Dreaming of adventure but unable to leave home?

 Then get yourself a copy of the Traveler’s Tales award winning anthology series The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010: True stories from around the world  to read.

It’s full of fascinating travel tales by interesting women from all walks of life, including Perceptive Travel’s own Alison Stein Wellner with a tale of culinary heat seeking.

In less than 300 pages, this  book takes you to far flung places that most of us only dream of and shares experiences that, in some causes, will have you doubled up laughing and in others, leave you cringing and shaking your head in disbelief.

Discover the hidden magic of Flamenco in Spain, how the perfect wave in New Zealand offers a lesson in love, learn about political activism and human rights in Burma, cultural understanding through language lessons in Vietnam, and why some people just have to find the hottest food ever.

There’s romance, high adventure, misadventure, spiritual growth, exotic cuisine, with plenty of  humility, humanity, and hilarity thrown in.

And along the way, each of the writers have discovered not only new place and faces, but also a new understanding and awareness of the self within the bigger world.

It’s designed to be read one essay at a time. But odds are, once you pick it up and start reading, you’ll become too engrossed to put it down until the end. And when you finish, you’ll be left wanting more.

Mostly, you’ll be wanting to take off on an adventure of your own.

The feature articles in this month’s edition of Perceptive Travel magazine focus on the Americas  -  North and South.

In his article Two Wheels, Two Drinks: Biking through America’s Heartland about a 225 mile biking trail across the state of Missouri that passes through wine country and river towns, Perceptive Travel editor Tim Leffel asks “Do we see more of a place when we pass through it using only our muscles for movement? Do we feel its essence more when we travel slowly, moving at a human pace instead of a petroleum–powered one?”

Down in Central America, Richard Arghiris, author of Footprints Nicaragua,  experiences the effects of tropical decay, complete with giant rats, roaches, fleas, flies and an array of creeping multi–coloured moulds, while staying in Bluefield’s in Nicaragua.

And further south, in Uruguay, Darrin DuFord examines Montevideo’s street culture and attempts to understand the allure of the city’s street drumming groups, first by finding them and then by attempting to learn how to play the barrel–shaped candombe drums.

The travel book review section, this month written by Susan Griffith, author of Work Your Way Around the World, covers three books that tackle foreign encounters and culture clashes around the world.

And as usual, this month’s world music review section looks at some fascinating musical selections – a desert blues remix,  Lo’Jo’s placeless internationalism, Mali’s Salif Keita, and music from Kinshasa.

And don’t forget, there’s a chance to win some great travel gear – this month two winners will receive their choice of any Perceptive Travel short-sleeve shirt from our Cafe Press Traveltease store, shipped to their home.

This is open to anyone living in a place where Cafe Press will ship. Newsletter subscribers will get instructions on how to enter. If you weren’t on that list already, you can still get in on it by following Perceptive Travel on Facebook. There you’ll find the contest details in one of the postings.

Happy reading!

Tomorrow the Dawn Princess World Cruise arrives in Venice with a ship shipload of passengers and crew all wanting to get out and about.  Many (including my mother) plan on taking the organized shore excursion tours that cover all the usual tourist places.

But I plan on jumping ship, hopefully getting away from the crowd, and maybe even getting lost (if just for a short time) into the maze that is Venice.

I won‘t,  however, be totally alone. – I’m taking my copy of Lonely Planet’s Venice & Veneto 2010 for company.

I have been keeping company with Lonely Planet guidebooks for a few years now and they have never let me down. Guaranteed to provide background information of where I am heading and give me direction as to where to eat, stay, and play, these guidebooks have always managed to help re-locate me when I lose my sense of direction.

And this latest edition of Venice & the Veneto looks to be no different.  

I was hooked from page one, reading about Venice’s fascinating history, learning about it’s diverse neighbourhoods, and studying the numerous walking tours laid out. 

There are numerous of maps and continuous cross-referencing of information aimed to help to keep travelers orientated to their surroundings. In fact, this guidebook makes Venice look real easy to navigate - at least on paper.

There’s even a pull out map, which, of course, I not only pulled out but also marked with all my planned destinations, creating my own walking tour.

All in all, I’m feeling pretty confident that, despite the fact that I’ll only be in Venice a very short period of time and need to make sure that I get back to the ship before it set‘s sail, with Lonely Planet’s Venice & the Veneto I’ll be able to get off the beaten track without getting totally lost.

I guess I’ll know tomorrow whether it does.

(Disclamer:  A complimentary copy of the Lonely Planet Venice & the Veneto was provided by Lonely Planet for review)

As the Dawn Princess slowly makes it’s way to India, via Singapore and Kuala Lumpar, I’ve been spending my days lounging on the Promenade Deck reading about another woman’s journey to India by sea.

The Original Letters from India by Eliza Fay paints quite a different picture of ocean life than the one I am living at the moment.

 On the Dawn Princess, there is no lack of food, lack of service, or lack of entertainment. The most difficult decision that needs to be made every day is where and when to eat and whether to sit and read or go to the gym.

This, of course, wasn’t the case for Eliza Fay. Her journey, by land and sea, was fraught with complications, imprisonment, near ship wrecks, and very little comfort. But as her letters reflect, it was never dull or uninteresting. 

Little is known about Eliza Fay’s early life, apart from the fact that she was born in South London in 1756 and her father was mostly likely a sailor.

All we really know of her life is what happened after her marriage to Irish lawyer Anthony Fay when she was in her early twenties. In 1779 the  newlyweds embarked on a haphazard journey to a new life in Calcutta, a journey that Eliza recorded through a series of letters that she sent to her family in England.

And what letters they were. Long and rambling, more like journal entries than letters, they are often hard to read due to their lack of structure. But it’s this very lack of structure – unguarded and uncensored – that make them so fascinating. Here is a woman, with limited education, who is living an adventure that would have most of us shaking in our shoes.

The collection was first published in 1817 and provides an unguarded and uncensored glimpse of their perilous adventures by land and sea across Europe and the Middle East to India.

In long, winding, letters, Eliza Fay offers up frank opinions and descriptions of those she meets, both favourable and unfavourable. No one and nothing is spared except maybe Eliza herself who she obviously sees as the stoic heroine who survives one misadventure after another.

But perhaps Simon Winchester, in his introduction in the edition put out by the New York Review Books, descirbes Eliza’s letters best when he writes that

“No calmer correspondent can be imagined than the magnificent Mrs Fay, for whom the words imperturbable, indomitable, and redoubtable might have been coined”

Only four days to go before setting off on the Dawn Princess World Cruise out of Sydney, Australia.

Tomorrow I’ll think about what to pack and make sure everything and everyone is organized during the time I’m away.

But I spent all of today deciding what books to take on this leisurely vacation. After all, when you’re about to be embark on 55 days at sea, choosing good reading material is crucial.

Here’s what I came up with…

A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain is based on Twain’s 16 month journey around central and southern Europe between 1878 and 1879 and offers a hilarious look at old world Europe.

W. Somerset Maugham: The Skeptical Romancer edited by Pico Iyer. Though best known for his dark outlook on human frailties in books such as Of Human Bondage and The Razor’s Edge, W. Somerset Maugham was also a curious and adventurous traveler who carefully documented his journeys and experiences.

Original Letters from India by Eliza Fey. Written during a 1779 voyage across the world from England to India, these letters  offer a fascinating glimpse into Eliza Fey’s woman’s gruelling 12 month journey.

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollenstonecraft. A deeply personal travel narrative by an 18th century British feminist (who also happened to be the mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein)

Coast to Coast by Jan Morris. In her very first book, Jan Morris narrates her one year journey through 1950’s America by car, train, ship, and aircraft.

It’s a  pretty diverse list of books. But they all have one thing in common -  long distance travel in a bygone era.