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Wade commented about Bumology 101 in Kenya Africa, On Wednesday April 29th, 2009 06:43:11 AM
Moi Moi,
I fail to understand how you can state that someone elses opinions are flawed. Please remember that someone who has been traveling the world for the past 11 years is going to have different impressions and opinions than someone reading about life on a computer screen.
I see little backing to your argument, few references to your personal experiences with the people of Africa, few indications that you know at all what you are talking about.
Basically, all you say is that Andy is wrong, without stating why you think this way. Basically, you are contributing nothing to this discussion.
How do you know that Andy is wrong? Really, why do you think you know what you are talking about?
Have you traveled long term through Africa? Have you talked to the the people that Andy speaks of?
No, you probably havent. I am very confused as to where you find the substance for your criticism.
It is one think to disagree with someone and state the reasons for your disagreement, it is another to baselessly criticize. Understanding is built through disagreements. I stand to learn from your experiences and what you have to say. But I am going to learn nothing from you blithly stating that someone else is wrong. This means nothing to me.
Why do you think Andy is wrong? What experiences have you had to back up your feelings? Please, tell me, I want to learn.
You call Andys notions pre-conceived but he is out testing his theories in real life, he is talking to people, coming up with new ideas, and writing them for other people to consider. I have been friends with Andy for a number of years, and I know that he, himself, knows that he is often wrong and that some things that he writes are not always correct. But this is the hall mark of online daily travel writing. When you publish your ideas and impressions every single day as you travel the goal is not to be correct 100 of the time, but to test new ideas and theories about the world. The fact that readers can contribute to the discussion builds upon the ideas of the writer, and allows to work to progress.
Yes, sometimes online daily travel writers are not completely correct in their opinions, but this is just a testing ground and is not a prim and polished, overly edited final product. The benefit of this kind of writing is found in the fact that it is raw. Raw opinions about the world that you can consider for yourself and share your opinions about.
By stating that someone else is wrong without giving further evidence does nothing for the discussion. It does not make me think anything other than the fact that you really do not have much to say about the topic.
You also commented that the Africans are a vulnerable population. This is a highly preconceived notion. I take this to be a far more degrading assumption than anything that Andy wrote in the above journal entry.
Thanks,
Wade from Vagabond Journey.com Travelogue
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Wade commented about Time for Hobo to Buy a Sailboat, On Wednesday October 1st, 2008 10:09:00 AM
Aye, Aye Captain,
First mate ready for action!
-Wade
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Wade commented about Chinese Backpacks Factory in Philippines, On Monday July 28th, 2008 03:36:00 AM
Hello Andy,
I am glad to find that the Windmill backpack seems to be coming together for you. From listening to you speak of it, it sounds like it will be an innovative piece of travel gear.
Looking forward to it!
Wade
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Wade commented about Number One Problem With Photos, On Saturday March 22nd, 2008 10:27:00 AM
Hahaha . .. so true.
Yes, when it comes time for a photo blog post I too find a wretched look spread over my face . . . because uploading photos is WORK. Writing is not work, writing is fun. But choosing the photos, thinking of the best keywords to title the files, and then writing the captions is work hahaha and takes a long time. But I have found that at least 50% of my traffic is from Google Images. Oh well.
I would be interested in your caption program . . . or a really bored lackey somewhere to do it all for me haha.
But it is all just part of the game, and I have found that I like looking at photos and I like the photos that you publish as they are very different from the usual run of tourist photographs. You photo stuff that is really interesting.
So, here, I send you a little encouragement to plug away at those captions haha. I groan about them as well. haha.
See you soon,
Wade
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Wade commented about Pie de la Cuesta Mexico, On Thursday February 21st, 2008 08:48:00 AM
Thinking Mexico, Cuba as well . . . hmm . . . probability says that we have to run into each other some time. haha. Looking forward to the day.
Have fun!
Wade
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Wade commented about Famous Photographer Lottery, On Friday February 15th, 2008 11:24:00 AM
I had a friend who was an absolutely amazing photographer. I mean, she was good. She just used a regular $30 point and shoot camera without any zoom or any special features. A little kid camera, if you will. I asked her about this and she told me that her photography professor once told her that if she wanted to be a good photographer that she should just use a point and shoot camera. Because if she did this, she would have to position HERSELF in a position to take a good photo, and not rely on the camera. She would have to be bold and step right out and into the face of what she was photographing. You can not take a good photo with a 35mm camera if you are hiding. You can not even take a good photo with any camera if you are hiding. This is what the girl did. She was bold, and she would just walk up to anyone in the street and tell them that whe was going to photograph them . . and they would pose happily for her to take the photo. I am sure that it helped her cause that she was very beautiful, blond, had very large and well shaped breast, and a very direct and attractive personality. But, humor aside, I think the lesson still stands that it is the photographer and not the camera that makes for a good photograph.
Wade
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Wade commented about Bangkok to Chicago Air Ticket, On Friday February 15th, 2008 11:10:00 AM
Good to hear,
I am making up my escape plan to Africa as well. Man, those tickets to the USA from Bangkok have gotten expensive! I was convinced last year that I could make it back to the USA for under $400. Nope. had a couple leads but I would have had to of waited around for two months to leave. I wanted to go the same week haha. After taking two whole days and bothering almost every travel agent in the entire city, I paid about the same amount as you did. I thought I was getting the corkscrew . . . but that price seems to be the going rate.
Say a big howdy to the homeland for me.
Wade
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Wade commented about Who am I, On Wednesday February 13th, 2008 10:22:00 AM
True words.
Seriously, I have watched people give their credit cards to every restaurants, bar, and hotel they travel to and then wonder why there are extra charges on there statements. The funny thing is that they act like it is the credit card companies fault and they get all upset. Then they get upset at me and become completely bewildered when I tell them that they are stupid. Coincidentally, these are also the same people who freak out that when they get on a bus in India that is not air conditioned.
I say, if you are in the market for a pig, you are going to pick the biggest, fattest one you can find. The people handing out the credit cards without thought or care are the slabs of pork on the table. While the rest of the poor, penny conscious, cash paying travelers are the gaunt little piglets who often squeak by unnoticed.
Oh yeah, I must agree, traveler checks are not worth the paper they are printed on. I still have a five hundred dollar bundle that I have been carting around for years. Maybe I will get a bright idea and make a small fire out of them, warm my hands, and then report them as damaged.
"What happened to them, sir?"
"I used them to their fullest extent and set them on fire to keep warm."
Seriously, that is all they are good for.
Good post. Wise words. As Always.
Wade from
Song of the Open Road Travel Blog
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Wade commented about Two Thumbs up Archaeologist Wade, On Thursday February 7th, 2008 06:31:00 PM
Thanks Andy,
You are very right: "More or less you can follow your curiousity or become some traveler trash workin on hedonistic pleasure in a never ending cycle of non-fulfillment."
I also feel the same way. When I first began traveling at age 18 I did not really know how to do it properly. . .haha . .. I just backpacked around for months and months and eventually did not find much substance other than a lot of good walks. Then I found THE PROJECT hahaha . . .just little things to work on, build, or learn that gave me the feeling of being productive .. the feeling of accomplishment, I suppose I could say. . . some of these projects have also provided me with money to keep traveling. I think you broadened my outlook on these projects as well. You DO, LEARN, and CREATE a lot as you travel the world. It is inspiring.
Your are right, there is a lot out here to be curious about . . .may as well dive into it.
Thanks,
Archaeologist Wade
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Wade commented about I Hope I Miss Out, On Tuesday February 5th, 2008 11:58:00 AM
I am in the same boat.
I tried to escape the cities and just ended up with city people. So I put the blinders on and absconded into a Hemmingway book and all the old boob could talk about was Paris and city people in cities. Wore me out. Found it difficult to get away in Costa Rica. Maybe need a long walk to find nowhere.
But the bright side says that my arrangements on archaeology projects that I have been setting up here through a university professor in Heredia is about complete and my chains are about to break . . . Got a job on Copan to do after Nicaragua . . . whew . . took a while to set up but it all seems to have gone through. Working with a Japanese crew there . . should be a lot of fun. Now I can finally get out of here.
Thinking of Camaroon.
Hope you get to your nowhere soon.
Wade
Song of the Open Road Travel Blog
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Wade commented about The Cost of Fame, On Monday January 21st, 2008 02:51:00 PM
What you write here is awesome. To allow yourself to be purchased is to live in bondage. . .even if it is fame that is doing the binding.
It seems as if you may as well have a day job if you were to comply with the TV offers.
I have witnessed too many people living behind the bars of their own wealth to not fear this route.
Good on you, Friend.
Oh yeah, I thik most people would find the books that I read incredibly boring hahaha
Just a lot of antrho texts and ethnograpic studies haha . . . nothing too exciting haha.
But I know what you mean about the certain connection that obsessive book readers seem to have with each other.
You can really talk books with a person all day long haha. It is a topic that can almost cover anything . . .sort of like a travel blog.
I wish you the best and will write more soon,
Wade
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Wade commented about Manila Mabini Street Hotel, On Sunday January 20th, 2008 03:10:00 AM
Like everyone who has watched the movie "Airplane" I too refuse fish on flights hehehe.
"Voting with your feet."
Always the best way, in a world full of infinite possibilities.
Nice to read about real travel decisions that all travelers have to face. Posts like this stick in people's heads and really do help out when placed in similar circumstances.
Wade
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Wade commented about Downloads on HoboTraveler.com, On Wednesday January 16th, 2008 12:13:00 PM
Thanks, Andy
Those folders just put me together a little better.
Thanks,
Wade
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Wade commented about My 9600 Dollar Budget for Airplanes, On Sunday January 13th, 2008 05:51:00 PM
I agree, it is possible to continuously travel on little money. Fantasy has nothing to do with it. It is far cheaper and easier to travel than it is to live a sendentary life in the USA, Europe, Japan, or, when it comes down to it, most other countries. Travel is cheap. I was just thinking that about how I am not able to live in the USA because I cannot afford it. Even if I got a full time job, I would still be a pauper. Who wants to live like that? I don't. It does not take much money to taste the riches of this planet . . . only the iron will to say "no" and the realization that the best recreational activities in the world are free.
The feasibility of continuous travel is not a fantasy. It is not even that difficult. I find it far more difficult to stay in one place working 40 hours a week with bills, car payments, rent, utilities payments. Travel is only a minor expense compared to all of this. I am serious. If you want to travel, do it.
"In the end the insight was, it about 20 time easier to save and not spend money while traveling than to try to earn it."
I will remember this quote, it is a good one.
Wade
Song of the Open Road Travel Blog
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Wade commented about Photo and Blogs of my Friends, On Thursday December 13th, 2007 12:40:00 PM
Haha great point here!
I have also found myself in rather awkward positions from time to time about what I write on Song of the Open Road haha. I feel that a traveler must write of the people and places that they travel through as they view it. It seems to be very difficult for many people to accept other people writing what they feel about them . . . I think that I have even lost a few aquaintances by doing this haha. But I would much rather write my impressions as blatantly and honestly as I can, rather than editing based upon how I think someone may react to it.
People are a major part of the traveling/ writing experience, and I believe that making the occasional person angry by writing about them or publishing their photograph is rounded out by the fact that you can look yourself in the face at night and realized that you honestly wrote your impressions of the world that you are traveling through.
If you leave your own home, then you are fair game for photographers- cameras just collect impressions of light waves; the thought that someone can own the rights to the light waves that bounce off of them is absurd. . . or so it is my feeling as of right now.
If you speak to a writer, then you are fair game to be written about. Most all ethnographies that reach the population that they were written about usually cause a stir in the community- they piss people off, people say that what was written was not true etc . . .
This is just part of the Road, I say. A few hazards and bumps should not end a journey nor is cause for excessive detours. haha.
Keep on it, Andy!
Wade from
Vagabond Journey.com
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Wade commented about Sanitizing My Travel Writing, On Thursday December 13th, 2007 12:05:00 PM
Hey Andy,
I say, just let us have it. I care very little if a writer is correct or if what they say can technically be defined as hypocritical, I just want to read honest feelings. I find that I am often far more interested in the writer behind the words rather than anything that they write. All too often, I think that people take the written word as being far more serious than it should ever be taken.
Words are playful and writing is fun. . . If someone gets grumpy about it then the joke is on them . .. that is what I say.
Just let us have it!
Wade from
Song of the Open Road Travel Blog
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Wade commented about You Are and Idiot Blog Comments, On Tuesday November 20th, 2007 08:12:00 AM
Hi Andy,
Yeah, I really do think that the occasional combative email could be taken as a good sign. All I think it means is that your writing is making people not only think, but feel as well.
To write something that makes people think and disagree with you is not much of a challenge. Disagreement is a cerebral, logical, and simple reaction.
But to write something that provokes a person to feel an emotion so strongly that they lash out against you is something very special. And I must sat that you, Andy, for better or worse, have this special skill. You write from the heart, and therefore, you are able to strike through to the hearts of your readers. Sometimes they laugh heartily and repeat what you wrote to their friends and family, and sometimes they get so angry that they take the time out of their lives to tell you about it.
Either way, people are feeling your writing very deeply.
I don't think a lot of writers can do this.
Your writing is purely honest; from the content to the syntax, you seem to be writing from the heart. I also really respect the fact that you don't jump into the cracks to avoid making statements that could potentially be misinterpreted. You are upfront, and seem to have the ability to share what you feel, and to make people feel it too. I think this is a very special attribute to have......and one that makes folks like me read your writing everyday.
Keep in mind that the occasional things that people insult you for could be the very same things that I laugh about and enjoy most in your writing.
You also seem to be able to write the experience of travel very purely and honestly. It is my opinion that you publicly write some things that other travelers only dare to think quietly to themselves. I mean, I know what goes through my mind while having to needlessly fight through a crowd to get a piece of fried chicken. I really admire the fact that you do not shut down and bottled these feelings up, but rather share them as as an inseparable part of the traveling experience.
To read about the true, honest, unabashed and unashamed life of a traveler is why we read hobotraveler.com.
So, in point, I really do believe that the combative emails that you occasionally receive are are a sign of your success at being a writer . .. .a sign of success that you are making people feel what you write. Whether their feelings manifest themselves as being supportive or harsh is impertinent.
People are listening. People are feeling. This is always a good sign. Celebrate!
Walk Slow,
Wade from Vagabond Journey
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Wade commented about KFC Cairo Egypt, On Wednesday November 14th, 2007 03:33:00 PM
I can't wait until I start getting comments like this.
The sign of success!
Haha.
Just digging into some of your old stuff as I calm myself from a day of screwing up my webpages haha.
Wade from
Song of the Open Road Travel Blog
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Wade commented about Hobos Work and Travel, On Thursday November 1st, 2007 12:47:00 PM
Hi Andy, If you would like, I could help. Just give me the specs of what needs to be done and
I will do it. Also, if you could send me a copy of a Hobo Hide Out "business card" that states how hotels can go about submitting to your site, I would not mind printing them out and passing them around to all the cheap joints that I find myself holed up in.
In Potugal now . . . by economic necessity, I rediscovered the bicycle . . . and it revolutionized my ramblings . . . I love it.
The Best,
Wade from Song of the Open Road travelogue
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Wade commented about Starting the Snowball, On Friday October 5th, 2007 08:32:00 AM
Great to hear that you are in high spirits again, friend. I look forward to the Hobohideout page and hope that it nets you enough cash that you can buy a ship and we can sail around and see a little of the watery parts of the world haha.
I will be your first mate. haha!
Walk Slow,
Wade from
Song of the Open Road travelogue
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Wade commented about Video of Mosquito Net of HoboTraveler.com, On Thursday September 20th, 2007 08:58:00 AM
Ha ha, Andy, you have raised the stakes once again. That was a really good video..good editing and everything. Practical, practical you travelogue is so darn useable. I wholly send my regards.
Walk Slow, Friend,
Wade from Song of the Open Road Travelogue
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Wade commented about African Guidebooks, On Wednesday September 19th, 2007 08:23:00 AM
Howdy Andy,
If you would like some help with that guidebook writing, I'm in.
A guide from Morocco into West Africa is a good idea. I was doing a little map gazing last night and I think that I would like to help you out.
I like projects anyway. This would be a big one.
Lets do it.
Walk Slow,
Wade
Cancion del Vagabundo Website
href="http://canciondelvagabundo.blogspot.com">
Song of the Open Road Travelogue
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