I randomly managed to catch the travel blog roundup in this weekend's USA Today , but what I failed to notice until the middle of this week is that I also had a travel column in last weekend's San Francisco Chronicle . Entiitled " Native eye for the tourist guy ", my essay is a...

In recent months I haven't had much of an opportunity to read American newspapers, but yesterday morning I got a copy of USA Today in Natchez, Mississippi and was happy to see Vagablogging mentioned in a roundup of travel blogs in Laura Bly's Virtual Voyager column . Personal faves World Hum and Bootsnall were mentioned...

This week, a new travel essay of mine went online at World Hum . It's entitled Lost in the Translation -- and it humorously describes how the U.S. Army's new electronic translation device will result in all kinds of confusion once it lands in the hands of independent travelers. "If there's a bright side to...

I have a short feature about elephant polo in the January 2004 edition of Conde Nast Traveler . Entitled " A Jolly Good Excuse for a Party ", the story is a humorous recounting of the 2002 King's Cup elephant polo tournament in Hua Hin, Thailand. "Imagine a Grand Prix auto race with school buses,"...

[Above: Rolf in the coastal desert of Peru.] One again, I am posting to apologize for not posting more -- but the good news behind this is that I've been having some great experiences on the road in Ecuador and Peru. Indeed, after nearly two months in Mexico and Central America, the Drive Around the...

This month, I am happy to be interviewed in Transitions Abroad , which for my money is the single most useful magazine out there for someone looking to spend long periods of time traveling, volunteering and working overseas. A slightly different version of this interview will appear later this year in the March 2004 print...

After a week of furious key-tapping in Costa Rica, my Slate "Well Traveled" series is now finished and online. The first installment of the series, which is entitled Virgin Trail: Travels in the Other Central America , went live today. At this moment, I'm due to hop a bus to Panama City to catch up...

My nephew, Cedar, who is four years old and lives on a farm in Kansas, wrote a book for me yesterday. Since he didn't know how to mail it to me as I make my way through Central America, his mother (my sister) transposed it into an email. I guess I'll have to wait a...

Reviews and profiles of Vagabonding are still trickling in, including a recent piece by Janet Fullwood in the Sacramento Bee . "Potts' advice about "earning to live, rather than living to earn" could be applied to many life goals," writes Fullwood. "In Vagabonding , he mixes meditations on travel with bits of philosophy and considerable...

Checking in once more -- from Mexico City this time -- to let everyone know that I

For the past four years, I've been privileged to have my stories appear in various travel award anthologies, including the Best American Travel Writing series -- but for some reason I've always been stymied by the Lowell Thomas Awards, the annual newspaper and magazine travel-section honors from the Society of American Travel Writers . In...

Ever since my story Storming 'The Beach' appeared as a main selection in Best American Travel Writing 2000 (which was edited by Bill Bryson) I've become mildly obsessed with the annual release of the Best American anthologies. And, since 2000, I've never quite made it into the main selections again. In 2001, three of my...

I just realized that in September I had short pieces in both National Geographic Traveler and National Geographic Adventure , yet I somehow went all month without blogging mention of them. The Traveler piece was a roundup on the magazine's World Legacy Awards in responsible tourism . I covered the "Destination Stewardship" award, which went...

In addition to getting a comprehensive checkup at Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital a few weeks ago, I also got a piece of glass surgically removed from my foot. How it got there in the first place is somewhat of a freak accident (something that, in retrospect, makes me appreciate the unambiguity of the walking-on-glass scene in...

September/October 2003 issue interview by Claire Smith Describe where you are right now

This month, I am interviewed about Vagabonding and the writing life in Student Traveler magazine. I've blogged an outtake from the interview below . Elsewhere this summer, I was interviewed in issue #5 of the excellent alternative travel magazine Motionsickness .

Contrary to earlier plans, I never made it back up to San Francisco yesterday. I'm currently in Santa Monica, with very little 'net access. I'll stay in LA (sans laptop) till Friday, and I hope to return to the Bay Area and continue my blog updates by the weekend.

I've covered a lot of ground in Asia and North America since my last serious round of blog updates. My return home started in my jungle hometown (now former jungle hometown) of Ranong , where I moved out of my apartment and headed for Bangkok , where -- in addition to scoring a cheap one-way...

I've been back in the United States for well over a week now. Been busy catching up with family and friends in Kansas. This afternoon I fly to San Francisco, where I'll be living for the next couple months. Daily updates to resume on Monday.

Starting today, I'll once again be in motion -- first to Bangkok, then to San Francisco, then to see my family in Kansas (a part of the United States which was recently proven to be literally flatter than a pancake ), then back to San Francisco to prepare for some more adventures. This transit --...