What $1 Can Do

A survey done by Lonely Planet through Facebook asked people from different countries what $1 can buy in their country. They comments are very interesting. In some countries, $1 can buy you a nice foot massage but in others it can do nothing!

Chester, England: US$1 (63 pence) gets me half a loaf of bread. As for Philippines, one of the best things you can get with $1 is a big bag of sweets to keep in your backpack, to hand out to kids. – James

Vienna: a dollar would buy you a freshly baked Kornspitz (a kind of bread roll), but wouldn’t be enough for a salty pickle from a street market or a short-distance public transport ticket. However, with the change from that Kornspitz, you can visit the museum of applied art (MAK) on a Saturday since it’s free of charge. – Dilyan

Tenerife, Canary Islands: it will get you a good cup of coffee in the capital, Santa Cruz, but in the tourist areas of the South you will be lucky if it gets you half a cup. – Linda

South India: it will give a unlimited servings of rice with rasam, sambhar, curd, papad, 1 piece sweet on a banana leaf. – Tarun

Cebu, Philippines: $1 can get 30-45 minutes of a glorious foot massage – Dexter

Nepal: you can get momo (ten units of dumpling) and a 250ml of coke. – Niraj

Croatia:  a big scoop of ice-cream. – Morana

The UK: 60 pence buys you about 3/4 litre of milk, half a litre of petrol/diesel for your car, 2 cigarettes (that’s two single ones, not a packet), 3 apples, 2 days supply of the Sun tabloid newspaper, a small portion of fries from Maccy D’s or a can of coke from my office vending machine. – Alex

Denmark: you can get a litre of milk, a ciabatta bun in the Godthaabsvej Bakery, a stamp for a postcard/letter with receiver in Denmark, a cucumber or maybe a chocolate bar. 1 dollar = 5,5 danish kroner – Sandra

Budapest: 1 scoop of ice cream/4 small apples/1 plain hamburger at McDonald’s/1 postcard/1 daily newspaper/30 minutes parking in the downtown area – Csaba

Canada: Nothing! Haha. Blame it on Canadian taxes – Ashley

Faroe Islands: a pack of chewing gum, 2 apples at the supermarket, some candy probably, hardly anything – Bjarki

Vietnam: you can buy either 1 hat, 1 or 2 magazine(s), 1 DVD, 3 pairs of flip sandals, 5 instant noodle packages or snacks, 1 meal in some cheap food courts. ALOT, rite? – Lynn

In middle Italy: a litre of cheap wine or 1kg Spaghetti or 6 bottles of mineral water and just about one tablet of Ibruprofen which you might need if you drank the cheap vino!!! – Robert

Chiang Mai: The question is, what can’t you get in Chiang Mai for US$1? Street food doesn’t usually cost more than that. I even get a cooked to order vegetarian lunch delivered to my office everyday for that price. – Sheila

Bogota, Colombia: A cup of coffee and 2 fresh baked cookies. Or an arepa with some spicy home made aji salsa! – Andrew

Seoul: one subway or bus ticket and a mask pack for your skin. – Yun

Egypt: you could buy a koshary plate which is an Egyptian dish which basically includes spaghetti, rice, lentil and fried onions on the top. Another choice would be about ten Fool (beans) sandwiches maybe even some falafel or in other parts of Cairo just a donut. – Aly

India:  ‎1USD = around 50 Indian Rupees which can get you a hearty meal of boiled rice, dal, vegetables, pickles, chutney and papads in a Kolkata ‘basa’ …and it’s usually eat as much as you want! – Priyanka

Costa Rica: you can buy one papaya, one watermelon, one pineapple… and perhaps a cup of coffee of decent quality. – Luis

Los Angeles: one hour of street parking – Christina

Paris: about 40% of an espresso at Starbucks. – Michael

Dubai: a dollar will get you a ‘Jabal Al Noor’ shawarma. – Ineke

Portugal: 1 espresso coffee. Except if you are in the airport. – Nuno

Australia: a scratchy (lottery ticket) with the chance of getting enough cash together for your next trip – Kin

If you have limited budget, your best choice is Indonesia, Thailand, and India!

Good deeds that you can do

This morning I read an interesting news story about an international biker who cooks for local families all over the world. His name is Jay and he is from India. In the beginning he cooked for the family that hosted him for free to show "gratitude for a free stay". Later on he realized that he enjoyed sharing his home food with people from other cultures; food brought people closer to each other. Food is a big part of Indian culture and cooking Indian food is sharing his culture with them. Click here to view this news.

 

Jay's famous dish "Curry Chicken"

 

 

I agree with Jay's attitude towards the place that you travel to and the people there. Many people do not like tourists because tourists cause chaos in the local community. I am from a city that has a huge tourism industry; the city is by the ocean so it's famous for the beautiful beach, sea food and the Beer Festival. Every summer millions of people visit the city. The large amount of tourists is often the reason for prices being raised, traffic and noise violations in the district near the beach. Tourists have brought inconvenience to local people's everyday life.

 

It is important to be aware of the local community and show your respect to people. Jay inspired me to give something back to the community that I travel to; little actions like cooking a meal for them can show our appreciation for their hospitality. Respecting them and their culture can also bring you closer to them. Little good deeds that you do can make people happy, and you will also be more satisfied with your journey!

 

Giving something back to the place I visit is my goal for the next trip.

 

 

World Traveler: Lao Mo

If you are wondering how people choose their career as a world traveler, this is the post you need to read. Haoquan Mo is a professional photographer in China. He publishes his photos under the alias of “Lao Mo”. Lao Mo graduated with an Interior Design major; however, he had always been interested in Photography. He was an active member of a photography club in college, and once in a while he would get paid to do portrait photo shoots for other people. He travels around the world when he has some money saved up. I honored to be introduced to him through a photographer friend. I interviewed Lao Mo through RenRen (Chinese version of Facebook). Our interview conversation is translated from Chinese.

Q: I know that you've always loved photography, but what was the turning point that made you choose to be a full time photographer?
A: I got a chance to work in my aunt’s photography studio when I was a junior. It was amazing to use those professional equipment and work with professional photographers. My job was to take street shots of people in fashionable clothes. I did what I loved to do and it was interactive; I met many interesting people while working. So I thought taking photos is what I do in most of my spare time anyways, so why not make it full time!
 
Q: How did you start doing travel photography?
A: My aunt’s studio was doing a project for a travel magazine so we traveled to Taiwan for that. That trip really got me into travel photography. It’s such an awesome combination of what I love to do!

 Q: Do you usually travel with a travel agency or do you plan your own trip and travel alone?
A: I prefer traveling alone or with few close friends, but not with travel agencies and a big group though.

Q: Why is that?
A: Well… travel agency makes everything a lot easier, but I would like to have the freedom to manage my time and do what I enjoy doing. With a big group, I need to go visit places where I’m not interested in. And one time when I was in Italy, I saw a beautiful architecture and wanted to take a few shots of it so I told the tour guide to wait for me for 5 minutes. I don’t remember how long I took because I always get lost in time when taking photos, and when I got back to where the bus was, there was no one. I had to take a taxi back to our hotel and it cost me a lot of money. That was when I realized photographers like me should not go with a group. So I told my tour guide that I won’t be with the group in the remaining of the trip and that worked out.

Q: That was interesting! What’s your favorite country among all the countries you’ve been to?
A: I have to say that every country is unique in its own way. I enjoy most of my trips because I get to learn new cultures and try new food… I love dining in local restaurants! My favorite one is the trip to Thailand. It was an awesome experience. Thailand is a country full of the influence of traditional culture, so everywhere I go I hear stories about that place. And also I love Thai food. I spend a whole day in a street market eating local snacks and buying souvenirs. Of course I also took many amazing pictures. Thailand is a beautiful country.

Q: That sounds fun! Last question… what do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind while planning a trip?
A: I would say knowing the season of your destination is very important. Some countries like Thailand can get pretty hot in April, so if you aren't use to the heat you will not have a enjoyable trip. Some places might still be cold in June and you want to make sure you are ready for it. Try to visit the country during its best season I would suggest.
It was great to chat with a world traveler and hear his experience in traveling. Hope his suggestions are useful to you all. 

Follow Me

Nowadays, social media are becoming part of people's lives by changing ways people communicate. People no longer communicate with only who they know but also to whom they have never met. They share ideas and experiences with others through words and images and others can exchange thoughts through same ways.

Due to the characteristics of social media, a platform for free expression without the constrain of time and location, they are widely used by world travelers. A collaboration of social media and photography is Instagram. Instagram is listed as one of the most useful application for travelers because it can instantly add effects to your photos and make them look like taken by pros, and share them with your followers to update where you have been. Recently a series of pictures of a girl leading the photographer into different historical sites became popular on Intagram.

Check out more photos here. 

 

The photographer is Murad Osmann. He graduated as a civil engineer from Imperial College London, but later he started his own production company Hype Production. His girlfriend Natalia is a Russian journalist. He explained what inspired him,

The first photo happened accidentally in Barcelona when Natalia and Murad were on vacation. "Nataly was a bit annoyed that I was always taking pictures of everything, so she grabbed my hand and tried to pull me forward," he explained to The Daily Mail UK.

This group of photos brought him 50,000 followers on Instagram and many people start taking traveling pictures in the "follow me" style.

A Grasshopper's Thought

Remember my blog post "Sites Filmed in Movies and TV Shows"? In the post I talked about how liking a movie or a TV show could inspire you to visit the place where it's filmed. I found a blog post with similar idea on "Globalgrasshopper". It's called "10 Movies that'll Make You Want to Visit London".

I was attracted by this name "Globalgrasshopper"; I knew that it's not like any other travel blogs. Globalgrasshopper is run by a couple from the UK, Gray and Becky. Both Gray and Becky are obsessed with traveling and tracing their footprints with photography. Gray is a professional web and graphic designer, and also a travel photographer. And Becky enjoys writing, which made them a perfect team to run this blog. Besides them, there are other world travelers and explorers from around the world who write for Globalgrasshoppers. Such as this post, "10 Movies that'll Make You Want to Visit London", is written by Priscilla Blossom, a US travel writer.

In the post she introduced 10 old and new movies that are filmed in London. Most of them are quite well known in the world such as Mary Poppins, Notting Hill, Love Actually and Skyfall. My personal favorite of these reconmendations is Notting Hill. Regardless of the love story between an actress and a bookstore keeper, the town gives people a feeling of home, thus I want to visit there indeed. The good news is that she had included the real name of the town and also recommended a hotel to stay in. Besides that, she suggested the near-by sites that people can visit without going out of their way. Other movie locations were also introduced like this one.

I'm glad to find someone who also have a feeling about the connection between movies and traveling. Hopefully I can go on a journey like this one day! 

The Jobs that You Can Do

Will you take a job that allows you to travel all over the world? I will for sure! 

I've always wondered what job will support world traveling and today when I was on StumbleUpon, I came across an article called "45 Great Jobs You Can Do While Traveling The World And How To Get Them" and I want to share it with you guys. 45 jobs! Wow... I could only think of 3 before reading it. The jobs that are listed includes Freelance Travel Writing, Travel Blogging, Flight Attendant, Peace Corps, Interpreter, Online Poker Player, Freelance Photographer, Travel Agent, ESL Teacher and many more. My personal two favorite jobs listed are Peace Corps Volunteer and Freelance Photographer. 

The Peace Corps is a volunteer program run by the United States government. The stated mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance; helping people outside the United States to understand American culture; and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries. I want to spend some time to do volunteer work at some point of my life, and it would be ideal to volunteer in a foreign country. Freelance Photographers are self employed. They first make a picture and then offer it for sale or display. 

These experiences are unique and meaningful, and I hope one of them could be achieved while having the freedom to travel.