Program 764: South Wales; Two Years in Kazakhstan; Global Empty Spaces

Have you ever traveled somewhere, that immediately felt like home?

On the next Travel with Rick Steves, Pam Petro tells us how she fell in love with the landscapes of castles, pilgrim trails, and old coal mines in the south of Wales.

A former Peace Corps volunteer tells us what it was like to be sent to live in a small town in Kazakhstan for two years.

And writer Peter Stark recommends a few of his favorite off-grid, wide-open spaces around the world, to help you feel truly alive.

• Pamela Petro, author of "The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence, a Memoir" (Arcade)
• Tim Suchsland, author of "A Five Finger Feast" (Peace Corps Writers)
• Peter Stark, author of "The Last Empty Places" (Mountaineers Books)

• Pamela Petro is a lecturer in creative nonfiction at Smith College in Massachusetts and co-directs the Dylan Thomas International Summer School at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David.
• Pam is the author of "The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence, a Memoir."
• Tim Suchsland taught English for two years in Yavlenka, Kazakhstan, on an assignment with the Peace Corps. He includes short phone videos from his time there on his "Go Travelopolis" You Tube page.
• Peter Stark wrote "The Last Empty Places" to highlight what he found, visiting the rural expanses of northern Maine, western Pennsylvania, central New Mexico, and southeast Oregon. Peter also writes for Outside magazine on wilderness survival topics.

• KAPT_KAPT_0018_00501_French_Gardens_APM
• Kirkmount, "Hathorne Tree of Cawdor," Late Summer Air / (self-released)
• Women's Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta, cond., Gillian Benet, harp, "Piano Concerto in A Minor, op. 7-Allegretto (Clara Schumann)," The Women's Philharmonic: Boulanger, Tailleferre, Mendelssohn, Schumann / Koch International Classics
• June De Toth, "My Sheep Are Lost: Allegramente," Bartok - Solo Piano Works, vol. 2 / Orchard
• KPM_KPM_0814_04001_Top_Wall_b_APM
• Brief sample of 2011 performance by Burlington Welsh Chorus, "The Mining Song"
• KPM_KPMLP_1286_01601_Suo_Gan_APM
• SON_SCDV_0985_04801_Inspired_Thinking_C_APM
• * Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, David Lloyd-Jones cond., "Symphony in G Minor: vivace (Moeran)," Green and Pleasant Land (collection) / Naxos
• Volume One, "mono + mono," Claude Challe: Sun Disc vol. 1 (collection) / Wagram
• CEZ_OCR_1025_01701_Qual_ker_APM
• Baba Zula, "Gerekli Sheylur," Duble Oryantal / Doublemoon (Turkey)
• Dangaa, "Caravan to Kasachstan," Altai / Blue Flame
• Dolly Parton with The Opry Gang and the Moscow Circus, closing sequence from "Those Were The Days," Dolly Parton: Those Were the Days / Sugarhill
• Nobovar & Shams Group, "Az Ghami Tu," Off the Beaten Track / Music Rough Guides
• Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel, cond., "The Music Box (Liadov)," Russian Nights / Telarc
• Nobukazu Takemura, "Child and Animals in the Forest," Japanese Homegrown Beats (collection) / Tower Records Japan
• Luke Daniels, "Patsy Denning Set," The Celtic Heartbeat Collection, vol. 2 / Celtic Heartbeat
• * Andre Rieu, "Waltz No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)," Masterpieces / Philips
• Deep and Wide, "Easy Rider," Café del Mar, vol. 7 (collection) / Musicrama-Koch
• SOHO_BOSA_0128_02101_Cause_And_Effect_APM
• Hexagon Ensemble, "Quartet on Turkmenian Themes: My Love Has Gone (Sergei Vasilenko)," The Russian Connection / Etcetera
• Apollo Chamber Orchestra, JoAnn Faletta, cond., "Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing: Clouds of Mixed Thirds (J. L. Adams)," John Luther Adams: Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing / New World Records
• Robbie Robertson, "Somewhere Down The Crazy River," Robbie Robertson / Geffen
• Robert Mirabal, "Sagebrush Snow Winds," Song Carrier / Silver Wave
• Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny, Richard Burmer, "Desert Prayer," Western Spaces / Chameleon

* Indicates filler music used during internal breaks on the broadcast

• At 8:30, Pam Petro says about 25 percent of the current Welsh population speak the Welsh language.
• In both segment A resets, Rick notes that Pam co-directs the Dylan Thomas Summer School at the University of Wales.
• At 24:07, Rick tells Tim Suchsland that he's thinking of traveling to "the 'stans" of central Asia.
• At 31:03, Tim says he understands that Americans can now visit Kazakhstan for up to 30 days without a visa.
• The first haiku poem, read at 37:33, refers to June in northern Russia.
• At 52:44, Peter Stark describes how the Arctic summer in Greenland in July makes you experience a different sense of time.

Saint Petersburg June
Endless daylight glistens off
Endless golden domes
— Tracy Lynn, Charlottesville, Virginia

Neon Tokyo rain
Blurs footage of their blind date —
Wave / kiss, flirt / debate.
— Chantale Reve, Jersey City, New Jersey

Tufts of creamy wool
Caught on splintery fence rails
Far from Irish looms
— Patricia Cassel, Waikoloa, Hawaii