http://www.extremetravels.com A world wide expose on Extreme Traveling. Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:40:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Everyone knows the real international language is love. So it's hardly surprising that so many of us are willing to relocate to far-flung places in the name of romance. I did it once. It ended in tears after two years, and actually messed me up good and proper, but I ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/11/have-love-will-travel/ Who could have said in say, August, that we'd be leaning against a bar discussing Iceland? (Of course, you may well have been - given its white-nights party scene, its noble literary history and its endearing penchant for believing in elves, not to mention the genius of Sigur Ros and ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/10/pity-travel/ On my first backpacking trip through Europe at the age of 20, I met a girl in Ios who travelled with a bright purple carry-along suitcase. She looked ridiculous, but I was secretly envious of the ease with which she travelled. Ever since I've wondered, is backpacking an activity that ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/10/backpacks-are-they-really-necessary/ Returning recently from a jaunt in Europe I was faced with a 12-hour stopover in Bangkok. Yes, it sounds like crap, and it was.Hopping off the KLM tumbrel cart I had been strapped to for 13 hours, I slid through customs like a ghost - my head felt like someone ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/10/twelve-hour-stopover-the-ferret-and-the-coconut/ When you're wedged in economy and the person in front of you has jacked their seat back so far you can smell their shampoo, all you can think is 'let me get reborn as a millionaire with a private jet and get me the hell outta here'. Those luxury-scented ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/10/gutterboy-flies-to-swanksville/ OK, let's not even enter into the record vs CD vs MP3 debate. Because believe me, amigos, that argument has only one winner - vinyl - and that's final! Besides, it's not really travel-related, so we'd have to take it outside anyway.But hey, record junkies travel too, and that's just ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/10/vinyl-destinations-the-worlds-best-record-shops/ My number one piece of advice to any traveller relates not to what they should take on a trip, but to what they should leave at home - basically as much as possible.It's a hard one to get your head around, though. Your backpack is open on your bed the ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/10/packing-light/ Volcanoes are the most extreme of tourist attractions, if not the hottest. They explode and kill, and travellers seek them out regardless. Though I'm yet to melt a sandal in semi-molten rock or toast marshmallows on hot pumice, I have got close to the edge a few times:Aso-san in central ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/10/slightly-extreme-sightseeing/ They’re everywhere - in books and magazines, on postcards and tea towels, coffee mugs, fridge magnets and t-shirts - artistic masterpieces so familiar and endlessly reproduced they could be wallpaper for our collective consciousness. Warhol's soup cans, Monet's waterlilies, Van Gogh's swirling skies, Munch's The Scream, Picasso's Weeping Woman... our ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/09/in-the-flesh-art-up-close/ What's the age limit for travelling with your parents? I'd say there isn't one. I've been travelling with mine for 26 years. We've visited more than 100 places in 24 countries and our experiences have been wide ranging: we've shopped in Paris, road tripped through 15 states of the USA ... http://www.extremetravels.com/2008/09/family-holidays/