Late, For Nowhere in Particular: A Reflection
Rolling down some back-road cloaked in the bliss of anonymity, one arm in contact with the wheel at the point that encourages my wrist to flop carefree at the end of it, head bobbling to a slow rhythmic beat that doesn’t match my rousing vocal accompaniment to Life is a Highway that’s cranked up so loud it’s oozing from the Yukon like displaced mortar, I come across this.
Recent blog entries
“Quest for the Kasbah” by Richard Bangs
I haven’t yet made it to north Africa, so when the chance came to read Richard Bangs’ Quest for the Kasbah, I snapped it up. Richard tries to take us with him through a narrative of several visits to Morocco. He also makes a few philosophical detours to connect his growing understanding of the kasbah with modern, western life.
The book is a tie-in to a new American TV show called “Adventures with Purpose” and, specifically, an episode called Morocco: Quest for the Kasbah which is also hosted by Richard Bangs. The advertising copy makes great claims for the author; how have I never heard of this “renowned explorer” and “the world’s foremost adventurer”? It must be something to do with the lack of PBS shows in New Zealand because he’s produced several TV documentaries and thirteen other books.
Do Solo Female Travellers have it Easier than Guys Travelling Alone?
It niggled at me in Morocco. It snapped at me in Hungary. It tore chunks out of me in Iran and by the time China came along I’d given up on noticing how solo women travelers seem to get away with more than solo men. But, having spent so much time in the Philippines traveling solo, it reared its head again when I bumped into Jodi, another solo traveler in the Philippines.
How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog (e-book review)
You’re jaded. You started a travel blog, put a few ads on it, and hoped it would subsidize your travels. Three months and three dollars of Google Adsense income later, you’re ready to pull the plug.
Making money through a travel blog is hard, but it’s not impossible. It takes time, work and a little bit of know-how.
To help you out with that last point, Nomadic Matt has just released an ebook about making money with your travel blog. I have just read it from cover to cover (so to speak) and can safely say that Matt’s ebook can help you unpack the mysteries of travel blogging for money. And Matt’s a guy worth listening to: his travel blogs earn him $3,000 a month – a handy sum when you’re a guy travelling perpetually.
5 Ways to Take Photos that Truly Capture Your Journey
Taking beautiful photographs in exotic, far-flung locales is a surprisingly easy thing to do, once you’re there. But really showing a place—its ins and outs, its people and its surroundings—is a much more difficult pursuit. It’s easy to become overwhelmed, to find yourself walking around wide-eyed, your camera still lost somewhere at the bottom of your bag; or, conversely, snapping off rapid fire shots of anything that moves (and many things that don’t), only to find when you return home that you haven’t captured anything meaningful or worthwhile from your journey. A pretty landscape is one thing, but a collection of images that work well together and truly show a place will have people coming back to view them over and over again. Below are five things I try to do before, during and after any trip; I’ve found they help me get the most out of my photographs.
Summer Family Road Trips
This could be the year of the family road trip. The summer of 2009 may go down in history as the summer we rediscovered the open road as the solution for the conflicting need of a much needed break coupled with the lack of ability to spend on a foreign vacation destination; the need for frugality versus the promise of rejuvenation. With fuel prices being the lowest in 4 years, and vacation budgets being a non-factor in a lot of Americans minds right now, the stage is set for summer family road trips to be the boon.
Since we’ve covered thoughts and tips on solo road trips, let’s talk about ways to extend the initial promise of the nostalgic memories that Dads everywhere seem to dreamily envision as they herd the brood into the family sedan for a view of roadside Americana.
18 Things You Don’t Need on Your Packing List
Over the limit? Need to shed a few pounds or fork out cash for going over your weight allowance? This inverted packing list – it tells you what you don’t need – will help you figure out how you can lighten the load.
How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets (E-Book Review)
Has the economy forced you to reconsider your travel plans for 2009?
Over the past few weeks, Tammie Dooley from Solo Road Trip has shown how you can save your pennies and still have a great holiday, campground-style.
But if that doesn’t suffice – if you have an irrepressible desire to fly somewhere, near or far – take a look at Elizabeth Sanberg’s guide to finding cheap airline tickets.
Camping 101: Campground Etiquette
A series on camping wouldn’t be complete without a discussion about etiquette. We camp to get away from it all. The problem with that yearning is that during high season, most campgrounds are crowded. So you either need to toughen up and camp during the off-season (meaning you’ll need to deal with colder weather), or learn some manners. Even for those who consider themselves a seasoned camper or outdoors person, the leap to knowing how to play well with others when your playground is a campground isn’t always a given. I assure you however that it is possible to happily co-exist in nature when the most you’ve got separating you from your neighbor is a few feet and a tent wall.
Camping 101: Knowing What to Pack
More and more baby boomers are retiring and heading back to nature after decades of material excess. We‘re no longer interested in crawling in and out of a small tent, sleeping on the ground, scrounging up a meal over a 3 inch burner, and deploying the grunge look for that week in the wilderness. But camping has an irresistible nostalgic allure, is a very affordable means of travel and unfortunately, still has many women digging in their 3-inch heels against it.
Baby boomer or not, female or male, this article is for all of you who want to camp, but can’t (or don’t want to) hack the roughing-it part.
From the travel blogs
Daily Travel Photo – Versailles, France
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Letter of Mourning, Part I
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Muir’s Alaska, My Alaska
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A Three Hour Cruise
Maybe it’s the negative ions, or the sparkly lights. Or, perhaps the bubbly had something ...
Wilderness Survival Skills and Tips Outdoors – Welsh Style
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A tale of a bride & groom: Part 2
He saw her. He saw her before they went down the aisle. That's because the professional ...
Postcard from Alaska
Alaskans have a really complicated relationship with their government and they will tell you all ...
Strategy, Tactics, and the Plan for the Next 97 Days
Have you heard the news about the death of publishing? Books are going extinct! Paper ...
Jakarta Capital Treats
Many travelers treat Jakarta simply as a stopover spot on their way to Bali’s island ...
Thorns are gonna eat'em alive
by Melani Alexander Fuchs History repeated itself today. Two sisters came to pick blackberries on ...
