A Briggs Passport & Visa Expeditors

By Peter Wilson

Hiking can be a great outdoor vacation or adventure, and usually it is not dangerous. But, you are outside and often find yourself far from civilization, and you could get injured or even worse. With that in mind, it is very beneficial to heed some basic safety tips to keep your hiking adventure a pleasant experience.

First, do not travel alone. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. If you are strolling along a well-traveled area, you are probably safe. But, hiking through a thick forested area with canyons and winding trails is a different story. You could easily get lost.

Traveling with someone can help in many ways, especially if your partner has some experience with hiking. You can help each other up steep grades or apply first-aid if needed, though hopefully not. Also, if one hiker is injured, the other can travel back to the trail head to seek help.

Secondly, it is important to know where you are going. You may want to give someone your tentative course before you leave in the event you do get lost. Stay on well-traveled or clearly marked trails, that is unless you are experienced enough to go off the main trails.

No, the marked trails may not be as interesting but getting lost is even less fun. A map, GPS or compass is a necessity for any serious hiking trip. Since not all GPS units function in all areas, get details on your travel destination and determine if your GPS unit will help you in that location.

Third, do not go overboard on the gear you bring but be sure to take some basic gear. Bring either matches or a lighter, but keep in mind that lighters can run out of fuel and matches can get wet. Take your pick! A knife can also be a lifesaver, in the literal sense, especially those with useful gadgets.

A simple first aid kit can also be a lifesaver. Include bandages and gauze, anti-bacterial cream and other standard items. Sunburn and anti-itch reliever and aspirin may also prove to be appreciated items during the hike.

It is, of course, important to have some knowledge of first-aid also. For example, aspirin can at times be harmful. Or, if you do not know the difference between arterial and venous bleeding, bandages and gauze will do you no good.

A flashlight is a necessity, and toilet paper is just a good idea!

Fourth, take some basic provisions to keep you hydrated and your energy level high. Fluids, both water and sport drinks, are obviously essential. A heat stroke can kill someone, but it is preventable. Water weighs about eight pounds per gallon so take what you need, but not less. Be sure to bring enough food for the entire hike. Depending on what you ring, about one pound daily is average for a male of medium build.

Finally, use common sense. Enjoy your hiking holiday and the beautiful surroundings. But, do not get carried away and tempt Mother Nature!

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Planning a hiking adventure overseas? You might need a visa. Click here to find out visa requirements for various countries.

About The Author:

Focusing recent findings in Torrevieja, Peter Wilson writes most often for Alicante Spain.

Air France’s labor problems have abated but be careful because we think they will likely come back again, but not for some months. We’ll keep you posted.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Welcome to Skybus, the new low-fare airline operating out of Columbus, Ohio. It sells $10 seats to at least ten passengers on every flight. It’s a no-frills airline that is modelled after Ryanair, a no-frills airline operating in Europe.

Skybus offers very low ticket prices with everything at a la carte prices. It has no assigned seating. If you want to board early, you pay $10 extra. Soft drinks are $2.

Skybus flies from its Columbus, Ohio center to Burbank, San Diego, Kansas City, Oakland, Bellingham, WA, Richmond, Greensboro, St. Augustine, FL, Ft. Lauderdale, Chicopee, MA, and Portsmouth, NH. It saves money by not allowing connections, not using jet bridges, and flying to smaler airports outside metropolitan areas where airport fees are minimal.

Columbus is not a large market, but it is 118 miles from Cincinnati that has the highest airfares in the country.

Skybus expects to get around intense competition because of the so-called “Southwest Effect,” which states that in each market Southwest Airlines enters, it creates new customers, rather than steal from the current customers. What little passenger defection there is comes from the legacy airlines but it usually creates an increase in passengers. It’s interesting that Skybus flies into several Southwest markets, including Columbus, and Southwest could start seeing their own “effect” being used against it.

Skybus prices are so low that any increase in costs will move it into the red. Skybus’ aircraft are brand new and under warranty, so they should operate with maximum efficiency. Flight attendants are paid $9 an hour at 75 flight hours per month which comes out to $8,100 annually before taxes). In addition they receive a 10% commission on everything they sell during the flight. This 10% commission is split amoung the four flight attendants which translates to a 2.5% commission for each flight attendant. If the plane is full on an average flight and assuming each passenger buys one coke at $2, each flight attendant would see an extra $7.80, or under $14,000 per year gross income. That’s hard to do for a job that requires 75 hours a month. Almost all of the attendants will have to have a second job.

Let’s watch and see what happens.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

The Canadian Travel Bureau of the Canadian Government is acknowledging that it is having problems issuing passports in a timely manner mostly because of the U.S. requirement to have a passport for air travel into and out of the U.S. It effects Canadians the same way it does U.S. citizens.

A Briggs is not able to obtain expedited passports from Canada.

Here is the article from the Canadian Government:

OTTAWA — Passport Canada is reporting continued long delays in processing mailed-in passport applications, despite a streamlined renewal process and hundreds of new employees.
And there is concern those delays will only get longer as the busy winter travel season approaches.
Officials blame a glut of new applicants for the delays, as demand for the documents continues to grow dramatically.
It now takes a minimum of six weeks to get a passport through the mail; two weeks longer than the agency’s benchmark of four weeks.

And that doesn’t include the time it takes to get applications and documents through Canada Post.

Passport Canada spokesman Fabien Lengelle says many more people have applied for passports in the past six months than applied within the same period last year.

“The reason we have delays is that we have a very, very high demand,” Lengelle said.
In October 2006, Passport Canada was issuing about 13,000 passports a day.

By late last spring that number had reached 21,000.

Since the start of April,. the beginning of the fiscal year, the agency has issued 2.2 million passports, a 42-per-cent increase from the same period in 2006-2007 when just 1.5 million were issued.

In June, then-foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay announced measures to speed up the processing of passport applications, including a simplified renewal process.
At the time, there was a backlog of roughly 170,000 applications.

Since then, Passport Canada has hired nearly 700 new employees, raising the number of passport officers and clerks to the equivalent of more than 2,600 full-time personnel.
Agency officials won’t divulge gthe size of the current backlog, arguing that the number fluctuates from day-to-day.

“(Backlog) is not a very accurate measure,” said Lengelle.

“Demand is the true driver here.”

The new renewal process, which came into effect Aug. 15, allows Canadians to renew their passports without getting guarantors, as long as their current passport is less than a year from expiry and has never been lost or stolen.

Traditionally, the busiest time of year for Passport Canada is the period from Nov. 1 through the end of March.

The agency is preparing for a further upswing in demand, but acknowledges delays could lengthen despite its best efforts.

“It all depends on demand,” said Lengelle.

“If demand goes above capacity, then we will have (further) delays,” he added.

“Passport Canada is doing everything it can to raise its capacity to a level where we will be able to meet demand over the coming months.”

The agency has been able to maintain a two-week timetable for processing applications delivered in person at passport offices.

As well, Canadians who can apply in person, are willing to pay more and who can prove they will be travelling sooner, can get a passport within 24 hours on an urgent basis, or through Passport Canada’s ‘express’ service.

But that doesn’t help the thousands of Canadians who have no choice but to use the mail system to obtain travel documents.

Demand for passports has increased dramatically since the United States imposed rules requiring them for air travellers. Similar rules are expected to be in place as early as next summer for land travel across the U.S. border.

In the United States, demand also peaked earlier this year from Americans seeking passports, causing significant disruptions to some people’s summer travel plans.

But the State Department announced last month it had worked through a massive backlog of passport applications and that its processing times were back to normal after months of major delays.

However, the normal waiting period for a standard passport application in the U.S. is six to eight weeks - three weeks for expedited service. U.S. officials deal with 17 million passport applications annually.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Air France is on strike and many flights are delayed or cancelled. Although officials said 90% of flights would be flying tomorrow, remember that this is a French union that is notorious for its desire to cause the public serious inconvenice to get across their message, irrespective of who is hurt by its actions.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Well, the plan was to make the visa granting process to visit Russia quicker and easier. Alas, the opposite is happening, as is so often the case with government rules and regulations. “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ man/ Gang aft a-gley.”

Here is an article by the authoritative Moscow Times telling why it is taking so long to get a russia visa in Europe.

A Briggs can still obtain a quick expedited Russia visa in one day in the U.S.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

So you are traveling to a destination for a one week or two week vacation and have two bags. What to do? What if it is lost? Do I want to worry about it?

Well, why not ship it UPS overnight. It’s not cheap but you can bet that it gets there and will be waiting you when you arrive. And you don’t have to carry it to the car or taxi, to the airport, through check in, through security, pick it up upon arrival, take it to the car/taxi and finally to the hotel.

If you ship it UPS (our favorite carrier for friendly service and reliability and price, unlike FedEx), they come to your door and carry it to the truck. You put your basics in a back pack and your on your way. You arrive at the hotel and your luggage is waiting.

And what the heck, since I’m doing that, I’ll carry a few more things that I might want to wear but wouldn’t carry if I had to carry it all.

Want to know more? You can look into luggageforward.com who’ll do it all for you.

A

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

So you are traveling to a destination for a one week or two week vacation and have two bags. What to do? What if it is lost? Do I want to worry about it?

Well, why not ship it UPS overnight. It’s not cheap but you can bet that it gets there and will be waiting you when you arrive. And you don’t have to carry it to the car or taxi, to the airport, through check in, through security, pick it up upon arrival, take it to the car/taxi and finally to the hotel.

If you ship it UPS (our favorite carrier for friendly service and reliability and price, unlike FedEx), they come to your door and carry it to the truck. You put your basics in a back pack and your on your way. You arrive at the hotel and your luggage is waiting.

And what the heck, since I’m doing that, I’ll carry a few more things that I might want to wear but wouldn’t carry if I had to carry it all.

Want to know more? You can look into luggageforward.com who’ll do it all for you.

A

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

BBC asked an experienced traveler to give a report on the first commercial flight of the Air Bus 380.

If you travel internationally, you will enjoy this report. There is not much more to say except that is the same as other flights except on a bigger plane with more room for each passenger. Another step in the flow of our modern era.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Virtually all airlines are waiving change fees if you want to change a reservation into or out of Southern California because of the vast expanse of wildfires in the area between Malibu and San Diego.

Check with your airlines for details on your flight.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.