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Up and Over

Posted August 11, 2013

PART 15 (DAYS 33-35): “How’s everything here?” I asked Chris, the manager at Southern Laughter Lodge, when I arrived back in Queenstown for a day in order to catch a homeward bound flight early the following morning.

“Oh, it’s quiet. It’s finally slowing down,” he answered.

“Oh, is the ski season over?”

“No, the season can go all the way until October,” he told me. “But all the Aussie kids have gone back to university.”

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Doug Goes to Dogon

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 27, 2006

DAY 7: Many people think it is Timbuktu or the famous mosque of Djenné that draws visitors to Mali, but that honor actually goes to Dogon Country, the most visited region in the country — I had even seen it on the Globe Trekker show as one of “Africa’s Great Treks.” “Dogon Country” describes a region about two hours southwest of Mopti, of tribal villages along the base of a sandstone cliff that overlooks the dry and dusty plain that stretches far off into the horizon. Many visitors wisely visit Dogon Country in January during the annual Festival of Masks, when all the villagers come together and dance, but I’d be doing my trek in late March, during one of the hottest and driest times of the year, which would give me a look inside regular Dogon life when the hordes of tourists aren’t poking around with cameras.

Guy Talk

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 26, 2006

DAY 6: “Doug!” called out Van. “We don’t have to take the bus. My friend has a car and we can go with him to Mopti.”

“Huh?” Immediately I thought I had fallen into a scam again; I’d go with Van and his gang to some place no one heard of, or, we’d actually go to Mopti, but end up in some place I didn’t want to stay so they could make a commission off of me. It was a common practice amongst guides in India and South America.

“How much is it?” I asked.

“Six thousand,” Van replied. “Only 500 more than the bus. It will be much better for you. The bus always stops.”

I thought about it. “Can’t we just take the bus?”

In Van We Trust?

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 22, 2006

DAY 5: Segou has a great significance in the nation of Mali as a whole, as it is the origin of the Bambara people, whose language is second to French in the country. The history of Segou can be traced back to the early 18th century when all the area tribes were joined together and formed an empire that was crushed by the French in the late 19th century with their guns and nasal accents.

To Segou

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 21, 2006

DAY 4: “Erick!” called the voice of the conductor to the mob of people waiting at the front door of the bus.

“Ici!” I called out — although the guy knew there was only one Asian-looking guy in the roster and knew where to find me. He waved me in and I boarded the dusty bus with no air-conditioning (not even a fan) just before high noon.

Guidance Counseling

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 20, 2006

DAY 3: “Est la musée nationale ouvert aujourd’hui?” I asked Omar, the guy in the hotel restaurant who spoke a little English. Contrary to both my guidebooks, he said it was in fact open. (The books said it was closed every Monday.)

“Est-ce qu’il y a une banke pour echanger l’argent?” (“Is there a bank for exchanging money?”) I asked in my high school French. He told me the general direction, but stammered in the translation and only confused me. Then he offered to take me there if I wanted.

“D’accord. [At eleven,]” I told him. He said he had some errands to run, but would meet me. He left while I attended to my coffee and bread alone in the restaurant, until another face stopped by to greet me. It was Hassan, the tout from the night before, coming to offer me more business. He sat at my table uninvited, and pushed some tourist pictures on me along with some small binder with itineraries and a hokey-looking certificate of tourism — a must-have for all touts around the world. I gazed at them but declined. Then he offered to take me to a place to exchange money, and I declined again. Seeing that I wasn’t going to give me any business, he went with Plan B and accused me of short-changing him the night before. In his rhetoric, he told me that I still owed him CFA 1000 because I only gave X amount to the driver and X amount to him, and X amount went towards the drinking water. I told him he should take it up with the driver and that I didn’t have any change anyway. I walked away and went back to my room.

African Games

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 19, 2006

DAY 2: When I told people I was going to Mali for my next trip, most confused it for Bali, Maui, or Malawi. Mali, if you look on a map (or just Google it) is the largest country in western Africa, encompassing fertile soils of the Niger River to the south and the Sahara Desert to the north.

This trip to Mali is my third visit to Africa, the first being a two-week safari through Botswana to Victoria Falls in 2000, and the second time being four months of my big Global Trip 2004, traveling from Cape Town to Cairo and over to Morocco. This time around was no different, in that it brought me all back to the scams, hustles, touts, and general confusion of traveling through a developing African nation. If backpacking is a video game, then Mali is definitely one of the harder levels (Level 1 being Australia, Level 2 being Thailand, etc.) but I was up for the challenge.

The Red Eye To Paris

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 18, 2006

DAY 1: “And your last name is Trinidad?” asked the pretty Air France check-in clerk at JFK’s Terminal 1 after I had given her my shiny new passport. “Are you from Trinidad?” She seemed pretty enthusiastic about it.

“No,” I disappointed. “Are you?” She had a very Caribbean look about her with flawless coffee-toned skin.

“No,” she said, still excited. It was probably just a part of her job to be so.

“Oh, that’s usually the reaction I get from Trinidadians.” I zipped up my bag for the weigh-in while she checked me in on the computer. “Oh, you are going to Bamako!?” she said excitedly. I figured she was just used to people checking in for the red eye to Paris, the usual final destination.

The Scramble

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 15, 2006

“DID YOU GET YOUR TYPHOID SHOT?” newfound Blogreader and fellow traveler Jess asked me one night over sushi, a New York City staple.

“I already had one,” I told her.

“Typhoid’s only good for two years,” she informed me, information fresh in her mind since she was prepping to backpack around Bolivia. “You should probably get another one. It’d be a shame to get [a disease] that’s preventable.”

Upon a little research I discovered she was right. The typhoid vaccination is only good for two years; in my yellow WHO travel health certificate I saw that I had two typhoid vaccines recorded, two years apart. And so I called up my doctor and left a message at his busy family clinic to call me so that I could prevent a preventable disease in Africa. Yes, it would be a shame if I got it.

One Year Later

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: Trippin' To Timbuktu"
Posted March 05, 2006

IT WAS EXACTLY ONE YEAR AGO from today, on March 5, 2005, when I had completed a grand sixteen and a half month trip around the world, which took me to across 95,000 miles in thirty-seven countries in South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. To make a long story short, in the past year I have slowly acclimatized back to normal society after being “traveled out” — working, partying, and playing video games — and one year later, I have to say, my life is “normal” again.

This of course means I should probably get back on the road.

The Global Trip LIVE!

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 22, 2005

In the tradition of motivational speaker Tony Robbins and many countless evangelists, The Global Trip is coming to you LIVE!*

*provided you’re in Greenville, NC, USA on September 16th

Amazing Fantasy #9

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted July 06, 2005

Greetings, true believers! It has been brought to my attention that there is a minor Marvel comic book character very loosely based on… me! Seriously! This means your favorite real life mild-mannered travel blogwriter is now a part of the Marvel universe with the likes of Wolverine and Spiderman — and I mean the ficticious one, not the dress up guy wandering around the streets of Manila on New Year’s Eve.

When Erik Met Rick Through Jen…

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted May 04, 2005

Who would have thought that when I sported a hot pink bra in Montreal, it would get me a mention in travel guru Rick Steves’ website?

Today in U.S.A. News…

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 27, 2005

Thanks to Blogreader Udda‘s comment, I now know that this here blog has been recommended by the travel writers at USATODAY.com, in a blurb in the special Bonus Section, “Smart Travel.” This recommendation, like the PC Magazine award, is a great honor, as my blog has now officially made national news — international too, since USA Today is distributed worldwide. It’s not nearly as big as most world news — tsunamis or the selection of a new Pope, for example — but at least it’s something. (By the way, did anyone else win a bet on Pope Benedict XVI? Booyah!)

Special Delivery

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 24, 2005

“WHAT’S UP?” my mother asked me that rainy Saturday morning. Yes, I was still living under her and my father’s roof, working my way through some small debts — an inevitable post-trip curse — while saving up for new opportunities in travel and/or real estate.

“I’m going out to deliver these postcards,” I told her.

“Why don’t you just mail them?”

“That’s not the point.”

Best Place Ever

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 18, 2005

Not surprisingly, the most frequently asked question I get is, “So, what’s the best place you’ve been?” This of course is a loaded question, and rather than go into a tiff about how it is in fact a loaded and unfair question, my automatic quick answer is “Bolivia.” I then continue briefly about how jungles, villages, and cities begin to look the same across continents, but it was unique sight of Bolivia’s reflective salt pans of Uyuni that I have not seen anywhere else.

If It Wasn’t Entertaining, It Wouldn’t Be P.C.

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 14, 2005

It has been brought to my attention that this little Blog here has caught the attention of the editors of PC Magazine, purveyors of great technological wisdom, who have just awarded this website with inclusion in their annual list, the Spring 2005 “Top 100 Sites You Didn’t Know You Couldn’t Live Without” (in the travel category). Isn’t that great? I feel truly honored; this means that my travel Blog now joins the ranks of other things the editors at PC Magazine have deemed as “Editors’ Choice,” like the EPSON Stylus Photo RX620 printer, the Motorola V551 mobile phone, and the Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital Elph camera. Let’s compare:

Now Showing: “Elsewhere”

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 11, 2005

(Click here to skip the drivel below and jump right to the new slideshow.)

I often joke and say that I’m the stereotypical Japanese tourist, because when I’m out traveling, I sure do take a hell of a lot of pictures. Anyone who’s joined me on the road on my 503-day journey knows that I’ve snapped pictures left and right with my little Sony DSC-U30 digital spy camera like there’s no tomorrow, sometimes not of anything photogenic at all, just so I can remember things instead of jotting them down in a memo pad.

Evolution And Realization

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 03, 2005

My apologies for the lack of Blog entries in the past couple of days (or is it weeks now?); life back in Greater New York has been crazy — but in a good way. Rather than moping around with nothing to do feeling depressed that I’m not off climbing a mountain or something, I’ve been more than occupied with a lot of projects, and not in a corporate structured nine-to-five kind of way either. There’s been more than enough stuff for me to do these past couple of weeks since DAY 503 — most of them requiring me to wear the hat of a designer, not the hat of a writer — but it is necessary as it pays the bills. If this keeps up, I’ll be ready to go around the world again in no time, with a whole new Blog.

Songs Of New York

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 23, 2005

Probably the most frequently asked question people ask me back home in the greater New York City area is, “So, how’s it feel to be back?” Often my response is, “Great! I’m actually excited about being home. It’d be different if I went home to Ohio or something, but this is New York City.” (No offense to you readers in Ohio of course.)

The Return To New York

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 20, 2005

DAY 503: New York, New York. The city so nice, they named it twice. The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere — unless, of course you were in my situation and it’s vice versa.

Homestretch, U.S.A.

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 15, 2005

DAY 502 (Part 2): My initial plan for my sixteen-month trip around the world was to end off with a month doing outdoorsy stuff in New Zealand, followed by a classic American road trip from California back to New York. However, due to time and money constraints (mostly money), I replaced a month in New Zealand with a week in Vancouver, B.C., and a road trip across America with a road trip across the state of New Jersey. (Yes, I realize this is like trying to substitute filet mignon with the salisbury steak in a T.V. dinner, but hey.)

Adventures In Homeland Security

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 15, 2005

DAY 502 (Part 1; 501 days since last U.S.A. entry): Although the category for this Blog entry is “U.S.A.”, our story begins in Toronto, Canada, which is okay I guess, considering it was there that I had to clear U.S. Immigration and Customs formalities before my “domestic” connecting flight into the States. As much as Canadians hate to hear it, Toronto is pretty much an American city anyway (just with funny accents); in fact, it’s the ranked the second busiest American port of entry (after Miami) by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Preparing For Re-Entry

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 13, 2005

DAY 501: “[I have an early class tomorrow, so I probably won’t have a chance to say goodbye,]” Aviv told me the night before I crashed in the living room couch (instead of David Sebastian’s room where he’d be up all night writing a lab report).

“[Just wake me up, so I can say goodbye,]” I told him.

That morning, he slipped away without waking me, leaving a note instead, which I replied to underneath. It was a hard copy goodbye, for I would be out of the house and out of their lives (at least for the time being) before the day was over.

Old School?

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 13, 2005

DAY 500: “Staying here is sort of like the movie Old School for me,” I told Aviv at the three bedroom Kitsilano apartment of University of British Columbia (UBC) undergrads he shared with David Sebastian and Adam. I was of course referring to the 2003 Todd Phillips contemporary comedy classic film starring Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell as thirty-somethings who, in their Thirties Mid-Life Crisis, decide to open a community-wide fraternity so that they might re-live their wild college days of beer funnel parties and streaking nude across the quad and to the gymnasium.

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- letter to Erik R. Trinidad from Roger M. Brown, Senior Legislative Assistant, Office of U.S. Senator Wayne Allard

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