocean. By the time you reach Golden Gate Park, crowds have dispersed and people have headed home to pass out or have gone somewhere else to continue the party.

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Deciding Where to Go Next and How to Take the First Steps Towards Getting There

by Ekua on May 15, 2010 · 6 comments in d.i.y. travel,female travel,general travel,listastic,safe travels

Oh, the places you can go. It can be overwhelming to think about how much world there is to explore.

If you are lucky enough to be in a position where you have time and funds set aside for travel, it can be tricky to figure out how and where you should use them. And then once you’ve decided where to go, beginning the planning process can be a challenge, especially if you’re doing it yourself.

Last summer, having the opportunity to coordinate a month of independent travel helped me figure out how to go about that process in a way that allowed me to keep my anxiety level to a minimum. Here are some tips:

» Deciding Where to Go

Weather

Weather may seem like a no-brainer, but I am amazed at how often people overlook things like seasons being reversed on the other side of the equator. If you have to travel during a set period of time, consider potential natural disasters or the affect weather might have on your ability to move around the country you visit. If a place is likely to get flooded or have roads wash out during heavy rain, you don’t want to travel there during the height of their monsoon/hurricane season. Some weather situations can be tolerable, even if uncomfortable, but it doesn’t make sense to travel to a place at a time when predictable extreme weather can lead to natural disasters.

Find out if there are any serious travel warnings.

New Zealand has one of the more user-friendly and less fear-mongering travel advisory websites. It breaks down the countries in to Extreme Risk, High Risk and Some Risk and has the most recent important news on its front page. For each country, it also provides links to the travel advisory sites of Britain, U.S.A., Canada and Australia.

Figure out your travel style.

Know what kind of activities you want to partake in and the level of comfort you want in order to narrow down your potential destination list. Do you want to do adventure sports? Check out some nature and wildlife? Be a beach bum? Observe a unique culture? Which culture’s food, music, art, religion or history appeal to you the most? Are you willing to rough it or do you have higher travel standards?

How much time do you have?

If you pick a spot you want to visit, think about whether or not there is somewhere nearby you’d really like to visit as well.  If you’re itching to see a lot of places in a relatively small area (South East Asia, for example), you may want to visit when you have a large chunk of time. If you have a short amount of time, you’ll probably want to limit the amount of places to see. No matter what your travel style, jam-packing your trip can make travel stressful and take away from your overall experience.

Watch travel TV and documentaries and read travel memoirs.

I tend to get a lot of ideas about where I want to go this way. Shows and books can take you beyond the limitations of what you learned in school and beyond the well-known destinations to find out about interesting cultures, subcultures and landscapes you’ve probably never heard of.

Remember that pictures only tell part of the story.

It’s easy to look at a wonderful photo of a location and say, “I am dying to go there!” Popular destinations can often be photogenic but are not always as impressive or worth the money and effort when you see them in person. Reading recent travel blogs and articles about someone’s actual experience is great way to go instead of relying solely on pictures.

» Taking the First Steps Towards Planning Your Trip

Buy a guidebook.

I’ve started to buy guidebooks before I book trips because it helps me get acquainted with possible itineraries and get a sense of more specific locations I want to visit. Guidebooks are also great for figuring out how to get from one destination to another and finding out if the route you are planning is feasible. I spend a lot of time flipping through the “how to get there” sections and pay attention to whether or not a bus goes by where I want to go, how long it takes to get from place to place, etc.

Talk to people who have been to where you’re going.

Talking to people who know the destination has been the most helpful thing I’ve done before booking a trip. It’s even better if it’s a person who knows you well and/or someone who has a similar travel style to you. Talking to these people can be the best way to get a sense of which places to go, which places to skip, and how much time you should stay in a certain place. And both parties benefit because people are happy to help like-minded people discover the places they’ve enjoyed and they love having a chance to relive some of the moments they had there.

Keep in mind that you can’t see it all.

When I start to get a sense of all of the places I can visit in a destination, my first instinct is to start cramming my schedule. But that is not a fun way to travel, and trying to stick to a concrete schedule with limited time can drive you crazy when you’re abroad. I recommend coming up with a list of the places you’re super pumped to see and the places that you’ll logistically need to visit for flights or stopovers. Organize your schedule accordingly, leaving room for error and for visiting other places that sound interesting to you. Then leave the rest to the wind…

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Wanderful Words No. 22: A Map for Saturday

by Ekua on May 11, 2010 · 4 comments in backpacking,movies with movement,solo travel,wanderful words

Turistas. Hostel. The Beach. These are all examples of Hollywood’s poor representations of traveling with a budget and a backpack. So it was refreshing to finally watch A Map for Saturday, a documentary by Brook Silva-Braga that takes a realistic look into the world of long term solo backpacking.

While my month-or-sos away would not be considered long term by non-U.S. citizens who go away for longer, I found that I could relate to most of the content in the movie—the initial loneliness, learning how to meet people, settling into the coming and going, traveler’s guilt and what it’s like when you have to go home. Throughout the film, I felt like I was reliving many of the emotions I’ve had abroad.

There were moments where I thought the movie was a little vapid. I think this stemmed from my wanting there to be more of an underlying story or a unique angle. Something more edgy and captivating than following yet another advantaged young person on the road. But all in all,  it’s a solid backpacking documentary full of inspirational tidbits. I’d recommend it for any past or potential backpackers.

As the film began, a traveler being interviewed by Silva-Braga supplied this quote about one of the most profound transformations traveling lightly and cheaply can instigate:

“When you have everything on your back, material goods don’t mean as much as they used to. That’s something you take with you for the rest of your life.”

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Fear and Loathing Before Las Vegas

by Ekua on May 6, 2010 · 14 comments in etcetera,Nevada

I can’t recall exactly how old I was when I went on my first and only trip to Las Vegas. I do remember that I was a teenager who was too young and too caught up in being surly to appreciate the beauty of the desert. I was reluctantly along for the ride on a family road trip through the Southwest in the middle of the summer heat.

After hitting up various national parks in Arizona and Utah, Las Vegas was our final stop. I still remember my initial view of the city. Miles of dust and nothingness behind us, a Strip of chaos suddenly emerged through the desert haze. “WTF?!” I thought as I realized it was not a mirage.

Over two or three days in Vegas, we saw a fake Eiffel Tower, walked by an indoor fake gondola ride complete with seatbelts, wandered around a fake New York City and went to see a variety show with performances by fake celebrities. It was all pretty incomprehensible. I mean, why pour all sorts of money into cheesy shows and gambling at fake cities when you could save those funds for authentic experiences at the authentic versions of those places?

Several years later, and beyond the age that allows one to take full advantage of Las Vegas, I have yet to go back. While the idea of exploring the desert has become more appealing, returning to Vegas has not. I’ve never sought the young adult Las Vegas experience. But it found me.

When my friend asked me to be in her wedding, I felt honored and agreed to be a bridesmaid. She has been a great friend over the years and is easy going, so I knew she wouldn’t turn into the type of bride who terrorizes the Oxygen network. And she certainly hasn’t.

But she began to make a quiet request that made me nervous. At first, I would pretend I didn’t hear it or I would quickly change the subject. But as time went on, the request became a little louder and more concrete. “I want to go to Vegas for my bachelorette party!” followed by an excited smile. I caved.

Now I know there is more to Vegas than the image it tends to project. But it is a bachelorette party, and as far as I can see, it will follow the typical bachelorette-in-Vegas itinerary: a large group, what I like to refer to as “clubby-clubs”, coordinated outfits for a night out, a Chippendale’s Show (!) and likely a ton of posing for pictures.

Before booking a flight, I spent some time examining a couple of the main reasons why I am not into having that sort of Vegas experience: (1) Vegas epitomizes a vast collection of ideas that make me gag. (2) It very much goes against the way I like travel and the way I see myself as a traveler.

Number one is not likely to change, but I had to think about number two a little more. A huge part of my love of travel has been the anthropological aspect of it; a desire to experience other cultures firsthand. Over time, I’ve accepted that there are many micro-cultures in the United States. So why would I refuse to look at Vegas as one of them?

As the trip approaches, I am nervous, but have been attempting to develop a “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it” mantra. Maybe it could be like some of the strange foods I’ve tried on my travels— it looks unappealing, but turns out to surprisingly tasty. Or at least tolerable. If nothing else, it will be a weekend of celebration with friends and a peek into yet another culture I might never fully understand.

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