ENTRIES FROM THE GLOBAL TRIP BLOG CHRONICLES
Hakuna Matata
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 15, 2004
DAY 174: The Swahili phrase “Hakuna matata,” made popular by Disney’s The Lion King, is such a wonderful phrase. Hakuna matata ain’t no passing phase. It means “no worries,” for the rest of your days. It’s a problem-free philosophy. Hakuna matata!
(Try reading that without singing; it’s near impossible.)
Once In A Lifetime, Again
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 15, 2004
DAY 175: When you visit a place like Victoria Falls, you treasure every moment of it, taking in the beauty of its sights with your eyes and the monstrous roar of its waters through your ears. The mist seeps through your pores and into your soul. After all, it is, as they say, a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. This is how I felt in 2000 when I first visited — in fact, the first photograph in the “Would You?” slideshow is Victoria Falls — but there I was again, at Victoria Falls again, arguably one of the Seven Natural Wonders of The World again. (For the full effect, say this like Forrest Gump when he talks about visiting the President of the United States over and over.)
Not-So Manic Monday
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 15, 2004
DAY 176: After so much that had happened since the last Blog entry posting, I seriously needed a day to catch up. And since most stores and banks in Zambia were closed for Easter Monday, it was the perfect day to do so.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 15, 2004
DAY 177: Exchange rates are a funny thing for the US Dollar. Unless you are transferring money into British pounds — after of which the Brits will make fun of you for “how embarrassingly low the dollar is these days” — exchanging good ol’ American greenbacks into other currencies can be a somewhat gratifying experience, particularly in a country like Zambia. With the rate of $1 USD = ZK4765, for just about $210, yes you too can be a millionaire! (Please don’t share this secret with Publishers’ Clearing House.)
Acronyms and Flea Shampoo
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 15, 2004
DAY 178: Nowhere on Earth is the AIDS epidemic more widespread than on the African continent. In fact, according to Lonely Planet, “the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that AIDS-related deaths will mean that, by 2010, sub-Saharan Africa will have 71 million fewer people than it would otherwise.” With the lack of proper governmental and healthcare infrastructure to deal with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, this rate might not see any sight of being lowered.
Giving Good Price
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 17, 2004
DAY 179: One way to help aid a developing nation like Zambia is to pump foreign money into its economy. And what better way to do so as a tourist than by buying souvenirs and gifts for friends and family back home. By the end of the day, it seemed that Deann bought enough to increase Zambia’s Gross National Product tenfold.
Donations to a Country Going to Mars
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 17, 2004
DAY 180: Being at the ZEHRP house was like entering a bubble back into the familiar life I had back in metro-New York City. Other than watching The Simpsons with fellow fans like Jens the night before, that morning I had Golden Crisp cereal with Deann. (Yes, Sugar Bear was alive and well in the heart of Zambia.) Afterwards, we killed the morning in the little “computer lab” in the next door flat where there were some ZEHRP administrative offices.
Last Day With ZEHRP
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 18, 2004
DAY 181: “We’re going to a bakery if you want to come,” Cristina said to me in the ZEHRP living/dining room that morning as I was typing a Blog entry on my iBook at the dining table. I took her up on her offer and hopped in the SUV with her, Jens and Deann, who was also tagging along for the ride since, although it was Saturday, Shelle was at work at the ZEHRP clinic.
The Things People Do On A Sunday
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 20, 2004
DAY 182: “We have to do something exciting today, so Erik can have something to write about,” Shelle told George in the car as we were driving to the market to get fresh vegetables.
“Where should we go?” George asked me.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I can always just write about The Things People Who Live Here Do On A Sunday.”
Orphans
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 20, 2004
DAY 183: When I was stranded on Easter weekend in Livingstone, a town where only Visa-based ATM cards were accepted, me and my MasterCard-based bank card were lost like a stray puppy. Fortunately for me, a girl named Shelle picked me up, a Filipino-American stray, and took me home to her house in Lusaka. For four days, I lived in her house with her HIV research project pals and experienced the life of an American expatriate with all its Western conveniences. I had found a home.
Traveler Again
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 20, 2004
DAY 184: Some people travel to escape their boring routine lives at home. Some people, particularly a fair amount of the backpacker set, travel great distances only to travel pub to pub, club to club, and have “generic” experiences they could probably have anywhere — to each his/her own taste I guess. I, like some other backpackers, travel to leave my comfort zone and experience new cultures.
I’ll admit that I was starting to get a little homesick since Namibia, but being in the American suburban bubble of the ZEHRP house got me over it. I had “recharged” back in the “normal” life the way a person who works in an office “recharges” on vacation. After my “reverse vacation” I was ready to face the world again.
And so, on the 20th of April 2004, the six month anniversary since The Global Trip 2004 started, the seventh month began…
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ABOUT ERIK R. TRINIDAD
When he’s not making a living as an interactive/motion designer or playing with fast food, Erik R. Trinidad is a travel writer, blogger, video host and producer focusing on adventure and culinary content. His work has been featured on National Geographic Intelligent Travel, Adventure.com, Discovery.com, Saveur, Condé Nast Traveler, and 
Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why, which also includes the work of Tim Cahill, Doug Lansky, Jennifer Leo and Rolf Potts. He has also referenced his travel experiences in his solo book, Fancy Fast Food: Ironic Recipes with No Bun Intended.
For over ten years, Erik has traveled to the seven continents of the world — from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo — with a curiosity for exotic foods and a thirst for adventure (and writing material). In his travels, he has been mugged at knifepoint in Cape Town, extorted by corrupt Russian police on the Trans-Siberian Railway, stranded in tornadic storms in the American midwest, and air-lifted off the Everest Trail by a helicopter that was thankfully paid for by his travel insurance. But it hasn’t been all fun; he has also donned a tuxedo amidst the penguins of Antarctica, paraded with Carnival-winning samba school Beija Flor in Rio, run for his life at Pamplona’s “Running of the Bulls,” cage-dived with great white sharks, gotten shot point-blank in the stomach in Colombia (while wearing a bulletproof jacket), and above all, encountered many people around the world, including some Peruvian musicians in Cuzco who learned and played “Y.M.C.A.” at his request. He loves the irony that, after everywhere he’s been, he has never been to Mexico.
Erik writes stories and news articles when he’s at his base camp in New York City, and continues his blog when he is on the road — provided he’s not occupied tracking down lost luggage.
Additional news/article clippings at ErikTrinidad.com.
See Erik talk about travel in an American Express ad:
Read about Erik in this feature article from Filipinas magazine by National Geographic Traveler Associate Editor Amy Alipio.