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June 29, 2004

True experience begins when we break out of our routines

"What is an experience? Something that breaks a polite routine and for a brief period allows us to witness things...
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June 25, 2004

Lawrence of Arabia: Wahabi Islam is a "fanatical heresy"

"The Wahabis, followers of a fanatical Moslem heresy, had impressed their strict rules on easy and civilized Kasim. In Kasim...
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June 24, 2004

The most untranslatable word in the world

Scholars and professional translators have determined that "ilunga" -- a word in the Bantu language of Tshiluba for a person...
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June 23, 2004

Living an authentic life in an age of image and spin

"I find the very image-conscious culture that we live in to be incredibly oppressive. ...It fascinates me, especially now in...
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June 22, 2004

A note on traveling with expensive cameras

At the Vagabonding.net Q&A, José Yanguas of Spain writes: "I love both traveling and photography, to the point that traveling...
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June 21, 2004

Shakespeare weighs in on the contradictions of travel

"A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad: I fear you have sold your own lands...
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June 18, 2004

Mohammad Khatami: Religion must not be hijacked by superficial literalists

"Nihilism as a mere philosophical indulgence may prove socially quite harmless. Nevertheless, what we are witnessing in the world today...
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June 16, 2004

We can see better what we don't have

"One archetype that hits me very forcefully, as it does many people, is that when I'm wandering around the Himalayas,...
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June 15, 2004

Hollywood predicted what the CIA didn't: A 9/11 omen from 1999

A current foray into screenwriting has me researching movie writing materials -- and a small item under "Pitch Sales" in...
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June 11, 2004

Time is your only possession (and you were born rich)

"To our so-called modern way of thinking, time is money. As a result, we all have very little time. ...It's...
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June 10, 2004

Tips from guidebook writers: Nystrom and Pariser

Over the last two months, I have featured a couple of guidebook writers at the RolfPotts.com Writers page – Lonely...
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June 09, 2004

Using ATMs overseas

A reader at the Vagabonding.net Q&A writes: "I receive a monthly pension that I intend use for my travel. What...
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June 08, 2004

Travel need not be "extreme" for it to affect your life

"Eventually I realized that many of the most important changes in my life had come about because of my travel...
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June 07, 2004

California (and Baja California) livin'

After a couple weeks of being all over the place, I'm now firmly back on the West Coast, once again...
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June 04, 2004

Live your time lavishly

"I don't pretend to understand what the physicists mean by time, but for people, it isn't so-and-so many measured units;...
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June 03, 2004

Samuel Huntington's theory on the "clash of civilizations"

"In class and ideological conflicts, the key question was "Which side are you on?" and people could and did choose...
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June 02, 2004

Another ode to Bangkok's Atlanta Hotel

The World Hum blog already beat me to the punch on this one, but it's worth mentioning again that Thomas...
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June 01, 2004

Elisabeth Eaves on the allure of travel

"I was obsessed with the idea of travel -- not so much to see specific places, but rather because I...
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