The catch here, and where you become involved, is that I can’t actually afford to go do this. What I’d like to do is offer my services to you in order to help me raise the money I need. Here’s the scenario and what I hope I can offer.

The Problem: I am planning to be volunteering in the Philippines for 3 weeks in March (3/2 – 3/20) with All Hands Volunteers (the same group I went to Haiti with!). A really short time unfortunately. The catch is that I’m also coincidentally unemployed as of the end of February. So I have no income with which to fund this. Granted, this should mean I don’t go. I figure though that I now have the spare time. And air miles covers the vast majority of the expense. Plus, it’s not like the thousands of people made homeless by the flooding are terribly convenienced by it all either. If I can cover the remaining expenses, then get some work as soon as I get home, I can pull this off. I’m totally up for the challenge if you are. By my math, I need about $600 to bridge the gap. This is for airline tariffs, taxes, medical insurance fees, and ferry tickets. All the unavoidable junk.

My Offer: While in the Philippines, I am offering to meet any request you have. Maybe you want to know something about the area, people, local food, etc? Maybe you just want a postcard? Or a picture of a cat? A poem about rice? I don’t care what it is really. I don’t like just asking for money for free, so I prefer to offer something in exchange. Whatever you think is a fair exchange for your donation. While I’m there I’ll also be working my ass off clearing mud out of houses, demolishing ruined houses and hopefully constructing some new ones.

You! Can simply chip in to make this thing work out and make a request. Most people seem to prefer PayPal, but if you don’t then just email me and we’ll figure something out. Any amount you want to give is fantastic! I’ll post lots of pics and info here of course. Plus any requests I get will be posted here. Any questions? Just ask! Please make sure to give me your email address with your request so I can let you know when it’s posted or ask follow up questions. Donate some money via PayPal here!

Thank you all very much! This idea of asking other people to help me go help some other people feels a bit awkward to me. I’m pretty excited to make it work though. Thanks!

.

// Shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Help Me Help You to Help Someone Else in the Philippines! is a post from: Rerunaround

When people ask me why I like horror movies or traveling I respond with such informative feedback as, “It’s cool and junk” but there’s perhaps a smidge more to it than that. There is a common element between the two for me, which I hadn’t considered until now. And no, the common element is not screaming people or giant bats. Well, maybe yea, it is those things too, but that’s not my point here. Bear with me here and tell me if my logic sounds legit.

In order for a horror movie to be really successful, the viewer needs to empathize with the characters. As the viewer, you need to not only be worried about the situation, but you must also be engaging in decisions along with the characters. When they run up the stairs you get annoyed because you would have gone out the front door. You were thinking about it though, and putting yourself into the situation, which is the key. There’s a certain unspoken enjoyment from this dress rehearsal. You got to be chased by a chainsaw murderer and you got the satisfaction of learning that your decision to run out the front door was a good one. Should a real chainsaw massacre go down at your next slumber party, you’re prepared. It’s all sub-conscious, emotional and junk, but it is the magic behind the curtain that makes the film rewarding. Or you just love chainsaws so much. We’re all different I guess, but I’m talking from my own perspective here. You should start a chainsaw blog if you’re that into them.

My most rewarding trips and experiences have been ones where I’ve felt like I understood a little of what those coming before me felt. And those coming after me too. I got a sense of what it’s like in that town, and how the people who live there probably frown at the bottom of the same hill that I’m frowning at. I empathized with all the unknown people who also at some point stood at the train station and pondered why the signs were seemingly organized by drunk kittens. I’m a junior Magellan as I deftly locate the hotel bar. And in a dark corner of my brain I am satisfied that were I a great explorer in times long past, I would totally be able to find those ancient, unmapped, hotel bars.

So you see, the commonality between horror and travel is this Whitman’s sampler of empathic challenges. By placing myself in the moments I get to see how I would cope. The more I crave these little tastes of confidence, the more I put myself out there.

That’s how I see it anyways. Are you similar? Or am I making crap up just to hear the clackity-clack of my keyboard? I think this is mostly obvious stuff, but I wanted to talk about it some anyways.

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//shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Horror Movies Make Me Travel. Sort of. is a post from: Rerunaround

Spooning cereal into my mouth like a sugar starved automaton, I consider why I construct routines in most aspects of my life. More specifically, why I have routines at all, and why I always seem to have them. Even when I’m only in a place or situation for a couple days, I quickly fall into little repeated patterns and habits. Fortunately, research has shown that most of us are quite habitual, so I don’t feel too bonkers.

For example, earlier this year I was spending a week in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nothing fancy, just a week of downtime to relax and look around. In that short week, I had established several routines without even thinking about it. Like clockwork — More imported plastic clockwork than anything Swiss or precision — I would get my breakfast nice and early. Then I had my usual coffee shop that I liked to hit. Followed by a short walk around town. The seagulls down on the old fort walls that overlooked the ocean probably saw me consistently enough that they set their little gull watches by me. We’re not going to talk about which part of my routine involved Ben & Jerry’s either.

Photo by Gregory Kowalski

I suppose I learn a lot about places I visit by having a routine. Seeing specific places each day gives me a context to notice how things change day in and day out. I remember being the only person in my usual San Juan cafe that knew there was going to be a parade that day. I had spotted the change in traffic patterns and the extra civil workers while making my usual walk around town en route to the cafe. Granted my OCD might have helped with that more than the routine. Which now leads me to wonder, are there anti-routine people? Are there people that go out of their way, consciously or otherwise, to not establish routines? I don’t mean anarchists per se, but just people who are disinclined to repeat daily patterns like that.

In thinking about it now, this topic reminds me to get on with my day. I click around, reading the occasional piece of fiction or blog online. Inevitably, this leads me to consider writing something, and I start putting together this post. I’m off now to continue with my daily routine. Which involves a little lunch and a bit of a walk. I presume we take comfort from the safety of a routine. So in search of that comfort we put together routines at any given opportunity. Either way, I’m off to comfort myself with the usual lunch. I’ll see you all at the awards ceremony for most predictable senior citizen in 2038.

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//shawn

ps: What kind of spell check doesn’t know what Puerto Rico is? Does it really think the USA territory is called Puberty Rico? Really?

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Moving My Routine From Place To Place is a post from: Rerunaround

Were I making this decision right this minute, I would buy an Android tablet and use Google’s eBookstore. I wouldn’t buy any of the eReader products (Kindle, Nook, etc) as they are too single purpose. A tablet device will let you read ebooks, but also let you use full colour web browsing, photo viewing, use a zillion apps, and all that other crap you expect to be able to do on a great phone or netbook. Plus the all important maps. When a guide book isn’t available you can at least use the browser on a tablet to search for the info and maps you need. Whereas with an e-reader you’re just stuck.

The selection of available guide books on the Google store is about the same as Kindle. The same publishers are too thick to offer all of their titles universally on all platforms — looking at you Lonely Planet. Feature wise, Google’s store is quite cool. Unlimited storage (not like this is realistically a problem for anyone) and you can access your books from anywhere and any device. Launching at 3 million titles, there’s plenty to read. Plus they have the option to search for free books, which is fantastic. There are heaps of classic books that are available for free thanks to expired copyrights. For the budget traveler this is a gold mine of saved cash. The key parts though are the universal accessibility, and the ease of use/access from it being Google.

Why Android and not an iPad? When traveling in unpredictable situations you need as much flexibility in your electronics as possible. Apple products are very restrictive when it comes to their control of content on your product and accessing more content. Android is the most used mobile platform, is universally accessible and grants much more freedom to the user.

Why not a netbook? Really there isn’t anything wrong with just using a good little netbook. I just like the form and function of tablets. They’re comfy to hold for reading, they pack nicely, and you look like an intergalactic scientist while using one.

The downsides to using a tablet instead of an e-reader? Mostly just battery life. There is no way that any tablet can come even close to the battery life of a Kindle. Tablets are also a little heavier, and the screens aren’t as easy on the eye for a prolonged reading time as the Kindle. I used a Kindle for a year and looked at how well they replace guide books here.

When giving up precious space in your backpack it’s important to consider how many purposes an item serves. The more multi-purpose an item is, the more likely it is to be worth the space in your pack. Which is the premise that got me to this whole guide book replacement theme in the first place. Whatever you ultimately choose, just consider if it’s as much like a Swiss army knife as it can be.

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//shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Can A Tablet Replace Travel Guide Books? is a post from: Rerunaround

Here are the three main questions I got about using the Kindle as a guide book. These are definitely the most practical considerations:

Q1: Does the free 3G access to buy and download new books work in lots of places?

A1: Amazingly well all over the place. Better than advertised.

Q2: Are the maps usable?

A2: Meh, usable but not great.

Q3: Were there lots of guides available in the Kindle store?

A3: Hit and miss. Which perhaps isn’t quite good enough.

Everything else about the Kindle was above and beyond exceptional. The battery lasts forever, it’s ridiculously lightweight, and it’s very comfortable to read. There’s a ton of great books (even many free titles!) available, so for novels it’s quite good. It’s just not completely solid for guide books. It’s damn close though.

Were I shopping  for a digital guide book option today — which I always am — what would I buy?I would buy an Android tablet and use Google’s eBookstore, and here’s why.

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//shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Can A Kindle Replace Travel Guide Books? Part 2 of 2 is a post from: Rerunaround

Over the years, I’ve learned that I have some exceptional skills. Some may seem negative at first, but as countless legitimate comic books have shown us, even crappy powers have their useful situations. And yea, one would definitely think that some powers would cancel one another out. Go figure. That said, here are my traveling super powers. Plus a few I just wish I had. Do you have any of these?

My Travel Super Powers

1. Mojave Mouth: I never even realized this until years ago a friend mentioned that he was always thirsty. I then realized that I couldn’t recall ever not being thirsty.
2. Whale’s Bladder: Yea, I can sit on a 14 hour train/bus/plane ride and not have to pee once. I have also never gotten up during a movie. Okay, once maybe.
3. Time Bandit: I am a chronological simpleton. Tell me what time it is, and my body thinks it’s that time. I never have a problem with jet lag. Power #4 helps too.
4. Somnambulator: I can sleep at any time. I may have just slept for 14 hours, but if I need to sleep again right away, no problemo.
5. Amelia’s Ear & Heart: I do very well at not getting lost. Once in a while, if I’m not paying attention, I can get off track temporarily. In general though, I don’t get lost.
6. Day Dream Weaver: I can keep myself entertained in my own head for ages. Ideal for long lines or delayed flights. Perhaps it comes from being an only child, or from being a bit simple.

I think those are all I have. Six isn’t too shabby though, yea? Especially considering what an absurd topic this is. Here are a few I wish I had, but unfortunately do not.

My Super Powers Wish List

1. Martyr Sauce: The ability to tolerate tourists in any quantity. (I almost immediately lose all patience at the site of them.)
2. Cunning Linguist: The ability to pick up or understand seemingly any language. (I can’t even truly master my one language, English.)
3. Garborator: The stomach and versatility to eat anything and any amount at any time. (I’m bit of a picky eater, and too full at odd times and too hungry at others.)
4. Energizer: Run around all day long then still have limitless energy. (I’m a napper by nature.)

How about yourself? What traveling super powers do you possess? Or just wish you had?

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//shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- What if… there were traveler super powers?! is a post from: Rerunaround

If you’re heading to Bangkok or South East Asia, make sure you set aside some time (and money!) to shop. You might have nabbed cheap flights to Phuket, but make sure you include Bangkok on your itinerary. Here’s a quick guide on where you’ll find the city’s best shopping experiences.

- Shopping Malls. There are more shopping centres in Bangkok than visitors will likely have time to visit. Different shopping malls specialise in different goods and level of product quality. Knowing what you’re looking for will narrow down your shopping mall destination list. CentralWorld holds the title of Bangkok’s biggest shopping centre, with a variety of luxury and mainstream brands. If you’re looking to splurge then Siam Paragon and Gaysorn house luxury designer brands. The legendary MBK Centre has 2000 shops spread over eight levels that sell everything from electronic to cosmetic goods, at bargain prices.

- Lifestyle and goods markets. Whether you’re after clothing, textiles, jewellery, accessories or electronic goods, market shopping does not mean a sacrifice of quality. Many young Thai designers sell their wares at markets, and it is a great way to buy directly from the Thai people. The Chatuchak weekend markets are a landmark Bangkok destination. The 35-acre area of Chatuchak is home to more than 8,000 market stalls, selling everything from clothes, accessories, textiles, food, souvenirs, and even animals! The Suan Lum, Patpong and Siam Square Night Markets are also great places to pick up clothing, souvenirs, DVDs, furniture, decorations and lifestyle goods.

Photo by Guillaume via Flickr CC.

- Produce markets. Visiting the produce markets is a good way to get off the well-trodden tourist track and get amongst the day-to-day Bangkok grind. The Pak Khlong Flower Market has stall after stall of flowers in dazzling colours, creating a rainbow patchwork of fragrant flowers. The Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is also an experience. Fresh fruit, vegetables and cooked food are sold to customers from floating market boats.

You’ll never go home empty handed when shopping in Bangkok. If you want to make advantage of the favourable exchange rate, it can even be worth hopping on cheap flights to Thailand just to do your seasonal shopping. Keep your eye out for cheap flights, and you’ll be able to ‘shop-til-you-drop’ in Bangkok!

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// Paige Green

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Bangkok Shopping Tips is a post from: Rerunaround

I decided to make a list for the three languages I am most interested in. The theory being that this effort should help me visualize my best choice.

French

1. Already mediocre at it
2. 16th most spoken language in the world
3. Hate the food (I love the pastries though)
4. Very few nearby locations for immersion (Quebec is about it in the Americas)
5. Natalie Portman speaks it
6. Generally considered the moderate difficulty of these three to learn
7. Quite good movies and music
8. High likelihood to be useful post-zombipocalypse
9. Hard because I can’t roll my r’s
10. Pretty good at foot-soccer-ball, but lame at hockey

Spanish

1. I’ve seen some Dora episodes
2. 2nd most spoken language in the world
3. Love the food
4. Very few locations not nearby for immersion (Canada is about it in the Americas)
5. Natalie Portman doesn’t speak it, but maybe will someday
6. Generally considered the easiest of these three to learn
7. Okay movies and music
8. Moderate likelihood to be useful post-zombipocalypse
9. Hard because I can’t roll my r’s
10. Very good at foot-soccer-ball, but horrible at hockey

Japanese

1. I never know what they’re saying in Anime movies
2. 9th most spoken language in the world
3. Like the food, but can only eat a teeny percent of it all
4. Nowhere in the Americas is good for immersion
5. Natalie Portman speaks it
6. Generally considered the most difficult of these three to learn
7. Really good movies and music
8. Super likelihood to be useful post-zombipocalypse
9. Yay, no rolling r’s
10. Okay at foot-soccer-ball, but not good at hockey

Well, if you judge by the reasoning, then I’m changing my focus to be Spanish. Maybe I could putter at learning Japanese some too. The list shows that French is what I don’t need to keep learning though. I’m going to nap on it, then go grab some tacos, and consider if I’m ready for that change. In the meantime, share your linguistic dilemma comments below in either French, Spanish or Japanese, but not English. Oh, or Esperanto because it’s cool too.

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//shawn

* 44 of course being an exaggeration, but you get the point. It seems like 44 to us normal folk.

Photo Credit: My friend Charles took it in Panama City while I loitered. Turns out photography is more useful than loitering in the long run.

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Solving My Personal Linguistic Dilemma is a post from: Rerunaround

I’ll break this review of Travelgrove down into a couple logical sections. Which should either help or confuse you. I do what I can. Searching for flights, which will cover ease and flexibility. I’ll also use a real upcoming flight that I have to book so we can see if I save some money. Then I’ll try out the community features and see if they are useful or at least fun. Here we go, Travelgrove…

Booking Flights

The meat and potatoes of any travel booking site has to be the airfare search engine. That said, Travelgrove has a few things going for it, and is missing a couple too.

The first missing feature that I noticed was my beloved +/- 3 days feature. I find that’s really helpful for saving me some cash on my flights. Functionality such as sorting results by different fields and grouping by rewards program are also missing, but far less critical.

The search results include the amount of award miles for each flight, which is a really cool little feature. It was also really nice to see JetBlue listed as they are not included in many travel search engines.

So would I use Travelgrove to book my flights? Not exclusively. Which is okay, because they have a results comparison option that lets me search another site at the same time. I had a real flight that I need to book whichI used as my test for this Travelgrove trial. With that flight, I would have saved $3 by using Travelgrove because they had JetBlue and my usual site (Kayak) does not. However, adding a +/- 3 days to my search on Kayak saved me $24. The moral here is to generally corrade a few tools for comparison sake as it may just save you a few bucks.

Community Features

It seems that the Travelgrove community is still quite small. Which can be both a pro and con depending on your preference I guess. I find that until a community reaches a critical mass of users then it isn’t really as useful as it could be. There’s no shortage of functionality available in the Travelgrove community sections though. They have forums, and a system of user reviews and galleries that are there for the taking.

Under the umbrella of Travel Journals you can freely add your own reviews and galleries. These can then be searched by other users who are researching trips, or just killing time at work. The reviews function is a pretty straightforward text field with city selection. The galleries are rather nice with thumbnails and comments built right in.

There are also more robust travel guides for popular destinations. They include a location overview, sights, nightlife and a map. The part I found interesting though was the city rating and rank system. It’s interesting to see an entire city reviewed like a taco stand. A good example is the Orlando travel guide where you can see it gets five stars for family fun, but only three for public transit. Do they even have public transit in Orlando? Anyways, this feature amused me for quite awhile as I looked up places and rated them.

The user forums are a bit lacking when compared to some of the other big travel forums out there. However, this may be a symptom of a new community. Although, without some user momentum they’ll likely not become a terribly useful resource. From what I see now there is mostly a lot of travel ads masked as user posts.

Overall

The rest of the site has what you would expect to see, such as last minute deals and the such. These deals seemed to be about average as far as I can tell and are aggregated from other sites. They do have a neat way of displaying destination deals in a calendar grid. For example, cheap flights to Venice shows major departure cities best price per month.

Usability wise, there’s still some kinks to iron out in the flow and features. For example, it took me a while to figure out the site navigation enough to find my own journal. And it may just be me, but I logged in on that top nav bar a few times before deciding that it never showed me as logged in.

In summary, I’d call Travelgrove a young new travel site for cheap flights that with some polish could turn into a cool little tool and community. It’s worth keeping your eye on and checking out from time to time. If you give Travelgrove a try yourself please let everyone know what you thought in the comments.

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//shawn

ps: I should note that Travelgrove requested this review, but on the grounds that I be completely impartial.

pps: I know there are still travel agents and they’re still awesome. Just saying their role is changed these days.

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- Reviewing Travelgrove, A Travel Booking Site And Community is a post from: Rerunaround

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//shawn

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed, I appreciate it! Please be sure to stop by the site sometimes and leave a comment so I know you're still alive. I worry about you. Are you eating okay? Ok, see ya! -- How All Hands Volunteers Spent 2010 is a post from: Rerunaround