Probably the biggest regret that I have about my travels this year is that I didn't have the time or money to go to South America. At the time I bought my plane tickets, I decided to skip that continent because I have plenty of frequent flier miles on American Airlines and can go any time I want.
Today the Wonderlust and Lipstick blog was brought to my attention. It's a site written by a woman who has traveled extensively and now writes travel books and is the definitive authority on how to travel solo for women. I wish I knew about this site before leaving for my trip and I really wish I read her book on India before going. But that's beside the point.
Currently, there's a contest on her site and the winner gets a trip to South America visiting the Amazon and traveling down the Inca Trail. How cool would it be to win that? All I have to do is write a travel story and submit it by 1/31/09. Even better is that the judges are all travel writers and editors and I'd so love to get their feedback on some of my writing!
So, what's your favorite entry that I posted on my trip? What place would you like me to write more about? And what posts should I just plain avoid for this contest? Please, I really need to know what stories you liked the most because I can't be objective. HELP ME!
And for those of you who didn't follow the trip, just check the blog archives starting back in July.
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4 comments:
Hi Susie,
I've been working on a database project so haven't looked at your blog in a couple of weeks. I did read your post about all you got done (Christmas cards, laundry, etc.) and that made me remember how quickly and competently you do every task you take on ...most amazing.
My vote for interesting stories would be about your time in India..from the time you met up with the travel agent who recommended a tour with your driver, all the way through to your leaving India. I think that would have strong appeal to a large travel-focused audience because not many travelers actually make it to India, especially as a woman travelling solo. If they do get to India, they tend to cluster in places like Kerala or the fancier hotels.
Depending on length, you could include your stories about Nepal, especially your story about your encounter with the protesters, and your story about your bicycle safari...the tracks of the buffalo or whatever common herd animal that was.
Your stories about Thailand and Africa were well written and appealing, but the experiences weren't particularly out of the ordinary for backpackers on "the route". I found those stories particularly fascinating because your cultural sensitivity and compassion really shined through in a way that surprised me...not that I wouldn't expect you would be sensitive, just that I didn't expect you would write about those experiences of empathy and determination to be culturally "appropriate".
My vote is for stories of India and possibly Nepal. And if you write them up as two stories, and they don't win, you can submit them to Outside mag, National Geographic Traveler, Men's Health, and maybe even Oprah magazine... for Oprah you could have an angle of what laid off IT workers can do to broaden their cultural horizons. Ok..ok...maybe not Oprah. But the publicity for your new career as a travel writer. So maybe you could submit a sample to Lonely Planet and become one of their writers!
Well, I'm back to my database work. It's a good distraction from world news. After the crunch is over (in about 2 weeks), I'd like to come to Santa Cruz and see you!
Grateful to be out of the Bangkok airport and home for the holidays...
Beth
India's out because the women whose blog is sponsoring this contest wrote an entire book on women traveling solo in India. Since I haven't read the book (and wish I had), I don't want to inadvertently say something that she already has. Nepal's good though. Maybe the trek with Prem.
I'll go back re-read you entries and come up with some that I liked the best because I enjoyed them all.
I really liked this post:
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Don't expect much for a few days
Your guide taking you on a tour on a bike is fun...especially since he really didn't know what he was doing.
I loved details like this:
"He also kept holding branches out of my way but would let go to early and I'd get smacked right in the face."
and this:
"He declared them to be rhino tracks. I asked him if he was sure, because they kind of looked like buffalo tracks to me. He was certain and said that he's the expert. "OK", I said. "But look -- the tracks go straight to the herd of buffalo around the corner."
Great stuff!
Good luck!
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