Boy, this video is really going places.
Boy, a popular question that's come in over the years is "how does a blind person
like myself travel, you know, what kind of things do I encounter?
What's the experience like?" This works two ways.
Now the first way is when I travel with somebody.
Now, when I travel with somebody I'm usually just going sighted guide.
I hold on to their arm and we do all the things that we do. We walk through
the airport together. We walk through security together.
Take a train together. All that kind of stuff
I do sighted guide. So it's very easy that way. But what happens
when I travel alone? That's a little bit different.
For example, if I travel by plane. Now a bunch of years ago we actually
filmed a bunch of this process.
[music plays] So what I'll do is I'll take
a car service to the airport. And when we get there I'll ask
the driver if he can give me directions - which way
the door is going to be from the side of the car, right? Or they might even
get out of the car and show me the direction which I'm supposed to head.
And once I get to the counter and checked in,
then I'm in hands of airport personnel. And then we just
walk through the airport together. I hold on to somebody's elbow like I do
and we walk down towards security and I go
through security. My helper will go through security as well
and then on the other side they can bring me right to my gate.
And then when it's time board the plane, I'm one of the first
people on the plane which is very nice. I just get
comfortable and get seated and that's it.
And then when I arrive, I have to wait for everybody
to get off the plane and I'm the last person
off the plane. And then there's somebody at the airport
to take me through and bring me to where ever I need to go. And now when
I get to the hotel. More of the same thing.
Maybe a valet or someone from the hotel will bring me up to the desk.
Or if I can hear the activity I can just walk toward it.
And get myself in lien and get checked into my room.
[music plays]
So once I'm at the hotel, I usually manage the hallways by myself.
Right? There's braille signs on all the doors. And I just
have to walk down the hall and check the doors and find my room.
I'm going to stay along this wall here and follow it around.
And wait until I'll --- see I'm ahh...
nope, I'm good, okay.
[cane taps against wall]
Alright, let's see if we can find -- oh, more turns.
Jeez. Let's see.
This is...
705... so I think I have a few to go.
[cane taps against wall]
Alright, let's see what's here.
This is 703.
So I want maybe 2 or 1 more to go.
[cane taps against wall]
Ah, and... 701.
Alright. Let's see how the keycard works here.
No.
[jgasp] There it goes. It opens.
Once I get into the room, now it's time to get my bearings.
Okay, so there's a table here. A little coffee table.
There's a chair -- that's actually a little couch. Wow. This is nice.
Straight across here.
Um... wow. This room is huge.
What's this? Oh, this is sort of
the -- okay, this is where the microwave is and stuff.
There's a little dish towel over here.
That's all very good. This must be the bathroom back in here.
Okay. Alright, what do we got over here?
Just big windows and stuff.
I'm sure the view is lovely. Woah...
is this like a whole other room? It is.
[gasp] And here's the bed.
What else is in here? This is ah... again, just like
a vanity I guess.
And this is the window. So this is not how to get our apparently.
Okay. What's in there?
[door slides open] Hello, closet space.
Okay, so then out is
going to be this way. [cane taps against wall]
[laughs] Dude... wow.
How do I get out? Alright, so the big table...
Window's there... the closet...
and more win -- dude, what am I doing wrong?
Oh, good, there's where the remote is. Hey, nice find.
Oh, and I can come out here. Okay.
And bathroom was across this way if I remember right.
Is that television up on the wall? That's cool.
That's very cool. Where the hell's the bathroom? It must be on the way
to the bedroom, right? It's got to be. And it is.
Okay, so right in here. Nice vanity here.
This is good. A little washcloth. I'm not quite sure what that is.
What else? There's a toilet.
And where's the shower?
Look and there's -- ah, jeez -- knocked over everything in there. Well, at least
I know where it is. And it all comes out this, okay good. [metal bang]
Very nice.
So once I'm in the hotel, if I need to go anywhere like the restaurant or the bar,
or something like that. I'll just call down to the front desk.
And ask if somebody can meet me at the bottom of the elevator or
whatever and just take me to where I need to go. And it's pretty straight ahead.
[train horn blows] Now, if I'm traveling by train
that's a little bit of a different experience. So what I do
is I go up on the platform and wait for the train
arrive and then I listen and either
walk left or right to where I think the door's going to be.
I get on the train and then I walk down the aisle.
And sort of touch the top of the seats to see if
I could feel somebody's head in the seat. And that's how I find an empty seat.
So once I get to my destination. Let's say it's New York City.
So I'll ask somebody... "Hey, can you do
me a favor and take me to the taxi stand?" And, you know,
people love to help so, yeah, people will do that for me.
Then I'll just get to the taxi stand. I'll wait in line.
Get into a car. And tell them where I want to go.
[music plays]
Well some of the ways I get to experience the city without sightseeing is I like to
go places. I like to meet the locals. Right.
I like to hear their stories like at a bar or restaurant or something like that.
You just meet the regular people. It's fun because
I'm from out of town and I tell people that and then they begin to tell me
stories and things maybe that I should check out in town
that I might like. Some place to go eat that has great food or some
place with nice drinks or whatever.
I just like to be with the people. That's my favorite part about
travel. I don't really care about going to see the Eiffel Tower.
It doesn't do anything for me. Right. Or, you know,
the pyramids wouldn't even do it for me.
Once of the things I hear in the comments is how sighted people
use photos and videos to remember their trip. And people are curious
"what does a blind person do to remember a trip? Do you make audio
recordings or anything? You know, I really don't.
When I'm on a trip, it's more about the experiences. It's
about the people that I met... the places that I've been to.
Maybe the smells and sounds of a particular place.
It's all that kind of stuff that I just remember because pictures
and video aren't really going to help me much and audio
recordings -- I don't imagine I'd listen to them.
I'm on them. [laughs]
I hear myself talk every day.
Thanks so much for watching this video and of course asking the questions.
And also I'd love it if you followed me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
so this way you'll always know when there's a brand new video coming out.
[beep] Hey, why do they call it a travelogue anyway?
It's doesn't come from a tree.
You can't put it in the fireplace... alright.
Um...