Where the antelope play, Black Hills, South Dakota

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Workers during an excavation in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt

The Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from the current city of Luxor, is the known resting place for most of the rulers of Egypt. Many of the famous tombs such as that of King Tutankhamen were found here. There are still a few pharaohs who’s tombs have never been found.

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Kids playing in the front yard in a floating village, Tonle Sap, Cambodia

Tonle Sap is a large lake in the middle of Cambodia which is actually a part of the Mekong River. When the river rises each year Tonle Sap dramatically increases in size, with water levels rising over 10m. There are several floating villages in Tonle Sap that move with the seasonal changes in the lake. These kids are playing on the closest thing they have to a front yard.

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A few days ago sent out a link to a post I made two years ago during my visit to Taiwan. Someone left the following comment (two years after the fact mind you).

So you only stayed in Taipei? You didn’t visit anywhere else here? I’ve been in Taiwan for five years and have been to Taipei probably less than a dozen times. You have no idea what you missed. There’s seems to be little point in travelling if you’re only going to hop from big city to big city.

I was going to write an email to respond to him, but I figure why write an email when I can make a blog post about it?

Putting aside for a moment the fact that this guy managed to extrapolate almost three years of my life from my visit to a single location and clearly didn’t bother to read about any of the other places I’ve been. What struck me about the comment is:

1. The implication that he was doing it right.
2. The implication that I was doing it wrong.
3. That he felt it was important enough to tell me that he was doing it right and I was doing it wrong

I’ve noticed this same attitude pop up in other articles, most recently in a Boots N All article about how flashpacking (a term I loathe) is hurting backpacking. There was also a user on Twitter who felt the need to tell everyone else going on a cruise, not only how unethical they were for going on a cruise, but also how ethical she was for not going on cruises. I could only roll my eyeballs.

I would like to go on record to say that I do not give a rats ass how anyone else travels. I really don’t. I don’t care if you like to go on cruises, I don’t care if you like to visit spas, I don’t care if you like to drive around in an RV. None of those are really my cup of tea, but I don’t care if you do it.

Likewise, I’d ask you extend a similar courtesy to others. Just because someone doesn’t travel the way you like doesn’t mean you have to tell them. It is extremely tacky behavior. Just because something isn’t your cup of tea doesn’t mean you have to go on a jihad.

There is no wrong way to travel. Do I think you might get more out of a visit to a country if you left the Hyatt? Yes I do, but at least you are visiting. Do I think you might enjoy a trip more if it wasn’t a packaged tour? Sure, but any tour is better than no tour.

The following video clip succinctly summarizes my views on the matter:

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I spoke with Rei Strand (@FairmontNewport), the marketing director at the Newport Beach Fairmont about passing along some of the love to my readers and she agreed. The offer is good for 15% off of quoted room rates.

If you are in the Newport Beach area (it is very close to the John Wayne Airport in Orange County) you can either:

• Register online at www.fairmont.com/newportbeach and use the coupon code 2U8GAR.
• Call 800-441-1414 and ask for the “Gary Rocks” offer.

There is no ending date on this promotion, so it should be good whenever you are in Orange County.

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Inside Carlsbad Caverns

• With today’s daily photo, I have now caught up with my most recent World Heritage site. Carlsbad Caverns was my 106th World Heritage site and it only took 35 days to go from Italy to New Mexico. You can view the complete list of all 106 World Heritage sites I’ve visited with links to all the daily photos corresponding to each location. I hope to do a day trip to the Everglades on Friday and visit three more on the way back to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mammoth Cave, and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois.
• The cruise I’ll be going on next week is sponsored by Princess Cruise Lines. They are picking up the whole tab, so if you think I’ve become a shill for the cruise industry, now you know why. This will not only be the first cruise I’ve ever been on, but the first time I’ve ever been on a press trip. Given how I travel, cruising never really appealed to me. If I had to spend my own money, it probably isn’t something I would do on my own. Getting eight hours to visit a port is like having an extended layover in an airport. Nonetheless, I am not anti cruising and am open minded enough to give it a try. I’ll try to do a few updates while on board the ship and will be using Twitter during the cruise. You can follow all the Tweets from the cruise at #followmeatsea.
• 

  Claire at the Botanical Garden

  I’ve been staying with my friend Amy in Fort Worth. She has two kids, 3 years and 14 months old. It has been very different being around little kids. Her daughter Claire is adorable and is at that age where she is speaking complete sentences, but still learning how the world works. Luke is walking but not yet talking. He interacts with people by picking stuff up and giving it to them. On Sunday I went with Amy and the kids to the Fort Worth botanical gardens and yesterday we took the kids and her husband James to the Fort Worth Stockyards.
  It has been a nice break from sitting in a car all day.
• I’ve also had a great time hanging out with my friend, cartoonist Scott Kurtz. Even though a travel blog has nothing to do with drawing a cartoon, there is a lot that I’ve learned from Scott over the years that I’ve incorporated into my blog . Scott normally does a live stream of him drawing his strip every day, and on Monday we took calls from his fans on Skype while he was drawing. We had calls from Germany, Poland, UK, Canada and the US. I think it is important to have friends that are totally outside of what you do, lest you never get a perspective from the outside of the bubble you live in.
• The winners of the Lonely Planet book, Extreme Cuisine are Bev F, Bob, Jessie, Chaiaket, and Steph. You will be contacted by email.

If you are in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area and would like to meet during my brief stay on either end of the cruise, contact me and we can try to arrange it.

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World Heritage Site #106: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

From the World Heritage inscription:

The more than 100 limestone caves within Carlsbad Caverns National Park are outstanding and notable world-wide because of their size, mode of origin, and the abundance, diversity and beauty of the speleothems (decorative rock formations) within. On-going geologic processes continue to form rare and unique speleothems, particularly in Lechuguilla Cave. Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla Cave are well known for their great natural beauty, exceptional geologic features, and unique reef and rock formations. The Permian-aged Capitan Reef complex (in which Carlsbad Caverns, Lechuguilla and other caves formed) is one of the best preserved and most accessible complexes available for scientific study in the world.

Carlsbad is one of several World Heritage caves which I’ve visited. I love visiting caves and Carlsbad is one of the best. Unlike my other caves I’ve visited, I was allowed to take my tripod into the cave, so the photos are much better than I’ve taken in other sites. I’d like to return to Carlsbad someday and explore Lechugilla, but it isn’t open to the public. Carlsbad Caverns National Park also borders Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.

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World Heritage Site #105: Taos Pueblo

From the World Heritage inscription:

Situated in the valley of a small tributary of the Rio Grande, this Pueblo Indian settlement, consisting of adobe dwellings and ceremonial buildings, exemplifies the enduring culture of a group of the present-day Pueblo Indians. It is one of a group of settlements established in the late 13th and early 14th centuries in the valleys of the Rio Grande and its tributaries that have survived to the present day and constitutes a significant stage in the history of urban, community and cultural life and development in this region. Pueblo de Taos is similar to the settlements in the Four Corners area of the Anasazi, or ancient Pueblo people at such places as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, and continues to be a thriving community with a living culture.

Taos Pueblo is by far the most unique World Heritage site I’ve ever visited and perhaps the most unique in the world. Unlike most cultural attractions it is not an historical ruin; it is a living community. The people who live in the pueblos forgo plumbing and electricity and cook in traditional mud ovens. The adobe is resurfaced every year to combat damage done by the elements.

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World Heritage Site #104: Chaco Culture

From the World Heritage inscription:

For over 2,000 years, Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States. Chaco Canyon, a major centre of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250, was a focus for ceremonials, trade and political activity for the prehistoric Four Corners area. Chaco is remarkable for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings and its distinctive architecture – it has an ancient urban ceremonial centre that is unlike anything constructed before or since. In addition to the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the World Heritage property includes the Aztec Ruins National Monument and several smaller Chaco sites managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Along with Mesa Verde, Chaco Culture is one of the best examples of ancient culture in the United States. Getting to Chaco Culture National Historic Monument is a bit of a challenge. It is a very remote site that required at least 20 miles of travel over unpaved roads. If it has been recently raining, forget about visiting.

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1. Daily Travel Photo – Taos Pueblo, New Mexico
2. Daily Travel Photo – Mesa Verde, Colorado
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