Globetrooper Travel Blog Page 11

It’s easy to get carried away with customer reviews on the world wide web. I’m one of the worst culprits; I pore incessantly over reviews before I commit to anything. And although conducting these silent surveys is oddly empowering, they become debilitating as you find conflicting … Continue reading →

Imagine you’re stranded on a desert coastline… Namibia’s, perhaps. The searing heat drains your body of fluids and your mind slows to a snail’s pace. Forget food, forget sunburn, forget your coordinates; your biggest danger here is dehydration. If you don’t find water soon, you’ll … Continue reading →

If I think back to what inspired me to travel, it had very little to do with reading about others’ adventures. Sure I loved stepping into the shoes of climbers on towering peaks and donning the suits of divers in circuitous caves, but those stories … Continue reading →

For us long-term travellers, eating out every night is expensive and generally unhealthy. There are some exceptions, such as in certain regions of Asia, but they’re rarer than you’d think. So we need to find a balance between cost, convenience, taste and healthiness. It’s difficult … Continue reading →

In the blue corner, we have the group tour bus: a diesel-powered road-train full of drunken sex-charged youths, all wanting to say they’ve ‘done’ Europe. And in the red corner, we have the independent traveller: a weathered, leathery, stolid character, who’s at least 10 times more … Continue reading →

Back in 2008, Lauren and I climbed Mt Kilimanjaro up the Machame Route (also affectionately known as the Whiskey Route). At the time, it offered the best compromise between traffic, scenery, weather and availability. But preferences are personal. Would you prefer to sleep in tents … Continue reading →

Legs numb, rheumatism approaching, and back indented by the inner springs of the upright seat on the $15 Sydney-Canberra bus. I mentally wave at my mum’s house as we pass by. I’m bursting to tell her about my culture-shocking trip to Mt Kilimanjaro and Egypt. She … Continue reading →

I recently spoke about ditching our Panasonic Lumix LX3 for the new Samsung TL350. The simple reason is the LX3 is not pocketable. To me, a non-pocketable camera doesn’t really qualify as compact, especially for travel. While my last review of the Samsung TL350 (WB2000) … Continue reading →

One of the byproducts of cheap flights is having to deal with awful departure, lay-over and arrival times. But that’s what travel hacking is all about: relinquishing luxury to make travel cost less and last longer. Coming from faraway places like Australia, you can easily … Continue reading →

I scoured the web for four straight hours: Kayak.com, Priceline.com, Expedia.com, and about 30 other ‘cheap flight’ websites. It was a roller coaster. I started with a quote of $1,000, then cheered after finding one for $900, then jumped up with a dance for $800, … Continue reading →

This Sunday is Father’s Day in Australia – yes I know, we like to be different and have it on a different day to North America – but my Dad isn’t big on presents. He knows I’m half-way around the world, traveling on a budget. … Continue reading →

‘I’m about to put the deposit down. Are you sure? Sure that we want to trek for 60+ days across the fifth largest desert in the world?’ … a few months ago there was only Canada. A few weeks after that, India. And in the last … Continue reading →