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Reasons

© Diane Goldberg under the original topic name

A light dusting of snow covers part of the Carolinas today. Here in Charlotte schools close whenever folks see a few flakes and we participate in the traditional Southern beer/bread/milk purchasing ritual.

I'm hoping Charlotte will be the site of the WorldCon 2004, a massive gathering of science fiction fans that occurs annually in different spots around the globe. http://www.scenic-city.com/charlotte2004/ is the site for the WorldCon bid where you can find out about it.

Which has what to do with travel?

Well, science fiction fans are often isolated in their own communities. As a result they make annual, in some cases monthly pilgrimages to conventions to meet with simpatico souls and plot global domination. In addition to WorldCons the calendar is full of smaller convention, like my "home" con Stellarcon http://www.uncg.edu/student.groups/sf3/s...

It occurs to me that the reasons people travel are legion. In addition to the standard love of going from point A to point B that afflicts travel addicts, there's a list of rasions d'road some strange and some mundane --- most of them pretty interesting.

Scott, who hosts http://www.findadeath.com/ travels to sites where the famous or infamous have snuffed it. The former tour guide for Grave Line tours in California spends his vacation visiting departure points. If you're like-minded, he'd love to hear from you regarding photos you're willing to share.

It's a dead person Mercator http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~hist... that gave us the term atlas for a collection of maps. He began traveling to sort out some spiritual questions. His religious longings unanswered he developed a keen interest in geography.

Religious pilgrimage has historically been a major reason to hit the road. India is a frequent destination for enlightment seekers who visit a variety of sites, many listed at http://www.allindiaguide.com/gplaces/pil... Traveling Quakers in the USA may find a welcome at http://www.netaxs.com/~thomast/qhouse/. While Catholic tourists may prefer a visit to Rome http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/eur/rom... For Moslems, it's Mecca. A guide for independent pilgrims making the Hajj is at http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Caba...

Then, of course there's http://www.virtualjerusalem.com for most of the western world.

On the down and dirty, rumor has it that many travelers to Thailand go for the brothels. While a net search will net you a long list of porn sites devoted to Thailand, you can get non-smut data on Thailand at http://www.cockatoo.com/thailand-news/in...

However, wherever you want to go or why, you'll find the location of the government tour office here http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/lucas/travel/tour...

Thanks for stopping by.

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The copyright of the article Reasons in Traveling on a Budget is owned by Diane Goldberg under the original topic name. Permission to republish Reasons in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.