SET tour vs. CUSTOM tour

SET tours depart and return on a SET date, from a SET city of origin, with a SET itinerary, SET meals, SET transports, SET groups, SET everything. There is very little flexibility.

CUSTOM tours are not as expensive as you may think and most often, private guiding, group guiding, and independant exploration can be combined for an affordable and satisfying journey.

GUIDE your GUIDE

Tired this AM? Call your guide on his mobile and ask him to come back after your third cup of coffee, then ride the elephant. Want to dine with your sweatheart at the restaurant you just saw a block back with the duck hanging from a hook? Ask your guide to turn around, take you back and meet up again in 2 hours. Then, proceed to the Silk district.

Overload on the 34^th temple in 3 days. Ask your guide to take you for a swim in the nearest lake or to your guide's favorite hang out for "people watching." Want to purchase that request from aunt Sarah, age 90, who likes clay pipes? Ask your guide where to find them without hunting or digging.

Is your guide a little too eager to show you the history of their entire civilization in one week? Ask for some private time, a quiet place to sketch, or a place of live music.

Just driven 3 hours over hand crushed gravel in a Russain jeep, over the mountains of China to see the hill tribes people? Ask them not only for open air relief but a brief stretch before continuing onward up the mountain where billy goats tread carefully.

Can't take another day of guiding at all? Call your guide, and go to the beach for the day.

Guide your guide and you both will be fulfilled.

Guides and Driver

Did the driver get you there safely? Was your guide knowledgable and generous with his information? Would you have enjoyed the trip as much without them? Is there one or two guides or drivers you'd never forget?

Most guides love to be guides for the same reason we all love to travel. They make their living from our appreciation.

GIFTS

Do you still take pencils, crayons, greeting cards, ribbons, hair clips, or napkins as gifts to foreign countries? Many well meaning people do and in most cases children (and adults) just love to receive something. They are then able to make contact, smile, say thank you, and shake your hand.

However, think through thoroughly what a child might like: much the same stuff, really, that a child in your own country might enjoy.

I remember, I gave some coins to a child before I left for the airport to return home. She accepted them and said to me, "I can't spend too much of this on food, because there are other things we need." She became very quiet and thoughtful and placed the coins in her pocket. Be thoughtful in your giving.

Real Estate in Thailand

Looking for real estate to purchase in Thailand? Give us a call with your requests and we can get you started. Land only, land and house, villas, for private use.

888.333.7071

Travel Insurance

It is always wise to protect your travel investment. Minimum coverage would be a basic trip cancellation. About $100 us is well worth it, and would include evacuation in case of emergency.

A comprehensive plan will cover all medical and dental emergencys as well as trip cancellation, trip interuption, missed connection, travel delay, travel accident, baggage delay and loss. This type of travel insurance plan is based on age, duration and cost of the trip.

Inquire if pre existing conditions are covered in your plan. Usually, if you book with in 7-14 days after your first deposit, they are covered.

Best of all, a few cover cancellation for any reason, including if ANY family member, not even traveling, causes cancellation of the trip.

Golden Fish Travels offers all options for travel insurance, and we highly recommend that you consider it.

THE SACRED/POLITICAL COW

Politians offer the farmers a stipend to paint the horns of their sacred cow adorning it with the colors of the party. The farmers accept and cow is oblivious to his his new role as a sacred political animal. A theocracy of sorts? See our new India travel page!

FOOT MASSAGE? SURE!

In India, if a Tamil woman offers you a foot massage, you can be sure it is of the type where she stands on one foot, holding onto a rope that drops from the ceiling, while her other foot proceeds to give you entire body a "foot massage."

Breakfast in Kerala, INDIA

Outside my bungalow in India, overlooking the Arabian Sea, a smiling dark skinned, white attired waiter places upon my table, a tray of steamed banana, ginger, cardomon and honey. There is something strange about his smile. He leaves quickly.

Just as quickly, before I even have time to place my napkin on my lap, Crows appear, actually there are 12, on my chair, on the table, perching on the cardamom container. These crows look BIG. I watch lifting my fork with one eye on the cardomon and one eye on the flock.

Crow 1 lifts the sugar packet out of the bowl and flies away with it, paper and all in his beak, sugar sprinkling the freshly watered grass.

Crow 2 about 6 inches from my plate, knocks over the honey pot, just as crow 1 returns for more sugar.

Crow 2 sips the honey through his beak, and then wipes his beak sideways on the table cloth. MY table cloths. My fork is still in the air and my mouth is open. I have not as yet even taken a sip of tea.

Surely they dont like masala tea, do they?

Fork down, one eye still upon crows, I pour myslf a cup, exhale for one second to place the flask back on the table, they move closer to the center of the table, and within a milisecond on my next inhale, I clutch my cup and take a quick gulp and remember the bananas. Simultaneously, Crow 3 abscounds with the entire banana in his beak, mybreakfast devoured by crows.

Back again for the ginger and cardomon. He pecks the plactic off the rim of the bowl, discards it quickly, repeats, discards, pokes a hole in the plasitc and they all enjoy the find.

I move to the shade, away from my ascended banana, spilled sugar packets, oozing honey, saturated table cloth, and plastic shreds.

I view my guests from a distance, taking my tea cup with me, my only remaining breakfast. A few more crows descend, sipping the honey and wiping their beaks, a regular ritural.

One last crow perches on my chair, hoveving over my tea cup held in my hand ----and takes a sip.

Slipper Stories

...there is a gentle nudge on my shoulder and a faint spell of beef tenderloin throughout the cabin.

I had fallen asleep while all the meals had been served. How can this be?

Then I noticed a strange phenomonon. Of course we all had our slippers on, but certain patterns were emerging. Red slippers for beef and noodles, yellow for chicken and rice and green for vegetarian.

Yep--I was wearing the green ones and all my meals had been vegetarian.

Before the next meal, I managed to stuff my green slippers under the seats and wiggle my toes into the Red slippers of the Japanese next to me who was dead asleep and you guessed it, my next meal was Marinated flank steak, sauted mushrooms, baked potato, Ceasar salad while the guy next to me wearing my green slippers, was slurping udon and miso. I had cracked the code of the colored slippers.

The point of this absurdity as described above is to point out and elucidate the fact that in Japan colored slippers are very very important. One color is worn outside and left at the door as you enter. Another color is slipped on after entering and yet another pair is offerred as one enters the bathroom and so forth in reverse order. Sometimes one doesnt know if he/she is coming or going!

Anybody our there with slipper stories?

THE SPIRIT OF TRAVEL IS AN ACT OF OPTIMISM

From the minute you decide travel, there is risk.

Like, who's going to feed the dog while your'e away, and who's going to take you to the airport? A Dog doesn't understand abandonment with out some kind of advance notice. And this generally means chopped sirloin in his/her bowl for a month prior. Now, a Cat will abandon you before you even finish packing. As for the Bird, the cage will be full of shit after the first week and it will succumb to its own fumes.

So then, how do you get out of town when your frieinds are wishing you a Bon Voyage at the speed of light and disappear for weeks, hoping you wont ask them to take you to the airport. Bon Voyage really means, Bon Chance/Good Luck, which translates to "take a taxi."

Then there is the packing. Over weight already with: Mosquito repellant: pills for pre-, during-, and after-cold; jet lag pills; malaria pills; h2o purifier pills; Tiger balm; Dragon Balm; and that around your neck air purifier from Sharper image (air blowing up your nostrils when you're crammed into the middle seat, three in a row, knees to chest, when you specifically asked for an isle seat/bulkhead--a Sharp image indeed).

Then there is the plane itself. Oh, I dont mean the fact that it could crash land (did that in Singapore), but that you could be air sick for 13 hours enroute to Hanoi, landing in time for a tour of the Chu Chi Tunnels, or 16 hours to Columbo now sleepless and throwing up, or 24 hours to Cochin and Curry.

OHHHHHHH the food. JAL enroute to Narita. 9 hours out and still air sick. I am delevered a meal of tofu and fermented black bean sauce with a side of shredded white radish. Dessert? Green tea soufle.

OK, OK, this is about travel being an act of optimism and Ill get to that soon as the air sickness passes. Lets pause here for a movie aboard flight 333 enroute to Optimism.