It is fady to kill a lemur. The punishment is ill health, and five years in jail. Madagascar, the planet’s fourth-largest island, floats 250 miles off the east coast of Mozambique in the southwest Indian Ocean. The Afro-Indonesian people govern their lives with a series of social taboos, or fadies. And a long-time fady, rooted … Continued
It’s what you’ve all been waiting for: the day we find out which talented writers are the winners of the most recent WSGT Gratitude Travel Writing Contest! This is the last of WSGT’s contests as in their place, we are welcoming in the brand-new Independence Travel Writing Award. With $1000 in cash prizes to be won, this is an opportunity you … Continued
WSGT recently launched its new Independence Travel Writing Award with $1000USD in prizes and two new judges. Contestants are telling their stories of finding independence both abroad and close to home; share your own to win! After so many inspiring entries in our final Gratitude Travel Writing Contest, our judges Richard and Annelise have narrowed it down to the top ten … Continued
Some years ago I put together a book, Paths Less Traveled, for which I dispatched well-known authors to adventure destinations and asked them to write of their experience. Tom Robbins reported from Tanzania; Bobbie Ann Mason from New Zealand; Edward Hoagland from Yemen; Roy Blount, Jr. from the Amazon, and on. For the Galapagos I … Continued
It feels like we’re driving to the edge of the world where the water falls off. Infinity is just ahead. To the right are mountains that arc up from the basement of time. On the left, a dry lakebed now glassed with salt. This is the driest state in the country, not so surprising, … Continued
By Richard Bangs The covering has the disconcerting effect of obnubilating as well as illuminating the woman behind it. Local tourists overlooking Al Ragasat Canyon. #SaudiArabia A photo posted by Richard Bangs (@richardjbangs) on Mar 21, 2016 at 12:21pm PDT Shrouded in black niqab and ankle-length abaya, she floats towards me. Behind, her friends are … Continued
By Richard Bangs In the early days of Expedia.com, our business strategy was based on the agency model; taking a small commission on every hotel booking. Problem was, it usually cost more to process a booking than the commission brought in, so what we lost in margin we made up for in volume. Then a … Continued
Puerto Rico is a portmanteaux of geographic personalities, an overstuffed valise of seductive charismas and tropic endowments. If geography is destiny, then Puerto Rico atones for the ill-tempers of other parts of the world, and instead is blessed with an island-wide jocund, incited, in part, by its natural features…its mountains, forests, beaches, rivers, lakes, cliffs, … Continued
By Richard Bangs There is no place on the planet with such a nimiety of magic. Every stage, every song, every bite and brew, every light is so sufficiently perfected as to be indistinguishable from sorcery. So, what goes on behind the curtains here? How do they do it? I decided to find out, and … Continued
“Placed on this planet since yesterday, and only for a day, we can only hope to glimpse the knowledge that we will probably never attain.” -Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, 1796 Dateline: Mount Pilates, Switzerland I’ve penned a few books that have been placed in the category of “wilderness travel.” But perhaps the first to stock this … Continued