Blogs

January 27th 2009, 13:45

I think I've had my first lariam dream. Having had only one proper nightmare ever, I was curious about this possible side effect, and almost looking forward to it. It sounded like a challenge. Well, last night, I was being chased up a flight of stairs by two axe murderers. Fortunately, they ended up murdering each other and by the end, I was fishing for trout in our garden pond. So, I reckon I can handle Larium.

I am reviewing my To Do list. The longer I look at it, the m

January 26th 2009, 03:30

This time next week, we will be on a plane going to Nairobi. I’m a teensy bit of a nervous wreck. I have cried at Holiday Showdown, The Dog Whisperer (which isn’t as good as It’s Me Or The Dog) and tonight I almost entirely dissolved into a pool of salt water and phlegm during Deep Impact. Hopefully, it’s the lariam. I don’t remember feeling like this when I was doing it ten years ago. But I wasn’t as good at worrying about things then as I am now. Mum, Dad, the cat, mone

When Travel Marketing Conferences Fall Short

I went to the recently held, high-powered Association of Travel Marketing Executives (ATME)  conference  eager to pick up the latest in travel trends, and come back with content for an article on the forward-looking state of travel.

Half way through the two day meet I began to feel I wasn’t getting what I wanted.

Nothing was sticking.

That was confusing because the roster was star-studded; the wunderkinds of travel’s social media world and executive clas

To explore flora and fauna in a natural habitat, there is absolutely no better option to go ahead with than Jim Corbett National Park. The park is a favored destination of naturalists and wild life lovers across the globe. Common animal species which are sighted out here include elephants, tigers and spotted deer, besides varied species of birds. However, to have full enjoyment and thrill, you need to stay at Jim Corbett National park for at least few days. Several resorts in Corbett can be avai

January 26th 2009, 03:15

Today, we decided on the name for our blog. I rejected all of Alex’s ideas and he rejected all of mine, except one: losingluggage.com. Our agreement was sublime, not only that, the name was available. The satisfaction of coming up with something that no one else has is primal. Fifteen minutes later and it was ours and we had a nice big tick on our to do list. The first person to hear the name for our blog was my mum’s hairdresser.
“Losing luggage dot com?” she said, archin

With sincere apologies to Karen Blitzen, I nicked that title to attract readers, a brazen move to be sure.

The more you get to know about any subject, the more you realize you do not know about that subject. Some smart guy said that once, I think he was Greek. I now know a lot more about Kenya after one week as a tourist than I did before, that’s for certain. I now have deep desire to learn a whole lot more. 

We were “on safari.”  

A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to

January 26th 2009, 03:10

It turns out that we’ll have to fork out as good as 500 quid on pumping ourselves full of tropical diseases in the name of modern medicine in order, they tell us, not to die during the trip. Hepatitises A and B, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, meningitis and rabies for starters. The guy makes it difficult to tell if he is ripping us off, deliberately anyway, by disguising his calculations with a cloak of incompetence. His pricing seems both random and expensive and I was

January 26th 2009, 03:08

The plan is that this will be transformed from a boring old Word document into a blog. If you’re going to do anything in life, it seems churlish and secretive these days not to broadcast it to the whole world. It all seems terminally modern to me, and I’m quite pleased that, as far as Word is concerned, blog isn’t even a real word. That’s one thing Bill Gates and I can agree on.

We look at some of the most scenic, exciting and just plain brilliant places this beautiful country has to offer.

So before you go booking your tickets for Venice or Ko Phi Phi Nom, check out this list of the top 25 travel destinations in India:

1. Leh, Jammu & Kashmir

This mountain town in Ladakh is quickly rising to the top of must-visit lists. Not surprising when you consider the sheer natural beauty of the place.

The towering Himalayas supply a dramatic backdrop and plenty of opportunity for adr

January 26th 2009, 03:01

Perhaps unusually, I’m beginning my travelogue from my desk at home. Having told everyone our plans for the next year (top three comments so far: “That’s going to test the friendship”; “Don’t get pregnant”; “What if I die?” Thanks for that, Mum), and after all the calls made and emails sent to travel agents, and having attended nearly all of Alex’s leaving dos, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve already started. We’ve even come up with a departure date: 1st February. 

Frankly,

Better than have a biggest text is watching the slideshow of Tortas de Azeitão (rolls), which are a traditional product from Azeitão in Setúbal Region. The biggest national producer is supplying to the biggest stores and already export it. It is a product that you can eat anytime and specially on your dessert, mixing it with ice cream, chocolate or any other complement that you like.

Obtaining a volunteer visa is one of the sure ways to avoid getting fined or deported for not having the proper paper work to be in a country. For instance in Ecuador if you over stay say with a tourist visa, even for one day then you stand a chance of paying an outright $ 200 in fines, and if you stay longer then you may pay up to $ 2000. So to be on the safe side for a volunteer you need to make sure you apply for the proper volunteer visa, to avoid these problems.

When planning to go for volu