You’re lucky to be able to travel the world
I hear that from time to time. And, I respectfully disagree. I’m with Brad Arndt on this one — luck has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Want to travel? Make a choice and do it. It’ll mean tough decisions and sacrifices. But it doesn’t involve “luck”. It’s your own bullshit reasons why you’re not achieving your goals.
“Someday” never comes…
It’s been about a month since I buzzed my hair on Koh Toa in Thailand, so I went looking for a barber shop in Chiang Mai today. I’m staying at the Smith Residence, located right by the Chiang Mai gate — so that’s where I started my barber search. On my way back from devouring some delicious Pad Thai at Drink More, I stopped at a barber shop right up the street from the Smith Residence. There was one Thai lady inside giving a pedicure to another Thai lady. The conversation went something like this (the barber had the other Thai lady translate for her):
Me: Can you “buzz”/cut my hair?
Her: The man who can buzz your hair is on a break
Me: Okay. When should I come back?
Her: The man will be back on Saturday
Me: Umm..okay. Thank you.
Today is Wednesday. The guy that could “buzz” my hair (a 15 minute task) was taking a break until Saturday. That’s 4 days. Only in Thailand.
I walked back to Smith Residence, asked the manager where I could get my hair cut and he said there was a place less than 20 meters down the road. I took his advice and headed in that direction — and found a barber who was not on break (imagine that)! The barber there spent 10 minutes “buzzing” my head, then I got an amazing shampoo/head massage. The whole 20 minute ordeal cost me 150 Thai Baht — and it was worth every penny!
The name was only written in Thai or I’d include the name of it. From Smith Residence, you can walk out the front door, turn left and the barber shop is less than 20 meters down the street on the left hand sign — with a red sign with Thai writing on it.
Spencer Spellman just published “My Love Letter to Travel” — and it’s an amazing example of real, honest, and amazing travel writing. Like Spencer, I have an amazing love of travel and it will always hold a special place in my life. For me, there is no greater time of self discovery than traveling.
Here’s a song he included that he drew some inspiration from:
As I mentioned in my comment on Spencer’s blog, this is exactly the type of travel writing I’d love to see more of online. But the reality is that many don’t have the guts to be this honest in a public setting. Anyway, I really encourage you to read it.
I stayed at three hostels in Madrid back in 2010 – RC , Mad Hostel, and Las Musas. Las Musas, right off the Tirza de Molina metro stop, was my favorite one. I forgot to take photos of the inside, but the place has a nice huge kitchen (with free breakfast) with WIFI as well as a lounge area with couches and WIFI available. I should note that the WIFI is not extremely reliable — it was constantly going in and out while I was there, but it worked well enough to send/receive email. Skype? Not so much.
Leading up to my flight to Bangkok a few days ago, I headed back to Phnom Penh after having spent 12 days in Siem Reap getting caught up on work and doing some writing. I scoured the web for nice, cheap hotels for my 3 days in Phnom Penh with the goal of chilling out, getting some good sleep, and a bit more work done. I ended up using Agoda and found Angkor International Hotel. I believe the cheapest room there can be had for $10 per night, but I paid extra for the air conditioning and ended up with a triple room for $17 the first night. It ended up being $20 for the next two nights since it was a triple room, but I was too lazy to move to a different room to save $5 per day.
My Triple Room
With the room being a triple, it was quite spacious with a nice bathroom. There were only two downsides. The first night, the WIFI didn’t work at all though. It was a blessing in disquise though, since a complete 24 hours without WIFI allowed me to read about half of Clash of Kings (I’m totally addicted to this Game of Thrones series). The next two nights the WIFI worked, but not in the actual room — only downstairs and in the 4th floor hallway/landing. The second downfall was that there is no elevator in the hotel, and the stairs are quite steep. So, if you have bad knees, make sure to ask not to be on one of the upper floors.
I believe the hotel is owned by French businessmen, since they had both English and French menus available downstairs. While I was there (February 2012), the bar downstairs was under construction.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend staying here for those looking for a fairly budget hotel in Phnom Penh.
“Why is the internet so freaking slow?” (aka NOT working at all)
The famous travel question.
There are three primary reason the internet doesn’t work. A) The internet is down altogether (read: nothing you can do). B) Too many people on the internet at the same time (read; nothing you can do). C) Someone is “hogging” the bandwidth (read: go knock some sense into them and share this post with them).
Those that have traveled long enough have undoubtedly run into the infamous “internet hog”. You know, that guy/girl who is streaming movies, tv shows, or uploading several hundred photos to Facebook while everyone else is fighting for the last remaining scraps of internet bandwidth trying to send out an email to mom, skype a best friend, send a last minute proposal to a client, book a flight reservation, etc.
Internet bandwidth varies from location to location. In London, the United States, Hong Kong or most fully developed countries with a thriving tech sector — it’s pretty darn hard to kill everyone’s bandwidth by streaming YouTube movies on MOST WIFI connections. But in the developing world like much of Southeast Asia, many of the guest houses, cafes, and bars do not exactly have fast internet connections. And don’t even get me started about how slow the internet is in rual Ghana. The thing many forget about wireless connections abroad is that they are not the same strength as in the US. Not even close.
Here is what I believe constitutes proper internet etiquette on the travel trail at WIFI hotspots:
When I come across these internet hogs, I want to pull my hair out at times. For lack of a better word, they are “lolly-gagging” at everyone else’s expense. There is only so much bandwidth on any given internet connection. So, to those at a WIFI hotspot where other travelers are using the same bandwidth, please consider the other people around you prior to engaging in any bandwidth hogging activities.
What other internet etiquette do you think travelers should abide by?
PS: I can’t complete this post without calling out one of my best friends, Dan Nelson at Bankvibe, for his infamous “lolly-gagging” habits on the travel trail.
**Photo via Comptalks
Our site redesign (which you can preview here) is getting closer and closer by the day…so you’ll start to see some changes over the coming weeks.
The first one happens to be today — and it’s a new, temporary theme. Since the “featured image” functionality is not built into the old theme used on this site but will be need for the new theme, we switched Oh Hey World over to the Twenty Ten theme for the time being so that we can mark images as featured and they will show up correctly once the redesign goes live.
Site is a work in progress, but feel free to leave comments with funky styling that you come across…
I’ve spent the last week in Siem Reap getting some writing done, and have tried to pick a new cafe/restaurant each day to hang out at. Yesterday, the cafe I spent my time in was Red Piano, right on the corner of Pub Street. In short — I was not impressed. I ordered an English breakfast, which cost $4.75. It was okay, but certainly not great (it can’t live up to all the English breakfasts I ate while living in Santorini). A large Angkor beer was $3. Again, not a great deal. And a large water was a whopping $2.50 (the same water costs $.80 at my guest house). The only plus was that the wifi there was fairly fast and didn’t crap out at all the entire day.
My advice? Find somewhere else to spend your day in Siem Reap.
I travel a lot. And usually it’s with close friends that I recruit to join my various journeys (or they recruit me, which doesn’t take much effort). However, I’m someone that needs alone time every now and then. Those who know me know I’m not an extreme extrovert by any means (though it may appear otherwise if you only know me on social media).
I need alone time to stay sane. Of course, solo travel offers lots of alone time.
Yet, since I arrived in Southeast Asia on December 29th — I didn’t have a single moment of alone time up until my friends left about a week ago. It’s taxing on me mentally to spend numerous days socializing with total strangers. Don’t get me wrong, I was with three amazingly close friends for the past month — which is different than talking to total strangers all day.
But, still, I need my alone time — which is why traveling solo right now is exactly what the doctor ordered for me.
Time for personal reflection. Time to gather my thoughts. Time for writing. Time to think. Time to read for 5 hours without a single distraction. Time to drink a beer immersed in my own world. Time to prioritize my business opportunities and obligations — and mapping out new ones (I’ve got a killer idea I’m mapping out). Time to do whatever I like, whenever I like.
What about you? Are you a fan of solo travel?
Vietnam is a beautiful country of intriguing history and stark contrasts. I began my trip in the southern city of Saigon. Since the end of the Vietnam War it is referred to as Ho Chi Minh City, but the local people here rarely refer to it as this. It is a sprawling city with some great attractions, and some sobering memories, as I found out while visiting the War Remnants Museum. Here you can see what happened during the Vietnam War from the perspective of the Vietnamese people, and a lot of it can be hard to swallow. Visibly deformed children affected by toxic chemicals like Agent Orange were there, not as an exhibit, but as an upsetting reminder of the legacy the war left in the country.
Small wages, big smiles
Moving on from the southern capital I joined a motorcycle tour that would travel through the country right up to Hanoi in the north. We passed through the villages and rice paddies that make up a large part of the country, and I was surprised by what I learned from our guide as we travelled. It’s almost unbelievable as you drive through the rural towns and mountain villages to believe that the people working there are probably earning no more than $50 a month. Most Americans would struggle to cover costs of rent, bills, food and transport on $50 a day. You would think that these people would be hanging their heads down and unhappy, but it is rare to see a person who does not beam a big smile at you. One of the most lasting impressions made on me during my visit was that even without anything the people here are happy.
We rode close to the Laos and Cambodia border as we meandered along the new Ho Chi Minh road, which gave us some amazing views of the mountains and jungle. To break up the journey, we stopped for a few days in the central Vietnam city of Hoi An. This was by far my favourite city in the country, much more relaxed compared to Saigon and Hanoi, with a beautiful beach and wonderful central market area. I had to be a little careful on the beach not to show too much flesh, a warning that wasn’t listened to by some groups of girls on their gap year. They were shown a little more attention than they wanted from the local men there. Throughout my travels I have learnt that abiding by local customs and culture will not only avoid you becoming an attraction to the locals, but also make you feel much more comfortable and at home wherever you are.
Architectural pho pot
Hoi An is a wonderful blend of Vietnamese culture with a French influence, and the magnificent old town that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. Here you can imagine what the historic trading port would have looked like hundreds years ago. The architecture here has been influenced by Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and Europeans over the past five centuries.
Leaving Hoi An was tough, not only because I liked it there so much, but because I knew the long motorcycle ride ahead would leave me with a sore bum. But the show had to go on, and off we went on the last stretch of our journey to Hanoi. The country seems to bottle neck in the middle, and the first day of the ride was along busy roads which seemed too dangerous for my liking. After a quick chat to the guide, we convinced him to take us along a more scenic route the rest of the way.
Arriving in Hanoi was a bit of a shock after a couple of days in the peaceful countryside. But I soon got settled in for the last few days of my trip, and tried my best not to let the stifling heat get on my nerves. I made an itinerary to see the top attractions like the Hoan Kiem Lake, the One Pillar Pagoda, and the National Museum of Vietnamese History. One of the most surreal places to go in Hanoi is the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where you can take a look at the embalmed body of the late Vietnamese leader. A little weird, but definitely a must do activity when visiting the city.
I finished my trip by letting my hair down and enjoying some cheap drinks at Bia Hoi Corner. Here the beer is ridiculously cheap, and it attracts tourists and local alike, although from what I could see it was the tourists taking most advantage of the discount alcohol. With a slight hangover I left Hanoi in the morning, happy that I had seen so much of Vietnam, and knowing I would come back again someday.