The other pyramids of Africa

by Sean McLachlan on


This desert land was once home to a great empire that built giant temples in honor of strange, animal-headed gods and memorialized their rulers with pyramids. It had one of the most advanced civilizations of its time and was known throughout the ancient world.

Egypt? No, Sudan.

The Kingdom of Kush in what is now Sudan built great cities and traded the products of its large and expert iron industry as far away as India and China. It lasted from about 1000 BC to 350 AD before finally being conquered by the Empire of Axum in Ethiopia. For almost a hundred years from 747-656 BC, the Kushites ruled Egypt as the twenty-fifth dynasty.

A new exhibit at the Louvre in Paris is the first to focus on Meroë, the capital of Kush in its later period and home to more than two hundred pyramids, some of which are shown in this photo. Meroe: Empire on the Nile showcases works of Meroitic art that help us understand the daily life, religion, and social structure of this often-overlooked empire.

Meroe: Empire on the Nile runs until September 6, 2010. Many of the objects are loans from the Museum of Khartoum, so if you can’t make it to Paris before September, you can always go to Sudan and the see the objects, and the pyramids, for yourself. Last year The Wall Street Journal listed the country as one of the top five destinations for the super adventurous.

Image courtesy Sven-steffenarndt via Wikimedia Commons

Bhutan plans Gross National Happiness center

by Sean McLachlan on

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is famous for its government policy of measure progress not by Gross National Product, but by Gross National Happiness. The brainchild of former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, it puts the well-being of the general population at the forefront of national policy.

Of course this is an ideal, and Bhutan is a poor country. A recent series of suicides has shocked the nation and now the government is planning a Gross National Happiness center to help improve the people’s morale.

The Prime Minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley has already visited the proposed site, a 45 acre pine forest, and said in a newspaper interview that the center would, “become home for the promotion and practice of happiness, by establishing a facility where people from all walks of life can come and stay to imbibe the sense of happiness.”

Bhutan is a favorite destination for trekkers and adventure travelers attracted by the beautiful and rugged mountains and traditional lifestyle, perfectly captured in one of our old Photo of the Day entries. For more photos of Bhutan, check out BluePeak’s excellent series of images on Flickr, such as this one showing a monk who seems to have his happiness in order.

Here’s hoping that travelers will soon have a place to practice improving their own happiness.

Travel Trends: Train travel in the USA

by Gadling Staff on

Paul Theroux, the great American travel writer, once said, “Almost anything is possible in a train” — and that still holds true today. While the U.S. has not embraced rail travel as a primary means of transportation for several decades, a resurgence is growing. Passengers frustrated with airline delays and rising costs, the high cost of gasoline and road construction are beginning to give train travel another look.

These Aren’t Your Parent’s Trains
Without a lot of fanfare, Amtrak, which operates most of the passenger rail system in the U.S., has quietly been making small improvements. While capacity and routes have actually decreased since 1985, today’s passenger trains tout high-speed wireless access (on some routes), no baggage fees for up to three checked bags and the ability to bring golf clubs, bicycles and ski equipment. Some business class seats also have electrical outlets, conference tables and complimentary newspapers.

On longer routes there are dining and sleeping cars offering first class dining and turn down service. An Auto Train which runs from Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida allows passengers to bring their vehicle along for the ride. It is arguably the longest passenger train in the world and is pitched as a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly alternative to driving for families on the East Coast heading down to Disney World.

Improvements for 2010 and Beyond
According to Bruce Richardson, President of the United Rail Passenger Alliance, “Even if train travel evolves at lightning speed over the next 10 years, it will still not be at the same point in North America it was in 1956.” The U.S. is severely behind other nations in providing high speed rail infrastructure and Americans are just now beginning to consider it as a mode of transportation again.

In looking at statistics provided by the Federal Railroad Administration, rail travel has fairly consistently increased over the past 25 years (see below). While there are no federally-approved forecasted numbers for 2010 and beyond, the expectation is that passenger rail travel will continue to increase every year. (For the purposes of this article, Gadling forecasted passenger traffic for 2010 and 2011, as shown in the graph below.)


As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Federal Government allocated $8 billion for high-speed and intercity passenger rail (HSIPR). In addition to that, the HSIPR Program includes an additional $92 million from an existing state grant program (see below for the allocation of money by state).Unfortunately, most of this money is going to a backlog of rehabilitations and upgrades of old Amtrak routes that have been needed for years — rather than to new routes — and some of the money is being spent on new maintenance facilities as well as IT projects. But still, improvements are being made:

  • In California, the Pacific Surfliner Route which runs from San Diego to San Luis Obispo with stops in Los Angeles is getting $51 million to build a new track between Fullerton and Commerce to ease congestion and upgrade the speed to 110 mph.
  • A whopping $590 million is allocated to the Cascade Service route which goes from Eugene, OR to Seattle, WA with routes to Portland, OR. Infrastructure improvements will allow for 2 additional round trips from Seattle to Portland (there are currently 4).
  • A few new routes are in the works. The Hiawatha route from Milwaukee to Madison, Wisconsin will be extended and have 3 new stations in Brookfield, Oconomowoc and Watertown. A new 3C Route in Ohio will go from Cleveland to Columbus to Dayton and Cincinnati.
  • Other existing routes are getting signals, stations and other infrastructure type improvements.

So where do these improvements leave us? We’re still way behind where we need to be for Americans to consider rail travel as a cost effective, first-choice of transportation. Existing routes need to be extended, more daily frequencies added and new long distance routes implemented. Amtrak routes that were discontinued in the 1990’s such as the Sunset Limited, which ran from New Orleans to Orlando, and the Desert Wind route between Chicago and Los Angeles need to be put back into operation to give travelers enough choices to ride the rails.

Data sources:

See more Travel Trends.

Somaliland: the next big adventure travel destination?

by Sean McLachlan on

Can a country that doesn’t officially exist develop a tourism industry? Some entrepreneurs in Somaliland think so.

Abdi Abdi, owner of the Oriental Hotel in Hargeisa, already runs a tour company. Other hotel owners are following suit and experimenting with special tours. Abdi Abdi offers home stays with nomad families. Hassan Ahmed Hussein, owner of the Hadhwanaag Hotel and Restaurant, is considering offering camel tours and boating trips. Both want to put Somaliland on the map for adventure travel.

Somaliland certainly has some strong points. The prehistoric painted caves of Laas Geel are the star attraction. They’re as beautiful as the more famous caves of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain, with the added bonus that they’re actually open to the public. I’ve traveled to thirty countries, and worked as an archaeologist in four, and Laas Geel is perhaps the most impressive archaeological site I’ve ever seen. It certainly ranks in the top five, along with the Pyramids of Giza, Karnak, Machu Picchu, and Avebury.

Not only are the paintings in a wonderful state of preservation, but the desolate landscape, with only one or two nomad’s shelters within view, adds to the atmosphere. In my opinion Laas Geel should not be developed, simply guarded and left in its natural state. The Somaliland government has already taken steps to protect the site and should leave well enough alone. Too many archaeological treasures have lost their atmosphere through “improvements” such as visitor’s centers and parking lots.

As shown on the site Somali Heritage, there are plenty of other ancient remains that could become tourist attractions once they’ve been properly studied. There are medieval forts and settlements, colonial remains from Ottoman and British times, and more painted caves like those at Laas Geel.Beyond history, there’s the capital Hargeisa and its camel market, as well as incredible scuba diving in Berbera. At the moment, though, lack of international recognition and the common confusion between Somaliland and Somalia will keep many potential visitors from ever considering Somaliland. Plus this is still a volatile region. Foreigners are advised to have a bodyguard when venturing outside the capital, and a few days ago a border skirmish with Ethiopia left 13 dead. Then there’s the on-again, off-again border dispute with neighboring Puntland.

These problems will keep most people away, but will attract others. Somaliland has to be careful not to attract the wrong kind of tourist, thrill seekers enchanted by the guns and the burnt-out tanks and the legal drugs. I’ve met way too many of these people on the road, and they tend to leave a bad reputation in their wake. The best part of traveling in Somaliland is the Somalis themselves. They’re unaccustomed to tourists and thus their warmth and hospitality have been untarnished by bad interactions with obnoxious foreigners. This could so easily change.

Take the example of Egypt, which has been a tourist destination since the days of Heroditus. Visitors to any of the great sites (and they’re so awesome they truly must be seen) will be constantly harassed, hurried, propositioned, screamed at for tips, and hustled. This leaves many visitors with the impression that Egyptians are all a bunch of hucksters who are only interested in quick cash.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Once a visitor breaks through the vile crust of touts, he’ll find the Egyptians warm, welcoming, funny, and great company. The images of the Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings are etched forever in my mind, but my fondest memories of Egypt are sitting on the banks of the Nile in the small town of Minya chatting with some students, and sipping coffee in backstreet cafes in Cairo. A foreign visitor to Egypt should take time to meet the Egyptians. This helps the reputation of both countries.

At the moment Somali people are wide open. It’s up to every foreign visitor and the Somalis themselves to keep the communication more about exchanging goodwill and knowledge than exchanging money for thrills.

In the short term Somaliland will remain an adventurous side trip from Ethiopia, but as the infrastructure improves and more people learn about its attractions, the nation will get more visitors. As a travel writer I have to wonder about my own role in all of this. My series on Somaliland has been one of the first, if not the first, on a major travel website. I’m helping to set the ball rolling. When I visit Somaliland again in a few years time, or perhaps even next year since I’m anxious to get back to Harar, will I see a change? And will it be for the better or for the worse?

Don’t miss the rest of my series on travel in Somaliland.

Healthy travel: a tip list

by Laurel Miller on

You can never have too much travel advice, in my opinion. You can have bad travel advice, but the folks at online travel news site eTurboNews have compiled a great list of tips designed to help you keep your arteries unclogged and your spine in alignment while you fly or road-trip this summer. Nothing new or ground-breaking, but definitely worth repeating.

Part of the list is dedicated to finding more nutritious alternatives to fatty, sodium-laden airport and airline fare. Since childhood, I’ve possessed a deep phobia of airline food, so I’ve always brought my own in-flight meals. Now that tight-fisted domestic airlines are depriving passengers of even a bag of pretzels, all the more reason to hit the grocery store the day before you travel. If you frequently travel last-minute, make sure you keep a stash of healthy snacks, such as unsweetened dried fruit, granola bars, or nuts in the pantry so you can grab-and-go.

There’s good advice, too, on little things you can do to avoid tweaking your back or neck, and preventing those unsightly varicose veins. I would add that deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a much more serious, life-threatening issue on long-haul flights. Get up once an hour and take a lap around the plane, and move your legs by doing some stretches in your seat. Happy, unbloated, limber travels!

[Via shine.yahoo.com]