Archive for October, 2006
Travel writing and writers
If you enjoy travel writing, you might want to check out Rolf Potts’ collection of interviews with travel writers on his website. He’s been publishing an interview with a different writer every month for six years now. It’s an interesting site to wander through, reading interviews with your favorite travel writers and with others you may [...]
Visiting India with teenagers
“Why can’t we be like normal people and go to an all-inclusive?” These moans from our teens–Tess, 17, and Lucy, 14–are predictable when we announce we’re going on a three-week trip to India. My husband, Terry, and I heard the same chorus of complaints prior to our trips to Thailand and Malaysia (2000), and Vietnam [...]
Road tripping
The American road trip has long been a rite of passage for travelers, though for many people this journey may not strike the same romantic chord that it once did. World Hum, though, recently suggested that we may actually be in the midst of a new golden age of the cross-country road trip. The 1940s and 1950s are generally considered [...]
Tourism to Kurdistan?
Granted, Iraq is not high on the list of places that most tourists are likely to consider when planning their next vacation. Nevertheless, the Iraqi region of Kurdistan is making a push to attract tourists, according to this recent USA Today article. Their argument is that the region of northern Iraq populated by the Kurds has long been more autonomous than [...]
The question of Latin America
Is Latin America an integratedÂregion, or a diverse group of peoples and cultures? There are those, such as Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara, who have dreamed in the past of unifying all the peoples of Latin America. That sentiment was given expression again in the 2004 movie The Motorcycle Diaries (a nice travel movie, by the way), when the character of a [...]
The tribal culture of Iraq
There are many people who would have us believe that the challenges of Iraq are all about politics and terrorism. And, of course, those obstacles are very real and are difficult enough to overcome. But the hurdles involved in putting that country back together actually go much deeper, since a solution to the Iraqi quagmire isn’t really possible without taking into account [...]
Medical tourism
In the spring, I had a post about the increasing numbers of Americans who were traveling abroad for surgeries that are often unaffordable at home. That same topic is in the news again, in the wake of a recent report by the ABC News program Nightline. Overseas medical travel has been popular for a long time for [...]
Dancing your way around the planet
Well, here’s a rare and unorthodox way to fund a round-the-world trip… In 2003, Matt Harding posted on his website a video of himself dancing in a dozen countries. As the video made its way around the web, it found its way into the offices of Stride gum company. The company then offered to fund a six-month trip [...]
Rise in Chinese language programs
Last month, I had a post about the rise of Chinese language classes in Latin America, which is being spurred by the increase in business between the cultures. Apparently, there is also considerable interest among Americans in learning to speak Chinese, stretching all the way down to elementary school language programs. The International Herald Tribune just ran a story about [...]
Technology startups in China and Scandinavia
Business Week currently has two articles on technology startups, one with tips on investing in internet businesses in China and another about new technology companies in Scandinavia. Within both articles are clues to the business cultures of the respective regions. First, some cultural advice for investing in China … One of the biggest challenges for a [...]
The decline of machismo?
In Latin cultures, both in southern Europe and in Latin America, there is a long tradition of machismo. This can take many forms, from a strong sense of masculinity that manifests in a certain physical appearance or swagger to an acceptance of extramarital affairs to a more overt domination of women in the home or workplace. In some [...]
Concocting a national drink
The story in the International Herald Tribune lays out the challenge. Nicaragua wants a national drink in order to help boost the country’s identity… Nicaraguan folk music fills the air at the House of the Mejias Godoy, a nightspot in Managua, Nicaragua’s sprawling capital. The plates of steaming food – beans and rice, plantains and [...]
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Bob Riel is a writer and a traveler. Go here to read more about Bob, his work and the Travels in the Riel World blog.
Great American Road Trips
Two Laps Around the World
My travel memoir - Two Laps Around the World: Tales and Insights from a Life Sabbatical - is about two round-the-world journeys with my wife.
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