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Now Ye're Talking - To a World Traveller
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Ed_Stephens wrote: »From my own travels I know that national stereotypes can often be very misleading, so what country(s) lived up to and didn't live up to their stereotypes?
All of them, pretty much. No country really lives up to the national stereotype, our own country being a prime example. Nobody in Ireland actually says 'top o the mornin' to ya', any more than the Dutch are all constantly stoned, or Mexicans all wear sombreros.
There may be grains of truth in some of them, but for the most part, national stereotypes are lazy generalizations and should be treated as such.I love this thread.
Thank you! If you have any questions, feel free to askDid you ever visit Iran? I would love to go there based on discussions with some former colleagues from Iran.
No, though like you, I have heard amazing things about the country, and it's on my list of places to visit.
I did consider it during this trip, however Iran has in the past been a difficult country to obtain a visa for. For some countries it's quite the ordeal - I know of Americans who have waited months for a visa to be processed for Iran. Ireland is in theory on the list of countries that can obtain a visa on arrival - I say 'in theory' because I've (a) heard enough stories of people who have been turned away at the border, and (b) have met enough people from visa-on-arrival countries who were strongly advised by their local embassy to obtain a visa in advance regardless, to make me wary of just turning up and hoping for the best. But definitely a place to visit, by any account from people I know who have been there. With a wonderful heritage and people apparently.0 -
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I've travelled the world, AMA wrote: »
Thank you! If you have any questions, feel free to ask
Well, if you insist!
I haven't been in India since I was 11, and I've only been in New Delhi. I'm a quarter Goan and would love to visit relatives there when I eventually make it back.
Have you been anywhere near, or to Goa, and how safe is it for western travellers?
Also, have you been to Cairo and if so what are your impressions of the city and the general attitude to Western women?0 -
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How do i start a fire in the wild when it's been raining
Ok, something a little different....
To answer your question, it really all depends on the resources you have at hand.
Lets assume for a minute that you're not in a 'Cast Away' type situation, and you have matches to hand, or at least a fire steel.
The key to any fire, regardless of the weather, is preparation, though obviously it becomes far more important in adverse conditions. If you get all of your materials together beforehand and build the fire in stages, it's pretty easy. If you don't, it's pretty hard, and your fire will go out while you're scrambling round trying to get more wood or tinder.
Find a sheltered location to set your fire - somewhere out of the worst of the wind is best. The usual rules of combustion apply - heat/fuel/oxygen, to obviously you need to maintain all of the above to be successful.
Lighting it directly on wet ground is not a good approach as (a) your tinder will absorb the moisture, and (b) it sucks away heat in the initial stages of trying to get it working, I'll sometimes dig a shallow pit and bank it with rocks for shelter, though not so deep that air can't get down to the base of the fire.
What you need to get together beforehand:
Tinder - not the dating app - this is any dry, easily combustible material, and even in wet weather you can find something. Look around for fallen trees, often there is dry material underneath, such as pine needles, or light twigs. The underside of deadfall is a good source of dry tinder, and even wet twigs are dry in the middle if you split them with a knife and cut shavings from it. Other materials to use to get things started are grease paper (I used to save bread wrapper in my pocket for later when I was camping), in one or two instances where I genuinely couldn't find anything, I've slit open the inside of my jacket and pulled insulation from it to get the fire started.
Kindling - this is slightly bigger twigs and branches, which will be placed on the tinder as soon as it is ignited and (hopefully) ignite from it. Again, dry twigs from deadfall, and even damp sticks can be split with a knife into smaller, dryer kindling.
Firewood - after that it's a matter of gathering firewood of increasing size. Dryness is less crucial fro your firewood, as by this stage hopefully the fire will be hot enough to dry off the wood a little. That being said, when you are initially loading the fire with firewood to get it going, use the driest wood that you can find.
Once you have everything together, it's just a matter of building the fire. I usually create a small platform for the tinder out of some of the kindling - it keeps the tinder off the ground and lets air get in under it - place the tinder on the platform and build up some kindling around it to begin with. Then sheltering the fire as much as you can with your body, light the tinder, and keep your fingers crossed. Once the flames take hold, build it up with your remaining kindling, and as more takes hold, gradually build it up with your driest and lightest firewood until the fire is burning. Only add the larger logs after the fire is firmly established.
A couple of additional things:
I often drive two uprights into the ground behind the fire, and bank my unused logs up against them. This has the effect of (a) reflecting the heat from the back of the fire out towards you, and (b) allowing your firewood to dry, making it that much easier to catch hold when you need to throw a log on the fire.
You don't need to build a bonfire - build something small that meets your immediate needs. A big fire isn't going to warm you up any quicker - it just means you are going to have to sit further back from it, which defeats the purpose. You'll also be shovelling wood into it all night. A small campfire that you can sit close to is much more effective.0 -
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Firstly I need to post to say Thank You. I always found my confidence grew the more I travelled solo & especially so when relying on a dictionary/phrase-book and no-one to translate for me Giving me some serious food for thought and you've certainly put me eyeing up google maps since I know I have some serious time out coming up before I commence my H-Dip this October.
So Thank You, Sincerely.
Another question though if I might:
~ One piece of equipment you recommend any/all solo-travellers to have on their possession aside from passports/monies etc etc? What did you use for security or what made you more confident knowing you had on your possession for security/safety?
Many Thanks,
kerry4sam0 -
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Well, if you insist!
I haven't been in India since I was 11, and I've only been in New Delhi. I'm a quarter Goan and would love to visit relatives there when I eventually make it back.
Have you been anywhere near, or to Goa, and how safe is it for western travellers?
I've been to Goa, and it's a very popular and very safe destination for western travellers - in fact it's probably one of the safer parts of India for travellers. AS for most places, common sense applies, so exercise the usual precautions - don't wander around on your own after dark, and trust your gut. If you are getting taxis from place to place (and they are cheap), if you find a driver you trust, then get his card and use him while you are there. I never had any issues there, and have met plenty of solo female travellers who were perfectly comfortable there.
One thing I learned about india, both living and working there, is that as a female, the closer you look to local Indians in terms of hair colour and such, the less hassle you get. The more different you are, the more fascinated people seem to be at times. I've had blond, blue eyed friends while there, who would have their hair touched on the street by men and women out of sheer curiosity more than anything else because they hadn't seen it before. Dark haired girls, no interest
But in general, the sense of personal space in India in general is non existent. Don't be surprised if you're buying a train or bus ticket, and 20 people are huddled around you at the ticket booth, curious to see where you are going, or just to hear what you are saying to the ticket seller. One of the many things that are a deciding factor in peoples love/hate relationship with India, as mentioned earlier. But if you are asking if you should go - definitely!Also, have you been to Cairo and if so what are your impressions of the city and the general attitude to Western women?
I've been to Cairo briefly and I found it to be a very interesting place - there is certainly a lot to do there in terms of museums, and of course, getting out to the pyramids, and there are plenty of tours in operation there.
As a guy, it's hard for me to describe what it would be like there for a western woman, and it would be somewhat presumptuous of me to do so as it's something I can never experience. But women alone in that side of the world do have a harder time of it than men, there's no doubt about that. Overall, Cairo is a safe place for women, but foreign women alone can get hassled on the street, particularly the blonde haired, blue eyed variety, but usually it's of the verbal variety rather than anything physical. There are a few things you can do to offset it - dress as appropriately as you can - it is courting trouble to go wandering around the bazaars with shorts and a belly-top, but tourists still do it. If you do feel uncomfortable there, there are plenty of organised tours that you can take part in, that gives you the safety net of being in a group.0 -
I've travelled the world, AMA wrote: »
One thing I learned about india, both living and working there, is that as a female, the closer you look to local Indians in terms of hair colour and such, the less hassle you get.
I've fairly dark colouring so I'll have no curiosity value, and I remember vividly the space issue from living in Delhi.There are a few things you can do to offset it - dress as appropriately as you can - it is courting trouble to go wandering around the bazaars with shorts and a belly-top, but tourists still do it. If you do feel uncomfortable there, there are plenty of organised tours that you can take part in, that gives you the safety net of being in a group.
Well I won't be a tourist but it's hard to believe anyone bellytops in an Islamic country outside of a beach or beach club
. I'll be getting advice from a conservative muslim friend on what clothes to bring, but was warned about hostility to western women. It's unlikely I'll be out alone too much, I think. 0 -
How did your family feel about your trip? Was it difficult to stay in contact?
I know I could never do it, but God your trip sounds amazing! So loving this ama
It came as a shock to my parents - they didn't know about it until five days before I left - as I mentioned, I had been working in South Africa. They are well used to me travelling, but I think it was (a) the short notice and (b) the unknown everything that got to them this time. My dad in particular pretty much went through the five stages of grief:- Denial - laughed it off and figured I'd change my mind as soon as I was settled in Ireland.
- Anger - called me every name under the sun when he saw that I wasn't going to change my mind.
- Bargaining - offered me pretty much every parcel of land we own, if I'd stay and take it over.
- Depression - wouldn't talk to anybody for a couple of days.
- Acceptance - came for a few pints with me the night before I left, to bid me farewell.
Keeping in touch was difficult at times, particularly in the beginning - as I've mentioned, communications and technology have changed enormously in the last decade, and its easy to forget nowadays when the ability to communicate is - literally - at our fingertips 24 hour a day, that it wasn't always so. There were countries where there was one internet point in the city, and other countries where it barely existed at all. The range of medium was limited too - facebook had only just opened up access to countries outside of the USA, so it was that and email. Skype was available back then too, but my parents weren't too tech savvy at the time.
There were long gaps at times, and times of genuine worry for them, I know that. In one instance I was in Pakistan, camped with sight of K2, when the Irish climber Gerard McDonnell tragically lost his life there in an avalanche with ten other climbers. Of course, family and friends back home heard that a climber had been killed, knew of my love of climbing and the fact that I was around K2 somewhere, and imagined the worst, until names were eventually released. So yes, it certainly took its toll.Continuing on that vein, did you live off the land at all? Hunting, foraging etc. I guess from your stories that you did, so any stories, tips, challenges?
I did in places, particularly in Australia. Almost everywhere I camped that was near water, I fished, sometimes got lucky and sometimes not so much. In Australia, when I travelled out bush, I used to shoot or snare when the opportunity arose. Rabbits are a plague out there, and as such, station owners were more than happy for you to pick a few off. I'd either shoot them, or less frequently, snare them, and skin and clean them for stew. Ducks were also something I would shoot, particularly on the cattle stations along the Murray River. Many of the station owners have dams on their property to hold water for cattle, and it was easy enough to scare up a few ducks now and again. I preferred shooting them over the dams than over the river, because it was much easier to swim in and retrieve them if they came down over water. Pluck and clean them there and then, and cook them that day.
When I was on my own I didn't really hunt anything bigger as there was no point - 50kg of meat isn't much good to anybody travelling alone - but further up north, when I worked on some of the cattle stations, we would pick off kangaroo now and again and butcher it. Up north further still in northern Queensland on the farms, we would hunt feral pigs and butcher them.
I realise that what I have just written might upset some people, but I have a very healthy respect for wildlife, and I have never trapped or hunted anything that hasn't been eaten - I have no time for anybody who hunts for the sake of killing something. It's just my opinion, but I think it's far better and more respectful to the animal for people to know where their dinner comes from, than to not think past the plastic wrapped hunk of meat in the supermarket freezer.0 -
Firstly I need to post to say Thank You. I always found my confidence grew the more I travelled solo & especially so when relying on a dictionary/phrase-book and no-one to translate for me Giving me some serious food for thought and you've certainly put me eyeing up google maps since I know I have some serious time out coming up before I commence my H-Dip this October.
So Thank You, Sincerely.
Another question though if I might:
~ One piece of equipment you recommend any/all solo-travellers to have on their possession aside from passports/monies etc etc? What did you use for security or what made you more confident knowing you had on your possession for security/safety?
Many Thanks,
kerry4sam
Honestly, and this is not a deflection, common sense is the best weapon you can have in terms of maintaining your own security and safety. Anything you carry as a weapon for self defense, be it a knife or a kubotan or whatever is all too likely going to end up being used against you. Internet tough guys the world over will tell you that if anything were to happen to them they would take everybody on, but the reality is that if they call over a couple of their friends, you're not going to come out the better side of it. I've stood my ground on a few occasions - one, when someone tried to rape a friend of mine in Georgia, another time in South Africa when two teenagers pulled a knife on me in Cape Town to rob me and I laid into them on a purely reactionary basis (the local saying there is 'you haven't really lived in Cape Town until you've been robbed in Cape Town'), but they could easily have ended badly. The best defense is not to make yourself a target in the first place - only carry the money you need, trust your gut instinct if something feels off. I'm not a small guy and I'm well able to handle myself, and if I had no choice I'd use everything at my disposal. But I'd still happily lose a few dollars and walk away from a situation rather than engage and suffer the consequences if given the chance, or better still, not get in the situation in the first place. You know that you are alone. You have no idea if they are.
But to reiterate - that's all worst case scenario stuff. Most people never have any issues because they just take basic precautions.Balmed Out wrote: »Something you mentioned earlier is bugging me - Americans. Ive met plenty traveling under the maple leaf too but for the most part most Americans ive met have been sound, however I have met more idiotic Americans then any other nationality.
Ive put this down to the undeniable fact that in the majority of countries you will meet more Americans then any other nationality -
would you disagree with this?
I'd disagree with your statement that "in the majority of countries you will meet more Americans then any other nationality" - I think that Europeans travel far more, and that's been my experience in most countries I've been to.
It would be easy for this to spiral into a nationality bashing rant, so I'll try not to let that happen. My opinion for what it's worth is that Americans in general tend to be a very boisterous people, not very culturally sensitive, and as such are often the loudest voices in a room or on a street, so stick out more. Other nationalities tend to be more respectful, or at least aware of other countries customs and cultures. In short, when you're abroad, you'll notice every American on a street because they make no effort to rein it in. You won't notice every European in the same way.
I appreciate that's a fairly broad sweep of the brush, but in my experience at least, it holds true.Balmed Out wrote: »Another odd nationality ive found is the Israelis. They travel far more then most but will often not mix. Coincidentally ive hung out quite a bit with some but found many others to be very unfriendly. When with those Ive been mates with I have often seen travelers immediately become argumentative / hostile due to politics when meeting them which makes me quite forgiving to the unfriendly ones. How have you gotten on with them?
I can't speak for all Israelis, but the ones I have met, I've never really had any problems with them. On one notable occasion I was in Darjeeling with the German guy I had met while travelling, when we ran into an Israeli girl in a bar who was travelling alone. She was one of the toughest women I have ever met - had done her mandatory military service as a tank driver, signed up afterwards for another two years to further her career, and then worked for Mossad. And obviously German-Israeli relations are still not the best. But she was fine - a very interesting girl to chat to, and I was sorry to see her leave a few days later.Balmed Out wrote: »My first couple of trips hadn't really heard of lonely planet etc and while I normally read before going I try to either not bring or at the very least I don't take their suggestions as infallible. Anyone with a lot of experience travelling in Ireland etc and having read the book after would, I think be often shocked at where may and may not be recommended. I think most countries seem to now have a lonely planet trek where 95% of travellers spend 95% of their time.
So my question where have they gotten most wrong? What amazing place is dismissed etc
I don't like the Lonely Planet type books for a few reasons. I agree that they are great as a guideline of what a country is like, the problem is, the majority of people follow them to the letter like they are the bible for that particular country. And as such that can, and does, destroy local economy. I've been to so many towns where the guesthouse listed as 'Authors Choice' is crammed to the rafters with tourists, and every other guesthouse in town sitting empty, suffering as a result. It also has the effect of reducing the quality of the 'Authors Choice' guesthouse, because they no longer have to make the effort to get customers in, and maintaining the standards that made them the most popular choice in the first place. The same can be said for restaurants, events, sights, etc.
I do know of one country where they most definitely got it wrong, though I'm not going to mention it by name, for fear of getting myself into trouble. The ethos of the lonely planet is that their authors travel the country as backpackers themselves, and are not allowed to use their position with the lonely planet to get special treatment. In this country's case, that -allegedly- didn't happen at all, according to multiple business owners I spoke to.I've fairly dark colouring so I'll have no curiosity value, and I remember vividly the space issue from living in Delhi.
Yeah, they won't look twice at youWell I won't be a tourist but it's hard to believe anyone bellytops in an Islamic country outside of a beach or beach club. I'll be getting advice from a conservative muslim friend on what clothes to bring, but was warned about hostility to western women. It's unlikely I'll be out alone too much, I think.
Oh it happens, all too regularly at times. The vast majority of people will be respectful of local tradition and attire, and will dress conservatively. But there are always one or two who will demand that the rights accorded to them in their home country to dress as they wish, be accorded to them in their host country. Which is fine in theory and perhaps a great topic for debate some time, but doesn't work well in practice. I've seen it on quite a few occasions, sad to say - on one instance I encountered a young women kicking and screaming abuse because she had just been denied entry into a mosque, in her belly top and denim shorts. There will never be a shortage of idiotic people.0 -
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Can you lick your elbow?
Nope!Did you just try lick your elbow?
....maybe!
csallmighty wrote: »Have you experienced people treating you differently when they find out your Irish and not British or American?
My cousin said he was refused at a hotel(somewhere in Africa) because the owner didn't want any English. He had to explain he was Irish and the owner was pleased to hear that.
Has anything like that happened to you on your travels?
I've never really had anybody outright assume that I was American or British until proven otherwise, though considering the percentage of my life I've spent overseas to the point where my accent has neutralized and my vocabulary has become of a hodgepodge of colloquialisms from across the world, most people won't necessarily pick out straight away that I'm Irish, specifically.
There have been plenty of occasions where being Irish has stood to me though - I spoke earlier about travelling in former British colonies, where the reaction upon seeing my passport often was "Ah you're Irish! So you hate the English too! Come with me my friend...." So your cousin's experience in Africa may very well be true.
Being Irish also means free entry into a lot of countries, or at least visa on arrival, whereas somebody travelling under a British passport would have to pay $50, or have to have their visa in advance. I have dual citizenship, and my second passport is British - I have yet to use it to enter a country.WallsToTheBall wrote: »Thanks for sharing your tales! I consider myself a traveller, 24 countries visited in the last decade but yet to leave Europe, I consider travelling farther afield but end up camping in the Ardennes or in Germany for the dozenth time instead as there is always more to see! I like hearing about travellers like yourself that don't have the insane 'box-ticking' mentality that many "travellers" do, where they say I have "done" x country, like that is all there is to it, it is "done", saw the sights,stamped the passport, bought the t-shirt, box=ticked.
Yes - I'm a firm believer in spending more time in less countries, and actually experiencing the country rather than passing through it, as I may have mentioned earlier. But again, to each their own. I've certainly met the box-ticking variety of traveller, the worst of which was Irish as it happens. On my first day in Ulaan Baatar I stayed in a guesthouse to shower and get my bearings, where an Irish guy who had obviously established himself there as a guest for a while at that stage, was demanding to see the passports of anyone staying at the guesthouse, including mine, so that he could compare it to his own and point out all of the places that he had been that the other person hadn't, and putting down as much as possible any country travelled by others, that he hadn't yet been to. He was a showoff and a pain of the highest order, and a prime example of the reasons why for some people, possessing a passport should be a privilege, not a right. I left after one night there, simply because I couldn't stand to be around him.WallsToTheBall wrote: »I would like to ask you, which country/region that you visited has the best costs to quality-of-living standards? By this I mean if you were to choose somewhere perhaps to raise a family while working from home or freelancing, which places would you consider?
It's a hard one to give a definitive answer to - there are plenty of countries where the cost of living is low compared to say, here. But it would all depend on what you are doing, I guess. If you were working online for a European or American country, you could probably save 70% of your income and still live like a king. However if you're making a local wage, then things will be substantially different.
The place to go to save money, while still maintaining a good quality of life seems to be the Middle East - Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are high on that list. In Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore seem to be the places to be, as evidenced by the number of ex-pats working and living there. From the point of view of raising a family, you can have an income far higher than the national average, while still having immediate access to the benefits of the western world such as top of the range medical treatment.
If on the other hand, you are living abroad off, say, your pension back home (which many people do), then South East Asia or South America seems to be popular for this in terms of making your money go furthest - Thailand in particular has a number of ex-pats living comfortably off what would be considered a meager income back home.0 -
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:- During your 7 years where you ever close to packing it all in and coming home...For either an event such as funerals / weddings etc or just through exhaustion from the road.. and If so what changed your mind
I never got to the point where I was about to say "Ah screw it - I'm done - I'm buying a ticket home", though I did see it happen to others reasonably often. But there were certainly tough days, for sure. In one instance, three friends of mine were killed in a pretty horrific car accident back home, and I carried the guilt of not being there for quite a while afterwards. Weddings and life events, less so, but the awareness that your friends lives are moving on without you is certainly in your thoughts from time to time. As is the possibility of something happening to loved ones - I mentioned earlier that the more elderly members of my family had passed away shortly before I left, and the remainder of my family are still pretty young. But accidents and illness do happen, and that worry and feeling of helplessness if something does happen does cross your mind from time to time, and in the end, part of the reason I came home was because of terminal illness in the family and I wanted to spend a little time with them before they passed away.
While I can't say that anything changed my mind, I guess that what kept me going is knowing inside me that it was something I needed to do.:- What was the best moment of the entire trip? I'm guessing it was one of your times around Nepal / Himalayas
There were many great moments, and it really is hard to pick just one. I've listed some of the ones that did stand out in post #74. But from a fulfilling a life's dream point of view, probably getting to see Everest up close from Base Camp for the first time.:- You mentioned a few places you could happily live in... what place / country could you never live in and why?
Probably Papua New Guinea. Westerners that do live there seem to live very insulated lives from the local people - they're either embassy staff, or missionaries living in villages out in the mountains. But life is cheap there, there's no two ways about it - the levels of serious crimes committed there are quite high, and if you were to try and live there in any way immersed in the local environment, you'd have to exercise a high degree of caution every single day.North of 32 wrote: »How difficult was it really from a practical and logistical standpoint? Do you think the average person could do what you have done in terms of traveling for such a prolonged period? Is your personality just well disposed to traveling?
Hm...
Questions like this are always difficult to answer, because it can quite easily come across as singing ones own praises. I can say that doing something like this takes a fair amount of determination, both physically and mentally, often ignoring what seems like common sense, and some people are able to do that, others not so much. I've seen plenty of people break down while travelling, where it just got too much - my own friend just ran out of steam shortly after China. I've seen other people who just didn't know what they were getting themselves into - I mentioned a Norwegian group of friends in my earlier posts, who set out to travel for a year? One of the guys turned back halfway across Russia, and headed back home, three weeks into the journey. One of the girls made it through Russia and as far as China but was having withdrawal from World of Warcraft of all things, and missed her character so much that she ended the trip and flew down to her dad's holiday home in Thailand to spend the next nine months on beach, and playing WoW. My second time hiking up to Everest base camp, I met a Japanese guy and girl who seemed to be getting by on luck more than anything else - they were hiking up too with their Nepalese guide, but he was from the city and it was his first time on the mountain. They were all inexperienced to the point of getting themselves into serious trouble and for that reason I stayed with them from Lukla to base camp. Even at that, their guide got serious altitude sickness, and we ended up treating him at base camp before he was helicoptered off. The Japanese girl in question had travelled around the world for three years on her own, but she was doing so with the huge safety net of her father's money back home, and as such never had to make compromises, or worry about where to stay next or how to get there. I can say that the way I went about this trip and the obstacles I put in my path rather than circumventing was probably on the more difficult end of the spectrum, and probably wouldn't suit a lot of people.
As to whether my personality is predisposed to travelling, I don't know. I'm stubborn, and I don't give up on things like this easily. I guess I can push through where others might not.North of 32 wrote: »You've mentioned in your earlier answers that your upbringing equipped you with a lot of skills for the outdoors. You also have language skills I'd describe as above average judging by your posts, as well as first aid training. You simply seem to be good at traveling.
"I don't know what you want. I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you." - Liam Neeson, Taken
It sounds very dramatic when you put it like that But I guess in some ways you have a point. There have been a few factors in life that have stood to my advantage over the years. The first, simply being my upbringing - I grew up in a quite poor rural family, even by 1980's Ireland standards, an environment that lends itself well towards being very practically minded, and having to turn your hand to most things yourself out of sheer necessity. It also means that it's not a huge demand to step back away from home comforts - there were times while travelling that if I couldn't find a place to camp, I'd throw down my roll mat and sleeping bad in an abandoned building (former Soviet countries are full of them) for the night, and settle in. Other skills such as first aid I garnered over the years, and the good people in the rescue services gave me the opportunity to hone them even more. But a lot of it comes down to just making an effort too - my language skills are reasonably good, but are so because I placed myself in environments where I really had no choice but to learn and to get along and was willing to fail along the way, where others might not be willing to put themselves out there as much. Most of what I've done, other people can do, if they are willing to make the same effort, and I guess, the same compromises.
I'm not sure how to sum it up really. But if the zombie apocalypse were to ever hit, I'd be a good guy to have around I suppose.Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »How do you like to drink shots?
From a glass, usually
Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »Would you rather a baby guiness or a double whiskey in a glass like how men of the whest drink shots
A nice double whiskey, no ice. Just like the good men of the wesht.0 -
I'll echo what several others have said so far, and agree that this is a great thread I love love hearing stories of other people's travels, especially involving non-western cultures.
FWIW to you and the others reading, I'm American and I'm definitely not offended by the generalizations of most American travelers and will tend to agree with you. I try my best not to be "that one" and to blend in with locals to the best of my ability, but I have been remined to try and use my "indoor voice" on a couple occasions..
Onto my question. A female friend of mine (American) is meeting her female friend (English), both in their late 20s, for a three week holiday backpacking through Australia this June. She's flying in and out of Sydney, then onto a week in Bali after that. Their itinerary is pretty loose so far, from what I can gather. Any tips for them on what to see or where to go? Places to avoid either that are over-hyped or unsafe? These are not, shall we say, super outdoorsy girls, so not so much living off the land in the outback, but they're also not going to be staying at Marriotts either.
TIA 0 -
glassdaisies wrote: »I'll echo what several others have said so far, and agree that this is a great thread I love love hearing stories of other people's travels, especially involving non-western cultures.
FWIW to you and the others reading, I'm American and I'm definitely not offended by the generalizations of most American travelers and will tend to agree with you. I try my best not to be "that one" and to blend in with locals to the best of my ability, but I have been remined to try and use my "indoor voice" on a couple occasions..
Onto my question. A female friend of mine (American) is meeting her female friend (English), both in their late 20s, for a three week holiday backpacking through Australia this June. She's flying in and out of Sydney, then onto a week in Bali after that. Their itinerary is pretty loose so far, from what I can gather. Any tips for them on what to see or where to go? Places to avoid either that are over-hyped or unsafe? These are not, shall we say, super outdoorsy girls, so not so much living off the land in the outback, but they're also not going to be staying at Marriotts either.
TIA
If they just have three weeks in Australia, then they aren't going to be backpacking anywhere, not in the traditional sense of the word at least. Australia is a vast country - far moreso than most people think. To put it in perspective it has roughly the same surface area as the United States, but with vast distances between attractions and huge amounts of empty space in between. Most backpackers will stay for months if not a year, and will buy an old van, usually from an outgoing backpacker, and will live and travel out of it during their time in AU. Obviously that's not an option that is available to your friends, so realistically the only way they are going to see anything is to avail of internal flights.
It really all depends on their budget, but my recommendation, based on time available, would be to stick to the triangle of Sydney > Alice Springs > Cairns, and back down the coast to Sydney, and to avail of tours wherever possible. Sydney is a lovely city, and it's worth spending a day or two just wandering around, particularly by the waterfront. The obvious attractions of course are the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House - there's a bridge climb tour which takes groups up over the main span of the bridge if the weather allows for it and is well worth doing. To the west of the city are the Blue Mountains, and are well worth a day trip. The fact that one of your party is from the UK means that renting a car and driving on the left won't be an issue.
From Sydney take an internal flight to Alice Springs. Alice Springs is a former cattle market and doesn't have anything particularly worth seeing - (I once got stranded there and had to rebuild an 4WD engine in the Red Rooster car park) - but you can either rent a car or take a short flight from there out to Uluru (Ayers Rock). They close off the route to the top if there is a hint of a breeze, but if you are lucky, you can hike to the top on a calm day. Either way, it's a beautiful place, and definitely worth going there to hike or drive around it, or just to watch the sun go down over the site.
From there, fly to Cairns. It really all depends on time, but Cairns is a great hub to arrange tours from - the Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Island (a large Island just offshore between Cairns and Brisbane that can only be travelled by 4WD and I highly recommend it - have another 4WD repair story from there, but that's for another day), further south again to Surfers Paradise... the entire coast between Cairns and Sydney is quite beautiful. Again it depends on time, but there are package tours that run from Cairns to Sydney, taking in all of these sights on the way, and they may well be worth considering.
A quick word on Bali - your friends will be flying into Kuta. It depends on the kind of holiday they are there for (parties and beaches or not) but if not, then my advice would be to leave as soon as they arrive, and head an hour or so north to Ubud. Kuta is full of Australian schoolkids over on after exam parties and such - Ubud on the other hand is far more laid back - accommodation can be as cheap as a few dollars per day, there are beautiful restaurants overlooking the rice paddies, and you can easily travel to other parts of the island from there.0 -
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