It’s time for the August 2014 issue of Perceptive Travel , where I happen to be founder and editor. It launched in 2006 and is still alive and kicking, so we must be doing something right.
This month we go off the beaten path, waaayyy off in fact. If we were trying to sell magazines on a newsstand based on the places featured on the cover, we’d be in trouble: West Papau, Gürün in Turkey, and some remote hidden villages in Mali. There’s a geography quiz few people would pass.
That’s okay though, because we like good travel stories better than the latest restaurant rundown for some place you’ve already read about a hundred times.
James Dorsey has won quite a few awards for stories he has published in Perceptive Travel and elsewhere and this time he ventures into villages in Mali that are hard to even see from a distance. There he encounters people who claim to be from a distant star in outer space and aren’t exactly the model of hospitality. See The People Who Are Not There .
Marco Ferrarese feared he might be starring in his own version of Midnight Express when a policeman ordered him to pack up his tent and come with him to the police station. But things turned out a little differently in this remote town in Anatolia. See Gürün Prison Blues in Rural Turkey .
The photos are a lot prettier when we move from rural Turkey to the South Pacific islands of West Papau, where coral gardens and gorgeous islands are on the itinerary for Micheal Buckley’s multi-day kayaking trip from one cove to another. See Up a Tree, in a Wetsuit in West Papau.
Each month we also review some cool new travel books and some world music worth downloading and taking with you in your travels. Susan Griffith checks out a diverse set of travel books covering Italy, Tibet, and “radical architecture” in poor parts of Latin America. Laurence Mitchell spins some new world music albums from around the globe, all combining at least two cultures to create a new hybrid sound.
Could you use free travel gear?
Each month our subscribers and followers have a shot at winning something useful for their travels. Last month reader Keith W. from Oregon scored a nice $140 STM Drifter pack for carrying all his gadgets and gear. This time we’re giving away the new nylon Pickpocket Proof Business Pants from Clothing Arts. When I wear these around I look good enough to go meet with a hotel manager for my job, but can walk through the diciest looking parts of town knowing nobody is getting to my valuables without knocking me out first. We’re talking layers and layers of frustration for even the craftiest thief.
How do you get your own pair and get in on future giveaways? It’s very easy: subscribe to the monthly newsletter .
