15 Travel Related Things About Me
March 6, 2009 by Anil P.
Filed under Travel Journal
Reading Erica’s 30 travel related things about me inspired me to follow my own advice on building a successful travel blog and share some of my personal travel habits. In no particular order here are 15 travel related things about me.
- I am habitually late for flights, buses, and pretty much any mode transportation.
- I never take pictures of myself when I travel.
- I enjoy sleeping in airports.
- My favorite city in the world is Istanbul, which consequently has the best airport I’ve ever slept in.
- I primarily travel with the small but efficient SwissGear Synergy computer backpack.
- The longest I’ve ever been without a shower on the road is 22 days.
- I always travel with my digital essentials – a laptop and encrypted USB drive (loaded with these 12 applications).
- I am never without a book, ever.
- No matter how much I fly, every time I get on a plane I feel like I’m pushing my luck.
- Traveling makes me appreciate everything I have and realize that family and health are things never to take for granted.
- I can’t leave a hotel room without checking it over and over only to still feel like I forgot something.
- Due to poor planning, I’ve run out of cash in the worst places.
- Bargaining is a great way to get a deal – and make a lifelong friend.
- I missed my first flight ever last December (see #1 above).
- Although I speak English, Turkish, and French, I always end up in places where none of those languages do me any good.
In case you thought you were off the hook, I’ll be asking some of you to add a few travel related things about yourselves next week. Until then if you’d like to get to know me better you can read my About page, see where I’ve been, or catch up with me on Facebook.
Tricks To Keep Your Cat Happy While You Travel
Last week I wrote about 4 things frequent travelers need to consider before getting a cat and the unique challenges having them as pets present. One of the misconceptions many people have about cats is that it doesn’t bother them when they are left alone. Cats have a range of temperaments and personalities but they are all social animals. It’s important not to let them feel like that you are far away while keeping their minds and bodies occupied.
Using the Internet and making your home an interesting place to be will not only keep your cats happy, but allow you to return to an orderly home.
- Create A Pet Fund - One of the advantages of having a cat is that they can (with proper preparation) be left home alone for a few days by themselves. Any more than that and you’ll need a friend, family member, or somebody else to take care of your animals. In these cases you’ll need to set up a pet emergency fund to cover any illnesses which can progress quickly in small mammals like cats.
- Vets are expensive, plan to put away at least $500 for your pet sitter. (A diagnosis and simple office visit alone can set you back $300 and you’ll want some left over for any medications or basic supplies like food. Make this part of your simple travel budget.)
- Give Them A Call – You can’t call yourself on Skype so you’ll need to create another account for your cats. Using the free remote access service LogMeIn, you can call an old laptop or computer you’ve got in the living room and pick up the line so your cats can hear your voice. If you’re lucky they may also come up to the web cam so you can see them too.
- Hide Treats Around The House - A small number of enticing treats hidden around your home will give your cats some entertainment as they try to ‘hunt’ them out. It’s best to use treats scented with catnip to really get them searching and satisfy their natural instincts.
foXnoMad Redesigned
Many of you have already noticed the new layout of foXnoMad and I appreciate the comments 
Aside from the new visual design I’ve also made some other changes including removing the InfoLinks which you all hated and making it easier to find featured content like the Best City to Visit Travel Tournament 2009.
I welcome any comments, suggestions, and criticisms you might have while I take it easy with posting today. What do you like or think should be changed? If you’re reading from an RSS reader or through an email subscription, I would appreciate it if you would click through to take a look at the updated foxnomad.com.
And those of you who may be new to foXnoMad will hopefully find it easier to learn out more about me, find me on Facebook and Twitter, or request a guest post.
EDITED [3/3]: I forgot to mention that I’ve also added the option to subscribe to comments on individual posts again. The feature wasn’t available for a while since it wasn’t working properly. Issues aside, you can now click a link at the bottom of any post to be notified of new comments via email.
The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009: Sweet 16 17
Time to enter your votes in the Sweet 17 round of the Best City to Visit Travel Tournament 2009. It’s 17 instead of 16 since I didn’t want to go through a complicated process to eliminate one team for an even 16. So, the most crowded region in northern Europe will have 3 cities competing against each other to advance to the next round.
Vote below for your favorite cities in each individual poll through Friday.
The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: San Diego vs. San Francisco
- San Francisco, USA (Taylor Davidson) (60%, 15 Votes)
- San Diego, USA (Karmin) (40%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 25
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: Chicago vs. New York
- Chicago, USA (Christina) (52%, 14 Votes)
- New York City, USA (Final_Transit) (48%, 13 Votes)
Total Voters: 27
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: Negril vs. Orlando
- Negril, Jamaica (daryl) (77%, 17 Votes)
- Orlando, USA (Rana) (23%, 5 Votes)
Total Voters: 22
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: Cuzco vs. Montaña
- Cuzco, Peru (craig) (54%, 13 Votes)
- Montaña, Ecuador (Felipe) (46%, 11 Votes)
Total Voters: 24
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: London vs. Stockholm
- Stockholm, Sweden (Camilla) (52%, 13 Votes)
- London, England (Erica) (48%, 12 Votes)
Total Voters: 25
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: Lübeck vs. Munich vs. Utrecht
- Utrecht, The Netherlands (Bas Serial Expat) (37%, 10 Votes)
- Lübeck, Germany (Jessica) (33%, 9 Votes)
- Munich, Germany (Yo MC) (30%, 8 Votes)
Total Voters: 27
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: Istanbul vs. Paris
- Istanbul, Turkey (Deniz) (60%, 15 Votes)
- Paris, France (Carla) (40%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 25
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2009 - Sweet 16: Jakarta vs. Sydney
- Sydney, Australia (Cuckoo) (65%, 17 Votes)
- Jakarta, Indonesia (James G) (35%, 9 Votes)
Total Voters: 26
Loading ...The winners will advance to the next round of 8 for a chance at winning $50…and bragging rights for their city. Voting for the Elite 8 will start up next Monday, March 9th.
[photo by: joshbousel]
