If your travel feet are itching, then get ready to put ‘em on a plane….

Perceptive Travel is partnering with a bunch of cool independent travel sites to sponsor a MONSTER giveaway – a trip around the world with all the gear and goodies you need to do it in style!

We’re giving our readers the chance to take off, big time, by putting their travel knowledge to the test and inviting them to enter our contest. The challenge? Guess the route where the Round the World journey will take you.

The Grand Prize winner will receive the following:

* Round-the-world airfare for two from the BootsnAll Travel Network
* A Southeast Asia tour for two from All Points East
* One year of travel insurance from World Nomads
* One-week First Class Eurail passes
* Four hotel nights from Anantara
* Two BRX luggage sets from Briggs & Riley
* Head-to-toe travel clothing from ExOfficio
* One-week rental car in Europe from Auto Europe
* Shoes from Lowa Boots
* $500 in spending money from Transitions Abroad
* $500 in spending money from HoboTraveler.com
* Two pairs of Serengeti Eyewear sunglasses with Polar PHD lenses
* A grab bag of useful apps and guidebooks

Don’t despair if you don’t end up as top dog, because even if you don’t snag the biggie, there’s still….

**  First Prize – $2000 in airfare to go anywhere in the world from 1800FlyEurope.

**  Second Prize – Roundtrip travel anywhere in the continental United States on Southwest Airlines.

Sweet!

With prizes this big, we do need some time to find the perfect travelers to win our prizes, so participants have 8 weeks to enter. Here’s how it works:

Each week, participants guess the destination from the provided clues and enter online. One random winner will be chosen from the correct answers each week and awarded a weekly prize. After eight weeks—with eight chances to win—everyone will know the route and there will be eight finalists. One of those eight finalists will win the Grand Prize package for two, while two more winners will receive the First and Second Prize awards.

The contest goes live….today! (April 18)

The first weekly contest prize is a full set of ExOfficio travel clothing (remember when I talked about the ExOfficio shirt off my back?  Liked it so much I bought another one recently.)

Yup, you can ENTER NOW!

More about our fellow contest hosts:

BootsnAll Travel Network is the traveler’s one-stop indie travel guide, which began publishing travel on the web in 1998.

ConsumerTraveler.com is the web home of the Consumer Travel Alliance, which fights in Washington for reform of air travel, rollback of fees and for airline passenger’s rights.

GoNOMAD.com provides travelers with inspiration and links to plan their trips.

HoboTraveler.com is Andy Graham’s information-packed site compiled and continuously updated by a man who never stops traveling himself.

JohnnyJet.com is the home of intrepid traveler John DiScala, who flies more than 150,000 miles a year and provides comprehensive articles about everywhere he goes.

Practical Travel Gear is the top blog for daily reviews of travel gear and travel clothing.

TransitionsAbroad.com (founded in 1977 as the print magazine) provides articles, resources, and program listings for long-term travelers seeking to work, live, volunteer, or study abroad.

Travelfish.org is the go-to guide for Southeast Asia, with daily articles and iPhone apps you can download to give you details about any country in their region.

Wanderlust and Lipstick is THE destination for women’s travel including tours, guidebooks and practical information.

Go ahead, ENTER NOW!

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It’s not easy staying green while traveling, especially if, like me, you like nothing better than hopping into a car and driving off into the distance.

I love road trips. I think it’s in my blood. By the time I was 5, I had been across the States twice. Since then, road tripping has become something of a compulsion.

But these days, with concerns about the environment and the skyrocketing price of gasoline, road trips aren’t looking quite so appealing.

Still, it’s hard to resist something that makes you feel so good.

So, here I am, once again, making plans for a road trip, this time a 2 two week trip around Southern California at the end of the month.

Only this time, I’m looking at it from a green perspective. Along with planning where to go and what to see, I’ve also been researching ways to make this road trip as green as possible.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

1. Choose your car carefully. Renting a hybrid will save on gas which is good for the environment and your wallet. But unfortunately, the cost of renting a hybrid is often more than a regular car.

2. Join the Better World Club, which is similar to the AAA but greener. Their maps highlight the most energy efficient and, often scenic, byways. Better World Club also offers gas rebates, deals on eco-friendly rentals, and a chance for you to purchase carbon offsets to balance your road trips emissions.

3. Increase fuel efficiency by keeping the tires inflated, not driving like a Nascar driver, parking in the shade wherever possible, and believe it or not, turning left less. Apparently turning left takes longer and wastes more gas than turning right.

4. Pack lightly. The more weight in the car, the more gas that will be used. Makes sense. Also pack a tote bag or two for your shopping expeditions and a few re-usable food containers, utensils, and cups. This will save you from having to accept non-recyclable bags, throwaway cups and even takeout containers.

5. Stay green. Look for accommodation that practice eco-friendly initiatives. Start looking before you leave home, using directories such as the Green Hotels Association or the Green Travel Hub. Or, if you’re feeling flush, there’s always Forbes Traveller’s America’s Greenest Hotels to check out.

6. Eat green.  Use guides such Sustainable Tables Eat Well Guide to locate healthy eateries, natural grocery stores, and farmers’ markets.

7. Charge green. Not talking about the dreaded plastic card here, although there are some credit card companies that are greener than others (note to self – look into this more). I’m actually talking about investing in a solar charger to keep all your digital electronics – camera, phone, iPod, laptop – in working

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

There’s plenty more that you can do to make any road trip, or for that matter, any trip, be it road, train, or plane, more environmentally friendly.

Let me know what you think and please, leave a comment with any good tips that you have.

In Spanish, the words el doble de amigos translate as twice as many friends. Knowing even a few words in someone else’s language — and using them – often opens doors to friendship and connection that would otherwise stay closed. or take much longer to creak open.

That’s one of the points behind Rosi and Brian Amador album El doble de amigos / Twice as Many Friends. The sixteen tracks gently and with a good deal of fun included offer stories designed to invite kids and adults alike to sing and dance and listen in both English and Spanish. The Amadors a well qualified to do this sort of thing. Rosi is of Puerto Rican and Argentinean backgrounds, and specializes in singing and percussion. Brian is a composer and guitarist who brings a deep knowledge of classical and flamenco guitar to his experiences growing up in a Mexican American family in New Mexico. Together, they lead a band of talented musicians from across the Americas who are known collectively as Sol y Canto. Rosi’s voice shines on each song, backed by strong and varied rhythms from instrumentalists and backing vocalists.

On El doble de amigos, the title track introduces you to several common phrases in both languages, with words set to a lively cumbia beat. There a song about trains, and one called A volar cometas, which means Let’s go fly kites. Zapatos/ Shoes, is filled with funny stories that will assure you’re going to remember that word and its meaning. Arco iris, which is about rainbows, asks the gentle and thoughtful question rainbow, where do you sleep?

Ten of the songs are original with the Amadors, and six are covers from other sources. Chequi Morena is a traditional song game from Puerto Rico, for example, with English lyrics from Brian Amador to go along, and he added Spanish lyrics to Tom Paxton’s gentle hymn Peace Will Come. If you are looking for a song that would work for Earth Day, one of the originals on this album will fit right in. It is called Casa planeta, which in English is Planet House. You’ll feel right at home.

Earth Day or another day, it’s clear that the Amadors and all the other musicians involved are having a really good time with this music, and the odds are good that you will too. Perhaps you’ll add to your knowledge of Spanish words and musical rhythms along the way, as well.

Today is the last of three days celebrating Thailand’s annual Songkran, which marks the start of the traditional new year on calendars still used in this and other countries in Southeast Asia.

Beyond an opportunity for many Thais to enjoy much-needed vacation days and spend time with family, Songkran is a time of cleansing and renewal. That cleansing is most obviously manifested in the lighthearted water fights seen all around the country, especially in bigger cities like Chiang Mai and here in Bangkok; many people, young and old, walk the streets carrying water guns at all times (including myself).

It’s all super fun, but of course water fights aren’t the only aspect of this ritualistic holiday. There are other important religious and cultural considerations for Thais, and there are other things and meanings I’ve personally come to associate with Songkran after celebrating it twice now in Bangkok.

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It meant stocking up on milk, instant coffee, beer, snacks, and whiskey at Big C Supercenter ahead of time, last Thursday, since most stores would be closed down, and alcohol sales would be restricted, like they were two years ago.

It meant finding out that those store closures and those alcohol restrictions were actually just an unfortunate byproduct of the Red Shirt protests and the escalating tensions between them and the Thai government, which obviously put a serious damper on Bangkok’s festivities in 2009. There were pockets of partying and many parts of the city were fine, but here in the central commercial district, it was a little eerie at times. Last year was even worse, and bloody confrontations happened soon after, though I wasn’t around for it. After two straight years of Songkran festivities marred by political strife, everybody seemed relieved this year to get on with it as normal, without unwanted distraction.

It means Thais parading around in orange, yellow, purple, and other brightly colored shirts decorated with flowers; “Hawaiian shirts”, the fun shirts of summer in Thailand.

Just as it did two years ago, it meant Tawandang! I woke up this morning with painful blister bubbles on both of my trigger fingers after firing off rounds and rounds of water once the party got wet and wild at around 10:45pm or so. As always, the night was filled with amazing performances and music, fantastic food, delicious beers, and a sweet, fun-loving waitstaff dancing it up with the rest of us. This is, easily, one of my favorite places in the city. Bonus: a special table-side birthday serenade from members of the staff, followed by a banana split.

It means turning another year older the day after Songkran is over. I kind of like the timing.

It means sometimes leaving the bigger water gun at home and being less conspicuous with the little water gun hidden in my shorts pocket.

It means Central World Plaza’s restaurants are crowded less with couples and more with families.

It meant being 1 of 3,471 participants at Central World Plaza who helped Thailand set a new Guinness World Record for the world’s largest water pistol fight. (This is the second Guinness record I’ve seen set this year!)

It definitely did not mean water gun fights on or anywhere near Khao San Road. (There’s one reason and one reason alone to ever visit the Khao San vicinity, during Songkran or otherwise: May Kaidee’s Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurant. There are now three locations in Bangkok (go May!), but my favorite is the old-school branch at 59 Tanao Road, which is essentially an alleyway that runs perpendicular to Khao San. That’s about as close as I care to get.)

It means a lot less traffic and crossing normally hectic Ratchadamri Road without having to use the elevated walkway. (Lazy.)

It means Thais on the side of the road dousing cars, tuk-tuks, and motorbikes with water from buckets, hoses, and/or water guns as they pass by. (Dangerous, but everybody laughs.)

It means “getting chalked” by smiling, laughing, sometimes-drunk Thais who say “Thailand Songkran!” or “You are now Thai!”

It means water-soaked, beer- and whiskey-fueled dance parties on the side of the road.

It means that some familiar faces at my local bars and restaurants, in my building, etc. are gone, off visiting family in their home provinces, but others are still around, still working. (Sad.)

It means it’s really fucking hot outside.

It means seeing the eyes of cute little kids, armed with little water guns, light up when you (farang) playfully squirt them once or twice with your water gun, then let them squirt you a few more times as you slowly run away from them.

It means being squirted, repeatedly, directly in your eyes by bigger kids with bigger water guns.

It means leaving the house in grubby clothes, wearing flip-flops instead of tennis shoes (slippery), and not bringing your camera unless it’s sealed in a plastic bag.

It means having even more fun than usual in a city I love, with a girl I love even more.

For an avid reader who is traveling, a stop in a bookstore always feels like home, whether you understand the language or not.

Across the world, there are stacks of knowledge waiting to be opened, quiet people flipping through novels, staff members re-stocking in between pointing and saying some version of, “Over there, on that far aisle to the left….” to a customer asking about a particular genre.

In Paris, take a moment away from the nearby Seine, the Île de la Cité and Notre Dame to see the slightly rumpled but charming Latin Quarter landmark Shakespeare and Company bookstore, a polyglot collection of mostly English-language books and mostly English-language people, all effortlessly looking like a movie set for bookish thriller.

It’s been a center of literary culture since it was founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, became a haven for Moveable Feast-era authors like Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce, was closed during World War II and then re-launched by George Whitman in 1951, who wanted to carry on the spirit of the original.  Whitman’s daughter Sylvia runs the shop today.

While there, we bought a copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, mostly as an excuse to get one of the bookstore’s famous “Kilometer Zero” stamps inside the front cover (there is a plaque in the ground nearby called “Kilometre Zero” that is considered the official center of Paris.)

One of our Paris guidebooks mentioned the stamp;  this is why I tend to read the Shopping section of those books cover-to-cover.  I’m all about finding small, surprising but cheap travel souvenirs.

If you plan to visit Shakespeare and Company, check the website first for special bookstore events, reading groups, literature classes and musical performances (listed under workshops and held in the upstairs library) and the annual literary festival which is usually held in June.

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