As someone who writes travel guidebooks, I set off with a list of every known hostel in each destination. But I’ll always try to visit an information centre to see if there are any new hostels that I somehow wasn’t able to find out about. We include every single known hostel in our guides and this is a good way to ensure that we don’t miss a single hostel.

Tourist information centres are not always so helpful and sometimes the people who work there can be as useless as tits on a bull. Sometimes they have an ulterior motive to promote members of the local tourist association at the expense of - often better - non-members and sometimes they are just plain clueless.

Many tourist information centres are funded by membership in the local tourist association. Hotels and local tourist attractions pay a membership fee that goes towards covering the information centre’s expenses and promoting the destination. When you visit the tourist information centre they will only tell you about their members and in some cases they will lie to you and tell you that other places don’t exist and even tell you to avoid the non-member businesses.

If you are travelling in Western Australia you may see flyers advising you against a certain hostel and telling you about a, supposedly better, alternative. You’ll see these flyers in hostels (particularly YHA hostels) and tourist information centres. The hostel is not particularly good, but it is no worse than many other hostels in the region, particularly other hostels that display the flyers advising you to avoid the hostel. The recommended alternative is not a hostel at all, but some cheap rooms above a pub with a depressing and unwelcoming atmosphere. Word on the street is that the tourist information centre is bullying the hostel because they refused to join the tourism association - that’s about as childish as union members bullying workers who choose not to join their union.

Because many information centres are funded by membership fees, the information centre’s job is to promote those businesses rather than give you honest advice. An example I experienced is the information centre in Coober Pedy, South Australia. I called in and asked about the hostels; I was told where the hostels were but after asking which was best I was told, “I’m not allowed to tell you that”! That’s because they can’t be seen to recommend one place over another. It is hardly a place to come to for honest unbiased advice.

Sometimes the information centres are just plain clueless, particularly if you don’t represent the average visitor to that destination. A few years ago on a trip around the UK I called into the information centres in Birmingham and Leeds (at the time neither city had any hostels) and asked about hostels in the local area, in both cases I was given a list of homeless shelters. That’s like asking the opening hours of the city museum and being given directions to Boots the chemist.

When you’re travelling it is important to see tourist information centres for what they really are: a good place to get free maps and ask directions to local attractions but not a place for independent unbiased advice.

We have been working on these two books since November last year and when it came down to less than two months to the deadline, the books suddenly took priority over everything else. This meant that posts to this blog and my presence on the forums was reduced to a trickle. During the last six weeks we’ve been working till 2am every day and in the last week our work day was extended till 4am. Yesterday I caught up on some much needed sleep - 20-hour workdays tend to be a bit exausting.

Every new edition of our guidebooks has been better than the previous edition, and this is no exception. This time we had the backing of a major publisher, which meant that I was able to send a few talented writers on the road to visit and review over 1000 hostels in Australia and New Zealand. The new reviews are more detailed than previous books, we also have coverage of new destinations, expanded coverage of places to eat and drink and we have redrawn all the maps so that they are clearer and easier to read.

The next couple of months will see us update the website with updated information that we gathered while researching the new books.

The 4th edition of BUG Australia and the 3rd edition of BUG New Zealand will be in bookshops in October.

That’s one reason I am more likely to give preference to low-cost carriers that advertise all inclusive prices such as Flybe or Sky Europe over airlines like Ryanair that give away free flights and then rack up your credit card bill on taxes, fees, fuel levies, excess baggage fees and so on.

At least in Australia all domestic airlines quote all inclusive prices - they’re required to by law - although that still doesn’t stop them for charging for so called optional extras. Extras like credit card payment!
I think it is a bit cheeky to charge an extra $2 credit card fee when it is the only payment option, yet this is common practice. It would be understandable if there was the option of paying cash, direct debit or PayPal; but that’s just not the case, yet we are still charged a premium to pay using the only payment method accepted by the airlines.

At least Air Asia X, the long-haul offshoot of Malaysian cut price airline Air Asia, gives you the option to pay by PayPal. Air Asia X claims to be the first airline in the Asia Pacific region to accept PayPal. As a promotional offer they are crediting $50 on the first 4000 flights from Australia to Malaysia (Gold Coast and Perth to Kuala Lumpur) paid by Paypal before the end of the month.

I don’t think PayPal is the most convenient option for most travellers, in fact I would assume that credit card payment is more convenient for at least 90% of travellers, but it is nice that we get a choice so we can avoid another extra fee.

On Saturday afternoon (Houston time) electrical gear shorted causing an explosion that knocked down three walls. No servers were damaged, but the electrical supply was disrupted. Although the data centre had backup generators, the Houston fire department required that all generators be shut down, bringing down 9000 servers and around 100,000 websites (my estimate as most servers host at least 10 websites).

Everything has now been resolved and we’re back online.

It’s hard to stay fit when travelling around. The gym is far away and the delicious-but-unhealthy food stalls are just ‘round the corner. The solution is to think different.

Yes, the great temples of Nepal are great memories. But small, crazy moments can be equally memorable.

At this rooftop, in Nepal, I had to hang on for two long hours. The stomach of the bus was packed and the roof was full of people and caged chickens, and we all went down one of the heavily unsteady and rocky roads of the Nepali north.

The bus kept bouncing up and down, for each turn we were hanging on for our lives and I could feel half a dozen of bruises developing as the driver continued to ignore the BREAK and the BIG HOLES IN THE ROAD. Then, God saw my misery and decided to punish me further, rain on that non-believer! he said, perhaps, as big and hard drops of rain started to bombard us.

The driver ignores the thunderstorms and it seems like he tries to win over the weather, no-one or nothing stops me from beating my record!, he thinks, perhaps. Then a little boy climbs up to us, we are bouncing like ever before and our bruises are multiplying, water is slapping our faces and now we have to reach for ticket-money, and then the sky is covered by lightning, we are laughing and crying and we’re all in deep, deep pain.

A bus ride in Nepal is never just a bus ride.

Che, titties and jesus. But – where is Maradona?

Skydiving is cheap in Argentina, and when I see our plane I realize why. The entire back wall of the tiny 2-man plane is duct-taped at place. Too late and too proud to run away, we hit the clouds and the big blue sky. The pilot cruises around and while he keeps silent Aljandro, the skydive master and company runner, asks if I’m ready.
“I’m ready.”

Then he turns to the fourth and last man in our plane. He’s a small and chubby Argentinean, my co-jumper, the guy who’s supposed to push me out of the plane with himself attached. (Basically he kills me – before he saves me again by unfolding the parachute)
“Are you ready?”, main man Alejandro asks my co-jumper.
“Si, si,” he responds. And from this point my Spanish skills fail in understanding the following phrases. But Alejandro’s serious eyes and explaining and gesticulating hands scares me. My co-jumpers madly nervous face scares me even more. It’s my first jump, ever, and I’m scared because here it’s obvious that my co-jumper, the man who’s supposed to save my life, he’s a rookie as well.

“OK my friend!” Says Alejandro, to me, and it’s time.

My life’s in his hands.

Video

]]> http://www.bug.co.uk/blog/2008/05/08/lifes-cheap/feed/ http://www.bug.co.uk/blog/2008/04/21/where-to-see-wildlife-in-australia/ http://www.bug.co.uk/blog/2008/04/21/where-to-see-wildlife-in-australia/#comments Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:56:23 +0000 Tim Uden http://www.bug.co.uk/blog/?p=69 I meet a lot of backpackers travelling around Australia who tell me that they have been travelling for several months and still haven’t seen a live kangaroo in the wild. Dead ones don’t count - since they’re everywhere - and going to a wildlife park is cheating. So what’s the secret to seeing a kangaroo in the wild?

Well there are several spots where you’re virtually guaranteed to see a kangaroo in the wild. Here’s a short list of the top places to see wildlife in Australia:

• Pebbly Beach in Murramarang National Park, NSW. Not many backpackers make it to this national park on the NSW south coast between Bateman’s Bay and Ulladulla, but it is one of the best places to see kangaroos on the beach. There is no public transport so you’ll need a car (although most rental cars aren’t allowed on the unsealed roads in the park).
• Grampians National Park, VIC. Most kangaroos in the Grampians can be found around the Zumstein picnic area, but you’ll see them elsewhere in the park as well. The small village of Halls Gap is one of the few places where the locals aren’t telling porkies when they tell you that kangaroos are hopping down the main street of town.
• Barrier Highway, NSW. The drive from Dubbo to Broken Hill would be one of the world’s most boring stretches of road if it were not for the kangaroos hopping in front of your car. If you leave Dubbo around midday it will get dark shortly before you arrive in Broken Hill increasing your chances of seeing kangaroos. Take it easy and if you’re driving a rental car make sure your travel insurance reduces your excess since there is a high chance that you may hit a kangaroo.

As for other native animals, you’ve got a good chance of seeing emus in the Flinders Ranges, SA; you’re sure to see a few quokkas if you go to Rottnest Island, WA and if you’re lucky you could spot a rare cassowary around Mission Beach, QLD.