There have been a few articles on destinations in the former Soviet Union, this week. Firstly we have The Age, with a story on Moscow's club scene, which is currently booming; mind you, the price of the recommended hotel at the end of the article isn't exactly geared for the independent traveller.
Next up, the New York Times spends 36 hours in Riga, the capital of Latvia, now proudly out of the Soviet sphere of influence and firmly ensconced in the EU.
Finally, for a really out-of-the-way trip, The Guardian recommends visiting Almaty, previously the capital of Kazahkstan, now just its largest city.
Getting There
Unless you're planning on cheating by flying, a trip to Riga or Moscow will most likely take you through Poland. Riga is a tad inconvenient to get to by train, requiring a journey from Warsaw to Vilnius, and then another from Vilnius to Riga. Moscow, on the other hand, is quite straightforward - there are a number of direct services from Warsaw, and even one or two from Berlin.
Almaty is another story altogether; a train trip from Moscow takes an excruciating 78 hours, departing at 22:40, arriving at 7:11, three days and eighteen hours later.
It's always wise to study a bit about the culture of your destination before you depart, if for no other reason than to avoid accidentally committing a faux-pas and leaving a bad impression upon your hosts. To this end, The Guardian has published a list of the Top 10 Travel Faux Pas.
I am somewhat inclined to disagree with their fourth entry, however, with regard to Australia - I don't believe there's anything at all wrong with inquiring about the state of Aboriginal affairs here, although, sadly, the response you get is unlikely to be accurate, if asked in urban areas.
Many of the principles that Kevin outlines for laptops can be extended to any valuable item that is carried while travelling.
Typically, when I travel, I divide my luggage into three groups; those things which I must not lose under any circumstances; items which would be a major pain to lose, but not necessarily a showstopper; and those items which, if lost, would be an inconvenience, but otherwise I'm not particularly concerned about.
In the first group go important items like passports, drivers' licences, plane and train tickets, credit and ATM cards, travellers' cheques and money. I carry all of these in a money belt, worn under my clothing. Now, this may seem inconvenient, and I'll admit, the first time I tried it, it did feel strange, but I quickly became accustomed to it, and now when I travel, I don't notice that it's there at all. The number of items that I've listed makes it sound like I'd be carrying a brick around my waist, but in practice, it's not large or heavy at all.
The important thing to note here, however, is that the money belt must be worn under your clothes to be effective; that means underneath your trousers and shirt. If you wear it on the outside of them, you're just asking for it to be pick-pocketed. Pick-pockets rely on not being detected while stealing your valuables - it would be a particularly brazen pick-pocket that attempts to get a money-belt from underneath clothing, and you'd be bound to notice them doing it.
The second group of items tend to be expensive equipment, like cameras, mobile phones and occasionally laptops. I try to keep these to a minimum; there's nothing worse than lugging heavy equipment around with you. The one time I've travelled with a laptop was on the way home from an IT conference, and it became an awful pain. I carry all these items in a small backpack, which never leaves my side unless it can be stored safely away in a locker (for example, at railway stations). On the rare occasions that I do that, I padlock the small backpack to my larger backpack, as the two bags together would be somewhat cumbersome to a thief (of course, they could just slash the bags open and steal the contents).
The final group of items are mostly clothes, towels and books; generally things that a thief doesn't want, and while it would be inconvenient to lose them, it's generally easy to replace them while travelling. These go in my main backpage, and while I make all endeavours to prevent it from being stolen (eg, padlocking or chaining it to furniture), there are always going to be times when that's not possible. Plenty of youth hostels and backpackers' hotels, for example, do not provide lockable lockers, and luggage either has to be left in an cupboard, at best, or on top of your bed at worst. Obviously, you'd be mad to leave anything of any value in your bag in such a situation.
Finally, if you're still under any illusion as to how pickpockets work, then it's well worth checking out this video:
One of my favourite TV travel documentary series has been that put together over the last two decades by former Monty Python member, Michael Palin. In fact, it was probably his documentaries that first sparked my interest in travel, as there were few other travel shows on television here in Australia, at the time, that showed off-beat and hard-to-get to destinations. Amongst many other countries, Palin did a marvellous job of opening up Russia to the world, in his programs, as it was just starting to emerge from decades of isolation from the West.
Now Palin has turned his sights on somewhere a little closer to home - in his latest documentary, New Europe, he explores Eastern Europe, visiting some the new members of the EU as well as some prospective members.
The show is currently screening on the BBC in the UK, and will be shown in November, on TV ONE in New Zealand. No word on when it will be shown and who will show it in Australia, the US or Canada.
There's an interview with Michael Palin on stuff.co.nz here.
The International Air Transport Association is pushing to allow passengers to use mobile phones to check-in into their flights. The theory, as described in the article, is that the system will send bar-code images to the phone, which are then directly scanned while boarding.
I wonder if there is a point where a passenger's identification is checked by a human? I've noticed that ID checking within Australian airports, for domestic flights, has become rather lax; on my last flight to Sydney, not a single person asked for mine - and at one point, when I offered my driver's licence to the check-in attendant, she said, "Oh no, we don't need that". So the only ID check that was ever done on me was by the self-check-in computer, when I entered my booking number.
Now, I know that I'm one of the first people to complain about some of the over-the-top security measures that many governments are putting into air-travel, but checking ID is one of the simpler, less intrusive measures. How hard can it be for them to do that properly?
Germany is well-known for some of its historic cities that look like they're straight out of a fairytale, and Lübeck, the former capital of the Hanseatic League, certainly falls into this category. If you're a medieval-architecture aficionado, you'll be in your element here, with three areas listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The old city area is situated on an island in the middle of the river Trave. The town is famous for the towers that form one of its two remaining city gates, the Holstentor, located in the west of the city and likely to be the first landmark you see if you arrive by train.
Other famous sights include the Marienkirche, the imposing 14th-century Gothic-style cathedral - the third largest church in Germany; the Heiligen-Geist Hospital, a medieval almshouse; the Burgtor, the Castle Gate to the north of the city; and the 13th century town-hall in the centre of the city.
Lübeck has two youth hostels: the Altstadt hostel, located in the old city, about ten minutes walk from the railway station (84 beds, €17,10 per night), and Vor dem Burgtor, located at the north end of the city (211 beds, €16,00 per night).
There's an hourly Regionalexpress rail service from Hamburg (50 minutes), and also from Kiel (one hour and twelve minutes), so Lübeck can make an ideal day trip from either of those two locations. Lübeck is also served by the rail/ferry service to Copenhagen, Denmark (four hours), via Puttgarden, and hence makes a worthy stop on a trip to Scandinavia.
British adventurer Jason Lewis has been circumnavigating the world for thirteen years using only his own legs as power, and the BBC reports that he has finally arrived home.
Lewis set out in 1994, from the UK, first by bike and then in a pedal boat across the English channel to France. Now, after a trip in which he was hit by a car and nearly had a leg amputated and was thrown into jail in Egypt, he has finally arrived back in Dorset.
The mind boggles as to how the world has changed in 13 years; the world-wide-web was only just starting out at that time, and there have been numerous conflicts and upheavals. Spending that much time on the move must surely leave a person in a state where they're in for quite a few shocks upon returning home...
It's rarely a good idea to arrive in a new town without any idea of why you're going there, or what there is to see and do. Even if you carry a guidebook with you, you'll likely waste a good deal of time scouring it for information, when you could be out enjoying your travel.
What should you be looking for? Well, looking into the history of a town is a great start. It can help explain many things, from just the layout of a town, to an insight into the behaviour, culture or language of its citizens.
Studying a map of the town before you arrive allows you to quickly gather your bearings, rather than wasting the first couple of hours of your time getting from the central station to your hostel, and learning how the public transport works will help you avoid being dumped on the outskirts of town by the wrong bus. And even if that does happen, at least you'll know you had the right ticket and won't get fined by roving inspectors.
So, where to start your research? It's hard to go past Wikipedia. While there are justified concerns about the state of many of its articles, I've found that the standard of geographical articles to be high, and even if you don't trust the content, the references can be excellent.
Check out the websites of universities and other educational institutions in the countries to which you're travelling. Often their history departments will be the foremost authorities on their country's past - not surprisingly - and may even publish their papers online, which could be great sources of information.
The Age is reporting that the commercial arm of the Lonely Planet, the publishers of the travel-guide books that many of us make considerable use of. The founds will keep a 25% stake of the company.
I will confess that I'm a big fan of the books (although a little less so of some of the maps in them), and have regularly used them for planning trips and for finding out-of-the-way places of interest that a traveller might not necessarily discover themselves. I realise that there's a couple of diametrically opposed poles when it comes to guidebooks - those who consider them responsible for "cookie-cutter" travel and those who take one everywhere they go.
I definitely fall somewhere towards the latter group; you definitely need to research your destination before you go, and it really helps to know its history. It's not always possible for people to spend weeks in a library or on the internet tracking down the right information, and a well-written guidebook can provide everything from useful history, to accomodation advice and transit planning. Furthermore, there's always going to be a town or city where the attractions are so hidden, or off-beat, that a newcomer is unlikely to be able to find them for themselves, and a guidebook can definitely help them make the most of their trip.
So, with that said, I must say that I got somewhat of a shock to see Lonely Planet being sold. Obviously, they could have done far worse than the BBC; at least we can be sure that their editorial independence is safe - but I do wonder what happens in the long term if the BBC ever decides to sell...
