Found 10 posts tagged as "Noah Wheelock"
In a move that sent both of our mothers into a maternal tizzy, my wife and I recently made the decision to go to Israel and the Middle East this summer. While admittedly tensions in the region have been running a bit hot recently, our choice to go now was based on the following factors:
1. We've both always wanted to go;
2. Due to scheduling conflicts, this will be our only real vacation in the next year;
3. We're incredibly stubborn; and
4. It seems that tensions are always high in the Middle East no matter when you go, so why not go now?
More reasonably, a close friend from Tel Aviv has let me know that he has never encountered any conflicts or major issues in Israel, despite living there his whole life. Combined with our overwhelming stubbornness, that was endorsement enough to get us to book our tickets.
Safari. There are few words in the adventure traveller's lexicon more likely to get their hearts racing. Eastern Africa is a mecca for safaris and the Serengeti is rightfully the granddaddy of them all. This means that most of those wanting the life-changing experience of seeing an elephant in the wild make the trip to East Africa, and more specifically, to Kenya and Tanzania. However, one lesser-visited neighbour offers you that same opportunity and a whole lot more: Uganda.
As of the time of writing this, the Vancouver Canucks have just booked their ticket to the Stanley Cup finals and hockey fans from around the country are getting excited. The possibility of a Canadian team winning the Cup has definitely created a buzz north of the border. However, it's not just in Canada that you can hear the excitement and it's not just the Canucks booking their tickets - anyone watching Vancouver's road games in San Jose will have noted the numerous chants of "Luuuu!" from the stands, encouraging goalie Roberto Luongo on. While a number of these Canucks fans in attendance live in the U.S., a large number had made their way down from the great white north in order to cheer their team on.
Road trips to watch sports can be big business - think of the money places invest to host Olympics, World Cups, and Superbowls. They can also be a heck of a lot of fun and a great excuse for a vacation.
When going travelling, being a male has some distinct advantages. For example, some cultures are more accepting of a man travelling alone than a woman. And being able to pee standing up is a definite bonus, particularly when hiking through unknown foliage.
Women innately have some greater challenges than men when travelling alone (when was the last time you read a section on "Men's Safety" in a travel book?). However, while guys traditionally tend to under-pack, one thing we like to bring with us when we travel is an air of invincibility. Especially when travelling solo, it's important to remember that guys have to watch out for perils as well.
 When going on a shorter vacation, figuring out a budget and saving up in advance is the usual plan of attack. (Or, if you're like me, phoning up Visa and Mastercard and asking politely for an extended credit limit). But what if you're "living the dream"? You've quit your job, bought yourself an open-ended ticket and headed off to parts unknown. It sounds amazing, but around Day 2 you realize: food costs money here, too!
Working abroad is not only possible, but can actually be a pretty great way to extend your trip and get more out of it. Here are the easiest ways to work on the road.
 "Are your animals fattening up nicely?" It doesn't seem like it's in the top 10 phrases you'd need to know when visiting a new country, but amazingly, when you're in Mongolia, it is. "Mal sureg targan tavtai yuu?" is actually the customary way of greeting a Mongolian herder in the Gobi Desert. ("Fattening up nicely, thank you!" is the standard response.)
For some people, the thought of visiting Mongolia seems even less likely than the thought of asking strangers if their animals are fattening up nicely. For others, however, off the beaten path is exactly where they'd like to be, as these locations provide the opportunity for adventure and the chance to see places and cultures unlike anything they've ever seen before.
New Years Eve is grossly overrated. The best nights on the town are rarely ever on New Year's – the ones that always stand out are the ones that begin with an accidental bottle of wine on a random November Tuesday afternoon.
It's the same with travel. When going on a trip, being flexible is one the best ways to ensure you enjoy your travels. I am not talking here of the ability to physically contort yourself so that you can jam your way onto a Bolivian chicken bus along with approximately 82 locals (although that definitely can be handy). But the willingness to change your plans and do something completely spontaneous can help lead to those really special, one-of-a-kind travel experiences.
 Language is a funny thing. Practice may make perfect, but it still doesn't mean you'll be able to find your way to the Kyoto Zoo.
As a teenager on a high school exchange to Japan, I had decided on my day in Kyoto that I wanted to visit the zoo. I worked on the phrase, "Where is the zoo?" for the better part of the morning and, feeling confident, finally hit the streets and made my way towards my destination.
When I knew I was getting near, I asked a stranger where the zoo was. "Doubutsuen wa doko desu ka?" It turns out I had remembered the phrase correctly and he understood me. The problem was that, in hearing my overly-rehearsed pronunciation, he assumed I spoke a little of the language, and so he answered me.
I hadn't been prepared for that.
 Canada is a fantastic country, but sometimes it strikes me as an inhumane place to live. Not only do we have some of the coldest winters on the planet, we get close to the least number of holidays of anywhere in the world with which to escape them. So, it’s not surprising that we take our holidays extremely seriously – if we get only two weeks, we are going to use them exactly how we darn well please!
What, however, of when you are traveling with someone else and their idea for a trip isn’t the same as yours? Many of us travel with our significant others; what if they don’t want to do the trip how you want to do it or go where you want to go? With a week in the Caribbean on the line, relationships have crumbled for far less.
A monkey in a diaper. That might not be everyone’s central memory of a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, but it ended up being mine. Traveling with a friend on the journey, we’d ended up in a train car with a group of circus performers from Omsk. At one station, we all disembarked to get snacks and, having forgotten my wallet, I returned to the car. There, I found myself alone, save for a circus-performing monkey, wearing a diaper and coolly staring at me, judging me. And not too favourably, if I have to be honest.
Travel for me is always highlighted by experiences like these as much as by sightseeing. The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is without a doubt one of the most breathtaking pieces of architecture I’ve ever witnessed, but my trip to Turkey was equally memorable for the day I received an overly-rigorous Turkish massage and was invited to a dinner at the home of a family I met on a ferry on the Bosphorus.
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