Happy birthday to myself, from myself. I wouldn’t mind spending my birthday somewhere warm and exotic.

Like Bora Bora…

Or Rio de Janeiro. But being at home in Sweden is just as good! And now we’re taking the rest of the day off to enjoy the incredible sunny weather!

I am just curious, if you had all the time and money in the world, where would you spend your birthday? What country, city, or place? And what would you do?

Australia & New Zealand © Benjamin Earwicker

In July, PlanetEye Inc. launched a new online travel planning service that lets you research, organise, share and book your trips in an easy and fun way. Featuring professional travel content from a team of in-house writers, leading edge mapping technology and more than 70,000 beautiful photographs, PlanetEye makes online travel planning a lot quicker and better. No more frustrating and time-consuming procedures many people face when planning trips online.

“We want to make travel planning easy. We want to inspire travelers to explore and discover the world, and then help them book their trips - everything from flights, restaurants, hotels and attractions,” said Butch Langlois, PlanetEye’s president and chief executive.

When you find something on PlanetEye that appeals to you, simply file it away to your own so called Travel Pack - visible as a list or a personalised map.

“The Travel Pack is a valuable and useful tool if you’re looking to travel tomorrow, next week or next year,” Langlois said. “As you add items to Travel Pack, it starts to reflect your interests and aspirations.”

When you have created your Travel Pack, you can book flights and hotel stays directly from your Travel Pack through Travelocity - PlanetEye’s new partner.

“Having a dynamic partner such as Travelocity will play an important role in PlanetEye meeting the needs of travelers - whether it’s booking a flight, hotel or rental car,” Langlois said. “We’re really excited to have Travelocity on board.”

You can also make restaurant reservations (OpenTable), book tickets to events (StubHub), and set up spa appointments (SpaWay). Once you’ve returned from your trip, you can upload photographs, rate your travel experiences, share your tips with friends and family, and put a personal map on your website or blog.

Tonight, 28 July, 8 pm ET, the first episode of Passport to China with Samantha Brown airs on Travel Channel. In this week’s episodes, Samantha will focus on the history, culture and cuisine in Beijing, Sichuan and Xian. First out is Beijing:

“After tasting Peking Duck Tongue at the famous Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, Samantha is ready to hike one of the world’s seven wonders: The Great Wall at Badaling. After fighting the crowds, she discovers the secret of hiking the wall alone.”

In tomorrow’s episode, Samantha actually gets to hold a giant panda when visiting Sichuan.

For a complete schedule, see China Week.

10 Top Tips for Travel Photographers

In this video, What Digital Camera shares terrific tips for photographers who want to improve their travel shots.

Writers and bloggers have numerous travel websites to choose between if they’d like to share their articles and photographies online. One of them, Expatrialogues.com, features stories and images by people who have been or are away from their home countries.

Have you ever been an expatriate? Lived, worked, teached, or volunteered abroad? If so, Expatrialogues wants to hear about your experiences.

For more information on how to submit material, visit http://www.expatrialogues.com/about/. 

Rome nightscene © Wojtek Kutyla

A great way to experience another culture and save expenses when travelling is to stay with locals rather than opting for an expensive hotel room. If you don’t already know people at your destination, check out these websites:

Couch Surfing: “CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.”

Global freeloaders: “GlobalFreeloaders.com is an online community, bringing people together to offer you free accommodation all over the world. Save money and make new friends whilst seeing the world from a local’s perspective!”

The Hospitality Club: “Do you love meeting people from other cultures? Do you love traveling? Do you love helping other people? Then this is the place for you to be!”

Free-Stay.com: “Why pay for a holiday hotel when you can stay for free in someone else’s home? Links to a great choice of holiday swaps worldwide.”

Travelroomers: ”This site offers you the chance to travel the world for a simple trade, become a part of the travelroomers community and it will will revolutionize the world of travel forever.”

Servas: “Open your doors to Servas International, a network of peace. Doors you will never close. Friends you will never forget.”

Don’t we all want the kind of life where all the cards just fall into place? When we are the absolute best version of ourselves and have everything we could possible dream of. Of course we do. The problem is that some of us either don’t dare to dream, or don’t pursue our dreams. I’m sure you had all kinds of dreams as a kid. If you were lucky your parents probably said you could be anything you wanted. If not, you might have been told limited beliefs such as “dream too high and you’re doomed to fail”, “you will never make it”, “that’s not realistic”, or “it’s too late now.”

I believe the most important thing is to give something your best shot. If you don’t make it, either it wasn’t intended to be, or you still have more to give. Don’t listen to other people’s opinions of what you should, or shouldn’t do. Do what feels right in your heart.

What is it then that set apart the people who succeed from those who spend their whole lives wishing and hoping without taking any steps to realise their dreams? I’d say faith, perseverance, motivation, confidence. That’s a good start. Although remember, we all define success in different ways. Someone’s success can be another person’s worst nightmare.

Whatever success means to you, pick up a copy of Winning the Game of Life by Kevin Abdulrahman, an international author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker, who set out to learn what made successful people successful.

Well put together and inspiring, THE BOOK^TM ON WINNING THE GAME OF LIFE is filled with great exercises and quotes that will motivate you to start living the life of your dreams. Kevin talks about the importance of visualisation and self-education, writing down your goals, your ‘inner talk’, and why a victim mentality or a negative attitude won’t work.

“From Flipping Burgers at 20, to being RETIRED at 25. In my journey to become a success, I learned a lot of lessons. These lessons are from everything, and everyone I have ever had contact with. I learned these lessons by seeing them in action and, on many occasions, wondering whether I could do the same. Everything I learned I put into practice. Every mistake I made only brought the desire to try again until I succeeded. Today, just a few short years on, my life is very different… All because I made it my mission to have the life I want. To live life on my own terms. To do what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. I wanted to be able to spend my time with people I cared about the most. It was a huge challenge, but one worth striving for.”

- Kevin Abdulrahman

I like that Winning the Game of Life is written in such an easy, down-to-earth way. No pretentious phrases or difficult words that will require a dictionary. Kevin writes as he talks and his message is for everyone, whether you’re still in school, working, or retired 10 years ago. I can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t benefit from this book.

As for dreams, I still remember exactly the ones I had as a kid - whether my ‘ambition’ lasted five hours, five days, five weeks or five years. I won’t tell you all of them, but some of the jobs I wanted to have were aid worker, U.N. ambassador, foreign correspondent, café owner, cook, TV reporter, actress, dancer, fashion designer, ski instructor, diving instructor, lifeguard, film director and, of course, travel writer. In the future I’d like to add author and screenwriter to my resume.

What is your dream job? If you could work with anything, what would it be? And If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

What can you do to make that dream reality?

P.S For more information about Kevin Abdulrahman and THE BOOK^TM, visit http://www.thisisthebook.com/

As far as equipment goes, people have their own preferences but there are a few things that all photographers most likely will appreciate.

Books or Magazine Subscriptions:

If your friend is a fan of Photoshop, you can’t go wrong with a subscription to the magazine of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop professionals). Otherwise, Nature Photographer, Outdoor Photographer or digital photo books about a particular artist might be a good idea.

Cases and Bags:

As a photographer you need at least one bag, preferably two. Try Crumpler, Lowepro, Kata, Think Tank or Boda, where you can find special lens bags. Perfect for photographers who change lenses often and need easy access.

A good DSLR camera bag costs from $75, a point-and-shoot bag between $15-100.

Shoulder/neck strap:

A comfortable shoulder/neck strap is particularly important if you are out for a longer time period and have a larger camera.

Tripod:

One great tripod for tavel is Joby’s Gorilla Pod. Larger cameras need a better and more expensive travel tripod.

Printer:

The price range for printers vary a lot, depending on what quality you’d like. If your friend already has a printer, why not buy more ink? That’s always in demand.

Software:

The most popular editing softwares are Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

Lenses:

If the photographer already owns a DSLR (a digital SLR), lenses are a great buy. A mid-range lens, around 28-135mm, is a good start. Most people use 50mm. Otherwise, consider purchasing a telescope lens, or a wide-angle lens which is great for travel photography.

The maximum length depends on what type of photographing your friend does. For example, sports- and wildlife photographers want a longer lens than someone who only does portraits.

For a fun option, try Lensbaby. They bring one area of your photo into sharp focus, and surround the spot by gradually increasing blur. By bending your lens you can move the Sweet Spot to any part of your photo. Very convenient.

Flash:

What external flashes to use depends on the camera. Make sure to ask someone at the store, so you choose the right one. If your friend already has an external flash you might want to buy a flash bracket, which gives a nice angle of light by moving the flash up and away from the camera body. Another good flash accessory is the diffuser, which softens harsh flash light. Try Garo Fong’s Light Sphere for $50. A Pop-Up Flash diffuser can be found at PUFFER - Pop-Up Flash Diffuser.

Batteries:

Extra batteries are always useful. Just remember to buy the right kind.

Memory cards:

Memory cards will always be appreciated, even if you don’t buy the latest item. If you do want the best on the market, check out Eye-Fi, a 2 Gig WiFi card that acts as a memory chip and uploads images directly to your computer without the need of any cords or cables. You can get it for $99.99 at http://eye.fi/ This card can also upload images (JPEG only) to various photo sites.

Blank CDs and DVDs:

Apparently all normal CDs and DVDs have a life expectancy of about 10 years. To stay on the safe side, opt for Verbatim or Delkin that specialises in CDs and DVDs that last much longer.

Image storage:

Some travel photographers like to use small, portable hard drives. Hyper Drive is one of the better since it runs solely on battery power. It’s not cheap though, expect to pay $279-$459 at Hyperdrive.com

Apart from these suggestions, you can always DIY and frame a photo or do a nice collage with different pictures. All photographers appreciate beautiful images.