I happened to be in Latvia for a long weekend when I heard the news that a blonde parade was due on the Sunday. The idea behind the parade was to lift the spirits of the recession hit Latvians and perhaps boost the tourism.

Around 500 blonde female Latvians paraded through the streets of the capital Riga. Dressed mostly in pink or white the paraders waved and smiled proudly some even brought their lapdogs for the event.

The organisers of the event are hoping it will become an annual event and judging by people’s response this could well be the case.

Are you planning on going backpacking with your boyfriend or girlfriend? Are you worried about the effects and strain of travel might have on your relationship?

Travel can put a lot of pressure on a relationship, spending all day everyday together can cause rifts over tiny meaningless things. Traveling together can also be a great test , if you can come through the long journey together unscathed you may well have a very special relationship.

We have some pointers to help the course of love to run smooth on the road.

Just Relax

It is stressful enough organising travel, running for trains and generally backpacking around so it’s a good idea to get into a more relaxed state of mind early on. If you miss the bus for example just chill there will be another one on it’s way, if not you can simply travel somewhere else. If you find yourself or your partner stressing about these issues it’ll add extra strain on your relationship and ultimately one of you will eventually snap.

Take Some Time Apart

You may have gone traveling together but that doesn’t mean that you have to spend all your time together. It’s a good idea to take a break from each other from a while, even the best of friends find it difficult to spend 24 hours in each others pockets. Go for a stroll down the beach or check out the local markets with a friend. Having a break will make you more appreciative of the time you do spend together.

Make New Friends

Don’t be afraid to be open to meeting new friends on the road, some couples tend to keep to themselves and miss out on meeting some interesting and like-minded people. Having only one other person to talk to whilst traveling can soon grate and it’s great to chat to other people who you will usually have a lot in common with.

Travel Apart

If you are going on a long trip for six months or more, you may consider taking some time apart. Perhaps you want to visit the coast while your partner really wants to climb the huge volcano in the north. Going your separate ways and meeting up again on your journey can make you appreciate your partner all the more. Traveling separately isn’t a sign of a bad relationship but in many cases of a strong one.

Travel can be difficult at the best of times, unlike traveling with people you meet along the way you can’t choose to leave your partner on a whim.

The stress of the road can result in arguments and disagreements but over all it is truly a great test of any relationship. If you can work as a team whilst backpacking it may well be a good sign for the future.

It’s easy to get carried away with the excitement of your trip and lose focus on your writing. So just how do you keep your focus and produce fine journal entries every time you sit down to write?

Here’s 5 key tips for writing your travel journal to the best of your ability:

1. Show some passion

In order to make your writing engaging to others it’s always a great idea to find a topic or something that happened on your travels that fills you with a great sense of passion. Whether it is anger, joy, frustration or any other emotion, if it triggers some passion you should write it down. You may even find the words will flow out of you much easier.

2. Be selective

Many people writing their travel journals fall into the trap of thinking that every detail counts. Not only is it often dull for others to read, but it will soon become a stale approach to writing. Be selective and perhaps only write about those occasions where something really moved you or something extraordinary happened. You will find if you are more selective not only will you display a great deal of passion in your writing but readers will also feel much more part of your journey.

3. Be aware of your audience

Don’t just write your journal for yourself think about who is reading it. Sometimes this may mean that you have to go a little out of the way to explain something that people back home might not know about. By doing so it’ll make your writing much more accessible.

4. Instill some intrigue and then resolve

Think about the structure of your journal entry. Don’t just blurt out the most exciting part of the story at the beginning, but perhaps allude to it and instill some intrigue to keep the reader engaged right until the final word. It can be very effective to use this within the title of the entry. Towards the end of the entry wrap up the piece and answer the question that was asked at the beginning.

5. Paint a picture

Be descriptive and remember the sights, smells, atmosphere and the sounds. Paint a picture and always attempt to take the reader to the place you were when the story happened. You should aim to take the reader with you on your journey by describing the unique scene and try to stay away from simply stating facts or your itinary.

It can be very rewarding keeping a journal whilst traveling. Often many people will give up after finding it frustrating documenting all the places they have been to and all the different sights they have seen.

The key is to keep it fresh and passionate, this will somethings mean you have to be more selective about what you write or publish but in the end the rewards for your readers will be much greater.

For many people Twitter is still a new technology and it isn’t always clear why they should consider using it.

Twitter is a very effect way to keep up to date with all your favourite sources, from friend’s updates on the road to the latest news updates from a country that you maybe traveling to.

If you’re not using Twitter you could be missing out. Here are 5 reasons to consider using it whilst traveling:

1.  Update your friends

An increasing number of your friends are likely to be using Twitter. You can update them with a quick message letting them know what you are up to on the road without asking them to read five pages of a huge travel blog. It’s simple and effective and more likely to keep your friends attention back home. After all, not everyone wants to read a travel blog on places they don’t know or have never been to.

2. Keep up to date with friends

As well as informing friends back home of what exciting things you are doing on your travels (IE “We’re swimming with dolphins today” or “Exhausted and drenched after 5 day Trek to Machu Picchu, was worth it though”), you can keep up to date with those friends you meet using Twitter.

3. Keep your finger on the pulse with flight deals

More and more companies are now using Twitter realising it can be a great marketing tool. You can keep up to date with deals on flights by following the airline’s tweets. One such airline is British Airways.

4. Be aware of travel news, deals and information

You can follow updates from websites such as Hostel World to make sure when it comes to which hostel is a rat infested dive and which one is a top quality bargain you are in the know. Following news sites such as BBC News can make sure you know what is happening back home as well as world news.

5. Travel magazines updates

Using Twitter you can follow updates from your favourite travel magazines and blogs such as TravMonkey.com so you don’t have to go hunting from site to site to read the latest interesting article.

One thing is for sure, Twitter is growing with more and more people, websites joining the mass communication. Twitter provides a simple yet effect approach for keeping your ear close to the ground whilst you are out on the road. After all, the less time you spend on the net the more time you have enjoying the travels.

As both a student and tutor of foreign languages, take it from someone who’s been on both sides of the fence: learning a new language isn’t easy!  It’s not something that can be learned solely from a classroom, instructional CD, or a translational dictionary – but rather, from actual practice with native speakers, immersion into the culture of your desired language, and the confidence to speak the language at every opportunity without worrying about making mistakes.

For me, it took four months of actually living in Spain with a non-English speaking family for the Spanish language to finally sink in. Though I had studied the language in a classroom for six years (six years!), only through the experience of being forced to listen, think, and speak in Spanish 24 /7, in order to understand and be understood, did the real learning experience begin.

That first month in Spain was a mix of gestures and random words: “May I have an extra blanket?” I asked my host mother when the Seville-style marble tiling turned my bedroom into a refrigerator in the winter. And when I wanted to take a shower, “Can you turn on the water heater please?” I would ask, as I flipped through my dictionary to locate the word “heater” and pretended to lather myself with soap.  The challenge of asking for help with everyday appliances eventually expanded my vocabulary in a way that no classroom could, and also increased my confidence when it came to asking questions. I never would have developed the familiarity and confidence needed for an everyday conversation, had I not had to use Spanish in my everyday existence.

Through the experience of cultural immersion, I also found out that not all communication is verbal.  Some things are universal, such as when I ate that bad clam (shudder) from a paella by the beach and was in need of some assistance. After four days or realizing that what I had was not a bad hangover, the doctor made a house call and asked me where it hurt: as I lay propped in my bed downing a Spanish version of Gatorade, I simply had to grip my stomach and grimace, “El dolor! El dolorrrr!” and was understood. I found that you should never let the fear of making a mistake deter you from speaking the language…or at least, trying to.  When you are afraid to mess up and as a result, keep to yourself, you miss out on establishing a connection with people who will want to help you learn. Or, you miss out on getting meds from the doctor with prescription pad.

Can I speak Spanish conversationally? Yes. I can get by. Am I fluent in the language? No. Unless you are a language whiz, a native speaker, or have lived in a country for a long time, it’s difficult to achieve fluency but with practice, confidence, and a willingness to learn, I think anyone can become proficient.  As my host father said to me before I left, in his rapid-fire Spanish that had become like second nature to me, “Noelle, you can now hold a conversation in Spain with anyone who you want to. When you first arrived here…not so much.” He paused then added, “You blend right in here… until you open your mouth.” We both blinked at each other for a few seconds before laughing, knowing it was true. Well, at least I’d understood what he said well enough to get the joke! Win some, lose some. I believe all learning and progress of any kind is an accomplishment. You know, better to have opened your mouth [unintentionally botched the language a little bit] and learned, rather than not to have learned at all.

Fast forward three years later: working as a part time English as a Second Language tutor for international students further proves my point that those who speak up seem to grasp a new language faster than those who do not. Speaking up gives a teacher more material to work with, which will enable him or her to teach you, and then you can better learn from your mistakes.

As both a language student and a tutor, I have learned that the process of thinking in your target language is the only way to gain proficiency. It’s important to make connections through all of your senses in order to improve general comprehension: read books in the language, watch movies/shows, listen to music,  eat the food (one of my favorite parts of learning a new language and culture…thus, the vaunted clam in that unforgettable but delicious paella in Spain, 2005). All learning starts in your mind and continues outside of a classroom.

Knowing what I do now (after having studied abroad, after having recently tried to learn Tagalog (my mom’s native language), and having taught ESL) makes me reflect back on all those times – pre-study abroad in Spain – that I sat passively taking notes in a classroom, afraid to speak lest I use improper grammar. Now I wish that instead of holding myself back, I had done myself a favor by speaking up, and allowing myself to be corrected and taught. As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease…and maybe, learns the language as well.

Ever stumble upon an American “Deli” wondering if it was just a typo that they dropped the h? Ever speculate whether the foul wursty ingredients of a “hot dog” once went woof? Don’t freak out!

Here are 10 tips (without VAT or “servis compris”) to speed you through the confusing congestion of customs and weird freeways of the “extreme sport” of foreign food eating

1.“Fast” food joints are not places to pick up cheap dates or begin your starvation regime for Ramadan. Fast means quick, not good value, or even tasty, as any one who has tried the Wimpy’s in Gibraltar could attest!

2. Don’t shudder when your dining companion describes the restaurant you’re eating in as “ethnic.” This is especially problematic if your friend is Mormon or Baha’i or Scientologist, and the servers are wearing lederhosen or kilts.

3. Don’t draw attention to the egregious bloopers of damn foreigner dinner guests from “abroad.” A friend once brought her new boyfriend to the quaint American custom of Thanksgiving, and he asked politely, “Please pass the papadums!” To which she reacted swiftly (and with venal alarm), “Rajiv, in this country we call it bread!” Of course, the incident caused a slight pause (an embarrassing silence), quickly covered up by raucous laughter. It’s better to laugh loudly at our mistakes than to burn silently with revenge.

4. If you’re invited to someone’s “willage,” don’t even think of turning down the piece de resistance. Even if you’ve never tried orangutan’s brains, ram’s testicles, or sweetbreads, pick up a fork and dig in. If by mistake, you mutter, “This tastes like crap!” be quick to add afterwards in a singsongy diplomatic voice, “But gooooood!”

5. Don’t talk amusingly and at length about the subject of “cannibalism” in Vegan restaurants. Most vegetarian restaurants are independent “green” cooperatives, which buy straight from farmer’s markets and recycle their toilet paper. The smirking waitstaff might seem like self-satisfied and holier-than-thou-art losers and louts, but please don’t lose your temper with them. They just can’t afford to serve Jeffrey Dahmer’s leftovers!

6. Avoid trying “plats” in French bistros you’ve never heard of just because they are cheap. You’ll feel like committing suicide with a mouthful of “Moules Frites” and undrinkable acrylic house wine (aka, “instant spew”). And those foppish, slightly androgynous-looking waiters with ponytails and hyphenated names like “Jean-Claude” probably did a stint with the Swiss Army in the Alps or the French Foreign Legion in Algeria, so don’t even think of returning your meal to the kitchen. They are quite energetic in mangling the limbs of “Imbeciles!”.

7. It’s considered crass and pedestrian to describe any restaurant as being “5 Stars!” There ain’t no such animal. Your favorite steakhouse or red-sauce pasta dump probably nailed in the gaudy gilt stars because it’s getting close to Christmastime. The real well-traveled bon vivant and gourmand would be a bona-fide raconteur who describes painfully memorable meals, mouth pursed like rose petals into a moue, at places with unpronounceable names as being the proud recipient of three (never five) Michelin “rosettes”!

8. Never criticize the food in front of the chef, just fink on the place on the sly to Zagat’s. Once when I was abroad I made the mistake of ordering from the local menu which was in Cyrillic, without knowing the English translation, and I ended up with an unheigenic bowl of “tripe soup”! I complained bitterly in an exceedingly loud voice, and a meat-cleaving maniac, looking quite menacing in his pouffy Chef Boyardee hat, took me to account, roaring at me in Bulgarian. Using a Universal Translator, it sounded something like, “You’ve ruined my restaurant!!!”

9. If you are with a big group of people, always offer to pay. Since entourages out for a night of theater, and “travellers” in general (which means “homeless chaps” in British slang) are notoriously bad at math, you might not end up paying anything at all. At best, they’ll try to guestimate what the tip is, find it too difficult to figure out, each offer to pay for the whole shebang by stretching their arm out a mile towards their pockets or purses, before the richest VIP swoops in, offering to comp it to cover up everybody’s lunacy in not knowing how to settle a complicated restaurant bill. At worst, you’ll Platinum Card it, ending up with the monkey’s share of the pot: other people’s overestimated cash distributions (without IRS interference). You’ll feel like Daddy Monopoly landing on Community Chest!

10. When dining alone, especially in an unstable foreign country where, peradventure, you might one day plan on living, never ask the maitr’d for “some company.” You’ll end up handcuffed in the back of a van heading straight to the airport for such a suggestive slight, while brainstorming what you’re going to say about lying about your “political refugee” status in the first place, then eventually arriving back completely humiliated in your hometown, scandalized to be without any work skills or any money, only the mockery of your former friends and, the oh-so sorry souvenir (French for “memory”) of a series of menus flipped sadly like tarot cards, before you hastily scraped your chair on the linoleum and made a break for it, never feeling more alive and yelling at the top of your lungs, “I finally did it! I skipped out on the bill!!!” Say so long, sayonara to chew and screw. . . .

Guess who’s coming to dinner? Natty Bumpo.

Maybe you’ve just wanted to have a detox period?

Or perhaps you wanted to cut out the alcohol altogether?

I know I’ve wanted to cut down for some time and I occasionally take a detox period where I go cold turkey.

If you find yourself being tempted into splashing your cash on something like the sandle that allows you to store alcohol within it – Get Drunk On The Beach: Booze Holding Scandle, then maybe it’s time for a break?

Before setting off around the world I had the impression that it would be a lot easier to restrict my intake of alcohol on the road. Unfortunately (especially with the cheap beer in Asia), I found this much more difficult than I had thought it would be.

Icy Cold, Cheap Beer

On many occasions during my travels I’ve found myself sat in a nice quint restaurant watching the waves lapping onto the beach, a clear sky and sparkling stars twinkling in the sky above. In the distance you could see the lights of the fishing boats on the horizon, even though it was the late evening it was warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt.

For some strange reason the conditions described above led me to the thought of a nice cold beer. Admittedly those thoughts are usually stronger when I turned around to see a waiter carrying a large icy cold larger to the table next to me. Somehow a soft drink just doesn’t do it.

Party Animal

On top of the lure of cheap beer is the social aspect of traveling . Socialising often leads to alcohol consumption, I find it almost impossible to stay on the non-alcoholic drinks.

I thought it would be easier whilst traveling as at home even before I had made it to the bar there would be a beer waiting for me that I hadn’t even asked for.

After three months on the road, I couldn’t remember the last evening I had spent where I hadn’t had a beer.

Step 1 – Pick A Goal

- Do you want to cut down on the amount of alcohol you consume?

- Or do you want to take a break from drinking altogether?

- You may even want to give it up completely.

Choose your goal and be clear about what you want to achieve.

Step 2 – Pick A Method

Method 1 – Settling In One Place

One of the best methods for cutting down on your alcohol consumption is to stay in one place. Move out of the hostel, rent a room in a house, work and basically remove yourself from the backpacking scene for a while.

What the aim is here is to remove yourself from the places and situations where drinking is most likely to occur.

The crazy social aspect of staying in hostels and the whole backpacking scene will usually involve a large amount of drinking.

By getting away from that scene and filling your time with work you’ll tend to be pretty worn out by the end of the day and opt for an early night. If you intend to work on your travels you’ll already be half way to cutting down on your alcohol intake.

With the routine and stability of working, you’ll have less time for drinking and less tolerance for a hangover before work.

Method 2 – Keep Busy, Always On The Move

With this method you may find it difficult to abstain from drinking alcohol altogether but it could help you to cut down.

By keeping yourself busy whilst traveling you’ll have less time to sleep in recovering from a hangover. Plan so that you have plenty of sight seeing for the following day, only returning to the hostel/guest house in the evening.

By doing this you’ll find that you’ll be pretty tired after a hard day seeing all the sights and in turn you’ll want an early night.

Following up the sight seeing with a tight schedule will force you into having an early night and you’ll be less likely to consume too much alcohol because of the early morning rise.

The key to this method is to keep busy and always on the move.

Both these methods require you to remove yourself from situations where you could have a drink or be more likely to drink more. If you can find other ways to avoid situations where you’ll be exposed to a drinking culture then you could try them and they maybe equally effective.

Why Cut Down At All?

While alcohol can be a very social drug, it also has health implications if it is abused. Moderate drinkers tend to live long than excessive drinkers and surprisingly longer than complete abstainers.

As a budget traveler you usually need as much spare cash as possible, by cutting down on the alcohol front you could save quite a bit of money for other activities.

Personally I can always tell the next day if I have had a drink the night before. I’ll feel very sluggish even if I have only drank one or two beers.

Here is a great article for men on alcohol consumption from Malehealth.co.uk – http://www.malehealth.co.uk/userpage1.cfm?item_id=146 .

Do you want to give up alcohol for a month?

Do you fancy cutting down on your alcohol intake on the road?

Let us know by commenting below…

Perhaps you’re planning your first trip around the world and are unsure if you really need to be taking so much gear?

The days are suddenly slipping by and the day of your departure into the unknown is becoming ever closer to reality. So many questions circle in your head, “will I be safe?”, “am I taking too many things”, “am I doing the right thing going alone?”. The fear of the unknown always seems to have a certain effect on you as a first time traveler.

Having been through the whole learning curve of being a first time traveler I’ve made my fair share of mistakes along the way. From planning too much, to taking items that I really didn’t need. In hindsight I would have changed a few things.

Planning

1. Planning Too Much

It is an easy trap to fall into as a first timer traveler. There is a tendency to fear the unknown, in order to combat the fear you plan. Whilst planning the first part of your trip is always a good idea, over planning can lead to a lack of flexibility on your trip.

I have known people to plan, in detail most of their trip before they’ve even left. A big part of going traveling is having the freedom to make decisions on a whim, but if you’ve made a detailed plan it’s far less likely you’ll be able to deviate.

2. Booking Too Many Tours

As the departure date creeps closer fear begins to set in, fear of the unknown. This often leads the first timer to look for some kind of safety net, it often comes in the form of a tour. While tours can be good fun, for me they do take the “traveling” element out of the experience, as all your arrangements tend to be made for you.

I take a tour when I feel I want to put my feet up and let someone else do the leg work for a change, then I can just sit back and relax. I don’t often like to take tours as most trips can be done independently.

3.Taking a Last Minute “Friend”

Fear of “going it alone” can see the first timer hunting for a travel partner to join them on the trip. Instead of being selective about who their travel partner will be they just pick anyone who is willing. In this scenario arguments can set in early causing major friction and not pleasant start to a dream journey. See my article – Traveling Alone Or With A Friend .

Gear

4.Buying a Huge Rucksack

For some unexplainable reason a lot of first time travelers opt for the biggest backpack they can find in the shop. In the mind of a first time traveler the longer the length of the time away, the more gear they have to take with them. In turn requiring a huge backpack for the hairdryer and four pairs of jeans. Also see my article – Why Travel Light?

5.Taking Too Much Gear

As with point 4. now having bought the large backpack the first time traveler now has to fill the bag with gear. There is a tendency to buy new clothes, new gadgets and security locks. What the first time traveler isn’t told is that they can buy most of the items they require out on the road. In many regions the items they require will be far cheaper than buying them back home. See my article – Should I Take My Laptop Traveling? .

6. Taking a Mobile Phone

There seems to be a large number of people traveling today carrying mobile phones. For me I prefer to travel without one, I want the freedom of being away from home without anyone being able to contact me anywhere in the world. Using the Internet and emails is enough for me to stay in contact with love ones back home, a mobile phone is just another expensive item to worry about losing or being stolen.

7. Taking a Beach Towel

A towel takes up a large amount of room in your backpack and is also pretty heavy. Lightweight travel towels are a good idea, or if you don’t want to take one at all you can also pick one up on the road.

8. Taking a Sleeping Bag

Sleeping bags can often be useless if you’re traveling in a hot humid weather. If you are traveling in such climates it’s often a good idea to purchase a sleeping bag liner and use that instead. The liners take up a tiny amount of room and often come in handy in dirty hostels and guest houses, where a sleeping bag would just be far too hot.

9.Taking a Water Proof Jacket

Before my own trip most travel guides suggested taking a water proof jacket of some sort. I used it twice, it proved quite useless as the weather was so humid. I’d sweat so much when wearing it that I might as well have just got wet in the rain.

Besides you can always purchase a cheap poncho on the road that you can use and dispose of when you like. Obviously if the weather is less hot and humid a water proof jacket will come in useful, but on the other hand you could just go for the poncho option.

Out on the road

10. The Fear of robbery

Before their trip has even started the first timer is worrying about being robbed on the road. Various scare stories circulate making the unknown sound like a scary place when in reality it is probably safer than their home city. As long as you keep your wits about you like in any town or city around the world you should be fine.

I believe I had a much greater chance of being mugged in London than out on the road. To combat the fear of robbery the first timer will buy various security devices, padlocks are fine but taking a pack safe is a little extreme (see my article – How To Avoid Being Mugged When You’re Traveling).

The key to not losing anything of value is to not take anything of value in the first place, or by making sure anything slightly valuable to you is on your person at all times.

11. The Fear of Illness

I remember someone telling me before my trip around the world to brace myself for illness and food poisoning. I was only really ill once and it was simply my own fault, I ate some dodgy train food in Thailand, the mistake I made was a basic one.

The best way to ensure that you won’t get food poisoning is to make sure the food is cooked properly. On many street stalls and outdoor restaurants you can watch as they cook the food, it is the food that you don’t see being cooked that is more of a worry. On my trip I was ill less times than I normally would be in a year back home in my day to day life.

The Fairy Tale

12. The Belief That Everyday Will Be “Amazing”

I noticed a topic posted on a travel forum recently where a girl had gone traveling. She was about three days into the trip and complaining that she was bored and that she had not met anyone yet.

It seems that a lot of people are told that by going traveling they’ll have “an amazing time” and “you’ll meet some many people”. Both statements are usually true, but what the first time traveler isn’t told is that there will be many days when you spend time on your own or days where you don’t have “an amazing time”.

Sometimes you will be lonely and sometimes you won’t be doing amazing things. You tend to get out of traveling what you put into it. For me traveling isn’t always
“amazing” everyday, it has its ups and it’s downs at times. That is exactly what makes it such a character building and memorable experience.

How many people’s favourite travel stories emanate from a bad day on the road?

A little fear is a good thing, but too much can easily cloud your judgment. You’ll make mistakes as a first time traveler, you learn and develop as your journey progresses.

Things you worried about at the start will seem insignificant and you’ll find yourself much more confident with what the world can throw at you.

Have you made any mistakes as a first time traveler?

Feel free to comment below…

The Gold Coast is an amazing place to visit whilst in Australia.  It’s a very popular destination with Australian’s and for good reason, there’s some great waves and almost perfect weather year round. There are plenty of activities and sights on the Gold Coast and your credit card won’t take a battering because we have 10 of the best free things to do for free:

#1 Hit the Beaches – Swim or surf at one of many Gold Coast Beaches, all free to the public. Many swimming beaches are patrolled by lifeguards and are protected from sharks but be sure you only swim between the flags.

#2 Bushwalk in the Gold Coast hinterland – All gold Coast National Parks have free entry and the views and fauna are breath-taking. You can run through an ancient rainforest, walk under a waterfall, and swim in a mountain stream without paying a cent

#3 Gold Coast Botanical Gardens – The 31 spectacular hectares of Gold Coast City’s Regional Botanic Gardens offer residents and visitors a green haven in the middle of a bustling metropolis. There’s something for everyone – horticultural display gardens, a world class sensory garden, mangroves to mountains transect displaying local species in garden settings, a native butterfly garden, rose gardens, an extensive boardwalk system around the central lake, picnic areas, children’s playground, and even an off-leash dog exercise area.

#4 Pacific Fair – Be a mall rat for a few hours and walk around the massive mall. There are 7 major stores including Myer Department Store as well as About 300 specialty retailers and a vast array of bars, restaurants, cinemas, cafes and the Food Court.

#5 Cascade Gardens & Library – Cascade Gardens is a sensational waterfront park located on the Gold Coast highway on the border of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach. Facilities include a library, gazebo, glass house and man made waterfall and walking tracks.

#6 Springbrook National Park and Numinbah Forest Reserve – http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/park/index.cgi?parkid=31 Springbrook National Park | Distance: 700 metres | Duration: 15-30 minutesThe name says it all. Come to Springbrook National Park to see for yourself highest lookout on Springbrook Plateau passes through some ancient Antarctic Beech forest. The lookout lives up to its name by providing a panoramic view across Mount Warning to Byron Bay and Coolangatta, though the view can also quickly disappear in the fog and mist that can suddenly roll in from the coast.

#7 Go Bush – All gold Coast National Parks have free entry and the views and fauna are breath-taking. You can run through an ancient rainforest, walk under a waterfall, and swim in a mountain stream without paying a cent.

#8 Marina Mirage - A great place for a stroll would be at the Gold Coast Spit has a great boardwalk around the marina. Enjoy the views of the sun glistening on the water housing million dollar boats. If your in the mood you can even window shop such designer boutiques as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Calvin Klein and Carla Zampatti just to name a few. Marina Mirage even has a large walk through bird avery with no admission fee.

#9 Skateparks – The Gold Coast strip has a number of free skateparks ideal for skaters, in-line skaters and bmx’ers looking for a smooth surface with bowls, ramps, roll-ins. Check out the skatepark at the end of the runway of Gold Coast Airport but phone 5581 6782 for one near you.

#10 BMX Track – There’s a BMX track on the Currumburra Road which is floodlit for nighttime riding and offers a challenging circuit. Bring some food and make a day of it using the free electric bbq’s and water fountains.

At any given moment in my life, I’m sitting blankly in from of a computer monitor wondering where to go. Notoriously indecisive, I always end up on a plane (or foul 3rd class train) somewhere, anywhere. Anywhere is always a fresh change of pace, but there are a few places I’ve encountered in my short life, that are a measure above “anywhere.”

There are also destinations that are ripe for change, good or bad, is doesn’t typically matter. Destinations ripe for the picking. My list is only a reflection of my travels, and my experiences, and is certainly not meant to be all-inclusive. But then, I suppose this is a matter of quality over quantity.

Are you sitting blankly in front of computer monitor? These are places to go NOW, before you regret not taking the opportunity:

1 . North Korea: Yes, you can go north of the 38th parallel. If you have deep pockets, you can take a cushy tour of Pyongyang via Beijing. For those on a tighter budget, I recommend a day-trip to Kaesong from Seoul (you must join a tour). Independent travel it is not, but the setting is priceless and truly once-in-a-lifetime.

2. Glacier National Park, USA: If you Google this famous national park, you will undoubtedly pull up a number of sites about glacial melting and global warning. All of the glaciers in this amazingly Montana park are melting at hair-raising rates. In fact, it is expected that Glacier National Park will have no more glaciers by the year 2030. If that’s not enough to get you moving, take my word on this one: Glacier NP is the single most beautiful landscape on earth . . . and you can’t argue otherwise unless you’ve been there. Drive up Going-to-the-Sun Road and watch the sunset on Avalanche Lake.

3. Beijing, China: Beijing need not be touted for its impressive sights. Let me guess- its been on your to-see list for a while now? Here are your reasons to go NOW- Pollution and destruction. At the risk of sounding like a pessimist, Beijing’s famous hutongs are being torn down at a rapid pace, and the smog is only going to get worse.

4. The West Bank, Palestine: The West Bank holds a special place in my heart- not only because of my time spent living and working as a journalist there- but also because it served as one of my first “homes-away-from-home.” I would argue that there is never a bad time to visit the West Bank. Yes, like North Korea, it is easily accessible and navigable, despite what you may have heard. Okay, maybe not “easily,” but you can do it. Many areas, such as Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jericho, are safe and tourist-friendly. Of course, check the news before you travel and do your research. I’ve always felt that the best way to understand a conflict is to experience it, and that no less true in Palestine. And while you’re at it, stop in Israel, so you can get both sides of the story.