GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of September 17

by Adrienne Wilson on

Hear ye, Hear ye it is time again for another weekly glance at some spectacular plugs you may have missed. Just make sure you don’t miss them this time. Or else!

5. Cool Subways:
Long ago I mentioned the cool underground transportation scene seen in Tehran, Iran, but in this piece Erik points us to some so-called “Cool” subways in destinations like Moscow, Munich and Stockholm. If you’re not in rush to get to your final stop; check them out. That goes for the real thing and his blurb here on the web.

4. Puerto Rico Island Hopping:
Ah, Puerto Rico! With a light hurricane season and considering hurricane season is almost officially out of here who wouldn’t want to go island hopping in Puerto Rico? Thanks to Iva we’re one step closer in making the dream come alive or deciding which method or hopper plane works best for you.

3. Red Corner: The Horrors of Flying in Russia:
I’ve never been to Russia or flown on one its friendly planes, but I’m hearing more and more stories like the one Neil points us to in this scary piece. If you’re making St. Petersburg or Moscow a must-see destination sometime soon check this article out to shake yourself up a little.

2. Medieval Trials in Modern Day India:
Culture pieces are my favorite and this one is pretty interesting. Learn how to find a thief in India by reading this hot topic. After knowing how trials in modern day India work you’d think no one would steal, but it sadly looks as if that’s not the case.

1. Gadling Podcast: Joshua Berman:
Podcast time and with this one Erik delves into the world of guidebook writing with Joshua Berman who writes for Moon Guides, but recently published Living Abroad in Nicaragua released by Avalon Publishing. If you’re curious to know what it takes or Joshua’s take on the world of mattress flipping, sniffing and reporting (a.k.a. travel writing), tune in, plug in, and give it a listen.

City of Contrasts. Bite Me.

by Iva Skoch on

If I read one more time that a place X is a “place of contrasts” I am going to scream or start sending letters, depending on which side of the contrast spectrum I will find myself. Beijing has been called a “city of contrasts” by CNN, Los Angeles by PBS, St. Petersburg by The Mercury Sun, Genoa by The New York Times (Et tu, Brute?) The list goes on.

In fact, when you type in “city of contrasts” into Google, you get 113,000 hits. You get hundreds of pictures when you type in the same in Google Images. The funny thing is, most of those pictures show no contrast at all, even if the most trivial kind. Take the picture displayed. The description says: Kazan, Russia: City of Contrasts. And, where would the contrast be? The ugly houses versus the less ugly houses?

What I want to know: Is there a place on Earth that’s NOT a place of contrasts? Contrasts are everywhere – the poor and the rich, the new and the old, the beautiful and the ugly. Contrast is a given. Even my kitchen is a place of contrasts, if you examine the unwashed dishes next to the hand-cut crystal glasses.

As places start looking more gentrified and similar, travel writers will really need to get more creative. That is one good thing globalization could accomplish.

Let’s Go! with Jiang Zemin

by Erik Olsen on

Move over Bill Bryson, here comes Jiang Zemin. Yes, the near-octogenarian former leader of China is publishing his memoirs, which will include a hefty dose of travel writing, says this piece over at Yahoo news. Sure, it was tough running the most populous nation in the world, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a downright hoot at times. And when you’re number one, you get to do a fair amount of globe-trotting.

Now, chances are he’s not going to be writing about the condition of various hotels he stayed at and his recommendations for places to eat will more likely to include Buckingham Palace, but you have to admit a dose of curiosity at what the old Communist leader has to say about seeing the world. His travel book, “For a Better World: Jiang Zemin’s Overseas Visits,” will include 167 pictures of Jiang with leaders ranging from Bill Clinton to Nelson Mandela. No word, however, if there will be video of him dancing at various popular tourist locales around the globe.

RoadJunky Looking for Travel Writers with Flavor

by Adrienne Wilson on

In my eyes the Internet has enabled so many talented and not-so-talented some bodies and nobodies to sit up during late night hours, burning the midnight oil, typing up a storm to later divulge beautiful heart-felt pieces or thought provoking political essays from their minds or even bland pull-my-finger material. Really, sometimes it’s hard to surf through it all without wasting a whole lot of your precious time. The point is – the worldwide web is this incredible vessel allowing those with a voice and a decent typing speed to become “writers.”

With that out the way I wanted to let you know that RoadJunky is seeking travel writers. By this they are looking for people with flare and flavor who probably aren’t so good at taking precise notes on hotel and restaurant addresses in Caracas, but have a very cool story to tell instead. They want to know what it’s really like to travel THERE to that place that YOU went, because every experience like every voice is different. Got it? Comprende? Capeesh? So now onto the guidelines – writers should have an edge and desire to cover areas in Central and South America, Europe and South East Asia. Oh, and they pay a little sumthin’ sumthin’. Now get your finger out your nose, check out the submission guidelines, samples and get to whipping something up!

Travel Writing Bootcamp

by Erik Olsen on

Travel writing
can be a tough business. The pay if low, you really have to hustle to get your stuff out there, and the competition is
fierce. While am acquainted with several folks who have been very successful at the travel writing thing, many folks I
know who have tried to make a living at it got along OK for a while, but eventually retreated to more  consistent
and lucrative work (like accounting), and made travel writing more of a "hobby". 

But don’t
let all that discourage you. If travel writing is something you would like to do…then you should give it a whirl.
What’s the worst care scenario? Maybe you travel somewhere great, you write about it, and then no one buys your stuff?
OK, that’s not quite the worse case scenario. The worse case scenario is that you travel somewhere lousy, get food
poisoning, catch dengue and then trip and fall onto a hill of fire ants just before a murder of crows pecks your
eyeballs out. That would suck.

Well, never mind all that. Chances are you won’t fall on a fire ant
mound. Hopefully. But if you are committed to the travel writing thing, then check out Media Bistro’s Travel Writing boot camp. The 8-we3ek intensiev
course is being taugh tby Gayle Forman whose You
Can’t Get There From Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World, was published in April 2005. I’ve taken a
mediabistro seminar before…and I even taught
one…so I can vouce that they can be very good. This one might be just the thing to jump-start your writing career.