Motor home Holiday Swap

In a new article on GoNOMAD, I talk about a new website, motorhomeholidayswap.com, that allows users to swap their motor homes when they go on vacation. It's a new concept which is catching on quickly, and it's throughout the world. Here's a selection from the article.

By taking the idea of motor home swapping and combining it with the freedom that a motor home gives to those traveling on the road, Farrow has given birth to a new way of vacationing. It’s simple, affordable, and allows the participants to see as much, if not more, than they would on a regular trip.

The company, which is based in Britain, only charges the user a yearly fee for connecting with other users. The fee, which is measured in British pounds, winds up saving the customer a lot of money in the long run.

Instead of having to deal with the airlines or trains, the travelers can just pick up where they want to and go wherever they want, all in accordance with a pre-determined agreement with the person they swap with.

It’s very simple. First, you get signed up at motorhomeholidayswap.com.

Then you search for the area you want to travel in. It could be anywhere in the world, as there are users registered throughout Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and in the United States and Canada.

Next, the website helps you to get in touch with someone who is also looking to vacation in your area. Given that you have a motor home already, you no longer have anything to worry about. You and your counter-part will work out how long you want to exchange motor homes for, and you’re then able to start on your trip. The site includes all types of motor homes, RVs, and small campervans.

You can read the rest of the article at GoNOMAD.com

Motorcycling Across Crete

Have you ever just wanted to get out and explore something on your own? Do you love motorcycles, or are you at least curious about riding them? In a new travel article on GoNOMAD, by Jamie Sue Winkelman, motorcycling across Crete is examined. Winkelman biked across the island for a week, and provides an account of the experience. Here's a clip.

The north side Crete is relatively flat, with five major port cities — Chania, Rethymno, Iraklion, Agios Nokolaos, and Sitia — all connected by a straight, modern freeway (E75). As a result, the northern coast offers the most accessible beaches on Crete, making it a popular tourist destination, especially in the heat of summer.

In contrast, access to the southern portion of the island is more limited and challenging due to the rugged mountain terrain and consequent lack of roads. In fact, some villages on the southern coast are only accessible by boat or hiking trail.

The main roads in western Crete are paved and in good condition. However, with the exception of the major highway, roads have no street names, merely signs pointing in the direction of towns and villages. Once you venture off the beaten path, routes are rarely more than a single unmarked lane. They become extremely steep, narrow, windy, and not particularly well maintained. Traffic is minimal, but does exist in both directions—a fact worth remembering!

A tangled web of unsurfaced roads spans the forgotten portions of the island. In some cases, these roads connect more civilized routes together; on other occasions, they dead-end at mountain peaks or beaches. Every dirt road I traveled was passable on a dual-sport motorcycle. Some routes required more effort than others did, but all were as depicted on my map.

Without a doubt, the best map of Crete is the rip-proof waterproof one published by Rough Guides. Not only is this the most durable map available (important criterion on a motorcycle), I found it to be the most comprehensive and reliable.

The companion travel guide is also available and highly recommended. In an entire week of desperately trying to lose myself, only once did I find myself on a dirt trail that was off the map. The map depicted every other road or trail, no matter how remote.

You can read the rest of Winkelman's article at GoNOMAD.com

The Cost of Traveling

A new article up on GoNOMAD, written by Kelly Westhoff, shows just how to spend money while traveling around the world. Westhoff traveled the globe for six months and kept a log of what she spent and how she could have saved money. Take some notes! This could help you for years to come. Here's a piece from the article.

Because we tried to pay for most things with cash, we didn’t worry about big credit card bills coming due while we were away. The bills we knew we had to pay were accumulating back home (mortgage, heating, home owners insurance).

We set up every account we could on automatic withdrawal. This eliminated paper bills coming through the mail in exchange for email notices we could access anywhere with an Internet connection. It took a few months to work all kinks out of the system, so my suggestion is to start on this task four months ahead of any departure date.

For random bills that would come due while we were away, we left a trusted family member back home with blank checks.

Since coming home, people have asked if we ever worried that the computers we were using in Internet cafes were tracking our key strokes and stealing user names and account passwords. Honestly, the thought never crossed our minds. Perhaps it was naïve of us to blindly trust all those communal Internet café computers, but we have never had any problems.

Yes. We often felt our biggest cost were those monthly mortgage bills we were paying back home. We could have used that money on the road, but where would we live when we came home? We briefly looked into renting our home while we were away, but didn’t do it. There were, however, some ways we could have cut costs along the way.

Read the rest of Westhoff's story at GoNOMAD.com

12 Travel Horror Stories

In the spirit of Halloween, The Boston Globe has compiled 12 short travel stories about some horrible experiences. These stories aren't too outrageous, but they go above and beyond a typical bad trip. Still, they possess something all travelers can relate to. Here's a selection from one story by Peter Mandel.

The soldier and the security guy are pointing. What do they want? It's my pen. A Paper Mate soft grip. Also, my wallet. They start emptying the little pockets that hold cards.

"Hey," I say. This brings instant reinforcements. Sullen faces. Khaki turbans. Guns under armpits, nightsticks stuck to hips.

It is late May. I am in Kashmir - that disputed northern region claimed by both India and Pakistan - one of a handful of tourists caught up during a spate of shootings and grenade blasts. Militants are striving for statehood. I'm anxious to escape.

I've been frisked four times, but no one's even glanced at my passport. My suitcase must be radioactive thanks to repeated X-rays: at a checkpoint on the airport road, at the gate to the airport, and at check-in.

A soldier snatches my backpack. "You are a man," he says. "It is forbidden for a man to bring his bag on the plane." This can't be right. He tugs at it. I tug back.

I hear the announcement: My flight to Delhi is closing. I pull out two crumpled 500 rupee notes (roughly $20). I watch the paper portraits of Gandhi as they pass from my hand to theirs.

The caps and turbans confer. I'm led out through a service entrance where there is no one around.

I am thinking of trying to make a run for it. A soldier grips me by the arm and hauls me behind a pile of suitcases. I'm made to bend down. This may be it. I wait for the shot.

I hear only a voice. It tells me to find my checked-through suitcase among the bags. I get to take it with me, and the forbidden backpack.

I say a silent thank-you to Gandhi.

That sounds like an awful time. You can read the other stories at Boston.com

The Best Islands in the Caribbean

The New York Times recently sent several editors and writers to the Caribbean to find the best islands to go to, as well as the best places to stay and things to do on those islands. They narrowed down their list to thirteen islands, and have in-depth reports on each. Here's a selection from the article on Aruba, by Barbara Ireland.

The Dutch influence is heavy in Aruba, which is officially part of the Netherlands, and Gouda cheese seems to appear on almost every menu. The regional specialty, though, is fresh fish, and you can sample some in the semicircular open-air dining room at Mango's map (J. E. Irausquin Boulevard 252; 011-297-527-1125; www.amsterdammanor.com), a romantic restaurant with cream-colored tablecloths and soft lighting from small hurricane lanterns. The almond-crusted baby snapper with creamed spinach and delicate coconut rice goes for $19.50, and comes with a view of the sunset at Eagle Beach.

Gasparito map (Gasparito 3; 011-297-586-7044; www.gasparito.com), off the beaten track but worth the taxi ride, serves traditional Aruban food alongside more standard fare. Sit on the tiled terrace and try the Keshi Yena ($23), a concoction of shredded meat or fish and Gouda. For breakfast, try Délifrance map (L. G. Smith Boulevard 150; 011-297-588-6006; www.delifrance-aruba.com), where the Gouda for the cheese omelet ($6.20) and the fresh baguette are both flown in from Holland.

Eagle Beach map and Palm Beach, map fringed by tall palms and native divi-divi trees, are both standouts for swimming and sunning. But Eagle Beach, frequently praised as one of the best in the Caribbean, has the edge; it's wider, quieter and less crowded. Splash in style in front of the pricey Divi Aruba resort (J. E. Irausquin Boulevard 41; 011-297-525-5200; www.diviaruba.com). Just don't try to use the Divi's beach chairs.

You can read the rest of the articles at NYtimes.com

A Fortune Teller in Niger

In a new article on GoNOMAD, writer Alexis Wolff talks about a trip to Niger, and how she met with the fortune tellers in the villages. Here's a selection from the article.

It was a month or so into my semester abroad in Niger -- a West African country that few Americans have heard of, let alone visited -- and my Zarma professor had decided that instead of having our normal class, she was going to take me and the two other American students to see her zima, also known as a fetisher, or a seer, or reader of cowry shells.

I'd never had much faith in such things, but if this was a part of Nigerian culture, I was eager to experience it. Opportunities like this were why I'd decided to study abroad here.

I wanted to learn about West Africa, but I knew that since the region -- and Niger in particular -- had almost no tourist industry, the few foreigners who visited had trouble tapping into the local culture.

The director of my study abroad program, however, was an American who had lived in Niger for almost two decades; her connections allowed the other students and me to experience things few foreigners ever had.

When I saw that the zima was wearing FUBU jeans and thick gold chain, though, I lost any hope of authenticity. I no longer expected to witness an age-old Nigerien tradition. Still, mostly because I suspected it would be amusing, I followed the zima into the thatched hut behind his home and sat cross-legged beside my professor and the other students.

Read the rest of the article at GoNOMAD.com

Cod Fishing in Greenland

A new article is up on GoNOMAD by Paul Shoul about a trip he recently took to Greenland. While there, Shoul went Cod fishing, and in the article, he describes some of the highlights of the trip. Here's a selection.

They are big fish but classically give up when they are hooked and you just have to haul them in. I don’t want to brag but the rest of my group was getting pretty teed off at me for the number of fish I was catching. I was even catching them on the way down. I caught 13 in total.

When we had caught more than we could possibly eat, Bo started to fillet them at the back of the boat and then started cooking. The meal for the evening would consist of big chunks of flaky white Cod, new potatoes in butter sauce and parsley, white wine and a case of Greenlandic beer, made with the cleanest water in the world.

Floating on the ocean, eating the freshest fish, drinking the best beer and wine with a view that just cannot be matched anywhere in the world. Our laughter echoed off the fjord cliffs.

Bo ‘s company, Arctic Dive is based in Sisimiut. This was my second trip to this town; I had been here earlier during the winter and I was amazed how green Greenland really is during the summer.

Huge mountains surround the town piercing the clouds slopping down to grass-covered fields. Wild flowers abound. Brightly colored red and blue houses are perched on the many hills surrounding the town.

It has a calm natural harbor that offers sanctuary to hunters and fishermen that reap the bounty that is Greenland. Sisimiut has about 6,000 inhabitants and at least 4,000 dogs.

Read the rest of the article about Shoul's trip to Greenland at GoNOMAD.com

A Trip to Cuba

There's a new article up on GoNOMAD by an anonymous author about a trip to Cuba. Though Cuba is still under Communist control, it is possible for Americans to get there, but you have to go through Canada or Britain, just to name two possibilities. It is illegal, however, to spend American dollars there. Here's a selection from the article.

By way of a nearly empty freeway I turned my rental car toward the Bay of Pigs, a mere hundred miles from Havana, easy to navigate once free from the chaos of the big city.

The Bay of Pigs is a highlight if you love seafood, diving with shockingly near-modern equipment, easy snorkeling, and gorgeous bathtub waters crammed with coral and colorful sea life.

Next to a dive site halfway down the 15-mile (25 kilometer) bay sits a spectacular cenote, limestone sinkhole connected to the sea where you can snorkel your heart out.

Lobster is legally available only in government licensed restaurants costing about $15, but on a Bay of Pigs beach you can feast for five bucks.

Seafood is a welcome respite from the monotony of Cuban food, which consists of roast pig served with glutinous globs of pig fat, unpalatable pizza (except a single variety identified early on), and decent rice with black beans.

Always specify cerdo sin gordo (pig without fat) in the sandwich, available everywhere for 20 cents US, and enjoy palatable piggy.

The locals subsist on this fare because they have no disposable income. The average salary is set by the government at $15 a month, which under UN standards relegates Cubans to direst poverty.

They escape this fate, however, because two essentials of life are free: education resulting in a 97% literacy rate and universal health care, both of which rank well above the world median.

But this is all the revolution achieved, except rations of two kilos of sugar and rice a month, and four eggs, per person.

Otherwise the Cubans enjoy no human rights and are bored senseless without mad money, doomed to hustle from birth ‘til death, sitting on porches practicing family values.


You can read the rest of this article on this intriguing country at GoNOMAD.com

See More in the South End

In a new article from The Boston Globe, writer Necee Regis writes about the South End in Boston becoming a new hot spot. Though the South End is known to have negative connotations from the past, the city has been cleaning up its image in the last few years. Here's a selection.

First, it's hard to define the South End's boundaries. They keep expanding. Basically, the South End extends from Massachusetts Avenue on the west to Berkeley Street on the east; the northern border is Columbus Avenue, the southern, Harrison Avenue. But with all the growth and development along the fringes, what is referred to as the "South End" now creeps outside these borders.

And then there's the area south of Washington Street - technically the South End - that has branded itself "SoWa," a district that's filled with art studios and galleries, new condos, and restaurants opening as enthusiastically as crocuses in the spring. (We'll leave that for another story.)

Second, the South End, in real estate parlance, is hot. In the past 25 years the neighborhood - with the largest district of Victorian brick row houses listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States - has become a magnet for creativity in the arts, theater, and fine cuisine. Yet for all its big-city trappings, the South End remains a neighborhood at heart, where residents know each other's names, as well of the names of their children and pets.

You can read the entire article at Boston.com

Stay Sunday Night, Take Monday Off

In a new article from The New York Times writer Seth Kugel, a new trend of enjoying Sunday night as a part of the weekend is analyzed. Kugel writes that NYC & Company, the cities tourism agency, has been promoting tourists to stay for Sunday night as well and just take Monday off. Here's a selection on what to do on Sunday nights.

So all that's left is to figure out how you're going to spend the extra evening. Here are some easy ideas: book a reservation in a restaurant like the Union Square Cafe, where it is impossible to get a table before 10 p.m. on Saturdays without performing feats of telephone acrobatics. You have a good shot at a 7:30 table on Sunday by calling just a few days in advance. You'll also find much better seats for the handful of Broadway shows that have Sunday evening performances (“Avenue Q,” “The Color Purple” or “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” for example). Or just enjoy the city's more relaxed, just-between-us-New Yorkers feeling that is absent on busy Friday and Saturday night.

There are also deals and events you'll find only on Sunday. Zarela, in Midtown, one of the first upscale Mexican places to open in New York (in 1987), has a long-running Sunday prix fixe dinner whose price seems out of the '80s as well. The $20 three-course meal, including wine, changes seasonally and might include cochinita pibil (a pork dish from the Yucatán) or other Mexican regional cuisines. The décor is not modern or slick, but the place, like Zarela Martinez, is about honest food, not hip imagery. (To wit: the featured video on zarela.com features the owner showing how to render lard.)

And Aroma, a wine bar and Italian restaurant in a small space with 24 seats wedged into East Third Street, has a $25 prix fixe, with live Spanish and South American guitar and a menu that can change slightly every Sunday (hope the zucchini parmigiana and Sicilian meatloaf stick around). See if you can reserve one of the few tables in the back (not that there are that many tables in the front); it's cozy, less busy, and romantic, with views of the wall of the building next door. Hey, this is dinner in New York for $25 — don't complain.

Read the rest of Kugel's article at NYtimes.com

Exploring the Yucatan

In a new article on Boston.com, Scott Sutherland talks about a trip to the Yucatan, and how the area is different and unique, yet also has the traditional Mexican feeling. Here's a selection.

We reach the other side, and Cosme, our captain, a short, stout Mayan man wearing wrap-around sunglasses, guides the narrow boat into a break in the mangrove, the mouth of the Cayo Venado. We're suddenly surrounded by vegetation, and the sky seems to shrink a bit. Tall, flowering bromiliads wave high above us. The farther upstream we travel, the narrower the passage becomes. Mangroves give way to expanses of savannah grass as the water becomes fresher. Ben, our guide, points out a pair of nesting osprey, and a large dark turtle tumbles off the bank into the stream. Cosme swings us around a bend and the stream narrows again, so much so that the lower branches of the scrubby savannah trees reach from bank to bank. Gliding beneath them is like momentarily being swallowed by this vast, elemental landscape.

Which is why we've come. We're on a daylong tour of the 1.3-million-acre Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected natural area in the Mexican Caribbean. Established by the Mexican government in 1986, the area is home to hundreds of bird and mammal species, from roseate spoonbills to jaguars, crocodiles, spiny lobsters, land crabs, and a teeming population of lizards. There are 23 known archeological sites, some more than 2,000 years old; Sian Ka'an was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Our tour is organized by Centro Ecologico Sian Ka'an, or CESiaK, an education and ecotourism center located in the reserve, near the town of Tulum, about two hours south of Cancún. CESiaK was founded in 2000 by Cameron Boyd, a 34-year-old Lexington native who fell in love with the area and never really left. Boyd bought the oceanside property in 1998, and built his low-impact "centro" atop the ruins of a former oceanside Cancún-style luxury resort.

Read the rest of the article at Boston.com

Backcountry Belize

In a new article on NYtimes, Dwight Garner talks about the hidden beauty of Belize, and how the hidden gem is a back road secret. Aldous Huxley once wrote that it seemed like the end of the world. Today, however, Belize is becoming a hot spot for tourists. Here's a selection from the article.

Belize's still largely untrampled beach areas are filling with tourists for good reason. The country has the largest continuous barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, one that's lined with hundreds of beautiful small islands, or cayes. The scuba-diving and snorkeling are world-class.

But there is a different Belize that we — my wife and I and our 7- and 9-year-old children, Harriet and Penn — set out to find: its lush interior, thick with rain forests, Mayan ruins, tiny villages, intense wildlife and (most happily, for the kids) intricate cave systems that can be explored by floating on inner tubes, while dodging bats.

We weren't disappointed when we visited early in May. Moving through Belize's backcountry feels like travel, not tourism, and the country is fiercely intent on keeping it that way. National parks and nature preserves make up almost half of Belize's 8,800 square miles. You can truly become lost here, in ways both good and bad.

Read the rest of the article at NYtimes.com

More to Vegas Than Gambling

Las Vegas isn't just for gamblers anymore. The city has become a hot spot for younger people, especially with families, as revealed in a new article on Boston.com by Beth D'Addono. Whereas people used to just blow their winnings back in the casino, they are now spending it on attractions, shows, and restaurants in and around the hotels as well. This accounts for big portions of the money brought in to the "City of Sin," almost as much as gambling brings in. Here's a selection from the article.

In a town where nongaming revenues have finally caught up with the gaming kind, rock star chefs, over-the-top accommodations, and big ticket entertainment give the 38.9 million annual visitors plenty of ways to blow through any winnings. If what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, for gamblers that includes their money, to the tune of about $8.2 billion last year.

For the down and out, it can be a town without pity, but if you're on top, living large is what it's all about. Not sure which way the dice are going to roll? Not to worry, Vegas can cover you.

For high rollers . . .

In a place known for coddling big money players with complimentary everything, the boom in luxury suites is geared to anybody who can afford a 10,000-square-foot loft overlooking the Strip.

While some casinos don't advertise their most luxurious rooms, reserving them for gamers, there are dozens of $10,000-plus-per-night suites in town, spots with amenities like butlers, bowling lanes, and hydraulic beds. If they are available, and you can afford them, these digs can be yours.

You can read the rest of the article on Boston.com

To the Edge of North Korea

In a new article on GoNOMAD, writer Lucy Corne explains a recent trip to the now tourist destination, the DMZ along the North Korean and South Korean border. Though this is still a sight of Cold War relics, people come to snap photos and get a glimpse of what life might be like on the other side to the most mysterious country in the world. Here's a selection.

The small, simple structure still hosts talks on the topic of reunification and has the added curiosity of straddling the two Koreas. We all get a little giddy as we get our only chance to cross the border without running the risk of being shot and an air of silliness takes over from the previous grave atmosphere. Couples pose for photos with the South Korean guard who stands in the ‘ROK ready’ position – hands clenched ready to grab a pistol or launch into Taekwondo.

In our new-found excitement one girl forgets the latest rules we’ve been issued and makes to walk behind the guard to pose on his other arm. His reaction is instant: the clenched fist is stiffly raised to eye level and one foot steps in her path, blocking the door out to the North.

Her reaction is as rapid, though not as quiet as she lets out an involuntary yelp. Tension seizes the room and there’s a collective flinch, as we are sharply reminded that this is not Madame Tussaud's and that one wrong move could end in disaster.

The torrent of cheesy snaps subsides and we again cross the courtyard, this time heading for the pagoda-style observation tower. Everyone jostles to take as many photographs of the North as possible and once my film is finished I snap on the lens cap and ball my hands into fists once more, slightly reminiscent of the ROK ready soldiers.

It's definitely not a trip you'll soon forget. Read the rest of Corne's trip on GoNOMAD.com

Primal Dreams in the Everglades

In a new article up on GoNOMAD, I discuss a new book out by Penguin Books, called The Conde Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys. The collection is 21 stories of great travel experiences. In the article, you can find one story in its entirety, by Russell Banks. The story is about going to the Florida Everglades. Here's a selection.

Beyond any other national park, perhaps, the Everglades bears repeated visits, justifying a traveler’s return trips, but maybe requiring them too. Without intending it, over the years I’ve acquired from these visits a gradual accumulation of information—about my layered self, I suppose, and, more important, about the place—which has helped me learn to look at the Everglades and see it for what it is instead of for what it isn’t. The first few times I didn’t get it. There are no high mountains, no rushing cataracts, no grand panoramic vistas. There’s no rain forest, no powerful continent-draining rivers, no rocky seashore. No, the Glades is quiet and low and slow, a shallow, almost invisible river of grass, an intricate, extremely fragile subtropical ecosystem that seems shy and difficult of access to the human eye, which is, of course, one of the reasons humans have come so close to destroying it—and may yet succeed.

To see the Everglades for what it is and not what it isn’t, however, you have to develop a kind of bifocal vision, as if you were floating down the Mississippi on a raft with Huck Finn. You have to learn to switch your gaze constantly from the concrete to the abstract, from the nearby riverbank to the distant sky. You need an almost Thoreauvian eye for detail and the interrelatedness of nature’s minutiae, for it is a 1.5-million-acre Walden Pond we’re talking about here, the largest wetland in the United States. From November through May there are between fifty thousand and a hundred thousand wading birds in the Everglades.

Read the rest of Russell Banks' story at GoNOMAD.com

A Trip to Fes

In a new article on GoNOMAD, Senior Travel Editor Kent E. St. John writes about his trip to Fes, Morocco. Fes, only located a few hours from Rabat, the capital, is an ancient city with a mysterious Medina, where you can find almost anything. Here's a selection from the article.

The call to prayers from the muezzins permeated the clear air from several of the minarets in the culverts far below much as they have for 1,200 years. From my perch above, the medina spread in a mustard color from the top of a mountain down, much like a spider’s web.

In researching for my trip I had read that it is very possible to get lost in the city’s web, forever back in time. It is clear why Fes (also spelled Fez) is called the city of ten thousand alleys.

After a week in Marrakech I wanted to delve further into Morocco’s mystique and Fes is its spiritual center. With a deep breath I turned around to catch a glimpse of the snow-capped Atlas Mountains from Fes’s new airport, it was time to turn back the clock.

Fes’s importance as a spiritual city was immediately evident by the sheer beauty of the three-gated Bab Boujeloud, outshone only by the full amber moon that dominated from above. Gas lights past the gates glowed and the nightly ritual of cruising had begun. Food stalls wafted spices and it was bewitching.

Read the rest of the article at GoNOMAD.com

Care For A Cup Of Tea?

Do you love tea so much that you're willing to travel to the other side of the world just to get the best cup? Matt Gross, of The New York Times did just that, flying all the way to the Himalayas in India for a cup of Darjeeling tea. Here's a selection from the story.

THE Himalayas rose almost out of nowhere. One minute the Maruti Suzuki hatchback was cruising the humid plains of West Bengal, palm trees and clouds obscuring the hills to come; the next it was navigating a decrepit road that squiggled up through forests of cypress and bamboo. The taxi wheezed with the strain of the slopes, and the driver honked to alert unseen vehicles to our presence — one miscalculation, one near miss, could send the little car over the edge and down thousands of feet, returning us to the plains below in a matter of seconds.

For an hour or more, as we climbed ever higher, all I saw was jungle — trees and creepers on either side of us, with hardly a village to break the anxious monotony. Finally, though, somewhere around 4,000 feet, the foliage opened just enough to allow a more expansive view. From the edge of the road, the hills flowed up and down and back up, covered with low, flat-topped bushes that looked like green scales on a sleeping dragon's flanks. Tiny dots marched among the bushes and along the beige dirt tracks that zigzagged up the hillsides — workers plucking leaves from Camellia sinensis, the tea bushes of Darjeeling.

Flying to a remote corner of India and braving the long drive into the Himalayas may seem like an awful lot of effort for a good cup of tea, but Darjeeling tea isn't simply good. It's about the best in the world, fetching record prices at auctions in Calcutta and Shanghai, and kick-starting the salivary glands of tea lovers from London to Manhattan.

You can read the rest of the article at NYtimes.com

To the Other Side of the World

In a new article up on GoNOMAD, writer Michael Cook talks about his trip to Kyrgyzstan, a country which few travelers think of going to. Cook went hiking through the mountains and did what is a called a "Yurt-Stay". A Yurt is like a tent that the locals live in up in the mountains. Here is a selection from the article.

Kyzart Pass is a 3000-meter-high (9,842 ft.) gap in the mountains of central Kyrgyzstan. Beka and I would hike it that day, covering ten mountainous miles before coming to our home for the night.

Herds of cattle and horses and flocks of sheep ignored us as they roamed the brown hills. We hiked alone, but tents could be seen on distant slopes and on the trails that skirted the hills we met shepherds on horseback. Beka stopped to chat and give out cigarettes.

I’d met the 23-year-old Beka the day before. He was my guide on our hike, the ultimate destination of which was Lake Son Kul.

Beka speaks his native Kirghiz as well as Russian, English, Urdu, and Farsi. Like any pair of twenty-something guys we spent much of our time talking about girls.

By early afternoon we’d forded our first stream and home was in sight. The altitude had begun to wear on me and we paused.

I offered Beka my water but he refused. “No, I want kymyz.”

Kymyz, or fermented mare’s milk, is a traditional drink in the mountain pastures, or jailoos.

“Is it that good?” I asked.

“Mm...” Beka licked his lips, “You can’t get it in the towns. They add water to it. It’s not the same. Come on.” Beka stood, motivated by his thirst, “Let’s go.”

You can read the rest of the adventure on GoNOMAD.com

A First Timers' Trip To Morocco

In a new article on GoNOMAD, writer Gabriel Forsyth describes a visit to Morocco for the first time, and the lessons he learned while he was there. Forsyth discusses the Do's and Don'ts of traveling in the north African country. Here's a selection.

My plane was the last one in for the night. The airport was practically empty save a few airport employees here and there. I walked around looking for my friends who had arrived a few days earlier and were supposed to be meeting me at the airport.

It was just past midnight and I was beginning to get worried. I didn’t know any French or Arabic and I had never been to Morocco before. I walked around the airport looking to see if maybe my friends had gone to the wrong terminal.

Luckily Casablanca’s airport is relatively small reassuring me that if I walked around for a bit, I wouldn’t miss my friends. Right as my internal tension about this new place was reaching its peak, my friends walked through the terminal’s glass doors.

“Come on” they said, “We’ve got to get on this bus going into the city, there will not be another one until tomorrow morning.” We hurried out the door and boarded the bus.

Once we arrived in Casablanca, we immediately jumped on another bus heading for Marrakech where the rest of our friends were waiting for us. As we were making our way out of the city, the bus driver and his assistant started yelling back and forth.

We had no clue what was going on at first. Then all of a sudden the bus driver stopped the bus on the side of the road. The bus driver’s assistant began checking everyone’s tickets. We soon picked up on the idea that we were carrying one too many passengers.

When one man couldn’t come up with proof that he belonged in a seat, he was quickly escorted off the bus to be left on the side of the road. I was genuinely relieved I had held on to my ticket.

There's clearly a lot to keep in mind when traveling to Morocco. Read the rest of the article on GoNOMAD.com

A Guide to São Paulo

Brazil has many beautiful locations, and though some of the cities might seem a bit dangerous to travelers, Seth Kugel of The New York Times writes that there is plenty for you to do in the city of São Paulo while staying safe. Kugel writes,

IT may be the ugliest, most dangerous city you'll ever love. Gray high-rises stretch to the horizon, graffiti blankets downtown, where those who can afford it drive bulletproof cars, and power lines form a wire mesh that seems to block out the sun. But São Paulo, Brazil's biggest and most modern city, also has plenty of flair. Sip caipirinhas at a glamorous bar surrounded by the city's upper crust, accessorized with $10,000 Panerai watches on one arm and a fashion model on the other. Shop at obscenely luxurious stores like Daslu, a boutique so exclusive that customers often arrive by helicopter. Or sit in a cafe on Oscar Freire Street and watch the rich and the beautiful pass by.

Get downtown before rush hour and head to Luz, a once-drug-infested neighborhood that has been spruced up. Swing through the Estação da Luz (Praça da Luz, 1), a late-19th-century train station that has been beautifully renovated, before strolling through the Praça da Luz, a palm-lined garden where bands play sertanejo music (Brazilian country tunes) from a gazebo-like bandstand. Fanciful sculptures dot the lush grounds. Among them are the coconut-size beaded necklaces by the Brazilian artist Lygia Reinach that are draped across trees like moss. If you want more Brazilian art, head inside the Pinacoteca do Estado (Praça da Luz, 2; 55-11-3324-1000), a gorgeously restored museum that features some of the country's best artists.

Read the rest of the article on NYtimes.com

A Different Tour of Italy

Have you traveled to Italy before and seen most or all of the bigger and more popular cities? Do you want to go back to Italy, but not be bothered by all the tourist attractions? In a new article up on GoNOMAD, travel writer Vera Marie Badertscher talks about a trip to lesser known parts of Italy, just as beautiful yet untouched by the tourism craze. Le Marche, a section of Italy that still seems like it's in the Renaissance, is the focal point of the piece. Here's a selection about Urbino, a college town in the mountains.

The crowning jewel in his duchy, Urbino, housed Fredereco of Montefeltro and his government. Considered a model city of the Renaissance, the town’s castle hosted dignitaries from popes to leading scientists and artists. Fairy-tale towers soar above and the interior shines with the best work of fifteenth and sixteenth century wood carvers, painters, sculptors and mosaic artists.

In Urbino, a university town since 1564, signs still advertise student apartments along cobblestone, pedestrian-only streets. The castle sits on top of a hill, and the city rises even higher above the castle. Somehow, these streets look much less steep and the distances decrease on our flat city map. Exploring the byways, we walk off the effects of luncheon pasta.

Having returned to the fifteenth century in Urbino, we keep going back until we reach the first century A.D. We travel part of the Via Flamina, a Roman road leading from the coast inland through one of Italy’s most dramatic sites.

The Furlo Gorge does not compete with the Grand Canyon, but we relish the combination of driving through a tunnel hacked through rock by the Romans and the natural beauty of towering rock walls surrounded by dense forests.

Many regional and national parks and nature preserves like Furlo attract summer visitors to the camping and hiking trails throughout Le Marche.

You can read the entire article on GoNOMAD.com

Riding the Rails in Scandinavia

In a new article on GoNOMAD, Senior Travel Editor Kent E. St. John writes about a recent trip to Sweden and Finland. Though both countries are often overlooked on a first-timers trip to Europe, St. John writes about how both countries have as much to offer as the other, more popular, European nations. Here's a selection.

A short walk from Malmo’s central train station in the heart of the old city took me to the Hotel Master Johan, a wonderfully half-timbered building that fits in perfectly with the city’s old heart and very near the Lilla Torg. It is from the Lilla Torg that Malmo’s late medieval streets emanate.

It was a great coincidence that I was visiting just as the Danish Royal Family was hooking up with the Swedish Royal family on the square. Malmo has been under control of both several times over the years, and the city is worth battling over. These days, however, the two royal families get along royally.

Malmo has recently risen like the phoenix after some years of decline. Now the city sparkles with energy. Just outside the old center industrial space has been converted into ultra sleek living spaces and fantastic modern architecture.

The keystone of the city’s revitalization was architect Santiago Calatrava’s 54-story marvel, the Twisted Torso.

The Torso is a spectacle of engineering and anchors Malmo’s emergence as one of Scandinavia’s fastest growing centers. Many choose the city as home, and work across the Oresund Straight in Copenhagen. The combination of old and new makes Malmo a special place to start a journey through Sweden.

Clearly, Scandinavia has a lot to offer. It sounds like its definitely worth checking out on the next pass through Europe. Read the rest of the article on GoNOMAD.com

A Small Town in Sweden

There are many smaller and often forgotten communities that are perfect just the way they are, and if you get to see them, you're really in for a treat. Danielle Pergament of The New York Times found a community just like that in Sweden, a place that Ingmar Bergman called home. In a new article, Pergament talks about Faro, Sweden. Here's a clip.

Like Bergman, Faro is remote. Getting to the island, off the eastern coast of Sweden, takes a plane, a train or a bus, a car and two ferries. Which is exactly what made it so appealing to the reclusive Bergman.

If Caprona is the land that time forgot, Faro is the land that time never knew existed. The island has no bank, post office, A.T.M., ambulance, doctor or police force. “We have one school, but it will close,” said Kerstin Kalstrom, a schoolteacher for 38 years. “We just don’t have enough children here.”

On a map, Faro looks as though it snapped off the northern tip of Gotland and is poised to float off to sea. But from my vantage point, over the handlebars of a bicycle, Faro looked more like Storybook Hollow. The land is flat and verdant. It is windswept and rocky along the western edge, soft and sandy on the eastern coastline, with black-and-white cows grazing in lush meadows along the Baltic Sea.

Read the rest of Pergament's article on NYtimes.com

Celebrity Restaurants in New York

Every now and then a celebrity will open up a restaurant with big hopes, but after the hype dies down, the restaurant can suffer the same fate as other new restaurants. In a new article in The Boston Globe, Meredith Goldstein and Christopher Muther talk about going to celebrity restaurants in New York City, including P. Diddy and Justin Timberlake. Here's a selection.

We arrive in New York on a sultry Saturday afternoon with an ambitious plan to dine at seven celebrity-owned restaurants around the city. Our starting point is Sugar Bar, an Upper West Side club owned by Ashford and Simpson, the husband-and-wife team who wrote big hits for Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross before turning into stars themselves with a massive chart single called "Solid." The inside of the club resembles a Caribbean shack decorated by an African interior designer, with a thatched roof and tribal masks hanging on the wall. Because we arrive promptly at 5, we pretty much have the run of the bar, and, more importantly, the handsome bartender, to ourselves.

STAKING OUT CELEBRITIES

There is no sign of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. The bartender says the couple is usually here on Thursday nights for the weekly open mike. We demolish a plate of guacamole and down the peach fizz cocktail, all the while hoping to see Diana Ross. Ashford and Simpson wrote "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" for her, and she has been known to enjoy an occasional alcoholic beverage. The lady could come by and show some love. But, after an hour, there is no sign of Ross, so we depart for some of Timberlake's Southern Hospitality.

Read the rest of the article on Boston.com

Extreme Rafting in Peru

Do you ever get tired of taking the same touristy trips that millions of people have already done? The worst part of traveling is feeling like you didn't get anything out of it. Fortunately for GoNOMAD, Jess Tuerk found an adventure that is less often taken by tourists. Tuerk went whitewater rafting down the Cotahuasi River in Peru, which dumps out in the Pacific Ocean. Tuerk writes,

“The Cotahuasi River is higher that it has been in ten years,” I heard Peruvian river guide Gian Marco Vellutino remark in his Spanish-Italian accent as he gazed over the cactus-lined edge of a ravine that dropped 50 feet down to a very white, and very fast river.

His sun-reddened face looked tired but it was lit with excitement, like the face of an expectant child on Christmas Day. His shoulder length blond hair was wild and tangled.

“Coootaaaahuasseeeee!” he shouted, wildly waving his arms out to the side and looking to me to echo some of that enthusiasm back.

I was not as excited. In fact, I was downright scared.

Vellutino waited weeks for river levels to subside enough to safely paddle, and the time had finally arrived – but barely. It was as if the energy of the forceful Cotahuasi has recharged his body.

Read the rest of Tuerk's amazing trip on GoNOMAD.

Finding the Best Food In Mexico City

Sarah Wolff writes in a new article on GoNOMAD about finding the best local foods in Mexico City. Though sometimes a tourist would expect to eat things like tacos or fajitas, Wolff found that there are many other options which are just as pleasing to the taste buds. Here's a selection.

Rainbow-colored papel picado (paper decoration) flags hang from the ceiling, and giant chicharrón (pork skin) fryers dot the tile floor. Roving mariachi bands and caricaturists go table to table, and small children take over the stage area.

Helen and I are dwarfed by long rectangular tables of 12, 16, 20 people out with their families for some tequila and barbacoa-fueled revelry.

The sopes, thick little tortilla rounds piled with refried beans, cheese, chicken and lettuce, are freakishly good. Arroyo’s barbacoa, (tender roasted meat), is served with stewed cactus, called nopales, and corn tortillas. It has a bit of a wild flavor. The meat falls off the bone.

Virgina Lopez, a manager, comes to speak with us. Spanish deficiencies lead to a surreal moment where Helen, Virginia and I are all mooing and baaing at one another. For the next two days, we think we’ve eaten goat. Finally we figure out that the word Virginia used, carnero, means ram – a sheep with all its manhood intact.

Read the rest of the article on GoNOMAD.

Cameroon By Bicycle

In a new article on GoNOMAD, I talk about a two week bike tour through the west-African country of Cameroon. The tour, which is run by David Mozer, takes place in November, and is a cool vacation for lovers of cycling and trying new things. Here's a selection.

Every trip is different, says Mozer, and it all depends on what happens and who you meet along the way.

“It is who we meet walking along the road, or working in a field, or selling in a market, or standing in a school yard. It is being there to get an understanding of the interrelationship of environment, culture, world policy and serendipitous people-to-people encounters,” says Mozer.

It’s evident that his love of the experience continues to propel him forward on the journey. The discussions always include domestic and global issues, and range in topics from education and health to development and women.

The group is provided with two meals a day, and this is typically where the best part of the day comes in. Just by talking with some locals for an hour, you can understand a country better than if you were touring for weeks in resort areas. This cultural exchange is the heart and soul of the trip, it’s what makes it all worth it, and it’s what keeps people like Mozer involved every year.

You can read the rest of the article on GoNOMAD.

Ancient Chinese Secret

In a new article on GoNOMAD, writer Valerie Sartor talks about a trip to a lesser known city in China, Kashgar. Only 400 miles from Afghanistan, this city carries on like an ancient city that hasn't heard of the modern era. Sartor writes,

And in fact, throughout history many nations, particularly China, have fought for control of Kashgar and its environs. Although this remote city is closer to either Moscow or New Delhi than to Beijing its location is strategic, for the city sits at the foot of the enormous Pamir Mountains. Kashgar traders and warriors staggered across them and then tackled the treacherous Taklamakan Desert, following the Silk Road highway from China into Central Asia, India and Persia.

“This desert oasis town connected Rome and China over two thousand years ago,” I mused on the second day as I made my own desert crossing in a bumpy bus to neighboring Hotan, a city famous for rugs and jade.

The eight-hour journey dehydrated and exhausted me. “How did they do this on camels and ponies?” I grimly wondered, trying not to stare as a haggard old grannie across the aisle retched loudly into a flimsy plastic bag.

Read the entire article on GoNOMAD.

Burlington Experiences Expansion

Though Burlington, Vermont, might seem like a smaller city without much to do, it remains Vermont's biggest city. Over the years, the city on Lake Champlain has undergone many changes, as Marialisa Calta of The New York Times explains in a new article.

Burlington — which, with about 39,000 residents, is Vermont’s largest city — is rediscovering an asset long hidden in plain sight: Lake Champlain, a waterway that transported people and merchandise and, said Mr. Cohn, brought the city into existence. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, which has its main campus south of Burlington in the city of Vergennes, keeps the Lois McClure — a replica of a canal schooner — on the Burlington waterfront, and maintains a small exhibit space there.

In the second half of the 19th century, Mr. Cohn said, the lumber business thrived, and waterfront acreage was created with fill “just to have more land on which to pile more lumber.” But by the 1930s and ’40s, the waterfront had become primarily a storage place for oil tanks. Melinda Moulton, a local entrepreneur who bought land there in the early 1980s, remembers touring sites with a squirt gun in hand, to keep the rats at bay. Just three steep city blocks from the always-bustling Church Street Marketplace — a pedestrian mall developed in 1981 and frequented by residents, visitors and students from the nearby University of Vermont — the waterfront lay neglected.

Read the rest of Calta's article on NYtimes.com.

The Rebirth of Pittsburgh

Though Pittsburgh was hit hard by the closing of many steel mills in the '70s and '80s, it is starting to bounce back, as Necee Regis, of The Boston Globe writes. In a recent trip to Pittsburgh, Regis discovered a new side of town.

Thursday night at 11:30 a line is forming at the corner of East Carson and 17th streets for grilled chicken wrapped in pita bread that locals fondly refer to as "cat on a stick." Grill meister Dan McSwiggen explains that he usually cooks outside only on weekends, but a lightning strike knocked out power at Cambod-Ican Kitchen, an American-Asian fusion restaurant he runs with his Cambodian-born wife, Moeun. Ten years before opening here, the couple operated their business from a truck. "I remember times when people would line up late at night, and it would start snowing. There'd be a guy standing with an inch of snow on his head wanting cat on a stick and a wonton," says McSwiggen. His good-natured ability to adapt to challenging circumstances and his customers' tenacity mirror the spirit of Pittsburgh as it emerges from its industrial past into a 21st-century city. One neighborhood that particularly embodies this transformation is South Side, or, as the natives pronounce it, "Sou'side." When vir tually all of the steel mills closed in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, this area, spanning three miles along the Monongahela River's south bank, was struggling. The business district, along Carson Street, was particularly hard hit.

It's good to hear that the city is doing well again. To read more of Regis' article, go to Boston.com.