Mike Cullity

NH Sunday News article highlights Granite State's 'expert vagabond'

Yesterday's New Hampshire Sunday News featured my story on Matthew Karsten, a Granite State native who is traveling the world indefinitely while blogging about his adventures.

Karsten was working as a nightclub photographer in Miami when he read a book about long-term world travel. For the next year, he pared down his lifestyle, sold off belongings and banked as much cash as he could in preparation for what began as a yearlong, around-the-world journey.

"I felt like I needed a change of scenery, new excitement, but more than just a two-week vacation," he said. "I really needed to do something drastic."

He embarked for Mexico in November 2010 and spent the next year exploring that country and Central America. Living on about $30 a day, he has traveled mostly by bus and slept in hostels, camped out or bunked with locals.

Karsten supports his travel habit with an online business and modest advertising revenue from his blog, expertvagabond.com. His blogging caught the eye of South African tourism officials, who invited him to chronicle his adventures for two weeks there. He left yesterday and plans to seek input from his blog readers and social media followers about how to spend his days.

After a holiday break in New Hampshire, Karsten plans to resume his wanderings, possibly in South America. "I'll keep traveling as long as I can earn an income or until I get bored with it," he said. "And I don't see that happening anytime soon."

 

Joy on a rainy day away

I recently returned from a fabulous vacation - a 10-day southern Caribbean cruise with my wife and her family. Leaving from Fort Lauderdale aboard the Ruby Princess, we visited Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica, St. Thomas and Princess Cays, the cruise line's private island in the Bahamas.

The tropical weather was great, and our highlights included a fantastic snorkeling expedition in Bonaire and a trek through the rainforest in Dominica. But for me, one of the best days of the trip looked pretty dismal at dawn. 

Arriving in St. Thomas, we were greeted by overcast, misty skies and lukewarm temperatures. Not exactly prime conditions for our planned day at the beach.

We hemmed and hawed but decided to go anyway. Eight of us - five adults and three kids - boarded a trolley-style cab for the 20-minute trek to Magen's Bay. Along the roller-coaster route, we passed a colorful sign for Udder Delight, known for its milkshakes.

I had heard great things about Magen's Bay, and it didn't disappoint. Soft sand, blue-green water, gorgeous scenery, shady trees - the place had it all.

Except sun, that is. Nevertheless, we plunged into the calm surf and frolicked with the kids for a while. The pleasures were simple, and the rain became steadier but didn't dampen our spirits.

Camped at a picnic table beneath a tree, I sipped a Dominican beer and shared in the camaraderie and sense of adventure. After a little more than an hour, we retreated to the shelter of our trolley. Heading back to the ship, we emphathized with Miles, our 3-year-old nephew, who held on for dear life as the cab weaved along the island roads.

"I want to go back to the ship!" he told his mom, my sister-in-law Stephanie.

"We are going back to the ship, Miles," Stephanie replied. 

"But I don't want to go this way. It's scary," the little guy said. 

Soon we were out of the hills and back on flat roads leading to the port. Sitting in front of us, Miles turned and grinned.

"I'm not scared anymore," he boasted.

We all enjoyed a chuckle. It was a fitting end to an unexpectedly memorable day.

Turks and Caicos: A Caribbean treat

My wife and I recently returned from a five-night stay in the Turks and Caicos Islands. If you're looking for a place to relax, unwind and bask in Caribbean warmth, Turks and Caicos is hard to beat.

Our trip started with a bang - literally. With our flight scheduled to depart from our hometown airport at 6:10 a.m., we set two alarms to wake us at 4. When the first one started pealing loudly in the dark, I sprung from bed to silence it but tripped over my luggage, which I had left partially packed on the floor nearby.

A startling crash ensued as the full force of my nearly 200-pound frame descended on a small particle-board table my wife had quaintly outfitted with a tablecloth, framed photos and a lamp. The table's collapse and a light bulb's shatter roused my wife (and probably woke the neighbors), but I fortunately emerged with only a stubbed toe, a sore shoulder and a bruised ego, none of which kept me off our flight to paradise.

After a pleasant layover in Charlotte, we arrived mid-afternoon in Providenciales, the island chain's main tourist destination. There was a bit of chaos as we awaited our resort transfer - we were told the airport's traffic cops "had a meeting" and were thus absolved from directing traffic at the exact time of our arrival. Imagine that happening in New York!

But chaos yielded to tranquility once we disembarked at the Regent Palms in Grace Bay, about a 15-minute ride from the airport. The staff greeted us with a delicious fruit-juice cocktail before a friendly young lady spirited us off to our spacious garden-view room.

Our stay only improved from there. The Regent Palms knows how to do things right. The resort doesn't overpromise and underdeliver on service, as so many resorts do ... the place just delivered. Complimentary bottled water for the length of our stay. Pool and beach "wizards" offering up frozen fruit hors d'oevres and aromatherapy spritzing in the hot sun. Five "sun pods," or circular mattresses, for poolside lolling. I could go on and on ...

We spent our days floating in the infinity pool, walking the immaculate beach and frolicking in the azure sea. At lunch, we hit the swim-up bar for Pina Coladas and tasty but overpriced food (what can I say, it's an island). Even so, I didn't feel completely gouged by the $15 hot dog platter, a decadent treat featuring two foot-long wieners and a nice pile of fries.

In the evening, we enjoyed the resort bar (great martinis!) and hot-tubbing under the stars. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from in Grace Bay; most are within walking distance or a short cab ride from the Regent Palms. Most offer alfresco dining as well. I particularly enjoyed the seafood risotto ($32) at O'Soleil, the restaurant at the Somerset Resort next door, and the grilled lobster tail ($42) at Coco Bistro, where we dined beneath a huge grove of palm trees.

There's not a ton to do in Grace Bay other than relax. We played tennis on the resort's court one afternoon and checked out the shopping another day (a lot of empty storefronts). But the place is perfect for R&R.

The trip wasn't without its warts, of course. There was the obnoxious frat-boy type talking too loud between swigs of beer at the pool bar (don't those guys ever grow up?), and our long wait at the hot, crowded Providenciales airport for our flight home was certainly forgettable.

But all told, it was a marvelous, rejuvenating journey.

   

Patriot games

Made it to my first Pats game at Gillette Stadium last Sunday. Kudos to the Krafts for making the trek to Foxboro into a more pleasant game-day experience. The last time I went to a game, at the old tin can of a stadium, my one enduring memory is being sandwiched into backless metal bleachers among obnoxious drunks. At the Razor, the seats have backs and cup-holders, and you can text security if someone's acting up in your section (a diligent fan in ours must have, since the cops politely escorted a 20-something dude from the premises in the fourth quarter).

The Krafts' new retail mecca, Patriot Place, is also a plus. We enjoyed dining at Skipjack's seafood restaurant after the game while waiting for Foxboro's legendary postgame traffic to clear. But even after the meal, it still took us 45 minutes to crawl from our parking spot to the highway. At least we caught a glimpse of stogie-smoking Fred Smerlas and his WEEI cronies broadcasting the postgame show from their cottage of a remote studio along Route 1.

One disappointment: We had hoped to poke through the Pats Hall of Fame before the game, but it's apparently closed on game days.

Best moment for me came when I decided to focus on Pats receiver Randy Moss on a third-down play. He caught a pass over the middle, shook a few defenders and took it to the end zone for the decisive touchdown in the Pats 27-17 victory over Miami. Love when that happens.  

South Africa: Journey of a lifetime

This month marks the one-year anniversary of one of my greatest travel experiences - a two-week journey to South Africa. With soccer's 2010 World Cup slated to visit this nation of immense beauty and tragic history, I thought I'd share some of my South African highlights.