Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 143
January 31, 2019
Jan 2019 WSGT News: Making My Dreams Come True
Jan
News
2019 with We Said Go Travel:Happy 2019!
It is award season in Los Angeles and I did a special giveaway with KTLA, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and Glamsquad!
Thank you to American Airlines and United Airlines for publishing my stories this month! I had a story about high tech on the ski slopes for American Airways and the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death and the many exhibits in his honor this year for Hemispheres (United Airlines Magazine).
Click to view slideshow.
Thank you to Phil Laboon and Thrive Global for including in your #GRIT interview series! There is an old Japanese saying: “Fall seven, rise eight.” You have to fall down to rise up. Duckworth tells us: “Grit rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. I have a feeling tomorrow will be better is different from I resolve to make tomorrow better. The hope that gritty people have has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again.”
In November 2018, I went to DEMA a scuba diving conference and met Jean-Michel Cousteau, Wyland and the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame.
VIDEO: DEMA Las Vegas videos about the conference and my adventures in Las Vegas.
I loved my trip to London with my friend, Julie, who I worked with at Princess Cruises!
Here is Part One of our adventure:
Click to view slideshow.
Thank you to everyone who entered our 2018 Travel Photo Award. I am publishing the fantastic photos once a day! Click here to see the most recently published entries. Once all the entries are published in July 2019, I will announce the finalists. I expect to announce the winners in September 2019.
Lisa Niver and Samantha BrownThank you to Samantha Brown for being interview #99 on my Travel Influencer Interview series. I am excited for #100 to come out next!
WHERE CAN YOU FIND MY TRAVEL VIDEOS?
Here is the link to my video channel on YouTube where I have over 872,757 views on YouTube! Thank you for your support! Are you a subscriber? I hope you will join me and subscribe!
I am so excited for 2019! Thank you for watching my videos, reading my stories, following along on social media and asking me about booking your travels!
Where do you want to wander? Find more information about me and my luxury travel advising as an independent affiliate of CRUISE and RESORT, Inc with Virtuoso Luxury Travel Network on my new microsite!
My fortune cookies said:
“Your present plans are going to succeed.”
“Don’t be afraid of fear.”
“Others will follow your lead in the coming months.”
Good luck in taking the next small step to make your 2019 goals come true! I am so thrilled that I had a KTLA segment already in Jan 2019! I look forward to sharing more travel stories on TV.
Thank you for your all of your support. Lisa
Discover more on my social media accounts: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and at LisaNiver.com. My social media following is now over 140,000 and I am verified on both Twitter and Facebook.
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Keek a boo (China)
I used my Nikon Coolpix 610 to make this picture, using the zoom function. I cropped the original image and made the final version darker and with more contrast than the original.
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January 30, 2019
Where To Go Next? Ask Patricia Schultz, 1000 Places to See Before You Die
We Said Go Travel interviewed Patricia Schultz,
author of 1000 Places to See Before You Die.
(INTERVIEW #100 in our travel series!)
Patricia Schultz in Papua New Guinea1.)Where was the first place that you traveled that made you think WOW—travel is amazing (think history book come to life or …..)
It was my first passport and my first stamp: I was 15 and was invited to visit a high school friend who lived in Santo Domingo, the capital of the DR. It was total and glorious immersion in the vibrant and rich Latino culture which was something pretty heady for a New York teen leaving her ultra-American comfort zone for the first time. That flung the door wide open for me!
Do you want to travel with Patricia Schultz? She has hosted small-group trips from Uganda to Iran, and Chile’s Patagonia to the Balkan countries. Learn more and sign up for her newsletter HERE!
Patricia Schultz in Khiva, Uzbekistan2.)If you had unlimited resources, where would you go and what would you do?
I would rent a big old hilltop ‘casa colonica’ (farmhouse) with-a-view in the heart of Tuscany for the summer. There would be a revolving door for all my family and friends who would come and stay for a few days or a few weeks. I used to live in Florence, so we’d go into town to wander around my old neighborhood, and visit nearby Lucca and Siena. We’d explore small sleepy towns and villages for their daily markets and enjoy long lazy meals of local wines and homemade pasta.
Patricia Schultz in Palawan, Phillippines3.)What were you afraid to do and how did you find the courage to overcome it?
I set off on some of my earliest adventures after university alone – not because I wanted to but no one else was available or interested. The first many times I was scared out of my wits – but convinced myself that knot in my stomach was excitement and not fear, and that the dread of what might happen was instead anticipation for the great adventures that awaited. Depending upon the destination, I sometimes prefer traveling with others, but my real joy still remains striking off on my own.
4.)What apps do you use regularly that make your life easier?
I use Flight Tracker and TripIt, Seat Guru and Kayak and those for various airlines. Of course Facebook where I have a huge following of incredible travelers from around the world and Instagram where I am a new arrival. What can I say? Better late than never at all.
Patricia Schultz in Iran5.)What place do you wish more people have seen?
Iran. It reinforces that there is often a wide and deep divide between a government and its people. The Iranian people love Westerners, and absolutely shower Americans with kindness and curiosity in a way I have never experienced before. I had studied its architecture and history, but what I saw still blew me away – from the UNESCO site of ancient Persepolis to the 20th-century structures created during the glory days of the Shah. The food was both exotic and complex, the result of countless Silk Road caravans passing thru who influenced the local people in ways both great and subtle.
Patricia Schultz on the Great Ocean Road outside Melbourne, Australia6.)Best advice you have been given and by whom?
My extremely supportive German father, who secretly wanted nothing more than for me to finish college and come home and teach grade school, once said “Follow your heart, but bring your brain with you.”
Patricia Schultz in Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile7.)When were you surprised by the kindness of strangers on a trip?
Every trip, every time. I am always aware that people appreciate that you have traveled – sometimes from the other side of the world – to experience their home and want to make you welcome. We had hired a driver in Casablanca when our 5am flight was canceled – we were starved and told him we wanted to taste the best couscous in town – but not in a place popular with tourists. We wanted to know where he would go to eat with his wife and children. He took us home to his mother! She still sends me a Christmas card every year.
Patricia Schultz in Uzbekistan8.)What inspired you to travel for extended periods of time or live in a new country?
With life, families and work obligations, it is not easy to linger in a destination for more than the usual drive-by visit. But if you can organize it just once in your life – during a gap year or sabbatical – the experience of immersion is a life-changer. I took my Junior Year Abroad in Madrid and now see it was a true luxury to learn its rich language and age-old customs. I studied close-up the heritage of one of the world’s most important cultures – it was an invaluable education and a gift and it greatly influenced how I saw European – and as a result, world – history.
9.)I travel because…
I can. We forget how much of the world has to wait sometimes for months and even years to get a visa that we can get in 24 hours – if we need one at all. Many people cannot get a passport and if they can, cannot afford to leave the country. It is my life’s greatest privilege and I travel as much as I can and as far as I can. I know there is no guarantee that I will still be around when I’m 80 – or next week. Carpe diem.
10.) My favorite travel or business book is…
I always buy 3 or 4 guidebooks about the destination I am visiting to peruse before I leave home. And then bring just one with me. When I return it is interesting to read them again – so many things take on an entirely different meaning or importance having just experienced them in the three dimensional.
11.) How about hotels? What’s your favorite or one you’d recommend?
I have become very fussy about hotels and when I find certain things in modest and small hotels that you usually pay big money for in 5-star hotels I feel like I’ve won the lottery – genuine hospitality, a warm welcome and good service, attention to detail, and welcomed freebies like complimentary coffee and free, strong reliable WiFi. Of course cleanliness is paramount, and a location in the heart of the city – whether large or small – always augments the excitement of being in a new place.
GET THE BOOK: 1000 Places to See Before You Die
Patricia Schultz is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and 1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die. A veteran travel journalist with 30 years of experience, she has written for guides such as Frommer’s and Berlitz and periodicals including The Wall Street Journal and Travel Weekly, where she is a contributing editor. She also executive-produced a Travel Channel television show based on 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Her home base is New York City.
Connect with Patricia on Facebook and Instagram
Lisa Niver and Patricia Schultz Feb 2018 at the Travel and Adventure ShowI loved meeting Patricia Schultz at the Los Angeles Travel and Adventure Show and when she spoke for the JNTO.
Lisa Niver, Patricia Schultz, Richard Bangs and Andy Bender at JNTO event March 2016The post Where To Go Next? Ask Patricia Schultz, 1000 Places to See Before You Die appeared first on We Said Go Travel.
Ziplining Niagara falls, Canada
Cellphone camera. No filters just waiting in line for my turn as folks whizzed over my head. Perfect hot summer day August 2018.
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January 29, 2019
Sailing to Infinity – Bahamas
I took this picture while ferrying between islands in The Bahamas. Using my Google Pixel 1 smartphone’s camera I waited until the far-off sailboat lined up with the blazing sun and snapped away.
After capture I utilized the mobile app Snapseed to adjust details to include cropping, hdr aspect, sharpening and minor saturation adjustments.
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January 28, 2019
Can Bicycles Change The World? Ms Magazine
Thank you to Ms. Magazine for publishing my story, “A Bicycle Built for Many!” about Chipego Bike shop in Nakatindi Village, Zambia on page 17 of the Winter 2019 issue.
Lisa Niver with her print article in Ms. Magazine!
Lisa Niver with her print article in Ms. Magazine!Esther Kawewe had a dream: to go to school, build her family a house, and help her brother support the family. But her father wasn’t working, her mother sold vegetables in a roadside market stall, and there wasn’t enough money for school–so Esther stayed home with her three younger siblings and hoped that things might someday change in Nakatindi Village, Zambia.
When the Chipego Bike shop opened in September 2015, Esther was one of five women selected by her community to train for two months as a bicycle mechanic and business owner. It changed everything.
Bikes destined for the trash heap in the United States are instead sent to Africa, creating transformations in women’s lives through the repairing and sale of bikes and their parts.
Chipego Bike Shop (Chipego means “gift” in the local language) was started by Abercrombie and Kent Philanthropy (AKP), as the first of six bicycle enterprise projects now in existence. The bicycles from the shop not only provide living wages for women in the community, but they allow for students and workers to travel quickly and safely to school and work, and for health-care workers to see more patients, even in outlying areas. Some students travel seven miles to the nearest secondary school; this was a three hour daily round trip by foot, but by bicycle is only twenty minutes each direction.
What is the impact of nearly 9,000 bicycles sent to the different shops? Esther Kawewe says, “Working here has been life-changing, because firstly I am supporting my family. And I have built a big house, and I’ve taken myself to school.”
Not only have 25 full-time jobs for women (plus 18 part-time jobs) been created, but the perception of what is “appropriate” for women to do has evolved. David Mweemba, Senior Safari Guide at Sanctuary Sussi & Chuma notes that, “Seeing these women repairing bicycles at the shop is changing the mindset of men and women in the village.”
Esther adds that in her village, at first “They thought this job was only for men. Now us women, we can do it. I’m proud of being a bike mechanic!”
One of the other bike shop owners is Bridget Mayumbelo, whose schooling ended at seventh grade. But through the bike-shop success, she’s been able to continue sending her five children to school, as well as take in and support 2 orphans. “I am very happy in this project,” she smiles, “I think my family will now be comfortable.”
Sehenyi “Shex” Tlotlego, A&K Philanthropy Coordinator in Botswana, says said that in “Empowering women we know we are not just reaching out to one individual but to several
other people who depend on her for a livelihood. . . . education, health, food on the table, and a roof over their heads.”
Bicycles destined for the dump in the U.S. but rejuvenated in Africa are transforming lives with mobility, wages, schooling, and pride. — Lisa Niver
Learn more at akphilanthropy: “Every bike has the power to change lives.”
Changing Lives, One Bike at a Time video Aug 2018:
Changing Lives One Spoke as a Time:
Video: Changing Lives One Spoke as a Time
Thank you to Abercrombie and Kent USA for your help with my story and my first African safari in Tanzania and Kenya.
My safari adventures in Africa 2018:
Part 1: Where Did I Travel on My First African Safari?
Part 2: Are You Ready? Today We Are Going to the Serengeti!
Part 3: What is the Best Way to Travel from Tanzania to Kenya?
Part 4: How can you see Black Rhino, Maasai Warriors and Hula Hoops?
Part 5: Do You Love The Animals of Africa?
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Endless “Rainbow” Mountains, Peru
This photo was taken using my Canon EOS 7D with a 18-135 mm f/3.5 -5.6 lens.
Minor editing in Photoshop to bring out the colors. No filters.
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