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50 Years of Travel Tips

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Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#91

Post by datameta »

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…

Yeah, while I did like the Laser-Back strategy of going to the most remote location first and meandering back to the departure city, reading the names at the bottom shows only one phenotype of person wrote/edited this.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#92

Post by [deleted] »

ghaff wrote: post #73
Retric wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve gone decades without using a raincoat. If you’re going someplace cold you’ll want warm clothing and if it’s sunny then sunblock is a big deal, but in general you don’t need much stuff on a trip.

My guess is you're not hiking for 10 miles in possibly chilly rain in England or wherever. (Or needing a shell because of wind.) An umbrella doesn't really work and you're probably not wanting to just walk all day drenched. In a city, yes, umbrellas are often a reasonable alternative.

[deleted]

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#93

Post by datameta »

j7ake wrote: post #83
hombre_fatal wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad take-away. All tips you give are rinsed through the lens of your personal experience. We don’t need a bunch of disclaimers every time someone enumerates some tips just to appease the “but did he check his privilege tho?” audience.

> To stay safe, smile.

Right. This reads like a person who doesn't realize their ethnic visage is plot-armor, or that smiling maybe works for a different reason than they think it does.

Doesn't read as friendly in most places (we're talking out of context on the street), it reads as aloof or menacing/unknown factor. Being a white male with confidence takes care of the first assumption and leaves the second.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#94

Post by hombre_fatal »

eldaisfish wrote: post #88
hombre_fatal wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad take-away. All tips you give are rinsed through the lens of your personal experience. We don’t need a bunch of disclaimers every time someone enumerates some tips just to appease the “but did he check his privilege tho?” audience.

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.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#95

Post by et-al »

throwup238 wrote: post #61
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…

Do you mind sharing these checklists? I’d love to throw them into my Obsidian notes for the next time I travel. I do it infrequently but it’s always stressful because it’s to visit family internationally.

Make a checklist. Go on trip. Refine checklist by adding things you forgot and removing things you didn't need. Iterating on the checklist is key.

Mine is pretty short because it's only about the non-routine stuff:

- passport + passport card + visa

- make travel notifications for credit cards (seems less needed these days)

- chargers + outlet adapters

- download maps for areas in Organic Maps, bookmark important places (don't trust Google Maps' offline maps)

- write down confirmation/reservation numbers and important phone numbers

- remove pocket knife from carry-on

- headphones + earplugs + eyeshade

- spare glasses (even an old pair works. yes in Asia you can get new glasses in less than an hour)

- do you need swimwear, sunscreen, or a headlamp?

- lacrosse ball to roll out knots (very personal, but 10hr flights in a cramped economy seat can put a strain on one's back, esp as one gets older)

Again, this is my personal "perennial" travel checklist. It's written from my experiences of having a girlfriend break my glasses while needing to drive the next morning, and forgetting headphones for overnight bus rides.

Similar to susam, I've also started keeping another trip-specific checklist (e.g. any items my in-laws want from America, or bring 98% DEET for SE Asia). These get deleted after the trip.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#96

Post by astura »

throwaway290 wrote: post #50
keyme wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 years ago when backpacking in East Africa, I went from "there is no way I'm ever doing this" to taking nothing but those moto-taxis ("boda bodas") even for 40 minute inter-city rides with a 12KG backpack on my back. No helmets to speak of. Except maybe in Rwanda. Part of the learning experience of such travel, is to see firsthand how the locals of these places perceive the risk. How they manage risk in general, and…

There is no "the locals" usually. It sounds a bit condescending, like the article. If people look different than you it doesn't mean they are all the same. People have different life situations. Maybe even in your home country too. If you go somewhere on a moto taxi in Bangkok all those taxis and fancy SUVs you see are not silly foreigners who are scared of motobikes, they are also locals who manage risk.

Exactly!

I grew up in the US.

I grew up in a family where drunk driving was totally normal. Car wrecks happened with regularity. As a child I road with my parents while they were drunk and actively drinking. I road in the bed of my dads pickup truck while he was speeding on backroads while drunk. I never wore my seatbelt until I started driving. One of our cars growing up didn't even have seats, cuz my dad took them out. My dad would slam on the breaks while driving down the highway and everyone would go flying.

I always wear my seatbelt now. I would never would drive drunk now, or even slightly buzzed. I would never expose children to that sort of environment. My parents are awful people.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#97

Post by hombre_fatal »

j7ake wrote: post #83
hombre_fatal wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad take-away. All tips you give are rinsed through the lens of your personal experience. We don’t need a bunch of disclaimers every time someone enumerates some tips just to appease the “but did he check his privilege tho?” audience.

> To stay safe, smile.

You might have to be a traveler who has been in a bind to appreciate that one, because it's absolutely true that being friendly can disarm a bad situation.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#99

Post by astura »

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.

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