Oceania

Travel through Oceania by country:

Australia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

Travel through Oceania by popular city:

Auckland, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Wellington

Travel through Oceania by popular things to do:

Cook Islands, Sydney Opera House

Travel through Oceania with our writers:

In the Corner of the World, Work and Play in Queensland

Lonely Planet’s The Cities Book

by Erik Olsen on

Prepare to be dazzled…and to give the biceps a nice workout at the same time. Lonely Planet has released a new book…a tome, really…that takes a quick and dirty and luscious view of many of the world’s great cities. And a couple of the crappy ones too. The book, called simply Lonely Planet The Cities Book ($31.50 on Amazon)  is a monster, with the hardcover edition weighing in at almost five pounds. But that is five pounds of eye-savoring goodness. This is not a book you’re going to take with you; this is a book you’re going to keep on your coffee table and salivate on after a long day of work with dreams of long-term international escape flitting about your brain.

The book covers 200 of what the editors call “the most vibrant, diverse, hypnotic and chaotic cities in the world”, which have been given esteemed rank by the people who, presumably, know what they are talking about :namely, Lonely Planet’s staff, authors, and readers. The book contains factoids and information on each city that is enough to whet your whistle, but may also send you to Wikipedia to learn more. Several of the sample sections are: Vital statistics, which provides the city’s strengths (i.e. great views, beaches, interesting culture) and weaknesses (i.e. stodgy cuisine). There are also interesting bits like “Starring role in” which lists the various movies or poetry or books that the cities have been featured in (i.e. Auckland was the place where The Chronic (what?!) cles of Narnia was filmed).

They have obviously made ample use of the Lonely Planet Images stock photo library, because the book is sumptuously illustrated with photos that do a fine job giving you an immediate visual impression of a place. In all honesty, the biggest problem is that you want more. You want the pictures for each city to go on for pages and pages rather than just one or two.

Probably the best part about the book is learning a little bit about cities you’ve never heard of, or know only a little about. (Kyviv, Dhaka, Abuja).

This book would make not only a fine gift, but also a superb addition to your coffee table. It’s the kind of book that you can thumb through as you’re forced to endure some dreary TV show that your wife wants to watch (or was that just me?).

Word for the Travel Wise (06/27/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

With half the land mass of Kiribati, tourists to the area are bound to visit the largest coral atoll in the world, Kiritimati (Christmas) Island during their Pacific island escape. Think 100 lakes or ponds sprinkled throughout the four village interior of the atoll. If I had the opportunity to go to Kiribati I’d make it a point to see the land by foot, the water by boat and the bigger picture by helicopter or airplane. I’d imagine one could capture some stellar aerial shots from above, an additional travel past time I’m slowly picking up in my own travels.

Today’s word is a Gilbertese word used in Kiribati:

te wanikiba – airplane (the canoe that flies)

English and Gilbertese (Kiribatese) are the two official langs of Kiribati where Gilbertese has only 102,000 speakers worldwide. A small percentage of the inhabitants of Tuvalu, Fiji, and Marshall Islands may also speak Gilbertese, but majority of speakers reside in Kiribati. According to Wikipedia It is a language from the Austronesian family, part of the Oceanian branch and of the Nuclear Micronesian subbranch. You’ll find a few basic words included in the Wiki as well, but go to this Peace Corps Language Handbook series to get sample dialogue and vocabulary lists. Lonely Planet has a South Pacific phrasebook that looks as if it doesn’t cover the Gilbertese tongue, but if you’re doing some island hopping you may wish to purchase it anyway.

Rebuilding America’s Image

by Erik Olsen on

Unless you’ve been living in a cave (and if so, tell Osama I said hi…and then take him out) you’re probably aware that America’s image has taken some serious hits lately….well, in the last couple of years. Even today, there are protests against America in as nice a place as Austria. Well, one way to deal with this problem is for more of us Americans to head overseas and to be nice to people.

Lonely Planet is one company making this case. And good for them. But there is another group, who also has a vested interest in making sure that Americans, and American products, are not discriminated against. The group is called Business for Diplomatic Action, and is a nonpartisan collective of business leaders who are trying to spread the word. They published a World Citizens Guide for Americans which they hope folks will study before setting foot on foreign soil.

What kind of tips do they offer? Well, they suggest that we be on our best behavior while navigating unfamiliar cultures. Dress appropriately, don’t be so damn loud, don’t be offensive. All common sense stuff, but stuff that is worth bearing in mind as you head out.

Goliath Expedition

by Erik Olsen on

Talk about a massive travel project. Well, it even has a name to match its scale: It’s called the Goliath Expedition.

The Goliath Expedition is  Karl Bushby’s 36,000 mile gargantuan trek around the world. A monster, nay, Goliath effort to basically walk around the world. He began in the Chilean town of Punta Arenas, and started hoofing it through all of South America, Central and North America, then crossing from Alaska into Siberia using the frozen Arctic waters of the Chukchi Sea (north of the Bering Straits) as a land bridge (ah, land bridge…hasn’t someone thought of that before???). He then heads across Europe through Siberia to Western Europe. Again, all on foot.

Pretty impressive. You can follow the whole exploit at Karl’s site: the Goliath Expedition.

WikiTravel

by Erik Olsen on

Most folks have probably spent some time messing around on Wikipedia. I know I have. In fact, the other night I literally spent four hours just browsing through all the pages and links dedicated to Pink Floyd (and yes, I’m going to read the new book out about them…when I can get the reading time).

But if you are a serious traveler and you have not spent some time playing around on WikiTravel, you’re missing out. The guides here are nicely filled out (for certain areas, that is), by people who know these places well or who have been there. It is like have a  Lonely Planet or Rough Guides online and for free.

And sometimes the info is even better than you get from a Rough Guides or Lonely Planet because it’s more nicely fleshed out and there are links to the various sites mentioned. I am adding WikiTravel to my bookmarks, BIG time.