Travels in the Riel World

Every wanted to visit the North African nation of Libya? One author makes the case that now is a great time to be a traveler in Libya. Reasons include:

The Sheer Number of Sights- Libya is home to the ruins of the prominent Roman city of Leptis Magna. The ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best preserved Roman cities. Libya is home to 5 World Heritage Sites and one of the 100 most endangered World Monument Fund sites, Wadi Mathendous.

Coastline - Libya has over 2,000 kilometers of cheap Mediterranean coastline. A numer of resorts have been popping up along this temperate region which is cheaper than comparable Spanish or Italian beaches.

It’s Unique - Thirsting to be ‘the first’ or one of the few travelers to a destination? Libya is just opening up into a tourist spot and I feel it will go the way of once cheap Morocco. Book a trip to Libya before you regret losing that cheap destination.

That was the sentiment of some recent comments by movie star Jackie Chan, who suggested that the Chinese people weren’t ready to deal with too much freedom or liberty. His statement, predictably, ignited a firestorm of protest. 

“I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled,” Mr. Chan said during the Boao Forum,the annual economic conference held on Hainan Island with a keynote speech by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. “If we are not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

The response was strongest in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which Mr. Chan, one of Asia’s wealthiest and best-known entertainers, held out as particularly “chaotic.” But even some intellectuals in mainland China spoke out against stereotyping Chinese as people who crave authoritarian leadership.

Apple Daily,one of Hong Kong’s biggest newspapers, used its front page to anoint him “a knave.” Politicians in Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that China claims as sovereign territory, described him as “idiotic” and “ignorant.” Albert Ho, a Hong Kong legislator, called Mr. Chan a “racist,” adding: “People around the world are running their own countries. Why can’t Chinese do the same?”

Chan’s comments are a bit absurd, on one hand. After all, who would suggest that any people weren’t equipped to deal with freedom? But it does bring up an interesting cultural conversation, as there are some cultural specialists, and even many Chinese, who will tell you that some group-oriented cultures just aren’t as comfortable with a freewheeling, anything goes type of society. In that sense, his comments do have a kernel of truth to them, eve if they miss the bigger picture of where the world stands on such topics. As the rest of the story notes:

On the other hand, few have publicly acknowledged that Mr. Chan’s sentiments, even if “taken out of context,” as his spokesman insisted, are quietly accepted or embraced by many Chinese. The Communist Party has long argued that the people of China are ill suited for Western-style democracy…Give the people too long a leash, the thinking goes, and everyone will end up strangled.

Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based analyst of Chinese politics, said that there was a prevailing sentiment in the Chinese-speaking world that too much freedom could only fuel disharmony and instability, viewed as archenemies of China’s drive to put economic development first.

“Jackie Chan said those things because he thinks they are true, and there are major sections of society who couldn’t agree with him more,” Mr. Moses said. “But such thinking is increasingly out of touch with this simmering debate about what the extent of state authority should be.”

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Three Buddhist monks and their umbrellas, walking down the street in Cambodia.

That’s the goal, at least, that Chris Guillebeau has set for himself. So far he’s up to 107 countries and he’s 30-years-old. He was profiled yesterday by the NY Times.

I had my first international travel experience when I was 6 years old. My mom took me to the Philippines, and I wound up living there for two years. Then, when I was 22, I went to Africa as an aid worker for an international charity group. I was traveling a lot between Africa and Europe. I remember being on a train and having this mad thought that I should visit 100 countries before I was 30 years old.

I did the math. And according to my calculations, it would cost about the same as buying a new sport utility vehicle, about $30,000. A lot of my friends were buying S.U.V.’s, but it just didn’t appeal to me. I wanted to spend my money learning about new cultures in places like Burma, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Lesotho and the Balkans, places I never thought I would see.

I began my 100-country countdown in 2006, and finished it in 2008. But a strange thing happened. At about country No. 50, I had another eureka moment: “Why stop at 100?” I’m 30 years old now, and my new goal is to visit each country on this planet before I’m 35 years old. Some of my friends think I’m nuts.

One of the problems is that I am running out of places with easy access. It’s not like every country is an Italy or a Mexico. Soon, I’m going to have to start making arrangements to get to Chad, the South Pacific and central Asia.

Read the whole article for insight on some of his travel tips and experiences. You can also check out Chris’ website. artofnonconformity.com, where he not only keeps track of his travels but also pens some fun articles of his own. Some of his pieces include:

- A short collection of unconventional ideas

- Will success follow if you do what you love?

- 9 overrated tourist destinations (and 9 great alternatives)

It’s fun to read and he provides some nice perspectives on life and travel.

If you were founding a new city today, it’s unlikely you’d choose to situate it on the edge of a cliff, would you? But some of the most stunning and unusual towns in the world actually do peer over the side of a rock wall. The website SpotCoolStuff recently profiled five such towns around the world. Here are two of them:

Manarola, Italy - The uber-colorful Italian village of Manarola is not the most precariously placed cliff-side settlement of the five in this review. This is fortunate considering the amount of wine produced—and consumed—here. The local specialty is Sciacchetrà, a sweet dessert wine that tastes of honey and apricots. Manarola is one of five villages in the Cinque Terre area of the Italian Riviera. The other four villages, not incidentally, have rather cool cliff-side locations as well.

Al Hajjarah, Yemen - Yemen is one of Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite travel countries (though, sadly, these days the security situation there for travelers is spotty). In the western part of the country lie the Haraz mountains and the village of Al Hajjarah. The fortified clifftop center of the village was originally built by the Ottomans in the 11th century, partly for military purposes and partly to serve as a Muslim enclave for what was then a mostly Jewish village. Today, Al Hajjarah makes for a striking trekking destination. Or you can travel here from San’a in about 3 hours by shared taxi via Manakhan.

The town of Manarola, Italy.

Photo: Casey Muller, Wikimedia Commons.

Here is a slightly older but intriguing piece that I recently came across: Africa’s top 10 travel wonders. You can guess some of the spots on the list - the Egyptian pyramids, the Nile River, the East African wildlife. But there is much, much more to see in Africa, despite the fact that the continent always lags far behind on the lists of popular tourist destinations. Here is a sampling of a few other African travel wonders:

Moroccan Cities of Marrakesh and Fes - With their labyrinthine souks, Marrakesh and Fes both boast remarkable medinas which challenge every human sense. With many craft shops (including leatherworks, metal workers, carpet weavers),food stalls and teashops, the enchanting aromas of spices clash with the evil odors of the dye pits. Marrakesh’s immense Djemaa el Fna square becomes a nightly showcase of snake charmers, soothsayers, jugglers, entertainers and magicians as you enjoy dinner from the variety of fresh food stalls and fresh juice bars.

Dogon Villages of Mali - The Dogon people live in small simple villages along the 120 mile Bandiagara Cliff. Their unusual mud-brick houses are built along the cliff edge providing places to sleep, common areas for meetings and for grain storage.

Zanzibar - The Spice Islands are a relaxing break from African travel and the game parks with its Arabic heritage, the old Stone Town and exotic palm-fringed beaches. The honeycomb of ancient alleyways are lined with whitewashed houses adorned with superbly carved doors. Culturally separate from Tanzania, quaint bazaars and stunning mosques provide a treasure trove of opportunities, between relaxing sessions on the beach.

See the rest of the article for the full list.

Granted, $80,000 is only one-third of this lawyer’s typical annual salary. But still, talk about a dream year. Heather Eisenlord’s New York City law firm needed to cut expenses and didn’t want to resort to layoffs. So they offered all of their associates the chance to take one year off from work in exchange for giving up two-thirds of their salary for that year. Thus far, about 125 of the firm’s 1,300 worldwide associates have taken the offer. Eisenlord is one of them. For the next year, she plans to travel around the world. And she’ll get paid $80,000 for doing so.

This year may be a disastrous one for the global economy, but it’s shaping up to be one of the best that Heather Eisenlord has enjoyed in a good long while. Granted, that might not be saying much: For the past five years, Ms. Eisenlord has been an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, a notably grueling place for a lawyer to work.

But even by more stringent standards of fun, the coming year looks pretty good. Ms. Eisenlord, 36, who works in Skadden’s banking group, will be buying a plane ticket that will take her around the world for a year, and she’s been stocking her apartment in Brooklyn with Lonely Planet travel guides.

Although she’s not yet sure exactly what she’ll be doing on her trip, she has some ideas. She would like to teach English to monks in Sri Lanka and possibly help bring solar power to remote parts of the Himalayas. She’ll probably hit 10 to 15 destinations around the world, most likely practicing not-for-profit law wherever she can be helpful.

The best part of all: Skadden is paying her about $80,000 to do it. For a sixth-year associate at a New York law firm, $80,000 isn’t exactly competitive pay. But for someone cruising around the world, doing good wherever she sees fit and, let’s face it, probably hitting a beach or two, the pay is excellent.

If you’re a fan of this blog, you might be interested to know about my new writing venture. I recently began penning a North American travel column for Examiner.com. It’s a bit of a departure from what I do here, but also a nice complement. Travels in the Riel World will continue to delve into cross-cultural topics and international travel, while my Examiner column will focus on travel in North America. It’s also another platform and audience for my work, so wish me luck. Better yet, come visit!

It appears that couchsurfing is continuing to grow in popularity. The website that became a trendy mode of travel is now going mainstream. Couchsurfing.com has passed the one million member milestone. Of course, as the Frugal Traveler points out, this growing popularity brings with it the danger that newcomers may not always be in it for the same goals of cross-cultural interaction that attracted many of the original members.

A member since May 2006, I’ve used CouchSurfing from Montenegro and Bucharest to Indiana and Kyrgyzstan, sometimes staying in a plush, private bedroom, sometimes on big, soft sofas and sometimes just meeting up for drinks and hanging out with fellow members. These CouchSurfers have rarely been backpacker types: Vlatko, in Perast, Montenegro, was an ebullient restaurateur who loved playing the jew’s-harp. Gabriela, in Oporto, Portugal, ran a high-end furniture factory. And in Columbus, Ind., there was the Signorino family. Few have welcomed me into their homes and their families with as much sweetness and warmth as did Michele, Andrea and their three whip-smart kids, Renzo, Vincent and Lucia…

With so many people finally “getting” CouchSurfing, it may finally shake its fringe reputation. But with mainstreaming comes the danger that newcomers may see it simply as a way to get a free room and ignore the site’s more important goal: “meeting new people and discovering new cultures from the inside;” as Mr. Fried put it.

For true believers, the free bed is not an end unto itself but a first step toward cross-cultural connection and the idea that, as Mannie Pierre, a 36-year-old social worker, said, “There’s more to love out there than to fear.”

Sure, you like Mexican food. And, yes, there are Mexican food restaurants in every big city and perhaps every small town across the United States. Not to mention in many other nations, as well. But have you really experienced Mexican food if you haven’t had it in Mexico? Sarah Menkedick recently wrote an article for Matador Travel that takes us on a tour of 10 Mexican foods to try - in Mexico. Here’s a sampling of her suggestions:

Tacos- You may think you know the taco. You’ve met it in Chicago or even Beijing. But you do not know the taco until you are standing on the corner of a sun-flooded street at 7 AM, elbow to elbow with hungry Mexicans on their way to work, watching the taquero carve meat off the spit, spoon it into warm corn tortillas, fold said tortillas into small moons, and repeat the process, fluently, rapidly.

You do not know the taco until you dress it with delicate thin guacamole, cilantro, and perhaps a dabbling of red chili sauce, and it fills your mouth with the flavors of corn, meat, and spice. Until you use your fingers to pick up the little biteful of filling that fell out onto the Styrofoam plate. Then you know the taco.

Tortillas fresh off the comal- The comal is a round, clay Mexican grill, upon which señoras heat fresh hand-pressed tortillas. Watch and you’ll see the tortillas puff up a little, at which point the señoras will flip them briskly. When they’ve firmed and cooked through, they’re filled or topped to make quesadillas, empanadas, or memelas.

Quesadillas and empanadas are tortillas filled with mushrooms, squash flowers, chile-rubbed pork, or huitlacoche. They’re delicious, but in my opinion the way to really experience the simply joy of this tortilla is to try a memela. A warm tortilla, a thin layer of black beans, and queso fresco. Nada mas.

Mole- “You first need to get the peanuts, you get the salt and the bread, you grind and you fry the chiles, you boil the chocolate…get cinnamon and bananas, get cloves and oregano, get thyme and the blackest pepper, you grind it in México!”

Look no further than Mexico’s beloved Lila Downs for a celebration of molé. An indigenous specialty, it is used to celebrate weddings, funerals, birthdays, Sunday afternoons, and the richness of life. You can’t leave Mexico without a little molé in your blood.

She has many other mouth-watering suggestions in her full story.

I’ve written about Pico Iyer a couple of times previously and he is one of the world’s more thoughtful and interesting travel writers. He recently gave an intriguing interview to Gadling that is worth reading. An excerpt:

One quality I’ve always admired about your writing is your ability to tap into the personality of a country. What advice do you have about tapping into the essence of a place?

Places are like people, with personalities just as distinct, and a travel writer, of course, is someone who aims to create not just a photograph of a place but a portrait. My advice would be to walk and walk and walk, as soon as you arrive, when the place is still new to you and every perception is fresh–the mind has not yet begun to settle into prejudices or arguments.

Take down everything and remember that anything (an Internet cafe, a Golden Arches, a shop selling TVs) is interesting, and revealing of the society around it. And try, wherever possible, to remember that you’ve come all this way–even if it’s only to another state–to enter a foreign state of mind, a different sensibility. The joy of travel is not being reminded of your assumptions, or being confirmed in your beliefs, but in being led out of them, to something utterly other and, perhaps, unfathomable.

As much as traveling can create the sense that one is connected to the world, it can also create the feeling of being unsettled. What do you do to stay grounded and keep track of yourself in the process?

I tend to be too settled, so I seek out being unsettled–at the very least, that can test the ground I have. Everywhere man is settled, as Emerson says, and only insofar as he unsettled is there any hope for him. I hope I have solid ground within me–I do after all spend two months a year in a monastery, and eight months in a monastic life in Japan (a two-room apartment without cellphone or printer or World Wide Web or car or bicycle), and I have been living in these simple cells now for more than 16 years, so I feel that I am rooted, as much as I need to be, in what is real and stable.

But to stay too long in these places that I know as well as my heartbeat would be to risk complacency, blindness and inertia. So I try to force myself out of my grooves, feeling that groundedness is what I have, unsettledness what I need.

Is there a piece of travel wisdom someone told you that you took to heart? What was it?

The Dalai Lama always suggests that there’s no virtue in looking backward–the future is what we can change–and I suppose that is what has guided me in my traveling life. Most of the travelers I love and learned from are in some ways journeying back into the past, to explain the present; I, by making most of my central travels to places like Los Angeles Airport or the state of jet lag (or even to the monastery) have always pointed myself towards the future. My interest is not in what the world has been but what we can make of it, especially those 21st century citizens who are, to some degree, children of possibility (alarming or pretentious as that phrase might sound to some).

There is much more from Iyer in the full interview. Check it out.

Some more examples of culture in the news:

In Washington, D.C., the retirement of the White House florist, Nancy Clarke, sheds light on the fact that even flowers have different meanings across cultures:

In addition to providing flowers for the occupants of the White House, Mrs. Clarke has also ended up becoming something of an expert on international floral protocol.

In an article published in White House History, the journal of the White House Historical Association, Ms. Clarke said she learned to tailor floral arrangements to accommodate foreign customs, tastes and the allergies and personal preferences of the presidents’ guests.

“In Muslim and many Pacific Rim countries, the color white is reserved for funerals,’’ Ms. Clarke wrote in the article last year. “In many of the Central and South American countries, the same is true of the color yellow,’’ she said. “Sometimes it is the type of flower that must be avoided; in some countries and regions, lilies, mums or carnations are used only for funerals.’’

And in Damascus, Syria, the opening of a very modest stock market is a reminder that many Arabs are at heart traders and businesspeople:

For the moment, it looks more like a sleepy college library than a booming bourse, with trading — indirectly controlled by the government — only five hours a week and share price fluctuations limited to 2 percent per day. There are only six stocks on the market, and in the first weeks, only one was traded.

But for many Syrians, the fledgling exchange represents a long-deferred dream of economic liberalization and prosperity after decades of socialism and isolation.

In a sense, it is a return to Syria’s roots: trade has always been at the center of this city, with its famous souks and its mercantile elite. Syria had the first central bank in the Middle East, and a thriving informal stock market until the late 1950s, when it unified with Egypt and adopted an austere socialist creed…

Still, the new stock exchange represents the aspirations of a younger, business-oriented generation for whom economic prosperity may ultimately trump Syria’s longstanding support for militant groups. Many young entrepreneurs are descendants of the old Sunni Muslim mercantile elite of this city, who still tend to dominate in business.

In recent years, this younger generation has helped transform the face of Damascus, with new restaurants, bars, nightclubs and boutique hotels. The economy has grown despite the American sanctions, and private banks, first reintroduced in 2004, are becoming more prevalent.

There is a lot of jaw-droppingly beautiful scenery on this planet and quite a few hikes that enable us to enjoy that scenery. But which hiking trails are the best? Which ones provide the most interesting experiences or the most incredible views? It’s not an easy question, but Julie Blakley tackled it recently in an article she wrote for BootsnAll. She came up with her list of the 10 best hiking trails in the world and managed to include destinations in nine countries and on five continents. An excerpt:

Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand- It is certainly no secret that New Zealand boasts some of the world’s most beautiful and dramatic scenery, which is why it’s not surprising that one of the world’s most spectacular hikes is located on these mountainous islands. While many people who hike in the Tongariro Reserve (a World Heritage site) on the Northern island stick to the one-day Tongariro Alpine crossing, the multi-day (2 nights and 3 days) Tongariro northern circuit provides hikers with a much richer and scenic experience.

Annapurna Circuit, Nepal - Any serious hiker or trekker dreams of going to Nepal to journey through the world’s most dramatic mountain landscape. While most hikers think of Kathmandu and Everest when they hear the word Nepal, the Annapurna circuit (which circumnavigates the Annapurna massif) not only has staggering snow-capped and rugged peaks providing for a spectacular backdrop, but the hike also offers trekkers great opportunities to see a wide range of natural and cultural diversity.

Inca Trail, Peru- Most people who know something about travel, know about the famous and world-renowned Inca Trail. While some of the more hard-core types out there may think of this amazing trek as cliché, the truth is that this trail is popular for a reason. Peru offers some of the most beautiful South American mountainous scenery and, while some criticize the trail for being over-regulated and too popular, Machu Picchu is a destination worth seeing and the hike along the way is sure not to disappoint, with plenty of scenic vistas and amazing views.

Check out her story for the entire list of 10 great hikes. What other ones would be on your list?

People in various cultures perceive the world differently. This is one of the main causes of communication miscues between individuals from diverse regions of the world. If you want to see an excellent example of how the meaning of simple words can vary from one person to the next, check out this article in the Christian Science Monitor in which Chris Seiple dissects 10 words or phrases that may be meant one way by a Western speaker but understood differently by a Muslim. An excerpt:

- “Secular.” The Muslim ear tends to hear “godless” with the pronunciation of this word. And a godless society is simply inconceivable to the vast majority of Muslims worldwide. Pluralism – which encourages those with (and those without) a God-based worldview to have a welcomed and equal place in the public square – is a much better word.

- “Jihadi.” The jihad is an internal struggle first, a process of improving one’s spiritual self-discipline and getting closer to God. The lesser jihad is external, validating “just war” when necessary. By calling the groups we are fighting “jihadis,” we confirm their own – and the worldwide Muslim public’s – perception that they are religious. They are not. They are terrorists, hirabists, who consistently violate the most fundamental teachings of the Holy Koran and mainstream Islamic scholars and imams.

- “Religious Freedom.” Sadly, this term too often conveys the perception that American foreign policy is only worried about the freedom of Protestant evangelicals to proselytize and convert, disrupting the local culture and indigenous Christians. Although not true, I have found it better to define religious freedom as the promotion of respect and reconciliation with the other at the intersection of culture and the rule of law – sensitive to the former and consistent with the latter.