07-13-2004, 09:37 AM
This idea came up as i was sitting in an empty dorm room with a cup noodle, small bottle of sake and a lonely planet guidebook for company. Its my personal set of rules based on my limited experience of travelling, and thought id post it so you could laugh at it and/or suggest improvements.
1. dont rely on the guidebook
being mentioned in the guidebook as a good cheap place to stay is a near guarantee that the place will be full or close to it, and random wanderings get kind of boring. Also descriptions of a restaurant along the lines of "look for the plastic bowls of noodles outside" gives a choice of roughly one of fifty reastaurants.... and the maps arent all that accurate.
2. dont rely on other peoples advice.
talking to other people before going up mt fuji told me that i should bring copious amounts of water because its expensive, and that its impossible to get up and down mt fuji in a day due to the annoying bus timetable. As it turned out it was tipping it down on mt fuji that day, and somewhere close to the top i discovered that out of my almost completely water based rucksack i had drunk just one litre, so i tipped most of it away. I also made it up and back with plenty of time to spare despite getting a combination of hypothermia and altitude sickness on the way up, while on the way down i slipped, cut my hand open and spent some time both patching myself up and repairing the patches at regular intervals as it started to fall off.
3. dont rely on the phrasebook
Two reasons... the first is that after spending long periods getting my pronounciation right i could successfully ask for directions and be understood first time. The problem came when a torrent of japanese came back at me of which i generally understood not a word. The other reason is that it got soaked on mt fuji and turned into an interesting lump of multicoloured paper-based stuff.
4. bring anti-dihorrea stuff
A few days back i talked to an austrailian guy who enlightened me on the joys of travelling with dihorrhea for the last month. naturally i gave him some of my tablets... and he was much happier. Later i got that wonderful condition myself, but happily it died off quickly with aid of the joyous pills.
5. dont travel with someone who respects culture less than you do
Its a bit of a downer to have a bored mate with you while visiting a castle or the like, or yawning on a rollercoaster saying how the ones in america are so much better.
6. In fact, its probably best to travel alone
No disrepect to my friend of 8 years, but we do things at different speeds, its as simple as that. Mind you, my complete lack of a sense of direction would be a bit of a problem there.
7. carry condoms
unless you are happily married and/or catholic. my only comment is just how annoying it is being in a foreign country and not knowing where they are sold.
8. the more you talk to your parents, the more they want to know
keep them on some kind of rationing system as far as contacting them goes.
9. The most run down places are generally also the most fun.
Because the sort of people who actively look for cheap accomodation are just like each other..... a nice busy place with 4 or 5 drinking buddies more than covers for the cockroaches. Also theres normally someone there who speaks japanese in some way shape or form, thus raising the possibility of kidnapping them to use as your translator for the rest of the trip:D
1. dont rely on the guidebook
being mentioned in the guidebook as a good cheap place to stay is a near guarantee that the place will be full or close to it, and random wanderings get kind of boring. Also descriptions of a restaurant along the lines of "look for the plastic bowls of noodles outside" gives a choice of roughly one of fifty reastaurants.... and the maps arent all that accurate.
2. dont rely on other peoples advice.
talking to other people before going up mt fuji told me that i should bring copious amounts of water because its expensive, and that its impossible to get up and down mt fuji in a day due to the annoying bus timetable. As it turned out it was tipping it down on mt fuji that day, and somewhere close to the top i discovered that out of my almost completely water based rucksack i had drunk just one litre, so i tipped most of it away. I also made it up and back with plenty of time to spare despite getting a combination of hypothermia and altitude sickness on the way up, while on the way down i slipped, cut my hand open and spent some time both patching myself up and repairing the patches at regular intervals as it started to fall off.
3. dont rely on the phrasebook
Two reasons... the first is that after spending long periods getting my pronounciation right i could successfully ask for directions and be understood first time. The problem came when a torrent of japanese came back at me of which i generally understood not a word. The other reason is that it got soaked on mt fuji and turned into an interesting lump of multicoloured paper-based stuff.
4. bring anti-dihorrea stuff
A few days back i talked to an austrailian guy who enlightened me on the joys of travelling with dihorrhea for the last month. naturally i gave him some of my tablets... and he was much happier. Later i got that wonderful condition myself, but happily it died off quickly with aid of the joyous pills.
5. dont travel with someone who respects culture less than you do
Its a bit of a downer to have a bored mate with you while visiting a castle or the like, or yawning on a rollercoaster saying how the ones in america are so much better.
6. In fact, its probably best to travel alone
No disrepect to my friend of 8 years, but we do things at different speeds, its as simple as that. Mind you, my complete lack of a sense of direction would be a bit of a problem there.
7. carry condoms
unless you are happily married and/or catholic. my only comment is just how annoying it is being in a foreign country and not knowing where they are sold.
8. the more you talk to your parents, the more they want to know
keep them on some kind of rationing system as far as contacting them goes.
9. The most run down places are generally also the most fun.
Because the sort of people who actively look for cheap accomodation are just like each other..... a nice busy place with 4 or 5 drinking buddies more than covers for the cockroaches. Also theres normally someone there who speaks japanese in some way shape or form, thus raising the possibility of kidnapping them to use as your translator for the rest of the trip:D