Travel Tip #16 Never leave home without..

Ideas from ASK Arther Frommer & travel better, cheaper, smarter

1. An empty memory card (or two)
2. Rechargable batteries, the charger and a converter if you are going to a foreign country
3. Alleve, Tylenol or some other over the counter med-they can be expensive overseas
4. As I have said before...zip lock baggies!
5. Dental floss
6. Duct tape-wrap some around a pen so you do not have a huge roll in your bag
7. Peanut butter-just in case you do not like the local food, or if it is Ramadan
8. A few power bars
9. A 'bucky'-one of those inflateable wrap around the neck pillows-much cheaper than buying them at the airport!
10. Space saving compression bags (or zip locks)
11. A copy of your passport

Travel Tip #16: calling home

Ok, so about 4 blogs ago I had a blog about the various online social networking options, but what if you simply want to call home...

1. 1. Of course there is your cell phone. Call your provider and inquire as to using your phone overseas. They may need to change the plan, unlock the sim card ect... be very clear as to charges/roaming fees ect... I was told by Verizon that I can bring my Blackberry storm overseas and use it without any additional charges as long as I request an international phone plan for the time I am away (about $40/month)
   
2. Skype-have I written about Skype before? If so, it is well worth repeating. Anyone can get a Skype account (http://www.skype.com/) and with a $10 credit purchase, you can call anywhere in the world for pennies. I have a monthly plan of $2.99/month that allows me to call anywhere in the USA (even if I am in Thailand for example) with no restrictions. This is a great thing to have simply to make calls Stateside! I did purchase a headset (2 in fact since I ran over the first set with my chair). When traveling, I use a ear plugs (like what I use for my ipod) and talk into the microphone. If you are brave you can even turn on your video option...
3. http://www.magicjack.com/ is the newest and coolest. Buy the little 2 inch x 1 inch device at Staples or on-line along with a phone. Plug the phone into the magicjack, the magicjack into the USB port and viola-you have a working "land line". Complete with phone number, voice mail and probably a host of other features that I have not learned about yet. It is amazing, you can plug the magicjack/phone into any computer, and you can cal home as if they were the next state over!

Now, granted communicating today in the year 2009 is so much easier than even 5 years ago, I still recommend that you limit the amount of time you spend call (or even writing) home. Remember-you are on vacation,the trip of a lifetime. Be Present. Every time you call home (or check your emails) you are mentally leaving the place you spend hundreds/thousands to visit. Be Present!

Travel tip #15

For authentic meals that leave aparty in your mouth:

• follow your nose
• try a place that is hustling and bustling with locals
• eat what those around you are eating, why go to another country to eat at McD's?
• drink what they are drinking
• eat at the times the locals eat, the food will be fresh, the atmosphere alive
• try to fit in as many meals as possible-you have a limited time in the country...eat a little less at each meal and you can fit in an extra meal or two.
• if traveling with a friend, share meals, and get different items so you can share
• be sure you have an idea of the price-typically a local joint will be reasonable, but it is safe to ask before you get a bill you were not expecting.
• Have FUN!
• eat at the market, great treasures await!

Tip #14: the traveling gourmet part 1

Eating is one of the best things about travel. If I won the lottery, I would work my way around the world, country by country tasting EVERYTHING!

Granted, there are some countries whose delicacies are challenging to the pallet, but those tend to be the most interesting of stories for the folks back home.

My favorite eating haunts are (in no special order)

• Italy: olives, pasta, seafood, olive oil, rabbit, pesto....




















• Thailand: pad thai, khao phat, khao neow mat muang....
  


• India: anything that can be slopped up with a chappati or nan
  


• Japan: raw fish from the Fish market in Tokyo
  


• Morocco: couscous and all the fixin's that go on it!

In fact we are so hooked on eating Thai, that we shortened a business trip in the Philipines to go to Thailand for a weekend to eat.

And there are our favorite eating moments:

• A bowl of Tunisian soup in the bazaar of Tunis-complete with bread, chickpeas, harissa
  
  
  












• A 5 course seafood meal in a little stone building around the corner from our apartment in Lerici


• Momo's in Kathmandu before we hopped a bus to Ananpurna


• The fish market in Tokyo, we ate more sushi in one day than should be legal


• One night in Tokyo, we entered a small Japanese bistro where no one spoke English, the menu was of course in Japanese, so we took a peek around at other plates and started pointing. To this day we have no idea what we ate, but teh experience was amazing!










• Morning gaewto nam (noodle soup) in a small noodle shop outside the school we taught at in Thailand oh and the Sukyaki was amazing also (with quail eggs)


• A picnic of rabbit and crusty bread on the wall of an old castle on the Mediterranean sea in Italy


• Pigeon in London


• Pho in morning market of Hoi An, Vietnam


• Dim Sum in Hong Kong

Tip #13: on line web page for your travel info

I just started using google sites after a tip from good old Aurther Frommer (Budget Travel Magazine). You can greate a private web page via this link:
http://sites.google.com/?pli=1
and post all your travel info. This is extremely handy if you lose your purse/wallet/money pouch. You can scan your passport, add confirmation umbers, include addresses/phone numbers, your flight itinerary.
Since this is new to me, I can not offer much more information, but if you have the time to create this, it could be a lifesaver down the road!
have a great trip-beth

Tip #12: Staying in touch while on the road

Staying in Touch While on the Road
With these handy tools, you can update the folks back home without ever having to slow down.
By Mat Honan, Tuesday, March 24, 2009 Budget Travel Magazine

Mapness

Although it's ostensibly designed for travel journaling, this clickable atlas can also help with planning by letting you create custom maps of your travels. Adding a waypoint or something of interest—a hotel, a landmark, a train station—is as easy as double clicking. Mapness will automatically plot routes between your various stops, and store your map online so that you can pull it up on the go. Even better, you can share your map with others via an e-mailed link, or export them to Google Earth so that everyone in your party can find their way to the chalet. Finally, once you've arrived, you can also add photos and videos to document your trip for posterity. mapness.net.
HazelMail
Everyone loves to get postcards, but actually messing with the mail while on vacation can make you go, well, postal. (And in any case, do you really want a cheesy image from the hotel gift shop to stand as the definitive shot of your journey?) Roll your own postcards instead. At HazelMail, named for its founder's mom, you can upload your photographs and then enter a message and an address. The website takes care of the rest, printing out and mailing a freshly minted postcard (and saving you from having to track down stamps). The flat fee of $1.50 includes postage to anywhere. hazelmail.com.

Eye-Fi Explore
Explore There's no reason to wait until you get home to upload your photos from your trip, thanks to this camera memory card that gives your camera Wi-Fi connectivity. When it's paired with a free online account at a photo-sharing service such as Picasa or Flickr, you can set the card to upload on the fly, letting your friends tag along on your journeys with every snap you take. The Eye-Fi works with open wireless networks, and you can set it to automatically join them once you come into range. The purchase of the card also gives you the ability to use any Wayport hotspot for a year (there are more than 10,000 of such spots nationwide). If you're not near a free open source and you're in the U.S., chances are still good that you'll be able to find a Wayport spot to upload your photos. Also fun: The Eye-Fi uses Wi-Fi signals to store location data with every photos that's taken. When you upload shots to geo-enabled photo-sharing services (including Flickr and Picasa), the photos can be automatically added to a map that notes where they were taken—and which also has links to photos that other photographers have taken nearby. eye.fi/cards/explore/.

Twitter
Even if you're not using the micro-blogging site Twitter to update the world with your own comings and goings, you can still use it to bring the wisdom of a savvy, global crowd to the palm of your hand. Use your free acount to ask those following you a question ("Where can I find the best grits in Atlanta?") to tap into a trove of native knowledge in real time. For better luck use a "hashtag" (a keyword preceded by the pound symbol, such as #Atlanta) that will help people find your query. Or perhaps your question has already been answered: Try Twitter's dedicated search page. If you have an iPhone, you may also want to give the applications Tweetie and Twinkle a try. These can filter Twitter's tweets by location to help you listen in on locals. twitter.com.

TripIt
Have trouble keeping track of your travel plans? Help is here. Once you are registered with TripIt, you can forward to the site all of your confirmation e-mails for flights, hotels, and rental cars. TripIt takes those pesky details and automatically organizes them into a sorted itinerary you can access from any computer. Thanks to its stripped-down website design, you can pull up your confirmation codes at the ticket counter on your phone, rather than printing everything up in advance. Social features help you create a network of friends and share itineraries, and also add badges to your website to show where you are and what you're doing. In addition, you can export your trips to a calendar program such as Google Calendar or iCal. tripit.com.

Google Voice
With this phone manager, you can keep the calls coming through while you roam. Open at the moment only to existing users of a Google-owned service called GrandCentral but soon to be available for everyone, Google Voice gives you a phone number which you can set to ring any phone in the United States (Google plans to expand this ability worldwide). Even more usefully, it can be set to let only some numbers through—for instance, maybe you want your friends but not your boss to be able to call you on that beach in Miami. Because you can set it to ring more than one number, Google Voice can direct the same call to your cell phone as well as the line in your vacation home. You can also use it to check your voice mail from any computer. google.com/voice/about.

Tip #11: Airport codes

Here's a great link to finding out a city's aiport code: http://www.expedia.com/daily/airports/AirportCodes.asp

Travel Tip #10: what to do for hours in an airport

Visit www.expedia.com/daily/airports for an overview of Harriet Baskas's book Stuck at the Airport which gives all sorts of tips on what to do in 65 airports when you have lots of time before a flight.

In any aiport the people watching is fascinating!

In the Bangkok airport (BKK), you

1. can get a massage



2. go to bottom floor of the terminal and eat like a local (at local prices). Be sure to try the fried papaya salad!



3. There are several kiosks for internet usage for free and in the business center (departure level) you can go on line for as long as you wish (not inexpesive, but an option if you must get intouch with someone!).



4. Grab a Thai coffee (cheapest to buy it in the food court on the bottom floor), find a bench and people watch.

Tip # 9: Before you fly

Tip #9:
Before you fly, visit www.seatguru.com to get the best seat.
Visit www.flighttracker.com to learn about current weather conditions and delay conditions across the country. Also gives you updates on wait times at security.
www.expedia.com/daily/aiports gives you information on what to do while waiting at the airport.

Tip # 7 Immigration and Customs

When flying internationally, you will have to go through immigration and customs before leaving the airport (both in the country you are traveling to and upon your return to your home country).

While in flight, you will be given an immigration form. Fill this out before the plane lands in the country of your destination. You will need your passport, flight information and hotel information to fill the form out completely. Tuck this into your passport once completed.

Have your passport readily available (in your money belt is the safest place) you get into line for immigration. Typically immigration officers are not the smiley welcoming type. They are just there to get people moved through in an efficient manner.

Once yo pass through immigration (and you may be asked to show your airline ticket stub), you will be able to pick up your luggage at baggage claim (most airports have a digital sign board that will direct you to the correct baggage claim). Once you have collected your luggage you will follow signs to customs. Chances are you will go to the line that has nothing to declare- the green line. You will hand them your customs declaration form (some countries do not require this, but the USA definitely does!) or simply walk past the officer. If they need to do a check on you, stay calm, it is routine. Remain pleasant. They will sort through your bags and then send you off.

Once you have passed through customs you will then be in the main portion of the airport. And more likely than not begin to be asked if you need transportation by a slew of eager people.

next blog-what do to when asked if you need a taxi......

Tip #6 Going local

Find a city's true colors by going to the market. Being in the midst of the daily life of locals allows you an insider view to the country you are visiting. In the video below, I took travelers from one of my Thailand tours to Warowat market. Everything from mango's and papayas, slithering fish and beheaded pigs to mounds of fresh rice noodles and steaming pots of soy milk line the walkways. And the vendors are thrilled that you are there. When we lived in Thailand, we would often be given whatever we were looking at to try (grasshoppers, rambutan, egg larvae....).
Markets are also an excellent place to find unusual souvenirs. In Thailand, you can buy bamboo noodle scoops, coconut spoons, gorgeous hand thrown pottery, sarongs to name a few. You can even get a plastic tub of bamboo worms to bring home to your nephews for a truly unique gift!

And stepping into the busy world of a market at meal time takes a great expereince and turns it into an unforgettable WOW memory. See what the locals are eating, sit down and order a plate for yourself.

It is here that you will taste the truest of the country's flavours. In Warowat market, I find the utlimate Thai coffee (no longer found on street corners as it once was because of all the coffee shops that dominate the landscape), wonton soup, donuts with steamed soy.

I make a trip to the local market one of the first things on our itinerary when I bring a group to Thailand. http://www.stressescapetours.com/thailandstressescape.html

Tip #8: Checking in

Tip # :
Arrive 3 hours prior to your flight. This allows for getting a good seat assignment. Or visit www.seat guru.com to choose your perfect seat weeks in advance!
Also be ready to board when the gate opens (typically 30 minutes prior to departure)-to get your checked luggage stored and to settle in.

Tip #6 Passports vs Visas

*your passport is your United States citizenship travel document. You have to have this to travel internationally and re-enter the USA. If you don't have one you can apply to get one: (Please so this as soon as possible as it can take up to 6-8 weeks to have it processed!)

1. http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738_2.html.

2. You can also check with your local post office to see if they have a passport office where you can get the docs and photo.
The application is short and easy costing $75.
Once you apply it will take about 2 months to get it.

*a visa is the document required to enter other countries. It is like a permission stamp in your passport from that government to be in their country for a specified time period. The USA has agreements with some countries, like eu countries, to just show up at the airport and they ask you some questions and they stamp your passport then. Other countries, like India, require us to get a visa by applying for it before we arrive.

Thailand: Travelers staying in Thailand for less than 30 days do not need a visa. You will be stamped at immigration for a 30 day entry.
India: You will need to apply for an Indian visa. Once issued, Indian visa’s are only good for 6 months. Because of this, you must wait a minimum of 5 months prior to departure to apply for your visa. If you are planning on taking an Indian vacation and yoga retreat with Stress Escape Tours http://www.stressescapetours.com//Namaste Yoga Sanctuary http://www.namasteyogasanctuary.com/, we will inform you when you need to begin that process.

Tip # 5 Make copies

Tip #5 Make copies of all important paperwork

• Airline tickets
• Passport
• Travelers checks receipt
• Prescriptions
• Hotel addresses and phone numbers with dates I will be at each location
• Itinerary

I always make two copies

1. To remain at home with family/friends
2. Placed in my day bag, but not in my money pouch

Tip #4: Smelling fresh

Tip #4

1. I pack a few of my favorite fabric softener sheets into a zip lock baggy. And then add one to luggage. It eliminates dampness in humid climates and keeps your clothes smelling fresh!
2. Bring along your favorite essential oil. Mine travels in my qt. plasctic bag in my carry-on. Great for long trips when the stale plane air is becoming heavy. Place a few drops on a light bulb (before the bulb heats up or it make break) and your hotel room will smell like a spa in a very short time.
3. Find a travel size of your favorite perfume. It helps you resist duty free shopping (although you can find great travel sized items in duty free). And is small enough to pack into a zip lock bag for a quick freshening when you arrive at your destination.

Tip #3: Zip Locks

Tip #3: Zip Lock baggies of various sizes
I always bring a stash of zip locks with me on every trip. Especially when traveling to countries like Thailand and India, having these on hand can make life so easy.
Quart size:

1. Of course you need one qt size with all you carry on liguids (3-1-1).
2. Jewelry
3. Tissues for your day pack
4. Organize electrical cords for my computer and camera
5. IF you have checked luggage, be sure to put any liguid in a baggie-there is always a chance it will leak on route
6. Packing trash

Gallon size:

1. I pack my clothes in these. Less weight than the mesh bags found at luggage stores. Easy to organize t-shirts, undies, socks, scarves, ect... And, you can press out all the air so they become very compressed-allowing more room in you luggage (especially useful if you are traveling with only a carry on).
2. Shoes
3. Wet bathing suit
4. Dirty laundry
5. Organizing treasures for your return home

I never seem to have enough baggies on hand. Bring at least 6 of each size, including sandwich bags that are handy when you are backpacking and you need to carry your soap from guest house to guest house.

Tip #2: Best investment for peace of mind!

Tip #2:

TravelSafe (found on Magellan's web site)

We found this at an airport years ago on our way to Ghana, West Africa. It has been one of the best travel purchases we have ever made!

A sturdy bag that holds my passport, extra travelers checks, jewlery, ect that stays in the hotel room while I am tooling around for the day.

Because it is reinforced with "slash proof stainless steel mesh", it locks around any secure fixture, allowing you to leave your valuables in the room without any worry of them walking away!

Tip #1: How to keep my money safe...

Hi my name is Beth Ann Brancato-Misenhimer.
This is me, in a rice paddy showing my group of Culture Junkies (an endearing name I have created for the wonderful people who travel on my tours)
please see my web site for more details on that! http://www.stressescapetours.com/thaiyoga.html
With 20 + years of traveling experience, and now running tours to wonderful places around the globe i.e. Thailand and India yoga retreats and tours to Thailand to take Thai Yoga massage courses.

When someone signs up for one of our trips to a far away land, they typically have LOTS of questions for me. I thougth it would be helpful to blog one tip a day to help you begin your journey of a lifetime!

Tip #1: Purchase a security wallet (neck pouch or waist belt). You can find these at your local AAA store, or on line (check out Magellans.com). This money pouch will become the most important item you have when "on the road". Even in very safe countries, I ALWAYS have my money pouch with me. It sits under the elastic of my undies, all my valuables safely on me.

Money belts/neck pouches are meant to be worn underneath your clothes holding your passport, cash, travelers checks, credit cards, airline tickets and copies of any prescriptions.

to avoid looking like I just gained 15 pounds on the waist I .... see Tip #2 tomorrow...