October 30, 2011 | 1:56 pm

Los Angeles Meet Plan Go, 106 of us together!

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Thank you to everyone (all 106 of you) who joined us for our Meet Plan Go event Tuesday Oct 18!

It was inspiring and encouraging to hear the stories and meet other people who have a desire for world travel like I do.

I had never been to an event with so many interesting people that interacted with each other.  There were no wallflowers.  They were all there for a reason.  The speakers and the questions just flowed effortlessly.

I met some really interesting people and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  Congratulations also on receiving official recognition of the impact of your efforts on the community.

Join us this THURSDAY at 5pm ....

November 3 at 5pm PST:
Join us for an online real time conversation on Spreecast with Richard Bangs from PBS: Adventure with a Purpose, our keynote speaker for the Oct 18 event. You can ask questions and participate from your computer! http://www.spreecast.com/events/wesaidgotravel-richardbangs

November 29 : Travel with Technology “My favorite Travel App”
7-9 pm, Happy Hour Pricing on Drinks and Appetizers at Century City’s X-Bar. Meet fellow travelers and the creators of both ShipMates and StudioMini! Come to share you favorite app and learn what others are using on the road! PARKING: $8 with validation or 2 hours free at Century City Mall http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=261533087221643

It does take a village to create an event! Thank you to:

Organizations:
Dave’s Travel Corner, Hostelling International, India’s Oven, Intrepid Travel, Jewish Journal, Meet Plan Go, The Napa Valley Wine Project, Penn Club LA, Visit LA4Locals, We Said Go Travel, Westside Today

People:
Richard Bangs, Nicole Ben-Artzi, Susan Bernstein, Shane Cullen, Jacob Frank, Doris Gallan, Jessica Gelson, Amy Gendel, Sarah Gottlieb, Jennifer Leo, Dyan McKie, Adam Morgenstern, Michael Morgenstern, Lisa Napoli, Lisa Nelson, Frank Niver, Judi Niver, Sherry Ott, Michelle Page, Michaela Potter, Spencer Quong, Kiera Reilly, Sham Sidheek, Amy Sommer Childress, Dave Thompson, Melissa Wu, Barbara Yorke

Thank you to Bill Rosendahl, City Councilmember and the City of Los Angeles for our Certificate of Appreciation for our leadership and community building in Los Angeles!

Photos by Spencer Quong and Michelle Yam: click here for photos!

More news, photos and information on our website: www.wesaidgotravel.com

October 23, 2011 | 9:03 pm

Turbulent Tonga Part II: “Toni’s Guesthouse Tour”

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Turbulent Tonga Part II: “Toni’s Guesthouse Tour”

The Ukranian Dracula lady, had just finished assaulting Jackie when we arrived at 10:00am.  Dracula had mistook the poor Brit for my wife Lisa, who simply “wouldn’t open the damn window” of the van when we arrived last night.  The Ukrainian scowled at Lisa but didn’t dare approach her while I was in the room.  Let’s just say it would not have been pretty.

We didn’t know that when we awoke in Toni’s Guesthouse, refreshed after the previous night’s debacle in the van.  After a Cup O’ Noodles for breakfast we wandered over to the Green House.  There we met the other travelers who planned to join us for the day tour of Tongatapu, the main island of the Tongan Archipelago.

Our tour was led by Toni, an expatriate from Liverpool who had lived over twenty years in Tonga.  Other companions included Jackie, who’d quickly got over the unexpected attack, and Dallas, not an American, but a lady from New Zealand enjoying a one-week holiday in the South Pacific.  Lee, another solo female traveler from the UK, who had lived on a sailboat for the last seven years, also came along with her partner.

Taking off, again swerving to avoid a cluster of potholes, Toni switched on a microphone that was linked to a rear speaker to make his discourse more audible.  We passed the opulent mansion of the Tongan king and his sisters, heading northwest toward the local plantations.  Tony stopped to point out the only three-headed coconut tree in the entire world, a must-stop photo op; a pic of it proves that you’ve been to Tonga.  He then stopped to point out a variety of crops including coconuts: “No, nobody wants to touch that stuff. They are everywhere!  Look around you for Christ’s sake!!” We saw papaya (“Em, the Tongans would eat this but they are all exported.”), taro, kumala, mango, bananas, and pineapple.  We then halted at the most northern spot of the island’s coastline. Toni claimed it was a very good beach.  We exited the van but were disappointed.  The weather was dreary and rain began to fall as we checked a surfing beach near the Ha’atafu Beach Reserve.  Its break looked weak, compared to the big-league waves of Samoa.

At this point Toni’s voice became slightly hoarse over the microphone and he began to cough up phlegm.  In response to Dallas, who asked, “Why don’t you sell beer at the guesthouse?” Toni said, “I gave up smoking about five years ago but I still have this cough. I don’t drink any more either.  So why would I want that stuff around?  Besides, the Tongan government has harsh rules.  For example, if a tourist who stayed at my guesthouse got out of hand while inebriated, it is me who would get fined by the police, even if I was home asleep.  It’s just not worth it.”  Lisa looked at me and said, “I think that he is the only person I have ever met who should have kept smoking,” referencing his voice’s guttural quality.

We headed south and stopped at the famous Mapu’a a Vaca Blowholes. Sheets of water poured down and I exited the van only long enough to take a photo.  Toni claimed, “Today is not a good day to see the blowholes because the tide is moving at an angle and it is not hitting the rocks directly.  You see how it hits?”  We left disappointed.  However, we returned to these same blowholes at the end of our trip and they proved amazingly powerful.

We continued in the rain and stopped for a decent “Chinese-type” lunch above Keleti Beach.  Even on this depressing day, while standing in the rain under a veranda in the cold, I could appreciate the view.  Blowholes exhaled the ocean’s foam here as well but they were not as impressive as those at Mapu’a a Vaca.

After a brief lunch we continued the tour northeast to see the “famous” Ha’amonga Trilithon Reserve, South Pacific’s Stonehenge.  I agree that the the ruins are similar to those of famous English site but only one structure is constructed from coral stones, in the shape of a square gate.  This gate was supposedly used to track the change in seasons.  We decided to not to visit the Hina Cave, possibly a mistake, since it is situated right next to the Oholei Beach area, perhaps the nicest place to stay in Tongatapu,  We didn’t discover this until we returned three weeks later.  Oholei Beach is well known for its feast on Friday nights with a live band perched over a scenic beach.

At the end of the day we returned to Tofa after stopping at a lovely overlook with an eroded hole framing a lovely ocean view. The tour ended and Toni drove us into Nuku’alofa.  We wanted to see the infamous (mentioned in 1,000 Places to See Before You Won’t See Anything Ever Again) Heilala Festival.  This is a multi-week bash that involves a mix of cultural events including parades, live music, dance, art, as well as beauty and sports competitions.  Yet we could not understand the Tongans enthusiasm, or I should say, lack of enthusiasm, regarding the festival.  We stopped by the cultural center and asked where the Heilala Festival events took place.  The lackadaisical response was, “Oh yeah, it will be on the field…I think.”  “Are you going?” I asked.  “No, I’ll just stay home and watch TV.”  I was stunned.  After seeing Nuku’alofa, a depressing and gloomy town with very little action, you’d think that the locals would be thrilled to have a few weeks of special fun.  Worse for tourists, the festival begins around 7:00-8:00pm and aside from the island tour, there is not much to do here.  Because of this small detail (and the poor weather) we decided to purchase tickets to Vava’u (islands in the northern Tonga) the next day.

Still, a group of us from the guesthouse that included our fellow veterans from the van tour managed to see an evening event called, “Tonga’s Got Talent”.  Here people of all ages, mostly from six to their mid-twenties, performed a variety of acts — either singing or engaging in “hip-hop,” where Tongans dance individually or in groups to hip-hop tunes.  The event was entertaining if at times painful.  What surprised me the most was that the emcee almost spoke entirely in English.  The following night we returned to see the teen beauty contest and we were given prime seats right behind the beauty queens themselves.

We warmed up to Tongatapu as we prepared to depart; perhaps our new feelings corresponded with the improved weather.  At any rate, our next stop in Tonga was Vava’u, where we planned to swim with the humpback whales, one of Tonga’s principal attractions an an excellent reason to visit the island country.

This article first published at theclymb.com
http://blog.theclymb.com/turbulent-tonga-part-2/

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October 17, 2011 | 10:32 am

First Step to Travel Dreams (slideshow)

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some people ask us, “How do you do it? How do you leave for a year?” Some tell us, “You are crazy; I would never do that!” These people usually think of a vagabond as “a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job” as does the dictionary but I prefer Ralph Potts’ definition from his book Vagabonding it is

‘Vagabonding’ is about taking time off from your normal life — from six weeks, to four months, to two years — to discover and experience the world on your own terms.

In this season of harvest with Sukkot and Halloween upon us, so soon after Yom Kippur, I reflect on the stories in the Torah about our people’s journey from slavery to freedom. These tales belong to other people in another time, but they are also my own travel stories. They are like signposts for all of our travels in both a literal and figurative sense, and they can inspire us.

Find more photos like this on EveryJew.com

I ask myself, “What are we personally enslaved to today? And how is it possible with so many time-saving devices, from the microwave to the personal computer, that we have so much less time?” Leaving both our homes and careers can free us to think about our paths and what is it that we want to do with our lives. If you are considering a long vacation or a career break you might wonder, “What can we journey from and what can we journey toward? What will the trip be like? What happens in this ‘wilderness’?”

As the Torah stories tell us, one year out of every seven the fields must lie fallow so that they can continue to be productive. And every seventh day on Shabbat we are offered the opportunity to rest. So a Sabbatical may allow us to step back so we might give more to our lives. The research agrees and was posted in an academic study, “Sabbatical Leave: Who Gains and How much?” conducted by researchers from the US, Israel and New Zealand. In August 2010, American Psychological Association in its Journal of Applied Psychology worked to measure the impact of sabbatical on health and attitude. The study states: “Sabbatical leave promotes well-being…the present study confirmed the beneficial effect of a respite on positive well-being.”

Maybe we cannot all take a sabbatical year but at least we may find a sabbatical second or moment to acknowledge our dreams and pull our lives more into focus, and become closer to making our dreams come true.  Support someone else’s idea for a dream of a Gap Year, Mini-retirement, Big Trip or Sabbatical—between stages of life, after college, or after the home nest empties.

All journeys begin with one step, maybe your first one will be on October 18 for Meet Plan Go. The panelists that will speak in 17 cities across the USA have all struggled with these questions. I hope that the discussion of where they traveled to and why and how will help you with your questions from: Is it worth it to leave home? Will I learn anything? Can I come back? Is the journey for a destination? Is there a destination? What is the point of this trip and even of my life?

As Steve Jobs said at his 2005 Stanford University commencement address:

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

For many of us who have left “the rat race” we realize that the journey is for the sake of the adventure and that we can be transformed by our travels. I hope that you will put one foot in front of the other and show up on October 18 even if you are not currently planning a trip. Meet Plan Go events around America have drawn a wonderful community of travelers who are engaged in the idea of understanding our world and taking care of our
planet and each other.

We hope you can carve an evening out of your schedule and not be tied to your Blackberry, carpool, family, office or deadlines, to focus on realizing your dreams, whether they involve travel, understanding or something else.

For a moment, a year, or a lifetime.

Article first published as First Step to Travel Dreams on Technorati.

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October 8, 2011 | 12:00 pm

“I hate you and I hate Samoa:” The beginning of a Great Travel Adventure (video)

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Just because everyone says something is a good idea doesn’t make it true. And early on our first full day in Savaii, I looked at George and said, “I hate you and I hate Samoa.” Not the sound of a good day starting but somehow, like all our journeys, Samoa worked out.

The previous forty-eight hours had been drama-filled. A noon ferry was canceled so we sat at the pier in Upolu for half a day, and after rushing to get seats we arrived for one night in Salelologa, Savaii. After my Survivor Night of fainting and falling on the ground, George wanted me in a hotel with electricity and a bathroom less than 100 steps from the front door. And so we found the Salafai Backpackers Inn with the backpacker rate of 100Tala.

Other tourists told us “You have to take the bus; it is a great experience.” Well, we usually take the bus to get to any destination. Tuesday morning, we waited for an hour for a bus and after two hours on its hard wooden seats, the contraption stopped in Falealup-uta. The ride had great views of the sea and Savaii looked beautiful but the trip was so mundane that I felt unclear about all the fuss over the ride.

But soon there would be fuss galore.

We had left the “backpacker-friendly” hotel which had zero reasons that we could see to be called that, with no breakfast except for a few crackers from my bag. Several locals on the bus looked at our map with us and told us when to get off for Falealupo. So at high noon, we arrived at our stop and saw not a single taxi. Other exiting passengers, including an elderly woman laden with many heavy-looking packages, started down the sealed road and we followed, hoisting our packs, as by our figuring the hostel was four, maybe five kilometers away.

After 45 min in the high-noon sun with extra heat rising from the blacktop, we stopped to eat some canned peanuts and talk to some boys and look at the map. No cars had passed us but a couple of men had ridden by on bicycles. When we reached the 300-year-old Banyan Tree Canopy Walk after nearly an hour and looked at the map, we realized it was possibly closer to fifteen kilometers to our destination.

Nearly out of water and realizing that we had possibly made a dumb choice, I put my pack down, and with as much sweaty drama as possible, exclaimed, “I hate you and I hate Samoa.” George (called Siaosi in Samoan) looked at me and said, “Give me your pack.” I said, “You cannot possibly carry both our packs, especially in this heat.” He said, “You said you hate me. I cannot have that. Give me your pack. I am George Powell.” (from Extreme Makeover: Chris Powell).

So he walked with both packs and broke the drama and I laughed. I said, “You look like an Israeli boyfriend in Thailand!” That is the only place I have seen someone walk with one backpack on their back and one on their front! They carry their own pack and their girlfriends thus “Israeli boyfriend.” Another laugh and photo moment marked the end of humor failure.

Soon a car appeared and stopped for us. George says it always works out; the issue becomes how long you define the period of time and use your perspective? The heat plus sense of humor failure and hunger made me concerned, especially after fainting only the day before.

The Seligas recognized us from the ferry (there were very few palangi onboard) and offered us a ride to our hostel. During our time together, we picked up a grandmother and her daughter on their way to the weekly Church Bingo game. She informed us that Samoans give their extra money to family (after Bingo) and she didn’t have money to travel although she wished to travel like us.

After stopping at our hostel, we were invited to a family dinner down the road, which turned out to be a Samoan feast. Tupu Salule’s family included nearly a dozen children and for the first time in my life, the sight of me made a three-year-old cry!

Not to worry; I don’t think Samoa hated me!

Video: Saved by the Seligas

Article first published as Samoa - The beginning of a Great Travel Adventure on Technorati.

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October 2, 2011 | 11:00 am

Travel as a Lens for HIgh Holy Day Reflections (video)

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

A sunset at Falealupo, Savaii, Samoa gives Niver-Rajna perspective.

When I travel, I imagine that I am talking to strangers from a different culture and that I witness different lives to learn about those same lives, but in reality I always reach hidden treasures; insights into my own reality and dreams. Sometimes the action of travel teaches me about myself: I learn to locate my destinations via public transportation in Beijing at night, I determine how to proceed while visiting Taipei, or perhaps that I really might eat fried cricket in Chiang Mai.

I can be bold, courageous and full of adventure. I know because I have succeeded in these endeavors. In The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost Rachel Friedman states, “...sometimes travel and being adventurous do not fit with the model I hold of myself, ...but it does not coexist with how I picture myself—a sheltered, scared, predictable kind of girl, definitely not a girl who has adventures. I come from rooted people; people who prefer chlorinated bodies of water and career paths.”

Travel allows us all to step out of “normal” life, to see other cultures, meet people, learn languages—learn about others while learning about ourselves.

This same opportunity is available to us through our daily calendar: we can question if our current routines are what we actually want to follow. Again, as Ms. Friedman says: “What’s the right way to go about … our lives? Should you do what you love, what’s outrageous and unpredictable, and worry about the future later? Or plug away at a steady job first and go off and have your fun when you retire?”

Elisabeth Eaves, in Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents, tells tales of love, misadventure and wringing every second of life out of every moment. She says:

My life wouldn’t be so easy to fix. I’d woken up at the age of thirty-four to realize that I wanted to go home, only to discover that I had no idea where that was. Wanderlust, the very strong or irresistible impulse to travel, is adopted untouched from the German, presumably because it couldn’t be improved upon.

Her challenges seem much greater while living in varied locales like Cairo, Karachi, a boat shed, or surviving on the Kokoda Trail, compared to those I surmounted on my year trip in South East Asia with my husband, George. But her comments do remind me of our journey; “It was the place that had showed me, for the first time, that when you were somewhere else, you could be someone else.”

Her questions about life are important to me this time of year as I reflect on Rosh Hashannah (the Jewish New Year) and what will I do with the year ahead? What are my goals and what should they be?

Are we obligated to know the important events of our time? Or is the whole project of knowing, of being part of a society, neither moral nor immoral, but just away to pass the time? Is it enough to do no harm to the world, or do you have to contribute too? I wanted to go toward the man-made heat and light, the cultural center, the heart of civilization. At the same time, I didn’t want to get off the boat. (Wanderlust)

So take a moment to hug the ones you love and fill your days with meaning. Maybe this year you’ll decide to wear white for Yom Kippur;  a white ribbon,
pin, bracelet or shirt may remind you to stop and smell the roses and fill your soul with moments that take your breath away.

Enjoy this video of song for Rosh Hashannah: Dip your Apple

Author’s Notes:
This article first appeared in Westside Today.  If you tried to email us on our website in the last three months, we just realized the links were corrupt. They are fixed now!! Please email us again.
George and I wish everyone a wonderful sweet New Year filled with health, happiness and adventure!!

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