Newley Purnell recently posted his annual Bloggers’ Favorite Books listing, which includes favorite 2005 reads from the likes of Malcolm Gladwell , Boing Boing , Instapundit , and MoorishGirl . Newley also queried me about the most intriguing books I read in 2005, and this is what I told him: Three of the most enjoyable...

This month, I am the subject of an interview in the online travel magazine e-Marginalia . Reported by Nana Chen, the Q&A touches on such diverse topics as why I dedicated my book to two teachers, what I read growing up, why I kept my 1999-2001 vagabonding journey centered on Asia, how I balance reading...

A few weeks ago, Italian journalist Arianna Dagnino contacted me about a story she was writing for the weekly newsmagazine Lo Specchio (which, as an imprint of the major daily La Stampa , is more or less the Italian equivalent of the New York Times Magazine ). "I'm writing a story on the 'progressive militarization...

Today at the RolfPotts.com Writers page, I'm happy to debut an interview with author and filmmaker Robert Young Pelton , who has made a career out of traveling through the world's most dangerous places. His recent journeys have taken him to the siege of Grozny in Chechnya, the battle of Qala-I-Jangi in Afghanistan, and Baghdad's...

One of the most counterintuitive challenges of vagabonding is the inevitable return home. Indeed, as nice as it can be to trade in your passport and backpack for a familiar bed, hot showers and a fast internet connection, the transition to a settled life can be, well, unsettling . I dedicate an entire chapter of...

Over my Ask Rolf column at World Hum , Matt from Missouri asks: "I’m planning on visiting Southeast Asia and beyond for at least a year and would like to know how much money you’d recommend for my trip. I know the amount of money really depends on what the person traveling is willing to...

A couple weeks ago, an essay I posted here, The tourist is always the other guy , was linked from the "Nota Bene" section of Arts & Letters Daily . In addition to sending over 2000 new readers to this blog, my listing at Arts & Letters Daily was a thrill on a personal level,...

This month at the RolfPotts.com Travel Writers page, I interview travel guidebook writer Joshua Berman , whose Moon Handbooks: Belize recently won a Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers . You can follow his current round-the-world vagabonding journey at his Tranquilo Traveler blog . In the interview, Berman says that writing...

The latest Editor's Choice column at Frommers.com just gave me (and this blog) one of my best reviews of the year. "Award-winning travel writer Rolf Potts' blog is smart, funny, and original," writes Jennifer Anmuth, "and his connected website of stories and photos is a wealth of inspiration and ideas to get you going on...

This month at my RolfPotts.com Travel Writers page, I interview adventure scribe Shanti Sosienski , who has contributed to Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Men's Journal, FHM, Shape, Dandelion, Sports Illustrated Kids , and Stuff , among other titles. Personally, I can identify with Shanti's take on the business/promotion side of writing. "The problem with writing,"...

Over at my " Ask Rolf " column at World Hum , a reader from Sweden poses a question about making money as you travel. "My boyfriend and I are planning on traveling Europe by van," she writes. "I think we should save a lot of money before we go, but he thinks we should...

I've been monitoring the post-hurricane devastation and chaos in New Orleans this week with much apprehension and sadness. I rang in the 2005 New Year in New Orleans, and lived in the French Quarter for the first three months of this year. Moreover, I'd long planned to go there this week, en route to a...

My interview subject this month at the RolfPotts.com Travel Writers page is Peter Moore , who has been called "The Australian Bill Bryson." His books include The Wrong Way Home , which saw him traveling overland from London to Sydney, Swahili for the Broken-Hearted , an account of a journey from Cape Town to Cairo,...

This swimwear line , which is no joke, reminds me of an old In Living Color sketch, wherein Islamist swimsuit models wore bikinis over their burkhas . And, while I can appreciate the earnest desire of conservative Muslim women to find appropriate beachwear, I can't help but think that swimsuits are one aspect of human...

[ Above : Karl Rove takes one for the team.] Kansas expat cartoonist Travis Millard recently published a mini-zine on Fudge Factory Comics , entitled "Right Wing Conservatives Getting Racked" -- a title that amuses me less for political reasons than for its absurdist use of the old Midwestern slang for getting hit in the...

This blog (and my book Vagabonding ) got a nice mention in both Time Europe and https://www.time.com/time/asia/tga/article/0,13673,501050808-1088774,00.html">Time Asia this week, thanks to Graham Holliday's article " https://www.time.com/time/asia/tga/article/0,13673,501050808-1088774,00.html">Web of Knowledge ", which is a roundup of some of the best travel blogs online. "Vagablogging.net is a website created by Rolf Potts," the article states, "a renowned...

For those of you interested in funding your travels and getting published, here's a couple of new travel writing contest announcements: GoNOMAD.com announces a new Travel Writing Grant GoNOMAD.com is accepting applications for the second in a series of grants to help travel writers foster their craft. The first of these grants was awarded in...

This month at the RolfPotts.com Writers page, I interview C.M. Mayo , who is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico , and Sky Over El Nido , which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Mayo's travel writing has appeared in the Los Angeles...

Though blogs have long been a popular way for independent travelers to showcase their adventures online, it seems as if the travel-blogging concept has caught the attention of the travel and tourism industry as well. According to a recent CNN story , Pennsylvania's state tourism office has elected to promote its destinations by hosting a...

This is possibly the funniest, most disturbing thread I've ever seen on a travel message board. As Josh from Crabwalk.com notes, "'Cyclotourist' has a whiff of Ignatius J. Reilly [the character from Confederacy of Dunces ] about him -- if Ignatius were a better swearer."