50 Years of Travel tips

when catching a taxi ask for them to go see their family

LOL, what kind of crap advice is that? Sounds creepy invasive.

The last thing someone driving a taxi wants to do is provide you with some type of "life experience", take you where you want to go, get out, get on with the next fare.

Awesome article, Mark!

“Sketchy travel plans and travel to sketchy places are okay.”

That spoke to me! I also learned I’m an E&E (Experience and Exposure) traveler and never could understand the R&R style of travel until now. Thanks for sharing. You should share this link with the Stumptown travel crew.

Thanks @nosbigs

Not every tip works everywhere or for everybody. IIRC the writer was close to a wedding place & the guests(?) we're having trouble taking selfies. So he jumped in & took pictures & posed the group in nice shots. (probably not the bride & groom) Strike up a conversation & see what happens

I think maybe the author might start out with the taxi driver asking about if his family is close by. Then make it worth his while to go by....stop to pick up the family a meal, etc.

watch your mailbox for incoming

Interesting, pompous, funny and entertaining but not some sort of revelation. Reminds me of R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket…..”I will teach you; you will learn.”

There are a lot of tips in that article. Maybe should be required reading for the newbies to RS forums. Although I think that RS travel tips is much more succinct and relevant. Perhaps bringing you imagination is a most important aspect of traveling. That is what certainly led to the taxi driver and wedding crasher tips. Personally I would not do either.

I always find these "suggested" ways of traveling quite interesting and humorous sometimes.

I have friends who have traveled to Europe and said they prefer tours because they could never plan trips like I do or travel on their own. Other friends have traveled to Europe and just visited the "typical tourist sites" as we call them here.

However, the one thing they all have in common is...they all had a great time and enjoyed their trips.

When talking about their experiences on their trip I always ask, "What would you do differently if you could do it again?" Surprisingly, all of them think of something they would change within their own comfort zone.

I see travel as learning how to travel each time you take a trip.

However, just humorously, I have never had a desire to crash a wedding or ask to attend nor have I had any interest or thought about asking anybody if I could meet their mother or family. :)

There are a couple of good tips in the article, but for the most part it sounds like "borrowed" information from other sources.

He does pass on stuff from other sources, but much of it is his.

https://kk.org/vanishing-asia

Vanishing Asia
I spent the past year designing and producing a very large photobook called Vanishing Asia. It contains almost 1,000 pages and almost 9,000 photographs that I took in my extensive travels in Asia. For 40 years I have been capturing the scenes of Asia that are disappearing.

edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kelly_(editor)

If you hire a driver, or use a taxi, offer to pay the driver to take
you to visit their mother. They will ordinarily jump at the chance.
They fulfill their filial duty and you will get easy entry into a
local’s home, and a very high chance to taste some home cooking.
Mother, driver, and you leave happy. This trick rarely fails.

This trick rarely fails?? Now I'm curious if anyone on this board has ever tried.

I did enjoy the article, but he goes beyond my comfort zone for some of his tips.

If you look at my post he's been traveling more "backpack-like" than most of the people here. The post I made above shows the less traveled areas he tends to go to. In those areas the taxi tip (I believe) is more likely.

It reminds me of that story Mr. E has posted here about going to Budapest and telling the taxi driver to just drive the neighborhoods. Then the driver semi-kidnaps him to show him the wonderful view of the city.

By coincidence saw this later:

https://www.perceptivetravel.com/issues/1218/kelly.html

The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s
Story and photos by Kevin Kelly

[snip]

Back then you could take a bus from London all the way to India for very little money and people were realizing you could get to places that previously took expedition level funds to reach. I remember taking an overnight bus from India to Kathmandu. That bus was probably not more than $5. I remember that morning, after traveling all night, rolling down the Kathmandu Valley and seeing the Himalayas, and a whole city with zero cars. It was like taking a spaceship to another planet for five dollars.