Travel Hacks

I'm glad you explained about the large bin-liner, Fred! I wondered where that was going....

Actually the worst place I encountered for flooding was France. Those damn footprint-bogs with the overhead chains... You had to time your jump for the exit the same split second as you pulled down on the chain and fifty gallons of water swept everything before it like a tidal wave. I wrote off more than one pair of shoes before I got my timing right.

https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012 … -t-10.html

I thought I had linked to the above before, but I've just checked and apparently not. So here it is now - a short report on sleeping arrangements back then. I mentioned recently about not having clean sheets on every occasion during my travels with Linda in the Middle East in 1964/5. Sometimes you have to be firm, right?
(I'm not absolutely certain that the event occurred in an Arabic-speaking country; it could have been Turkey. Whichever... it's worth the telling.)

@ Gordon
Your blog is rather enjoyable and, much as its dates are old, points that are just as valid today keep popping up.
The sheets thing is still a deal in many cheaper places around Asia today - see my sleeping bag post from page one.

Fred wrote:

The sheets thing is still a deal in many cheaper places around Asia today - see my sleeping bag post from page one.

Yes, and you're absolutely right about making one's own bag. We should have done that. But we were rank amateurs. We started off in my Beetle in Greece, and in Ankara I reckoned the supply line was getting too long for the car so we parked it in the Customs shed there, reduced our backpacks to minimums, and went hitch-hiking eastward. In Iran we reckoned it would be a good idea to hitch all the way around the Med. But in Cairo we realised that was a wee bit ambitious so we wended our way back to the car after three months away, and drove north from there. Never did get to Libya and further west, regrettably!

Fred. You're also right that some of the points I made in my travel-posts are still valid. Not all, of course. Here's one below that might be still valid - since the situation hasn't changed between Israel and its Arab neighbours. As with most of my blog-posts, I started off with our travels in Russia (USSR, then) and only got to the Israel difficulty near the end. Ah well, it is what it is!
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012 … syria.html

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Fred. You're also right that some of the points I made in my travel-posts are still valid. Not all, of course. Here's one below that might be still valid - since the situation hasn't changed between Israel and its Arab neighbours. As with most of my blog-posts, I started off with our travels in Russia (USSR, then) and only got to the Israel difficulty near the end. Ah well, it is what it is!
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012 … syria.html

Will you please stop posting links to your blogs - I'm getting addicted to the thing.
I have no idea what you do for a living but your musings are very entertaining.

Fred wrote:

Will you please stop posting links to your blogs - I'm getting addicted to the thing.
I have no idea what you do for a living but your musings are very entertaining.

It's sheer self-indulgence: I enjoy re-reading them myself - the travel ones, anyway. It was a remarkable time of my life, those months. I was a 25-year-old accountant, Linda was 24 and a teacher; we met by chance at a hostel in Greece, and travelled together for the next 55 years, one way and another. At age 82 now, I don't do anything for a living!

I wrote my blog-posts from 2010 till 2016 - five and a half years. They began on local topics as offshoots to my weekly newspaper columns, and morphed into international commentaries in the later years. The travel-stories and other reminiscences were for my own amusement - and for my grandchildren, who aren't really interested. Sigh...

Anyone who has used AstroClick Travel tool on Astro.com for traveling/relocation? It supposedly shows you positive places in all over the world.

High on the list of recommendations for budget travelers is a dictionary. When drifting around Europe and the Middle East back in the ‘60s I carried “Lyall’s Guide to the Languages of Europe”, and it was very helpful. It’s still in print – or at least available online.

Published in 1935, its sample conversations are just plain silly, some of the time – here’s one: “Where is the WC? Thank you. Wake me at eight o’clock.” Sheesh. Nevertheless, it does have 800 words in each of 23 languages – with pronunciation guides and even a sampling of public signs in Arabic, Cyrillic and Greek scripts.
I already had some schoolboy French, and had picked up some pidgin German along the way; those, I’ve reported on before. The report below illustrates the limitations of dictionaries, however valuable. Sigh…

Oh dear. "The report below" seems to have been censored! Why was that?

Well, here is part of what was in the censored link. All harmless stuff, I assure you! It simply illustrates the limitations of dictionaries in foreign countries - in this case, Czechoslovakia and Egypt, both nearly 60 years ago.

In the end, we made the Austrian border with twenty minutes to spare, after a nuisance delay by soldiers at a roadblock a few miles out. Westerners speeding towards the border a bit before midnight? Highly, highly, suspicious. In those days it was not unknown for young Westerners to try to smuggle refugees out in their cars. Even VW Beetles had enough room for somebody small and thin, buried under clothing in the front luggage area. Machine guns pointed at us from two feet away conveyed a clear message.

They checked every inch of the car while I explained the innocence of our mission to young conscripts who spoke and understood only Czech. For a shy farm boy brought up in a world without hand gestures, I had learned how helpful they were. In later years, my mother used to beg me to stop waving my arms around when explaining something.

Looking back, the Communist Menace was probably always exaggerated, just as the Islamic Menace is today. Linda and I travelled by car through every Communist-run nation in Europe except Albania. We hitched and bussed through nine Moslem nations plus the Turkish enclaves in Cyprus. Only on one single occasion on our travels did we feel genuinely threatened.

On that occasion, we got lost in a residential labyrinth in a poor area, and an impromptu gang of youngsters in Alexandria, Egypt began throwing stones at us. We represented the European invaders of 1956, to the uneducated stone-throwers - just as today, innocent Afghan wedding parties represent the bombers of the Twin Towers, to uneducated Americans.

An older boy happened upon the scene and led us to safety. And if he hadn’t come along, somebody else would have done. Egyptian cities are very crowded places. The mother of one of the kids would have slapped some sense into them, I expect. We weren’t ever in mortal danger, though it was a bit scary. Served us right for intruding, really. We had pushed our luck, which is always a mistake.

LOL what a story! I got sick from a mango in India but otherwise survived the other meals. I'm Cuban and grew up eating some pretty spicy food in Miami though

Feel better soon.

https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012 … uwait.html

I can't remember now what link I gave that was censored above, but the one here gives give a backup to the topic of the usefulness of dictionaries. We couldn't use our Lyall's in Iran - except in the south-east of the country, where they spoke Arabic. Huh. Try negotiating with the crew of a cattle-boat for a passage from Abadan to Kuwait without a dictionary of some kind!

I can’t even remember when I used a dictionary (in a book format ) the last time, same goes for a map. Smartphones and ubiquitous internet access have made traveling so much easier…

Gordon Barlow wrote:

https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012/04/cattle-class-to-kuwait.html

I can't remember now what link I gave that was censored above, but the one here gives give a backup to the topic of the usefulness of dictionaries. We couldn't use our Lyall's in Iran - except in the south-east of the country, where they spoke Arabic. Huh. Try negotiating with the crew of a cattle-boat for a passage from Abadan to Kuwait without a dictionary of some kind!

Kurterino wrote:

I can’t even remember when I used a dictionary (in a book format ) the last time, same goes for a map. Smartphones and ubiquitous internet access have made traveling so much easier…

Good point. Although... it might be a wee bit dangerous taking a wildly expensive smart-phone into the slums of poor countries. It would be seen as arrogant, to flaunt any expensive item there. What do you reckon?

Smart phones make the phone's owner a target here in South America.

I have not owned one since moving here in 2013.

I tote a 15-inch MacBook/laptop in an unmarked carrying case when I need Internet at a location other than my condo, including when traveling.  I have never encountered a problem al respecto.

cccmedia, Quito, Ecuador

Yeah. That makes sense, CC!

I use a flip phone, sparingly, to order food, make a medical appointment, or whatever .. although there are several reasons why I prefer to communicate via email whenever possible.  I'm not on Zoom or WhatsApp.

When I got back to Quito from Colombia recently, I had a guy at one of the cellphone shops on Calle Guayaquil put in a SIM card for Ecuador into my flip phone.  That took about 30 seconds.  Then I bought a few dollars worth of Claro cell phone time in addition to some free SIM time that I was receiving.

cccmedia

Well I never venture into the ‘slums of poor countries’. If you do, you’re risking more than just losing a phone (very very very few tourists ever go visit ’the slums’, rightfully so)
Other than that, I’ve traveled on my own as well as with a friend, on motorcycles through S. East Asia, and everywhere I went, all of the locals were using smartphones too. So it’s not like you’re walking around with something desirable in your pocket that nobody could afford… Sure, if you happen to own an expensive one, it’s a good idea to get a nondescript, cheaply looking case, and be extra careful. Worst case, if you do get robbed, don’t resist, hand it over and get a new one , it’s not the end of the world, especially with backups in the cloud.
A smartphone can do so much more than Google Maps, Google Translate and messaging: a problem with your flight? Most airlines have apps that allow you to book, rebook, cancel or whatever you need. Same goes for hotel reservations, or car rentals, keeping tabs on my credit cards, and more.
I mean, I get your concern: back in the day, before there were even cellphones, I had a nice Swiss watch, but I would never take it with me on vacations, it wasn’t worth the risk just to know what time it is. But traveling without a smartphone would be so much more difficult…

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Kurterino wrote:

I can’t even remember when I used a dictionary (in a book format ) the last time, same goes for a map. Smartphones and ubiquitous internet access have made traveling so much easier…

Good point. Although... it might be a wee bit dangerous taking a wildly expensive smart-phone into the slums of poor countries. It would be seen as arrogant, to flaunt any expensive item there. What do you reckon?

Kurterino wrote:

Well I never venture into the ‘slums of poor countries’. If you do, you’re risking more than just losing a phone (very very very few tourists ever go visit ’the slums’, rightfully so)

Quite the contrary, at least in the parts of the world I visited:
I like to visit the poorer parts of town, including slums, out of an interest in the people there. I never had any problem. The people were usually as curious about me as I was about them - and on two occasions (in Indonesia and in India) I was even invited for tea in a makeshift stall, with the owners refusing to take my money afterwards (declaring I am their guest and they are happy to see me there).
For me, all people are trustworthy until proven otherwise. I have fared well with this attitude and do not plan on changing it.

beppi wrote:

Quite the contrary, at least in the parts of the world I visited:
I like to visit the poorer parts of town, including slums, out of an interest in the people there. I never had any problem. The people were usually as curious about me as I was about them - and on two occasions (in Indonesia and in India) I was even invited for tea in a makeshift stall, with the owners refusing to take my money afterwards (declaring I am their guest and they are happy to see me there).
For me, all people are trustworthy until proven otherwise. I have fared well with this attitude and do not plan on changing it.

Agreed, beppi, and I'm glad your experiences have been the same as mine. These days, even poor people have smart phones, yes, but they can tell the difference between a thousand-dollar phone and a cheapo. And it is never fair to flaunt one's wealth. You understand that, but it's always worth re-stating it. The final paragraphs of this blog-post below explains the principle involved, when I was mulling whether or not to leave my car in a poor village in Turkey while we visited Rhodes.
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2015 … -back.html

beppi wrote:

For me, all people are trustworthy until proven otherwise. I have fared well with this attitude and do not plan on changing it.

True, within reason.

Here is Brazil, so-called "Favela Tourism" was controversial before the pandemic, and undoubtedly will be again as restrictions are lifted.  To me it's always seemed gratuitously disrespectful of people in their own homes, but I understand why there are people, even some of the residents themselves, who feel differently.  Besides, "poor area" doesn't necessarily mean "no-go area", particularly by day.  I've never felt particularly uncomfortable in a poor area, when I had a reason to be there, treated people with courtesy, and kept to myself.

But there ARE real no-go areas in every major Brazilian city, and I know that this isn't the only country where that's true.  So I hope that in real life, you're operating on better prospective information that "all people are trustworthy until proven otherwise", which is no help for future planning, however comforting it may be in memory.  Narrenfreiheit is an undependable bodyguard, and only good until its first catastrophic failure.

Kurterino wrote:

I can’t even remember when I used a dictionary (in a book format ) the last time, same goes for a map. Smartphones and ubiquitous internet access have made traveling so much easier…

I love dictionaries, and am looking at a shelf-full of them as I type.  But my husband and I are both polyglot language nerds, so that's only to be expected.  Still, only one of those dictionaries is new, and MAN, was that one hard to find!  Not quite as hard to find as a good city map on paper, but almost. 

Narrenfreiheit...

Freedom to do whatever one wants.

abthree wrote:

Kurterino wrote:

I can’t even remember when I used a dictionary (in a book format ) the last time, same goes for a map. Smartphones and ubiquitous internet access have made traveling so much easier…

I love dictionaries, and am looking at a shelf-full of them as I type.  But my husband and I are both polyglot language nerds, so that's only to be expected.  Still, only one of those dictionaries is new, and MAN, was that one hard to find!  Not quite as hard to find as a good city map on paper, but almost. 

I like the feeling of liberty that you get from having less possessions. I’m not saying  that I live like a monk, -quite the contrary, at least in some ways-, and I’m not against owning stuff, not at all. But I really enjoyed slowly ‘digitizing’ my music, books and movies and getting rid of the physical copies (VHS, CDs, Vinyl records and also books) during the last 10 years. And having access to so much stuff in a device as small as a smartphone still feels almost like science fiction to me, and it can be extremely useful.
Concerning  languages, which I also enjoy learning, Google Translate is amazing. It has literally saved me hundreds, probably thousands of dollars …good dictionaries aren’t cheap!

I second that, and Brazil isn’t the only country in S. America where you have to avoid certain areas, i think that’s quite well known. I think that the few Asian countries that I’ve visited (S-E Asia) are definitely safer in this regard, except maybe the Philippines.
But I’ve always felt quite safe even in Cambodia, which is pretty poor. Some common sense can go a long way…

abthree wrote:

beppi wrote:

For me, all people are trustworthy until proven otherwise. I have fared well with this attitude and do not plan on changing it.

True, within reason.

Here is Brazil, so-called "Favela Tourism" was controversial before the pandemic, and undoubtedly will be again as restrictions are lifted.  To me it's always seemed gratuitously disrespectful of people in their own homes, but I understand why there are people, even some of the residents themselves, who feel differently.  Besides, "poor area" doesn't necessarily mean "no-go area", particularly by day.  I've never felt particularly uncomfortable in a poor area, when I had a reason to be there, treated people with courtesy, and kept to myself.

But there ARE real no-go areas in every major Brazilian city, and I know that this isn't the only country where that's true.  So I hope that in real life, you're operating on better prospective information that "all people are trustworthy until proven otherwise", which is no help for future planning, however comforting it may be in memory.  Narrenfreiheit is an undependable bodyguard, and only good until its first catastrophic failure.

https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2013 … inson.html
I think my son could write a chapter or two on what not to do as a traveller. One of those chapters would probably be "Do not have more children than you can cope with". My above link (to an old post of mine on my personal online journal) tells the gist of the story of his life in a treehouse in Guatemala, with a toddler he inherited from a girlfriend and the very pregnant girlfriend.

Surprisingly - to his mother and me - he lasted a couple of years with the girlfriend before splitting, but 18 years and counting with the two children (now aged 18 and 21, respectively). Wonders of wonders, and not recommended.