Resist all temptation and do not give me your money

Posted on by June 26, 2011

     Earlier this month I flew from Istanbul to Amsterdam for only $89 one way, all taxes included. That’s a fantastic deal, if you were unsure. How did I get it? By following the instructions on my own website! It’s not magic. I show you the steps. Whether you have the patience to read it all and do it, that’s another question. It doesn’t have the best layout, I admit.
     I flew on Pegasus Airlines, a Turkish airline so obscure that the CEO’s own mother probably doesn’t even know what he is up to. Who has ever heard of Pegasus? ME! I have flown with them a few times by now, in fact. What I am getting at is that my website isn’t composed of third-hand rumors from someone’s cousin’s uncle, it’s me out here in the trenches actually doing all this stuff. I tell you all my secrets of how to run around the world. For free.

     Know Nomadic Matt? He is arguably the biggest name in the travel blogging business, and for him it is indeed a successful business, it appears. His newest ebook is on sale now for $14 where he sells you the information about how to travel cheaply and you can save $1000 if you spend many thousands more on certain travel companies, activities and hostels. We might be talking to two different audiences as I encourage a more do-it-yourself ethic and would suggest not spending so much to “save” so much, but you can learn a little bit from everyone, I reckon.
     I admire Matt for being able to make money—maybe enough money—to keep doing what he likes to do. Isn’t that the goal for everyone, but how many people can do it? Maybe e-books are the way to go and I shouldn’t give all my info out for free, but since I don’t, this is the mindset I have to put a button, this link below, on my website.





     I suppose most people just throw a link on there and see if it floats, but I hate the look of websites splattered with banner ads, Google Adsense ads and “donate” buttons even though I see it as a necessary evil, so aesthetically and morally I don’t feel good about it. I don’t like asking for money. I have few qualms about asking for a place to sleep or website design help, but money is something different.
     The link sends you to Paypal, but I don’t think you have to have a Paypal account to donate. (Just the word “donate” gives me the skeeves. I have to go wash my hands. I feel sick.) OK, look, I will put the link on the bottom right column, but don’t send me money. Give it to Amnesty International. And when you give it to Amnesty International, make a friend write out a check or send an anonymous money order without a return address or you will be hounded on their mailing list forever.
     Please don’t donate. I don’t feel right about it.
     Warmly,
     —Kent, or when I am feeling more megalomaniacal, The Dromomaniac

Needle in a haystack coincidences on the road

Posted on by June 25, 2011

     Four years ago I went to a Mexican friend’s wedding in Cozumel and then a few days later in Belize I met a Finnish girl who was visiting the same CouchSurfing host as I was. Now they both work for the same company in Switzerland. Small world.
     I live for these coincidences. Once I was in Bangkok and a girl came up to me to ask, “Were you in Greece last year?” And I was. Twice in South Africa I had guys stop me and ask if I went to UC-Santa Barbara. And I did. My favorite was two guys on a plane from the Middle East to Europe discovering that they had me in common as a friend.
     I have run into an ex-classmate in the backstreets of Brussels, a cousin of a friend on a beach in Thailand, and even on this trip, a guy who found me from a comment on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree said, “When you are in Ethiopia you might run into Eddie from New York.” It couldn’t sound more needle-in-a-haystack, but I did.
     It is a small world indeed, but I always have the feeling that if anyone stands on Khao San Road in Bangkok long enough, they will see someone they know.

     I’m leaning towards adding a Paypal button to my website, though I am still conflicted. I am looking for a subtle and tasteful way to present it, you know, classy. Something like this:

Giving up your American passport

Posted on by June 24, 2011

     I know an American living here in Switzerland who is renouncing his United States citizenship and he discovered that the US embassy in Bern has a waiting list of over one year for people who want to give up being American. I guess there is no drive-thru service for that.
     Why would so many Americans stop wanting to be American? It’s not for the obvious reason: USA’s humiliating defeat to Panama in soccer’s Gold Cup last week. No, it is about taxation. America is just about the only country in the world that has double taxation, meaning if you work in Switzerland you pay Swiss taxes as well as American taxes as if you were living and working in America. My friend has a family here and few ties to USA these days, so he is making the move.

     Yes, I hitchhike with an American flag on my backpack. It is funny to hitchhike in Europe where I have to tell my story all the time to drivers. A European will hear my traveling life and a typical reply is, 'How interesting!' where in America it sometimes feels like my countrymen will give an odd look like they are wondering if Homeland Security is on their speed dial and I should be reported.


     I am house-sitting for the next four days for a friend who is out of town. This is a great luxury for me. Very rarely in my life have I had a place of my own even for four days. I am a professional guest and a good one, I like to think, but it is nice to not have to be “on” all the time. I can do my own thing which is apparently eating cereal three times a day and thinking of how I am going to clean up my website. Maybe tomorrow will be different.
     It is summer, but Europe is cold! I need to be in a place where I need neither shoes nor more than one pair of pants. Or where a banana is less than a dollar.

How to live in Switzerland on 10 euros a day

Posted on by June 23, 2011

     Step 1: Have your bank tell you that your ATM card doesn’t work in Switzerland “because there is a high rate of fraud.”
     Step 2: Have 60 euros and 6 days before you are leaving Switzerland.
     Step 3: Have good friends that will let you stay for free and eat what is cheap in Switzerland, namely chocolate and bread.
     See how easy it is? I could hitchhike across the border to Germany to use an ATM, so it isn’t the end of the world, but it is very inconvenient. My bank in America is killing me with this stuff. Can anyone recommend a better debit card or a better system?
     I did pry out of my bank that they collaborate with a company called Fiserv where they come up with this nonsense. (I can’t use my card in Spain either, other than at ATMs, and in Switzerland it is totally blocked.) The same bank that is making these decisions about where I can use my ATM card is the same bank where, upon opening my account with my passport, the girl said she had never seen a passport before. And when I called to ask where else in Europe I couldn’t use my card, she said North Korea.
     I miss my country.

Hitchhiking with VD in Switzerland

Posted on by June 20, 2011

     I flew from Amsterdam to Geneva on easyJet. Part of the low-cost flight experience is that you always get a few inbreds who make a run for the door the moment the back wheels on the aircraft touch down.
     I tried hitchhiking out of Geneva airport from a dank parking garage with a “VD” sign, VD meaning canton Vaud, the next canton over from Geneva, but I felt funny doing it. “VD” in America more commonly means “venereal disease”, and I don’t want to know what kind of person would pick me up with such a sign.


     1 Swiss franc = US$1.17. Breakfast not included. These prices are tough. No hostel should have a room that costs $170 a night. I asked the three Hong Kongers in my dorm if $42 was the most expensive hostel they have ever stayed at, and they said no. Zermatt was more expensive and in London the girl paid 30 pounds (about $50) to sleep in a 12-bed dorm! That blows my mind. You can get over $500 a night to rent a dorm room out in London! Someone is making crazy money.
     I don’t know how young travelers can do it. I say in my Couchsurfing section to avoid staying too many nights with hosts, but heck, give your host $10 or $20 and ask to stay longer. The Hong Kongers drew a line at paying more for sheets and thus sleep in their clothes, covering themselves with jackets and sweaters.
     The hostel charges 1 Swiss franc ($1.17) to use the internet for a mere 7 minutes, though wifi is free. I should just sit in the lobby and charge people one franc to use my computer for 10 minutes, but no, I offer it for free. Yes, it’s another business idea blowing in the wind from The Dromomaniac.

     Since Swiss prices are putting me in a daze, maybe India is ultra-cheap after all. (Yes, India is still on my mind.) This tube of toothpaste pictured above is 5 rupees, or 11 U.S. cents.
     You have to appreciate the bit under the “Colgate” part of the box where it says in small letters “Super Shakti Dental Cream”. I don’t know what super shakti is, but it is definitely in heavy rotation in my current vocabulary:
     “How is the weather there?”
     “Super shakti! Come on over!”
     I also like the touch that says it is “100% vegetarian”. It would be funny if it said “”20% vegetarian”. Yuck!

In Istanbul, but the question is: to Paypal or not to Paypal?

Posted on by June 13, 2011


     Back in Istanbul again on my way to Europe. Sometimes I think if you took the mosques and the call to prayer out of the city it isn’t much different than visiting Rome or Barcelona, but I never tire of Istanbul, one of the most unique and interesting cities I have ever visited—and I have visited a lot of cities, trust me on this.
     I stay in a hostel called Second Home, paying 30 Turkish lira ($19) to be in a depressing nine-bed basement dorm with abundant street noise. From my research the cheapest bed I found in Istanbul was 23 lira ($14) in a 30-bed dorm. That’s three-zero, THIRTY beds, meaning 29 other frustrated, snoring travelers and you.
     Istanbul is so busy and popular you could rent a warehouse and charge $10 a bed with free wifi and make a bundle. Another free business idea from The Dromomaniac!
     On the left is a girl for whom I made a balloon animal. I do this for kids and sometimes they don’t cry.

     It's true. The Grand Bazaar sellers make their money in season and study languages in winter.


     A reader of my blog (still sounds funny to say that) wrote and asked if I had Paypal so she could send me some money. She suggested I put a Paypal icon on the page so others can donate, too. I suppose anyone considering sleeping in a thirty bed dorm must be pretty destitute, and if my writing brings some happiness to someone’s life (sounds really funny to say that) or keeps someone from jumping off a bridge, well that’s worth a few bucks, right?
     Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, but I have seen that on other websites and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I thought of soliciting if I went to Japan to help with the tsunami relief effort, but for my own benefit, it simply doesn’t feel right accepting money. Maybe I should get over it and tell myself that my free, non-ebook website saves travelers a ton of money if they can ever get through it all.
     Does anyone have an opinion or experience with this, as a donor or recipient?

Last day in India

Posted on by June 2, 2011

     Is this a great coin or what?


     Shouldn’t all handkerchiefs be dark green in color?

     I always thought that in India the worst train ride is better than the best bus ride, but I went to Nawalgarh, northwest of Jaipur, and endured a soul-crushing train that took four hours and fifty minutes to go exactly 183km, which is 85 miles. This is why I don’t travel with rope: I would have hung myself to end the agony. (My shoelaces weren’t strong enough.)
     It was a local train with one class, cattle class, and I lost some life expectancy from it. Coming back was a three and a half hour bus ride which—I don’t want to talk about it.

     There is a six page classifieds section in the newspaper just for arranged marriages, or 'alliances', as the euphemism goes. There is a premium for fair skin, it appears, which is a shame. Black is beautiful, but you turn on Indian TV and all you see are ghostly-looking white Indians that you never see in real life.





     Go register the email address 'perfectbride2012@gmail.com' and sell it on ebay and clean up. ANOTHER free business idea from The Dromomaniac!



     Have I mentioned yet that it’s hot? A nice complement to the furnace-like heat are the late afternoon sandstorms that whip through town. The camels are unperturbed.

     I have a horrendous flight sequence courtesy of Air Arabia. Listen to this: depart Jaipur at 4am, arrive in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, at 6am, then a 15 hour layover before I fly to Istanbul and arrive at midnight, too late to get to town by public transport so I will sleep in the airport until the morning. Ugly, but $290 one way. I am supposedly allowed to leave the airport in Sharjah so I will go to Dubai for a few hours, where the temperature is 43C in the day and 33C at night—exactly like here. Oy vey.

A sampling of Indian food—and I never got sick!

Posted on by June 1, 2011

     How can I ask for a Mad Angles Tomato Mischief and not feel a little emasculated?


     I’m trying to do India cheaply even though it’s a country that begs to be splurged upon for both mental and physical health reasons, so I rarely eat meat. It’s all for the better. I am losing weight day by day, it feels, and walking everywhere, much more than a sane man would in the heat. OK, fine, I’ll just come out and say it: I’m pretty sexy right now.
     Someone told me to keep my eyes open for a mango drink called Mangola, which I have searched thoroughly for and have yet to see. It sounds like part of a great science fiction/horror movie title: “It came from MANGOLA! In theatres now! Rated R!”
     There are a couple of excellent mango drinks made by Coke and Pepsi that should be distributed worldwide, Maaza and Slice. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have bought out all their drink competition in India. The once iconic cola, Thum’s Up (sic), is now a Coke product. It’s just not right.

     In Jaipur I eat two of these every day for breakfast, a Rajasthan specialty, I was assured. It is kind of like a samosa but with less filling and with curd on top. What's funny is that the guy sticks his thumb into the pastry and then adds curd. It is like if you ordered a jelly donut and the guy takes a pastry, inserts his thumb and fills it with jelly.


     Why yes, I drink Intimate bottled water. Other waters just don't have the same level of discretion I desire.


     No hamburgers. Paneer is a kind of tasteless soft white cheese. A McAloo Tiki? God only knows, though 'aloo' is potato. 'Chicken Maharaja Mac' sounds better than 'Chicken Sandwich' or 'Chicken Fillet' or whatever it's called, you have to admit. I haven't eaten here, but I'm curious to try a McAloo Tiki.


     A sugar cane press. Big fan of sugar cane juice, though not a fan of the common glass everyone shares to drink it. They put a lime chunk in the press, too, for a nice twist and if you don't tell them, they will put salt in the glass as well, just as they put salt on their slices of watermelon. This isn't an India-only phenomenon, but this sick practice must be stamped out everywhere in the world. Jihad!


     A menu for a cheap place in Jaipur. If you haven't been to India in a while, the prices will surprise you. If you have never been here before and just arrived from Europe, it's crazy-cheap.


     Potatoes and chickpeas with chapati. This kind of thing is very common and very good.


     In India you have to be on your toes for even the simplest of transactions like buying water which can be fraught with danger. Below is a short video showing guys refilling water bottles in the Varanasi train station with “government supply” water. It’s not fun and not uncommon to open a bottle of water, think to yourself that it seemed to open too easily, and then find that it doesn’t quite taste right. Can you see the video?

Jaipurrrrr…

Posted on by May 30, 2011

     I love the Indian system of counting in crores and lakhs. One crore is 10 million and one lakh is 100,000. Do mothers scold their kids, “I’ve told you crores of times, eat your peas or no dessert!” I was told cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar gets 300 crore rupees to use a certain bat, but while I was trying to figure out how many dollars that was, I aggravated an old high school math team injury and had to lay down.

     Women flock to the Hotel Pearl Palace in Jaipur. Every female traveler in Jaipur must be here. It’s low season, but the hotel is full every day. Women come because it’s a very feminine place: lot of ferns in the rooftop restaurant, cozy, that kind of thing. They even settle for being in the 175 rupee ($4) dorm with a guy like me. It also helps that Jaipur is known as The Pink City because of the color of its old town buildings. If you called yourself The Dark Gray City, less women would come.
     Two reasons I’m here are because I need to find people to change money with and it’s quiet. In India you can’t change rupees into dollars until you are at the airport and flying out. I fly out in a few days at 4am from Jaipur on the city’s only international flight. If you think I am going to take my chances on being able to change rupees then, you are crazier than the people who put salt on their watermelon.
     Also, you usually have to show receipts that you changed money legally, which I didn’t, so I have to go around and hustle all the travelers and ask if they will change any hard currency for my rupees. I’ve been offered New Zealand dollars and Thai baht, which I might take in a pinch.
     India is LOUD. I scan hotel listings in guidebooks or on wikitravel.org just for the word “quiet” and go with that.

     View from the roof of the Hotel Pearl Palace



     Two guys cleaning the sewers. They offered me their shovel to try it out, but I read Tom Sawyer.

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