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International Glamour?

February 11, 2011 By Jillian

One of the benefits of traveling on a country’s flag carrier is getting an inside look at the culture. From the food and beverage selection to the onboard entertainment, it’s a real eye opening experience on some national carriers. Plus, there are the flight attendants. Hey, wait, this isn’t that kind of blog! What I’m talking about is their uniforms, or err… lack there of in the case of New Zealand. (Ok, so maybe today it is that kind of a blog! And yes, that is body paint!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elD38pJX7iE

Sure it seems a little old-fashioned to be talking about the glamour of airline travel, the last few domestic flights I’ve taken have been anything but glamorous, but there is something about international travel that still has some sort of panache about it. Is it the fact that dinner is served will real silverware? The fact that you can choose your movie? The extra legroom? The uniforms?

All over Asia I was surprised at the upscale nature of airline travel. The national carriers seemed to focus on being ambassadors, reinforcing cultural sterotypes, both good and bad. Often flight attendants on these carriers wore a traditional uniform, a pleasant surprise and interesting peak into their culture. While we don’t have a national flag carrier here in the U.S., (and if we did what on earth would they wear? denim on denim? I shudder to think…) many other countries do and we were fortunate enough to fly some of them. So here’s an interesting peak into cultures around the world…. through the flight attendants uniform.

Vietnam Airlines
Due to some unforseen circumstances, we ended up flying twice in Vietnam. We were lucky enough to snag an inexpensive fare on Vietnam Airlines, whose flight attendants wear traditional ao dai’s. Although western fashion is popular in Vietnam, the ao dai has staged a serious comeback in the last twenty years. Beauty is really important in Asian societies (I’ve never seen so many creams before in my life!), and as a western woman it was really great to see the country embrace it’s traditional dress. Plus it’s red, which is a good luck color in Asia!

Air India

Flying Air India wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences. That could be party due to the fact that our flight into and out of the country were in the middle of the night. Anyway, these brightly colored outfits had me prepared for the intensity of India.

Malaysian Airlines
Ok, so we were budget travelers and chose Air Asia instead. Which was no-fills, but got us to where we were going. What we did miss out on was the Malaysian flight attendant’s uniform. A brightly colored tropical outfit that to me completely adheres to my idea of a picturesque tropical paradise. Ok I’ll admit, I loved the 24 hours we spent in Kuala Lumpur.

Iran Air

I find Iranian history and modern society fascinating. Although we didn’t get to go, here’s a picture of their flight crew.

Emirates Air

Now contrast Iran Air with Emirates… that’s a cultural and religious discussion if I’ve ever seen one.

Does your country have a national carrier? Do their uniforms perpetuate stereotypes or break them down?

Photo of the Day: Children on the River

February 8, 2011 By Danny

Dugout Canoes. Children padding along the river. Nice colors. Awesome photo. The best part was when those children got to our boats we saw that there were filled with all kinds of critters from bugs to turtles…we could touch them if we wanted, for a price!

Special thanks to Flickr user ShutterSparks for marking this photo as a favorite.

To see a few of our favorite photos from Guatemala click here.

Our PHOTO PAGE has links to all of our collections on Flickr. Be sure to mark some of your own favorites so that we can include them on this column. We’ll be highlighting a different photo every day.

How to survive an overnight bus

February 7, 2011 By Jillian

I don’t even want to think about how many nights we spent on an overnight bus. Sure they were pretty comfortable in South America, especially when we sprung for “cama” service- pillows, blankets and meals, but things were different in other places. I swear to you we rode an overnight bus in Malawi three abreast in a seat with a man’s suitcase on my lap. And the police pulled us off the bus. A night to remember for sure.

Here are a few things we picked up along the way to make those overnight bus rides more comfortable:

Socks: Although we loved our Chacos they were uncomfortable to sleep in and bus floors are nasty. My feet are always cold and well, now you see where the socks come into play.

Water/Snacks: Almost every bus we were ever on made a stop, but we never knew when that would be. We also never knew what we’d find at the stop, sometimes nothing more appetizing than a bag of chips. So we treated ourselves like toddlers and carried food to keep us happy.

Toiletries: A few wet wipes and a toothbrush will do wonders after an night on the bus. We created a mini-bus toiletry kit with some hand sanitizer or wet wipes, contact solution, a toothbrush with some paste and a contact case and solution. Rolling into a bus station at 5 am, the ability to feel human again before setting off on our next adventure made all the difference in the world.

Sleep sheet/small blanket: Some buses did provide blankets or sheets, but the majority didn’t. Two reasons for this suggestion: one bus temperatures it seems are never comfortable and two, being covered I was more comfortable falling asleep without wondering if my clothes were going to shift inappropriately in the night. No free shows on this bus gentlemen.

Earplugs: Self explanatory, really. Or if not, I can play that Nigerian music video that played over and over again on the bus in Kenya. That’s what I thought.

Inflatable pillow: This was worth every penny. Small and easy packable, this little pillow made nights on the overnight bus somewhat comfortable. You might look stupid, but trust me, your neck will appreciate it in the morning!

Book/ipod: I rarely used the ipod on the bus, its a target for theft and it detracts from what’s going on around you. Some travelers can’t live without though, and to be fair, when I was really having a bad day it was nice to shut everything out. I did however almost always try to have a book, even if it was the same book I’d been trying to exchange for three cities.

So what would you need or want to survive an overnight bus?

Mumbai: Surrounded by 17 million people

December 15, 2010 By Jillian

Getting to the commuter train station in a suburb of Mumbai, I was shocked when the seven car train pulled in full and hundreds of people on the platform moved to get on. Loading and unloading the train was a well choreographed dance and unfortunately we didn’t know the steps.

Mumbai Trains: 8 Million Passengers a Day — Thanks to babasteve on Flickr for this photo!

Welcome to Mumbai.

I was prepared for India, or so I thought before we got to Mumbai. Heavily traveled, we’d heard countless stories and warnings about the subcontinent. Love it or Hate it we were told and I was prepared to do both. Pity flashed in other backpackers eyes as we said we were going to India as a “break” before home. One guy looked at us like we were crazy and remarked that we must be literally out of our minds to look for peace and quiet in India before going home. Ouch.

Flash forward to that train platform where the air was so thick and hot you could cut it with a knife and the platform was so busy that the flow of people reminded me of a fast moving river current. The train I would learn, was a microcosm of Mumbai. As Becka and I crowded onto the women’s car and found a seat, the women around us looked at us in curiosity. Dressed in brightly colored sari’s, shalwar kameez, scarves, western clothes and jewelry they were a sight to behold. This was exactly what I was expecting I thought. Looking out the window trains passed us, crowded to the brim, many with men hanging half way out of the cars holding onto handles. There’s a scene in Slumdog Millionaire where Jamal and his brother are riding the rails. It’s chaotic and colorful and all I could think about on that ride was how much it was just like the real thing.

Riding the trains wasn’t all movie magic. Opting always to ride in the women’s car, Becka and I often had to separate ourselves from Danny as the train pulled in and run for the women’s car. Generally this was no problem, but hitting the trains at rush hour we experienced the Mumbai shove. Imagine 100 people jammed into space for 50. That’s what it felt like on the train and as we tried to push and shove our way on and off, the Indian women around us gave us helpful, but hard shoves onto or off of the train. It was always a congenial group of women, but women very serious about getting on and off the train. We emerged each time feeling like we had just been born.

The men’s cars on the other hand weren’t as congenial and Danny had to use some of his rugby skills to get off the train. Pushing and shoving, the crowd seemed to swallow him alive and his emergence on the platform was something more akin to Jonah being spit from the whale than being born. With his day-pack tucked carefully to his torso like a rugby ball, he hunched down and barreled his way towards the exit, launching himself onto the platform as a result of various well placed elbows.

We were pleasantly shocked every time we made it on and off together. Of course there was the time when we didn’t all make it on or off the train, but really that stories better to tell in person.

Motorbiking Laos

December 1, 2010 By Danny

Some of our best memories this entire trip have been when we’ve had our own transportation. The first time was in our final days of Argentina when we shared a rental with some other travelers we met at our guesthouse. Next was Africa where we rented our own car to tour Southern Africa, taking it into 4 different countries, before heading north and meeting up with some others driving their own car back to London.

Those were all cars. Two wheels are far better than four.

We arrived to Tha Kheck after a long day on yet another slow bus in Laos and made our bookings for the motor bikes. Mr. Kho started us out with a basic lesson which involved us turning the bikes on, driving and switching from first to second gear, and making u-turns. The turns were actually actually the hardest part because going to slow means the bike falls down on you…and that hurts.

We were off, zooming down the highway….well it was a road. The first stop was one of the reasons we wanted to do the loop, the Buddha Cave. This particular cave was only discovered in 2004, filled with Buddha statues that hadn’t seen the light of day for as many as 600 years. It is believed they were hidden in the cave from invading forces from modern day Thailand, who now make religious pilgrimages to the site.

The next day was where we earned our racing stripes. The road had gone from paved to unpaved to dirt and then finally to mud. Becka’s bike liked to stall every time she slowed to a stop or tried to downshift while going uphill, this led to her constantly jumping on the starter to get the bike going again and thanks to her small legs she had more than one bruise to show for it.
Jill though was even worse. On the main rough patch she lost control of her bike and although she was still on the bike, it was spinning out of control, in circles, through the mud. Rather than using the break she instinctively pulled on the accelerator which kept her bike doing Evil-Kanivel 360s with the weight of the bike falling against on half of her body. This was after she’d taken a spin (not literally) through a thorn patch and had thorns through all her toes.

Somehow I survived without the same bruises and scrapes. I also got to play hero when Jill’s fuel intake came out and I managed to both find and fix the problem….skills I owe to when it happened to us in Ethiopia. Clearly I’m the hero of this story!

Our motorbike tour wouldn’t be complete though without our final stop at the Konglor Caves. Arriving to the caves in the morning we traded in our bikes for a boat (and boatmen) to take us through several kilometers of subterranean rapids until we emerged on the other side of the mountain. It was a spectacular river but didn’t compare to the fun we had riding those bikes!

International Glamour?

Photo of the Day: Children on the River

How to survive an overnight bus

Mumbai: Surrounded by 17 million people

Motorbiking Laos

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