While the trend in Europe is towards disappearing boarders (yay Schengun!) the US and Mexico went the opposite direction on the first of this month:

Beginning June 1, 2009
U.S. citizens entering the United States at sea or land ports of entry are required to have documents that comply with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), most commonly a U.S. passport, a passport card, a trusted traveler card such as NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST, or an enhanced driver’s license. See the complete list of WHTI-compliant documents.

On the upside hopefully that means more Americans will be getting passports and will then be encouraged to travel further afield. On the downside, it bet it means that fewer Americans will visit Mexico, and when there is less cultural interaction, everyone loses. Too bad.

It’s spring time! Today is spring equinox in the northern hemisphere. I’m excited. I enjoy winter, the skiing, snowball fights, the mulled wine, but I love springtime. Those first warm days when everyone is outside and everyone is a friend and you’re blinded by the half-frozen pasty girls laying out in bikinis.

I hope that everyone can get out and about in the coming days. For my part I’m going to grab my bike and see what trouble I can get into this weekend.

Photo: People taking a lunch break in a park near my office earlier this week.

I was scheming with an American friend of mine about a trip to Iran over the winter, an interesting combination of challenges. One of the things that I noticed was that for Americans to travel in Iran, they have to be accompanied by a government approved guide. While that sounds like a bit of a killjoy, the guys at In Deep Films show it as a bit of fun, hanging out with their minder in the evening. I suppose it’s really just a different style of travel you’d have to embrace and make the most of. While I think of my ideal holiday as being footloose and fancy free, I suppose there is a certain amount of fun to be had if you embrace way things are live it up. So the trip plotting will continue.

Some of my favourite travels have been in the developing world, so a recent post of Intelligent Travel and longer article on Traveler on poverty tourism gave me pause. Clearly, tourists cruising through slums snapping pictures though the windows of an air conditioned tour bus is exploitative and disturbingly voyeuristic.

As they also mention in the articles, I think that there is a good way for visit developing areas as well. Study abroad programmes, for example, provide a chance to have a true cultural exchange, rather than just cruising though, seeing the sights, and buying the souvenirs. But I’m hesitant to cite my own experience as proof of this because there were certain moments on my study abroad time that I got that sickening feeling of being in a position of power and advantage.

I think you have to let the golden rule be the test. If you’re don’t think you’d be happy in your home country if tourists behaved the way you are behaving, then don’t do it. Thing is, that’s a really hard test to pass. I don’t think I would ever like it if some really rich folks showed up in my life and wanted to see how I lived, then after eating some takeout with me and playing Guitar Hero, hoped in a limo and drove off to box seats at the Chelsea match. Yet that’s not too different from what I’ve done.

It’s tough. It’s obviously very valuable to have the cultural exchange, especially for many people in western countries who have no concept of what life is like in the developing world. So go forth and explore, but remember to try and keep the playing field as level as you can and “do unto others…”.

Image: Me with a family I stayed with for a couple of weeks in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam. It was a crazy fun time, I think we both learn lots about each other’s cultures, but in the end, I hoped in a bus and went home.

If you’re jonesin for some more travel reading material, you should check out all the blogs listed in the Lonely Planet travel blogger awards. They’re all a bit different from what we do here, mostly folks on the road chronicling their journeys, but most are worth checking out for some good travel images and ideas.