Hit up a local bookstore for a good, unique souvenir.
Many self-published authors sell their books through the local storefront and many of those books are based in the area in which they live. The souvenir is not only unique, but it’s entertaining and lacks the gaudiness that many souvenirs display.
Plus, you may get smarter about your destination, which makes any trip more satisfying.
Instead of carrying enough books to last the length of your trip, seek out a hostel, bed-and-breakfast, or local cafe’s book swap. Sometimes they’re listed among a facility’s amenities in guidebooks. Other times, only asking — or (better yet) exploring — finds one!
Using book swaps keeps your luggage light, an imperative with new airline luggage weight restrictions. Also, perhaps, you’ll get turned on to a new genre of literature (as I did in Bolivia).
The Kindle holds no candle to discovering a love for short stories! Furthermore, a paperback is much less vulnerable to the elements… and to “sticky fingers!”
Pop economics books, which purport to offer the surprising explanations behind seemingly ordinary events, are more popular than ever. You’ve probably heard of or read Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics, their new sequel SuperFreakonomics, or Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist, but allow me to throw in a plug for a similar book you may not have come across.
Tyler Cowen‘s book Discover Your Inner Economist will be of special interest to those of us who like to travel, and in particular, those who like to sample local fare while on the road.
If you have to choose to have dinner in either Stockholm or Belize City, Cowen says, you’ll get much better food for the money in Belize. To Cowen, if a restaurant is located in a bad neighborhood, or is successful even in a poor country, the food must be really good. “Iron bars on the windows,” he writes, “and barbed wire on the fences, however bad for the residents or your own safety, are both good signs for the food.”
Experience tells us that he’s right, too. On the road, the food is often best, and cheapest, at out-of-the-way establishments. More than that, it is a worthwhile experience to share a meal with locals, and the proprietors of restaurants are often extra welcoming to those who choose their hard-to-reach establishment over all the others. Talking to a local is almost always the best way to find these hidden gems.
Cowen has gleaned another bit of wisdom from his expertise in economics, expanding on the old “money isn’t everything” cliché. “The critical economic problem is scarcity,” he says. “Money is scarce, but in most things the scarcity of time, attention, and caring is more important.”
For more, check out the Travel section of Tyler’s popular blog Marginal Revolution.
If you have any friends who’ve taught English in a foreign country, you’ve heard some sob stories–the trouble of simultaneously dealing with culture shock and a new job, the students who just don’t get it, the adverse conditions at school. . .the list is as long as there are ESL teachers.
Peter Rudiak-Gould has them all beat.
Right after turning 21, Peter went to spend a year on Ujae, one of the more remote atolls in the remote Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands. This tiny island has a population of 450 people and he could walk around it in less than an hour. He arrived speaking virtually no Marshallese and quickly discovered his students were equally lacking in English.
So how does one teach a class of students when there is no shared language and the culture has no tradition of classroom learning?
Badly, at first. But Peter rallies quickly, and as he adapts to the culture he’s immersed in, we’re right along with him. His ability to learn the island’s subtle and alien language shows a deep intelligence and no small amount of desperation, and he shares some fun linguistic tidbits. For example, the eleven words for coconut, ranging from kwalinni (just beginning to grow on the tree) to uronni (ready to husk and drink) all the way to jokiae (turned into a sapling). There are also 159 coconut-related terms, like emmotmot, the sucking noise you make when you drink green coconuts.
There are the usual traveler-out-of-his-depth stories, some of them hilarious, and all of them teaching something about the culture rather than simply whining about discomfort and lack of modern amenities. Peter’s greatest shock was to find out he wasn’t going to be living on a tropical island paradise. No grass huts, no luxurious food, just concrete shacks, noisy children, and nightly Nintendo marathons courtesy of the local generator.
Braving shark-infested waters and falling coconuts, our hero forges ahead with his teaching. He comes to understand and respect these very different people while not being blind to their flaws, and fear for what would happen to them if sea levels rose just a few inches and ate away their island. Surviving Paradise is more than your typical traveler’s tale–it’s a look at a culture that might literally vanish beneath the waves, and also a look at Peter growing up. Perfect for the traveler or English teacher in your life.
Part of the fun of travel is eating new foods. But why restrict yourself to only eating these fabulous dishes while on vacation? If you’re impressed with the food during a trip, buy a local cookbook and a few area-specific ingredients.
When you get home, recreate your favorite dishes there. If you’re feeling like a party, invite your neighbors over and feed them, too. When they’re devouring your delicious meal, they may even be interested in hearing about your fantastic experience.