Traveling the world. Two hundred years ago this was an option only for the very wealthy. Besides this tiny percent of the population, there were also groups of people willing to give up everything to take a chance at a better life in a different country. If one knew how to read, there were books, newspapers, and scholarly articles that presented the author’s (usually biased) descriptions of cultures, people, and places. There might even be a drawing or two, paintings, or (a few years later) some photographs.
Now there are so many ways to travel. One can literally be an expert on a place thousands of miles away without ever setting foot out of their own house. There are tens of thousands of travel books, thousands of travel blogs, millions of photographs, TV programs, documentaries, etc.
With that being said, I think there is no better tool for learning than physically traveling to a place, getting to know a few of the local residents, and eating / traveling as much like a local as possible. When I start investigating a potential place to visit, I generally start with a simple Google search. Often this will land me a few potential travel blogs to check out. After that, my two go-to tools are Trip Adviser and Instagram. I know trip adviser is full of ads and photographs can be cropped and manipulated to twist the truth, but if you read enough reviews and search enough pictures you can build your own world view of what you are studying.
If you’d like to read a little about places I’ve been, look at the categories on the right hand side of this page and choose “Travel” or one of the more specific places listed there to see my posts.
I have copied a few interesting travel blogs below, many focused on Asia and the Philippines, but others from around the world. Keep in mind that blogs and bloggers come and go and while they might have been active a year ago, who knows about now…
This first site is one by a journalist I met in Manila, Gillian Gaucumo.
The second one is great SE Asian travel guide that I really enjoy reading, The Poor Traveler.
Who doesn’t like to eat and travel? –> Dish Our Town
Travel site for the Philippines I’ve followed for a long time on Instagram –> Pinoy Travel Freak
Here’s an interesting option for hiking tours around the globe, I had a great hiking holiday in Italy with them. –> Holiday Fellowship
Great website, great stories, told well –> Explore Inspired
Pretty complete Philippines travel site –> Traveling Morion
Here’s a gay couple’s travel blog. It’s quite popular and called Nomadic Boys: two greedy boys exploring the world.
Here are the countries I’ve visited… Looking at it like this makes me think I have a lot more exploring to do…