Over at World Hum, I have a new question up at my Ask Rolf column. “I’m interested in traveling on the Trans-Siberian Express from Moscow to Beijing,” asks Geoff from Vancouver. “Have you done this? How long does it take, and would I need a visa for Russia?”

I have indeed traveled the Trans-Siberian Express between Moscow and Beijing, and it was a fascinating experience that I recommend to anyone with the fortitude to travel such a great distance by train. Indeed, it is one of the few classic land journeys left on the planet. For my full answer to Geoff’s question, including visa advice, suggested guidebooks, and recommended tour operators (and why I recommend them for a first-time Trans-Siberan journey), click here.

The Salon.com recounting of my 1999 Trans-Sib journey can be found here, and an NPR dispatch of my Trans-Mongolian journey with my parents in 2001 can be found here.

“A journey can help us write better because it has helped us understand something more of life; someone visits India, for instance, and on returning home will write better, say, his memories of his first day at school.”
–Italo Calvino, Hermit in Paris (2003)

Update: I just got a call from Don George regarding today’s NPR appearance, and it looks like I’ve been bumped from the “Talk of the Nation” lineup. The upside to this is that I was bumped because they were able to land best-selling author (and classic storyteller) Simon Winchester for the slot. So do tune in if you get a chance! More information below.

Lonely Planet global travel editor Don George and I will be guests on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation today, discussing travel misadventures and sharing stories from LP’s humor anthology By the Seat of My Pants. Tune into your local NPR station this afternoon for the full show, which should also be available online.

Do you have a great travel tale from the Middle East or North Africa? If so, editors Nesreen Khashan and Jim Bowman, in partnership with Travelers’ Tales, are looking for stories for two travel anthologies, 30 Days in the Middle East, and 30 Days in North Africa.

Khashan and Bowman are seeking first-person cultural narratives that involve travel to Middle Eastern or North African countries, emphasizing interaction with people of the region. The goal for writers should be to create moving, concise narratives that motivate and inspire readers to travel to the locales described. Narratives that present things to do and places to go — attending a wedding in Egypt, exploring the ruins of Petra, cruising the nightlife in Dubai — are encouraged.

Writers are also encouraged to explore tensions and commonalities that mark relationships between people of East and West. Stories should move beyond those featured in the vast majority of mainstream media, going beneath the surface, evoking a sense of place, and drawing portraits of the people who live in the region. The audience should not be assumed to have any particular knowledge of the area; the collection will be edited to reach travelers, students of the Middle East, and any other curious parties. Topics can be diverse: sports, adventure travel, urban life, arts, entertainment, family life, religion, etc. The spirit of the project is to assemble stories that offer uplifting and compelling views of life in the Middle East and North Africa.

For the purposes of the collection on the Middle East, the editors want material dealing with the following countries: Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. For the North Africa collection, narratives can be from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, or Egypt. Proposals are preferred in lieu of completed stories for North Africa submissions, since this project has a later projected publication date. Those planning to submit should visit travelerstales.com or pick up copies of Travelers’ Tales books and read them to learn more about their approach and style.

Priority will be given to original material, but previously published work will be given consideration. A $100 honorarium will be provided to writers whose work is selected. Word count should be 3000 or less, and priority will be given to tales from the year 2000 or later. Middle East anthology deadline is March 1, 2006, and submissions should be filed in Rich Text Format (.rtf) or MSWord formats (.doc).

Questions about the collection should be sent to Nesreen Khashan at nesreenk@gmail.com or Jim Bowman at jbowman@email.arizona.edu. Submissions to the collection should be simultaneously sent to the above addresses and to submit@travelerstales.com (please do not send queries to the Travelers Tales address). For further information about submitting stories for Travelers’ Tales books, go to www.travelerstales.com/guidelines/.

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Not long ago, I commented on an intriguing new book by Adam Jacot de Boinod, entitled The Meaning of Tingo: And Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World. Since that time, I’ve been in touch with Jacot de Boinod, and he’s agreed to share words from his book as a little weekly feature here at Vagablogging.net.

“Many English speakers admit to being lazy both at home and when traveling in their reliance on English as the preeminent international language,” he told me. “I feel that in this multicultural age we should embrace the joy, glory and wonder of foreign words and expressions. I want, at a time, when languages are becoming extinct at the rate of one a fortnight (just like the reduction of animal species and flora and fauna) to encourage their survival and chance to flourish.”

Jacot de Boinod’s interest in foreign languages was first piqued when doing research for British television, and eventually developed into a full-blown obsession. While compiling this book, he read approximately 220 dictionaries, 150 websites and numerous other books on language. In The Meaning of Tingo, he draws on the collective wisdom of more than 254 languages, and includes not only those words for which there is no direct counterpart in English (“pana po’o” in Hawaiian means to scratch your head in order to remember something important), but also a frank discussion of exactly how many Eskimo words there are for snow, and the longest known palindrome in any language (“saippuakivikauppias” — Finland).

Given the title of the book, it’s only logical that this week’s weird word is tingo, which, in the Pascuense language of Easter Island, means “to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by asking to borrow them.” (Anyone who is doubtful of this Pacific Islander practice should read The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost.)

More weird words to come in future weeks. In the meantime, language enthusiasts should check out Jacot de Boinod’s website here.

“If you’re going to a place where there are going to be guns, it really does help to know what everybody is mad about. Do a lot of reading. Find out who’s who and what’s what so that if you happen to be in the hands of somebody who may have reason not to like you, you would be able to say some things that a person might agree with.”
–Tim Cahill, in Michael Shapiro’s A Sense of Place (2004)

One of the most counterintuitive challenges of vagabonding is the inevitable return home. Indeed, as nice as it can be to trade in your passport and backpack for a familiar bed, hot showers and a fast internet connection, the transition to a settled life can be, well, unsettling. I dedicate an entire chapter of Vagabonding to the “re-entry” process, and recently veteran vagabonder Newley Purnell chimed in with some “coming home” strategies in Transitions Abroad.

In his article, entitled Beat the At-Home Blues, Purnell talks about the vague depression he felt after returning from a two-year stint teaching English in Ecuador and Taiwan. “It wasn’t simply that I missed living abroad,” he writes. “On a deeper level, I felt that my time outside the country had changed me in a fundamental way, and that I was now caught between my travel-centric lifestyle and my old life rooted in America.”

Newley suggests following tips for “beating the at-home blues”:

1. Start planning your next trip.

2. Surround yourself with international influences.

3. Seek out adventures close to home.

4. Draw on the skills that helped you adjust when you were abroad.

5. Be positive and don’t romanticize.

“In the end,” he writes, “it may help to think of the at-home blues as the price one pays for enjoying a lifestyle rich in travel. When you focus on the moment when you will finally embark on your next trip, when freedom and the unknown are once again made palpable, a simple downturn in spirits will seem all the more conquerable.”

Purnell’s full article can be found online here.

Last week I got an email from a Vagabonding reader named Andrea, who recently returned from a journey to Ireland. For anyone who thinks that it’s not practical to begin vagabonding when you’re in your forties, Andrea’s story is proof that it’s never too late — and always rewarding — to simplify your life and hit the road. Here’s what she says:

I emailed you at the end of the summer to tell you how your book inspired me to take a trip I was thinking about taking — a month long trip to Ireland. I told you that I was 41, recently divorced, no kids, and had been trying to simplify my life, getting rid of lots of stuff, etc. You asked me to tell you how it went on my journey.

Well, to make a long story short, it’s just like you say — a taste of freedom will have you craving more! I had a wonderful time. My orginal plans were to explore all of the west, southwest, and northern part of Ireland — a month is plenty of time to do that, right? Well, of course not! I stayed almost the whole month in County Clare. Because of this total immersion I made friends with not only other backpackers, but locals as well. Of course, the fact that I am a student of Irish fiddle and had it with me helped immensely. I was invited and encouraged to play in the local pub sessions, and that was how I made a lot of my new friends. There was adventure, new tunes learned, laughs, and even romance! It was pure heaven.

I stayed in hostels — yes, most of the people are in their 20′s, some in their 30′s and a handful in their 50′s and 60′s. I rarely felt older than the younger people (except when they acted really young and immature, but that was rare.) In fact, I was out later (and up earlier) than most of the kids! I had a blast. I also noticed that my backpack was smaller and easier to manage than the majority of other people’s. I was very careful about not bringing too much stuff since I had my fiddle and that added onto my load.

Well, I’ve been back for about 6 weeks now and I am going to return to Ireland for at least 3 months in the spring. From there I may go on to England and Scotland, but not sure yet. This means I must leave my cozy and predictable job which I’ve had for over a decade. It’s a huge thing, but if I don’t do it now, then when? I have given even more stuff away since I’ve been back. I don’t own a home or a car, I have no debt. I have some money saved and can leave my apartment and put what I do have left in storage at a friend’s house or the smallest, cheapest storage space at U-Haul.

I just wanted to let you know how your book and website have helped me!

“Not knowing where you’re going, you pay more attention to where you are, wherever that is.”
–Ed Buryn, Vagabonding in the USA (1980)

[Above: The latest release from the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers.]

Last week I got an intriguing email from Kentucky bluegrass musician Travis Young. “I’m a longtime backpacker and fan of your site,” he wrote. “I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from the travel world, trying to make a go as a songwriter / banjo player with The Blind Corn Liquor Pickers. Anyways, one of the songs I wrote for the new album is largely inspired by the experience of surfing your site while wallowing through a repressive day-job. Thought you might dig it.”

After doing a little followup, I discovered that the song in question is “Anywhere Else” — the title track from the latest Blind Corn CD, which was produced by 8-time Grammy-winner Bil Vorndick (who has also recorded and/or produced the likes of Allison Krauss, Bela Fleck, Robert Earl Keen, and Ralph Stanley). At my request, Travis has posted an uncut streaming version of this catchy vagabonding bluegrass ditty here. Just scroll down to where it says, “Hey backpackers and traveling folk!” and click on the link to hear the song. The chorus, you will note, is an ode to to wanderlust:

To get more information on the full “Anywhere Else” CD (which also includes a song called “Europe on $15 a Day”), click here.

As for the lyricist, Travis Young started rambling to places like Mexico and Canada in college, and began vagabonding in earnest after graduation — bussing tables at Bewley’s in Dublin, wandering across Europe to Egypt and back, and spending three years teaching English for the JET program in a tiny village in Nagano, Japan. After his teaching visa ran out, he flew to Vietnam, traveled Southeast Asia to China, and hopped the Trans-Siberian to Moscow. Later, he drove a beat-up Nissan Pathfinder through Mexico and Central America with his Japanese girlfriend (now his wife), finally turning back for the U.S. after a week on Little Corn Island in Nicaragua.

Though Travis has been back in Kentucky raising a family and performing bluegrass for three years now, the final verse of “Anywhere Else” hints that it won’t be long before he’s back out on the road: