foXnoMad

This is the second of seven entries in the Inspire Me Africa Photo Contest. Check out entry #1 and vote for your favorites on Monday December 1, 2008.

“While in Egypt this past winter, a Bedouin villager offered to take my family and I on a quick cruise in the Nile on his self made wooden boat.”

Submitted by: Noura

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This is the first of seven entries in the Inspire Me Africa Photo Contest. Vote for your favorites on Monday December 1, 2008.

“Photos from Kenya.”

Submitted by: Mara

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Although I missed the Basketball Hall of Fame, I was able to eat at Pazzo’s Ristorante, right outside. This photo is about as fuzzy as my quick tour through Massachusetts.

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On election day in the US two weeks ago I ran a poll asking what are the most important travel related issues for the next president?

It looks like the environment is a priority for many of you as well easing visa restrictions.

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Since the poll ran Obama was elected president, so let me ask you these two questions:

1. How can the Obama administration reduce the environmental impact of traveling?
2. What steps should be taken to ease visa restrictions to the US without jeopardizing security?

Please feel free to leave your ideas, thoughts, and comments to foster a little discussion. I’ll add my ideas and tackle the issue sometime in December.

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All of these photos of the small town (population around 4,700) were originally taken in color.

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I pulled into Hadley, Massachussetts today on a foggy cool morning.

I took a number of interesting pictures in the seemingly tiny and almost 500 year old city. I’ll post the entire album from Hadley on Monday.

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Maintaining a travel blog requires experience traveling, making it difficult at times to keep writing new posts when you’re on the move. Yesterday I suddenly realized my December travel schedule is looking more hectic as I hop all over the US and in Asia. Balancing traveling with writing is a dilemma all travel writers and bloggers face from time to time.

Luckily there are a number of quick ways to post quick, good material, in advance, without jeopardizing your schedule.

Pictures You’ve Taken

The easy way out is to post some travel photos you find online or from other blogs. However it’s much more interesting for your readers to see photos that you’ve personally taken (here are mine) - even if you don’t feel they’re ‘good enough’.

• The pictures and posts that I don’t feel are ‘good enough’ are usually the ones that generate the most feedback. Don’t fret too much and hit “publish”!

• Include yourself in some of the pictures since most of the travel photos you post are likely to be of other people.

Chop It Down

Almost any written post can be cut down, even ones as short as 200 words. Make a short series of a post that you would normally run on one day. You can even incorporate pictures into the flow and potentially turn one regular post into a week’s worth when your traveling.

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People have begun sending me their inspiring photos from Africa and of African culture from all over the world. The number of entries is great so far, but I’d like to turn it up in the last few days.

Remember, the pictures don’t necessarily have to be from Africa, they can be examples of African culture (including food) from all over the world.

Send me your best pictures to foxnomad@foxnomad.com before next Tuesday, November 12, 2008 with ‘photo contest’ in the subject line.

There are 5 prizes being offered for the Inspire Me Africa Photo Contest including a Casio Exilim digital camera and $75 cash. For full details check out my original post announcing the contest.

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All travelers have that inner list of secret places we’d really like to adventure to. These places are rugged, isolated, nobody knows about them and they are cheap. That is, until one day we hear about them on the nightly news or find out a buddy has already been there.

Now, that place isn’t so cheap anymore, everyone and their mother’s been there, and it’s about as rugged as Monaco. I’m not going to try and teach you how not to procrastinate and get to your secret cheap places - since I can’t do it myself - but there are some warning signs that you should look out for and watch as they progress. As soon as you see them, hop on the next flight out otherwise you’ll have missed out on your cheap destination.

The Stages of Losing The Cheap Destination

1. The Neighbors Are Getting Expensive - As Thailand gets pricey it makes Cambodia and good alternative. A good alternative until it gets popular enough to become expensive itself. Having neighbors with booming tourism industries is a good indicator that travel will increase in a given region, which ultimately raises prices.
2. Government Freedoms - Russia, China, and Egypt all have booming tourism industries fostered in part by the opening up of their governments. I’m not saying these are the most democratic nations in the world, but that they’ve freed their systems enough to encourage travel and not make people scared to go there.
3. The Big Screen - Countries usually show up in action movies when they’ve got a bad reputation, then in historical pieces as they modernize, and once its in a chick flick as an exotic destination it’ll soon be overrun with tourists.

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During my last trip to New Delhi, India I stayed in the luxurious Taj Palace Hotel, unlike my first trip to Bangalore where I stayed in a nameless hotel completely infested with cockroaches. I’ve also slept with the little critters in the US (New Jersey), Turkey, and with mice in Minnesota.

Traveling on a budget to various places is inevitably going to have you sharing a hotel room, hostel, or airport floor with cockroaches. The little insects are somewhat disconcerting at first and can make your skin crawl but they generally don’t mind you. That said, there are some easy steps you can take to make peace with your 6-legged friends and keep them from disrupting your sleep.

• Wipe Down The Sinks - You’ll see fewer roaches running around if you don’t leave any drops of water around the bathroom sink and bathtub. The moisture and humidity attract the bugs especially in the middle of the night.
• Leave The Light On In The Bathroom - This may seem a bit excessive for some of you, but having spent the night in hotels where the bathroom was crawling with the buggers I found leaving the lights on to be effective. It doesn’t keep them all from showing their faces, but certainly reduces their numbers.
• Keep You Bags Zipped - I’ve been focusing on the bathroom for a good reason - cockroaches don’t generally leave its vicinity. That said it’s still a good idea to zip up your suitcase and backpack pockets so you don’t have any hitchhikers.
• Think Down Not Up - Cockroaches naturally prefer high places to lower ones so hiding your clothes on top of closet shelves is not the best idea. Believe it or not, if you’re roach-paranoid, leave your belongings on the floor, away from walls. (If you’re still having a hard time, pull your bed out a little away from the wall.)
• Stay Cool - Both in your head and in your room. Lower temperatures encourage the bugs to stay in the (warm and toasty) walls and not on your bathroom door.

There are also several natural cockroach repellents.

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