Affordable Travel

If you have heard about the Scottish whiskey distillery tours or the Micro Brewery tour guides written for those who want to travel the world in search of better beer, you already know that many travelers design their itineraries around drinks. One popular drink in the southern USA is homemade, illegal corn liquor. But because it is against the law to make and sell it, those who want to take a moonshine tour of the southern states will find that it requires underground research and lots of word of mouth directions. For instance, near the town of Johnson City, TN, there is a famous moonshine maker, but his name is kept a secret. Near Newport TN, there is a bar inside a private home, where moonshine is sold alongside other drinks, and the various kinds of moonshine are listed on the menu and on big boards behind the bar. But it is also kept a secret, to keep from being exposed to the authorities. A reporter for the Boston Globe newspaper attempted to learn more about the moonshine of the southern Appalachian mountains, but he had to be introduced to the “mountain dew” by local friends who connected him to their private sources.

If you travel through the region of Appalachia, and attend fiddle festivals and other country music gatherings, you will eventually find what you’re looking for. Moonshine is passed around campfires in jelly jars, and when you are offered it, you can test how good it is by shaking the jar to see if it produces little champagne bubbles – the more bubbles, the better. Be sure to ask where you can get more, if you want to take a jar home with you. But watch out for the law, because this is one kind of cocktail that you can’t order in your local watering hole.

The last time I crossed into Canada from the USA, near Buffalo, NY, I had an interesting encounter with the Canadian customs officer there. He was a nice young fellow, and seemed a bit shook up that morning, because right before I got there, he had encountered another US citizen who had given him a fright. “I don’t get paid enough to come to work and deal with the prospect of getting shot,” he said to me, after asking me if I was carrying any firearms. I had said no, and then he had told me that the last guy he asked that of said no, but that the officer spotted a pistol under the driver’s seat. “It was a 9 mm pistol, so I had to deal with the fact that the guy was not only carrying a gun, but he was lying to me about it. I thought that maybe he was dangerous” the customs officer said. “As it turned out, the gun was a BB gun, made to look like a real 9 mm semi automatic weapon.

After assuring him that I wasn’t carrying any guns, including BB guns, the office waved me into his country with a sigh. But it points out the fine line between what is legal and not legal. If you are attempting to cross the border, do yourself and the border guards a favor and don’t carry any guns, even toy guns or BB guns. After all, if you are going to the peaceful land of Canada, chances are you won’t have much need for a pistol.

Within the so-called “Crescent City” of New Orleans, American jazz was born, encouraged, and flourished, thanks to the creative energy of men like Jelly Roll Morton, who is regarded as the first great jazz composer. The Storyville neighborhood was a musical incubator for jazz, until the federal government closed it down in 1917, when alcohol became illegal during the era of the Great Prohibition.

“That kind of music followed the night life, the drinking, and the all-night parties” notes Bill Smith, a jazz historian. “So when they shut down Storyville, the musicians all lost their jobs. Many of them began to work entertaining people on the luxurious riverboats, the so-called gambling boats that traveled up and down the Mississippi River. Because the musicians migrated in search of work, and the music followed the parties and the liquor, jazz was soon transplanted to Memphis and Chicago, where other unique styles of jazz were created.”

Thanks to recorded music, radio, and the advent of television, jazz quickly spread all over the USA and across the oceans, back to the shores of those places where its seeds first sprouted before the great social and cultural immigrations into New Orleans. If you want to really enjoy jazz, plan a trip that will let you trace its roots across the USA back to the great city of New Orleans. Along the way you can listen to the various styles of jazz that evolved as it traveled upriver.

One way to see the world and not have to worry about losing income by being on vacation the whole time, is to work as a house sitter for someone in a foreign country. Many people travel for work or fun, and are away from home for extended periods of time, making it necessary for them to find someone – often a person paid a hefty sum – to look after their home while they are away. Responsibilities include those that any home owner is used to doing for themselves: taking care of getting the bills paid on time, fixing minor repairs like leaky faucets, and ensuring that the houseplants, gardens, and pets are well taken care of while the owner is away from home.

If you happen to meet someone who is traveling – a very easy thing to do if you are also traveling on vacation in a popular holiday destination – consider swapping house space with them, and letting them hire you as their house sitter, in exchange for lodging. For example, if you are in New York and you meet someone from London who is going to be there for a few months each year for study or work, you can make an arrangement to stay in their home in London while they are away. This gives you a chance to live in London for a discounted (or even free) lodging expense, while you work as their house sitter. And it gives them the peace of mind of knowing that somebody is home, taking care of things while they are away.

The bustling harbor city of Hong Kong is such a large business center that it boasts one of the largest gross national products in the world, larger than most nations. Yet the former British Colony, now controlled by China, is a rather small city in terms of its land mass. But the skyscrapers are crammed full, and the population is in the tens of millions. To walk the streets of Hong Kong, like the popular Nathan Road, is to be in the middle of a rushing crowd of people that move so fast that it is impossible to take a leisurely stroll along the sidewalks of Hong Kong, where you almost have to sprint to stay up to speed.

Tourists arrive primarily by air, and the Hong Kong International Airport is one of the busiest. All the large hotel chains are represented here, and one of the most prestigious local hotels is the Peninsula Hotel. Although you may not be able to afford one of its pricey rooms, you can always enjoy one of the restaurants or lounges inside the hotel.

One of the biggest reasons to visit Hong Kong is for shopping. Because this is the center of exports for the whole world, you can find anything and everything here, especially if you want electronics or fabric, two specialties. You can have a suit tailored to fit you in a matter of days, for a price that will make your wallet happy and your friend jealous. Visit Hong Kong, but be prepared to shop until you drop.

If you are a traveler, you know that a long plane ride or cramped bus or train seat can leave you aching – literally – for a good stretch and workout when you finally arrive at your destination. And many hotels offer gyms, swimming pools, and other options to help you get some needed physical exercise while you are on the road. But sometimes you are stuck without ample facilities to get a good workout, and at such times it is a great idea to have some simple and no-frills exercise programs to keep you going strong.

One great way to exercise, even if you are just laid over in an airport, is to use the increasingly popular exercise rubber bands that are sold to pilates students. These rubber bands, rubber tubes, and other forms of stretchy – put highly resistant – rubber exercise training aids are easy to carry with you, don’t set off the metal detectors, and offer great isometric workout options. Just pull them out, find a quiet corner of the airport or wherever you happen to be, and do a routine. They give you a workout similar to the kind you get from lifting weights, but they depend upon the strength of resistance, so the bands themselves are easy to transport, lightweight, and it is hard to injure yourself by straining while using them.

So find a set of exercise bands, learn a few routine exercises, and you will never want for a good aerobic and isometric workout, not matter where your travels lead you.