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Archive for April, 2009

The Obligatory Gear Post

29 Apr

Gear

The first thing you notice when you begin to condense your life into a backpack is just how much you own that you really don’t need. I’ve always prided myself in owning little, so looking at the heap that’s going into storage for the summer sparks my mind into contortions of justification. That box is full of useful tools, I tell myself–I’m sure one day when I get back I’m going to need that old screwdriver I bent into an L-shape when I was in high school so I could learn how to pick locks (which didn’t work, but that’s beside the point). Or the roll-up keyboard I bought months ago for this very trip, before I realized I could type easier on the small but natural-feeling keys of my Eee PC.

Maybe when I get back I’ll burn it. Or sell it. Or something. Probably not. At any rate, on to the contestants.

PACKING

  • The pack: my Lowe Alpine Walkabout 25. I’ve had this pack for a few years now and taken it everywhere from a 100-mile trek in the Shenandoah to the high deserts of the southwest to Bermuda in our ten day beach-camping trip two Easters ago. Not huge, but tried and true and with plenty of miles on it.
  • Assorted compression sacks, for sleeping bag and clothes. Waterproof, too, for if I ever need to protect my camera in a pinch (besides, there’s nothing worse than a wet sleeping bag).
  • A Kiva Key Chain Pack. Packs up small, perfect for day trips and for checking assorted no-carry items on my flights there and back.

SLEEPING

  • A mountain hardware synthetic sleeping bag, very light, very compact. Now before I get castigated for bringing things I don’t need, I’d like to point out that I do in fact plan to do some real backpacking (stay tuned for Corsica and the GR20 sometime in early June!).
  • A lightweight sleeping bag liner, which doubles as bedding for hostels and the like.
  • An ultralight backpacking groundcloth.
  • The GoLite Ultra-Lite Poncho Tarp, which works both as a poncho and a shelter. Touristy I know, but hey, when the rain starts falling we’ll see who’s laughing.
  • Paracord, in varying lengths, for setting up shelter and other sundries.

CLOTHES

  • I usually don’t spend a lot of money on clothes, but this time it was worth it. ExOfficio Nomad Pants are lightweight (they pack amazingly well), water resistant, odor resistant, tear resistant, and just generally travel resistant.
  • A pair of linen pants, because I’m too poor to buy two pairs of the $60 variety.
  • Shorts, and assorted underwear and socks. Smartwool is amazing, and I’ve got plenty in stock. When you come from a family of backpackers, getting socks for Christmas is actually a good thing.
  • A couple of t-shirts, a couple of button-downs.
  • Blundstone Boots, which I am in love with. A hard initial hit on the wallet, but well worth it. They look great (I got the tapered toe dress boots), have great traction, and are durable and breathable. Perfect for walking long distances in something other than tennis shoes.
  • My hat, which was broken in in the Utah desert. Not much to look at, but I suppose it has sentimental value.
  • A lightweight jacket.

FIRST AID, ETC.

  • Assorted supplies, bandages, alcohol rubs, etc.
  • Grapefruit Seed Extract, which purports to have magical bacteria-fighting qualities and prevent traveler’s stomach. For a few bucks I figure it’s worth a shot.
  • Emu Oil, from a farm back in Montana. Works on burns and sores like no other.
  • All Natural Pacific Shaving Oil, which is great for those of us who have to shave a few times a week. A tiny bottle like this is good for at least eighty or ninety shaves.
  • The The Pocket Doctor: A Passport to Healthy Travel. A pocket-sized book with first-aid and medical advice for your daily ailment.

ELECTRONICS AND CAMERA EQUIPMENT

  • My Canon Digital Rebel XT. If you’re going to see some decent sights, you might as well have a decent camera. Not pictured in the image above, for obvious reasons.
  • A monopod, for taking stable pictures without taking up too much valuable pack space.
  • At a fraction of the cost of the equivalent Canon lens, the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens surprised me. Good image quality. A bit noisier than the Canon lens on autofocus and zoom, but great for the price.
  • A Eee PC, which I seriously should have waited until now to buy, as they’re much better and even cheaper than when I bought mine. Ah, well. So it goes.
  • A portable hard drive for pictures.
  • A SanDisk Sansa Fuze, loaded with songs, audiobooks, and Pimsleur language programs for most of the countries I’ll be visiting.

ART AND LITERATURE

  • Not quite as heavy as it sounds. I want to do some sketching and ink work while I’m abroad and, if lucky, maybe even make some cash while I’m at it. Thus I’m bringing my art set and a sketch pad.
  • And, of course, some reading. I’ll bring a paperback that I don’t mind trading away once I’ve finished it–any suggestions?
  • A Moleskine notebook to serve as a travel journal, with attendant pens.

Contrary to what you may believe, this all does actually fit into my backpack. Very, very tightly.

Two weeks until I get to try it out.

 
3 Comments

Posted in Gear, Summer 09, Uncategorized

 

Top 20 Travel Songs

24 Apr

Piano

If there’s one thing I’ve discovered about music, it’s that it can be very inspirational (and dangerous). Here are twenty of the songs I’ve been most inspired by over the years.

First we have those songs about–or at least evoking the sense of–being lost. Of being on the road, of walking on the periphery of stable lives, of being a transient. There’s something in our souls that identifies with that kind of transience, and it shows up in our myths and our art: we’ve been fascinated with the wanderer ever since Cain was cursed to walk the Earth forever without rest.

Gotta keep walking by Willy Mason

Sail Away by David Gray

Very tempting sometimes. Wish I had a sailboat.

Society by Eddie Vedder

There were quite a few great songs in the Into the Wild soundtrack, recorded by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame. I picked one from the list, but definitely recommend giving all of them a listen.

Ain’t Talkin by Bob Dylan

I have to admit, I have a soft spot in my heart for any song featuring walking as a response to life’s problems.

I am the Highway by Audioslave

Dust in the Wind by Kansas

Ecclesiastes in song. That’s a book that holds both inspiration and warning for any traveler: an accumulating, materialistic lifestyle is pointless, but so is one lived purely for experience. A penniless traveler who’s seen the world is no better off than the rich businessman who’s never left his hometown as long as neither lives for anything more than themselves.

In the States, the travel bug comes in a very particularly American strain: the road trip. Classic cars and Route 66 are ingrained in our cultural consciousness, and many of our western roadscapes are some of the most spectacular on Earth.

Open Road by Bryan Adams

One of my earliest inspirations.

Ramble On by Led Zeppelin

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane

Open Road Song by Eve 6

Here I Go Again On My Own by Whitesnake

“Here I go again on my own / going down the only road I’ve ever known …” The American road trip dream usually tends to be about young men driving in fast cars down wide open roads, generally away from a woman who, tragically, was holding them down (Free Bird, anyone?).

A big part of traveling is often the simple wonder of new experience. It’s the curiosity that, when you reach the end of a path and prepare to turn around, points something out a little further on, and in so doing turns your end into the beginning of a new journey. It’s a rush, an eye-opening experience, a general cure for a rigid mind. Side-effects may include apathy towards consumerism and extreme restlessness.

Go Places by The New Pornographers

Roam by The B-52s

I came upon this one recently. Good stuff!

Africa by Toto

I’m not sure this is actually a travel song, but every time I listen to it I want to take off and go somewhere anyway.

Around the World by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Regardless of how tough or independent a traveler you are, there are points in every journey when all you think about is home–whether that’s the place you grew up or the person you fell in love with six hundred miles and three days ago.

Place Called Home by Kim Richey

Great Expectations by Elbow

Another great band I discovered recently. This particular song is pretty hard to find (the link at right points to Elbow’s only album, Seldom Seen Kid”, which doesn’t include it). At least you can watch it on YouTube.

Landing in London by 3 Doors Down

Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkle

Classic. Still two of the very few songwriters I’ve seen who are as able poets as they are musicians.

I hope you found some new music today. But now I’m interested–what are your favorite travel songs? Comment and let me know!

 
8 Comments

Posted in Culture, Summer 09, Uncategorized

 

Travel Porn

17 Apr

A Travel Porn Addict

It all starts innocently enough. A picture here and there, a magazine before bed. And then one day you’re flipping through the glossy pages and you see it. A two page spread. You give a whistle, turn the magazine and take a closer look.

At first, that’s all it is. A library over coffee, a beach while filling out your taxes, a desert ruin on a work break. But then, one day, you see one that you can’t let alone. You stare at it, fascinated. It’s a marketplace in some distant and sun-drenched land, full of color and life. You can almost smell the spices. You idly check Wikipedia, and learn that the city has been where it is for thousands of years. Why, you think, how interesting. Your city has only been there for a few hundred.

For a lark, you check airfares. Not seriously, you tell yourself, you’re just curious. The results come up, and you shrug. Almost fifteen hundred dollars. Far beyond your meager budget. Of course. Entirely unrealistic. You notice a few other city links, and click one. My, you notice, this one’s barely over five hundred. You could do that easily. If you were serious. But you’re not. Because (you say) you have nothing better to do, you look at some pictures of this five hundred dollar destination.

Grassy glens, rolling mountains, medieval cobblestone architecture. While not as old as the market city, still very old, and, one would assume, also full of interesting people. But it’s not the marketplace, not quite the same. What time is it? Your favorite television show will be on soon. To pass the few minutes until then, you casually check train fares from the grassy glens to the spice market. What a long way. Not quite as expensive as flying, but it would take so much time! You look at a few of the places along the way

Your television show is forgotten. You see cathedrals, temples, ruins, mosques, mountains and oceans, high mountain lakes, white sand beaches. All on the way. You look at a map, and trace a line with your finger. You read the city names to yourself. Purely out of curiosity you add a column of figures on a nearby piece of paper. Airfare, train fares, daily food costs, cheap lodging. You whistle and shake your head. Quite a lot of money.

But (just playing the devil’s advocate, you tell yourself), you would spend a fair portion of that were you living at home, paying for rent and groceries. You check your bank account. Not enough—but not so little, either. Out comes the piece of scratch paper again. Adding paychecks, every two weeks. If I worked some overtime, you reason, you could have enough money by next year. Theoretically.

Back to the airfare site. The numbers seem to waver on your screen. There is a little button that says “book now,” which seems to be beckoning to you enticingly. Your cursor moves of its own accord. There are probably extra fees of some sort, you say. They wouldn’t show those to you until the very last instant before you had to pay. You scoff. You’ll call their bluff. You click.

A dangerous example of travel porn.

A dangerous example of travel porn.

No extra fees! the purchase page tells you exuberantly and, (you imagine) winks at you conspiratorially. Enter your credit card information here! You pull out your card and look at it. Type in the number. Just to see what it would feel like.

Your cursor moves as if possessed, and your finger—so very heavy—sinks upon the button. Thank you for your business, the website says smugly, your confirmation will be sent within two business days. You sit back, stunned. I was just browsing, you tell your friends over a beer later, and one thing led to another …

Children take note. Though you may tell yourself you’re only looking, travel porn is a dangerous, dangerous thing. One too many beautiful pictures and you too may find yourself on a journey that takes you far from the safe and secure confines of your good and normal life.

 
4 Comments

Posted in Summer 09, Uncategorized

 

Syrian Visa Application

14 Apr
Syrian Visa Application

Syrian Visa Application

I’ve applied for my Syrian Visa – the only one I’ll need to preapply for. That means sending my passport to VisaHQ.com–let’s just hope they’re as reputable as they seem to be. I also swung by the local outlets to pick up the majority of my remaining gear (ie, travel pants, a good shirt, etc, etc). Between them and Amazon, I’d say I’ve done my part to contribute to the American Capitalist Dream.

More on my gear to come soon.

 
3 Comments

Posted in Summer 09, Uncategorized

 

The Plan

13 Apr

map1

Exactly one month from now, I’ll be leaving.

I’ve done some solo backpacking in the states, but very little in the way of international travel. I’ll be gone for three months, in which time I hope to see eighteen countries. I’ll travel by ground transportation alone (ferries, trains, busses, hitchiking), and as I’ll be traveling alone, I hope to have some interesting adventures along the way, which I hope to share with you here at Good and Lost.

Wish me luck!

 
4 Comments

Posted in Summer 09, Travel, Uncategorized