Pen Your Crazy Travel Tale, Win a Trip

by Erik Olsen on

Remember that time you were on the island in Thailand just hanging out, maybe doing a little diving, and
you ran into the islander at the local bar who told you about this "hidden place" on the other side of the
island. So you hired a tuk tuk to take you over there only to discover a personal paradise where you and your
girlfriend frolicked for hours? A cerulean lagoon, deliciously sweet fruits growing on trees in abundance, a friendly
monkey. Then the shaman turned up from out of the jungle and offered you a coconut shell with a "special
drink" and the next thing you knew a week had passed and you’d been living in a hut with a family of islanders,
learning the language, local customs and how to kill your own dinner? Well, that’s a story that must be told. Your
personal journals are not enough to hold such an adventure.

Well, now you can tell your story, and possibly
win a trip to Australia to boot. Over at Budget Travel, they are
holding a contest
called True Stories, taking submissions from average joe’s who have amazing travel tales to tell. The winner that
is chosen among submissions will win a pair of Aussie AirPasses from Qantas. These passes includes economy-class
flights from San Francisco to Sydney, and then you fly on to Melbourne and Brisbane, and back to the U.S.A. The trip
will be valid from May 1, 2006, through April 30, 2007, so LOTS of time to get off work and head to the land Down
Under. But you have to get the story in quick: the deadline is February 28. Want to learn more? Read the full
guidelines.


Happy John Frum Day

by Erik Olsen on

I am still reading Paul Theroux’s Happy Isles
of Oceania, one of my favorite books by the writer, but one that does have a few moments when it drags. Hence, why
it sits on my bad stand and gets read only a few pages at a time. Still I love the guy, and would love his work, not to
mention his life. (sigh). No matter, I did get through the part not long ago about the Cargo cults of Vanuatu, which
makes for some fascinating reading.

If you’ve never heard of the cargo cults, or at least never delved into
the details, then I urge you to read the Wikipedia entry on them.
The essence of the cults is that a figure named John Frum, likely a mythical figure, but one whom some say was a real
character, appeared to people of the islands promising them "houses, clothes, food, transport." The
islanders, apparently in need, or at least want of such things, overtime developed a cult associated with Frum and his
eventual return. The day of that supposed return, which we assume has never happened, is February 15. So to all you out
there: Happy John Frum day!

Africa Travel: Guinea

by Adrienne Wilson on

As painful as the walk down
one of the old slave routes in Africa may be, the incredible amount of history and knowledge one could gain from such an
experience is worth any number of potential tears the walk may evoke. For many, Africa is a country painted with images
of poverty, AIDS, bushmen, tribes, and fierce lions found on safaris. For many, not all African-Americans, much of what
they know about their ancestors is like a horrid nightmare. Mothers, fathers, and children ripped from each other and
from their land to be deported across the transatlantic and sold. French historian Jean-Michel Deveau calls the slave
trade "the greatest tragedy in the history of humanity in terms of scale and duration." UNESCO has a great intercultural piece on the slave route in
addition to info on the ‘International
Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23.’

Right now I’d like to turn your
attention to one of many places you can walk the slave route and visit museums filled with stories and detailed
accounts of what times where like in Guinea
during the time of slave trade. Most of the slaves taken from Guinea made their way to South Carolina where they were
shipped to help with the country’s rice industry. According to this online African Travel mag, there is an old slave fort in Boké
Village which features abandoned holding cells, underground passages and hideouts where slaves kept out of general
view. This particular travel website is one of the better resources for helping plan your Guinea cultural and
historical outing.

Guinea is a west African country bordering the North Atlantic Ocean between Guinea-Bissau
and Sierra Leone. Additional web sources include Lonely Planet and Travel Notes.

Red Corner: Lenin Statues Still Standing

by Neil Woodburn on

Monday’s Red Corner post regarding a beheaded Lenin statue at a Vegas bar got me thinking about the other monumental remnants of the communist regime.

No one knows how many thousands of Lenin statues were erected during 70 years of communism, but there is one thing we know for certain; most have been toppled or otherwise destroyed since the fall of communism (and subsequently melted down for scrap metal).

There are still a small handful, however, which remain standing guard over the masses, perhaps bidding their time for a return to power. At least two have made it to the shores of America; the one at Red Square Bar in Vegas, and another standing in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The majority of Lenin statues still standing today, however, remain in the same location in which they were erected during communism. They survive because they were either too expensive to tear down, the local government couldn’t be bothered, or communist stalwarts protected them from destruction.

That’s good news for traveling history buffs. It means that these massive nuggets of a vanquished regime can still be experienced throughout the region. And, thanks to a couple of online listings of the remaining statues they are easy to find.

Stop by your nearest one today and slip back into a more unsettling time when harsh dictators made life miserable for so many people on this planet.

Oh, wait, that’s still happening today.

Travel Savvy Shuts Down?

by Erik Olsen on

In the old building I was working in there was a floor downstairs where the offices seemed barren and cold. So you
can imagine my surprise when I discovered that these were the new offices of a travel magazine called Travel Savvy. The place seemed dead, and yet, when you walked in, they did
have free issues of the magazine for visitors to peruse. I did so on a few occasions and was, well, not blown away, but
at least interested. The magazine was, at the time, transitioning from a glossy that covered the itinerant experiences
of the rich and famous, to a magazine dedicated strictly to top favorites lists done by celebs and other
well-knowns…as in Andy Garcia’s favorite Cuban restaurants, Sarah Jessica Parker’s sexy hotels, and (this
was cool) Michael Palin’s favorite train rides. But it seemed at times that most of them, as Tim points out, were
likely written by PR scribes rather than the celebs themselves.

I spoke with one of the Assistant Editors
about the new format, and she got me rather fired up on it. But when I saw the first issue, I was kind of unimpressed.
The list concept sort of fell flat for me after the first few pages. So it was not a big surprise when I read Tim Leffel’s blog and discovered that they shut the
thing down. Still, as Tim says, it was cool to see someone try something new, and I was somewhat hopeful to see the
magazine succeed, if just because travel magazines are great and as far as I’m concerned there should be more of them.
But alas, Travel Savvy was not so savvy, and it will be no longer. So we bid the magazine adieu and wish the folks who
ran it better luck next time.