Eli Bendersky's website - Travel

How to misunderstand security

2006-11-07T22:23:13-08:00

We're now trying to book rooms in a couple of lodges in Australia for our trip. When contacting the lodge by email, they inevitably ask you to send them your credit card number. I'm very reluctant to provide my credit card number by email, as it's about the least secure way there is to transfer information over the net. So, I usually ask for a secure web-page to submit the number to (HTTPS pages use proven public key algorithms to transfer the data securely), and there's rarely a problem. But today I received two most original answers from two places. One says:

You can send the number in two different emails [...]

That is, if the card number is 1234 5678, send 1234 in one email, and 5678 in another. This is surely going to confuse them hackers :-D :-D

The other provided an even better algorithm:

If concerned about security you could use our fax number [...], or send your number via email and on the last set of four digits add 1 to each number for example, if your last 4 numbers on the card are 4566 send me 5677

No comments required :-D

Book review: "Australia and NZ on a shoestring" by Lonely Planet

2006-06-23T11:35:11-07:00

I was very happy to find out that Lonely Planet has a series of "on a shoestring" books offering travel tips and directions for low-budget backpackers. It was also very nice to see that they have such a book that combines Australia and New Zealand.

As we plan to visit Oz & NZ in the end of this year for a relatively long period (circa 3 months, if everything works out), a low-budget advice is essential. These aren't the slums of Nepal - Australia and especially New Zealand are modern and expensive countries, and one has to plan the trip carefully if vast fortunes aren't available for spending.

This book is packed with useful information for travelers around Oz & NZ, with emphasis on budget accomodation, food, transport and travel options. Numerous low-cost backpackers' hostels are listed for every popular location, and useful tips are given on keeping the budget low. But besides all this, the book is a good overview guide for travel in "Down Under", and really helps planning the trip. The benefits are two-fold: first, I can use it now to plan what I want to see and when, which things to book in advance, what to bring, and so on. Second, it will be very useful as a 'directory', once I'm there, even containing basic maps for most the major cities and tourist attractions.

Book review: "A balcony in Nepal" by Sally Olds

2005-11-13T23:31:00-08:00

When I strolled through a small bookshop in Pokhara (Nepal's 2nd largest city) most of the books I ran into were (unsurprisingly) about mountaineering and trekking. But this was not what I was looking for. I was rather hoping to find a book that tells about the lives of Nepalis - especially the "real", rural inhabitants of this beautiful country, and not the shop-keepers tourists usually run into.

"A balcony in Nepal" is such a book. Written by an unlikely trekker - a 70 year old grandmother, it tells about the few months the author has spent in Badel - a small village in the east of Nepal, not far away from Mt. Everest. Mrs. Olds trekked a couple of times in Nepal with her husband and fell in love with the country, to which she came back several times, on a quest of "looking for herself".

The narrative is autobiographical, feeling like a journal carefully collected and edited. It is very readable and can be finished quickly. The author tells about the lives of people in a typical Nepali village, their day-to-day hardships, peculiar rituals and, most of all, their apparently illogical happiness and peace of mind. The book keeps coming back to the inevitable comparison of the rich life in the west versus the poor conditions people live in Nepal, and yet somehow they don't look less happy for it. They look more happy, if a comparison must be made. Some point about appreciating what we have...

All in all, a charming book. Not only does it tell a lot about the life of Nepalis, it also raises quite a few interesting philosophical points, so it's an interesting read even for people not really interested in Nepal itself.

Book review: "The pocket guide to Thailand" by Berlitz

2005-06-13T11:45:00-07:00

This small booklet was recommented by a friend who used it while traveling in Thailand.

It's a really small book, about 130 pages pocket-format, but it's packed with information. A general overview of the country and its history is given, and the major tourism areas are listed, with many useful tips and suggestions of places to see.

The author also isn't shy admitting that the information may be incomplete and out-of-date and points to other useful resources of information.

The book has two other things that are very useful - a nice collection of Thai vocabulary, a few dozens of words / expressions that are good to know, and an alphabetic list of information with short and to-the-point advices.

I guess we'll rely on it as our guide to Thailand later this year (although we'll probably buy a map of Bangkok), so it will stand a real test. I'll report the results when we come back.

some more observations on Ireland

2004-08-22T23:51:00-07:00

Ireland is very clean. Maybe it's the E 2000 fines for throwing trash, maybe it's the culture. Whatever the reason is, at least to me the country looked very clean. Both trash-wise and air/water-wise.

Trash-wise it's actually weird, since it's usually difficult to find a trash can. Do all the people carry their trash with them until they find one, like we did ?

Air/water-wise it's great. I'm not used to water being drinkable from the faucet. Also, the waterways are very clean. There's actually fish in rivers flowing through the cities. The air is mostly not polluted and is rich with oxygen from all the greenery.

The drivers are very courteous. If they see you're faster, they let you overtake. Honks are infrequent.

Pedestrians pay no attention to the traffic light. Red/green/yellow - they don't mind. But they will smile and wave a hand at you if you let them pass.

There are tons of chiropract offices. Hmm... So it's either the Irish people have more back problems, or they believe in chiropracts more.

The way houses are painted in small town centers is awesome. They all are adjacent, painted in a different color. Looks like the rainbow sometimes.

Did I mention the endless green pastures ? (I guess I did, several times in my previous post). Eire is just blessed with a weather very suitable for greenery.

The super-markets look exactly like the ones in Israel. They contain almost the same things, but are somewhat more pricey.

Ireland is said to have a developed hi-tech industry. They must be hiding it very well, since I've seen no sign of it during our week tour, visiting most of the country's largest cities.