The Longest Way Home Travel Blog » How to guides …

Online Storage Hosting for Travelers: Why you need to do it

The Longest Way Home — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:44:25 +0000

There are some places you really don't want to be without back up copies of your passport. Just in case ... (Market in Lagos, Nigeria)

I’ve had online storage hosting for over a decade, it’s been invaluable to my traveling. And, I consider it something few people take full advantage of.

In my previous article about online photo hosting we looked at why photo hosting can save your travel blog or photography website, and save you money. Is there a difference in photo hosting and online storage hosting? Yes.

The Difference:

Dedicated photo hosting deals nearly exclusively with photographs only, both for back ups and for sharing. They also often offer eCommerce solutions to sell your work.

Online storage hosting deals with just about any file type for the purposes of backing up, and to a degree sharing.

What do I have to backup that’s so important?

This depends on your life & travels. But here are some examples that might help:

Photographs you don’t want to share or display, ever
Back ups of photographs
Passport copies
Scanned in certificates, diplomas and qualifications
Address books and phone numbers
Documents, spreadsheets, contact data
Edited or unedited video footage
Information you don’t want to share online but need access to
Backups of your website
Backups of your databases (wordpress)
Backups of your smart mobile/cell data
Backup all the files on your computer

Can’t I just email myself all this?

Sure, email accounts like Gmail and Yahoo offer gigabytes of storage. You can simply email yourself passport copies, scanned in images of certificates, and upload photos. And, so long as it’s secure, it’s worth doing.

However, email storage isn’t specifically built as a backup storage medium. Uploading files one at a time, or even 5 at a time and not being able to view them without downloading again is pretty exhaustive.

Google Docs and now Bing’s Office online help, but I’ve always been wary of sharing so much on an email account. This is where online storage comes in.

Another factor I look at is that with email and travel. There is a remote chance when using public computers that someone may compromise your account. Especially if you are using it frequently and have many accounts linked to it – e.g. google account. With online storage you don’t have to login unless necessary.

The main advantages / disadvantages of online storage over email:

Batch upload everything at once, either through a web interface or, through an application
Many let you backup your backups
Pro accounts will post you out a flashdrive, DVD, or harddrive of your backup should you lose everything
Faster to upload than email
More secure

Disadvantages of online storage:

Another password to remember
Desktop application can take a while to configure
The fear of putting all your files in one location
An added cost if you have a lot of big files to store

I heard there are security issues with this?

And then, there are places you just don't want to worry about where your important documents are (Goreme, Turkey)

There’s a risk with everything. Online storage has been hyped a lot by the media as being unsecure, yet it’s a huge industry. Choosing a good host is important here as it is anywhere.

One with a track record of longevity and a lack of problems is usually a good sign.

“In over a decade of using online storage I have yet to have a security problem.”

I don’t host passwords online, and I don’t put sensitive information to do with personal details online.

What to look out for?

Most online storage providers have different packages. It’s important that you know what you want to store first, and how much it all comes to in terms of space.

Unless you have amounts of over 20GB of photographs and video, the chances are you won’t even have to pay for online storage as many companies offer free accounts.

What you do need to be careful about is their terms & conditions. Many free accounts require you to log in every 30 days or you will lose your files.

“This can come as a nasty surprise to many people should they log in after 4 months and find they are locked out!”

Others only support computers with incremental back ups. Meaning they do not support external flash disks or drives.

Some only have desktop applications which are of no use if you are traveling without a laptop.

Read the terms & conditions carefully before choosing.

Does everyone need online storage?

No, you don’t have to have it. If however, you are traveling long term. Or want to make a back up set of things you don’t want to lose. It’s certainly worth taking a look at.

In fact I would go as far as to say for long term travelers you’d be pretty foolish not to have some sort of online backup medium.

Where to find online storage?

There are many online storage companies out there. I’ve written a pretty big review of the most popular one’s on my resources page. Including photo hosting providers. I’ve tested and used them all myself, so it comes with what you get on this site, experience & practicality.

“As an example I give the full details of how one company destroyed all my data in 2008, and what I learned to prevent it from happening again.”

Some examples of companies I’ve reviewed are Mozy, Amazon S3, and Humyo - but my advise is to wait for my review before going out to get an account anywhere

I give the basic pro’s and con’s of each one that I’ve tested myself. Plus comparisons & a link to their websites that can save you some time in searching for them.

My review will be published to email subscribers first in about two days, then released over the next week & announced on my Twitter & Facebook pages.

(hint: email subscribers also get a free copy of my photo ebook “Top places to Travel & Photograph” plus some behind the scenes info on what I’m doing right now! Subscribe for free here)

I will also place a link here and on my travel resources page over the coming week.

Meanwhile –

Have you considered using online storage when you travel?

How’s it worked out for you?

Update:

The review page is now live here: Online storage & photo hosting reviews (please be warned, it’s a quite a big review)

This is an additional article written to help others in travel & life, and to remind me of what I too have learned along this journey

Sign up to my email updates to get your FREE ebook of 5 Top Places to Travel & Photograph

(Due to the nature of travel, it usually takes a few days to get the ebook emailed out to you) Enjoy reading my Travel Blog and my Travel Photography

© copyright 2010 www.thelongestwayhome.com

Online Storage Hosting for Travelers: Why you need to do it

Online photo hosting: How not to kill your website

The Longest Way Home — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:00:09 +0000

Photographs to remember and backed up: Sentry post at Auschwitz Concentration Camp (click to enlarge HDR)

Photo hosting is only for selling photographs. Thats what I thought, at one stage.

Travel blogs & photographs generally go hand in hand. And, rightfully so. The main reason I started putting so many photographs up here, was not to attract people (even if it now does), it was simply a place to hang my memories.

I don’t have a permanent place to live, so an important aspect of this website was to have a place I could go and remember places & people. And, to keep them safe!

Online / Offline realities of photo hosting:

So what happens when an earthquake hits your house? The travel photographs fall. This happened to my website last October.

My journey was featured on the front page of La Republica (a main stream Italian Newspaper). Over 50,000 people came to my site that day. My hosting provider shut off my site as they thought it was an attack.

Thankfully my web host is very quick to respond, and had the site up again in a few minutes. But, it came with a warning:

“You won’t stay up for more than a day, you’ve too many photos, it’s eating up your bandwidth …”

What? I had spent countless hours processing all my photographs so that they would be resized, and tiny. Isn’t that what all the webmasters tell you?

Optimize your images for display! Most of my images were only 43kb!

But then I have large headers weighing in at 150-200kb. And then, on the travel blog, I had some at 300kb.

How could I get them any smaller without killing the very reason they were there … to be seen?!!

The problem with website hosts:

Website hosting firms are not all what they seem. They have file limits, and even unlimited bandwidth does not mean unlimited.

I couldn't get my photographs any smaller! I wanted them big! (click to enlarge the Naqsh-e Rostam Tombs in Iran)

Someone from fair trade or the better business bureau really needs to do something about the latter.

Travel photographs suck bandwidth.

Let’s look under the cover of our photos on a website briefly to understand this. If I shoot a photo in RAW, its 20MB+, process it to JPEG it’s 12MB+, resize to 300×220 it’s 500kb-1MB, optimize and it’s down to 50kb.

That’s great! For a website that has only a few people visiting it.

10 ppl x 50kb = 500kb or .5MB of bandwidth

50,000 x 50kb = 2 500 000kb or 2 441MB or just about 2.5 GB

That’s a lot, and it’s only one image! That has been optimized?!!

Now for a hidden killer. WordPress, self hosted blogs, consume a lot of resources, CPU & bandwidth. It’s yet another burden many travel bloggers don’t take into account.

Host a lot of travel photographs yourself using wordpress – and you might have your whole travel blog banned by your host. With or without a lot of people visiting.

I had 1000’s of images. Was I doomed?

The Answer:

Host travel photographs on a specific photo hosting site and link them to your website. Photography hosting is not as expensive, in general, as web hosting. Some are even free.

Hosting your travel photography on a photo host will remove all that bandwidth from a website, and even cut costs. What’s more there are some huge advantages from hosting photographs externally.

Advantages of photo hosting externally:

Save web hosting bandwidth & costs
Display larger images on your website without worry
Another source for people to see your work
Forums to help you improve your photography
Photographs are backed up securely
Protect the original photograph from being stolen or copied
Add watermarks easily
Only show certain sizes of your photograph publicly

Disadvantages:

A little more time is needed to login, upload elsewhere, and then link.
New learning curve (is that a bad thing)
Small increase in yearly expenses

(I’ll be covering all the above plus a lot more in my comprehensive review of online photo & storage providers, see below! Including direct company comparisons, top picks, alternatives, how to protect your photographs from theft, and much, much more)

Use what I learned before it’s too late:

Thankfully the way I built my website I was able to stay online during this huge spike in traffic, and the ones that have occurred since then. But it did take me weeks, to transfer all my photographs to my photo host, redo all the links. This in turn cost me a lot financially, and in time, as I had to extend my stay in a place with wifi.

If you are starting a travel blog or any blog with many photographs, or already have one up and running and hope to have a lot of people visiting it. Take the above into account. Start hosting photographs on a photo host now. Before it will cost extra time, money, and a lost travel blog.

I am preparing two follow up articles to this, including a giant review of storage & photo hosts that I have tested out personally. If there’s something you would like covered, now would be a good time to leave a comment / request.

Update:

The review page is now live here: Online storage & photo hosting reviews (please be warned, it’s a quite a big review)

Coming soon:

Part 2: Online file storage, why every good traveler needs some. Plus a review with names & links to over 20 storage providers!

This is an additional article written to help others in travel & life

Wade Shepard interview: Inspirational Travelers

The Longest Way Home — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:13:18 +0000

I am about to introduce you to someone who runs one of the best travel blogs today. VagabondJourney.com is the creation of 10 year travel veteran, father, and husband Wade Shepard. Vagabond Journey is a rarity in today’s world of flash travel blogging. It’s a mammoth resource of all things travel. What’s more, Wade’s writing is excellent. Straight to the point, honest and well structured.

However, just last year things changed monumentally. Wade got married to Chaya, and they had a lovely baby daughter, Petra.

Is this the end of his 10 years of travel. Wade’s got a lot to say about this, I encourage you to read on to find out more …

Tell us about the roots of your travels, how & why did you start traveling like this?

10 years of travel & still going

It was always ingrained in me that life was suppose to be a fantasy, an adventure, something to remember, an event that is great and larger than even my imagination. I believed in my boyhood adventure stories as a youth, and have not grown out of them yet. My mother would always tell me the words that her mother would tell her: “If you set your mind to it, you can do anything.”

I found that I wanted to have adventures, to be the main character in my own story. So I began traveling, as it seemed to be the most expedient way to obtain my goal, and have not stopped yet. From a survey of our western assemblage of folklore, fairy tales, cartoons, and story books, the act of traveling is often the driving force behind the plot line. I believed these stories to be true, and have continued to be too dense to learn otherwise.

Now that you are no longer a solo traveler, but rather husband and father, have your reasons for traveling changed?
No, my reasons for traveling are still the same: I feel as if this is the best way to live. The daily challenges of traveling are sharp and immediate — you always stand to learn something new — but it is my impression that it is a far easier life on the road than tending to a stockpile of fodder that inevitably builds up in the garages and attics of a sedentary live. Travel is, perhaps, a constant shedding away of the layers of life that you no longer need, and a grasping at those which you desire.

Have you drawn any inspiration from other travelers, past or present, and if so who and why?
Harry A. Franck is the first and last influence upon my traveling life. The man made a LIFE based on traveling. He did not take a journey, go home, write about it, and live off the memories his entire life, no, he continued traveling, continued writing books all the way up until his 80′s. He was a traveler, he was the complete package: he was athletic, he was a good writer, he wrote daily, and he did this all with a large family. What makes Harry Franck stand out in my mind is that he lived a full life while traveling.

I became more interested in Harry Franck when I got married last summer and had my first child, so I began making phone calls to his surviving family members to see if they would be willing to talk to me about what he was like behind the books, and, more pertinently, how he managed to travel and write over thirty books with a wife and five children. I was then at a turning point in my life and I needed some guidance, and I again found it in Harry Franck. I met with one of his daughters and talked with a grandson over the phone and they told me what I needed to hear.

In 10 years of travel, what have you seen change the most when you return back home?
When I return home for visits, it is now clear that life goes on as usual, but I am not part of it. I am now a visitor in my family’s home, a rare apparition on the horizon. I would have to say that missing the nuances of the temporal progression of my family is the biggest downfall to traveling. Though I do keep in good contact with my family, and they read the blog.

This entire Vagabondjourney.com publishing fiasco began as a way to let my family know a little more about me and what I do, as I realized around 2005 or so that they really had no idea. I was just gone — invisible perhaps — out lazing in leisure and loafing in the world. I wanted to make sure that they knew that I took the work ethic and skills that they taught me and apply them towards traveling: I wanted them to know that I work, too.

What has been the worst day for you during your travels?
Probably the day that I realized in Patagonia in 2002 that traveling is a pretty boring thing to do. I became a little lost for a few moments. I was young then and was just walking around, reading books at night, drinking wine, hanging out as I traveled. I did not have any projects, nothing substantial to do, no mission, no goals, no purpose really. I had yet to discover the “project.” I realized that my mother’s lessons were correct: people need productive things to do in order to be happy.

So I went to Japan and began a 4 year study abroad program called the Friends World Program (now Global College), which would enable me to travel to pretty much any country in the world I wanted and study language, culture, and do any little project that I could imagine. It was somewhere during my time traveling in this university that I began blogging and eventually started VagabondJourney.com. This project became my main motivating force in travel productivity, so to speak — it gave me a mission, a daily to do list, and something to build and fully occupy myself with each day of traveling. Without these projects I probably would have went home long ago.

What has been the best day during your travels?
Probably the day that I was napping in a hammock on Nicaragua’s Ometepe Island when a girl in a polka dotted dress woke me up by knocking on my head. We would be married three years later.

Wade's great website

Social media, travel blogs, travel TV, do you think the age of great travel exploration is over?
No, no way. While 99% of these internet information sources merely skim the surface, just regurgitating sections of guidebooks, and have little lasting redeeming value as far as I am concerned, but some of this media is pushing the bounds of world travel, getting information out to people, allowing travelers to travel farther, cheaper, and better.

If you turn on the Travel Channel today it becomes quickly apparent that it has little to do with travel, it is all about food and eating. It should be called the pig out around the world channel. It is funny that an entire television channel can make a living by sending three or four jackasses around the world to eat the testicles off of various animals.

Where did Alby Mangels go, I must ask, and why was he replaced with gangs of walking cliches?

But there is a 1% fringe of online travel writing and media that stands way above the fold. There are travelers who maintain websites who really push travel deeper, further. They write about the thicker side of where they travel — cultural nuances, the personal side of politics, the faces behind news headlines — and these sites really serve to document the world “as is,” they are the chroniclers of our time. The mainstream journalists must find either the worst or best of planet earth to sell articles, and they lie through omission. A travel blogger is responsible to nobody, and can write exactly that which is in front of them without fear of censure.

If you look at online media from a historical perspective.

There are travelers who are writing about more than the basic art of traveling, but about what they see, feel, experience, and their opinions on a world culture in constant flux. It is these travelers who are recording the song of our times, documenting the ebbs and flows of the people on a planet that has rarely seen such intercultural cross roads before. This is important.

While some fat guy is making loads of money going to some seemingly remote location to gorge himself on pig penis for the Travel Channel, there is a legion of travelers out there documenting our times without much regard for advertiser interests, corporate regulations, or even reader expectations and the status-quo. These people are the chroniclers of our times.

The works of corporate journalists and the propaganda of NGOs act as subterfuge over many people’s perception of the world they live in. The groups that are providing the images of the world that get stuck in our collective psyches have special interests and ulterior motives for doing so. Newspapers, magazines, and NGOs are businesses, and they are going to report on the world appropriate to their ends.

An independent online travel writer has more lee way to write what they, themselves, observe.

That piece that you wrote about observing that rare flower in the Phillipines was perfect: you found something rare, said where it was, told us how you got there, photographed it, and left a document in your wake that will stand for years to come. Now if some eco devestation occurs and someone wants to study that flower, they will find your webpage and say, “Well, on this date, this guy Dave found this flower right here.”

This may seem innocent or insignificant, but it is information like this that really means something.

The Vagabond Journey eMagazine, how did this come about? And what does it offer that other “traditional” travel blogs/sites don’t or can’t?
Vagabond Journey.com is, more or less, a way for me to fulfill my traveler responsibility by sharing my travel notes, providing

Great travel articles on vagabondjourney.com

advice, an show a way that can, hopefully, help people travel better and cheaper.

A traveler often lacks many of the social responsibilities that more sedentary people have, but there is one obligation that I feel I should not sidestep: I should share my maps with other travelers, try to show the path that I traveled, as well as how I got here.

It is also a way for me to fund my travels not only while traveling but by traveling. I could not do this website if I did not travel, and the information that I try to provide, particularly on the Wiki Vagabond and Travel Help portions of the site, is that which may be able to help other travelers make the most of their resources, to find work, and, ultimately, to continue traveling.

This is a timeless idea, as it is my impression that travelers have always felt this responsibility.

Vagabondjourney.com is also the mechanism through which I process my impressions, opinions, and experiences of traveling through the world. It is a grounding point, a major constant, and a medium through which I try to understand and figure out this planet that I live on.

Financing solo travel is hard enough, but now that you are three, how are you doing this? And, how tough is it?
It has been really difficult during these initial stages. We now need three times as much money, and expenses like visa fees, entry and exit taxes are now tripled. We are living right now off of the earnings of VagabondJourney.com and the ends are not meeting, we are not keeping our income/ expense fractions constant. Though readers have been more than helpful, and often offer us donations for publishing the website — which, in the end, is what enables us to continue publishing. We ask regular readers for a $1 a week contribution, and if we really got this from everyone we would be able to just concentrate on publishing content full time rather than struggling with making money.

Though I suppose the struggle is part of the journey.

There are now three people traveling in my group, but there are two people who can work, and, hopefully by the time she is four or five, Petra will be able to start taking pictures and putting content up on the website. Just so that we all earn our keep, we should be alright. But, right now, only one person is able to work, as the other needs to care for the baby, so that means three people are traveling off of a single income. Our next move from El Salvador is going to have to be a location where Chaya or I could work a formal job to re-provision our travel funds.

Do you envisage traveling with all your family for the next ten years, or will you stop for a while, for example during Petra’s high school education?
We are probably going to continue traveling. It is my impression that life on the road is usually the best teacher, and being able to go to the places and meet the people that most kids only read about in books, in my opinion, is the best instruction. Studying foreign language, experiencing many cultures, knowing first hand how to navigate through the world you live in, not believing the socialized myths of any one culture, and observing the rounds of geo-politics in action is, in my opinion, the best education for any child. If Petra wants to go to formal school, then that is her choice, and we will stay for the specified durations in countries whose languages and cultures would be good for us to learn, though the idea of a permanent base has not yet arisen on our horizon.

Thanks to Wade for taking the time to sit down and introduce us to his incredible journey.

As I mentioned at the start, Vagabond Journey is one, if not the, favorite travel sites I read every week. It’s a unique perspective on travel from a great writer.

What do you think of Wade’s methods, and style of traveling?

This interview is an additional entry exploring how other travelers are inspiring and can help us all learn

Coming Soon:

Inspirational Travelers – The person behind the most incredible, travel journey ongoing at the moment, a traveler I respect more than any other – a must read!

Travel Blog Ethics – How not to destroy a life

The Longest Way Home — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:15:08 +0000

In travel blog ethics we looked at some of the who’s and how’s. Now lets take a look at the outcomes of how ignoring travel blog ethics can affect & destroy lives.

A flash flood refugee in The Philippines hearing that there is no more food today (click to enlarge) Does this image help the situation, or not?

The following are 3 brief real life situations in order of severity: (names changed)

3. (Asia)“A group of friends were teaching English for a year. “Jen” wrote weekly updates in the form of a travel journal. One entry read similarly to this:

“The girls have really gotta stop eating all that BBQ. Susan couldn’t even fit into a size ten yesterday at the mall!”

Sufficed to say, the ladies were none too happy at having their weight gain mentioned.

Jen was asked to take it down. She didn’t as she felt it was her personal travel journal. For the remaining 6 months she was socially snubbed by the others.

Ethically Jen believed she was right to publish her journal, and the true facts of the day. Doing so cost her two friendships, a host of bad rumors and a not so pleasant remaining 6 months of teaching. Maybe she was right, but it could have been written in a different way.

2. (Africa) “Josephine” & “Simon” were at a expat party, and basically got it together. Josephine published photos of them at the party on her travel blog. Simon’s wife saw it. That summer there was a divorce.

While Simon should not have been fooling around on his wife, Josephine’s actions of blogging about it published it all to the world. Rumor has it she knew he was married. Was she ethically right or wrong?

1. (Tibet) As we sheltered in a hotel during the Lhasa riots 2 years ago I saw people accept huge sums of money from global news corporations for photographs & video from the chaos filled streets outside. Some accepted, others turned them down.

During this time the Chinese Army were doing house to house searches looking for people identified from CCTV and online news footage. No trials, just prison for that person, and their whole family.

The hotel lobby was filled with locals glued to the internet news sites.

Trust me when I say the look in the eyes of these people of sheer terror will teach you all you need to know about ethics in a heartbeat.

The world turns to slow motion as they jam their faces to the screen and panic as someone that may look like them is shown on a street. It’s not just their lives, but the lives of their whole families that are in jeopardy.

Even those conscious about the media, still uploaded photo’s to their personal travel blogs. The general comment was,

“no one will see it, it’s just for friends and family”.

Sorry, search engines pick up everything these days. As do people specifically looking for things like this.

The outcome:

As for me and a few others? A few of us refused the money on offer 2 years ago. It would have been a blessing to me, but a sentence to hell for others. It’s not in me to do that.

The BIG question:

Which is more important to travel blog ethics, to publish the plight of a people or refuse and hopefully save a life from prison or victimization?

The destruction of lives through blogging:

I don’t want a “Tibet” debate here. But I know of several personal bloggers, and people who uploaded their videos from those days to Youtube. Nothing was censored, faces were visible.

International media have already reported on the rounding up of hundreds of people from those days. Many people have not been seen or heard from again since then.

Now, two years later, I am still being emailed repeatedly by various organisations asking for these photos, un-edited, high resolution and uncut. I still refuse. Months after the riots, the Tibetan Government in exile confirmed to me, and asked for them not to be published for the safety of others.

Right or wrong, bystander or rioter, the images from that day showed the efforts of some who believed in a cause to the world. To others they were a sentence to prison.

People sheltering during the riots in Tibet as an army tank closes in (click to enlarge). People's faces & bodies blurred to protect their identity

Travel Blog ethics, who’s responsible?

In a word, you. Imagine yourself traveling in a hot country. You see a man sleeping on a bench in a lane way as the power is out, and there’s nothing to do. You photograph him, and publish it on your blog. You leave the country.

Meanwhile unbeknown to you, back in the country several months later. The son of a business owner is browsing and stumbles on your post. He recognized the sleeping man. The next day the man is fired for sleeping on the job.

You’ll never know. But, your travel blogging actions may affect others if you don’t exercise caution first.

A question to ask yourself before clicking that publish button: Can this photo, or written piece, detrimentally affect any person involved in it?

—

The issue of publishing photo’s that can affect others:

In the previous article many people commented and expressed concern about the legalities of taking someone’s photo and publishing it. I am not a lawyer, and even if I was, I couldn’t answer this for you. Why?

Photographic laws are different in every country. What’s legal in India, may not be so in the U.S.A. or U.K. or Australia nor France etc,.

The general consensus is that photographing a person as the main subject matter, and then selling it online can leave you open to legal action if written permission was not acquired first.

The issue of privacy is separate. Google Earth is a prime example as people went to court preventing them from using any street view photo that a person felt they were identified in. I believe this was upheld in the U.K. and Google had to blur photos.

Resources:

If you are really concerned or would like to know more about photography laws, then I recommend a podcast / website called PhotoLegal. It’s based in the U.K. But many things mentioned there can be applicable elsewhere. If not, then it’s still well worth downloading and listening to a few episodes to get an overview.

Somethings to think about concerning the ethics of blogging:

In hindsight, have you ever taken a photo and now think that it might affect someone?

Do you ask yourself when writing a blog post if it will affect anyone mentioned in it?

Are you, for sure, aware of the photo laws in your country?

If you have any useful links / resources to do with photographic laws / rights, please leave them in the comments below so we can share resources.

Likewise if you’d like to read an article on photography, the law & your rights, then let me know in the comments too.

Coming Soon:

Why I might not be able to write here anymore …

Travel Blog Ethics – Are you travel blogging with this in mind?

The Longest Way Home — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:04:12 +0000

Are you blogging ethically or for money? (click to enlarge)

Do you Travel Blog Ethically? Do you even care?

The debate over travel blogging vs journalism vs travel writing is an old one. I think it’s fair to say old media, whether it likes it or not, is merging with new media. But, are we returning the consideration?

The Global Merge:

Travel writers & journalists nearly all run a blog of somesort these days. And, as mainstream newspapers and magazines role out online versions of their platforms the world watches as they scramble to make money from them. The blogger, or in this case travel-blogger is a little further ahead in the game here.

As more and more people turn to the internet for sources of information, causal reading, and weekly catch ups; blog writers are staring at new responsibilities. The problem is, blogging in itself is still a broad term, so the water’s far more murky than “old school” media.

Merging of formats goes both ways:

I’ll settle my argument of the “vs” argument now:

Travel bloggers that deliver high quality content, of one sort of another, in my view, are modern day columnists.

So too are the travel-writers & journalists that run articles either on personal sites, or through / for media companies.

Reporting on events can be done by everyone, but the standards will be different

Journalists, for the better part, will usually have had a direct education in the field of ethics during their education. Travel writers, again, will or should, have a background in language, writing etc. Least I mention extensive experience in the wide aspects of traveling. Travel bloggers, for the main part are usually experienced in travel & bring with them their own relevant backgrounds.

Enter the “ethics for travel blogging”:

Journalists will have a strong understanding of ethics. It’s a leading part of their education and training. Though these days the “old school” journalists have to fight tooth and nail with the marketing / finance department to not over step the bounderies in favor of financial gain for the corportation.

Travel Writers are well experienced in the sacrificial ethics of travel writing. Compromises on physical hotel reviews versus a quick telephone call to see if they are still there have been documented already. Lower budgets, higher expectations, easy access to information make it all too tempting. Despite this, freebies also seem to have slipped under the radar for travel writers for a long time. This comes under the guise of travel flights / expenses being too much to cover.

Travel bloggers answer only to themselves, and for a few, to their readers. Some do it for the love of it, others for the idealistic dream of financing their travels, others again for the ego trip of a lifetime. Here the temptations really pull heavily; or in my eyes, are often completely blindsided.

Blogging Ethics gone awry?

Disclosure is getting a lot of press these days on the blogging front. Travel bloggers who write articles loaded down with affiliate links. Write sponsored reviews in exchange for cash or products. Or keyword stuff their articles (the process of writing specifically for the purpose of ranking high in search engines).

Affiliate links don’t bother me much, as usually it’s pretty obvious they are links to a product. (mentioning this in your site disclaimer is nice)

Sponsored reviews without adding a disclaimer to the top of the article turns me off the writer immediately. Writing at the bottom comes across, to me, as just slipping it in. Be up front from the start.

Taking trips, or products in return for a company or product should likewise be mentioned in every article you write. Failure to do weakens your long term credibility in my eyes.

Keyword stuffing for the purposes of SEO is much less obvious to the casual reader. One of the worst offenders are some awful companies writing blogs within their site; and then loading them with babbling garbage about something they are trying to rank for. Worse still is when they entice the average travel blog writer to give them free content or photographs to do the same thing.

Travel Photography:

What about this guy? Do you need permission from someone at a public festival? It's something you should know if you display photographs.

Journalists and Writers usually have to abide by rules here, or at least their legal departments ensure they do. But when was the last time a Travel Blogger had a subject give permission to use their photo? That little old lady at the market might not be so happy having her face up for the whole world to see? Few and far between I think.

It isn’t just blogging either. Uploading photos of people to public folders in Facebook, Flickr or other social media platforms can have seriously detrimental effects on their lives.

—

That’s it for this part, it’s a lot to digest. I’ll have a follow up to this where I’ll write up a few failed travel blog ethics I’ve come across that have destroyed lives.

For now though, here are a few things to think about & ask:

Do you keep ethics in mind when you write online or offline?

Do you even care?

Do disclaimers annoy you when you read online, or should they be done away with?

What’s the answer to the merging of these writing platforms whilst still maintaining credibility?

Coming soon:

Travel Blog Ethics: how to avoid getting people killed or jailed.

Here’s a direct link to Travel Blog Ethics 2

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© copyright 2010 www.thelongestwayhome.com

Travel Blog Ethics – Are you travel blogging with this in mind?

Google vs Lonely Planet

The Longest Way Home — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:22:00 +0000

Back in the day
When I was about to embark on this journey, to travel the world in search of home, I knew that I needed some form of “Ultimate” guide.

Let’s not forget this was over 5 years ago. Google Maps was only in development then, Lonely Planet was just releasing PDF’s and there was barely a glint of a smart phone on the horizon let alone an iPad to store or view anything.

The here and now alternatives

Times, and my travels have changed though. Now a laptop is under 1kg, and better yet – the smartphone, iPad like tablets and wide-scale wifi availability bring together a challenge to the paperback bible of travel.

As much as I have respected the information within Lonely Planet in the past, my enthusiasm has faded over the years.

Return of the Rough Guide?

Maybe this is due to my own experience level in travel increasing, or because of new alternatives. Back then I only tore out the pages I needed. Mainly the maps.

Once I know how to get to a place, it’s all easy from there.

That said, one alternative – Rough Guide’s generally comes under less of my tearing frenzy due to some genuinely interesting writing. Unfortunately I find their maps and labeling system chronically annoying and outdated. As for the other guides … well, let’s just say they’re not for me. Footprint was borderline once, nice maps, but the structure …

With a smartphone in hand I have access to Wiki’s, hostel review sites, blogs, and travel forums. Not to mention the ultimate in self location awareness – Google Maps. Mix in some pre-downloaded Nokia Maps, and a cheap sim in every country how could I possibly get lost? Everything is in my pocket.

Pro’s & Con’s of using both methods in travel
I travel far too often and for too long to carry the physical weight and expense of a new Lonely Planet Guide for each country. It’s simply not logical. I have looked at their buy by chapter and calculated it out to be about the same cost as buying the book depending on where and what you are printing.

Torn out LP pages that end up in my side pocket

In fact the whole print a chapter thing simply does not work in some countries. I’ve brought my shiny USB into plenty of places en-route and asked if they can print a few chapters out, only to be greeted with a shaking head. When the heads do nod, then the printing is only one sided, and on an excessively expensive ink-jet printer. Dejected I begin the $5 bartering process with the man with the latest “pre-release” edition of said guidebook waiting outside with a waggling head. Faded maps and all.

Fresh from ripping out the useful bits from the guidebook and designating the ‘flowery language’ bits concerning ‘overly friendly locals’ to the bin; I take out my smart phone.

Here though I find PDF guides equally inept. Constant scrolling, ill fitting on-screen pages and the lack of ability to take fast easy notes frustrates me too much to make this medium work for me either.

An iPad, no thanks. It’s too big & awkward for taking out on the street the way I travel, and it has severe limitations that a smartphone can offer as an all in one device.

Enter Google with another option to knowing where I am and what there is to see: Search and Mapping.

Still, up until one year ago Google had not mapped El Nido, not that the tiny town in Palawan (Philippines) is hard to get lost in. But it’s always good to know that the place at least exists!

Recently though, I checked again and it’s there! Road names and all, with a little blue GPS dot flashing my exact location. The cost to me, mere cents. It’s near impossible to get lost anywhere with this system.

What’s more, Google Maps are accurate. I seem to remember walking down a main road in Brasov Romania that wasn’t listed on my Lonely Planet map. It was 4am, it took 3 hours to find a crummy recommended hostel – and yes; I am still a bit bitter.

With Google Maps if I type in a search for a guesthouse it will fire back something useful, like it’s exact location, plus linked reviews. Pure travellers bliss. In Manila I could get off a bus onto a crowded road and head straight in the direction of the guesthouse that promised no GAP year students, no tour groups – touts at the bus station, be damned.

With the torn out page solution it would always take a while until I got my bearings. Street signs permitting, elbows at the ready; I stare at a crumpled map while telling the touts that I know exactly where I am!

There simply is no doubt; Google’s application kicks Lonely Planet’s proverbial paper map to the curb. Mix in ready access to wiki’s, forums, and reviews – it seemed near perfect.

That is until a few months ago.

Perhaps it’s Google playing with Augmented Reality, or perhaps someone is still practicing the moniker of BETA testing. But now as I search for a guesthouse on Google Maps – at least 4 or more little red markers pop up in different areas of the map telling me this is where the guesthouse is.

Misinformation overload at its worst timing.

Information overload, I just want the hotel I typed in!

These are user additions. I notice these additions come and go. Maybe they know this has the potential to be not so good. As in the photo example here, too much information can get a little confusing. The problem is, as I’m sure you can imagine, this can cause a traveler untold problems in finding the right place. Likewise with “suggestions”, or other places to stay.

Eventually, I suspect Google will soon monetize maps with sponsored listings, thus making it even more tedious to find the cheap, or pre selected guesthouse of choice. Least we forget what happens when we are in a country without gprs/3G etc, or we simply run out of credit/coverage or battery. Overland travel is another story, as more often than not there is no sim available at the border.

And no, I am not a fan of prepaid plans on international roaming rates. In country sim’s and costs are simply much cheaper, for my type of travel at least.

As for Nokia Maps? Well the idea is nice. Download all the maps to your phone, and you don’t even need an internet connection to get around… unfortunately they’ve not even road mapped the Philippines yet, and I am not holding my breath. What’s more, at one stage my Nokia map was telling me whilst in El Nido, that I was 5 miles out to sea… useful eh?

The result

Satellite view of El Nido

Is technology lagging here or is it the companies themselves? Surely Lonely Planet can see the writing on the wall? Using a combination of Wikitravel, hostel sites, and google maps, one can effortlessly move around a country knowledgeably without stepping out of place even once nor have the need to carry a hefty paper book around.

Or will Google’s monetization of maps and reliance on user contributions and ‘connected only’ regions cause it’s own downfall in the world of travel? I think not. Frustrate users, yes, but fail, no.

Will Lonely Planet risk all on Augmented Reality in the hope that it’s users will follow their prechoosen walking tour paths? Maybe so. And maybe it will work for a certain type of tourist. City breaks, weekend travelers etc

One things for sure; Apple iPad apps, private travel companies developing mobile app’s, interactive website guides and a host of other media are all also thinking about how they can get a bite of the travel guide pie. Maybe even Rough Guide’s will move back into the picture and surprise us all with something revolutionary.

Same view, different angle, no need for Augmented Reality here! (click to enlarge)

Google is pushing ahead either way; and, it’s working to an extent. Lonely Planet still has a great reputation, the feel good factor of a book, market dominance, and hopefully, if not obsessing too much with iPhone & iPad beta apps, a plan to move forward with innovative technology.

As for me?
I still shred guidebooks, and photocopy pages. They lurk with a pen in a side pocket. I like having this information to hand and the ability to scribble notes only I can read. But in my other pocket are two batteries, a smart phone, and the ability to not waste time in getting to exactly where I want to go with the exact information I need.

Both serve a purpose for my travels, for now. But I wonder which pocket is more likely to be emptied in the future?

Coming Soon:

Mindanao; Google have mapped it, LP barely mention anything about it! It’s technically a warzone (gloria said so), and yes I’m right in the middle of it with something very new to say…

How to get to Brookes Point, Palawan, The Philippines

The Longest Way Home — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:04:59 +0000

Palawan from an airplane window (click to enlarge)

My flight from Shanghai to Manila had been obscured by the fact that I had just finished my overland journey. Now that I was traveling again within The Philippines to Puerto Princesa, Palawan I remembered why I hated airline security.

What’s more was the fact that it has become worse over the past 4 years. No liquids, no extra batteries, shoes off, belt off – problem. I’d lost weight. The fact I was wearing blue boxer shorts was no longer a secret.

I’d left my some my things in Manila to avoid Cebu Pacific’s annoying 15KG limit for internal flights, so I just had an overloaded carry on bag. There’s a nice sign at check in saying “Laptop’s can be carried separately” What’s more my extra camera batteries didn’t cause a fuss either.

Grabbing my window seat I noticed Cebu Pacific don’t seem to like cleaning their windows very much. Hence the photograph above looks a bit strange. But then, I like it. I’ve never seen a “Tropical” Island from the air before, so it was nice.

Coming into land at Puerto Princesa, Palawan

Welcome to Palawan:

Palawan airport itself is tiny. There’s a passport check, more for numbers of tourists as they never checked my visa. Which reminded me I had to get it renewed soon. But best of all there was an actual Government Tourist desk at the airport right beside baggage claims (which of course clogs everything up)

“Can I fly to El Nido?”

“We vant to rent a car, how much?”

The tourist desk was being surrounded by white forigners all asking the same question. El Nido, El

The Road to Brooke's point is good

Nido, El Nido. How much? When, Where, Car, Plane, Get me there, and I’ll pay anything.

Rumors of how hard traveling Palawan is:

El Nido is about 8 hours away via a bad road according to my old guide book. 12 – 16 hours away according to online forums. It was also a haven for tourists. Rich ones by the sound of it as one guy agreed on the spot to pay 8,000 pesos for a private car to drive him. The plane ticket from Manila was only 3,000!

My plan was simple. Go in the opposite direction. Brooke’s Point, at the southern end of Palawan Island. A town where the worlds largest pearl was found. And also, no matter who hard I tried, no one could tell me how long it takes getting to Brookes Point?! A perfect excuse if there was any.

“5 hours,” replied the tourist info girl as I greeted her in Tagalog. The only thing I really knew how to say.

The rich German tourist was then ignored as the girl handed me a map and marked the bus station on it for me. I could take a jeepney, or mini van. And they leave 4 times a day. I smiled and took the map and left her to the frustrated German.

How to get to Bookes Point:

A tricycle from Puerto Princessa, Palawan, The Philippines

Outside I ignored the touts and tricycle drivers and made my way to the main road. The cost from the airport to the bus terminal went from 120 pes0, to 60, to 20 the further I went. A 10 minute ride. Plus a quick stop off to check that the ATM in the city worked. Puerto Princessa is the only place in Palawan with an ATM. Research paid off there. So it brings a wad of cash, just in case …

At the station I was ready for war. Online forums had told be of beaten up buses, and jeepneys. Luggage thieves and over pricing. My tricycle drive took me directly to a depot.

“250 peso, Air conditioned mini van … ”

And the catch?

“I get you front seat sir …”

I looked at Dan Dan the ticket man and took his number. Hopped into the front seat next to a skinny local and we were off within 5 minutes. No fuss, no hassle, no problem.

For the first time online travel forums had let me down. I suspect this is due to a combination of things. Palawan being such a

Welcome sign to Narra, Philippine Cockatoo Capital of the World

“Deserted Island Paradise” for some rich folk who really think sharing an air conditioned minvan is painful. And expats who are slightly out of touch with reality … or possibly enjoying too much San Miguel in the heat.

Either way I was speeding along the way to Brookes Point, on an excellent road. With a brief stop over in Narra, Philippine Cockatoo Capital of the world! The journey couldn’t have been better.

I knew nothing Brooke’s Point other than it has a great sunrise. No idea where to stay, and no idea what to do. But my first rule of finding a place to live is to explore the place first. Going to Brooke’s Point is off the tourist trail. It would boost my rankings with the locals, and all in all seemed like a nice quite place to start from. Then work my way up.

Having said that. It’s also the base for the illegal back door boats to Indonesia … Well, anything is worth a look …

Recap:

Get to Puerto Princesa with your passport
Take Tricycle to main bus terminal 20 -40 pesos
Take a minivan for 250- 300 peso to Brookes Point
Brookes Point is very walkable once there

Coming soon:

Brooke’s Point, Palawan

Learning about the unknown factor in finding a place to live

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How to get to Brookes Point, Palawan, The Philippines