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B O N E V O Y A G E
Robert W. Bone is a successful writer, author, editor and photographer in the U.S. and abroad. He's lived in a half dozen different countries and traveled to nearly 100. (All content copyrighted.)
Blogging in the Aegean Sea
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The Aegean Odyssey
I plan to blog daily or almost daily for two weeks beginning about April 14 from the cruise ship Aegean Odyssey as she cruises from Venice to Istanbul, calling at several ports along the way. This blog will not appear here, however. It will be found instead at an internal URL on the All Things Cruise web site, specifically http://allthingscruise.com/topics/bone. This small ship is somewhat unusual in that most shore excursions are included, and lecturers are on hand to explain the interesting ports on the itinerary.
Posted in Introspective
They sorta look like us, they kinda talk like us, but — hey — they’re Canadian!
- Earnest conversation at Canada Media Marketplace
Never mind. Judging by the smiling and earnest expressions of both nationalities at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel this week, the Canadian Tourism Commission again did itself proud with this year’s Canada Media Marketplace.
It was my first time at this lavish annual affair wherein dozens of representatives of travel enterprises north of the border lay it on thick to present their vacation attractions to American writers, editors, photographers, and both working and wannabe working travel journalists.
In theory, any number of these might be persuaded to explore the attractions of Canada’s ten provinces and thee territories over the next 12 months and then present their findings in attractive photos and inviting prose luring potential travelers from the 50 states across the 49th parallel.
This year there were desperate overtones in hosts and guests which reflect both (a) today’s difficult economic situation in general, and (b) the shrinking number of outlets for the efforts of both promoters and those whose attentions they seek. Among the invited guests, the majority were more dedicated to convincing the presenters and themselves that they could somehow find an outlet for their documented experiences in print, on the air, or on the web. In many cases this means a plea for an outright subsidy – or an exotic media trip to Canada – A?
(April 3, 2012.)
Posted in Introspective
San Francisco Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show
I went to the show on Sunday (2/19), and here are four of the famous or interesting personalities I saw there.
Photographer Ralph Velasco, left, who lectured on travel photography (the overhead lighting was certainly no help to his images), then Ranger Dana Dierkes, from Sequoia National Park, who explained what a “scat tray” is to fascinated youngsters, next, author Rick Steves, who was trying to remember something, apparently, and prize-winning photographer Bob Holmes, peering through his bifocals while shooting the show with his smart phone camera.
If you don’t know what a scat tray is, you can click the second image to enlarge it. That might help.
Posted in Introspective
Nervous on a cruise ship?
Far left: Odysseus’ dilemma crossing the Strait of Messina. Left: Cruisers on the Nieuw Amsterdam in the strait take it all in stride.
Friends know that Sara and I often travel on and write about cruise ships, and occasionally we’re asked if we are at all nervous while doing this job.
For three days on the Queen Elizabeth 2 in the fall of 1986, we probably should have been concerned. Instead, we rolled with the punches as that mighty vessel fought through a gale and heavy seas with a broken stabilizer. That’s another story — and probably a good one for a later edition of BoneVoyage.us (this blog).
Last year, I might have been a little apprehensive as my ship, the 86,000-ton Nieuw Amsterdam aproached the Strait of Messina. That’s the narrow strip of water between the toe of Italy’s boot and the large Mafia-legendary island of Sicily.
That narrow gap was where Odysseus, that ancient mariner of the Mediterranean, was forced to navigate carefully between Scylla and Charybdis. If you remember your Odyssey, Scylla was a six-headed creature who occupied a cliff on one side of the two-mile-wide channel and Charybdis was a monstrous whirlpool stirring up trouble along the opposite bank.
According to Homer, Odysseus’ ship managed to skirt Charybdis and then scoot through the channel intact. Never mind that he lost a half-dozen members of his crew in the process — one sailor each to feed the six mouths of Scylla.
Our own passage through the strait was smooth and uneventful. No monster appeared, and although there is indeed a large whirlpool still indicated on modern sea charts, the stately flagship of the Holland-America Line was up to the task.
All of our 2000 passengers and 1000 crew members, and the beautiful, black-hulled ship itself, survived intact.
Posted in Cruises
January 2012: Hawaiian Memories
Waimea Falls (Photo by Bone)
From 1971 until 2008 my family and I made our home in Hawaii. While living in Honolulu, I visited and revisited all the islands of the state many times, and turned out hundreds of travel articles for newspapers and magazines, many of them on Hawaiian subjects.
I also wrote four travel books including the award-winning Maverick Guide to Hawaii. The book was first published in 1977 and then revised annually for 25 years.The last edition was in 2002, after which it finally succumbed to the juggernaut of the internet.
This month I’m making a return visit to Honolulu in an effort to keep up on tourism-related changes, research a couple of brand new stories, and to visit many good friends.
The gradually expanding links here on this post will reprise a former column on the Islands. It will consist of several short articles about the Aloha State.
Posted in Hawaii, Introspective
Give me Liberty
- Cruisers returning to the ship at Cozumel
Monday, Dec. 5 – I am enjoying life aboard the Carnival cruise ship Liberty, which docked this morning for a few hours at the popular Mexican island of Cozumel.
Cruise ships are sometimes criticized for fostering the impression among their guests that they are still in the U.S., and not in some foreign land where the language, food, money, laws, and customs are different than at home. Here on the Liberty, most of us feel as “free” we do at home.
Waiting in the breakfast line on the Lido deck, I struck up a conversation with a woman who was traveling with her father: “My husband is at home,” she said. “He works for the Federal government, so he can’t be here.
“He’s forbidden to set foot in Mexico,” she said.
It was a surprise to me, and now I wonder how many Americans are not free to visit certain countries – even countries with which we have diplomatic relations.
Even on a ship named Liberty
Posted in Cruises, Introspective
Bone leads in to the SATW coverage in New Zealand
On the eve of the November debut of the film, the “Rum Diary,” the TV3 network in New Zealand asked me to talk about my early friendship with Hunter Thompson. Then they ended up switching the mood entirely, using brief portions of the 15-minute interview to lead into coverage of the opening events of the annual meeting of The Society of American Travel Writers, held in Wellington. (I’ve been a member of that prestigious organization since the 1970′s.)
Later, NZ3 included both the short and the long version of the interview on its website. These may or may not be available indefinitely, of course. In any case, I have permanently preserved the air check video made by my brother-in law, Eric Cameron, in Rotorua. It can be seen by clicking here. (Give it a few seconds to load.)
I suggest not selecting the longer, perhaps more boring version of the interview, which is the second of two choices on the page, at least it is as long as this URL remains valid:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Travel-writer-Bob-Bone—full-interview/tabid/420/articleID/232452/Default.aspx .
Hunter Thompson and Bob Bone in my Fiat 500 in Puerto Rico, 1959.
Johnny Depp's car in the Rum Diary, 2011.
Posted in Introspective
The Wong way is the right way for Hawaiian food
- Chef Wong (right) on the dark terrace in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO –Myself and about 49 other fortunate souls had a delicious time on a cool Friday night in November, 2011, learning to eat Hawaiian style here in Fog City.
It was called the “Taste Hawai’i Tour,” mainly featuring the creative talents of Alan Wong. In case you missed it Wong is perhaps the most famous of the high-profile celebrity chefs who have been performing culinary miracles for the cognoscenti in the Aloha State over the past few years.
This was the first of six similar events in San Francisco celebrating Hawaiian food and farms as well as inovative Hawaiian gourmet cooking. It also featured a brief explanation by Arnold Hiura, a Hawaiian food historian, plus some members of the Hawaiian farming community who believe that diversified agriculture and sophisticated tastes have grown far beyond former island staples such as pineapple, sticky rice, and Spam. According to some, Hawaii with its long subtropical growing season is destined to become known for specialized food production tomorrow as it is for sea-sand-and-surf today.
Not that the traditional pineapple is to be sneezed at. As a matter of fact, Continue reading ‘The Wong way is the right way for Hawaiian food’
Posted in Food
The header shot and some web history
My longtime friend and newspaper colleague, Bob Hollis, took the photo I’m currently using as the header of this new blog. I was on the balcony of my stateroom on Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam shooting pictures (of what, I can’t imagine). I had begun to dress for a formal dinner on the ship and took a brief time out for photography. (Bob also took the photo at the left.)
Incidentally, this is not really my first blog. From 2005 through 2008, I produced the Vertical Pronoun News, which is still accessable. My two other web sites, one dating back to 1966, are robertbone.com and the newer travelpieces.com.
If you find bonevoyage.us hard to remember, you can also find this blog by using an alternate address, robertbone.com/wp. (My daughter says nobody will ever remember an address that ends with anyhthing other than dot-com or dot-net.)
Let me also offer an apology from a neophyte at the blog stuff. I have not yet figured out all that the WordPress format has to offer, and please forgive me the dead links and other amateur flubs until solve the technical problems. Meanwhile, I am also frequently available on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Robert.W.Bone
Now, after some difficulty, the “Comments” section seems to be working. Please click on the “No Comment” or “Comments” line below to chime in about any particular post, including this one.
Posted in Introspective
Epic proportions
Books and Bowling Shoes: My previously published story on the Norwegian Epic has come to life again as the lead story in the October issue of WatchBoom. It was also carried on Linda Coffman’s prizewinning Cruise Diva site earlier in 2011. (Click on either to read.)
Nothing to do with the story. But here’s a little contest: NCL Cruisers can choose to take this colorful jitney on the long dock from the ship to the shore at Costa Maya, Mexico. You can click on Comment below to tell me why it looks like there’s nobody steering the thing! (I had to figure this out myself, and I took the picture!)
UPDATE: Gordon McBride of Wellington, New Zealand came up with the correct answer almost immediately. If you give up, click on the “comments” to see Gordon’s answer.
Posted in Cruises
