Life on the Road: the Deep South, Spain, Israel & Egypt

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." —Miriam Beard

After a month that’s taken me from California to the Deep South of the U.S., Madrid, Spain’s remote mountains, Israel and the Middle East, here are some observations from my life on the road as an American journalist:

• Travel as Hero has an evil twin who can sear corneas, crash laptops and wreak travel havoc with volcanic ash. Moral of the story: whatever doesn’t kill or cripple you makes you stronger (and poorer).

• On a private island off Georgia’s coast, you can romp naked on a beach, spy on resident bald eagles, daydream in a swinging bed, soak in an outdoor hot tub warmed by a fireplace, and kayak amidst alligators. Bring along a dozen friends and decompress for a week for $2,500. Order groceries online and have Captain Andy Hill deliver them by boat.

• Southern delicacies include sweet Georgia shrimp, blue crabs, oysters prepared every which way and low country boil—a savory blend of shrimp, sausage, corn, carrots and potatoes, served up on newspaper for easy clean-up.

• Alligator tastes much like chicken, as does rabbit.

• Gab with Spaniards for 10+ hours a day and enjoy a FREE vaca at VaughanTown if your native language is English. Go to Gredos, 3 hours west of Madrid for 4-star accommodations or stay in a rustic collection of houses in the remote mountains of northeastern Spain at Valdelavilla.

• Israel is a troubled land and diverse melting pot where people can be unsmiling and unaccommodating. Most telling comment, overheard on a walking tour of Jerusalem’s Old City: “Welcome to Palestine.”

• Find cheap digs at Sky Hostel and Momo's in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Hostel in Jerusalem. Save more and gain priceless cultural insight by couchsurfing with broadcast journalist Idele Ross and her artist husband, Norman Slepkov, in Jerusalem's Arnona district overlooking the Dead Sea.

• Jews who dare buy property in Jerusalem's Muslim quarter may find themselves in prison-like conditions, under constant threat of terrorism in their own homes.

• Don’t expect to buy groceries, check into a hostel, catch a bus or even snap a picture of your observant hosts on the Sabbath in Israel, when everything shuts down. Of course, it’s lively as sin in Muslim quarters, if you care to engage in any.

• There’s no bus map for public transport in major Israeli cities, making getting around inefficient and confusing.

• Think you have problems? Visit Jerusalem's Yad Va-Shem Museum, where the suffering of millions of Jews during the Holocaust is memorialized and your schtick will seem very small.

•You can get a good burger and nice chicken in Israel, but mostly anticipate an endless litany of falafel, shawarma and hummus on your plate.

• Expect to be frisked and scanned at Israeli bus stations, malls and landmarks. Steer clear of soldiers with oozies on every corner.

• Allow 3+ hours for security at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Be ready to answer questions encompassing everything shy of your favorite sexual position and what you’re going to name your illegitimate child. I arrived at 7:30pm and barely made my 11:30pm flight to Jordan for connections to Egypt.

• Hurghada, Egypt is a model for what seaside development should NOT be. On a more positive note, find great snorkeling here and stay at a sprawling resort, in a massive room overlooking the Red Sea, for $30/night, including lavish breakfast and dinner buffets.

• Don’t show any interest in any souvenirs in Egypt or Israeli souks unless you’re prepared to haggle for a LONG time. Of course, bargaining is half the fun and you can come away with some cute knickknacks for your time and trouble.

That’s it for now. Bike tour down the Nile to Luxor, starts tomorrow. Stay well and keep in touch.

Top Tips for Adventure/Budget Travel, #7-9

If you've followed my first six tips for solo budget travel, you can probably guess that I am addicted to creative adventure. For those of you thinking about or planning one of your own, here are the next three tips out of my top 13.

To access my entire photo-filled tip list, I invite you to visit my website at http://wordgeisha.com/WGblog2008.html. And now, tips #7-9:

7. Make the most of your budget. You can visit most major European cities for under $100/day per person. In many ways, the less you spend, the closer you get to the local culture and the farther you escape from your own. By living as locals do, you’ll have more opportunities to see authentic cultural differences and gain perspective about the ways things are done in a foreign place than you would on a big, organized tour. Rather than viewing a limited budget as a restriction, see it as an enticement into local markets, bistros, dive bars and front seats at street shows in world-class cities.


8. Relish the joys of solo travel. Independent travel allows you to custom-tailor your trip to your pace and interests. You can go where you want when you want. To maximize those freedoms, do your research and be creative with your itinerary. Put yourself in places where you can meet and communicate with locals rather than relying on service rendered with purchased smiles. If you allow yourself to be herded around like a school child to establishments offering plain-vanilla experiences to travelers and financial kickbacks to tour companies, you’ll diminish your chance to absorb cultural differences—presumably an important reason you’re traveling in the first place. By investing yourself fully, meeting people along the way, you’ll have a chance to see how other people live, think and look at the world.

9. Be a cultural chameleon. Forget McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks! Leave Holiday Inn and Ramada at home! Travel is a cultural Pandora’s box rife with new culinary and recreational experiences; to fully appreciate these, eschew American-style hotels and restaurants and patronize establishments that reflect the culture you’re visiting. Drink Guinness in Ireland, red wine in France, raki in Turkey and ouzo in Greece. Eat crêpes in Paris, gelato in Florence, herring in Amsterdam, octopus in Rhodes and tapas in Madrid. Wherever you go, look for places that cater to locals rather than corporate institutions. By sleeping, eating and playing like a temporary resident rather than a tourist, you’ll maximize your travel experiences.