One for the Road: Code Green

by Erik Olsen on

Travel, when done correctly, is all about discovery. You learn more about the world itself, its peoples and cultures, but also you learn about yourself. The committed vagabond throws himself into the world and seeks new experiences, tries to find fulfillment through travel. Of course, finding fulfillment can be tough. And so now the folks at Lonely Planet want to help. A new book called Code Green is out and is filled with excellent ideas to help you figure out what to do when you travel and how to help it enrich your life. Despite a cover that will scare the bejesus out of your parents, this seems like a very promising volume. The ideas are of a decidedly progressive bent, but all offer the opportunity to find greater fulfillment through travel. Here are a few of the suggestions:

  • Get up-close-and-personal with gorillas in Rwanda, lemurs in Madagascar and sea lions in the Galapagos.
  • Explore some of the world’s most magnificent wilderness, and see it through the eyes of the Dogon people of Mali, the Masai of Kenya or the Maori of New Zealand.
  • Tag turtles on the Great Barrier Reef, count macaws in Peru or learn to be a ranger in an Indian tiger sanctuary.

I’m bullish on this book and have added it to my personal travel library.

Latitudes Mag: June

by Erik Olsen on

t’s time yet again to call your attention to the wonderful Latitudes Magazine. I try to let y’all know about this pub each month because it really is one of the online standouts where travel is concerned. This month’s coverage takes a look at Tanzania, Alaska, Corsi and (believe it or not) Sao Paulo. The latter is one of the worst cities I’ve ever visited, but Latitudes actually makes it look inviting.

Lonely Planet's Passport Passion

by Erik Olsen on

Get out!

Is this the
terrifying scream of evil spirits inside your house. Nope, this is the call to action from the folks at Lonely Planet, who want nothing more
than for you to leave the country. You see, they are suggesting a really wonderful idea. By getting away, they suggest,
you do your own country some good. Not because we didn’t really want you here in the first place, but because when you
go abroad, you act as an ambassador of goodwill…assuming you’re not some loud, drunk, arrogant, hat-turned-backwards
frat-boy…in that case, we suggest you not only stay home, but go somewhere with all your friends and bang drums by
yourselves in the wilderness. Anyway, the LP points out (rightly) that American travelers can serve as "agents of
understanding, tolerance and mutual respect " as they travel out into the world and interact with people in other
nations. But they also say that just 23% of Americans have passports. Could that be true? My, that’s a low number.

Well I for one couldn’t agree more that travel helps you and helps others know you. Nothing will make this
world a more lovely place than greater mutual understanding. It’s much harder to hate someone you know than it is to
make up a blanket statement about them and channel all your personal fears and hang-ups into a self-created image…if
you don’t mind me getting psychological on your a$$es for a moment.

Anyway, take the LP advice. If you don’t
have a passport now, go get one. You’ll be doing all of us a favor.

World's Oddest Museums

by Erik Olsen on

Ah, the great museums of the world: the Louvre, the Met,
the Hermitage, the Sulabh International Museum of
Toilets. What? You’ve never heard of the toilet museum? And you call yourself cultured. Pshaw.

OK, I’d never heard of it either. Nor several of the other rather odd museums mentioned in this piece by Jason
Volker. Volker covers a lot of territory, spanning the globe in search of the weirdest places that people have
collected weird things and put them on display for (let’s admit it) weird people.

Also making the
list is the Meguro Parasitological Museum in Japan, and the
British Lawnmower Museum in Lancashire, the kind of place that Monty Python
fans would most definitely feel at home. So next time you’re in India, drop in on the toilet museum. I’ve always
wondered where all the toilets in India went.

National Geographic Roper Survey

by Erik Olsen on

Here is your chance dear Gadling readers to show that you are worldly aware, that you can put to shame the 60-plus percent of kids today who could not find Iraq on a map.

The National Geographic Roper survey of geographic literacy is online and awaiting your best effort. Me, I scored 17 out of 20. No kidding, I did. But, hey, that’s ’cause I read the damn paper every day … and I would have gotten more, too, if I watched more TV. And I guess I got lucky on a few of them. The fact is, it’s not all that hard, but give it a try yourself and feel free to post your score.