September 24, 2011 | 11:22 am

Realize Your Dreams! (video)

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Join us in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 7:00pm, for a travel evening to inspire you to “Realize Your Travel Dreams!” 

This event is designed to give you the opportunity to MEET inspirational speakers and like-minded travelers; get motivation, contacts and resources necessary to PLAN the trip of a lifetime; and start taking concrete steps forward to GO on that global adventure.

Join us at India’s Oven, 11645 Wilshire Blvd at Barry, in Brentwood, CA 90025.

Keynote speaker, Richard Bangs, (PBS) the father of modern adventure travel, is a pioneer in travel that makes a difference; he will speak about his journeys across the planet in search of ecological challenges and their solutions. Moderator, Jen Leo, (Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and Sand in My Bra), will offer words of inspiration and humor on great travels.

Our Panelists include: Lisa Napoli (KCRW & Radio Shangri-La,) Doris Gallan (Baby Boomers Travel), and Michelle Page (NepalDog). All of these inspiring speakers have traveled extensively and are ready to share their joy and transformations related to their journeys and incredible lives! If you are tired of two weeks of vacation time and want to break away from the cube to explore the world, then don’t miss out on this event!

Date: Tuesday, October 18th | Doors: 7pm India’s Oven | 11645 Wilshire Blvd. – 2nd Fl.

Admission is $15 and includes Indian Buffet Dinner, and all proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Books to Bhutan Library Project.

Register for this event at: http://meetplango.com/national-event/2011-los-angeles-event/
There is parking available in the building and the restaurant is on the second floor.

For more information: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
More information and a complete listing of the panel at www.wesaidgotravel.com

“Because we live in a society that doesn’t find value in taking time off, we wanted to create a community for people who do want to break out of the norm and travel for an extended period of time,” says co-founder of Meet Plan Go! Sherry Ott. Join us in Los Angeles for our October 18th event. “It’s about creating a peer group of people with the same dream. Whether it’s a career break, running a marathon, or earning an advanced degree; we all need people to keep us accountable, energized, and focused on our goals,” added Ott.

In addition to offering tools and resources for planning a career break, the panel will also address the main concerns that prevent people from taking a career break, usually centered around financial, career-related, societal, and safety concerns.

For more information about all our events please see the website of our Los Angeles hosts: Lisa and George Rajna. We look forward to meeting you and helping you realize your dreams!

Enjoy this video of our most recent event. Travel author, Rachel Friedman, discussing how travel is the best education!

September 18, 2011 | 11:07 am

Samoa Survivor (video/slideshow)

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Survivor Samoa Or How did I fall on my Head and other survivor stories at Virgin Cove.

Leaving Los Angeles for a summer of sun in Samoa and the South Pacific, I had no idea of the Survivor Stories that would unfold so quickly. It took us nearly 3 days just to get there as we had a 15 hour layover in Fiji and after landing, I could tell George was exhausted. We’d left Los Angeles Wednesday near midnight and flew 10 hours to arrive on Friday July 1st in Nadi, Fiji.

For our all-day Fiji layover, we took a thirty-minute ride on the Tiger IV Catamaran and spent the day at Treasure Island. The weather did not cooperate but we relaxed by the pool and ate the Mongolian buffet (clearly none of the cooks had ever seen Mongolia). After that day of adventure, we narrowly made our bus back to the airport for our flight to Samoa.  We finally arrived Thursday night. Our driver from the airport tried to chat with us on the hour ride but we could not keep our eyes open.

Right away we were told that they were filming Survivor, the television show, to the west of our fale in Virgin Cove. “Don’t go that way,” the security guard said. It is never good to tell George what not to do as he immediately only wants to do that one thing. After hearing that the local village would be fined if we showed up, we promised to follow directions. We didn’t realize that the next evening I would have my own Survivor moment, waking up outside the communal toilet with my chin in the dirt. But let’s not get too far ahead.

Find more photos like this on EveryJew.com

Virgin Cove is a lovely spot but arriving at night after days of travel, our fale looked as it was a large empty oval with a piece of foam on the floor and a mosquito net and palm-frond sides. I decided we could think more about the room after sleeping and we were too tired and jet-lagged to do anything but sleep that night.  Upon completing a journey of 100 steps to the bathroom, we could see the gorgeous azure seas and could not wait to explore the calm waters for snorkeling. There were palm trees lining the dirt path and we could see the other fales. George thought they were closer to the water but we were closer to the bathroom. After a breakfast with eggs (included in our 144T a night price, $70USD—although now you do have to pay extra for the eggs), we were ready to snorkel. Our new Aussie friends thought the snorkeling was great; our vote—fair. 

After our day by the sea, we indulged in a buffet dinner of many nasty inedible delicacies like baby octopus, squid ink pasta, baby suckling pig roasted, and things I can eat but would have far too much of over the summer - like taro root and fresh fish (my favorite), and chicken with rice, a combo that came back to haunt me. With dinner consumed we attended a fiafia (traditional dancing and fire show) and later went to sleep on our mat.

Around 1:30am I started my first of my journeys to the common bathroom. Over an hour of painful cramps and diarrhea was in store for me but I was shocked when I woke up on the ground. I had fainted at the edge of the steps and so I regained consciousness, scraped and bruised on both arms and chin. I guess when I needed to go to the bathroom again and again I should have woken George, especially after falling down but I was so stunned that I ended up face-planted on the ground, I wasn’t thinking clearly. Back in our room I lay on the mat, moaning. George woke up and asked what was wrong. After my telling my tale of woe, he offered to help. Because of his concern and despite the many explosions earlier on, I was finally able to go rest.

The next day, after noticing more war wounds from my experience, I said, “I need Horatio,” which inspired a long discussion of CSI with another group of new Aussie friends. It turned out that many who had the chicken at dinner had a long and difficult night!

But I survived and was well enough to eat breakfast. I was surprised that I could eat at all after my night of adventure. I did enjoy the eggs, hot toast, and fresh fruit. Finally, sleeping on the ground wasn’t too bad and hotel’s location in Upulo was lovely. We had many great walks and fresh fish meals. Our Samoan summer had begun with a good start of surviving and thriving.

Video: Virgin Cove FiaFia Fire Dancing

Article first published as Samoa Survivor on Technorati.
More stories and news from us at www.wesaidgotravel.com

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September 11, 2011 | 12:30 pm

Lisa & George

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Hello Fellow Travelers!

Thank you to everyone for supporting us and for coming to our travel events in Los Angeles! We appreciate all who tweeted about our events, shared an email, found us and even SHOWED up to one of our events! Thank you for creating a community! We loved having all over 65 people show up at Traveler’s Bookcase on Tuesday to hear Rachel Friedman read from The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost.

Our next event, Oct 18 is the National Meet Plan Go event!

There will be programs in 17 cities on the same night. We have five superb speakers and included in your ticket price is an incredible Indian Buffet dinner, all for only $15. Get your tickets now before we sell out! More info about the speakers at this link:  http://meetplango.com/national-event/2011-los-angeles-event/

If you would like to get involved and help on Oct 18 or with a future event, (picking a location, finding a speaker, if you would like to be or find a sponsor for our group), please email me! Feel free to share this email with friends and travelers to help grow our group. We would love for you to “like” our facebook fan page, We Said Go Travel, or join our meet-up group: We Said Go Travel Los Angeles so you won’t miss any news from us as we rarely send an email!

We do post on our blog, www.wesaidgotravel.net, every Sunday. If you want the latest from us, add your email address to the top right corner of our blog and don’t forget to open and validate the email from Feedburner so that you get to see our latest posts, videos and songs every Sunday. You can also find us on twitter and Linked in.

Question: Would you be more likely to come to an event on a Tuesday night? Saturday night? Sunday afternoon? Do you prefer to come to an event with a speaker? Let us know! Would you want to go on a trip with us?

Videos from past events: Our June Travel Happy Hour and Morocco Talk are on our YouTube channel! Feel free to subscribe so you can see our newest videos of Samoa and Tonga. We will be loading the video of Rachel speaking soon!

Photos from our event Tuesday with Rachel Friedman:
Please tag yourself!
http://www.meetup.com/wesaidgotravel/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Said-Go-Travel/133588513359395
our website: http://www.wesaidgotravel.com/

We hope to see you Oct 18! Lisa and George

Get involved: Buy the book End Malaria. The essays are all top notch and your money is going to a great cause….ending Malaria by 2015.

On the Radio: Lisa is featured in the second hour of Together Again about speed dating! Show aired September 8, 2011.

New Series: George will be writing a series of articles about Tonga to be featured at theclymb.com. Make sure you follow our blog as we should have a link for you worth $10 which will post on our blog this month!

In the news: Lisa in Bootsnall article! Written by Adam Seper, all about the benefits of a career break.

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September 6, 2011 | 1:35 pm

Serenity in Samoa (Video)

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Serenity in Samoa

Here is 40 seconds of serenity for you!
The beach at Lalomanu, Samoa near Taufua Beach Fales

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September 1, 2011 | 3:56 pm

Using Travel and the Seasons to Gain Perspective

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

The seasons go round and round sometimes without notice, but I like to pay attention.

The Labor Day holiday reminds us that summer has almost ended and the school year will soon begin. This year my contemplation of beginnings and endings includes my Aunt Iris’s passing and Christopher Rowe’s (my friend Michelle’s son) untimely death at 4 years old.

Thinking of these transitions, I wonder what will I do for myself this year as both a family and community member, tasks that may give meaning to these seemingly unreasonable events.

In addition to Labor Day and school starts, September also brings with it Rosh Hashanah, literally the “Head of the Year.” Between the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur are the ten days of awe which feel like a frozen moment in time, an opportunity, or maybe even a commandment to observe my direction in life. I often use these days to reflect on what I did and did not accomplish in the past year. Did I take advantage of all the opportunities that presented themselves in the past 365 days? Did I use my talents to create tikkun olam and help to repair the world or did I stand idly by as the world moved on around me.

Is there room for me in the Book of Life? September is a month of new beginnings and old questions for me.

And so Rachel Friedman’s The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost is a Jewish journey, a personal narrative of facing fears, transforming internal ideas and metamorphosing into an adulthood grounded in the art of wanderlust. Getting Lost is part travelogue and part personal transformation. This memoir combines the author’s personal journey and travel discoveries woven into her stories, along with her reflections about success, failure, life and the meaning of the aforementioned.

Most people do not ever realize, before traveling that is, that looking at a map of a foreign country in a language you don’t understand will lead you eventually back to yourself. As Ms. Friedman says in her book, “After all these travels, I find I no longer have that fear. Life feels full of opportunity and possibility—and maybe even adventure.”

When I travel, I too find that the journeys to the far reaches of the world lead me back to myself – but a new, more insightful self.

Find out if you too can take this road on September 6, 2011…Gather with travel veterans and Travel dreamers to Rachel Friedman read from her book. Plan to share your travel stories and travel dreams.

Meet Lisa Niver Rajna and author Rachel Friedman on Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 7:00pm at Traveler’s Bookcase 8375 West Third Street in Los Angeles.

For more information: www.wesaidgotravel.com
This article first appeared in Westside Today.

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