Los Angeles On The Go

~ Image: The tide is clearly out in this image of a canal at Venice Beach, Los Angeles.

Still suffering from the effects of jet lag (yes, Livingstone, I know flying 10,000kms hardly compares to the light years you’ve travelled, but tell someone who cares - I’m still tired, Ok?), I embarked on a whistle-stop five hour bus tour of L.A.

Under the expert guidance of Cyril, a driver for VIP Tours, I and my fellow passengers were whipped around Los Angeles for a strictly ‘just the highlights’ tour which took in Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Farmer’s Market, The Grove, Hollywood, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, FOX Studio’s, the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame, Marina Del Rey, Sunset Strip and Venice Beach, amongst others.

Three stops were included in the tour: Farmer’s Market, Hollywood Boulevard (which includes Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the Walk of Fame and other locations along Hollywood Blvd), and Venice Beach.

Along the route, Cyril pointed out some of the many buildings used in movies set in L.A. The tower that Bruce Willis defends in the first Die Hard film; the fire escape used by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman; and of course there was Venice Beach which seems to appear in almost every film shot in Los Angeles. He also showed us the telephone box where Hugh Grant was caught with his pants down; the Saks Fifth Avenue department store where Wynona Ryder was caught shoplifting; the… well, you get the picture.

Cyril pointed out some of the homes of the rich and famous: Steven Spielberg’s massive mansion on top of a hill overlooking the city; Marilyn Monroe’s L.A. home (quite modest by today’s standards); classic music venue’s like the Roxy and the Rainbow; and the venue Johnny Depp bought just so he and his buddies could party long into the night undisturbed.

Venice Beach began taking shape in the early 1900s, when tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney and his partner Francis Ryan bought two miles (3.24 km) of oceanfront property south of Santa Monica in 1891. We passed along Dell Avenue and saw the canals that give Venice Beach its name, although if you look at the area using Google Maps you may be as surprised as I was to see just how small this area actually is.

Image: Livingstone sharing a private moment with Steven Spielberg’s star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame (along Hollywood Boulevard) is probably the one place that every visitor to L.A. walks for themselves while looking for the star that represents their favourite Hollywood legend. The problem is that there are apparently some 2,400 stars fixed along both sides of the Boulevard, so the chances of visiting everyone of them is probably remote given the amount of time most tour companies allocate for this stop.

The stars don’t just recognize actors and actresses – they also immortalize legendary directors, motion pictures, broadcast television and radio, audio recordings, and theater/live performance. As an aside, I note with some bemusement, that Muhammad Ali received a star under the Live Theatre category. Boxing certainly offers spectacle on a grand scale, but live theatre? Ali’s star can be found at 6801, Hollywood Boulevard.

Apart from the glitz and glamour, I couldn’t help notice some of the poverty on display around the city. The most obvious signs of this being the numerous homeless men and women, young and old who have clearly missed out on winning their small part of the American Dream. Other observations: the ubiquitous trash that one sees everywhere; the relatively small midtown section of the city with its modest number of high-rise buildings and skyscrapers (I expected a lot more); the large number of surprisingly small homes and apartments

Image: This is as close as I got to the famed Hollywood sign on the hills overlooking downtown L.A.

As someone who champions the concept of slow travel, these bus tours are exactly the type of thing I dislike most, and yet there I was doing the ‘tourist thing’ just like so many other out-of-towners. Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and make the most of the available time you have – and today was one of those occasions. For just $55, the tour was cheap, quick, entertaining enough, and the bare minimum you would need to get some sort of overview of the most popular parts of the city.

I would love to come back and spend a month or two in L.A. to experience the many other sides of this sprawling place, but that will have to wait for another trip and another day.

Historical information about Venice Beach courtesy of Wikipedia...

The Hollywood Walk of Fame...

Complete list of all stars and their locations...

Touchdown in Los Angeles

~ International travel can be quite confusing to the uninitiated. Last night, Tuesday, I uploaded a blog post from Auckland, New Zealand. And now here I am a day later posting another update from Los Angeles, California – and it is still Tuesday night! No wonder international flights leave passengers jet lagged, short tempered, and struggling to adjust to constantly changing time zones.

At 2.02pm local time, New Zealand flight NZ2 touched down at Los Angeles International Airport, otherwise known as LAX. It was the end of another uneventful flight spanning 10,590 kilometres, and eleven long hours from Auckland. All up I’ve spent at least 18 hours travelling (I’m too tired to work out the exact number). Right now as I sit in my Super 8 budget hotel room at LAX, I am delighted I made the decision not to fly through to New York, thereby saving another 6-8 hours of flying time, and the additional problem of trying to work out what to do after arriving at New York City’s JFK airport at one in the morning. I certainly had no intention of banging on the door of my host’s apartment at 3am or thereabouts asking to be let in.

Never the less, my stopover in L.A., is going to be short, sharp and shiny. Essentially, I’m here to let my body adjust to the change in time zones, so that when I reach New York I will be ready to hit the streets as soon as possible. However, that doesn’t mean I’m going to spend a day and a half sleeping or sitting around watching cable television. Tomorrow I will go on one of those horrible all-in-one bus tours that cover most of the popular attractions around Los Angeles, if only to get a quick overview of the city.

My in-flight movie of choice this time was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a film based on the best selling book of the same name by Stieg Larsson. Several members of my family have been urging me to see the film, so as soon as I spotted it on the list of in-flight movies, I knew I had to watch it. I must say though, it was very disconcerting to be watching this film while sitting next to two young women. The film features several explicit sex scenes (even after being modified for air travel), graphic violence, lot’s of images of dead female murder victims, and other violent scenes. I don’t know if anyone else was watching the film over my shoulder, but I certainly felt conspicuous and even self-conscious at various points during the movie. Having said that – it is a very good film, and I’m glad I finally got to see it. Even if it was edited for our in-flight entertainment.

Getting through security at LAX was slow but without incident. After having my fingerprints taken and my face photographed for posterity, I was out on the street looking for my courtesy bus ride to the motel, which duly came and presented me with my first problem – no money for tips. It’s not as if the driver of the bus had to do very much. After all, I am quite capable of humping my own backpack and small case, but of course he wanted to show how efficient and accommodating he could be. So he loaded and unloaded them for me, and clearly expected a tip, which I just as clearly ignored, since I didn’t have any money handy to give him.

If the same driver gives me a ride back to the terminal on Thursday morning, I will make sure he gets an extra bonus for his efforts.

I must say, my energy levels are flagging fast at the moment, so I’m signing off. Time for a long hot shower, and meal at the Greek restaurant just around the corner. Later, gator…

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_s_etc/

One Leg Down - One To Go

It's 7.30pm New Zealand time as I write this (5.00pm in Adelaide).

I've just completed the first leg of my trip around the world - Adelaide to Auckland - although I'm not spending any time exploring the 'land of the long white cloud'. There are better times of the year to travel New Zealand, unless you are into winter sports - and I'm not.

Got off to a good start this morning, thanks to Sarah-Jane, my long-suffering niece.

However, I had a moment of panic last night when I went to bed. Literally 30 seconds after I flipped out the light and put my head on the pillow, I suddenly thought: I don't have any printed details for my accommodations in Los Angeles. I had of course, booked a couple of nights in L.A. weeks ago, and I had copied the information into a couple of MS Word documents onto my laptop. But I had forgotten to make a print out of the information.

There I was, trying to get to sleep, while also trying to remember the name of the hotel and coming up with numerous variations of the place, but not the right name. I considered leaving it until this morning, but knew if I left it, I would never get to sleep from having the oversight play on my mind all night. There was nothing to be done but get back out of bed, unpack the laptop, power supply, cables, and pre-paid wifi dongle, boot up the computer, find the files on my machine and finally email them to myself so I could print them off this morning. All that duly done, I packed everything away again, and 50 minutes later hit the pillow once more.

But why did I remember this oversight at almost the last moment? How is it, that my subconscious was able to retrieve this information, when my conscious mind had forgotten these very important files? I have no idea of the answer to those questions, but I'm thankful for the gift. Truly, the human mind/subconscious is a wonderful thing.

In the end, it was an uneventful flight - just the way I like it. My inflight movie of choice was a second viewing of the South African film, District 9. I even got to sit next to the wing exit, which means that in the even of an emergency, I was the person designated to open the escape route onto the wing. Unfortunately, no-one explained if I had to wait until the plane came to a complete stop before I opened the door, or whether I could open it before we hit the ground. Fortunately, I didn't have to find out!

Livingston spent the whole flight tucked into the overhead storage locker - sleeping. At least, that's what I'm assuming. Anyway, he didn't complain too much, and I left him to it. I did take some photographs during the flight, but as yet I can't download them from camera for your viewing pleasure.

They will wait.

Just like I'm waiting for the next stage of the trip: Auckland to Los Angeles.

The first leg was easy. This next one will be a real back breaker, but with a bit of luck I hope to sleep most of the way. See you then, then.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?

~ Well, yes – and no.

Meet my travelling companion, Livingstone, named in honour of the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone. Livingstone was created by my niece, Sarah-Jane Cook, a much underrated visual artist who works across many mediums. Since I generally travel on my own, we both thought (that is, Sarah-Jane and I), that it would be good if I had a travel buddy with me on my round the world trip, which begins in less than 24 hours. So, out of all the creatures and characters Sarah-Jane has created, I have selected Livingstone as my boon companion.

Livingstone is already well travelled, having recently come from a tiny planet in the region of a star cluster with the incredibly romantic name of NGC 6752. Seriously! Livingstone was very straight faced and quite sober when he told me this. Apparently, NGC 6752 is somewhere out beyond the Pavo constellation. Unfortunately, he did get caught up in some recent sun spot activity which seems to have caused a major malfunction in his internal guidance mechanisms. The other side effect of this incident is that it has left him with a body mass that has become extremely soft and pliable, giving him the appearance of a soft toy made from heavy ply wool with black beads for eyes – but as Livingstone says, appearances can be deceptive.

In and of itself, his transformation from an inter-galactic, state of the art, robotic alien is not a major drawback, since it means he is now incredibly light and can fit into almost any space, which in turn means I should have no trouble toting him around with me wherever I go.

Assuming I don’t get turned back at Los Angeles International Airport by an overzealous Border and Customs Control officer who thinks it is very strange that a 61 year old should be travelling around the world with a ‘soft toy’ called Livingstone, I look forward to sharing many exciting adventures with you - and of course, with Livingstone.

Packing & Stacking

With around 60 hours to go before I jet off on the first leg of my round the world trip, I have spent most of the past few days (since my return from Melbourne) packing and stacking.

By that I mean I have been packing boxes with the detritus of my rental accommodation, and stacking those boxes in my niece, Sarah-Jane's, garage. I have taken a couple of car loads of clothing, books, and assorted goods to the charity shop and the second-hand book store down the road, and I've off-loaded some old magazines at the laundry on Semaphore Road - magazines which make much more interesting reading than the awful 'women's' magazines that usually lay about on the benches there.

I've got a couple of half full storage boxes waiting to receive the very last minute stuff that I need to see me through the next couple of days. My suitcase is packed. My backpack waits to receive the laptop I'm writing this with, along with the other technological paraphernalia that so many travellers burden themselves with - and that's it.

Los Angeles, here I come...

And New York City...

I hope you are able to join me on my travels, where I look forward to viewing the world with a fresh perspective, an open mind, a joyful heart, and welcoming smile.

See you on the road.

Two Tribes

~ Yesterday, I attended my first Australian Football League (AFL) game at one of Australia’s iconic sporting venues, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, otherwise known as the MCG, or to real sporting aficionado’s simply as the ‘G’.

Now you have to understand there is a world of difference between Aussie rules football, or footy, as we like to call it, and the British version of football (which we call soccer), and what the Americans call football, but this is neither the time or place to try and explain those differences. Except to say that Aussie rules football is high scoring, fast (and sometime furious), full of high marks and aggressive tackles, and played by teams whose supporters are practically born into their favourite teams, just like previous generations of family members.

Facing off for a classic round of Aussie rules footy where arch rivals Melbourne and Collingwood. Personally, I would have been happier attending a match between my two hometown teams, the Adelaide Crows and Port Power, but unless they miraculously play off against each other in an AFL Grand Final (dreams are made of this), I can only see them compete against each other in Adelaide.

However, Melbourne is where this sport was born, where the biggest teams come from, and where the most passionate fans are located, so it was interesting to attend a game between two Victorian teams with a long history of competition between them. It was also interesting to be part of a crowd of 67,454 football fans who are not afraid to give voice to their anger, frustration, and gratuitous advice, with which they liberally shower their team and coaches (and the opposition team and coaches with).

I don’t know how many tourists or travelers make a point of attending major sporting events in the cities they visit, but I think you can learn a lot about a country and its people by doing so. I suspect Australian football fans are no different from British, American or any other national sporting fans you care to name. We are passionate, vocal, rude, outrageous, and make no excuses for being so.

Along with the previously mentioned abuse hurled at both teams, the greatest vitriol is reserved for the hapless umpires who seemingly can’t do a thing right, or make a correct decision – especially when it is your team which is on the end of a controversial ruling. It is at this point that all semblance of decorum and manners fly out the window (or more to the point, fly out of the mouths of adults who should know better). I don’t know if sporting fans are the same all around the world, but Australian sporting fans don’t hold back when they disagree with an umpire or referees decision. Anything goes, and if you are the type of person who is offended by profanity of the worst sort, you wouldn’t want to attend an Aussie rules football game.

I fully intend to undertake my own research on the behaviour of sporting fans during my summer trip to New York City, where I plan to attend a couple of baseball games and roller derby events, and any other major sporting event I happen across. I’ll let you know the results of my ‘research’ down the track.

o0o

For the record, the game was a draw – a rare and unusual event in Australian football. However, Collingwood should have won, since they had 31 scoring shots to Melbourne’s 21 scoring shots. The final result: Melbourne 11-10 (76), to Collingwood 9-22 (76).

If you are wondering how the scores are arrived at, teams score by kicking goals or points. A goal is worth 6 points, and a point is counted as 1. Since Melbourne kicked 11 goals and 10 points the equation looks like this (6x11=66+10=76). For Collingwood it is (9x6=54+22=76). The team with the most points at the end of the game is declared the winner, and gets the four points allocated to the winning team which determines its place in the competition. Since the game was a draw, each team gets 2 points, and moves up or down the competition ‘ladder’ depending on how other teams in the competition performed over the weekend.

Whew, that’s more information than you probably needed to know, but there it is!

Four Seasons in One Day

~ Melbourne. Tim Finn was right. Mind you, I don’t know if he was writing about Melbourne exactly when he wrote Four Seasons in One Day, but the song’s title perfectly sums up Melbourne’s weather since I got here a week and a half ago.

Take today as an example. Cloudy and grey at first, then several hours of brilliant sunshine. Just as I got ready to head out for a while it started pouring with rain, so I sat down again to read a couple more chapters of Barack Obama’s first book, Dreams From My Father. An hour or so later, with the sun shining brightly in the early afternoon sky, I stepped out for a coffee and some lunch. Half way through my meal, I watched as a heavy shower of rain, washed the streets of Fitzroy North. Fifteen minutes later as I walked ‘home’, again bathed in sunlight, I couldn’t help but hum the Crowded House song whose title heads this entry.

So what have I been doing between bouts of sunshine, rain, and my last entry? Hanging out mostly. Walking into the city and back again – a round trip of 12-15 kilometres. Window shopping. Reading. Catching up on season one of The Wire. Checking out the open mic at the Empress Hotel just down the road. And discovering the final resting place of Australian Prime Ministers, renowned explorers, and the Elvis Presley memorial (see image), all located in the Melbourne General Cemetery along Lygon Street, Carlton North.

See, that’s the thing about extended vacations. About slow travel. You have the time to undertake weird things like walks through cemeteries, book reading, and just hanging out enjoying the location you are in. You don’t have to rush about trying to hit every major attraction or tourist trap just because that’s what every other visitor does, or because it is expected of you.

This time around, I am spending three weeks in Melbourne. Since I don’t have my own car, I will not get out of the city or the inner suburbs, but that’s fine by me. I’m happy just to hang out and take it easy. This is like the vacation you have when your not really having a vacation. It gives me time to think about the real journey that I am undertaking at the end of the month. My trip to New York City.

I feel like I’m conserving my energy and ideas for New York. Not to mention my money. And Melbourne in winter, is certainly preparing me for summer in New York. I can hardly wait, but wait I must.

In the mean time, it is threatening rain again here, and I’m settling down for a night in with the final two episodes of season one of The Wire. See you down the track…

Walking Melbourne

~ I’ve kicked off the shackles of illness and hit the streets of Melbourne town with a vengeance and a good pair of walking boots.

I set off at midday for a walk from Fitzroy North into the city centre – a pretty easy and doable distance of around 6 kilometres (3.7 miles). The object of the exercise (no pun intended) was to walk, explore, enjoy the sights, take a few photographs, eat, drink and make the most of a perfect, cool, clear sky Melbourne day.

You can see a complete route of today's walk here. I should however, point out that the route as displayed between the 4km and 10km markers looks like the ramblings of a drunken man – and I can assure you I was not staggering around the streets of Melbourne in an inebriated state. I can only assume that Walkmeter, the iPhone app I was using to map my route, had trouble getting good GPS coordinates due to the many high-rise buildings around the city centre. And it probably didn’t help that I kept disappearing into one building after another to explore some point of interest along the way.

In the end I also walked home again, completing a good afternoon of exploration of around 13.5kms (8.3 miles), that took in Brunswick Street, Federation Square, ACMI, the Arts Centre, Lygon Street and more besides.

My overall impression of Melbourne remains much the same as it was after my visit earlier this year. That is, there seems to be a pervasive sense of forward movement, continued growth and excitement about the place. Unfortunately, these sentiments can’t be said about my home town, Adelaide. But don’t get me started on that theme!

Melbourne’s alleyways are renowned for the quality of the graffiti that covers their walls, but the alleyways are not the only place you will find great graffiti. Yes, I know “great graffiti” sounds like an oxymoron, but let’s be honest, there are artists and practitioners of graffiti who do have real skills and creative ideas that rise above mere spraying of tags everywhere. Which is why I’ve decided to illustrate this post with some examples of the graffiti I discovered during my walk today.

This wonderful mosaic bench was one of three I saw at various locations along Brunswick Street. This is a good example of the types of public art you can see all over the centre of Melbourne, and the inner suburbs. In this respect, Melbourne reminded me of New York City, which also makes a point of placing public art all over the five boroughs that make up greater New York.

Melbourne even produces a public art walking map which guides you around a collection of some of the best examples of the city's public art works, and another brochure detailing the graffiti covered alleyways that have helped to make the Victorian capital so iconic and well known internationally.

There is much yet to discover in Melbourne, and I will barely scratch the surface over the next three weeks, but you have to start somewhere, and this has been my beginning.

...

Tip: Click on each image to view at full size

Mmm… Melbourne

~ So here I am in Melbourne, Australia for the start of three weeks house sitting. I should be out and about partying – or at least out having fun, which is not always the same thing – but instead I’ve been laid up all day trying to shake off the effects of either a head cold or the latest in an endless allergic reaction to who knows what.

Quite frankly, I feel like crud, but I hope to get out tomorrow to check out the city centre, and reacquaint myself with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Federation Square, and the general vibe of Victoria’s capital.

I was last here in January and February, house sitting for the same owners, and caring for their ageing cat, Bruce. Given his advanced age, Bruce probably feels worse than me, but seems happy enough to sleep and get the occasional back scratch.

Speaking of ACMI, I wrote about my visit there last January to see the fantastic Dennis Hopper exhibition Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood. As you might expect, I, along with thousands of other fans, am deeply saddened to learn of his recent death at 74. Hopper was one of the great Hollywood rebels, and managed to carve out a niche for himself despite the workings of the big studios, movie moguls, and critics. His legacy will live on when many other lesser actors will fade into obscurity and the occasion footnote in some history of modern cinema.

But I digress.

Being in Melbourne for three weeks also gives me a chance to work on my stripped down Round The World packing list. My small suitcase weighed in at just 14.4 kilograms (32 pounds), and even that probably has more in it than I really need. I’m also traveling with a lap top computer and some other essential technological aids. However, this is the extent of my on road kit.

The other thing I am working on is my ability to budget for an extended journey spanning many months. I am hoping to keep my daily expenses in Melbourne as close as possible to $50 per day, and hopefully, I won’t be spending much more than that while I am in New York. But that remains to be seen. For now, I’m concentrating on getting over my cold/allergy, and enjoying Melbourne.

Money, Money, Money

~ I’ve had one of those days where all I did was pay out my hard earned cash, and got very little in ‘return’ to show for it. Well, that’s how it feels, anyway.

You see, today I bought travel insurance for my upcoming trip ($757.00), and paid for a couple of nights accommodation in a Super 8 Hotel near Los Angeles international airport (US$132.56). In return for my $889.56 I got a couple of electronic receipts, and documents spelling out the numerous terms and conditions governing my purchases.

Quite frankly, it didn’t seem like a fair return to me.

That’s one of the problems with travel. You seem to spend weeks, if not months, paying out large sums of money before you see any actual return on your investment. So far I have paid out $5,427.00 towards my trip and I haven’t even left the house yet!

I’m trying valiantly to stem a rising tide of panic which in my worst case scenario sees me flying out of Australia without any money left in my account to enjoy my travels. Of course, I will have enough, but when you are constantly forking out for tickets, insurance, accommodation, and pre-booked tours and such, departure time can seem like a long way off, and your wallet begins to look very thin.

Add to this the constant worry of watching the world’s financial markets rise and fall like a kite caught in a hurricane, and endless calculations on just how much more (or less) the Australian dollar will buy each day, and I know exactly why I don’t feel anywhere near excited enough about my approaching departure.

I console myself with the thought that with a month still to go before I fly out, I have pretty much made all my major travel expenditures except for any day to day living expenses I will have to deal with.

Roll on June 29!

Click here to see The (Real) Cost of Travel...

Denmark Dolphin Killing Festival

~ I'm not big on boycotts. But today I became aware of a ‘festival’ so bizarre and disgraceful that I think the country that hosts it, deserves to be boycotted until the event is stopped.

The event in question is the annual pilot whale/dolphin killing festival which takes place in the Faroe Islands. The islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe(s), or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland.

The atrocious slaughter you see depicted in the image illustrating this post, has been practiced since at least the 10th century, with around 1,000 creatures killed annually in the “grindadráp” (whale hunt) typically occurring during summer months.

Not surprisingly, the hunting of pilot whales/dolphins by residents of the Faroe Islands has long been a subject of controversy, and for good reason.

Although the International Whaling Commission enacted a ban on commercial whaling in 1986, pilot whales seem to be exempt because technically they are members of the dolphin family. To compound the problem, the Faroe Islands is one of the parts of the world where the IWC's rules still allow for subsistence hunting of such cetaceans.

As usual, supporters of the hunt maintain that the practise of killing pilot whales is "an age-old communal, non-commercial hunt aimed at meeting the community's need for whale meat and blubber." They also claim the animals are dealt with so quickly that their pain is brief, and that whale meat accounts for a quarter of the Faroe Islander's annual meat consumption.

Conservationists, on the other hand charge that the hunts, which take hundreds of whales at a time, are barbaric and pointless; that "the practice is outdated, cruel and unnecessary for a place with one of the highest standards of living in Europe." As if that is not enough, most of the whales go to waste - either being left on the beach to rot or thrown back to sea after they are killed.

While the Scandinavian countries have long been on my list of regions to visit, I for one will never visit Denmark, the Faroe Islands, or Greenland while this atrocious practice continues.

Visit this site for more images and links to videos which show this barbaric event in all its gruesome detail.

Training For Travel (Again)

~ Yesterday, I caught a train into the centre of Adelaide. Hardly a remarkable event given the everyday nature of the task. However it soon dawned on me that all transport systems are not created equal, and the transport system in dear little Adelaide is probably the least equal of all the major cities in Australia.

The reason for catching the train was so I could start getting used to the idea of not having my own motor vehicle to speed me from point A to point B, in a convenient and timely manner. You see, in ten days I fly to Melbourne for three weeks to house sit for the same people I house sat for in January. While in Melbourne I will be relying on that city’s extensive network of trams to get me from Fitzroy North into the city centre (and home again). And when I hit New York in July, I will be using the subway system there to navigate my way quickly from Washington Heights to downtown Manhattan.

Unfortunately, Adelaide is not Melbourne or Manhattan. As a result, the transport system here is nowhere near as frequent as the ones found in those two cities. Apart from the rush hour, here the trains run every half hour or so, and at night about once an hour. On weekends the trains again run about once an hour.

It stands to reason that if you are going to use the train system here, it helps to have a timetable for the line servicing your suburb, since if you miss one train you might have to wait up to an hour for the next one! In Melbourne and Manhattan, it doesn’t seem to matter that much if you miss your train/tram when you know another one will be along in 10-15 minutes. When the transport system is that frequent, you can pretty much dispense with timetables. Not so in Adelaide. Luckily I only had to wait for 20 minutes or so for the ride into town, but that was more than enough (and yes, I do now have a timetable for the Outer Harbor line which passes close to my home).

Still it’s good practise for world travel. It is easy to take modern transport systems for granted, even one as intermittent as Adelaide’s. But once you start travelling from country to country, using public transport becomes as much a part of the experience and adventure as anything else you might do. Especially when the signage and timetables (if they exist at all), are in a language you cannot speak – let alone read.

Come to think of it, this is as good a place to bear in mind this quote from Clifton Fadiman: "When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable."

24 Hours of World Air Traffic

A friend recently sent me a copy of this amazing video apparently showing the world’s air traffic for a period of 24 hours, with each green dot representing one aircraft. But is it real or is it a fake?

Quite frankly, I didn’t know. The video has been circulating around the Internet for some time, either attached to e-mail messages, or uploaded multiple times to video hosting sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video, and dozens of others. So today, I decided to try and track down the people or organisation that created the original video, and see if I could turn up the definitive answer.

To my surprise, the answer was not that hard to find with both the Wired and NASA websites providing links to the clip. The original video animation was produced to be shown on the high definition 3D-Globe "Orbitarium" in Technorama - The Swiss Science Center in collaboration with the Institute of Applied Information Technology In IT, at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

It seems the boffins at the school used a commercial website called FlightStats to gather global flight and schedule information for the departure and arrival times of every commercial flight in the world. They then plugged all that data into a computer to assemble their simulation.

As mentioned, the animation shows all scheduled flights over a 24h period (based on 2008 data). Apparently, every day some 93,000 flights are starting from approx. 9,000 airports, with between 8,000 and 13,000 planes in the air at any one time!

So, to answer my own question: Is it real or is it a fake? I am happy to declare the video animation to be real. I'm glad that's cleared up.

Next?

24 Hour Internet - $27.50!

~ Excuse me while I vent my spleen! I’ve just been reading a review of the Oaks Plaza Pier Hotel (15, Holdfast Promenade, Glenelg, Phone: 8350 6688), in my local Adelaide weekend paper, The Advertiser (May 8, 2010).

Dianne Mattsson, the reviewer, gives the hotel an overall rating of four stars, and for all I know it deserves everyone of them. However, the thing that has got my blood boiling is the list of ‘facilities’ she mentions – one of which includes 24 hour Internet access for AU$27.50* per day.

Twenty-seven fifty!

You can park your car with them for $16.00 a day, but if you want Internet access you have to pay $27.50 per day!

Are they mad?

Almost every budget chain hotel/motel in America provides free WiFi Internet access as a matter of policy, and here in Australia we have some dinky little hotel charging $27.50 a day. Do they think people are going to spend their whole stay locked in their rooms surfing the Internet? Are they afraid that the few cents it costs them to provide Internet access for each room is going to send them broke? Can’t they see, providing free Internet could set them apart from their opposition and give them the edge they need to attract more guests?

Heck if it really is that expensive to provide ‘free’ WiFi to each room, why not add a few dollars per day to each room rate, and recoup their investment that way. Some guests will use the service a lot; others will use it a little; and still others not at all.

In an age when WiFi enabled computers and mobile phones are ubiquitous, it makes no sense to charge your guests an extra $27.50 a day to keep in touch with family, friends, or the boss. Especially, when more and more local cafés are providing free WiFi to attract customers through their doors.

Mind you, the Oaks Plaza Pier Hotel is not alone in slugging travellers huge fees for Internet access. In Australia this appears to be the ‘rule’ rather than the exception. So in their defence, the hotel might argue they are just following the industry norm. To which I would say, So what? How about thinking outside the square? More importantly, how about joining the rest of us in the 21st Century, and providing what should be an essential service to your guests – just like the ‘free’ linen service, television, and other standard room facilities every traveller now takes for granted.

For my part, I will never pay extra for Internet access, when I can choose a hotel that provides the service as part of their standard booking. The more travellers refuse to pay extra (and explain why they choose not to stay at hotels that do charge extra fees), the sooner these hotels will begin to include free WiFi or broadband access as part of their standard service.

* While the Oaks Plaza Pier Hotel does give you the option to pay $10 for two hours of Internet access, in my opinion this is even more a waste of money, and a further insult to their guests.

The Cultural Explorer: South Africa

~ I’ve never been to South Africa, but with interest in the country building as the Fifa World Cup Soccer competition gets closer and closer (11 June-11 July, 2010), now might be the perfect time to think about travelling there and seeing if South Africa has more to offer than soccer and safari’s.

For those who seek meaning, connection, and want to make a difference as they travel, a San Francisco-based cultural and philanthropic tour company, is offering a one-of-a-kind Zulu ‘empowerment’ volunteer tour into Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.

This three-week trip in September 2010 (September 4-25), organised by The Cultural Explorer, gives volunteer travellers the rare opportunity to immerse themselves in the vibrant Zulu culture while participating in a variety of service-oriented projects. Travellers will be encouraged to design a project based on their own interests and skills: for example, volunteers might want to refurbish a school or to tutor students in math, science, English and art. Other volunteers might choose to work with children an orphanage or teach in a creche (day care centre). And still others might want to teach marketable skills to Zulu women and young people or assist rural businesswomen with marketing ideas.

Volunteer travellers will stay in a lovely hotel in the small rural town of Eshowe. There will be excursions daily into the numerous nearby Zulu villages -- with opportunities to observe traditional and contemporary life, attend a Zulu wedding, birthday, or healing celebration. Volunteers will visit with the local sangomas (traditional healers), the only white sangoma in South Africa, and attend meetings with Zulu educators. Travellers will also enjoy lively dinners with local activists, politicians, and entrepreneurs who are invested in making positive change within the Zulu community.

Volunteer travellers will also spend a weekend on a safari in the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, the oldest game park in South Africa, looking for the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo. Also planned is side trip into the city of Durban and a chance to visit the beaches along the Indian Ocean.

The Zulu Empowerment trip starts in Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, with an in-depth history lesson and an excursion to the Apartheid museum, Origins Centre, the thriving township of Soweto, and downtown Johannesburg. Travellers will be treated to authentic South African foods and music. The volunteer portion of the trip will be based in Kwa-Zulu Natal, about 7 hours south of Johannesburg, an area known for it's large Zulu population and diverse terrain.

Pat Walker, founder of The Cultural Explorer, has spent several years cultivating contacts within the Zulu communities in Natal. Her company offers both group and individual trips, and specialises in authentic cultural, volunteer, and philanthropic travel experiences.

Travellers will meet with her personal contacts and colleagues. "This is a one-of-a-kind volunteer trip," she says. “We have teamed up with a local family-run organisation that has been working in this area for several years. We find and their projects to be authentic and they really do make a big difference in the lives of the Zulu community. We are pleased to make this volunteer trip available to adventurous travellers who want to go beyond the ordinary travel experience."

About the Zulu:
The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group of an estimated 10–11 million people who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Their language, Zulu, is a Bantu language. The Zulu Kingdom played a major role in South African history during the 19th and 20th centuries and the Zulu were known as fierce and determined warriors. Under apartheid, Zulu people were classed as third-class citizens and suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination. They remain today the most numerous ethnic group in South Africa, and now have equal rights along with all other citizens. The current president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is a Zulu.

Speaking of South Africa. Recently, I became aware of some amazing footage currently online via YouTube. Titled, Battle at Kruger the video shows a pride of lions attacking a young buffalo at Kruger National Park. What is really incredible is the fight the young creature puts up to survive and the even more amazing footage of the buffalo herd fighting off the lions in an attempt to save the calf. Warning: Not for the faint hearted!

Lonely Planet Deals with Discount Codes

~ I recently wrote about a bunch of free iPhone applications being offered by Lonely Planet through the iTunes site. While that amazing offer has since ended, from time to time the company continues to offer good deals on some of their many other products.

For example, Lonely Planet are currently offering 30% discounts across the entire Gifts to Inspire category; and 30% discounts on all their National Park and Wildlife guides. You can also pick up a free Latin American or European phrase book with the purchase of the Peru country guide, or the Discover Europe guide book. And lastly, you can now buy the USA Book for just $19.99.

What's the catch?

These offers are available for a limited time only, and only if you use individual coupon codes with each purchase.

The 'good' news?

I just happen to have those coupon codes right here! So if you are planning a trip to Europe, Peru, or the USA (and are planning to visit some of America's great National Parks), then why not save yourself some money by following the links below and using the codes at the check out stage of your purchase to save some money.

Click here to Save 30% on Lonely Planet's entire Gifts to Inspire category. Use coupon code LPMOTHER

Click here to Get The USA Book for only $19.99. Use coupon code MEMUSA at checkout

Click here to Get a FREE Latin American phrase book with the purchase of the Peru country guide. Use coupon code NEWPERU at check out.

Click here to Get a FREE European phrase book with the purchase of Discover Europe guide book. Use coupon code SPEAKEU at checkout

And finally, click here to Save 30% on all National Park and Wildlife guides. Use coupon code PARKS at checkout

Note: Image for illustration purposes only

Trip Advisor: Experts On Tap

~ I’ve written several times already about researching my New York trip. Today, however, I wanted to write about one of the best online sources for travel research I have discovered anywhere.

TripAdvisor.com features more than 30 million travel reviews and opinions from real travellers around the world; Over a million businesses covering 70,000+ cities, 450,000 hotels, 90,000+ attractions, and 560,000+ restaurants; Over two million candid traveller hotel photos covering 100,000+ hotels; and thousands of forums where you can ask (and answer) questions on any aspect of travel you care to ask about.
While I have only made selected use of TripAdvisor and the New York City forums in particular, there can’t be too many places on the planet that are not covered by a forum on the site.
I have used TripAdvisor to search for reviews of hotels, restaurants, and other places, and even contributed a review or two of my own), but it is the forums where TripAdvisor is proving to be most useful as I plan my New York stay. By reading through dozens of previously asked questions from prospective travellers to New York City (and asking a few of my own), I have learned about unusual tours, off-beat locations, and gained insider knowledge about many other hidden gems that most visitors to the city miss.
For example, take the responses to the question: Something different to do for a frequent traveler to NYC? (from someone calling themselves ‘MaconMemories’).
Reading through the 26 replies I learned about the Louis Armstrong House museum in Queens; the new(ish) Highline walkway; Italian cooking classes; a food tour with the Enthusiastic Gourmet; discovered the Walk New York City site; and this site which seems to list every major museum and gallery in New York. Add to all of this suggestions for exploring parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, and you can see there are a wide range of possible activities to consider - and all from just one query.
Some forum members are so knowledgeable about their city they have been designated Destination Experts by TripAdvisor. Indeed, some of these experts have posted thousands of replies to queries from travellers all over the world. And when I say ‘thousands’, I mean thousands. Some Destination Experts have post 10, 20, 30, and even 40 thousand or more replies to questions! I don’t know if these people have lives outside of answering queries on TripAdvisor, but they are always knowledgeable, patient, courteous, and very generous with their time.
Anyone can search through and read answers to previously posted questions, but if you want to ask a question yourself (or post a reply) you must create a user account first.

I have no hesitation in saying that TripAdvisor – and especially the forums there – is my first online stop when looking for ideas and answers to the many inevitable travel related questions I have.

Researching for Travel

~ How much research is too much? I ask this question because I have been spending hours online researching my summer New York trip, and everyday I find new and exciting events, places, and activities to add to my already extensive notes and burgeoning lists.

At some point you have to stop researching and start arranging your findings into some sort of coherent order so as to get a better idea of what your findings reveal. I’m probably at that point with researching my New York trip. In fact, I’ve got more than enough pencilled in to keep me busy for the whole of my stay, but I keep discovering extra things to add to my schedule. To make matters worse, several major events have yet to publish their full summer programs, which means I will need to return to their websites over the next month or so, to see what their final schedules will look like.

At least I know I will never be bored!

I believe it was Samuel Johnson who said of London, England, "The man who is tired of London is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford." A statement that surely applies to New York City even more so than London.

I certainly don’t expect to be bored in New York, and if I am, I will have no-one to blame but myself!

When I have more time I will list some of the many activities I am considering for my stay, but right now I’ve got to get back to my research. In the meantime take a look at my New York Dreaming entry…

iPhone App of The Week: New York Times

~ I’ve been using this free application from the New York Times for a couple of months now, and it has become my favourite source of news about America in general, and New York City in particular.

As soon as you launch the app, it downloads the latest news, and presents you with a list of around 15 of the days top news stories, along with the opening sentence of each so you can get a quick look at the latest headlines (see image). As always with the iPhone, you simply tap the screen to read a news story or scroll through the list to see what else is available.

Along the bottom of the application is a five icon menu bar which lets you jump to the Latest News, and the most popular Emailed news items. You can Save an article for future reference, and Search through the days news stories to find a topic that interests you.

However, the application offers much more than this.

Tapping the More icon (no pun intended) presents you with an array of 22 other icons representing the different sections in the hard copy of the daily New York Times. From World News and Technology to Sports and Travel; from Fashion & Style to Automobiles and Obituaries, every department of the physical paper seems to be available at the touch of a ‘button’.

~ Tapping the Edit button calls up another screen of icons with which you can modify the main menu bar that runs along the bottom of the screen.

You simply drag and drop your icon of choice over an existing menu item, and your icon will replace it. Due to lack of space, there is only room for five icons on the menu bar, and one of these must always be the More icon, but if you have a particular interest in one or two areas of news, this feature allows you to jump straight to them with one touch rather than two or three.

But wait – there’s more.

When you tap on an article to read it, the main menu bar is replaced with a new menu bar from which you can ‘share’ the article. A pop-up box lets you Email the item to yourself or anyone else on your Contacts list. In addition, you can send the article as a text message, or let your friends know about the item via Twitter or Facebook (assuming you have accounts with those sites). This new menu bar also lets you enlarge the font size of the on-screen print to make it easier to read, if you like me, struggle to make sense of anything under 10 or 12 point type.

Finally, the application has its own section under the iPhone’s Settings menu (accessed from the main screen). Here you will see a section headed General, from where you can make permanent changes to the way the New York Times app displays content each time you open it. For instance you can choose to Save News for… (1 to 7 days); change the Article Font Size… (from the smallest, 8pts to the largest, 14pts); turn Landscape Orientation… (on or off); and turn Large Headlines… (on or off).

In return for providing the application for free, the New York Times displays a thin strip of advertisements towards the bottom of the screen. Thankfully, the ads take up little screen space and are unobtrusive enough to not be a constant source of irritation. It’s a small price to pay for access to some of the best, most up-to-date newspaper content in America.

You will find the New York Times application in the iTunes App Store under the News section.

Highly recommended (even if you are not living in, or travelling to the United States).

Training For Travel

~ For the past month or two I have been in training for travel.

Health professionals, and national health authorities constantly encourage people in first world countries to eat well, drink less alcohol, exercise regularly, and in the case of smokers, to give up the habit completely. Thankfully, I have never been a smoker and I’m only an occasional drinker, but at 110 kilograms (240 pounds) I can afford to lose some weight and not miss it.

The hard part is motivating myself to get up off the couch – or more to the point, to tear myself away from the computer – and find some type of exercise that will help me shed some weight and get a lot fitter.

My biggest problem is – I hate exercise. I get no pleasure at all from pumping iron at a gym, sweating profusely in an aerobics class, or sitting on a stationary bike pretending I’m in the pelaton at the Tour de France. As for running on a treadmill, all that conjures up for me are images of mice racing headlong on running wheels, getting nowhere fast.

As I say, I need something special to motivate me to get up and move. For me, this motivating factor has become travel. It is just the incentive I need to get fit or die trying!

Since travel tends to involve a lot of walking, I’ve settled on walking as the best low impact way of preparing myself for my next round of jet-setting. So every day, I head off to walk one of three circuits I have mapped out around my neighbourhood and along the foreshore between Semaphore and Largs Bay.

The three circuits involve distances of three kilometres (1.86 miles); five kilometres (3.10 miles); and eight kilometres (4.97 miles). How far I walk on a particular day, will depend on how I am feeling, but more and more I am walking the longer distance of eight kilometres. In fact, after a couple of months of regular walking, I have now become fit enough to extend that distance even further. Hence my previous entry, Walking Manhattan.

The more I walk, the more convinced I am that I can tackle the length of Broadway, which for my purposes I am measuring from the 207th Street/Inwood subway station to the running bull sculpture at Bowling Green. According to Google Maps this is a total distance of 20.4 kilometres, or 12.67 miles. Again, according to Google, this distance could be covered in around four hours and eleven minutes of continuous walking.

Clearly, a reasonably fit person should have no trouble completing this walk. However, at 61 years of age, I am not quite reasonably fit – or ready to take on 20 kilometres. Yet. But I’m getting there. By the time I hit the streets of New York City in July, I will be ready, although I have no intention of completing the distance in one long continuous four hour walk. With rest stops and some sightseeing along the way, it is more likely to take the better part of 8-10 hours, but complete it I will.

So if you have problems like I do with exercise, take my advice and don’t call it by that name. Instead call it Training for Travel. It might just be the incentive you need to get up off the couch and out to the gym or onto the streets of your neighbourhood, in preparation for your next journey.