Celebrate Cultural Connections: Women Preserving their Heritage

Photos: Jann Segal

I observe when I travel. It is part of my sightseeing experience, but more often part of my post –trip reflections. I have felt the tears of history in Vietnam; observed how clotheslines can reflect how an entire society lives all over the world, and very particularly in India; and beyond doubt, how women preserve their culture and heritage worldwide. I am sure that men participate somehow along the line, but it seems that the role of women is more prominent. Performing small acts or rituals to preserve cultural heritage is truly something to celebrate no matter the culture. For an understanding of different cultures makes us richer. Many countries have women’s cooperatives where this activity is nourished, and the women are afforded a livelihood as well.  As it turns out, the countries where I have observed this most prominently were countries I also wanted to return. In two cases, these were countries I visited on an independent trip and later returned with Overseas Adventure Travels. In the case of India, I took an OAT trip there to two separate regions, but also included independent travel.  In all cases, the way the women preserved their heritage was unmistakable.

Visit Southern India’s Temples and Behold the Excellency of Life in Tamil Nadu

Photos: Jann Segal

I recently took a tour of Southern India, and one of  the highlights was seeing the magnificent temples. India is known for them, and while the southern Indian temples look alike on the outside with a large base that gets steeper as the temple reaches skyward, the experience inside the temples could not have been more unique. I traveled alone for some of the trip, and the rest was the Overseas Adventure Travels trip, Soul of India. And this trip truly feeds your soul.

Visit India during Festival Season

I was fortunate enough to visit Southern India during their festival season in January of this year. I took the trip with Overseas Adventure Travel, but added two additional weeks in India by myself. I had no idea this would allow me even more festival time to enjoy when I planned the trip, but it turned out to be wonderful.

The group was in the state of Tamil Nadu during their their annual Pongal festival, which is a harvest festival. The festival is timed each year around the lunar calendar. On the f first day of the festival, the people burn belongings that they no longer need and cant give to charity. So the air is filled with quite a bit of smoke the first day. The people get up as early as four in the mooring to begin this ritual, and smoke cans be seen throughout the entire day.

Photos: Jann Segal

The second day of the festival, the people present a bowl of the Pongal (rice and milk blended together what other ingredients as well if desired) to the sun god in an earthen pot and place it outside their homes as an offering. They also create large and colorful designs outside their homes with lime powder known as Kollams. The colorful designs remain throughout the duration of the four days and typically until a rain washes them away afterwards. They are one of the foremost symbols of the Pongal festival, and for travelers, they are photographic delight of color.

Explore Clotheslines in Southern India

Photos: Jann Segal

I am always fascinated by clotheslines when I travel .So intrigued in fact, that I wrote an article called Clotheslines, and as I perused my photos for trips I have taken around the world, I identified all the different types of clotheslines I had observed, and what they were used for.

Visit India’s Karela Backwaters for a Look at Rural Life

I was on the Overseas Adventure Travels trip to southern India called Soul of India in January this year. One of the highlights of this newly revised tip was spending two nights on a houseboat on the backwaters of the Southern state of Karela. And to use an Indian parlance that I noticed on my trip, where something can be “like X, but not X," I noticed the backwaters ware like the Amazon, but not like the Amazon.  We left the spice plantation where we stayed in Thekkady near Perriyar National Park, drove through the verdant tea and rubber plantations, and arrived at our houseboat in Alleppey after first stopping to see the “loo with a view.”

Visit Southern India for a Multitude of Blessings

Photo: Jann Segal

I was in Southern India with Overseas Adventure Travels for two weeks this year, and added an additional two weeks on my own afterwards. Their Southern India trip, Soul of India, is rich with the culture and natural beauty that typifies soulful southern India. It was truly inspiring to be in a country with such religious and ethnic diversity. And even during troubled times, their diversity and religious freedom is part of their law, embedded in their constitution. So while Hinduism is a dominant religion there, so is Buddhism, Jainism, Sikkim, and Christianity, Judaism had seedlings there as well, with many in the large Jewish population playing an important part in the spice and tea trades of the South before the people moved on as part of their own diaspora. Aside from the religious diversity, the Indian people there speak over 137 languages, and have over 3,000 casts and sub-casts!

Visit Iceland in the Fall and Enjoy Northern Lights and John Lennon Peace Tower

Iceland in the fall has some great things to see that cannot be seen in the summer, all having to do with lights. To two that you want to take in are the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and the John Lennon Peace Tower. I was on the Overseas Adventure Travel trip, Untamed Iceland, in October 2016. In addition to seeing the fall colors, these two “light shows” were high on my Iceland to-do list. I did not return home disappointed.

Explore Iceland: High winds and empty spaces

Iceland is a vast amount of small land. That is right.  Vast in its smallness, a land of contradictions. A land where people live in harmony, but not necessarily near any neighbors. It is rich in the soil from the volcanoes, yet also rich in empty and barren land. There are dark and murky waters and streams with lava flows near enormous lava fields which are overlooked by abundant rainbows. This land, rich in large and empty spaces, was the first to develop the small and traditional turf houses. Today, there are still numerous tiny houses everywhere.  This is the land of fire. And the land of ice. A land of contradictions.

Clotheslines: An open window to the soul of a people

Photo: Dan King

Clotheslines are a window into the soul of other people’s lives. From a seemingly small part of life, you can observe the daily ins and outs of the culture, the things you don’t get to see as a tourist. This is part of why we travel. Not just to see the sights, hear the sounds, and taste the wonderful food. We also travel to gain some insight into how the locals live, maybe even get to meet the people. Taking a look at the clotheslines outside of someone’s home is a perfect way to gain this understanding. And many tours give you the opportunity to see that, thus allowing us to understand the social and economic conditions of a country and the people who live there. But if they don’t, pay attention to the sights you see along the way. Even an unwitting tour guide will pass a local community on the way to a major sight. Some of the places that have given me this particular vantage point I took with Grand Circle Travel (www.gct.com ) or Overseas Adventure Travel (www.oattravel.com ). And of course, many I have taken independently.

Exploring South Africa, Malaria Free

I was greatly disappointed to learn during some of my recent adventurous travels, that I get severe reactions to all the various anti-malarial drugs.  For this reason, I felt that I would never be able to go on an African safari. Of course I consulted my physician, but I also did a significant amount of research. In the end, I took a magnificent trip to South Africa with Grand Circle Travels (www.gct.com) on their Highlights of South Africa trip. I traveled from May 12 to June 11 2016.  I ended up taking a wonderful cultural tour that hit all the high notes of South Africa, and also had 12 safari days out of 30, and not one mosquito bite! 

A Walk in the Park in South Africa

One thing I had not planned on was taking so many great hikes and nature walks in South Africa. I went on the Grand Circle Highlights of South Africa trip, which I took in conjunction with Outlook Safaris Classic Safari trip. This was exactly the combination of trips I wanted to take in South Africa, since I wanted to enjoy both the nature and culture. This trip had it all! South Africa is a land of true unrivaled beauty with a variety of vast and stunning scenery. Being able to hike amongst it was a real treasure that provided some unforgettable experiences.  I traveled from May 12 to June 11, 2016.  I purchased my own pre-trip from Outlook Safaris (http://www.outlook.co.za/)  and the South Africa base trip and post trip to Victoria Falls from Grand Circle (www.gct.com) .

The Smart Traveler: When Things Don't go as Planned

Things do not always go as planned on a trip. You can travel with as much planning and care as your mother would approve of, and still the unexpected happens. Travel surprises can occur on every trip, but the smart and experienced traveler can always find a solution, and return home that much more a savvy traveler.

Visit Vietnam and Feel the Tears of History

There is no denying that travelers can feel the tug of history when they travel. I have unknowingly felt it several times, only to realize later what it was. In Munch, Germany in 1973, I felt intimidated for some unknown reason. As it turned out, I was on a street where Hitler had given a famous speech, and where many buildings stood that were part of the Third Reich. In 1994, I stood on the pier in Famagusta, Cyprus and took my time amid the fact that I was holding up my taxi and others I was traveling with. I lingered for some unknown reason. I learned only when I got home, that was the dock where the ship The Exodus was turned back and all on board faced certain death. In Cove, Ireland in 2010, I stood where many immigrant ships departed including the Titanic, and tears streamed down my cheeks. This became all the more personal for me, when I later realized my paternal grandmother likely left from those very docks since she had attained an Irish surname, quite a departure for a Russian refugee. I thought all my grandparents had departed for the New World from Russia via Liverpool, but she was the only one I could not locate on Ancestry.com. My ancestry had located me.

Visit Bosnia and see Vestiges of the Bosnian War

Bosnia and Herzegovina, or just Bosnia for short, is a fascinating tourist destination, newly emerging as a country to visit after years of war. Signs of the war from the 1990's are everywhere, with bullet holes remaining in many of the buildings in Bosnia’s largest city of Sarajevo, as well as other cities where the war took its toll. The airport area became a place of refuge as people tried to flee, so the closer the tourist gets to the airport in Sarajevo, the less the ravages of war. Tunnels remain for tourists to see where the local people tried to transport goods to safety while they tried to live normally during the Bosnian war.

The Smart Traveler: Travel Insurance

Travel Insurance is a necessary evil, especially as you get older, or have less people in your life who can help you in the event of an emergency. If you plan a long trip with a complicated itinerary or travel on an organized tour, there is plenty that can go wrong that could cost you money. So the question is not really whether or not you should purchase the insurance. It is how to best maximize that purchase so you will get a return on your money. If you travel often enough, and if you are smart in the way you make your purchase, travel insurance can actually pay for itself.

Travel Strategically During Troubled Times

When times are difficult and world events make you wonder if things have really come to an end, you may also be wondering where it’s safe to travel next. There is no stock answer of course; it all depends on where the crises are in the world, and type of crisis it is. Three primary types of crises come to mind: an economic or financial crisis; a health crisis, and a geopolitical crisis.

An economic or financial crisis

Photos by Jann Segal

An economic or financial crisis, such as the Great Recession of 2008 which some are still feeling, can put a damper on your travel plans. This may also include unemployment or the fear of unemployment. There is however, no need to stop travelling. Inexpensive countries, less expensive accommodations such as guest houses, inns and hostels, or even camping are all options. If you are used to taking the high road in your travels, taking that different path may open you up to experiences you may have never encountered otherwise. For inexpensive destinations consider Central America, South America, and parts of Asia. Less expensive accommodations and even camp sites are available everywhere. And it truly creates local color. Staying in the US can be a more expensive option, but if you do local camping to state of national parks, it can cut back on travel dollars.

A health crisis

Health crises may cause you to say home and completely avoid airports until it is over or at least contained. But if the wanderlust is still veering you overseas, try to avoid routing through countries where there is the greatest problem. It is international travel that helps spread illness of any kind. Travel with good hand sanitizers and avoid budget accommodations. Spend a little more to be in clean and safe accommodations. Consider it a form of insurance. If you have never stayed in more upscale European hotels for instance, it can be an eye opener and a completely different experience.

A geopolitical crisis

In a geopolitical crisis, you have no choice in terms of what to avoid. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, attendance at places like Mount Rushmore was up at least 15% from past years. People avoid other trouble spots like the Middle East, but that does not mean the entire Middle East. If Israel is having problems go to Egypt or Jordan, and visa versa. Many second and third world countries have problems, but once the problems have been taken care of, a new country is open for your travel business at great prices. Columbia, El Salvador and several others in the Americas are shining examples of this. A geopolitical crisis is also an excellent opportunity to see more of the United States. Many people strive to see all 50 states. If you have that desire, a crisis like this is a perfect time to do so. National Parks and Presidential Libraries are perfect destinations.

Whatever events unfold and however you decide to handle them, remember to travel strategically and watch the national and world news. The BBC is excellent for world travelers and really keeps you up to date. Follow world events on the internet as well. Wherever you go in your travels, stay safe and healthy.

Visit North Dakota: Its Not Just Used for Storage!

Nobody thinks there is much to see in North Dakota. In fact, many people who have only seen 49 of the 50 states, have done so because they missed seeing North Dakota when they had the chance on a South Dakota vacation. So if you plan to go to South Dakota anyway, fly into Bismarck, North Dakota first and stay at the Rough Riders Hotel in nearly Medora, about two hours away by car. From there it is just steps to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Visit Vietnam's Rice Paper Village

On a recent trip to Vietnam with Overseas Adventure Travel, this author was exposed to one of the most unique and extraordinary villages in the world, whose sole function is to produce rice paper. This village is one of the largest in the country for the creation and distribution of rice paper and rice noodles. The side trip to Tho Ha is an optional excursion during the Inside Vietnam trip, and is part of OAT's enhanced itineraries. The village is worth a visit for its uniqueness and glimpse into rural life, since it is like no other a traveler will experience anywhere else in the world. The buildings in the village itself are also unique, with some going back as far as the late 1800's.

Visit Three Asian Markets

Photos by Jann Segal

Visiting markets in foreign countries can be a real awakening as to how the locals live. Many open air and floating markets are fascinating and exist around the world. Some of the most fascinating can be found in developing countries, but there are certainly no limits. Here are three you might went to check out in your travels to Asia.

Visit Pier 39 in San Francisco and See the Sea Lions

Photo by Jann Segal

San Francisco is a delight to visit any time of year. It is especially nice however, when the weather is bright and sunny, and the many sights are available to enjoy. One such sight is Pier 39  on Fisherman’s’ Wharf, where the seals can be found all day long.