Short Travel Tales

Guest Post by Charlotte Piper, a panelist in New Orleans for Meet, Plan, Go! Here’s a couple of short stories she’s written about her travels. You can find out more about the New Orleans event on the Facebook page we’ve created! We’re aiming to create a travel community in the city, not just for the one event.

“Why I Went”

As I sat in my desk chair, May 2009, disliking the project I had been assigned and feeling overwhelmed by work, I promised myself that in a year’s time I would leave my job and comfortable reality for an adventure.

The decision to go traveling was easy. I knew I enjoyed it, I had been before, and I had this undeniable urge to see and experience different parts of the world. The hard part was leaving.  What would it mean to leave my job, family, friends, familiar city, and altogether “normal” path that school and society had prepared me for? What would be the financial and overall life consequences to my decision?

I experienced a roller-coaster of emotions preparing for my trip, at once feeling like I could write my own rules while doubting my choices and conviction. The greatest help was the support I received from friends, coworkers, and even strangers each affirming what I believed: I had to get out there and do this before looking back one day and regretting never taking the plunge.

In the end, I left almost exactly a year later with a one-way ticket to Asia on the first of hopefully many journeys abroad.

A top travel experience for me is SCUBA diving

“ Whale Shark, Red Sea, Egypt”

A top travel experience for me is SCUBA diving in warm waters filled with incredibly diverse underwater life. On a trip to Egypt in August 2009, I went on a day trip from Dahab to the Ras Muhammad National Park off the cost of Sharm el-Shiekh.

The focus of the dive package was the Thistlegorm, a 1942 WWII transport ship that sunk in the waters off the Egyptian coast. Dive groups are frequently brought there for the day to explore the outside and inside of the wreck. The sensation of being 100ft down so close to a part of history lost years ago was amazing. The interior of the ship was filled with trucks and motorcycles, rusted over and covered with algae, as schools of brightly colored fish swam from deck to deck making the ship their home.

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Common Pick-Pocket Schemes

WE LOVE TO TRAVEL! We love meeting new people, learning about other cultures, trying new foods and hearing new types of music. It’s part of what makes this world so great. We’ve also been fortunate enough to make some really good friends in the places we’ve visited. People in general seem to be warm, friendly and helpful; however, on the rare occasion you may cross paths with a “ne’er do well scoundrel“.

I was thinking (and laughing) the other day about the time I was pick-pocketed in Colombia. It was funny to me that when I was being robbed I had absolutely no idea. And later when I did discover my missing money I instantly knew the exact moment when it had happened. Those pesky pick-pockets are true masters of their craft. I even met a man who had both pockets picked while his hands were still in them.

I got to talking with other travelers about their experiences. This inspired me to create a helpful little infographic blog illustrating some common pickpocket schemes. So, for all you travelers and wanderers out there, here are some things to look out for.

The Point and Grab:

This method was made known to me by my South African chum, Otto.

In this two man operation, the victim is momentarily distracted by the first thief while the second thief grabs their goods. This method usually works best in crowded tourist areas, but it’s also useful for stealing your friend’s french fries.

A. The mark (or targeted person) is attempting to take a photograph of a friend, landmark, or event.
B. Thief #1 diverts the mark’s attention by tapping on their shoulder.
C. The 2nd thief stands close by to make the grab.

A. The mark turns to see who has been nudging him.
B. Thief #1 has already begun walking away unassumingly.
C. Thief #2 springs into action and grabs the mark’s camera while they are distracted.

A. Thief #2 then runs and attempts to disappear into the crowd.
B. The victim is surprised and hesitates long enough for the thief to make a get-away.
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Art Of Solo Travel: A Girls’ Guide By Stephanie Lee

*As of today (June 9th 2010) we are are affiliate sellers of her book, we wrote this review before that in full honesty and we only endorse products we like ourselves. If you would like a copy of her book just click here*
When we decided to chunk out our old life and start traveling we got a lot of questions. Most of which challenged our mental sanity, as in them thinking we were insane was actually driving us insane! But after the initial shock wore off most people were interested in learning more about the actual process, HOW did we do it? It’s a tough question, people assume we’re somehow secretly rich…the fact that we had no fancy cell phone, no cable tv, didn’t have any fancy new toys should have been a sign… but the truth is much more mundane. We saved every penny we could for about a year and a half. It’s not easy for people who have gone traveling to clearly express and answer many of the questions posed by the curious.

This is where Stephanie’s new e-book “Art Of Solo Travel: A Girls’ Guide” really kicks in. It’s an easy to read, frank, and matter-of-fact style gives readers the confidence and answers needed to start planning their own big adventure. She writes from her experience, thus the focus is on female solo travel, but if you’re the other half planning on solo travel, or just inspiration to make the big jump into world travel Stephanie’s guide is a good place to start.
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Hop & Jaunt’s Funky Travel Store Now Open!!

Hi everyone!!

We’ve just launched our travel gear store! It’s been a creative outlet and fun side project for us and we wanted to share what we’ve made with you.

Alien Attack! Be Prepared With A Cool Tee

You will probably notice right off the bat, with the aliens and retro model shots, that this is not a typical travel store. The truth is this is our playground that we want to invite you in. While traveling we were disappointed with both the overall quality and lack of originality in the destination souvenir t-shirts. So while out roaming about, we began sketching ideas for shirts we wished we could have gotten. This site is where we will be showcasing the designs.

The store is a work in progress, we still have a sketchbook full of ideas and designs to put in. But we’re eager to get the feedback from our fellow traveler what they think! We are creating a contest (posted shortly) for our fellow travel bloggers where we will be giving away the TBEX 10 NY shirt. The rules will be quite simple, submit your top 5 unique things to do while in New York and from the entries we will choose the top five we think are the best, then we will have a poll on our facebook page for everyone to vote on the #1 top 5 unique things to do in NY!

TBEX 10 NY Shirt To Rock The City In

We’re working out the details and will post the official contest on our blog today.

24hrs In Bogota

It was a couple of weeks before Christmas when John and I decided to heed the call of his family and visit them for the holidays. We managed to find a decent deal flying out of Cartagena (not the cheapest place to fly in and out of) and as a bonus due to the flight schedule we had an entire day to spend in Bogota. The catch was that we had not told a soul, our visit was to be a complete surprise to his family. The only one who knew was his cousin Griffin, who we had arranged to pick us up at the airport. In order to achieve maximum impact we orchestrated the arrival to be on Christmas Eve, at night when we knew the entire extended family would be sitting around the tree at John’s childhood home.

Flying To Bogota

We flew out of Cartagena without a hitch and in a few hours found ourselves racing through city highways and traffic as our yellow cab wound it’s way through Bogota to our hostel.

Airport Vendor in Bogota

Handy Translations For Tourist In Bogota Cab

We arrived in the hostel by 3:30pm and we had to be at the airport no later than 5:30 am the next morning. With such limited time we wanted to hit the city fast to see as much as possible. After checking in we realized a few things about our immediate surroundings: 1.) Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was the nicest backpacker hostel we have been in, and 2.) It was CHILLY in Bogota at 60F! It was a little worrisome that it was already feeling freezing to us at 60F when where we were going in the U.S., even though in the South, was a nippy 30-40F! I guess spending 8 months where the temperature never dropped under 70F had seriously damaged our sense of hot and cold.

Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was created by a backpacker who fell in love with Colombia and wanted to create a hostel where all the needs he had identified while traveling where put into practice. The results are quite nice.

Cranky Croc Hostel

Aly at the Cranky Croc Hostel

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