Travelers Tool Kit: Shae by Air, DVD for kids about air travel

by Jamie Rhein on

This week I lent a friend of mine two large suitcases with wheels, a carry-on sized bag with wheels and the DVD, Shae by Air: Every Child can Be a Good Little Traveler. She was heading off to Bolivia on her own with her three children, ages 7, 4 and 2.

The more we talked about air travel with kids, the more I remembered the DVD. The DVD is geared towards young children who have not flown before, or those who may need a refresher about what to expect. Because the angles of the shots are from the kid’s perspective, children are more likely to be drawn into the story.

I could have used this DVD several years ago. The first time my daughter flew she was 3-years-old and didn’t know English. We took great pains to have the interpreter talk with her about the things she could expect once we got on the plane. However, I forgot those details that would happen from the airport door to the plane. Because we were flying from Hanoi, departure was low key. If we had been navigating a large airport, the experience may have been overwhelming. This was also before 9/11 and air travel changed. Having this DVD would have helped when we left Singapore.

Shae by Air covers each step as creator Scotty Kober uses her own daughter’s first journey–a trip to Paris, as a focal point for the explanations. Starting with packing a suitcase with a few toys and items to keep busy on the plane, the DVD is a charming look at travel from a kid’s perspective.

Kober’s voice captures the excitement of a child’s first trip, while including those details that could stump even the seasoned parent traveler. Long lines and TSA can be nerve-wracking at times even for those who know what to do. For a child, taking off a coat, and putting the stuffed animal or doll down on the conveyor belt so the items can go on a trip through the X-ray machine can be daunting. Leaving mom, dad or the adult in charge on one side of the metal detector while the child goes through and then waiting for the adult to come through can be alarming.

Handing tickets over to the gate attendant, finding a seat, storing luggage, putting on a seat belt and eating snacks are also included in the narrative. So is an explanation about ear popping and what to do about it. You’ll be pleased to know that Kober also includes not bothering the other passengers by kicking the seat in front.

When I showed this video to my son when he was four, he pronounced it a thumbs up, even though he had flown before and knows what to expect. For him, watching Shae take her trip was a way to see what he knows. She’s also a darling little girl. Listening to the narrative and watching Shae calmed me down.

For my friend who is hopefully squared away with her three kids in Bolivia visiting family who lives there, I hope the DVD helped her kids know what to do on their trip so that mom and the passengers around them had a smooth, uneventful ride. Or if there were events, they didn’t cause them.

The DVD comes with a made for kids packing list and two-luggage tags that my son also enjoyed playing with. They made him feel grown up.

Although the narrative doesn’t include every last detail of flying its a good start. People flying with kids could think of those details not in the DVD and explain them. You could even say, “What would Shae do in this situation?”

Ten Great Unknown Treks

by Kraig Becker on

Every adventure traveler knows about the Inca Trail or the Annapurna Circuit. They’re amongst the best known hikes in the world, and the amount of traffic on those trails reflects that. While they both offer amazing scenery and a great travel experience, that experience can be tempered by the crowds.

Thankfully, Backpacker is here to offer us ten great unknown treks, a list of outstanding long distance hikes that are, for now, relatively unknown and off the radar for most travelers. Backpacker thinks they’re all destined to eventually become classics in their own right, and I would argue that some of them already are, so they recommend that we get there before everyone else does.

The treks stretch from Europe to New Zealand, with a number of stops in between. They also range from a few days in length to several weeks, with accommodations running the gamut from backpacking tents to comfortable inns. For instance, they Pyrenees Traverse in France is 500 miles in length, with the trail winding through quaint mountain villages. At night, hikers stay in rustic huts that offer great food and ample access to local wines.
Looking for something a bit more adventurous? Then check out the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia. This eight day trek covers roughly 83 miles and is an interesting mix of culture, wildlife, and scenery. The trail crosses through gorges and rock canyons, and up 14,000 foot peaks, with active volcano vents dotting the landscape. Along the way you’ll pass through remote Ethiopian villages, while wild baboons wander the surrounding countryside and unique birds soar over head.

Each of the treks on the list is accompanied with great information for planning your own hike, including suggestions for a guidebook and map. You’ll also find other tips such as the best time of the year to visit and what essential gear you should take with you. Backpacker even goes so far as to recommend a top guide service to hire for each of the treks as well.

So, if you’ve already hiked most of the great trails of the world, or you’re simply looking for a trek that offers up a unique experience while still providing plenty of solitude, then this is the list for you. You’ll find outdoor adventures from around the globe, and some great ideas for your next trek that you may not have thought of before. Just make sure you get there before everyone else does.

The Highest Cities in the World

by Kraig Becker on

The BootsnAll Travel site has a great article up listing the highest cities in the world. Amsterdam doesn’t make this list however, as we’re talking the cities that fall at the highest altitude. These mountain communities will have you gasping for air as soon as you step off the plane, both with their thin air and stunning mountain scenery.

Topping the list as the highest city in the world is La Rinoconada in Peru. This city of 30,000 is known as the highest permanent human habitiation” and rightly so. Located in the Andes, La Rinoconada sits at 16,728 feet, more than 3100 feet above the next highest city, El Alto, Bolivia at 13,615 feet.

The only city from the U.S. to make the list is Leadville, Colorado which, with 3000 permanent residents, is the highest incorporated city in the country. Leadville falls at 10,152 and is famous for the Leadville 100, a 100 mile long mountain bike race held annually that notoriously punishes endurance athletes.

A couple of the other cities on the list are famous amongst adventure travelers. Lhasa, Tibet at 12,002 feet and Namche Bazaar in Nepal, at 11,482 feet are both stops for trekkers and mountaineers on their way to Mt. Everest. And Cuzco, Peru, which sits at 10,800 feet is a popular starting point for backpackers hiking the Andes and visiting Machu Picchu.

There are some amazing cities on this list, and if you have the opportunity to visit any of them, be sure to bring your camera. And bottled oxygen.

Travel Read: The Lost City of Z

by Brenda Yun on

If you’ve ever wondered whether an ancient civilization existed in the depths of the Amazon jungle in Brazil, then David Grann’s quest to uncover the truth behind the deathly fascination over “The Lost City of Z” will captivate you and leave readers completely stunned by his discovery.

Part memoir and part non-fiction, this book has several interesting layers — the most important of which is the unsolved, mysterious disappearance of famous explorer, Percy Fawcett. Having led several expeditions in the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazons, Fawcett was dead-set on being the first to discover Z. Several of his expeditions ended in death, and when he disappeared in 1927, rescue expeditions to find his three-person team also met similar, dangerous fates.

Grann himself became so fascinated by the story that he — a self-described urbanite — journeyed from his comfortable Manhattan dwelling to the U.K. and then to the Amazons himself to set the story straight.

While at times I would have preferred to read a detailed story of Fawcett’s expeditions (through Grann’s well-researched notes from Fawcett’s and expedition mates’ journals and dispatches), Grann instead weaves a complicated but gripping tale of the events and relations that led to Fawcett’s disappearance. The story is told from several points of view: from Grann himself as he embarks on his own quest, Fawcett via his journals, his son Frank (who was part of threesome that disappeared), and Fawcett’s wife Nina to name a few. These various perspectives and voices help to clarify the real truth from the myth, but also keep readers bouncing between storylines. The two most important characters are Fawcett and Grann himself, but it might have been more fitting for Grann to tell Fawcett’s story rather than his own.

The mythic proportions that became Fawcett’s story, though, are tough to tie together in the end, and the end of Grann’s book falls just a tad flat. Grann does solve the mystery behind Fawcett’s disappearance, but after all the build-up and Fawcett tall tales (some of which involve Fawcett being nearly bulletproof and fighting off enormous anacondas), there’s really no satisfying end to this story that will live up to Fawcett’s reputation as one of the greatest explorers of our time.

David Grann has agreed to be interviewed within the next week for Gadling. If you have questions you’d like me to include in the Q & A with the author, add it in a comment to this article.

Cultural Delicacies: Guinea pig

by Brenda Yun on

I had a guinea pig as a pet when I was in elementary school. His name was Guinea (I know, really original). He was brown with a little splash of white on his chest. He had a cute pink nose. He was kind of a nibbler (he would often bite me with his two sharp teeth), and whatever he put in his mouth came out the other end. I guess it comes as no surprise, then, that I had to change Guinea’s cage frequently. What I didn’t realize in his very short life was that he froze to death. I didn’t know it then, but I had put Guinea’s cage right under the air conditioner. He died of pneumonia, and I spent a whole afternoon in bed holding my dead guinea pig, feeling like I had wronged the poor thing. I had been a very irresponsible pet owner.

As is the case with other household pets (like fish, dog, and turtle), guinea pigs (or “cuy,” in Spanish) are cultural delicacies in some parts of the world. Although I couldn’t bear to order it last year in Ecuador, “cuy” is a pretty common item on traditional restaurant menus.

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I am a vegetarian cook, so the thought of killing and roasting a small guinea pig sounds awfully unappetizing to me. Even more baffling to me is how anyone could find the little meat on a guinea pig worth eating or even the slightest bit delectable. According to Wikipedia, it tastes like rabbit or dark chicken meat.

“Cuy” can be fried, roasted, broiled, or served in soup. It is commonly found in the Andean highlands of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, as indigenous tribes in the area would cook them for ceremonial purposes. Peruvians consume over 50 million guinea pigs a year. If that number doesn’t surprise you, then this fun fact will: the past two decades have seen a rise in guinea pig exporting from South America to the U.S., Europe, and even parts of Asia. To be certain, it has become more acceptable to eat guinea pig as a common meal. Some restaurants in New York City now serve “cuy asado” and hang them in the window like Peking duck in Chinatown.

I don’t think we have to worry yet about locking up our pet guinea pigs for fear of someone killing and eating them, but I know my little Guinea is rolling in his grave in pet heaven thinking about how his life could have ended.