Roadmonkey Combines Adventure with Volunteer Opportunities

by Kraig Becker on

Travel company Roadmonkey has created unique travel experiences that combine the thrill of adventure travel with the satisfaction that comes with making a difference in the places we visit. The goal is to offer phsycially demanding outdoor adventures with deeply gratifyng volunteer opportunities to create what they term as “Adventure Philanthropy”.

Currently the compnay has two expeditions in the works for 2009. The first is a climb of Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, scheduled to take place this June. Travelers will spend the first seven days of the trip climbing to the summit of Kili before venturing overland to a small village near Dar Es Salaam. Once there, they’ll spend an additional four days building a clean water system and painting classrooms in a school for children orphaned by AIDS.

If climbing a mountain doesn’t sound like much of a vacation, then perhaps Roadmonkey’s other planned expedition is more your speed. This November they’ll take their second cycling trip through Vietnam, leading a team of 11 adventurous travelers as they mountain bike through the rugged hill country to the northwest of Hanoi. In 2008, the team stopped in a village along the way to build a playground at an orphanage, and a similar volunteer opportunity is planned for the 2009 expedition as well.

Volunteer travel is a growing trend in the industry, and when combined with adventure travel, it provides the opportunity for very unique and satifiying experiences on a cultural, physical, and intellectual level. Roadmonkey is offering just those kinds of journeys.

For Some Climbers, It’s Not Just About Going Up!

by Kraig Becker on

The spring climbing season is in full swing in the Himalaya, and the climbers on Everest, and the other major peaks in the region, are focused on acclimatizing and preparing for their summit bids, which are most likely to come around mid-May. For most of them, their focus is squarely on getting up the mountain, standing on top, and then getting back down in one piece.

But there are some climbers who feel that reaching the summit is only half of the adventure. Guys like Ben Clark, Josh Butson, and Jonathan Miller, who are currently in base camp on a 23,390 foot mountain in Nepal called Baruntse. For this team, the expedition isn’t just about reaching the summit, but also making an impressive descent as well. That’s why, when they reach the top, sometime in the next few weeks, they’ll congratulate one another, brieflyadmire the view, and then step into a set of skis, and proceed to make the first descent of the mountain.

This adventuresome trio will be climbing Baruntse along a new route, one that no one else has ever used to reach the summit before. They’ll also be climbing in “Alpine style” which means that they’ll go up the mountain in one push, carrying all the gear they need with them, including their skis. They’ll make the climb without the aid of Sherpas or porters of any kind. It is mountain climbing in it’s purest form, and then of course they’ll ski down a massive Himalayan wall that no one has ever skied before.

You can follow the expedtion at SkiTheHimalayas.com, where you’ll learn more about the climbers, view photos from the climb, and read regular dispatches, directly from the team, on their progress. Follow along as the adventure unfolds.

Talking Travel with GuideGecko.com

by Brenda Yun on

A few weeks ago, the world wide web saw the launch of a most useful travel resource called GuideGecko.com. Guide Gecko hopes to serve the dual purpose as an online bookstore and independent travel writing recruiter. The site’s mastermind, Daniel Quadt, spent the past year and countless hours speaking with travelers and writers to make Guide Gecko a useful travel resource. The end result hopes to please independent, knowledgeable travelers as well as those setting out for the first time.

Daniel sat down with me to talk about travel, GuideGecko.com, and the site’s potential.

BY: Thanks for taking time away from Guide Gecko’s exciting launch to correspond with Gadling. Where are you now, and do you have any plans to travel to either promote the site or for recreation in the near future?

DQ: I am in Singapore, the base for Guide Gecko and my ‘hometown’ in the last four years. Singapore is a perfect travel hub for South-East Asia, and I plan to visit Malaysia, Thailand, and perhaps Indonesia in the coming weeks and months. I don’t have a fixed schedule yet, so maybe faithful Gadling readers can let me know if they know of any event that could be interesting for Guide Gecko, or if they simply want to meet up and say “hello.”

BY: Can you briefly describe for our Gadling readers the kind of traveler you are? How often do you travel? Where is your dream destination? What is your preferred mode of travel?

DQ: I started traveling extensively during my studies, when I was a part time software developer for a major airline, and got to enjoy discounted tickets all around the world. Nowadays, I usually travel with my wife, and we try to go backpacking through southeast Asia every few months. I do like sightseeing in cities and temple ruins, but also enjoy lying in the water on a nice beach, sipping beers and waiting for the sunset. Given the proximity to Singapore, I would say that the ‘double beach’ on Pulau Redang, an island off of peninsular Malaysia’s east coast, comes very close to being my dream destination.
BY: Where did the Guide Gecko idea come from? Of all genres (ie: fiction, non-fiction, coffee table reads), why did you choose travel?

DQ: Naturally, the idea came while traveling – in Penang, Malaysia, to be precise. We usually prefer to have a drink in a bar with some locals around us, and try to eat in places where not all of the other diners are fellow travelers ordering what the Lonely Planet recommends. Nothing against the Lonely Planet – we have big collection ourselves – but the locals know what’s best and what not, and their information is always up-to-date. We thought there must be a way for both locals and tourists to profit from this. Our goal is to make this information available to anyone who is interested, in a concise way through travel, lifestyle and entertainment guides and not scattered over isolated travel tips or blogs.

BY: What service do you hope the site will provide for both writers and travelers in a way that is not yet offered online, through publishers, or in bookstores?

DQ: We bring authors and publishers together with customers and readers. We provide an opportunity for customers to find exactly the guides they need, and for authors to market their guides to consumers worldwide. Any budding author can publish his or her guide as a printed book or as a PDF download. The guide can have any length, from 1-1000 pages, and can cover any travel, lifestyle or entertainment topic. Publishing on Guide Gecko is free. As an author, you only need to write and upload your guide. We take care of everything else, from marketing and payment collection to printing and shipping. Authors set the retail price and earn up to 75% for each sale, from the first copy onwards.

BY: How does Guide Gecko market independently written guides by “greenhorn” travel writers? What kind of service does the site provide to ensure a degree of success for these guides opposed to the commercial (Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, etc) guidebooks?

DQ: We intend to make Guide Gecko the first in mind website for travel guides. We believe it is a great way for independent authors to market their guides. Customers may visit the site to order a Lonely Planet but end up buying your guide, especially if you offer it as a reasonably priced PDF download. When writers publish their guide on Guide Gecko, it will be listed on the front page, where it gets maximum visibility. An affiliate program where website owners, such as travel or food bloggers, can promote our guides on their site and earn a certain share of the revenue is also in the works.

BY: Do you promote the site only on the internet, or do you use offline marketing as well?

DQ: We promote the site online and offline. We have already experienced great media coverage, including feature articles in magazines and newspapers. We have focused our offline efforts on Singapore and southeast Asia as a start. We’ve already participated an interview on TravelTalkRadio, a U.S. radio show. I continue to sum up the media coverage in Guide Gecko’s company blog, so feel free to check that out for the details.

BY: If I were a consumer using the site, how could I be certain that I’ve chosen the best guidebook to fit my needs?

DQ: Our intention is to make the site as consumer friendly as possible. Users can find the right guides by searching not only by destination, but also by categories. You can combine categories too. For example, you can search for ‘budget travelers’ along with ‘barhopping’ — or ‘women’ with ‘wellness’ (and vice versa). When it comes to quality, we have a rating and review system where you can read what others think about the guide. We are currently developing a ‘preview’ functionality, which allows you to preview certain pages before making a decision. If that’s not enough, you can also ask questions to the author or to fellow users.

BY: I know you spent a considerable amount of time talking with travelers and writers to make this a great travel resource. What have you learned about the travel industry in the process, and in what ways had your initial vision for the site changed after gathering information, advice, and suggestions from travel enthusiasts like myself?

DQ: I have learnt that there are many budding travel writers with lots of interesting topics and good writing skills. However, many complain that there is a lack of opportunities to market their writings. They pitch their stories to magazines or guidebook publishers, only to collect rejection letters, if it all. I sincerely hope that Guide Gecko will provide them with the right tool to reach out to consumers. The market may be small for some niche topics, but with Guide Gecko, it is possible to serve such customers.

To give you an example, I am in contact with some authors who write guidebooks for travelers with disabilities, which are very comprehensive guides with lots of information you won’t find in any off-the-shelf guide. (Who knew there is a wheelchair friendly access to the Sacré Coeur in Paris though an elevated walkway from a neighboring guesthouse!). I hope that Guide Gecko will provide such guides with the attention they deserve, and let the authors focus on writing more guides of this caliber while we take care of the marketing, logistics and payment.

I have also talked to potential customers. Many of them told me something like, “If you could provide us with good guides on where and how to travel with
children, we’d be your first customers.” That showed me that there is a demand for many niche topics, which is how we came up with our 68 guide categories.

BY: If all goes well with the Guide Gecko launch, in what ways could you see the site grow or expand?

DQ: I would like to venture more in the area of electronic guide formats. I believe this is the future for guidebooks. Who wants to carry a heavy book when you already have a large-screen camera or a PDA with you all the time? It would be good to offer downloads for commercially available titles as well, be it as PDFs or in more interactive formats. So, if you are a publisher interested in this field, do let me know and we can see how we can work together!

Travel enthusisiasts: STAY TUNED to Gadling and Guide Gecko next month for an opportunity to submit your travel guide requests and/or proposals for great prizes! Or, If you’re a traveler in need of a special guide or a writer in need of platform and you’re ready to get started, head over to GuideGecko.com right now and create an account. Membership is free.

Adventure travel in India: Rafting

by Jamie Rhein on

One could say that any travel in India is an adventure and that could be accurate–even if you have loads of cash and are sticking close to swank establishments. If you head out of the mainstream, adventure is guaranteed. One option to add some thrills into your trip is to take in a rafting trip.

Arthur Max’s article published in The Columbus Dispatch gives details about his six-day rafting trip on the Kameng River. The river passes through the rain forest of the Valley of the Hornbills and through bamboo villages of the Nishi ethnic group. For anyone thinking of taking such a trip, Max’s article is a terrific place. Along with describing the experience, he gives the how-tos, the cost and what to expect. There’s also a handy sidebar of other options and rafting companies. One detail to note, is what a travel bargain such a trip can be compared to what you might pay elsewhere.

When we lived in India, the timing stunk for me to go rafting. While my husband headed down the Ganges above Rishikesh with our nine-year-old daughter, I waited for them at the take-out point. At seven-months pregnant, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of a possible spill into the Ganges. I was having my own adventure.

What I can say is that the water was gorgeous, and my husband, daughter and the other friends they were with had a wonderful time. Theirs was a half-day trip that they hooked up with thanks to the staff at The Glass House, one of the Neemrana Hotels where we stayed for a three-day weekend, also above Rishikesh.

Pakistani pilots to speed up

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Late last week, Pakistan International Airlines‘ pilots agreed to bring their slowdown protest to a conclusion. The pilots were upset over compensation, and their fight-back-by-decelerating strategy caused the airline to cancel flights. Sixteen international flights and another 11 within Pakistan never left the ground as a result of the slow-motion show of defiance.

Negotiations have finally paid off, though. The airline is going back to a normal schedule. An agreement on the core issue of pay wasn’t reached, but both sides have set a timeframe by which to find a solution that makes everyone happy (or, happy enough).

If you’re keeping score at home, the pilots cost the airline 450 million rupees because they flew slowly, but the raises they want would cost the airline 640 million rupees (based on a 35 percent raise).

So, the pilots are more than halfway there!