[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] Amazing Race 15, Episode 6 (and the Practical Nomad on your iPhone!)

[Edward Hasbrouck]

This column with links:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001762.html

Scroll down for the race.  First, in other news this week:

"The Practical Nomad" Kindle Edition (Kindle, iPhone, or iPod Touch, 
including the complete text of the latest edition of the porinted book):
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001762.html

If you've read "The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World", 
please post a review at Amazon.com to let others know if you liked it:
http://bit.ly/4zvDki

The FTC is holding public workshops on consumer privacy issues.  My white 
paper with recommendations for what they should do about travel privacy:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001761.html

Meanwhile, the TSA sends my FOIA request into a "black hole":
http://www.papersplease.org/wp/2009/10/27/tsa-sends-our-foia-request-into-
a-black-hole/

And the Senate gets a chance to question the nominee for head of  the TSA  
about the administration's policies on the right to travel, due process, 
etc.  Tell your Senators they need to ask some hard questions:
http://www.papersplease.org/wp/2009/11/02/tsa-nominee-up-for-senate-
questioning-november-10th/

=====

Amazing Race 15, Episode 6

Dubai (U.A.E.) - Amsterdam (Netherlands) - Afsluitdrijk (Netherlands) - 
Groningen (Netherlands) - Vierhuizen de Marne (Netherlands) - Zoutkamp 
(Netherlands)

"The Amazing Race 15" spent the night at a resort on one of a complex of 
artificial islands in the Arabian Gulf in Dubai. The resort and the 
islands were prominently featured in the opening of this week's episode 
(in exchange for more "promotional consideration", according to the fine 
print in the credits). Ironically, they were also featured in some of the 
spam for distressed Dubai real estate I've suddenly started getting in the 
last couple of weeks after mentioning the Dubai real estate crisis in my 
previous columns about the race (see the Web site for details of the 
architects' renderings).

The prices are in UAE dirhams, at AED1=USD0.272, or USD1=AED3.67, with 
asking prices (all the prices are identified as "Open to negotiations") 
for condos in some of the most prestigious new developments as low as 1.6 
million dirhams (US$440,000). That's for a 2-bedroom apartment -- small 
for Dubai -- but of course the count of bedrooms doesn't include the 
obligatory "maid's room" included, this being Dubai, in even a 2-bedroom 
city condo.

On to Amsterdam, none too soon for me or, I suspect, the racers. The Dubai 
airport, where they had to spend eight or nine hours waiting for their 
flight, has almost no places for peons who don't qualify for the emir-
class lounges to sleep, rest, or even sit down -- only shop. When I was 
there, in the middle of the night, it was hard even to make your way 
through the shopping arcades/concourses of gates without tripping over 
transit passengers trying to sleep on the floor. That said, even before 
the current boom the Gulf had a long history as a transit hub for long-
haul aviation, as depicted in several Nevil Shute novels including his 
highly recommended 1951 chronicle of the zen of aircraft maintenance, 
foreshadowing the Gulf states' multi-ethic work force, in "Round the 
Bend".

The Netherlands Board of Tourism must have been as pleased as the race's 
underwriters in Dubai. A major goal of government tourist promotion 
ministries is often to distribute tourism revenues more evenly throughout 
the country, to benefit more of their constituents. For those whose only 
image or experience of Holland is Schiphol Airport and the pot cafes of 
Amsterdam, the race showed a variety of different aspects of the country: 
rural areas, farmland, small towns, and secondary cities. Yes, the 
Netherlands is a small country, even by European standards, and many 
Americans could only name one Dutch city, but it still has more than one 
significant city, incluidng not only Groningen but larger and quite 
attractive places like Rotterdam and the Hague.

The racers' assigned tasks (swimming across a canal in their long 
underwear, and a sort of pseudo-golf game in a cow pasture using wooden 
clogs for club-heads) had little to do with everyday Dutch life or typical 
tourist activities. But they did showcase a couple of genuinely typical 
attributes of Holland: Every local person you meet seems ot speak at least 
some only lightly-accented English, and bicycles are ubiquitous as a mode 
of both urban and rural transport for people of all ages and classes -- 
even when the weather is cold. When one team of racers realized that thye 
had failed to pick up the bicycles provided for them at the previous 
checkpoint, they were readily able to borrow a couple, of bikes from 
passers-by.

Poker players Tiffany and Maria (when they aren't on TV in a "reality" 
race around the world, they are professionals in the televised "World 
Series of Poker") were eliminated after they were unable to complete a 
physical challenge. In part it was a question of strength and physical 
skill, but it was also a matter of failure to understand their own 
abilities: They couldn't decide which of the two optional tasks would be 
easier, and tired themselves trying first one, then the other, then the 
first again. When you travel, you may find that when you have to, you are 
able to do more than you think. But an important travel skill is an 
accurate sense of your own abilities (and, of course, those of your 
travelling companions), so that you have a good sense of what is likely to 
be within your physical limits. It's better, if you can, to explore your 
limits closer to home before you start a big trip, when falling short is 
less likely to get you in trouble.

Bon voyage!

Edward Hasbrouck


----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
<edward at hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214

"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World" (4th ed. 2007)
"The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace"
<http://www.practicalnomad.com>

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