Travel Essentials Blog

By Nancy Bestor

The first thing we learned when riding in a car or trying to cross the street on a trip to Vietnam is that there are few rules of the road, and the rules that do exist are followed by even fewer people. Speed limits? Nah! Stop signs or lights? Nope (well, a few, but mostly nope). Right of way? You have got to be kidding! To better understand how traffic works, here is some background. Saigon, (whose proper name is Ho Chi Minh City) is a city of about eight million people. Within the city, there are four million motorbikes. There are cars, but not very many. Cars are of course, much more costly, and they don’t maneuver nearly as well through the city streets.

Virtually no motorbike riders wear helmets, particularly within city limits. Helmets are very expensive and very hot in the tropical climate. We saw hundreds of children on motorbikes, with no helmets, riding around with mom or dad, or both! In fact it was common to see a family of four piled onto a single motorbike, baby in the front (we’re talking young baby too, six months old maybe), Dad driving the bike, older child behind Dad, and Mom bringing up the rear. Our girls were fascinated, and our record sighting was five people on one motorbike—a man and four children! It wasn’t just people on motorbikes that we found fascinating. Often it was what people could and would carry on their motorbike. The Vietnamese use these motorbikes to ingeniously transport an amazing array of goods. We saw two men and one large computer on a bike, two men and several large glass windows on a motorbike, a man with dozens of dead chickens, and much, much more! The most amazing load we saw was about twenty 24×24 flats of eggs. It may seem impossible but I saw it with my own eyes and did the math three times on a calculator, this motorbike was transporting over 10,000 eggs!

Another interesting traffic feature in Vietnam is the almost complete lack of lights at intersections. For the most part drivers just slow down a bit, honk, and head on through. Even if there is a light, drivers rarely stop when it’s red instead, as above, they slow down, honk and head on through. Honking seems to be the favorite pastime of drivers. Rather than honking for a reason, like drivers in the United States and Europe, drivers in Vietnam honk just to let you know they are there. In fact Bob counted the number of times our driver honked during a 30 mile, 45 minute ride in his car—778 times!

Streets of Vietnam

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From the Archives of Nancy Bestor

Roadfood

I’m going to be the first to admit it. Bob and I love food. It doesn’t matter the shape or form it comes in, if it’s good, we eat. It can be cheap, expensive, served on a paper plates or on fine china. So when we plan our travel, food always plays a major role. Sure I’d love to go back to Hawaii and lay on the beach and hike to beautiful waterfalls, but how’s the food? We’d probably be happier in Mexico where we can get delicious fish tacos. We love the coast of Oregon for its beauty and ocean, but have yet to find a good restaurant. Thus we’re not always jumping to head to the coast. The following story is from our archives, detailing our search for great regional food around the good old U.S.A. in 1993.

We were traveling in a Volkswagen pop-top camper, newly married, no responsibilities, and no worries. Money was tight, but food was still important. We did a lot of shopping because we cooked a lot out of our camper, and discovered that it’s iceberg lettuce or nothing in the Piggly-Wigglys and Winn-Dixies of the mid-western and southern states. Although we did cook quite often, as finances for such a long trip (five months) were a major issue, we tried to go out for special, regional meals whenever we had a good recommendation.

One of our wedding presents was the book RoadFood U.S.A. and we carried it through 35 states, poring over the pages looking for good eats.

While often maligned for a myriad reasons, the American South has produced a far more unique, varied, original, flavorful and exciting cuisine than any other U.S. region. And in our minds the heart of it all is New Orleans.

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Michelin Italy Atlas

Michelin Tourist and Motoring Atlases were designed for you, the traveler – to help you get where you want to go in the simplest manner possible. These country atlases cover every corner of these countries in geographical order, making it extremely easy to move from one map to the next when you’re on the go. Especially great for travelers who want to rent a car and explore the country-side, Michelin makes motoring atlases for Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain & Portugal, and an atlas that covers Germany, Benelux, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. This covers most of western Europe in great detail.

Costing about the same as two, much smaller and far less detailed maps, these Tourist and Motoring Atlases offer an incredible value for your dollar. If you were to buy individual maps for an entire country, it could easily end up costing you two or three times as much as one, handy atlas. So, wether you’re renting a car or just exploring a good chunk of one of these European countries, the Michelin Tourist & Motoring Atlases are the way to go.

Airlines are really cracking down on luggage these days – being very strict on luggage size and weight, and sometimes even weighing your carry-on bags. As recently mentioned in the San Francisco Chronicle, an easy way to steer clear of over-weight fees is to pick up the Balanzza Digital Luggage Scale. Easy to use, easy to read, and small enough to take with you, the Balanzza works for every traveler.

“The Balanzza Digital Luggage Scale couldn’t be simpler to operate: Attach it to your bag, lift it off the ground, wait for the beep, set your bag down and read the digital printout. If it saves you from a single excess-baggage charge, it has paid for itself.” – San Francisco Chronicle, 7/12/2009

Visit www.TravelEssentials.com to learn more and pick one up today.

Balanzza Digital Luggage Scale

TravelSox Compression Socks

As recently noted by USA Today, blood clots while traveling can be very dangerous. And with people taking long flights overseas, it’s even more important to take preventative measures.

Travelsox, our Italian-made compression socks are our hands-down favorites. Not only do they have the firmest and most comfortable compression we’ve found, but they have a stylish look that we love. Their gradual compression stimulates blood flow in the legs and that increased circulation reduces swelling and cuts down on the odds of a blood clot forming. The elastic at the thigh is the most comfortable we’ve found, and the smooth toe seam is an added bonus.

What else can you do? According to Jack Hirsh in the article from USA Today, you can “Drink water, a glass every couple of hours, and flex your calf muscles against the foot rest if you can’t get up and walk around. Do not drink coffee or alcohol, because they dehydrate you.”

Don’t take any chances on your next flight – a pair of Travel Compression Socks could save you from a lot of pain or could even save your life. Visit our website to learn more or purchase a pair.

GoToob in Action

We love GoToobs – and if sales are any indication, our customers love GoToobs, too. Why? Because they’re amazing. Made from silicone, the bottles are pliable and “squeezable”, making it a breeze to squeeze out whatever liquid or gel you’re traveling with.

GoToobs come in two sizes (both carry-on friendly), 2 ounces and 1.25 ounces. The larger bottles have a suction cup built into the side of the bottle so it can easily be stuck to the shower wall or bathroom mirror. GoToobs have leak-proof valves and a rubber seal in the cap to make sure it won’t leak in your luggage. The bottle’s collar has a built-in labeling system that allows you to choose from conditioner, shampoo, sunblock, lotion or soap. And, when you fill the bottle the large opening is easy to fill and makes it easy to clean the bottles. And hey, the silicone is food-grade and bpa free, so you can even use them for something edible!

Visit our website and check them out!

by Nancy Bestor

On our boat ride out of Tortuguero, a sleepy village on the north Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, our nine-year old daughter Sarah said, “This is just like the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland.” Her sister Emily, age 11, replied, “Yes Sarah, but everything here is real.” I’m not certain I could have described this three-day trip any better.

Bob and I knew that Tortuguero was not the easiest place to get to, but with three weeks to spend in Costa Rica this past March, we wanted to see as much of the country as possible. Most tourists choose to book a package tour to Tortuguero, paying more than $600 (for two people) to be bussed, boated and hand-held to a high-end lodge across the canal from the village itself. The package deal includes transportation, two nights accommodation, and meals at the lodge. As budget travelers on the lookout for a little adventure, we decided that creating our own trip to Tortuguero would save us money and get us closer to the locals by staying in one of the small, locally-run hotels in the village proper.

After consulting both our guidebooks (Lonely Planet Costa Rica and Rough Guide to Costa Rica) we booked a hotel sight unseen via telephone from San Jose and prepared for an early wake-up the next day.

A taxi dropped us off at the Caribe bus station in San Jose at 8 am. There we purchased tickets ($2 each) for the first leg of our journey—a one and a half hour bus ride to the town of Cariari. In Cariari we bought tickets ($10 each) for another bus and then a boat that would deliver us to our final destination of Tortuguero. Both buses were filled with locals, who got on and off at many stops along the way. We drove through banana plantations, past ranches and farms, and more. The last 30 minutes of the second bus ride (about an hour total) were on a very bumpy and rocky road. We’d later learn that gravel roads are the norm in Costa Rica, and this one was not bad compared to others we would travel. We arrived at our “boat station,” and I use the term “station” loosely, and boarded our lancha (small boat) for the final leg—down the river and into Tortuguero.
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