Continuing the travel writing theme for the week …

Today launches the first day of the first-ever National Travel Writing Month. First you’re hearing of it? That’s because Christine over at Almost Fearless just came up with the idea a few days ago. Miraculously (to me, anyway, since I’m a techno-idiot), she got the rules, guidelines, and forum pages up and running just in time to launch it for an August 1st-31st run.

Modeled on National Novel Writing Month (known as NaNoWriMo among us fools who await its launch in November every year), NaTraWriMo is meant to be a kick-start for those who’ve always wanted to get themselves into travel writing, or a jump-start for those who’ve stalled in the same career. While NaNoWriMo’s goal is a simple one of producing 50,000 words of a novel in a month, NaTraWriMo is focused more on publication. The basic guideline is to write 31 separate query letters or pitches during the month of August, and to submit at least one to an editor, but Christine has absorbed suggestions and requests to include writing completed essays/articles, spending a certain amount of time editing, writing a travel book, and submitting photos.

Interested? Go on over to Almost Fearless and sign up. The official rules are here. Maybe August will finally be the time you can write that winning article for the Transitions Abroad Narrative Travel Writing Contest.

There are a lot of writing contests out there, many of which I send serially rejected stories and essays to. But here’s one that might interest some of you aspiring travel writers. Fast on the heels of Sheila’s recent post about establishment publication Transitions Abroad going online, a friend sent me a reminder of that magazine’s 2009 Narrative Travel Writing Contest.

It’s the sort of thing tailor made for intrepid travelers — and for imaginative writers. I love their description: they’re looking not for a travelogue, but for “a well-crafted and inspirational story which should appeal to those who have traveled independently overseas with open minds, sensitive souls, and empathetic imaginations.” I’d just like to meet some people like that.

The theme for this year’s contest is “Travel in a Dangerous World,” but the field is wider than that description seems to indicate. “We are looking for stories written by authors who have taken a risk — or been told that they were taking a risk — when traveling overseas,” say the editors, which leaves room for a lot of interpretation. In addition, “editors of TransitionsAbroad.com will judge entries based upon the following criteria: sensitivity to the people and culture being described, ability to engage the reader, and literary quality.” What would you consider a risk? And how well can you write about it?

The contest deadline is October 31, 2008, and the word limit is 1000 to 3000 words. The first-place winner will receive $500 (USD), the second-place entry $150, and the third-place winner $100. Any other articles selected as runner-ups will receive a $50 payment.

Full guidelines and links to last year’s winning essays here. Get your pens out!

Hearing that the Taliban were destroying hundreds of religious statues and temples in Afghanistan in 2001 was a life changing moment for photographer Tito Dupret. Their actions inspired him to document UNESCO’s World Heritage sites in QTVR panoramas. And it has turned into his life’s work. For the past seven years, he has been on the road, traveling from one amazing location to another, camera in hand, determined to create panographies of each and every World Heritage site. So far, 253 of his panographics are posted on the WHTour site that he has been creating.

Panography is what he does and he is good at it. So if you fancy a visit to a World Heritage site but don’t have the time or the money to physically get there, go 360 with Tito instead. It’s the next best thing to being there yourself.

I’ve just been visiting Nubia in Egypt. I stood outside Abu Simbel and did the 360, looking first at the monuments, turning slowly towards the sea. I looked down at sand and up to the towering monuments. I zoomed into and out of the scene as I pleased, like I was holding the camera myself. It truly felt like I was there.

WHTour is one site not to be missed.

So excuse me while I head back there again. It’s time to go inside Abu Simbel…

But first, I’m going to sign up and become a member of WHTours. That way, I can get full screen access to all of the panoramic photographs plus be notified when new panographies appear.

And if you want to know more about the project and the photographer, then have a read of these two interviews:

An Update on World Heritage Traveler and Photographer Tito Dupret

A Conversation with Tito Dupret About His World Heritage Tour

Happy virtual traveling.

When getting ready to travel, most of us pull out a map to get our bearings. It’s usually a map of the world, of a continent, a country, a state, or a city and we use it to figure out where we are going, how to get there, and what to do once we are there.

But sometimes you just want more from your map than simple geography and location. 

That’s where specialized maps fit in.

For example, interested in finding out what’s green where you are going?

Then check out the Green Map System.

Created by local mapmaking teams around the world, The Green Map System provides an amazing collection of information at the click of the mouse. You can explore hundreds of green maps from over 50 countries, each of which highlights a community’s natural, cultural and sustainable resources such as recycling centers, heritage sites, community gardens, toxic waste sites and socially conscious businesses.

Or prehaps you want to find out about the location of specific diseases.

Well, now you can thanks to Healthmap.

Healthmap gathers text from the World Health Organization, Google News, and many other resources and filters it down and puts it onto a map for everyone to see. Never has disease tracking been so accessible. Healthmap displays the outbreaks on a world map, color coding the severity of the outbreak based on current and up-to-date news reporting.

Seems you can find a map about anything, if you know where to look…

Here’s a roundup of useful travel-related links for your Monday perusal:

Places to Visit

• The UK’s Telegraph on Peru: River cruise into the Amazon Basin (with a nice little embedded video.)
• Alternative Olympic games in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia.
• New Zealand’s Zorbing craze has reached Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
• Albania has a new UNESCO World Heritage site: the town of Berat. Hard to believe that the whole country was inaccessible until fairly recently.
• How to find English-language news and info in Hong Kong? Globespotters answers.
• Hot enough for you? No? Then travel to the world’s hottest destinations (temperature-wise.)
• While in Japan, indulge your ice cream fetish with some unusual flavors.
• Quilters and crafters will love the new Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska (hat tip Budget Travel.)
• Stalwart travel favorite: cruising the Greek islands. Not for you? How about cruising Panama and Costa Rica?
• In Savannah, Georgia - two perfect Southern meals.
• In Istanbul - 10 bargain boltholes.
• Last Saturday in July. Tokyo. Awesome fireworks on the Sumida River. Be there.
• A few years ago, we passed on an opportunity to visit the Kasbah du Toubkal in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. I can’t tell you how much it pains me to admit that.

Tips and Advice

• Is couch-surfing really just for “getting laid?” Those randy Aussies look for answers in the Sydney Morning Herald.
• Domino magazine decorating resources, organized by city (not that shopping for household stuff is at ALL important when one travels….)
• Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani gives detailed, specific and useful advice on taking your laptop and other electronics to Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand.
• Man in Seat 61 shows you five cool alternatives to five high-end train trips.
• My Mother’s Day gift, an iPod, is about to get a load of National Geographic Traveler’s country and city specific music playlists from iTunes.