e-travels with e. trules

In this lively episode, Trules talks with Liz Femi, a fellow solo performer and storyteller, who was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in Nigeria, a country not many tourists - or travelers - know much about. Liz is a small, smart, beautiful, and feisty young woman who her Mom describes as: "a really bendy, bouncy branch... connected to a strong Nigerian oak tree".

http://erictrules.com/episode14

Echo Park, the one time immigrant-socialist-artist neighborhood of Los Angeles, has undergone the sad and inevitable process of "gentrification". Trules, a long-time Echo park resident, goes to the annual Cubano musical festival and is confronted head on with "unneighborhly" gentrification. Complete with original Cuban music composed by Amanda Yamate and an original score with roosters, fireworks, & gunshots by Alysha Bermudez.

http://erictrules.com/episode13

Trules speaks with long-time friend and Israeli diplomat, Raphael Morav, who he has visited in Rome, Jerusalem, Helsinki, and Paris. Hear them chat about politics, Israel, diplomacy, kibuttzes, travel, SERVAS, the United Nations, and more.

http://erictrules.com/episode12

In December, 2001, just months after 9/11, Trules arrives in Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo in East Malaysia. Teaching at an all-Islamic university on a Fulbright grant, he is confronted with images of Osama Bin Laden - on the screensavers of his university colleagues - and on t-shirts in every shopping mall. Talk about culture shock, he learns that Bin Laden is the most admired man in Malaysia for being the only man to stand up to George W. Bush and Goliath America. Still, Trules tries to make peace with the natives.

http://erictrules.com/episode11

Trules talks with long-time travel blogger and podcaster, Chris Christensen, "The Amateur Traveler"... whose cool rules of the road include: 1- "Never lose your sense of wonder and adventure when you're traveling." 2- "Never complain that you don't do things that way at home; that's part of the point of traveling." 3- "Never whne, because in the grand scheme of things, if you can afford to travel, what do you have to complain about?"

Enjoy the banter between Trules, who travels, and Christensen, who interviews about travel.

http://erictrules.com/episode10

Trules arrives at the international airport in Denpasar on the magical island of Bali - to meet his Indonesian wife - but she is not there. She is, instead, in the local Kasi Ibue hospital with... dengue fever... one of the most feared, mosquito-born illnesses in the world. After waiting a week with Surya on intravenous drip, they go to the "Good Karma" bungalows on the still-pristine East Coast of the island, where Trules promptly has a head-on motorbike collision by driving on the wrong side of the road. A comic misadventure with original gamelon music composed by Amanda Yamate, the Trules survive, managing to lose 2 of their collective 18 cat lives amidst the Balisnese magic and the good karma.

http://erictrules.com/episode9

My guest this week is Jonathan Munoz-Proulx, otherwise know as "JMP", my former student and now independent theater artist, who first gave me the idea of doing a travel podcast. After seeing me do many readings and performance of my stories on stage, and then reading them on my travel blog, he said:

"Your stories are SO MUCH BETTER when we hear your voice! You should do a podcast."

And the rest…. is history.

Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode8

Beijing, China, 2007 It's a year before the Beijing Olympics and there are crowds and pollution everywhere. I've been invited to teach the LDTX Bejing Modern Dance Company, the Joffrey Ballet of China. I'm 60 years old and I haven't danced in over 30 years. What am I going to do? "Figure it out," says that jackal trickster, Travel. "Improvise! Isn't that your specialty?" "Thanks, a lot, Travel. I will"! And so I do... as along the way, I ask myself... and my listeners, "Why travel?" Why leave the comfort and familiarity of home? For a change of scenery and pace? For rest and relaxation? To stretch your boundaries? For some new food? Or for something else?

Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode7

My guest this episode is Hayden Lee, the self-professed son of a hippie and a biker, and the host of the popular, Travel Stories Podcast. Born in rural Shropshire, England, Hayden is a musician and an intrepid world traveler who can't help but navigate every conversation into a story. In fact, Hayden, like me, believes that memorable stories are what travel, life, and podcasts... are all about.

The Travel Stories Podcast is a weekly show that brings you original stories of freedom and adventure from seasoned travelers. And whether you are one or not, a seasoned traveler, you probably already know that certain road stories capture not only a moment in time, but also all the emotion, serendipity, and wonder that come with travel. It was a little surprising... how many times Hayden said to me in our interview, "I think we might be the same person... only separated by a few years and geographical time zones."

Hayden interviews fellow travelers, podcasters, digital nomads, and other guests about their lifestyle, their entrepreneurship, and about their amazing stories from the road... all with original music.... by Cody Crabb. On his next solo travel adventure, he will be heading out to ride a motorcycle through every country in mainland Europe.

Full show notes: http://erictrules/episode6

Alausi, Ecuador. 2003. I married for the first time at age 55. Also in 2003. I married an Indonesian girl from Sumatra who I met in Bali, who was 31 years younger than I was and who spoke almost no English. Go figure, huh? But in the summer of 2003, a few months after we tied the knot in LA, we took our first extended trip together, to Machu Picchu in Peru, and up the Avenidas de los Volcanos, along the mountainous spine of Peru and Ecuador. For 2 months, we traveled by all-night buses with "los indiginos", the local natives, dressed in colorful sarapes and gray bowler hats. I loved it. My wife hated it. And this trip was... as much about our new marriage as it was about South American culture and adventure. Enjoy and Happy Trails...

Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode5