You know the game where you take a globe, usually one that is dusty and rusty and welded to the far corner of your bookshelf, and you give it a good hard spin, close your eyes and plunge your finger down to stop the rotation. When you open your eyes you've most likely landed on some vacant part of the Atlantic Ocean, but occasionally your finger picks a point that makes your lips instinctively curl and your heart flutter at the excitement of going to such a place as Finland, Tasmania or even Kansas. Have you ever been to Kansas?
The title for this site comes from the third chapter of Paul Bowles novel The Sheltering Sky. Reading this book gave a perpetual itch to the bottom of my feet, one that has kept me moving and traveling ever since. If every guide book, brochure and travel website read like Bowles' description of the North African desert then the travel industry would certainly be a more lush, heart-breaking and wide open sort of place. The reason why I travel is to see, taste, touch, smell, hear and absorb the real things that are in books, the real images in magazines and the real dreams that are in my head.
I'll admit that it's hard to get excited about going on a trip when your imagination and longing cannot get past the enormous road blocks known as packing, pricing, airports, documentation, vaccinations, and an overall lack of customer service. But through this site I hope to not only give advice starting with picking a location, buying tickets, choosing the best luggage, walking shoes, deodorant and accommodations, but I hope to restart the childhood ambition that we all had when it came to exploring distant lands. A good trip should be more informative than school, more thrilling than love and frightening to the point of being completely exhilarating.
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