South America and South Africa

Today I booked my flights. Due to hesitating a couple of days we had to move the departure date by one day. It’s now August 3, 2011, still in time for the tri-expo on Friday, August 5. Maybe it’s also beneficial for the NYC tri on Sunday when I’m still on European time, i.e. six hours ahead so that it doesn’t feel like 2 o’clock in the morning when I have to get up at 4 sharp (I’m certainly not an early bird).

Andi from the travel agency is a star, it’s always great talking to him. When he chats about places in Namibia, the natives who live there, the landscape I really want to go there immediately. Since I couldn’t remember everything he said we agreed that the next time I visit him I bring my travel books to get some more advice about my route, which is still work in progress (“advice” in the best possible way). This guy loves traveling and speaks very wisely about the culture, the nature, everything.

While I was there we were also briefly discussing the outlook for travel agencies and whether the internet will eat up their markets. I told him that this is the first time that I use the service of an agency, mainly as I couldn’t figure out how to compare prices between Round-The-World-tickets and the prices of individually booked tickets (for those who are interested: it would have been more costly with the rtw-ticket-option and also would have included one v-e-r-y l-o-n-g f-l-i-g-h-t). I also told him that the service he provides is superior, really provides added-value for my needs and that I absolutely enjoy talking to him about all these great places. I reckon this is how travel agencies can succeed despite the low-cost competition. Might be a niche-market though and only the fittest survive.

What else? I added some items to the to-do-list, I removed some items from the to-do-list but as a matter of fact it is still growing.