2008’s best travel writing

by Jeremy Kressmann on

While browsing my local Barnes & Noble earlier this week, I stumbled upon a display of The Best American Series – a collection of books recapping the year’s best writing. Among the collection is a travel-themed edition, curated this year by travel “badboy” Anthony Bourdain.

Gadling has given great reviews to these anthologies in years past, so I decided to pick up a copy. As a fledgling travel writer myself, I’ve found the pieces in this year’s edition to be highly compelling. The featured content covers a surprisingly broad array of topics. Foodies will savor writer Bill Buford’s account of Extreme Chocolate, which finds the author deep in the rainforests of Brazil in search of the perfect cacao beans. Adventurers will want to dive into James Campbell’s look at the Kapa Kapa Trail, a grueling overland route of American soldiers fighting in Papua New Guinea during World War II, in Chasing Ghosts.

For anyone who’s interested in the travel genre, this is a great recap of this year’s best-written and most interesting stories. Travel writing is a well-worn style – pithy descriptions of swank hotels and delicious meals can only take you so far. It’s the stories that are able to rise above the cliches and well worn metaphors to truly give a sense of place and its people that truly does these locations justice.

Let’s continue to encourage this sort of high-quality travel writing. Stop by Barnes & Noble or hit up Amazon and pick yourself up a copy.

See Rolf Potts in person: Another Gadling connection at book culture

by Jamie Rhein on

As you’ve probably gathered we’ve geared up for a Rolf Potts extravaganza here at Gadling. Here’s just another plug for Potts, but more so a shout out to one of Gadling’s former bloggers who is bringing travel to your armchair through books.

Kelly Amabile, fellow world traveler and voracious reader –she created Gadling’s feature One for the Road–is combining those passions as the events manager at Book Culture, an independent book store in Manhattan. Considering that Kelly is a whiz at travel and books, who is more better for the job than Kelly? I’m thinking, no one. She’s gathered quite the line-up for October which is rapidly approaching.

For example, Rolf Potts is scheduled for October 21 at 7 p.m. He’ll be reading from his book, Marco Polo Didn’t Go There.

Also on the schedule are Stephanie Elizondo Griest who wrote the travel memoir, Mexican Enough (Oct. 8) and an encore with Rolf Potts on October 23. He’ll be appearing along with Pauline Frommer and Matt Gross to talk about how to make travel happen.

Whenever I read about events like this happening in Manhattan, oh, how I want to go there. If you do go, tell Kelly I said “Hi.”

Book Culture is on 112th Street and is a hot spot for browsing even if you can’t make one of the events. It’s an independent book store after all, and those are few and far between.

Nokia and Lonely Planet team up to bring guides to your phone

by Scott Carmichael on

Nokia has teamed up with Lonely Planet to bring their travel guides to select Nokia Mobile Phones.

Nokia phones with support for the free “Maps 2.0” application can purchase and download Lonely Planet guides directly to their phone. Each guide costs $13.99 which is slightly cheaper than their paper versions, which normally sell for around $18 each.

Lonely Planet currently has 100 different guides available for mobile use, with more on the way. By combining the GPS receiver built into many current Nokia phones, you can make the move from paper guides, to an advanced guide with turn by turn directions. Of course, for some people there is no replacement for a good old paper guide full of scribbled notes and bookmarks.

This is the second phone Lonely Planet has added mobile support for. Previously, they introduced a lineup of spoken phrase guides for the iPhone, it is however the first time they have made their popular guides available for a smartphone.

With more and more phones adding GPS receivers, it is probably only a matter of time until other phones get access to the guides, location based services are taking off in a huge way, and within the next few years it is expected that 50% of all new phones will have GPS built in.

To get Lonely Planet guides on your Nokia phone, you will have to install Maps 2.0, you can check whether your phone supports this here. To download a guide, simply open your maps application, click “extras”, then “guides”. Alternatively, you can download the Nokia maps loader program to your PC and install the guides locally. If you are traveling abroad, I highly recommend purchasing the guides you need on your PC, to save the insanely high data charges when you roam on an international network.

Source: Nokia press release

Great American Road Trip: Travel books for the road-3 of 4: So Many Enemies, so Little Time

by Jamie Rhein on

#3. So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places–Elinor Burkett

When I chose this book as one of my road trip to Montana books, the title caught my attention. As an American woman, also hooked on travel, I wanted to delve into someone else’s experiences. What I found is a book that taught me much–always a delight when on the road.

Excerpt:

But as I trudged to school each day and ambled through the markets, I couldn’t find the face of hatred. I saw worry that a flood of Afghan refugees might flee north, washing extremists across the border. I heard fear that homegrown fundamentalists might be emboldened by the fires lighting Manhattan’s night. Mostly, I sensed the same resignation that had engulfed everyone I knew, all across the plane, that we were captives to forces we had not yet begun to dissect.

Elinor Burkett is a woman who is not afraid to take chances when she travels, but is not fool-hardy. As a journalist, she knows how to make and use her connections to help her access people and places.

When she and her husband Dennis traveled to Kyrgyzstan to live after she received a Fulbright to teach journalism at a college there, their purpose was to shake up their lives a bit so that they didn’t settle into complacency. They wanted some more adventures under their belt. After September 11, there was worry across the globe for what exactly that might mean, but the two of them decided to stay put.

Since I was pregnant living in India at the same time, wondering what my family and I should do when faced with a few of the same questions of safety, reading Burkett’s take on her decisions and what was happening in her world added depth to my own experiences.

Burkett’s book has several storyline threads. One of them is what it’s like to teach journalism in Kyrgyzstan when students do not have questioning authority is also part of their make-up. This also reminded me of my own working in another country experiences. I felt better about my own reactions after Burkett’s account.

Burkett tidily weaves together details about Kyrgyzstan’s history, politics and topography with her musings and observations about the people and her experiences about what it’s like to set up house there.

Along with her time in Kyrgyzstan, Burkett and her husband traveled to Afghanistan after 9/11 where she interviewed several women about the effects of living in Afghanistan. She also spent time in Iran, Iraq, Mongolia, China, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. As an aside, which really isn’t an aside, but one that Burkett doesn’t rest on too often is she is Jewish.

One of the things I really, really, really liked about this book is how much I learned and came to see the places Burkett traveled as those filled with engaging people who are nuanced and, for the most part, good. Burkett is has an authoritative voice that I trust. I believe that her impressions are not histrionic and ones developed to make a sale. This is one smart, on the ball woman who is not all full of herself.

I was also touched by how close she became with several of her students and they with her.

Burkett also doesn’t sugar coat how complicated it can be to be from one culture with different values trying to understand other cultures. She also sticks to her own convictions throughout, although this does not mean she changes her perceptions. It means she knows who she is and stays true.

For book 1 of 4, click here.

Book 2 of 4, click here.

Great American Road Trip: Travel books for the road. 2 of 4: Honeymoon with my Brother

by Jamie Rhein on

When I was picking out books to read on my road trip to Montana from Ohio and back, I wanted a mix of types so that each book would be distinct from each other. The titles also grabbed me. The premise of the second one I read is unusual. That also led me to check it out from one of the branches of the Columbus Public Library.

#2. Honeymoon With My Brother: a memoir — Franz Wisner.

Excerpt: Latin America during our winter, its summer, was the obvious next segment. But that was too far in advance. What if one of us fell in love with a tour guide from Thailand? What if we wanted to make some money teaching English in Indonesia?

What if Kurt and I want to strangle each other?

Franz Wisner, the author of this gem, was dumped by the love of his life right before his wedding day. It’s a long story. Wisner gives you the gist of the fiasco that broke his heart, along with his job shifts as a high-powered political lobbyist and fundraiser that led to his decision to pull up stakes and make major changes.

In the process of the storytelling, you find out specific details about how Wisner and his brother Kurt turned into world travelers. His brother, recently divorced, agreed to take an extended trip with Wisner in order to regain his own footing. This trip turned into two years.

One reason I liked this read is because Wisner doesn’t hide. Part of travel is the personality you bring to it. Wisner seems like a likable guy who falls in love with aspects of the 53 countries he and his brother visited. In the process of their journey, he is willing to let go of his notions about himself and others.

This book truly points out how travel not only connects you with the world, it connects you to yourself. The details about the countries they spent extended amounts of time are carefully observed. It’s one that made me want to hit the road immediately, even though I was already on the road in Montana and South Dakota when I was reading it.

Wisner’s story also elucidates just how terrific travel is for people who are in need of time to transition from one time of life to another, and shows just how easy it can be to get up and go once the wheels are in motion.

Yes, you can sell your house for example. It is possible to get rid of your car. It’s also possible to transition back to the U.S., or wherever you call home, when you need to. Having friends in various places helps and so does chucking guide books. Somewhere in the middle of their trip, they chucked guide books and traveled to places based on instinct and recommendations.

Because this book has a story line that continues throughout, this is one to read if you have time to read every day or so. It’s engaging, though, so I found it hard to put down.

According to the book’s jacket, Wisner is continuing with his writing and traveling.

For book 1 of 4, click here