"Av og for intellektuelle vagabonder" - NettGuide
Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

RECENT DISPATCHES
11.18.08

Six Degrees of Vietnam

Julia Ross went to Vietnam seeking relaxation and a place to recover from a breakup. She found a whole lot more.

10.16.08

Another Tet Offensive

At a cafe in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in the midst of Chinese New Year celebrations, Joel Carillet worked up the courage to ask out his waitress

TRAVEL BLOG
ASK ROLF
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How Can I Save on Transportation During a Round-the-World Trip?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

THE LIST
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13 Great Travel Horror Movies

The Hollywood horror archives are filled with tales of bad trips. To celebrate Halloween, Eva Holland and Eli Ellison sift through the carnage to pick their favorites—and lose a little sleep doing so.

Q&A
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Matt Weiland: Through 50 States With 50 Writers

The coeditor of “State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America” talks to Frank Bures about the book, the WPA and how the United States hasn’t been “bulldozed for speed”

HOW TO
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Love Herring in Sweden

From artery-clogging casseroles to a fermented concoction that smells alarmingly like vinegary flatulence, Lola Akinmade digs in to a smörgåsbord of herring and explains how to best appreciate Scandinavia’s favorite fish. 

BOOKS
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The Water Is Wide

Bronwen Dickey considers Tim Butcher’s “Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart,” which takes readers deep into the Congo

SPEAKER'S CORNER
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Vagrant Ruminations of a Compulsive Traveler

Where does the urge to hunt for that “fleeting fix of elsewhere” come from? Peter Wortsman recalls a life of travel inspiration. 

AUDIO SLIDESHOW
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Notes From an Unofficial Tourist Greeter

Summer is over, and so is Julia Ross‘ season as an ambassador to travelers in Washington, D.C.’s Woodley Park neighborhood. She’s happy to be off duty.


ITEM
1.21.04

Emancipation Tourism, Continued

He did the deed. In Poipet, Cambodia, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof bought two slave-prostitutes’ freedom, he writes in today’s paper, concluding his two-part series. (For our note about part one, see “Emancipation Tourism?” below.) Kristof admits he has no idea what will come of this. “[W]ill emancipation help them?” he writes. “Will their families and villages accept them? Or will they, like some other girls rescued from sexual servitude, find freedom so unsettling that they slink back to slavery in the brothels? We’ll see.” Geez. “We’ll see” strikes me as an unsettling conclusion, and Kristof doesn’t say whether he’ll stick around to help them, if helping them is even possible. In an accompanying forum, Kristof acknowledges that his actions here won’t solve the larger problem of slave-trade prostitution in Cambodia. “But the first step,” he writes, “has to be awareness of the problem, and that’s why I’m writing these columns.” Unfortunately, given the space constraints of his columns, Kristof could only begin to explore the complexities of the issue. 


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