The Slow Travel Movement

Just as there's a slow food movement - taking your time and eating fresh, locally procured sustenance, there's also a slow travel movement. Rather than caulking up another country, and if its Tuesday, it must be Rome, slow travel is going somewhere and staying - observing and participating in the community and all it has to offer. This weekend's New York Times has a question-and-answer piece with the 70-something who has traveled extensively and now travels thoughtfully and slowly.  Worth a read. http://tinyurl.com/lkwbv3m.

For Those of You Longing for a Road Trip

Great article in this weekend's New York Times travel section of Woody Guthrie's America. From Grand Coulee Dam to Los Angeles to Santa Fe and on to Long Island, its a great read and a great trip.  I more or less did it in reverse some 25 years ago, leaving Brooklyn where I had lived for a while, heading down the eastern shore to Savannah, hung a right through New Orleans, New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas, before heading north to return to my roots in the Puget Sound area. 
In Search of Woody Guthrie's America

Travel is about YOUR Experiences

Arthur Frommer, the travel guide guru who just bought back the printing rights for his well-researched travel books from Google, shares the following view of travel:

"What matters is not finding something your friends haven't found but appreciating and understand that thing - that culture, that place, that food - on your own terms. You can be closed-minded even off the beaten path; you can discover all kinds of interesting and wonderful things even on the most tourist-swarmed landmark."

'Nuf said.

More Travel Tips

I seem to be on a travel-bent these days. But things catch my eye and if I feel they would benefit readers of my blog, I'll pass them on.  So, here's the third New York Times article in a row - this one with 9 constructive tips for keeping trip costs in check. Not all my apply in a given situation, but all are worth considering if not for now, then for a future trip.  For there are always future trips, right?  Right?

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/for-travel-savings-in-2013-go-retro/?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20130111

More Travel Dreams

To follow up on the previous post on Paul Theroux's travel wish list, I came across this article, no, collage I guess, on what is on other's dream list for 2013 travel. Entitled "Travel Drams and Where They'll Take Us," the dreamers dreams are simple yet profound and capture the various reasons why we travel to where we travel.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/13/travel/traveldreams.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20130111

Sweet dreams.

A Traveler's Travel Wish List

Paul Theroux, the author of such travel narrative classics as the Great Railway Bazaar, Patagonia Express, and Dark Star Safari, still has a wish list of places.  And I've even been to some - Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Lombok Island (next to Bali). Even the great travelers have other places they want to visit. And, as is usual for Paul, his short article on his wish list is of great prose.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/travel/paul-therouxs-travel-wish-list.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20130111&_r=0

I think I need to reframe my wish list in prose as well.  Its 23 degrees outside, the wood stove and leather chair, and laptop beckon.

First Stop for Visa, Entry Requirements

Came across a great website today concerning international travel and the need for visas, etc.  I would double check, of course, with the country's US or UN embassy website to be sure concerning visas.  And would check the CDC website for currently vaccination recommendations.  But this site is a good starting point.

http://travel-requirements.vagabondish.com/

When to Save While Traveling and When Not

An insightful article by the NY Times Frugal Traveler on how to travel frugally without going overboard.  I remember, many years back now, taking the bus from Washington DC where I was a Congressional Intern, to Williamsburg, Virginia. Upon arrival at Colonial Williamsburg, I was shocked by the cost for a day pass to the site and, instead, opted for a pay-as-you-go scheme, not realizing how costly that would run.  Ended up only going into a couple of the buildings there, running up a tab almost as high as the full-day admission would have been, and catching the bus back to DC that evening, a couple of bucks richer but infinitely poorer in terms of experience.  I still remember that experience to this day and try not to short-change the experiences of travel to save a few bucks here and there.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/the-argument-against-pound-foolish-travel/?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20121201

Another Travel and Life Option

An intriguing article in the Wall Street Journey last week explored the option, for some folk at least, of selling everything and just traveling.  And we're not talking about twenty-somethings - but retirees in the 60's +.  Not a cheap option, but not all that expensive either. The couple featured in the article were spending around $7700/month when living in their home in California (and that budget did not include travel).  On the road, there monthly expenses ran from $3450 (in Mexico) to $6800 (in London).  Does require some source of funds (duh), and pretty good health.  And, of course, wanderlust. Sound good?   

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443720204578004131575356160.html

More Travel Websites Worth a Look

In preparing "Journey On! Taking Your Travel Experience to the Next Level," I did a lot of research on valuable websites (in case you haven't checked lately, there are a lot of non-valuable websites out there!) and discussed the key ones.  The web, of course, represents at its best constant change.  The NT Times Frugal Traveler pointed out some of the newer sites that are worth a look in today's NY Times.  All sound worthwhile.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/10-travel-web-sites-worth-bookmarking/?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20121013

Audio Slide Shows

Our family took a classic American road trip this past summer - from our Northwest home to Nevada's Great Basin National Parks, then on to Utah and Arizona to visit Cedar Breaks, Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Kodachrome, and Capital Reef parks.  Camera in hand, I took more than a few photographs and was overall pleased with the results. 

Then comes the question: how best to share the photos with others?  One technique is via an audio slide show - in this case, the audio is provided by a music score.  I choose what I considered my best photographs from the trip and imported them into Windows Live Movie Maker.  The software name notwithstanding, it does slide shows in addition to movies. 

Once in Movie Maker, I inserted title slides announcing the next park, an overall title slide and a credit slide at the end.  Movie Maker allows you to set various transition modes (how one slide moves on to the next), the timing of each, etc.  Fairly simple to learn and use. 

Next came the music.  Since I wanted to share via YouTube, it was really important to take music copyrights into account.  So I went to http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ which has a wonderful selection of mood music to accompany slides shows or even movies.  Use of music from the site only required attribution, which I added to the credit slide.  The music I choose was just about the right length (under 4 1/2 minutes) for the 40+ photographs, so I clicked the box that automatically set the slide show duration to match the music.  And I was done.

The result can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/LYQpD9IxOVY.

Zero In on Subject

Our eyes zero in on subjects without us really know it.  Its only when we take a photograph that we see all of the extraneous material that our "eye" did not see but our camera lens DID!  Sometimes it takes a while to fully comprehend what the subject is.  Or, just maybe, there are several ways of presenting the same subject - one in a more "environmental" setting and one that is close-cropped, centering on the "real" image. 

One of my favorite photographs from last fall's journey to Rajasthan and the Pushkar Mela was of a young girl, perhaps 10 years of age - though looking more wizened than that.  The daughter of itinerant salespeople, she naturally composed herself for this first image. The "environmental portrait" included the tools of the family trade and the jumbled surroundings of sand and litter.  And those "Raj Girl Eyes" always have drawn me in. 

Recently, in looking at the photo again, I realized that there was a second image - and I think a stronger one - that zooms in on the face and the eyes. The wizened beyond years look is more pronounced because our eyes are now longer distracted by the surroundings, but can zero in on the face. Both images are, in my humble opinion, wonderful.  Each has its place. And as you review and edit and view and edit some more, look at options to more tightly zoom in the the "meaning" and "subject" of your photographs. 



Salak's Four Corners - A Recommended Read

I've just completed reading what is, perhaps, my favorite travel narrative of all time - and that's saying a lot with well over 200 such titles in my personal collection.  Kira Salak's "Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea," is filled with personal tales of triumph and near tragedy, of pushing one's limits but being aware of one's vulnerability, of traveling solo (and as a woman) to prove something to one's self and of being open to the road less traveled, and of an understanding of cultures and different ways of being.  Full of serendipity and with the machete ever-ready, her travels are expertly relayed in wonderful, detailed, yet straightforward prose. 
Talking about a intricately carved canoe and paddle that she and a male companion purchase for an on-going journey down the Sepik River, she writes:

In the West, this might be called extravagance, a waste of time. If the purpose is to create a canoe, why bother with superfluous decoration? But in PNG, time is wasted when one makes something purely pragmatic reasons because then nothing is honored in the process; one creates an object without meaning. As the crocodile figures in all of the local creation myths, its carved presence on paddles and prows revels a reverence for the divine, which coexists closely with daily life. 

 And at the end of her journey, she realizes the world of travel is multi-faceted:

In the end, I see that there are many kinds of journeys, and one isn't necessarily any better than another - just different.   

*****

http://www.kirasalak.com/FourCorners.html

Fortune-Tellers, Travel and Life

I have a weakness for travel narratives. Eighty-plus percent of what I read can be classified in this particular genre, ranging from William Least-Heat Moon to Robyn Davidson to Paul Theroux. And many many more. Most are pretty good, a few more than I'd like to admit are pretty mediocre.  And then there are the exceptional ones - the ones that are fully engaging, that take the reader in new directions (not just geographically), and one's that inspire or nurture the spirit of travel and of life. 

Tizian Terzani's "A Fortune-Teller Told Me" falls into this exceptional category. The author, an Italian journalist based in Southeast Asia, and with journalistic curiosity, visited a fortune-teller in Macao. The prophecy, if you want to call it that, was that something terrible was going to happen to the author in the coming year and he must not fly. A difficult proposition for an Italian journalist in Southeast Asia for sure.  And one, before the start of the year, Tizian decided to follow. 

The narrative following Tizian as he moved about Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Burma and then on to Europe via China, Mongolia and Russia, all the time consulting with other fortune-tellers - some close to the mark, others without a clue. Wanderlust, journalistic fervor, spiritual encounters of all kinds, and an overall sense of fascination fill the book and leave the reader to ponder the world that we see and the world that may be just beyond our vision and experience.

"Think of how many wonderful people we meet without realizing it, of how many  beautiful  things we pass every day on the way home without realizing them. It always requires the right occasion, a particular event, a person who stops you and draws your attention to this or that."

Festival at 15000' and Travel Expectations

Two interesting articles in this weekend's NY Times.  The first is on the Qoyllur Rit’i — the Snow Star Festival, held outside of Cusco, Peru. Elevation 15000.' Part Catholic, part earth-based spirituality. Dancing, commemorations, candle-lighting, arts, crafts, sheer beauty, and fervor. Sounds like my kind of festival, though the elevation gives me considerable pause.  http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/travel/celebrating-the-snow-star-festival-in-the-peruvian-andes.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20120512 

The second article focuses on a mother-daughter spring break vacation to south Florida. Wrong place to stay, no clear expectations on what to do and when, costly, and anything but connecting one-on-one. Points to doing your own research on lodging, talking with your traveling companion (even if family) before you go re expectations and objectives, and taking recommendations from friends with a grain of salt.  Makes for a good read and food for thought - especially when traveling with teens and 20-somethings!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/travel/a-mother-daughter-spring-break-on-fisher-island-florida.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20120512

Drawn to Out of the Way Places

I've been re-reading "The Road Wet, the Wind Close: Celtic Ireland" by James Roy.  It caught my eye many years ago and led directly to me visiting one of the world's more obscure and isolated locals - Skellig Michael, off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland. In re-reading, I came across this:

We have come to Skellig Michael because of what we've read. [How true!!] We find ourselves drawn to obscurities, or perhaps it's just the urge to go places where no one else sees value. For whatever reason, on this island, I think, is the very essence of Celtic Ireland."  Takes me right back there, to the cold and windswept day in a distant October, where just two of us had the monastic site to ourselves. Obscurity, of value, and Celtic essence.

Books, and not just travel guides, can be a great influence on future journeys.  Whether Skellig Michael, or the Floating Tori Gate at Miyajima Island, Japan, or ...  I've felt called several times to visit the non-Eiffel Towers of this world. And will continue to follow the call.

Authenticity

There are those who feel that we should travel in certain ways - connecting with the locals - seeing certain sights - eating at certain "local" places. While I'm certainly one who wants to explore the cultures of the places I travel to and through, I really don't feel compelled to follow someone's dictates as to what constitutes the right way to travel. 

Gideon Lewis-Kraus book, "A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for the Restless and the Hopeful,"  relates stories about pilgrimages and the reasons why some of us do them these days. And the question becomes, if not done for the original reason (usually spiritual or religious), "is it still authentic?" And Gideon has a really noteworthy response: 

"My own feeling about authenticity is that we're all best off when we don't worry about it too much and just get on with the business of trying to travel in ways that feel meaningful to us, for whatever reason."

Know why you're traveling and make the journey your own - how more authentic and meaningful an experience can you ask for!

BTW, Gideon is interviewed on his pilgramage experiences on the WorldHum website: http://tinyurl.com/congnzz. 

Why Travel?!

Why travel? Because the world is out there - full of sights and sounds and people and cultures and landscapes. The travel experience presents new ideas and opportunities to understand and to be receptive to other cultures - whether of another state, region or country. It's also a great way to spend quality time with family or friends, to get away from everything and everyone, meet other people or just mellow out. Travel provides a chance to rekindle a romance, start a new one, or check out if you're really compatible! And, of course, there are airline and train seats that would otherwise go unused every day. Why Travel?  Because!

From the Introduction to "Journey On! Taking Your Travel Experience to the Next Level." Available from The Traveler, Bainbridge Island; Wide World Books, Seattle; your local bookseller, or through Amazon.com (http://tinyurl.com/c65bega).

Worthwhile Quotes

In this month's National Geographic Traveler, traveler Edward Readicker-Henderson wrote a fascinating piece on why he travels - and still travels to this day.  This in spite of the fact that doctors told him many years ago that his medical conditions would result in only months to live and would make travel impossible. 
Two memorable quotes:  "Whoever created the world went to a lot of trouble. It would be downright rude not to go out and see as much of it as possible."

and

"It's not a matter of better or worse, but simply this or that."

I especially like the latter; for most decisions, especially related to travel, there really isn't a right or wrong decision. Rather, its simply a choice between or among options, any of which could result in a serendipitous moment. And that is what travel is about.

Besides the NG Traveler article, Edward has a website with additional writings about his travels. http://www.routeofseeing.com/home.html

Thin Places

This weekend's edition of the New York Times travel section has a thoughtful article on thin places," where heaven and earth come near. These are places that transform us. For me, it's the ocean's shore, especially the solitary experience of the north Pacific coast.

Other places that come to mind have been time spent observing, gazing at and photographing the floating Torii Gate on Miyajima Island, Japan (apropos, given that Torii Gates are considered the portal between the sacred and the profane, between heaven and earth); and an end-of-the-season journey to Skellig Michael, off the wild coast of County Kerry, Ireland.

There was a sense in these places of being other-worldly, of being at the edge, of longing to be there, of being called. Listen.      

http://tinyurl.com/8668x3j

OR

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/travel/thin-places-where-we-are-jolted-out-of-old-ways-of-seeing-the-world.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20120310