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50 Years of Travel Tips

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Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#161

Post by ghaff »

decimalenough wrote: post #147
eldaisfish wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some are entirely incorrect. Lack of hygiene is a real problem in tropical countries. Pretending that all food everywhere is equal is some crazy level of white, sheltered nonsense. I would never recommend that anyone eat anything uncooked in a country like India. You are asking for digestive woes. Much of this "list" is BS.

No, that one is accurate. Street food is usually made to order and has high turnover if you pick a popular stall, which means it often is safer than touristy restaurants that rely on snaring a couple of visitors a day and thus has food sitting around for much longer. I spent 1.5 years in Thailand and the only time I got sick was from a fancy, touristy seafood place in Koh Samui. You still have to use common sense tho…

I think you're agreeing. Typical cooked "street food" is probably fine (and I've done many times); uncooked may not be.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#162

Post by ArlenBales »

astura wrote: post #99
programmertote wrote: post #22

>Crash a wedding. You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest! ... They will usually feel honored. You can offer the newlyweds a small token gift of cash if you want. You will be obliged to dance. Take photos of them; they will take photos of you. It will make your day and theirs. (I’ve crashed a wedding in most of the countries I have visited.) That will only work if a white tourist wedding crashes in a poor…

I can't even imagine having this sort of attitude where you think that your presence is like a "celebrity guest" for strangers and and will be "making their day." You. Complete strangers. Like, how does one have such an inflated sense of importance? And feel absolutely no shame in writing it out for the world to see. Delusions of grandeur.

This guy is Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine. I guess he thinks people will recognize him?

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#163

Post by dotancohen »

jonasdegendt wrote: post #151
qkeast wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing I haven't figured out (mostly because I haven't sat down and done so) is how I'd access mail and such—without my password manager on my own phone, I don't have access to anything.

I have a Yubikey (well, two actually) on my keychain for 2FA, gets rid of those pesky apps.

Why would we assume that the Yubikey or even the entire keychain survived whatever befell the telephone that is being replaced?

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#165

Post by QuiEgo »

I would add: learn how to say at least “hello,” and “thank you” in the local language, and a few other phrases. Even if you butcher it, the fact that you tried goes a long long way.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#166

Post by flippyhead »

swat535 wrote: post #155
susam wrote: post #18

One travel technique that has worked very well for me takes place the day before my trip: using a pre-travel prep-and-packing checklist. I created this checklist about 15 years ago and still refine it occasionally. This list has three sections: A) Preparation tasks: Like printing essential travel documents, saving a backup to my mobile phone, buying foreign currency, activating data roaming, etc. B) Packing list: Min…

I’ve stopped caring about packing. Now I only pack the very basics, medication, laptop and chargers toiletries for shaving etc and a few clothes. Anything else I will most likely purchase or won’t need at all. I avoid checking bags, just a small carryon and my backpack. To me the more important items are travel requirements, road conditions, directions, etc.

I have a corollary: when I head out of my apartment/hotel/whatever, I assume I could be gone for a night or two -- you never know what will happen! This doesn't mean you need to lug around a bunch of stuff, but just enough basics to make it so you can easily say YES! at forks in the road that might require you to walk too far to get home that day, or stay overnight on a boat, or be out very late with a new group of friends. A toothbrush, change of underwear, and warm cost-thing, sunscreen, etc. Optionality is easy to prepare.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#167

Post by flippyhead »

programmertote wrote: post #22

>Crash a wedding. You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest! ... They will usually feel honored. You can offer the newlyweds a small token gift of cash if you want. You will be obliged to dance. Take photos of them; they will take photos of you. It will make your day and theirs. (I’ve crashed a wedding in most of the countries I have visited.) That will only work if a white tourist wedding crashes in a poor…

I crashed a literal Greek wedding (in Greece!) once, waaaay out in the countryside, and I can confirm they were really super glad to have me.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#168

Post by skulk »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #94
eldaisfish wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

telling people to crash random weddings? Telling people that all food is hygienic? Oh please, stop with this victim nonsense. Your personal experience can be personal while also admitting that you come from tremendous privilege. You can REALLY tell that this "list" was written by a white male.

So what if it was? All of our tips are always aimed at people in a similar position. Just consider how your travel tips don't even apply to most of the world who can't travel. This just sounds like sour grapes to me. Like getting worked up because someone didn't start with a land acknowledgement.

Nah, they're totally right about this one. When you exploit the global power imbalance in your favor, at least acknowledge what you're doing before dishing it out as general advice.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#169

Post by flippyhead »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #72

The entire 50 years is showing here. Seems like some of these tips are good, and some are awful because they're outdated. Don't crash random weddings if you're not able to pay your way out of trouble. Sketchy plans do result in kidnappings. Truly professional tour guides are wonderful assets that will 10X both your trip and your knowledge in any city.

Nope nope nope, With a decent head on your shoulders you can safely do all kinds of unusual that idiots would otherwise end up very troubled by. I've known plenty of people that get themselves into trouble through foolishness and folly, while more wise operators finds only un-regrets. Like how in the winter some people freeze to death and some people ski, you know?

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#170

Post by netsharc »

jonasdegendt wrote: post #115
ghaff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which raises a point that is often lost today. Assume your phone breaks, gets lost/stolen, etc. How do you know where you're going? Having a printed agenda is a very good idea even if you resent the weight of the paper.

If that happens, aren’t you pretty much walking to the closest mobile phone store? A basic device that’ll give you access to the internet, mail and maps is basically a commodity the same way a toothbrush is.

I remember standing up to board my flight home, putting the phone into my pants pocket, except I was putting it into air, and it landed on the tile floor of the boarding area. The outside screen wasn't cracked, but the LC-Display cracked all across the bottom, making the display totally black. I usually don't bother having physical boarding passes, but luckily I did have it in paper format at that point.

Interestingly the phone was still working, it just can't show anything. Double-clicking the power button still opened the camera app, and I could take pictures by pressing the volume down button. And alarms would still go off, but holding the power button opened Google Assistant and it understood the command "Delete all alarms", no unlocking required.

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