The Best Comments Of The Month: June 2011
I hope it’s been a hot start to summer for those of you in the northern hemisphere, it started off chilly for me in Vancouver, Canada only to heat up two weeks later in Valencia, Spain. The comments too have been equally scorching, here are some that will give you a sunburn if you stand too close.
- Imperator gives a good account of how tourism is often a first-aid kit for economies recovering from various social and political ills.
- I’ve got no word on the hairy sausage Shane mentions though I do appreciate Snapping Blabber helping me to identify the names of Bulgarian foods I neglected to write down as I was too busy stuffing my face.
- I can relate to Priyank on this one, it’s taken a while for my parents to get exactly what I do for a living, though my grandmother…nowhere near close.
- The Travel Chica and I are both celebrating our birthdays – by fox years I guess we’re about the same age?
- I appreciate Stephen‘s advice on booking trains in China, I’ll need it late in September as I race toward Saigon on The Ultimate Train Challenge.
Thanks everyone for your helpful comments this past month. It’s summer travel season in the northern hemisphere – so, where are you off to over the next few months?
[photo by: Catriona Ward (pug on beach)]
Days Before Disaster, Hockey Joy In Vancouver, Canada
June 28, 2011 by Anil P.
Filed under Pictures and Video
The ecstatic crowds on the streets of downtown Vancouver, Canada after the Canucks won Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals is the craziest scene I have ever experienced. And it was hockey. I never thought it would be, well, hockey, that would leave me with vivid memories of Canadians cheering in delirium with joy, chanting curses at Boston, and partying well into the night without wavering enthusiasm.
Perhaps I should have been more prepared, considering when I landed in Vancouver International Airport (free wifi by the way), above passport control the giant TV screens were showing the Canucks playing Game 4, instead of displaying the standard arrival messages everyone ignores. Did I mention that even some of the airport security staff were wearing Canucks jerseys? They take hockey in Vancouver more seriously than most governments do about their own economies.
One of the elegant threads running through the mayhem on the streets of downtown Vancouver were all of the ethnic Indian, Chinese, and other diverse faces in the crowd; unified by a sport notably absent from their countries of descent. The minutes immediately following the victory, which put the Canucks one win away from winning the city’s first Stanley Cup, was a living definition of communitas.
- It’s not uncommon to see fans exiting European soccer stadiums cheering, beating drums, and sometimes each other – but what made the experience in Vancouver unique was how sustained and positive that expression of local pride was. Keep in mind the team hadn’t even won the championship – just a game in the best of 7 series.
Unfortunately what can make social groups such a powerfully positive force often works in the opposite direction. After the Canucks lost the series a few days later, disgruntled fans destroyed much of downtown, looting, burning cars, and attacking police in a flash of violence. Quite a shame to harm such a gorgeous city and even worse to do to the memory of the demonstrations just a few days before.
You can see more of Vancouver in my album here.
Blow Out The Candles: foXnoMad Turns 5 Years Old Today
There are some gray whiskers popping up on foXnoMad (figuratively and literally) as this travel site turns 5 years old today. It’s been quite a journey thus far for a blog created originally to help 6 friends keep in touch – eventually morphing into travel blog, funding my travels for the past 2 years to over 40 countries.
Sometime within the past year I decided to formalize a general travel goal, setting my sights on seeing every country in the world. (The United Nations sets that at 193, while the Montevideo Convention’s more interesting list is 201 – so I’ll go with that.) There’s still lots of world to see, write about, and share with you.
Evolving Styles Over Year 4
Currently I’m in Valencia, Spain courtesy Tour Spain and Valencia Tourism, where I’m enjoying the city where paella was created in the late 19th century. Over the past 4th year of foXnoMad I’ve been focusing mainly on the Middle East, visiting (and getting lost) in countries like Oman, Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq while trying to give my posts a more personal touch. A sharper focus on the visual element is on the way, as well as some major travel projects coming up toward the end of the year.
The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers 50% Off Today Only
For foXnoMad’s birthday, today only The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers is 50% off – but still includes 6 months of free personal travel tech support for yours truly. Need help setting up an online backup system before heading to India or find out your hard drive is going to crash…before it does? I’ll walk you through step-by-step each process, or anything else you learn in the ebook, to help make your laptop the most powerful thing in your backpack.
- You can get the 50% off by typing the discount code ‘birthday’ here.
Also before the end of the year I’ll have another contest with a prize you can test your remote Facebooking and new found hacking skills on – a Macbook Air.
Thank You – Yes, You Right There
I really cannot express my appreciation and thanks enough to all of you who have and continue to support me. For everything – from reading my posts to giving me tours of your hometown to exceptionally helpful travel comments – it is you, sitting right there, who inspires me. Thank you for that – I only hope I can do the same for you and help you travel smarter. Though I’m a bit slower these days on email (now well over 120 a day), my inbox is always open if you ever need anything. Enjoy some digital birthday cake on me, wherever you are in the world 
My sincere thanks,
-Anil
[photo by: JohanBerglund (red fox)]
From Lisbon To Saigon In One Shot: The Ultimate Train Challenge
This September, I will begin a race against 5 other travel bloggers to break the record for the world’s longest continuous train journey. To be more precise, The Ultimate Train Challenge will have me hopping from train to train, beginning in Lisbon, Portugal all the way to Vietnam’s Saigon.
What Is The Ultimate Train Challenge?
In short, it’s a friendly competition between each of us who love travel to try and break a standing world record. Some of the major rules are: we must sleep on the train each night, can’t backtrack through a country once we’ve passed it, and aren’t allowed to repeat any length of rail. When I was first approached with the idea by Michael Hodson, I found both the travel and personal challenge difficult to resist.
I’ll spend a little over a week in Portugal, including the best city to visit in 2011 Porto, before the race begins on September 1rst. Aside from exploring Portugal, a country I haven’t visited yet, I’ll also be wrapping up the final preparations for a month where I’ll have extremely limited Internet access. Maintaining foXnoMad and all that comes with it will undoubtedly be my biggest challenge over the roughly 27 days the trip will take.
Join Me For Legs Of The Race
Those of you who might happen to be taking a train in Europe or along my route this September are more than welcome to join me for legs of my trip. I’ll announce the exact route I’m taking sometime in late July so if you want a beer, coffee, or conversation it’s on me if we can make schedules match.
- Many days during the trip I’ll also be running into town to find wireless at cafes which I’ll post to foursquare and Gowalla if you want to come by and say hi.
I’m also planning a separate, major video project in late October that will have a paid camera-person position – a job that will include a few weeks of exotic travel. If you happen to be good with a video camera and want to join me on a short leg of the train journey (even if it’s just from one city to the next) you can help provide content for The Ultimate Train Challenge – auditioning for my camera-person job in the fall at the same time.
The Devil Is In The Planning
Each of us train challenge participants can choose our own paths -north or south across Europe – then south from China into Vietnam. (The Trans-Siberian Railway will get me across Russia.) Planning (hardly my strong suit) train connections, times, and distances will be what determines when who gets where when. I’ll create an interactive map for you to follow along, give me suggestions, and see when we might cross paths potentially to meet up in your city for a few hours.
Why Take A Trip Like This?
Partially because of that very question – the goal to break a record and have some fun along with extreme travel overland – beginning and ending in two countries I’ve never been to before. Personally, I’ll find it extremely difficult to manage and maintain my day to day work and operations – something I’m not convinced I’ll be able to do. Pushing my limits while meeting new people and seeing places I never have will be my biggest motivator over nearly 15,000 kilometers (~9,600 miles) of train tracks.
[second photo by: limowreck666 (devil duck)]
