Destination: Africa
A Brief History of Adventure Travel
by Michael Yessis | 02.04.06 | 2:17 PM ET
Yahoo! adventure guru Richard Bangs covers the history of adventure travel in just 874 words today in a New York Times piece. I’ll summarize in 86 words: First adventure travelers were merchants on expedition. Many accidental discoveries. Ericson, North America. Columbus, the Caribbean. Modern adventure travel began 35 years ago. Treks in the Nepalese Himalayas. Maoist revolutionaries emerge. Adventurers go to Bhutan. In the ‘70s, Afghanistan, Algeria and New Guinea. In the ‘80s, the Nile, Mount Ararat and Bali. Religious-based terrorism drives out adventurers. In the ‘90s, the Alps. Euro rises. Everyone goes to Thailand. Tsunami hits. Libya, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Panama become popular. For now. When in doubt, there’s always Costa Rica.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzA Direct Impression
by E. Casey Kittrell | 01.23.06 | 10:31 AM ET
Photo by Michael Keating. To guide him through Tunisia, E. Casey Kittrell chose a nearly 100-year-old travelogue and discovered what it's like to travel with an observant, prescient, and, sometimes, bigoted man
On Writing About Africa
by Frank Bures | 01.17.06 | 9:42 AM ET
The flaws in Western writing on Africa are not hard to find, and are often bizarrely consistent. For example, Wendy Belcher wrote in Salon how nearly every travelogue on Africa begins on an airplane. Others have noticed how there are usually more animals than people, how Africans can never seem to help themselves, how they just can’t see things the right way. But now Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, editor of the literary magazine Kwani?, has offered a biting summary of shallow Western “impressions” that pass for insights.
Jeffrey Tayler: Facing Africa’s “Angry Wind”
by Jim Benning | 12.31.05 | 9:22 PM ET
Photo of Jeffrey Tayler by Tatyana Shchukina. Jim Benning asks The Atlantic's Moscow correspondent about travel writing, his latest book and the allure of the world's most remote regions
Paul Theroux to Bono: Stop Hectoring Us About Africa Development
by Jim Benning | 12.15.05 | 12:52 PM ET
The Hawaii-based writer, who has traveled extensively in Africa, doesn’t believe the continent will be saved by the kinds of solutions proposed by Bono and other celebrities. “If Christmas, season of sob stories, has turned me into Scrooge,” Theroux writes in an op-ed piece today’s New York Times, “I recognize the Dickensian counterpart of Paul Hewson - who calls himself ‘Bono’ - as Mrs. Jellyby in ‘Bleak House.’ Harping incessantly on her adopted village of Borrioboola-Gha ‘on the left bank of the River Niger,’ Mrs. Jellyby tries to save the Africans by financing them in coffee growing and encouraging schemes ‘to turn pianoforte legs and establish an export trade,’ all the while badgering people for money.”
Pirates Attack Five More Ships Off Somalia
by Michael Yessis | 11.11.05 | 12:50 PM ET
The bandits are being directed by a “mother ship,” according to today’s Reuters story by Daniel Wallis.
Cruise Ship Outruns Pirates Off Somalia
by Jim Benning | 11.05.05 | 8:16 PM ET
The cruise industry has been taking great pains to offer more action-oriented trips lately, but not even the wave pools that Royal Caribbean has planned for its ships could top the action on a cruise off Somalia today [Saturday]. Pirates carrying machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a Seabourn Cruise Line luxury ship carrying 140 passengers. According to CNN, the cruise liner managed to outrun the pirates, which were in two small boats. “There’s some minor damage done to the ship, ” one passenger told a CNN radio affiliate. “There’s no water right now, for instance, in some places, and I believe one of the grenades actually went off in one of the cabins, but everyone on board is fine.”
Outpost Magazine on Volunteering Abroad
by Jim Benning | 10.20.05 | 6:02 PM ET
Canada’s Outpost magazine, one of our favorites, recently published a nice package on volunteering and working abroad. Among the stories, Travellers for Change profiled 10 people who have undertaken a variety of projects around the globe, from building schools in Nepal to assisting Angolan refugees in Zambia. Another piece offers tips on choosing organizations. There’s also a story about educational programs that prepare students to work abroad. For anyone looking for inspiration, it’s a good place to start.
Going on Armchair Safari — Again and Again
by Jim Benning | 10.18.05 | 11:55 AM ET
I was at home listening to music the other night when the phone rang. It was my mom, and I detected a sense of urgency in her voice. Was there a family emergency? Some new piece of bad news on CNN? “I won’t keep you long,” she said, “but I wanted to let you know there are elephants right now at Pete’s Pond.” Elephants? Really? I thanked her profusely, flipped on my computer and was soon happily glued to the screen, watching live as several elephants roamed among the trees near the Pete’s Pond shoreline, enjoying a tasty breakfast of crunchy green leaves. Ever since I blogged about the WildCam at Pete’s Pond in Botswana, I’ve been hooked, checking in every so often to see what beasts might be roaming within camera view.
It’s 7 A.M. in Botswana. Do You Know Where Your Wildebeest Is?
by Jim Benning | 10.04.05 | 12:07 PM ET
Call it “armchair safari.” National Geographic has set up a webcam at Pete’s Pond, a wildlife reserve in Botswana that is apparently teeming with animals, from elephants to wildebeests. Best viewing times fall between 7 a.m. and noon Botswana time, then again in the evening before sundown. Spiegel magazine offers a brief backgrounder on the webcam and the pond. It was getting late in Botswana when I checked the cam this morning from California. I didn’t see much.
“From the Movies and the Music Videos, I Thought All Girls in America Were Like Britney Spears”
by Jim Benning | 08.05.05 | 10:49 PM ET
So says Kaoutar, a 17-year-old girl from Morocco. But that was before she came to the United States as part of the U.S. State Department-sponsored Youth Exchange and Study Program, launched in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to a story in the International Herald Tribune, while some U.S. efforts to improve the country’s image abroad have been criticized, the youth exchange program is “a notable exception.” The program appears to be changing minds.
How to Visit a Moroccan Hammam
by Terry Ward | 07.25.05 | 4:09 PM ET
Photos by Terry Ward Public baths are a part of daily Moroccan life. Terry Ward provides the rundown on getting a thorough and enriching scrubdown. (Hint: Be sure to pick up a kiis in the souk on the way there.)
Derelicts in the Sinai
by Porter Shreve | 07.25.05 | 1:14 PM ET
Photo courtesy freestockphotos Israeli fighter planes flew over his kibbutz and suicide bombers blew up buses on the lines he traveled, but Porter Shreve still felt untouchable. Then he found himself aboard an ill-fated tour bus rolling through the Egyptian desert.
“Africa is the Last Place Where People Can Go and Find Someone Who Will Listen to Them”
by Jim Benning | 07.19.05 | 1:23 PM ET
The Telegraph just published an article about Paul Theroux, who is promoting his new novel, “Blinding Light.” The article’s author sat down with Theroux at a Boston hotel, expecting the novelist to be cranky, but found him “curious, patient - if inadvertently evasive - and solicitous.”
Kenya vs. Tanzania: Trading Insults and Allegations for Tourist Dollars
by Jim Benning | 03.11.05 | 8:53 PM ET