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Each week on TravelBlogs.com, we'll be posting a new interview with one of the featured bloggers. This week, it just happened to be an interview with Travellerspoint members Jacquie and Lloyd, whose blog Travelling Right, Travelling Light is one of the 13 blogs handpicked to get TravelBlogs rolling. The couple are in their mid-30s and have taken 6 months out of their busy lives to travel the world.

Here's a little excerpt from the interview:

What inspired this trip?

Lloyd was at the gym one day, surrounded by a bunch of forty-somethings - literally - plodding away on the treadmills of life. He came home that night and suggested we take some time out. I think he expected me to kick him back into the real world, but I thought about it for about three seconds, and said "why on earth wouldn't we do that?" It felt brave and decadent to be taking six months out, but - apart from the guy who said "don't you know you're supposed to get married, have kids, work and then die?", work colleagues and family were surprisingly supportive. We have been painfully aware that we've been more married to our jobs than to each other, and we wanted to reset the balance! Additionally, it seemed that we should take the trip of a lifetime when we were young enough to embrace the physical challenges, rather than wait until retirement!

Click here to continue reading.

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I don't drink coffee. Personally, it astounds me that there are millions who consume the putrid stuff daily - even multiple times in a day!

But alas, it's hard to avoid. My family drinks coffee. My co-workers drink coffee. My wife drinks coffee. And in the last two days, two items in my feed reader have once again reminded me that this crazy liquid is indeed a very popular beverage.

First, folks over at Gadling posted a rather bizarre item about kopi luwak: turd coffee. Apparently the coffee is made from the excrement of wild civets in Indonesia. Sounds revolting, right? Well actually, it's a delicacy: a pound of the shit costs $600 (pardon the pun/French).

And then there's comedian Mark Malkoff, who I discovered through the Tourism Internet Marketing Blog. Mark's making some waves on the internet after completing what he dubbed the "Starbucks Challenge": to visit and purchase something at all 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in a single day. Funny stuff, even for a non-coffee drinker like me.

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A month ago, I told the story of another blogger's experience with over-paying a street vendor in India for a samosa. Instead of the 6 cents a local would pay for the samosa, this blogger was told to pay 30 cents - but he generously went a step further and tipped an additional 30 cents. When the blogger wrote about this, some of his readers were outraged: accepting this inflated "tourist price" was irresponsible, since it pushed the price up for other tourists.

I sided with the blogger.

What's wrong with paying extra prices when we're talking about 60 cents? That 60 cents will mean much more to the vendor than the Westerner. Isn't it a bit silly to argue about getting "ripped off" by the vendor when you consider that much of our wealth in Western nations comes from the exploitation of poorer countries?

Today, I received an email from Rob Meyer, who has responded to my article on his blog, Go Budget Travel. Rob takes a contrasting view, arguing that travellers should haggle with merchants in order to pay local prices. Paying the inflated tourist price encourages poor business models, as locals start to see foreign tourists as cash cows willing to hand over money out of pity:

"Our samosa dealer recognizes the fact that he does not need to be price competitive or even product competitive when selling to foreign tourists, because they will “feel sorry for him” and pay what he charges (competitive or not), so why not take advantage of this?"

In Ecuador, where Rob currently lives, many locals are setting up Eco-Tourism projects based on this same business model: locals run "an unorganized, overpriced project" and count on Westerners to feel sorry for them and pay them what they're charging.

According to Rob, the problem with paying inflated tourist prices is that it creates an "illusion of easy money". We give locals the idea that Westerners are walking banks.

But the truth is, we are rich. It doesn't take a 30 cent tip for a samosa vendor to figure out that a Westerner has more money than he does. He can tell by our clothes, by the camera slung around our necks, or by the leather wallet we pull our cash from.

That "illusion of easy money" is going to be there whether we like it or not. Frankly, it's not really an illusion. For many people in Third World countries, the tourism industry is a modern day gold rush.

If you manage to haggle your way down to paying local prices, what have you achieved? Are you trying to convince the local merchant that you're not that rich after all? You won't.

What's your view? Should we pay the tourist price, or should we haggle it down?

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Fancy being a travel writer?

Fancy being a paid travel writer?

If you have a way with words and travel experience under the belt, you could earn some extra pocket money by submitting articles to online travel magazines.

It probably won't pay your airfares. But it might buy you a nice dinner and a cold beer (or two) to wash it down.

The big boy on the block is World Hum, a travel magazine that was recently bought by the Travel Channel. Their standard is high, and their articles are tight. But hey, if you're confident enough, submit your stuff and you stand to get paid over $100 if they like it.

An up and coming site to check out is MatadorTravel.com, which is a social community listing a variety of paid writing opportunities. Just check the bounty board out for some ideas. You could earn between $50 and $100 by writing an article for Matador.

Another personal favourite of mine is Brave New Traveler, which is focused on "news, views, and editorial type articles that discuss the nature of travel". BNT is a pretty new site, but recently started paying its writers $20 per article.

If a little ego trip is what you're after, you can also submit your articles to non-paying magazines like inTravel Magazine. It won't buy you dinner, but it will impress your friends.

For a stack of other suggestions, check out Brave New Traveler's great list of over 50 online travel magazines.

When in New York, be careful which hostel you stay at...

In the rich realm of user reviews, I recently found these two classic reviews on Hostelz.com of two different New York City hostels. Thought you'd enjoy them too

A guy called Igor posted this. He gave the hostel 2 stars...

I got in a fistfight with the big woman on the staff. I caught her stealing my socks and shoes and then she tried to deny it. When I told her I was going to call the police she laughed and told me that they would not believe me. She then proceeded to push me and told me to get the hell out of their hostel. She said they don't like my type. I spit at her, as is custom in my country to convey insult. She punched me in the mouth and dug her nails into my arms. I screamed in horror and ran for the door abandoning my possessions. I never turned back.

An intrepid traveller going by the name Johny wrote this...

Somebody stole my shoes at this place and I was left walking barefoot in Manhattan for three weeks. I taped magazines around my feet and begged for money to get a Greyhound Bus ticket to get the hell out of here. I fought with the rats every night and I actually got bit really bad on my ass by some weird bug with orange and black fur.

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