Fall Travel Post....

Fall ' 10 - Connecticut

Fall ' 11 - St John

Last September (2010) after a trip to the Outer Banks fell through I decided to take my first trip to the Caribbean, alone.  After about 8 months of researching and already planning on visiting the US Virgin Island of St John in December, I bumped the trip up a few months earlier.  I booked my trip to a new place with the hopes of finding a job, a place to live, and hopefully meeting some cool people along the way in this quick 5 day adventure.  I was able set up about a dozen ‘meetings’ these included interviews, meet and greets, etc.  I emailed countless business owners, bloggers, and anyone who had an email address that was associated to what I saw as my next chapter in life and new home, St John.  Even though I did not get everyone willing to help me, I heard back from nearly 75% of them, wishing me the best of luck and some help or other people to contact.  I was shocked by the number of responses people sent to a random person from Connecticut who had emailed them about giving up his comfortable corporate job and moving to give island life a try. 

After 5 days I had met people for coffee, drinks, lunch, basically everything there is to do here.  I walked in and out of nearly every business on the island to try and get a feel for what the place was all about.  In 5 days, I had visited the beach just twice, one time with some people I met (later became a coworker) to Trunk Bay, and another afternoon I hitched over to Hawksnest and hitched back with a local woman who had been living on St John for about 20 years in a hut up in the woods with no running water and no electricity. 

I stayed in a tiny room at the islands only true hostel type accommodation for $75/night.  It was a small room with a twin bed, a cooler as my ‘mini-fridge’, a few hangers on a wooden pole in the corner, a small TV and an air conditioning unit taking up the only window.

Upon my return to work in northeast, many of my coworkers could not understand how I was in the Caribbean for almost a week and came back with little to no tan.  At this time, few coworkers knew why, but less than a month later they realized what I had been up to. 

-Mike

New Beginnings

Good day from the US Virgin Island of St John, just up the hill from Frank Bay.  I would like to formally introduce myself as a 25 year old travel enthusiast who explores whenever and wherever money and time allows.  I can't think of a place in the world I wouldn't like to go explore.  I do my best to live by a self-made motto, "I want to live where people vacation." Although this feet does not come easy, I am doing my best to make it happen.   I currently just returned back to St John US Virgin Island from about a one month stateside vacation.  While in the northeast, I had been stringing a few working days of odd jobs together to fill the wallet in between short 2-3 day trips. 

Here is a quick picture I shot in Boston, MA this past stateside trip. Not much of a photographer but I think it grabs my current Island life in the foreground with the beautiful skyline in the background.  I took this while aimlessly walking around the streets of Boston.

- Mike

Speak my Language

During the Summer of 2007, I could be found in Asia with a few of my closest friends and other students from Suffolk University. We were on a 2 week condensed business course to learn about the Chinese way of culture, business and people. After a long flight covering a significant part of our planet, we finally land in Beijing, China. Luckily, we had a guide to translate our language and communicate with the local population to help us get to our destinations. However, after the flight, we had difficulty sleeping.

We all woke up and decided we would take an adventure, at Midnight, to find some familiar food. We were on a mission to find McDonalds.

As we walk out of our dorm and onto the busy, congested streets of old Beijing, we find it effortless to flag down a cab. The cab driver did not speak a drop of English. "Great", we thought. "What do I have to do around here to get a Big Mac?" Even after drawing a large "M"on a piece of paper, we knew we would have to cater to his language. After all, this was not America (and it was clear that our effort to draw an international corporate symbol was not successful).

We turned around, walked into the dorm, and spoke to the gentleman who was working at the front desk in an effort to communicate with the cab driver. He was able to write "Take us to McDonald's" in Mandarin. This was exactly what we needed.

I learned several lessons from this and will remember this experience for the rest of my life. If I recall one thought from this night, it was this: If we do not know the language, how can we get around?

Fast-forward four years. I am out of school and part of the "real world". I realize that international travel has several road blocks. Off of the top of my head, I can think of three main challenges. Money, Time and Cultural Barriers.

As a part of the Cultural Barrier, most would include the notoriously difficult language barrier. As a solution to this challenge, we have several options, but two of the main choices consist of "doing it yourself" by learning the language or "deferring the efforts" by hiring a guide. If you are planning a trip to another country where the language is completely different, it really pays to do your homework and, if anything, memorize a few key phrases that will get you to your locations and needs. Travelling with a guide is great as well. This method provides a guide to assist you with the culture and the language. However, which is the right choice? The answer: There is no right or wrong way.

 When travelling, I prefer to explore and learn by doing. This is easier said than done as I usually have a local (even when travelling in the States) to assist me with the new surroundings. However, if you are looking to do some independent travel without a guide, the approach will merit a new method that will give you the ability to communicate with your own language. That's right. Let me introduce Vocre...

"Vocre [voh-krey] is a new translation app from myLanguage that allows anyone to communicate instantly with anybody from anywhere – without language being a barrier" - vocre.com

I have not yet experimented with this new and exciting method, but it really appears to be an excellent solution to the ongoing language barrier. As the above video will illustrate, you simply speak your own language into your phone through use of an application, and it will simply convert and play the sentence. Genius. However, if you are in Paris and meet the woman of your dreams, I cannot say that a relationship can exist through use of a cell phone translator.

-Dave

Move, Learn, Eat

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

A few weeks back my good friend Mike sent me this video called 'Move' and I've been meaning to share it with everyone. Since Mike and I share a passion of travel it immediately struck a chord and sparked a fire inside to one day do something like this. I will let Rick Mereki, the Director of the project, explain the trip:

'3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

= a trip of a lifetime.'


Check out the other two short films called 'Learn' and 'Eat' HERE and start planning your epic adventure...

-Cole

100 Places

I frequent treehugger.com, a very cool green and sustainability resource. Founded by Graham Hill, this site showcases all that is beautiful with our planet. Treehugger keeps its viewers updated and informed, referencing all that is mainstream. One of my favorite sections of their site has been their slideshows.

Please take a few minutes to escape to 10 historic and beautiful places to see before they disappear, an intense tour of some of the most beautiful places on earth. I'd also recommend checking out Planet Green's 100 Places clips for a holistic view of our planets beauty that may not be here for our grandchildren.