TravBuddy Blog

In Remembrance of Mark DeFeis aka Travelman727 -- the Ultimate TravBuddy

nospam@example.com (Erin De Santiago (poohstanggt)) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:30:00 -0700

Wow, August 2012 was my final "goodbye post" as the official TravBuddy blog came to a close. I never dreamed that if I had the opportunity to write for TravBuddy again, it would be a post of this nature.

As most everyone is likely aware by now, Mark (Travelman727) passed away earlier this month due to health related issues, but we only found out two days ago. It would be an understatement to say Mark impacted all our lives at TravBuddy -- for me, he was TravBuddy. Without him, I would've never been a part of the TB community or be where I am today -- living out my dream traveling the world working as a freelance travel writer and blogger. I found out about Mark's passing as I landed in Amsterdam after a 14 hour flight and I spent the entire day yesterday crying and looking back at messages, photos, and blog posts of our travels together. I reached out to Eric to ask if it would be ok to write a tribute post to him as I think it's the best way to honor a community member who was such an integral part of TravBuddy from its earliest days.

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Signing Off...Saying Goodbye to the Official TravBuddy Blog

nospam@example.com (Erin De Santiago (poohstanggt)) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:00:00 -0700

After approximately two years, I am signing off with my final post on the official TravBuddy blog as it comes to a bittersweet end today.

As many of you know, I have been actively involved in the TravBuddy community since 2007 and I’ve met Eric and David on multiple occasions at meet-ups and small get-togethers. I’ve made some incredible connections and friends through the site and traveled with TravBuddies on four different continents. From small, casual lunches to the mega NYE meet-up in Amsterdam with over 70 TravBuddies from nearly 20 different countries, it’s safe to say TravBuddy has been an important part of my life.

When I started writing for TravBuddy in an official capacity, it was to help spotlight what a great community we have. From sharing meet-up news and highlighting blogs and members, to sharing travel news of importance, I am honored to have been able to become even more involved in such a great site and community.

Just to give you an idea of some of my own experiences on TravBuddy, here are a couple interesting anecdotes --

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50 Things To Do Before I Die: A Bucket List

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

This post will be my last ever to Travbuddy blog, and so comes tinged with a certain amount of sadness. What better way to go, though, than by looking to the future? I thought I'd do it in a big way. I hope Travbuddy will still be running in fifty years’ time, when I'll be just about 80, and I’m sure I’ll still remember the kindness I’ve been shown by the owners of this site. I’d like to be able to look back at this list and say 'oh yes, I did all that’. Or at least most of it. You guys, then, can try and hold me to this, and I hope my travel ambitions might give a few ideas to those looking for some trips of their own, too. Thank you all for reading, it's been wonderful to see a few of these posts grab thousands of views, cause discussions and hopefully give a few useful travel tips and exciting ideas along the way. Let me know if anything’s particularly grabbed you, I’ll still be around on Travbuddy and I’d love to hear what everyone’s up to. On the blog front, the highlight may have been grabbing a link from CNN not so long ago, which feels like quite an acheivement. Here's what I hope I'll be doing next... well, next in the loosest sense!

1. Visit Pristina. Kosovo's capital is a spot that fascinates me largely because of its political problems, but also because of its lack of tourism, which is said to make the locals extremely friendly.

2. Visit Chernobyl. A risk, but I'm hooked on the imagery that emerges from the disaster site - a dark depiction of a post-apocalyptic world, minus the apocalypse. Well, largely at least!

3. Visit Iceland's hot springs, and snorkel off the coast. Not as insane as you might think: Iceland's waters are some of the most beautiful in the world, you just need a good wetsuit!

4. Cycle the Camino de Santiago. Spain's notorious pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella. I'd like to start at or the other side of the Spanish border, and cover the entire thing by bike at a leisurely pace, soaking up the vibe and collecting those stamps.

5. Party at Tomatina. Another Spanish stop off, at the infamous tomato fight festival. I've heard too much not to go.

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My Five Greatest travel Experiences... Ever

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

It's hard to pin down a list of 'best' things: I struggle with music, so doing so with a topic as culturally divisive and memorable as travel is always going to be a thing that's entirely in flux. If you checked out yesterday's blog, you'd see that my most life-changing moment wasn't actually staring over some great site, or exploring some wonderful cultural dimension (okay, maybe a little of that latter one with the monks), but there are definitely elements of that which have really stood out. Today's top five is certain to be different to tomorrow's, but here's how things stand right now, with an un-numbered selection of moments I won’t forget until my memory begins to fade entirely:

Crossing the border to North Korea, twice. Throughout the five years since I set foot on North Korean soil, I've had countless heady expenses that have battered by bank account, but I've always, without exception, made sure I have the finances accessible to get on the first plane over should the unlikely occur, and North Korea opens its borders to free exploration. I visited twice, back in the days when crossing the South Korean border into the north was an option under carefully monitored circumstances, and as far as experiences go, this is really, really hard to beat. North Korea can be described as a little like going back in time. In some ways it's utterly beautiful: Kumgangsan (the Diamond Mountains) in the south west are one of the most stunning spots I've ever set foot, and I could get used to a world without advertising. Bowing down before Kim Jong Il (compulsory, but done with tongue firmly in cheek by most visitors), eating lavishly in a display of 'wealth' that feels awkward and traveling along streets where soldiers monitor your actions every fifty metres for many miles is not so positive. I still have the English translations of North Korea's version of history, which make for fascinating reading, and I'll never forget tucking into a north-of-the-border Soju, enjoying a North Korean 'spa' experience or the regulations surrounding the use of cameras, passports (all fake anyway) and communication with locals. A true 'appreciation for what you've got' situation.

Safari in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, Tanzania. This was my 'honeymoon proper' (we couldn't afford anywhere too extravagant the first time after paying for the wedding), and my first experience of Africa. I found Tanzania (and my brief experience of Kenya) to be both frustrating and beguiling in equal measure: the pushiness and dishonesty of the cities frustrated me, but the beauty of the countryside quickly flipped my opinion on its head. We visited the immaculate Ngorongoro Crater, where thousands and thousands of animals roam around the watering holes, and all of the pick five can be spotted within half an hour of each other on a good day (we got a good day). Then we drove to Serengeti, watching a mass migration pass in the direction of Ngorongoro, featuring so many animals filling a 360 degree view that the entire colour of the landscape changed from musty yellow grassland to the darker brown of the dominant wildebeests. We dropped in on the Maasai Mara, sharing a traditional English Christmas pudding (they're meant to mature, so they keep well!) with the confused locals after we joined in with their traditional dance and took a glance at the modest hut accommodation. We slept in tents, got stuck in muddy tracks in the middle of nowhere (temporarily, fortunately), and ate possibly the worst food I've ever paid money for, before it reappearing shortly afterwards. Sure, safari with a tour company isn't exactly the wild experience some off-the-beaten track travellers might go for, but I still found the experience utterly mind-blowing.

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Upcoming Unofficial TravBuddy Meet-ups

nospam@example.com (Erin De Santiago (poohstanggt)) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:15:00 -0700

Unfortunately, this is the last week of the official TravBuddy blog so this will be my last post highlighting upcoming unofficial TravBuddy meet-ups around the globe. With that, there are a number of interesting meet-ups in the not so distant future and a couple of big get togethers people are looking to do next year that I want to mention.

So without further ado, here are some of the unofficial TravBuddy meet-ups in the works.

Doraemon Exhibit meet-up in Hong Kong Sept 9 - 10

Fans of Doraemon may want to check this one out. Angel_l from San Francisco is going to be in Hong Kong and wants to put together a meet-up for the 100 Years before the Birth of Doraemon Exhibit going on now through September 16. It will feature 100 Doraemon with 100 unique gadgets. She is hoping to visit some other museum exhibits on Sunday the 9th and then see Doraemon on Monday the 10th in hopes it will be less crowded. She has all the details listed on the forum so if anyone is interested, let her know.

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The Single Greatest Day Of My Travels

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

As we're in the final week of this particular strand of Travbuddy, I'm feeling more than a little nostalgic. Tomorrow I'm going to go full force and lay out my five favourite travel experiences of all time, but today I thought I'd stick to just the one, a day that seemed only a little exceptional at the time, but ended up being the one that changed my life above all others. Because sometimes, hindsight really does change things.

In 2007 I moved to Seoul, South Korea. I still couldn't tell you exactly why. There was certainly an element of wanting to chase adventure, and another of not really being satisfied with my life as it was. I'd just come back from a trip to India, and felt at times that if I had the option not to return, I probably never would. India won me over, despite a shaky start, and I found it hard to imagine returning to a normal life. At the time, if I'm totally honest, my life was at a crossroads anyway. I hadn't yet found a post-university job that I actually wanted to do for any length of time, having completed a chemistry degree after realising well before I finished that the industry turned me off hugely. I'd been doing menial jobs to pay for adventure, but obviously that couldn't go on forever. English teaching had never been a particular goal, but with the promise of a new base and a reasonable income, it seemed the most sensible route to go down, at least in terms of quenching my insatiable desire for the new without having to declare myself bankrupt down the line. So off I went.

I didn’t know a soul when I arrived, and very little about the culture. My language was still worse: having never really seen Korean text, I'd attempted to 'teach myself' from some pretty poor books, and misunderstood how the letters were supposed to fit together. The first week was still sensational, though, for its inbuilt sense of community and the wonders that every corner in a new destination can hold, especially when it's so culturally alien. But I needed to understand more about what I’d become part of. One Sunday morning, leaning just a little on my idealist tendencies towards Buddhism (blame the teenage hippie in me; I do) I followed up on an advert in an expat magazine and headed over to the Anguk Zen Centre, where regular cultural introductions in English alongside a little meditation (no, I can't do it, since you asked...) took place.

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A Californian Vision

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

As you may or may not have heard, this week will mark the end (at least for the foreseeable future) of this section of Travbuddy, with both Erin and I ending our contributions to the site in a formal capacity. This will happen alongside other parts of the site being trimmed (as you may have noticed on your login page this week), Eric and David need to be realistic about the operation of this wonderful site, and while I haven't yet had the chance to chat to Erin about it, I think it's fair to say that we're both just delighted to have been involved at all. For both of us, particularly for me (as you might have noticed, I'm far more active on this blog than on the forums or on my own section of the site), I have no doubt that this will actually mean quite a lot more contribution on an informal level, as a normal Travbuddy member. The reality is that writing this blog has taken a serious chunk of my life recently - typically in the region of 8-12 hours a week, with research time - and saying goodbye to it will be both strange and when it comes to time, if certainly not in other areas - I'm sure Eric and David won't mind me saying this - at least a little liberating. I hope to dedicated the hours to other areas of a burgeoning writing career, but that certainly doesn’t mean I’m not hugely sad to see this go.

The change has got me thinking about how something like Travbuddy builds up. As you may or may not know, Travbuddy's owners Eric and David are two brothers from LA. I have never been to LA, or in fact met either of them personally, though I communicate regularly with Eric in particular by email, and have learnt quite a lot about his life. I hope our paths will cross one day, but when I think of the inspiration behind a community behemoth like this, I wonder how much the natural world around the owners had to do with it. When musing on this slightly off-the-wall thought, I came across the below video, shot using standard equipment across Eric and David's home state of California. I realize, of course, that it's not LA (by a long shot), but I like to think that the ethos - using something simple and committed like a like-minded community to achieve something as positive as Travbuddy - might fit in with the ethos of a committed traveller shooting 10,000 impressive photos over 18 months. Like Eric's apparent attitude to travel and unfailing positivity (I hope David will forgive me here - we've had fairly modest contact over the last 30 months or so, so I can’t say much about him), this film was made to honour things the photographer loved, and to enhance the experience of others, namely, in this case, the filmmaker's wife.

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Ten Good Things About Travel During Full-Time Employment

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:00:00 -0700

I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the UK and Ireland, travel - proper, full on lengthy trips - is something that tends to be an activity for the younger generation, or for those lucky enough to retire with a bit of money in the bank. Since full time employment, I've found my travel opportunities far more limited: I no longer have a realistic option to quit my job and head off somewhere exciting every few months - something I used to do with an incredibly limited budget - and trips have to be shorter and planned far in advance. It's not all bad, though: getting a permanent job in a bad economy (and so not being able to even contemplate leaving - not that I would anyway, to tell the truth) is not the end of travel. In fact, it even has a few perks. As I'm feeling surprisingly optimistic for a Monday morning, here are a few ways in which travel has get better over the past few years:

A greater appreciation for what I'm seeing. I've been to Kenya, Tanzania, New York, Austria, Luxembourg and Poland this year, all for relatively short times. That's an incredible selection considering the amount I've had to fit around it, but a few years back I'd have considered that a fairly average haul, and have wanted to know how long I’d get in each place to explore the surrounding areas. Which is certainly a consideration. The total length of those six trips was less than five weeks (and three of those weeks were working weeks, so certainly couldn’t be considered holidays), but with the travel spaced out instead of back to back, I really had the chance to enjoy every second of it, and there's never been the sense of 'something better around the corner'. Appreciation counts for a lot.

A little more money to play with. Don't get me wrong, despite the above list, I'm on a very moderate salary. The reason I can get the selection so long and varied is my dabblings in travel writing tend to have a few financial benefits when it comes to the actual travel (and I do tend to push it as a far as I can), and my day job has a few benefits, too. The chance to spend what little cash I have left to play with on luxury, though, is something that makes a big difference. I've never been a fan of endless nights in plush hotels, but doing those extra things and splashing out once in a while is a genuinely huge plus.

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From the Blogs: Spotlight on Costa Brava and Girona, Spain

nospam@example.com (Erin De Santiago (poohstanggt)) — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 23:39:00 -0700

Barcelona, Madrid, Ibiza. Those are three of the more popular places that come to mind when most people think of travel in Spain. How about the Costa Brava region? Or the city of Girona? Based on our TravBuddy travel guides, not too many members have explored this region.

Girona is a city but it's also the capital of its own province and is about a 30 minute drive from the famed Costa Brava region. The province of Girona is broken up into various regions including Pla de l'Estany, Selva, El Alt Emporda, Ripolles, Cerdanya, El Girones, El Baix Emporda, and La Garrotxa.

Costa Brava is the coastal region of northeastern Catalonia, Spain and stretches from northeast of Barcelona to the French border. Seaside resorts like Blanes, Tossa de Mar and Lloret de Mar are some of the more visited areas, especially by tourists from neighboring countries. Its year round moderate climate is another reason travelers are drawn to the region.

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Five Financial Factors Too Often Forgotten In Travel Planning

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

Most of us, sadly, aren't rich enough to spend our time hopping around the world quite as freely as we might like. Like it or not (and I'd hedge my bets on not), a sensible budget is an absolutely essential part of any trip, and something that occasionally is going to hold us all back. No doubt you've thought of the obvious: flights, accommodation, food, activity money, insurance, something put aside as a safety net and the cost of those irritatingly pricey visas. There are, however, a few things that tend to be left out of travel budgets, and can prove equally significant when you're counting buttons come the trip’s end. Here are a few factors well worth considering...

Loss of earnings. Let's assume you're all employed for this purpose, and lucky enough to be able to travel regardless (hurray for long paid holidays). You have a regular income, and unless you've saved up a huge chunk of holiday (fair play to you for that), or you can somehow carry on earning along the way, you're going to lose that income during your travels. That's not really a problem at the time, but it is when you get back: you're going to need the cash set aside to eat, pay rent, pay your bills etc. otherwise you're going to face an extremely awkward month. We'll go ahead and assume that you allowed for that before booking, but it does mean, unfortunately, that your travels have more of a knock on affect than is ideal.

Departure tax and airport transfers. Planning a round the world trip on a tight budget? If you're flying with budget airlines, especially in Europe (see Ryanair, Easyjet), you can find yourself a fair distance from your actual destination and paying a significant cost to actually get to where you’re planning to be. See ‘Frankfurt’ Hahn, Memmingen ('Munich West - yeah right!), 'London' Stansted and Stockholm's Ryanair airport to name just a few. Then there's the often-forgotten departure tax levied in some countries - a strange idea, paying to leave, but that seems to be how things are done. The Philippines, Jamaica, Honduras, Costa Rica and Bangladesh (admittedly nominal in the last case) all charge such a tax in cash at the airport, while backpacker havens such as Australia, Thailand and China have hidden the charge somewhat by adding it to airline fees (at least you've more than likely paid up front), but also charge not insignificant amounts.

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Are We Getting Closer To Star Wars-Style Transportation? - The DLB

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

A company named Aerofex, based in southern California, have recently unveiled the latest adaptions to their hover-aircraft, a single person ride-on device that looks very much like it's lifted straight from the Star wars movies. The DLB has been in development for several years, and has been undergoing a number of teething problems, not least a few that come straight from helicopters: it's proved difficult to avoid the firing up of dust (or snow) into the air on test flights. With the mechanism based on a fan system, however, the device has proven easy to control even for entirely inexperienced pilots, and while it's energy-expensive, could prove a useful alternative method of transport some time down the line.

Most of the time the DLB hovers just above the ground, with obvious advantages of such an device include the ability to travel freely without a road, though it may prove incredibly shaky on slopes of any significance (it’s unclear how well the fan system adapts to such scenarios) and almost certainly wouldn't work on water (it doesn't have the air-containing function that a standard hovercraft requires to operate). At present the top speed is around 30 mph, which doesn't quite make it a viable alternative to other methods of transport just yet (no doubt you can think of a fair few other reasons, too), but this is still the development stage. The option to get up to 5 metres above ground level in some conditions is also impressive, given the propulsion method, though just above ground level - perhaps enough clearance to allow for the avoidance of common smaller obstructions - is likely to be the logical standard height. How rules governing such machines use might be created remains to be seen.

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A Day In The Austrian Countryside

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

If you stopped by earlier in the week, you'd have learnt that a single day in Salzburg didn't really inspire me. Fortunately, it wasn't the only part of my short weekend away; on the second day I travelled out in the Pongau district of Austria, south of Salzburg and in amongst the foothills of the Alps, to explore a more laidback take on the country. St Johann, Pongau's capital, is a skiing base by winter, and by summer a quiet spot from which to head to the hills and hike. On a Sunday, the town is quite incredibly quiet, with every non-service-based shop shut and the locals focusing on coffee shops, restaurants and the other impressive local sports facilities instead. But more on that later.

We started our day with a 10km round-trip walk out to a gorge cut into the side of the mountains by an aggressive river, Liechtensteinklamm, which on a mid-August Sunday has the added benefit of being one of the only places in the region that doesn't dish out a near-immediate sunburn. The gorge itself is a cool ramshackle wooden pathway through the splashes of a violent stream. At the top, a hefty waterfall reveals where all that power comes from, and the damp, cooling effect of the steeply carved gorge itself is a gorgeous spot. There are a few tiny metal climbing hooks layered along the wall just above the path, some fairly new and some that have been their long enough to rust to the point of crumbling. I wouldn't have had the nerve to edge along the cliff sides - the path alone is a fairly hairy experience at times - and what's left of its construction is almost as memorable as the route itself. At some points the path dips inside the walls, taking on a cave-tunnel form, presumably because a hanging wooden walkway became too complex. It's not quite the peak of Jungfrau, but definitely a worthwhile sight in itself.

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Nepal Set To Ban Solo Hiking

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:00:00 -0700

A new bill currently being debating by Nepalese parliament looks all set to ban any form of solo hiking in the Nepalese Himalayas, and add a condition requiring that every traveller hires a local guide to accompany them, though the 'guide' may be able to take the form of a Sherpa (luggage carrying assistant) instead. Some sources are also reporting that a clause in the bill may require any local accompanying a tourist to be registered, too, immediately eliminating the far more affordable 'black market' option for travellers. This common – if slightly risky – option was a commonly utilized one which involved hiring a local advertising around Kathmandu at substantially below the tour companies standard rates.

The bill is a response to international pressure from a variety of groups, following the death of two hikers and disappearance of a third over the past two or three years in the Langtang region of the country. All of the hikers were female, and all travelling alone. Having also travelled to Langtang, in the company of a 'black market' guide back in 2009 (I hiked around the region for six days, to the head of the valley, a couple of summits and back), I can report finding the situation nothing short of extraordinarily friendly, though of course that's an entirely subjective and far from conclusive individual experience.

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A Day In... Salzburg

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:00:00 -0700

Austria's second city is quiet. That's not at all a bad thing: there's a sense of the intensely civilized, broken only by the contrastingly ugly area around the train station - a shock to the system when we arrive in a place heavily billed as picturesque - and the bold graffiti on anti-sexism tagged across two (admittedly horrendously sexist) adverts. In the summer sun, the city's Saturdays are largely toned down, with even the bicycles passing along the turquoise shaded Alpine river seeming languid against the hilly backdrops.

It's hard not to fall into a pattern of incessant eating. In the centre, a city-wide love of gorgeous window displays target the opulent tourists who drop in for 1000 Euro a-time concerts featuring the music of the city's most famous son, Mozart. The locals - or at least the ones we talk to - find the prices laughable, but also possess a certain amount of pride. The Mozart Geburtshaus (Mozart's birth place) in the centre of the city is a prime tourist attraction. It might feature a Spar convenience store on the bottom floor, but still manages to appear incredibly classy. There are more tit-bits of information on the aficionado than you could possibly want to know, along with his early instrumentation. In the surrounding area, the less pricey of the stunning window displays are often filled with the three-layered 'Mozart Truffle', something we'd hazard a guess that the man himself had less to do with.

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Five Less-Touted Must-Do Activities In Seoul

nospam@example.com (James Hendicott) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0700

I lived in Seoul for just under two years, teaching English, and aside from the long hours and a battle with a language I never really got to grips with, I loved every second of it. South Korea's capital is a city that doesn't feature on all that many tourist itineraries. I guess there are so many classic cities - Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Ulan Bataar, Shanghai and Pyongyang to name just a few - all vying for attention in the same corner of the world, and they tend to draw visitors away. Having played a minor role inside the Seoul Tourism Office for a short time, I can report that they're baffled by the lack of interest, and I must admit that looking at their moderate tourism numbers, I entirely agree with them. Korea has an impressively unique culture, it’s easy (and affordable) to travel around, it's generally very welcoming, and it's nightlife comfortably outdoes anything I've seen in Thailand if you know where to go. Setting aside the obvious - the DMZ, the city palaces and the markets, for example - here are my favourite Korean capital hangouts:

Hongdae. The district surrounding Hongik University is in many ways atypically Korean: the local approach sees high school grades and the university you attend valued above what you actually do when you're there, and many students see their arrival at university as party o'clock. The raucous Hongdae district - still the most consistently brilliant nightlife district I've ever had the pleasure of frequenting - is the embodiment of this, and not in the least bit refined about it. Start out in one of the BBQ restaurants near to Hongik University subway station, then head out across the area, dropping in on ice bars, flavoured soju stop offs and the 'all you can drink in an hour' joints along the way to get your night kicking off. If you're into your rock, head for the brilliantly cheesy-rock atmosphere of FF, where every night is a sweatbox of chaos. Drop in on the bizarre 'Oi' for a calmer moment, then head for one of the sizeable dance-themed nightclubs. Seoul's nightlife closes when its punters leave (which can mean 10am the next day – not quite a Berlin all-weekender, but impressively hefty); it's affordable, and regularly features punters leaping on tables for a dance (not like that). I once found myself in the middle of a spray fight involving two fire extinguishers. Basically, this little area chucks the idea of conservative Korea out of the window, and totally rocks. (Photo by RalphDagza).

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