The Frugal Traveler

Every Wednesday there’s a section in the New York Times online called “The Frugal Traveler.” This is my Wednesday post lunch treat. It’s about a NYTimes reporter circling the world in ninety days on the cheap (by NYTimes standards). He rides buses, trains and low fare planes. He stays with friends of friends of friends around the world, and strangers he meets through hospitality websites.

I remember one week he was in Albania, I think, and he stayed with a middle aged restaurant owner. The owner takes him out to a pristine beach with his friends and he goes swimming in the Mediterranean. He returns to find the group has spontaneously broken out music instruments – his host sports the mouth harp – and is playing music on the beach. And there’s the column about breaking away from the sightseeing for a few days to volunteer on a Turkish Organic Apple Orchard. Or the one about riding horses through the mountains of the Kyrgyz Republic.

I read this thing religiously. I caught the first installment by luck and I haven’t missed one since. I like being part of something as it happens. There’s quite a following of this guy – there’s a comments section on the page and there’s usually a few hundred comments a week. People offer suggestions, criticisms, praise, occasionally scorn. They ask him to come to their city and stay with them (he can’t by NYTimes ethics law). Its travel at it’s finest and its lit a little fire in me to make the most out of my time in England.

I try to convey my enthusiasm for this thing to Grace and to anyone who will listen, but I’ve yet to find anyone who’s nearly as interested as me. To me, the columns are both suggestions for places to see and, more importantly, a guide for how to travel right. I’m not sure if it was working in the Study Abroad Office and spending so much time thinking about travel or what, but I can’t get enough of this guy.

The guy (I think his name is Matt, coincidentally) was in Beijing this week. He flies to San Francisco this week, the final leg of the trip. That’s seven days to catch up, if you’re interested.