WAIW? on the Tranquilo Traveler

Joshua Berman is the Tranquilo Traveler. He’s taken a honeymoon around the world, written award winning guidebooks, and is the champion of Volun-tourism. His Moon Handbook on Nicaragua was one of the best guidebooks I’ve ever used – readable, useful, and not full of clichés.

Yesterday he profiled WAIW?:

The Where Am I Wearing? blog will document Kelsey’s globe trot in a bold, individual attempt to connect producer with consumer. I think this trip has a lot of potential and look forward to keeping an eye on it.

Thanks, Josh.

If you are a traveler, a writer, or a mix of both, you should check out Josh’s Tranquilo Traveler blog. Josh is a hard working, hard traveling writer. I’ve enjoyed following his adventures. You would…

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Menage a…OUCH!

Today, I was double-teamed by two nurses. One of them gave me typhoid and the other Hepatitis B.

Crazy Nurse

No, no, not like that. They gave me shots. You perve you.

I don’t mind getting shots, but this was kind of intimidating. They had me stand in the middle and then simultaneously gave the injections in each sholder. I don’t like to watch, and usually turn away until the deed is done. But this time, every way I looked there was a nurse giving me a shot.

The whole thing was actually sort of insulting. As if they thought, after receiving the first shot, I would break out into a quivering ball of snot and tears, and run out of their…

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Love and Travel

I’m getting married in September. I just bought a house in Muncie, Indiana.

These are two events that usually don’t coincide in the same year with leaving the country for 3 months. So, if you are one of those people who are thinking, “Whelp, it looks like his travel writing days are numbered.” I can kind of understand. But on the other hand…

SCREW YOU!

I’m getting sick of this type of thinking. Annie, my fiancé, doesn’t get it either, “Why do they think you’re going to stop writing and traveling?”

See, what many people don’t understand is that Annie and I have dated for 10 years (we’re high school sweethearts). One of her many assets is that she’s cool with me doing my thing and she actually…

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The Chinese Chopstick Tax

The forests in China are vanishing at an alarming rate so a 5% tax was enacted to encourage the use of non-disposable chopsticks. China uses about 45 billion disposable chopsticks/year, which equals about 70 million cubic feet of timber/year. Read the full story HERE.

Many of the disposed of chopstick were used to make This SCULPTURE.

I love trees. I also love utensils. I fear that similar utensil’s taxes will spread across the globe. Pretty soon, even the most beloved of our disposable utensils may be in jeopardy of being taxed. What then? Will we be forced to eat fast food with our hands?…

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On the Written Road

The Written Road is a blog started by travel maven/mogul-in-the-making Jen Leo. The blog focuses on travel writing and features useful tips and market leads.

Jen still has the occasional posts but most of the daily heavy lifting is left to Abha and Nicholas. They manage to carry on the quality writing about writing about traveling. Any aspiring travel writers would be well served to check in on the site now and again. Plus, Nicholas is from Ohio, which, as you may know, is a hotbed for emerging travel writers. Ohio: It’s a great place to leave!

I’ve followed the Written Road blog for the past 3 years. It’s helped clear the muddy waters of exactly how one might make it as a…

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Live from Bangladesh…It's ME!

Not really. Not yet.

I talked with the producer of the World Vision Report radio program today. It looks like I’ll be filing two reports during the trip.

One before I leave Bangladesh for Cambodia in which I’ll introduce my idea and talk about the Bangladeshi factory that I visit.

And the other once I’m home, which will cover my experiences in Cambodia, China, and a summation of the adventure as a whole.

Of course all of this is subject to change. Will the experience at the Bangladeshi factory be the same as the experience at the Cambodian? If so, that’s one story not two. I expect they will be much different (other than the fact everyone I meet will think I’ve lost it when I tell them…

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MeTube

One of my pre-trip goals is to have the know-how to create audio-slideshows. Mission accomplished!

Windows XP comes with a nifty program called Windows Movie Maker that makes the entire process really easy. The audio is from an old podcast that many of you have heard already recorded using Audacity. I expect the quality of future recordings to be better because I have had more practice reading for the radio and I purchased a nice mic and minidisk recorder.

For the record, I find this recording to be a bit corny. My fiance does to. She really thought the “Kill it! Kill it!” portion of the adventure could use some work. I think I sound like a stoned Mr. Rogers.

I’m…

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Where I'm writing to

As years go, 2007 is shaping up to be a big one for me personally and professionally.

Personally

* I’m getting married. Does it get any bigger than that? Mark your calendars for 09/08/07 (It’s like a countdown, but a countdown to what. Blast off? Hugs? The Bomb? Self-Destruct? My doing the coffee grinder in the middle of a circle of adoring wedding goers chanting, “Go Kelsey, it’s your wedding. Go Kelsey, it’s your wedding.”?)

* Annie, my wife-to-be, and I just bought a house (more on that in future posts). Yeah, so I’m growing up, but that doesn’t mean the travel writing gig goes.

Professionally

* This blog sponsored by BootsnAll about my travels to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, and other places in between.

* I hope…

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Writing: Where I'm coming from

’06 was a good year all around. My writing continued to snowball towards bigger and better markets. Overall, not too shabby even though I only left the country once for less than a week.

In March at the Erma Bombeck conference in Dayton I made the contact that would eventually lead to my being published in the Christian Science Monitor. The great thing about having been published in the CSM is that everybody has heard of it. Now when I send a query letter to an editor it doesn’t look like I’m making up publications. The Key West City Paper, the Daily Advocate, The Hub, yeah – no one had ever heard of ’em.

The CSM experience also led to a staff writing position at Glucose that lasted 3 months until…

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Fantasy Kingdom

Fantasy KingdomMy whole “Where am I wearing?” idea stems from the disparity between Us and Them. What’s really strange is when you find out that all of the Them’s are not so different than all of us Us’s.

Over half of Bangladesh’s 130 million people live in poverty. But that didn’t stop the Them’s that aren’t so different than us Us’s from spending $65 million to build the amusement park Fantasy Kingdom. It has all of the things we We’s, and you know who you We’s are, love about amusement parks – greasy food, semi-maintained roller coasters manned by people who really don’t give a crap. And the entrance fee is only $3!

I’m so there.

If this sounds like an experience in which…

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