Chronicles of On The Road Travel

1000 Places I'll See Before I Die

It's finally here!!  Adding to the ranks of the 321 other travel applications on Facebook, we have finally completed our own: 1000 Places I'll See Before I Die. If you're a Facebook user, add the application and let others know where you've been and where you dream of going! You can also track down others who share your travel dreams and plans.

The Latest news:

1000 Places I'll See Before I die was recently selected as a Hot New Facebook App by TopNetPix!

Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts

Etiquette For Traveling Abroad

This past weekend's San Francisco Chronicle published an interesting list of 'do's and don'ts when traveling abroad'. It's always important when traveling to a new country to blend in with the local culture and not offend the locals. The Chronicle's list is less informative than it is tongue in cheek - one of my favorites:
    In Canada, don't pretend to be Canadian
A bit obvious, but you'd be amazed at the number of people who pick up 'eh' and 'aboot' after a few days in the Great White North.

A few others that are relevant to OTR Travelers:
    In Brazil, don't ask, "What's this sawdust doing on my food?" (It's dried manioc.)
    In Argentina, don't tango solo.
    In South America, don't tell people you're from America. (They are, too.)

To avoid these pitfalls, read our cultural cheatsheets for Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala and Peru, and don't miss the Kiss and Tango Guide to Buenos Aires.

A Great Site for Buying Unique Imports

I found this website while reading the book Eat, Love, Pray, which I wrote about last week. The Author, Elizabeth Gilbert, meets the woman who runs Novica while living in Indonesia. Her work with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees brought her to developing countries around the world and gave her exposure to some incredible and entrepreneurial artists. In Elizabeth's words, Novica 'supports indigenous artists all over the world by selling their products on the Internet'. I was immediately intrigued, dropped the book, and looked up the website.  It was so excited to find this incredible resource for unique home decor, jewelry, apparel and paintings. You can search the site by items or regions (products are sourced from the Andes, Bali, Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand and West Africa). What is most interesting is that each product comes with a detailed description of the artist, including their life story and the factors that influenced their artwork. Novica.  is definitely worth checking out if you are the type of person who always returns from a journey wishing you'd bought more local artwork but didn't have the luggage capacity to bring it with you!

Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts

Adventures in website hosting at OTR

Do you sometimes get the feeling that some companies have customer support programs only so they can have it on their flyers and not actually to provide any support?  That’s how I’ve felt about my hosting company since the beginning.  Last week, I had a pretty typical experience with them and I thought I’d share it as part of the ongoing adventure that it is to launch and run a website. 

The problem: All emails from our site are being sent with SPAM appended to them.  This means many of our members won’t receive emails with their account information and other important features.  Big problem.

The source of the problem: Our hosting company finally accepted, after at least 3 months of back and forth, that their SpamAssassin module is faulty and suggested turning the filter off while they replace the module.  No ETA on when the new module will be in place.

I gave them the go-ahead to turn the filter off, updated the support ticket and they said they would notify me when this was done.

The actions: …..radio silence.

The frustrations: I waited about 2 weeks since my phone conversation with the supervisor and decided to phone them up again to see what had happened.  To my surprise the extension I had for the supervisor wasn’t working anymore, presumably they changed their phone system which now had the added feature of not being able to find names in the directory and when you tried to reach an operator you went into an endless loop.  Frustrated, I decided to try my last alternative and went for the chat support option.  Below is the chat conversation, verbatim, that I had with this customer support representative at my ‘premiere hosting company’, which sums up everything that this company is lacking.

Anna B.: Hello Veronica
Veronica: Hi
Veronica: I was trying to get through to Duane on the phone but the phone just rings off the hook
Veronica: Need to talk to Duane, his old extension was 208 but this extension doesn't work anymore.
Veronica: Is there anyone who can give me his new extension so I can get through to him?
Anna B.: I am sorry but please hold on they will reply you soon
Veronica: hold on for who. no one is answering, I'm not even being put on hold.
Veronica: even on the technical support line
Veronica: Hello?
Anna B.: We are sorry for any inconvenience faced by you.
Veronica: Ok, how can you help me?
Anna B.: Please elaborate your issue so that I can check it
Veronica: I can't get through to anyone on the phone. Technical support does not pick up the phone to at least put me on hold. When I go to the directory I end up in a loop that never connects me to an operator and doesn't let me spell the name of the person I'm trying to reach. Eventually it disconnects me. I need to speak to Duane about an issue we spoke about 2 weeks ago but his extension is not working anymore.
Anna B.: I am sorry but I will suggest you to mail us so that he can reply you with it
Veronica: Do you have his email address?
Anna B.: You can mail us at [email protected] with Attn : Duane as subject
Veronica: I already tried putting the information of what I need into a support ticket but I am not getting a response that way either.
Veronica: Can you please pass me his personal email or his new phone extension?
Anna B.: I am sorry but it is not possible for me to do so ....
Veronica: because...
Anna B.: I am not authorized to give it
Veronica: but I already had his extension before. It was 208. I just think they have changed the phone systems and the directory is not working so I can't look up his number now.
Veronica: ...
Veronica: so it looks like you can't help me at all?
Chat session has ended.
You are not currently in a chat session.

That was the end of our friendly chat session, which lead to absolutely no resolution.  I guess you have to take it all with some humour and tack it to the experience of joining the web as a startup but I would really much rather be told that they don’t provide support, period!  I would love to hear anyone else’s interesting ‘customer un-support’ experiences.

This post was submitted by Veronica Montero.

Travel Recommendations & Advice from Local Experts

Keeping in Touch While You're On The Road

Joe Sharkey, the New York Times writer who miraculously survived a tragic mid-air collision in Brazil earlier this month, wrote an article yesterday about the 'how to's' of cell phones when you are traveling to foreign countries. Unfortunately, given the minor inconvenience of surviving a plane crash, he was unable to do his research while he was in Brazil and didn't have many answers.

A recent article in Budget Travel Magazine explored the same topic:

The GSM network, used by T-Mobile and Cingular, is the standard for most of the world. If you have a Verizon Wireless phone, which operates on the CDMA network, chances are you won't be able to make calls in Europe, Australia, or Africa. The frequencies, or bands, also have to match. Some cell-phone models are dual-band, which is fine for the two GSM frequencies most common in the U.S., 850 and 1900 MHz. Others are tri- or quad-band, so they work at home and abroad, where the most common frequencies are 900 and 1800 MHz.

I am a huge proponent of traveling with a tri-band phone and buying a SIM card from the local phone company when you arrive at your destination. It's cheap, easy, and gives you a phone number where friends and family can reach you so you don't have to incur the long distance charges yourself! It also allows you to easily get in touch with local service providers for reservations, information and directions when you're lost. Our Staying in Touch section provides details on how to buy a SIM card in Brazil and who to buy it from, as well as alternatives for those who aren't too excited about taking on this task in Portuguese.

Travel Recommendations & Advice from Local Experts

Google Goes Native

As last week’s article in The Economist, Google it in Quechua noted, Google has launched a version in Quechua (www.google.com/intl/qu/), an ancient native language spoken mainly in the Andes of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia.  Quechua was the official language of the Inka empire and still is the second official language of Peru and Bolivia.  In decline since the time of the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, an estimated 10 million people speak it today.

My first reaction when I read about Google’s inclusion of this native language in its repertoire was to wonder whether the intended users will actually have access to computers or if they will even care that search engines exists!  Google’s translation project claims to want to build a truly world wide web – all the power to them for being inclusive and hopefully along the way promoting the preservation of an ancient language.

As to the accessibility question, it seems Google is not the only one with an interest in this part of the world.  Earlier this year the Quechua version of Windows OS (“T’uqu”) and MSOffice applications were introduced in Peru and in Bolivia, part of Microsoft’s “digital inclusion” plan. Microsoft has taken on an initiative to reach 30% of the Quechua speaking population and as part of their program they would train 900 instructors in Bolivia alone. Click here for details (article is in Spanish). This doesn’t resolve the issue of people not having the means to buy software and hardware when their day-to-day preoccupations are around eating and having a roof over their heads, but the fact that Evo Morales, Bolivian president, is behind this initiative makes me think there must be an angle to this that aims to promote the race and culture of the people in question.

Linguistic project or nationalist initiative, I am all for the advancement and diffusion of technology and even more so in favour of preserving an ancient language, an icon of an ancient culture.  It will be interesting to see whether these projects are successful and, if they do take off, how they affect societies that up to now have been somewhat isolated from these advancements.  Hopefully having access to the web in their own language will bring to the Quechua speaking population all the benefits and efficiencies that technology can bring but not at the cost of loss of cultural values and traditions. 

We will have to learn a few phrases in Quechua and try them out on our next research trip to Peru this Fall so we can promote the preservation of this language!   

This article was posted by Veronica Montero

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Travel Wikis

Michael Arrington's Techcrunch blog yesterday brought up the topic of wikis for travelers. It seems there is yet another travel wiki gearing up to join the ranks of user-generated travel content websites. It's funny, when we first conceived the idea of OTR, wikis were just becoming popular. We briefly considered it: makes for a nice, low-cost model with constantly updated content. The big obstacle that I couldn't get my head around, which was already starting to plague sites like Tripadvisor, was how to prevent biased opinions, or worse, people who will unjustly tout their own places and bash their competitors. Without editorial control, these 'travel tips' are relatively useless to me and I certainly wouldn't base my travel plans on them.  Not to mention another big problem -- you never know if the 'recommendee' is the same type of traveler you are.

These 'user-generated' models are great from a financial point of view -- there is virtually no cost to run them - but unfortunately the advice you get is as low in quality as it is in cost. That's why we went with a hybrid model - editorialized content that is enhanced by comments and suggestions from our invite-only member base.

Where the Hell is Matt?

Hillarious... Seth F. forwarded this on to me and I had to share it with you all because it's ingenious. I seem to always forget that I have video capabilities in my digital camera -- It's amazing what you can do with it! See for yourself:

Wherethehellismatt.com

Shame on Conde Naste

Because of my sheer frustration with what has just happened, I thought I would expose this for all of you to read. I received an email from Conde Naste Traveler this morning offering me the following:

It's time for our first ever online Feedback Survey - where you give us your opinions of Condé Nast Traveler magazine. We want to know what you think about our stories, our photography, our design, our covers, and more...

When you click here, you will be entered into a drawing to win a three-night stay for two at Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico, Delta first-class round-trip airfare for two, and $2,500 cash in spending money!!

Your answers are truly of great importance to us!
To take the survey, just click here or on the link below.

www.psapoll.com/traveler

Sincerely,

Klara Glowczewska
Editor-in-Chief

Of course I'm going to take a few minutes to fill out a survey if I know that I could win a trip to Cabo... even if I've never won anything in my life. So, I clicked. I filled out. I got excited about three nights at Las Ventanas on someone else's dollar... then I got this message:

Thank you very much for your interest in our survey. Unfortunately you did not qualify for today's survey. Because our research was targeted at individuals that match a particular profile, not everyone who receives an initial e-mail will qualify to take the survey. Please be assured that information is not recorded unless a survey is successfully completed.

Well Klara, this really does not assure me of anything... in fact it REALLY annoys me because if I wasn't going to qualify, you shouldn't have sent me the email telling me that all I had to do was click. And if you felt the need to do that, then you certainly should have put that qualifier right up front in the first page of the survey, rather than making me click on 100 annoying little boxes first. So here is my feedback anyways: I was a subscriber to your magazine but I found it relatively dull and uninformative so I did not renew my subscription when it ran out. The only part I actually enjoyed about the magazine was the Where Are You Now Contest which I can view online anyways.

You're first ever online Feedback Survey will definitely be my last. So there.

I should probably add that the fact that I haven't been sleeping well this week because of allergies has made me a bit grumpy... hope you all have a good weekend.

Great Deal on Travel Cameras

I just had a notice from Amazon that they have a huge sale on digital cameras and equipment until July 15th. For example this Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera is $724.99 down from $1499.99. Click here  for other deals being offered through this promotion.

Although I once had dreams of becoming a professional-looking photographer with my SLR camera, I soon realized that these big bulky cameras were not worth the risk when traveling to many of the countries that I tend to travel to. Walking around Rio with any sort of electronics is just asking to be mugged. My personal favorite camera is the Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph which I bought last year. It is small enough that I can throw it in my pocket without being noticed but with 5.0 megapixels provides more detail than I will ever need - either for the website, or for the photos I blow up and put on my wall. It apparently only weighs 3 lbs (although even that seems high), so I never have to worry about lugging around extra weight, whether for a day trip or for longer travel. I tried to one-up this and tested out the Powershot SD30 but there was way too much compromise on photo quality for size.

If anyone has other cameras that they recommend for traveling, please feel free to chime in.