Plan on making friends that will stick. Living together in a strange place together binds you. The only problem with the friends you make is that they, like you, have caught a full dose of the itinerant lifestyle, and it won’t be long before they’re off to somewhere else.

So, so true. But then again, thanks to the transient lifestyle of myself and others, I always have a place to stay and always have friends visiting. My life is vastly improved from knowing people from all over the world.

Two things that stuck out to me:

2. Traveling helps you encounter compassion

Traveling will change you like little else can. It will put you in places that will force you to care for issues that are bigger than you.

If you go to southeast Asia, you may encounter the slave trade. If eastern Europe, you may see the effects of genocide and religious persecution. If Haiti, you’ll witness the the ugly side Western paternalism.

Your heart will break.

One of my first experiences abroad was when I visited the Philippines for the first time on a medical mission. Prior to that, I had never been to the developing world, despite studying it extensively in college. Well, you know what they say about real world experience versus book experience. The visit shook me to my core and truly made me learn to appreciate the things I had in my life. I consider it one of the monumental moments where I can pinpoint my life turning from the path it was on.

Another great part:

When you look back on your life, you will have moments of which you are proud and maybe a few you regret. It’s likely that the following won’t be on the latter list:

• Bicycled across the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Appeared on Italian TV.
• Hiked a Mayan ruin.
• Learned Spanish in three months.
• Toured Europe by train.

They’re not on mine (fun fact: I’ve done all of the above).

That made me smile. What should be on my list?

• Became the English voice on an audio tour at a Japanese museum
• Took a boat up the Mekong and learned what $5 buys on the Laos side and what it buys on the Thai side
• Fled from a monkey trying to steal my candy
• Drank a mysterious concoction poured from an old salad dressing bottle into a half-coconut by a toothless man
• Tasted moonshine distilled in an old oil barrel
• Went scuba diving and caught my own uni

1. Look for tickets early on Tuesday

2. Fly very early, or alternately, very late. Yes, everyone else in the world wants that awesome 10am flight that arrives exactly at check-in time.

3. Don’t be too picky. If you want beach, it doesn’t have to be Waikiki or the Bahamas, does it?

4. Be patient.

5. Don’t rule out Europe.

I’m crossing out their #5 since it’s too specific to a location and time and adding my own #5 and #6.

5. Factor more than just the plane fare.

People always say to me, “I wish I could go to Thailand, but it’s so expensive!” Well, yes, the flight is expensive. But Thailand is not. Bangkok has a glut of business-oriented hotels and you can get a room for $100 a night with a buffet breakfast. Or you can eat some of the world’s best street food (safer than hotel food, trust me) for $1. You cannot do that at in Hawaii. Chances are, once you’ve factored in hotel and food, a stay in many parts of South East Asia will be cheaper, more luxurious, and more of an adventure.

6. Sign up for Fare Alerts.

It doesn’t really matter where, but I like kayak.com’s.

What are your tips?

When I lived in Japan, I had many arguments with fellow Western women on this subject. The argument was usually, “well, I do this in America/UK/Australia…” or “whatever, no one’s ever said anything to me about it,” which was infuriating because just because no one in Japan ever said anything directly didn’t mean that they weren’t thinking things. Comments like, “aren’t you cold?” are as obvious  statements of protest to Japanese people as, “put some damn clothes on, woman!” One of my friends suffered a humiliation when a coworker finally got fed up with her hip-hugging pants that showed the tops of her underwear that the woman marched over to my friend and HIKED UP my friend’s pants, while my friends were still in it.

In many non-Western countries around the world, the people have an unfair stereotype of Western women being easy or promiscuos that isn’t aided by how a stereotypical Western tourists dress. Imagine in your head a “slutty” or “inappropriate” woman, the kind that would make you gasp or leer and say, “oh my god, what is that woman doing?! Avert your eyes, children!” If you’re a Westerner, it’s probably something super tight, skimpy, possibly see-through–showing side-boob at the mall, perhaps? Okay, now let’s take some steps back on the conservative scale and imagine yourself as a person in a country where women (and men) typically wear long sleeves and cover their legs: what’s your image of provocative dress? Mini shorts and a tank top? Probably. Not so long ago in most Western countries this stuff would have been considered taboo. In many churches in America people would never dream of wearing things like that, so why on earth would anyone try and visit a mosque or a temple that way?

A woman might have feminist or political reasons for not wanting to dress conservatively in a country, especially one’s with a mandated dress code, but remember: you are a guest in someone’s home. All guests should be respectful to their hosts, or else their hosts find passive aggressive ways of trying to tell their guests they’ve overstayed their welcome. Showing respect goes a very long way in having those wonderful travel experiences we all want. If you’re content to be merely a tourist, then fine–dress however you want. If you want to meet people, to be invited into homes, to have fun while haggling while shopping–dress like the locals. On a practical note, it’s usually more appropriate for the weather (yes, long sleeves are more protecting in hot sun than burning your skin in a tank top) and you’ll be less of a target if you look a little savvier than the average tour bus tourist.

For women who want to know what to wear in each country, Journeywoman
has a great guide from real travelers called, “What Should I Wear?”

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by j.o.h.n. walker

I’ve also been contemplating posting back entries from my travels in Asia when I was in Japan. Is that worth doing, or should we just forge on ahead?

There’s a big culture of tipping here (well, in Fez and Marrakesh at least), which I’m not sure is indigenous or learned from the tourists–but what is expected is far more than I even tip in the U.S. And sometimes when you do tip, you’re given a withering look or a, “that’s all, my friend?”

Needless to say, by dinner the next night we just wanted to hide in our riad and not leave. =P Luckily, we had a cooking class and a spa so much of the day was filled with activities (which will be written about in another entry), but for dinner we didn’t want to chance it with the unknown restaurants that charge $10 for a bad sandwich or bland pizza or bland tajine.

Our last dinner in Marrakesh? KFC. And you know what? It was more delicious and cheaper than the crappy food stalls that tried to scam us. Oh…and the KFC had guards at the doors! ;P

The view of the marketplace from the inside of Bou Inania Madrasa (built in the 13th century)

We met our guide today after breakfast for a whirlwind tour around Fez. While we learned quite a lot about Fez’s history, we also learned quite a bit about Islam (as it is practiced in Morocco, at least.) We visited various medresas (Koranic schools) and shrines–and since Fez is the artisan capital of Morocco, we also visited the tanneries and the ceramic kilns.

Fez's tanneries... those vats are filled with lye, excrement, and urine. Did you know that's how leather was made up until fairly recently (and still is when you buy "naturally made" leather!)

I knew that during Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. However, I didn’t realize that meant they also didn’t drink water. I remember saying, “I feel so terrible eating in front of these people,” when we ate at a family’s home, but Hugh responded with, “They probably feel bad for you for not believing in Allah.” Indeed, when I asked Jawad if it was difficult to fast, he said very sincerely that it was not–that it was very spiritual, and when your belief in god is strong, you can do anything. They manage to survive the day by resting or sleeping through most of it, but I had much respect and admiration for our guide and the many people I saw working today. I simply cannot imagine having belief, faith, or strength in anything enough to go a month while working every day and not eating or drinking for over 12 hours (longer when Ramadan starts in July). People were very welcoming and aware that we weren’t fasting and took efforts to make sure we were properly hydrated and fed. But people in Morocco are very kind and friendly in general, so I’m not surprised.

This city has surprised me in a lot of ways. I never really had any idea of what to expect, and my knowledge of the Muslim world is very slim (and I would argue I follow it more than the average person.) Here many women are veiled–but many are not. People dress conservatively, but after centuries of immigration (most Moroccans have roots in Spain and other parts of North Africa and the Middle East), the French, and tourism–they don’t seem to bat an eye no matter how much cleavage a tourist shows. I’ve also been very amazed at how many different people I’ve seen–blonde Moroccans, Arabs, Senegalese immigrants and pilgrims (there’s a shrine to a Senegalese saint in Fez)–the only thing which is rare are Asians, except, of course, Japanese. People keep saying “konnichi wa” to me, even after I say I’m not Japanese. ;p

Tajine of couscous cooked by Ms. Karima

Also, while touring the sights of this very, very old city, I was able to look very closely at the craftmanship from the Islamic world from 900-1400AD. At a time when a lot of other parts of the world were wallowing in squalor, Fez (well, Morocco) had fountains in every neighborhood to drink and bathe. Many of those fountains are still in use. I touched doors that were carved 800 years ago and marveled at the beautiful carved plaster that adorned shrines and schools.

Plaster art from the 12th century

The architects of the time were very smart–all around the narrow paths of the medina are doors, some nicer than others. Opening a door leads to a new world. Many people’s homes have an open courtyard, sometimes with a fountain and usually with trees, with terraces on the roof. Despite the stifling heat, many people’s homes are very cool on the lower levels–especially in the shade of the trees. Coming from a city where people die in the summer from heat, I’m amazed at how much our society seems to have lost when it comes to practical architectural building ideas.

Enjoying the terrace

Anyways, for dinner–Hugh and I took a “petit taxi” to the “ville nouvelle” which Hugh remarked looked like Cambodia. I thought more like China. Just a newly developed area that looks very “Western” and lacks architectural distinction, as so many “new cities” do around the world and took a pizza back to the riad so we could eat quietly in our room. We leave very early tomorrow morning for Marrakesh. I wish we had one more day here to get lost in the medina–oh well, an excuse to come back again, enshalla (god willing).

A small part of the Fez medina (old walled city) built in the 8th century.

]]> http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2010/09/04/touring-fez-touring-islam/feed/ 0 http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2010/09/03/getting-lost-in-fez/ http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2010/09/03/getting-lost-in-fez/#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:11:10 +0000 janellemj http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/?p=356 Today was our first day real day in Morocco–despite our best attempts, we missed breakfast on the terrace. The riad we’re staying at is even more lovely during the day, and the owners Alexandre and Yasmin have been fantastic so far.

We decided to go for a bit of a wander around–a walk that couldn’t have been more than 1km seriously took almost two hours. There’s so many turns and places to get lost, so many people who run up to you to give you directions, say hi, or try to have you buy their goods. It’s an assault on the senses, in a good way. I remember feeling this way when I first went to Japan, “wow, it REALLY IS exactly like it is in the movies…” (back then, it was “in the anime/manga, though.”) We’re in the old city of Fez (9th century!) and it while there are stalls selling cellphones and our beloved happy cow cheese, it feels like we’ve stepped back through time.

Hugh navigating the medina

We’re in a Muslim country, so we’re trying to be respectful–at one point, after a long slog, Hugh put a candy in his mouth and some young men shouted at us, “Stop! It is haram! Forbidden!” and died laughing when they saw our look of embarassment and shock. There are cafes open to tourists, even during Ramadan. It felt very embarassing to be eating food in front of people fasting all day, so we will probably try and avoid that again, even if it isn’t expected of us to fast. We’ll at least try and eat away from street view.

After getting lost in the medina for 4 hours, we went back to the riad and relaxed and then had dinner on the terrace which was delicious (as was lunch.)

Fez at night

It’s going to be a grueling 30+ hours until we finally check into our riad in Fez, but we plan to try and sleep through as much of it as possible (it helps the flight doesn’t leave until 9:40pm.)

When we finally decided on Spain, we targeted Barcelona as the city we wanted to base ourselves in; however, when it came time to book my frequent flier miles, United only let me go to Madrid–except we had to leave at 7am from Washington, DC. Okay, well, fine. It’s a free flight to Europe, I’ll take what I can get. We’ll go to Madrid too–we even ignored everyone who said, “Oh, but you guys would love Barcelona so much more,”

Fast forward a few months later–we’re working with our travel agent, Heritage Tours, for our Morocco leg. I decided to double check my flight schedule so the agent, we’ll call her Trisha, can make a much better itinerary for us. Low and behold, Aer Lingus had mysteriously decided to CANCEL the flight to Spain (but oddly, not the flight FROM Spain) months earlier, but failed to inform me of this very important little tidbit of information.

I called up United, ready to do battle. However, to my surprise, I got a very helpful friendly guy who acknowledged that the cancelling a flight without informing me was really uncool–and so, I managed to get a brand new flight for the same points with the only extra cost being a few dollars more for tax. Here’s the amazing part though:

• We got the trip to Barcelona.
• Not only that, it leaves from a better airport for us, JFK (aka in NYC).
• And it leaves at 9pm…thus saving us a day of vacation we don’t have to use.

Amazing!

Well, that happened two months ago and now we’ve finally finalized every leg of our trip today.

NYC -> Fez, Morocco -> Marrakesh -> Essaouira -> Mallorca, Spain -> Barcelona -> NYC

So excited to finally go to continental Europe and Africa (well, North Africa.) And yes, even more excited as this will be the first real vacation we’ve had in a year and a half (which is eternity for us), let alone the first trip in ages where we weren’t backpackers. I mean, I loved backpacking, but carrying everything on my back got old

Well, that day finally arrived, and thank my lucky stars that the airline didn’t decide to just go bankrupt or make flights cost 5x more than before.

We booked our tickets to Spain today (I still have miles left too!)

So in 7 months we’ll definitely be traveling again!

5 types of tourist in NYC. Funny because it's true. (Jon Keegan)

So in my research about traveling in Barcelona, I came across a somewhat funny article called Barcelona Clothes and Dress Code: Tips on How to Blend in With the Locals. The primary reason for this article is to keep tourists safe from scam-artists and pickpockets, but I would argue that those people would be targets anyways no matter how you dressed them up simply because they obviously lack something vital as a traveler: common sense.

People spend all this money buying money-belts and fancy traveling gear when you could simply just dress and act like a local, as much as possible. Obviously this isn’t possible everywhere in the world, but it’s certainly possible in a worldly cosmopolitan city like Barcelona that’s full of foreign expats. For example, I live in New York City — a city that tourist guides will tell you is dangerous. Don’t do this, don’t talk to these people, don’t stop here, etc. Yet somehow millions of people live in this city without ever getting pickpocketed their entire life, yet a tourist manages to in the few days they’re here. Amazing odds, really. Like most of these tourist women do in their hometowns, I carry a purse every day, and like they probably are back home, I’m very careful with it. Yet somehow these visiting ladies come here wearing a fannypack because they’re suddenly a tourist. If you wouldn’t be caught dead in something at home, why would you wear it in a cosmopolitan world city suddenly because you’re a visitor?

Being a tourist is a state of mind! We’ve found that if you don’t act like one then most people won’t treat you like one, especially not thieves — cause really, why bother with the person who MIGHT be a savvy local expat when you could harass the tour-package couple with their map hanging out of their back pocket?

Something exotic. Something with diving possibilities.  The beach.

We added the stipulation “no Asia,” since we’d lived three years of our life there and already been to various countries multiple times (as much as we love Asia, there’s many other areas of the world to explore.) We also wanted nowhere we could feasibly go “just for fun.” While the Caribbean is tempting, we rationalized that we could go there anytime we wanted as long as we had the funds. A honeymoon is one of the few times we’ll have for awhile where it’s socially acceptable to take a couple weeks off of work after only working for less than a year during a recession.

So basically that meant the only choice was Africa or South America, and we decided to go with Africa. We’ve further narrowed down the choices to Tanzania and Mauritius, with Mauritius being the strong contender. We’re going to stop by a travel agent tonight to see our options. Yay! I have travel in my future!

Update: Annnnnd…. we decided to go in the complete opposite direction and go with one of our original choices, Spain + Morocco. Oh well, at least we’re decided!

Seeing as how live to travel (and travel to live, hah), this is extremely depressing. However, the economy hasn’t been great, Hugh had to get his residency issues in order, and furthermore, we’re saving money for our wedding.

Which means, of course, that I’ll have something travel related to blog about… namely, our honeymoon! We’re still trying to decide on a destination, but somewhere we’d never dreamt of going is pretty high on that list. I’ll try and keep this more updated than I have.

It was a lot of fun, and friends from many different circles (high school friends, JET friends, Internet friends, etc.) all came together and sang their little hearts out. Two of my friends are extremely good singers (ex-would-be opera singer and a musical theatre guy) so at times I almost felt I should be paying them for the entertainment.

After we left the karaoke place we milled around St. Mark’s and talked for a good hour or so–along with hundreds of other people enjoying the nice night. That’s when I looked up and realized the apartment I was viewing the day before was right across the street from the karaoke place, practically. That’s when the old lady inside me came out and reiterated her absolute desire to NOT have to dodge puke in the mornings and NOT have to listen to drunken ramblings of NYU students at 4am.

Thanks, karaoke!

While it’s nothing special, I’m just happy that I could be working and earning some money (and making contacts as well too.)

I’ve always been excited about moving to NYC, but it’s hard to be excited when the reality of the fact is that it’s quite frightening not knowing where you’re going to live or what you’re going to do. It’s nice that I’ve got a handful of potential new roommates and at least a few interviews.

Wish me luck. =)

P.S. and of course, I will be sure to post here frequently with my new observations on life in the biggest big city of them all =)

I’m also officially moving to New York City on April 14th. For now, I’m only there temporarily and I’ll go home if I don’t find a job. But I’m hoping to find one in a couple months so that won’t happen.

Buoyancy isn't something we'd worked on yet...

Something I’ve always wanted to do is learn how to scuba dive. Imagine my delight when I found out that not only does my cousin dive, but she was willing to take us out somewhere to go on an intro dive.

We drove out to Anilao in Batangas to a small resort. When I arrived, I looked out to the grey ocean and felt a bit anxious. It was a gloomy day and the water looked choppy and cold. Did I mention I am actually afraid of the ocean, and more importantly, putting my head under the water? It all stems from when I almost drowned trying to surf in Hawaii….but I digress… =P

I was a bit nervous during the briefing, I knew it was just an introductory course and that everything would be okay…but you know, the fear was there. So we get geared up, we get on the boat, and I’m told I need to fall backwards into the water (oh good lord, I thought!) Managing all the courage I could muster, I let the weight of the air tanks pull me backwards and…

Well, I entered a whole new world. If the sea looked grey and bleak from the surface, it was completely different below. I saw so many fish, and bright coral, and weird looking plants. You know when you go to an aquarium and you see all the neon colored anemone, and coral that look like brains, and weird stripey fish? Yeah, somehow I just thought all that stuff was fake and created for aquariums. But then I got to see it for real, and it was just amazing. All my fear washed away.

Hugh eating fresh uni out of the sea

After our intro dive, we went to shore with a bag of uni (sea urchin) which we had plucked from the rocks near the shore (apparently it is not illegal to get them in the Philippines.) I’m not a fan of uni personally, and I think I’m even less of a fan after watching the resort chef hack them open. It’s amazing how little meat is actually inside of those suckers! Anyways, Hugh and my cousin were both extremely pleased by the quality of the uni which they ate with calamansi juice.

We had so much fun we promptly decided to sign up for our certification. It took a week and with it came a whole new set of stress and tears (on my part) but when I actually accomplished the task I couldn’t do for days (clearing a mask underwater) I felt a very happy sense of accomplishment. Oh, and I also got stung by a firecoral down there so I guess now I have battle scars =P

It’s wonderful to have conquered a fear AND crossed something off my Life To-Do List!

Few people know that the Philippines has more English speakers than the United Kingdom. Many people know that Filipinos speak English, many people know that they speak Filipino/Tagalog as well in the Philippines–but what a lot of people don’t know is the extent that English is spoken. In Japan, as well as many other countries in Asia, English is used to puncuate or emphasize something like… “Aki no Trendy Style!” (Trendy styles for Fall) In the Philippines, they’d just flat out say “Trendy styles for the fall,”. I remember Japanese people being amazed when I told them that Filipino TV was 90% in English. To the Japanese, English is a language for Caucasian Westerners–nevermind the fact Singaporeans, Hong Kongers, Indians and Filipinos all speak English.

I remember on a trip to the Philippines one of my friends was stunned that street children could speak better English than the high school students she taught in Japan. How does that happen, we wondered? Well, it’s easy. They just use it. TV shows are often in English, not subtitled or dubbed. If they’re not fully in English, a good part of it will be. Especially if the show is about something technical like medicine or law. Hugh often understood the gist of what was going on around him simply due to liberal use of English.

Other examples? During a Filipino wedding, all the prayers and songs were in English, the priest’s sermon was also in English. During the reception, all speeches were in English despite the fact that out of the 500 guests only 5 people in the room didn’t understand Tagalog.  You would never see this stuff in Japan–not that this is the way it should be. Language is important for cultural identity, and the loss of language is something which I consider very sad. I found out that several of my cousins CANNOT speak Tagalog despite being born and raised in the Philippines. I find that very odd.

Yet, the question of how should Japanese people learn English continues to bother me. The only real way to make sure people learn it is to make it a requirement, more so than just something kids have to do to pass a test to graduate high school.