BootsnAll Travel Community

Yea, so many of us in these here parts like to label ourselves 'travelers'. Some less traveled, some more so. Personally, I put myself between less and more--traveling between the two, so to speak. Haha...I crack myself up...but I digress.

So, I'm thinking we've all got to have some embarrassing, saucy secrets to share with respect to our self labeled 'traveler' status. Share them here!

Mine: After visiting x number of countries (definition open to debate), and approaching a million miles in the air, I have one big travel saucy secret: I've never crossed the equator. Never. 'Come darn close (Singapore), but...well...it just hasn't happened yet.

I love to go on tours when I am in a city (well, I think I've said this before, but it seems that "street cred" = wandering aimlessly). I love to have someone tell me what I am looking at, giving me context, and answering my questions. It adds SO much to my experience to actually know what I am seeing.

And I have been lucky to have some guides who were extremely passionate about what they are showing off. Twice this happened in Florence, and talking to locals about the city of which they are so proud really was priceless. Awesome.

I have travelled for years, cumulatively, yet my list of passport stamps is much smaller than people who travel for less time.

I have to admit something 'terrible'

Until recently, I've had little interst in seeing the 'world', only exploring central america and Europe for a bit with plans for south america.

I have found, to my surprise, that I want to visit africa, NOW, after many years of disinterest, and I'd like to see Japan, even though my finances probably won't allow it.

Asia.. The more I travel, and this is a terrible, confession, the less I like visiting places where the language is hard to learn, and the signs virtually unreadable. I must have a higher than average comfort level when it comes to NOT being to understand 1/10th of a culture that I visit, and I tend to rank my best experiences as the ones that I had the most communications and learning about the personal lives of teh people in the country that I have visited.

I have another terrible confession. I fear that I won't ever learn any languages but the romance languages, because my ability to learn languages has proven to be limited, and my advanced age means it takes more energy than I'm willing to give.

Last confession. The more I travel, the more I appreciate my beautiful upstate ny Home, in all the seasons.

I have never been to the north pole.

I have lived out of a tent for weeks and I can pee without removing my pants, but!, gasp, I've never stayed in a hostel.

quote:

I have lived out of a tent for weeks and I can pee without removing my pants

What was the name of the circus?

In all seriousness, I haven't had a desire to go to Europe until the last year or so, and I'm still ambivalent about Africa. I suspect the Europe thing stems from growing up around so many Greeks and Italians and other random Europeans.

I know that many on BnA are "Independent Travellers" and revel in that travel style. I have to admit I have much more fun on the small Contiki-type package tours. By small I mean 12-16 people. I think they can be great introductions to new places, you have "mandatory friends", don't have to worry about bus or train connections, (just know where your driver is), room reservations etc.

For years, I have had a free place to stay available to me in one of the most expensive places in the world....Tokyo....and I have no desire to go there. None.

When I graduated from College my friend and I did a contiki tour.

No one warned us what it would be like, and we were surrounded by very ignorant travelers in our case. People who actually did get upset that people didn't speak English in France! At the time it was a cheap way to see Europe. I'm sure not all the tours are as stereotypically bad as this one, but we did the 10 cities in 2 weeks trip so it served us right.

Also, I keep track of my countries (or destinations) with the list from the Travelers Century club. So I am a country counter - but I try very hard to ignore it when planning a route for a trip. (learned my lesson with trying to see too many countries on trip above)

I have been to McDonalds in many countries around the world and I don't find anything wrong with that. This also applies to Burger King, TGI Fridays, and 7-Eleven.

I ate at Pizza Hut in Kota Kinabalu, twice. In my defense, I'd gotten food poisoning in Johor Bahru and wanted something that wouldn't cause any trouble.

More embarrassingly, I once committed karaoke in Japan, but that was after a couple dozen drinks bought by the principal of the school I was teaching at.

I've never been to Canada or Mexico.

I can drive to either country in a day or less and I've never actually been there.

quote:

Originally posted by BostonBill:
I know that many on BnA are "Independent Travellers" and revel in that travel style. I have to admit I have much more fun on the small Contiki-tyoe package tours. By small I mean 12-16 people. I think they can be great introductions to new places, you have "mandatory friends", don't have to worry about bus or train connections, (just know where your driver is), room reservations etc.

This is mine as well. I've done independent travel (thought not to the extent of most of you) and I really enjoy it, but I also really have enjoyed the package trips I've gone on. I've done two trips with REI Adventures and I've loved both of them. The guides have been incredible, I've met tons of people that I still keep in touch with and have traveled with since, I've seen things that I don't think I would have tried alone - simply had a wonderful time. They're so easy too - it's really nice to have someone else do the legwork.

I'm doing another one in the fall (Nicaragua!) and I'm really looking forward to it.

-I have a hard time passing up video game shops where there are TV's and Play Stations hooked up for kids to play. It is fun, especially during a long trip... to whoop up on a local in some Fifa Soccer using Team USA. Especially when they've picked ManU or Arsenal.

-I really don't feel comfortable in dorm rooms. To the point that I have only done it twice and I think that is 2 times too many.

-Given a choice between A/C and a fan I almost always choose A/C.

-If I'm not going to be in a country for at least 2 weeks I make almost no attempt at learning the language. In addition, there are some countries such as Malaysia, that English is so widespread that even being there for a lengthy amount of time, I never learned a single word of Malay.

all of my trips thus far have been 8 days or less. id like to go longer but i have to take what i can get at this financial phase of my life.

what a fun thread!! lol.

i know where other countries are better than i know where US states are.

i've been on package tours before, and i wouldn't be opposed to it in the future if it's easier and cheaper (like my upcoming egypt/syria/jordan trip).

i've splurged on $200/night hotels in east africa when i felt like i needed to relax in some luxury.

i hate staying in hostels. well, i don't mind a private room, but dorm style? forget it!!!! never again.

This pains me to admit on Bootsnall, espacially after a certain thread I saw recently... but my bf and I have booked an all-inclusive package tour to the Maldives for two weeks this June.

Our reasoning is that it's too good a deal to pass up, and it would be way more expensive to do it independently. It's for the diving and snorkelling, and we can't wait!!

Kath

OK Here's one.

I have never worn/carried a backpack of any kind in an urban setting. Have never taken one aboard a plane, train, or bus either. My only experiences using one were several grueling hiking/camping trips when I was young. <14 years old.

In Paris I stayed in one of the worst parts of the city. Riot central, basically. So every night I wanted to be in my hotel before the sun went down, meaning, not much opportunity for dinner.
I constantly ran over to the McDonalds across the street and brought Big Macs up to my hotel room.
There I would watch BBC
Eat my fries
Smoke
And enjoy.

In Tunis I got burnt out. I ended up in a 40dollar a night hotel (fairly expensive for the area) watching MBC 2 for 4 days. This means: I watched nothing but English movies, very BAD English movies for 4 days. I ventured out once in a while to pick up some food or drink or smokes. That was it. Maybe spent 2 hours outside a day at most.

My first time in Morocco I got a horrible chest cold. I mean brutal. I read up about natural cures online and found vinegar might help.
So I went to the supermarche and got a jar of pickles and drank the juice. All of it.
Luckily the bellhop guy was looking out for me when I didn't come down the next day. He sent a woman up to check on me and promptly called a doctor. I got prescription meds for 5 bucks and felt better within the week.
Could have gone to the pharmacy myself.
But I chose to drink pickle juice.
Doh.

quote:

Originally posted by Not the first Travis:
For years, I have had a free place to stay available to me in one of the most expensive places in the world....Tokyo....and I have no desire to go there. None.

NTFT: Can I go in your place?

Have no desire to go to Australia..can;t seem make myself even think about it. Not sure why.