Africa Planner

by Erik Olsen on

Africa is in the news a lot these days for a lot of nasty things.
Starvation, war, genocide. Africa is in a bad state. But the reality is, Africa can still be a decent place to travel.
We tend to look at the continent holistically, as if the devastation and misery we see on TV and in the paper affects
every country. That’s not true.

Here is a travel primer
for Africa that helps you decide where to go (first choose the part of the continent you want to visit), helps you
figure out what you’ll need in terms of both packing supplies and inoculations, and provides tips on clearing customs
and so on. If you are heading to do a safari, there’s help on the site to do that as well. It is a very handy guide,
expertly written and comprehensive, and has sections worth perhaps printing out to help you figure out your Africa
trip.

Santana Plays Hiroshima

by Erik Olsen on


Oye Como Va…With the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb almost upon us…actually I wonder if technically,
the anniversary has arrived since it is already the 6th in Asia…anyhoodle, an interesting note about the anniversary:
Carlos Santana played

a concert before a sold-out crowd of 2,000 in the city in what was billed the “Emissaries for Peace” concert.

Honoring Orwell in India with a Museum

by Erik Olsen on

George Orwell, who popped up in some earlier posts here about Burma, is getting some attention in another distant land. The state of Bihara in eastern India is erecting a museum for the late British writer. The museum will be contructed in the small town of Motihari, where Orwell was born in 1903.

Orwell, you might remember, was actually born Eric Blair, and his father worked in India as an agent in the Indian Civil Service. They are hoping the museum (and a nice statue) will be completed by late 2006. Very cool. I’m a big fan of Orwell, having read everything he’s ever written, even the early early stuff. Should make a nice sightseeing opp.

Poll: Who is Your Favorite Travel Writer

by Erik Olsen on

We’ve only done a couple of polls here, but we figured we’d try
another. Hey, it’s Friday and we thought it would be fun. This one is easy…or is it? We want to know who your favorite
living travel writer is.  After recently reading Michael Shapiro’s
A Sense of Place, I was reminded how many really great
travel writers there are out there. People doing exquisite work in the genre, and using the power of language to convey
the feeling of a place or a moment in time in a way that puts you there, and at the same time dazzles you with the
writer’s artistry.

There are obviously many more names we could have selected, but these are people at the top of the game. If you don’t
agree with any of the names, feel free to put “other” and post a comment on who we left out.

Who is Your Favorite Living Travel Writer

Paul Theroux

Bill Bryson

Redmond O’Hanlon

Jan Morris

Sara Wheeler

Pico Iyer

Jonathan Raban

Isabel Allende

Tim Cahill

Other

The Myth and Reality of Butch and Sundance

by Erik Olsen on

One of my favorite movies of all time is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The
scene of the two western outlaws hurling themselves off a cliff where Newman says, “the fall will probably kill ya,” is
one of the all-time classic moments in film.

But the film didn’t get all the history right. They took liberties with the story of how Butch and Sundance met their
maker, and actually left open the question of how they died (suggesting, however, that it was in a final gun battle in
Bolivia).

In this article on Gonomad.com,
writer David Atkinson explored the legend of Butch and Sundance, and tries to pry free from the fingers of history what
actually happened to the two infamous outlaws. I won’t spoil the fun. Find out for yourself.