samedi 30 décembre 2017

LISTS FOR 2018 TRAVEL AND MUSIC AVOID THE FIRST AND EMBRACE THE SECOND


Towards the end of the calendar year, popular travel magazines and websites begin to predict or adivine the best places to travel for the coming year, predicting that they would be the popular .
to me there is only one use for such list, it helps me avoid those places.
Here is one such list :
  • Mauritius. ...
  • Marrakesh, Morocco. ...
  • The Bahamas. ...
  • New Orleans, Louisiana. ...
  • Egypt. ...
  • Fiji. A beach at sunset in Fiji. ...
  • Archipelago Sea, Finland. An island near Helsinki, Finland. ...
  • Greenland. Homes on the island of Uummannaq, Greenland.
  • Copenhagen
  • I would miss not visiting Marrakech the coming year, but then again Marrakech was always a popular site and this year more so. 
I am sure the pundits at Lonely Planet would conjure up their own list, which I could use to avoid more places.
My plans for travel in 2018 would include 
Israel
Colombo 
Melbourne
Easter Island
The Amazon
and the other usual culprits which cannot be considered as Travel but rather than homecoming! 
But when the papers, journals and websites publish lists of music to listen to, I pay close attention as this is the time to learn about great musicians from other countries.
This past year, I discovered Revivo Project from Israel and today I downloaded a video of Yasmine Hamdan, a Lebanese singer who lives in Paris.
Some new artists I am hoping to listen soon are:
Oumou Sangare  Mali, I have listened to her music but she has an album, Mogoya

Songhoy Blues from Mali
While listening to Iceland Symphony Orchestra, I discovered a group called Hjaltalin.. just amazing. It shows how much more music to discover!

ah! the pleasures of living..
Talking about travel, my last trip to Cochin was absolutely the best, I cant tell you what happened, I did not do any sightseeing except walk around the familiar streets, but did spend an exceptional day with Friends from Cochin.

There is yet another list travel magazines put out knowing fully well that 99% of the Americans would neither have the money nor the time and more tragically no inclination to do so.
Travel and Leisure had such a list, here is a sampler
Marine life in Madagascar
Humpback whales in Ningaloo Reef
Luxury train trips in Kyushu
It says then many of them are aimed at the Millenials, adding the sad statistic: 48% of the Millenials (the least interesting generation to come) do not take all their vacation days.. Such a tragedy!
At least we don't have to avoid their destinations, they just don't travel.

May our paths cross during 2018!


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