That first workshop went so well that when I found out Lynda was doing a 5-day class this summer, I signed up immediately. The only hitch was that it was in New York and not even NYC, which would be easy to get to, but upstate NY at a place called The Omega Institute. This meant logistics and planning and as it turns out, vegetarian meals for a week.

Omega is basically a summer camp for adults. The week I attended was Arts Week, so besides Lynda’s class, people could select workshops in West African Dance, Mask Making, Gospel Singing, Tap Dance, Trapeze Artistry, etc. And all of them (except my class luckily) performed at the week’s conclusion ala Waiting For Guffman. And although I didn’t expect to enjoy it, I did. I really did. Especially the trapeze performance. Ballsy (in more ways than one)!

The Institute itself consists of a few basic buildings for lodging where you have your choice of camping (I don’t think so!), sharing a big fat wide-open dorm room (nope), getting your own private room in a dorm with a shared bathroom (more my speed), or getting a cottage all to yourself (reasonably priced, but not necessary). No matter which option you choose, it doesn’t matter too much because you won’t be in your room very often anyways.

That’s because in addition to whichever workshop you sign up for, there are a million other things to do and most of them are included in the lodging fee. Tai chi, yoga, meditation, kayaking, swimming, tennis, even a “movement” class where you can pretend you’re a snake writhing around on the ground to music. Yes, if you haven’t already guessed, Omega is a crunchy granola type of place. In fact, it wouldn’t be a misnomer to refer to it as Hippie Village. I know I did.

But with the lushness of the property, the serenity of the lily pad covered lake and the twinkly, blinky fireflies, you’ll find yourself willing to overlook all that. Plus, hippies really know how to relax. To that end, I partook of two spa treatments at their Wellness Center while I was there. One craniosacral massage (I’ve been meaning to try this out for a while. Eh.). And one shiatsu massage (A little rushed, but decent).

The only real blemish was the food, which is also included in your fee. As you know, I’m a meat-eater and while I saw it as an interesting challenge to eat veggie for 5 days, after the 2nd day I wanted to go find a cow in a nearby pasture and suck on its hide just to experience some flavor. I mean, c’mon veggies, is it so hard to add salt to a dish? Just shake your wrist like you’re playing the tambourine. The funny thing is, there was a “bland food” section where you could get greens or beans or whatever that weren’t cooked with any seasoning at all and I couldn’t imagine any of those options tasting much different than what I got.

Even so, I left Omega with a warm cozy feeling that’s still with me even a few days later. If you’re on the East coast and trying to get away for even a weekend, I’d recommend taking a look at their schedule. They offer a wide variety of program options and if you don’t feel like doing a damn thing, they also offer a Rest and Relaxation Retreat so you can just do as you please for however long you feel pleased to do it.

And it should go without saying, if you want to learn a fantastic and simple writing method taught by one of the funniest, most self-deprecating genius authors/cartoonists of our time, then sign up for Lynda’s class next year. Or check out her site to see if she’ll be coming to your town soon. If she’s not (and even if she is), pick up a copy of her brand new book, “What It Is,” which explains her method and incorporates her signature drawing and collage-style artwork. Totally fun to read! And inspiring for the lil’ writer inside of you who is patiently waiting for that “someday” when you take your talent seriously.

Travel Betty Basics

Omega Institute
Rhinebeck, NY 

Rhinebeck Taxi
(845)876-6600
You can rely on them to pick you up when they say they will and you’ll also have a pleasant time chatting with your driver. 

Amtrak
I caught the Omega shuttle up from NYC, but on the way back I had to take a taxi, the train, the subway, the AirTrain and then my flight. Shwew! But Amtrak was quite delightful.  

Speaking of adios, you’ll have to take good notes and report back to me about the event because I’ll be filling my belly with tapas and bull’s blood. Travel Boyfriend is speaking at a an engineering conference in Madrid next week and guess who’s tagging along? I’m bummed to be missing Beth’s insightful talk, but now I’ll have fresh new travel tips to pass along from the European continent just in time for summer.

Workshop Schedule:

June 3, 2008 6-8:30 pm - REI Marina - Bay Area, California
Wandering the World: Essential Tips for Travelers

June 4, 2008 6-8:30 pm - REI Berkeley - Bay Area, California
Wandering the World: Essential Tips for Travelers

June 5, 2008 6-8:30 pm - REI Saratoga - Bay Area, California
Wandering the World: Essential Tips for Travelers

Pre-register through her website and get $3 off the twenty dollar admission charge. 

So, without further ado, here are my 2 cents for Wanderlust and Lipstick:

What woman hasn’t dreamed of scrapping it all and hitting the open road? I mean, even that Bridges of Madison County woman was willing to let herself imagine trading in the apron for a chance to follow around a National Geographic photographer. Ultimately she decided gingham was indeed her color and stayed behind, but at least she dared to dream! Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo is the book you should read when you’re ready to give that dream a swift kick into the planning stage.Yes, there is the typical ‘is it safe for a woman to travel alone?’ and the ‘oh, woe is me, won’t I be lonely?’ talk, but it’s all handled in an evolved and inspirational manner and there’s no dwelling. The chapter called “Getting Beyond the Excuses” is especially helpful for allowing us to recognize that just because our fears sometimes have a louder mouth than our heart, we shouldn’t let them stop us.Much more of the book is focused on providing resources and anecdotes to actually get your butt out of the armchair and into the rickshaw, tuk tuk or gondola. Do you want to hike across Europe? Brush up on your botany skills? Learn how perfectly prepare a whole baby turtle? (Hey, you better not!) Wanderlust and Lipstick will point you in the right direction.Will you be able to plan your whole trip from start to finish using only this book? No, but that’s not the point. It’s the book you should read when you’re first mulling it over.“Can I do this?” Yes!“Should I?” Yes! Yes!“Now what?”Beth will give you the whats and where-to-gos so you can find what you need to create a truly unique journey for yourself. Half the fun is in the preparation and anticipation of what will be. Wanderlust and Lipstick makes sure that you’ve got realistic expectations and the resources you need to make it be something truly life-altering.In addition to her resourceful book, Beth also maintains a really rich and fantastic site called, what else? Wanderlustandlipstick.com of course! Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling SoloOther Betties Blogging About Beth Whitman Go NomadGadlingEurope a la CarteFull disclosure: Beth sent me a complimentary copy of this book. Because I have deep respect for my readers and strive to maintain a high quality blog above all else, my review is based upon my own opinions. If I didn’t like it, you’d know.

Not 20 minutes ago, I was sitting at the Seaside Restaurant on Legian beach in Bali, Indonesia. I’ve been bringing your book, Headless, with me to meals because I’m currently traveling alone. I got married here last week, but that’s another story.

Anyway, I start reading “Marnie” and get to the part where you describe her ski crash and my ears instantly stuff up and sweat does not just bead up on my face, it oozes out of pores like at a Play-Do Fun Factory. My heart starts racing and everything starts to go black. I swear I’m going to pass out and I haven’t even gotten to the part where you find her wrapped around the tree yet. I’m a 20-hour plane away from everyone I know and love in San Francisco and I can’t believe your story just plunged me into a full-scale panic attack. I haven’t had one in a year. And trust me, I’ve done a lot of damn work to make it that way.

It’s a beautiful sunny day. People are surfing. My waiter is sitting off to my right smiling contently in my general direction. I don’t know how I’m going to get back to my villa without passing out or drawing a crowd. Finally the word bathroom flashes before me. I clasp my cold drink for a few seconds and put the makeshift compress that is my hand to my head. A few deep breaths and I’m up. I almost walk off of a 3-foot drop in my hurried quest to find an unoccupied stall.

Once inside, I hike up my skirt and take a shit reminiscent of the one you describe in “The Fecality of it All.” I spot a sign that says “Do not flush ‘Softex’ down toilet. Please place in sanitary bag and dispose in the trash.” I think fuck, this toilet isn’t burly enough to handle toilet paper and now I’m trying to flush a two-foot turd? At this point, I wonder if you’re some kind of psychic and your book isn’t somehow predicting my future. The thought of your prescience during this intimate moment creeps me out.

Like you, I’ve got no choice but to flush. I do put the ‘Softex’ in the trash though. For whatever difference that makes. Then I wash my hands, take a deep breath and hightail it out of there.

On my way home, I think about the Passion Fruit granita I left behind at the restaurant. It had an entire scoop of real passion fruit at the bottom. The Seaside even gives you a little spoon so you can scoop the seeds out when you’re finished sucking up the sweet ice. This is really the only part I’m pissed about. Well, that and knowing that I’m going to force myself to read the rest of your damn story even though I know it’s going to make me sick.

So, anyway, thanks for the book. I quite like it.

Suffice it to say, that’s not the case with No Reservations. In fact, it’s so not the case, that I am actually contemplating a visit to Uzbekistan! Not a locale Samantha Brown is ever going to convince you to sample. No, Uzbekistan is purely Anthony Bourdain territory. I mean, this guy’s show on Cleveland featuring surfers swimming in freezing water filled with human poop made me want to go THERE! And that’s where I grew up for Christ’s sake. I KNOW it’s not cool.

Suffice it to say, I’m smitten. So you can imagine how excited I got when I read in my Book Passage newsletter that Anthony Boudain was coming to the Bay Area not only to speak publicly about his latest book, but to actually COOK for the crowd and talk about his latest book. Shazzam! Too good to be true.

Yes, sadly it was.

I looked at the date. Sunday, November 18th. The day I return from Bali. The dinner set to start a half hour after my plane lands in San Francisco. Do not think that I didn’t contemplate purchasing my ticket anyway. I did. Right after I took a moment to fantasize about showing up during some sort of open mic portion of the evening to tell him I had just come back not 30 minutes prior from a month in Bali inspired by his visit to Ibu Oka in Ubud. And that I would love to work as a scout for his show. Or be his best friend. And that then he would say, “Wow, you are super fucking cool. How about I hire you AND you can be my best friend?”

If at this point you’re thinking, “Who cares about you, Travel Betty? How do I get my own tickets? I won’t just be returning from Bali. I can go!” well then you’re out of luck. The event is sold out (And why are you being like that anyway?! I thought we were friends!) The good news is, the day before (Saturday November 17), he’ll be in San Francisco at Book Passage’s Ferry Building location to speak about his latest book, “No Reservations: Around the World On an Empty Stomach.” He won’t be cooking, but you can see him in person. And who knows, maybe he’ll even offer to be YOUR best friend.

Travel Betty Basics

Book Passage
1 Ferry Building, #42
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 835-1020

No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach

Other Betties Blogging About Anthony Bourdain

Off The Broiler: The Shwarma and Shrapnel Episode
Super Chef: Anthony Bourdain’s Nasty Bits
And the man himself: Anthony Bourdain Blogging over at Bravo

If you’ve got your own positive associations with Africa, send her your submissions: http://belleafrique.blogspot.com/

This is not your traditional outsider-in-Africa-wow-isn’t-life-different-here travelogue. For one thing, Beryl Markham is not an outsider. Her healthy reverence and deep knowledge of the land proves she is just as much a part of Africa as the Maruni tribe she engages with. For another thing, this isn’t a travelogue. In West With The Night, Africa is but a single (albeit bold) personality in a menagerie of wild and wise characters. Her descriptions of old Africa before backpackers and aid workers and even suitable roadways made me nostalgic for a time I never knew. But ultimately this is a story about her life. And it just happens to be set in Kenya.

So if you’re looking for a hyper-engaging book to carry you through the rest of the summer and you’re already done with all 9,649 pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which I just started yesterday!), this is it. Go on, I dare you not to feel the breath of those two lions on the backs of your heels as you devour Markham’s prose.

In a surprising upset, The Rough Guide to Egypt beat out my usual go-to, Lonely Planet. Published in December 2005, I found that hardly any information was out of date. It offered a lot of background information and history and the cover alone will make you want to fly off to see Islamic Cairo right this instant.

A new updated version will be available at the end of July (sadly with a new, sightly less evocative cover as you’ll see below).

In comparison, I felt like Lonely Planet kind of phoned it in on this one. In this May 2006 edition, there wasn’t a lot of meat, especially in regards to lesser-known sights. I found their maps (especially in Aswan) to be lacking and their restaurant options countrywide to be ho-hum. In a few sections, like their description of Bir Wahed in Siwa, it seemed like they just pulled text straight from the Rough Guide! What gives, LP? Halfway though the trip, I ended up tearing out a few key pages and leaving the rest behind in my hotel room.

The hard part about picking travel guides is that you never really know how useful it will be until you get there. Obviously you can figure out pretty quickly if you’re more of a Lonely Planet / Rough Guides traveler rather than a Fodor’s kind of girl, but my best advice is to always start off with a couple of guides to reference against each other. You can never seem to have too many restaurant options. Then, if you notice you’re using one book more than the other, do what I did. Tear out the few sections that seem to complement your other book and leave the rest behind for someone else to enjoy.

I actually ended up bringing a third guidebook, Eyewitness Travel Guide’s Egypt. It mostly focuses on sightseeing in Cairo and Luxor (a lot of mosques and churches). I liked it for the pictures, but it was less of a reference while I was on the trip. In fact, it mostly sat at the bottom of my bag for the duration. I use it as more of a keepsake and mind jogger now that I have returned. The new 2007 edition should be available at the end of August.