Cheesy Souvenirs + Famous Landmarks = Very Cool Travel Pics

Greyhound Canada (and Its Passengers) Can’t Catch a Break

The Paris Greeters: Helping Dispell Notions of ‘Inhospitable Locals’

Forget About Having a ‘G’Day, Mate’

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. 

Rolf Potts: Revelations from a Postmodern Travel Writer

His new book “Marco Polo Didn’t Go There” includes his best stories from the past 10 years. Michael Yessis asks him how travel writing has changed in the last decade—and what he sees for the future.

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.

10 Great Travel Race Movies

Slow travel is well and good. But there’s something irresistible about a great travel race movie. World Hum Travel Movie Clubbers Eva Holland and Eli Ellison share their favorite vicarious thrill rides.

Eat Ceviche in Lima

Grab a Cusqueña and get comfortable. As Nicholas Gill explains, a trip to a Peruvian cevichería can be an all-day immersion in good conversation and raw seafood.

How Should I Spend My Time in Spain?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

Unsentimental Journeys: Wrestling With Paul Theroux

Bronwen Dickey considers “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: 28,000 Miles in Search of the Great Railway Bazaar”

A Bicycle Ride Around Bagan, Burma

Rolf Potts saw lots more from the seat of a bicycle in Burma, and wrote a story about it for NatGeo Traveler’s “Sudden Journeys” issue: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/features/suddenjourneys0705/journeys.html#rolf

I think that travel can be one of the best educators out there and recall the first time I went to Burma with a tour group.  I knew of some of the situation going on, however it wasn’t until I was actually there and learning on the ground on both the Thai-Burma border and internally what was going on.  I still have plenty more to learn and continue to say that my heart is in Burma.  I have since made several trips to Burma and I think that while the idea that as soon as my plane wheels hit the ground, I am providing money in the form of taxes and visa fees, however I am responsibile enough to limit those fees to the government and stay in local places, eat in local shops and travel by private transportation as much as possible.  Sure you’re going to have little bits going in the government’s pockets here and there, however the information I walk out with and the stories I inform people of balance those few dollars. 

The money that goes into the pockets of the local people helps those people expand their own opportunities and by continuing to travel in Burma, it is known that the areas where the foreigners are, there is less likely to be human rights abuses going on.  I’m not ignorant, I have seen the work camps, I have seen the oppression and I have been kept from going to specific areas, however I can walk away with those stories of what I have seen, the images I have photographed and am able to educate others that don’t even know where Burma is in the world. 

In a time where much of the global media walks on egg shells with coverage in Burma, it is necessary for people to share their travels and what they learned in this country first-hand.

Hi.. friends

Helping you is helping me..and us..

Victor

There definitely needs to be more care in the preservation of such artefacts but what more can be done. I wonder how the Burmese feel about this and how high of a priority it seems to them.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Sarah.

Could you shed more light on the ethicality of visiting Burma?

Sure. Start here…

http://www.worldhum.com/weblog/item/the_state_of_the_burma_travel_debate_20071226/