foXnoMad » Polls

My Ears Are Wide Open – How Would You Improve foXnoMad?

Anil P. — Fri, 13 May 2011 06:00:16 +0000

Its’ been a while since I solicited your suggestions, advice, and critique, although I’m incredibly lucky to get your feedback in my inbox regularly. I get many creative suggestions from those who make this site what it is and my travels possible – aka. all of you who read and support foXnoMad.

What would you like to see more of on foXnoMad?

As my newsletter subscribers heard recently, I’ve got a number of new features and programs I’ll cooking up in the foXnoMad labs over the summer. Before the kitchen gets hot though, I would really like to know what you’d prefer to see more of. And less.

I’m open to all kinds of suggestions – from more photos or contests, to other creative ones that don’t exist yet because your neurons haven’t fired up the ideas yet. Feel free to leave your ideas on the comments below or alternatively on my Facebook page. Changes are around the corner as the 5th anniversary of foXnoMad approaches – and I can’t think of a better person to help shape them – you!

[photos by: Chris & Lara Pawluk (two fox kits)]

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The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: Elite 8

Anil P. — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:00:11 +0000

There were a few close races last week as the poll numbers jumped around quite a bit. Lubeck gave one heck of a fight before bowing out to tournament favorite Istanbul; while again Florence and Rio quietly advanced to the the round of 8. You may have noticed the figures changed quite a bit at the end, that was because I had to remove a number of invalid votes (aka. cheaters). For the rest of the tournament you’ll have to register to vote.

You MUST first register here to vote. (I’ll delete all registrations after the competition.) We’ve got Europe, southeast Asia, South America, and the Middle East making this a well-rounded Elite 8. You have until this Sunday, March 27th at 12:00pm US EST to decide which 4 cities will remain. (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through to this page to vote.)

You can view the entire tournament bracket in full size or click the image to view in wide-screen.

Good luck to all of the cities still left, getting this far has been no easy accomplishment! The Final Four and Championship will both be next week, kicking off on Tuesday, March 29th.

Don’t worry if you missed this contest, I run several throughout the year. You can be the first to find out about the next one by signing up for my email updates, RSS feed, or bi-monthly newsletter.

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The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: Sweet 16

Anil P. — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:00:57 +0000

There were a blend of close finishes and strong victories in the second round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011 that have left quite a few underdogs in the Sweet 16. This week we get our second battle of Italy in Bellagio vs. Florence, watch little Lubeck take on Istanbul, and wonder if Prague will maintain its dominance in this round.

There are now only 16 cities left and we’re two weeks from the Final Four. Decide who advances and which cities will be out by voting below before next Monday, March 21 at 09:00am US EST. There is $200 on the line – who will win it? (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through to this page to vote.)

You can view the entire tournament bracket in full size or click the image to view in wide-screen.

A few of you have asked so just for the record, the cities with the higher seeds from the preliminary round are always listed first (e.g. Cuzco vs. Chiang Mai). Leave your votes and next week this competitive group of cities will be narrowed down to only 8.

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The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: Second Round

Anil P. — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:00:02 +0000

The first round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011 was a voting frenzy, with generally tight competition in close races like Stockholm over Cairo and Bratislava edging out Valletta. Of all the races, I’d say Bellagio eliminating Tel Aviv was probably the biggest upset, although I’m not sure many would have foreseen Lubeck putting Washington DC out of the running. There was a single tie at the end of round one, and being the tie breaker, Vilnius squeaks into the second round just ahead of Mexico City.

Will it be Stockholm or Kyoto, Istanbul or Chicago, Barcelona or Amsterdam to make it to the Sweet 16 in The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament? Vote below before next Monday March 14th, 09:00am US EST and help choose who moves closer to the $150 prize. (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through to this page to vote.)

You can view the entire tournament bracket in full size or click the image to view in wide-screen.

Vote for your favorite cities to travel to and next Tuesday, March 15th we’ll have a sweet 16 left on the road to the best city to visit in 2011.

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The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: First Round

Anil P. — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 06:00:06 +0000

The preliminary round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011 ended yesterday and your votes helped to rank these 64 cities from number 1 all the way down. Those ranks are what I used to determine the match ups for this first round – and there are some intriguing ones to vote for down below. There’s the battle of the Canadas (Montreal versus Toronto), Olympics past and present (London vs. Beijing), and last year’s champ Zermatt up against New Orleans.

Cast your votes below before Monday, March 7th at 9am US EST – today there are 64 cities but once all is said and done in 3 days, there will be only 32. Your votes decide who moves on – good luck to all of the cities and contestants! (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through to this page to vote.)

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You can view the entire tournament bracket in full size or click the image to view in wide-screen.

I will act as the tie-breaker in the event that any two cities end up with the same number of votes in this round. The second round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011 will continue next Tuesday, March 8th.

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The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: Preliminary Round Voting

Anil P. — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:00:00 +0000

The field of contestants for this year’s The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament has been rounded out to 64 cities nominated by you! This first vote will help sort out the cities and determine the match-ups for the first round robin vote this Friday, March 4th.

You can vote for your favorite 5 cities below; voting ends this Thursday at 9am US EST. Those of you reading through email and RSS will have to click-through to this page to vote.

In theory, the cities with the most votes in this round of voting should have an easier path to the final. Based on last year’s preliminary round, the cities with the most votes to start generally did advance farther overall. You can vote once, selecting 5 of your favorite cities.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This Friday these 64 cities will be paired in head-to-head match ups for the first round of elimination on the road to $150 for the winner.

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Would Traveling Be Quite As Fun Without Borders? [RESPONSES]

Anil P. — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 06:00:16 +0000

Passport stamps are fun and borders quite a rush, but many of you could do without the hassle of travel visas. When I asked last month if traveling would be less fun without borders, it turns out much of it depends on the ease of the crossing.

Whether it’s the cost of time to go through border control or the pressure of extortion, many of you would probably have more fun counting places without an involved process.

Turkey’s For Life: “I quite like them on a superficial level. In an ideal world, everyone would be free to come and go as they please. No borders, visas…we’re allowed to dream.”

Linguist In Waiting: “I actually would prefer that there would be no borders. I know why they exist, and I also know that if the borders were to disappear, we’d see a big wave of migration, since living conditions in our planet are not the same everywhere. But as a Filipino citizen, my passport doesn’t allow easy travel and most of the time, I need a visa to go to places. That is just a hassle. Why do I have to pay $85 for a Schengen visa when an American citizen doesn’t need it?”

Ayngelina: “When my passport was stole in Vietnam the one thing I missed the most was the big communist visa sticker. Sigh, I guess I’ll just have to go back!”

Kirstin: “One of my biggest travel dreams is visiting Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan, and as an American, I would sure love it if there weren’t any sketchy Uzbek border guards (and hefty bribes) preventing me from my dream!”

Priyank: “I do secretly enjoy looking at my colorful passport with all the visas in it. The fact that I cannot go anywhere on a whim (having an Indian passport) makes things challenging, which I don’t mind because then it feels like I have worked hard for the holiday.”

Gourmantic: “It’s not only great to see the proof and collect these stamps, but they serve as a memory jogger of the dates we traveled to certain countries.”

Phil: “Interesting question, but one that I realize I do not need to spend much time thinking about…Most of my traveling is in Africa where borders are a nightmare.”

Barbara Weibel: “Although it’s nice to get that new stamp in my passport, I don’t think the lack of borders would make the least dent in the fun of traveling. For me it’s all about the people I meet, and culture varies widely, even within a single country. In some places, I only need cross a street to enter a new world; for me that’s the fun of travel.”

There are some other benefits of official boundaries, like cheesy pictures as Annie points out, and many wonderful stories from border crossings around the world in the comments of that previous post. The stories from some experienced travelers like Akila, Justin Morris, Fabio, and JoAnne, might have you changing your border tune – or at least seeing it in a new light.

[photos by: Xaiozhuli (Brazil Uruguay border crossing), the queen of subtle (passport stamps), DTrigger05 (Main Street panorama)]

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Would Traveling Be Quite As Fun Without Borders?

Anil P. — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 06:00:57 +0000

One of the joys many travelers delight in after arriving in a new country is seeing a fresh stamp in their passport. That common souvenir is a rare metric in terms of travel, so imagine they disappeared due to vanishing borders around the globe.

Say for a moment all of the borders around the world disappeared – would traveling for you be quite as fun?

Personally I don’t think it would take the fun out of traveling and with the lack of borders we’d find something else to count, even just for the sake of counting. I’m guessing that for many people who enjoy traveling, borders are a small guilty pleasure and I’m interested to hear your thoughts. I appreciate your comments and will share some of them in an upcoming post early in the new year.

[photo by: Chris Koerner (international border)]

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What Would You Recommend An Alien See Or Do With Only 48 Hours On Earth? [RESPONSES]

Anil P. — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 06:00:58 +0000

Aliens arriving on Earth would have a wide variety of travel plans waiting for them depending on which one of your houses they happened upon. A few common themes seemed to be beaches, Thailand, and family, in the difficult process of introducing humanity within 48 hours. As abstract as the question may be, it could also be easily applied to people who’ve never traveled or wanted to, bringing this discussion back down to Earth.

Amy: “A few days in Bangkok for good street food and shopping then we will head south for R&R by the beach. After that, we will hop on the plane to the north for some mountain scene in Chiang Mai.”

Mark H: “See a sunrise over a sun-drenched beach eating a tropical fruit breakfast, walk through a park or forest to see the trees (hopefully some mountain scenery to see in the distance) and feel the grass between their toes, walk the main street of a large historic city to get some sense of our changes through the ages. On the other day, I’d get them to experience a “normal” day in the life of someone (but should that person be a farmer, office worker, teacher or what?) – to see what modern life is on Earth.”

Sabine: “I would simply invite them to stay at my house [in Hamburg, Germany] for the 48h. They could join me by “living my life”: going to work, going out with friends, visiting my family, doing exercises etc.”

Sherry Ott: “I think I would have them go visit my parents in the plains of South Dakota…that may scare them away!”

Alina Popescu: “Well, take them for a quick tour and meal in Bucharest, then fly them over to Istanbul. One hour flight to get a glimpse of two continents and catch a Mediterranean sunset.”

Jaime D.: “I would take them back to where is ALL started Roswell.”

Ali: “I would take them to see Australia. Beautiful white sand beaches! And maybe a quick trip to Thailand. I love the food!”

Gourmantic: “I would do a series of mind melds with them to swap travel experiences. This way, they’d see what I’ve seen and I’d get their interpretation of it.”

There are more comments still on where to take our alien friends and the variety of ideas are an insight into humanity in and of itself. Personally, I’d take them for a few hours to several cities and rural spots on each inhabited continent to meet and see mothers with their children. This, I believe would show them our (human) differences but the overwhelming similarities we share – and often neglect ourselves. I also think a trip to the Amazon rain forest would be appropriate; again to demonstrate our planets immense strengths and at the same time our weaknesses as well.

[photo by: liber (alien smoking pipe), Adri_Gz (South Dakota plains)]

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What Would You Recommend An Alien See Or Do With Only 48 Hours On Earth?

Anil P. — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 06:00:44 +0000

Supposing little green (or gray) aliens decided to come to your house – not to abduct you – but to find out what to do on during their Earth vacation. It turns out their intergalactic boss only gave them 48 hours of leave on their way to star Wolf 359. They’ve got access to transporters and distance isn’t an issue, they can be anywhere they want in minutes and will take you with them.

What would you recommend an alien see or do to get a feel for Earth and humanity within 48 hours?

The Earth is a big place and human beings are complex; not to mention we’re not the only species on the planet. How do you introduce us, collectively, to those who would know nothing about us. Would you go to iconic touristic places like the Taj Mahal or perhaps around New York City? Also don’t forget about the food – our extraterrestrial friends like to eat.

I’d love to hear how you’d conduct your intergalactic tour in such a short time frame – and would appreciate your comments below. I’ll round up some of the most creative and share them with you in a week or two.

[photo by: massdistraction (ET toy)]

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