{"id":4178,"date":"2010-10-08T10:28:55","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T14:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/?p=4178"},"modified":"2010-10-08T10:28:55","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T14:28:55","slug":"travel-bits-bite-sized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2010\/10\/08\/travel-bits-bite-sized\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel Bits (Bite-sized!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t like checking luggage. \u00c2\u00a0At all. \u00c2\u00a0And I don&#8217;t see why 90% of the people that do it, do it. \u00c2\u00a0No need to check a thing, with a bit of planning, willingness to absorb astronomical hotel laundry charges (or &#8211; my usual choice &#8211; <em>do your own damn laundry)<\/em>, and purchase of quality clothes in the the first place. \u00c2\u00a0As my kitchen-sink packing friends can attest, I&#8217;m quite proud of multiple-continent-multiple-week trips accomplished with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brenthaven.com\/catalog-prostyle-bp-xf.html\">laptop backpack<\/a> and a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kennethcole.com\/product\/index.jsp?productId=4338594&amp;cp=3075296\">medium duffel<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0So, all that out of the way, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\/2010\/09\/13\/rolf-potts-is-travel.html\">these guys are nuts<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In what is potentially the most minimal &#8220;technomadic&#8221; experiment ever, Rolf Potts (author of one of my favorite travel\/lifestyle books\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vagabonding.net\/book\/\"><em>Vagabonding<\/em><\/a>) has set out on 6-week, 12-country, round-the-world trip\u00c2\u00a0<em>without a single piece of luggage<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That&#8217;s a bit of a promotional gimmick, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gadling.com\/2008\/10\/21\/how-to-pack-for-a-5-day-trip-in-a-carry-on-bag-laptop-and-video\/\">this guy appears to be serious<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1995161&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1995161&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/1995161\"><em>How to take as much as you like in your hand luggage<\/em><\/a><em> from <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/matadornetwork\"><em>Matador Network<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s also a great illustration of the tragedy of the commons &#8211; his carry-on antics squeeze out \u00c2\u00a0folks who would just like to put their bags in the overhead. \u00c2\u00a0On the other hand, if you&#8217;re flying <a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.darkpatterns.org\/wiki\/Trick_questions\">Ryan Air<\/a>, you&#8217;re just asking for this kind of company.<\/p>\n<p>~<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, it doesn&#8217;t matter how much you pack, but\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wanderingearl.com\/the-day-us-customs-found-a-bullet-in-my-pocket\/\"><em>what<\/em><\/a><em> you pack:<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Immigration Officer swiped my passport, glanced at his computer screen and almost immediately stamped me back into the country. But just before I started to walk away he asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So you went to Afghanistan and Pakistan. How was it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The only reply that I could muster up was a quiet, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very interesting.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He then called the next person in line and I turned away, relieved beyond belief at how well that had gone. Of course, that relief lasted a mere six seconds, right until the moment when a Customs Officer approached and asked me to step over to one of the inspection tables.<\/p>\n<p>The following hour and a half of my life is a period of time that I will never forget and truthfully, never really want to endure ever again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s a funny read. \u00c2\u00a0If you&#8217;re into black humor.<\/p>\n<p>~<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of jokes, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/travel-safety-security\/1132584-fair-not-everybody-hates-tsa.html\">everyone hates the TSA<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/14874085-post5.html\">Everyone<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>~<\/p>\n<p>A long long time ago, I used to be a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldmate.com\/\">WorldMate<\/a> user on my Palm Treo. \u00c2\u00a0At some point I decided it wasn&#8217;t worth upgrading, and stopped using it. \u00c2\u00a0I just gave it another look, in Android version, and wow. \u00c2\u00a0Good stuff. \u00c2\u00a0Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t like checking luggage. \u00c2\u00a0At all. \u00c2\u00a0And I don&#8217;t see why 90% of the people that do it, do it. \u00c2\u00a0No need to check a thing, with a bit of planning, willingness to absorb astronomical hotel laundry charges (or &#8211; my usual choice &#8211; do your own damn laundry), and purchase of quality clothes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-tech","category-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4194,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions\/4194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}