Taking off Travel blog

We’re all accustomed to getting around our home country using menial methods of transportation that have defined the act of transporting oneself between point A and Point B as exceedingly boring. However, locations around the world have become iconic for their alternative take on transport, and this can make our travels more eventful and exciting simply taking a trip between two locations. Although in many cases this involves a hideous violation of any concerns for one’s health and safety, we will not focus purely on these (sorry South East Asia) but will also incorporate flash, stylish and romantic ways of arriving at our destination. It is up to you though on whether you deem it flash or foolish.

The Family Scooter

Scooters are common forms of transport the world over. In most countries the scooter is a 1-2 seater form of transport, but lax rules of health and safety in developing nations means that families of 3, 4 or even 5 can be seen whizzing around. With simple engines that are cheap and reliable, the scooter covers terrain from the congested urban metropolis to the unpaved, muddy and step mountain trail.

Tuk Tuk

Due to its loyal serving of Bangkok, Thailand, this is often the first weird method of transport that travelers to the popular South East Asia experience. The cheerful name serves as an ideal sales call from the many Tuk Tuk drivers and their daring and exciting driving practices make riding a Tuk Tuk an experience never to forget. Cheap prices abound, travelers must be wary of a deal too good to be true. Often, Tuk Tuk drivers will deposit you outside an entertainment venue with the offer of a return trip for a mere 20 Baht. However, the venue is always more expensive to get into than originally promised and when you leave, your Tuk Tuk driver is never there. This results in having to pay an incredibly higher price to one of the few present drivers to get back to your original location. Read more »

If you’re traveling to the UK, whether for business or pleasure, you might sometimes wonder if you’ve accidentally landed on another planet. We may all speak English, but it’s true that we’re divided by a common language. The trouble is, Brits just don’t speak American – and why should they? But if we want to make communication easier, there are some key differences you ought to know about.

Emergency Contacts

Let’s start at the beginning. Who do you call in case of emergency? Calling 911 won’t help you at all; if you’re in the UK, it’s 999 and don’t you forget it. Got a headache after your flight and need some Tylenol (officially acetaminophen)? Try asking for paracetamol – you can get it in any corner shop or chemist (which Americans know as a drugstore). That’s also a good place to get lip balm, which we’d call ChapStick. And when you stick your purchases in that case around your waist, don’t call it a fanny pack (fanny is UK slang for female genitals) but a bum bag.

Eating Out

When it comes to food, don’t bother asking for arugula unless you want puzzled stares. Try the more widely used rocket instead. And if you want cilantro, ask for coriander, which in the UK refers to the leaf and not just the seed. Replace that zucchini with a courgette and that eggplant with an aubergine, too. If you want your food to go, it won’t be wrapped in plastic wrap, but in cling film. Those with a sweet tooth can trade candy for sweets, candy apple for toffee apple and cotton candy for candy floss. And at the supermarket, you won’t find any carts – take a shopping trolley instead.

Your Rental Car

Want a stick shift as a rental? Then ask for a manual car and don’t forget to fill up with petrol (not gas). When you hit the road, Jack, you’ll be driving on the tarmac and not the blacktop and if you’re on foot, forget the boardwalk and take the promenade or leave the sidewalk behind in favor of the pavement. If you want to check out the big game, asking about football will get you news of the latest soccer scores. In England, you’ll have to swallow your pride and ask about American football.

Money Talk

Let’s talk money – in notes rather than bills, please. You can swap your dollars for pounds at the bureau de change (and not the currency exchange). Most people in Britain use the word cashpoint for ATM. Turning to the courts, where Americans have lawyers, the Brits have barristers and solicitors, which might come in handy when it’s time for business. Want to send out some business information? You will need the right postcode (not zipcode) and may have to send your packages by recorded delivery instead of certified mail. And don’t forget, if you’re going upstairs to your meeting room, you will be taking the lift and not the elevator.

There are dozens more examples of how Americans differ from the Brits. More on this here or for a quick ready reference check out this British-American translation tool on About.com. (Image: michal818)

Get a $25 Restaurant.com voucher when you book 4 days or more of parking at selected facilities. Details in this post.

Last week, we looked at the origin of some common travel terms. This week we follow it up with a look at the history of some of the most common forms of transport. Before we get to those, let’s look at the origins of the words that make up our company name.

Park, Ride & Fly

It seems that a park was an enclosure for military vehicles all the way back in the late 17th century, and the verb to park meant to put vehicles in such an enclosure. It wasn’t till 1844 that the current meaning of putting a vehicle somewhere appears. Interestingly, parking lots (1924)  predate parking tickets (1925 by a single year and the first use of the now ubiquitous park and ride dates from 1966.

Ride has an older history, since it goes back to Old Norse, Old Frisian, Old English and more – no surprise when you consider how long humans have been on horseback. Its link with motorized vehicles dates from 1930. Fly also goes back a long way (at least in the sense of soaring through the air), but the origins of the current sense go back way before planes to the mid-15th century. The related term flight originally referred to flying by balloon and dates back to 1785.

Transport Terms

And now to those transport terms we promised. Let’s start with ship. The ancestors of this word are found in the ancestors of English, in languages such as Proto-Germanic as well as Old English. No one is quite sure how it came into being, but originally it was use from small craft with masts. The related term boat may have come from Proto Indo European and there’s a suspicion that both terms originated from the act of hollowing out a tree to make a vessel.

We may think of cars as modern devices, but the Romans were driving cars long before we were (they called them chariots, though). It wasn’t until 1896 that the modern meaning came into use.  The modern use of train dates from the 19th century (first published in 1816) with the meaning of a set of wagons pulled by an engine. This comes from the Latin trahere – to pull.

The ticket has also been around for a long time. In the 1520s it meant a sort note or document (from the Old French for label), but it wasn’t till the 1670s that it took on the meaning we know today: a paper that conveys a privilege or right (as in the right to travel). It took until 1930 for the verb to mean an official notification of an infraction and another 17 years for the parking ticket to arrive.

Bus derives from omnibus, a word from 1829 meaning a ‘four wheeled public vehicle with seats for passengers’. And finally, airplane dates from 1907, as does aircraft. It took over from the British aeroplane, which dates from 1873.

We hope you enjoyed that foray through travel linguistic history. Thanks again to the Online Etymology Dictionary by Douglas Harper for the definitions.

I’m a bit of a word nerd, and recently I got to wondering about the etymology of some of our most used travel terms. So I went on the hunt and found a treasure trove in the Online Etymology Dictionary compiled by Douglas Harper from a raft of reputable print sources. Here are some of the things I found out.

Journeys, Voyages and Travels

According to the etymological dictionaries at least, we’ve been journeying long before we voyaged or traveled. The word ‘journey’ goes back to the start of the 13th century with the sense of following a defined course. The 14th century word is descended from Old French, via Latin and had the sense of completing one’s day of work.

‘Voyage’ comes from Old French too, via Latin, and had the sense of provisions for a journey before it attained its modern sense of ‘a trip’. The verb ‘to journey’ dates from the 15th century. ‘Travel’ comes from the late 14th century, a descendant of the 14th century word ‘travailen’ meaning to make a journey. It has much in common with the word ‘travail’ and is thought to have had the sense of going on a difficult journey – all journeys were difficult in the Middle Ages.

Interestingly, although people were going places, it wasn’t until the end of the 16th century that people started talking about their travels (giving the sense of an account of a journey – forerunners of travel blogs). And it would be another three centuries (1885) before we got the ‘traveling salesman’.

Vacations and Holidays

The origins of the word ‘holiday’ pre-date those of ‘vacation’. In Old English, a holiday was a holy day, which was a religious festival and day off work. The current spelling dates from the 1500s, while another variant ‘haliday’, no longer used now, dates from the start of the 13th century. In contrast, ‘vacation’ dates from the late 14th century. It comes from Old French via Latin meaning leisure time, a time when you have no duty to do. Its use for times when normal activity is suspended (like for legal processes and schools) appears to date from the mid 15th century, while its use as a replacement for the word ‘holiday’ – and the term most common here in the US – dates from 1878.

Next time, I’ll look at the origins of some common forms of transport.

It’s been a long, long time coming, but with the Australian dollar doing well against the greenback at the moment, you’re more likely than ever to come across an Aussie or two in your travels. Many Australians are making proverbial hay while the sun shines and enjoying exploring the United States while the financial going is good for them.

With the increased likelihood of an encounter of the Australian kind when you’re next at an airport or station here are a few tips in the interests of improved US/ Aus communications.

Arnie is from Austria

Sure Australians share an A-U-S-T-R with Austrians, they love a Wiener schnitzel as much as the next hungry guy, and they can probably sing you a line or two from the ‘Sound of Music’ but that’s about where the similarities end. Austria is a small snow-covered country in Europe. Australia is a big, hot country on the other side of the world.

They speak English, but not as you know it

Unlike Austria, English is the official language of Australia and Aussies can usually make themselves understood in the States. Occasionally though, that Aussie accent can be a barrier. A recent visitor explains the trouble he had trying to buy a Miami Heat jacket for his basketball loving son back home in Sydney. “I just couldn’t seem to say ‘heat’ right. People kept thinking I was asking about ‘Miami hate’. In the end I resorted to writing it down for sales assistants or pointing to things”.

Relax –they mean restroom

It’s not just the accent that can be an issue. Whilst Americans and Australians have plenty in common, naturally there are plenty of different expressions that haven’t crossed the Pacific Ocean.

An Aussie may approach you with some urgent business to take care of. Rather than ask for directions to the nearest restroom, they’ll probably ask “where are the toilets?” This may sound odd or even crude and has led to some amusing scenarios. For example, a recently returned Aussie woman tells of needing to answer the call of nature whilst shopping at a Home Depot store and was pointed in the direction of the plumbing department.

Wild misconception

Often the only Australians people are familiar with are Crocodile Dundee or the late Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. This tends to convey the impression that all Aussies are rugged, wildlife wrangling types which couldn’t be further from the truth. More than 75% of the Australian population live in urban areas, so if you find yourself face to face with a mean man-eating creature on your travels, don’t hide behind the Aussie expecting them to tackle the beast to the ground – they’ll be just as likely to squeal and run as you are.

And while we’re talking wildlife, just so you know before you ask it (yes apparently it is the most commonly asked question of visiting Australians) – no, Aussie kids do not ride kangaroos to school!

Dani Bellamy is a professional writer from Australia, who loves travelling. She is currently exploring the fascinating world of collectable Japanese erasers and other fun things that lurk within pencil cases. (Photo: semuthutan)