Global Tips

It’s an awkward situation when you step out of a foreign airport and suddenly someone picks up your bags and brings to your ride. Do you tip them? If you do how much is appropriate? In some countries the tip is included, but for others it is expected. Here is a guide I found at GoNOMAD. Read more below from, A Guide to Tipping Around the World.

Tipping Guide for Around the World

For the scope of this guide I will be giving a brief overview of the proper (and improper) amounts to tip in countries across the globe.

Italy: In Italy the tipping procedure is kept to a minimum. No tips are expected, but, again, if you feel as though the person did a great job, feel free to round up to the next highest amount. Also remember too that you are being charged a coperto ('cover charge') or possibly for pane ('bread') as well.

Taxi drivers usually expect to receive 5-10% of the bill.

Brazil: In Brazil the rules are not as strict. Like the feel of most the country, if you like what you see, tip, and if you don’t, well then don’t tip! There are no set guidelines and the amount is entirely at a person’s discretion. At hotels, a 10% to 15% service charge is included in the bill.

At a restaurant there is a 10% service charge included in the bill. At bars and cafes a 10% tip is good if it has not been added to the bill.

For taxis, a tip is not expected, yet drivers might be permitted to keep some change. Frequently, hotels will negotiate the fare in advance with the driver and pass the amount on to the guest as a flat rate (tip included).

China: You'll never have to tip anywhere in China. It's the one consolation for the fact that foreigners are charged more as a matter of government policy.

For more check out GoNOMAD!

A St. Lucian Dream

I have a couple friends who live in St. Lucia. And Whenever I listen to their smooth island accents and close my eyes I can almost envision myself on their coasts. When I came across this article, the tropical scenes I imagined became more vivid. Read more below from St. Lucia's Moment.

"Driving up and down the island's main highway, it's easy to see the allure. The views are all knockouts—dramatic, intense, instantaneous. I dip down into the heart of Choiseul, a small town between two mountains, and see that there's a church by the beach in the small harbor—but before I can take a second look, I'm heading up and out again. Since the car and I are dancing such tight do-si-dos with the road, twisting around to see where I've been seems unwise. Choiseul, the church—it's gone before you know it.

Then, approaching Soufrière from the south, there's a turnout. I am on the top of a ridge, where I can stop both to catch my breath and to inhale the view. The vertiginous beauty of the place is exhilarating. I look down into the basin of Soufrière, which from up here seems more like a postcard of Caribbean splendor than a real place. The boats are moving on the glistening water, there's traffic off the beach and hubbub in the town and—up, up the hill on the other side—houses, trees, and then Jade Mountain. From across the bay, the resort looks jarring, like a multilevel parking garage stacked against the hillside.

The southwestern corner of St. Lucia was designed by the Qualibou caldera 35,000 years ago. Though dormant, the volcano still spits gray boiling water and sulfurous gas out of a scattering of pools of bubbling mud and cracks in the earth's crust. The original French commander, with the blessing of Louis XVI, built baths here to soothe the aches and pains of his soldiers. Chastanet would like to pick up on that idea: He dreams of a high-end spa putting the same to good use. But this attraction is the least of the volcano's gifts. The caldera, which stretches two by three miles, is what gave St. Lucia the Pitons as well as the eighteenth-century town of Soufrière and its bay."

For more check out Conde Nast Traveler.

The Southern Carolina

Transportation has never been so easy. I'm here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where vacationers cruise the strip with golf carts. It is quite the sight. Bumper to bumper traffic until cart curfew at 11 o'clock every night. South Carolina must be a hot spot. Read about Greenville (just four hours from Myrtle Beach) in this article I found from GoNOMAD, Gorgeous Greenville, South Carolina.

"Greenville has followed in the footsteps of other Southern cities that were able to turn around their image by refurbishing its older structures and creating architecturally pleasing new ones.

Sure there are tacky buildings from the 1960s and 70s, but the storefront brick facades and tree-lined streets drown out the drab exteriors to buildings like the structure that houses the town's newspaper.

Whether you're driving, walking or taking the town's trolley, getting around town is easy. Even for the "navigationally-challenged," it's tough to get lost in Greenville.

Another advantage to making a visit here is that it is affordable. You don't have to visit eateries like High Cotton everyday. There are plenty of places to dine for a low price.

I had a cheap, delicious meal at Soby's on the Side. Located behind the main Soby's restaurant, Soby's on the Side offers affordable breakfast, lunch and brunch dishes.

Restaurants including Soby's, Mary's and High Cotton, hotels like the Westin Poinsett and thoroughfares like Main Street and McBee Avenue are examples of how Greenville came alive in the past decade."

For more check out GoNOMAD!

Rapids Down Under

Australia makes me think of kangaroos, cricket and surfing, not really whitewater rafting. But racing through the river rapids of Australia seems like a thrilling adventure. Read more below from, Rafting the Nymboida River.

"On Saturday, Wildwater Adventures picked up our group of four at 7:30 a.m. at our hotel. We were all wishing for another 30 minutes of sleep, but we were totally excited to go rafting. After stopping to pick up a few more people, including our rafting guides for the day – Rocky and Rob – the bus made its way into the Binderay National Park.

It was going to be about an hour's drive until we reached our raft launching site and a nap would have been nice, but the scenery was too good to pass up.

As we drove through the parks and along the insanely winding road, Rocky, who is a Coffs Harbour local, filled us up with tidbits of local history ("Coffs Harbour thrived on a timber-logging industry") and knowledge of the flora and fauna ("Those are banana plantations, which have been around since the early 1900s").

Once we arrived at the mighty Nymboida River, our guides offered us a spread of coffee, tea and hot cross buns before sitting us down for a safety talk. Then, we figured out how to fasten our life vests, launched our raft and got our first feel for the refreshing (read: cold) water temperature.

Our guide, Rob, explained what we should do when he yelled, "back paddle," "front paddle" and "get down!"

The first rapid was great, a teaser. The four of us were able to paddle through it with no problems, yet it definitely got our heart racing and our hair wet."

For more check out GoNOMAD!

Visit Mumbai

Riches are overflowing through the Indian metropolis, and citizens are enjoying the luxuries of global wealth. Mumbai, India is bursting with culture and is a great place to travel. Read more from, 36 Hours in Mumbai.

"IT’S the Jazz Age again in Mumbai. The populous metropolis is bursting with stock-market money, a shimmering art scene has a growing global presence, and young people are exploiting their newfound freedoms in dim bars until the wee hours. Indeed, in the city’s more rarefied circles, Champagne is sipped every night and everyone knows everyone, darling. But large swaths of Mumbai, the former Bombay, remain immune to the homogeneity of global glamour. Behind the bustling boulevards are nameless alleys where coconuts are sold, haircuts are given and the city’s frenetic traffic occasionally comes to a honking halt because of a scampering goat.

Friday 5 p.m.

1) BEACH FLAVORS

When migrants from Mumbai’s outlying areas arrive, they descend onto Chowpatty Beach, a surprisingly pristine beach in the middle of this throbbing city of 17 million or so. Children swirl around rusted merry-go-rounds; families bond over cobs of corn; vendors sell hot-pink cotton candy. An array of services is on offer, including head massages and palm reading. Buy a savory plate of bhel puri — a kind of trail mix of puffed rice, garlic chutney, coriander and tamarind — and stroll among the classless ocean of Mumbaikars taking an urban breather.

7 p.m.
2) TOAST THE VIEW

For a bird’s-eye view of the city’s high rollers, head to the top of the InterContinental Mumbai Marine Drive Hotel. The hipper-than-hip rooftop bar, Dome, draws the city’s wealthy young, who flirt over hot toddies by the pool. It also affords romantic views of the Arabian Sea and the graceful arc of Marine Drive, the seaside promenade also known as the Queen’s Necklace.

9 p.m.
3) CRAB EXPEDITION

The Koli, a hereditary caste of anglers, were among Mumbai’s original dwellers. They still fish, and you can sample their catch at Trishna, a venerable seafood restaurant in the Kala Ghoda district. Specialties include fresh-off-the-boat squid in a chilly garlic, batter-fried prawns and pomfret grilled with black pepper. For the main course, try the signature crab drizzled in butter, pepper and garlic, accompanied by dal Hyderabadi, a spicy lentil soup. Dinner for two with chilled beers is about 3,000 rupees, about $70 at 43 rupees to the dollar."

For more check out NYTimes Travel.

Modern Beijing

Thinking about taking a trip to China? Make sure to experience the rich Mandarin culture of Beijing before the rush of the 2008 Olympic Games begin. And when your there don't miss these great sites: The Mao Mausoleum, The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, and The Summer Palace. Read more below from, The Best of Beijing, 2008: What to See, Where to Go, What to Do.

Imagining Beijing

"Beijing is not the largest city in China. It isn’t the richest and it isn’t the oldest. But a trip to China without a visit to the capital city of Beijing would be to miss the chance to get a glimpse into the heart and soul of China.

A journey to this 2,000 year old capital, however brief, will allow you to soak up a sense of how China’s past and present are blending to forge a new identity and chart a new course.

But the Beijing in your mind’s eye may not be the reality of Beijing as it is today. When you think of Beijing, do you imagine scenes from “The Last Emperor” with courtesans, concubines and eunuchs?

Do you hope to see farmers in coolie hats leading water buffalo among sweet green rice paddies?

Do you expect to encounter dull grey buildings with “worker bees” wearing blue-grey Mao suits and toting the “Little Red Book.”

Modern Beijing offers none of these scenes, though its history reflects all this and more. The Beijing of 2008 is spiffing itself up, getting ready to host the world on the international stage of the 2008 Olympic games.

If you’re headed to Beijing for the games or are just thinking about taking a journey into the heart of the “dragon,” as Beijing is sometimes called, you’re in for a unique cultural and historical experience."

For more check out GoNOMAD!

Marble Industry

The Monroe marble enthusiasts of Kentucky are not only marble crafters they’re international marble champions. Check out this article I found from GoNOMAD called, The Marbles of Monroe County, Kentucky. You can get your own marble handmade and play a game with the manufacturers in the Super Dome. Read more below.

“The Monroe Marble Super Dome isn’t like any superdome or sports complex you’ve ever seen. To say it’s nothing fancy is an understatement; it’s more shack than arena. But one thing is certain — it’s magical.

For every day, just before sunset, time stands still while grown men and kids alike get down on their knees in fools gold-colored sand. With childlike glee, they flick homemade flint marbles with their thumbs until nightfall.

Deep in southern Kentucky, just a stone’s throw from the breathtaking Cumberland River, is the unassuming town of Tompkinsville. And there, just down Armory Road, sits a dilapidated white, wooden, barn-like structure — the “Marble Dome” as locals call it.

Although it was built in 1988, it looks to be about 100 years old.

“It isn’t really weather-proof,” says one old timer, grinning and pointing to foil-lined, cotton-candy-like insulation hanging from the rafters like fly paper. Outside an old man whittles, whistling to himself. Inside, a younger man sits making marbles. On the floor, a half-dozen old-timers play “Rolley-Hole” in the dirt.”

For more check out GoNOMAD!

Travel Network

I just wrote an article for GoNOMAD on an up and coming hotel search engine called, VibeAgent. The website has a lot of great features. Its social networking capability gives it a friendly atmosphere similar to Facebook or Myspace. Read an excerpt from my article, VibeAgent: A Growing Social Network for Travelers.

"VibeAgent.com is a fresh and innovative hotel search engine that helps savvy travelers find the hotel that's right for them from the website’s unique social network. Anyone can become an agent and get the inside scoop on hotels from the community.

“I came across VibeAgent while reading a review of it on a blog; I can’t remember which one. My experience so far has been good. There is more interaction with other members than on typical travel sites and I like that,” said John Allen of Dallas.

After hearing all the buzz about VibeAgent, I surfed my way over to their website. After a few unsuccessful attempts to join, I was finally able to sign up. I entered my name, email, username and password and with a few more clicks I covertly joined the community as “Agent Jelley.”

After I was logged in, the website was simple and easy to use, and the community advice posted in each hotel review gave it a trustworthy vibe.

First I attempted to write my own review. And for an example of how to go about writing it, I clicked on one of their descriptions of a hotel located in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Greenfield is a town over from GoNOMAD, in the heart of Franklin County, a town I know relatively well. I was shocked to find that the picture that came up by the description was a snapshot of the ocean. The description suggested that travelers would be able to enjoy the proximity of the nearby coast when really the closest beach is a two-hour drive.

So I accidentally encountered a small kink in the site. When I notified the site, they thanked me and corrected it right away."

For more check out GoNOMAD!

Major League Dining

When the vendors cry out "PEANUTS, POPCORN," and the crowd cheers at the crack of a bat I am always distracted by the scent of the ballpark franks. It doesn't matter how nail biting the score is, I make my way out to the vending strip. This article I found from the New York Times Travel section discovers a variety of wide range ballpark menus. Read more below from, Buy Me Some Sushi and Baby Back Ribs.

"THE sandwich was perfectly executed: an overgenerous helping of fresh Dungeness crab meat, dressed in a gossamer coating of mayonnaise and piled between two warm slices of sourdough bread that had been scrubbed with garlic and griddled crisp. The drinks were excellent, too: a split of Laurent-Perrier Champagne for my girlfriend; a tall, ice-cold glass of hoppy Anchor Steam Beer for me. And the view at our walk-up, alfresco table was impossible to beat: palm trees swayed, sailboat masts bobbed and, in the distance, the Bay Bridge stretched out across foggy San Francisco Bay.

The service was unobtrusive, except for one thing: we were encouraged to put down our sandwiches and stand up when the national anthem came over the public address system. We were, after all, dining in the company of about 40,000 other people, at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

I spent a few weekends after opening day this year bopping around to 10 American cities, where I ate my way through 12 major league ballparks. My mission: to hoover down a shameful number of hot dogs and to sample the increasingly ambitious and occasionally delicious world of ballpark cuisine beyond peanuts and Cracker Jack.

I leapt at the chance: after nearly four years of writing the $25 and under restaurant reviews for the Dining section of The Times, this was a chance to jump from the local hot dog beat to the national one. Plenty of friends wrinkled their noses at the prospect, and with good reason — if you’ve been to enough professional sporting events in your life, you’ve certainly encountered some edible disappointments along the way. And since I grew up in the 1980s, my memory of ballpark food involved frozen pizzas, sodden hot dogs on sullen buns and bad fast-food chains.

But in the last decade or so, as aging stadiums were either renovated or replaced, the ballparks have stepped up their game, and not just for the corporate skybox crowd. New stadiums have been laid out so that nosebleed sections have decent views, the concourses aren’t dark passageways, and the food and beer offered are no longer an afterthought to the game."

For more check out New York Times Travel.

Tanzania Travel

Wasn't Tarzan from Tanzania? Anyways, check out this new undiscovered and remote destination. Tanzania. Read more below from an article I found called, Tanzania: The Farthest Shore.

"There's no cell phone signal, so I wait with my suitcase in a cement gazebo surrounded by elephant grass, the blue of Africa's deepest lake stretching toward the purple serrated ridgeline of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Curious children dressed in rags approach shyly. They are Bembe people, offspring of Congolese refugees who have squatted on the border of Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park for the last twenty years.

This slug-shaped inland sea—410 miles long and from 10 to 50 miles wide—was "discovered" in 1858 by Richard Burton and John Manning Speke, Victorian explorers on a mission to find the source of the Nile. (Arab caravans had reached the lake more than a decade earlier, shipping ivory and slaves back to the Sultan of Zanzibar.) Among today's travelers, Tanganyika is famous for its chimpanzees. It was at Gombe Stream, in the hills above the lake, that Jane Goodall in the early 1960s first witnessed primates stripping leaves off twigs and using them to fish termites from mounds, forever dispelling our notion of man as the sole toolmaker. Recognizing the need to preserve chimp habitat, the Tanzanian government created Gombe Stream National Park in 1968 and the much larger Mahale Mountains National Park in 1980.

Because of its remoteness and relatively primitive infrastructure, Lake Tanganyika—bordered by Tanzania, Burundi, Congo, and Zambia—has received remarkably few visitors in the years since. This may soon change, however, for tourism entrepreneurs thirsting for untrodden destinations are starting to eye the lake and its islands as Africa's new, freshwater Seychelles.

Facing the beach from the tree line, my banda has a king-size wood-framed bed draped with mosquito netting, a veranda whose lounge chairs and table are made of recycled dhow beams, and an upstairs "chill out" platform reached by a ladder fashioned from a dugout canoe.

Handwoven baskets and mats, blue appliquéd canvas from Cairo's tentmakers souk, and Tanzanian kanga cloth printed with Swahili sayings are utilized in a bohemian spirit and with a collector's eye. (Aphorisms are a Tanzanian tradition; my favorite, painted on an old dhow prow incorporated into the resort's sundowner bar, reads, "Myenyefina akosi sababu," or "Jealousy has no reason"—a pun and perfect summation of Othello.) The open-air shelter gently thrusts me into, rather than cossets me from, the environment. I am visited by wasps with golden bellies, black-and-iridescent-blue swallowtail butterflies, and a troop of vervet monkeys that know the customary 8 a.m. wake-up call signals a delivery of tea-tray cookies.

After unpacking, I kick off my shoes, put on a bathing suit, and head for the beach, bright-orange quartz pebbles and tiny glittering pink shells crunching between my toes. Gazing at the brilliant-green forest curtain while treading warm, clear water, I think those hotel developers have it right, that Lake Tanganyika could become Africa's freshwater beach paradise. But as soon as I set to sunbathing, a sharp jab from a tsetse fly ends my reverie.

Summer is Lake Tanganyika's most rewarding season. Prime chimp viewing is July through September (when trees bear fruit, and chimps hang out in groups instead of dispersing in search of food), and tranquil weather and water make for ideal scuba and snorkeling conditions. There are regularly scheduled flights from the capital of Arusha to Mahale Mountains National Park on Mondays and Thursdays, with seats starting at $650; a private charter costs $4,000 for up to six people. It's possible to observe chimps not only at Mahale Mountains National Park but also at Gombe Stream National Park, a four-hour boat ride north of Kigoma; other wildlife can be found at Zambia's Ngumbu National Park, at Lake Tanganyika's southern end. "

For more check out Conde Nast Traveler.

Yerbe Mate Craze

Mate is not only a Chilean horseman’s mountain tea, it is a craze all throughout Latin America. When I went to Uruguay my host family would carry around a cup of mate wherever they went. At the beach when they were roasting out in the sun, they would sit their and sip from the silver straw “bambilla.” I will never forget that taste, it’s like a bitter herb, warm and soothing. Read more below about Peter Heller’s encounter with mate in the article, Horsepacking Across Patagonia.

Yerba Mate Tea

We built a fire outside and passed around a small enamel cup of yerba mate, the strong mountain tea that every Chilean horseman carries in his saddle bag and that has a kick somewhere weirdly between a triple latte and a joint.

I loved this. It could have been Montana or Colorado, except there was plenty of rain and no roads, just horse trails linking the remote farms. And when we emerged next week, we would be only a few kilometers from the sea. We were in the thinnest of countries. I thought about one of my favorite poets, Pablo Neruda, Chilean and a Nobel Prize winner, how he wrote: Night, snow, and sand make up the form/of my thin country,/all silence lies in its long line,/all foam flows from its marine beard,/all coal covers it with mysterious kisses… And here, on the Manso, we were back to a simpler time.

No electricity or phones, and messages traveled down the valley saddle to saddle, homestead to homestead. Zach told me that night that when he needed horses for a trip he’d go to the radio station in Bariloche and put a message out on the daily bulletin board, Ciro, so many horses at such and such a date at such and such a place, for so many days.

Everybody had a battery powered radio. Somebody in the Manso valley would hear it. They happened to be riding up the Rio Los Morros. They would tell a Montero whose brother-in-law was going over the pass to Cochamo the next day, who would tell Ciro’s neighbor. Zach said the horses would always be there.

That night I slipped out of my bag and stepped out on the cold dew-wet grass to take a leak. I heard a horse blow in the dark and saw their shapes scattered over the bench. I looked up at a deep river of stars, and down valley I saw the Southern Cross hanging in the notch of the canyon. The world of horses and men turned in silence.

For more check out GoNOMAD!

Mammoth Attraction

Kentucky is known as the Horse Capital of the World, but it’s not just the horse shows and derbies that attract travelers to this state. Mammoth Cave in central Kentucky is the world’s longest cave system, with 365 miles to explore. It’s a spot that all outdoor enthusiasts can’t resist. Read below for more from, A Park in Kentucky That Shines Brightest Below Ground.

"MAMMOTH Cave is one of the country’s less heralded national parks, a quiet gem in the rolling hills of central Kentucky. It’s one of the older ones, too, first authorized in 1926, helped along by the sensation over Collins’s plight and the futile attempt to rescue him. Two weeks of front-page articles in newspapers around the country focused attention on the region and the desire to end the cave wars by bringing many of the caves under government ownership.

It’s out of the light of day that the park really shines. Below those 80 square miles are roughly 367 miles of tunnels and chambers that formed on five levels as the water table fell over millions of years. And cavers are still exploring the unknown here, adding a mile or two each year to the underground maps.

An accident of geology has preserved these caves. Most of Mammoth is covered by a layer of shale and sandstone, cap rock that keeps surface water out. So the caves haven’t eroded to nothing and are now largely dry. But they also lack many of the fancy calcite features, like stalactites and stalagmites, that form when water seeps down through limestone for millions of years.

To see a real “show” cave you have to travel just outside the park, to a private operation like Diamond Caverns, where a break in the cap rock has allowed the surface water to seep in and create spectacular frozen folds in the rock called draperies and “cave bacon,” translucent multihued sheets of calcite.

What Mammoth has, as the name suggests, is size. A few of its chambers are as big as basketball arenas, and some of its major arteries are as wide and long as the Champs-Élysées.

To see the sights, both geological and historical, the park offers about a dozen tours. Most are relatively easy one- or two-hour walks along the major arteries, with plenty of steps but no crawling or tight spaces. On a few of the tours the rangers keep the lights off and visitors proceed by lantern light, an attempt to recreate the ambience of the early cave tours."

For more check out New York Times Travel.