Cultural baggage
If you'd rather a portion of your luggage purchases went to a worthy cause rather than to a local landlord, then shopping online for a Sandstorm bag could be the way to go. Hand made in Kenya by the Luo tribe, who live in the basin beside Lake Victoria, this upmarket range of baggage is made from camel- and cowhide, rugged canvas and tweed and has brass fittings. The company website says all its workers are over 18, well trained and looked after, and that it makes a donation to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy for every bag sold. Prices range from about #38 (HK$610) to several hundred pounds for top-of-the-line items. Visit
www.sandstormbags.com.
Expert witness
World Reviewer is a new website that is 'collecting experts, travel specialists and dedicated travellers to review the best the world has to offer'. Said offerings are screened for quality then categorised and posted for visitors to browse through by subject or by country. If you want to become a contributor, you'll have to submit at least 10 articles of 100 to 200 words on a specific destination or specialist area of knowledge, whereupon, subject to approval, World Reviewer will give you your own online profile and link to your website, if you have one. Everyone else can just peruse the offerings in categories such as Film Locations, Monster Hunting and Unusual Places to Stay, or by destination using the World Reviewer interactive map. Visit
www.worldreviewer.com for more.
Journey through time
Promising 'a fascinating journey through centuries of travel writing', Worth the Detour: A History of the Guidebook is a new volume that looks at the development of travel guides since Biblical times. Referencing titles such as a Guidebook to the Seven Wonders of the World and a 15th-century guide to the Holy Land, as well as more recent guides, author Nicholas T. Parsons, the writer of several Blue Guide publications, maps out 'major cultural and social changes that have witnessed the transformation of travel'. Also worth getting hold of for anyone interested in the history of the guidebook is Francis Galton's The Art of Travel: Or, Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries (1855), which was reprinted earlier this year. Much of the information comes from the author's adventures in southwest Africa, but travel and survival tips from places such as Tibet, South America and the Arctic are included. As well as advice on shooting crocodiles and tea making, it features an interesting chapter on the first sleeping bags and backpacks, recipes for pemmican - an early form of survival food for explorers - and a stomach-churning guide to the procurement and consumption of 'revolting food that may save the lives of starving men'. Worth the Detour and The Art of Travel are available from local bookstores for HK$280 and HK$224, respectively.