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Food writer and Modern Spice cookbook author Monica Bhide recently returned from a visiting her family in India, and we asked her to share some glimpses of contemporary life she noticed while there. Today she notes how a traditional festival in New Delhi has changed since her childhood visits.

Raksha Bandhan--the Bond of Protection--is a festival that has been celebrated in India for years. It's a recognition of the bond between brother and sister, in which the sister ties a special thread around her brother's wrist to show her love and affection. In turn, the brother gifts her a bit of cash and promises to "protect" and take care of her.

When I was a child growing up elsewhere and visiting India over many summers, this holiday would always make me sad since I had no brothers. But it always fascinated me. The custom, however, has grown to include women tying rakhis, or the special threads, on men not related to them. This gesture gives the men the status of brothers. The rakhis themselves used to be simple golden threads, decorated perhaps with a golden flower made of lace, some beads, pearls, or a customary rudraksha bead (a brown seed with religious significance) in the center.

To compile his new book, My Favorite Place on Earth, Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., interviewed dozens of famous people -- from Natalie Portman to the Dalai Lama -- about the places they loved most. He's been guest-blogging about his experiences here on Intelligent Travel. Click here for recent posts.

In choosing a travel companion, you might look for a curious mind, a sense of adventure, or a working knowledge of planes, trains, and donkey carts. But most important is a sense of humor. When the frustrations and absurdities of travel pop up, you both just laugh and carry on.

In My Favorite Place on Earth, I talked with 75 celebrated people about the places they love most in the world, and I made sure to talk with funny folks, from actor Will Ferrell to Matt Groening, who created The Simpsons.

Robin Williams spoke about his hometown, San Francisco. "One famous neighborhood is Haight-Ashbury," he said. "It's like a Civil War re-enactment done by Timothy Leary. The sidewalks are packed, and there are still shops from the Sixties."

Jerry Seinfeld reminisced about playing on a softball team with other up-and-coming comics in New York's Central Park. "We were doing this childlike thing in the middle of this most grown-up of places," he said. "On a Tuesday afternoon you'd be in jeans and sneakers, running around playing ball, and you'd see the skyscrapers with all the real people working for a living. You couldn't escape the fact that you had just dodged this huge bullet in life: 'I'm not up there working!'"

Ok gang, it's time again for another round of Plan My Trip. I'm doing the drive down to Charleston, South Carolina this weekend to see family, and it's my first time visiting the fine city.

Now, I have to admit I've been briefed by Andrew Nelson, our contributing writer, who wrote the Insider's Charleston piece for the magazine a few years ago. And I've got some great suggestions thanks to the help of reader Currie, who submitted her I Heart My City entry for the city. (She also gave one of my favorite responses to our "What celebrity would your city be?" question: "It'd be Andie MacDowell, well-mannered and sophisticated, as well as Southern and sultry.")

But I'm positive there's more. Tell me, as I have a long drive ahead of me, and plenty of time to get excited.

Read More: Readers tell the editors where to go in past Plan My Trip! entries.

Photo: Bob Sacha for National Geographic Traveler

In just a few weeks I'm heading off to Victoria, B.C. for a much-needed weekend of R&R. It's been over 10 years since I've been to Vancouver Island, and well over 15 since I've toured the elegant Butchart Gardens and ever-popular Royal British Columbia Museum. With hardly 36 hours in the city, I want to know from you--what are the must-dos? The quirky, off-the-beaten-path attractions? Do I take tea at the Empress, or do you know of a better place to dine like the Queen? Leave your suggestions for great restaurants, local attractions, drives, and sites in the comments below, and stay tuned to find out what I did on my trip!

Read More: Readers tell the editors where to go in past Plan My Trip! entries.

Photo: cleverdame107 via Flickr

In response to our Mother's Day Special, we received essays from readers describing memorable trips they've taken with their moms or their kids. Here Peggy Goldman describes sightseeing in Israel with her sons.

I had been living in Israel for about six months when I was presented with the opportunity to tour the country with my two adult sons. At the time, my husband and I were living in Eilat. My younger son, David, was also in Israel for the summer, and Dan, my older son, came over to join us for some sightseeing.

We drove around the Sea of Galilee, and then up into the Golan Heights. We peered out of the lookout posts at the abandoned Syrian bunkers that overlook the green rolling farmland below, and we mused over the intricacies of Middle East peace, wondering how, in such a beautiful place, people couldn't just figure out to get along.

We walked the long trail at Tel Dan nature reserve, where we explored one of the sources of the Jordan River. And we laughed without pity when Dan, the family joker, ignored our guide's words of caution and plopped into the rippling water, freezing in the ice cold stream. His yelping brought rangers and visitors alike to see what happened.

We spent a lazy afternoon swimming in the Kinneret in the Sea of Galilee, and even took a turn at parasailing, which my kids never expected me to even try. The photo of my two sons--standing on a hill, arm in arm, with the entire Hula Valley behind them--sits on the credenza in my office today. Each time I look up from my work, I smile at the memory of that wonderful weekend together.

Photo: The Golan Heights, by Janelle Nanos

The allure of discount airfare, coupled with a reunion with high school friends, means I'm heading out this weekend on a jaunt to Puerto Rico, and I'm of course ready and willing to hear your tips. I'm looking forward to visiting the UNESCO site of Old San Juan, but am sure that you have suggestions for great restaurants, beaches, drives, and sites. I'm taking suggestions, and tour guides are always welcome. As always, I'm looking forward to hearing your advice!

Read More: Readers tell the editors where to go in past Plan My Trip! entries.

Photo: Jose Kevo via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

To compile his new book, My Favorite Place on Earth, Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., interviewed dozens of famous people -- from Natalie Portman to the Dalai Lama -- about the places they loved most. He'll be guest blogging about his experiences here for the next few weeks. Click here for recent posts.

A reader on this blog emailed me (jerry@myfavoriteplacenatgeo.com), saying he plans a celebrity-oriented project and asked what I'd learned from writing My Favorite Place on Earth. So here are some tips on how to recruit famous people to work with you

1) Don't send stock letters that are obviously going out to dozens of other celebrities: "Dear (your name goes here), I love your movies. Please take part in my book. Or please send me an autographed picture/your Academy Award statue/your first-born." For My Favorite Place on Earth I researched everyone I invited, so that in my request letter I could mention places they'd traveled, charities they support, activities they enjoy, and so on. I hoped this personalized approach showed my serious intent and my sincere interest in them- especially compared to a dashed-off, "Hey Generic Famous Person!" approach.

2) Have a worthwhile core question, and pose it in a way that will spark the person's interest and inspire him or her to get involved in your project.

3) Flattery is okay, as long as you really mean it. I'm sure celebrities (and their publicists) can smell insincerity and opportunism from ten miles away.

Today marks the release of the new National Geographic book My Favorite Place on Earth: Celebrated People Share Their Travel Discoveries, by Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., who also happens to have written for us here at National Geographic Traveler. Jerry had to pull a lot of strings to compile the book (see below) so we pulled some of our own to get the inside details about putting it all together. He'll be guest blogging about his experiences here for the next few weeks.

For My Favorite Place on Earth, I asked 75 famous people, ranging from the Dalai Lama to Will Ferrell, to talk about the one place they love more than anywhere else on the planet. Hearing the concept, my friends said, "Great idea!" Then they'd add, "I can't believe nobody's done it before!"

My (admittedly simple) idea grew out of a question people ask me when they find out I'm a travel writer: "You must have been everywhere. So what's your favorite place?" I decided to ask the same question of highly accomplished people, so readers could see some fascinating spots through their eyes.

But how exactly could I get famous folks to talk with me?

I sent out hundreds of letters to people I admire, explaining the book and asking them to be part of it. Sometimes success was sublimely easy. The phone would ring and a voice would say, "Natalie Portman would love to talk with you," or "Jerry, this is Jeff Foxworthy."

Should airlines charge more for people who take up more than one seat? The Canadian Transportation Agency decided last year to stop Canadian airlines from charging an overweight or handicapped person more than the cost of one fare, even if a passenger takes up more than one seat.  Our article about this, in the April issue of Traveler, sparked much debate in our inbox. Our readers sound off:

Jane Bedrosian of Lubbock, Tex., wrote, "Rights for the obese! What about my rights as a normal-size person? I do not want to sit for two hours pressed up against some hot, sweaty stranger! I am very tired of political correctness only being applied to a classified few while the masses must endure and suffer in silence!" Nancy D. Anderson of Urbana, Ill., concurred. "I sure hope U.S. airlines don't do this. If they can't fit into a seat, they should buy two."

Ross Pezzack spoke up for the rights of tall people. "As a flyer of 'excessive' height, I suggest this right also be extended to clients who cannot fit into the small quantity of legroom most seats allow travelers. I would also ask that airlines allow excessive-height clients the right to prevent people in front of them from reclining their seats into their knees (if you are not tall you have no idea how much that hurts)."

Finally, Racheal Galushkin of Medford, Mass., suggested a solution. "While I can appreciate that seat straddlers have been charged extra and that this is a burden to them and the airlines are looking at reducing those costs, perhaps the real issue is a decent seat size. Shouldn't the size of the airline seat be reconsidered so that more of 'today's-sized individuals' fit into them?"

We're sure you have an opinion. Share it with us.

Photo: aslaugsvava via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

Jenn Blatty is our newest Traveler photo intern, and she is also a former U.S. Army Engineer Officer who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since those are two places that we hear about in the news constantly, but where few of us travel, we asked her to share some of her experiences while she was deployed there.

Iraq is a controversial topic; increasingly so now with a new President making new decisions about our military. But it's also a place that has left a large percentage of travelers asking a different set of questions, other than whether  our military stay or go. Instead, they are asking: What is it like there? What are the people like? Or will it be open to travel in my lifetime? I am certainly not a professional in the matter, but there is one experience I would like to share as it made me realize how close in nature we really are to the Iraqis, and that many of them ask the same questions about us.  

A deployment into Iraq begins in Kuwait, where soldiers spend about two weeks preparing for movement north. Our movement north was to Tallil Air Base, an old Iraqi airfield that was about 20 kilometers from the city of An Nasiriyah, and walking distance from the historical remains of the ancient city of Ur.

Because we were a Combat Heavy Engineer unit (in civilian words, a construction unit), we were in a constant need of materials. I was the contractor for my unit, and once a week I would travel into downtown Nasiriyah with a team to purchase a "shopping list" of immediate needs from the local Iraqi vendors.

Hello city-lovers! This was our first entry to come in from the under-10 set, and we had to admire the remarkably well-honed tastes of Ruby (age 4) and Kiva (age 8), who were eager to share the favorite spots in their Bay View neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Also, we love anyone who puts a tater tot on their fine dining list.

The Bay View Neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is Our City

The first place we take a visitor from out of town is the Farmer's Market at South Shore Park.

When we crave flavored milk, we always go Anodyne Coffee Roasters.

To escape the crowded city we head out on Lake Michigan in our kayaks.

If we want to climb on rocks we go to Cupertino Park.

For complete quiet, we can hide away in Seminary Woods.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with the oldest copper beech tree in the state.

If you have to order one thing off the menu from The Palomino it has to be tater tots with Cajun cream dipping sauce.

We recently got a letter from reader Clay Shannon, of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin asking about the location of a photo in our Jan/Feb issue. But we'll let him ask in his own words:

There are two things I hate: 1) A photo of a beautiful, but undisclosed, location, and 2) A wet toilet seat.

When I see a striking photo, I want to know where it was taken. Case in point: page 12 of the Jan/Feb issue ("Smart Traveler"). I like to guess the location and then see if I'm right, but if the location is not attributed, how can I ever know? In this case, my guess is Nova Scotia.

Close Clay, but not quite. The photo was taken near Noli, Italy along the famous Via Aurelia (aka the Strada Statale 1) which was originally constructed in 291 A.D. Hopefully, we've solved the first of your problems.

If you have questions for, issues with, or feedback for Traveler magazine, please email us at Travel_Talk@ngs.org.

When we launched the I Heart My City project, friend of IT Andrew Evans had a hard time figuring out which city he loved best. But he settled on Odessa, the fourth largest city in Ukraine, where he spent a good deal of time writing the Brandt Travel Guide to the country. "Imagine taking New Orleans and adding the weather of Marseilles, the people of Naples, the shop fronts of Coney Island, the grit of Baltimore, and the architecture of Paris and Rome," he writes. "It's the only place like it in the whole world."

Odessa is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is Deribasovskaya Street.

When I crave Pizza I always go to Zara Pizzara.

To escape the speeding taxis I head to the waterfront.

If I want to window shop I go to Passazh.

For complete quiet, I can hide away at the Panteleimonsky Monastery.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with one of the street performers' pet monkeys.

IT Editor Janelle Nanos has been blogging about her behind-the-scenes Mardi Gras Moments for the past few weeks, and she and a few other Traveler staffers went down to New Orleans to document the celebration.


While wandering the streets of New Orleans with the Societé de Sainte Anne parade, we National Geographic folk stumbled upon Danielle King, a photographer who was costumed as... a National Geographic photographer. Wearing a thick blonde mustache and a pith hat and vest, she carried around our iconic yellow border (cut from the pages of an actual magazine). Her project was called "Irrational Geographic," and she attempted to photograph both the wildlife, and the wild life, of the Mardi Gras experience. She snapped my portrait and I passed her my card, and lo and behold, a gallery of images arrived in my inbox a few days later. I loved them so much I just had to share them here, and asked King to explain the project in her own words.

Her e-mail after the jump.

Whenever I'm traveling, I'm eager to try the foods of a new place no matter where they're served; seat me at a restaurant with white-linen tablecloths or an oilcloth-covered table in a plastic lawn chair, and I'll eat whatever is in front of me. But my favorite kind of eating doesn't involves seating at all, the al fresco dining offered by a street vendors is my choice way try authentic eats.* Of course, this kind of dining can also be elusive, as it's apt to pack up and drive away, or move to another corner without warning. So I was psyched to learn that a new form of traveling food truck has emerged in Los Angeles. Both the LA Times and the New York Times have reported that Kogi Korean BBQ has created a brilliant business model which enables the hungry masses to track their truck via Twitter (@kogibbq). The New York Times piece describes the craze:

The food at Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, the taco vendor that has overtaken Los Angeles, does not fit into any known culinary category. One man overheard on his cellphone as he waited in line on a recent night said it best: "It's like this Korean-Mexican-fusion thing of crazy deliciousness."

All of which makes me think that the Twitter idea for street food make a lot of sense.

In addition to my blog duties (and the other Special Projects I undertake here at the magazine) I'm also responsible for reading through the letters we receive from readers. And our fabulous Real Travel columnist, Daisann McLane, always evokes some fascinating - and enlightening - comments (and FYI, her columns are now available online). In Daisann's March column "Traveling in Stride," she writes that walking is an essential aspect of her travels:

When I travel, I walk everywhere, and I am rather militant about the importance--the necessity--of traveling like this. Until I learn a place with my feet, I never really feel like I know it. And so, I walk, and organize my travel details around that most beloved habit.

Daisann splits her time between Hong Kong and Brooklyn, and in the piece, she mentions how difficult it often can be for her to traverse the former, thanks in part to construction and traffic in the city. Reader Keith Arnold wrote in with his own opinion:

Hong Kong is one of the most walkable cities in the world! Downtown or Central has miles of overhead walkways that connect all major government, office and shopping centers. [...] The walkways pass directly into and through shopping areas, also even the post office and many major hotels. On Kowloon there are literally miles of underground walkways....

We asked Daisann for her take, and she responded on her blog, excerpted here (after the jump):

Hello city-lovers! Today's city of choice is Chicago, and it comes at the hands of Traci and Jeff Dybdahl. Jeff is an attorney, Traci a PhD student, and they love exploring their (relatively) new city together.

Still haven't sent in your own city suggestions? Easy enough. Just complete our list of fill-in-the-blank questions then copy and paste the list into an email, fill in your answers, and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you're waiting for us to feature yours, fear not! We're attempting to post them as fast as we can (hint -- it helps if you include the links!).

While reading this article in the Washington Post yesterday, about a Buenos Aires blogger who gets all of her restaurant recommendations from taxi drivers, I couldn't help but think about the people I go to for tips when I travel. In the story, blogger Layne Mosler, author of the Taxi Gourmet, gets into a cab with no destination - she simply asks the driver to take her to a local spot. While this does seem a bit dangerous, she reports that it's enabled her to visit some of the under-the-radar local joints that she would have never found otherwise.

I know when I travel, I tend to hopscotch a bit, going from one local to another to lead me along, but I wonder, who do you seek out for advice while you're traveling? Which expert sources should we all should be looking to?

Image: La Nacion