 |
|
Barrier highway, Broken Hill, by amandabhslater on Flickr
Do you yearn for the red desert of the isolated Australian outback? Want a weird experience that might lead you to a promising career choice? Consider delivering the mail (for a day) on a 550 km (that’s 342 miles, for Americans) round trip leaving from Broken Hill, NSW, a town familiar to anyone who’s ever watched an Australian movie set in some desolate outpost of civilization.
To do the trip yourself: The Bush Mail Run departs from Broken Hill, NSW every Wednesday and Saturday morning at around 7am. Bookings must be made in advance – call 08 8087 2164 or visit www.visitbrokenhill.com.au. The run can accommodate a maximum of four passengers, and the experience costs $120 Australian ($106 USD) per person.
The legendary Venice Carnival started last Saturday, and will rage for 10 days before culminating in Fat Tuesday, on February 16th. The streets and public squares of the city will be packed with seemingly endless live entertainment. Grab your masks and sit back and enjoy music and dancing, trapeze and tightrope walkers, acrobats, theater performances, and puppet shows.
The Venetian carnival mask is the unofficial staple of the event. Traditionally used to protect the wearers identity during this week of debauchery and revelry, today no one’s carnival attire is complete without one of these extravagant pieces.
The carnival’s history can be traced back before the 1300s when the day before Lent was declared a public holiday. While the carnival is in large part a tourist-oriented event these days, it would be foolish to let this stop you from taking part in such a long tradition.
Hostels on the Island of Venice are notoriously more expensive than those found elsewhere throughout Europe and Italy. However, cheaper hostels and hotels can be found in surrounding areas such as Mestre, Marghera, and Zelarino. A short 10-20 minute bus ride from these areas will drop you right at the main bus terminal on the island.
For travelers in Italy and the surrounding region, Venice’s epic carnival is not to be missed. Enjoy a Venetian Fritelle, that sweet carnival specialty. Grab a cup of gelato and escape by waterbus to Lido, and watch carnival shenanigans by the Adriatic Sea.
More information about the carnival, including a detailed time line of events, can be found here.
“The best kind of travel involves a particular state of mind, in which one is not merely open to the occurrence of the unexpected, but to deep involvement in the unexpected, indeed, open to the possibility of having one’s life changed forever by a chance encounter.”
–Elisabeth Eaves, “Wanderlust,” World Hum, Feb. 12, 2009
Around the BootsnAll office we’re always dreaming about our next adventure – usually even before we’ve unpacked our bags from the last one. Come February each year, we’re already plotting trips to warmer climates in order to focus on something other than the typically gray Portland weather.
For most of us, we’re thinking in terms of a quick getaway to someplace sunny or reminiscing about spring break trips of our youth – but we love hearing about the more long-term trips that people are planning. And since we’re not the only ones who get the travel itch around this time of year, we’re hearing about it more and more lately.
Even if you’re not starting your RTW trip this month, getting a plan in place may help you escape the winter doldrums – especially if your RTW itinerary includes places that provide a healthy dose of sunshine, like many of the destinations on this month’s special itineraries.
Here are the new special deals on multi-stop airline tickets available through BootsnAll – these deals are good through February 28, 2010:
None of those itineraries exactly what you had in mind for your dream trip? No worries – set up your own custom itinerary with our round the world trip planner. At the very least it’s a fun lunchtime diversion from your cubicle, and at most it’s an exciting introduction to a whole new life.
When you’re researching a trip, it’s not always easy to determine whether your tour operator or hotel cares about sustainable travel. And when you’re paying a middleman instead of giving your money straight to a business in your destination, you may not know how much of that money goes to the local communities.
Some tour operators know an area after traveling there for years, but if anyone knows an area or destination best, it’s the folks who live there. When I’m interested in taking a tour—even just for a short period of time—I usually try to find locally sourced groups first.
A U.K.-based website, PureTravel, partners with local experts and enthusiasts in locations throughout the world—so you know where your dollars are going. And booking direct can help you save money. In addition to organized tours, the company also lists hotels, lodges, villas and ranches for folks who would rather figure out what to do once they’re on site.
Some countries have more information listed than others, so it’s clear that the company is working to build its contacts, but it’s definitely worth a look. Because I recognize some of PureTravel’s partners and I appreciate the company’s goals about responsible tourism, I’m adding it to my travel bookmarks.
Do any of you have great sustainable travel resources? Share them in the comments section!
Hong Kong's "Symphony of Lights." Photo: China Daily BBS
New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Asia’s metropolises never slow down. A new Web site sets out to cover these hip urban machines: CNNGo.
It currently covers six cities: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. CNNGo says they might expand to cover more cities in the future.
What’s better is that they welcome stories and photos from contributors. Check out the info here: Write for CNNGo. Worth checking out if you want more exposure for your photos and travel writing.
Asia expats will probably have some quibbles over which cities got chosen to be covered. Personally, I’m a bit peeved that Kuala Lumpur isn’t on the list. It’s one of the most vibrant and multicultural cities in the region. Seoul also seems to riding the “Korean Wave” of popularity and is noticeably absent from the Web site.
Got any favorite Asian cities you wish were covered? What Web sites do you use to stay abreast of what’s on?
Granada, Nicaragua
One morning in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as I sipped coffee in the pleasant open-air environment of the Foreign Correspondents Club, I read this: “Yeay Mao was a strongly passionate, sexy woman who always needed a penis. So after she died her spirit still likes the penis, and people bring her offerings of wood or stone penises.”
Yes, the morning was off to a fine start, for in my hand was the Phnom Penh Post, an English-language paper that in so many ways would shed light on the nation I was passing through. As a traveler who didn’t speak Khmer, I could still get around just fine in Cambodia. But I’d have been fooling myself if I thought I “knew” Cambodia just because I could get around. The excerpt above, for example, came from an article titled “Sexy legend behind the travel shrine on Route 4.” Route 4 connected Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, a road I had recently traveled. But at the time I knew nothing of this shrine. When my bus trundled past I saw only generic joss sticks and praying, but I imagine the Cambodians in the bus knew that this was the Yeay Mao shrine, and that they knew something of the legend behind it.
Other articles in this issue of the Phnom Penh Post (January 30-February 12, 2004) informed me about the tragic assassination of Chea Vichea, a trade union leader, a mile or so north of my hostel. One article had the headline “The begging question: to give or not to give?” and featured the opinions of several prominent local personalities on the issue. I learned how shadow theater was being used to educate villagers about HIV (”When the amorous shadow puppet waves away a big shadow condom during his meeting with a prostitute, a spiky HIV germ chases him down and there is a gentle sigh of disappointment from the crowd.”), and was fascinated to scan the police blotter (”The victim was Hang Yoeun, 40, a construction worker, who was knifed twice in the face and then his head cut off while drinking palm juice with his three other neighbors.”).
A passing traveler will never “know” a country in the way a local or a long-term resident will. But picking up a newspaper is one way to grow in knowledge of a place, as well as a nice accompaniment to a cup of coffee. For a partial list of English-language papers around the world, visit Yahoo’s newspaper directory sorted by country.
Quite a few vagabonders that I’ve talked to in the last couple of months are Asia-bound this year, so this promotion just announced by Cathay Pacific may offer some interesting travel options from the U.S.
The 2010 All Asia Pass, starting at $1599, not including $180 in taxes. This package includes round-trip air fare from LAX, SFO, or NYC to Hong Kong, with two stopovers at any of 42 basic destinations. There are of course some caveats and addons to this that increase the fare, such as;
One should certainly price other options when planning your Asia travel, but there could be savings to be found with this promotion. The best thing about it is that they are running it all year, until Dec. 7, until seats run out.
First, decide you’re going to go.
The untraveled route is the route you haven’t taken yet. Or maybe it’s your old route with new eyes.
Go on foot. Bike. Horse. Rollerblade, skateboard, pogo stick.
Start climbing from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port or descending from Roncesvalles — it really doesn’t matter. Avoid the debate and start in Pamplona. Start in Burgos or Vézelay, León or Le Puy. Start from Taizé with a chant in your head.
Go from Granada and ascend the Mozárabe, or north from Sevilla on the Vía de la Plata — or start where they merge at Mérida.
Start in Lisbon or Lubin, Lagos or Lund. Throw a dart and choose randomly. Start in Sarria and walk the last 100km. Start in Lavacolla, only 10k away.
After the war, walk to Kanyakumari, then turn and walk back to the far tip of Spain. That’s what Diego did.
Start in California, walk to the Atlantic, fly to Portugal, pass through Santiago and continue on to wherever.
Go well-prepared in the winter and hope for the best. Or walk into Santiago with the throngs on St. James’ Day, Sunday, July 25.
Try ten miles max per day for at least a day.
Go when you’re 60. Or 72. Or now.
Walk out your front door and keep on walking.
Just go.
The BBC says: “No-one sees the world the way you do. BBC World Service wants to see things from your perspective – and create a unique picture of our lives today across the planet.”
Here’s the rest of the info, including the link to enter the competition.
We are asking you to use any camera you can find – a mobile phone, a point-and-click, or a friend’s camcorder – and shoot a two-minute documentary with the theme My World.
We are looking for original films that you think the world should know about and will shortlist films that are emotionally touching, important or visually impactful.
The best will then be selected by a panel of the world’s top documentary makers and assembled into sequences showing the stories of each continent.
About the competition
You can interpret the MyWorld theme any way you choose. Your film could be a compelling personal story, tell of a place that is changing, or document the joy or difficulty of your work life.
Each film must be relevant to one of the five major continents – Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania – and must be tagged as such. You can shoot a single shot documentary, if appropriate to your story, or edit your film with any editing software available to you.
A selection of all work received may be shown on TV and online and an ultimate winner will be selected based on the judging criteria.
After submissions close, five prestigious MyWorld curators will each be assigned films from a particular continent. From each, they will choose and assemble a sequence of up to ten of the best films creating a fascinating portrait of the world today.
Finally each of the five curated sequences will be available to view online and on BBC World News. An overall winner will then be chosen and receive a prize of a semi-professional HD mini DV camcorder.
