The Payphone Project

by Adrienne Wilson on

I once took a very spectacular photo of a friend of mine at a payphone in Barcelona and as gorgeous as she is, it was the payphone that surprisingly stood out. Thinking back on that particular shot I could see how one could develop a habit of photographing phone booths across the world. It was so foreign, so exotic and so un-American and I captured it all by accident. But that’s just Barcelona and surely there are more striking, alluring, photo-worthy booths around the globe in places like Sri Lanka, Oman and maybe even Estonia.

Well thanks to Jim Benning over at WorldHum, I’ve recently learned of the Payphone Project. He notes that the site began as a way to promote “random contacts among complete strangers” by publishing the numbers of payphones around the United States and encouraging people to call them. Today the website has grown into something bigger and is the virtual home or gallery of payphone photos from Peru, Senegal and Antarctica!

I’d say it’s a wonderfully unique project, but you decide for yourself and tell us what you think. Waste of travel planning time or mini world travel masterpieces?

Tajik Air – Party Plane

by Adrienne Wilson on

There are certain travel stories you hear about and instantly grow insanely jealous that you didn’t get the opportunity to experience them first-hand. If you recall I opted out of meeting my other travel companions in Moscow to fly through Istanbul to Dushanbe on Turkish Air. My main reason for doing so was to avoid the additional transit Russian visa fees and besides it was far out of the way. In the process of avoiding flying Russia’s friendly skies I apparently missed out on one of the wackiest flights of a lifetime. Reports from two parties confirm Tajik Air is somewhat of a party plane.

How-so? Well, for music you’ll be graced with the sounds of hundreds of cell phone ringtones as provided by your in-flight mobile phone DJ. Don’t count on sleeping. If you’re a pretty foreigner, do count on having your picture taken by the mobile phone DJ who has a built in camera on their phone. If you’re extra glamorous in their eyes you will also have your head patted during the flight. Just when things really start to shake up things will not only shift in the overhead bins, the overhead bins as well as the roof compartment will open. Please, no sudden moves.

The second report I received from a Nat Geo guy noted smoking on board was okay, beer guzzling and shirtless back massages were additionally “A-OK.” Did the flight attendants care? Nope. Was all this really real? How I would have loved to been a fly on the wall.

Miss Tourism World 2006

by Adrienne Wilson on

Um, yeah. Someone please explain Miss Tourism World to me because I do not quite comprehend. Call me slow if you like, but what exactly are the qualifications? Is this another pageant dedicated to nothing other than beauty or does Miss Tourism World have some type of hospitality background as well? Are they roving vagabonds, tour guides, or translators in everyday life? I wonder if any of the contestants are travel bloggers, hmm?

Anyhow, if you’re interested in seeing a slew of exotic beauties duke it out for the title of Miss Tourism World 2006, mark October 5th on your calendars and tune in. World finals will be held in South Africa, but should one not be fortunate enough to root their favorite on in person, you can do so by watching the live web stream. Check out all the pretty contestants here.

Last year’s winner was Zuzana Putnarova from the Czech Republic.

via meniki.com

Racing Chariots in Jordan

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s one of those rather odd posts that make you do a double-take just before you say, yeah, that’s actually rather cool.

A young Swede named Stellan Lind has gone to Jordan to recreate chariot races for tourists. Lind is a former executive in the pharmaceutical industry who was so entranced by the chariot scenes in the film Ben Hur that he headed to the Middle East and petitioned the government to allow him to establish a company that does recreations of the chariot races amid the ancient ruins of Jaresh, Jordan.

The show is known as “The Roman Army and Chariot Experience” or simply by its acronym RACE and features former Jordanian soldiers who play gladiators and compete in chariot races. Lind (perhaps a bit full of himself) oversees the races wearing a toga and a purple sash. He has yet to bring together lions and Christians, but perhaps it’s only a matter of time. There is also a story about it on NPR.

Being Invisible in Foreign Countries

by Adrienne Wilson on

Perhaps my days of traveling abroad are numbered. Wait, no, never. First, let me say hello and I’m back from my three week jaunt through Central Asia or more specifically the Republic of Tajikistan. I’ll get to the meat of the matter on why I was there and what I was doing over the coming days, but it was a real experience to say the least.

My first two weeks strolling Rudaki, the main drag running through the capital city of Dushanbe were pretty cool. As a foreigner I stuck out as one would expect and children, women, and men all stared as I’d pass by. Even if they didn’t look directly at me I could feel the amount of effort it took for them to walk by without glancing my way burning off their being. Maybe the handful of stares I was getting had me paranoid. I started thinking everyone was starring at me. By my final days of the third week I was wishing only to blend in, to go unnoticed as I ducked into internet cafes and to be invisible on foreign streets. Was it too much to ask?

As an African-American woman traveling I never know what I’m going to get or what to expect. For starters there is very little diversity in Tajikistan and black people are an extreme rarity. (I counted 7 total during my time there.) And there are several very clear occasions were I found my presence was shocking more of the locals than their culture, appearance, or environment was shocking me. For instance:

  • During the 15th Independence Day celebrations on September 9 many Tajiks were more interested in taking pictures of my hairstyle and me than watching the show. The KGB ran into the stands where we seated to swat the young boys with camera phones away.
  • Young children chased me down the street with camera phones trying to snap my photo. (I wondered about their age and why they had cell phones anyway.)

A lot of people asked if I was African, Ethiopian, or Canadian and basically guessed anything but American. One guy I knew joked saying they probably thought I was a rapper as it’s pretty popular among the youngsters, but by that time I was just a wee-bit tired. “Okay, the freak show is over you can all move along now,” I thought. Please don’t mistake this rant for a sob story of sorts. I’m sure the same feeling comes over Caucasians trekking through Africa over periods of time. I don’t know. Does it? Have you ever been burnt out on being the odd man out in your travels?

Travel learning experience for me: Being the center of attention is swell on occasion, but no one wants to be gawked at everytime they open their front door.