From other Blogs...

Golden Palace in Kyoto, Japan
Photo by Pi productions at Flickr

TRAVEL DESTINATIONS:
Read about the Top Things to do in Kyoto, Japan on Viator Travel Blog.

Jack at Eyeflare recommends visiting Kauai, Hawaii for the outdoors.

The Guardian lists 10 of the best readers' tips for visiting Barcelona, Spain.

Oddity Central's post on Taking a Swim in the Devil's Pool in Africa is a huge hit on StumbleUpon. Vagabondish also mentions Swimming at the edge of Victoria Falls and shares a video of the experience.

TRAVEL TIPS:
Amanda at Vagabondish shares tips on how to experience the local scene on rainy days.

JUST FOR FUN:
David at Authorblog is doing a series of interviews with bloggers from around the world and Rambling Traveler was the featured blog this week. Thank you, David!

For more travel articles, check out the section marked From other Blogs in my sidebar.

Flickr Favorites: angela7dreams

Photos from angela7dreams' Kenya 2006 set on Flickr.

After reading Peter Allison's book about his experience as a safari guide, I've been thinking more about travel in Africa. These pictures just add to the desire to see it for myself.

Travel Books I've Been Reading

During our road trip out to Colorado and back home to Minnesota, I read two travel books. My favorite was Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison. He writes humorous, easy to read stories about the people he meets in Africa, the tourists he guides, and the wildlife he loves. I definitely recommend this book for anyone with an interest in travel, and in particular, African wildlife.

The other book was Lynette Chiang's The Handsomest Man in Cuba: An Escapade. Riding her bike through Cuba, the author meets a wide variety of characters and through her descriptions, makes you feel like you met them, too. She is a talented writer and her story is actually making me consider a biking trip of my own. I can't imagine a better way to meet the locals.

I also tried reading No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late by Ayun Halliday, but I couldn't make myself finish the book. The same thing happened last summer when I tried to read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

I'm trying to follow the saying "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all", but you can get an idea of my opinions if you read the negative reviews for Eat Pray Love and No Touch Monkey on Amazon.com.