Owner: thelostglobe URL:www.thelostglobe.com Join Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:37:44 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Travel, reviews, advice, philosophy, planning, tips for the big trip. Site statistics:Click here
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts 2007-04-04 05:21:19 Vagabonding isn’t your regular travel book it’s not a guidebook, it’s not a travelogue and it’s not a ‘how to’ in the traditional sense. The overwhelming message Potts
gives us is simply ‘don’t force it’, You see Vagabonding is a very philosophical book and the philosophy is how to travel well without preconceived ideas of what ‘well’ is it’s about travelling with a mindset that allows this to happen. But that’s not all there is to it, Potts also provides some useful practical information about things like working on the road and volunteering, however it’s not the usual advice you get from more specific guide books this book is tailored to everyone. Potts discusses topics in such a way that it can apply to almost everyone so that you can take from it what is best for you, it does not recommend how, where’s or when’s but guides you on how to decide for yourself and makes you feel much more at ease in doing
10 Kilos of Cash 2007-04-03 01:57:14 Money TinAbout a year ago I bought a large money tincanox whatever you like to call it, cost me about $3 from a shop called Chickenfeed that has a lot of useless cheap stuff like that. By now I normally would have cracked it open with a can opener and squandered the money on something even more useless but this time I have decided to challange myself to wait until it is full or it reaches 10 Kilos and then it will be counted and deposited into my travel savings fund. I like saving money this way because you can actually see it grow as more than just number on a screen or bank statement, only downside is security and the fact it doesn’t earn interest.
Money TinSo I’ve put it on the scales and it already weighs in at a hefty 7.2kg so only 2.8 kilos to go, I’ll weigh in on the 1st of each month and depending on if we fill it or reach the goal weight first I’ll hold a vote to keep going or not. At the very end I think I might come up with a priz
The Plan 2007-03-30 00:40:14 It’s about time I did this because it’s now been a while since I started this blog and I don’t think I’ve really explained at any point what my travel plans are. Currently my main concern is getting rid of my debt, so I’ve started paying off even more and I’m avoiding all other unnecessary expenses. Of course I would like to travel to practically every corner of the globe but currently the plan is to hit South East Asia first, probably starting in Phuket, Thailand and working our way around Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and possibly Myanmar. Depending on time and money potential extras could be China, Tibet, Nepal and India. The timeframe is in the next 1-2 years probably leaving Feb-March 2008 or ‘09, if leaving next year it will more than likely rule out those extra options, ‘09 could mean turning into a RTW trip and of course there is the option of leaving sometime between those dates.
What to do and where to go once there I want to leave pr
5 Reasons Why I Blog 2007-03-29 02:21:49 When Nomad4Ever did this I thought about doing it myself but I don’t much like copying people, now that I’ve been tagged though by Dave at GoBackpacking (Which is a great blog I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet) I have an excuse, so here goes.
1. Documenting my travel expeiences
Travel isn’t just about seeing new countries, you can also see your own, my home state is a world class travel destination I think and it’s worth writing about what I do here, I also think it’s important to learn how to be a good tourist in your own area. I also find the planning part of travel quite fun and I know a lot of others do too.
2. Fun
SEO, CSS, HTML and all the rest can actually be quite fun, I used to build scale model and I find running a blog a setting it up how you want it, improving it and all the rest can actually give you the same type of satisfaction, plus it costs less and I’m more inclined to finish it.
3. Inspiration and k Read more:Reasons
The Anti-Tourist and Travel Sterotypes 2007-03-27 07:47:21 Of all the travel sterotypes the Anti-Tourist is possibly the worst, he is the traveller who as the name implies, hates with a burning passion the regular tourist, he is quite well defined here. He is the one who doesn’t just give advice on travel, he tries to tell you how to travel. He misses the worlds best attractions because there are to many tourists there and the location has lost it’s authenticity. The Anti-tourist’s main problem is that he has forgotten what travel is about, learning. He thinks he has learned it all and feels he is obliged to tell those he thinks are on his path how to get there faster, he has lost his patience with people. His original problem was simple he started travelling with a steadfast idea of what travel should be like and he charged ahead on that path.
Every traveller believes that they are travelling is the way travel should be. As far as travelling ‘right’ goes every traveller who feels they are travelling &l Read more:Travel
Grand Canyon Skywalk 2007-03-26 03:42:06 Grand CanyonSkywalk
Quite possibly one of the ugliest tourist developments I have ever seen the Grand Canyon
Skywalk opens to the public in 2 days. At $75US it’s not a cheap way to see the canyon eigther, in fact personally I don’t even think the whole development looks like it is worth $75. Still in a couple of days the carpark will be filled with RV’s, SUV’s and Tour Buses and the skywalk will be straining under the weight of overweight middle americans with wallets bigger than their brains. The walk is conveniently shaped like a horseshoe probably designed to point visitors straight back at their vehicles after they have completed the obligitory 500 steps after first stepping out of it.
Technorati Tags: Grand Canyon, Skywalk
Read more:Grand
The Deep Roots of Travel 2007-03-21 23:53:22 When I was younger and living on my island one of my mates and I used to go exploring, more often from out of his house than mine as he lived away from the main town. We would walk through farms, follow creeks, the coast or just blindly pushing through thick scrub to see where we ended up our imaginations always running wild, we spent a lot of time looking for a lost ammo dump that we knew was in the area but we never found it, we built hideouts all over and when military helicopters flew over on a jaunt one day we thought we had all the best places to ambush their special forces with our stick guns. We resurrected caved in tunnels that we found out were originally built by my older half brothers and their friends and we did stupid things like sliding down hills on sailboards, abseiling without proper gear or even knowing what we were really doing and setting off a particularly nasty type of sparkle bomb, it is truly a miracle we didn’t do more damage than the usual playground bu Read more:Travel
A Close Shave While Travelling 2007-03-14 00:16:19 Most of us will wonder what to do about shaving in far of lands. Electric or Blade? Should we even bother?
If you do shave leave the cream at home and use oil instead, a small tube of oil will last even longer, be lighter and take up less space in your pack plus most people find they actually prefer it anyway.
Getting your hands on replacement blades for you razor might not be as hard as you think but it still may be more of a hassle than you really want to bother with, if your touring Europe, the USCanada, Australia then you may as well continue with your usual stuff. In places like the Japan, Hong Kong and similar areas in Asia and the Middle East you could do the same or buying what you need there may even be cheaper than at home.
The other alternative is of course electric, if you buy smartly it really shouldn’t need to be much bulkier than a blade, only charging it might be a problem. Of course the shave is never as good as a blade but it will get you by and really when tra Read more:Close
, Travelling
New and improved 2007-03-13 05:01:20 Welcome to thelostglobe and our new look, you might have already by chance seen it while I have been testing over the last few days. There is still some tweaking to do but I hope you find it easier to read and more accessible the the old theme. So with more changes afoot I recommend that you subscribe via RSS or email so that you don’t miss a thing. Not only has the look changed but so to has my direction, and that will be reflected in the coming new content, yet another reason to subscribe.
So if you dream of travel and want info from tips on planning to gear reviews, travel blogging, fellow travellers and more, then you may have found your new home. This will be the travel experience.
I am but one man with limited time so if you have an idea for a story or would like to contribute please conact me I would love to hear from you.
Happy Travels Read more:improved
Costly Distractions: Bane of the Traveller 2007-03-07 01:13:48 What is it that distracts you?
I’ve been a bit distracted lately by a desire to buy a car I’m in love with, the Nissan 300zx. after actually pursuing it a couple of times now I think I have finally convinced myself to forget about for now. I was planning on selling my current car which is a relaible and economical little thing for this sexy potential pain in the backside fuel guzzler. Buying one would set me back at least 6 months on my travel plans in exchange for driving a real car for once.
My DistractionI’ve been battling with this for a while and asking myself “what will I get more out of?” of course I think travel. I imagine buying this car would give me a lot of satisfaction but if I died soon after would I be happy with how I lived my life? No. Quite simply owning any car no matter how impressive doesn’t count in my eyes to as an indication of how well I have lived. I imagine although I would probably be satisfied with the car I would be Read more:Distractions
, Traveller
Design Improvements and New Stuff 2007-04-12 06:14:22 My laptop has been away for repair since Thursday last week and becuase of the easter break I’ve only just got it back today. I haven’t completely dropped the ball though in that time I did make a few improvements before, during and after the dead laptop and here is proof, I still have a lot more to do though but a lot of what I have done has given me a better idea of what I should do next.
Completed improvments
Added ip2flag plugin so we can see where commenters are from.
Added similar posts plugin, 3 similar posts now get links at the bottom of each post, this needs some tweaking but will get better with time also.
Signed up for quantcast stats.
Redirected feeds to feedburner, moved comments feed to footer.
Added new quotes to random quotes.
Installed Google Sitemap Plugin.
Header image now rotates every 1/2 hour, need to add more.
Signed up for CrazyEgg which helps optimise ad placement and other cool stuff.
Unlocked the blogroll and added my favourite blogs to it, chec
Ebay Item Won 2007-04-20 07:13:37 Sony Ericsson K750i, should do the job and under $200 like I said, woudl’ve been nice if I didn’t have to fork out for anything at all but these things happen.
Saving for the Trip: My Status 2007-04-20 06:06:10 Ok lets start with the bad stuff, Debt. I haven’t had a statement on my car loan in a while, I’m expecting one soon but until the I’ll just have to guesstimate from my budget spreadsheet and yahoo widget what it might be.
Car Loan: $2,386
Digital Camera: $870
So thats $3,256 left to pay off, I have just under $1000 in Saving
s and I’m paying $125 a week on the car and $25 on the camera, I’m not being charged interest on the camera so there is no great urgency to pay it off. I’ll go into the bank tonight or on the weekend and find out exactly what the balance on my car loan is, I think I will use that $1000 to shorten the loan term by 2 months. This fortnight I actually managed to pay off an extra $50 each week on both loans, I really should have put it all towards the car but I’ll remember to do that next time.
My Mobile phone died the other day and as it’s a work requirement I have to buy a new one so Read more:Status
5 Best Walks in Tasmania 2007-04-19 01:23:31 Tasmania is well know for it’s Hiking and these walks are what I believe to be the best in Tasmania not only that but they are also some of the most picturesque and definitely the most demanding, although I have not ordered them as such. Tasmania really is the Hiking capital of Australia I hope this and the features I have in the works will inspire people to visit and take in some of the world class experiences for themselves.
1. The Overland Track is Tasmania’s premier walking track, starting in the world heratige Cradle Mountain and Lake St Claire National Park at the famous and majestic Cradle mountain it takes you through Tasmania’s central highlands to Australia’s deepest lake, Lake St Claire.
2. The Western Arthurs in Tasmania’s remote South-West is possibly Australia’s hardest walk, it takes you to 22 major peaks and 30 glacial lakes and is home to the stunning Lake Oberon which is a paradise on par with The Beach before The Beach and the To Read more:Tasmania
How To Use An EPIRB 2007-04-26 07:15:59 This is a bit of a Community Service Announcement, there have been a few reports in the news lately about the misuse of EPIRBs in Tasmania. Two notable occasions were a Swiss couple who activated their EPIRB after getting their 4WD bogged just 7Km’s from a main road and a group of South Australian’s walking the South Coast Track who became too tired to complete the rest of the walk, obviously the Rescue team was not impressed as they only lifter one person out so that he could arrange a private charter helicoptor to retrive the others, and fair enough. As I started writing this last night there was a short on TV that there would be a story in todays newspaper, so here is a link to the story on The Mercury website, SOS call for sanity. A couple of days earlier was this article, Wrong EPIRB use set to cost. Charging for misuse seeming to be getting a lot of public backing and it will probably go ahead, considering the Search and Rescue helicopter responds to most activations
Your Travel Personality 2007-04-24 05:41:45 There are a few Travel
er type quizes out there that I’ve recently discovered I hadn’t really thought to look for them before but they are at least a little fun, so here are a few and what type of traveler they think I am.
Travel Personality
Quiz at Concierge
I am a Venturer Traveler
ThridAge Travel Personality Quiz
I am a Adventurous Traveler
What Kind of Traveler Are You? By Tickle
I am a Wilderness Warrior
Another Whats Your Travel Personality? By Blogthings
I am Easygoing
The questions are actually different (but similar) in each one and the Concierge and Tickle offer a bit more in their results by including travel ideas to suit your ”personality”. So if your really, really, really bored there you go.
Technorati Tags: Travel, Quiz, Personality, Blog, Bored
Random fact: I before E except after C in the stupidest rule in the english language.
5 Reasons Why I Travel 2007-04-23 06:57:36 Thanks to Mike at Vagabondish for tagging me for this, I like this one more than the first one that went around,
1. The Real World. I want to know the real world, how people live in other countries, what their world view is like, their history, how much of the world is occupied by humans and how much or little damage have we done. Of course we can read about all these things but I don’t think you can really comprehend the figures until you see for yourself.
2. Exploring & Experiences. For the experience of exploring. Who cares if the mountain you just climbed isn’t the worlds highest or that the ancient temple you are walking through at sunrise is about to be stampeded by package tourists, if it’s new to me then that is all that matters, most of the world might have already been explored but to almost everyone in it, it is completely foreign so with the knowledge of other explorers we can explore for ourselves.
“While my being in a p Read more:Travel
, Reasons
10 Kilos of Cash: May Update 2007-05-01 01:11:32 8 Kilos of Cash Weigh in this morning was 8.0 Kilos, thats a 0.8 kilo gain in one month, not bad. At this rate it will take another 2-3 months to reach the 10 Kilo goal, my dilema is that it is only half full now so there will still be a way to go when I reach the target weight, keep going or cash out and actually earn interest on it in the bank?
In other money matters I had my car in for a service last week and it ended up costing my close to $600 and that had to come out of my savings, so I made a call and put the remainder of my savings towards my car loan and decided to no longer contribute to savings until my debt is payed off. This should only take a couple of months and what it will do is minimise interest and fees payed and although it won’t make a difference to how much I can save it will mean when I start again I will have more money earning interest for a longer period of time. I’m still not sure what to do about my camera though, I’m not paying interest Read more:Update
Everest Summit Season 2007-04-29 10:27:46 The season for summiting Everest
is almost here, in fact there are already some expeditions waiting for good weather to take their shot at the worlds highest mountain. For those interested www.mounteverest.net is the best place for up to date news this climbing season. Last year was one of Everest’s worst with 11 deaths and you can surely remember the rucous about mountain ethics in the media in it’s wake and rightly so, over 480 people summited last year so you can imagine how crowded the mountain is these days, yet some are prepared to leave others to die when rescues are more realistic than ever.
This year I hope for a much safer season where hopefully the stories from the mountain will more more like the SuperSherpa expedition where Apa Sherpa the man who has stood on the top of the world a record 16 times and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who has summited Mt. Everest in the record time of 10 hours, 56 minutes, and 46 seconds will attempt to summit for a combined 30 Everest Summi Read more:Summit
, Season
Another Bloody Theme Change 2007-05-02 06:00:07 Hi, yes it’s another bloody theme change, I think I’ll be able to stick this one out. The reason for the change was that I wanted a two sidebar theme to give me more flexability and room for new things, there are still a few changes left to be made to make it ‘mine’ though. Nothing has really changed beyond the look but I’m sure you can find something new that’d be nice if it were clicked on. I do it for you
I’ll be working hard on new content tonight and I hope when it’s published you enjoy it, I feel I’ve moved away from my intentions a bit lately so hopefully I can balance it out soon. Read more:Theme
, Change
What You Need To Know About Pack Security 2007-05-04 10:25:21 I’ve been wondering myself lately what to do about the security of my backpack when traveling and what to do when you can’t keep an eye or your gear, so I’ve done a bit of research and here is some of the info I found useful.
The best option for locks are TSA approved locks, these can be unlocked if need be by airport staff which saves you some money so you don’t find that at your destination the powers that be have decided that your bag needed to be checked and the only option to do so was a pair of bolt cutters and now you need a new lock. But be aware not all countries have TSA agents and you could find that your special TSA lock cut anyway.
Three dial combination locks which are the most common type can be cracked in as little as 10 minutes, if you can find them four dial locks take much longer to crack. But remember most baggage is made from fairly standard materials that someone could take a knife to in seconds.
Mesh pack covers make it more difficult for
Buddhism and Saving Money 2007-05-08 02:00:33 Reading how others are saving for travel I’ve noticed that many adopt a Buddhist philosophy towards saving, some knowingly and others not so. Of course the philosophy isn’t exclusively Buddhist, any philosophy is just that, but this one has long been associated with Buddhism
.
A few months ago Brave New Traveler had an excellent article called 5 Steps To Save Money
Like Buddha now I don’t know that Buddha was really into finance but I doubt he would frown upon people practising things like non-attachment and seeing things for what they are worth. I find myself looking around the house not for things I don’t have but for things I can sell. Playstation games have gone and DVDs are on the way out, I’m a bit of a miser so there isn’t much left to sell anyway but it actually feels good to get rid of these things, I can now see how pointless it is keeping them and in some cases, buying them in the first place. A while ago I also gave up buying magazines Read more:Saving
Anatomy Of A Blog Post 2007-05-07 01:35:17 I often find when I post something that I’ve forgotten to do something I had planned to and that might have made the post just that much better, who knows at times it could mean the difference between the post disappearing into the archives or rocketing to the top of some social networking site. So I have made a post of what I should be doing every time before I hit that Publish button. So here we have 10 simple steps to a solid post, hopefully it helps others who make the same mistakes I do and serves a reminder to myself.
1. Working Title, The first thing that pops into your head to describe the post will do.
2. Research, Know what you are on about, real facts to back up your words are worth the effort.
3. Write, Don’t rush, one great post a week is better than 1 crap one everyday.
4. Edit, Cross check your facts, correct spelling, rearrange text if need be, cut bad or usless bits of information out.
5. Links, Give credit to the places you researched a Read more:Blog Post
Reasons Why You Should Travel 2007-05-11 06:32:39
Some people have travel in the back of their mind but they are not devoted to the idea they need a reason or multiple reasons. Lets not down play the decision to travel to many of us the answer seems obvious but deciding to travel for an extended period of time is a decision up there with buying a house, getting married or having a child. Some excellent reasons came up in the recent 5 Reasons
Why I Travel
meme.
Learn about other people, and yourself.
Gain experience and knowledge.
Sense of freedom.
The challenge, and the adventure.
Make a dream come true
Do something that most people will never do, but will wish they had done.
Make a break from the rat race.
See how varied and different the world really is – and how similar all of us people in it really are.
To live or retire somewhere new.
Travel gives you a lot of time to reflect on things but that doesn’t mean you will be spending most of your time in some type of travel inflicted meditation, you’ll learn as much
The Intermittent Post of Links And Other Stuff 2007-05-14 02:34:54 It’s been a while since I’ve linked to some of the standout people and their blogs and there have been quite a few worth linking to recently so here are a few. I’ve also made a few changes that are worth highlighting too.
The Need for Exploration By Tracey at QuitePaws amazing poetic and something I think a lot of us can really relate to. I wish I could put things into words like that.
Some may have already noticed a new link in the blogroll, I only discovered TrailofAnts about a week ago and it instantly got me with its great humour and wit. It’s a little confusing at first until you figure out what he is aiming for and the result is quite an individual blog.
I had a bit of a laugh at this Forbes article about where to go to get “off the grid”, why? Because I don’t think it’s as hard as they make it sound, especially if you don’t have a satellite phone permanently attached to you.
Obviously I changed theÂ
The Six Week Challenge 2007-05-16 06:38:56 A couple of months ago I heard about something called the Six Week Challenge
, the challenge being on the premise that the Shampoo and Conditioner Industry is a sham, that Shampoo probably does more harm to your hair than good and the idea that you need to ‘wash’ your hair is simply untrue, it’s just a marketing ploy to get you to buy something you don’t really need. If your looking to save money then the simplest way to do so is to cut out items you usually buy that you don’t need, so is shampoo one of those items? Well like most people I know I’ve been groomed to believe so, up until a few months ago I had never gone more than a few days without shampooing my head, ever, since childhood I’ve assumed you have to wash your hair with Shampoo and possibly Conditioner was I just another victim of consumerism?
So I started the challenge because I had just conveniently run out of my usual shampoo anyway. As a rule my hair before the challenge had bee
Damn Impulse Purchases 2007-05-22 20:31:21 I’ve just stumbled across a new documentary movie called A Map For Saturday, produced by Brook Silva-Braga it is described as “an intimate window onto the world of long-term, solo travel”. A quick search brought up their website where I watched this trailer.
Before I knew it I had ordered the DVD, just this morning I had grabbed The Long Way Round out of my TV cabinet and was planning to watch it to inspire me some more, well A Map For Saturday beat me to it. I felt completely excited and inspired again just from watching that trailer (not that I was that low on inspiration anyway), imagine what the DVD will do. So hopefully we will soon see a review of it here from me and I think I have found the prize for when I launch the 10 Kilos of Cash competition.
The short intros to the travelers in the trailer gave a very genuine impression and they described why they were doing this with many of the same reason I would use, it seems to have every romantic idea I have in
Caribbean Dreams 2007-05-22 18:52:36 My Uncle was recently in the Caribbean
for the ICC World Cup Finals, of course I’m happy to say Australia won all be it in probably the most unusual circumstances ever seen in a broadcast cricket game, he also followed the finals in South Africa at the last cup and brought make some very cool photos of the country and of course the wildlife. I think Africa is on everyone’s “To Do” list but it’s probably one that is least ticked off, at least if you don’t count Egypt and Morocco as the “real” Africa.
I haven’t seen any photographic evidence of his latest cricket binge yet but by all reports it was another memorable experience for him. I didn’t know much about the Caribbean other than it was home to the famous (at least in aviation circles) St Maarten Airport, however after doing a bit of research on some of the places he would be visiting I found there was definitely much more to do than watch 747’s make low approaches and blast the Read more:Dreams
Killing For Fun 2007-05-21 21:16:18 Last weekend I spent most of my Saturday running around in the bush aiming at peoples heads and pulling the trigger without a second thought other than making sure the person I was shooting at didn’t look like me. It was a game of course the guns were infra-red and the only thing really different between me and my enemy was the hats we wore. If you’re like Jack Thompson you might think that spending your weekend doing such things can’t be good for your mental health, it may even make me a more violent person. That may be true of Jack but in real life the effect of computer games and related media is far more subjective than he would have you believe. Of the 30 odd others who took part in the game with me maybe I was the only one who thought about what we were doing, I don’t know. I was aware that there would be some degree of realism that could definitely give me a better understanding of what war may actually be like. This is what I learned.
I believe that fro Read more:Killing
How To Catch The Travel Bug 2007-05-20 19:36:42 Sometimes people wake up in the morning with an idea in their head that they want to do something big with their lives, either steely determination gets them there of a few days later it is forgotten. Getting the idea of traveling is much the same, to keep that keep that idea alive you need to turn it into something more, just a vague idea that it is something you would like to or should do in life is not enough. World travel doesn’t just happen, you won’t get to a point in your life where you say “oh, now I can start traveling”, you have to tell yourself that you ARE going to travel and the best time to do that is now. Some people just aren’t made to travel, they are probably people who fear things different to what they are comfortable with, different food, different clothes, different skin color, they have no curiosity of the world around them, these people can become travelers but they need to change the way they see the the world first.
Do you start Read more:Catch
, Travel
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