While no one has yet come up an atheist themed trip yet, there are plenty tourism operators that cater the to devout…or at least the devoutly curious. for example, a company called Global Passages offers a “in the Footsteps of Lord Buddha” package tour that takes you through a good part of India including Delhi and the Taj, and that in the end (of the trip, that is) deposits you in the mesmerizing city of Varanasi, which I can say first hand is one of the most fascinating and spiritual places you will ever visit. And that’s coming from a devout agnostic.
This piece over at Frommers takes a look at a host of other religion-based trips, and tries its best to cover the Big Three as well as a few others. No trips were listed for following in the tentacle steps of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but I imagine someones working on such a thing…perhaps in Italy.
Asia
Travel through Asia by country:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam
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Bangkok, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo
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Travel through Asia with our writers:
Infiltrating North Korea, Keyhole Into Burma, Band on the Run ... in China, Chinese Buffet, A Canadian in Beijing, Volunteer Vacation: Tajikistan
Japan’s Vinegar Bars
As a child my taste-buds had always been fond of vinegar. While my brother scrunched his face up as I poured it atop of my dishes, I kept munching on salt n’ vinegar chips, dousing it on homemade collard greens and naturally placed it on fish with chips. Without ever knowing vinegar was a good thing for the body, I simply kept it around because I liked it, but in Japan in turns out people have found more inventive ways to mix vinegar into drinks and desserts. This makes me stop in my tracks.
As much as I like vinegar I’ve never thought of drinking it in a beverage, but oh, how popular the Vinegar Bars and Cafes have become in Japan! The trend of drinking vinegar picked up in 2004 when people started to realize that is a good remedy to high blood pressure and from there started mixing it with soy milk in addition to orange and grapefruit fruit drinks. At Kurozu Bar in Tokyo’s Shinbashi Station interested foodies can get a blueberry vinegar shake or vinegar with blood orange juice beverage. That ought to cool you off on a hot day in the city if you can just get past the sound of the entire concoction.
First Pakistani Woman to Tour Space
Namira Salim is not an astronaut. She does music, art, sculpture and is a peace activist, but among all this she will become the first Pakistani woman to tour outer space. In 2008 she will set out with Virgin Galactic (sister company to Virgin Atlantic) as one of the good will ambassadors for the company. The lucky woman was chosen as a member of Virgin Galactic Founders Club out of some 40,000 registrants. I’m not sure who the other lucky space travelers will be as the story as featured on South Asia Biz only mentions Ms. Salim.
Now this isn’t to take any attention off of Namira Salim, but I do art, like music and consider myself a highly peaceful person and I’d like to go to space. You know, I’m just saying this in the event that Sir Richard Branson is reading right now. It never hurts to have alternates and I wonder if they have a blogger in their far-out crew? You know, I’m just going to open this whole thing up for anyone with some extra cash to burn and not just Mr. Branson – be the first to help send a real travel blogger into space. That would be me, Adrienne Wilson of course. Pretty please.
BT’s Movies That Inspire Travel
My favorite movie of all time also happens to be one of the movies that most inspires me to travel: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, I may be giving away state secrets here, but that movie rocked my world as a youngster and filled my head with notions of far off lands as places where exotic tribes keep hidden treasures and every encounter is fraught with excitement and a splash of danger.
But this is not the only film that gets me thinking about travel. There is also the English Patient, numerous Bond films, the Beach and Easy Rider, all of which use the particular place as a character in the set, the establishing stage upon which the events in these films transpire. Only one of these films I mention here made it onto Budget Travel’s list of great travel movies, perhaps a reflection of varied taste or just the sheer magnitude of possibilities, since so many films are shot overseas these days. But whatever the difference, I won’t quibble for the most part with what they’ve selected here.
It’s a fine list that includes both new films and old. And for me, at the very least the list made me realize I need to finally see the Whale Rider shot in New Zealand) since that makes the top spot on the list. Check it out for yourself here.
Caves–Not Just for Rent Anymore
We’ve seen, and blogged about, cave hotels. But if you’re so smitten by staying in a cave, why not buy one of your own? The Financial Times listed a few for purchase.
According to the article, a two-bedroom cave in Galera, Granada, Spain, is going for under 90,000 euros ($117,000 USD). If you don’t have that much to spend, you can try for the nice “restored” 13-room cave house with three bedrooms, in Urgup, Cappadocia, Turkey, for a modest 140,000 lira (about $95,000 USD).
While I wasn’t able to follow the links the article suggested, one link worked: escapeartist.com. And there, you can read about the eco-benefits of cave-dwelling. (W., eat your heart out!) I also clicked through to a link about a new “development” in Spain, offering different 2 and 3-bedroom model set-ups, starting at around $130,000 USD.