So There I Was…

For someone who is generally healthy and rarely gets sick, I hadn’t really given too much thought to what medical precautions I should be taking while on the road. Turns out I not only should have been thinking about it, I should have gotten a second job to pay for it all. These darn medical bills are really going to cut into my beer budget. 🙂

The first travel doctor I talked to wanted $60 for the office visit and then $200-300 more depending on what vaccines and pills I got. So I decided to do some research first. The Center for Disease Control has a great website with loads of information for travelers. I finally decided I can get by with just a few of the more common vaccines.

I don’t plan on being off the beaten path too much, but there are obviously a lot of risks of food-bourne diseases, and lots of nasty stuff that you can get from mosquitoes. And you never know when the urge to get another tattoo might strike, so I have to think about nasty needles too. [read on]

I’m sure that my legions of fans would love an easy way to know when I post new content here, without having to remember to check my site every day. Enter the RSS Feed. RSS/Atom feeds are a great way to track new content on websites, blogs, and the like.

MSN, Yahoo, and Google all offer the ability to create personalized home pages, and you can add RSS feeds to these pages. When you add content to your page, simply look for “RSS” and add in the following URL:

http://blogs.bootsnall.com/tmags/wp-rss2.php

You can also subscribe to feeds using other more elaborate tools called RSS readers, but this is the easiest way.

Feel free to send questions if you need to.

Happy Feeding!

Tim

In July I will be traveling to Tanzania, Africa with the hope of summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro. This is a big deal. At 19,340 feet (5,895 meters), it is definitely a force to be reckoned with. But what a beautiful thing it is…

This picture is courtesy of BootsnAll staffer Donovan and MtKilimanjaro.org

It was reported yesterday that William Shatner auctioned off a kidney stone for $25,000. The proceeds went to Habitat for Humanity.

So what’s this have to do with travel? Absolutely nothing! But Habitat is a great cause which I’m happy to support.

For the past year or so, I’ve been playing Ultimate Frisbee with a city league team called the Orange Slices. This past weekend we played in the Winter Thing, a local tournament to raise money for the high school teams in Eugene.

Over the two days we played five games and had an absolute blast. And it got me to thinking about how I could play Ultimate while travelling. It turns out that Ultimate is popular all over the world.

So I guess if I ever find myself alone in a strange place and I don’t know the language, I’ll just pull out my frisbee.

OK, I admit it. I love all things Google. It started out with the simple search engine. Then Gmail. Soon I discovered Picasa, Google’s free photo software. And what about Google Maps with Satellite and Google Earth. It’s all here.

My latest toy is Google Talk. It’s a new messaging app that also lets you make phone calls over the internet for free. All you need is a broadband connection, and a speaker and microphone or one of those geeky telemarketing headsets. I’m going to see if I can make it work with a bluetooth headset, then I can get up and wander around while I talk.

I’m thinking this is going to save me a lot of money on calls while traveling. Pretty cool, eh?

Two of my goals for this RTW trip:

1. Find a way to “give back” by donating some of my time and energy to a worthwhile cause

2. Stay off of the tourist track and immerse myself in the local cultures as much as possible.

I’ve found what I think is the perfect way to accomplish both of these. My first stop will be Manukau, New Zealand, where I’ll meet up with a group of 12-14 others to help build houses for those who need a decent, affordable place to live.

As a part of Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program, I’ll work alongside the locals, get to learn the culture, and have the opportunity to explore the region as well.

HFH New Zealand has a partnership with a local Maori tribe and the New Zealand government. Land is provided by the Maori tribe, and Habitat and the Government share in providing the funds to build the houses. HFH New Zealand also has a “house for a house” tithe policy where, for every house built in the country, a like amount is sent to a developing country.

Check out my HFH page to learn more. And, if you’re so inclined, drop a couple bucks in the hat too. Although I’m financing this RTW trip myself, I am looking for sponsors to help offset the cost of my participation in the Global Village program. And check it out: HFH is a charitable organization, so your donations may be tax-deductible! Every little bit helps, and it’s such a worthwhile cause, so please pass it on to everyone you know.

See you down under!

I bought my ticket to New Zealand last week. Air New Zealand now has a direct flight from SFO to Auckland, and my fare was just $556! Holy Airplane, Batman!