http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?ID=9826

An Open Letter to Governor Pastika
Bali Update Editor, John Daniels, Writes Bali’s Governor on Behalf of Bali’s Dogs and BAWA


(9/23/2013)


Dear Governor Pastika:

First of all, forgive this intrusion on your crowded schedule in the lead up to the APEC Summit.

But I feel compelled to write in order to call to appeal your assistance in an unfortunate developing situation that I believe is within your power to remedy.

Over the past days, animal welfare authorities in Gianyar have ordered the closure of the Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA), citing a number of licensing and registration violations by the BAWA Animal Clinic in Lod Tunduh, near Ubud.

Given a deadline of only days to prepare licenses that require weeks of detailed preparation and processing, the workers and volunteers now face the inevitable closure of their animal clinic and the resulting dilemma of how to find homes for the nearly one-hundred animals now under BAWA’s care.

Since its establishment nearly a decade ago, BAWA has made tremendous strides in improving the lot of Bali’s dogs and other pets. It has launched educational programs in local communities and schools; provided free clinics for pets; established a 24-hour animal ambulance service; created an effective adoption program for stray or unwanted animals; and played a front-line role in the critically important battle against rabies now underway in Bali.

Fiercely committed to animal welfare and impatient with the enormity of the task at hand, BAWA and its supporters have sometimes been guilty of over-zealousness, trampling on a the feelings of some members of the community along the way. Despite any missteps BAWA may have committed, the overwhelming evidence remains that Bali is a much better place today because of BAWA’s untiring devotion the island’s pet population.

In the process of educating the people of Bali on the plight of its street dogs BAWA has also happily learned of the strong support of the Balinese community for their work. Many Balinese doctors and community members work as volunteers; make donations; and participate in rounding up street dogs for vaccination, sterilization and medical care. Along the way, the Balinese volunteers at BAWA have shared the epic Mahabrata story,known to every Balinese child, of Yudistira whose kind manner was capable of taming even the wildest animal.

This deeply ingrained Bali-Hindu deference to all living creatures, is also embodied in the blessing for animals sought from the Almighty each Tumpek Kadang day. A shared sense of kindness to animals is part of the spirit that motivates BAWA’s ambulance workers who responds at any hour of the day and night when called to assist a sick animal or a dog injured on the Island’s busy roads.

Bali's reputation as a world renowned tourist destination has been aided by BAWA's work. Tourist visitors to Bali are relieved to know that injured animals encountered while touring the island are urgently cared for by the workers and volunteers of BAWA.

Such good work on behalf of Bali and its animals are now at risk of coming to an endwith the coming closure of BAWA.

Dear Bapak Pastika, because of your personal background as a top law enforcement officer in Indonesia you know that there are always two options available when faced by those who have made mistakes and failed to follow the law. Those choices are: strict enforcement of the letter of the law or alternatively educating and counseling the public to follow the law and eliminate future errors.

Given adequate time and guidance from animal welfare officials, I feel you can be certain that BAWA would spare no effort to comply with all existing rules and regulations in order that they continue with their important work. If you could mediate the needed additional time for BAWA to work with officials to put its documents in order, not only would Bali retain this valuable community asset but BAWA would be able to forge a more positive working relationship with the Island’s officials in the future.

As the clock ticks down on BAWA’s continued existence, your intervention is urgently needed to see that the work of this outstanding community organization is allowed to continue without compromising any existing rules and regulations.

On behalf of the wagging tails and cold noses seeking everyone's care and consideration, permit me to thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Related Links

BAWA Facebook Page

BAWA Website

Related Articles

A Tail Most Sad

Howling at the Moon

Barking Up the Wrong Tree




© Bali Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com.



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CÁM ƠN ĐỜI VÌ EM ĐƯỢC YÊU ANH!

Cám ơn anh vì đã… yêu em

Viết tặng cho riêng anh - một người bạn lớn, một người yêu dễ thương, và... một

người ...đáng tin cậy, một người em luôn mong muốn là cha tốt của các con em sau này...( điều đó là ko thể  nhưng e vẫn ước mong vậy)
Anh à!

Mình yêu nhau như thế nào anh nhỉ? Có lẽ ko cần em phải nói ra. Bởi em cho rằng những gì anh đã làm cho em là điều tuyệt vời nhất mà em cảm nhân đc như bao ngươi phụ nữ đang được yêu khác. Nhưng trong lòng em lại luôn muốn nói cám ơn anh rất nhiều, rất nhiều anh ạ...

Em cám ơn anh đã là một người bạn của em trong những ngày xưa, ngày mà em bắt đầu đi tìm cho mình cuộc sống mới. Em biết, và anh cũng biết, giữa em và anh chưa bao giờ là một tình bạn bình thường như bao người khác. Một thứ tình yêu đẹp chỉ riêng em và anh cảm nhân được. Anh đã luôn mang đến cho em những niềm vui nho nhỏ, và là người xoa dịu những nỗi buồn sâu thẳm trong tâm hồn em...

Cám ơn anh vì đã yêu em. Anh đã cho em biết rằng trong biển người bao la này, em luôn quan trọng với một người, em có ý nghĩa trong cuộc sống của một ai kia...để em thấy mình không lạc lòng và trơ trọi. Dù mình ở xa nhau, nhưng anh mãi là ngọn lửa nhỏ sưởi ấm lòng em, ngay cả khi e đối chọi với với những cơn giông tố của biển trời lạnh giá , anh biết không?

Cám ơn anh vì đã chỉ bảo cho em rất nhiều điều... Để em có thể sống mạnh mẽ hơn, trưởng thành hơn trước sự khắc nghiệt của cuộc sống. Để em biết chấp nhận, đối diện và vượt qua mọi khó khăn. Dù ở bất cứ nơi nào em vẫn luôn có anh kề bên, điều đó cho em sự tự tin để bước về phía trước... bởi em biết lúc nào anh cũng dõi theo em...

Cám ơn tình yêu bao dung và rộng lượng của anh. Anh đã luôn bỏ qua cho mọi sai lầm nông nổi của em, luôn dang rộng vòng tay yêu thương đón em vào lòng. Đó chính là điều khiến em yêu anh hơn tất cả... Và cũng nhờ đó, em hiểu ra một điều rằng: Anh đã yêu em rất chân thành...

Em cám ơn cuộc sống đã cho em được gặp anh!. Cám ơn những thămg trầm trong tình yêu của chúng mình. Để em biết rằng em rất, rất yêu anh. Người ta thường nói: "Những ai luôn nghĩ về nhau và mong được gặp nhau thì sẽ có ngày gặp lại...". Có lẽ điều đó đúng, phải không anh? Bởi vì những khoảng thời gian ở đây - nơi em găp anh, chưa lúc nào em ngừng nghĩ về anh cả...Và giờ đây em phải xa nơi này, xa anh...

"Hạnh phúc là gì?" - Đó là câu hỏi không ít người trăn trở. Em cũng đã từng trăn trở về điều đó. Và rồi em đọc được ở đâu đó rằng: "Hạnh phúc chính là quá trình chúng ta đi tìm hạnh phúc". Cho đến hôm nay, khi gần 2 năm đã qua đi, em cũng đã trải nghiệm được điều đó.

Trên con đường đi tìm hạnh phúc, em gặp được anh, đó là điều có ỹ nghĩa hơn tất cả mọi điều. Gặp anh, và chính anh sẽ trả lời cho em câu hỏi ấy: "Hạnh phúc là được bình yên ở bên anh"... đơn giản thế thôi...

Yêu anh, Khoảng cách thời gian và không gian chẳng là gì cả, vì trong tim mình luôn luôn có nhau, đúng không anh? Ngày trước em vẫn thường tin vào câu nói: "Không có tình yêu vĩnh cửu, chỉ có những giây phút vĩnh cửu của tình yêu". 

Nhưng đến bây giờ, em biết tình yêu của chúng mình có những khoảnh khắc vĩnh hằng, và bản thân nó cũng sẽ luôn khắc sâu trong tim anh và em theo năm tháng... Cái gì dễ có được thì sẽ dễ mất đi. Tình yêu chúng mình đã được thử thách quá nhiều. Vì thế nó là một đám lửa lớn mà không ngọn gió nào có thể thổi tắt được, anh à...

Cám ơn cuộc đời cho em một người!

Cám ơn một người cho em một lần biết yêu...

 - tạm biệt anh!-

Story love in memory

NÉT DUYÊN THẦM KHÓ CƯỠNG CỦA NGƯỜI CON GÁI HÀ THÀNH XƯA

Người con gái Hà thành xưa mang vẻ đẹp đằm thắm, nhẹ nhàng, ẩn chứa nét duyên thầm không thể trộn lẫn.

Nét duyên thầm khó cưỡng của gái Hà thành xưa

Ngày nay, nói đến con gái Hà Nội, người ta liên tưởng ngay đến những thiếu nữ xinh đẹp, trang điểm cầu kỳ, mặc những bộ đồ thời trang, bó sát để tôn lên từng đường cong cơ thể. Đó được gọi là vẻ đẹp của người phụ nữ hiện đại và hiếm người nào có thể cầm lòng trước vẻ đẹp ấy. Nhưng rồi trong cái nhộn nhạo, xô bồ của nhịp sống gấp gáp, nhiều người lại bất chợt thấy nhớ đến nao lòng dáng vẻ nhẹ nhàng, lịch thiệp mà tinh tế của người con gái Hà thành xưa.

Vẻ duyên dáng của thiếu nữ Hà thành trong bộ áo dài tân thời vào thế kỷ 20.

Trang phục của phụ nữ Hà Nội xưa thường là áo dài vạt, nếu có xẻ tà cũng được xẻ một cách khéo léo sao cho thướt tha nhưng cũng không để hở làn da bên trong. Mầu vải được chị em lựa chọn thường nhã nhặn, chất vải kín đáo mà không kém phần mềm mại. Còn nếu có mặc váy thì người con gái cũng ý nhị may chiếc váy dài đến gần gót chân.

Dù không khoe da, khoe thịt, không sặc sỡ, màu mè nhưng ở người con gái Hà Nội ngày ấy luôn chứa đựng nét duyên thầm khó nói. Đó là nét đẹp dịu dàng, tao nhã và thanh lịch.

Vẻ đẹp người con gái Hà Nội xưa đến từ tổng thể của sự hài hòa, thanh lịch.

Người phụ nữ Hà Nội vào khoảng giữa của thế kỷ 20 thường không trang điểm cầu kỳ, không lòe loẹt phấn son nhưng vẫn nổi bật vẻ sang trọng, quý phái. Đẹp đến nỗi có nhà văn phải nói: “Riêng khuôn mặt, phụ nữ Hà Nội xưa nay vẫn hấp dẫn lạ lùng trong mọi con mắt, mọi trái tim từ người thợ đến nhà thơ”.

Họ thường dùng son nhưng rất nhẹ, làn môi chỉ hơi hồng hồng một chút tạo vẻ cuốn hút. Nếu có chải lông mày, các cô, các chị chỉ tô thêm nét cho đậm đôi chút. Những cô gái lãng mạn còn kín đáo nhỏ một giọt nước hoa nơi bàn tay, trong khăn mùi xoa hoặc dưới mang tai, chỉ thoảng nhẹ như hương hoa nhài thơm xa, đủ khiêu khích một cách mơ hồ chứ không quá nồng, quá hắc. Vẻ đẹp thanh tao ấy khiến nhiều người không khỏi xao xuyến

Tứ đại mỹ nhân Hà thành xưa.

Những người Hà Nội từ thế hệ ấy còn sống đến giờ vẫn không khỏi xuýt xoa khi nói về mái tóc dài óng mượt của người phụ nữ Hà thành xưa với hình ảnh những cô gái thướt tha trong tà áo dài, đạp xe đạp quanh Hồ gươm với mái tóc dài buông hờ hững. Khi đi chơi thì điệu đà là thế, còn khi lao động, mái tóc dài được búi đuôi gà gọn gẽ, vài lọn tóc mềm buông lơi sau gáy sao mà gợi cảm, khiến bao chàng trai ngơ ngẩn trồng cây si.

Một trong những nét đẹp đặc trưng của các thiếu nữ Hà Thành xưa là
 mái tóc thề dịu dàng.

Vẻ đẹp tâm hồn của thiếu nữ Hà Nội toát lên sự đoan trang, gia giáo

Phong cách đi đứng, giao tiếp trong văn hóa ứng xử của người con gái Tràng An cũng có bao điều đáng nói. Nét đoan trang, nhã nhặn thể hiện từ bước chân khẽ khàng, từ đôi tay nhỏ nhắn, móng cắt ngắn đến cái cười che miệng đầy duyên dáng. Điều lạ lùng là phụ nữ thời ấy thường đi guốc mộc, mà guốc mộc thường phát tiếng động lớn. Ấy thế mà bước chân của cô gái Hà thành vẫn nhẹ nhàng, thanh thoát làm sao.

Một phụ nữ quý tộc ở Bắc Kỳ. Ảnh chụp những năm 1930 - 1954.

Người ta hiếm khi nào thấy những cô gái ấy vội vàng, hấp tấp mà lộ ra cái hớ hênh, vô duyên. Dù vội đến mấy, họ vẫn mang dáng vẻ khoan thai, từ tốn.

Phụ nữ Hà thành xưa đi lại rất nhẹ nhàng, khoan thai.

Trong ứng xử gia đình, người phụ nữ Hà Nội xưa nổi tiếng là đằm thắm, dịu dàng. Đó là “vũ khí” để họ giữ gìn hạnh phúc gia đình. Sáng sớm, người phụ nữ bao giờ cũng dậy sớm quét dọn nhà cửa, đun ấm nước sẵn để ai dậy thì có ngay nước nóng pha trà, rửa mặt. Bữa cơm quây quần của cả nhà, người vợ luôn ngồi đầu nồi để xới cơm cho các thành viên trong gia đình và không bao giờ quên tiếp thức ăn cho bố mẹ, chồng con.

Nét đoan trang, đằm thắm không thể trộn lẫn.

Người phụ nữ Hà thành rất tinh tế nên thường chú ý tới việc chọn các món ăn sao cho phù hợp với thời tiết và thời điểm. Ví dụ, mùa hè chọn những món thanh nhiệt như canh hoa thiên lý, canh mướp còn các món kho thì dành cho mùa đông.

Cách chọn thực phẩm cũng là cả một nghệ thuật của những phụ nữ gốc Hà Nội sành ăn. Chẳng hạn như rau cần chỉ ăn vào tháng chạp, tháng một. Khi ấy ngọn rau mới mới trắng, mới mềm và ngọt. Sang tháng hai, ba có mưa rào, trứng cóc nở đầy ruộng, rau ăn cứng và nhạt. Cá rô thì lại ngon nhất vào tháng ba. Rau húng thì phải chọn húng Láng mới thơm. Đậu thì phải mua sao cho được loại đậu mơ vừa mịn vừa ngậy. Rau muống ngon phải là thứ rau muống nước, cọng xanh, nhỏ.

Với con cái, những bà mẹ người Hà Nội ngày ấy đặc biệt quan tâm đến vấn đề giáo dục nhân cách cho trẻ. Tự bản thân họ luôn cố gắng làm thật tốt mọi việc để các con lấy đó làm gương mà học tập. Họ uốn nắn con trong từng cử chỉ, lời nói, nhất là con gái. Chính nhờ thế, cho đến bây giờ, con gái Hà Nội nhiều người vẫn giữ lại được ít nhiều vẻ đằm thắm, duyên dáng được kế tục từ mẹ, từ bà mình. Và hy vọng rằng, nét đẹp rất riêng, rất khó trộn lẫn ấy sẽ còn tiếp tục được lưu truyền cho các thế hệ tiếp theo.

Theo Trí Thức Trẻ

Wanna be a Great and Successful Freelance Travel Writer?

A very rich travel writer

Michael Shapiro talks about what it takes to be a surviving freelance writer. Believe me folks, it ain't easy.

Making a living as a freelancer

Every June, I mark the anniversary of leaving my last full-time job, at CNET in SF. It’s been 14 years with lots of highs and lows, but I’ve never regretted the decision to walk away from the rigidity of full-time work and hang my virtual shingle. Here are some tips that have helped me make it as a freelance writer:

Following is a roundup of advice, tips, and thoughts from freelance writer and editor Michael Shapiro. These suggestions cover the business of freelancing, rather than writing advice. A student at the first Book Passage Travel Writers Conference in 1992 and a 13-time faculty member, Shapiro has developed a productive freelance career by employing the techniques below. Michael also works with writers to develop, polish, and edit stories. He can help writers place articles in top publications. Contact me for more info.

It’s not just an adventure, it’s a job: Travel writing can be romantic, but recognize it’s a job — don’t start out writing grand epiphanies about your summer vacation. Focus on service (consumer or advice) pieces, such as a story on five little-known museums in New York. You don’t have to be a superb writer to be a competent reporter. By providing service pieces, you can develop relationships with editors that lead to more interesting assignments, including destination stories. A good way to break into magazines is by writing “front-of-the-book” features, which can be as short as a couple of paragraphs.

Stick to a routine: get up in the morning; take a shower, have breakfast and go to work. Put on shoes and get dressed. Slippers and a bathrobe don’t cut it. You can tailor your schedule to fit your personality. Be sure to carve out work-free blocks of time. I find it essential to take at least one full day off each week. Part of the attraction of freelancing is flexibility, so I give myself some leeway, for example to spend a couple of weekdays on a river trip or to take an occasional afternoon off.

Accuracy first: Be a thorough and accurate reporter above all else — then strive to be an excellent writer. Clear and concise prose is important because editorial space is so tight today. You don’t have to write with the lyrical beauty of Pico Iyer to get published. You do, however, need to get the facts right. An editor will hesitate to give you another chance if you make significant errors. Most newspaper travel editors are too busy and don’t have the resources to fact-check, so double-check your facts before submitting. Use online resources to fact-check but be aware that not all info online has been vetted or updated, so confirm by phoning or seeking multiple sources for corroboration.

Find a niche: Develop an area of expertise and work it. Only after choosing Internet travel as a niche was I able to make it as a full-time freelancer. My goal was to get editors to think of me as the Net-travel guy, so when they needed a story on this topic they’d contact me. This opened the door to more literary destinations stories: Because the Washington Post had run my Net-travel pieces, the editor there knew my work and published my Cuba by bike story.

Wanna be a great Freelance Travel Writer? Good Luck

Robert Reid talks about How to Use a Guidebook

Very Old Guidebooks

Great advise from Robert Reid on how to use a guidebook. He really, truly dissects the art and magical witchcraft on tearing apart and guidebook and making your travel plans.

While working for Lonely Planet for nearly 15 years, I researched guidebooks in Siberia and Transylvania, trained at Mountie boot camp in Saskatchewan, and even shook hands with Al Roker. But the most eye-opening thing I learned along the way was this simple fact about Americans:

ALMOST NO ONE KNOWS WHAT A “GUIDEBOOK” IS

Whenever I met someone around the US, and explained that I worked for a guidebook company, I’d find myself holding my hands mid-air and clutching an imaginary book to reinforce the point. Sometimes I’d add that “a guidebook is a book with information for travelers to plan their own trips.” Yet, almost without exception, they’d ask:

Seasoned travelers tend to know what guidebooks are, but increasingly find it fashionable to diminish their worth:

What a pity. Even while digital and web world are snatching up veteran guidebook publishers, and observers debate the industry’s uncertain future, I’m certain a guidebook remains both a travel planner’s MVP, yet at the same time one of travel’s most underrated contributors. And that if more Americans knew how to use one, even for 10 minutes, they’d travel more and farther — and better.

This article explains what 10 minutes with a guidebook can do to help you have better trips. But first, more on the exciting trend of…

Guidebook-bashing!

Over the past three years, travel writers and travelers have increasingly equated a sense of “authenticity” or “local experiences” with things “not found in a guidebook.” On Google, references to such phrases has increased by 344% from 2009 to 2012, rising from 150 instances a year to a devilish 666 last year.

National Geographic Traveler’s “Beyond the Guidebook: Where the Locals Go” blog commonly has less information than a guidebook, for example its breezy article on the Taj Mahal compared with Lonely Planet’s five-page special section.

During a recent Twitter #chat group, a few dozen people squarely defined “off-the-beaten-track destinations” as a place that’s “not in a guidebook.” Yet all 70-plus examples the #chat group gave of their favorite “off-track” destinations were in guidebooks!

And Emmy-winning Equitrekker Darley Newman champions her TV show for covering places “not in guidebooks.” Yet her top pick of an “untapped destination”? Cappadocia, Turkey, a highlight covered in every Turkey guidebook and called “the most interesting site” in the country by Tony Wheeler in Lonely Planet’s first guidebook. Back in 1973!

Poor guidebooks. Can’t get a break. Maybe we should start over from the beginning?

What is a guidebook?

Robert Reid on How to Read a Guidebook and Plan Your Trip

Climbing an Abandoned Highrise in Bangkok with Scary Photos

Wat Arun by Carl Parkes

Here's a really amazing adventure in Bangkok, as an intrepid soul climbs one of those abandoned buildings and lives to tell the tale and post some unbelieveable photos.

Sathorn Unique is a 49-story building, located in downtown Bangkok, built in 1990. At 80% construction, it was abandoned in 1997 and never completed. Locals insist, the skyscraper is haunted and call it the "Ghost Tower". They sternly instructed me to not enter the building. Well, I don't believe in ghosts so guess what I did... But more on that later.

building was meant to be one of Bangkok's most exclusive and luxury residential projects. A skyscraper with 659 residential units and 54 retails, in addition to a spectacular panoramic view of the Chao Phraya river.

The project was designed by Rangsan & Pansit architecture Co., Ltd. Nowadays the building is owned by Doctor Rangsan’s son, who offered to sell the building for 1.800.000.000 Baht ($60 Million USD).

Thailand was one of the fastest growing economies in the world during the early 90s. The economy was booming when the project started. But then everything suddenly changed in 1997. Thailand, especially Bangkok, was strongly affected by the Asian Financial Crisis. Later the country went bankrupt due acquiring too much foreign dept. The Thai Baht collapsed in 1997 and the development of the Sathorn Unique Building came to a crashing halt.

Climbing Up and Abandoned Highrise in Bangkok

Great Travel Books to Read Before You Hit the Road

Calcutta Bookstore

Boots N All is a great website all about travel, and here's their best picks for great travel books to read and inspire you before you hit the road.

Most travelers also have an affinity for reading. All the time we spend in airports and on planes, buses, and trains makes for the perfect situation to pick up a good book and get lost. There’s nothing better than reading a book set in a destination I’ve been or dream of going. There are a lot of great books out there that are great for travelers, so we talked amongst ourselves here at BootsnAll and asked our community for suggestions. We were overwhelmed with awesome suggestions, many of which we hadn’t heard of before. So we put together this list of top travel books:

Top Travel Books from BooksNAll

27 Places to Go Before You Die

Young Monks in Myanmar

Here's a mind blowing collection of great photos of places you want to go before you die. I've done a few, but not enough.

27 Places to Go Before You Die

Tony Wheeler Website

Tony and Maureen in 1973

I had no idea that Tony Wheeler had his own website, but here it is in all it's glory:

Why have I never been to Capri, that island, much beloved of dolce vita jet setters of the ‘50s and ‘60s, off the coast from Naples in Italy? So finally Maureen and I got there for a few days, after my Pistoia Literary Festival gig and before a few days in Naples.

▲ A Capri highlight, the majolica-tiled floor of the Chiesa di San Michele in Anacapri, here Adam and Eve get their Garden of Eden marching orders.

And it’s just fine, lots of the familiar fashion brands along the pedestrian streets of Capri town. Lots of cafes and restaurants turning out very traditional Italian food. Lots of walking possibilities, including out to Villa Jovis, the hilltop villa of Tiberius, the notorious Roman emperor for whom excess was never enough. He was reputed to have tossed discarded toy boys off the top level of the villa, hundreds of metres above the blue Mediterranean below. And then there’s the fabulous Blue Grotto, the Grotta Azzurra.

Visiting the grotto is a hoot. First there’s the boat trip (€13.50 a head) along the coast to the grotto, where a bunch of boats all mill around at the grotto entrance. Clearly there’s some sort of priority on who goes first, but to us outsiders it’s impossible to decipher. Finally it’s our turn and a collection of rowing boats pull up beside our larger boat and we climb from boat to rowboat, four or five at a time. Miraculously nobody falls into the sea, between big boat and rowing boat. We’re instructed to sit right down on the floor of the boat.

Next we’re rowed over to a boat moored by the entrance with a lineup of three ticket sellers to whom we pay €12.50 a head for the rowboat and grotto entry fee. All of this, one feels, could be organised much more smoothly, tidily and cleanly.

Tony Wheeler Website

Overland to India from Europe in 1967

Overland to India in 1967

A guidebook to the very, very early days of travel from Europe to India

Chuck Thompson is Back. Hide your your young daughters

Another Rant from Hell Holes Author

Chuck Thompson is the author of the just-released book, To Hellholes And Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism, a follow-up to his wickedly funny Smile When You’re Lying, a takedown of the travel writing business. So where are the hellholes? Congo, India, Mexico City and — “most feared of all,” Disney World. I asked him to explain.

What’s the common thread?

On the most basic level, they’re all places that have earned extremely negative reputations with people who have never been there. Taken together, they represent the whole spread of traveler paranoia — from crime, disease and bloodshed to standing in long lines in the Florida sun next to little Caitlins and Coopers waiting to get on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.

India’s death-or-glory salesmen and promise of GI infections intimidated me personally, but as a global outsourcing hub and magnet for terrorists, it neatly packages the worst economic, cultural and political fears of modern America. So, a book covering these places seemed like it would have both personal meaning and universal relevance.

What’s the point you were trying to make by visiting these places?

I didn’t start off with any point in mind other than to confront some of my own biases and see what happened. I try to approach everything I write about with as agnostic a mindset as possible, which, sadly, is not much the fashion these days.

The predictable and perhaps natural way to go into a project like this is to assume that you’ll come out at the other end with a cheery, hands-across-the-sea message of global brotherhood and a stern lesson about judging others from afar. But I went to these places willing to call a spade a spade. If my experience supported it, I was fully ready to say, “You know what? I was right. This place really does suck. This society is completely screwed up.”

What I finished with was something in between. The Congo and its ubiquitous AK-47s I never need to experience again. But I gained more respect for Miley Cyrus than I would have thought possible.

Of all these destinations, which one scared you the most?

Easily the Congo. For one, just the genuine threat of violence. I mean, there’s a civil war going on there.

But more than that, the complete lack of information was alarming. It turns out virtually nobody goes to the Congo. Consequently, it’s almost impossible to get an accurate idea about what’s going on there, how to get around, and so on. Even the major guidebooks devoted to Africa include only a few perfunctory pages about the country. And all the Africans I spoke to said, “Do not go to Congo under any circumstance!”

For a while I thought I’d have to abort the trip. Then I found Henri, who got me through the country, but turned out to be an adventure in and of himself.

It seems as if you’re saying as much about tourists — specifically American tourists — as you are about the destinations you visit. What are you trying to say?

My general point about American tourists is that by and large I think they’re pretty polite and open-minded and no worse than any other travelers and not at all deserving of that old “ugly American” tag.

The larger thing I discovered while traveling for this book is that while everyone seems to love bitching about the Americanization of the world — from McDonald’s to Disney to gluttonous consumerism — the reverse seems to be much more the case these days. The world is influencing America far more than America is influencing the world. And often not in a good way.

Political corruption essentially taken for granted. Religious intolerance. Municipal bankruptcy. Enfeebled currency. Military adventurism. Toothless media. In one section I used the dismal ascendancy of soccer in this country as a symbol for all of this social decay — which I know will get a lot of people thinking I’m an ass in the same way that I angered Eric Clapton fans by dumping on him in Smile When You’re Lying, but to me it’s an apt and sort of funny metaphor.

You seem to have laid off criticizing travel writing in this book, for the most part. Do you feel as if you made your point in your last book, or do you still have something to say about travel writing? If so, what is it?

I suppose I still have plenty to say about travel writing and much of it isn’t complimentary. But, yeah, I got a lot of that off my chest in Smile and so it seemed pointless to cover the same ground again.

Most tourists try to stay away from danger. Yet danger seems to be a character in this book. Should we fear danger? Or does it make for a more interesting vacation?

Sure, danger makes for a more interesting story, but I’m a tourist who enjoys a beach resort in Cabo as much as the next guy. I can have fun without danger.

But “fear” really is an interesting part of travel. In part I did want to make the point that all of these “official” and not-so official warnings about how dangerous the world is outside the United States are just plain dumb. No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be. Government bureaucrats are more concerned with covering their asses by issuing ludicrous “warnings” than with disseminating accurate situation reports.

I just got back from Cambodia. One travel advisory I looked at before going, which claimed to be quoting the U.S. State Department, told its readers never to get inside a tuk tuk or open taxi. What a joke. Tuk tuks are a perfectly reasonable way of getting around. It’s inconceivable to me that anyone who has been to Cambodia could possibly have written such nonsense.

A lot of travelers hardly leave the safety of their hotel rooms any more, and when they do, it’s to visit a guidebook-approved tourist trap. What do you think people miss when they vacation in that kind of a bubble?

They’re not missing anything more than the backpacker or adventure crowd is missing by not experiencing the gratis champagne service in first class or the sunset view of the Grand Canal from a suite in the Hotel Danieli in Venice.

To be honest, I’m pretty weary of this idea that luxury or package travel is somehow less authentic than couch surfing or backpacking or showing up in a Third World country and taking outdoor baths in plastic tubs with water dragged up from the river. Backpackers love getting their noses in the air about the legitimacy of their travel, as though the scumbags up the hill in their air-conditioned four stars are somehow not having a real cultural experience. All travel is authentic.

Captain Cook always had his own stateroom with feather pillows and silk sheets, he hobnobbed with the upper crust everywhere he went, he was a stickler for hygiene and never left home without a few cases of good port tucked away on the foredeck — and no one ever accused him of lacking for an adventurous spirit or authentic contact with the locals, what with discovering Australia and being hacked to death by natives in Hawaii and all.

Do you think you’ll ever return to any of the places you visited for your latest book?

Congo almost certainly not. India, maybe, if you paid my way. Disney World, yeah, but only with a kid in tow. Mexico City I’ve already been back to and am going back again in March. What a fantastic city, right up there with London and Hong Kong among my favorite oversized world cities. Mexico City was definitely the big surprise of this book for me. I could live there.

Is there a larger lesson about the world we live in that you want readers to take away from your book?

I make a few arch points in the epilogue, but mostly I just want people to laugh and be entertained. You know what one of my favorite things in the world is? A quick, funny, entertaining, easy read that can get me through a couple of three-hour flights without giving me a headache or boring the shit out of me. For travelers, that’s a valuable and rare commodity and it’s what I go for on every page of the book. If my stories and opinions keep readers engaged for those brutal, endless hours in coach, I’m happy, whether they care about my larger lessons or not.

“Hãy theo đuổi đam mê, thành công sẽ theo đuổi bạn.”

“Hãy theo đuổi đam mê, thành công sẽ theo đuổi bạn.”

Câu nói rất đơn giản của chàng Rancho trong bộ phim nổi tiếng của Ấn Độ – Three Idiots ( 3 Chàng Ngốc ) nhưng nó lại là chìa khóa cho những ai đang đi tìm kiếm sự thành công thật sự trong cuộc sống.

Chúng ta bị lôi cuốn bởi những dục vọng của sự thành công như: tiền bạc, danh vọng, địa vị,…

Chúng ta theo đuổi những ước mơ lớn: Tôi sẽ trở nên giàu có? Tôi sẽ trở nên nổi tiếng? Tôi sẽ tạo ra sự khác biệt?

Nhưng rồi chúng ta càng đuổi theo những điều đó thì lại càng mệt mỏi và kết quả cuối cùng là chúng ta bỏ cuộc.

Tại sao vậy?

Đơn giản đó là do chúng ta làm công việc chúng ta không đam mê, vì thế năng lượng của chúng ta không được tái tạo và tăng lên. Nó ngày càng yếu đi.

Nếu làm công việc chúng ta đam mê, năng lượng sẽ được tăng lên. Làm càng nhiều, cảm hứng càng lớn, năng lượng càng tăng. Mỗi ngày chúng ta đều khao khát được làm việc. Chúng ta cảm thấy hạnh phúc với công việc.

Hãy nghe những người thành công, nổi tiếng và giàu có trên thế giới như Bill Gates; Steve Jobschia sẻ về thành công:

“Trở thành người giàu nhất thế giới trong nghĩa trang không có gì là quan trọng đối với tôi. Đi ngủ vào ban đêm và nghĩ rằng mình đã làm được 1 cái gì đó thật tuyệt vời… điều đó mới quan trọng đối với tôi”.

( Steve Jobs)

Tony Bourdain New Show on CNN

Tony Bourdain via Bon App, not Andrew Zimmern

Here's a funny interview/PR plug from CNN via Bon App with Tony Bourdain talking about his new show on CNN, but not mentioning the water thrown through the windows after the train leaves Yangoon. This show will obviously have much larger budgets than his efforts at his previous channel, which will remain unnamed, so we hope for the best. He's funny and a former junkie. What's not to love?

The folks at Bon App have apparently never heard of a paragraph or page break, so this is the unedited mess they posted on their website. Editors, where are you? Note: I've cleaned up most of the copy, and this is a much more readable post than the link I have provided above. Tony could care less, but I like to keep things clean.

Anthony Bourdain's new show, Parts Unknown, premieres on CNN this Sunday. And right from the get-go, it's a little more ambitious than No Reservations, his long-running show on the Travel Channel. The first season has Bourdain traveling to places like Burma, Libya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Not exactly anyone's idea of a dream vacation.

The show itself sounds fascinating, but when you're trying to make television in locations that are that war-ridden, remote, and possibly dangerous--Bourdain has already called the Congo episode "the most terrifying, stressful, physically difficult shoot of my life"--you know there have to be some good behind-the-scene stories.

So we called up Tom Vitale, the director who went with Bourdain to shoot the Burma, Libya, Congo, and Spain episodes of Parts Unknown, to ask a few questions about what it's like to make a food show in some of the world's most precarious locations.

What was the biggest punch you had to roll with for this new season?
Burma is sort of just opening up right now, and there are a lot of tourists going there. Not a lot compared to any other country in the region, but the infrastructure in Burma is totally not capable of handling the people who want to go. So even though we planned very early, we couldn't get plane tickets for the whole crew to get to Bagan, Burma's ancient capital. Which meant that half of us had to take an overnight train, which I thought was pretty cool, and we could actually film that. We were told it was a ten-and-a-half-hour ride, but it ended up being 19 hours, all pure terror. It seemed like there had been no work on the infrastructure there since the British left. We were bouncing around so much, it was a million times more terrifying, exciting, and fun than any roller coaster you would go on. We've been on a lot of old trains around the world, but this one certainly takes the cake. You would literally fly out of your seat when it was going fast, bouncing over twisted, warped, tracks with old train carriages. We had sleeping cars, and you'd wake up in mid-air only to, two seconds later, whack back down into your berth.

Was it hard to shoot in Burma?
Because they have this repressive government in Burma, we thought it would be hard to shoot there, but the access there was very cool. We had no minder, at least as far as we could tell, unlike China.

"As far as you could tell"?
The only reason I say "as far as we could tell" is that we were shocked that nobody seemed to be watching us. I mean, even just a couple years ago, if you were seen talking to a westerner in Burma, someone would take down your name, and there would be a knock on your door at 2 in the morning.

Do you typically have government minders?
In nicer places, like Vietnam, without as much political strife, you always have a minder, it's just one of those communist things. But there didn't seem to be one in Burma, unless it was someone who was very sophisticated and never got in our way. But it's sort of paranoid to think that was happening. They knew where we were going, and we stayed in the confines of the tourist triangle, not the ethnic regions on the border, where fighting's still going on.

It was really just shocking there, not just because the government wasn't involved but because the people were so involved. If you compare Burma to some places in Eastern Europe where they haven't had a communist government in 20 years but people are still paranoid, people in Burma were so open with us. We went in prepared for people to button up anytime politics came up, but that did not happen at all.

How did the decision get made to shoot in the Congo?
Part of the reason Tony's always wanted to go there is because of Heart of Darkness, which was written about the Congo River itself. Tony was a sort of armchair traveler long before he dreamt that he would see the world, and he likes a real literary adventure. So the Congo was always on his list because people wouldn't think it was possible, or give us money to go there, which made him want to go all the more. So we started in Goma, you have to go through Rwanda to get to the eastern part of the country, and then went to Kisangani, which was Inner Station, where Kurtz was, though that was obviously a long time ago. It's a big city now.

What was filming in the Democratic Republic of the Congo like?
Congo was definitely one of the more challenging locations we've worked in, but we had a great fixing team of locals who helped us get what we want. Goma was a really heartbreaking place that made Port-au-Prince in Haiti look like Club Med; I was surprised by how rough that was. But Kisangani, in the center of the country, it was still an unstable place, definitely, but one of the big surprises was how nice and friendly everyone was, considering all the shit they've had to deal with, for, I mean, 100 years.

What was the food like?
Congo is not a food lover's land, but the piri-piri peppers were excellent, spicy. There' s a lot of grilled meat you'll have, because it's one of the safe ways to not get sick, because it's cooked right there in front of you. The lack of plumbing in a place like the Congo presents a lot of issues when it comes to food safety. We never got sick, but we're all pretty good at that. You have to have a cast-iron stomach to make it on this show.

In more remote locations like that, does the crew tend to draw crowds?
In a place like the Congo, on the street, you do draw a lot of attention and people do swarm the cameras at that point, but going back to how we roll with the punches, we got a lot of interesting footage trying to get regular street scenes. Within 30 seconds, there would be about 50 kids trying to get up in the camera lens, so it just becomes a part of the show.

In Europe, nobody cares, which makes it a very easy place to film. In Asia, people know who Tony is because he's very popular there. You have a problem with people interrupting scenes for an autograph or picture. He's very gracious about it, more so than me--I just want to get back to shooting. In Congo, it wasn't about us, it was just six white people, which is a pretty rare sight for them, especially with cameras, at least in Kisangani. Goma gets more foreigners, but really very few people go to Kisangani.

Have people ever really harassed the crew, or tried to steal equipment?
The only time I've ever had a camera stolen was in Naples, and we're talking 70 shows at least. It was in the back of the van, and the driver was supposed to be watching things, but he was on the phone or something--the city is notorious for pickpockets, anyway.

Do you get much hostility from the people who live where you're filming?
In general, people treat us really really well, even in places where they don't particularly like Americans. I think it comes back to the food: we're interested in being there, we're not going there to exploit people. Tony generally wants to share a meal with people, and food is how a lot of people express a better part of themselves.

Europe is probably one of the places where we're not treated as nicely, not that we're treated poorly, but nobody cares. There's a lot of "You're not going to inconvenience our restaurant, I don't care about your TV show."

How about in Libya?
Libya was a shockingly friendly place. I think because for so long, Qaddafi was telling everyone how awful the West was and how evil they were, and everyone was just so sick of Qaddafi. Western culture in Libya, unlike some other places in the Middle East, is viewed as a beacon of freedom. We went to one restaurant, Uncle Kentaki, it was a complete rip-off of KFC-slash-McDonald's, such a bizarre place. And you see people really gravitating towards western culture there, you see that in the music and what people are wearing.

How was the food there?
When you say Libya, people think of a desert country, but most of the population is on the Mediterranean coast, and it just has this amazing bounty of unbelievable seafood. We killed, or, not we personally, but we killed a sheep at a barbecue in Misrata, which was a lot of fun. And they actually have pasta--some people claim that it's where pasta was invented, but it's more likely a holdover from the days of Italian colonialism under Mussolini. We had a very interesting sheep ragu pasta.

What's it like making a food show in places where some people might not have enough to go around?
Well, there's food everywhere. Even in the Congo, people are still eating. The question is, is it varied and different, will it look good on TV, is it colorful, will people watching at home think I want to eat that versus That's brown mush. In a place like Congo, people are eating, but they don't really have the luxury to have a lot of fun with the food. That was the thing about Burma, the country's quite poor, but still the food that we saw people eating there was really, really good. People put a lot of thought and effort into it.

Are there any places you've shot that you definitely want to go back to?
Vietnam is probably one of the most magical places I've ever been, and I'd definitely relish the opportunity to go back there anytime. There might be one day when this magical trip around the world ends, and I do something other than stay in my own bed for vacation. When you do what I do for a living, getting on an airplane is not what you do on vacation. Especially because I'm terrified of flying.

You're terrified of flying?!
Half of the crew is. That's often the most nerve-racking part of a shoot, just getting on Cathay Pacific to go to Hong Kong.

How have you stayed in this job for so long?
Compared to somebody giving you an all-expenses-paid ticket around the world, the fear isn't that bad. You just have to get over it. The fear of flying is definitely awful, and doesn't get any better, but I wouldn't let it stop me from going somewhere.

Does it mean that you tend to go for more car rides than small prop plane flights, though?
Generally the smaller planes are a little less terrifying, because you're not in this tube 70 rows back from the pilot in this claustrophobic way. The exception is places like the Congo or the Amazon where bad weather factors in, because bad weather in a small plane is really fucking terrifying.

We took a really weird prop plane in Congo, because Congo has something like the worst commercial aviation safety record on the planet. Planes go down all the time, it's really bad there. When we were trying to get from Kisangani back to Goma, we had three options: a commercial plane, a private plane, or drive. Driving was not going to work, because it takes four days through all kinds of rebel-controlled areas. And our fixer, Dan McCabe, who's a documentary filmmaker working in the Congo, asked us: "Do you want to be in a Boeing going 500 miles an hour when you crash, or a bush plane going 75?"

So we chose the bush plane. It was a very old airplane, and they told us that it was formerly Queen Victoria's flying wardrobe, which would carry her clothes when she flew around the world. That is clearly not true, since Queen Victoria died in 1901, before airplanes were invented. So then they updated it to Queen Elizabeth's flying wardrobe, but we haven't been able to verify. It was a really strange plane, just a box.

Did the flight go okay?
We had a great pilot, but just as we were about to take off, this intense thunderstorm rolled up, so we had to get out. We made it to Goma, but three days later, a big commercial plane crashed right into the city in similar weather, very close to the hotel we were staying in. So we were quite happy we took the bush plane.

Are there any locations where you still want to go, but can't?
Iran and North Korea are probably places we definitely can't go. But CNN really does open up a lot of doors, as far as what they have an appetite for, like Libya and Congo. But Tony doesn't really want to go to places just because they're dangerous, he wants to go because there's a story to tell, or a place that fascinated him. I'm sure a place like North Korea would be very interesting, but the government would have to fall first, because they're very strict about film crews. There wouldn't be much of a point in going now--there would be a minder, and they would show us a very limited cross section of the country. We do our best work when we're down with the people.

The first episode of Parts Unknown, which takes Bourdain (and Tom) to Bruma, airs this Sunday at 9 PM on CNN.

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2013/04/bourdain-behind-the-scenes.html#ixzz2QD4mr0kC

The Sad Decline of Rough Guides

Link to Original Story

Google has bought Frommers. That rang a bell: an industry insider told me recently that Penguin quietly tried to sell Rough Guides to Frommers a couple of years ago, but “wanted too much” for it. Ho-hum. Travel publishing is in a really tricky place.

Now I’m not an industry analyst, and I’m not in travel tech, so if you want reasoned, insightful comment, stop reading now and click the links. I’m just a guidebook author. I whinge.

Disclosure: I’ve never written for Frommers. Apart from a bit of freelance editing, in 17 years I’ve never worked for any travel publishers other than Rough Guides.

Back when I started, Rough Guides were huge. They had massive brand recognition in the UK, chiefly on the back of the “Rough Guide to…” TV series – presented most famously by Magenta Devine and Sankha Guha – which ran in the late 80s & early 90s, catching people’s imagination like no TV travel show (arguably, no travel idea in any media) before or since. Lonely Planet had books everywhere, of course, but they were kind of boring, a bit earnest and mundane.

Lonely Planet was Microsoft. Rough Guide was Apple.

Then the Rough Guide founders sold the company to Penguin Books in a two-stage deal, completed in 2002. In ten years since, Penguin killed the brand. Rough Guides went from being a big fish in the small sea of travel publishing to a minnow in the ocean that is the Pearson media conglomerate. Penguin already owned DK, with a huge and globally successful travel brand of its own; RGs became an add-on, with fewer resources and a succession of managing directors who tried to crowbar it into a corporate strategy that was less and less interested in anything that didn’t sell in Jamie Oliver quantities.

Sales reps had bigger fish to fry than the 7th edition of the RG to Farflungistan, so the books – frustratingly, virtually impossible to find outside the UK anyway – began to fade from view in their home market. Cartography and other production processes were hived off to Penguin’s Delhi office: cheaper, but not better. Spinoff pocket guide series came, failed and went. Every year or two came another promise to revamp the RG website to bring it up to LP’s standard; it never happened. RGs remain pretty much invisible online. Ebooks? Digital publishing of any kind? Electronic rights? Negligible.

Those ten years have poleaxed RGs, turning it from a leader into a follower. There’s been a cull of titles, with several dozen 2012/2013 updates “postponed” (read: cancelled): one desperate author has had five of his six titles pulled. The website remains an embarrassment, with the promise of something better to be unveiled, er, sometime soon. The books have been redesigned, though – RGs now feature colour pictures throughout, just like it’s 2003.

The thing that made Rough Guides cool (or, if you prefer, successful) – the voice – has gone. Authors are punch-drunk. Editors are overworked. Even though guidebooks remain trusted (intriguingly, see here for an opposite spin) their raison d’etre has been called into question. What travel brands are cool? None. Content isn’t cool anymore: there’s too much of it.

Devices are cool. Content is just content.

Travel Writer Ad or Joke?

Link to Travel Writers Wanted

Welcome to the fourth installment of the “Worst travel writing jobs” series. This doozy is so doozicable that I could write 500 words on the absurdity of the title alone, but it gets better.

Write 3000 unique articles on Travel, Entertainment, Beauty and Shopping topics

Only 3000? Because I was just thinking the other day that there aren’t nearly enough articles about travel, entertainment, beauty and shopping on the internet. And is it just me or could the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes benefit from a little delving?

Job Description

Write 3000 unique articles on Travel, Entertainment, Beauty and Shopping topics (IT, PORT, DUTCH LANGUAGES).

Just to clarify, you want 3000 articles on a wide variety of topics in three languages? Off the top of my head, I’d say this job will take a team of six highly skilled polyglots about 6.5 months to complete, assuming no one takes vacation or gets sick or sneaks off for a giant poo.

Each article must be different, between 250 and 3300 words each. No repetition in articles, no spinning, scraping or similar.

But ‘scrinning’ is cool, right? How about ‘spaping’?

All articles must be written in English. Each article must pass Copyscape Premium, be free of grammar and spelling errors. Example topics include the following, but more will be added along the fields mentioned.

Grammar and spelling errors be deal breakers, but incoherence along the fields mentioned is donkey?

Please PM a sample article on one of the above topics otherwise your bid will not be considered. Any articles submitted will have its copyright pass to me upon lodging your bid.

You’re claiming copyright of the sample article I submit on the outside chance you bestow this monster job on me?

OK, fine. Here’s my original, unique sample article that you now own:

“Experts say shopping for beauty while traveling is good entertainment. Studies have shown that entertaining shopping is good for beauty and travel, but too much entertaining beauty is travel shopping.”

Do I get the gig?

Forty-six days to write 3000 articles? That’s just over 65 articles per day. Good thing I have Mr. Spock, Commander Data and Rain Man chained to desks in my basement, or this job might seem unreasonable. Still, turnaround is a bit tight. I’ll feed them energy drinks every hour for luck.

Payment will be $1 per article – so $3000 for 3000 articles. Please only bid if you accept this pay rate.

OK, forget the energy drinks. I’ll just force feed them sugar water and expired peanuts.

Payment will be made for articles upon completion.

So, essentially you want 3000 articles written on spec? No one in the history of the written word has ever accepted those terms, but OK.

Also we need same amount of articles to be produced in the following languages
- Italian
- Dutch
- Portugues (Brazil)

Good call on getting those 3000 articles written in Dutch. That will like, what?, literally double the number of articles written in Dutch on the internet? Ka-ching!

Writing as a Profession

A former Wall Street Journal writer talks about the state of writing today.

Former WSJ Writer at CJR

For several years as an editor at The Wall Street Journal I was invited by my college alumni association to speak about journalism to undergrads at the group’s annual Career Night. This involved a panel discussion with three or four others in the field talking about what we did, how we did it and—of primary interest to the audience—how we got our first jobs.

My regular panel mates worked at CBS News, The New Yorker, and the AP, and they’d talk about great stories they’d covered and great places they’d been on the company dime. When it was my turn, I felt it was important to paint a more realistic picture for people just starting in the business, so my advice was that they could learn everything they needed to know about my field—newspapers—by reading Sherlock Holmes.

In The Man With the Twisted Lip, the great detective solves the case of a guy who has “disappeared” in London. Neville St. Clair was a reporter who disguised himself as a disfigured beggar to research a story on life in the streets. He set up shop near the Bank of England, capered and quoted Shakespeare, and he quickly found he could make far more money panhandling than as a journalist. So without telling his wife, he quit the paper and became a beggar full time, moving his family to the suburbs and commuting to “business interests” in the city.

On hearing this and its relation to the laughable pay and benefits at the small papers where they’d likely land their first jobs, most of the kids hustled down the hall to workshops on med school and investment banking.

But not everyone. College grads still flock into journalism—or at least until very recently they did—ambitious, well-educated, and hopeful that despite the career carnage all around them they’ll be the exception to the rule. They’ll wrangle internships at big papers and get hired by small ones, where they’ll get direction but little training at a bit over minimum wage when calculated by the hours they’re expected to work, supplying their own cars and, at many papers out in flyover country, even their own cameras. Some will make it, some won’t, and the beat goes on.

Despite this kind of dedication—or stupidity—by the worker bees, many publishers these days find they still can’t make a buck. Gradually, this is an industry that has collapsed into itself. Long enjoying monopoly markets, low levels of debt, high profit margins, and an apparently bottomless labor pool, most publishers were loath to give up a good thing, and consequently failed to recognize the forces for change building around them. When they did, they often reacted with half measures or they over-reacted, lurching from fad to fad hoping for salvation: hyperlocal coverage, “civic journalism,” ads on the front page, “sponsored” news pages on issues of interest to local advertisers, joint ventures with local broadcast outlets, blogs, blogs on blogs, the list goes on. Trendiness, thy name is Gannett.

Amid all the angst and hand wringing, though, I keep reminding myself it’s the business model that’s failed, not the journalism. In a fully wired, 24/7 world, news has never been more available and probably has never been more important than now. The audience—readers, listeners, people—still look for and respond to information on developments that affect them, their families, or their communities. And the press’s watchdog role is still vital to the workings of government and democracy. Surrounded by a free press, Americans can be unmindful or even neglectful of it. But those who doubt its importance need only look to Tibet, Cuba, or Zimbabwe.

Unpaid Writers Still Need to Feed Their Kids

Another Look at the Nate Thayer Story

I've written before about the outrageous proposal made to writer Nate Thayer by The Atlantic, which expected him to write for free. He politely told them to go fuck themselves. Writers, professional writers, make their living by charging reasonable fees for their work, and they never give away their work for free, for fame, for internet distribution.

People who make their living by writing for publication had good reason to follow the recent hoo-hah over publishers who think paying writers for their work is optional.

What happened was that The Atlantic magazine, a marquee name in the world of words, approached a well-established freelancer named Nate Thayer and asked him about "repurposing" work he'd done for an online site, NKNews.org. The Atlantic was interested in a 1,200-word rendering of a longer article of Thayer's pegged to ex-basketball star Dennis Rodman's bizarre visit to North Korea.

When Thayer asked about terms, the magazine indicated it wasn't proposing to actually pay him, at least not in cash money, but noted that its website reached 13 million readers per month, suggesting that exposure on that scale is worth a lot.

Thayer wasn't persuaded. He replied: "I am a professional journalist who has made my living by writing for 25 years and am not in the habit of giving my services for free to for-profit media outlets so they can make money by using my work and efforts by removing my ability to pay my bills and feed my children."

Word of the affair zipped around the Internet, triggering a flood of comment. The Atlantic apologized "if we offended him" - the way institutions apologise without contrition - and in the aftermath, dozens of other journalists chipped in their own tales of the wretched treatment and soup-kitchen pay they get, even from flourishing websites.

It's not much consolation to point out that for the most part, they still get something,
unlike, say, professors. The latest indignity from publishers of academic journals, it seems, is to make writers pay them to have articles posted online. For junior-college faculty - who need not only to publish but to be cited by other scholars in order to qualify for advancement - the threat of being kept offline is like having their careers held for ransom. And incidentally, they get no money from print publication either. Not a dime.

Getting back to the Thayer affair, the arguments over rights and wrongs pivoted on fairness, on the demise of professionalism, on the benefits of a higher profile, on the long-term consequences of underpayment on the volume and quality of significant journalism.

But I want to drag another consideration into the foreground: If the publications aren't paying for the journalism they publish, who is? I mean, all labour incurs costs. Somewhere in our marvellous market system, those costs are being covered. Somebody's paying to feed Nate Thayer's kids, even if The Atlantic won't.

So we meet, once again, the insidious problem of hidden subsidy, one of the most perplexing ethical problems of journalism in the Internet age. True, undisclosed subsidy is a long-standing issue. It popped up in the op-ed pages of traditional newspapers. There, articles written by outsiders for little or no pay offered policy perspectives under the guise of expert analysis, when they actually were sponsored by clients and paymasters who were rarely identified (and often weren't even known).

The arrangement opens vast areas of potential corruption. But now, with the continuing failure of online advertising and subscription payments to replace declining offline revenues, publishers have quietly installed invisible subsidy as a routine, and unacknowledged, element of their operations.

Those writers who are being denied a fair wage for their work - who's paying their rent? Someone is. They're making money from somewhere. And it's that money that gives them the wherewithal to produce the journalism they're not being paid enough for.

So which of their stories are thank-yous to previous clients, or concessions to existing ones, or auditions for work they hope to get in the future? Those are questions about ethics, but, more important, they are acknowledgements of the reality these freelancers are trying to negotiate.

And they're questions that force onto centre stage a fundamental problem that won't be set right until the people who are being served - that's you - start paying for what they get. The readers and viewers who benefit from the news and commentary they devour need to pick up the tab, instead of letting themselves be beguiled by the fiction that such work is "free", or is magically proffered by invisible benefactors with no agendas of their own.

There are bills that have to be paid. The reality is, one way or another we end up paying. We can pay with money, and some outlets are inviting people to do just that. The alternative is to pay through a continuing decline in the quality and trustworthiness of the content we get. That's the invisible cost we're all bearing right now.

Andy the Hobo Travel Writer

Hobo Traveler at Machu Picchu

Andy, the Hobo Traveler, has been on the road for over 15 years, perhaps the longest of any living human being. I once watched his video as he walked down Khao San Road in Bangkok, and thought it was brilliant.

Andy Lee Graham, aka Hobo Traveler Bio

Andy's Hobo Traveler Blog Homepage

Andy Lee Graham from Orland, Indiana USA is Homeless

I have written over 7000 commentaries about the world on this page. You can learn the truth about the world by reading this page. I want to enjoy life, and everything that life offers. I plan on wandering slowly around the whole world, with no plan, on when, and where I will be. I will collect topics, ideas, experiences, and friends, that will teach me what is important to travelers.

Always taking the time to enjoy my adventure. I will not allow time, to rule, but will change the route, or go slower if necessary to enjoy my discoveries. I will make a "Hobo home on the internet" where all travelers, for free can find information about traveling anywhere in the world. Providing a forum for travelers to submit information.

There are many reasons why people travel and I encounter different types of travelers daily with a big world of differences. HoboTraveler.com and other Hobo sites is your home for travel. I invite you! This site is not for sale, it is for people to find some Hobo truth.

I am Andy Lee Graham from Orland, Indiana in the USA, I started traveling in March of 1998, and I live the good life, it a life of luxury, on a Hobo Budget. I have now traveled perpetually for the for 15 years and visited 90 countries. I am grateful to the good Gods for allow me this lifestyle, to live abroad and spend my days walking around looking at our beautiful planet.

I am not "Crazy," I am a World Citizen work Location Independent.

I am an endlessly curious person, and have the self-esteem to handle the world on the world's terms, I do not need a home, car, and daily routine to be happy. I can find reasonably priced places to live at lighting speed because of my travel skills, and live within my mean in any city on the planet.

Andy Lee Graham (Born October 25, 1955) is an American "Extreme Adventure Traveler," travel writer, and photographer. Graham is CEO of Dot-com company, location independent HoboTraveler.com Travel Network of 100 live abroad expatriate portals. Graham became a perpetual traveler in March, 1998, and has visited 90 countries.

How Andy Graham Started to Travel?

I, Andy Lee Graham became homeless after a six-week Christmas trip to Acapulco, Mexico. While lying in a hammock I realized I never wanted to go home. Confused and excited I returned to the USA, sold all my possessions and took off to visit new friends in other countries. Unknown to me, Andy Graham at the time, is that travel is an addiction, after six month I knew I was hooked and after two years, it was hopeless. 14 years later, I am still perpetually wandering the planet.

Current Activities

Graham travels the world 365 days per year "Chronicling the real world" with photos, videos and daily missives about his journey on his

Andy Lee Graham writes a Free Daily Travel Blog
http://www.hobotraveler.com/blogger.html

Andy writes free travel reports, stories, photos, videos, and travel tips for readers explaining the geopolitical and cultural differences of countries from the eyes of an Indiana Farm Boy. He funds his travel by revenue received from Google Adsense.

Andy Graham of HoboTraveler.com has Travel Blogged 7000 times, and written 211 Newsletters, and uploaded over 20,000 photos, and 600 plus videos to the Internet. Andy Graham of HoboTraveler.com is homeless, he has made a "Hobo Home on the Road," and he lives a "Life Less Normal," one of the few perpetual travelers on Planet Earth. Many people go live in other countries; however few earn enough money to continuously travel, he says, "if you stay in one city longer than three months, you live there, you have stopped traveling."

Frommer's Was Purchased by Google, Then Sold, Then Resold

Tnooz on the Frommer Sale back to Arthur

More discussions on the sale of Frommer's printed guidebooks back to Arthur himself, with comment input from some of the biggest players in the guidebook world.

The Frommers journey has come full circle, as the company’s original founder Arthur Frommer has re-taken the helm of the brand he created back in 1957.

With the Frommer’s Facebook page dormant since February, the brand sure could use a little reinvigoration. The powers-that-be at Google have pretty much brought the brand to full radio silence as they integrated all of the content they purchased into the Google+ Local product over the past few months.

A Google spokesperson sent over the following statement:

We’re focused on providing high-quality local information to help people quickly discover and share great places, like a nearby restaurant or the perfect vacation destination. That’s why we’ve spent the last several months integrating the travel content we acquired from Wiley into Google+ Local and our other Google services. We can confirm that we have returned the Frommer’s brand to its founder and are licensing certain travel content to him.

Now that the content has been integrated into the product, Google has sold the company back to its founder. The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but it’s very clear that Frommer intends to continue the print line of books moving forward.

Arthur Frommer told the Associated Press that he was looking forward to getting started again after selling the brand to Simon & Schuster in 1977. It’s a very happy time for me. We will be publishing the Frommer travel guides in ebook and print formats and will also be operating the travel site Frommers.com.

It appears that he did not purchase all assets, and that Google will continue to own certain content that will then be licensed back to Frommer’s. What content will be licensed to Frommer remains unclear.

Travel Guidebook Advice from The Economist

Guidebook Writer Guidelines

The Guidebook Conundrum via The Economist

More stuff on the travel guidebook crisis

LAST month, just days after the BBC announced the sale of Lonely Planet to a wealthy American investor for an £80m ($121m) loss, Google quietly signed the death sentence for the print publication of Frommer's guidebooks. The remaining portion of the brand will be digested into the corners of the Google network, and the once-famous guidebook series will soon cease to exist.

In an era of pop-up restaurants and 140-character updates, guidebook publishing has suffered hugely. Both business and casual travellers do ever more of their trip research online, where sites like Tripadvisor and Wikivoyage can provide free data quickly and precisely. The resulting decrease in book-buying has been disastrous for the publishers. Frommer's US sales dropped from $34m to $18m between 2006 and 2012. Lonely Planet's dropped from $25m to $18m over the same period. Combine those sales figures with the high costs of research and the guidebook-publishing industry's demise looks certain.


Yet there remains some demand for expert travel advice from non-digital sources. Many travellers, particularly those lacking expensive international mobile data plans or access to an internet connection, still rely on physical guidebooks to research and navigate a destination. For example, Chris McGinnis, the editor of the Bay Area Traveler Blog, says he still takes portions of guidebooks with him when visiting a new destination. “Most busy business travellers just want the facts, fast,” he explains. “They don’t always have time to pick through the get-what-you-pay-for free or user-generated sites. Ripping a few pertinent pages out of an edited, fact-checked guidebook and packing them into my carry-on bag still serves me well. But I'm slowly replacing those ripped-up guidebooks with digital versions stored on my iPad.”

The value provided by a well-researched guidebook is precisely why their buyers are willing to pay the extra few dollars for curated content. “Accurate, quality content and information is always in demand,” Daniel Houghton, the new COO of Lonely Planet, told Gulliver. As part of the editorial process, guidebook writers take special measures to review a hotel or restaurant in objective terms. Reviews from sites like Tripadvisor or Yelp, conversely, can be influenced by a host of external factors.

To be successful in the future, guidebooks will need to manage the tricky balance between the content they provide for nothing online and the material they supply in book form, while making both separately profitable. Lonely Planet puts the majority of its content in its physical guidebooks or downloadable products, while hosting a spectrum of digital articles and a community online. Frommer’s, conversely, put the entirety of its guidebook content on the web for nothing; but the growth in its online revenues did not keep pace with the decline in book sales.

Jason Clampet, online editor at Frommer's prior to its sale to Google, explained, “Guidebook companies know that growth will come from digital, but they're all legacy print operations paralysed by fiefdoms and an older skill set. In the same way that we see lots of digital start-ups fall flat on their faces when they try content, old-school content companies just bumble when it comes to digital.” Until there’s a better way for travellers to use guidebook data on their devices, many will continue to shop at their local bookstore for a physical guidebook. But as data plans improve and digital devices evolve, the guidebook publishers will need to adapt to survive.