travelling: classic or duh duh dud.

Weirder - when I visit my parents on holiday I just take pictures of the cats. I mean, I could take pictures of my sisters or my high school friends, but instead I get 50 pictures of Siamese cats.

This is why I shouldn't be allowed to travel with people, because I'll come back with no pictures of the sites or people I meet or anything like that, I'll just come back with packets of pictures of one of the group sitting in the hotel room.

I'm not sure how long I'd want to travel alone though - if there were people I knew at the other end then it would be okay, but going somewhere alone and being on your own the whole time doesn't appeal to me enough right now tho maybe it will more in due course.

It's just too frustrating to have all those wonderful sights out there and not be able to see them. Of course you can argue that ultimately many cities aren't so different from each other but it's still good to escape your own rut for a while now and then.

i went 6 months on my own, then 9 months on my own. its actually nice. you make your own decisions and don't have to worry about appeasing someone else. if today you decide you want to sit at a cafe all day instead of going to another museum, no one will get mad at you. or if you want to take the bus to kazakhstan and your friend wants to fly to dubai, those conflicts wont happen! and then when you're alone, it forces you to interact with the locals more, which is good i guess. also, you'd get really sick of the person you're traveling with after awhile, or find out that you actually hate them

- Statistically the safest form of travel
- Getting above the clouds and landing really are fantastic experiences - I love the descent esp. as the things on the ground beneath you get nearer and bigger.
- Turbulence is normal and not even as dangerous as cars driving over v bumpy roads - even sudden drops of big number of feet and the plane can deal (this would def. freak me out a bit but i guess you could pretend it's a rollercoaster if this does happen - seems pretty rare anyway)
- not even lighting striking a plane can knock it out of the sky, and planes can cope with more than one engine failing even - obv. again these are rare scenarios.

the worst thing about flying for me is the ear pains i get from de-pressurisation in the plane - I have to do a hell of a lot of sweet-sucking to combat this. i can never seem to relax properly on planes either, to even read let alone sleep - but the best solution to this is to fly more often and get used to it i figure. the other thing to worry about is who you might end up sitting next to, in front of, behind or nearby - screaming kids, enormous people taking up more space than their seat provides, drunken loudmouths etc. - but so far my experiences have been good and i'm hoping that continues on Wednesday (if not I will get the stewardess to knock me out for most of the flight via blows to the head or maybe just a max strength sedative, wuh-hoo).

xpost

I guess I need to be more Spock-esque about flying.

This is less true if you are on a plane, I think.

Also, phil totally OTM

Okay. I have the bug. I want to be able to go somewhere, travel around and hopefully do a bit of work here and there while I'm at it. I'm not rich, in fact I have a lot of debt but I wnat to havve cleared it and be off by the autumn.

I'm crap at knowing where to start - can anyone give me any hints/tips/dummies guides as far as locations/schemes/agencies or whatever might be a good idea to get started. Thinking of Eastern Europe, but then anywhere might be cool.

Is Ned still doing the LDR thing?

i'm thinking of going round a few places (France/Swi/Ger/Aut/Ita) by coach over 3 weeks or so this Summer. Busabout have a service you can hop on and off at various cities and they . Also tempted by the Croatian island hopping option they offer.

They have an Eastern European version too - http://www.easterntrekker.com/

Is Ned still doing the LDR thing?

Said LDR ended later in 2001. Travelling continues unabated (up in the next few months, SF, Seattle and various spots out East -- and I'd love to get back to Australia and New Zealand).

prob going to butan & india in the fall

california and colorado likely before then

Grozart - the most surefire way of getting work abroad is to do a tefl qualification, though make sure it's CELTA rather than some micky mouse knock off. You can do an intensive course in four weeks, though it does cost about a grand.

Having spent much of last summer travelling round Eastern Europe (not working, just looking at shit and getting drunk), I can strongly recommend it, and now is the time to go before the encroachment of the EU has too much of a homogenising effect. It's still pretty darn cheap to travel round the region, you can make do on £20 a day very comfortably (less in some countries). I started in Estonia and worked my way down to Bulgaria, with a loop around the Balkan states, over two and half months and it was one of the most fun summers of my life.

I never travel, and when I do, I overpack. I think it's because I'm mildly obsessed with having the right "tool" for the "job", even when the job is certain kind of activity/night out. Not good at the flexibility of mind required for healthy travel, I don't think.

I really enjoy travelling but it's awfully expensive for what it is, especially now with the weak dollar (in some places, anyway). I'm already blowing my travel budget for the year on flying to Israel at the most expensive time of year (the only time we could go, and we have to see the wife's family who couldn't come to the wedding. If I do it again anytime soon, I'd like to go to the further reaches of Mexico or maybe Peru. Speaking the language makes travelling a lot more fun, and my Spanish is good enough to get by.

) goes in there somewhere

any other resources/sites/institutions to help out idiot trvel-wannabes

Steve, I will check that eastern trekking site, cheers

i like going places w/o really knowing anything abt them or being properly prepared

fun!

hate flying; love traveling. i overpack, but i'm better than i used to be. when i was younger i always packed too much stuff, and really silly stuff at that.

a few years ago i went to south east asia for a month w/just a day pack (not one of those lol hueg frame backpacks)

its really hot there tho so you dont need too many clothes

I will so pack for you guys. Once, I went to stay with my friend in London for 9 days and all I had was a big messenger bag. She was shocked. My new pack is awesome and super light, and I have everything i need for over a month of travel.

I haven't been anywhere new, that wasn't for work, for ages. What I wouldn't give for three months to just disappear, overland, in an eastward direction.

I could travel without my big pack (although it is only midsize) but I have to always end up buying so much stuff. I totally do the 2-3 pairs of travel underwear for month long trips.

i get these lightning flashes of insanity when i pack. like, "what if i need to change shoes 4 times in one day? better safe than sorry." i've finally figured out a system to keep myself under control, but it took years.

I can't do it. Being able to change my look every day makes me happy, and traveling is too hard on vintage accessories.

I am an overpacker, but am getting better at it. Shoes are problematic.

My new pack is awesome and super light

I just got a good new one for Xmas and will be testing it out properly here in a couple of days. Looks like it'll be just what I need for weeklong trips at least.

Another big thing for me is going to be the iPhone -- I never really wanted a laptop for travel, too big to readily haul around along with everything else. (I realize this is a matter of personal perspective.)

Recent trips have been overburdened by the 'need' to bring bike pedals/shoes/tools. Bulky Jumpers in the winter is another thing I take too many of. (Also, two checked bags allowance to north america does not encourage being lean).

Underpacking >>>>>> overpacking. They have shops in foriegn countries.

OTM.

Especially in hot countries, what do you need more than a clean change of clothes? You can wash them every night and have them dry by morning.

yeah, that's what i want to do on vacation. laundry.

If I'm not traveling, I'm not living. End of story.

This site is pretty worthwhile: http://www.onebag.com/