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Once upon a time in Okinawa people were so healthy and happy that many of them lived more than one hundred years. The legend says it was because of their special diet, the very active lifestyle (Okinawa is the motherland of Karate) and the strong sense of community that keep everyone together. Still today Okinawa enjoys not only the highest life expectancy but the world’s longest … Read more »
Cost/Day- 60 euros
After a few months on the road, it takes something fairly odd to catch a vagabonder off-guard, but seeing a man herding sheep from the back of a scooter certainly threw me for a loop. The sheep didn’t seem flustered by the portly man zipping in and out of the herd, hurrying them along the hilly roads of Mykonos in loud Greek, all the while … Read more »
In how many languages do you know how to say “hello”? If you can answer, “11 or more,” you qualify as a hyperpolyglot, according to this article in The Economist: Foreign Languages: The Gift of Tongues.
The article starts with a historical figure, Cardinal Mezzofanti of Bologna, Italy. He was famed as a master of languages. Native speakers … Read more »
Many moons ago I was flown to the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica to evaluate a business plan for horse tours on a 2,024 hectare family owned ranch. It has mangroves, jungle, two river estuaries and 3.5 km of undeveloped shoreline. The family was in the beginning stages of protecting a good chunk of that land as a nature preserve and wildlife refuge. At the time I knew very little about … Read more »
There has been a lot of talk on Vagablogging lately about the merits of slow travel and taking time to understand local culture when traveling. This was my goal when I came to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, to volunteer at an after-school program for a month, and I quickly discovered an even better, unexpected outlet for cultural immersion – Spanish school.
There are dozens of Spanish schools throughout Guatemala – and hundreds in Latin America overall … Read more »
A top goal if you’re living abroad as an expat is to pick up a new foreign language. Benny Lewis from Fluentin3Months.com came on an interview with the Expert Enough podcast show. He explained his rapid-fire approach to learning new languages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HlA6xv_yM6M
Lewis makes the point that you should avoid being too “academic” when studying. He stresses the importance of getting out on the street, conversing with locals, and … Read more »
“You’ll learn more in your first month of travel then in all your years in school.” I’ve heard this sentiment expressed by many vagabonders far and wide. Nothing will get you as interested in history, geography, art, architecture, economics, politics, and religion as being somewhere else. Names on a map become touchstones for memories and faces of friends made.
Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek (and former Vagablogging writer!) put down these thoughts in … Read more »
In 1946, Aloha Week was created by a group of Jaycees as a cultural celebration of Hawaii’s history, music and dance. Since then, it’s morphed into a variety of festivals including more than 300 events across six Hawaiian islands that are attended by a million people annually.
Even if you’re not already scheduled to be there, it’s not too late to make arrangements. The festivals are … Read more »
Perhaps you meant to spend a little more time studying Spanish before your trip, or if you did, your mind just happened to draw a blank the second you got yourself and your bags into the taxi.
¿A dónde quieres ir?
Uh… where’s that phrasebook?
Nothing’s better than speaking the language—even if you can’t do it perfectly. But … Read more »
Lahore, Pakistan
Anyone who travels will commit a cultural error from time to time. But generally speaking, if you want to err in such a way that a national uproar will ensue, it helps to be famous. Take the case of Princess Diana’s 1991 visit to Lahore, Pakistan.
Lahore, the … Read more »