Directory — Travel — Blog Details for "Song of the Open Road"

Song of the Open Road

Song of the Open Road
A full time vagabond journey around the world. Many years and many countries. Share travel yarns!

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Articles

Can Anyone Read Nepali
2008-01-18 04:03:00
Can Anyone Read Nepali ?So I was traveling in the north east of India with Stubbs back in 2005, and I was just standing around in the market watching some ladies buy oranges when a guy with a big old camera came up to me and asked if he could take my picture. I obliged him and he took a couple snapshots. I thought nothing of it.A few days later Stubbs and I made our way back down to Siliguri and went to the train station and bought a couple of tickets to Bodhgaya or somewhere holy. As we were standing on the platform a local guy comes up to me and begins shoving a newspaper in my face. I tried to pushed him away, but he kept trying to stick the newspaper right in front of my face. Right at the point when I was beginning to get a little annoyed he suddenly yelled, "You," while excitedly pointing to a picture in the paper.He was right. It was me. My photo in the Nepali newspaperThere my face was sitting as a decoration in a feature article in the local Nepali newspaper. I looked around...

Vagabond Journey.com On Hold
2008-01-16 21:10:00
Vagabond Journey .com On Hold I was working diligently on the Vagabond Journey.com site one day when Mira walked up behind me, look over my shoulder at what I was doing, stood there for a moment thinking, and said something to the effect of:"You and your friends (meaning Andy, Nath, and Loren) spend a lot of time working on your websites. [pause] They seem to be doing a lot better than you are."I looked at Mira, looked at the Vagabond Journey.com site, looked back at Mira, and then realized that she was right. It is true, my website is not very good. In fact, it looks like crap. Oh well, it will get better one of these days I know, but for now I do not think that I have the time to really put into it. I am on the Road almost constantly, I have an few archaeology projects to do in Central and South America this year, and I also want to continue developing Song of the Open Road and my other travel blogs. There is simply too much that I need to know that I don't. Learning this stuff tak...

Song of the Open Road Moves
2008-01-16 19:18:00
Song of the Open Road Travel Blog Moves !A big change was needed. When I first began the Song of the Open Road Travel Blog I did not know much of anything about having a website, promoting a website, or search engine optimization. I still don't. But I have been working hard and I learned a few things.One thing I learned is that http://canciondelvagabundo.blogspot.com is a bad URL. I can not tell people what it is and expect them to even understand what I am saying, let alone remember it long enough to visit. It is even difficult to write it down for someone and expect them to be able to read it properly enough to type into their web browser. Therefore, any promotion of this travel blog outside of the internet (where there are links that can just be clicked) is not really feasible. I have had a few articles published in print magazines lately and the URL http://canciondelvagabundo.blogspot.com is written in my author bio. This looks dumb. Who would go to a web address that looks so d...
More About: Song

Thru-Hiker.com Website Review
2008-01-16 18:11:00
Thru-Hiker .com Website Review I thoroughly recommend the Thru-Hiker.com website. I first came upon this site from the Hobotraveler.com link to Rodney Liwanag’s LAB backpack construction guide. Thru-Hiker.com is a website dedicated to sharing ideas and tactics for traveling on the cheap. It has plenty of tips, advice, and instructions on how to make your own traveling gear, as well as the materials that you need to do so for sale right through the site.Thru-hiker.com is divided into six sections: Kits and Materials, Thru-Hiker Store, The Workshop, Articles, Gear Reviews, and a Message Board. The Kits and Materials section begins with the following bold statement:“Free yourself from Commercial Gear Lock-In with Thru-Hiker's Kits, Fabrics, and Materials!”This essentially seems to be the Thru-Hiker mantra. The kits and materials section of the website is full of just this: kits and materials to make cheap and durable outdoor gear to travel with. I just hope they also provide instr...

Travel Tip #7- Camping for Free
2008-01-16 00:44:00
Travel Tip #7- How to sleep outside for free “An uncomfortable bed free is better than a comfortable bed unfree.”-Jack Kerouac In many circumstances, a traveler could find himself outside after nightfall without a place to seek shelter and, in some cases, without the monetary resources to rent a bed even if one was available. Or, if you are traveling by bicycle, hitchhiking, or walking it would be foolish to plan on entering into developed areas every night solely for the purpose of finding shelter. In point, when on the tramp, it is often necessary to sleep under the stars, and, in most instances, the formal campground is not really an option- as I think they are a waste of money. The way I see it, the entire world is one big campground ever welcoming a clever traveler to set up a camp and stay a night- for free. Parks, cemeteries, highway culverts, forests, strip mall roof tops, agricultural fields, abandon beaches, the underside of bridges, and caves usually have open vacancy...
More About: Travel , Free , Camping

Visit to USA- Back to Family
2008-01-15 01:59:00
Visit to the USA- Back with Family I must say that it is nice to past through my homeland of the USA every once in a while. I get to spend a little time with my family, check up on my old friends, read my books (I have lots of books!), play with my sister’s son and my little Chinese sister, and recheck my bearings. As far as I travel I know that I can never really leave the place that I come from: Route 104 out in the country side of Upstate NY, a few miles from Lake Ontario and an hour east of Lake Erie. Farmer’s fields, orchards, woods, creeks, and lakes- a wide open landscape if I have ever known one- is my home. This is where I learned how to ride a bike and how to dream of far distant lands. Dreaming, this was the skill that I learned best here. “However, this is the truth, if you, not your friend dreams of something, the very fact you dream of doing it, defines you as capable of succeeding. The mind is a great machine, it generally does not accept jobs (Dreams) that it ca...
More About: Visit

Travel- Happiness- and Aging
2008-01-14 07:16:00
Travel, Happiness , and Aging I am now back in the USA. A ten day stay that is now down to a week. Visiting my family, talking to some old friends. Things have changed. People grew up, people carved out the identities that they will carry with them throughout their lives. Stubbs is no longer afraid of women and is even going on dates. These times they are a changing.We have grown up. It is simple as that. I am now an adult. A man. An old guy. I tried some things, failed, found out what I like and what I don’t. I have dabbled with identity. I have accepted the fact that I do not really know what I am talking about. I am all over the place, but I feel solid. I like what I am doing. I no longer jump between vast pursuits or feel as fickled or as unsure as I did when I was younger. My youth is a ship being towed away to some port on the lee side of India to be disassembled and broken down into scrap metal, and I happily bide this ship a hearty farewell. For it was a good run. I now look...
More About: Travel

Salah- The Muslim Prayer
2008-01-12 03:00:00
Salah-The Muslim Prayer Salah, the Muslim process of formal prayer, is a time-honed practice that is meant to interweave Islamic religious belief within the very fabric of the practioner's life. Five times a day the prayer is performed in a specific way and is always done while facing the Kaaba of Mecca. Salah is one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith and “. . . is considered the most important act of worship in Islam and its importance is such that under very few circumstances can it be omitted” (Wikipedia). “Salah is the name for the obligatory prayers which are performed five times a day, and are a direct link between the worshiper and God with no earthly intermediaries. A prayer takes a few minutes to perform.” (Islam Awareness.net)Video of salah is below:----------------------------------- -------------------------The prayer consists of four raka’ahs, or parts. Each raka’ah consists of alternating body positions: standing, bowing, sitting, and prostrating. This ...

Letter from Burkina Faso
2008-01-11 22:23:00
Letter from Burkina Faso I sometimes open my inbox to find unexpected emails from people who have found me through the Song of the Open Road Travel Blog. The one that I printed below is from a "banking official" from Burkina Faso who wishes to engage me in a "business" deal so that we can both easily get rich and live out our days in lethargic paradise. Or, to put it more poignantly, he wants to engage me in a business deal so that HE can get rich off of my money, and I can be the shmuck that fell for an African internet scam.These are the types of scams that seem to have become common since the internet has made its way to Africa. I at once scoffed at this email and forgot about it. I do not really have any money to loose anyway. But then I remembered a story of an American guy who lost everything on one of these internet scams, and I then recognized the potential significance of posting this email as a potential warning. People sometimes fall for these tricks. They seem exciting, a...
More About: Letter

Shopping in the USA- The American Way
2008-01-11 17:34:00
Shopping in the USA- The American WayMore seems cheaper only because less is more expensive The less you buy of something in the USA the more it costs. This is against my logic but right in line with the “buy today, buy tomorrow” mentality of my people. Shopping in the USA is an exploit into the subtle rip-offs of capitalist reasoning: if something can be made to look cheap in relative terms, people will think that it really is cheap.I wanted to buy some batteries yesterday; so I go to the store and begin picking some out. Hmm . . . twenty Duracell batteries cost $11 while only eight costs $6. What do I do? It would be cheaper per battery to buy 20, but do I really want to walk around with TWENTY batteries knocking around in my bag weighting me down? No. Do I want to spend more money per battery for the privilege of being able to buy less and have a lighter load? No. If I can buy twenty at a certain price, why can’t I have the same price for eight? I do not understand.But this...
More About: Shopping , The American Way

Traveling and Projects
2008-01-11 06:06:00
Traveling and Projects After eight years of traveling, I have come to the realization that travelers need projects to keep them going. My mother always tells me that people need to work to be happy; I now know that she is correct. I loathe the role of the employee, but I do not mind working . . . and I have always loved big projects. On the Road projects can be anything from working the occasional temp job, research projects, websites, writing, collections (go to Loren Everly.org for a couple of great examples of travel collections), missions such as climbing mountains or hiking long distances, making amenities to sell, anything that you can build upon day by day which consolidates the experience of traveling into tangible, balanced whole. A project is just a deep, dark pit for me to jump into so that I can wake up each morning with something to do and go to bed with the feeling that I actually did something. Projects are done just for the sake of doing them, and I feel that the best...
More About: Traveling

Back in Casablanca
2008-01-10 05:13:00
Back in Casablanca I am now writing from the very place that I began the Moroccan portion of my journey almost exactly four months ago: the Foucauld Hotel in Casablanca. Four months of traveling, four countries. I sit here thinking about these travels, and my life up to here. What have I done? What am I doing?Morocco, touts, website building, writing, Portugal, Mira, bicycles, searching for internet connections, Vila Nova de Milfontes, SEO books, emails to Andy, phone calls to Erik the Pilot, Spain, Gibraltar, the south of France, friends from Chile. Me. Back in Casablanca. I found a path through the forest these past four months . . . and a big machete. I feel as if I am cutting my own trail now. I am piecing together a living through writing and traveling. Sold three articles, $25 here, $50 there, another $25, I just heard that a $400 check rolled in, a Paypal payment of $5.75, Andy gave me a project, things are going well. I am not quite making enough money off of this website/ tr...
More About: Back

Marrakech Market Video
2008-01-10 03:57:00
Marrakech Market Video The following is a video of the market in Marrakech, Morocco at night. Local Muslim women rush to buy just about everything at around 8PM and the way-be-gone tourist is pushed to the side in the crowd. I was very surprised by how relatively genuine Marrakech seemed to be amidst the excessive tourism pull this city has. It was interesting to observe how everyday life really dominates Marrakech in the face of the tourism machine. I do not feel as if many tourist hotspots on this planet can compare with Marrakech in this regard.The video is below------------------------------- -------------------------------Wade from Vagabond Journey.comAlbion, NY, USADecember 11, 2008Eight years of round the world vagabond travel. Wade from Vagabond Journey.com

Impressions of Marrakesh
2008-01-06 18:32:00
Impressions of MarrakechI am very surprised by Marrakech. I can breathe peacefully here. I walk down the streets without being hustled or hassled. There seems to be less drug dealers and hotel runners here per capita than in most places in Morocco. I am rather impressed. Either the authorities in Marrakech have done a good job in keeping the hustlers away from tourists, the shop keepers have already earned so much money that they do not need to hire the services of touts and faux guides, or the tourist cloud is so think that poor little me can slip through the crowd undetected by barnacles, leeches, and touts- and I therefore do not really notice the hassles that other people are being put through. Maybe it is a little of all three. The way I figure it is if one were in the market for a pig they would select the biggest, plumpest one they could find. And in this city of fat pigs (tourists with money), I look like the gauntest, poorest, degenerate piglet of them all. Needless to say,...
More About: Impressions , Marrakesh , Kesh

Impressions of Marrakech
2008-01-06 18:32:00
Impressions of MarrakechI am very surprised by Marrakech. I can breathe peacefully here. I walk down the streets without being hustled or hassled. There seems to be less drug dealers and hotel runners here per capita than in most places in Morocco. I am rather impressed. Either the authorities in Marrakech have done a good job in keeping the hustlers away from tourists, the shop keepers have already earned so much money that they do not need to hire the services of touts and faux guides, or the tourist cloud is so think that poor little me can slip through the crowd undetected by barnacles, leeches, and touts- and I therefore do not really notice the hassles that other people are being put through. Maybe it is a little of all three. The way I figure it is if one were in the market for a pig they would select the biggest, plumpest one they could find. And in this city of fat pigs (tourists with money), I look like the gauntest, poorest, degenerate piglet of them all. Needless to say,...
More About: Impressions

New Year's Eve in France
2008-01-06 18:29:00
News Year’s Eve in France I once heard a story about how everybody in France throws all of their old furniture out of the window and into the streets below at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. I waited up for it this year in France, and I did not even hear a squirrel chirp, let alone the crash of old couches, chairs, and tv sets. “Lets throw something out the window ” Mira yelled at midnight. “Wade Grab something and throw it out the window ”Our friends, whose house we were staying at, just clutch apprehensively to their furniture. I suppose this was a French tradition that we would not be celebrating this year. But I think that it is a good tradition. The streets of France is so full of dog shit anyway that a few broken couches would probably just serve to clean it up a little. . . or at least mush it around. But this New Year’s Eve would be celebrated Chilean style. With a good meal followed up with tequila, lemons, and salt. . . and my friend JessieAnne Sals...

A Walk Through Marrakech Video
2008-01-05 20:49:00
A Walk Through Marrakech Video The below video is of a walk through the back streets of Marrakech, Morocco. Eight years of round the world vagabond travel. Wade from Vagabond Journey.com

On Leaving France
2008-01-05 19:51:00
On Leaving France My exit from France last Wednesday began with a big rush to the train station in Ales. I thought I forgot my camera at my friend’s home when we were half way there. I did the math and determined that it would be cheaper and less of a hassle to ditch the flight to Morocco and return to pick up my camera- a one of a kind Sanyo that I scooped up in Shanghai a year ago. But luckily, my travel instincts kicked in, and, unbeknown to me, I packed my camera in my bag. Good, Mira would have been pissed if I made her stay in France for the sake of a silly camera.I usually keep all of my traveling gear in its proper place. If something is not where I keep it, I give it up for lost. I do not lose many things. If fact, the last thing that I lost was a red plaid shirt in the Hong Kong airport as I was being frisked by the police for carrying a big machete through their realm of control. They told me that big knifes are forbidden in Hong Kong. I told them that I was an archaeolo...

Driving in France
2007-12-30 20:11:00
Driving in France I have been driving a car in France for the past month. This was the first country outside of the USA that I ever had to drive in, and, I must say, it has been a learning experience. The car that I am driving here is a broken down Euro-edition Ford jaloppy that is falling apart on all fronts. The alignment is perilously off-kilter, some of the gears don't work, it has a sensitive clutch, and squeaks from all corners. My friends purchased this vehicle from an Arab who they took to be honest, as he was friends with their cousin. He told them that it ran great and had no problems. I will let you make the judgment call here.The traffic police in France are resplendent of the Third Reich, and my friend lost her license after a number of shadily recorded traffic violations. You see, the police in France do not stop and pull over violators of traffic rules; rather, they take a photo of a license plate and mail a bill to the registered address. So you could be driving for ...
More About: Driving

Driving in France
2007-12-30 20:11:00
Driving in Franc e I have been driving a car in France for the past month. This was the first country outside of the USA that I ever had to drive in, and, I must say, it has been a learning experience. The car that I am driving here is a broken down Euro-edition Ford jaloppy that is falling apart on all fronts. The alignment is perilously off-kilter, some of the gears don't work, it has a sensitive clutch, and squeaks from all corners. My friends purchased this vehicle from an Arab who they took to be honest, as he was friends with their cousin. He told them that it ran great and had no problems. I will let you make the judgment call here.The traffic police in France are resplendent of the Third Reich, and my friend lost her license after a number of shadily recorded traffic violations. You see, the police in France do not stop and pull over violators of traffic rules; rather, they take a photo of a license plate and mail a bill to the registered address. So you could be driving for ...
More About: Driving

More articles from this author:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7