foXnoMad » Books

Discovering The Art And Heart Of Porto: The Best City To Visit In 2011

Anil P. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:00:59 +0000

Back in March, through 4 weeks of voting, you picked Porto, Portugal as the best city to visit in 2011. Last month I made good on a promise to explore the city before the end of the year. What I found as a guest of Visit Portugal was a city that captivated me with its artistic nature. From the gigantic battle of design and ego that was waged over Porto’s two most famous bridges to Harry Potter’s birthplace, what’s uniform in Porto is an attention to unique.

The best way to show you Porto is to look at what the city has inspired, slowly working your way back to Portugal’s second largest city.

A Tale Of Two Cities

Somewhere around 300 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement of Cale – named after Greek for “beautiful” or Latin for “warm”; either way renaming it Portus Cale. Say that 5 times fast and you can see how the name Portugal likely came about. Porto is now known as a city of bridges, one of two in Europe to have 6; all of which cross the Douro River. The other city in Europe with 6 bridges is Vila Nova de Gaia (Gaia for short) – and it happens to sit across the Douro. Yes, Porto is right next to Gaia, taking up the limelight and making up two of the 12 cities in the Porto Metropolitan Area.

For travelers, the differences aren’t obvious and if you didn’t know better, would be convinced you haven’t left town, even after walking across Luis I Bridge.

Sound And Sight In A Little Big Fight

One of the most obvious displays of deliberate creativity in Porto is the Casa da Musica (House Of Music). The Casa da Musica is at its core a music hall; but it’s surrounded by individual rooms focused on different aspects of sound, art exhibitions, band practices, reading rooms, and things that vaguely have something to do with the giant concert hall in its core.

The Casa da Musica is free to enter, deliberately to signify that money isn’t a part of the creative process. (Although it helps to have wealthy investors.) The building itself was designed by the Dutchman Rem Koolhaas who wanted it to look like meteor crashing into the pavement. Cost and physics prevented him from making the exterior more elaborate and he almost had a fit when told his bar overlooking the concert hall required support beams. That, and the fact that the porous floor needed to be covered by glass because women in heels found it nearly impossible to walk across – and men below were enjoying more than a view of the concert hall.

Smaller battles were waged however in the VIP room, which is decorated with thousands of hand painted tiles, representing scenes from other museums across Portugal. Not one to be told what to do, the artist slipped in his signature hidden in grass, quickly noticed by museum’s staff. It would take another 7 years and an 8-year old to find the other mark of the artist – a tile that’s 90 degrees in the wrong direction in surprisingly plain sight.

I picked up these and many other stories on a tour of the building. 3 Euro and interesting enough that I didn’t notice it was an hour long; I would highly recommend it.

You’ll get a preview of those tiles, known as “azulejo” and all over the city or if you arrive by train to the Sao Bento station. There are over 20,000 hand painted tiles throughout the station painted by Jorge Colaco in the early 1900s.

Where Harry Potter Was Born

The Livraria Lello is over a hundred years old and consistently voted as one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores. What makes it enchanting these days for thousands of tourists is it might be where Harry Potter was conceived. Not literally (you’ll have to ask his parents for that information) but it’s widely rumored to be where J.K. Rowling first came up with the series’s overall concept.

Rowling has never actually discussed details about her inspiration but was teaching English in Porto when her marriage to a Portuguese man failed in 1993. Prior, in 1990 the idea of a boy attending wizard-school came to her and the depression that followed her divorce fueled many of the darker tones of the Potter series (including the dementors). Rowling completed the first Harry Potter manuscript in 1995; spending two years of her free time in Livraria Lello.

Controversial – especially for Potter fanatics who know about Edinburgh’s The Elephant House – so you let your imagination decide (*cough* Hogwarts).

By the way, the Livraria Lello is still a private shop and photos (you can see mine here) haven’t been allowed for the past 6 months since the owner found it difficult to maintain business with the influx of curious tourists. I was given special access thanks to ATTTurismo so don’t think I broke any rules. This time.

The Blood Of The Heart Is Made Of Port Wine

Although I’m very familiar with wine in a bottle (and glass), it was kind of Porto Calem to teach me where their ideas for every blend come from and the work that goes into turning grapes into goodness. A 20 minute tour of their cellars ends with tastes of their selections. 4 or 5 glasses and I’m out the door, my thirst quenched; followed by a francesinha to kill any lingering hunger.

Though despite this taste, there’s more much more of Porto to be found. Some of it you can see, others you taste, but I think the reason so many of you voted it the best city to visit is for everything that’s much less tangible.

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Enter To Win A Nook Tablet With Every $10 Donation To Passports With A Purpose

Anil P. — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:00:05 +0000

For the past 2 years I’ve participated in the Passports With A Purpose (PwP) program; an annual travel blogger coordinated fundraiser whose objective is to raise $80,000 this year to build two libraries in Zambia. The PwP raises money $10 at a time – for each $10 donation you make, you can enter yourself for one of these wonderfully donated prizes.

Working With Room To Read

This year PwP is working with Room To Read, an organization that has built over 12,500 libraries and worked with over 6 million children since its founding in 1998. Neuroscientists regularly refer to reading as the most complex task our brains ever learn, getting parts of the brain to work in ways no other method can. [*] Putting more libraries where they’re needed and providing access to them unlocks the potential of the universe’s most powerful computer.

Every $10 donation is US-tax deductible and if you enter before December 16th, you can pick the prize of your choosing. You can donate here.

This year I’m offering up a Nook Tablet, one of my favorite new gadgets on the market. And yes, they don’t ship outside of the US so I’ll mail you one wherever you are in the world.

Why The Nook Tablet?

Aside from the ironic fact that it’s an eReader, it’s also the most versatile 7-inch tablet designed for ebooks. The Nook Tablet is a personal favorite of mine; and an eReader can lighten your backpack by letting you carry around a 400 gram library on your shoulder. Plus it’s wife-capable, letting you browse the Internet, and plays games as well. (Angry Birds on a long layover anyone?)

Details, Deadlines, And Donate!

Remember, for every $10 donation you get one chance to win any of these prizes of your choosing. They include 9-day tours to Costa Rica, a 1-year Boingo Global Account, and even a Kindle Fire if that’s more your fancy.

Donations can be made anytime but if you to enter for a prize your deadline is December 16, 2011.
Prize winners will be notified on Friday, December 23rd and prize delivered within 7 business days if you’re in the US. Those of you in other countries will receive your prize within 17 business days (the added time since I’ll need someone to forward it to your address).
Prize is void if we don’t communicate by January 31, 2012.

In 2009 PwP raised $30,000 to build a school in Cambodia and last year $64,000 to help build a village in India. To be a part of this year’s effort and enter to win a Nook Tablet, or one of the other prizes, donate here.

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Discovering The Hidden Europe With Author Francis Tapon

Anil P. — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 06:00:34 +0000

Francis Tapon is the first person to do a round-trip hike on the Continental Divide Trail and has backpacked over 20,000 kilometers since he made a life-altering decision after earning his MBA from Harvard Business School. Recently Francis spent 3 years visiting Eastern Europe’s 25 nations and has released the ebook version of his upcoming hardcover, The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europe Can Teach Us. Francis was kind enough to send me a copy and I’m glad he did.

Eastern Europe has something of a travel-image problem and often is seen as bland or a gray spot on the map. You may be wondering if a travel book about Eastern Europe could be interesting beyond a superficial level – and I was skeptical too – as it turns out, The Hidden Europe is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time. Beyond interesting, the book is ultimately about a journey, one with a very specific purpose, to learn why engineers are the Lady Gaga of Hungary and what we can learn from the least serious Muslims in Europe. (And no, he’s not talking about Turkey.)

Francis is able to weave humor, history, and himself in such a way throughout the pages that you don’t realize just how much information you’re absorbing. Over each of the 25 chapters you feel as though you’re getting to know individual Eastern European countries (with some you might not expect, like Finland) as personal friends.

The Hidden Europe is extremely detailed, incredibly well-researched, and in no way a “things to see in Bulgaria” type book. Francis works from various angles, through the nerdiest country – take a guess – and details the lessons we can all learn from their tax structure, for instance. The facts inside The Hidden Europe aren’t of the “oh, that’s interesting” type but more of the “wow, I had completely no idea” variety, over and over again. And the experience doesn’t stop there, Eastern Europe’s influence goes well beyond its borders. The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europe Can Teach Us can help you learn some of its finest lessons.

The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europe Can Teach Us ebook is $7.99 and available now. The hardcover will be released on December 12, 2011 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. (Francis Tapon will also be donating 15% of the royalties to 3 non-profit organizations outlined in the book, including Wikimedia Foundation and Kiva.org.) I can’t recommend this travel book enough, it’s a wonderful read.

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History For The Pages At Bibliotheca Alexandrina In Egypt

Anil P. — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:00:21 +0000

I’m not sure why Alexandria, Egypt has such a generally understated reputation among Egyptians and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library of Alexandria) is often the center of that blase attitude. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is much more than a mere book storage facility, it is a large cultural center that holds more than 1 million books, a planetarium, and 4 museums – just to name a few of its features. Of those, one not to miss is the Manuscripts Museum located on the lower floor. (I was incredibly fortunate to get a grand tour of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina from several of my readers who met up with me in Alexandria, one of whom happens to work there.) The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is the most popular site for tourists to visit in the city and a modern monument to the Ancient Library of Alexandria; the largest in the world until 30BC.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is actually built partially on the site of the Ancient Library of Alexandria, remnants of which were found in 2004. The center of some Roman drama near the height of that empire’s expansion, it has been suggested that much of the ancient library was destroyed by a fire Julius Caesar set during the Alexandrian War – devastating Cleopatra. Mark Antony, being the romantic he was, presented Cleopatra with thousands of books to replace those lost in the fire. When she asked him where they came from, I wonder if he mentioned it was from stealing the collection of the world’s second biggest library at the time (Pergamon) in modern day Turkey, or if its just the thought that counts.

The entire Bibliotheca Alexandrina complex is distinctly Scandinavian in design, with rounded walls and plentiful open spaces revealing its Norwegian creators. It can be easy to get dissuaded from visiting Alexandria when you hear the common line that the library is the only thing worth seeing in town. The term “library” deceptively hides the extent of how much incredible cultural wealth there is in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and how visually engaging its design is. Aside from its impressive 11 levels of physical space, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina also acts as the only backup of the Internet Archive – which contains collection of all the websites ever created.

You can see more of pictures from Alexandria and reasons to visit in my photo album here.

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5 People Who Purchase My eBook In March Will Receive A $100 Apple Gift Card

Anil P. — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 06:00:34 +0000

When I first was coming up with the idea of The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers, early on I knew I wanted it to be an ebook that gives back. Both with updates, my promise of 6 months free tech support, and the occasional gift for you readers. To keep the The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers a unique and alive ebook, this month, 5 random people who purchase it will receive a $100 gift card to the Apple.com online store.

How To Get Your $100 Apple Gift Card

All you have to do is pick up a copy from this link, the buttons directly below, or from any of my affiliates. So, along with 6 months of free tech personal tech support, information on extending your wireless range, plus more – you may end up with $100 to spend toward a new iPad 2. I’ll take all of the sales at the end of March, then run them through a program that will randomly select 5 people.

Keep in mind that if you purchase directly from the Kindle store or Barnes & Noble, you won’t qualify. You need to go here so I can make sure I don’t lose track of your purchase.

I’ll Be In Bulgaria Next Week

It’s been a turbulent past few weeks for me, putting my travel plans in a bit of flux lately. My only firm plan is that I’ll be in Sofia, Bulgaria next week to talk blogging at the Trends & Innovation Travel Summit. Also, hopefully I’ll get to meet Story Musgrave, a US astronaut who has spent over 1,200 hours in space. After the conference I’ve set aside some time to see more of Bulgaria, which will be my first trip there. Following that, anything is possible but I plan on sticking around the Middle East through sometime in May.

foXnoMad, Now In Jumbo And Mini-Versions

Many of you have probably noticed the slight design changes I’ve been making over the last 2 weeks or so, including larger photos within my posts and wide-screen pictures for single images. On the opposite end of the size-spectrum, there is now a mobile version of foXnoMad; making browsing from smart phones quicker and easier on your thumbs. In the near future I have further plans widen the scope of my writing and get a bit more personal throughout as well.

$100 Gift Card Or Save $100 Over The Next Year; Plus Your Personal Computer Consultant (aka. Me)

This won’t be my last surprise with The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers, so new and existing owners will have more chances to get back from the ebook that gives you ways to call landlines for free. Nowhere else can you also get the personal tech support of a professional hacker with my expertise – for 6 months – at a one time cost of $37.

Knowing your data is safely backed up when your laptop decides to bungy jump off a coffee table in Paris is well worth it.

Happy hacking…and travels,
-Anil

[photos by: yuankuei (plane taking off)]

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Change Your Travels Forever With The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers eBook

Anil P. — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 06:00:39 +0000

Let me teach you how to turn your laptop into the most powerful tool in your backpack and save hundreds of dollars in software and technology; while also providing you with your own personal computer engineer for your travels with The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers.

foXnoMad has always had a tech-edge and I want to give you a powerful guide to show you how become a tech-savvy traveling digital nomad to do all sorts of things with your laptop you never knew possible.

The Only Tech Guide That Comes With Your Own Personal Guide

In addition to saving you a minimum of $100 over the next year on gadgets, teaching you how to setup a complete offline backup system, providing you with ways to recover stolen laptops and more, you’ll also get 6 months of personal tech support from me. While I always provide advice for free to my readers, this goes another level and includes specific step-by-step guidance and prompt email support for every topic covered in The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers.

What’s In The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers?

These are just a few of the topics covered in The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers:

Learn how to never pay full price for laptops again.
Information on how to backup your data, travel photos, and files of any size to multiple locations without carrying heavy external drives.
Over 120 hours of free language lessons.
How to find and access wireless in more places than you can imagine.
Tactics to protect your online accounts along with tools to booby trap your laptop from thieves.
Turn the airlines’ tricks against them and save on ticket purchases.

6 Months Of Free Tech Support And A Year Of Updates

Purchasing The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers doesn’t get you an ebook that’s static throughout time, but access to a living guide that grows and expands with your suggestions, questions, and along with the pace of technology itself.

The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers is your ebook and you determine where it goes.

In addition to my personal support for everything discussed within the ebook, you’ll also get 1 year of free updates – and I plan on updating often – based on your feedback.

Special Bonuses With Your Purchase

There are few places you can get an ebook as useful as The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers and personal tech support for only $37. Along with the 6 months of personal support and year of free updates you’ll also learn how to:

Save 30% on Apple purchases.
Never pay for software again.
Call mobile and landlines for free when traveling abroad – without a phone.
Keep your digital photos safe and backed up, in multiple locations, without lifting a finger after the initial setup.

How To Purchase The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers

You can get you copy of my eBook, The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers for $37 by clicking the ‘buy now’ button below. (If you don’t have a Paypal account use the Google Checkout link.)

The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers is also available from Amazon.com in Kindle version as well as Barnes & Noble in Nook format.

Let This Be Our Guide

Before I was blogging my way around the world I was a full-time computer security consultant making and breaking systems for some of the biggest companies in the world. The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers is a blend of the best ways to use technology to make your travels easier and to save you money.

The copy you purchase is only the beginning, for $37 you’re getting an ebook with hacking secrets you didn’t know about, personal technical support for 6 months, and an ebook that will grow and expand on your terms.

I wouldn’t sell an ebook for any price, let alone $37, if I wasn’t sure it will be invaluable to you. Whether you’re headed on a 8 month RTW trip or simply want to make sure you never lose a digital picture again, The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers will save you money, time, and heartache so you can focus on traveling.

Happy hacking,
-Anil

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A Review Of The Pre-Travel Guide eBook: Preparing For An RTW

Anil P. — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 06:00:39 +0000

Nathan Schacherer and Sofia von Porat, who blog at As We Travel, recently released a round-the-world (RTW) trip planning eBook. Titled the Pre-Travel Guide, the couple sent me a copy to review. It aims to be a comprehensive handbook to helping you avoid many of the mistakes many long-term travelers make when starting out on their extended journeys.

Planning a trip of two weeks can be a daunting task for some folks and even if it isn’t, the preparations required for a much longer RTW trip (of months and months) can easily present challenges. A series of shorter trips doesn’t do a good job of preparing you for travels to multiple countries on the same leg within a year. That’s the reason Sofia and Nathan put together the Pre-Travel Guide; it’s based on their 8-month RTW trip across much of the planet and aims to steer you clear of the mistakes and scams they came across.

Breaking Down The Specifics

The eBook starts off slowly with a general introduction to travel and some pages dedicated to motivating you to take an RTW. Where the eBook shines however is in the specific information it begins to trickle from the first chapter on. Particulars like breakdowns of expected costs in various regions of the world are extremely useful for long-term travel planning since budget is arguably the biggest planning obstacle.

The eBook is reminiscent of Nomadic Matt’s Secrets To Successful World Travel (my review) but written at a faster pace. Throughout the Pre-Travel Guide’s elegantly designed pages are useful links to booking engines, planning tools, and online travel contacts. (Click-able hyperlinks within the text would be a great improvement however.) It’s this type of information I wish the Pre-Travel Guide focused more on. The Pre-Travel Guide tries to cover so much that at times it loses its focus on the nitty-gritty details that can really help you organize a complex trip.

Reflections On The Pre-Travel Guide

There is a lot of good information in the Pre-Travel Guide but you’ll have to dig a bit for it. One thing the Pre-Travel Guide can show you though is all of the stuff you haven’t considered planning for and maybe should. Within its 103 pages you’ll come across more ways (other than hostels) to find cheap accommodations, keep your body fit, and obtain the trickier tourist visas out there. The Pre-Travel Guide is available to download for $9.99; you can also keep up with Nathan and Sofia on their travel blog, As We Travel.

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Learn How To Bring New Life To Your Travel Memories With Globejotting By Dave Fox

Anil P. — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:00:11 +0000

Author Dave Fox, the founder of Globejotter Tours, whom I interviewed back in April recently sent me a copy of his latest book Globejotting: How To Write Extraordinary Travel Journals. A book that will resonate with travelers, writers, and bloggers, Globejotting is an entertaining and overall fantastic read. I’ll send my copy to the first person to leave a comment asking for it on this post.

Also, if you’d like to join Dave on his next tour to Vietnam this October and happen to mention you heard about it from foXnoMad, you’ll receive a $300 discount.

Most people would probably cringe at the idea of reading a book about travel journaling, let alone maintain a travel journal themselves. Writing when you’re on “vacation” seems a waste of time, especially when you think a digital camera can do what a journal can in half the time. Dave Fox does a wonderful job to show you the depth that even a few words can bring years after a trip and how to record them effectively in short bursts. Dave teaches a number of techniques, like speed journaling, that will allow you to record your thoughts in minutes for later reconstruction.

Learning Through Example

What really makes Globejotting shine are the numerous examples throughout the book of Dave’s own private travel journals. Born from small instances while traveling and kept alive in a few scribbled words, these are the types of reminisces that a digital photo couldn’t provide. Dave argues a travel journal can help propel your inner journey, even when you’ve physically stopped traveling.

Avoiding The Typical Pitfalls

Dave’s writing is humorous and cuts right to the heart of why many people never write about their travels or buy a travel journal only to abandon it after a few sentences. Bland writing (“the Eiffel Tower was amazing”), stressing out to write a masterpiece with each entry, or fears that someone else may read what you’ve written (“found on your corpse after a horrible plane crash, what will your family think!”) may hold you back but Dave covers those deterrents and more. You’ll find Globejotting a surprisingly entertaining read, available on Amazon for around $10.

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Interview With Dave Fox About Globejotter Tours, Combining Writing And Travel – [Part 1 of 2]

Anil P. — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:00:41 +0000

Dave Fox is the founder of Globejotter Tours, and the author of Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad and Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (and still have time to enjoy your trip!) He lives in Seattle, Washington. Dave took a few minutes to answer a some questions about Globejotter’s tours which incorporate writing into each trip. Once you’re finished reading Part 1 here you can follow up with Part 2 on my other website, Travel Blog Advice.

Also, if you’d like to join Dave on his next tour to Vietnam and happen to mention you heard about it from foXnoMad or Travel Blog Advice, you’ll receive a $200 discount.

What is the idea behind Globejotter Tours?

We’re different from other tour companies in that all of our tours include a series of journaling and travel writing classes along the way. We explore foreign cultures and learn to write about our travels as we go. Some of the people on our trips are journaling for themselves, and want to learn how to write more lively and meaningful travel diaries. Others want to write more polished travel tales they can share on blogs or publish in books or magazines.

Our emphasis is always on the journey – getting out and exploring, absorbing as much of the local culture as possible. We’re careful to not let the writing classes overshadow the overall travel experience. If you spend too much time writing during your trip, you miss out on other experiences, so I teach people how to journal more efficiently, and I teach techniques that enhance not only their writing, but their overall travels, by helping them be more aware of their surroundings.

Our groups are small compared to most tour companies – never more than 12 participants on a trip. The main reason for that is to maintain high-quality writing lessons, but this comes with the added bonus that we can be spontaneous and find cultural experiences you won’t have in a larger group. On our recent Botswana writing safari, for example, we stopped at a village that had never been visited by tourists before. An elderly chief invited us to sit down with him under a tree. He told us all about his life and how the tribe’s lifestyle is changing due to environmental issues. It was a fascinating chat, and it was completely unplanned. We could never do that sort of thing with a big busload of tourists.

On our Vietnam tours, we include a fair amount of free time. You need that in order to get out and find your own unique stories. We hit some sightseeing highlights as a group and get people oriented in each place to help them feel comfortable wandering on their own. Then, we give them time to go discover their own travel tales. It makes for fun conversations when we get back together for writing sessions or group meals.

What style of writing do you focus on?

Travel storytelling. Every tour begins with a crash course in how to write a great travel journal, and how to collect the details in that journal that you need to create exciting travel tales. From there, we move on to crafting a compelling story.

To some extent, it’s up to each person what sort of writing they want to work on. We get people with a wide range of skill levels, from beginning journalers to experienced freelancers. I schedule one-on-one time with each of them, both during the trip and afterward (via e-mail, phone, or Skype), to help them focus on their individual writing goals. If people are journaling for themselves, we work with techniques they can use not only on the journey in progress but in future travels as well. If they want to get published, I help them fine-tune their stories and we talk about the professional side of travel writing. If anyone wants to work with a different genre – fiction or travel journalism, for example – they’re welcome to. We don’t cover those things in the classes, but I’m happy to help them during our one-on-one time.

How are the tours organized and kept entertaining?

Our primary focus is always on diving as deep as we can into the cultures we visit. In each new place, we start out with an orientation walk, some sightseeing highlights, and usually a group meal at a fun, local restaurant. From there, it varies from tour to tour.

On our upcoming Vietnam trip, we’ll take motorboats out to floating markets in the Mekong River. We’ll have a morning to run around in some sand dunes, and maybe organize an evening bike ride to a local fishing village. We’re also going to have a half-day cooking school. We’ll tour a village market with a local chef to learn how to shop for the freshest ingredients. Then we’ll head back to a special kitchen where everyone will cook their own lunch.

The African safaris are a little different. We can’t offer as much free time for safety reasons. We don’t want anyone to get trampled by wildebeest or munched on by lions. So we’re together as a group more, but we have some fantastic local game experts who take us on game drives. On our recent Botswana trip, we also met a group of Kalahari Bushmen. They showed us how they survive out in the desert and taught us some of their games. And we taught them how to play Frisbee. The Frisbee game happened almost by accident. We were having a lot of fun learning a spear-throwing game that they play and I wanted to offer something in return. I suddenly remembered I had a Frisbee in my backpack. The cool thing about it was that their lives were as different from ours as anyone’s could be, but we connected in spite of the cultural differences and language barriers.

Then, there are the writing classes. We have a class roughly once every two days. Whenever possible, we have the classes someplace fun so people don’t feel cooped up inside. In Vietnam, we’ll have a class as we cruise down the Mekong River on a private boat, and another on the beach along the South China Sea.

These really are trips for independent-minded travelers – the sort of traveler who might not normally take a tour. Anyone who needs their hand held 24 hours a day, or can’t carry their own bag, or needs a chocolate on their pillow at night, probably won’t like what we do. The group dynamic is important. We encourage people to be laid back and spontaneous, and we have more fun together that way.

You can catch up a bit more with Dave and learn where the tours go, some misconceptions about travel writing, and his advice for travel bloggers in Part 2 on Travel Blog Advice. Thanks Dave!

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How To Bargain Like A Ferengi And Get A Good Deal Anywhere On Earth

Anil P. — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:00:18 +0000

The Ferengi are the Star Trek universe’s greedy, mischievous, and crafty aliens whose entire culture is based on accumulating wealth. They are so dedicated to money that their holy book, “The Rules Of Acquisition” are a set of guidelines by which to conduct business. While the Ferengi world may be fictional, their rules can help you bargain your way in and out of most markets anywhere on Earth.

Rule # 214 – “Never Begin A Negotiation On An Empty Stomach”

Bargaining takes time and if you’re in a rush you won’t get the price you want and likely get frustrated in the process. Don’t start bargaining when you’re hungry, hurrying to make that tour bus, or when you’re bladder is telling you otherwise. Limited time means you’ve got less wiggle room to get that price down to what’s fair.

Rule # 7 – “Keep Your Ears Open”

You’ll stand a better chance of bargaining your way to a good price if you listen carefully to the person you’re negotiating with. You’ll notice when bargaining for anything, the seller is usually adept at picking up clues about their potential customers (Rule # 194 by the way – it’s always good to know about new customers before they walk in the door). Do the same, ask questions and have a conversation – and make sure to keep in mind all of the prices you’re quoted too.

Rule #3 – Never Spend More On An Acquisition That You Have To

People who aren’t comfortable bargaining often feel “bad” about asking for a lower price. During any negotiation in a shop, the prices are already inflated and the shopkeeper has a number in mind (Rule # 98 – “every man has his price”); a hard and soft point. The soft point is where you’ll get with a bit of negotiating, often the big initial drop in price. The hard point takes longer (recall Rule # 214 above) and is the lowest price the owner is really willing to accept.

Rule #74 – Knowledge Equals Profit

In addition to keeping your ears open (Rule # 7) you should keep your eyes open too. Shop around to get a feel for the local prices of an item or similar things you may want to buy (like shoes for example). Get a good number in your head and research how bargaining works in a particular area so you know both how to negotiate on local terms and what prices to begin with. For example, in Morocco your initial price should generally start with 1/4 of the quoted price.

Rule #16 – A Deal Is A Deal

An unofficial Ferengi rule is to “always inspect the merchandise before making a deal.” Then, once you agree to a price, that’s the end of negotiations, a rule that hopefully the person you’re dealing with will follow as well. After both sides agree (and don’t agree if you feel ripped off!) and are happy with the final price, relax. Assuming nothing extremely out of the ordinary happens, a deal is a deal. Bargaining isn’t a competition and more important than the best price is that you leave feeling good about the transaction.

Be Savvy And Enjoy The Process

Negotiating is a process you can learn to love. Bargaining is like a game and an integral part of many cultures here on Earth. The process is about forging relationships – locally it’s how shopkeepers can earn repeat business – and for you it can be a good way to learn about an individual in the society you’re visiting. You’ll most always be asked an initial price or what you think is fair for something, so have a number in mind. The lower the better (it can’t hurt if in doubt) and be sure to engage the person.

It’s what the Ferengi would do – well, they’d also do a lot of unethical and illegal things – but if you stick to these select Rules Or Acquisition you should be able to bargain like an intergalactic pro even if you don’t know the local language.

[photos by: karenchu121 (drinks with Ferengi), Socwind (empty table), dotbenjamin (string telephone), benjuni (bargaining), Gerwin Filius (dollar bill), Litandmore (handshake)]

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