Keep Your Day Job: Thoughts of a Travel Writer

April 17th, 2012 by Buzz
via The Rag Blog

via The Rag Blog

Writing for Gadling, David Farley muses on being a travel writer, connecting the dots between passing out drunk on a train and the fact that “[t]he word travel, after all, comes from ‘travail,’ which comes from ‘tripalium,’ a Roman instrument of torture.” Farley starts off by announcing that for all the cities with subways that he’s called home – Rome, Paris, Prague, San Francisco – he’d never fallen asleep on a train.

Frankly, I don’t think this is something to be proud of, as nodding off after a long evening of merriment has always struck me as a sign of being at ease with a place (though if it happens often, you might have other issues). I speak from experience: there is something pleasantly disorienting about waking up in Fremont, California, when downtown San Francisco had been your intended destination, or when you groggily recognize the shimmer of Yankee Stadium out the window of a train you’d meant to exit underground at Grand Central. The nice thing about getting lost on trains, of course, is that you just have to go to the other side of the tracks and wait for the next one to take you back.

Farley now knows what it feels like to pass out on a train, a Brooklyn-bound D train to be precise, after a recent stay in New York and a night out with friends. The result, other than a bit of fodder for a piece about travel writing, was finding a car service and a Russian driver named Andrei. Needless to say, Andrei turned out to be a character, assuming Farley’s expertise transcended knowing about restaurants and nightclubs and extended to regional dynamics of prostitution.

“Every spring I teach a travel writing class at New York University,” writes Farley. “Within the first five minutes of the first class, I tell my students the bubble-bursting secret: that being a travel writer is almost as over-romanticized as bacon, Brooklyn and Italy.” Farley goes on to explain the toll of traveling for a living: “I think back to the epic flights sitting behind guys who unforgivingly recline their seats into my lap, watching mediocre romantic comedies (which are always much better from 35,000 feet in the air, for some reason) and eating microwave-baked gruel all to chase a story somewhere on the planet. I actually hate the act of travel.”

Though Farley hates the act of travel, he still appreciates its rewards. He might not be getting wealthy, but it sounds like he has some rich experiences. Since the life of a travel writer rarely leads to fame and fortune, maybe it’s best to just stick with being a traveler.

What do you think of Farley’s outlook on the life of a travel writer?

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The Trans-Mongolian Railway

April 10th, 2012 by Buzz

via The Wall Street Journal

via The Wall Street Journal

As mentioned here before, I am enchanted by long-distance train travel, though admittedly I’ve never been on a train for more than twenty-four hours. Some day I will remedy this hole in my world traveler’s portfolio. Until then, I will live vicariously through those with the time and means to make such journeys.

Of course, the Trans-Siberian Railway is the stuff of legend, but legend filigreed with throwbacks to Grand Tours. The Trans-Mongolian Railway, which intersects with the Trans-Siberian in Irkutsk, Russia, has its own lore, though it is more rough and tumble, conjuring Genghis Khan and his exploits. Departing from Irkutsk and chugging through Mongolia en route to Beijing, China, some 1,820 miles south, the trip comprises long, uninterrupted views, many stops and plenty of time to meet other passengers.

David A. Andelman carved out five weeks to make the trip and wrote about it for The Wall Street Journal. He explains: “I first fell under the spell of Genghis and his Mongol horde—a rapid-strike force of mounted warriors who invaded civilizations as far apart as Baghdad and Budapest—more than half a century ago, when I studied with Francis Cleaves, the renowned translator of ‘The Secret History of the Mongols.’ Into the 1980s, my dream of visiting was all but impossible, with Khan’s land run by one of communism’s most brutal Stalinist dictatorships. But last year, with Mongolia moving toward a full democracy, the time finally seemed right for a rail trip with my wife through parts of Russia, Mongolia and China.”

Andelman continues: “Riding the Trans-Mongolian felt like being on a milk train. It clicked and swayed along on tracks that have seen better days, making frequent stops that allowed us to quickly explore tiny depots in towns surrounded by wide grasslands.”

Along with having the chance to see settlements that otherwise would be near impossible to visit, this trip also peels back a layer of the 500,000-square mile Gobi Desert, which according to Andelman is mostly flat with the exception of some towering dunes. Also interesting about this rail journey is how elements of globalization become visible as the train moves through Mongolia and nears China. The desolate flatlands of the former give way to “brand-new towns . . . wind farms whirring with hundreds of turbines.”

A trip like this not only gives you a sense for the actual size of the world, but it also makes clear how cultures rub up against one another, resulting in all sorts of exchanges. One of these days, I really hope to explore this region.

What long-distance train trip would you like to take?

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Is There Anything Wrong With Being a Tourist?

April 3rd, 2012 by Buzz
via Five Wrong Turns

via Five Wrong Turns

After discovering a used copy of the 1963 edition of Arthur Frommer’s Europe on Five Dollars a Day, Doug Mack came up with the core idea for his book Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day: travel to Europe today, using an old guide. Additionally, Mack also decided to reference a shoebox of letters his mom sent to his father as she and a friend toured the Continent for ten weeks in 1967. As Mack writes: “Guided solely by my parents’ correspondence and my obsolete guidebook – no modern guides, no internet research – I sought to re-trace the old hippie backpacker route, to see how far I could get using those documents and nothing else, to connect the dots between that era of travel and my own, to understand just how the beaten path got so beaten.”

Traveling through Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Mack certainly kept to the “beaten path.” But that’s what makes his spin on travel so interesting. In this interview from WorldHum he drives home the point: “Tourism has always been, to some degree, an act of status, a statement that you have the time, money and ability to go abroad. With the budget travel boom of the 1960s, though, it exploded and fragmented, open to more people and more ways of showing off, including not just conspicuous consumption but conspicuous frugality. Today, specific travel attitudes and methodologies are as carefully calibrated as attire worn on a first date . . . But each attitude completely misses Frommer’s essential underlying point: What matters is not finding something your friends haven’t found but appreciating and understanding that thing—that culture, that place, that food—on your own terms.”

Portrait of the author as a tourist, via Five Wrong Turns

Portrait of the author as a tourist, via Five Wrong Turns

Plenty has been made of the difference between the “tourist” and the “traveler,” and while I have long considered myself the latter it is impossible to say I’ve never been the former. And, in truth, when I really think about it, I think Mack is spot-on in his perspective on the issue. I’ve been to France a number of times, but I’ve never visited Versailles, mainly because I’ve never wanted to deal with all the tourists. But this is a poor excuse, especially in light of the fact that just a few weeks ago I was traipsing around Pompeii, which I loved.

The first time I went to Europe, having read a great deal of travel writing, I only wanted to have off-the-beaten path adventures. Who needed museums and cathedrals when there were back alleys and holes in the wall to explore? In fact, I split with my companions for one day when they took the train to Versailles and I opted to wander the streets of Paris (to this day I’m sure I had a better time than them). But in Florence, something unforgettable happened. Much to my chagrin, my friends insisted that we go see Michelangelo’s David. I was not thrilled about the idea, but went along. After waiting in line for a bit, we finally entered the gallery where the statue stands. I was amazed. The scale and detail, its presence – these are not qualities that come through in a photograph in some art history book. To this day, the hands alone remain vivid in my mind. On this day, I was very appreciative to be a tourist.

What tourist attractions do you adore and which ones do you loathe? Why?

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The Season for Japan

March 27th, 2012 by Buzz

On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced a natural catastrophe as gut wrenching as it gets. Who can forget the footage of large boats being crammed under bridges by the force of the tsunami that ravaged the areas around Sendai? It is hard to believe that it all happened just a little more than one year ago.

In last weekend’s New York Times, author Pico Iyer, a British ex-pat who has been living in Kyoto for the past twenty-five years, wrote “Now Is the Season for Japan,” a lovely meditation on Japan and the nation’s healing process. The piece starts in Kyoto, observing the rock garden in the Ryoanji temple, where a poignant lesson is carved into a water basin: “What you have is all you need.” Iyer uses this adage to interpret how the year since the disaster has effected, and ultimately is strengthening, the national character of Japan by bringing into contrast how tradition and the new coexist: “[T]he quiet amplitude that is one of the special graces of Japan has a new resonance this year. . . . But deep down, Japan seems more vulnerable, and thus more wide open, than ever.”

Of course, Japan’s ability to honor thousands of years of tradition while embracing the newest of the new in all aspects of life is one of the country’s hallmarks, but as Iyer reminds his readers: “It’s hard for outsiders to appreciate how much, after more than a thousand years of fires and earthquakes and wars, Japan is primed for adversity.” The scale of loss and the total surprise of it could never have been predicted and it is hard to accept a silver lining in such an event but Iyer does identify an uplifting aspect of what has resulted from the tragedy: “[I]t also highlighted the resilience, self-possession and community-mindedness that are so striking in Japan; suddenly, the country that had seemed to insist on its difference from the rest of the world could be seen in its more human, compassionate and brave dimensions.” This is a unique perspective to be sure, but from what I know of Japan it makes sense. The Japanese have long prided themselves on a nationalism that only a citizen could appreciate. Perhaps, now, the rest of the world can better relate.

The good news is that tourism has rebounded in Japan: “Though foreign tourism to Japan as a whole plunged by 50 percent in the three months following the earthquake last March, as of January 2012 it was only 4 percent lower, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.” This Financial Times piece backs up Iyer’s claim and gets much more in-depth with regard to how the economy is slowly recovering in terms of supply chains and exports.

I can attest to the fact that Japan is an amazing place to visit. It has something for everyone, from history and culture to stunning landscapes, vibrant cities and welcoming locals. There are also deals to be had across the country in order to entice visitors.

Why not take a trip to Japan?

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The Olympic Games and UK Airports

March 20th, 2012 by Buzz
via Sydney Morning Herald

via Sydney Morning Herald

This year, London hosts the Summer Olympic Games, which runs from July 27 to August 12, and is followed by the Paralympic Games from August 29 to September 9. According to this Bloomberg Businessweek article, the two events will bring 320,000 visitors to London. For residents and anyone who has visited in the last couple of years, heavy construction throughout the city demonstrates how it has been contorting itself to make preparations for the festivities. Already one of the word’s pricier cities when it comes to hotels, any available rooms are exorbitantly marked up. But the Olympics only comes along once every four years, so for the athletes, their friends and families and sporting enthusiasts of all stripes, money is secondary.

But even if you have your room and tickets booked, it seems like flying in and out of London might be one gigantic mess. What’s even worse, for travelers who have no intention of visiting London this summer, their travel plans might also be disrupted even for connecting flights due to the surge of visitors. According to this Daily Mail article, “British Airways, bmi, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic have called for the government to take ‘urgent action’ to cope with delays which could be caused by security measures and bad weather.”

London area airports are hectic on any given day so just imagine what will happen this summer. As the Daily Mail article points out, there will also be an influx of unscheduled flights, meaning everything from chartered flights bringing in national teams to private jets zipping in from across the globe. Add to this a larger than usual number of media helicopters hovering above London for aerial shots and these big UK airlines seem to be justified in their concerns. Their letter to the government insists: “Failure to respond leaves the UK vulnerable to the type of major disruption that will cause significant reputational damage and would be fool-hardy and reckless.”

But, it is worth noting that London is no stranger to adversity when it comes to hosting the Olympics. In 1908, London stepped up to fill in for Rome after the 1906 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius forced the Olympic Committee to search for a new host city. In 1948, London again welcomed the Olympic Games, the first to take place after World War II.

Apparently, both Games went off without any major issues, so what’s a little air traffic congestion? While I’m sure all those participating and attending the Games this summer will have the time of their lives, if you don’t need to move through any UK airports this summer, probably best to avoid them.

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Off the Beaten Path: Italy Farm Stay

March 13th, 2012 by Buzz

via Europe Up Close

via Europe Up Close

On my recent trip to Italy I went places where plenty of others have visited: Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast. Fun was had, ruins were visited, food eaten, wine imbibed, strolls taken. I’d never been to this section of Italy so it was all new to me, yet there was a Mediterranean familiarity to the coastal towns, and Naples reminded me of many other big cities.

My wife and I knew this would most likely be the case so we made sure to carve out a few days to visit a place where there aren’t a whole lot of visitors: Pescosolido. North of Naples, this small town doesn’t even have a train station; the closest one is in Sora. From Naples we rode a train to Cassino, where we boarded a small two-car train that sounded and smelled more like a school bus. We were on our way to the Google-search friendly Italy Farm Stay, the creation of Antonello Siragusa. A wordly guy in his own right, after traveling around for some time, Siragusa returned to his family’s farm thinking about how to merge his passions: farming, food, travel.

Italian Agriturismo has been popular for a while, especially since the Italian government has helped convert former mafia villas and rural hideouts into tourist-friendly destinations. But where most of these lean more toward being spas or posh B&Bs, Siragusa wanted to share with visitors the joys of his family’s multigenerational working farm, while also turning on Italians and international visitors alike to the area’s mountain scenery. Sitting in the foothills of Abruzzi National Park, the Siragusa’s farm is a tranquil plot of hilly pastures, groves of olive and fig trees and thickets of thorny wild berry bushes.

Days were spent hiking up to an old castle, making pasta from scratch and exploring the farm and Sora. At night, we joined other guests and volunteers, along with the entire Siragusa family, for amazing home-cooked dinners. Everything we ate was either from the farm or from the area. After dinner we spent the pleasantly chilly nights drinking homemade wine while sitting in front of a fire.

via Europe Up Close

via Europe Up Close

Italy Farm Stay is not some visitor-friendly representation of a farm; it is a visitor-friendly farm. Guests can roam about as they please, but no matter what the family works their land seven days per week, almost every day of the year. Siragusa’s plan to invite visitors has certainly added a new dynamic to the farm’s daily activity but farming remains the focus, which is what makes the experience so wonderful.

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Offseason Perks

March 6th, 2012 by Buzz

Amalfi Town Beach via Flyingpast Flickr

Amalfi Town Beach via Flyingpast Flickr

Popular destinations gain notoriety for an array of factors: significant historical landmarks, awe-inspiring natural beauty, hot beds of cultural importance. Whether we’re talking cities or isolated regions, these destinations attract more visitors depending on the time of year. The reasons for this are obvious. You can’t ski the Swiss Alps in the summer and you don’t want to swim in the Mediterranean in February. Unless walks in the rain are your thing, you probably want to avoid cities with mildly predictable rainy seasons, like Tokyo in July or August.

But there is a downside to visiting places when they are at their supposed peaks – everyone else is there, too. Lines are longer, reservations to restaurants are harder to get, prices for rooms skyrocket, traffic is a nightmare, the list goes on an on.

These thoughts are bouncing around my mind this week as I’m kicking around Italy’s Amalfi Coast. Have I gone swimming? No. Has the weather been near perfect? Yes? Are there crowds? No. In the summer would I have been able to stay at the wonderful Hotel Antiche Mura? No. Have I had to wait to eat at amazing restaurants like De Gemma in Amalfi, or Inn Bufalito and the Michelin starred Il Buco in Sorrento? No!

In the summer, traveling along the sinewy, stunningly beautiful coastal road that connects these towns can be a traffic-choked crawl. The beaches are crowded to the point of discomfort and if you are lucky enough to find a hotel room it comes at a premium. That said, it is more than understandable why people put up with these inconveniences. Among the crowds, those magical travel-related moments still happen, no matter if you are in Italy in the summer or New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

But there is a lot to be said for exploring places in the offseason, connecting with and appreciating their charms on a more intimate level. The sites and flavors still abound, you just get to experience them at a different pace.

What are your favorite places to visit in the offseason?

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Bengal Tigers: Worth More Alive

February 28th, 2012 by Buzz

via Exodus

via Exodus

Once again, Exodus’ resident wildlife photographer Paul Goldstein will be spending a good part of April raising awareness about, and money to fight, the plight of the endangered Bengal tiger, which is “teetering on the edge of extinction in the wild, but are holding in Bandhavgarh at 59.” This is the third year for Goldstein’s Worth More Alive campaign. Last year he ran four marathons within the span of a week, in a tiger suit, for which the UK’s Sunday Times dubbed him “a wildlife enthusiast of psychotic gusto.” This year he’s running two marathons, the first in Brighton and then in London, both in the tiger suit.

via Wanderlust

via Wanderlust

And, as a special opportunity for all wildlife and trekking enthusiasts, Goldstein is also leading a one-time-only departure that will ascend Mt Kilimanjaro. From April 13-21, travelers will have the singular opportunity to enjoy the combined experience and knowledge of Goldstein and Exodus’ Head of Product Jim Eite, whom between them have climbed Kilimanjaro fifty times. Exodus, a long-time Adventure Center partner, always travels up “Kili” along the less crowded routes and in April there are fewer people on the mountain in general, meaning Goldstein and Eite aim to get more than 80% of the group to Uhuru Peak. If you have ever wanted to climb Kilimanjaro, and support a great cause, this trip might just be for you. And hey, how many other people in the world will be able to say they climbed up to the “roof of Africa” with a guy wearing a tiger suit?

Should you want to learn more about this adventure, get in touch with Adventure Center today.

If you are unable to make the trip, there is a way to help with Goldstein’s cause by donating to his Just Giving page. And, if you happen to be in London on April 12, Goldstein will be speaking at the Royal Geographical Society; all proceeds will go to Bandhavgarh National Park through Friends of Conservation.

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The World’s Most Expensive Cities

February 21st, 2012 by Buzz

via The Economist

via The Economist

I’m not at all surprised by the findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit, ranking Zurich, Switzerland, as the world’s most expensive city to live in. A couple of years ago, my wife and I spent several weeks in Granada, Spain. Reluctant to return home when in fact it was time to head home, we took the long way, stealing away a few days in Madrid and then heading to Besançon, France, to visit friends. After a few days touring the walled city, catching up with our friends (whom we’d met in Argentina years earlier) and eating amazing food (including an outrageous truck-stop lunch, replete with fresh snails, head cheese, steak cooked to order, an entire cheese buffet and wine and beer off taps) we really did have to go home. We’d booked our return flight knowing that we were going to visit our friends in France and the best deal we found was out of Zurich. So after a quick tour through Bordeaux, our friends dropped us off at a train station where we waited for the next train to Switzerland.

Thinking that in a major European city it would be easy to find a reasonably priced hotel room, we stalled on booking one until right before we left Spain. Big mistake. We’re not huge spenders, but we’re also not misers. We were floored by the cost of Zurich hotels. The room we finally chose was in a corporate park – all new buildings, very few people and nothing very special. There was nothing awful about the hotel other than the room rate. For what we paid, anywhere else in the world we could have been living the high life. That night, we also ate the most expensive dinner of mediocre Thai food. When we got back to the room we actually asked Google: Why is Zurich so expensive?

The Swiss franc is the primary reason; it is a currency that has continued to strengthen in these years of dicey economic stability. It is also true to say that we only had time, and inclination, to see a very small part of the city. But even the next day, as we looked for a cheap breakfast in a train station, we could not get over the strength of the franc as we converted the cost of coffee and croissants to euros and dollars.

The Economist explains that, “[t]he index measures the cost of an expatriate lifestyle in over 130 cities using a weighted average of the prices of 160 products and services,” so these numbers don’t correlate to cost of living standards for locals. But it’s fun to compare your own travel spending experiences with these rankings.

Which cities have drained your wallet?

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Why Do You Fall In Love With A Place?

February 14th, 2012 by Buzz

via World Hum

via World Hum

Writing for World Hum, Jeffrey Tayler describes a new appreciation for Paris thanks to reading Proust, a summer sunset and a half carafe of Côtes du Rhône. Tayler started visiting the City of Lights in 1983, and since then has returned too many times to count, sometimes staying for a few days, sometimes staying for weeks. During a recent visit, in his eyes, the city no longer glinted its romantic luster. The urban strife of cultural and economic divisions reflected back at him in the dirty streets and rundown neighborhoods, “recalling the seedy parts of big cities everywhere.” He goes on to write: “The Paris I continued to love belonged to Maupassant and Baudelaire, Balzac and Zola, and existed on the page alone.”

While it’s hard to feel bad for Tayler’s predicament, it does raise interesting questions about how we come to think of a place and how those thoughts change over time. Paris is a go-to example of a city that attracts visitors for its historic and cultural allure. But any location in the world has the ability to strike a chord with a person, whether it’s a result of an amazing meal, remarkable natural setting or spending time with those you cherish.

But just the same as our memories rarely capture the past exactly as it happened, our feelings for these places might very well change over multiple visits. The house special might start to taste bland after you’ve eaten it ten times; that majestic hike that made you feel like the only person on the planet might not be so awe inspiring in a sudden downpour. Or, the more we get to know a place the more our thoughts of it align with its realities.

As Tayler lets the wine and Proust overtake him, he surrenders himself to the moment and in doing so rediscovers the magic of Paris: “The sky was transmuting: a rather cheery, if common, summery azure vault laced with cirrus was metamorphosing into a melancholy tableau of oyster-shell clouds set against luminescent, rosée-tinted sand, an inverted seascape in the heavens calling to mind long walks at dusk along lonely beaches, probably with a loved one’s hand clasped in one’s own. Just the sky, a soft northern sky, to pluck thoughts from.”

What are your experiences of falling in and out of love with places?

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