Passport Rules Changing

by Erik Olsen on

Making my way to Canada this year to spend a week in the gloriously beautiful Canadian province of Newfoundland, I discovered a nasty little surprise. My wife and I got to the airport and discovered that Newfoundland requires Americans traveling there to bring a passport or birth certificate to enter by air from the United States. I had no idea. For years living in Seattle I came and went to Canada and needed only to show my drivers’ license. I was pretty damn upset because no one told us that the rules had changed, and so we had to go back and get our passports and needless to say, we missed our plane.

Well my hardies, the rules HAVE changed, although they have not taken effect Canada-wide quite yet, and when they do take effect, they will cover Mexico as well. Yes, visitors to the NAFTA states North and South will soon have to bring along passports to cross the country’s borders…well, the key is really getting back in. The rules take effect December 31 for air travelers to and from the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada.

A year later, on Dec. 31, 2007, the requirement will be extended to all land-based border crossings as well.

Now, this could be either a good thing or a bad thing.

It’s certainly a bad thing in that it makes going to Mexico and Canada a bigger pain in the buttocks. I keep my passport in a safe, locked place in my home, and I am just not sure that if I decide suddenly to take a road trip to Montreal that I’m going to remember it. I suppose I’ll have to. It may also be bad in that it might discourage Americans who want to travel “abroad” from going because they either a) don’t have passports or b) forgot them.

But perhaps we should look on the bright side. Maybe the new rules will inspire people who don’t yet have a passport to go out and get one. Given the rather awful statistics that say only 20 percent of Americans carry a passport (thus speaking loudly and clearly to our deficiencies as an internationally-aware, culturally sensitive nation) putting them in more Americans’ hands could very possibly help improve our awareness of those “others”, AKA foreigners, on the other side of the border.

By the way, Lonely Planet has been pushing this whole idea for a whle, and ,in fact, THIS is National Passport Month. So how’s that for good timing?

Peace Through People

by Adrienne Wilson on

This Sister Cities International site is one I’ve been meaning to get around to for a while as I saw this cool book Peace Through People and thought it might make for a nice gift. The book is a limited edition from what I can tell. Created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sister Cities International the inside holds stories and photos from sister city members on the movement and how it has helped create 50 years of global citizenship. Anything that says global citizenship always seems honkey-dory to me, but check it out for yourself. The book is priced at $39.95.

23 Years Old and on the Road

by Erik Olsen on

Oh, to be 23, free and on the road. To be able to travel around the world…AND, get this…to have a newspaper pay for it? Or at least, have them publish regular articles while you travel. Such is the life right now of 23-year old Haley Edwards, a world-weary gal, apparently fresh (or near so) from college and sharing her thoughts about the world with others.

Now, I could make all sorts of nasty quips here about how youth is wasted on the young, but that would certainly be an expression of envy. Those of us who also traveled in our youth for long periods know that being on the road is about as healthy an experience as exists for mind body and spirit. So good for young Haley.

Let’s see where young Haley went:

Haley’s stated purpose is to go to places that scare her. That places her first and foremost in Egypt with a camel named Michael Jackson <insert poor-taste hump joke here>, and then on to Israel, Jordan Kashmir andIndia.

And so it goes. The pieces here (though I confess I didn’t read them all, are thoughtful enough for a 23-year old. Needless to say, for most of us the joy of reading them comes from the vicarious remembrance of our own past travels. We are glad for Haley, but we read and hope and wonder if we, too, will be able to set out upon the world again someday so free and innocent and hopeful.

Naw, I doubt it.

Great Book: The Smaller Majority

by Erik Olsen on

I posted about this wonderful book way back when, but just dusted it off from my bookshelf and wanted to mention in again. The fact is, most of us who live in cities easily forget how much of the world is occupied by millions of little creatures who fill the forests, oceans, deserts, and so on across the globe. One scientist/photographer knows ths well, and he has published a lovely book of his photos about this little world of critters.

Called The Smaller Majority the book really lays out in the most vivid color how amazing the world beneath our noses really is. The book is the work of Piotr Naskrecki, the Director of the Invertebrate Diversity Initiative of Conservation International and Research Associate with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. His 268 page coffee table-style book is filled with some of the most amazing images you will ever see. Really nice.

Speaking at Budget Travel Blogger Gig

by Erik Olsen on

Don’t know how many gadling readers will be around in the next two weeks or so, but the good folks over at Budget Travel have invited me to be a panelist for an upcoming round table they are hosting about blogging and travel. Called How Have Bloggers Changed the Travel Landscape? the event will coincide (not coincidentally, I might add) with the first anniversary of Budget Travel online, the sleek and informative companion to the travel-focused glossy.

Featured bloggers are yours truly, Mark G. Johnson of HotelChatter, Randy Petersen of InsideFlyer, and Joshua David Stein of Gridskipper.

What are we going to talk about? Why, blogging of course, and how bloggers have pretty much altered the course of history, how we have saved millions of lives, cured cancer and established an intergalactic system of peace and justice. And don’t get me started about the work I’ve done with Poincaré’s conjecture. I mean, I knocked that thing out of the park one day hungover at breakfast. Wrote it down on the back of a bagel…which I then ate. Yum.

Anyway, are you interested? Then come check it out. The event takes place on on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City.