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n my last trip to Asia, I stopped off in Seoul for an important side-trip. I'd been to South Korea three times before, and each time I'd tried to make this side trip—but each time, something came up to block my way. A public holiday was announced, or I came on the wrong days of the week, or hostilities between neighbors had erupted that derailed the plan. Each time I flew back to Hong Kong or Japan, resolving that the next trip would be successful.
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There are those who say that airports are all the same; that travel has become standardized and sterilized. This view holds that airports exist merely to take passengers from one place to another, and that “real” travel begins only when you leave the terminal. That's one way to think of it. Another way is to embrace airports as a travel experience all on their own. An airport begins, continues, or ends a journey.
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On my first overseas trip in several months, I made it to Libya, Afghanistan, and even (briefly) Kish Island, Iran. It was a tiring trip, as one might expect, but also a timely one. When I booked my flights, I didn't exactly plan on revolution breaking out across the region; apparently revolutions are not scheduled in advance.
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As part of the Annual Review series, I look back at everywhere I went in 2010. It’s a long list! From my usual 20+ new countries to a book tour to every U.S. state, I spent a lot of time on the road this year. In rough chronological order, here’s everywhere I went in 2010:
United States, Canada, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Maldives, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Germany, Ukraine, Cyprus, Cape Verde, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Morocco, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Belarus, ThailandRead More
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This is the first announcement about an all-new project I'll be unveiling to the world in early January. The project is called the Travel Hacking Cartel, and it will be the world's greatest alert service for anyone who wants to experience the world on a budget.
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Greetings from the road between Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee ... soon to be Oxford, Mississippi. I've been on tour for five weeks now, and a number of people have asked, “What kind of travel hacking are you doing on this trip?”
The best answer is: Not much. The schedule is fixed. One day per city, with no flexibility on dates. I've done 32 stops over the past five weeks, usually back-to-back, and the priority is to structure everything around the meetups. In addition to that, I've done media interviews every day, all of the work I do on an ongoing basis, and some planning for two bigger projects that I'll be announcing soon.
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Greetings from Durham, North Carolina, near the Duke campus where we did last night's Unconventional Book Tour stop.
One week ago, I ran ten miles in non-stop pouring rain. The only thing that made it easier was thinking about everyone else running the Portland Marathon on the other side of town. Ten miles in the rain gave me blisters, but at least it wasn't 26.2 miles. I escaped to the indoors, went to Chipotle, and now all is well.
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Greetings from Minneapolis, Minnesota—stop #21 on the 63-city Unconventional Book Tour. I've been on the road all week and getting ready for the latest event here in a few hours ...
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Greetings from the early-early flight (6:05am departure) to DFW, where I'll transfer to an American Eagle jet up to Des Moines, Iowa. Over the next 14 days I'll be in 13 cities, taking the message of AONC on the road through the midwest and the Great Lakes, meeting readers, and trying to keep the plates in the air.
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As regular readers know, I use Frequent Flyer miles to go all over the world several times a year. I've written before about how to earn miles without flying, and how you can become your own travel ninja through mass mileage accrual. Once you earn miles, however, you need to make a plan for using them. One of the saddest facts in the Frequent Flyer world is that every year, millions of miles go to waste. Help stamp out mileage expiration! Use your miles ... but use them wisely. Here's how.
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Thanks to some fun travel hacking that led to a better-than-free side trip to Thailand, I took a couple days off at the end of my Belarus-to-Algeria adventure.
I've been to Thailand a dozen times, but never to Chiang Mai, the mountainous city in the north, far away from the hustle of Bangkok. The highlight of the excursion was a day trip to Tiger Kingdom, a cat reserve twenty minutes out of the city where tourists can play a fun game of “pet the tigers while the staff watches warily with sticks.”
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This week in the “wow, really?” department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belarus has provided detailed comments on my recent experience attempting to get a visa for their country. You can read the official government response here in Russian, or over here in a fun translation provided by The Google.
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This one came down to the wire. I left PDX a week ago, not knowing where I'd be seven days later. All bets were on Algeria—I had a confirmed hotel reservation and a non-refundable plane ticket. What I didn't have, unfortunately, was a visa.
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By the time I got to the check-in counter at PDX airport this morning, I knew I'd go through with the plan. PDX-DEN-FRA to start with... but then what? I wasn't sure.
“Will you be traveling on from Frankfurt?” the United agent asked.
This is a polite way of saying, “When will you be leaving the European Union?” – to ensure I don't decide to take up residence in Germany.
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When I haven't been contemplating the puzzle of how to do everything, I've been planning my final international trip of the year. Yes, it's only July, but come September, I hit the road to meet readers in 63 cities for the Unconventional Book Tour. Therefore, next month's trip is my final chance to get in a couple of new countries before putting my Frequent Flyer cards back in the drawer for a long four months.
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