One thing I hear all the time is “when are you going to write a book?” I’m sure most RTW travelers hear similar requests and reply with the same ambivalence as I do. Every once in a while I ask what kind of book they suggest I write and I’ve been surprised by the answer.

One would assume that they mean a book about my travels, maybe an anthology of short stories or possibly a memoir but that’s not the case. Although some people suggest a typical travel memoir, most suggest something entirely different. A number of people seem to think I should write a “how-to” travel advice book or even compile a book of photographs or drawings.

For my own curiosity I wonder what you, my readers, would have me write. I’m putting a poll in the sidebar, but feel free to leave any brilliant suggestions in the comments.

After returning home last fall I spotted a new travel magazine at my local bookstore, Everywhere Magazine. It’s an interesting idea, using a website to gather content rather than relying on professional travel writers. It also gives regular travelers a chance to be published. I’ve been waiting for the perfect “theme” to come up and issue #4’s National Park theme seemed like a great opportunity to write about one of the more exotic places I traveled to.

Madagascar is one of the places I haven’t finished writing much about on this blog, much to some reader’s dismay. Although this article doesn’t contain a lot of personal anecdotes (they don’t encourage anything over 1,000 words) it’s a solid overview of the features of the four parks I visited. In addition to the text, the accompanying pictures may be new or slightly different shots than you’ve seen on this site. Head on over to Everywhere to check out my story and the others submitted for issue#4: My story, titled “Nature’s Experiment”

This makes me wonder, what magazines is the traveler reading these days? Most magazines I see are aimed at the high end market, stuffed with resort ads. Leave your awesome travel magazine recommendations in the comments.

If there’s one thing that I could spend less on when I travel it’s souvenirs. When I first started traveling around Europe in 1997 I bought few souvenirs at all. Europe’s expensive and I couldn’t bear to pay for lunch, let alone cheap imported “stuff” to fill up my backpack. Over the years I’ve bought a lot more, especially when I’m on my way home or ready to ship a package.

There are a number of souvenirs from my two around-the-world trips that I love—like my Ethiopian chair, the paintings I bought in Udaipur, India and my Akha headdresses from Myanmar. Since you can see all of those over at my souvenirs page, I thought I’d show a few of my favorite souvenirs I bought on non-rtw trips. I use #1 often and it’s by far my favorite souvenir of all time. If any of you find yourselves in Rome and are able to find a similar object featuring Benedict XVI pick up one for me.

#4 Hand beaded traditional jacket — Budapest, Hungary 1998

#3 Wooden bracelet, Christmas Market — Prague, Czech Republic 1997

#2 Platform shoes — Barcelona, Spain 1998

#1 Popener — Rome, Italy 1998