Landlore: Alternative Travel Lifestyles

"Get Off Our Property" by LiLi Yes. Them. Exactly them. It's almost traumatic. They haunt me, right? Months after and they haunt me. The very first time I flew to Austin, I met these people. For real. Do they look nice to you? Maybe. For me, they are not. Ok, I have to say, they were older. I think. But! The same energy. Oh yeah, I can recognize their energy. Me, I flew to Jaya in the United States... for me another world. I come from France in a suburb of Paris, where all is damn different... the places, the weather, the environment, the languages, the expressions, the feelings and... the people. I heard a lot before coming to Austin. People seemed to be smiling all the time to me in this place... like shining, as if the sun were always a part of them. People seemed to be positive and greatly open. They are. Yes, they are. Except these women. I met them for real the very first day I landed. Ok, maybe the third day, but whatever. I did not know anything abo...

Today's road news highlights a guy crazy enough to walk the world, as well as a little piece of technology that has earned its praise, and finally a bit on the new site Wikivoyage. Pull up a stump, set your onesies down for a few minutes, and have yourself a gander... Wait. Did he say "walk"!? : Yes, Chili Pie, el hombre did indeed say "walk". Paul Salopek already has almost two decades of experience in travel. He's currently 19 days into his seven-year journey, walking from "The Cradle of Life" and following the primary migration pattern that humans followed out of Africa, across Asia, into North America, and down to the tip of South America. You can see an estimated path for his trip that I drew on the map above. As I write this, Salopek's just north of the Horn of Africa, nearing the crossing that will take him into Saudi Arabia. Color me envious. Bastard! Mad shout out in thanks to Gaea for sending me the story. For others who are inte...

Lesson - A Simple Question : When the question found me, my body had already been broken by a sleep-deprived week-long extravaganza of chaos at Burning Man, and with all my filters of perception completely blown. Then there, staring at me out from the photos of one dusty face after another, was a single question: " W hy D o Y ou D o W hat Y ou D o ? " [click images to enlarge] Simple. Powerful. Frakking important! Why had no one asked me this before? Why had I never even heard of the WDYDWYD? project before Burning Man? And the question itself? Oh, yes, I knew my answer... I knew it immediately. I had tried to think of a better answer, but I returned over and over to the very first one that my heart screamed at the moment I heard the question: " Because second chances aren't guaranteed. " Second chances are not guaranteed. Yes, I've been given second chances before--I'm alive because of a second chance--but they're not guaranteed. Ever since...

People still email me about this short story I wrote in 2002: "Homelands". Even in a fantasy setting like this story, where magic and armies dominate the environment, the story's driven completely by the most essential human emotions: confidence, fear, doubts... love. I ended the story with the same words that started the story: "There was a man and a woman in a garden." You could say I'm a bit of a romantic. Ok, more than a bit... I burn and I burn hot and my passions are animal and very thirsty and, yes, at the end of the day it is one woman I desire in my arms. On any given day, I work with some incredibly attractive artists, models, musicians, and side-by-side with some frakking hot creatures who are tribe to me... and no matter how many women, or what the day brings, or how attractive, there is still this romantic idea and desire for a "one". It is worth loving and trusting and burning completely to find that woman... and it is worth dying a...

" Here's what our parents never taught us " by Shinji Moon You will stay up on your rooftop until sunlight peels away the husk of the moon, chainsmoking cigarettes and reading Baudelaire, and you will learn that you only ever want to fall in love with someone who will stay up to watch the sun rise with you. You will fall in love with train rides, and sooner or later you will realize that nowhere seems like home anymore. A woman will kiss you and you’ll think her lips are two petals rubbing against your mouth. You will not tell anyone that you liked it. It’s okay. It is beautiful to love humans in a world where love is a metaphor for lust. You can leave if you want, with only your skin as a carry-on. All you need is a twenty in your pocket and a bus ticket. All you need is someone on the other end of the map, thinking about the supple curves of your body, to guide you to a home that stretches out for miles and miles on end.

There's No Tequila in Andorra : Andorra--the country with the highest life expectancy in the entire world. Before talking about the mountains and the refuges; before talking about the ruins, hidden backroads, and trails; before talking about the insanely cheap duty-free shopping and tax breaks; and even before talking about the almost total absence of crime, laws, and regulation; it's important to talk about something else. I've got a question and a complaint: Where the FRAKK is the tequila?!? It's actually difficult to come up with complaints here in Andorra, and complaining that my woman isn't here with me isn't anything Andorra can fix, so I'm complaining about the dry spell on tequila... because everything else I could write would be lavish and superfluous praise. There's no tequila in Andorra. That's a damned lie... but it ain't far from the truth. My woman, the magical creature that she is, happened to find one hell of an incredible M...

The year comes to an end, and the Day Out of Time is tomorrow on the 21st... and then the Year in a Day the day after, a day that comes only every four years. There is so much that has happened in the past four years I need to reflect on.... and, looking to the future, so many things to work towards in the next four years. I am in the country of Andorra, too far from the woman I love, but fighting for ways for us to be together. I have learned more about the laws of the Schengen Zone in the past month than I think anyone should know. Before, I ignored those laws like many others... but I am no longer alone, and ignoring them could mean being exiled more than 10,000kms from my woman.. and other dangers also. Level of everything-hell-the-frakked-up at well over 1000% and killing me. Tomorrow, on the Day Out of Time, I will walk and climb into the mountains of Andorra and away from the world... returning in a few days. There are many, many mountain refuges here in Andorra. I will be h...