Photo by NessieNoodle

Back before YouTube, people got their entertainment from minstrels traveling town to town with their harps and epic poem-songs, telling stories of the wider world (and hopefully getting a free bed in the process). Modern troubadours might not score free bunks, but—whether you’re a player or enthusiast—music still has the power to connect people in surprising and profound ways. Here are ten reasons to pack that harmonica and keep your ears tuned for the local stuff.

1. Local music is a direct line into the culture. Some musical traditions go back hundreds and thousands of years and are intricately tied to social or religious aspects of a community’s culture. By exposing yourself to locally brewed sounds, you’ll have the opportunity to educate yourself about other elements of that region’s people as well.

2. You can learn about music from other travelers’ countries. You never know what might happen when you pass the guitar around at a hostel. You could get Russian ballads, Cuban jazz, Celtic folk, Spanish flamenco, or Argentinean tango—all while sitting on the beach in India. Hard to find a better forum for world music than that.

3. You can share your country’s music. One night in Durban, South Africa, I was jamming with some local musicians; when I busted out the bluegrass, they were totally bowled over. By sunrise, they were playing “Over the Waterfall” like they’d been doing it all their lives. We created a link where there was none before; it was an incredible feeling (and if Bela Fleck sees a surge in overseas sales, I humbly accept full credit).

4. You can learn to play a new instrument. There are an astounding variety of musical instruments out there, from the balalaika to the berimbau, the esraj to the erhu. Why cling to the guitar when you can try your hand at the gopichand? You’ll add depth to your musical repertoire and dig beneath the surface of the local culture at the same time.

5. You can bond while waiting for your bus. Music can happen anytime, anywhere: in the courtyard of your hostel, on a train station platform surrounded by luggage, or in the back of a bouncing tuk-tuk. Think of all the times you end up sitting around waiting for something, shuffling your feet, rereading your Lonely Planet for the gazillionth time—you can fill those moments with music instead and interact with the people around you.

6. Music transcends language and culture. You don’t need to speak Kiswahili to feel the groove of Kenyan hip-hop. And the people you meet don’t need to understand English to appreciate your version of Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” You can communicate a lot without sharing a language, as long as you’ve got passion and a shared sense of the human cause.

7. It’s a portable party. A handful of travelers plus a few beers equals a chill night. Add a guitar or an iPod with speakers and you’ve got a party. It’s one of the best ways to invite other people into your circle (especially if they’re shy or don’t speak your language), and if they have mp3s to share or are musicians themselves, it will only amplify the fun.

8. You can spread a political message. In many developing countries and regions of conflict, music is one of the most powerful ways of communicating a cause or opposing oppressors. Help the message go viral by getting it on tape (it’s easy to outfit an iPod with a microphone for recording) and spreading it to the world.

9. You can create something new. Some of the greatest musical traditions—including reggae and rock and roll—came about by combining earlier styles together in unique and interesting ways. On the road, you’ll have no shortage of inspiration from local traditions and other travelers. Try putting a Caribbean beat behind a sitar melody line and mix in some gospel harmonies. Start a band with one member from every continent (okay, Antarctica might be tough), and relish the fusion that follows.

10. Music is free. At least, the music we create ourselves is. Think about how much money we spend entertaining ourselves on the road, with drinks, cover charges, transportation, and craft shopping at the overpriced tourist market. Why not skip the spending and get a jam session rolling at your guest-house? Recruit your dorm neighbors and the guy who works at the front desk—see what y’all can come up with.

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A regular contributor to Matador, Jenny Williams, a former national soccer player, quit a job in book publishing to travel in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.

In celebration of tomorrow´s World Responsible Tourism Day we’ve put together a list of the ten best online sources for learning about and planning responsible travel. Please add your recommendation to the list in the comments section—there’s a wealth of material out there and new sources for green travel are always popping up.

Matador Travel and The Traveler’s Notebook should be the first stops for travelers passionate about making a difference on the road. And that’s not just because I write for them. The fact is, these two sites together offer an impressive collection of organizations doing great work, opportunities to get involved, and other dedicated travelers. You can exchange ideas, participate in forums, and search the network for like-minded souls.

Ethical Traveler is a “grass-roots alliance uniting adventurers, tourists, travel agencies, and outfitters—everyone who loves to travel, and sees travel as a positive force in the world.” The organization runs campaigns to raise awareness about environmental crises and human rights abuses all over the world, and offers ways to take action. They also provide a monthly news feed you can subscribe to if you want to keep up on the latest stories and campaigns. Ethical Traveler is a project of the Earth Island Institute, another good resource.

National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations presents a thorough look at the “geotourism” phenomenon. Their destination scorecards are a great place to start when planning a trip, and they even offer a booklet that “gives travel journalists and curious consumers ways to evaluate companies and destinations for sustainability.” The site also provides an excellent list of other resources, including links for “Green Hotel” organizations and eco-tour operators.

Tourism Concern, a UK-based organization, also has campaigns and action plans for green-minded go-getters. Their latest campaign takes a hard look at the effect of the Olympics on the indigenous communities that are often displaced or otherwise negatively affected by such massive events. Tourism Concern has an additional focus on the impact of free versus fair trade on local communities, and specifically aim to include UK Black and Minority Ethnic Diaspora in their educational outreach for travelers.

World Surface calls itself a resource of “sustainable tourism for backpackers and independent travelers.” lists hundreds of eco-tours and offers contributions from travelers while they’re on the road. The site also details volunteer opportunities and conservation vacations. It’s easy to navigate and search for locations and tours.

The Connected Traveler has a long list of resources for “Good Travel” and “Volontourism” on the left sidebar. The site has essays, podcasts, and videos on all aspects of sustainable travel, and is generally a good site to get a feel for what’s out there.

Earthfoot’s Ecotour Posterboard runs a bunch of “very small-scale, locally produced, low-impact” eco-tours and homestays in countries all over the world. You can search by location or interest and then look at the profiles of each person involved in a tour. Though they’re not always budget choices, they are always rooted in the local community.

The International Ecotourism Society lists worldwide conferences, symposiums, and other events related to ecotourism. The site is geared more toward people in the industry—tour operators, lodge owners, etc—but travelers might find their research and publications section interesting. They’ve also got a searchable database of “ecotourism experts” that you can contact if you’re looking to hire consultants or speakers.

Leave No Trace is great for people who are looking for a more involved approach to ethical traveling. You can sign up for training courses and educational workshops, download free teaching resources, and gain access to serious research about the effects of travelers on their environment. Their focus is on the natural environment rather than communities of people, and most of the studies pertain to the American outdoors, but the site is still a good tool for general awareness and education.

Tread Lightly! focuses on “outdoor enthusiasts that use motorized and mechanized vehicles,” but the site also includes lots of good tips for horseback riding, camping, fishing, and snow sports. There’s a free “awareness course” and a section for kids, plus a twice-yearly newsletter that you can download in pdf form.

Okay, I know this is more than ten, but I couldn’t help myself. Responsible Travel is a massive database of thousands of eco-tours run by hundreds of operators, for people with a bit more cash to spend. Even for the budget-minded, the site includes some great tips and resources, including a handy air travel calculator that tells you how much carbon dioxide your flights add to global warming, and hints on offsetting and/or reducing your output.

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A regular contributor to Matador, Jenny Williams, a former national soccer player, quit a job in book publishing to travel in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.

Some travelers ask why WRITE when you can DO? Putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) can feel like a drag when there are waves to ride and volcanoes to hike.

But documenting a journey through writing can be one of the most rewarding parts of your trip. Journals offer a private refuge for emotions, while travel blogs amplify your adventures for a public audience of family, friends, and travelers (armchair and otherwise). Here are the top 10 reasons why you should do one or the other—or, for the best of all worlds, both.

1. You can capture the minutia as it happens. When you’re caught up in an exhilarating moment, it seems impossible that you would ever forget the exact shade of crimson splashed across that Bolivian sunset, or the profound remark made by your Tanzanian safari guide. But these details are fleeting, especially when we’re bombarded with so many new things every day. It’s like a dream—if you don’t write it down first thing upon waking, it will gradually lose color until all that remains is a pale blur of what was once a crisp and vivid picture.

2. Your friends and family want to know. Really. But they probably don’t want to sit through a six-hour slideshow-and-story marathon when you get back home. Blogging a few times a week will keep them up-to-date on your adventures and make them feel like they’re out there with you. All your entries and photos are stored together and easily navigable for the technology-shy. Plus, blogging takes up less internet café time than sending personal emails every few days, and—let’s face it—mass emails are tacky.

3. Online travel networks offer instant feedback and real-time travel advice. When you blog on a community site, you’re linking in to hundreds, sometimes thousands of other travelers who will appreciate your writing and offer you some guidance in return. Get the skinny on festivals, the newest hot spot, and safety updates—and spread the word when you run into something extraordinary. Some writers’ blogs even land them paid writing gigs or other job opportunities. You can find travel partners—or, like one couple, partners for life.

4. You can tell the truth as you see it. International media sources often present countries in the light that best suits their corporate interests. South Africa, for example, is either the continent’s beacon of democracy or a country on the brink of violent self-destruction. But what do you see when you get there? Lend your voice to the citizen journalism movement and let people view a destination through your eyes. Your perspective is valid, too, and many times the truest stories are the ones being told from the ground up.

5. It’s an opportunity to flex your writing muscles. Even if you don’t plan on being the next Paul Theroux (which is fine, because one is enough), the ability to craft a thoughtful and entertaining story is useful in nearly every profession. And the best way to become a better writer is to write, write, and write some more. Journaling and blogging are no-pressure environments, so you can experiment with style, tone, and humor. You’ll quickly discover which blog posts garner the most attention and what types of stories people want to hear.

6. It gives you something to do on those long bus rides. Even with an iPod or a good book, all-day buses can stretch longer than Bush’s presidency. Having a notebook handy helps pass the time (I find that staring out windows puts me in a contemplative mood anyway) and results in some lovely, loopy lettering, courtesy of potholes and near collisions with mad cattle. I also keep family pictures in my journal along with sketches and postcards of the places I’d already been, which proved a wonderful icebreaker with fellow bus passengers and curious kids all over Africa.

7. Writing about a place changes your experience of it. When you force yourself to reflect on your trip a couple times a week, you’ll find that articulating your impressions on the page may help you process what you’ve been seeing. You’ll start studying your surroundings with the keen eyes of a writer, noticing those telling details that represent a greater truth. Writing teaches us how to observe a scene while still being a part of it.

8. You might learn something. You don’t want to look like an idiot writing about the Taj Mahal, right? So you read a little history, look up some other India travel blogs—and suddenly you’re approaching the iconic building with a rich sense of historical and social context. This newfound depth of understanding not only adds value to your writing, it also enhances your experience. Which in turn enhances your writing. Which in turn…you get the idea.

9. It will shed light on your inner journey. You might not recognize it while you’re in the throws of thrill seeking, but sooner or later, you’ll re-read what you’ve written and realize that you became a different person somewhere along the way. Private journals in particular are so intimate that your personal evolution will surface out of the pages as clear as invisible ink under a blacklight.

10. There’s no better souvenir than a collection of your stories in your own words. Many blog sites offer ways of printing your entries and photos into a book, and a handwritten journal is an irreplaceable keepsake. The journal itself tells countless stories in its battered covers, dirty pages, and lingering scent of campfire. And then, thirty years down the line when you wonder if the whole trip was just a dream, you can pull out your old stories and bring those blurry memories back into focus.

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A regular contributor to Matador, Jenny Williams, a former national soccer player, quit a job in book publishing to travel in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.

Being a responsible traveler comes down to making conscious decisions. Here are ten choices you can make to improve the quality of your next trip and the quality of life for people in the places you visit.

Choose to educate yourself on your destination. And I’m not just talking about reading the history section in the Lonely Planet. What kind of government runs the country? What are the current environmental challenges for the region? While you’re there, read newspapers and engage locals in conversations. Sometimes you have to ask whether you should visit a place at all—Burma, for example, is a controversial destination since it can be difficult for travelers to avoid inadvertently supporting the oppressive military junta. You have to weigh that against the importance of spreading truthful accounts of traveling within the country’s borders and promoting the cause of the Burmese people.

Choose conscientious travel mates. If your travel buddies go heavy on the party and light on the political awareness, you’ll probably be boasting a beer gut instead of curiosity about local culture. But if you hitch your wagon to a crew that cares about the environment and sustainable living, you’ll be making conscious choices almost by default.

Choose to learn the local language. No one’s asking for fluency—especially when you’re in your seventh country on a round-the-world ticket—but mastering a few basics goes a long way in smoothing interpersonal relations. At the bare minimum, I always learn greetings, the terms for “please” and “thank you,” and numbers one through ten (plus variations for “hundred,” “thousand,” or whatever’s most useful for the local currency). Personal info vocab is also helpful (names, ages, interests), as is knowing how to pronounce the names of local dishes (and brews).

Choose alternative forms of transportation. Most trips revolve around planes, trains, and buses—choices that certainly produce less carbon emmissions than private jets and single passenger SUVs. But why not take it further? Hitchhiking, for example, produces zero additional pollution since your ride was already headed that way. Bicycling gets you closer to nature and sculpts killer calf muscles. And boats—of the sail and oar variety—carry you places no bus ever could.

Choose a new food every week. Ever tried crunchy cricket? How about stir-fried tarantula? Not only will you expand your palate with exotic munchies, you’ll also be supporting energy-efficient meals that cause less stress to the local environment than Western imports or recreations. You might even surprise yourself with the snacks you’ll want to take back home.

Choose locally owned businesses. This includes hotels, bars, tour operators, craft markets, and restaurants—and no, employing Chinese baristas at the Forbidden City Starbucks doesn’t count. It can be tough to avoid foreign-owned companies altogether, especially when some of the sweetest hostels and watering holes are run by ex-pats. But try we must if we want to inject the greatest percentage of our travel dollars directly into the local economy rather than the coffers of international interests.

Choose eco-conscious businesses. These days, when even Chevron claims to be going green, it takes extra effort to ferret out truly ethical organizations. This consideration has to go in tandem with the previous choice, since you can’t be sure that all locally owned practices take moral stances. For example, many elephant camps in Thailand use abusive training methods to break in their animals so they can be used on tourist treks and to perform tricks. Take the time to know before you go—which companies have proven track records of community spirit and progressive programs?

Choose appropriate clothing. I know Egypt’s climate has all the temperance of a sauna, but stripping down to crop tops and mini-shorts will only heat things up more. In many places, foreigners are given leeway to dress how they like. Still, it’s important to demonstrate respect for local culture—and you don’t have to don a hijab to do that. You’ll find people in nearly every country much more receptive when you’re relatively clean and moderately dressed. Buying regional clothing helps you blend in and might even give you new insight into a people’s lifestyle.

Choose to give back. Travel is a give-and-take experience, and it’s important that we as travelers don’t just lounge around on the taking end of things. Monetary donations are often welcomed by local NGOs, but there are plenty of opportunities for the fiscally lacking. Some people carve out a few months during their travels to volunteer; short-timers can spend a day with kids at an orphanage or pick up litter on the beach. Writing articles or blog posts about the places you’re visiting will help disseminate accurate information to people back home who would otherwise get their “facts” from Fox.

Choose kindness first and skepticism later. It’s easy to dismiss touts and beggars with a curt word and a view of the back of your head; much harder to recognize that they’re also fathers and husbands and daughters and wives, trying to support their families in a harsh economy. This doesn’t mean you have to fall for their wily ways or buy their crappy fake jewelry—only that compassion doesn’t cost a thing, and it will come back to you tenfold. Remember, karma doesn’t just count with the people you like. We’re all in this together.

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A regular contributor to Matador, Jenny Williams, a former national soccer player, quit a job in book publishing to travel in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.