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We are wrapping up 2010 with our last issue of Perceptive Travel and since we went monthly this year, we’ve got a lot more travel stories and reviews coming out, not even counting the blog.
In January, we published a piece on a more peaceful time in Syria, Marie Javins’ illustrated story on chivalry in Bolivia, and a look at the nanny state of Singapore through its frequent behavior directing signs. Plus some cool music.
In February, we got a little hellfire and redemption going on in Guatemala, a little mixed-up Spanish history in Segovia, and a combination of cell phones and overpopulation accompanying a kayaking trip in Bangladesh. Something tells me none of these subjects will be gracing the pages of your newsstand glossies anytime soon, but I hope you well-traveled readers found them interesting.
We also published a batch of new travel book reviews from Susan Griffith.
In March, Zora O’Neill—who is the only person I know who has authored a cookbook and a Yucatan guidebook—has a great story on being part of a pig roast in Bali, from squealing to serving. Jim Johnston travels to Africa to visit his mother, who is the oldest serving Peace Corps volunteer. Morocco: Give Me the Simple Life. Bruce Northam, author of Globetrotter Dogma, returns with a different take on Mardi Gras, a Vermont version where composting cups and a charity drive take center stage.
Joshua Berman, author of Moon guidebooks on Nicaragua and Belize, took on the travel book reviews this month and I review an odd assortment of world music.
In April, Amy Rosen got things going with a fairy tale lived large in Austria: Once Upon a Time in Vienna. Donald Strachan got up very early in the morning to move among the fishmongers at Billingsgate Market: The Fish That Made London As I get ready to move away from the place I’ve called home the past decade, I put together a homage to popular music’s Mesopotamia in Tennessee: A Tale of Two Music Cities
There’s a list of albums worth having on the third page of that story, but for something more exotic check out Laurence Mitchell’s World Music reviews. They cover Egypt, Belgium, Syria, and Costa Rica.
May’s issue kicked off with Bangladesh guidebook author Mikey Leung turning in The Enfield Diaries, a tale of being lured into buying a Royal Enfield motorcycle in Nepal and driving it through India and (hopefully) to Bangladesh. Moon Handbook hiking guides author Theresa Dowell Blackinton made her debut with An Ugly American One Year, a Pretty One the Next. It’s a rumination on how U.S. travelers are perceived and welcomed depending on who is occupying the White House. Gillian Kendall returned with Voluntourism for All the Wrong Reasons, a tale from her stay at an elephant rehabilitation camp in Thailand.
Amy Carlson stepped up to do the travel book reviews, covering The Lunatic Express, The Wandering Lake, and the Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010. (The last one, by the way, features four contributors to Perceptive Travel, including one of our bloggers, Allison Stein Wellner.) I covered the world music reviews, with a Latin-America-only trio this time: Very Be Careful, Chico Trujillo, and Putumayo’s Latin Party collection.
For June, guidebook writer Michelle Bigley made her debut discussing the conundrum of tourists looking for “hidden Kauai” and ending up in places they shouldn’t be. Bruce Northam returned to look at an array of impressions from Ethiopia, land of the first people to go wandering and never come back. Rachel Dickinson flew to Ireland for a simple writing assignment and got stuck for an extra week waiting for Iceland’s volcanic ash to clear. Graham Reid gave us the scoop on which new world music collections are worth checking out.
In the July issue, I returned to the travel story pages with a narrative on my March biking trip on the Katy Trail in Missouri. Riding 100+ miles on a dedicated trail without cars is already great, but it’s even better when it’s through wine country and one of the heartland’s best spots for stopping into different brewpubs. Darrin DuFord, who is coming off a big “best travel writing” prize for his New Orleans nutria hunting story last year returns with A Dialog of Echoes in Uruguay. It’s a story on Montevideo’s street drummer scene, intermingled with mate and murals.
Guidebook writer Richard Arghiris joined us for the first time, walking the streets of the decaying Caribbean town of Bluefields, Nicaragua, a place that the colonial powers cast off long ago, but that Mother Nature keeps on her s*&% list. Susan Griffith handled the reviews of new and noteworthy travel books, while Laurence Mitchell cued up some worthwhile world music albums.
In August we went for a different side of a famous attraction in the Going-to-be-wonderful World of Disney, from Gillian Kendall. Sure it’s easy to take potshots at Disney, but when Gillian Kendall returned to the magical place of her youth on “Disney Gay Days,” would Goofy come out of the closet? Kristin Ohlson’s story on Herby Ohio got picked up by the Atlantic Monthly, then was unceremoniously dropped later. We’ll take their leftovers when it’s something this odd: a 360-acre medicinal herb reserve in Ohio.
Tony Robinson-Smith, author of Back in Six Years, made his debut with a story on making sense of a purification ceremony in a house in Bhutan. I review an assortment of three world music CDs from South Africa, Jamaica, and a world mixture of Chennai by way of Israel.
September brought us fighting monks when Michael Buckley checked into a Korean temple that was not very meditative. Chris Epting, the author of 18 books on interesting places, returned to where he grew up for some personal landmarks of his own. Carla Seidl recounted her experience of spending more than two years in a conservative village in Azerbaijan.
Graham Reid was back to run down some worthwhile world music releases from Africa, Brazil, and Sudan. I put three new travel book reviews up. Well, they’re related to travel anyway. Sorta…
October’s issue started with a New Year’s Eve vacation in Karachi that also included a gay party with show tunes, an assassination, and gunshots taking the place of fireworks. Read Tim Brookes’ story, One Assassination can Ruin Your Whole Vacation. Regular readers know I’ve been living in central Mexico the past few months and I found a great story to kick off my tales from there: Sidesaddle Girls at a Mexican Rodeo.
Another temporary Mexican resident, Molly Beer, made her debut talking about an earlier expatriate experience when she was a teacher in El Salvador: A Bridge on the Border in Central America. Pam Mandel gave us an essay On Music, Memory, and Travel and William Caverlee stepped up for the first time to add some reviews of worthwhile travel books.
Luke Armstrong had to dress up finally while living in Antigua, Guatemala. So naturally he visits a pharmacy to get a suit made: Third World Tailors Make Men.
Jim Johnston went on a whirlwind night tour of Cairo, not exactly by choice: That First Night in Cairo. Gillian Kendall reviewed three travel books and I ran down some world music worth buying—and not.
We closed out 2010 by welcoming back Jeff Greenwald, with a modified excerpt from his new book, Snake Lake: Hell, Heaven, and Home in Kathmandu. Lea Aschkenas, author of Es Cuba, had a terrific story about a message in a bottle thrown overboard in the Caribbean that ends up uniting a Cuban family and a sailor.
Zora O’Neill says she’s come around since she first started doing guidebook writing about the Yucatan and says yes, Cancun can actually feel like Mexico if you know what to look for. Really. See Cancun is the New Tulum. William Caverlee returned to do travel book reviews, checking out three interesting anthologies. Lonely Planet’s A Moveable Feast; New Orleans: What Can’t Be Lost; and In Many Wars, By Many War Correspondents. Laurence Mitchell was back with world music reviews: Garifuna meets West Africa, Afro-European chamber music, string music from Copal, and the South Indian Nagore Sessions.
Whew, what a year! If you can’t find one great article in there you’ll like from these travel stories, you might just want to book a vacation in Branson or Pigeon Forge.
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