Tours on the Cheap

Not much happening in terms of travel this past week. Mostly just grinding through work. I'm launching 2 iPhone apps by May of this year, not to mention websites and backend stuff for both of them. Oh and I'm launching my own company. Lots to do, but really exciting!

Anyway, I have been looking around for ways to take tours when I'm abroad. I found one really good website, Backpacker Tours. It seems pretty good, and they have prices closer to where I need to be. Specifically I'm looking for a tour that does kayaking in Hai Long Bay. So far only one group comes up in a price that is reasonable for me. But there are other options besides kayaking. Though clearly not as fun. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Thank you William Shatner

That's riiight.... I JUST got a great deal on PRICEline.

Sorry, it's hard to do a Shatner impression using only ASCII characters. ("There's..... SOMEThing on the wing! SOME... thing on the wing.") But in all seriousness, Kristen and I tried out Priceline for the first time this week and here were the results.

I began by shooting for a 3 star hotel in Athens for $100 a night. Instead I got a 4 star hotel, which with taxes came to about $110-115 a night. Then Kristen tried it (because we needed 1 more day in Athens before her flight home). She shot for a 4 star hotel in Athens for $80 a night. Instead we got a 5 star hotel, which with taxes came to about $90-100 a night! We also have the fortune of staying during the week, but those still seemed pretty good. Then we looked up what we would have paid for the first hotel without Priceline... $270 a night before taxes!

So we got a $270 a night hotel for $100 a night. That's 63% off! I can't even imagine what the other one would have cost us. Now I should add that Greece is feeling the recession right now, we are staying in Athens during the week rather than weekend, and we are booking almost 5 months in advance. But STILL that is a ridiculous savings.

Anyway, I think I just gave Priceline free advertising, but I really don't care cause they saved me almost $340 bucks, which I will now go spend on booze and video games.

Kristen and I are now all booked for Greece. We decided to stay on Milos for most of the trip. It seems like an island with lots to do and fewer crowds than the bigger islands. And we got lots of tips that it is very romantic. I can't wait. I'm sure I'm going to take tons of pictures, but in the mean time, here are some from Flickr:

Milos Island Flickr

Anyway, until next week! Take it easy everyon!

Valentines Day in NJ

I'm the worst blogger ever. I hope I get better when I'm traveling. Anyway, I'm on my way to NJ for a valentines weekend with Kristen! I haven't seen her since John Hopkins so I'm pretty excited! I'm actually in the plane, on my iPhone typing this. Sorry if there's any errors. Oh and as an update to the trip, Hawaii (or some other pacific island) is now officially on the table for my trip. Kristen and I will planning that more this weekend. I should go, the steward/stewardess just gave me an evil eye.... I really can't tell if it's a man or woman. Until next time!

It's Happening

Bought a one way ticket to Dublin last week. June 20th. I am going. Unfortunately that I is indeed singular. Our other major members have had to scale back their plans to joining for only part of the trip. However, I will still be spending my summer abroad in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Currently the plan is as follows:

• Dublin
• Eurail Pass travel for 21 Days
• Greece w/ Kristen
• Cairo
• Istanbul w/ Parents
• (?) India (?)
• Vietnam
• Hong Kong
• Beijing
• Tokyo
• (?) Hawaii (?) w/ Kristen

The (?) parts mean plans are still in the works. And by all means, please contact me! I would love to meet people in different places around the world. Especially Europe, which is by far the cheapest location on this list for everyone to meet me. Email me and we will scheme, plan, and other words that mean plan.

!(Summer Time)

Wow it is not even close to summer time. I have not posted in FAR too long. Sorry guys. On the plus side, we have a bunch of updates. First off, we lost someone from the roster. Our hot chick has fallen by the wayside. Not really, she just found a better adventure. It looks like Laura will be doing a run with the Peace Corp. So a big congratulations to her!

We are now less than 1 year away (based on the countdown timer on the site, which actually has nothing to do with our actual departure date). So the next couple posts will be mostly based around gear. First on the list is netbook. I'll be waiting til December to buy the thing, but I know I will need something when I'm abroad. So here are the specs I think I'll need:

Processor: >= 1ghz

Memory: >= 1gb

Drive: >= 8gb SSD

Resolution: >= 1024x600

OS: Linux Distro

Cost: <= $400.00 USD

Right now I'm looking in the direction of the ASUS Eee PC 901. My biggest concern is that I have no way of checking out the Wireless cards. I've noticed the Linux has trouble with wireless. I've had laptops in the past that worked fine with Windows, but with Linux the wireless card would not have the same range, or sometimes would have almost no range at all. So I need to research a little and figure out which netbook has the right wireless card for my needs.

Anyway, hopefully my next post will be in a few weeks, and I'll talk about backpacks. But more likely I'll just ramble on about nothing.

Summer Time

And finally the work is done. Now on to summer. I'm back in New Jersey doing misc. freelance computer work. Brian and Wes are out west at PNWL doing research, and Laura is off to Italy teaching English. She mentioned something about never coming back because... well because it's Italy and it's amazing. If I could pull it off, I'd probably do the same.

So far we have a few trips planned for the summer. I've got Nova Scotia at some point in July I think, and the Penny Arcade Expo in September. Hopefully (money allowing) more trips will occur, but we'll just have to see. If they do, you can be sure there will be posts about them. Until then, have a great summer everyone!

Work, Work, Work

So I am the worst blogger ever. It's finals season and I have a work load so high I could probably base jump from the top of it. Failing tests tends to make you reorganize your priorities. Anyway, you probably won't get any real updates from us for a little while. At least until May when finals finish and I will be good and bored for a little while. Wish me luck! Oh and 495 days!