Traveling can take you back in time (as in, history)…or it can take you away in space (as in, geography; so far no actual space travel for me). I’m about to do both.
After close to two months without any substantive travel, I’m eager to get on the road again. And the air. And the sea. Upcoming trips will cover all of those.
First there is the annual Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where I get to travel back in time. After a three day battle the previous July, Abraham Lincoln took a train to Gettysburg to deliver “a few appropriate remarks.” He was a bit of an afterthought for the event; the keynote speaker, noted orator Edward Everett, regaled the crowd with a two hour speech before Lincoln stood up to present his two minute address. Besides the usual cast of Lincoln scholars, the Forum will feature George Saunders, author of the unique and critically acclaimed bestseller, Lincoln in the Bardo. David Blight will also speak on his new book about African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Returning from Gettysburg only long enough to gas up the car, I’ll hit the road to visit the family in New England. I’ll cover some geographic distance, but this is only a prelude.
A few days after that I’ll be on a plane to Asia, where I’ll set to sea for two weeks. Starting in Honk Kong, the Star Legend (sister yacht to the Star Breeze we took around the Baltic Sea this summer) will zigzag among the islands of the Philippines, with stops in Hundred Islands, Manila, Boracay, Coron, and Palawan. Then on to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, Malaysia on the island of Borneo, with a hop to the “Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace” (or simply, Brunei). The yacht finishes in Singapore, where we’ll stay a few days and probably take a side trip up to Kuala Lumpur.
So I’ll get to experience American history, international history, new and interesting cultures, and a whole lot of new geography. Oh, and hopefully monkeys since last year at this time I found out there are no monkeys in Australia.
More previews and recaps to come!
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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Interesting route, Brunei and Malaysian Borneo in particular. I’ve heard from a couple of people that the Sarawak region is the new ChiangMai. I’ll be curious to hear what you think. The only part of the Philippines I’m familiar with is the Cebu/Leyte area, where I have a friend.
Early stages of planning a trip back to Chile and Argentina. My husband is going to attempt the climb in Chile that he surveyed the last time we were there. But then we’re (I’m) thinking to continue down to Torres del Paine, then cross over to El Chalten and spend some more time there before heading south to Ushuaia, then back up to Punta Arenas… at least a year out.
Except for Hong Kong, I’ve never been to any of these places so I’m really looking forward to it.
I would love to go back to Argentina and also scheduled Ushuaia and Antarctica for Januray (hopefully next year). On my Argentinian road trip I was supposed to go to Torres del Paine but my host snapped his ankle coming down from FitzRoy near El Chalten so we got to see the Perito Moreno glacier near Calafate but had to skip the Chile portion of the trip.
I’ll take plenty of photos, though I’m still sorting through all the ones from past trips. Sigh.