Local Bloggers Revealing Country Secrets

by Abha Malpani on

The political situation of many countries doesn’t allow much freedom of press; what gets printed is thoroughly watch-dogged. That’s kind of messed-up when you realize that the media is the one thing that keeps us connected and informed about the rest of the world.

I remember when I lived in Dubai, I saw journalists fearing to write about anything outside the standard protocol of the publication. I would get bored senseless reading the local publications and as a budding writer, would get itchy palms when some meaty news would come to me through the grapevine, that of course, would never see the day of light. Until we started blogging!

I think blogging has taken to new levels our insight into otherwise forbidden cultural information of cities. Secret Dubai Diary, UAE Prison blog (blocked in Dubai) and Neurotic Iraqi Wife, are some blogs I read for raw insight into lives of people and culture in these countries. Others such as Sex and Dubai and controversial Beijing blog of Zhao Jing have unfortunately now been shut down.

There was great story in the IHT recently about underground bloggers in Havana who are screaming out to let people know the realities of life in Castro’s city.

My only contribution to the free press cause is being part of Global Voices and Reporters Without Borders. Both blogs are fighting for freedom of press and doing their best to provide untainted feeds and news from around the world.

It takes solid guts to blog on the edge, as it could result in imprisonment and/or deportation. I don’t know if I’d have the balls.

Stop in Taipei, Save $100

by Catherine Bodry on

Good deals abound for the traveler willing to take a Taipei pit stop. Not only will the usual $100 landing fee surcharge be lifted, but if you stay two nights you can get a $79/night deal at participating hotels. The “I Land Paradise” promotion (which applies to any Asia-bound China Airlines or EVA Airways flight departing from a U.S. airport) starts Oct. 1 and runs until June 30.

The main problem with the promotion is that there are no direct flights from Taipei to China’s mainland except during the Lunar New Year. So if you’re on your way to China and want to take advantage of the deal, you’ll need to go through Hong Kong and then catch a flight to the mainland. I’ve stopped in Taipei several times en route to Southeast Asia, but I’ve never left the airport. The lifted surcharge could certainly convince me to lengthen my stay.

Attractions include the Shilin Night Market (see The Kozy Shack’s photo) and the National Palace Museum. For more stuff to see and do, check out AOL’s Taipei site.

Don’t Poo-poo Pu-er Tea

by Iva Skoch on

Who cares about the price of tea in China? More and more people globally. A recent article in the WSJ says that there’s been a run on China’s most popular tea, pu-er (aka pu-erh, or pu’er, or Bolay tea). A recent sale netted the seller almost $40,000 . . . for a single 3.5oz cake that was 60 years old.

Like all true teas (as opposed to fruit “tea” or herbal “tea”), it’s made from the Camellia sinensis plant. Pu-er tea is only slightly oxidized, like green teas, has a smoky taste, and is sold generally in bricks or cakes, which are usually round, discus-like objects, looking like large cow-patties. It comes in “raw” or “cooked” form.

Unlike most teas, it’s meant to be aged, even for many years, and, supposedly, it gets better with age. 150-year old cakes go for over $13,000 sometimes. And collectors are drinking this tea up.

According to people we met in China, this was the most prized and most typically drank tea (not the oolong tea you usually get in Chinese restaurants in the West). Further, the black tea we typically drink in the West is fairly rare there. And you sure won’t see a tea bag.

In fact, while sampling and discussing the relative tastes and benefits of various teas, the owner of a small tea shop laughed off the fact that we enjoyed black teas, told us that the caffeine would surely kill us . . . and then offered us a cigarette.

Hiring A Guide Can Enhance a Travel Experience

by Jamie Rhein on

I’m a huge fan of guides–not necessarily guide books, although I do use them to give me a running start on figuring out where I might head before my interests lead me in other directions, but living, breathing human guides who know a place well. These folks are worth hiring for a few hours tour–or a day. Or even a week. Guides can save lives even.

When trekking with a guide and sherpas through the Markha Valley in Ladakh and on the Annapurna trail in Nepal, I saw fliers for missing hikers who had set off on their own. Either they become lost or hurt. Regardless, they were unable to get back from what they probably imagined as a solo adventure. With thieves not uncommon in Nepal’s mountains, guides offer protection. The trails in Ladakh are so rugged and faint and head in so many directions, it would be easy to get lost. It’s certainly easy to get sick. The sounds of people in my group heaving at night from altitude sickness on my Ladakh trip was not exactly music to my ears. We had a trip that involved people cooking for us and mules carrying our bags, so I can’t fathom what it would be like to attempt 17,000 feet while carrying belongings, food.and water. And, by the way, the people who got the most sick were the ones who fancied themselves the most athletic. They pushed themselves to prove something and BAM!!! a real puke problem.

Even if you don’t need a guide to save your life, guides are a way to find out little tidbits of places and people you wouldn’t know otherwise. In Benares, (Varanasi) India, we hired a guide for a day who took us on a city tour that began early in the morning and ended late in the day. We clicked immediately and since we were traveling with our son, who was not yet a year and a half, and our daughter who was nine, having him take us to a boat for our crack of dawn boat ride on the Ganges River made this excursion seem less daunting. He also filled us in on facinating details about who gets cremated and who doesn’t and pointed out prominent people’s houses and details about the architecture. He also took us to places to buy the best masala tea mix and filled us in on details about trying to get a job as a professor in India’s affirmative action system. One of my favorite moments was listening to him sing in one of the temples we went to to show us how the sound carried.

When we went to Sri Lanka (before kids) but with my father, we hired a guide and a driver for the entire trip. Since we stayed in budget hotels (clean and airconditioned but no frills) and ate simple, local food, the money we spent on our guide/driver/car helped us to see most of the country in nine days. Since my dad got sick for a couple of the days, having a driver allowed for my dad to wait with someone while my husband and I continued to sightsee. Our guide also took us to his house to visit his family at the end of the trip and helped us make a delivery of art supplies and books to an school for kids with developmental delays. We could go at our own pace.

In Beijing we hired a guide to take us around for two days. He was a guide who a friend of ours knew. Besides pointing out historic details when we went to various places, he knew exactly where to shop and where to get the best, local spicy food. As my husband said, “Hurt me.” The hot pot restaurant he took us too was excellent and filled with neighborhood locals.

While living in New Delhi, we mostly headed out on our own, but one of my highlights was the personal guided tour we took with a guy named Nigel. He is British and has been giving guided tours of Old Delhi for years, but unfortunately, I think he may have stopped.

Although, I also like the experience of winging it, guide free to see what comes our way, guides can make traveling easier and provide the details you might miss otherwise. Here’s a helpful tips article, Hiring Guides in Foreign Countries from Wendy Perrin over at Concierge.com.

Consolidated Visa Guide for your Hard to Reach Neighbors

by Grant Martin on

Like many other travelers, I usually don’t spring for the easy-to-reach canonical tourist destinations. It’s not that I feel that I’m better than Cancun or a Royal Caribbean cruise around the Dominican Republic, it’s just that I feel like I should go to the difficult places while I still have the energy and wanderlust to get there.

Many of these places, though, have stringent visa requirements. And let’s get something straight before I continue: you need a visa for any foreign country that you visit — it’s just that most places you can get a stamp at the border or can get waved through without stamps or papers. Trust me, when your 90 day tourist visa is up you’ll still be in trouble, regardless of the country you’re in.

But to go places like China or Russia it’s necessary to apply and get a visa before you leave the country — often times several months before you leave. This can be as simple as sending your passport into your local consulate or as difficult as paying some draconian service to take your passport into the embassy, fill out the forms and charge you a hundred bucks for their “service.” Luckily, CNN has compiled a comprehensive list of countries in which you’ll need visas in advance and procedures to get them.

My advice: plan ahead and go to the consulate in advance yourself. You may have to jump through a few extra ridiculous hoops to get your visa, but that’s more time that your passport is in your hands and not in the hands of a middleman who could potentially lose the most important document that you own.