In a third-hand account of spa-going, I offer you the results from this year's list of best spas, based on a reader poll done by Conde Nast. I tried going directly to the Conde Nast site, but they offered their results with that annoying web trick of forcing you to click here, there and everywhere to see all the results.
Instead, you can go to A Luxury Travel Blog and see all on one page, the top spas in the U.S., Canada, Hawaii (yes, I understand that Hawaii is part of the U.S., but I didn't make up the categories), cruise ship spas, spas in Mexico and Central America, spas in the Atlantic and Caribbean and top hotel spas.
Take the recommendations with a grain of salt...or with a sugar scrub. Theses spas are not being reviewed by us skilled and trained professional journalists, you know, those of us who majored in spa going and can write about it objectively.
But the list of top spas at least gives you some names of places to research if a solo spa vacation is in your cards. While you're researching, of course, investigate what the solo scene is to see if you'd enjoy going alone.
We here at Boldly Go Solo (we being me) are just bursting with delight over learning that this very blog was awarded top honors by the Society of American Travel Writers' Atlantic Caribbean Chapter.
On a related note, I just learned about a new book called Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It.
Unfortunately, I haven't read it yet. So if I'm bragging and blowing it, I apologize. I'll get the hang of it as soon as I get the book.
"Cairo Time," a romantic drama on the big screen that takes viewers on an in-depth tour of Egypt's capital city, provided me with an evocative return visit to the "City of a Thousand Minarets."
I recognized a set of stairs in a section of the Khan El-Khalili market downtown, a minaret (or is it just a tower?) on the banks of the Nile and, of course, the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx.
For the friend who joined me, it was a glimpse of Cairo so compelling that he now wants to visit.
This is one of the things I love about travel. It adds a richness to life that extends far beyond the trip.
The movie is beautifully shot, but slow. I like this description of Cairo Time from the Toronto Star: "Ruba Nadda’s slow burner shows the hectic urbanity of Cairo but also the cool eternity of the ancient pharaohs and the hidden chambers of the heart."
You tell them you're traveling solo and they get all negative about it. (Maybe they're jealous, the writer says.)
Or they'll tell you you'll get hurt. You'll get lost. You'll get kidnapped, injured or die. (Fact is, that can happen at home too, she points out.)
My favorite line is about the "what if" people: "But what if a stranger who has the Ebola virus jumps in front of you and
starts bleeding all over you, while trying to poke you with a knife and
steal your camera?"
Yeah, that would be a problem. I personally would try to avoid those people if possible.
Got naysayers in the vicinity? I say, come up with great reasons to travel alone and ask them why they don't do it. Try to stump them. Could be fun.
I've often been terrified before traveling to foreign countries outside of the "safety" of Europe.
I planned a trip to Ecuador and worried for weeks before going. Someone told me about a woman he'd met in Brazil who'd been harassed in Ecuador. I read about pickpockets and thieves and how careful women had to be at night.
The same thing happened before going to Egypt. All I could think of was the massacre I'd remembered that had taken place there 15 years ago. As if the next one were planned for the very time, place and day I'd be at, say, the Valley of the Kings or the Pyramids at Giza 15 years later.
And people around me freaked out when I said I was going to Mexico last fall. They'd read too much about kidnappings and drug-related killings. As had I. Although in that case, I wasn't very concerned. Can't explain why.
But while staying with a family in Guadalajara, Mexico, taking the city bus to Spanish classes and sightseeing around the downtown, I have to say, I didn't see one person carted off by a drug cartel member or shoved into a car and driven off for a ransom call.
Life seemed pretty normal despite the horror stories in the paper. Which are mostly about the border states, in any case, not all of Mexico.
This kind of thinking is understandable (I've GOT to say that, don't I, since I engage in it sometimes) but also not particularly rational.
I live in Washington, D.C. I watched the smoke from the 9/11 plane that crashed into the Pentagon rise into the sky as I made my way home that day. Terrorists had attacked within two miles of where I worked and within five miles of where I live.
What makes you happier? Possessions or experiences?
I came across a blog post by someone who decided to fulfill his dream of living on a sailboat. He wrote four lessons on what he had learned from his experience.
Two resonated with me and will for most solo travelers:
1. Life is about the experiences you have, not the possessions you own.
I wonder about this sometimes. When I return from a vacation that
cost me, say, $1,500, I sometimes think, "That's over now. And what do
I have to show for it?"
What I mean is with $1,500, I could have had a
new computer with accessories that would last me years. Or a nice, new
piece of furniture. Or who knows what else?
But travel is in a separate category of spending. A must-have category. My
life would feel empty if I didn't go somewhere each year. I like
things, but I like travel experiences more.
Other people feel
differently. Some want to renovate their homes. Others want expensive
new "toys," whether cars or boats or, I don't know, race horses. And will put off traveling.
If you're reading travel blogs like this one, you're likely in the "prefer experiences" category. (And aren't in the market for a horse any time soon.)
Before going to Egypt, my visions of the country didn't extend much beyond the pyramids, the Sphinx and Hosni Mubarek.
But two of the strongest memories I have now, in addition to those iconic pyramids, are of the many horses and buggies that fill city streets, and the public call to prayer, or the "drone of proclaimed faith," as a Washington Post article called it, that occurs five times a day in Cairo, emanating from mosques' loudspeakers around the city.
When I first heard that drone one evening early in the trip, I was perplexed. Was someone playing the radio too loudly in the hotel room next door? I walked onto the balcony, overlooking the Nile, and eventually surmised the sound was coming from everywhere. All around the city. Still, I wasn't sure what it was. And I certainly couldn't understand the Arabic to figure it out.
Eventually I learned the meaning behind the chanting sound. The signal to Orthodox Sunni Muslims that it's time for prayer. You can tell the devout Muslims on the street by the prayer mark on their foreheads. From touching their heads to the ground so often. It's literally a scar.
I was always intrigued by the sound when I heard it. It would start up and I would wonder what that noise was. Then it would hit me. Oh right, it's time for prayer. If I were near a mosque, I'd see men walking from all directions towards its doors.
I wanted to record the sound but it took forever to finally do so. Since I couldn't predict when the calls would happen or know where I'd be, I seldom had a recording device at the ready. But finally, in Luxor, I managed to capture it.
Well, actually, I captured two sounds. The other is of a horse clopping. The horse that was pulling the carriage I was riding in with my new-found friend Ann. (We met at the airport on the first day of our organized trip and discovered both of us had arrived solo.) We'd taken a long walk into town and toured the Luxor Museum and decided to give our legs a rest on the way back.
Besides, we'd seen these horses and buggies everywhere and wanted, finally, to hop on board. (Little did I know how hard that seat would be, despite the cushion.)
The sight of the carriages was most intriguing at Edfu, where they came from all directions to greet the early arrival of Nile cruise ships about to unload. We could see from our ship as the carriages streamed in from every street possible.
Like New York taxi drivers, I'm sure the carriage drivers have to make their "nut" each day, not for gas in this case, but for feed for their horses. And upkeep of the buggies.
The funniest thing about our carriage ride was that our driver Mohamed, within a minute of picking us up, pulled over to a food cart to buy himself some sweets. Efficient service was not of the essence, apparently. Getting the fare was.
He was vaguely apologetic about it. Asked us if we wanted anything. It was charming in its way, after the initial "what the heck?" He was just a hungry, young guy who didn't want to take a break while going after customers. A young guy with a horse named Cinderella, trying to earn a living.
Photos and video: Ellen Perlman. The Sphinx. The main drag in Luxor. Street by the dock in Edfu.
Smapping. That's what Mike Sowden calls it when you become your own cartographer/photographer:
"Smapping is the process of taking a digital photograph of a map that you won’t have access to later, except if you take a snap of it."
This is brilliant. I've done something similar by snapping signs and information boards when I didn't want to copy down a lot of facts. Just photo it, and it's yours for posterity. It's like having a researcher/assistant on board taking notes.
But I didn't really think about it for local maps. That is, to have one on your camera, instantly.
Using a photo of a map in real time may not be as nice as having an actual map of a place. But if you don't have one, I could see where a photo could come in very handy. As Sowden points out, it may seem small, but you can zoom in for details.
I like taking photos of local historical or informational signs because they're often more detailed than explanations in guidebooks. Or contain facts that you might not see anywhere else.
Another reason I snap is to place the scenery that I'm photographing once I get home. Sometimes, the places all begin to merge in my mind days or weeks later. If I take photos of signs as I enter or leave a place, I will know where my photos are from.
One of the best tips a solo traveler can learn about photography is number nine on a list of 10 tips released by the Society of American Travel Writers Tuesday: "Put local people in your photos."
SATW says to do it because it gives your photos a sense of size and scale. I say to do it because it breaks down that wall between visitor and local and gives you an excuse to talk to people.
Yes, it takes a smattering of courage to approach strangers and ask permission to "make a picture" as professional photographers say. ("Shoot" is so violent...!!)
But with a digital camera, it takes little more than showing your photo to your subject to elicit a smile. And make them feel like they got something out of obliging you.
Children all over the world these days, it seems, know that their faces appear in the back of that little box that just flashed and will pull on you to see themselves. The smiles that appear from these encounters will include your own.
For instance, I saw a photogenic family at a shisha bar in Cairo. The father was smoking from a hookah while the wife and three children sat around the table with tea and other drinks. I thought they were Egyptian. It turns out they were tourists like me. From Armenia. Still worth a photo.
Despite not being able to speak English they tried to talk to me. The toddler could speak little of either of our languages. His mother worked on getting him to look at me. It was exhilarating having our little interchange and showing the children their animated faces between each shot. They leaned in close to see and then posed some more.
Same thing happened at the Sphinx, where I got smiles all around from a young family after I showed them photos of themselves.
The other tip that could be helpful to solo travelers is the one about getting up early, before the harsh light of day flattens the light. When a place isn't yet packed with tourists, both you and the locals will be less irritated by the madding crowds.
Simply sitting beside someone on a bench or at the edge of a fountain might lead to conversation. If nothing else, it's a beautiful time to be out. Good for reflection and a little peaceful interlude before the rush of trying to see and do and get somewhere.
As for the rest of the photo tips, well, they might not pertain to solo travel, but they're certainly useful for making better pictures.
Photos: Ellen Perlman. An Armenian family; a felucca captain on the Nile; an Egyptian family visiting the Sphinx.
All seemed to delight in seeing photos of themselves. (I think that silly head garb on the man on the right in the last photo is something he bought for cheap to keep the sun off him. Lots of vendors were trying to sell those to me. A square of cheap cloth with a ring you pop on your head to hold it down.)
The balloon lifted off the ground at dawn, the peaceful silence interrupted intermittently by a blast of noise and a wave of heat from the gas jets filling the huge tear drop above us. We were headed for the Valley of the Kings.
We didn't get there. We had signed up for a balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings, where tombs of the pharoahs and other nobles are buried. But on the day of our adventure, the wind had other ideas. And none of the best-laid plans of ours were going to change that.
It was a glorious experience nonetheless. We glided over the monumental and the ordinary. Over the Temple of Hatshepsut and over little villages. Other balloons rose and floated along with us. We soared over little domed mosques and cemeteries that looked like archaeological digs.
I was reminded of this after coming across an MSNBC article from last June on the "coolest, most exotic" balloon adventures.
Occasionally in the past, I'd been tempted to try ballooning. I had read about excursions in nearby Virginia, but never felt motivated to spend the money. At the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was awed by the array of balloons in the air at sunrise. But that was thrilling enough. The sights were available from the ground.
In Egypt, however, it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. And, being in a group provided ease--just sign up on a sheet of paper--and a bit of peer pressure. (What if everyone ended up talking about their fantastic adventure and I hadn't gone?)
Having done ballooning for the first time over amazing, unique sights, I realize the view is as important as the ballooning itself. If I were to do it again, it wouldn't be for the floating, which was lovely, but for a chance to see something I couldn't see any other way. Or, something that was worth seeing from every angle.
For instance, Serendipity Adventures, mentioned in the MSNBC piece, takes you over an area where monkeys, sloths and toucans cavort. Or perch. The area can't be accessed on foot so ballooning is the ticket in.
Buddy Bombard's Europe puts guests up at chateaus and afternoon balloon rides take them over castles and vineyards.
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