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November 30, 2004

What should one bring when vagabonding?

Adam from New York writes to ask: "What are the intricacies of packing for an extended period of solo vagabonding?...
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November 29, 2004

Dean MacCannell on the modern v. the non-modern world

"No other major social structural distinction (certainly not that between the classes) has received such massive reinforcement as the ideological...
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November 24, 2004

Help me fight Parkinson's Disease

Vagablogging readers might recall that I won a Lowell Thomas Award earlier this year for "Virgin Trail", my Central America...
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November 23, 2004

Pico Iyer on the advantages of traveling alone

"When you travel alone you quickly find that you make many more friends because people invite you into their lives...
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November 22, 2004

Volunteering overseas versus working to earn more travel money

James from Orlando wrote to pose this question: "I might have a chance to teach English in Spain. I will...
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November 19, 2004

Believe it or not, this is legal tender (sort of)

Front Back I received the above 2-rupee bill in a Shimla, India coffeeshop a few years ago. In all...
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November 18, 2004

Ryszard Kapuscinski on the limitations of conventional journalism

"It is not the story that is not getting expressed: it's what surrounds the story. The climate, the atmosphere of...
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November 17, 2004

Starbucks, censorship, and diversity in the heartland

Yesterday, I learned that my longtime friend Mike Marlett, who publishes an alternative newspaper called F5, has had his publication...
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November 16, 2004

Brad Newsham on why you should be "in the moment" as you travel

"When seeing a new place, I often think: I am going to come back here later -- when I am...
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November 15, 2004

AfricanAncestry.com

In Vagabonding, I address the various motivations for choosing a long-term travel destination. Ultimately, I tell people that it doesn't...
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November 12, 2004

Bill Bryson on the joy of foreign places

"Is there anything, apart from a really good chocolate cream pie and receiving a large unexpected check in the mail,...
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November 11, 2004

A sabbatical success story

I always enjoy getting letters and messages from Vagabonding readers who are making time for travel in their lives --...
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November 10, 2004

William Least Heat-Moon on how travel is a new beginning

"When you're traveling, you are what you are, right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against...
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November 09, 2004

Top-10 world-travel destination lists -- new and old

In the midst of more random Baja reading from The Book of Lists #2, I came across a 1980 list...
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November 08, 2004

Travelers need not be mere spectators

"You can go to a church and take a flash photograph of Michelangelo's Pieta or you can go to mass...
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November 05, 2004

Paul Theroux on the importance of traveling slowly

"Travel is transition, and at its best it is a journey from home, a setting forth. I hated parachuting into...
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November 04, 2004

Alexander's momma had stink-ass breath

"There was also dispute about [Alexander the Great's] parents. Much of this was posthumous legend; the Persians later fitted Alexander...
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November 03, 2004

Good advice for writing about your travels

"The well-worn adage to "write what you know" remains true, at least in the sense of knowing what interests you....
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November 02, 2004

Tom Miller interview at RolfPotts.com

This month at RolfPotts.com, I interview journalist Tom Miller, whose travel books include Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink, The Panama Hat...
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November 01, 2004

All hotels are surrogates for home

"All hotels are surrogates for home, some of them more luxurious, some of them less. Even the lowly ones we...
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