One Year Later

One year to the day, I’m back again. After what seems like a very long, overdue absence, I’ve decided to revisit Passport Confessional because I’ve realized one thing: my hunger for travel isn’t over just yet.

Exactly one year ago, as I wrote my last post, “Canadian Roots,” I was sitting in a hotel room in Calgary, Alberta, waiting out the blast of a massive, icy snowstorm to pass through the night. Today, I’m at home, back here in L.A., looking out onto a street that, already, bears no signs of the much more miniscule Pacific rainstorm that passed through here just hours ago.

I miss New York sometimes.

So much has happened in this past year that I don’t even know where to begin. I suppose I’ll keep things short and to the point.

I moved to New York and started a new job. I loved it there, even though it could be tough (Six-floor walk-up? No sweat for me these days!), even though I really dreaded traveling on the subway in the deadening humidity of summer, and even though I pretty much lived paycheck to paycheck (Oh, the high cost of living in NYC).

I traveled to Izmir, Turkey. 

Please don't try this at home.

Then I traveled to Disneyland for an assignment. 

Then I moved back to LA. 

I learned how to shoot guns in Montana (an experience I’m not so sure I will want to repeat). 

I traveled to Vancouver, B.C., for the first time and discovered the joy of bacon ice cream sandwiches (no joke, the proof is on its way in a future post).

When I had to leave my job in New York and move back to L.A., I wasn’t sure I’d still be able to call myself a travel writer, even though I continue to freelance for the NYC publications I had to leave. I struggled to define what I was without those editorial titles or frequent press trip requests. But, over time, I’ve realized that, title or not, sharing the travel experiences that I’ve had—and the ones I’ve yet to encounter—is what really defines me as a writer, as a travel writer.

So, without any further delay, I’m back and I hope to be writing about some of those trips right here again very soon. 

Travel With a Passion

If you really love to travel, you have to have a passion either for it, or behind it. Being on the road or in the air on a constant basis can be tough—umm, just ask Steven Slater, my new hero. (BTW, people who stand up out of their seats right after the plane lands are as contemptible as people who constantly kick the chair in front of them, and people who don’t understand the concept of personal space—ewww. Feel free to share some of your top travel annoyances, too.) 

Anyway, that’s why I really admire people who pursue travel, even for the most obscure of reasons or passions, simply because (a) they love to travel or (b) they want to do something with their travels.

Doing something doesn’t have to necessarily be something like stopping world hunger and finding a way to bring peace to the Middle East—although those two passions would definitely bump up your chances of winning a Nobel Peace Prize. You could be like the guy who travels around the world, just so he can say he’s eaten at every McDonald’s on the planet. (On second thought, maybe I’ll take that one back since that’s actually a little sad).

Or you could be like Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. They took their love of proper English grammar, punctuation and style to the streets—literally—traveling cross-country in an attempt to correct misspellings, typos and bad subject-verb agreement. Eventually, of course, they turned this into a book, The Great Typo Hunt. 

When I found out about their endeavor earlier today, I had the following immediate thoughts: (1) Good lord, there really are other people out there who are as obsessed with good grammar and style as I am, people who probably still have tattered copies of The Elements of Style on their bookshelves and must always repress their urges to correct other people’s bad writing and/or speech; (2) I’m not alone!; (3) Was the use of “its” vs. “it’s” the most common error that they encountered on their travels?; and (4) Geez, why didn’t I think of this? (Photo (c) Benjamin D. Herson)

In thinking about my own reasons or passions for travel, however, I was sort of at a loss. I couldn’t identify one single thing about travel that I loved most, or one single motive for traveling that I held near and dear. After sorting through all of those reasons, however, I think I came up with a common denominator, of sorts: I travel because I want to learn.  That, and eat—really well.

It’s one thing to open up a book and read about something. By the end of it, you might be knowledgeable enough about the subject to win on “Jeopardy!” but, the truth is, you don’t really know it firsthand. Even though some of the personal experiences that you get from traveling might be universally shared—who can forget the first time they see the Eiffel Tower or the first time they ever boarded a plane, for example?—your individual experience of that travel is always different—it’s always your own. And what’s more, you always learn something from it.  

So, for whatever reasons you may travel, whether for work or leisure, or because of a highly developed intolerance for misspellings or an insatiable hunger for Big Macs, keep on doing it.

That's What Friends Are For

It’s really rare to meet a fellow travel writer whom you’d actually want to travel with again (let alone one who’s sane, sometimes), but I consider myself to be extremely lucky—I’ve met so many truly funny, kind and generous fellow writers on my past trips.

As with other writers, however, travel writers are their own special breed with their own types, too. Some of the less-likeable ones I’ve encountered in the past include the creepy old guy, the diva, the kooky one and the elitist (and always loquacious) snob, just to name a few. I think most other writers would agree with me that we’re all a little strange and peculiar in our own ways—that’s why we’re writers, after all, right? I’m sure I fall into a category, too—whichever one it is, I just hope it’s not that bad.

But it’s even rarer to meet someone whom you can think of as one of your dearest friends and travel buddies.

Cindy is just that person. She and I first met on a press trip to Hong Kong and we immediately bonded over a noisy, multicourse dinner of gigantic Cantonese-style prawns and steaming-hot “ice” water. Since then, we’ve survived a sandstorm together in Jordan; we’ve gorged on croquettes in Amsterdam; and we’ve won a car rally knock-off of “The Amazing Race” in Israel. Throughout each of our trips—through good times and not so good times—I could always count on Cindy to make me laugh or have my back, no matter what.

So, today, on her birthday, I just want to say thank you, and that I hope we get to travel together again sometime soon! (Photo © TheSmallObject.com)

Taking Off

First things first: I am a travel writer and editor. I get paid to travel the world and write about it. Not a bad gig—I know—and I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve been able to have because of it.

My biggest confession? Usually, when I go on these trips, I’m not really incognito. I don’t own a corporate credit card under a fake name or run into bathrooms to furiously jot down my notes between courses. Sometimes, I’ll admit, this does make me feel guilty—as though I were abandoning my allegiance to the journalistic creed of ethics, as though I were a travel-writer version of Jayson Blair or Stephen Glass (though I never, ever fabricate any thing in my stories—trust me! I’m a stickler for fact checking!). Nevertheless, it’s a cold hard truth that the majority of travel writers—unless bankrolled by fatty publishing companies (if those exist anymore) or completely loaded on their own—are just like me. We travel for free (mostly) and we write about the places that host us.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…how can you possibly trust anything that we write about? Well, I’ll tell you this: At work, I’ll only write about the places and things that have proven to be positive experiences and I’m not afraid to point out some much needed criticisms when necessary. If something is really, really awful, I just won’t write about it at all.

In this blog, though, I’m going to open up. I’m not saying I’ll go on rambling rants and raves but, what I will do is share my travel experiences in a more personal way than I normally do for work.

What I love most about traveling is the experience of it—all of the interactions that you have with people from different cultures and backgrounds, all of the amazing (and sometimes questionable) foods, and even all of the unexpected roadblocks along the way. I’m sure you feel the same way, too.

So, let’s get started…I’ll try my best to keep you posted and I hope you’ll do the same.