This is going to be a strange post because it’s about a strange situation so let me just dive right in. If you’ve read any of my introductions then you know I was geographically based in Odessa for about 4 ½ months in 2011. I use the term “geographically based” because although I was living and working there, I made it a top priority to travel around the region as much as possible. This ended up being almost every weekend or every other week once I hit my 90 day mark in Ukraine, if you catch my drift.

The closest neighboring country to Odessa is Moldova which may give insight into why I ended up there four times in four months. Three out of the four times I went was by bus/car via Palanca because my main source of travel information repeatedly said one should avoid crossings in the “Transdniestr area”. As did my Ukrainian friends, as did many other sources on the web…so naturally, I became intrigued.

What was this purported Transdniestr area? Why are people telling me not to go through it when logistically I can get to where I am going faster than the west-then-up route these “safer” buses are taking? The answer to my question came in the form of a cool Slovakian girl I met who was working (or still works?) at what appears to be the only hostel in Chisinau. Chisinau Hostel. Apparently, this Transdniestr area, aka Transnistria, is a 100% genuine breakaway republic where a war was fought in the early 90s and where now exists “one of the last remnants of the Soviet Union”. This got me excited and when I saw that Chisinau Hostel offered overnight chaperoned trips there I asked “why can’t I go alone?” “YOU CAN GO ALONE,” she yelled. Woah, calm down. “I’ve been going alone for the past 2 months every other weekend to see my ‘boyfriend’ and it pisses me off that all these websites are warning people not to go. It’s totally fine, I’ve never had problems with any corrupt border guards or the police in the city. You should go.” Ok, maybe I will.

Strange twist of fate found me having a coffee with this chick outside the Odessa train station a few weeks later. When I told her I really, really was thinking to go to Transnistria solo at some point before I left Odessa, she passed me a piece of paper that changed everything. It was step-by-step instructions of what one should and should not do if they want to spend some time in Tiraspol, or Transnistria for that matter. It was also written by an American guy who was living there and running the only hostel in the city, maybe even the “country” and his name was Timoti.

A few weeks later feet were feeling itchy and a free weekend was upon me so I thought it was time I hit up this Tiraspol Tim. It was a Friday and I told him that I wanted to come on Saturday, would it be safe for me to come alone, etc, etc. He responded with a big fat “YES” with the same detailed instructions plus additional good news that Saturday happened to be Tiraspol City Day which=party. Rad! Or, rad?

Whichever one it would end up being I still hopped on the first and only train to leave Odessa for Chisinau at 17:11. One thing he did mention was that taking the train is the easiest way to enter since no one checks anything except on the Ukrainian side. Turned out, this was true. And turned out, there was absolutely nothing that I needed to worry about. From the moment I crossed into Transnistria to the moment I left, I felt not only safe but dare I say…looked after? Aside from just Timoti who I was staying with (and who is awesome by the way—if going to Tiraspol you must contact him: tiraspolhostel@gmail.com), everyone I encountered seemed to legitimately care whether or not I was doing ok there by myself and having a good time. Yes, I was, and having a great time!

(this is me, trying to look tough and smart at the same time)

So I’m not quite sure what the moral of this story is other than…just do it and don’t (always) believe the hype. Perhaps visiting an unrecognised country is an extreme example, but like SHABL constantly screams at you—you’ll never know unless you go. Tiraspol turned out to be just like any other city you’d find in those parts and in the end, it was the Ukrainian border officials that scared me more.

If there’s somewhere you are interested in going but intimidated to do it alone or at all for whatever reason, get in contact with good sources. This can be friends of friends or travel bloggers who have been, Couchsurfers who live there, online travel forums, etc. For me, my sources all happened by chance but sometimes that’s just how things go. Honestly doubt I would have made it to Tiraspol if I hadn’t stayed at Chisinau Hostel and met Slovakian chick. Also wouldn’t have stayed at Chisinau Hostel and met Slovakian chick had I not been concerned that I was about to get kidnapped. I’ll save that story for another day.

Fade out. End post.

]]> http://stophavingaboringlife.com/travel-breakaway-territory-tiraspol-transnistria/feed/ 2 http://stophavingaboringlife.com/lifes-a-beach-under-the-tuscan-sun/ http://stophavingaboringlife.com/lifes-a-beach-under-the-tuscan-sun/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:19:53 +0000 Rob http://stophavingaboringlife.com/?p=9860

When you think of Tuscany, most likely romantic wine lists, ridiculously good food and mesmerizing artwork come to mind. There’s certainly more than enough of the epicurean delights and masterpieces to astound even the harshest critic, but it’s merely just a small part of what Tuscany is all about. To be honest, the region is HUGE – reaching from the Duomo of Florence up into Bologna and back down along the eastern Mediterranean coast. Yes, coasts – Tuscany is not just the rolling hills and lonely farmhouse – it has stretches of beaches that hug the blue Mediterranean sea.

The Tuscany Riviera is a great option for both the first-time visitor and for those who have already seen some of Italy’s sights. The coast is home to some big hotspots, like Pisa and Forte dei Marmi and other quiet beach resorts that offer a wide variety of activities and possibilities for just about any type of trip. Often, many people choose to add on a couple of days at one of the pretty beachside towns to their culture-rich trip through Florence or Rome. In fact, you can be at the feet of Michelangelo’s David in Florence’s Uffizi in the morning and be in a café sipping espresso on the beach in Viareggio by lunchtime. In a country with so many famous sights and a seemingly endless list of places to visit, why not take advantage of the proximity and head to the beach? This is a vacation, after all.

Just as you’d expect, the beach resorts on the Tuscan Riviera are elegant and effortlessly chic. There are plentiful restaurants serving traditional Tuscan cuisine on terraces overlooking cliffs and expansive stretches of sand. Tuscany beach villas are sprinkled along the coast, providing ideal accommodations for those lucky travelers who want a truly luxurious escape. There are also more than enough hotels and charming resorts that open right onto the sand.

Some of the most popular beach spots include Marina di Pietrasanta, Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi, though those only name a few along the golden coast. The famous beaches and rugged coast of Cinque Terre round out the northern Tuscan coast in Liguria, and the area is a perfect spot for some adventurous sun-worshippers looking for fun water sports in picturesque villages tucked into the cliffs.

So now that you’re hooked – where should you stay? Save the romantic hotels for Rome and Florence, and when you head to the beach, choose an iconic Tuscany villa that lets you really get away from it all. A hotel is great for convenience in the larger cities, but renting a villa is perfect for exploring the smaller villages along the coast. Find your own place in Tuscany and live among the locals for a day or two for an experience you’ll never forget.

Wake up to the sounds of the sea lapping over the sand and to the smells of the local bakery preparing their daily batches. Go for a calm swim, eat heaping portions of freshly made pasta and top off your meal with a refreshing limoncello. In short, plan your sightseeing and cultural hotspots for the big cities, but head to the Tuscany beach resorts for a true taste of la vita bella.

Brought to you by a SHABL reader and in partnership with  Paradizo :  The Discerning Taste of Luxury.

These are some random thoughts I’ve had in hammocks over the last 5 weeks on this Tropical Island in the Caribbean Sea.

• You can live off the land on lots of tropical islands around the world. They have everything you need and countless people on this planet already do and have done for eons.
• Always bring a pair of sports shorts that never get dirty. Your heavy duty cargo ships cross oceans and sit in seedy ports, nice to have a clean ship for relaxing at harbor.
• Needless consumption of any kind is most often a response to boredom or unease.
• Consumer debt of any kind is the highway to unhappiness.
• Frustration is a necessary ingredient in progress pie.
• Where you spend your life is less important than how you spend your life.
• You won’t eat a different sandwich unless you change the ingredients.
• A trip lasting a week or a lifetime all become the same in the end, a memory.
• A life on the beach is beyond nobodies reach.
• Difference between what you need and what you want in life is infinite.
• Life becomes a fun game once you realize you don’t need more than what you’ve always had.
• If one is doing what they feel they should with their life, is it possible to miss out on anything?

That is all,

Good day,

Let us discuss the important matter of having a remote office and the criteria that *really* matter for getting work done abroad, shall we? Many people will dive right into the features a place has, what benefits do they have the “digital nomad” or “location independent” or my fav “perpetual traveler”. Although the mechanical features are important, many miss the most important factor which is it has to be somewhere you LIKE.  If you didn’t like golf, you probably wouldn’t find living on a golf course particularly inspiring, would you?

Connectivity is important

I went to Chiang Mai as everyone praises it because it’s cheap with decent connectivity and countless dining options. It all sounds great on paper, when I got there the connections I found were most certainly “less than decent” to the point that in my apartment, I couldn’t even connect via file transfer protocol (FTP) to upload. If you want to derail your productivity, simply have to leave your office to some cyber café that is also slow to finish part of a project. When it comes to connectivity, take stock of your jobs. Currently on Little Corn the connectivity isn’t so hot but besides writing this blog, I delegate 98% of all tasks.

More to life than keeping costs low

Suffice to say, I didn’t care for Chiang Mai much at all. It was one of those weird places on the planet where I just felt like I was wasting my life. It seemed like it didn’t matter what I did there, there was nothing for me. Was I born on this planet to find the cheapest city in Thailand and live in some apartment building filled with old bitter expats to save a few $ on my monthly rent? Sure they had incredibly cheap golf breaks but that is neither here nor there…  If golf was on my mind and money was of no issue, Las Vegas golf seems like the place but I digress…

Whatever happened to having fun?

Your remote office has to be somewhere you genuinely like being, if not you’ll probably get despondent. How much time will you actually be working? The whole “I’m going to buckle down and work for a month” doesn’t mean that you’ll physically be sitting at your computer for a month while a pizza delivery man slides thin crust pizza under your door. You need to be somewhere that once you’re done work, you can “go out and play” as crazy as that sounds.

What’s most important to productivity?

Let’s say you were going to hire a crew to do some building for you. When it comes to state of tools or state of mind, what is most important to getting quality work done in an efficient manner? First let us examine the state of the tools, shall we? Around the world I constantly see people doing great work with old tools, often old tools that have been repaired so many times only a small fraction of its original self remain. It’s important to have good tools but you definitely don’t need state of the art.

What about your state of mind? The more I discover on this planet, the more I realize that your state of mind is all that really matters. It can make a heaven out of h3ll or vice versa. You can have the best tools in the world along with everything you need and more but if you aren’t in the right mindset, you’ll get nothing accomplished.

Writing this because someone wrote on my Facebook wall that he can’t believe I chose Little Corn Island over some of the other working hubs around the area. I work 1-4 hours a day, every day and the rest of the time is all mine. Sure I’d have a better connection and 24 hour a day power in some major city but this is my life, I only have one. Why spend your winter in some large C. American city when you can walk around a beautiful Caribbean island surrounded by interesting people?

Today before work I went on this long walk with a Danish lady I met a few days ago. We strolled along white sand beaches, went for a swim and explored a tropical wilderness while enjoying each others company. There is more to life than just work, you need to play hard and work hard or it simply isn’t worth it. At the end of the day, we all leave this planet with little more than we came in with. Remember to always look at the big picture.

There is a lot more to choosing an office than just the connection speeds…

Tips hat,

Greetings,

The above photo was taken last night on the east aka beach side of Little Corn Island. For starters, nobody and I mean NOBODY catches marlin around here, let alone with their bare hands. Do you realize that these people literally pulled a giant marlin named “Merlin the Marlin”(not to be confused with “Merlin the Muskie“) out of the Caribbean Sea?  It took several grown men and a lady who cared about nothing more than a big fat steak to get that thing out…

It was evening and tourist were casually sipping fine wine while telling tales that people often do about days in paradise. Someone noticed that this fish was flapping around and the curiosity of the collective masses was cued. Some thought it was a hammerhead shark, others a tiger shark (huh?) and some thought it was Elvis wrestling a tuna, turns out it was none of the above…

Upon further inspection they realized that the giant fish was in fact a marlin, yes a marlin. They are incredibly rare here and a fisherman told me they never bite. The fish had a giant gash on its head which leads me to believe that a boat propeller must have hit it. Other popular theories are that it ran into a rock – really!? Also seriously doubting the health of the fish, typically a healthy fish like that won’t be floating near the top…

Suffice to say the one lady in the group who had seafood steaks on the brain was first to grab the giant fish, next thing you know a whole crew was in there so it couldn’t get back to sea. The thing was clearly injured as healthy fish of that size just don’t show up beached like such.

Oh yeah, I wasn’t there but this is what I gathered from numerous sources and this story deserves sharing.

Thanks to @thefoxbroughton for the photo aka “The Fox”. While we’re thanking him, might as well say thanks for the fresh Jack sushi this morning, check out this instagram, delicious.

Yours truly,

“Lobster Man”

P.S: I love this island and plan on making it one of my final 4-5 “flags” on this planet.

Greetings,

This is the view of the “beach side” of Little Corn Island. The photo was taken from the patio of Casa Iguana. I’ve never stayed there but it does look quite nice. Supposedly one of the first developments on the island and as a result, have this view. Behind the Casa are a few of the coolest / remote beaches on the island in my opinion.

Either way, this view is great and looks infinitely better in person.

Not much to report from this island paradise except a gent who does fly fishing and is about my age showed up, may have to give it a go. Picked up 5 pounds of lobster this morning, may try and put together a Run Down with some gents I met on the beach. The “Run Down” is the islands traditional dish which is sorta of like a big soup / stew with lobster, shrimp, fish and whatever else.

Many people pay about C$200 to have it done at a restaurant. Considering these gents are cool, have been here for over 20 years and live on the ocean, seems like a no brainer. May get a new other tourists to join me and we’ll all pitch in and split the costs. The more I write this, the more I realize this is a brilliant idea.

Have a great weekend,

I have been hearing about his new show “The Layover” for the past couple of months and thought it should be brilliant as I am a huge fan of utilizing ridiculous flight schedules to see and do as much as possible. So finally last night I decided to watch a couple of episodes to see how the boss does it, London and New York. I came to this conclusion: it’s good stuff and pretty informative but a lot of it didn’t seem realistic for many of us 20 or 30-something, poor but sexy travelers. He took cabs everywhere, indulged in fine dining and drinking, had hotel rooms mostly for his bags to hangout in. Unfortunately, none of these things are feasible at the moment for Blonde Gypsy layovers, but that doesn’t stop me.

So what is feasbile? Just to give you an idea, here’s a breakdown of one of my latest strategic stops in Tallinn, Estonia. Perhaps it will inspire someone to think twice before booking a direct flight or sitting/sleeping it out in a cold and lonely airport.

Basically was trying to get back to Copenhagen, Denmark from Kiev, Ukraine and came across this Estonian Air flight that departed at 5:35pm on Wednesday and arrived in Copenhagen at 1:35pm on Thursday. Most people who are aware of the distance between Kiev and Copenhagen (about 2 1/2 hours on a direct flight) might think RIDICULOUS, but I thought GLORIOUS.

First thing’s first, a very important factor that I always consider when attempting to make a layover like this cheap and worthwhile is whether or not I know someone living there. Or if I don’t, I usually check to see if someone I know does or turn to Couchsurfing. Luckily I know awesome people in Tallinn from when I was traveling through the Baltics back in 2010 which is the main reason I went for it. I knew that if all else failed, I would at least have my luggage and sleeping situation sorted for those 19 hours.

Next important thing is figuring out what to do with your time and more importantly, what you can do with your time. Estimating airport business and transportation to and from the city, I knew I had a solid 16 hours; I also knew Tallinn was extremely small and well connected so whatever I was going to do it would be relatively close and easy to get to. Moreover, since I had already been before, I knew I wasn’t going to sightsee as much as I was going to drink Vana Tallinn and catch up with my friends. Perfect, itinerary sorted.

Since I had a lot of luggage with me I actually did opt for a cab from the airport but it was only 7 euros and since I wasn’t paying for accommodation it was more than worth it. For the record though, there is a bus, Bus 90K (with free wifi!), that takes you from the airport to city centre for just 2 euros.

Like I said, my friends there are awesome so from the minute I arrived at their place I had everything that I had hoped and dreamed for: a delicious home-cooked meal, Vana Tallinn, and a party. Only thing I ended up paying for that night was this incredible midnight snack combination from their local corner shop (red wine & rosé “to-go” plus pickled cucumber potato chips, BELIEVE IT).

Turned into an especially fun evening thanks to my abovementioned friends and just that alone was worth the stop; any hassle I might have felt before due to lack of sleep or dragging around two huge suitcases that essentially had my life from Ukraine–gone.  However, felt super ambitious upon awakening the next morning and actually did make it into the Old Town for a coffee and leisurely photo-taking stroll which made this particular layover not only a real success, but one of my greatest ever. Life’s too short, get as much of it when you can and while you can.

In closing, I would like to leave you with some very important information that I learned from Estonian Air’s inflight magazine: in Estonia, World War II ended in 1994.

Until next time, SHABL…

Greetings,

Just as SHABL Labs was busier than ever trying to find an ingenious and zany way to get to Columbia from the Corn Islands without having to return to Managua, something happened. We were close to accomplishing the goal as it *is* possible, just not likely. Suffice to say was dining on lobster tail when suddenly one of those emails that “changes everything” comes into your box. It was delivered like a welcome baby from a stork in the night, yeah like that.

Suffice to say I’ll be participating in the #VisitSouthAfrica Blogger Trip from Feb 16th-March 1st, 2012 and couldn’t be HAPPIER. The trip is being hosted by the South African Tourism Board for North America, hence my flight to Fort Lauderdale. As you may know I spent 4 months in Africa in late 2010 / early 2011 and had a beyond life changing experience. One entertained grandiose visions of going from Tanzania all the way to Cape Town as well, supposedly it’s beautiful. Naturally, that never happened and I ended up living in cashew tree forts along the Indian Ocean outside of Pangani.

Despite having an amazing time in Africa, always felt a bit of regret for not making it to South Africa. Having heard and read so many good things about the place, was a little annoyed that I “missed my opportunity”. Well it looks like that all changed, yes? Naturally it’s a very very busy schedule and includes but is not limited to Johannesburg, Singita Kruger National Park for not one, two or three game drives but four!? The odds of seeing the “Big 5″ in four game runs is quite high, quite thrilled as I’ve done a camping safari before and loved it. Now I need to think about what type of camera equipment I’ll use, hmmmm.

I digress.

We’re also going to be visiting Cape Town, the famous Robben Island, visiting Durban and MORE. Id’ go into further details but that would ruin the surprise wouldn’t it? As always I’ll be blogging up daily storms about everything from safari to sandwiches and sharing lots through my different social media channels. Was considering taking another month in South Africa after the trip to just hang out / explore but then realized that I was having a “Working Winter” albeit on a beach, hence looking for another temporary SHABL World HQ closer to home.

Again, would love to thank the South African Tourism Board for this amazing opportunity. Never dreamed of scenarios like this when I started this blog on the first day of my trip in 2009. As you know there are 975,000,000,000 travel blogs with 52,235,323 new ones being made each minute. This trip has myself and 3 other distinguished members of the blogosphere and just thrilled to be included, YAY. Oddly enough my good friend Ryan from Pause the Moment will also be attending, random – yes? Also found out a gent named World Wide Nate who seems to love video, I see South Africa getting all vloggy in the near future. My detective team has not identified the last member but is hard on the case, rest assured.

Stay tuned for what will most certainly be an egregious South African Adventure…

Tips hat,

]]> http://stophavingaboringlife.com/shabl-is-going-to-south-africa-in-2-weeks/feed/ 19 http://stophavingaboringlife.com/monday-morning-caribbean-island-style/ http://stophavingaboringlife.com/monday-morning-caribbean-island-style/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:57:23 +0000 Rob http://stophavingaboringlife.com/?p=9696

Good day,

The above photo depicts the sentiment of a manic Monday morning on Little Corn Island in the Caribbean Sea, in fact it’s not that different than any other day. The above shot was taken this morning at about 10AM in front of Elsa’s. Starting to get island fever, not. Sleeping in is an issue here so went for a long sunrise run around the island. One of the many perks of living on an island is you get killer sunrises and sunsets, one must take advantage of it along with the lobster. The only thing that sorta kills the early morning ambition buzz is the whole “no power situation” when your laptop dies an hour into a session.

Not much to report except I’ve booked a flight to Fort Lauderdale in 2 weeks. Everyone hates on Spirit Airlines and yeah their planes aren’t the newest and yes, they will charge you for water but… I just booked a one way flight from Managua to Fort Lauderdale for $175us all taxes in with packed bags, decent?

Currently thinking of where to spend the month of March – Colombia sounds cool, yes?

Stay tuned for an  egregious announcement tomorrow involving Africa…

Tips hat,

P.S: That solar panel I mentioned holds a charge…

Looks like I’ve been on Little Corn a month day, indeed.

So much has happened in the last few days that this gent doesn’t even know where to begin. The time has included things like “Deep Sea Fishing” and catching basically nothing while this British gent’s soul is destroyed minute by minute as we bob in the ocean. This gent got sea sick 30 minutes into a 4 hour trip and was white as a ghost / ill the whole time, not good.

Was going for a swim when I noticed a blonde mermaid like lady from Australia who seriously reminded me of Elle McPhearson.  We started talking while floating in turquoise waves and somehow we discussed my solar panel fetish. Then as though the law of attraction is the only TRUE law on this planet besides gravity – she casually says she has a friend who has a solar panel he doesn’t use!? Yes, a gent on this island has a solar panel…

The panel is now in my possession, more on that later. Have found some new random lobster dealers because I’m seriously hooked; last night picked up another 5 pounds. Then with 3 of the pounds myself, a gent named Alaska and the Australian mermaid headed to a bonfire hosted by “Dangerous Dave” (DD). DD is from the UK and well out of control, met him fishing. Cooking fresh lobster tail on the beach of the Caribbean Sea in banana leaves surrounded by stimulating conversation is a pretty cool feeling, naturally there was butter.

The nightlife here is serious hit or miss but depending on the drift wood that found its way to the island (aka people in case you’re daft), only a small spark is sometimes needed for pure unadulterated bedlam, indeed. Still a HUGE FAN of staying on the port side, the beach side is beautiful though and making it a priority to get 1-2 hour a day of paddling around, laying around and chatting. If you’re not going to enjoy the beach a bit daily, why put up with the hassles of living on an island?

Other news, SHABL Labs has currently put the intensive R&D project to rest. It involved pangas and space ships, that is all anybody needs to know. For you curious readers, no I was not building a panga space ship. Looks like if all goes according to plan, the “House of SHABL” will be on another plane to somewhere in the USA before flying across the Atlantic.

It’s 8am and I’m feeling splendid. Time to make the most of this banana sunday (sic).

Standing back flip with mute hat tip,

P.S: Not a fan of this photo, seems whenever I carry my camera the light is against me.