2013 Travel Tips for the Social Activist

The red-breasted robins are singing in the backyard, the fruit trees are beginning to blossom, and I can actually sit in my yard with my cup of coffee, wearing only a T-shirt and not be freezing to death. These seasonal changes can only mean one thing… Spring’s welcomed arrival has graced us again, which also mean it’s time to start planning our social activist travels for 2013.

Is the daily work grind or the continual schoolwork bringing you down? Is your wanderlust inner voice telling you you’re ready for a travel vacation? Yet this year you want a different travel objective, not the typical vacation, designed around personal pleasure and leisure. This year you also feel a desire to get involved with some worthy cause, to challenge the power elite status quo and make the world a better place to live.

Well, if travel and social activism are your interests, I have the 2013 travel tip solutions that will please both your traveling and social activist desires.

The world’s most influential bankers, industrialists, and politicians enjoy arranging their conferences in beautiful, luxurious surroundings, far from the global commoners they so clearly abhor. This arrangement allows them unobstructed time in which to plot more world domination schemes, while sipping brandy and smoking cigars. Here is your opportunity to take advantage of their grandiose itinerary, while also being a pain in their side…what fun!

1. My first recommended travel destination is calling on London, the site of this year’s Bilderberg conference. In 2012, a worthy turnout of informed, compassionate people picketed outside the Bilderberg meeting held in Chantilly, Virginia, a Washington D.C. suburb.

Earlier this year a feigned attempt at misdirection was conducted that inferred the Bilderberg 2013 meeting would be held at the same location, suggesting the power elite were not ruffled by last year’s dissenting public protest. However, the true location has recently been unearthed and the British Isles has become this year’s privileged class destination.

2013’s Bilderberg Meeting will be held at the Grove Hotel, near Watford, North of London on June 6-9th. Watford is a London suburb within close proximity to London. Britain’s capitol obviously offers the social activist traveler a unique historical and cultural experience as well as a great place to voice dissent!

Fortunately too, for the budget traveler, the London area has numerous youth hostels. Why not book your reservation now, and enjoy the beautiful English countryside and the London cultural activities while also vocalizing your displeasure to a passing banker, politician, or corporate CEO?

Your opinions and discussions may plant the inception seed that, activating a pang of conscience, will eventually lead to less harmful world policies. If you discover the overt sidewalk protests are less successful, may I suggest an alternative, stealth approach: position yourself as a well-dressed hotel patron in the lobby where the Bilderberg members are staying. Act as an unassuming gadfly, listening for telling conversations from Bilderberg meeting attendees.

Granted, such intimate access may prove to be difficult; however, for the determined spirited social activist, the challenge enhances the adventure and the success sweetens the reward.

Are you ready for summer outdoor fun, a freelance journalist’s dream, and a proud sense of moral accomplishment? That’s what I experienced when I planned my fall vacation in Europe in 2000 to coincide with the scheduled IMF / World Bank meeting in Prague. A well-organized anti-globalization protest was waiting for the banking attendees, similar to the successful anti-WTO protest in Seattle, Nov. 1999, which I attended. I wanted to continue being a part of this proud movement.

I’m certain that, at the London youth hostels, and around town, you will meet kindred spirits (an individual global citizen or an NGO member) who are also knowledgeable of this Bilderberg conference. As I had experienced during the 1999 and 2000 protests, you will form lasting friendships with these fellow travelers/ activists.

2. To start your summer season, and only a week after the Bilderberg conference, I recommend planning a visit to the annual G-8 Summit, held June 17th-18th at the Lough Erne golf resort on the shore of Lough Eirne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Much protest is expected at this event by local Loyalist protest groups, among others, so your stay could get lively. Sample some Irish whiskey and Irish beer, play a round of golf, engage in great conversation with the locals, and express your disapproval at our leading world government’s policies toward the average global citizen.

3. Finishing the summer season, my third recommended travel destination is the G-20 meeting, held Sept 5-6th at St. Petersburg, Russia. Last centuries’ former totalitarian Communist regime headquarters, then known as Leningrad and Stalingrad, is this year’s Capitalist totalitarian global regime headquarters. Could another revolution be in store for the upcoming festivities?

4. Autumn colors are awaiting you in Washington D.C. for my next travel destination recommendation. In October is the IMF/World Bank annual meeting, held Oct. 11-13th, in Washington D.C. Our nation’s capitol also offers a unique historical, cultural experience as well as a great place to voice dissent!

5. Finally, for the year end winter season, my final recommended travel destination for 2013 is the WTO ministerial conference, held Dec. 3-6th, in beautiful Bali, Indonesia. Aside from the obvious beauty and luxurious accommodations, I do find the location puzzling. Bali’s selection for capitalist greed is a curious juxtaposition setting, considering the propensity for harmonious, compassionate Hindu/ Buddhist spiritual practices here in Bali. This may be an opportunity for you, the wise social activist, to express an alternative way of thinking to a misguided banker or businessman in the conference hotel lobby.

While waiting for this opportunity, Bali also offers excellent surfing, spectacular scenery, exotic cultural amenities, and a vibrant nightlife providing the dream vacation for the social activist traveler.

Even though the rich elite will be staying at expensive resorts, there are ample inexpensive lodging options in Bali, including youth hostels. You can even pitch your tent near the beach!

Last, for those planning on traveling through California, I recommend an outdoor excursion north of San Francisco. Besides marvelous vineyards, inspiring redwoods and dramatic coastline, there’s also an elite power broker retreat called Bohemian Grove nestled in the redwoods near the town of Monte Rio and the Russian River. The annual retreat is always held in mid-July, a perfect month to visit the region.

The retreat of course has security (as I discovered many years ago) so an undercover role as a naïve hiker is a good start. While peering through the redwoods, you may find an influential politician or CEO performing some decadent, hedonistic ritual in a yellow chiffon dress! Don’t forget to bring your camera!

I hope you find these travel tips useful for your future 2013 travel plans. You may even find yours truly, the author. Happy travels!

If you’re ready for some rousing evolution / revolution music, please go to my Spotify playlist titled Social Justice Songs

Please feel free to comment by e-mailing me at: pecoskid@juno.com

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