Traveling With Tea

If you are like most people, you enjoy the occasional warm soothing beverage before bed (or during the day, or perhaps in the morning to pry your eyelids open).  If you are like me, you prefer tea to coffee; there’s something about the soothing nature of soaking delicious unfurling leaves in warm water and holding the mug between your hands that makes me happy.

Unless you’re interested in an emergency tea party, you’ll probably … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (1)  | March 31, 2009
Category: Notes from the collective travel mind

Developing a niche as a traveling music writer

A reader named Jake recently wrote with a question about kick-starting a music-writing career from the road. “I’ve been a music writer for about two years now,” he wrote, “and before that I wrote often about my European travels during my time studying abroad. I would welcome and appreciate any advice you have on how I could go about developing a niche for myself as a “traveling music writer” in a way that would still … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (2)  | March 30, 2009
Category: Vagabonding Advice

Let’s go to . . . Iraq?!

This IHT article narrates the adventures of a U.S. tour group in Iraq.

Considering there is still a war raging there, people who decide to travel to Iraq are either really brave or insane, depending on how you look at it. For people who love escaping the tourist masses, that definitely won’t be an issue in that country.

One traveler in the article was quoted as saying, “I get my best travel ideas from … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (2)  | March 27, 2009
Category: General, Travel News

The perfect time to backpack: now

I was really glad to see Tim Leffel’s recent blog “5 Reasons It’s a Good Time to Be an American Backpacker.” For all of the woebegone news circulating about the economy and the reasons to stay home, I think it’s a good reminder that yes, it’s actually a good time to travel. (I think that’s true at any point in time—there will always be reasons for and against travel.)

Listed are (yep, you guessed … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (5)  | March 25, 2009
Category: General

Art photography with real film

A recent study asked professional photographers if they were still using film, and 45% said they had never stopped, even though they also used digital.  Although digital cameras have improved now to the point where a digital photo and a film photo are pretty much comparable in dpi (you know, if you have a good … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (2)  | March 24, 2009
Category: Notes from the collective travel mind

Travel has had a mixed reputation over the years

“Travel, of course, is far from being the privilege or prerogative of modern times. It is one of the earliest and oldest of man’s activities, its history coexistive with that of the race itself, a primary impulse of the human species and a major determinant of history. Whether as migration or exploration, science or pleasure, enforced displacement or irrational wanderlust, it has figured as a condition of every race and age, era or culture. So … Read more »

Posted by | Comments Off on Travel has had a mixed reputation over the years  | March 23, 2009
Category: Travel Quote of the Day

What was the first stop on your first RTW trip?

Planning and then taking a RTW trip is often talked about in sweeping generalizations. It’s all about the big picture, about embarking on an adventure of either very long or even perhaps unknown duration. But it has to start somewhere, right?

BootsnAll member Skylab is hitting the road for his first RTW trip in a few months, and has posted this question on the BootsnAll boards – what was the first stop on your … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (5)  | March 21, 2009
Category: Notes from the collective travel mind

Ditch the guidebook for a good website?

One long-time vagabonder told me, “At best, even current guidebooks are already 2 years out of date. The writer probably went there 2 years ago, and the publisher took a year to ready it for publication.”

When doing pre-trip research, finding a good website feels like striking gold.  This happened to me when I discovered Leif Pettersen’s travelogue.  I was planning a trip to … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (5)  | March 20, 2009
Category: General