Fairtrade Travel...

Fairtrade fortnight is coming to an end. Im always a big campaigner for fairtrade coffee and bananas. I buy them religiously at the supermarkets. Its been rippling through the consciousness of shoppers of late, this wave of 'think before you buy' mentality is overwelmingly positive. However the road is long. Fairtrade products make up a pathetic fraction of the space on supermarket shelves.

Its has always been glaringly apparent to me that whilst traveling, fair trade is so paramount in a humans mind. To the point that one will go to such extremes to ensure they are receiving a good deal that they end up crying or yelling; making such a fuss over miniscure amounts or raging because they think they have been taken advantage of.

Markets all over the world, shop fronts, street traders and vendors rely heavily upon tourism as a livelihood.
Tourists, travellers, backpackers, unfamiliar track hackers, content stragglers and market hagglers...we all expect a fair deal when we engage in trade on our travels. It shouldn't stop there. Bring that mentality back to your supermarket.



Its nearly the end of fairtrade fortnight but theres still time, only another 140,000 to go until the million and one mark.

Jump on the website and register your fairtrade swap pronto!!!

Heres the deal:

"Swapping your usual stuff for Fairtrade stuff is a brilliantly small step to making the world a fairer place. It means that you get to show your support for developing world producers through what you buy. Two billion people - a third of humanity - survive on less than $2 a day. Unfair trade rules keep them in poverty, but they face the global challenges of food shortages and climate change too.

Fairtrade believes that developing world producers should be in control of their own lives, by getting a better deal for the work that they do. This is a different way of doing business. It's a way that puts the poorest of the world first..."



Im sure the majority of those reading this will have traded, bartered/haggled over something in s foreign country before. Its an exchange, a swap, a fair deal, between two parties, a common agreement reached by balancing both parties needs and wants.
Ethical travel. Backpackers do travel like this. Backpackers tap into that global consciousness. Theres an Ethicalpacker in all of us.
Make no mistake. World trade inhibits and dictates the way we all live.
Over a third of humanity does not get a fair deal at all.

Make your week a fair week. Join the revolution in demanding more fair trade products on the shelves of local supermarkets!!

Then maybe 2 billion people might have an opportunity to fulfil a dream, like travel....

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/thebigswap

Cashed up...cash in on the real thing...

Travel is the biggest blessing ever bestowed upon my life, and ultimately my character, who i am today, what i do tomorrow.


Having travelled for many years, the feeling that i could embark on a lifestyle like this forever was very real. Then the money dries up. Plans become more and more stringent and less complicated, often transport and food options begin to take the back seat. (Pun intended.) Then the inevitable day finally comes....you reach into that wallet and pull out the last twenty note. Its a day you knew was coming, but chose to ignore. Yet the reality of it hits you like a slap in the face with a cold fish.

Ive had many of those moments in my traveling life. However, i quite enjoy them. The parody is my enjoyment from such an unfortunate and anti climatic incident. What strikes me as somewhat humbling in a non self gratification manner, is that looking back on these 'moments' when at the time my world as i knew seem to be crumbling down around me, i was projected, forced, swept down another path in life, one that has always borne very poignant memories.

I have had some of the best times of my life when completely and utterly broke. I stand by this solidly. If anything it proves to me one thing. That money is overrated. Easy to say, hard to live by. Not that i live by this premise at all, but its a lesson i have learnt during my travels. A blessing. A teaching. A principle that i try to take with me in my rucksack of life. The first thing i pack into my backpack when i leave traveling. This principle is like solid gold to me. Because the minute i get consumed with money and what it can do for me on the road, i begin to miss the simplicity of it all. I bypass the things in life that dont cost anything. I never meet as many beautiful and memorable people as i do when my pockets are filled with dinero.

When we travel, its the people that make the difference. Meeting them costs nothing. I dont care too much for money cos money cant buy you love....

Travel Terminology gets funky....

Neologisms. Coin-phrases, stereotypes and lots of hype. There are so many names for certain flavours of travellers. 


There exist such a melting pot of people that hit the road in search of adventure, in search of understanding, in search of different cultures, languages and lessons to be learnt.

Its hard to categorise all travellers and some resist the tags imposed on them by others. But I believe there is a real trend emerging. Backpackers are no longer one homogenous groups of travellers. The explosion of flashpackers onto the travel scene has caused many ripples across the traveling pond and in 2010 more will emerge...


Here are a few fun terms that have seeped out of the travel industry in the past few years alone....


• Babymoon: "One last trip" taken by an expecting couple before the arrival of travel-thwarting offspring.


• Couchsurfing: Flopping for free on a stranger's couch. Connections are usually made through the website couchsurfing.com, which has corralled more than 1 million members across the globe.

• Flashpacker: Someone who travels with a little more disposable income, where no cost is too great in the pursuit of travel happiness.


• Girlfriend Getaway: Adult version of a sleepover in which grown women fly to a destination, eat junk food, shop and complain about men.


• Silverpacker: Eccentric retired individual who perpetually coasts around reliving the dream.


• Narco-Tourist: A traveller, often bound for Amsterdam, who bases his or her destination upon the indigenous drug scene.

• Sightjogging: The healthy art of sightseeing whilst running (see also: tripping and falling).


• Slackpacker: A traveler that likes to get under the skin of a place, someone who stays awhile, not there for ticking off the boxes and grabbing the t-shirt, this traveler has time on their hands and uses it wisely to get the most out of their experience.


• Testosteroaming: The exclusively masculine pursuit of wandering around with a group of buddies in search of male bonding activities, i.e. hunting, playing pool and ogling women they don't stand a chance of getting.

• Transumer: An excessively rich tourist who approaches the world like it's an extended shopping mall.


• Voluntourism: Interactive form of travel in which do-gooders pitch in and build schools, educate locals and save the world.


Do you have any others, feel free to add them?
Happy travels, happy days

6Billion others...

We share this planet, with 6 billion others.
We eat and drink, fart and stink, just like 6 billion others.
We cry and we die, we live and we get by, like 6 million others.

We enter this world with nothing, we leave this world with nothing, just like the 6 billion others.
What we do on this planet, what we say on this planet, how we act on this planet, effects 6 billion others.


If we think before we act, if we speak before we retract, maybe then, there is hope for the 6 billion others.
Sadly at this pace, this so called civilised rat race, there is no room for 6 billion others.

How can we sustain, how can we refrain from hurting 6 billion others.
Compassion alone will not do, nor will pessimism on the other shoe.
We share this world with 6 billion others.


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Visit 6 Billion Others @ http://www.6billionothers.org/

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Check out this amazing piece of work from Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the creator of the movie "Home"

It brings those 6 Billion others a whole lot closer

Paz

Travel with your eyes open...

As we travel through other cultures, other worlds, other peoples lives, we become a part of them. Whether we choose to embrace it or let those cultures, worlds and peoples lives pass by us, we undoubtably have the power to influence them in one way or another.

Whilst we cannot and should not impose our values and morals on other people, much the same way government foreign policy attempts miserably to dictate what others should and shall not do, we still must RESPECT, LEARN and UNDERSTAND as we travel the road of life.

Backpacking takes you to corners of the world where basic human rights are trampled on a daily basis. Where human dignity is drowned out in a cloak of silence and suppression. Each individual human being knows what is a basic human right is. Upholding, or at least standing up for these is often the hardest part when your in another culture, another world, far from the one you grew up in. But if we strive to be the change we wish to see in this world, then action must be taken, voices must be heard, human rights must be upheld and respected.

Amnesty International are a pillar of strength, a beacon of hope, a light of inspiration for those voices around this world that often go unheard.



When you travel, open your eyes to injustices just as much as you open your eyes to tourist attractions. Becoming aware is the first step in creating a better, more just world. Travel is the forum. And you count your lucky stars that your even able to exercise that freedom....

Backpacker Tips from the last decade

2010. Twenty Ten. The beginning of a new decade. What happened in the last one?! It doesnt seem that long ago I was in school. The most profound memories i cherish from the last decade is undoubtably those from my travels.

I want to share a few things i have learnt from the last decade of backpacking travel.

• Meet as many people as you can

• Vomit loudly and proudly and whenever necessary. You always feel better after it.

• Never be afraid to disrupt plans and go with the wind.



• Always lie to cops

• Never take laxatives and sleeping pills together

• Have faith in people, put your faith in people.

• Smile at strangers.

• Never rustle plastic bags in a hostel dormitory early in the morning.

• Laugh at yourself, life, and everything around you. People take life too seriously.

• Travel with an open hand, open heart and open mind.

Its so cliche, but so true - Life is short, make the most of it. If this decade flies past like the last i can only vouch for its realism and startling honesty. Remember that you have only one life to live as far as we know. Be whoever and whatever you’d like to be. Pursue your passions and your dreams. Life is too short to wonder, what if....



Its been 10 years since this song graced the airwaves. Always refreshing.

Happy new year everyone. Bring on 2010.

Eco Warriors walk, Flashpackers fly - Copenhagen and travel

Copenhagen and what it means to you - the air traveler, the backpacker, the flashpacker, the mile high club tourist, whatever ticks your box. Travel is a major contributor to the excessive units of carbon that are released into the worlds atmosphere. A major part of the environmental time bomb in our hands.

As backpackers crunching up controversial carbon as we cross countries, are we part of the problem or part of the solution??



Backpacking has always been part of a larger, much more collective community of like minded people. Now the world faces unprecedented challenges, with rising sea levels, melting polar caps, soaring temperatures, irregular and extreme weather conditions, a disintegrating ozone protection and the extermination and elimination of some of the earths most precious natural resources. The worlds community must come together. They have. Copenhagen, coined the worlds most important environmental action awareness meeting ever.

The world leaders have come and gone. Resembling a parade of non confrontational appearances, acknowledging each country has a role to play, acknowledging that the earth and its 6 billion inhabitants face an environmental catastrophe.
Humans, only 200,000 years old, living on a 4 billion year old earth, have conquered this world, exploited it, sustainably abused it. In just 50 years, our earth has been more radically changed, than all previous generations of humanity.



We are all responsible, but are some more responsible for these factors than others? This was the cry from some of world's least developed countries, and a fair enough one I believe. But its too late for bureaucratic processes of accountability, its time for action. its time to stand up. Are we part of the problem or part of the solution?

Will flashpackers now think twice before taking that domestic flight to save a few hours? Hopefully travellers at the very least will attempt to offset their carbon footprint.



And so Copenhagen comes and goes. There has been a deal reached. A flimsy framework has been floated. World leaders from the 5 major seats on the UN security council are hailing it a success. The developing countries and countries most at risk from immediate global warming repercussions are not so enthused. Understandably.

It is non binding, there are no numbers or dates, it sets no target or timescale for curbing greenhouse emissions. It is what it is. A political catwalk with a lot of talk and little action.

Its too late to be a pessimist. Eco warriors keep fighting the good fight. Backpackers, travel with a collective conscious. Politicians stop talking. Leaders, start acting.