January 3, 2012 | 11:43 am

Be the Change! Be Better!

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Five years ago I went on a New Year’s cruise and made two resolutions:

To buy a condo and to find a long-term relationship. I had been focused on these items already but now I was ready to make them happen.

By January 18, 2007, I had my first date with George and by January 20 I saw the condo I would later buy. George and my second wedding anniversary was December 19 and I have owned the condo for nearly five years. I also had a secret resolution to lose weight and subsequently lost sixty pounds.

I was reminded of all this reading Atul Gawande’s Better. I have enjoyed all of his books but this one really spoke to me partially because I dropped out of UCSF Medical School and I love to read about doctors who really speak about medicine and its practice and partly because he is talking about how to be your best.

He says, “The core requirements for success are diligence, to do right and ingenuity.”

His five suggestions for “how one might make a difference” are:

  1. Ask an unscripted question
  2. Don’t complain
  3. Count something “if you count something interesting, you will learn something interesting.”
  4. Write something “you should not underestimate the effect of your contribution, however modest.”
  5. Change “So find something new to try, something to change. Count how often you succeed and how often you fail. Write about it. Ask people what they think. See if you can keep the conversation going.”

I do think this is a great plan to create the change you want to see in this world. I hope you will make a resolution to adopt one or more of his ideas for how to make a difference and share it with someone!

I will tell you my resolution for 2012, to find a literary agent for our book about our story of meeting online, quitting our jobs, traveling in Asia for one year, getting engaged underwater, losing sixty pounds and keeping it off for over 2 and a half years, all while crying when snorkeling and of course learning to live without toilet paper!

This is what happens when Julie McCoy of the Love Boat meets a Paraguyan Peace Corps worker!! On our trip I worked hard to stop complaining, write something, change, count something other than the pounds I was losing and the months we were gone and ask lots of great questions.

Sometimes I think who would be interested in our personal story about finding love after 39 or the dramas of online dating when you don’t realize you are more than thirty or fifty pounds overweight. Sometimes I think no one will read our blog or our stories or come to our travel events. But our last event had over one hundred people so maybe someone is listening!

I give you these words from Ralph Waldo Emerson to inspire you to be better:

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

I wish you courage and that all your dreams come true in 2012.

More photos and stories about our travels and resolutions at: http://www.wesaidgotravel.com/

Also at http://www.wesaidgotravel.net/

Article first published as Be the Change! Be Better! on Technorati.

December 12, 2011 | 4:53 pm

Bahia de Kino, The Foundation Part 1

Posted George Rajna

Three years ago while my wife and I traveled around the world for a year, we spent some time in the Mongolian capitol of Ulaanbaaatar before heading into the emptiness of the Gobi Desert. While roaming the streets of the capitol one afternoon, we ran into a Canadian miner at a video game store.  He wore a cap and sported a goatee, along with a quasi modern-day mullet.  He introduced himself as Maury.  When I asked what he was doing in the store he said, “My Mongolian girlfriend plays this Playstation 2 all day while I am at work and it’s broken so I’m getting it repaired. I’m a miner,” he added.

“How long have you been in Ulaanbaaatar ?” I said.

“Way too long,” he answered.  “There are three good things about Mongolia. No one shoots at you, no one tries to rob you, and no animals try to eat you.”  I looked at him in disbelief and said, “Did you live in a country where these three things were normal?”
“Yeah.  Bolivia.  I was robbed, shot at, and even animals attacked me.  The Mongolians leave you alone but the Bolivians can be treacherous.”  I believe I responded, “Jesus Christ!” or “Holy Sh—!”

Maury said, “But I am outta here soon.  I have a house in Bolivia that I’m gonna sell and I’m moving to Mexico.”  I figured that he was headed to one of the mainstays there for expatriates, either San Miguel de Allende or Lake Chapala near Guadalajara.  But his eventual destination, Bahia de Kino, surprised me since I had been pretty much all over Mexico and I had not even heard of the place.

Once he informed me of the town’s name, I became curious.  He explained that it is a fishing village with a small expat community and now I was hooked.  Visions of the beach at the end of the great movie, Y Tu Mama Tambien swirled through my thoughts. 

After that brief encounter, we never saw Maury again but Lisa and I continually discussed that we should visit Bahia de Kino.  Located in the State of Sonora on the Sea of Cortez, about 115 kilometers west of Hermosillo, it is close enough to the States that I expected to find cheap airfares.

However, not only did the tickets from Los Angeles to Hermosillo prove to be expensive, but the connections and/or long delays between flights were notoriously long. And so we put off the trip to the small fishing village named after Padre Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit missionary who traveled to the region in 1685 and met the indigenous Seri people, who still inhabit the region. 

Finally our patience was rewarded and this past Thanksgiving we found a reasonable flight direct from Los Angeles to Hermosillo.  We knew that this was our window of opportunity and we quickly purchased two round trip tickets.  I then booked four nights at La Casa Tortuga, with its 180 degree ocean views directly from the patio, bedroom and sliding glass door of the well-decorated studio apartment.  Our first morning there we awoke to view a dramatic setting with the calm sea, islands with thousands of diving pelicans, and an expansive desert landscape dotted with Saguaro cacti and volcanic mountains. 

You will have to wait until next time to discover what else goes on in Kino.  Was this town all we had hoped for?  Find out in next week’s article!

Article first published as Bahia de Kino: Part I, The Foundation on Technorati.

More about us at: www.wesaidgotravel.com

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December 9, 2011 | 6:15 pm

Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday December 10, 2011

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

There will be a total Lunar Eclipse visible on Saturday December 10, 2011 from 6:06am - 6:57am in the Northern Western United States.

Next Total Lunar Eclipse visible in this area will be April 15, 2014. More information on this photo, Shadow and Substance. There are also amazing graphics that will show you what you can see in the eclipse.

Please use this video from NASA below for more information about the total Lunar Eclipse on Saturday.You do not need a special device to look at a lunar eclipse (they are needed for Solar Eclipse).

Video: A Super-Sized Lunar Eclipse

Article first published as Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday Dec 10, 2011 on Technorati.

Author’s Note: We did not want you to miss out on this event on SATURDAY morning!
More travel stories on Sunday from us. Want more right now?  Go to: www.wesaidgotravel.com

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December 6, 2011 | 11:38 am

Discovering Algeria: Exploring Timgad

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Guest Post by: Kit Herring

Few people visit Algeria anymore because of internal strife, but I hitchhiked across the country in 1975.  Theses are some recollections of the country’s greatest archeological site, the Roman city of Timgad, as they appear in my novel, Descending the Cairo Side.  Here was once an African center of empire; today the ruins are empty and forlorn:

  When I arrived at the nearby modern Algerian settlement, I found that accommodations were scarce. The only lodging proved to be a rather expensive hotel. But I checked in, not wishing to camp in the open.  In the lobby I found a map of the ruins.

  After securing my belongings and now in a state of bemused contentment, I headed for the ruins, glad that a whole Roman city lay waiting for my investigations.  A man at the gate collected a pittance as an entrance fee. It would have been interesting to see if the daily receipts even paid his salary. Certainly, there was not a single other tourist on site.  I was completely alone at one of northern Africa’s premium archeological wonders.

  The foundations of the town lay ahead, but no buildings stood higher than about three feet.  I was somewhat disappointed, thinking foolishly that I would wander the streets of a nearly intact city. This was a naive fancy, of course. The ruins had been picked over for centuries as a source for quarrying stone, and no doubt looters and grave robbers had long ago stolen anything of value that could be easily removed.

  I walked down a broad boulevard in the center. The dun-colored stone remains were, in their subtle, discreet fashion, magnificent.  A sense of orderliness and tidiness stood out. The city had been planned, much more carefully than were any modern population centers in North Africa. It seemed that the whole thing had been built from a central design.  Streets were laid in a grid, and the map I had showed the various public and private buildings, although it would have been hard to discern the function of most of the ruins.  On the surface, all was a jumble.

  It didn’t take long to tire of picking through the low walls. There weren’t any interesting artifacts lying about, of course, and little in the way of artwork.  I was surprised at how fast boredom set in.  I felt like an unsatisfied and jaded seeker of lost history.

  Yet the scale of Timgad was impressive. The stone-paved streets covered the better part of a square kilometer.  Sitting down on top of a crumbling wall, I consulted the map again to see if there were other interesting spots.  I had noticed, about a quarter of a mile away, a large structure that looked like a fortress or a castle.  It had a non-classical architectural style to my unpracticed eye.  What was that?

  The structure loomed over the ruins like a giant crashed bird.  It was constructed differently from the rest of the city.  Although much larger than any other of the stone remnants, it seemed, at this distance, to have been put together from cruder materials.  I decided to have a peek.  It required a walk outside the perimeter of the Timgad ruins.  I read on my map that the fort dated from Byzantine times, which would account for its stylistic singularities.  It loomed more and more imposingly as I approached it.  As advertised, it indeed was a kind of primitive castle. There was a wide entrance, some twenty feet high, which once may have supported huge wooden doors.     

The interior was dark. I pressed on, entering the portico, feeling my way through a great central hall.  The fortress was made entirely of small, roughly hewn rocks.  Its lines were severe and utilitarian.  Above me the ceiling faded into the darkness.  Abruptly I tripped over a loose stone in the path, and a loud surprised noise emerged from my throat.  Without warning, a great host of bats swooped down from the recesses of the bulwarks, twittering and screeching their eerie cries. I ducked instinctively as they swirled and swooped around me like miniature dive-bombers.  It was quite unnerving and I panicked, looking for a speedy exit.  They flew through my hair, brushing against my face. I had a flashing thought of rabid animals covering me with tiny painful bites and sprinted for the exit. The bats decided not to follow, but I continued running blindly for a hundred yards, finally coming to rest on the base of a column. The cries of the bats were still audible from within the gloom.

  I panted, staring back at the Byzantine fort.  This was not part of the bargain. God, bats!  I looked around the area for a time, bewildered.  The fun had gone out of this expedition. Making my way back to the ruins in the city, I attempted to busy myself studying the vestiges of Roman life, but my curiosity had taken a blow.  It felt as though I had been rejected by this place, that it had no connection for me.  I kicked a few stones around a small plaza, trying to decide what it all signified.  I considered what I knew about Roman history.  The usual schoolboy facts.  Great conquerors, leaders, civilizers. But the stories from my youth no longer seemed relevant.  An idea occurred to me, courtesy of the attacking bats.  Maybe the Romans were precursors of a continuum of evil in Europe, proto-nazis from the ancient age. What had they accomplished in subduing and controlling their piece of the known world?  Surely, their art, literature and culture counted greatly in the progression of human knowledge, but in the final analysis, their ruins were haunted places, the abodes of night creatures. They enslaved vast regions and peoples in their quest for dominance.  The glories of their conquests had long withered, leaving nothing but relics of brutality and fear that gave proof to the lie about empires.

  The legions of Rome represented a great leap backward for humanity.  The modern history books had it wrong.  I walked away from the archeological site, toward the modern town of Timgad, vowing never again to set foot on Roman territory.

From Lisa and George, We Said Go Travel: Thank you to Kit for this guest post! More from him at

http://thebackpackershandbook.com/

Read about his book, Descending the Cairo Side

More travel news and stories from us here next week.  Want more right now? Go to: http://www.wesaidgotravel.com/

Ready to travel? Go on the Summit this summer with the Penn Glee Club!

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December 1, 2011 | 7:55 pm

As seen on MSN.com Today!

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

My photo on MSN.com Today! It goes with this article: Lessons from jobs held in your 30s

Finding your passion
After dropping out of medical school in her 20s, Lisa Niver Rajna of Los Angeles traveled for almost seven years on the high seas. “In my 30s, I worked on a cruise ship like Julie McCoy [on the TV series “The Love Boat”] and also worked for two seasons at Club Med. My family said I ran away and joined the circus.”

While some people worried that she might be “wasting her potential,” Niver Rajna discovered that she really enjoyed both traveling and working with the kids’ programs on the cruises. These experiences, plus her educational background, led her to become a science teacher and travel blogger in her 40s.

“I have no regrets about taking this other path,” Niver Rajna says. “Once I decided that leaving medicine was the right choice for me, everything else fell into place. When I am teaching or traveling, I know I am in the right place doing what I am meant to be doing.”

Read more about us at: We Said Go Travel
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter or Linked in! Send me an .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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November 29, 2011 | 10:04 am

Travel Happy Hour TODAY!

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Travel with Technology! What is your favorite travel app?

Meet fellow travelers and the creators of both Ship Mate and StudioMini!  Come to share your favorite app and learn what others are using on the road!

WIN TICKETS to LACMA and Skirball Museums!

First TWENTY people will receive FREE download codes for SHIP MATE APP!!

We also have SHIRTS to give away!
Don’t miss out!!

Happy Hour Prices for Drinks and Appetizers!

See you at 7pm, X-Bar Century City!

X bar
Hyatt Regency Century Plaza
2025 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067

PARKING: $8 with validation or 2 hours free at Century City Mall

Want more Travel Apps now? Check out our new page!!
http://www.wesaidgotravel.com/apps.html

More information about us: www.wesaidgotravel.com

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November 20, 2011 | 2:05 pm

Happy Thanksgiving! Realize Your Dreams! (video)

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Give Yourself Time: The Joy of Taking a Break

Friends and family ask us, “How do you do it? How do you manage to leave for a year?” Others say, “You are crazy; I would never do that!” These people usually think of the dictionary definition of a vagabond as “…a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job.” I prefer Ralph Potts’ definition in his book Vagabonding:

‘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 Thanksgiving, I reflect on what Seth Godin said last year:

A modern Thanksgiving would celebrate two things: The people in our lives who give us the support and love we need to make a difference, and… the opportunity to build something bigger than ourselves, something worth contributing. The ability to make connections, to lend a hand, to invent and create.

When we departed to realize George’s dream of travel in SE Asia, I wrote every month to my friends and former students, wondering at the time if anyone would read our words. Would I make a difference if I wrote at all? I remembered Ralph Waldo Emerson’s thoughts:

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

Leaving both our homes and our careers can free us to think about our path and what we want to do with our lives. If you are considering a long vacation or a career break you might ask, “From where am I leaving and how might I find a purpose? What will the trip be like? What will happen in this new unknown world?”

A Sabbatical may allow us to step back so we might give more to our lives in the future. An academic study, Sabbatical Leave: Who Gains and How Much? conducted by researchers from the US, Israel and New Zealand, researches this question. The study concludes: “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 year-long sabbatical 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 Gap Year, Mini-retirement, Big Trip or Sabbatical—between stages of life, after college, or after the home nest empties.

Last year passed without a National Meet Plan Go event in Los Angeles. I discovered that no one had volunteered to host the occasion. So this year, we facilitated the day, and drew an incredible panel with a sold-out crowd of over a hundred attendees. I wasn’t sure how to bring the event to fruition, but as with all such tasks, the journey began with a first step.

This Thanksgiving season I am grateful for a support team that allows me to ship early and helps to make my dreams come true. For many of us who have left “the rat race” with a sabbatical or career break, 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 proceed firmly in your life to make your dreams come true. Find a tribe that understands our world, takes care of our planet and also supports its members.

I hope that this during this Thanksgiving and holiday season, you can carve time out of your schedule and not be permanently tied to your Blackberry, carpool, office or deadlines, to focus on realizing your dreams, whether they involve travel or something that only you can imagine.

For a moment, a year, or a lifetime.

This article was first published as part of The Happy Thanksgiving Magazine for Squidoo.

Want to know more about our event Meet Plan Go Los Angeles from October 18,  check out the video!

Meet Plan Go Giving Back

MPG Los Angeles hosts, George and Lisa Rajna (the creators of We Said Go Travel), participate in community lives when they travel and support those in need – whether it’s Burmese refugees in Northern Thailand, the Jewish World Watch Solar Oven project to help people acquire the tools they need to improve their lives, or importing purses fabricated from local tapestries made by Kazak women to better provide for their families. The idea of sharing profits from the Meet, Plan, Go! event with others came as a natural continuation of their other works.

Lisa Napoli, who wrote Radio Shangri-La and participated on the Los Angeles panel, has been working to help create a library in Mongar, Bhutan through her project, Books to Bhutan. She says, “Please help us bring the joy of books and reading to these kids, who are so eager to learn.” As teachers and library lovers, the Rajnas know that supporting Lisa’s project with the profits from their event made a perfect match; they’ve sent $300 to help fill the shelves in Mongar with books. If you would like to help add more to the library, please use this link.

From Lisa and George, We Said Go Travel:

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with your families and friends. We are off to a tiny fishing village we learned about in Mongolia from a Canadian guy who lived in Bolivia and had a house in Mexico. We will tell you all about it!

We hope to see you Nov 29 at X-Bar in Century City for our next event, “Travel with Technology: My favorite Travel app!” Meet the founders of Ship Mate! More travel news and stories from us next week. Want more right now? go to: www.wesaidgotravel.com

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November 15, 2011 | 6:58 pm

Tasting with the Napa Wine Project

Posted by Lisa Niver Rajna

Please enjoy this Guest Post from Dave at Dave’s Travel Corner:

Thanks to George and Lisa for this guest post!

I first met them early this year at a travel blogging event at the Biltmore in downtown and have since been to several of their events including the very well attended Meet Plan Go event last month where I poured wines from smaller Napa producers.

Nearly 6 years ago I started the Napa Wine Project. I wanted to create a unique project on a large scale and decided to try and review all wineries in Napa by personally visiting them, meeting the owners and tasting the wines. I chose Napa because of its excellent International reputation and its wine regions are fairly well defined along a small valley surrounded by hillsides. Of course, when I started
the project - I didn’t realize there are approximately 900 producers making wine commercially in the Napa Valley!

Over time I have explored many of the off the beaten path wineries, individual appellations (wine regions within Napa Valley), met with some very interesting people from all walks of life, tasted some stellar wines and certainly increased my own knowledge of all aspects of the wine industry. In the process I hope I’ve created a resource that is valuable for both consumers and the trade.

My goal is still the same, and six years later I am a bit closer to reaching it - I’ve now visited the winery (or with a representative if there is no physical winery), tasted the wines and written reviews of over 670 commercial wine producers/wineries in Napa (including a number that have moved out of Napa or gone out of business in the last six years). Look for my 700th review sometime in early to mid 2012!

The Napa Valley sometimes gets a bad rap for being too high class or pretentious - but nothing could be further from the truth - especially if you take some time to explore this beautiful region. There are a few larger wineries that get much of the publicity -but by numbers, 95% of the producers in the Napa Valley are small (under 1000 cases) and are family owned.

There is a section of the Napa Valley along Highway 29 that locals sometimes refer to as “the wine strip”- this is the most visited winery part of the valley (larger tasting rooms, better known wineries) and on a busy summer weekend traffic can stack up significantly along the highway at certain times of the day. In addition, some of the more popular tasting rooms here might have lines around the bar
just to taste their wines.

There are well less than 100 wineries in Napa that do not require appointments and you can just walk in during their normal business hours. By numbers, most of the wineries in Napa require advance appointments. For more personalized experiences, I highly recommend making appointments at some of these smaller wineries. Often you can visit with the owner or winemaker and learn more about the entire process of making wine. Or if you want to visit the larger wineries, consider visiting during the winter season or during the middle of the week for fewer crowds.

Napa Valley produces only about 4% of the state of California’s entire wine production. Quality is paramount here rather than quantity. Vintners continue to strive to improve the quality of each
vintage. And as most winemakers will tell you, “80% of winemaking is conducted in the vineyard.”

The winemaking community refreshingly is an environment where information is shared, rather than guarded. Winemakers as a whole are willing to discuss how they make wine and answer a variety of questions about the industry.

I’m always happy to answer any questions or provide winery recommendations for this special region. You can contact me at: @davedtc, www.facebook.com/davestravelcorner, www.napawineproject.com or www.davestravelcorner.com

From Lisa and George, We Said Go Travel:
We appreciated Dave’s participation in our October Travel event and are so happy to host his guest post this week on our blog.
Thank you to Dave!!

We hope to see you Nov 29 at X-Bar in Century City for our next event, “Travel with Technology: My favorite Travel app!” Meet the founders of Ship Mate! More travel news and stories from us next week. Want more right now? go to: www.wesaidgotravel.com

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