how to be a world traveller

now that i've made the trip across the Pacific ocean a total of 5 times, i'm beginning to consider myself experienced in the art of Long-Range Inter-Continental Travel. Flying 2 hours from denver to LA, then 14 from LA to sydney, then 1 more hour to melbourne can take its toll on someone.

when I get to the gate and the people start to file in, we all cautiously look around at each other. these people are going to be my roommates for the next 16 hours or so. no one looks happy, but we all just know if we can get through it, then we have the customs & immigration post-flight grilling to look forward to!

There are a few simple things you can do to ensure your travel is easier:

• make sure you have one of those curvy travel pillows. it sucks to wake up with neck pain halfway through a long flight
• an ipod/laptop/portable media player with extra batteries or charger. you really can't count on the in-fight entertainment, because they always pretty much just show the newest sandra bullock and/or jennifer aniston movies, and even then they're the edited for television versions. except the new Qantas A380 planes which have the built-in seat entertainment system. those are sick.
• a book or magazine to read during take off and landing (or get really good at hiding your ipod's headphones)
• some Advil PM. drop three of these a couple hours into the flight, and you'll sleep like a baby for about 4 hours.
• vaseline. this one is the pro-tip. since the airplanes have almost no humidity and the heat on for the whole flight, the inside of your nose will get so dry it's likely to crack and let in all kinds of bacteria. swab a little vaseline up in there (preferably in the bathroom so people don't stare) and you'll be much more comfortable.
• some pepto-bismal. the turbulence will wreak havoc on your insides. a little pepto helps to smooth things out.

there's a lot more i could say, but these things I've found to be essential.