Paper Travel!

First thing I wanted to do once I landed at the Buenos Aires International airport was to pull out my cell phone, fire up Yelp* and check in. I had been checking into every airport leading to the final destination, why should this be any different? ....Oh wait, my phone only works in the US, and If I even turn the damn thing on it'll try to reach the internet to download my very important Facebook and Twitter feeds, and Verizon will be repo-ing my first born as payment for roaming data charges. This is going to be worse than the time I forgot my phone at home and realized it half way to work.

How was I going to survive Argentina without my super tool that I've been essentially dependent on for the past five years? Unlike the time I forgot my phone at home on my way to work, I was fully prepared to be phone free, yes there would be withdrawals I had no other options. In my previous post I outlined the book I'd made for this trip, it was essentially a condensation of all of our travel guide books and internet research. This book was a life saver!, It was pretty close to having my phone with me, a paper version anyway.

The best part about being phone free was having to use paper maps, which is quite a rewarding experience. Considering I've been using some form of GPS for years it was great to use the brain to get around places. A positive side benefit of knowing the general direction versus the exact direction of where I was headed was that it made me very aware of my surroundings. I noticed things that I typically might not notice...

"Local Flavor"

like street art! (or graffiti)...and it's all over the place, I would've missed most if not all of it if I knew exactly where I was going instead of a general direction.

Another benefit of not using my phone was I actually had to read a newspaper (in spanish!) to get a (very) small idea of what was going on around the world, not to mention the local politics!

"No Screen Glare"

I managed just fine without my electronic partner in crime, which can also be very distracting and time consuming in its own ways. The only real drawback was I couldn't get the real news about Ipad 2's unveiling or the complete Oscars winners list! Not getting the news I really wanted to read was pretty frustrating. Ipad 2 was announced the first week of my trip to Argentina, and Oscars were handed out the second night I was in town. I was willing to spend a good peso to buy an english or even a spanish newspaper that had the Oscar winners list and the Ipad 2 specs, but Argentines don't find such things newsworthy or simply don't care about them, because in Argentina it's all about Wine and good food, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more!


* Yelp, a social media tool that allows users to share Resturant, Business and General Reviews with other users (Friends) and also "check-in" to said establishments using a geo location tool.

Off to Buenos Aires!

Greetings from San Diego!

And we're outta here! Leaving for our two week trip to Argentina, there will be some exciting posts coming up upon our return. Eva and I are both keeping journals so needless to say the trip will be well documented. I'm a little nervous about my "one bag" travel as it's stuffed to be brim and I'm only taking the bare minimum. In order to make our travels a little lighter I've also created a spiral bound book, that combines the best of our guide books and online research into one "everything Argentina" resource.

Here is the table of contents for my awesome book! ...It's about 1.5 inches thick! For the notes section I downloaded the always awesome Doane Paper and printed double sided copies!

Buenos Aires

LP | BA : Lonely Planet Buenos Aires Guide

NG | BA: National Geographic Buenos Aires Guide

Maps | BA: Frommer’s collection of Buenos Aires Maps (Dinner, Sightseeing, Shopping & Nightlife)

Suggestions |BA: Frommer’s Itinerary & Brian Duncan’s E-mail

NG Traveler | BA: National Geographic Traveler Articles and Must See guide

Mendoza

LP | Mendoza : Lonely Planet Mendoza Guide

NG | Mendoza: National Geographic Mendoza Guide

Suggestions, Maps |Mendoza: Frommer’s Wine guide, Mendoza Restaurants Map & Wineries Map

Notes: Doane Paper (Grids + Lines) for additional notes and thoughts

Adios! Back in 2 weeks!

Let's eat out!

"Choices"

I ate out 240 times between March 2010 and January 2011, so 71% of the days you'd have a good chance of finding me at an establishment that sells prepared consumables. I'm counting Jamba Juice, Starbucks, Pizzaria Bianco to Wineries in Jerome, AZ and everything in between. With Argentina around the corner, I found myself creating a budget for the trip when I realized "damn eating out everyday  for 10 days is going to get expensive". Then I wondered, how many times do I eat out now, and how much do I spend? Turns out if you keep track of all your expenses on a monster excel spreadsheet that categorizes every dollar spent for a year, you can get your answer in less then fifteen minutes.

The results were close to my expectations; I frequented fast food restaurants more often than I'd like to admit, and spent more money at expensive restaurants. I suspect most people could speak to those results without a fancy spreadsheet. However thanks to the spreadsheet I can mine for interesting tidbits like...51% of my restaurants were unique visits, 123 of my overall visits were to places I've never revisited! Granted some of the visits were out of state, which could account for how I spent almost $4 more per meal on average versus restaurants I've visited twice or more. Upon further analysis, as the number of times I visit a restaurant the overall amount I spend at the restaurant goes down. The statement holds true for all restaurants except for Fast-Food which is a gold standard in terms of stability, the amount of money spent is fairly constant. However my first memory of east fast food was throwing up after eating McDonald's, so maybe I'm still scarred from that experience and refuse to spend more than $5-6.   

Getting back to unique restaurant visits, Why so many? It’s not because I'm a picky eater, hardly, I'm the guy that ate Chipotle almost everyday for 2-3 years! It's because my girlfriend insists on finding the newest undiscovered "non-chain" restaurant in town, which my adventurous side agrees with. The caveat however is that she's a vegetarian who refuses to eat salads, good luck finding a restaurant that is unique, caters to a non-salad eating vegetarian and has good wine. The graph below outlines MY struggle during the time it takes for her to choose a restaurant.

We've all experienced this curve at one point or another, fortunately for my girlfriend the restaurant decision is usually made a few seconds before I reach my "Very Grumpy" point. The times when I reach the far end of the curve we'll usually opt to eat-in, we ate out 240 times. We're pretty damn good at picking a restaurant.

Side Note: I typed this blog in Notepad, which does not have a spell check, after I finished I copy/pasted into MS Word, only to find that I’d spelled “restaurant” incorrectly EVERY single time!...there were a lot of red squiggly lines :(

The Bag Trade!

The Bag Trade

 "Backpack, Bag 1"                                                      "Big Dawg, Bag 1"                         

In my earlier post "One Bag Lifestyle," I detailed my One bag travel lifestyle (or philosophy). Now, thanks to a trade or sale rather I only have one bag left. Willingly and now without choice I'm a one bag travel sort of guy. A few weeks ago I had placed the "other" luggage on Craigslist citing the end to my polygamist luggage lifestyle (Posted in least smug way possible). After few weeks have passed since my post, I assumed my listing was in the purgotory of Craigslist. 

Luckily, just as my girlfriend was suggesting it was about time to donate the bags to Goodwill I received a buzz on my Android. I held up the sush finger to parlay the importance of me checking my phone for a possible spam e-mail only to notice someone was interested in one of the two bag's I'd posted. Before I delve into the details of my bag trade, here is a brief history of my trades on Craigslist...

1. Traded my Nintendo Wii (which I found out is a great cure for hangovers, play an active game and you're back to normal in no time!) for a plant my butt on a couch gaming comforts of a Sony PS3, which does not cure hangovers. I met the guy I was trading with at a grocery store parking lot, then took him to my house to test the merchandise...which defeated the purpose of meeting in a parking lot...but the trade went smoothly and both parties were/are happy in the end.

2. hmm...well I guess I only traded one thing on Craigslist. But I could write a book (pamphlet) about selling on Amazon.com, the jacket would read, "Learn to secrets of selling your junk on Amazon!"

Back to my bag trade, I called up the guy who asked to purchase one of my two bags, based on the accent I could tell he was another Indian guy. I was expecting to haggle for an hour, throwing in extras like a midnight infomercial in order to make a sale of something I was willing to donate. I'm Indian, and I like to haggle, a lot. So much like a boxing match let's begin with Round 1!

Ding Ding!

Round 1:

Guy: I'd like to buy just one of your two bags! The smaller one!

Me: Ok, that'll be $25 (45% of the combined $55 price)

Guy: Ok deal!

My Internal monologe....Wait, what the hell! I'm confused, did this deal really just end!?

Me: Ok let's meet up in the parking lot near In-N-Out, and trade.

Guy: Wait do you live at the Grigio? I live there too! Let's meet there.

Me: Done!

Break... 7 hours later. 

Round 2:

Guy: Hi Boss, where do you live?

Me: Apt # xyz.

Guy: See you in 5 Minutes

20 minutes later (Indian Standard Time folks!)

Me: Hey! Here's your bag, all the zippers work!

Guy: Ok cool, hey can I get both bag's for $40?

...Here comes the haggling! too bad this guy decided to haggle after I'd spent the day wine tasting and driving 5 hours! (More on that later!)

Me: Yeah Ok.

The guy probably had the same internal monologe as me, he's Indian down to his time management skills. It may not be entirely too clear who won, but considering I was on the verge of donating the luggage, and it was already a sunk cost, so I call me the Winner! The extra $40 in my pocket will vouch for that! So there you have it a literal blow by blow account of my one bag traveldom. True test will begin soon on my trip to Argentina!   

Bike Repair!

"Gears Up!

Off the travel topic…well this one’s about a mode of transportation so I guess its fair game.

Back in November Eva and I bought bikes, cycles not motorcycles. The most I’d ever spent on a bike till this point was somewhere south of $200, after spending roughly double that on my new bike I vowed to take care of it. Taking care of my bike really translates to riding it more often, gently when possible, avoiding muddy paths, and wiping it down once a week. The price I paid for this bike I could’ve had an IPad, and instead of looking like a dork on the streets of Tempe, I could’ve been one of the cool kids hanging out at Starbucks playing “Angry Birds” while pretending to work. However here I am, an IPad less proud owner of a Hybrid Street Bike.

Truthfully owning and taking care of a bike is kind of fun, with technology these days we lose our inherent “handyman” skills. It’s been a while since I’ve shopped at Ikea, but the thrill of assembling something from a crappy set of instructions is almost as fun as assembling bike parts without instructions. I’ve installed, bike lights, racks, bags and last but not least, seat locks. Most of my installations have taken anywhere from 5mins to 30mins based on the type of Allen wrenches I had to locate, its pretty surprising I’ve managed not to hurt myself yet, Bikes have moving parts you know!

"Mr. Fixit"

Getting a bike for me was more about getting back to basics; I wasn’t ready to jump into the world of Auto maintenance or repair, too much at stake there. So with medium level of excitement I jumped head first into household (two bikes) Bike maintenance. Since our Bikes were fairly new, I had not anticipated on delving into anything beyond the basics, installing lights, affixing cute stickers etc. Initially I was gung-ho on setting up shop with all the possible tools, spares we may need on the road if and when disaster struck, but my girlfriend assured me that Bike emergencies such as flat tires don’t happen often and in fact are extinct, relics of olden days when people rode bikes wearing suits. Since my girlfriend is right 97% of the time, I decided to save myself $50 in tool/spare expenses.

My girlfriend also rarely acknowledges the 3% of the time she is wrong. Unfortunately in a matter of two weeks she managed to get two flat tires. The first during our ride to Old Town Scottsdale, about 9 miles from our residence, fortunately a local bike store across the street from where the flat occurred charged $20 for a new tube and installation. It took the guy at the bike store little less than five minutes to take out the front tire, replace the tube, pump it up and put it back on the bike. Not a bad deal for $20 considering it would’ve taken me 30 minutes or so, but it was a missed opportunity for me to get my hands truly dirty working on the bike.

Unfortunately for my girlfriend’s bike, my hands did not remain clean when she got her second flat, about ½ mile from our residence. The second flat was on the rear tire, where all the gears and the mumbo jumbo are; this was the engine of the bike! I proceeded with caution, took apart the tire, checked the tube for obvious puncture producing felons, nails, needles, glass, etc. The tube looked clean but we decided it was better to replace it with a thick new thorn resistant tube. Though my girlfriend may be right 97% of the time, she green lit me to purchase enough tools to open a bike shop. Two hours and a hundred dollars later, her bike was back to looking normal. Unfortunately her bike was not quite normal, the gears were having problems settling, so today it’s in a bike shop getting its annual tune up 8 months early! In retrospect I should’ve just gotten an IPad!

"Tire setup"

*Pics taken on day of repair, thus the lack in variety. 

The Bag and the lifestyle

"One Bag"

The first major trip of the year starts with Argentina! I've never travelled to South America before so I'm pretty excited to see land of Evita...I only cried at Madonna's performance, in the trailer. 

Clearly I get excited about fun vacations, no matter how long or short, in this case 10 days in Argentina, a vacation is a vacation. Your body knows it, your mind knows it. I've had staycations before where though I don't technically have to work, I feel guilty just lounging around the house, but a real vacation...an alcoholic beverage in one hand, and a camera in the other, can't beat that with a baseball bat! As fun as vacations may be I have one problem. I overpack!. I'm the guy that packs (neatly) literally an hour before I need to leave somewhere, doesn't matter if it's a weekend trip to LA or a two week excursion to Europe, I'm probably brining the same amount of clothing. My technique is simple, I'll throw everything I own in a bag (neatly) and run out the door.

On this trip to Argentina I resolve to solve that issue, because I refuse to...

                     A. Check a bag! (My bag's fly for free...on my lap!)

                     B. Haul around multiple pieces of luggage around Argentina. 

                     C. Take every piece of clothing I own by packing an hour before.

So I hit the internet looking for luggage solutions that would help me achieve this. Apparently this whole carry one bag where ever you go is sort of a lifestyle, perfected by those who backpack through Europe and other foreign countries and revered by...those who backpack through Europe and other foreign countries. Thank god for internet, every odd human tick has a space to thrive and grow. Here is the site, very useful it you're interested "One Bag". 

This whole notion started after I realized I pack way more than Eva ever does on trips, and she's a girl! and also this article. So for Christmas Eva bought me my very own One Bag, the Patagonia MLC (Maximum Legal Carryon), the one mentioned in the article (I know you didn't click, it's ok). Eva bought it for me under one condition, I get rid of all my other luggage, it was crap anyway so I was more than happy to oblige (2 awesome, not crap suitcases for sale $50 total, free if you follow the blog). After seeing the Patagonia bag in person and becoming emotionally attached to it, I was a little distressed that the One Bag site throughly dissed it. In the end I guess I'll pay for a cool looking bag from a brand I trust, and plus it's Patagonia! That's IN Argentina. 

We waited till first week ok January to actually order the bag, since it would most likely go on sale (15% off!!), I got it on the 17th and have been trying different ways of packing 6 or so days worth of clothing for my 10 day trip. Yes I will be using the laundry in Argentina! The goal is to lighten the load on my way back, I'll buy cheap underwear and t-shirts just for the trip, then dispose them on the way back, which should leave more room for souvenirs.  

Speaking of souvenirs, I won't be brining much if any back, that's one of the biggest downfalls of "One Bag" lifestyle. The pro's ship their souvenirs back but since the world really is flat now, I don't see the point of paying shipping, I'd rather just go to Amazon.com and get my authentic Argentinian doo-dad with free shipping. Ok so not everything will be available but unless it totally blows my socks off, I refuse to haul it around on my vacation and clutter the apartment...plus ALL my money will be spent towards eating world class beef! and drinking wine! 

So there you have it! my feet first dive into the "One Bag" travel world. It fits my Kindle, my towel...wow I'm Arthur Dent from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy! ;)

1/19/11 Prologue

A little info about the blog...after maintaining and getting tired of maintaining a daily blog I've decided to write a more topic related blog. The topic? Travel and Pic's. The posts will most likely be mundane, leading up to the trips themselves, mostly about the awesome google searches I've done and the hotels I've booked or relatives/friends places I'm crashing at. Kicking off the blog with travel prep story of my trip to Argentina with Eva.