If you haven’t seen these guides yet, you ought to take a look. The
Not For Tourists guides are for city residents who want
details on the lesser known places in their metropolises. Their first guide was the NFT Guide to Manhattan 2000.
Currently New York and San Francisco guides are available, with those for Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles on their
way. There is even a Brooklyn guide coming soon. It’s really a pretty good idea because not only will residents of a
particular city savor the notion that they themselves are not tourists, but those coming to the city might enjoy the
pretense of being a non-tourists as well. Of course, in the end, it’s all about whether the information is useful. So
far so good, because
the reviews for the
NFT guides have been prety strong.
Geography Juice
In the spirit of
yesterday’s post about our alleged poor performance in the
Geography Olympics, I offer forthwith a link to the
CIA’s factbook site. The page
here features images of all the nation’s flags in the world and links to country-specific information on the
people, government, economy, yadda yadda yadda. Take a moment and just browse. Find a country like say,
Guyana, that you know nothing about, and browse
around the info there, thoughtfully digesting all the little bits.
For example, did you know Guyana achieved independence from Britain in 1966? Or that the population
is made up of many Indians, relatives of former indentured servants who were brought there to work the sugar
plantations. Or what about Vanuatu, an island group in the Pacific about the size of Connecticut. Did you know
that a majority of the population has no access to a potable and reliable supply of water? Wow!
I promise, if you do this a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow, you’ll begin to feel (and perhaps even
look like … in the sense of having a really huge head)
Ken Jennings.
Sacred Sites from Your Desk
Martin Gray has come a long way from mountain hermit to photographer. For ten years he
lived in a monastery in India, dedicating his life to meditation. Now, he is an anthropologist and photographer
specializing in the study of sacred sites and pilgrimage traditions around the world.
From Macchu Pichu in Peru to the Monastery of Rousanou, Meteora, Greece, his Web site
sacredsites.com features photos and stories from twenty years
of visiting and photographing over 1000 sacred sites in eighty countries. It’s quite a feat, well-organized and
nicely done. At the very least it’s a great way to experience some of the world’s more alluring places and people
without leaving your chair.
Crossing Divides
If you have not explored Tom Haines’
Crossing Divides series in the Boston Globe yet,
I suggest you do so. Haines is traveling around the world with photographer Essdras Suarez to show us the hard divides
that exist between nations and peoples. I linked earlier to his segment on South America, and now he is in Cambodia and
Laos, where he ha ventured into generally unraveled areas to tell the story of the people who live there. There is an
accompanying photo gallery and an audio slide show that add a terrific dimension to the stories being told.
China Photos
Check out the photos from China of the talented R Todd
King. King’s got quite a resume, from a stint at Disney to education at MIT, to time with military intelligence. He’s
now working in China to help clients gain admission to US business schools.
But forget all that and check out the photos posted here of Chinese sites from temples and bridges to the
Great Wall. Apparently with all the work he’s doing, he
still gets time to get around the country a fair amount. Nice job.