On a trip to Sydney, Australia we saw this sign with arrows pointing to famous world cities with the various distances. My kids loved it so they posed for this picture. I used this picture in both my daughter’s and son’s ad in their senior yearbook. It seemed like a pretty good way to describe them at the crossroads of their life.
The best meal that I had in Oaxaca, Mexico on my recent trip was not in a fancy tourist restaurant nor was it eaten for that matter with any other tourists in sight. Like many cities in Mexico some of the most interesting culinary experiences can be found in the markets where the locals eat. In particular one of the entrances to the Mercado 20 Novembre is a dim smoke lined corridor filled with the wonderful smell of grilled beef or Carne Asada.
I have eaten Carne Asada numerous times in Tijuana on volunteer trips. Usually Carne Asada is the meal served to celebrate the hard work we have done. So my mouth immediately started salivating. I looked around for where I could sit down and order but there the adventure begins.
In my limited Spanish I questioned one of the vendors there until I found out that ordering the meal I wanted was not a simple task.
It’s just that easy. You only have to collect your meal from 4 different vendors in 5 different steps, but it is worth the effort. This is a good meal to share with a friend as most of the sides are larger than one person would need. Yes, my meal is missing the grilled onions. I figured out the system a little too late, but now you will be prepared.
A recent study says that spending your money on possessions can make you happy, but that spending money on experiences such as travel will make you happier longer.
The study looked at 154 people enrolled at San Francisco State University, with an average age of about 25. Participants answered questions about a recent purchase — either material or experiential — they personally made in the last three months with the intention of making themselves happy.
While most people were generally happy with the purchase regardless of what it was, those who wrote about experiences tended to show a higher satisfaction at the time and after the experience had passed.
When I was a kid my family bought a small used red trailer. It was fourteen feet long, but you had to count the trailer hitch to get that length. It was very close quarters for a family of four but we took that trailer around much of the western U.S. and Canada. It was there that I developed my love for travel. Many of my friends growing up had never been outside of California and, even if we grant that it is quite a large and diverse state, that made the fact that I had been to exotic places like Wyoming and Alberta was special… at least to me.
I think it is safe to say that every toy that I bought at that age, any car my family had, every stitch of clothes I wore has worn out and been thrown out. But the memories of standing at Old Faithful, exploring Lewis and Clark Caverns or watching the men land on the moon for the first from a trailer park in Victoria B.C. have not lost any value over the years.
Ever know someone who took a little nap at work? Did it make the papers?
JetBlue worker nods off, flies to Boston in cargo hold
A 21-year-old JetBlue baggage handler flew between New York JFK and Boston after “mysteriously” getting trapped in the flight’s cargo hold, various media outlets reported Monday. NBC New York says it learned yesterday “that the worker was in the belly of the plane loading luggage for the flight that left JFK Airport around noon Saturday en route to Boston. That’s when the worker seems to have fallen asleep. He later found himself in Beantown after the flight had landed at Logan International Airport,” NBC writes.
The New York Daily News adds the man “stunned his tarmac counterparts at Boston’s Logan Airport Saturday when they opened the cargo door of the twin-engine ERJ-190 jet and unloaded him along with the luggage.” Police initially thought the man may have been a stowaway, but they eventually concluded he simply was “an accidental tourist,” as the Daily News put its. Still, Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio tells the paper that “even after talking to him we were a little uncertain as to how it happened.”
Why does these keep happening? At least this guy didn’t get off the plane before he was stopped.
Man accused of opening airplane’s emergency door
New York City prosecutors have filed criminal charges against an air traveler who got fed up waiting on the tarmac at Kennedy Airport, and tried to open a jet door and get out. Authorities said 60-year-old Robert McDonald, of England, faces reckless endangerment charges for opening an emergency exit hatch as the plane waited out an hours-long delay at JFK.
Flight attendants stopped him from fully opening the door and activating the emergency chute.
And in our weirdest travel news of the week, people think that they will get luck from a mass murderer.
Tourists look for luck at Pol Pot’s grave
He was one of the greatest mass killers of the 20th century, but that doesn’t stop the hopeful from praying at Pol Pot’s hillside grave for lucky lottery numbers, job promotions and beautiful brides.
Nor does it stop tourists from picking clean the bones and ashes from the Khmer Rouge leader’s burial ground in this remote town in northwestern Cambodia.
But in good news, tourists who want to go to Tibet can again.
China has announced that it intends to reopen the borders of Tibet on April 5th, allowing foreigners back inside on the eve of the country’s biggest tourist season. The borders were closed at the beginning of March due to fears of internal unrest on the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama going into exile in India.
Will U.S. citizens be allowed to travel to Cuba?
Will Americans be able to go to Cuba again soon? Some senators think yes…
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday to allow U.S. citizens to travel freely to Cuba and predicted Congress would approve it as a step toward ending the five-decade-old U.S. embargo.
“I think there’s sufficient votes in both the House (of Representatives) and the Senate to finally get it passed,” Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan said at a news conference.
and at least one congressman thinks no.
Menendez to oppose Cuba travel
The most powerful Hispanic in Congress says he will oppose a bipartisan effort to lift a longstanding ban on travel to Cuba.
Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and the son of Cuban immigrants, also said he would fight any move to overhaul U.S. policy toward the communist nation.
Joining him is the state’s other Hispanic lawmaker, Rep. Albio Sires, a West New York Democrat and Cuban native whose district contains one of the largest populations of Cubans in the country. Sires said the U.S. shouldn’t change course on Cuba unless it gets more in return.
New Jersey is home to about 85,000 people of Cuban origin, second only to Florida, which has about 1.1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Other articles that caught my eye:
Avid listeners of the Amateur Traveler travel podcast should have the answers to all of these questions. How many can you answer?
How did you do?
Copyright 2009 by Chris Christensen
