Posted Sunday, June 29, 2008, 11:30 PM by Lonely Planet
I'm nosing around for some accommodation in Leh - high high high in the Indian part of the Himalayas - and remembering when I was last there, at the end of September. The gardens were still bright with sunflowers and cornflowers and poppies, but as soon as the sun dipped below the mountains I would be scrabbling through my backpack for ever-more elaborate sleep outfits. The Tibetan family who ran my guesthouse thought I was hilarious. 'It's not even cold yet!' they would scoff as I begged for my morning bucket of water to be heated. By the last few days of September, I was spending the nights under siege in my unheated room - sleeping in hat and coat and thermals and socks and zero-degree sleeping bag, and still so bone-chilled I was awake all night (the starscapes outside my 17 windows were some consolation).
I've been driven from Leh in September, Kathmandu in December, and Edinburgh in July by a constitutional aversion to the cold. Of course, there are some hardier souls who love nothing better than to feel their very capillaries crackling under the touch of Jack Frost - it makes them feel alive, I'm told - but for those of us who would rather feel alive in a less hypothermic way, travel can turn into a series of ingenious contortions to beat out the chill. Take these tips from a good citizen of Baguio, in the Philippines. Hairdryers under the clothes and heating your room with a toaster oven - hmmm. Perhaps I should reroute this trip to Jamaica.
- Cherry Washington
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Posted Thursday, June 26, 2008, 7:24 PM by Lonely Planet
I am 15 years old and as you would expect independent travel is both a difficult and overwhelming aspiration. I've got many tentative plans for after I finish school but until then I'm looking for ways to see the world while still under the roof of parental control. My first attempt to bust out was a year and a half ago when I went to LA with my family. I had aimed to go to a local punk night at a club in Echo Park, live music being an interest of mine wherever I am. The fact that this night in particular didn't work out has not deterred me from searching for my own interests through and while travelling. As other aspiring travellers of similar ages will agree, if you are in the situation where you can't travel alone that makes it extremely difficult to look into things that solely interest you and not just your guardians. Despite these challenges I think everyone should take the opportunity to travel free while you still can because sooner or later we will have to fund and guide ourselves and who knows? That could be half the fun. If anyone has any tips (other than wait a while) for under 18s wanting to explore the world, please throw them here.
- Max Mildren, work experience student
Labels: Echo Park, travel for teenagers
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Posted Monday, June 23, 2008, 7:43 PM by Lonely Planet
Western pop culture has an insidious way of travelling. Pop icons you're familiar with from home often appear up in the most far-flung of places, winning the hearts and minds of locals. And while this might seem like another shameful example of homogenous, ubiquitous western cultural colonialism, it's great for conversation starters.
I realised this in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, while visiting a local primary school for a day of English conversation classes. The school is situated in the Old Town of Tashkent, not a great distance, but conceptually very far from the gleaming concrete and glass buildings of the city's relatively affluent centre. The Old Town has constrasts of its own; while houses are crumbling and household waste is burned in neat piles in concrete pits for lack of any other disposal method, footpaths are immaculately swept and flowerbeds are arranged in geometrically perfect formations and tended by house-proud residents.
This school is a particularly large one, attracting students from several hours away with its daily lunch, a meal that might otherwise not be possible. During the lunch break in the staff tea room, we met Mohammed, a 21-year old physical education teacher. Each struggling with our broken Russian, we found ourselves comfortably on common ground discussing one topic in particular: Britney Spears.
After covering all the usuals, favourite songs, film clips, dance moves, I became intensely curious about his personal take on the pop-princess's latest troubles: the head shaving, the rehab, the custody battles. The ensuing silence spoke volumes.
Britney's hits have made it around the world several times over, and while every Uzbek worth their salt knows the lyrics to her songs almost perfectly ("Oops I did it, oh yeah"), not all were completely abreast with her recent spate of personal problems. How was I to know news travelled so slowly in the Former Soviet Union?
But after the silence, during which Mohammed processed the meaning of what I had just told him about his favourite and most revered musical influence, he responded with a maturity and wisdom far beyond his years, experience and situation.
"I guess that's what happens when you have too much money."
Jenni Kauppi
Labels: Making friends, Pop culture
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Posted Thursday, June 19, 2008, 10:30 PM by Lonely Planet
If you're strapped for cash and can't afford to travel right now, here's a tip - check out the walking tours available in your home town. I recently did an Art Deco walking tour in my city and it was like seeing a whole other version of it. Who knew there were such sleek and curvy architectural gems languishing between the Starbucks and the Foot Lockers? You can stride amongst the Deco in Miami of course, a city renowned for its Deco buildings, but such tours are also happening in Napier, Los Angeles, Sydney, you name it. So go on, pony up a few bucks and canter through your city on a whole other track.
- Dee Dee Luxe
Labels: Art Deco, Los Angeles, Miami, Napier, Sydney, walking
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Posted Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 7:17 PM by Lonely Planet
Should travel involve challenges? Perhaps going from business class to hotel transfer, up to the King Farouk suite, down to the buffet and out to the pool bar sounds like paradise, but is it really in the spirit of things?
Travel should involve just a little struggle, a few annoyances, a bit of frustration.
Queuing for overcrowded buses, sleeping in smelly dorms, spending hours guarding packs on cold railway platforms.These are all part of the complex mix of excitement, boredom and hassle that makes seeing the world such a joy.
Of course, the more challenging the experience, the more satisfying the memory and, most importantly, the more imposing the travel anecdote.
No one ever got any street cred by complaining about the unsatisfactory complimentary massage they received while staying at the LuxuryLand, or the lack of quality single malts in the mini-bar. But explain that you only made it to your destination after 40 hours of non-air conditioned, third-class train travel, with no one but drunken soldiers and consumptive old-timers for company, and three cigarettes, a flask of raki and a day old borek for sustenance, and you have a tale worth telling.
Throwing yourself into confusing and confronting situations and seeing how you cope is what makes life, and travel worth experiencing.
When did you truly rise to the challenge, or when was the easy way, the only way?
Larry O'Leary
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Posted Monday, June 16, 2008, 7:07 PM by Lonely Planet
You were too busy with your phrasebook trying to figure out how to ask if this was your bus stop, too engrossed in the festival to realise your bag was unzipped and your camera vulnerable. Running late for your plane and left the charger in the wall? Journal under the pillow? Sunnies on the dashboard?
As anyone who's ever lost or left behind anything in the throes of travel will know, it can be anything from mildly annoying to downright devastating.
But it can also be an arcane glimpse into the universe's very bizarre brand of synchronicity when, finally eligible to redeem those karma points you've been accruing over the years, the items somehow make their way back to you.
Been reunited with long lost belongings? Sustained a devastating loss? We're listening.
P.S You might be pleased/appalled to know that there is business to be made out of unclaimed lost property that slips between the cracks of aforementioned karmic system.
Jenni Kauppi
Labels: Karma, lost and found
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Posted Thursday, June 12, 2008, 11:18 PM by Lonely Planet
If you're in Sydney and want to get a few good notches on your art belt in one solid hit, head to 2 Danks Street in Waterloo for a whole slew of galleries under one warehousey roof. Wander in and you enter into an artful lucky dip. One gallery might be pungent with an installation of rotting flowers, another will have concrete casts of TV sets engraved with the word 'silence', while another displays an affordable pop mash-up of plastic cast ravens and busts of Andy Warhol. All this awaits you - if you manage to drag yourself past the incredible Danks Street Depot café at the front. This is no manky-muffin-and-crappucino operation - as the slow cooked broccoli and eggs will attest.
Labels: Art, Sydney
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Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 11:47 PM by Lonely Planet
Why do we feel the need to dress differently when we travel? The 'traveller/tourist' look is usually very easy to spot - it falls into two broad (and insultingly generalised) categories: The Sensible and The Native. Why does the former get about in chunky, overly practical, asexual synthetics and the latter in baggy cottons, waistcoats and toe-rings?
Sensible doesn't have to mean you dress like you're about to climb the Eiger and Native shouldn't have to include exposed navel and dodgy tattoo.
A mate and I travelled together in Mexico some years ago and he insisted on wearing a very clean white panama hat and cravat everywhere we went - we were assumed to be a nice gay German couple, which was very understandable in hindsight.
Why are 'normal' clothes so wrong?
Larry O'leary
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Posted Monday, June 09, 2008, 6:15 PM by Lonely Planet
Whether you're a blogger, an ardent correspondent or just want to keep up with the news or book ahead for accommodation, these days the internet plays a big part in the way we travel.
Several sites offer directories for where to find internet cafes, like this one in Australia. Or if you, like many others, don't dare travel without your laptop, you'll love a great wi-fi directory for Australia, Europe, the UK.
Got any hot-spots? C'mon, we want in!
Jenni Kauppi
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Posted Thursday, June 05, 2008, 5:15 PM by Lonely Planet
Las Vegas and Orlando have laws that ban the feeding of homeless people in certain public spaces. Put that ladle down, son, and come out with your hands up! Such laws in a self-proclaimed Christian country have raised hackles all over the world - but what's your ethical position on giving food or money to beggars when you're travelling in poorer countries like India or Thailand? It can go against the heart to resist a plea for help; on the other hand, many argue that giving to beggars unbalances and corrupts communities, creates dependencies and encourages child trafficking. So, what to do? Do you give directly to a local charity, even though that will probably not help the unfortunate directly in front of you? Do you harden your heart and walk on?
-Cherry Washington
Labels: begging, charity, homeless
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Posted Wednesday, June 04, 2008, 10:41 PM by Lonely Planet
Well, almost: put 10 July in your diary, because this auspicious date not only marks 44 years since the Fab Four's triumphant return to Liverpool after conquering the USA in 1964, but also... the city's first Beatles Day!
It was only a matter of time. Liverpool has long been a Beatles mecca, luring starry-eyed fans with attractions like the famous Cavern Club (yes, I confess: I had my photo taken on the stage), the Beatles Story at Albert Dock, the wallet-whacking Beatles Shop, and, of course, the Magical Mystery Tour, which takes in the city's key Beatles landmarks.
Not forgetting the recently opened Hard Day's Night Hotel, complete with Beatles artwork, Lennon and McCartney suites and, one would hope, at least a Starr spa or a Harrison health club...
Of course, too much John, George, Paul and Ringo is never enough, and Beatles Day promises to amp up the fun with a street parade, a citywide mop-top-wig-wearing drive (I kid you not), inflatable guitars, and a huge fundraising concert to top it all off.
Not a day tripper? (yay! Finally got my corny song title allusion in there) Go the whole hog with the annual Beatle Week '08, from 20 to 26 August. It's not for nothing Liverpool was designated Europe's Capital of Culture for 2008...
What's your most memorable Liverpool experience? Did you spot anyone wearing a mop-top wig while you were there?!
- Suzy Watusi
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Posted Tuesday, June 03, 2008, 11:49 PM by Lonely Planet
In recent days, a British tourist was awarded compensation for a holiday on the grounds that it wasn't what he was expecting. His family holiday in Greece was hugely disappointing because the resort catered almost exclusively to German tourists.
Whether a resort crammed with buffet-hogging Germans is less fun than a beach town full of pink, pissed and parochial Britons is an argument for the tabloids. Better yet, next time you and your flock head off to Greece, buy a German Phrasebook for the kids.
I'm interested in how far this 'disappointment' compensation could go. If the sunset isn't quite right, the coffee's a little bitter, the rain's a bit fierce, the parties dull, the locals jaded, the bed too hard, or whatever, should you be able to get your money back?
If your entire travel experience doesn't mirror the brochure, then sue.
I remember a holiday we had when I was a child. The beach was often quite windy, I was stung by hordes of mosquitoes, and I never got to bat while playing cricket. My solicitor is currently contacting my family over the matter.
What holiday do you want to be compensated for?
Larry O'Leary
Labels: compensation, Great Britain, Greece
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Posted Monday, June 02, 2008, 11:04 PM by Lonely Planet
The main attractions as you wander the globe may well be the galleries you visit and their world-renowned displays of priceless art. Few would dare tread the streets of Paris without also making at least a cursory trip to the Musee du Louvre to visit its most famous face.
But take a glance from another angle. The pavement you pound in the city you visit may also be home to a less conventional brand of art, albeit a little less sanctioned and a little less legal.
Street art, also known as graffiti art (and vandalism), is a thriving movement rich in symbolism and diverse in technique, carrying with it a taste for a city's underground culture. Free of all the PR of a city's tourism board and official 'must-sees', street art speaks for the locals in a way no brochure can.
Particularly thriving in this scene is Barcelona, and LP's very own Melbourne is also known throughout the world for it's street art scene. And of course, in all matters of art and the cutting edge, there's always New York. In the UK, the elusive Banksy has made quite a reputation for himself with his art as social commentary.
But, to be fair, it's everywhere and anywhere in the world, and if you like your art a little on the subversive side, you get the pleasure for free.
Got any recommmendations? Favourite pieces or artists?
Jenni Kauppi
Labels: Art, Underground
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