At the very beginning, some say. Some say it is a very good place to start.
Just for kicks (and because it is a source so controversial) I began at Wikipedia. (Let it be known this is the FIRST time I've used Wikipedia to begin research for a research paper.) It wasn't very helpful. The entry on travel blogs is rather weak. Although it did pique my interest in reading or re-reading some rather elderly literature.
I then went to what is normally my first point of departure: The Google. The first door I chose lead me to a terrific site just all about travel blogs. "Travel Blog is a unique free online travel diary for travellers across the world."
It further defines itself as "a collection of tools so that travellers can write down a journal, send the address to family and friends, set up automatic mailing lists so that everytime you add a new entry to your list your friends get an automatic email. Also the theme is travel, the tools are designed to cope with you moving around, maps and flags are linked from each journal. Photos can be added to your journal (if you have a digital camera or scanner) - many internet cafes have scanners - if you have some must see photos you should get some help there. We have a photo gallery for each blogger to be able to showcase their best photos, complete with slideshows. We encourage our members to link to useful sites about areas, to help out future travellers. Write reviews, guides, journals, add photos."
As we read further in its About section, we learn that it was launched in 2002 and that the founder, Alistair Watters, still travels and maintains his own blog. Really worth checking out. I read a recent entry about diving in the Galapagos Islands. It seems the blog serves different audiences in different ways. I, personally, have never been to the Galapagos Islands. Seeing the underwater pictures from his dives were fascinating. Hearing about his being in the water with a school of hammerhead sharks was exhilarating. An experienced diver will glean different information from this entry. She will be interested in his notes about the diving company and the water currents, for example. Both useful and enticing, Ali's blog serves multiple purposes, as does travel itself. [That was a lame, "wrap-up" kind of sentence. Stupid.]
2 comments:
I missed a post and will enter it as a comment here:
To kick us off, I will reprint here the first paragraph in the featured blog, as an example of a travel blog, as embraced by travelblog.org. The entry has the following headers attached to it:
Asia » China » Shanghai
And the Tiger Lept Over the Gorge
By Ash
December 15th 2006
Lijiang is an oasis for the burnt out backpacker. After six weeks of nonstop travel, endless bus rides, late nights on the town and early morning rushes to pack, rapid sightseeing tours and too much street food, we arrived weary and drained into Mama Naxi's Guesthouse for some much needed nurturing and mothering. Mama has a reputation around the inner travelling circles of China. Her name is whispered across pubs and communal rooms and her bent card is passed from hand to hand with declarations of affection and fond memories. Mama's cooking is an acclaimed ritual and grumbling tummies will come from miles to sit on her squat wooden chairs in the dim lighting of her courtyard. It was of no discussion then that we too decided to visit Mama's guesthouse, based in the center of Old Town Lijiang. Comfy beds, dark rooms, clean bathrooms, a loving Mama and Papa (yes, that's what we called them), endless plates of food, free internet, and always a tiny kitty cat to nestle on your lap. Home sweet home.......except that Cara hates cats.
Besides an allergy panic about the cats, what else does this blogger give us in this entry? She passes along information not found in books, but which is handed from traveler to traveler. She helps us find the humanity in the world at large—the homey-ness of Mama Naxi's Guesthouse, with its nurturing caretakers and comfy beds and, yes, cats, all to soothe the weary traveler, who might feel lonely and worn-out and who might actually enjoy "a tiny kitty cat to nestle on your lap." (That right there is hell for me. I'm just sayin'.)
Post a Comment