I was just talking with a fellow attendee at a workshop about business travel. Yes, loads of women managers and execs at his large company travel. "They only travel in packs," he says. Not one of them travels solo - unlike us Road Warrioresses. Company conferences, training, even sales calls on customers - everything is done as a team. Same flight, same hotel, same car or shuttle. And heaven help one if dinner is not scheduled en masse. They'll order room service before they'll venture into a hotel coffee shop alone.
Lousy way to travel if you ask me. Yes, I've done it for corporate quarterly sales meetings and such. It's nice to have company at dinner, develop coworker relationships. It can be rather comfy, or a severe trial of overload and no privacy. Yes, I always managed to strike out on my own somewhere along the schedule of events.
But practically all of my travels from the moment I set off to college barely days after I turned 18 (not even a week after my birthday!) have been solo. And while I have needed or wanted room service on occasion, it becomes very dreary very fast. Waits can be long, food often arrives cold, the menu is very limited to start with. And the costs are frightful - one dinner can consume an entire per diem allowance. Neither riding with the herd some 16 hours a day nor hiding in my hotel room are much fun.
Remember George C. Scott as Patton? "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace," was General George's advice, as memorably quoted by Actor George. Where's your audacity? Guts, gumption, or simple - and elementary - modicum of confidence? Criminy, you hardly need much brains, talent, hutzpah, experience, or anything else to walk into a restaurant, sit down, order something, and eat it. You've been eating something or other since the day you were born.
Most larger hotels have more than one restaurant. Pick the snack bar or coffee shop rather than the exclusive and formal restaurant. Who knows? You might strike up an interesting conversation with a fellow traveler, even make connections for a better job! It's easy. It's a lot more fun. And you will get better food selected from a wider variety of options.
Surprise! You'll probably find out you are not the only person dining alone. You might even run into me. Even though I really am quite shy, we'll strike up an interesting conversation.
Oh, by the way. This guy clued me in on something, if you're ambitious. Those women hit the glass ceiling because they can't - or won't - travel solo. Top executives don't travel in packs. They only have a peon trailing behind if anyone at all accompanies them.
May your road rise to meet you - and may you meet it with audacity!
Ann
Showing posts with label solo women travelers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solo women travelers. Show all posts
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thursday, May 3, 2012
On the Road Again - Despite Bad Weather!
"On the road again. . . just can't wait to get on the road again. . ." Back at it once more, living out of a suitcase. Alas, the weather is not cooperating to accomplish all I aimed to do.
What to do when weather interferes? Have a back up plan - and a too-long To Do List. Time to tackle chores: cleaned out a backlog of nearly 1,000 emails (oops!), used the hotel's granite desktop to shoot some studio-style staged photos (instead of photographing a gloomy, gusty beach), and more backlisted To-Do's.
Read another novel by Kelsey A. Campbell. She must be a fellow Road Warrior-ess! Topsy-Turvy: Kalimantan Tales is set in Indonesia - the "jungles of Borneo" actually - where Kelsey used to live. It's the story of the only working expat woman based in a hardship post in Indonesia. The name of the city (if you can call a place with 300,000 people and one traffic signal a "city") is Balikpapan, and in Bahasa Indonesia, that means "topsy-turvy." We Road Warrior-esses think we have it tough today. Dr. Diane Cameron, heroine of this story, thinks she's joining her fiance in romantic, photogenic Bali and winds up where water has to be boiled a full fifteen minutes before you can drink it, or make a cup of instant coffee. Fascinating tales of life in the back of beyond, where members of the resentful Bored Wives Club are spitting king cobras and coworkers sometimes prove to be kraits-in-the-bamboo.
Like the first novel of Kelsey's that I read, Make Me Beautiful (with some scenes set in one of my favorite hotels in the world, The Library Hotel in NYC), it's a fascinating tale of a powerful woman who roams the world.
So despite uncooperative weather, I'm getting a lot of things done. As one of the characters in Topsy-Turvy says, "I never let nothing stand in my way."
May your road rise up to meet you!
Best, Ann
What to do when weather interferes? Have a back up plan - and a too-long To Do List. Time to tackle chores: cleaned out a backlog of nearly 1,000 emails (oops!), used the hotel's granite desktop to shoot some studio-style staged photos (instead of photographing a gloomy, gusty beach), and more backlisted To-Do's.
Read another novel by Kelsey A. Campbell. She must be a fellow Road Warrior-ess! Topsy-Turvy: Kalimantan Tales is set in Indonesia - the "jungles of Borneo" actually - where Kelsey used to live. It's the story of the only working expat woman based in a hardship post in Indonesia. The name of the city (if you can call a place with 300,000 people and one traffic signal a "city") is Balikpapan, and in Bahasa Indonesia, that means "topsy-turvy." We Road Warrior-esses think we have it tough today. Dr. Diane Cameron, heroine of this story, thinks she's joining her fiance in romantic, photogenic Bali and winds up where water has to be boiled a full fifteen minutes before you can drink it, or make a cup of instant coffee. Fascinating tales of life in the back of beyond, where members of the resentful Bored Wives Club are spitting king cobras and coworkers sometimes prove to be kraits-in-the-bamboo.
Like the first novel of Kelsey's that I read, Make Me Beautiful (with some scenes set in one of my favorite hotels in the world, The Library Hotel in NYC), it's a fascinating tale of a powerful woman who roams the world.
So despite uncooperative weather, I'm getting a lot of things done. As one of the characters in Topsy-Turvy says, "I never let nothing stand in my way."
May your road rise up to meet you!
Best, Ann
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Who's to Say What's "Appropriate" for the Woman Traveler?
The New York Times annual Travel Show launches Friday, 26 February, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Among the seminar offerings, April Merenda of Gutsy Women Travel moderates a panel of travel writers "overviewing appropriate tours and destinations for women...."
How dare they? What's "appropriate" for one woman is no more appropriate than one man's for another. Different people have different interests and inclinations. It is up to the individual to determine what might be suitable or interesting or relaxing or invigorating. That is not the purview of a travel writer or travel agent. I found the entire notion - and the New York Times write-up on this seminar - totally offensive.
I was the only single expat woman working in the oilfields of Indonesia years ago. While some might think that "inappropriate," I was the one living and working in what, by any measure, was a hardship post. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I spent months "riding the rails" through China and the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Difficult going solo, but hardly an inappropriate journey nor the greatest of adventures. Difficult, yes; dangerous, not particularly.
Go where the spirit moves you, or where the job takes you. Only you can determine what's appropriate for you. You decide what interests and excites you. You decide where and how to live, work, travel. As long as it's legal and within your boundaries for risk tolerance, go for it. Adventure awaits!
And it would be so terribly sad to miss something great because someone else determined it wasn't "appropriate" for women. The Victorians put up with enough of that errant nonsense.
May your road rise up to meet you,
Ann
How dare they? What's "appropriate" for one woman is no more appropriate than one man's for another. Different people have different interests and inclinations. It is up to the individual to determine what might be suitable or interesting or relaxing or invigorating. That is not the purview of a travel writer or travel agent. I found the entire notion - and the New York Times write-up on this seminar - totally offensive.
I was the only single expat woman working in the oilfields of Indonesia years ago. While some might think that "inappropriate," I was the one living and working in what, by any measure, was a hardship post. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I spent months "riding the rails" through China and the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Difficult going solo, but hardly an inappropriate journey nor the greatest of adventures. Difficult, yes; dangerous, not particularly.
Go where the spirit moves you, or where the job takes you. Only you can determine what's appropriate for you. You decide what interests and excites you. You decide where and how to live, work, travel. As long as it's legal and within your boundaries for risk tolerance, go for it. Adventure awaits!
And it would be so terribly sad to miss something great because someone else determined it wasn't "appropriate" for women. The Victorians put up with enough of that errant nonsense.
May your road rise up to meet you,
Ann
Real New Yorker Burgers & Brews
Times Square has everything: Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe, Olive Garden, and practically any chain you can imagine have Times Square outlets. But where can you find something uniquely New York? It's searching out the distinctive, the can't-find-it-anywhere-else that makes travel most fun and most enlightening.
Just had lunch at HB Burger, a burger and brew pub that's distinctly New York. Heartland Brewery pioneered craft beer in NYC back in 1995, and now has 7 locations in the city. It has just been nominated for "Best New Burger" in the Time Out New York 2010 Eat Out Awards, but which burger is "new" remains a mystery. HB's mum on that despite the prominent placard announcing the nomination on each table.
Seasonal beers featured at present include:
- Full Moon Barley Wine, rich toffee sweetness from English malt and American hops;
- Sumatra Porter, mocha aroma and hint chicory in a beer brwed with English malts and Sumatra coffee;
- Belgian Cornhusker Lager, a spicy golden ale using Belgian ale yeast.
They make their own sodas, too. Potency is the salient Diet Root Beer characteristic, not fizz. Bison burgers, sashimi-grade tuna burgers, Cajun crabcake burgers and, naturally, angus beef highlight the burger side of the lunch menu.
The HB Burger comes with lettuce and tomato, traditional New Yorker style. Add cheese, bacon, avocado or what-have-you at additional charges. Another New Yorker tradition - add-ons.
Of course, they hate solo diners during the lunch rush when tables get very scarce, so it's best to arrive before 12:30pm when they really get busy. But several solo women were eating there, and obviously women find it comfortable to dine alone there. The atmosphere is casual, albeit bustling, and it's "the" sit-down burger place near bustling Times Square. Pricewise, plan on $10-20 for lunch with beverage and tip.
The HB Burger and its Chophouse next door are close to Times Square at 127 West 43rd Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway, a couple doors east of the Casablanca Hotel (147 West 43rd). Locations, directions, menus, history and how to brew beer: heartlandbrewery.com.
Only in New York. Hope it stays that way.
May your road rise to meet you,
Ann
Just had lunch at HB Burger, a burger and brew pub that's distinctly New York. Heartland Brewery pioneered craft beer in NYC back in 1995, and now has 7 locations in the city. It has just been nominated for "Best New Burger" in the Time Out New York 2010 Eat Out Awards, but which burger is "new" remains a mystery. HB's mum on that despite the prominent placard announcing the nomination on each table.
Seasonal beers featured at present include:
- Full Moon Barley Wine, rich toffee sweetness from English malt and American hops;
- Sumatra Porter, mocha aroma and hint chicory in a beer brwed with English malts and Sumatra coffee;
- Belgian Cornhusker Lager, a spicy golden ale using Belgian ale yeast.
They make their own sodas, too. Potency is the salient Diet Root Beer characteristic, not fizz. Bison burgers, sashimi-grade tuna burgers, Cajun crabcake burgers and, naturally, angus beef highlight the burger side of the lunch menu.
The HB Burger comes with lettuce and tomato, traditional New Yorker style. Add cheese, bacon, avocado or what-have-you at additional charges. Another New Yorker tradition - add-ons.
Of course, they hate solo diners during the lunch rush when tables get very scarce, so it's best to arrive before 12:30pm when they really get busy. But several solo women were eating there, and obviously women find it comfortable to dine alone there. The atmosphere is casual, albeit bustling, and it's "the" sit-down burger place near bustling Times Square. Pricewise, plan on $10-20 for lunch with beverage and tip.
The HB Burger and its Chophouse next door are close to Times Square at 127 West 43rd Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway, a couple doors east of the Casablanca Hotel (147 West 43rd). Locations, directions, menus, history and how to brew beer: heartlandbrewery.com.
Only in New York. Hope it stays that way.
May your road rise to meet you,
Ann
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