Best American Travel Essays

by Erik Olsen on

I blogged a bit about a story in this book the other day, but realized the entire book itself is worthy of a quick post. I haven’t actually got my hands on it yet, but every year I do, and always I find it the most wonderful reading. I am talking about the series called Best American Travel stories. It is part of a much wider series of Best American books that cover essays on everything from science to mystery to crime and sports. In the case of the Best American Travel Stories, it is basically a hand-picked compendium of what the editor decides are the travel essays published in a particular year.

Last year’s book was edited by Jamaica Kincaid and featured contributions from luminary scribes like Jim Harrison, Madison Smartt Bell, Pam Houston, Simon Winchester, and John McPhee. This year’s promises to be a real treat. It was released just a week or so ago.

Edited by the always entertaining (and talented) Tim Cahill, the book features wanderlustful tales by the likes of Gary Shteyngart, George Saunders, Alain de Botton and (always funny) P.J. O’Rourke. The 2006 edition also seems to place special emphasis on food with an essay by Chitrita Banerji’s about a Calcutta wedding feast and Calvin Trillin’s New Yorker piece about spending a week in Ecuador indulging his love for “thick and hearty” fanesca soup.

I recall reading a couple of these stories over the year in mainstream rags like the New Yorker, but the cool thing about the Best American series is that they usually select a number of essays from spunky little literary mags that you’ve never heard of. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to get my hands on it ASAP.

Hong Kong Travel Essay

by Erik Olsen on

There are lots of places in the world I’d like to go, but there are significantly fewer where I’d like to live. I wish I could say I’ve lived more places. The experience of living abroad is one that every single American should experience at some point in his or her lifetime. And while I’ve had the opportunity to go a couple of great places and rent an apartment, shop at the local store, get to know some locals, one place I have not even visited is Hong Kong. But it is so high on my list of places I’d like to go that I always keep an eye out for articles on Hong Kong.

And so imagine my surprise as I was reading last night the 2006 Best American Essays (I get several books in this series every year and highly recommend them) and I came across this essay called City Out of Breath by Ken Chen. Beautifully-written, the essay is both a travel story and a voyage of discovery for Chen and his father, who find in Hong Kong a vibrant city of “energy and flashy contradictions”, an electric admixture of Asian and Western” where “walking becomes an act of silent storytelling, figuring people out.” I was surprised to see the essay in this particular collection because the Best American series already has a whole volume dedicated to travel, but I’m also glad I found it, because as I was sitting alone in my bad last night reading Chen’s essay, I was reminded once again how much Hong Kong appeals to me, how much I can’t wait to go there someday…or perhaps even to live there.

Volunteer Vacation Reviewed

by Adrienne Wilson on

Now that I’ve given you a week of blow-by-blow insider detail and a look at how fun volunteering while on vacation can be, let’s do a quick review. First question people always ask, “How can I do something like this or volunteer with Habitat for Humanity?” Joining a GV Team with Habitat for Humanity is usually the easiest part I find. Before signing up for the first plane to Uganda to help build homes start by learning about the organization. Habitat for Humanity International is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. Their mission is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. I was introduced long ago when I read an article in TeenPeople Magazine about Sarah Michelle Gellar doing GV builds in Dominican Republic. I was so inspired I immediately looked Habitat up and followed homeowner, volunteers and other participant stories on their website until taking off for my first build.

There are many ways to get involved with Habitat. Check out their Get Involved page to find an opportunity for you. Global Village builds often leave people wishing they had done more. AmeriCorps/VISTA has several long term programs (up to one year) with Habitat located in many different locations throughout the U.S. If travel to foreign lands to lend your hand is what you are after, head right to the Global Village Program. Search the list of available trips and then apply online or download the application to submit via post. From this point there are two roads you can take, possibly more if you are a sharp thinker. One road is to raise the money for your trip expenses by fundraising and other activities. The second road is to raise the money from your very own paycheck or savings. I’ve taken both roads and I’ll say the first is much better if you have the time and can be a great way to spread the word and get others involved with Habitat and their mission.

Once you’ve taken care of all of the above, you’re pretty much on your way to fun times and doing great things. Beyond all it’s one of the most rewarding ways to spend your time, energy and did I mention work hard!

If you missed the Volunteer Vacation installments you can catch up on them all here:

Space Tourist Anousheh Ansari Blogs

by Erik Olsen on

What does space smell like? That is a question that Einstein himself may have pondered. His equation is one of the lesser known, but certainly important ones of all time: S=fb2, where Smell (S) equals a universal funk constant (f) minus one’s body odor (b) squared. It is a brilliant piece of Einsteininan mathematics that has been used in the development of high energy particle physics and odor eaters.

OK, I took some scientific/poetic license there. It wasn’t Einstein who came up with the Universal Funk Quotient, it was Enrico Fermi. He was Italian. So what’s this got to do with anything? Well, here I was perusing the Web today, wondering what in the world…or out of it…would interest gadling readers, and then I came across the blog of the first woman space tourist.

Anousheh Ansari just got back from her most amazing trip to outer space aboard the Soyuz TMA-9, and boy is she happy. And why wouldn’t she be? For a mere $20 million, she was able to float around planet earth with little or no work to do (she was a tourist, remember) and then returned on Friday after 11-days aboard the international space station. She said, finishing up my thought from above, that space smelled like burnt-almonds. Of course, that may have just been the burnt-almond flavored air freshener that hangs in the windshield.

No matter. There are videos and photos and written words on her site ,and, of course if you Google her, there are a gazillion stories about the trip she made. But most of all, I suggest you take a look at the video and make note that she issues a personal thank you to YouTube. If that isn’t the most 21st century thing you’ve heard this year, I don’t know what is.

Wallpaper* City Guides

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just when you start to sleep on Wallpaper* they go and make their debut in the publishing world with these nice little City Guides. Their reason being, after 10 years in the game uncovering the best new design and urban travel spots globally, packaging that decade of experience into well-thought out yet simple guide books was only obviously. They make it clear that the traveler’s time is as important as their own and they don’t waste it chucking in massive quantities. It’s about quality and they very best. The first 20 were published this past September and another 20 will be published every six months after that. Current titles include Mexico City, Los Angeles, NYC, Madrid, Bangkok and Stockholm to name only a few.

The books can be purchased at Phaidon. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Stay tuned for the rest in 2007!