Go-To Travel Guide!

Tis the season for many people to travel either off to a warm paradise for vacation or to some snowy region to visit uncles, grandparents, cousins and other loved ones for the holiday season. 

What better time than now to explain the fascinating little facts of traveling as a pro tennis player (a little bit of sarcasm there), packing and braving the airports?

After reading this you should have no problem preparing to travel with a tennis bag in case the occasion should ever arise for you (more sarcasm-let’s be honest, what percentage of people travel with tennis bags?). 

Many players vary the details in their own ways here—this is my own personal prep-system.  For example, many players check their tennis bags in whereas I bring mine as a carry-on.   My reasoning is as follows: have you ever seen how those guys below the planes toss the checked bags around??  Racquets cost almost $200 a pop if you are not sponsored, and so I keep my equipment as close to my person as possible.   I also think the tension of the string changes with the lack of pressure where the checked luggage compartment lies.  I am not a fan of re-stringing my racquets at every venue.

One friend of mine asked me when she had just finished college and was about to play on the tour, “What should I bring when I go to Mexico?” 

What follows is an extended version of the list that I gave her.  It applies to Mexico, the USA, Australia, Japan, and any other country to which a person could travel.  Consider it my go-to guide for international travel and competing in pro tennis tournaments.  Who knows, there might be some tips in there that apply to the traveling you will be doing in the near future.  

1.      String, preferably a reel.  String is FAR more expensive individually wrapped, and there is no way to predict what kind of string is sold/not sold at any given venue.  In fact, they might not sell string at all where you play which means you then have to either order and pay for shipping the string to that far-off land, or find a way to get to a sports store.  This is more difficult than it sounds.

Let’s say it’s Sunday, you have just popped your last string and you play the next day at 11AM.  Most places will be closed until Monday, and they will open around 10AM, 9AM at the earliest.  If you can even manage to get transportation to the sports store and to the tournament site that early in the morning off the regular tournament transportation route, you will be lucky to make it back in time to warm up for your match.  You can always take a taxi, but that costs money.  It is just cheaper and easier to bring a reel of the string that you like.  

If you will be gone for a long period of time competing, also bring a new pair of tennis and running shoes.  This will save you from the hassle of finding new ones on the road, or ordering them and having them sent to your location—which can be difficult if your location changes every week.

2.       Laundry soap.  Just having some powder soap in a Ziploc bag can be a life-saver.  Shampoo works too (thank you Mom for that tip)—but shampoo typically only really works with very warm/hot water. 

3.      Clothesline.  I have been stuck doing laundry by hand in some tiny hotel rooms and a clothesline can be very useful when you go to hang out your wet clothes with minimal space available.  It takes up next to zero space in a bag.

4.      Lotion!  If you like a particular brand, do NOT assume that every country/store in the world carries it, because they do not. 

This applies if you have a favorite type of face wash, shampoo, sunscreen, deodorant or whatever type of toiletry if there is only one brand or type that works for you.

Random fact:  Australia does not sell sunscreen over SPF 30.  People defend this and say that you cannot get higher protection than 30 but my experience suggests otherwise.  My SPF 70 doesn’t let me get a tan, and I get dark brown with SPF 30. . .you do the math.

5.      Snacks.  For the airplane, for late night snacks after a long day competing.  I like flavored roasted almonds, peanut M&M’s (because peanuts make them healthy), Snickers (again with the peanut equals healthy idea), Trail Mix, and Sweet & Salty almond and peanut granola bars.

Travel is unpredictable, so why go hungry when the schedule gets changed around?  You know it’s bound to happen—so bring a snack and be a happier traveler.

6.      A hat, sleeping mask, or jacket with a hood that can cover your eyes on the plane.  Planes dry you out with all of the air blowing at you all the time-if you don’t want red eyes at the end of the flight cover them up somehow when you sleep. 

7.      A change of clothes for every kind of weather—within reason.  Not a big puffy parka—I’m talking about bringing sweatpants and a jacket to Hawaii in case the weather turns cold (because you know it will freeze the year that YOU decide to go), at least one pair of long pants to Florida, and shorts to Midland, Michigan (they play indoors there and it gets warm in there with the heaters!!). 

8.      Cash.  You will always need this at some point, whether it’s for laundry or a bottle of water at a store on the side of the road.  Not a whole lot, but at least $20.00.

9.      Passport.  Big one here—your best international form of identity.  You need it everywhere-at the hotel, at the airport, the train station, the rental car counter.

10.  Stretching rope and thera-tube.  There is no guarantee there will be a good gym where you go and an arm-band (stretchy, like a thera-tube) can help prevent injuries and keep you strong.  It’s like a portable gym for your arms.  The more you can do with less weight when you’re traveling, the better. 

11.                     PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING!!! 

Let’s say I am on an airplane and we are getting in our seats and stowing our carry-on bags when the captain comes on the intercom to say there is a bit of a maintenance problem with the plane and we will have to wait a little bit to take off.  We wait thirty minutes for the notification that the plane is not fit to fly and we will all have to de-plane.  What do I say in this situation?

 “Thank you flight crew for doing your job and picking out a potentially life-threatening maintenance problem with the plane that was just about to carry myself and 200 other passengers 3 miles into the air at speeds up to 600 miles/hour.  I will wait as long as it takes to have a safe plane. I will be happy to move my things, de-plane, take another flying bird, and live to fight another day.”

What do I hear other people saying to their loved ones on cell phones?

“This is ridiculous.  I can’t believe this.  They had us on the plane for 30 minutes and now we have to de-plane and they are going to try to find us another plane. . .unbelievable.”

Would they prefer that the flight crew to ignore the potentially disastrous problem and put us in the air?   What’s better, making it home on time or making it home ALIVE?!  I’ll leave you to make that judgment. 

Another realization that might come as a shock to some of you out there is that the agents at the desks in the airport are NOT the Gods and Goddesses of travel.  They make mistakes, they do NOT know all and many of the passengers coming through have done more traveling and been on more planes than the people working the desks in the airport.  As a result, one must practice patience and treat them with respect given their limited margin of travel knowledge.

            Exhibit A:  I have my tennis bag (which is not the normal rectangular size of other carry-on bags) that I have traveled with as a carry-on for 14+ years on planes everywhere.  The size of it has varied over the years, but not drastically, and the size of my bag nowadays is actually quite a downscale compared to previous years. 

One morning this past November 2010 flying from Phoenix to Dallas/Ft. Worth an agent gave me a hard time over the shape of my bag.  She said that I couldn’t bring it unless I could fit it in the carry-on bag size display.  I thought, if the total volume is the same, why does the shape matter?  They can’t expect me to fit sports gear in a rectangular shaped bag. 

The supervisor had to come out, shove my bag in the display to show that it fit—I knew that the bag would fit, but they didn’t.  Why would they?  They don’t travel everywhere with a tennis bag.  The situation could have turned ugly, but I don’t expect her to know the things about traveling that I have learned from years and years of experience.  If she had that experience, she would know that my tennis bag ALWAYS fits. 

I will leave you with one last tip for the holiday season and the New Year (2011, wow!!).

Remember to put all your liquids (aka sunscreen) from your tennis bag into your checked bag before you try to carry on your tennis bag.  Sunscreen is expensive (try $11.00 a bottle)—if you don’ want to buy new sunscreen in every city it’s worth the trouble. 

Regular sunscreen sizes are almost always over the 3oz liquid allowance.  Even if it’s almost empty and the amount of liquid is below 3 oz what matters is the size of the container.    

Safe (and prepared, hopefully) traveling!!!   

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Sight-seeing!

In my opinion, tennis tournament sight-seeing falls easily into three distinct categories that range from best (#1) to awesome (#2) to not so great but still worthwhile (#3). 

#1. Sight-seeing enabled by locals

#2. Sight-seeing experienced with fellow player/friend

#3. Sight-seeing alone with nothing but a camera phone. 

#1.  Australia was one of my most memorable sight-seeing trips because of the local Aussie players and families who took the time to show me around.  I saw the opera house, kangaroos, Melbourne discos, sports/tennis clubs and so much more authentic cuisine and incredible beaches. 

#2.   I had the privilege of sharing Athens and the Acropolis, downtown Prague, and downtown Stuttgart with some great players/people.  Usually sight-seeing is the consolation for losing early in the tournament because you don’t have to stay off your feet or rest anymore for your matches—once you lose you’re free to walk around, get tired and enjoy the incredible places you get to visit-unfortunately. 

#3.  Last in the line of desirable sight-seeing episodes are the adventures without a local guide or a friend and I went alone with, yes, sadly, nothing but my camera phone.  I saw Rome from a tour bus in one day, raced through the Sistine Chapel (how much can you look up and muse with nobody to talk to, even though you’re not supposed to talk??), and had a great time taking pictures of myself in Venice and the Piazza San Marco. 

Option #3 is definitely the “quick and dirty” version of sight-seeing and usually involves a lot of crowd-dodging, fast walking and awkward posing moments where you are obviously taking a picture of yourself with your own phone as people walk by and try not to laugh.

A friend once asked me, “Isn’t it great that you get to see all of this great architecture when you travel to these places?”  I felt guilty because I never really had the time to learn about the places I visited and enjoy the sight-seeing and historical side of places.  My biggest concerns were: 1) where can I do laundry, 3) how expensive is food,  4)is there internet? and 5) where is the nearest grocery store?

After playing for four years, when I decided to coach for a year (Fall of 2008-Spring 2009) and stop playing on the tour I had great motivation to sight-see the right way.  No more “quick and dirty” sight-seeing adventures for me!  I was going to savor a trip for once even if it meant walking until I dropped and taking a million and one pictures. 

I decided on a month in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Jamaica, with two weeks spent in each place over the winter holiday.  Woohoo!  Here I go. . .

In Argentina the Spanish is different from that in Spain and Mexico.   I had been out of Spain/Mexico/Spanish speaking country for more than three months and was itching for some Spanish exposure because of how much it helped me with my mastery of the language.  There’s nothing like trying to listen and reciprocate for learning a language, even if you have all the grammatical and vocabulary bases covered.

Argentina has quietly captivated me for years also because it has my favorite dessert (Dulce de Leche), and my favorite bikini cut for swimsuits—not as full cut as in America, and not as bare as Brazil.

Jamaica is simply a place I had always wanted to visit.  I mean, who doesn’t want to visit Jamaica at some point in their life?? 

The culmination to my explanation of my month-long trek is a little story that I want to share.  This story won’t make you roll with laughter (or maybe it will. . .?) but it will give you a chuckle and, more importantly, I hope it will help you share my sentiment that the little things from different cultures and places are story-worthy material.

And here the story begins. . .

My sight-seeing experience in the Buenos Aires, Argentina leg of the journey brought me to a little movie theater tucked away in a busy shopping area between the San Telmo and more Manhattan style parts of Buenos Aires; the Galerias Pacifico on Avenida Florida (Florida Avenue). 

After walking around for hours exploring the city I figured seeing a movie might be a nice change of pace.  Hey, I had no tournament schedule to adhere to, I could do whatever I wanted!   I bought my ticket that was half the price of any movie ticket in the USA and sat down to watch the movie.

I won’t tell you the name of the movie I saw in case you haven’t seen it, but the basic premise is that the world is ending -- in English, with Spanish subtitles.  

The characters in the movie are in Yellowstone National Park, a Dad and his daughter just found an RV with a map in it pointing to the ship that is supposed to carry the survivors like Noah’s Ark through the world’s new water age after the rest of the world implodes and water covers the crust.

A mother, a step-dad and a son are in a plane waiting for the Dad and the daughter to bring the map-- but Yellowstone Park is on the brink of eruption (literally, starts exploding from the ground)!

The father obtains the RV with the map but they still have to make it back to the runway with the plane.

Balls of fire start are flying all over the place as the Dad rushes the RV to the runway where the other characters wait for him--however, the runway for their airplane is falling apart into a new abyss opening up into the earth and the step-dad does not think they can wait any longer to take off or they will all die regardless of whether they have the map.

More balls of fire start flying around and the step-dad makes the decision to start the plane.  But the mother looks back and screams that she sees the Dad in the RV so they stop while the asphalt in the runway continues to crumble around them. 

The daughter gets out of the RV and makes it to the stopped plane. . .but wait!  The Dad has to find the map in the RV-he finds it!  But as he finds it the runway implodes under him and half of the RV is now hanging over a newly formed chasm in the ground, with the Dad clutching onto the side. 

He manages to crawl to the top, but the people in the plane cannot see him—all they see is the RV that topples over into the chasm in the earth.. . .is that a hand?!  Yes!  It’s him!  He made it out of the RV before it fell, and he is still holding the map! 

It might be too late though, the plane has to take off because the ground is giving way.  The step-dad steps on the gas while the Dad starts running for the plane.  He sprints and jumps into the side of the plane like Bruce Willis in Die Hard!  Their tiny jet speeds down the runway as the ground gives way beneath them.  The wheels leave the ground as the earth turns to fire and dust around them and a cloud of smoke envelopes them. . . .

Blank screen. . .what?    

OK, no problem.  I can handle a little break.  I hear the same movie playing next door and wonder how long this intermission is going to last. . .like I said, the movie cost less than half of what it would have cost in the USA, so I can handle a little wait.

Maybe they do things differently in the movie theaters here (obviously), the five other people in the theater around me don’t seem bothered.  I wait, wait, go to the bathroom, come back, wait. . . .and wait.  The air conditioning is quite cool in here and I’m only wearing shorts and a tank top because it’s warm outside (Southern hemisphere in December is spring/summer).  30 minutes later. . .

I hear triumphant music next door as the movie ends and the credits start to roll. 

They start the movie up again in our theater. . .the little plane is enveloped in smoke while trying to gain altitude, everybody is scared and screaming and the pilot is yelling, ‘Aaaaah,’ with his hand on the stick trying to pull them into the sky. 

They might as well be on the ground singing, “Do, Re, Mi” because my momentum for the movie vanished just like the earth’s crust in the scenes.  Watching the rest of the movie was not an enthralling experience.

Apparently the movie theater only had one reel of the movie and they played it in halves between two different movie theaters at the same time.  Well—at the same time plus a thirty minute intermission!

It’s a good thing their popular ice cream place Freddo’s was close by with some Dulce de Leche ice cream- I had filled up on that earlier so the afternoon as a whole could never be called a waste.

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