When I was a kid I used to collect stamps from all over the world and I would marvel at the names of foreign countries and at the small, elaborate pictures that supposedly purported small bits of the soul of those places. So far away, so mysterious!
One of the countries whose names I came in contact with by way of my stamp collection was Belize. I used to think that the name Belize was too strange to be that a country, it sounded to me rather like the name of a girl. What made this country so odd in my eyes was the fact that I didn't have any context about it, no history and no location (until I looked it up in the atlas), it was known to me only as a stamp. Obviously people were living there... what language were they speaking?
But it seems that now, 20-odd years later I will be making my way into the land that is still tucked away safely in my stamp album in Romania. The visa, stamped on the passport, just arrived in the mail today! Tomorrow, the South Africa visa package goes off to the consulate. I met South Africa through the stamps as well; I remember they were marked "RSA" and I had to ask my dad what those letters meant...
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Itineraries for various countries
Mexico
April 2007| Day | Plan | Sleep in |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fly from Seattle to Cancun, rent a car, drive to Valladolid | Valladolid |
| 2 | The Ek'Balam ruins and Cenote Diznup | Valladolid |
| 3 | See Chichen Itza on the way to Merida | Merida |
| 4 | Merida, tour the town | Merida |
| 5 | Side trip to Celestun and the flamingo reserve | Merida |
| 6 | Day trip from merida to the Dzibilchaltun ruins and the beach town Progreso. | Merida |
| 7 | The Convent Route by Car, Merida to Ticul. | Ticul |
| 8 | The Puuc Route by car, Ticul to Uxmal. | Campeche |
| 9 | Relax day in Campeche | Campeche |
| 10 | Drive from Campeche to Rio Bec | Rio Bec Dreams lodge |
| 11 | See the Calakmul ruins | Rio Bec Dreams lodge |
| 12 | Relax day at the jungle lodge | Rio Bec Dreams lodge |
| 13 | See the Chicanna and Becan ruins | Rio Bec Dreams lodge |
| 14 | Drive from Rio Bec to Tulum | Tulum |
| 15 | Tulum ruins, hanging out on the beach | Tulum |
| 16 | Drive to Playa del Carmen (initially planned to drive to Cancun and drop the car) and back, drop off the car. | Tulum |
Continue overland by bus to Belize.
Belize
May 2007- Orange walk - visit the Maya ruins at Lamanai (2 days)
- San Ignacio - outdoor activities - visit the Aktun Tunichil muknal cave, horseback riding, the Cahal Pech ruins (4 days)
Guatemala
May 2007- Tikal - visit the Maya ruins at Tikal (afternoon ond morning), sleep at the jungle Lodge (1 day)
- Antigua - Visit the most beautiful colonial town of Central America, hike the Pacaya volcano, relax (5 days)
Honduras
May 2007- Copan and La Ceiba - visit the Maya ruins at Copan and continue to La Ceiba on the comfortable Hedman Alas tourist bus (1 day)
- Roatan island - Dive and obtain the Advanced open water certification, explore the island - the place the most expensive internet ever (7 days)
- San Pedro Sula - Ferry from Roatan to La Ceiba and the Hedman Alas bus to San Pedro Sula where we seemed to be the only tourists in town. (1 day)
Ecuador
June 2007- Quito - Visit the churches and colonial streets of the old town, the vibrant areas of the new towm, Mittad del Mundo (the equator line), the Otavalo market, take the teleferico to the Rucu Pichincha mountain (5 days)
- The Galapagos islands - A boat cruise of the most incredible archipelago in the world (8 days)
- Cuenca - Spanish lessons (aborted early due to price misunderstandings), stayed with a very nice local family. (4 days)
- Baños - relax in this small mountain town, horseback riding, diarrhea, doing nothing but watching the rain... (5 days)
Peru
June/July 2007- Lima - Visit the majestic colonial old center, and the modern Miraflores neighborhood, stay in an old colonial house turned hostel (3 days)
- Cuzco - Acclimatize before the Inca Trail, visit the beautiful but very touristy town and the Sacred Valley, hike with Michael and Mor (6 days)
- The Inca Trail - High-altitude torture. Nice but hard! Ending back in Cuzco on the last day (4 days)
- Cuzco - wanted to relax, but had to deal with stolen money (1 day)
- The Tambopata river - Explore the jungle of the Tambopata national park and go back to Cuzco (5 days)
Bolivia
July 2007- Copacabana - Relax at the posh "Las Olas" hotel after the too much hiking done in Peru (4 days)
- La Paz - Explore this amazing town, look for travel deals to Uyuni and further, get some good food (5 days)
- Uyuni - Altiplano at its best. Tour the salar de Uyuni and experience life in a little, freezing-cold town, with nothing to do! (4 days)
- Tupiza - Horseback-riding, relax and prepare to cross into Argentina (3 days)
Argentina
July/August 2007- Salta - Relax and recover after the Altiplano (3 days)
- Buenos Aires - Rent and apartment, explore the city, eat lots of steak and do some shopping (2 weeks)
South Africa
August/September 2007- Pretoria - Get used to the vibe of the new continent and apply for visas for other African countries (5 days)
- Cape Town - Visit the beautiful city and its waterfront and apply for more visas (4 days)
- The Karoo - Take a rental car and drive east with copious stops at wineries throughout the wine country, and the Karoo. Stop in Franschhoek, Montagu and Oudtshoorn (4 days)
- The Garden Route - Keep driving along the beautiful South Atlantic coast and stop for the night in beautiful places like Buffalo Bay, Tsitsikamma national park, Hermanus and Simons Town (8 days)
- Back to Cape Town - via a tour of the cape peninsula, for a couple more days of sightseeing and (of course) wine tasting (2 days)
Namibia
September 2007- Sesriem Canyon - See the southern desert, the canyon and the red sand dunes
- Swakopmund - Stroll through the streets of this relic town of colonial times
- The Etosha Pan - Animals, animals, animals!
- The Waterberg Plateau - Hike up the escarpment and take a look at the immense plain that lies below
- Windhoek - Spend a couple of hours in the capital of Namibia, do some shopping, drop some people and move on
Botswana
September 2007- The Okavango Delta - Camp for two days among the meandering waterways and wake up with the elefants
- Chobe National Park - Take a cruise along the this river teeming with life
Zambia
September 2007- Livingstone - Spend a few days in this sleepy town hanging out with other backpackers at the Jollyboys hostel, celebrate our one-year anniversary swimming in Devil's Pool on top of Victoria Falls, hook up with the tour group again.
- Sinda school - Meet the students and the teachers at this rural school near Lusaka, play soccer with the kids and teach an impromptu math class.
- South Luangwa National Park - Wake up among elephants and giraffes in this amazing corner of Africa
Malawi
October 2007- Lilongwe - Stop in the sleepy capital for a few hours to refuel.
- Lake Malawi's Beaches - Cruise in our truck from beach to beach, swim, drink and relax.
Tanzania
October 2007- Dar es-Salaam - Drive all the way across the country to the old capital.
- Zanzibar, Stone Town - Visit the beautiful but dilapidated Stone Town and get lost in its maze of alleys reminiscent of Venice.
- Zanzibar, Nungwi - Spend a couple of days in Nungwi, a village at the northern tip of Zanzibar island, with beautiful sandy beaches, sprawling tourist resorts and decent diving.
- Serengeti - Cruise for two days through the most famous game park in the world.
- The Ngorongoro crater - A few hours spent in this gigantic caldera teeming with wildlife will make you forget all the ugliness in the world.
Kenya
October 2007- Nairobi - We didn't really visit the country, we just spent two nights in Nairobi, where our tour ended.
Egypt
October/November 2007- Cairo - Get lost in the largest and most overwhelming metropolis of the Arab world.
- Alexandria - Spend a couple of days on the Meditarranean and meet my friend Murad who repatriated after years in America. Take a night train to Aswan.
- Aswan - Visit the fabled ancient monuments of the southern Nile (instead we met Ismael and spent five days talking to him and his extended family, going to Nubian weddings and drinking a lot of tea).
- Luxor - Fend off the attacks of the tenacious touts in the hassle capital of Egypt, visit the majestic temples of Luxor and Karnak and the tombs and temples of the scorched Valley of the Kings. Fly to Sharm el-Sheikh.
- Dahab - Five relatively hassle-free days of divine diving in the Sinai peninsula. Take the bus back to Cairo for a last day of shopping and bazaar-browsing.
Greece
November 2007- Nafplio - While away some lazy November days in this gorgeous town and visit the surrounding medieval and classical ruins. Sprinkle every meal with tsatsiki and lots of wine.
- Mystras - Spend a day exploring this uniquely-preserved Byzantine hill-town. Sprinkle every meal with tsatsiki and lots of wine.
- Monemvasia - Take refuge between the walls of the last still-inhabited Byzantine fortress turned tourist attraction on the shore of the Aegean sea. Sprinkle every meal with tsatsiki and lots of wine.
- Delphi - Is there any better place in the world to plead for the help and grace of the gods? Sprinkle every meal with tsatsiki and lots of wine.
- Athens - A nice albeit uninspiring city, home to possibly the most celebrated ruin in the world, the Parthenon. And to great shopping and the 2€ Starbucks cup of drip coffee. Sprinkle every meal with tsatsiki and lots of wine.
Italy
November 2007- Rome - Five days in the most celebrated metropolis of the world is never enough. I love this town. I'll have to return... again and again.
Spain
November/December 2007- Madrid - Discover the real meaning of "tapas" and marvel at Picasso's masterpeices in this incredibly lively and cosmopolitan European capital.
- Seville - Take it easy for a few days, get lost in the meandering streets of the old town and enjoy a bit of warmer weather.
- Barcelona - Meet Robert and Eva, neither a native of this town, but both quite knowledgeable about its ways. Enjoy a bit of Gaudi's legacy and... well, just enjoy...
Romania
December 2007/January 2008- Bucharest - Spend a few rainy days with my aunt in the capital.
- Cluj-Napoca - Meet the family and the friends from high-school. Enjoy a few weeks at mama's hotel.
Hungary
December 2007- Budapest - Admire the beauty of a real imperial city in the coldest period of the year.
Turkey
January 2008- Istanbul - Shed a tear for the fading ruins of Constantinople and gorge yourself with pide and baklava in the streets of mysterious Istanbul.
India
January/February 2008- Trivandrum - Discover the flavors, the street dust, the dark temples and the overwhelming human crowds as you enter the magic country of a thousand languages.
- Varkala - Relax on the fine-grained beach under the tall bluff and drink some beer watching the sunset over the Arabian Sea.
- Kollam - Visit the lagoons around Monroe island. Take a boat cruise through the backwaters all the way to Aleppy.
- Kumily/Periyar National Park - Spend some days at higher altitude, away from the maddening heat of the coastal plain.
- Cochin - Back to the sea in this old Portuguese colony.
- Chennai - An insanely busy and large town; a nacessary experience for anyone who wants to understand India. Appy for the Thailand tourist visa.
- Mamallapuram - Share the company of a few lost hippies in a quiet setting by the sea.
- Mysore - Immerse yourself in the art of the filthy-rich maharajas and enjoy some cool weather and the lack of mosquitoes.
- Hampi - Peace of mind among thousand-year-old ruined temples.
- Palolem, Goa - Beautiful beaches, great food, easy people and cheap beer. I didn't want to leave. Ha!
- Mumbay - The New York of India where extreme poverty meets unapologetic luxury in a fading European colonial setting.
- Aurangabad - See the Ellora caves carved in the side of the mountain by thousands of skillful devotees for the glory of the gods.
- Agra - You can't just come to India and not visit the Taj Mahal, the wonderful shrine of love built by Shah Jahan. Too bad it's set in the middle of the biggest shithole town in India.
- Varanasi - Take a boat ride along the Ghats and take a walk in the labyrinth of back alleys among the paan sellers and the stoned hippies.
- Kolkata - Finish the Indian adventure with a stay at an expensive business-class hotel, a visit to an elegant bookstore and dinner at the most famous restaurant in town.
Thailand
March 2008- Railay/Ao Nang - Celebrate the return to civilization and cleanliness with a stay in the overpriced but beautiful islands of the Andaman sea coast.
- Bangkok - Crazy and relaxed, modern and traditional, this fascinating metropolis will knock your socks off.
Cambodia
March 2008- Siem Reap / Angkor - You cannot believe that a place like Angkor Wat exists until you actually see it. The heat is crushing but the stone doorways keep calling.
- Phnom Penh - Enjoy French baguettes, a chic colonial ambiance and the gruesome reminders of history in a town reborn from its ashes.
Laos
March/April 2008- Don Det and The Four Thousand Islands - Discover an isolated place that has not yet been put on the mainstream tourist trail, and hang out with the other hippies brave enough to get away from safety, civilization and electricity.
- Pakse and the Bolaven Plateau - Rent a scooter and drive on dirt roads through the gorgeous fog-covered mountains. Careful with the gas pedal...
- Vientiane - Good international food, French colonial remains and a capital city relaxed enough to be negotiable by bicicle. Apply for the second Thai tourist visa.
- Vang Vieng - The hippie nation could not be better represented anywhere else. Despite shroom shakes, pizza parlors and deadly drinks, this place still keeps a country-town feeling where people sip a few beers after dinner and go to bed early.
- Luang Prabang - A gorgeous mini imperial capital deep in the heart of the mountains. Do not miss the Scandinavian Bakery and the night market!
- The Mekong - Take a two-day river trip to the Thai border.
Thailand (again)
April 2008- Chiang Mai - Go crazy at the Thai new year, get splashed on the street with buckets of water and dunk strangers when they don't expect it.
- Ko Chang Island - Save the few last days of the trip for the beach...
- Bangkok - spend the last day shopping and eating in Bangkok's exquisite malls.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The soles of my feet
We're preparing for a long trip, and a long trip means a lot of walking. City streets, rough African safari roads, South American mountain trails, sandy beaches, pebble-covered river banks and suspicious-looking campground shower floors, all will find their way under my feet at one time or another.
One unavoidable question for each traveller is "how many pairs of shoes should I take?" Without much hesitation I opted for the magical number three. One pair of Keen trekking shoes for most of the out-of-town walking, one pair of (presumably indestructible - according to the people who swear by them) Tiva sandals for the aforementioned sandy beaches and suspicious showers and a third pair of sturdy neutral-looking walking shoes, mostly for city walking.
I have bought the Keen and the Tiva at REI not long ago, but I haven't yet decided anything about the third pair. It should be something that looks good with jeans and khakis, but I won't mind if I were refused entry in a Michelin restaurant because of my shoes being too casual.
I'm sure Angela would think three pairs of shoes for a whole year is blatant insanity but as long as she carries her 36 pairs herself I won't mind...
One unavoidable question for each traveller is "how many pairs of shoes should I take?" Without much hesitation I opted for the magical number three. One pair of Keen trekking shoes for most of the out-of-town walking, one pair of (presumably indestructible - according to the people who swear by them) Tiva sandals for the aforementioned sandy beaches and suspicious showers and a third pair of sturdy neutral-looking walking shoes, mostly for city walking.
I have bought the Keen and the Tiva at REI not long ago, but I haven't yet decided anything about the third pair. It should be something that looks good with jeans and khakis, but I won't mind if I were refused entry in a Michelin restaurant because of my shoes being too casual.
I'm sure Angela would think three pairs of shoes for a whole year is blatant insanity but as long as she carries her 36 pairs herself I won't mind...
Saturday, March 10, 2007
The Dell dude got a little brother
We have to get a computer on this trip for various reasons. OK, we don't really "have to" but it's the age of all things connected so we need to stay in touch with the world, vicariously, through the magic of Internet Explorer. People like me, grown up with the Internet feel like they don't in fact exist when they stay away from the keyboard for too long.
The main reason to get a computer is to update this blog. I need an Internet connection for it, but in between i-cafe stops I can download pictures from the camera and write some text for later upload.
One other reason is online banking: we'll have to pay the credit card bills and transfer money between accounts and hell knows what else, and I don't really trust any public computer, I've been in this business way too long... Granted, I still have to use somebody's network, and if they don't have a wireless I'll have to beg for a tap. But I want some degree of assurance that my passwords don't go where they shouldn't. I'm not visiting Nigeria but I'll be quite close...
I won this Fujitsu Likebook P1510 on eBay, from the Fujitsu online store. I think they just got the newer models, the P1610 and they were getting rid of the old stock online. I won it for $875, but with tax and shipping it ended up costing around $950.
It's not a power-house but it's just the right thing for the traveller: it has a 1.2GHz Pentium M, 1GB of RAM and 30GB of hard drive, USB, etc. It has integrated 802.11g wireless and an Ethernet port and more importantly, it fits in any kind of backpack without grabbing all the space. This way, if I get really paranoid about hotel theft, I can always take it with me to town in a small day-pack.
I looked at plenty of alternatives before I chose this one, but there weren't many really viable ones. I didn't want to type with the thumbs so the PDA-like newcomers like the OQO model 02 were out of the question; I needed a real keyboard. The problem was that most of the ultraportables, like the Sony Vaio PCG u101 (out of production) are only sold in Japan. You can get some of them from specialized resellers in the United States or private sellers on eBay, but I wouldn't chance it, some of them still have the original Japanese Windows. At least I got a 90-day warranty from Fujitsu and legal software. 'Cause you know, the most reliable thing when travelling around the world has to be your computer...
The main reason to get a computer is to update this blog. I need an Internet connection for it, but in between i-cafe stops I can download pictures from the camera and write some text for later upload.
One other reason is online banking: we'll have to pay the credit card bills and transfer money between accounts and hell knows what else, and I don't really trust any public computer, I've been in this business way too long... Granted, I still have to use somebody's network, and if they don't have a wireless I'll have to beg for a tap. But I want some degree of assurance that my passwords don't go where they shouldn't. I'm not visiting Nigeria but I'll be quite close...
I won this Fujitsu Likebook P1510 on eBay, from the Fujitsu online store. I think they just got the newer models, the P1610 and they were getting rid of the old stock online. I won it for $875, but with tax and shipping it ended up costing around $950.
It's not a power-house but it's just the right thing for the traveller: it has a 1.2GHz Pentium M, 1GB of RAM and 30GB of hard drive, USB, etc. It has integrated 802.11g wireless and an Ethernet port and more importantly, it fits in any kind of backpack without grabbing all the space. This way, if I get really paranoid about hotel theft, I can always take it with me to town in a small day-pack.
I looked at plenty of alternatives before I chose this one, but there weren't many really viable ones. I didn't want to type with the thumbs so the PDA-like newcomers like the OQO model 02 were out of the question; I needed a real keyboard. The problem was that most of the ultraportables, like the Sony Vaio PCG u101 (out of production) are only sold in Japan. You can get some of them from specialized resellers in the United States or private sellers on eBay, but I wouldn't chance it, some of them still have the original Japanese Windows. At least I got a 90-day warranty from Fujitsu and legal software. 'Cause you know, the most reliable thing when travelling around the world has to be your computer...
Thursday, March 8, 2007
The point of no return
I just gave notice at work today. Four more weeks.
When I first mentioned it to my manager, he reacted with "so, you've had enough?"
No, it's a great job, but my wife and I have decided to take a year off and travel around the world, etc
It was indeed a tough decision. I like my job and it's the best job I've had so far. I felt a lot of stress recently, but that's not the job's fault; it's mostly an undesired side-effect of my trying to juggle too many things at once: work, family, trip planning, hobbies, writing... it wouldn't be easy on anybody, unless you're Dilbert's pointy-haired boss and you know how to delegate everything...
Most of the people that I shared this news with are very curious, where I'm going and what I will do. It's certainly not your average job departure. My manager and his manager suggested that they would be delighted to have me work in this group again when I come back. It would be nice, but of course they can't promise anything, and I don't expect them to. A lot can happen in one year.
OK, now we're really on, there's no way back.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Got bubbles?
Imagine being on vacation somewhere on a tropical island at a resort, and everybody you meet at the bar is talking about how great the diving on the coral reef is and how awesome that German wreck from the second world war looks, how the canons are still pointing toward the sky, as they were when it was sunk by British planes. Wouldn't you feel a little left out of this conversation and a little frustrated for not being able to see those wonders yourself?
That's mainly why I took up Scuba and got certified this weekend for open water diving. It's not something that I couldn't live without, and I was definitely not very happy to have to do my certification dives in the cold waters of Puget Sound, but any healthy adult who, like us, plans to travel to many places which are also famous diving sites (Belize, Honduras, the Galapagos islands, Egypt, to name only a few) would be foolish not to do it. The other reason, is to keep an eye on Angela and prevent her from grabbing a shark by the tail.
From last year's Jamaica trip Angela and I had "Scuba diver" certifications. "Scuba diver" is the entry level in the diving experience hierarchy and should be used to go to a maximum depth of 40 feet. Now we got our "Open water" grade which will enable us to dive up to 60 feet deep; it's enough for now. To upgrade from "Scuba diver" to "Open water" we had two options: either do the full open water class again, together with other 10 people or so and two instructors, or get a referral "upgrade" training, pay about the same price and have one instructor just for the two of us. So we chose the latter, did a couple of pool sessions, the written exam and the two dives today, and we're done! The water was freezing and we couldn't feel our toes after getting out but diving is a good shot of adrenaline no matter how miserable the conditions are. And once you're down there you forget everything about the cold, it hits you only when you're back at the surface.
The next step - advanced open water certification (100 feet) in Honduras!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Long-term storage for cars
My previous post about selling the car was long and contorted, so I thought I should write something more to the point.
Simple: if you own one or more cars and and you want to travel for a long time, you will have to either find storage space for them or put them up for sale. We had three cars and chose to sell one and keep the other two. Angela's mother will take care of the Jeep and keep it at her place, and maybe drive it around once in a while. A friend of mine who owns a house with a three-space garage (these are hard to find!) will keep the BMW. Hopefully his offer is still valid - if I clean the junk in his garage he'll allow me to store the car at his place. I'm still considering selling the Jeep; Grand Cherokees year model 2000 seem to sell for between $7,000 and $10,000 on Craigslist, and the gas money I spend on this monster is about to make a hole in the wallet, but on the other hand I really wouldn't want to deal with the hassle of having to look for a car when we come back from the trip.
If you choose to keep your car at a storage facility you'll have to pay the big bucks. It's cheaper to lease an an open-air parking spot ($70+ per month); you may end up paying more than $200 for a secure indoors space. And good luck finding price quotes on the Internet - you'll find phone numbers, but most of those facilities don't have web sites. You will however find many sites that would give you "quotes" if you only give them your email and phone number. Ridiculous!
Once you decide to store a car, you should do it the right way and take all the necessary precautions to make sure it will run when you take it out of "hibernation". Here and here are a few tips on how to do this right.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Sell your "other" car while you still can
How many cars does the average American family own? Two? Three? I don't know the statistics and I didn't bother to look for them, but just based on common sense I would say two cars is the minimum number of garage tenants per couple (unless one or both partners are hippies and refuse to pollute the atmosphere with fossil fuel gases). There's his car and there's her car - their individual possessions from before marriage, and sometimes there's the car they bought together (ah! the unavoidable and horrendous family minivan), or that he bought for her as a ridiculous token of his undying love - a Mini or a VW Beetle, these seem to be the brands that trigger the "I want!" syndrome in most chicks nowadays.
So anyway, we had three vehicles, I shamefully admit - my Jeep, her old, battered, Ford Escort, and my 1988 BMW 3-series, which - of course - belongs to the generation of coolest cars ever made on Earth so I had to get one.
After we moved together, Angela started to drive my Jeep, I soon bought the BMW, and the Ford started to feel a little unloved. Since we only had two garage spaces at our building I had to find a suitable place for it, and that turned out to be... the Microsoft garage. I kept the car there from November 2005 until last week, although storing cars it's against parking policy. As long as they didn't figure it out, I'd be OK, I had the parking registration.
As we drew near our final stages of preparation for the trip, it became clear that we had to get rid of that car fast, because there wouldn't be a place for it once I quit my job and we didn't want to abandon it either. Last week, on top of all my worries, I received an email from parking security that started with "It appears that you're storing this vehicle in the garage... blah, blah... it is covered with a thick layer of dust...". Just in case you were wondering how they found out... By that time however I had found a buyer (Angela's sister's roommate) willing to pay $500 for it, so I knew there was a way to get out of this. One minor thing was in my way though: the car had expired tabs. Fortunately the DMV offers short-term trip permits, which cost $24 and are valid for three days.
So now I had the permit, but the car didn't start - no wonder, since I hadn't driven it in a few months (I used to move it around in the garage every now and then for fear they would discover it if it sat in one place for too long). That meant that I had to jump it off the battery of my other car, which ended up with lots of smoke and molten cables, because I had hooked the polarities wrong. New cables, new jumping attempt; it worked fine the second time, one just has to pay attention: red to positive, black goes to negative, etc. After that, it all went smooth - I washed the car, cleaned it, took out and threw away most of Angela's forgotten junk, changed the oil, prepared a few sale documents and closed the deal with the buyer. No more green Ford Escort!
Now we're down to two cars like everybody else. I feel normal again. The 500 bucks that I made on this sale I had to spend again because a few days later something broke on the Jeep. The repairs were $700...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Before the road
Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty used to be able to jump off the couch at a moment's whim, leave their jobs on the spot - if they had any - and sometimes their wives as well, pack up some underwear and a couple of shirts, and without worrying too much about money, comfort and other necessities, they would hit the road. They crisscrossed the country for months at a time in their battered jalopies - if they happened to have enough money saved for a down payment on a piece of junk that could meet its earthly demise anywhere and anytime - but mostly they would hitch rides and only when exhaustion brought them down, they would telegraph to their relatives and beg for just enough money to pay for the bus fare home. That was 1950. Cheap hotels were a couple of bucks a night, beer was 10c, food was almost free and life was much easier.
But what about now? Sadly, fifty years later, things don't work that way anymore. Hotels in America are rarely under $50 a night (bedbugs included), you can only find beer under $3 at happy hour, nobody picks hitch-hikers anymore and a greyhound ticket costs as much as a budget air fare. Besides, without two forms of identification and a credit card you couldn't get too far even if you tried.
So how easy is it nowadays to be a wandering hobo, without being a forlorn bum that has hit rock-bottom? In the age of Internet and instant credit checks, how could Dean Moriarty survive?
International long-time travel for the common man, far from being the glamorous adventure seen in movies, and not at all reflected in those wonderful pictures you show your friends when you get back, has a very drab and exhausting side: planning for it. Looking for the best air fare deals, picking the good hotels from the bad, international payments to potentially shady businesses in Ecuador that only accept money orders, inoculations, visas, special permits, making sure you get to every place in the right season, oh my!
Angela has been taking care of most of the hotel-air-reservation stuff, and that has been a lot of work so far and has cost her many a weekend spent on the couch with the laptop. Dull as it is, it had to be done. Looking at ads and ratings for fifteen agencies that take people to the Galapagos islands is no walk in the park. How did these things work before the Internet? It's hard to even imagine. You really had to trust your travel agent...
There are so many things to take care of before we leave, that I have decided to dedicate a separate post to enumerate them all. Here's a taste of what we're mulling over: When to quit our jobs? Do we have enough empty pages in our passports for all those visas (that's mostly a problem for me, not so much for Angela)? What do do with all the stuff we own? Who's going to take care of the cars? How are we going to do online banking while travelling? What to take with us for a whole year? How are we going to receive stuff we may need from home? How much money do we need?
Many difficulties besiege the modern traveler in his quest for the coveted view from the top of the sacred mountain, as the sun light hits the opposing ridge at a miraculous angle and splits into a myriad of incandescent dragonflies who live for no more than a few rapturous seconds. Those seconds would not be possible without the dull effort spent tackling very unglamorous problems with very unglamorous solutions. But... the journey is the destination, isn't it?
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Blogger technical ramblings
One thing that's missing in Blogger is the ability to track comments and to respond to them. I've left quite a few comments on other bloggers' pages and the only way to figure out if they responded to them is to visit those pages again - if I still remember the URL... As a receiver of a comment, I have the reverse problem - when somebody leaves a comment and I respond to it, I would like the commentator to receive some sort of notification, preferably in an email. Instead, the only thing I can do is leave a comment to my own post, not knowing if the other person would come back to my page and check if I said anything in response. I don't know if Google is working on this issue, but I very much wish they did so.
In this respect, Livejournal.com is the uncontested winner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
