Budget Trouble

The Spirit of Exploration? What The Heck Is THAT?

I got an email from the Bombay Sapphire Spirit of Exploration blog thingie inviting me to describe what the Spirit of Exploration means to me.

All you travel bloggers out there, you prolly got the same email.

And as dorky as the topic may sound, it did make me think. The easy answers are: getting on a plane to somewhere, trekking the Amazon, or whichever clichés you happen to dream about.

But that’s not exploration - that’s just burning through your hard-earned cash, unless of course, you happen to be independently rich. And if you are independently rich, then why don’t I know you? Say, you wanna fund my next trip?

Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, trekking the Amazon… I did that when I was 8 years old, sitting on a crapper at home.

My family was not loaded, but one thing they never skimped money on was books, ma was an avid reader, and pa… well, the only time he could read in peace was in the bathroom. Hence the stack of books by the pot.

Early on in life, I figured that faking stomach problems would keep me home from school. (What can I say? I hated school.) And the best way to fake stomach problems was to sit in the bathroom. Because sitting in the bathroom gets to be really old after a while, I started to read the books piled high by the toilet. Being only 8, I preferred pictures to text, and that’s how my love affair with the World Atlas had begun.

First, for the sake of reading practice, I learned all the countries and their capitals (at least all the countries that existed in those ancient times, a few of them are gone now, and a whole new bunch popped up, I know…). Then came the mountain ranges, rivers, and other interesting scraps of information.

Then, I moved onto the Illustrated Encyclopedia. I figured out, I could look up all the geographical bits in the fat pretty picture book and further practice my reading skills. I missed a lot of school days due to my chronic stomach problems, but dude, the stuff I learned!

I saw my first tapir. And met some guys from Amazonas. And learned about the rainforest. Took a ferry ride all the way to Manaus and watched piranhas devour a cow. I listened to jungle noises, went hunting with the Brazilian Indians, and decided I wanted to explore Peru next.

It took me a whole year to cover all of South America. Some countries were better described (had nicer pictures) than others. And my very patient ma fed my toilet traveling hobby by buying more travel books. Lots and lots of travel books. The first one I read all by myself was “200 Dias de Mato Grosso” by Tony (Antonio) Halik.

I didn’t understand half of the words in that book, and had to look them up first in a language dictionary, then in a normal dictionary, and finally in an illustrated dictionary to figure out what was going on. It took me a year to finish that book.

But when I was done, I my mind was made up. I wanted to be an explorer, just like Tony Halik, when I grew up.

And I’m still working on it.

That’s my spirit of exploration and I’m sticking to it.

This entry is also on the Spirit of Exploration Blog and now you shall click on THIS LINK and vote for me. Are we clear?

See, I even got a pretty badge for participating? Ain't that sweet?

Charity begins at home

In more ways than one. And that’s a fact.

Every so often, to satisfy my need for feeling superior to other humans, I donate my precious time to a local organization that helps immigrant women. OK, you’re right. That’s a crock of BS. The real reason I do it is that a lady who works there gives killer manicures. And since our town lacks a proper nail salon, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Especially since the lady also does massages and aromatherapy.

So, in exchange for an occasional pampering session, I am responsible for leading refugee and asylum seeking women through the intricacies of western bureaucracy. Which most of the time means, I do my best to guess which boxes on their many forms and applications I should check.

Such services should be provided by the state, but as in other civilized countries, the state does a poor job of providing anything, except mountains of paper to fill out.

Some volunteers teach English (because let’s face it, Swedish is as useless as two tits on a bull, and that’s a fact, too), some provide cultural information (we should take a bath everyday), and some try to convince their charges it’s OK to see a western doctor. It’s all women, by women, for women. Grrrl power at its finest.

My tasks vary. Recently, I taught a chick how to sign her name. I helped another during a visit to the ER. You know, your average do-good volunteer stuff.

Last week I was translating for a quiet woman from Africa. I asked her where she was from. Gabon, she answered. She came to Europe for her children, she said. What was she doing in Gabon? She was a midwife.

I mentioned that I would like to visit her country someday. And visit you should, she answered. The more you know about how people live, the more you can do to help.

After a bit of chatting I found out her brother, who’s a priest, runs a local charity school and would love to have some volunteer help with filling out grant applications, writing quarterly reports, and begging donors for more books and supplies.

So there you have it. You want to volunteer abroad, but can’t afford a program fee with one of the big voluntourism packagers? Get yer lazy ass to a library, ask to help with your local literacy/immigrant/refugee/ group and make friends. It’s one of the many ways to find leads for a DIY voluntour project.

See, your momma was right, charity does begin at home. Helping others will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And who knows, you might even get a manicure out of it.

Shopping and sleeping part 2

When living in more or less civilized countries, I never had to think about the lowly concept of sleeping in airports. There were always hotels around, some with airport pick-up, some without, some expensive, and some cheap. And with a bit of searching, I always managed to find a place for the night.

Even in one of the most expensive (supposedly) countries in the world - Japan, at the Narita Airport Washington Hotel a double room for one night set me back all of US$80. With a pick up at the JR station in Narita and a drop off at my terminal the next morning. And complimentary drinks, alcoholic even! Ha! 80 bucks at last year’s exchange rates, is what? SEK 560, and I’m being really generous here.

CDG, Paris? A slew of cheap options nearby. Heathrow, London? There’s a Travelodge right there under your nose, I mean the ill-fated Terminal 5. And if you’re willing to go a bit further inland, there’s no shortage of affordable places.

Enter Arlanda, Stockholm. Where affordable means a coffin-like room at Rest&Fly and communal showers at the end of the hall. And not just any old room, it’s a “night room” where your stay is calculated by the hour, and where 10 hours will cost you SEK 540. And dude! They have bunk beds!

Rest&Fly proudly proclaims on their webpage that 70,000 happy guests can’t be wrong, R&F is fab. Well, sure it is! It’s the ONLY budget option available.

Every time I attempted to book a coffin at R&F, the place was full. And just as well. Sleeping in the airport itself is not a problem at Arlanda, it’s a silent airport (the announcements are limited to the absolute minimum), most seats are padded and don’t have arm rests, and the security lets you be… And you save SEK540 in the process.

It’s a no-brainer to me. I’d rather sleep in the terminal. My favorite spots are:

• in Sky City by the hairdresser's (comfortable and close to the bathroom)
• downstairs in Terminal 5 in the left/lost luggage area (quiet).

Because seemingly, everyone else overnighting at Arlanda has the same brilliant idea, be sure to claim your spot early. Come 2AM Sky City will look like a refugee camp, or a homeless shelter. People on the floor everywhere, people under the tables everywhere. People on the tables, if all other space is taken.

And if you don’t feel like sleeping? There’s Sidewalk Café internet for your pleasure. Nothing like playing mahjong on-line all night long.

So, while Arlanda gets a big fat zero for its shopping options, it feels like a freaking Club Med when it comes to airport sleeping. I consider it my puny contribution towards reducing my carbon footprint. It’s economical and environmentally friendly, because hey, the bloody airport is always open, anyway…

100 really cool travel blogs

So… The good folks over at Travel Hacker made a massive list of one hundred “required reading” travel blogs. And they even included yours truly. Thanks guys!

Their list saved me a lot of searching and googling (I love when someone else does the manual labor!), because now, I no longer have to worry about updating my links. And as y’all know, I suck at updating my links.

I’m already familiar with some of the blogs listed there, I even have quite a few of them bookmarked. But there’s also plenty I haven’t read before. And I can tell you already, I have a new obsession. And her name is Girl Solo in Arabia.

The idiocy of it all...

I admit it, I never understood the hoopla over airfare aggregator sites. You know, the ones like kayak, or kelkoo.

Kelkoo gets my vote every time, as it doesn’t limit itself to travel and aggregates just about anything you can think of, but in Swedish. Kayak, on the other hand, always rubbed me the wrong way. So what’s my problem? While these sites are indeed designed for lazy people, they are not for those of us who are both lazy AND cheap. Like me.

For people who don’t mind flying the likes of Frankie’s Western Sky Pacific Airservice (and who cares that there are goats on the plane, it’s CHEAP!), and who pride themselves on making it from Stockholm to Mumbai for less than 350 euro return (yes, it involved changes in Istanbul, Dubai, and Yerevan, but damn, it was CHEAP!), the aggregator sites offer little help. Because we give a whole new meaning to the word "budget".
And sorry, but I'd rather spend my money on designer purses (for me) or coloring books (for slum kids in India) than on airfares.

Today, just for gits and shiggles I gave kayak another run. And then went directly to the airlines’ websites. Just because, you know? And guess what? Nine out of ten, what kayak showed as the best deal, wasn’t.

And speaking of deals…

Why is it that a round-trip ticket Stockholm-Helsinki-Seoul costs almost SEK10,000 (well, 9 thousand and change), Helsinki-Seoul about SEK8,000 but London-Helsinki-Seoul less than SEK6,000? And Paris-Helsinki-Seoul around SEK7,000? (No, I’m not gonna give you the exchange rate! What am I? A bloody calculator?)

The Helsinki-Seoul leg of the trip is the same in all cases.

Finnair has me stumped. Or is Sweden really that much more expensive than the rest of the continent? I shudder at the thought…

Well, it’s a no-brainer to me. My frequent flyer miles will get me to London, I’ll go shopping, spend the night in some Travelodge, and still pay less than when flying from Stockholm to Helsinki directly…

But at least in London I’ll be able to shop at decent stores and hopefully pick gifts that won’t be cringe inducing… Sorry, I love the North and all that, but reindeer skins, Viking hats and bone-handle cheese slicers just don’t do it for me. And Swedish design is highly over-rated...