Last minute oddball Halloween costumes that reflect your travels

by Jamie Rhein on

While Catherine has Halloween costume ideas that reflect different types of travelers–(there are more ideas coming throughout today), and Heather previously posted on how to dress up like an awesome flight attendant, here are other costume ideas. These wander into the unusual–possibly the obscure.

Each are based on travel and incorporate souvenirs you may have brought home with you, particularly if you have problems passing up purchases. All were thought of at the last minute for a past Halloween and were worn at a party.

As a note, you may have to explain what you are, although the responses to each were positive.

Also, as you travel this year, think of costume ideas as you go. In this picture I see items that might come in handy. Read on.

Costume 1: A Homonym

Costume 1 may or may not need an explanation. It depends upon how much people understand language. It’s easy to do.

If you purchased some sort of robe on your travels, dress like a homonym by doing this: My husband wore a colorful striped robe that he purchased in Bhutan and leather sandals. He made a tablet out of cardboard and painted it to look as if it had the Ten Commandments written on it. He carried that in one hand. The idea was to look sort of like Moses. Around his neck, he wore a chart showing the Dow Jones on an up trajectory.

Prophet–Profit. Get it?

Costume 2. A Souvenir Stand: If you purchased a large straw hat–mine was purchased in Mopti, Mali, turn it into souvenir stand by doing this. This costume seemed to look vaguely familiar to the party guests. People did like to look at it.

You’ll need strong thread, small objects that you bought during your travels and small price tags. Affix the objects to the hat by tying one end of a piece of thread to an object and then threading a needle with the other end in order to pass that end of the thread through the hat.

Tie a knot to attach the object to the hat. Keep adding objects around and on the brim. Then, add price tags. Name your souvenir stand and make a sign with the name on it. Put the sign around your neck or at the top of the hat. You can label where the objects are from as well.

Other ideas: You could alter this costume to be a museum exhibit. Or a postcard rack.

Costume 3. A Rain Forest. This one definitely is an attention grabber and people will know what you are. It is easier to create if you live near a rain forest, but it is doable if you live elsewhere. If you live right next door to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore, you won’t have any problems finding a few large leaves.

What you will need, in addition to leaves or some sort of palm fronds: rubber or plastic insects, snakes, flowers or what ever else you can think of that might be found in a rain forest. We added bananas and a stuffed animal monkey.

A small tape player with a tape of birds singing. We also had wooden instruments from Vietnam that sound like crickets and grasshoppers when clacked together. A rain stick would work for your audio portion of this costume.

Affix the leaves to your clothes–we wore black tee shirts and pants. Next, attach the other items in various spots. We used string and safety pins.

My husband slipped the tape into his pocket so when we arrived at the party, the birds singing and the instruments’ insect sounds created quite the entrance. We won 2nd prize.

If you don’t have large leaves, make some out of construction paper. I’m sure you could come up with a clever hat. I think we wore baseball caps with rain forest type things affixed to them.

25 great adventures for 2010

by Kraig Becker on

The latest issue of National Geographic Adventure has just hit the newsstand with a special treat inside for adventure travelers looking for their next big trip. The magazine has listed its selection for the 25 best new trips for 2010, offering up suggestions of places to visit in nearly every corner of the globe.

The list is organized in alphabetical order by destination, starting with Bhutan and running through several U.S. locations as well. Each of the locations also has a tour operator associated with it, and clicking on the text will give you a more detailed description of what you can expect on your adventure.

No matter what draws you to adventure travel, you’re sure to find something on the list that appeals to you. For instance, if you’re up for a challenging kayaking adventure, head to Bhutan with Bio Bio Expeditions, where you get the opportunity to make the first descent on a previously unpaddled section of the Drangme Chhu River. Does an island adventure sound more enticing? Then plan a trip to Sri Lanka with Access Trips, where you can go surfing and mountain biking through that amazing setting. And for those who would prefer a little more rest and relaxation with their adventure, there is always the Muang La Resort in Laos which offers jungle escapes that includes luxury rooms and a deluxe spa. That trip is available through Asia Transpacific Journeys.

No one knows adventure like National Geographic, and you can bet that each of these trips will deliver in that category. With 2009 quickly coming to an end, it is never too early to start planning your own adventures for 2010, and this list is a great place to start.

World Monuments Fund announces list of endangered treasures

by Sean McLachlan on

The World Monuments Fund, a private organization battling to preserve the world’s great man-made wonders, has published a list of the most endangered monuments around the world.

It’s a depressing litany of priceless places that are under threat from a variety of factors, mostly related to human greed.

Some monuments are fantastic, such as the mountaintop monasteries of Phajoding in Bhutan, where centuries of peace and solitude are being disturbed by an increasing number of trekkers seeking peace and solitude.

Others are more mundane places that you might not even notice, yet they’re important artifacts of history, like the farm fields of Hadley, Massachusetts. When the Puritans first settled here in 1659 they replicated the system of open, narrow fields that they knew from England. The field system still exists today, but this legacy of America’s early settlers has now been rezoned for commercial and residential buildings, including a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

My own adopted country of Spain has seven entries to the list. The old medieval town of Avila (pictured here) is facing increasing pressure from new building, while Gaudí’s famous cathedral in Barcelona is threatened by the construction of a high-speed railroad right next to it. That a rich, moderately-sized country should have so many entries should come as no surprise to Spanish residents. “Developers” have been ruining the Spanish landscape for years, fueling a building boom that crashed last year and flung the country into a deep recession. The most glaring example of the rapacity of the Spanish real estate market is the coastline, where a ring of apartments, homes, and hotels encircle the country like a garrote. Some of this construction is illegal, but campaigners have had only limited success in stopping it.

The list has been published every two years since 1996 in order to bring attention to cultural heritage sites that are threatened by natural or man-made factors, although the bulk of them are man-made. Many of the sites that make it onto the list get sizable donations from the World Monuments Fund to help their caretakers preserve them.

Best of luck guys, given constantly expanding urban areas and a rising population, you’ll need it.

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Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

by Brenda Yun on

A few months back I heard a fascinating bit on NPR’s All Things Considered about a coffee table book that was recently published called, “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats,” by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. I had been meaning to find it in the bookstore, but like most things in life the intention was lost. Then, earlier this week I stumbled upon the book sitting on a table in my sister’s living room and immediately immersed myself in its contents.

The premise of the book is fairly straightforward: Identify 30 average families from 24 countries around the globe and photograph the family with a week’s worth of food. The results, however, were astounding. For instance, the family in Bhutan eats meals made up entirely of fruits, vegetables, and rice, which by the looks of it barely appears to be enough for its 7 adults and 7 kids. In contrast, the family of four in the United States has a diet almost completely made from processed and packaged foods.

Each family is profiled with illustrations, a back story, as well as a catalog of food items and how much it costs to feed the family for a week. To give you just a sense of the stark contrast, the Bhutan family spends just $5 per week, whereas the family in the U.S. spends about $350 per week. In Chad, though, the situation is quite dire. A family of six (3 adults and 3 children) eat a diet of beans and rice with a small portion of veggies and fruits, spending a mere $1.25 per week.

This coffee table book is truly a fascinating look at what the world eats, and really demonstrates the difficulty for developing nations to provide a balanced diet for its people. Based on my own travels abroad, and my experience having difficulty striking the same healthy balance of eating abroad as I do at home, I found the book to be a very accurate portrayal of how average families can still struggle to eat nutritious meals.

Trekking the Himalaya in India

by Kraig Becker on

When adventure travelers set out to hike the Himalaya, they traditionally go to Nepal to take on the Annapurna Circuit or make their way to Everest Base Camp. Some will venture to Tibet or even Bhutan to get their high altitude fix, but many forget that the Himalaya run into India as well, and they offer the same amazing views and cultural interaction.

Travel writer Stan Sesser recently made the journey to Ladakh, India, and wrote about his experiences for the Wall Street Journal. The quaint little villiage, which looks more Tibetan than Indian, sits at 13,000 feet and is a two hour hike from the nearest road. But despite it’s remote location, Sesser round ancient Bhuddist temples, hosbitable villagers, and towering, snow capped peaks.

Sesser says he paid $688 to a local trekking service to gain access to the region, and for his money he received a guide, a cook, a horesman, and five horses to carry their gear along a 40 mile mountain trail. Over the course of the next five days, he and guides explored mountain passes ranging from 10,000 to 16,000 feet, passing through villages that don’t appear on maps even to this day, and remain virtually unchanged from the way they were centuries ago.
Traditionally, trekking the Himalaya in Nepal or Tibet is best done in April and May or again in October and November. During the summer months the monsoon sets in, and the torrential rains makes it impossible to venture into the mountains. But that isn’t the case in India, where the high mountains cut off the rains, providing excellent trekking from June through October.

Sesser does note that trekking other parts of the region have become uncertain affairs, with the Taliban causing problems in the Karakorum of Pakistan, the Chinese locking down access to Tibet, and political unrest in Nepal. But he says that makes Ladakh all the more appealing. Few trekkers visit the area however, and of those that do, only a very small percentage are Americans.

If you’re looking for a trekking region that is truly off the beaten path, then head to this remote corner in India’s far north. You’ll get plenty adventure, a dose of unique culture, and views that will take your breath away for more reasons than just the altitude.