Archive for February, 2009
Stop crying, you’re British
You’ve heard about the British penchant for the stiff upper lip and their disdain for unseemly displays of emotion. But you wonder how true it really is. After all, we live in an age of emotion. People bare their souls on reality television shows and Facebook pages every day. Old habits, though, die hard. The [...]
Seeing Vietnam with children
Most people would consider Vietnam a difficult enough country to visit on one’s own, never mind with 10- and 7-year-old children. But Cathryn Prince and her husband did just that, and she wrote about the experience for the Christian Science Monitor. When I told friends that my husband and I planned to travel to Vietnam [...]
Varieties of hot chocolate in Latin America
This is the time of year that people’s thoughts turn to steaming mugs of hot chocolate during chilly evenings at home. So I was pleased to stumble across this story about the history of hot chocolate in Latin America. This region is arguably the home of hot chocolate, which was once sipped in a more bitter [...]
The geography of the American mind
Where would you like to live? If you could be guaranteed a reasonable facsimile of your current job, family situation and network of friends anywhere in the country, where would you choose? The Pew Research Center did an extensive study on where Americans would like to live, and the top three cities were Denver, San Diego and [...]
Experience is happiness
I love this blog post that was published recently on Vagabonding. It references a study on happiness which indicates that life experiences lead to greater happiness than do material possessions. Here is Scott Gilbertson’s take on the topic: According to a recent study, using money to achieve life experiences — like traveling — leads to greater [...]
“We don’t follow time”
So says a nomadic guide to Joe Ray, who wrote a nice article for the Boston Globe about his experience trekking the Sahara in southern Algeria. The piece captures the harsh beauty of the desert as well as the unique culture of the Touareg nomads who live in the region. The author on the desert: Desert [...]
Changing world clashes with Indian traditions
As globalization creeps into every corner of the globe, the traditional values of some cultures are bound to clash with the changing values and morals of a younger generation that has been exposed to a wider world. And so in India, when young women go out to a club after work, it offends the sensibilities of a [...]
The gig economy
So there’s finally a catchphrase for the growing number of people who try to stitch a living out of wandering from project to project. Marci Alboher wrote a book a while back and she has a blog about people who have slash/careers, or multiple vocations. But now Tina Brown has created a mini-media storm with an article about what [...]
Seven favorite cafe cities
There is something to be said for the cafe culture that has developed over decades or centuries in some other countries, so here is a compilation of my favorite international cafe cities.
Where else do you want to travel this year?
O.K., I think we have time for one more entry in our review of destinations for 2009. This one is courtesy of the New York Times, which came up with a list of 44 diverse and interesting destinations for the coming year. A sampling of this eclectic list: Monument Valley, Arizona – Monument Valley, in northeast Arizona, with [...]
“Couchsurfing” differs for Asians
I’ve previously covered couchsurfing on this blog, both the idea behind it and the actual organization that connects people around the world by offering free places to stay. Now comes an interesting story that compares Western and Asian cultures in terms of their levels of comfort with the idea of hosting strangers in one’s home. It’s great for [...]
United States of Africa?
It may be a bit far-fetched, but it’s a real goal for at least some African leaders, most notably the new chairman of the African Union, one Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. The obstacles to such a union are daunting, but an article in the International Herald Tribune lays out the pan-African dream that Qaddafi and others would [...]
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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.
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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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