Articles Archive
Create Your Location Independent Business the More Practical Way
Editor’s Introduction: Anyone who enjoys traveling, or has had their dreams haunted by picturesque places, has most likely thought to themselves, “If I worked for myself, I could just hop a plane for destinations unknown”. Sadly, and all too often, the alarm clock rings or the boss walks in or something snaps us back into reality. Honestly, there are those out there enjoying the fruits of location independent business opportunities and Jason Batansky is one of the fortunate. Here, he shares his beginnings, his dream business idea and what he has learned about making location independent business ventures successful.
Dumpster Diving: A Travel Strategy for Free Food
Dumpster Diving: The act of throwing the body into a dumpster in hopes of finding edible food; picking usable goods out of the trash; a good travel strategy.
I concurrently came upon the art of dumpster diving with the first steps I took off the family farm when I was 18. Before leaving on my first journey, my grandfather took me aside and bestowed some fine words of advice up me:
“If you ever don’t have enough money to get food, find a donut shop, go in back of it, and there you will find more free food than you can eat.”
Do Travel Disasters Make the Best Travel Stories?
Less than one week into a nearly six-month stint in Brussels and I had already racked up my first travel mishap. Heading out to an Internet café for a scheduled online chat session, I was so sure of my route until I came up against a dead end with no sign of the correct street. Only then did I realize that I had walked a good 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I dejectedly backtracked, arriving at the café 30 minutes late only to discover it was closed.
While frustrating and a bit demoralizing, my story is nothing compared with the travel disasters most of us will accumulate in our lives on the go. But it still highlights that no matter how much you travel, no matter how experienced you think you are, stuff happens. I blogged about this topic – travel disasters – last year, insisting that things that go wrong, while maddening at the time, actually become our best travel stories.
Travel Photography with a Disposable Camera (it’s NOT an oxymoron)
Your camera equipment was stolen in Portugal. A clumsy bauble above the Seine left the river owning the digital SLR. You own no camera equipment, but there’s something you really want to photograph on your upcoming trip. Lots of scenarios could result in a disposable/single use film camera landing in your hands. The good news is great photos (even artistic photos) can be achieved with the simple equipment.
Existential Migration: Feeling at Home as the Foreigner
I could tell it was time to move on. Eight years I had spent working for the same company. It had been good for both me and them, but times were changing. My boss and mentor had been let go, and the business focus of my department was shifting away from my core skill set. I needed to find something new to do.
This is the position I found myself in during the first few months of 2008. I thought about what I wanted to do next, and came up with a number of options, including moving to another division, moving to another company, starting a new career, starting my own business or going back to school. I spent a month musing on my next move. One idea kept coming forward, getting stronger and stronger as the month progressed. In March, about two weeks before I finally made a final decision on what I would do, I decided to create a list of the options and my thoughts on what I should do next. For one of the options, I wrote the following:
Option: Quit job and move to London.
Analysis: Least sensible option, but for some reason this feels important to do.
Racism on the Road: Experiences of a Mixed-Race Couple
I read a number of recent posts from those thinking of travelling who are either anxious, or put off entirely, by the threat of racism on their journey. Having spent much of the last 20 years travelling with my wife, who is Indian, I thought I’d take the time to share our experiences of being a mixed race travelling couple and hopefully offer some reassurance to other travellers.
Zooming In: Seeing More by Slowing Down
At mid-morning, the humidity was so intense it felt moody, filling the air with heaviness, leaving clothes sweat-soaked. Wavering between heading indoors for some air-conditioning or continuing on with the planned walk, I pushed the camera strap high on my shoulder and waited for the light to change. Over the morning traffic, a din came from across the road — Indie-pop loud and fast pulsed from speakers that hung low in shop door corners, delivery trucks moved along the streets and jack hammers vibrated from a nearby worksite. I crossed the road hurried along by workers, narrowly avoided a group of young women in brightly coloured saris rushing to a bus, and found some shade under the eave of a souvenir shop roof. A young trendily dressed worker stood outside next to a table stacked with Indie CDs singing and swaying to the beat while yelling out to his friends as they passed. Around me the noise increased, the traffic grew and the aromatic smells of incense and spices began to fill the air.
I was in Little India in Singapore on a Friday morning in February as business was opening for the day. One of the city’s oldest and liveliest districts, Little India is a popular retreat for backpackers and tourists — all wanting something of the Indian way without going to India. Its abundant colour, aroma, history and vibe stimulate even the most regressed senses.
Digging for Family Roots in Uzbekistan
When his family had been deported from their homes in eastern Poland in 1940, my dad was only 9 years old. He saw his father for the last time in his home village of Niechniewicze (now in Belarus) when he had been taken into custody by Soviet forces and transported to Siberia. Only recently my dad, who is in his late seventies, learned through military archives that his father had succumbed to typhoid in 1942 and had been buried in the military cemetery of Kermine, now renamed Navoi in central Uzbekistan. Having read so much about the Silk Road and seen the incredible images of Samarkand and Bukhara, the chance to travel to these fabled cities and investigate some of my heritage was too good to pass by.
Glamping: The Insider’s Guide to Camping in Style
Mention camping at a party and people bump into each other turning away with the sudden need to refresh their drink. Mention glamping, and eyebrows rise. Mention that it’s do-it-yourself, as opposed to the travel companies’ semi-permanent-dwelling-safari-type-the-circus-just-came-to-town-only-the-rich-can-afford-it version and you’ve got an audience.
Glamping is upscale camping in which a tent large enough to walk through replaces the pup tent, bedding takes the place of the sleeping bag, a nice rug covers the plastic ground floor, and campers use real barware instead of Dixie cups. In short, it’s more comfortable, civilized camping. Face it, we’re all getting older. Our fuse for tolerating the heat and bugs and lack of comfy slippers and a shower, is short(er).
Negotiation: The Art of Traveling with Your Loved One
Continuing on from our post, Why the Journey is Better When You Have Someone to Share it With, Debra Corbeil shares tips on perfecting the art of negotiation.
As a couple that has been traveling together for over 10 years, we have certainly mastered the art of negotiation. We can’t both love the same things all of the time in life. But if you take a chance and actually try something that your partner wants to do – even if you don’t want to – you may discover that you like it.
