on getting mail when you travel a lot

If you travel a lot, it's a good idea to get an account at a commercial mailboxes place. You can do almost the same at a Post Office, but they want to know your actual residence address. I don't think they'll rent you a post office box without having a physical address for you associated with it. You're limited by their hours of availability, though I don't have that problem since I moved from the crime ridden city (where the local Post Office was locked up after hours) to the far safer county where the local Post Office is available 24/7 -- that is, the lobby is open. There aren't any clerks there at night. But you can go in, get mail from a post office, use scales, use a self-mailing machine to buy a meter for mail and put it into the inside mail slots. You want a service that will hold your mail indefinately. The Post Office will start sending it back if you don't pick it up and haven't told them that you're out of town.

I need a tropical beach to retire to

Man on man, do I wish I was on a tropical beach right now. St. Louis has gotten very cold in the last few days. Yesterday I had to wait over an hour for a bus and thought I was going to freeze even though I was dressed quite warmly. Yet it wasn't much worse than being inside my apartment, because at that time I had no electricity, and therefore no heat (we have gas heat but it requires an electrically operated fan to blow it). An ice storm very late Friday night knocked down wires for over 100,000 homes, including mine. I did finally get power again sometime last night while I was at the library.

Yes, I'd be very happy if I never go through a St Louis winter again.

Of course, I just saw on The Drudge Report that there was snow in Malibu . . .

Global warming is tough.

on traveler's checks

Traveler's checks? I stopped using them. First of all, I object to paying 1 - 1/5% of my money to the travel check company right off the top.

Secondly, when I cashed travelers checks at currency exchanges, I was given a lower exchange rate than cash.

Thirdly, most small businesses won't let you pay in traveler's checks. If they know about and can handle them, they'll also take credit/debit cards.

Fourth, hotels have small safes where you can keep the bulk of your money. Your money is pretty safe in airports if you're careful. And pretty safe in taxis from the airport to your hotel if you're careful. And then you should put it right into the hotel safe.

So I figured out that with local crime rates, my biggest risk from carrying a large amount of cash was going from my home to the airport.

foreign ATM machines

And depending on where you're going, you may be able to get cash from your home bank account using an ATM machine. Some ATM machines in some countries are plugged into Cirrus or another internatioal network. I pay just a $1.50 service charge for getting cash from my own checking account.

In the US I wouldn't pay that short of an emergency, but there's no shortage of ATM machines. But when I'm 12,000 miles away from my bank, $1.50 seems like a bargain.

Of course, sometimes the ATM machines are down.

Also, not all ATM machines will be linked to your US bank. They may just operate within the host country. Do ask at your hotel or a cab driver -- they'll often know where you need to go to get more cash.

Currency exchanges

I'll pass on a practical travel tip. In my experience, you should never exchange foreign currency in an American airport, if you can possibly help it.

Other countries seem to be much more honest than whatever financial institutions in the US run those little booths in airports. If you are afraid you won't be able to change money when you arrive in the other airport, because it's late at night or a holiday, see what kind of rate you get from your local bank before you go.

But there's no excuse to settle for a rip-off exchange rate. If you think you must, cash the barest minimum to pay the cab to your hotel and buy something to eat.

When you're leaving the foreign country to return to the US, exchange your foreign currency back to dollars before you arrive back in the US. The currency exchange booths in other airports will give you a much better rate. It is true they may not be open if you go to the other airport very early in the morning or late at night. In which case, do the exchange inside the country, leaving yourself only enough cash that you'll need.

In my limited experience, other countries do a much better job at exchanging currency than the US. Some have many little booths in tourist areas and are very professional about exchanging money and also getting you cash advances on your credit cards. Some are not so accomodating and the currency exchange shops are more likely Mom and Pop type outfits. But they're still common in tourist areas.

Tropical beaches

My personal favorite place to go is a tropical beach. As a kid we went on vacation to both California and Florida. I do remember swimming in a beach in Florida, but not California. On my cruise around Hawaii 10 years ago I think I hit a beach only once, but did go on several snorkling trips where I got to see a lot of fish and big green sea turtles.

The good news is there's a lot of coastline in the world, including the tropical areas. So we're not limited to the developed (and extremely expensive beaches) of Florida, California and Hawaii. Hey, the ocean is the ocean. There're tons of places to swim in the surf and sun yourself from Mexico (though that's getting more developed and more expensive) to the rest of Latin America to Africa to the Middle East and East European countries bordering on the Mediterranean to Africa and Asia and the South Pacific. Australia and New Zealand too, though I would assume those are more expensive, since they're in developed countries.

on coconut juice

When I first went to tropical countries I learned the pleasure of drinking coconut juice. I'm actually not sure whether "juice" is the right word. I'm referring to the slightly cloud, sweet liquid that is found inside green coconuts.

Until then, my only experience with coconut was the shavings on certain candy bars, and I didn't like it. But when done right, coconut is delicious.

For those of you who don't know, when the coconut is still green, it has a fair amount of a slightly cloudy, sweet liquid in it. The shell of the coconut is very thick, roughly one inch or so, and very tough and woody. On the inside, it's lined with a milk-white gelatinous sweet substance which I think is used to make coconut milk, which is a staple of Thai cooking.

I first drank coconut juice in Thailand. There, it's served in a shell that's cleaned and trimmed and has a fancy little umbrella coming out of a hole in the top, plus a straw to drink out of. It looks like a fancy tropical drink, and I supposed a lot of people do spice the juice up with alcohol. It's called nam ma prow-on.

In the Philippines, it's called buko -- and it's not served in the shell. Vendors open up the coconuts and drain the juice into one large vat which is kept cool. Plus, they scrape off the white gelatin that's on the side so you drink it when these white strips in it, from a glass or a plastic baggy with a straw in it and the top secured with a rubber band. Street vendors will have a big pile of empty coconut shells in a truck compartment behind them.

The Philippines is where I got some buko the freshest way possible -- a guy climbed a tree in his sandals, hacked off a coconut, then opened up a hole in the top with the corner of his machete's blade. No straw, so I just drank right out of the coconut.

In India, it's sold by elderly women sitting in the street or on a beach. They have a pile of whole green coconuts on one side of them, a pile of empty coconut shells on the other side of them. When you order a drink, she grabs one of the whole coconuts, uses a special heavy iron tool to cut four corners in the thick husk, then pries out that piece. Then plops a straw into the hole and hands the coconut to you to drink right there, so you can throw the empty shell down.

My mother took our family on a cruise around Hawaii a few years ago. One of the side visits was a trip to a coconut plantation. I didn't go, but my sister and niece and nephew did, so I asked them whether they got to drink any coconut juice. They were puzzled and said that a guide had told them it wasn't good. They thought I was crazy for asking.

A few years later I saw a childhood friend who now lives in Florida. She told me that the convenience stores there carry coconut juice still in the shell. They're just kept sealed and stored in a cooler.

You can try it for yourself if you go to a local Asian restaurant. Look in the drink section of the cooler. You may find the Nestle Mangolia brand of buko in a small carton. You may also find cans of Coco-Rico, a soda made from coconut juice that's quite delicious. You may also find that in a Hispanic food store, since I think Coco-Rico is made in Puerto Rico or Costa Rica.

Happy Trips

This blog is set up to glorify travel in both real life and my imagination -- which is where I do most of my traveling!

As a child I loved to read about exotic places and wild adventures yet somehow didn't expect to have such dreams come true for me. And there was a time as a young adult where I rebelled against the restlessness of many Americans and decided to stay put in one place.

That was just one aspect of how stupid I was as a young adult!

Fortunately, I got over it.