Dune-Boarding

by Neil Woodburn on

A snowboard rental shop in the middle of the Sahara Desert may seem like fever-induced mirage, but such an oxymoron actually exists.

Dune-boarding is the art of riding a snowboard down, you guessed it, sand dunes.

Patrick Steel, writing for The Guardian, takes us on a journey to Morocco where $12 rents a typical snowboard and boots. This part of the Western Sahara is blessed with tall, steep sand dunes where one can actually pick up quite a bit of speed boarding down it before eating a mouthful of sand at the bottom. The trick, Steel writes, is to balance your weight on the back of the snowboard to prevent the front end from dipping in the sand and flipping you over.

It sounds pretty cool and it sure beats slamming your head into an icy snow bank (which is my usual method of boarding).

Inside Africa Vol. 1 & 2

by Adrienne Wilson on


TASCHEN books are some of my favorite to collect. If I had hundreds of dollars to blow I could easily do so on their website, but for now I’ll have to place some of these titles on my Christmas wish list or refrain from doing so much running to and fro’ to buy a few more. Of the more recent releases I’d like to take a peek at the Inside Africa titles. The two volume set puts the diversity of African living in the reader’s face. I’ll be one of the first to admit (and this is very sad because I have so many African friends), but when I think of dwellings found in various African places I don’t think modern for the majority. I see mud, clay, and earthy homes with wells and without running hot water. SO WRONG. While a good portion of countries may have tribes and villages with housing of this nature there are tons of luxury lodges, artist studios, minimalist houses, and so-forth. These two sets claim to have a good mixture of both and more, but with the eye-popping ink and paper stock TASCHEN uses I’m sure anyone flipping through the book would want to stay in a clay hut. Deidi von Schaewen is the photographer and it took a period of four years and fifteen countries to make it these Inside Africa volumes happen.

Countries featured include Egypt, Kenya, Botswana, Morocco, Réunion, Seychelles, Tanzania, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, and Senegal to list only a few.

Word for the Travel Wise (07/05/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just finished chatting with a pen pal of mine in Morocco I hadn’t heard from in ages. Long story short we had a lot to catch up on and from our conversation I give you the word of the day. Enjoy!

Today’s word is an Arabic word used in Morocco:

la-bas – how are you?

My Language Exchange is an excellent site in making friends across the globe while zoning in on the areas that give you the most trouble in your language of choice. While most services are free, contacting other members does cost a very small fee. Other learning tools for free standard Arabic online include this Learn Arabic site which has some remarkable lessons. The audio sounds a bit off for me, but they’ve got both the Naskh script (easy to read when learning the alphabet) and the Latin spelling of the letter. Babel Arabic is another good source. Planet Edu has an online listing of Arabic schools all over the Middle East, Africa and the U.S. Lastly, for purchase and a quick pocket guide there’s the Lonely Planet Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook.

Past Arabic words: wafin, akhdar, taeadol, shwiya

Word for the Travel Wise (05/29/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

During one of my daily language drive-bys an instant message buddy in Morocco passed on this little pearl of wisdom. (Keep in mind the Arabic spoken in Morocco is not a widely recognizable dialect, so before you go spouting off at the mouth in Syria or Oman remember I told you my pal lives in Morocco and that this word would come in handy in Morocco. Not Saudi Arabia – capeesh?)

Today’s word is an Arabic word used in Morocco:

shwiya – a little bit

My Language Exchange is an excellent site in making friends across the globe while zoning in on the areas that give you the most trouble in your language of choice. While most services are free, contacting other members does cost a very small fee. Other learning tools for free standard Arabic online include this Learn Arabic site which has some remarkable lessons. The audio sounds a bit off for me, but they’ve got both the Naskh script (easy to read when learning the alphabet) and the Latin spelling of the letter. Babel Arabic is another good source. Planet Edu has an online listing of Arabic schools all over the Middle East, Africa and the U.S. Lastly, for purchase and a quick pocket guide there’s the Lonely Planet Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook.

Past Arabic words: wafin, akhdar, taeadol

Fez Festival of World Sacred Music

by Erik Olsen on

What ever happened to the Fez? I mean, the Shriners tried so hard to make the upside down measuring cup hat a fashionable item, and in the end, hardly anyone wears a fez anymore. Distressing, that. Nothing makes a great party like a bunch of people wearing fezzes.

Well, the next best thing might be to visit the place that the fez was invented (note: I have no idea if this is true, I’m just assuming) Fez, Morocco. And if you go now, you can catch all the excitement of the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. Founded by a Sufi scholar, the festival brings together artists from a spectrum of spiritual traditions for a week and a half of madcap musical performances, and also film screenings and a five-day conference focusing on spirituality, globalization and the environment.

The event this year takes place from June 2 to 10, with concerts scheduled at several places in Fez, including the gardens of the Dar Batha Museum, the courtyard of the Bab Makina Palace and the Dar Tazi Gardens.