Gadling Take FIVE: Week of June 20-June 26

by Jamie Rhein on

With a week where we’ve added a new blogger to the Gadling fold, I didn’t want to pass up the chance formally give Stephen Greenwood a hearty welcome. He’s going to be dazzling us with posts from his current home in Hong Kong. Tune into his Dim Sum Dialogues.

This has been a busy weekend. With ComFEST, the mega community arts festival taking over Columbus’s Goodale Park and terrific weather for each day of it, it does indeed feel like these are the days to enjoy oneself.

Here are five stories you might have missed:

  • In Amsterdam, a branch of Russia’s Hermitage Museum opened. Head there and you can see items that once belonged to the Russian court. As Kraig Sean mentioned, what isn’t covered is how the Romanov’s lost power. The thought of the family being lined up against a wall and shot by the Bolsheviks, still gives me pause.
  • Willy’s post on 10 things to do on Jost Van Dyke in the Virgin Islands has me wanting to head there for an eco-excursion.
  • If you aren’t feeling hungry, you will be after reading Jeremy’s post on eating brunch in Kingston, Jamaica. Jeremy’s adding posts on Jamaica to his lush series, Undiscovered New York.
  • Catherine’s post on Geographic Expeditions deals on travel caught my attention. I highly recommend guided tours. They are worth the money, particularly if your days off are a precious few.
  • As a New Yorker who sizzles in the summer, Tom is on the lookout for ways out of Manhattan and chances to cool off. He’s summarized the deals he’s found in New England. You don’t have to be a New Yorker to enjoy them.

Also, we’re running a new series on airport layovers. There are a few more to come. Annie’s post on Amsterdam this past week has one tip that did last December.

On the trail of the Kalahari bushmen

by Kraig Becker on

A few days back we posted about 18 unique travel experiences that even the seasoned traveler would find interesting. One of the suggestions on that list was to travel to the Kalahari Desert to stay with bushmen and partake in an initiation hunt with the tribes that still wander the remote regions of southern Africa.

Recently, travel writer Sally Emerson journeyed to Botswana to go in search of the bushmen herself. She wrote about her adventures for the Times Online, as she explored the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari, following in the footsteps of author Laurens Van der Post, who published The Lost World of the Kalahari back in 1956. The book has become one of the seminal works on the bushmen and their culture.

Both Emerson, and Van der Post before her, were searching for the San Bushmen, one of five distinct tribes that are spread out across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, and Botswana. Today, it is believed that less than 100,000 of the bushmen remain, but those that do, maintain close ties to their culture, and the land on which they live.

Emerson says that the bushmen that she met were able to teach her about the plants and animals of the Kalahari while showing her how to set traps and hunt as well. They displayed a deep understanding of what their surroundings could provide for them, allowing them to survive for extended periods of time in the desert. Many of the tribesmen are now guides, and are eager to share their history and culture with visitors from the rest of the world. Traveling to the Kalahari to spend some time with these guides would indeed makre for a unique and amazing travel experience.

Gay pride parades around the world

by Jamie Rhein on

June is the month of gay pride parades. Last Saturday, in Columbus, Ohio, High Street took on a festive vibration as a mixture of art groups, political organizations, churches and business made their way from the state house to Goodale Park in gay pride solidarity. Both people in the parade and those that lined the streets whooped it up in a joyous sound of shouts and applause.

Today that scene is being repeated in other parades in other cities. New York City is one of those where this weekend is filled with events. The parade is just one of them. It’s a grand happening for good reason. The first such parade in New York took place on June 28 in 1971, one year after the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The riots were caused after police raided the Stonewall Inn and people resisted arrest. If you saw the movie “Milk” this year, there’s footage of both of the events.

In 1971, parades also happened in Chicago and San Francisco. Back then the message was mostly political, but over the years the tone has changed and the number of cities and countries that hold pride parades have increased.

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Political groups still participate, but these days, the tone and purpose is mostly celebratory. No matter what’s happening with gay rights, during the parade, life is a party.

Like all parades, there is a continuity among them that ties them together. There are also aspects that are quite unique and take on the character of the places where they are held. Years ago, I was at the gay pride parade in West Hollywood. It mirrored the flashiness that one might attribute to this part of California.

In Columbus, Midwest tastes and sensibilities factor into the line-up. Last year, there was a group of guys dressed up like the Brady Bunch singing the Brady Bunch-theme song and other Brady Bunch hits.

Browse through pictures of gay pride and you’ll see images that look like they’re from an earnest Mardi Gras parade with a heartfelt message. The variety of pictures are as varied as the countries where gay pride parades happen. The absence of some countries among the Flickr photos can also be noted. Also, important, anyone can be in a gay pride parade whether gay or straight, Republican or Democrat, or religious or not. You name a category and there will be someone who fits it–well, almost. Some people just aren’t that happy.

(The first picture was taken in France. The man with the rainbow on his cheek was in Mexico.) Click through the gallery to see which other countries are pride friendly.

We are the World and Black and White: Ideals that bring us together

by Jamie Rhein on

In my post yesterday on Michael Jackson’s death, I mentioned two songs that have stuck with me because of the feelings I’ve had from living in other countries where I’ve developed friendships and have called various addresses home. In a way, I see “Black and White” and We are the World as fitting tributes to the ideals of what can bring us together.

In recent year’s we’ve had Matt Harding’s dancing videos to bring us a sense of the best of humanity through the simple joy of a crazy dance. Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds has a similar feel. Then there’s the Playing for a Change project that has produced wonderful renditions of “Stand By Me” and “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” among others.

For me, Michael Jackson’s Black and White is a wonderful expression of individuality blending into community, and back to individuality in a pattern where we are each other, but remain unique.

“We are the World,” co-written by Jackson with Lionel Ritchie, as commercial as a venture as it was, did raise loads of money for Africa. And as sappy as it might be, still has powerful moments. If nothing else, seeing all those musical powerhouses singing together in harmony instead of taking center stage speaks volumes to the power of sticking together.

I’m wondering who will be creating the visions of togetherness in the future? Who will stick it out long enough to see their visions come to life? On his best days, Michael Jackson knew the way. Click here to see “Black and White.”

18 unique travel experiences for the well traveled

by Kraig Becker on

So you think you’ve been everywhere and done everything? Is their something missing when you travel these days? Is the sense of adventure gone? Never fear, because the Times Online has compiled an interesting list of 18 unique travel experiences that are designed to give us a special experience on our getaways.

The suggestions on the list run the gamut from adventurous to decadent to down right surreal. For instance, if you’re headed to southern Africa, then you might want to stay with the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, where you’ll have the opportunity to go on an initiation hunt and spend the night in their village. If that seems like you might be roughing it a bit too much, than perhaps you’d prefer to spend the night on a private island and go sailing off the coast of Croatia. How about taking an exclusive tour of Nefertari’s Tomb in Egypt, where you’ll be one of just 20 visitors in the soon to be closed monument. Or, how about the workout of a lifetime when you’ll be training with the the toughest rugby team on the planet, New Zealand’s All Blacks, , for one very intense week.

Each of the travel experiences comes with a good description of what you can expect on your unique adventure. A link is included to the travel company that is offering the trip, along with expected prices, in this case listed in pounds. But be warned, these one-of-a-kind experiences don’t come cheap, but how do you put a price tag on this kind of excitement?