Travel Blog

After doing some brainstorming I decided to have a new feature on the blog called “Featured Fridays” which I think is a really cool idea.  Every Friday from this point on will be reserved for featuring and focusing on one specific travel destination anywhere in the world and blogging about it.  This isn’t going to be some lame feature post where I feature a country or location in general like Italy or Spain and talk about mundane facts about the location.  I’m going to get to the nitty gritty and actually feature specific locations that are interesting to readers like the Great Wall of China or the Giza pyramid.  I’ll try to feature some not-so well-known destinations with interesting facts and pictures that most readers have never even heard about.

Also, maybe down the road for “Featured Fridays” I’ll also have a featured blogger write about the featured travel destinations for those of you who are getting tired of my writing style! *wink *wink!  Having “Featured Fridays” will get some regular and consistent content on Traveling Project and help it grow into a more interesting source for readers who are into traveling.

Time flies!  I didn’t realize that last month, in April, it was this blog’s one year anniversary.  To be more specific April 19, 2008 was the official start of the blog when I registered the domain name;  although my first post was made the following day on April 20, 2008.  I don’t remember, but I guess it took me a whole day to setup the domain, get Wordpress installed and configured, and all the other neat stuff that goes with bringing up a travel blog.

Reflecting back on my first year I would have to say it was a success with many bumps in the road.  The goal of this blog when I first brought it online was to generate income to help me travel more by posting about my travel experiences and general topics about travel.  Well, one year later I have to say that the blog did generate a modest amount of income for it’s first year;  in fact you’d probably be surprised if I went back and calculated the total income it generated the first year. Although it did generate income, it still wasn’t enough to cover all my travel plans for the whole year to be honest. Something I know will take time as the blog grows.

I do expect the blog to become even more successful this year and for many years to follow with a little more discipline on my end.  Some of the features I planned for the blog on a regular basis sort of died down for no apparent reason other than I got a bit lazy at times.  One example was the monthly income reports and updating the “Project Income” page for my readers to follow how much this blog made.  After the first few months I realized the blog wasn’t generating a steady amount of income to really keep this section updated, and once the blog did start generating income I never really got back to updating it.

So for this next year, I made a promise to myself to fine tune the blog, and to keep up with more frequent updates than in the past. I’m going to think about new ways to keep this blog interesting and let you guys know in a few days!

I’ve got to know many of the blog’s readers through comments or through emails; and by the growing amount of responses/comments I get as time goes by I know the blog is getting more popular with each passing moment. This makes me excited for what the future holds and for the people/friends I will meet on this project’s journey; so if your reading this blog please say “hi” by posting a comment and wish the blog a Happy First Anniversary! Don’t be a stranger.

Ever since I was a small kid astronomy and the stars were always very interesting to me.  In fact, astronomy was my second choice as an occupation if I didn’t get into computers.  Well, I’ve been keeping up to date on space tourism since the first commercial space launch brought the first space tourist into space.  When this happened I thought it was a world changing event.

This coming Monday, Virgin Galactic will be announcing the individual who will be Australia’s first space tourist.  The lucky tourist paid $200,000 for the ticket to travel into space - something I would love to experience once in my lifetime.  I’m hopeful the prices for these space travel tickets will decrease dramatically in the next few decades so I can get my chance of traveling into space.  Without a doubt, the market for space tourism is in demand as one article states the company reported last year that well in excess of 200 people have already paid to be a passenger on these space flights.  We are entering into some exciting times as the beginning of commercial space travel for regular people like you and me is becoming more widespread.  Here we come Star Trek!!!

Here’s some info on Virgin Galactic:

Virgin Galactic is the world’s first spaceline. Giving you the groundbreaking opportunity to become one of the first ever non-professional astronauts. Virgin Galactic will own and operate its privately built spaceships, modelled on the remarkable, history-making SpaceShipOne.

It’s officially 2009!  I just wanted to wish all my readers a Happy New Year and hope everyone has a successful and prosperous year in 2009!

My New Year’s resolution was to double my online income from what I made last year, but with the United States and the global economy in what seems to be a long recession it might be difficult to achieve.  It’s going to be another year of a lot of hard-work and dedication and I’m really looking forward to the challenge.  I can only hope that 2009 brings with it a better year and better economy.

So did everyone make a New Year’s resolution?  If so I’d like to hear about it.  Feel free to share your New Year’s resolutions by commenting in this post!

Traveling to Thailand, the “Land of Smiles”, was a great experience and one I truly enjoyed. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I plan on traveling to Thailand again real soon for a much longer time. After returning home from my trip I did a little research on the Internet about Thailand to get more acquainted with the area and tourist attractions; something I should have done before I went there on my last trip but couldn’t because of how sudden I found out I was going to Bangkok.

During my stay in Thailand, I had an uneasy feeling at times that the prices being quoted to me for merchandise, tours, taxi fares, etc… were a bit more overpriced than what they should be. In addition, when I spoke with certain locals around the tourist areas it seemed like something just wasn’t right. Well, I came across this site online about Bangkok scams and was amazed that some of the scams listed on the site almost happened to me! The name of the site, believe it or not, is Bangkok Scams, which can be accessed here http://www.bangkokscams.com. I suggest if anyone plans on traveling to Bangkok, Thailand they read up on this site beforehand. Now that I have the foresight to see what was happening during my trip I have to tell you there are many scammers around the tourist areas in Bangkok just waiting to take advantage of tourists.

Out of the Top 10 Bangkok scams listed here, I experienced three of them; and after thinking back about my trip and doing a little research, I can say some others scams were tried on me which I’ll blog about in the future.

The first scam I experienced on the list was “The Grand Palace is Closed Scam”. I took a taxi from my hotel to The Grand Palace and was dropped off right in front of the gate entrance to The Grand Palace. As soon as I stepped out of the taxi and headed toward what looked like the entrance, I was approached by a well-dressed Thai local man with an open umbrella (I guess to shade himself and anyone else he is trying to scam from the sun because it wasn’t raining that day).

The Thai man asked me politely where I was going, I pointed to the gate entrance and said “The Grand Palace”. He replied back “This is the exit to The Grand Palace, the entrance is over there” pointing to a further gate opening. He then offered to show and walk with me to the entrance. As we walked the other way he explained to me part of The Grand Palace was closed at the moment because there was some sort of funeral taking place inside for someone important who died and it would open up again at 2pm. He then pulled out a map and suggested I go visit two other temples close by and come back at 2pm when The Grand Palace opened up again.

This is when I started getting suspicious because I saw people going in and out of The Grand Palace gates. He then mentioned taking a tuk-tuk to the other two temples and it would only cost 10 baht (which is really cheap). Not any sooner when he finished his sentence a tuk-tuk pulls up on the side of the road with the driver looking very eager to have me jump inside. After some brief words and a conversation with him trying to persuade me to get into the tuk-tuk and visit the other temples, he finally pointed me to the original gate which I was walking too and said I can go and enter the Grand Palace through it. I was a little confused at first, but then realized it was some sort of a scam which he gave up on after I gave him a hard time and declined his request to jump into the tuk-tuk. I headed towards the gate entrance and to no surprise the Grand Palace was open.

In my next post I’ll be talking about a few Bangkok, Thailand taxi scams I experienced.

If you’ve been reading my blog for sometime you know that I’m a huge supporter of non-profit organizations who help people in need around the world. I received a message through email from Bloggers Unite about an online awareness campaign for refugees.

On November 10, 2008 bloggers from all over the world are uniting to raise awareness on behalf of more than 40 million refugees. To ask the world to face the atrocities so many human beings must endure and to join together to help bring forward awareness and action for these problems.

Bloggers Unite along with Refugees United are asking bloggers to participate by blogging about the campaign or placing a campaign badge on your blog to help spread the word. The core cause of Bloggers Unite and Refugees United is sharing of information which leads to empowerment. Your actions matter, and your words can help change lives! Here’s more information about Refugees United which was taken directly from the Bloggers Unite website:

About Refugees United

Refugees United is a non-profit organization that helps refugees relocate family and friends through the use of the internet.

Refugees United provides refugees with an anonymous forum to reconnect with missing family. By registering with nick- names, scars, former locations and other markers only identifiable to family and close friends, everyone can remain ‘invisible’ to all but relatives.

• All refugees are welcome, regardless of conflict, place or time.
• Refugees United is an independent, non-political, non-religious NGO.
• No third party is involved. No official papers need to be filled in.
• The service is free of charge, easy and safe.

The Refugees United search engine is the first of it’s kind. Visit Refugees United to see how it works and to learn more about the work that Refugees United is doing.

Here are two more pictures showing my perspective from inside the riverboat while cruising along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. In the right picture you can see the Phra Pok Klao Bridge, one of the many bridges which crosses over the Chao Phraya River.