Iraq and Afghanistan are countries rich in ancient history and the home to some amazing archaeological sites.

But for the past couple of decades, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan have been on most traveler’s list of places to visit. In fact, most countries warn their citizens against visiting either country. And travel guides do likewise…

“Large areas of Afghanistan remain extremely dangerous, particularly during fighting season.” (Lonely Planet)

“Iraq isn’t the world’s most popular holiday destination at the moment. It’s turbulent and extreme domestic situation makes Iraq one of the least desirable places in the world to be.” (Lonely Planet)

Iraq and Afghanistan are making moves to change this.

The Iraq Tourism Ministry recently held a Tourism Fair to promote Iraq. But it was held in the heavily guarded Mansour Melia Hotel, the same hotel, where, just last year, a suicide bomber blew up himself and a dozen other people. Not exactly the best image for a country looking to entice visitors.

And then there’s the Baghdad Museum, which remains closed because of fears that a suicide bomber might pay a visit, something guaranteed to not only destroy the museum’s collections of historic relics, but also kill and maim tourists, the very people the Iraq Tourism Ministry is trying to attract.

Add in the fact that many of Iraq’s ancient sites - such as Babylon, the Arabian city of Hatra, and the Great Mosque of Samarra - have been looted and damaged in the years of fighting, and it’s clear that the Iraq Tourism Ministry has a lot of work to do before a flourishing Iraq tourism industry becomes a reality.

Still, there are some that see Iraq’s tourism potential. Take, for example, American businessman Robert Kelly who is planning to build a luxury $100 million hotel at the edge of Baghdad’s Green Zone.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the Aga Khan Foundation, a non-governmental organization, is working on establishing the Bamiyan Valley in central Afghanistan as a tourist mecca. Bamiyan is the the place, where, in 2001, the Taliban destroyed two sixth century Buddha statues that had been carved into the side of the cliff.

The Aga Khan Foundation has created the Bamiyan Ecotourism Project to re-develop the areas tourist infrastructure, with the hope of raising awareness of Bamiyan Valley’s cultural, historical, and natural resources. There’s even talk that one of the Buddha statues will be rebuilt.

But simply building hotels and re-opening museums and archaeological sites is no guarantee that tourists will be willing to travel to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Some day maybe, but prehaps, not yet.

There’s a movement afoot.

Travel bloggers are trying to create a ‘travel blogger community’.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

The recent BlogHer conference, held in San Francisco last week, was the catayst for this movement. That’s when a number of travel bloggers got together and started talking. And one of the things they talked about, no doubt, was ‘why there wasn’t a travel blogging panel at the conference.’

Now this is a question that was raised long before this conference. But for some reason, it’s one that blogging conferences seem to be ignoring. Pam tried to get BlogHer interested a travel blogger panel this year. The panel was rejected. And remember how Sheila tried to get a travel panel up and running at SXSW last year. It didn’t happen!

But travel bloggers are starting to say no more.

Instead, we are saying…

We count.

We matter.

And we want to be heard.

So the question becomes ‘How can we be heard?’

The answer, by joining together and creating a strong and united travel blogging community.

Pam writes about this over at Nerd’s Eye View and BlogHer.

Debbie at Delicious Baby has been busy creating a list of Travel Bloggers from the contacts she made at BlogHer.

Elizabeth at Go Green Travel Green is asking the question about What do you want in an online travel blogging community?

Liz (aka me) at Write to Travel highlights the steps that are being taken to build a travel blogging community.

And best of all, Pam from Nerd’s Eye View has set up a Travelblogger forum.

So, finally, there is a place for us to go and ‘talk travel blogging’.

 A place to mix and mingle with other like minded bloggers.

A place to ask all those blogging questions that you have.

And a place to talk with others who love writing about travel as much as you do.

I’ll be there.

What about you?

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…

Traveling around cyberspace this week, I came across two articles that reminded me that there’s a lot of weird out there worth exploring.

The first article, 7 Bizarre Tours You’d Actually Sign Up for … Maybe highlighted some truly interesting tours that you never would have thought existed. For example, how about the Illegal Border Crossing Tour in Mexico, a ‘night-time guided hike and you’ll be chased in the dark, shot at by (fake) police and you may or may not make it under the fence’. Sounds like something the PC police might have a problem with but I’ve just added it to my list of things to do on my road trip next year. (note to self: make sure I pack some old clothes). Other intriguing tours include the Karaoke Ghost Tour of Sydney and the Scandal Tour of Washington DC.

The second article, Top 10 weird attractions around the globe, offers a list of ‘one of a kind’ events and places. From the Cockroach Race in Brisbane, Australia to the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun Wine Spa in Hakone, Japan, there’s enough weird here for everyone. If I had to choose one, I’d definitely be heading for the wine spa.

And if that’s not enough weird, just yesterday I was reading a short article in the recent Wanderlust magazine that listed ’sewer tours worth a visit’ ranging from the sewers to Paris to New Dehli.

It sure is a weird, weird world.

One of the things I always do when traveling is check out the local bookstores. Not just the local Borders or Barnes and Noble but also whatever independent bookstores might be around. Last year I discovered the Fieria de Libros - Madrid’s Open Air Book Market and New York City’s Strand Bookstore.

This year I’m looking to discover more bookstores around the world. But because I’m not traveling at the moment, it will have to be via the internet. And so far, I’ve discovered some new and interesting places to add to my ‘bookstore’ list.

The Guardian’s Sean Dobson list of 10 bookshops from around the world has introduced me to Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, a 800-year-old church converted into a bookstore and El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, another convert, this time from movie theater to bookstore.

The Boston Traveler’s Ten Great Places to Browse Books in Boston includes Brattle Book Shop, a antiquarian bookstore that’s been around since 1825.

Rolf Potts put together a Very Subjective Guide to Bookstores praising Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon and Shakespeare & Company in Paris, France.

The Bookstore Guide, an amateur guide to book shopping throughout Europe, lists Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal and The Bookàbar Bookshop in Rome as top impressive appearance bookstores.

USAToday’s Nine destination bookstores worth putting on a tourist’s itinerary highlights the Elliott Bay Book Co in Seattle, Washington and the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado.

With recommendations like these, my bookstore list is growing.

Want to add to it?

What’s your favorite non-chain bookstore?