Jennifer Hart, Founder, WeekendCrossroad
I make a new friend at Singapore’s Haw Par Villas — a place definitely off the beaten track!
Hometown: Washington, D.C., USA
Current Base: Jakarta, Indonesia
Day Job: Writing for and managing this website!
Travel Persona / Style: “Lowbrow Highbrow.” A good friend (and lifelong travel buddy!) and I coined this term several years ago when we realized that we shared a similar — and seemingly rare — approach to travel. With very few exceptions, all travelers have a budget. But what I’ve never understood is why people feel like they need to box themselves into a single travel experience based on their budget. By being selectively low brow (e.g., cooking for yourself, taking public transportation, choosing cheap lodgings for part of your journey) you can enjoy at least one high brow activity that you originally may have considered out of your budget. For example:
- In South Africa, we stayed at a place aptly named “The Backpack” in Cape Town while splurging for a once-in-a-lifetime 3 day private safari in Kruger National Park.
- In India, I began my stay at local homesteads in New Delhi and finished with a bang at the Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur
You get the idea!
Mark Johnson, Contributor, WeekendCrossroad
Catching my breath in Mussoorie – The Queen of Hills – Uttarakhand, India
Hometown: Swindon, United Kingdom
Current Base: Singapore/Abu Dhabi
Day Job: Writer and Consultant
Travel Persona / Style: Budget with Flair
I am a political junkie whose communications work has taken him from London to Brussels to Beijing to Jakarta to Singapore – and the pretense of expertise many places in between.
My work has led me to embark on some weird and wonderful trips full of ‘adventure’. The long and uncomfortable 13-hour bus ride back from Inner Mongolia with a group of international motor sport journalists after the Beijing Nanyuan Airport was closed comes to mind.
Yet, I prefer the unexpected personal travel that is sandwiched between two red-eye flights – the moments you didn’t quite plan that turn out better than any two week holiday six months away.
My top travel tip is simple – keep communicating even if you do not know the local language!
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