Inspired Travels

Date: Monday, January 14, 2008 at 6:16pm

Mankind has been destroying mother earth for centuries. Since time began, cavemen have cut down trees for firewood. The ocean has been trawled extensively for exotic seafood. Land has been razed for farming and cleared for high rises. We have drilled the earth for pools of oil, rivers of gold, and other precious commodities. Our endless search for more will eventually destroy the earth as we know it.

With the rise of tourism, mother earth’s fate has suddenly declined at an even faster rate.

I went on a snorkeling tour to the Hol Chan marine reserve in Belize. We motored to 3 different snorkeling sites. We snorkeled in the ocean, and we were told to keep our feet above the water. I soon realized why. Whilst in the water, our tour guide was kicking up sand sediment with each kick. With 30 tourists in the water around the boat and many more around the channel, we were causing untold damage to the pristine environment.

The captain of the boat then feed freshly speared fish to the nurse sharks so the sharks would encircle the boat and we could swim next to them. It was an incredible experience swimming above, alongside and near huge nurse sharks, deadly manta rays, turtles, snappers and other exotic fish. But you should never feed animals in the wild. Why else would the fish congregate around the boat? The fish were used to being fed daily and were now familiar with human contact.

Once you start feeding the animals, they lose that ability to hunt and fend for themselves. Eventually, the animals lose the instinct to survive. The amount of food in the wild controls the population in the animal kingdom. A scarcity of food means that the animal population cannot grow and is restricted in its size. Conversely, bountiful food allows animals to repopulate and thrive. Humans introduce new amounts of food as well as new types of food into the wild. By feeding the animals, we are changing the role of nature and causing irreversible destruction.

I learnt this lesson when I went on an eco-tour in Phuket. These things are obvious but they are not apparent until you see them with your own eyes. Our eco tour guides never feed the animals nor did they destroy the environment. Other guides would feed the monkeys with bananas and give them cans of coke to drink. The eco tour guides spent the time teaching us about the environment. The tour did cost slightly more but for me I was glad I went on it and it probably taught me one of the more valuable lessons in life.

As a tourist, we are drawn into two minds. Should I see Mother Nature, swim with the exotic fish, cuddle the cute koalas or do nothing? Many places like Caye Caulker in Belize and many countries exist mainly on tourism. Would a visit to Australia be the same without seeing a kangaroo or swimming in the Great Barrier Reef?

In the past year I’ve rode an elephant in the Chiangmai jungle in Thailand, swam in waterfalls, rode camels across the Sahara desert, snorkeled in underground caves in Mexico and sailed through islands in Vietnam. I’m confident that all these activities damaged the environment to some small extent. But as a tourist, I felt like I had to do these things, and I didn’t even think twice about it – I did them because they were fun.

Tourism, particularly environmental tourism needs to be tightly controlled, because we may be destroying things beyond repair. Future generations might not be able to appreciate these great wonders. Sometimes I think that we should just leave these animals alone, allowing them to live in their own world. But I also realize that for me, I would have never appreciated the beauty of the environment if I never saw them.

I have seen what mankind has done. In the Sahara desert, tire tracks criss-cross the sand dunes as tourists entertain their Lawrence of Arabia fantasies. I know, since I contributed to it by riding a quad bike! People also leave behind water bottles, wine casks, and other rubbish in the desert.

The availability of cheap air travel will be one of the deathknells for the environment. I took a flight instead of a train from Venice to Rome because it was only slightly more expensive. I have crossed the world on a series of cheap flights. In two months, I flew Venice to Rome, Rome to London, London to Morocco return, London to New York, New York to Cancun. Air travel was dirt cheap. In the process, these airplanes I have taken have pumped out several more kilotons of carbon dioxide.

I honestly believe that people are understanding that we need to protect the environment. It is important to practice sustainable methods of tourism. But a lot of tour operators think for themselves – they feed the sharks and the monkeys, destroy the sand dunes with 4 wheel drives and so on.

However, the responsibility is on both sides, on tour operators and tourists. Our duty as tourists should be to enquire about the practices of the tours and to understand the environmental impact, instead of shopping around for the best deal. It is time that we make a stand, as tourists. Because it is our earth too! If it damages the environment, we should seek a friendlier alternative or simply not do it.

The environment is extremely fragile, and it is necessary that we strike the right balance between showing off mother earth and preserving the environment. Hopefully, we do this before the monkeys take over*.

Hijo de la tierra (Son of the Earth),

Matt Ho.

*Or maybe they already have.

I’m heading to Vietnam with my good friend Dom.

He also happens to be on Google Wave.

Here are some examples of how we have been organising the trip using Google Wave.

We created a new wave to discuss everything from Hotel bookings and itinerary. Generally, we co-ordinate so that we are using it at the same time – its so much more fun that way! Seeing the words fly across the screen, posting links and discussing what hotels we’ve found.

Its a lot better than IM since there is a permanent record. One of the problems I’ve found that is that I would rather keep continuing to use the same Wave. I only want to start a new Wave if its a completely new topic.

However, Dom created a new Wave for planning our itinenary and used the Trippy Plugin. Trippy is a cool plugin from Lonely Planet. You fill out what you will do each day and then plot your hotel locations, attractions, etc.. on a Google Map. It auto- finds it based on your description of the address or title, except it wasnt correct with the Cu Chi Tunnels! For some reason it selected North Vietnam? There must be a Cu Chi up there.

You can also create multiple trip itinerary. Say for example I was going for 5 days to Hong Kong in addition to Vietnam, I can make another schedule in the same plugin. Very cool!

Overall, I found that using Google Wave was a lot more fun and collaborative than email. Email is back and forth, whereas Wave is interactive. Although you can work on a Wave separately, I prefer being there on the opposite end and doing real time updates.

I see this as a great way to work with a bunch of different people e.g. a large group sharing an itinerary and posting up files, map locations, etc…

If your using Wave for travel plans, I’d like to hear your examples too!

Cheers,

Matt

I’m only two days from my trip to Vietnam. It’s the first time I’ve gone overseas since my big holiday in 2007, so I’m really looking forward to it.

In preparation, I wanted to do a little research before I went. Normally, I would purchase a guidebook from the book store. The typical Lonely Planet or Rough Guides, etc…

However, I noticed a few years ago you can actually purchase chapters of Lonely Planet books that you require in electronic format. I’ve never been a big fan of electronic book purchases but I actually wanted to give it a try because:

1) I only needed the section on Saigon not the entire book on Vietnam

2) It was much cheaper to buy the sections that I needed

3) I’d be saving the world from another tree

4) Portable as I could have it in the cloud in email, google docs, and on my phone.

So I went ahead and bought 4 chapters on:

• Saigon
• Areas around Saigon
• Mekong Delta River
• History, culture, food of Vietnam

All up , it cost me about $19 AUD which is half of what the book would have cost me. Each chapter costs about $3-10, on average about $5.When you buy a few chapters there seems to be a bulk discount applied.

You receive a link to download a PDF version which you can download up to 5 times, in case your internet cuts out. You can also distribute it and put it onto any device. The Lonely Planet team trusts that you are not going to post it up online to give away (since you’ve shelled up the hard cash for it). However, I have been advised by my brother that it is possible to get off BitTorrent.

Pick and Mix Chapters

I tried porting it onto my Android phone, however the Android has poor PDF readers and some of which are online readers or you have to pay for like Docs2Go. So I’ve ditched that option and ended up printing it out. It will be handy for reading on the plane and also on the go.

Digital Travel Guides

I’ve got my digital marketing hat on now and I believe that this type of distribution is going to be the future. Buy chapters / sections that you need online. Pick and mix. Port it to a device or download straight to a device like iphone, any mobile device, Kindle , etc… and take it with you. No books required. You can already buy Lonely Planet guides for iphone – its about $15AUD.

Right now, the travel guides I’ve bought seem to be the actual guides resized to PDF one page versions. In the future, I assume its going to be a lot more organic with the ability to be updated constantly rather than a new edition every few years. I imagine it to be a more like WikiTravel or TripAdvisor which is updated by the users, with an editor overseeing it. The other advantage is that if your buying an online version, it is likely to be the latest version as well.

A word on Travel Guides

I like using travel guides but I’ve learnt to not overuse them.  I like them because it gives you a quick rundown of the place, good restaurants to check out, different accommodation options to suit your budget, advice on the surrounding attractions, a sense of the history of the place and more. Someone has already done a lot of the legwork for you.

However, whilst travelling in Kyoto, Japan I was talking to an American traveller about this. Sometimes you just need to ditch the travel guide and take the path less travelled. Because if you follow the travel guide, you’ll end up having the same experience as everyone else. It’s nice to discover a hole in the wall bar, or stumble across a restaurant or area which isn’t listed in a travel guide.  Put some adventure back into your travels – like how our parents or ancestors would have done before travel guides were around!

Now we’re armed to the teeth with travel guides, mobile GPS so we’ll never get lost, and everyone speaks English. At times, it is good to go somewhere and wander around and explore the place freely without turning to your Lonely Planet.

I’m out like travel guides,

Matt

Date: Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 11:06am

I wrote this on a plane trip. I can’t remember if it was from Italy to London or London to Morocco. But I was really tired, however I manage to bang this piece out. It’s prolly my finest piece of writing.

Enjoy,

Matt

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Dressed in black from head to toe, she kneels down on the footpath. Head bowed, forehead and elbows touching the ground, her hands tightly grasp a plastic cup full of coins. It is a pose of total submission. A sign of desperation. A cry for help to strangers passing by for any spare change that they might have. Anything that they can help her get by til the next day.

Down the road, a man with missing arms cries out “Por Favor, Senor” to every man, woman and dog that passes by. His throat is dry, his body sweaty but he has no choice. “Por Favour” he cries out again as the well dressed tourist passes by without even giving him the light of day. Despite the public humiliation and embarrassment, he continues on.

All of a sudden, young African men burst through the street clutching handbags and wallets. Like a pack of hunted animals, they scatter into the crowd.The hunters, plain clothed policemen gather up the leftover counterfeit goods, in their attempt to stem an illict trade. The policemen know that the men will be back, it is just a matter of where and when.

These are scenes from Madrid in the city centre. A cosmopolitan city, a modern hustle and bustle commerical area. These same scenes are repeated throughout Rome, Paris, Venice and other parts of Europe. For this is the untold story of Europe.

Most tourists and locals pass by these scenes without giving them a second thought. For these people are the ignored, the marginalised, the unknowns. The people that the rest of society does not want to know about.

Everyday in Rome, there are drunk men sitting on the steps of dilapated buildings. There is a homeless man standing outside the supermarket begging for change. He has not showered for weeks and smells of something so vile that no one dares go near him.

Outside the supermarket, an old lady walks past the outdoor tables of an expensive restaurant and scoops up the change left by well fed customers. The waiter sees her and yells out something incomprensible, no doubt wanting his hard earned tip. He fights with her for the money, clutching and grabbing for the coins. It is not worth fighting for but it could mean the difference between eating and starving for the old lady. The difference between living and dying.

In Barcelona, packs of men and women roam the streets and train stations, looking for unsuspecting tourists. Pick pockets, thieves, robbers, the scum of the earth, the fear of every tourist. They have turned Barcelona into a tourist nightmare, seizing any opportunity to run off with our valued posessions. A modern day Robin Hood theory. Rob the rich and give to the poor, a makeshift redistribution of wealth. They cause the lines of the police headquaters to swell, almost as long as any tourist attraction. By mid-afternoon, the line is long, meaning that the pickpockets have had a good day.

Many of these people are Mexicans, living illegally in Barcelona. They eke out a menial existence by taking the lowest paid jobs. Cleaners, factory workers and the like, anything to sustain themselves. For the law is on their side, if they can prove they have lived in Espana for 3 years, they can claim citizenship. Which equates to a better job, better money and ultimately, a better life. In the meantime, they do whatever they have to survive, including cleaning the pockets of tourists.

Beggars, thieves, poor and the destitute, is nothing unique to Europe. There were similar scenes of desperation on the streets of Japan, a country with high living standards. Men living in cardboard boxes, with thir entire posessions laid out for all to witness. For these men are outcasts, considered the lowest of the low, worst than any of Western Society’s beggars.

Have you ever noticed the homeless lady sitting outside the Macdonald’s on George Street near Circular Quay? One cold Friday night, I walked past shocked how chilly it was and thanking that I had my jacket. As I strolled down the road, something clicked in me. If I was freezing, what about her? I walked inside, ordered a Big Mac meal and two apples and handed it to the lady. It wasn’t much and I obvisously did’nt do anything to eradicate the problems of world poverty, but I made a difference that day to one person by a simple gesture.

However, this is only a band aid solution. By giving to the poor, we do no more than prolong the poverty cycle. For the adage goes, give a man a fish and he will live for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will live a lifetime. There is no cut and dry solution for these problems but it is serious problem facing many people around the world and something needs to be done about it.

Because for every winner, there must be a loser. Thus for every rich person, there must be a poor person. An inequaltiy between rich and poor that exists. A divide so wide that it drives people to stand on street corners begging for change, to sell fake handbags for a living and to rob tourists for their wallets.

For this is the untold story of the world. And it must change.

Friday, February 15, 2008 at 4:30am

In the Nation’s capital, some of mankind’s greatest achievements are for all to see. Towering over the city is the Washington Monument, the largest free standing stone masonry ever built. A portion of man’s greatest collection of art, natural history, air and space achievements, are housed in several of the Smithsonian museums. Large, Greco-Roman buildings dot the landscape of Washington DC.

Democratic institutions showing the division of the legislature, the judiciary and the state into 3 arms are found – Capitol Hill, Supreme Court, and Parliament. The names of streets read “Constitution Ave”, “Independence Ave”, echoing the principles of a free society. It was here, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King cried out “I have a dream!”.

In the National Archives, store the three great documents from which the most powerful nation in the world was built. Amongst dim light, tight security, fire-proof, bomb-proof, titanium encased boxes, several faded documents written in long English writing are barely able to be seen. In here, stand the Declaration of Independence which gave birth to a new country. In the middle, surrounded by two security guards, lies the original U.S Constitution, the foundations of a democracy. The Bill of Rights on the other side, no less important, expounded the 12 rights of the citizens – the right to be tried by jury, the right to free speech and other freedoms which American citizens enjoy today. This became the model of other democracies and the foundations of constitutions in countries like Venezuela. The document for the 13th amendment can also be found, dubbed the Emancipation proclamation declaring the freedom of all slaves.

Idolized by their citizens are huge monuments dedicated to President Lincoln, Roosevelt and Jefferson. The immense size, grandeur, and the statues housed inside are powerful striking images. On the walls, are inscribed famous speeches and quotes which they gave, indicated their importance in fathering the United States.

The Korean War Memorial has an inscription of the words “Freedom Is Not free”, for the lives of countless men lie buried underneath the battlefields of decades gone past. Statutes of soldiers stand in battle formation anticipating the crack of gun fire. At the Vietnam Veteran War Memorial, the men are remembered by a black stone wall with their names inscribed in the chronological order in which they were killed. Lest we forget the 400,000 stars at the National World War 2 Memorial, a star for each man felled during World War 2. On the ground, it is written “Victory on sea. Victory on air. Victory on land.”

But at what cost?

To live in a free and democratic society, young men and women suffered, were persecuted, and died.

America’s capital is depicted as one of inspiration, of hope, of testament to its greatness, as one of a memorial to its dead. But there is something wrong with this picture when you walk around. On every street corner is a lamppost and a homeless person, holding out a cup and jingling the coins inside. Men and women stand outside the CVA pharmacy, the supermarkets, the parks, the train stations, the Starbucks, living in desperation. For this is the land of opportunity, but clearly opportunity never found them.

In the freezing cold they stand, in the treacherous conditions, they lie wrapped in blankets on park benches. Amidst the politicians, the lawyers, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the tourists, are the homeless. These are predominantly men of colour, noticeably of African American race. Lincoln once said “All men are created equal” but clearly not all men live equally. Live free, die poor in D.C.

The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) building is adorned with the motto “taxes are what society pays for order”. One wonders, how much of this revenue is spent funding the war efforts of fighting foreign legions and despots and how little is a spent addressing home grown problem like homelessness and crime that exists in its own backyard. The government fights the war on terror, the war on drugs, but neglects the war on poverty.

Washington is blanketed with heavy security as it contains many of the nation’s treasures (including its beloved politicians). Armed security patrol Capitol Hill with AK-47’s and double barreled shotguns. Security screens are present at every entrance, and a policeman on every corner to boot. “Empty your pockets!” barks the angry female security guard (who probably hasn’t had her wheaties today). Patrol cars dash up and down the streets, men walk around in secrecy with walkie talkies and earphones attached. Post September 11, America is not taking any chances and has stepped up her security. A sense of urgency and quiet alarm is evident in Washington DC.

Across the river lies a funny shaped building with five sides. It looks extremely ugly, and men in camouflage gear walk around. For this is the most secretive building in the whole of the United States – the infamous Pentagon. From the outside, it looks extremely unimpressive. One cannot even take photos of the building or the train station underneath. No walk in tours are allowed and there is a sense of heightened security at the entrance, as all visitors are scanned and searched.

Opposite the obelisk known as Washington monument is another one of these Greco-Roman monstrosities. It reads “BEP”. Any 14 year old will tell you the acronym stands for Black Eyed Peas, the American rap group. However, the only association it has with hip hop is the amount of money flashing inside. For this is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where paper is turned green and made into money. Mountain stacks of money are printed by the minute, pressed by engraving plates and oodles of green ink stamped and secret holographic images are applied. As a final step, serial numbers are attached, money is counted, collated and ready to be used.

Where dead presidents have their faces printed on the back of money. One wonders whether these dead presidents knew America would turn out like this. They created, shaped, and influenced the development of the United States and the world from within a solitary house, white in colour, surrounded by a huge perimeter fence with an army of policemen watching over them.

Washington D.C., the home of dead presidents.

Hi all!

Welcome to my travel blog. I have been meaning to do this for some time (over 3 years!). I want to have a travel blog separate to my main blog inspiredworlds.com which covers digital & business.

Originally, I started travel blogging on a totally different blog, then started writing notes on Facebook. I was one of the first people amongst my friends to start using the notes section in Facebook for blogging.

I had a lot of comments and reads on Facebook, so it became the defacto place. However, it is an island of isolation because I want to share it with the world! I even created a wiki at the time called Travel on the cheap, but I gave up after I saw wikitravel.

However, these are my own personal notes and also tips for other travellers.

I’ll be heading to Vietnam soon (in a week!), so this is the main driver behind it. As well, I will complement it with travel notes that I have written over the last few years.

Starting with my favourite pieces – Dead Presidents and my 6 month summary of my backpacking trip.

Cheers,

Matt