{"id":643,"date":"2012-05-30T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningnewsinverse.com\/?p=643"},"modified":"2012-05-30T07:00:07","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T14:00:07","slug":"in-searchof-the-road-to-zanzibar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=643","title":{"rendered":"In Search of the ‘Road to Zanzibar’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if it was the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken<\/em>, Charles Kuralt\u2019s \u2018Road Books\u2019 or the old \u2018Road Movies\u2019 that got me hooked, but \u2018the road\u2019 has always had a certain appeal to me, particularly the one less traveled – like\u00a0the one to Zanzibar.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I was first introduced to the Frost poem in high school freshman English by Miss O\u2019Brien I\u2019m guessing my eyes glazed over as she explained the symbolism presented therein \u2013 hey, it was first period and I didn\u2019t drink coffee yet (I was told\u00a0it would stunt my growth!).\u00a0 But at some point, much later, I not only \u2018got it\u2019, but I embraced it.\u00a0 So if anyone knows the whereabouts of Miss O\u2019Brien, please let her know that I didn\u2019t turn into the illiterate reprobate that she suggested I might.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My attraction to Charles Kuralt\u2019s books came later in life \u2013 watching him on CBS\u2019s Sunday Morning<\/em>\u00a0and then following his adventures through his \u2018road books\u2019 as he traveled the back roads of American and, as he put it, \u2018drifted with the current of life\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But if I\u2019m being honest, my first bite from the \u2018wanderlust\u2019 bug came from those \u2018road pictures\u2019 (that what they called movies back then) \u2013 Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour cavorting in such exotic places as Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, Bali \u2013 I admit to having all seven \u2018pictures\u2019 in VHS and<\/em> DVD.\u00a0 OK, I know now<\/em> that they never got off Paramount Pictures back lot, but as a kid I bought into those phony sets and white men with face-black playing the role of the natives.\u00a0 It was those movies that let me know at an early age that there were far-off places that were very different from the neighborhood I knew \u2013 and I wanted to see them.\u00a0 Zanzibar sounded particularly mysterious \u2013 I wanted to travel that road.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Now as each summer approaches, I ask myself, \u2018Where in the world do I want to go?\u2019\u00a0 As if in answer to my question, I received a copy of National Geographic Traveler <\/em>\u00a0in the mail.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember subscribing to it, but it had my name on the cover label so I guess I did.\u00a0 I\u2019m a sucker for any travel magazine and subject to impulse buying of such things so I probably ordered it.\u00a0 In this issue they touted the \u201c50 Tours of a Lifetime\u201d.\u00a0 I skipped right to page 82 where the article began.\u00a0 I was intrigued by the kind of places they were naming: \u00a0Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Patagonia, Myanmar.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good day for me when I can work the word Zimbabwe into my conversation \u2013 it\u2019s just a fun word to say.\u00a0 \u201cOh, that Ivory carving?\u00a0 I got it in a small village on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.\u201d\u00a0 I like saying Mozambique too, so it\u2019s really a good day when I can get them both into the same sentence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A further examination of these \u2018Fifty Tours of a Lifetime\u2019 revealed two things:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1)\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019d need several \u2018lifetime\u2019 just to get to them all in, and<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2)\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019d need several more lifetimes to earn the money necessary to pay for these tours.<\/p>\n

To wit:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Zimbabwe<\/strong> \u201315 day tour, $6,295 (Side trip to Mozambique and ivory carving\u00a0not \u00a0included<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Myanmar<\/strong> \u2013 9 days, $7,495 (Previously known as Burma \u2013 you remember \u2018Burma Road\u2019, or perhaps Burma Shave?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t matter, they\u2019re both gone now)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Botswana<\/strong> \u2013 15 days, $17,825\u00a0\u00a0 ($17,825!!!\u00a0 Wow, I would like to work Botswana into a conversation as well, but not at these prices!)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I finally came to the realization that looking at the \u201950 Tours of a Lifetime\u2019 was like looking at a Playboy Magazine<\/em> \u2013 I\u2019m seeing places I\u2019ll never get to.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But I will hit some back roads this summer and see if I can ‘drift along with the current of life’ and report back to you; I\u2019d encourage you to do the same thing.\u00a0 Let us know about your \u2018roads less traveled\u2019.<\/p>\n

POST SCRIPT:\u00a0 I’ve\u00a0yet to hit\u00a0the \u2018Road to Zanzibar\u2019, it actually requires a boat since Zanzibar is a city on the island of Unguja off the east coast of Africa, but I guess you knew that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0by Bob Sparrow \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if it was the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken, Charles Kuralt\u2019s \u2018Road Books\u2019 or the old \u2018Road Movies\u2019 that got me hooked, but \u2018the road\u2019 has always had a certain appeal … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[66,87,92,124,474,489,542,569,609,612,652,684,717,795],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bali","tag-bing-crosby","tag-bob-hope-dorothy-lamour","tag-charles-kurant","tag-morocco","tag-national-geogrpahic","tag-paramount-pictures","tag-playboy","tag-road-movies","tag-robert-frost","tag-singapore","tag-sunday-morning","tag-the-road-not-taken","tag-zanzibar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-an","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}