So You Want to Travel Abroad, How To Get Started

With over 22 countries down, here are my tips to getting started with International travel.



Before you do anything, you will need a Passport. Even traveling to Canada and Mexico it is now required. Once you get your passport, make a copy. I carry one on my person, one in a bag, and leave a copy with someone at home. Guard your passport! They are a commodity on the black market!

Pick a location; While I encourage people to travel practically anywhere, I strongly advise a place where English is at least spoken on a basic degree.

Visa; Do our homework, many countries require you to get a visa before visiting, countries also have a limited amount of time you can visit for usually. www.travisa.com will give you the info in this area you need.


Money; Usually I will simply use an ATM when I disembark from a plane at whatever country I have gone, however, you can make a request from your bank to get the type of currency you plan on using. Now keep in mind that once you leave a major city, you may not be able to have access to an ATM or a place to exchange money.

Type of travel; Ask yourself, and be honest what type of travel most suits you. While adventure travel gets you the greatest experience, possibly your body is not capable, or your will at this point, so perhaps a cruise, tour or resort is optimal.
Thoughts of the Ages: My Korean Tour
I have only taken two Tours one while in Finland the other in South Korea, while they offered probably the best explanation of sites in Helsinki & Seoul. The adventure aspect was gone, so the fun part which is getting lost, looking at the wrong places, etc was not there. I did enjoy the massive history inputs, however. Now with that said there are tours for every type of traveler, my Aunt and Uncle are now traveling the world via cruise ships. 
My tour in Seoul was actually the most optimal as Seoul offers tours based on your flight layover. I had a 12 hour layover so I was able to take a full-day tour! So while it was not my preferred way to see the city, it did allow me to experience a place that otherwise I may not have. This is of course up to the individual and their own personal goals and comfort level.


Vaccines; Depending on where you are going, and what you are doing, this is something you will need to be looking into well before your leave date.

Make arrangements at home; Make sure your place is being watched, animals cared for and someone to water your plants. Have an auto light on and make it look like the house is still being lived in. Also do not publish your leave and return dates, thieves look for such things and will take advantage.

What to pack? This of course is tailored to your type of trip. If you are going on a tour all the basics from any place you go in the US is all that is necessary. If you are adventure traveling you will want to travel light with an emphasis on toiletries.
Medications you will need, while most countries you will not need to see a doctor to purchase medication, they may not have what you need.
Make sure you look into local travel laws as pain killers and other narcotics can get you in serious trouble.

If you are planning on driving while in another country, you will need an International Drivers license, these can be obtained from any AAA office. I highly recommend these regardless for your ID as they are in all reality meaningless and one can simply leave them with a corrupt cop and continue on your way, promising to go to court :P


Arrangements to and from the Airport also have to be made; If you drive, you will need to decide if you will pay the daily parking fee on-site, or pay for an off-site place to park your vehicle.

Insurance; You will want to have travel insurance for the entire length of your stay, make sure it covers your medical aspect which IMO is the most important as items, such as cameras can be replaced.

A Will and a Living Will are also something that every person should have. While I am sure you dream of having a fun and exciting trip, and I certainly hope you will, people still die or are seriously injured while traveling.

Make sure loved ones know where you are going, and where you will be on your entire trip, this also applies to not being on a tour. Again the reality is something could happen to you, and in order to make some sort of a search and rescue possible, people have to know where you are. I will be clear, any kind of rescue is probably beyond your family's financial realities and the Marines are not coming to save you.
US Embassies are not wonderful accommodating flag-waving places the movies make them out to be so do not count on much assistance on that end.

Keep a positive attitude: Make the best out of your trip regardless of what happens. Even after being arrested in Croatia I still enjoyed my trip and wanted to continue, my traveling partner, however, started the trip sour, and would end it sour, which of course hastened the end of our trip. If I could do it all over again I would have told him to part ways and I would have continued, something to think about for yourself.


Last, have fun. Regardless of where you go it will be the trip of a lifetime, so make sure you stay light-hearted and happy.

The world is a big beautiful place filled with amazing sites, sounds and people to experience.


More to come!

Robbed overseas? 

Thoughts of the Ages: Robbed while traveling overseas, what to do?

How I made my travels possible 

Thoughts of the Ages: I have always been asked "How do you do it?" It is not hard, here is how

Choosing an adventure over a vacation 
Thoughts of the Ages: Why I choose an Adventure over a Vacation.

A View of the Serbian Conflict from the Eyes of a Child.

At the age of four Nejc would wake to the sound of Thunder. He would run to the window to see the storm, only to find the Thunder came not from the sky, but the street. As he stood and listened he could now hear the sound of grinding metal and a clanking which he did not understand.
He would see people running about yelling, and soon he would see the cause of the Thunder, Tanks.
The Tanks were carrying the Serbian emblem. Slovenia, the newly founded country from where Nejc lived, had recently gained its independence and Serbia did not like it.


Nejc would spend much of his childhood hearing the sounds of conflict. He would hear fighting, know people who would perish, see his neighbors house leveled from Artillery, also losing the windows from his house at this time.

His childhood would be marked with a sound which has still do this day as a young adult never left him, the sound of Air Raid Sirens and the sound of machine guns and artillery.


He and his friends would gather as only a child can do and do foolish things. They would wait in Ambush and then throw rocks at passing tanks, yelling defiantly.
They also would be exposed to something no child ever should, the constant threat of Minefields in Neighboring Muslim areas where they would later travel to see friends and family.

Like all in the area he would know the pain of losing friends and family senselessly to a conflict over Ideology, some of which at times has spanned for Centuries.

The Croatians (Catholic) and Serbians (Orthodox) had been the primary waring fractions, arguing over petty differences mostly. In this conflict the Croatians wanted to break free, and of course the Serbians did not like it. This would set friends upon friends as they battled over something very few understood.



The Muslims would be thrown into the mix despite being the predominantly peaceful lot of the group. This month marks the Anniversary of over 8000 Muslims in Bosnia. Where Men, Women, and Children would be lined up and gunned down by those within the Serbian Military. Mind you they were not without theirs, thus is the nature of war. The KLA or Kosovo Liberation Army would be considered a Terrorist Organization by the US State Department. Later as the US invaded to quell the violence, they would be supported and armed by the US, some things never change.
The 11th day of the Seventh month of this year is for the Muslims in Srebrenica, a day where people gather to remember, and mourn the 20th anniversary of this Massacre.

It is a time which should be moved past, but not forgotten, a conflict that only time can heal, but eyes shall always be cast suspiciously.

The areas where fighting was the hardest, are still littered with landmines to this day.
Unfortunately this is a problem in much of the world, and is not just indicative to this area. Nejc, like many young boys, had walked thru those fields of mines.


I think we can do better as the Human Race, I really do.

Memoirs of a Southern Girl and the KKK

My friend Raja posted this up, and I felt it worth sharing.


This picture brought back memories for me, and I would like to share them. I really do not share much on Facebook, I generally consider it a waste of my time, but for some reason this picture really struck a nerve.

When I was a teenager, in Atlanta Georgia, on weekends we would go down to Lake Spivey, which was the popular summer hangout for teens. On the drive down, we would frequently encounter groups of KKK members, all decked out in their regalia, flying huge American Flags, offering soft drinks out of their coolers and trying to get us to come to their meeting. They would tell us that as Americans we owed it to ourselves to "BE GOOD CITIZENS!" and they had signs that said just that. They stationed themselves at turnoffs near the lake because they knew that teens were headed down to the lake in droves. Most of us just laughed in their faces, called them names (usually not very nice ones) told them they were "Has Bens" and made fun of them. We all knew the KKK was a "thing of the past" something that had existed back in our parents day, or so we led ourselves to believe.

This was in the summer of '63 and '64, and we prided ourselves in having more important things to do that to worry about a bunch of crazy old men playing dress-up in white robes. Sure, we knew there was civil unrest, we watched the news, but I suppose that none of us actually considered ourselves a part of it. After all, we didn't have a problem, in our opinion, people needed to get over it and "live and let live" we concluded.

Looking back, I think we thought that we were enlightened, after all by thwarting their attempts at recruitment, that would put an end to them and their prejudice, right? We lived in a fishbowl. We were too young and naive to see that by ignoring them and doing nothing, we were doing exactly that ... nothing. After all, we rationalized, we were teenagers, what could we possibly do that would have any impact on anything?

Unfortunately, not all teens on that road ended up at Spivey, some took the other road (probably more that we ever knew) and in doing so just kept the hared and prejudice alive. Those teens, I fear, made plenty of impact.

Those afternoons were not isolated to the road to Lake Spivey, they occurred all over the nation. (Yes, I said nation, not only in the Southern States) Today, we see the results of those afternoons, and so many of their recruitment activities as well.

I am not saying that everyone who demonstrates racial prejudice is a product of the KKK, (although we are certainly not born with a gene that makes us that way) nor am I advocating for any flag flying anywhere.

What I am saying is that prejudice and hatred are like any other deadly disease, left untreated it spreads, it grows and eventually it kills.

Just my thoughts.

Raja Messner

Meet Doug Miller, A Man Not Being Held Back By Disability.

95 degrees and I had the caffine jitters. Running around like a Methhead looking for a fix I jumped on my motorcycle and headed down to the store to get a nomax suit to spray weeds with. This apparently was important and a major sidetrack from general yard cleanup/scrap metal hauling.

On the way I would see a man riding a Hayabusa, one of my all time favorite motorbikes, however it had a sidecar attached to it, what?

Intrigued I lifted my visor at the light and mentioned how cool his setup was, it was at this time I noticed a disabled sticker on his trailer, now I was truly intrigued.

After about a half mile of looking his bike up and down while riding, I determined that this rider, loaded down for travel would have a story worth writing about. Without a doubt any travel story has to be more exciting than my hardware store adventure!

Doug is one of those guys you just have to meet. With a infectious smile and a spirit of adventure, you just want to take as much time to get to know this guy as possible.

His story begins with tragedy, shot twice while at work by a disgruntled mentally unstable individual. Doug would end up with a bullet lodged in his spine, and would lose his left eye. It would be some time later that he would meet a man at a rally with a sidecar, Doug just knew this was his way back onto two, well four, well shit, on his way back to enjoying the air in his hair on the open road.

Not only did he order the sidecar, it flat out kicks ass, with a sway bar to level out the sidecar it handles as if it were on rails, allowing Doug to corner carve with ease. Ya'll reading this have to know that cornering, well at least for those of us who do not ride cruisers (sorry, could not resist) is an essential part of motorcycling.

When his wife comes along for adventure, she rides in the sidecar and Doug carries his Wheelchair on his trailer. When he goes solo, the Chair gets to enjoy some sidecar view.

Doug is taking a nice long trip, Originating in Tallahassee Florida he intends to head all the way out to Washington, with heavy emphasis on Yellowstone, Cody and of course the legendary bear tooth highway.
From there he will head out to Washington, spend some time on the coast, come back thru Colorado, spend some time with his Bro in Arkansas, and then back to Florida.

When I ran into Doug, he had already covered over 5000 miles in two weeks. He is taking adversity, chewing it up, spitting it out and living a lifetime of adventure.

Motor on!

End the hate.

Nine people die in South Carolina and the Country comes uncorked.
The news headlines for weeks to come will cover this tragedy.
Yet every time a innocent muslim dies over seas, people clap, cheer and call for it to be "Turned to glass"
When people die in Africa the comments are "They have always been like that"

Nonsense, Humans are Humans and most are peaceful, all are deserving of life.

Killing innocent people is never a good thing. I do not know those in South Carolina but I understand their pain, just as those in Palestine, Israel, Congo and Myanmar.

Its time as a Nation and a people to grow past the Bigoted narrow minded bullshit. Its time to quit pretending we are "Protecting our freedom" while in the same breath cursing oil companies for their expansion, for their underlying cause of the wars to fuel our gluttony.

End the hate.

I got my first UAV Quad Copter, the Syma X5c !

What a wonderful time we live in when virtually every kind of electronic gismo we dreamed of is now available to the common man.
I like many men have a fascination with this stuff and I will do my best to experiment with what I can.

First let us make a clarification, a Drone is completely autonomous and flies by itself, while a UAV means Unmanned Ariel Vehicle, which would be the proper usage in this case.

The history of the UAV is actually fairly old, with the first US UAV as we know it flying in combat in 1963. However the UAV was reportedly in use and some sort of development, mostly as flying bombs as early as WW1, and even beyond in the form of Hot Air Balloons.

Clearly the powers that be have kept the fun stuff out of our hands for some time, yet finally it is here and by damned, I will enjoy it.

So started the research, for the past two years since they were released I have looked, dreamed and waited for one I could afford. This year that would happen.

With visions of racing thru the woods like some star wars movie, I calmed myself realizing I wanted something for more of a camera platform at this time. Reading many reviews on the 400 dollars on up models, I realized that despite the marketing of a beginner Quad Copter, many were still losing them be it forever, or in water, trees etc. I would settle one which reviews were quit high, enter the SymaX5c with Camera for 53 dollars shipped!

Now out of the box this thing is actually charged, mostly assembled and RTF (Ready to Fly)
I would waste no time installing the battery and crashing it in the living rooms since the wind was absolutely railing outside. It took several bashings inside the house that were beyond what I expected.

I would try to fly it outside in the wind but would quickly have to shut it off at about 25feet as the wind took it, I panicked and it would land upside down on my roof. After crawling up and carrying it back down I would again panic after brief loss of control and in all my Martial Arts reflexes and wisdom, toss down the Remote in order to catch it, Uhhgg. I would continue to drain the battery several times and finally I was good enough I could fly around the house relatively uneventful.


Today was a different day outside, after having troubles with the camera I discovered it merely was not plugged in tight, so I have my first Video and outside flight experience. It seems to work well.

Using the Camera is easy, merely flip a switch and on it goes. Operating was a bit of a challenge still with light gusts threatening to carry it off. I would gain at least rudimentary control and manage to harass my elderly neighbor, who proclaimed "I want one" Indeed, she is going to get one next week apparently.

Thus far initial impressions are good, mating the Syma to the Quad is super easy, adjusting level flight is even more easy, and while it could use more functions in regard to beginning use and advanced use, it seems to do well.

Anything above 5mph wind is a bit difficult at my horrid skill level to fly, but light breezes are possible and fairly easy as one practices more. This is where an expensive larger one would do well. Regardless I am still having fun playing with the dog in the yard. I dive bomb her and she nips at it and chases it around.

I think I made the right choice initially, even though the wife has already claimed it, I can experiment with relative peace of mind over destroying and possibly losing 50 dollars, over 400+

I still am going to put my Name and Phone number on it in the event I lose it.

More updates to come, a quick video of early flight testing.

The Mosque Armed Protestors in Arizona Resemble Dark Groups of the Past.

I think by now anyone and everyone has seen at least some news about the recent armed protest in Arizona.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3hLU2ftQbM
The protests were by the founders own words "Designed to flush out" terrorists within the Mosque and apparently to chase evil Muslims out of America.

There are so many things wrong with this line of thinking I am not sure where to start, well, here goes.

First off the fact people would arm themselves and surround a building filled with not only men, but women and children shows a very dangerous level of intent. It shows a complete disregard for human life not to mention the rights of those within. Think about that for a second, women and children in Prayer and these guys show up armed to the teeth spoiling for a fight, uhhggg.

The next worse aspect of this is the pre meditated aspect of it. Without a doubt these guys have put a little thought into why Muslims are Evil and need to be banished from the USA, so much so they were ready to kill anyone who so much as flinched. I am sorry, but at the point it showed intent to commit a crime, possibly murder, this protest went straight out to a good old fashioned Salem witch hunt.

These guys showed up wanting blood, hoping and praying the Evil Mooslim of their dreams would Emerge screaming "God is Great" so they could double tap him, high five with their buddies and wait until the next Rabbit, I mean Mooslim came out.

Sadly this is the exact vision anti gun groups have had of Armed Americans for years, they just perpetuated it to a T. White entitled Christian males who have no tolerance for others not of their belief or vision of worthiness. If you thought your Second Amendment rights were secure before, after the Bundy stand off and now this, they wont be for long. Plenty of fuel for the Anti Gun fire now, and honestly, who can blame them? When you have armed people showing up with the intent to kill in the guise of a protest, Houston, we have a huge problem.

These at the protest are at the same mentality of those at the Bundy Protest, supposed freedom loving Constitutional Mericans who know very little of law and are poorly educated and not well read apparently on any level.

This is a problem, ignorance creates fear, and fear creates knee jerk dangerous reactions, which is what this protest and the Bundy standoff really were.

In neither case was there an actual legal precedence for these people to be armed, in neither case were they exercising their actual rights, they were in fact trying to rule out of fear in their own way. I na sense, they were bullies.

Further those in the Arizona protest bear a striking resemblance to those radical Islamists they so hate. They are people not tolerant of other Ideals, customs or even culture, and are willing to kill in their own ignorance to stop said culture.

In the past in America we had dark groups like this, beyond the obvious which persecuted the Native Americans, we had those who persecuted those who were classified as Americans themselves, they called them witches. Those persecuting touted the bible and Their god as justification, that group was called puritans. They murdered at will if you failed their impossible test. If you swam you were a Witch and therefore to be killed. IF you drowned then you were not a witch, but well they were dead, but at least they knew!

The next group I can think of which is even more in line with the current Ideology of the protestors, who used to claim the First Amendment, well a picture speaks a thousand words.


Notice the resemblance, supposed Patriots flying an American Flag even. They have zero tolerance for those they deem not worthy in America, specifically the Jew and the Negro.

Have we really digressed that much in the US? Is our education system really that bad?

The only good from this, if there is any, is that the protestors were met not by angry armed Muslims, but by peaceful people trying to educate.

The bad, they just re affirmed what radical Islam already states, Muslims are being persecuted.

I fear these protests in the end will do far, far more harm in the long run, than good.

The hate has to end.

I just want to say as an advocate for firearms ownership, and the Second Amendment in general these assholes do not represent the rest of us, they like the Mooslims the haters are a minority, at least I hope they are. As a former Christian I am also here to say they do not represent the majority of Christians, and as a White male, I certainly hope they do not represent the rest of us as well.

I am sorry, truly America I am sorry this is still going on today.

Some quick facts readily hidden by the Media for those reading this that are fuming right now.

The US Constitution was not the first Human rights doctrine, it actually shares some ideology from a document of hte past and arguably the first to recognize human rights. The Constitution of Medina written by none other than Muhammad. http://www.constitutionofmadina.com/

Second, there are more women elected into Government in Pakistan than the US, in fact Pakistan has already had a female PM, not once, but twice. Indonesia, another Muslim country has also had a Female PM. The US? Not yet.

Second Baghdad just elected its first female Mayor, so much for oppressive Muslims.
http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/iraq/baghdad-gets-first-female-mayor-1.1460390

Third Muslims actually believe in Jesus as well, he was a profit who came from you guessed it, Mary as well.

I could be here all day typing, but I thought this would be a good way to dispel many myths surrounding the Quran and all those hate quotes you have seen being passed around. Now mind you, like the protestors at one point in my life I thought Islam was evil and vile as well, then I read the Quran and it was nothing like I thought.
http://english.islammessage.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?articleId=649


Last, here is a link of someone who I find very special in the world, a woman with Balls that clank, Lois Pryce who Motorcycled Iran not once, but twice! What she found will shock you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqb3lab-3Wc