Banking on the Road

I've been a Royal Bank customer for many years - they were the ones I turned to when I first moved to Montreal for school in 1989. I had all my "start-up" funds in a certified cheque that I deposited with a local credit union, where they promptly held the cheque to verify the funds, leaving me broke while trying to set myself up in a new apartment in a new city. (Note to Caisse Populaire: "It was a freaking certified cheque. The whole point was that it shouldn't need to clear! It was CERTIFIED!!!" And yes, I'm still bitter about this 20 years later...) So I marched down to the Royal Bank, and they were very nice to me, and facilitated getting a lump of money sent from home very quickly, and I've been an RBC person ever since.

But when it comes to international travel, RBC leaves a lot to be desired. If I were to use my Royal Bank ATM card while overseas, I'd be shelling out $5.00 every time I used it to withdraw cash from an ATM, not including any fees charged by the bank associated with the machine itself. This seemed perfectly usurious, so I was looking for another option.

Thanks to a recommendation from Jason and Gillian at One Giant Step... Is All It Takes, I've signed up with Citizens Bank. (In a very 21st-century, URL-friendly way, they've omitted the possessive apostrophe. Or maybe the name means "bank of many citizens", as opposed to "bank owned by a citizen", in which case there would never have been an apostrophe to begin with.) (And maybe you didn't even notice, and don't care at all about this grammatical side-trip.)

Citizens Bank is based British Columbia, and was founded in 1997, but doesn't have bricks-and-mortar branches; it's all internet-based. They apparently have "boutiques" in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, but those aren't really branches, they're just store-fronts for people who want to find out more because they aren't comfy banking on the web without having dealt with someone in person first.

For us globe-trotting types, the great advantage of Citizens Bank is their Global Chequing Account:

No Citizens Bank ATM fees worldwide!

With a Global Chequing Account, simply use your Access Card to withdraw cash in the US or internationally in the local currency as you need it. You pay the current exchange rate with no additional fees.

• no fees for Canadian, US or international ATM withdrawals*
• no monthly fees or minimum balances
• no fees for debit card purchases in Canada or US
• free bill payments, transfers, cheques and balance inquiries

All the benefits of a regular chequing account, none of the extra charges. This truly is a no-fee Global Chequing Account

Signing up was very easy - it's all done on the Citizens Bank website (of course). Once the application is received, you call in and get an account number and access code to sign in online. You also have to mail them a personalized cheque from an existing bank account, so they can verify something or another**, and then the amount from that cheque is deposited into your account and you're ready to go. I'm still waiting to receive my ATM card, but I'm sure it will be here soon.

One of the things I found interesting was the security process involved when you first set up the account online. My RBC account simply requires me to enter my bank card number and my password. My Citizens Bank account has an account number and a password, but there's another layer of security involved too. I also had to pick a "security picture" and a "security phrase" that are displayed every time I log in to my account. The set-up page shows a grid of 6 icon-like pictures in a number of different categories, and you get to cycle through page after page of these until you see one that you like.

Then you also enter a phrase that will be displayed along with your picture of cavorting kittens (or whatever), so you know that you've signed in securely. It all seems to be a step beyond what I'm used to, which is reassuring.

As a company, Citizens Bank also claims to have some pretty impressive corporate ethics. Of course they offer (even encourage) paperless statements, but that's nothing revolutionary. What's a little more interesting is their no-fee Visa card that donates $0.10 to Oxfam Canada every time you spend $20.00, and one that donates the same amount to Amnesty International. They're apparently the first North-American-based bank to be carbon-neutral, and Citizens Bank employees have helped with Habitat for Humanity builds in B.C., and they donate blood to the Red Cross and help clean up urban green spaces. They probably also spend their coffee breaks rescuing kittens stuck in trees and helping old ladies cross the street. Ok, I'm kidding about that last bit, but check out this Youtube video and you'll see I'm not far off. These folks really seem to be doing some good.

We'll see how things go when I'm actually out on the road, but for now I give Citizens Bank two thumbs up.

* You still have to pay the fees charged by the bank that owns the machine, but that's true locally too.

** The email I got actually says: "Your signed, personal cheque is used for identification and signature verification, as required by federal law"

Gear Picks - Kwikpoint Translator

The Kwikpoint Translator falls into the slap-on-the-forehead simple-but-smart category. I found the website ages ago through a recommendation in the "Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World", and tucked it away for later. Last month I finally decided to surrender my credit card number, and I'm now the happy owner of the Kwikpoint International Translator (laminated passport size). Total cost, including exchange and shipping - $35.51, via Paypal.

The handy card folds out to about 22" x 11", and lets you communicate when you don't know the language and have to get a message across. With Kwikpoint, you just point at the pictures that show what you want.

Looking for a room for the night? Point at this:


How about a cup of coffee?


Want to know how much the coffee costs?


In fact, it seems you can get across some fairly complex ideas by stringing together a series of pictures. For instance:

"Waiter, I'll have the deep-fried chicken heads please, with LOTS of ketchup."

And imagine the mayhem MacGyver could get up to if someone actually understood his request for this:

The Kwikpoint has a big section for food (with dark and light, draft and bottled beer), shelter (which differentiates between western style toilets and squat toilets), work (lots of office-y kind of stuff), activities (including running!), travel (even by helicopter), emergencies (fire, police, ambulance, etc...), and a few key phrases in 9 different languages (including the all important sentence "Point to it!").

Kwikpoint translators are available in several categories - mines falls into the travel category, which also includes a larger sized version with the same information, and a pared down wallet-sized version. In fact, I got the wallet-sized version as a free bonus for completing an online survey, but it's pretty basic (It doesn't even have the chicken head... what fun is that?). It looks like Kwikpoint also does a lot of business with specialty products for medical and law enforcement, and even have whole categories of translators for the military in Afghanistan and Iraq (and those are some alarming little pictures...).

And there are a LOT of little pictures on these things. Many more than I suspect I'll need. However, I find it a bit annoying that the Kwikpoint people squandered 4 whole pages on cover art, unnecessary instructions, testimonials and advertising. Consider how much they crammed onto this half page:


Imagine what they could have included in the space wasted on ads and stuff? I'm sure with another 4 pages I'd be composing sonnets with this thing.

My other quibble is with the astronomical shipping costs. The Kwikpoint is basically a folded bit of paper, mailed out in an envelope. The thing itself cost $14.99 USD, but the shipping was another $13.00! For that kind of money it should have come on a velvet pillow borne by winged monkies. Ridiculous. These are pretty minor quibbles though - overall I'm very happy with this product, and can't wait for the first time I really need it, instead of just playing with fun combinations... like this one!

"Could you please direct me to the waterskiing goats?"

This time LAST year - Boston

Non-runners may not realize this, but today is a very special day. Today is the day of the 113th running of the Boston Marathon.

On this day LAST year, April 21st*, 2008, I ran the 112th Boston Marathon. I didn't know it at the time, but I think qualifying for and running Boston was one of the things that lead me to embark on this big adventure.


I started running in the spring of 2003, and in the winter of 2004 I decided to try and run a Half Marathon. I took a clinic at the Running Room, and dutifully showed up every week to run with the 2:00 hour pace group and the listen to the evening's clinic topic. Usually the talk was about some really specific running thing - shoes or hydration or stretching or something like that - but I remember one night we talked about goals. The leader of the clinic asked people to share their running goals with the rest of the group. I don't really remember what the other people said, but I remember what I heard in my head when he asked the question. At that time I hadn't even completed the half marathon, but the world that popped into my head when I thought about running goals was this:

Boston.

The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon, and is probably the best known running event in the world. For many runners, it has a special significance. Most marathons are open to anyone who pays the entry fee, but Boston is different. You have to qualify to run Boston, meaning you have to run another marathon in a specific time, which varies according to your age and gender. Because entry is restricted, qualifying for Boston becomes a life goal for many runners. And for me, even though I'd never done a marathon, the idea of running Boston was a powerful one, and it really got its hooks into me.


The lure of Boston was enough to keep me training hard and running marathons for all the years following that fateful clinic night at the Running Room. My first full marathon was in Regina, in the fall of 2004. I finished that one in 4:34:53. The next summer I ran a 4:12:45. Then 4:06:30, then 3:54:59. I had a rough time running in the spring and summer of 2007, but on December 2, 2007, I ran the Las Vegas Marathon and beat my previous personal best, finishing in a time of 3:41:09. That was enough to qualify for Boston with 4 minutes and 50 seconds to spare.


So one year ago, on April 21st, 2008, I toed the line in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and ran with about 25,000 other people for 26.2 miles to the most famous finish line in marathoning, on Boylston street in downtown Boston. And it was GREAT. Actually, the race itself was really really hard, but the whole Boston Marathon experience was totally freaking awesome! It was something I'd worked towards for so long that I'd really built it up in my head, and I'm happy to report that it exceeded even my expectations. (So much so, that I wrote a book about it, but that's another story.)

And then I came home, having achieved a really big goal, and with a sort of an emptiness starting where that goal had been. It wasn't long after that when I first had the idea for this big trip, and all the life-changing stuff that goes along with it. So in a way, those steps I took after crossing the finish line on Boylston Street were the first steps in my next big journey. In fact, while I was poking around through my photos to find ones to add to this post, one leapt out at me as being particularly prescient. At the trade show in Boston last year, they had a large wall covered in little blue disks on which runners were meant to write inspiring or funny or meaningful messages about why they run. Here's what I put on mine:


It seems unbelievable that it was only a year ago that I was in Boston running the marathon, and the idea of a trip like this hadn't even occurred to me. I can't imagine what my life will be like a year from now, on the day of the 114th running of the Boston Marathon. Maybe I'll be watching the race from a hostel in Hanoi.

And to any of my running buddies who are toiling through that tough, hilly course today - run hard, have fun, and savour the day. You earned it.


*The actual date of last year's race was April 21st. This year it's on April 20th, since the race is traditionally held on Patriot's Day, the 3rd Monday in April.

** And thanks very much to Phonella for taking that amazing picture of my Boston Marathon medal.

Volun-tourism, Part Two

Ok, how does this sound for a cool way to spend two weeks of your life?: Volunteering on a Dolphin Research project in Kenya!

Volunteers will conduct dolphin research from a surface vessel and have the opportunity to snorkel to observe turtles. Full training is provided by GVI's full time research staff allowing volunteers a hands on and invaluable contribution to the preservation of these majestic animals. Volunteers will live and work in the beautiful Shimoni Archipelago, off the coast of the Indian Ocean on the border with Tanzania, a world class location for dolphins as well as other wildlife. Many exciting opportunities exist for weekend side trips as well as joining other GVI projects in the nearby area.

GVI stands for Global Vision International, a non-religious, non-political organization that "promotes sustainable development worldwide through responsible volunteering programs." They claim to offer volunteers "the chance to participate in projects and expeditions around the world, make a genuine in-country difference, and contribute to work in the field."

GVI has a whole website of really interesting looking projects, like the Turtle Conservation Program in Greece, which is unfortunately not on my radar screen because of scheduling - apparently the turtles only need to be conserved between June and September. There's also a very interesting Wildlife Conservation Program in South Africa where you learn how to track and monitor wildlife like lions, leopards and hyenas. The website is set up really well, and lets you search for programs according to duration, cost, region or "focus" - that's whether you want to do marine conservation or teach English, or build schools, or do community work or whatever.

But back to the dolphins! The project is intended to support the Kenyan government's efforts at marine conservation, the ultimate aim is "the self-financing of conservation through regulated ecotourism and resource use." Participants help in collecting population data on a number of marine mammals, but the main focus is on examining the population ecology of the dolphin species inhabiting the Shimoni area and the Kisite-Mpunguti marine protected area, near the Kenya-Tanzania border. There's no special training required, except that you have to take a swimming test when you first arrive (an unaided 200m surface swim, followed by a ten minute float in the open sea environment). Accommodations are provided in a shared housing arrangement, though other parts of the website mention camping so I'm not sure exactly what the conditions are, except that they're rustic. There's limited electricity provided by solar panels (no blogging!), and washing is either by bucket-showers, or in the ocean. Meals are provided "on a rotational basis" (which I assume means people take turns cooking, not that you only get fed every other day...)


Volunteers come for a two week stay and the cost for that two weeks, including all the solar electricity, bucket showers, and rotational meals, is $1590.00 USD. Not cheap, but on par with Habitat for Humanity, which has far fewer dolphins.

And speaking of Habitat for Humanity - I finally got a response from them about my question of how their "faith-based" nature plays out in day to day life on a project. In fact, the reply I got was from the Global Village Program Director and was a long, thoughtful and considered response to my question. Here's an excerpt:

While Habitat is a “Faith Based” organization its mission is to work with people of all faiths and beliefs in pursuit of its mission to provide simple, decent, affordable housing… for everyone... worldwide. Part of working with people of all faiths and beliefs is being respectful and accepting of everyone, not just the folks who are like you and so Habitat for Humanity is welcoming of all people, in the family selection process for homeowners, in its hiring practices for its staff and in the recruitment of its volunteers. In fact, I would say that the majority of volunteers and team leaders on our Global Village trips, would not associate themselves with a particular religion or faith.

That sounds o.k. to me, so H4H is still on the table, which means so far we've got Houses vs. Dolphins. Stay tuned for Buddhists and Farmers. Perhaps I'll see if I can figure out how to create a poll and y'all can cast a non-binding vote on what you think I should do.

This time next year - April 14

I'm playing fast-and-loose with the TTNY schedule these days because at this point it's really all just speculation. My itinerary is now in version 3462937.1 or so, but what the heck, let's forge ahead! Maybe I should start calling these posts STNY (Some Time Next Year)...

Laos is a small, mountainous, land-locked country in southeast Asia, sandwiched between China, Vietnam, Thailand and Burma (or as it is referred to in news reports: "alsoknownasMyanmar"). The population is just over 6 million and the currency is the engagingly named "Kip", though apparently there are not nearly enough Kip for all those 6 million people, because Laos is one of the poorest countries in the area. With its proximity to backpacker favourites like the beaches of Thailand, the temples of Cambodia, and the phở of Vietnam, Laos is southeast Asia's forgotten destination. That's exactly why I'm looking forward to visiting, and may even forgo some of those hotspots to spend a bit more time in Laos. Laos was also featured in the Fall 2008 issue of Verge, so I'm all keen on it now.

The official language of Laos is Lao, whose written alphabet is quite beautiful. Here's the Lao national motto ("Peace, Independence, Democracy, Unity and Prosperity") written in script:

Isn't that great?

Luang Prabang is the former capital of Laos, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (noted as "Louangphrabang" on the map above). It's got 66 temples, half of which are still in use, lots of traditional Lao wooden houses, and bits of European architecture from when Laos was a French colony. Also, the whole place is positively crawling with Buddhist monks, many of whom are young novices (or whatever a trainee Buddhist monk is called). To give you an idea of the pace of life in Luang Prabang, one of the big tourist activities is to line the streets to give alms to the monks who walk silently through the town at 6 am, with alms bowls around their necks. (In fact it's the Buddhist villagers the monks really rely on, the tourist are just there, well, being tourists). I'm going to direct you once again to Jake at "around the world", his post on Luang Prabang makes me want to go there. Now. Probably you should skip reading the rest of this post and go read Jake's stuff because he was actually there, and I'm just cribbing from Wikipedia. And here's a photo from that same post:


Moving out of the city, let's talk about another site in Laos that seems just fantastic. In fact, it's actually many sites, know collectively as the Plain of Jars. And that's just what it is - more than 400 sites of gigantic carved rock jars, ranging in height from three to ten feet, and weighing up to 13 metric tonnes. Archeologists are not really sure why they're there; some think they were funerary urns for cremated human remains, and some speculate they were for collecting rainwater for passing travelers, since many of the jars lie along a possible trade route. I like the Lao legend that a race of giants once lived in the area. There's also a story that an ancient king, prevailing in a long fought battle over his enemies, used the jars to brew enormous batches of rice wine to celebrate his victory.

Unfortunately most of the clusters of jars are not open to tourists, or anyone else, because they're surrounded by thousands of unexploded bombs. Apparently, the Laotian Civil War in the sixties and seventies "included significant participation by the North Vietnamese Army, American, and South Vietnamese military forces" and they left a lot of stuff behind after massive bombardments. Jar sites one, two and three are open to visitors, but it seems the funding to clear any other sites has run out. This means that Laotian efforts to have the Plain of Jars declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site are stalled, and makes it difficult to conduct any more scientific analysis of the area.


How is it that I can be a reasonably well-educated person and never even have heard of this whole Plain of Jars thing before I opened up the Wikipedia article about Laos? Seriously - an entire area of gigantic stone monoliths of unknown origin and purpose? It seems like the Plain of Jars should be up there with Stonehenge. How many other fantastic and unknown-to-me things will I stumble on while I'm out there? The mind boggles.