Destination: Asia
You Know Things Are Bad When They’re Taking Down Japanese Condom Ads
by Ben Keene | 07.18.08 | 12:15 PM ET
Disputed territories abound—there are hundreds of examples around the world—and they cause tempers to short circuit from time to time. In one, Cambodian and Thai troops nearly fired on one another yesterday. And not too far away, tensions between South Korea and Japan have been on the rise over the Dokdo Islands (known as Takeshima in Japan), a group of small volcanic islets nearly equidistant from the two countries.
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Yahoo! BuzzHong Kong International Named World’s Best Airport
by Jim Benning | 07.16.08 | 1:48 PM ET
Pico Iyer once wrote that “Setting foot in Hong Kong’s new airport was the first time I felt I was stepping into the 21st century.” Others clearly agree: Hong Kong International has just been named the world’s best airport—for the seventh time—based on a passenger survey conducted by a U.K. consulting firm that collected a whopping 8 million responses. Coming in second and third: Singapore’s Changi Airport and Seoul’s Incheon Airport.
Related on World Hum:
* Travel Writers Pick Their Favorite Airports
Photo of Hong Kong International Airport by ztij0 via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
South Korean Tourist Killed in North Korea
by Michael Yessis | 07.15.08 | 2:31 PM ET
Park Wang-ja was shot by a North Korean soldier while strolling on the beach near the Mount Geumgang resort in North Korea. “The timing of the incident, given the delicate juncture of the outside world’s diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang, could hardly have been worse,” reports Time.
Related on World Hum:
* A Visit to Pyongyang
Beijing Bans ‘Fragrant Meat’ for 2008 Olympic Games
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.15.08 | 2:29 PM ET
Any Olympics tourists dining at one of the 112 official Olympic restaurants won’t see dog on the menu, the BBC reports.
A Visit to Pyongyang
by Eva Holland | 07.14.08 | 11:06 AM ET
An article in the Times of London—written anonymously—offers some darkly compelling details about the secretive North Korean capital. From the unsolicited life advice issued to the author at the border (“A single man may live like a king, but die like a dog”) to the constant surveillance from official “tour guides” (“That is a very journalistic question”), the story creates an eerie portrait of Kim Jong Il’s city. I can’t quite decide if it makes me curious to visit Pyongyang, or glad I’ve never been.
Related on World Hum:
* Top Five Forbidden Vacations for Americans
Blogging in Afghanistan: Getting Online, Off the Grid
by Eva Holland | 07.14.08 | 10:34 AM ET
I’d never really thought about the logistics of blogging in a quasi-war zone until I read this Slate piece about one of Afghanistan’s most high-profile bloggers, Nasim Fekrat. The article shows a Kabul that has been simultaneously thrown back in time by war and launched forward by technology: Fekrat blogs from a laptop powered by a car battery, while teenagers download the latest videos on their cell phones even when all the lights are off.
Photo by TKnoxB via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Spam Conquers the World (Sort of)
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.08.08 | 11:48 AM ET
Spamburgers, Spam tacos and Spambalaya—the canned pork loaf everyone loves to hate is leaving its indelible taste on dishes around the globe. In Spam-loving Hawaii, Japanese-American chef Muriel Miura has a new cookbook, “Hawaii Cooks With Spam,” which offers recipes for Spam sushi, Spam pancit and Korean rice with Spam. Um, yum? If yes, then try Spam in ratatouille pie, curried rice, lasagna and even Heidelberg casserole.
Cambodians Wary of Angkor Museum
by Julia Ross | 07.07.08 | 4:33 PM ET
A new Thai-backed museum/mall complex located a few miles from Angkor Wat is drawing fire from Cambodians skeptical of the enterprise’s motives. The New York Times reports that restoration specialists are unhappy with the Angkor National Museum’s “aesthetics” and lack of scholarly content, while others suspect that the Thais have designs on Cambodia’s architectural heritage. In fact, anti-Thai riots erupted in 2003 over the issue of Angkor’s provenance.
World’s Worst Tourists?
by Julia Ross | 07.07.08 | 1:55 PM ET
Once again, it’s the French, Indians and Chinese, according to an annual survey of hoteliers by the French version of Expedia. The latest poll of 4,000 hotel employees in Europe and North America calls the French out for being impolite and unwilling to communicate in foreign languages, deems the Japanese most liked and declares the Italians best dressed.
Taiwan Braces for Cross-Strait Tourists
by Julia Ross | 07.03.08 | 11:01 AM ET
Oh, to be on the streets of Taipei this weekend. The first planeloads of Chinese tourists allowed under a new cross-strait travel agreement are set to arrive in Taiwan tomorrow, and the Taiwanese are bracing for culture shock. Reports Reuters: “Taiwan citizens, who are influenced heavily by hyper-polite Japan, fear Chinese will yell, spit or cut in on queues, all of which are an anathema to many Taiwanese.”
Where in the World Are You, Rob Verger?
by World Hum | 07.02.08 | 11:08 AM ET
The subject of our latest up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: Rob Verger, who wrote Slumming in Rio and narrated a slideshow on favela tourism for World Hum. His email landed in our inbox just hours ago.
Where in the world are you?
The Five-Week Web Workout Plan for the Beijing Olympics
by Jim Benning | 07.01.08 | 11:48 AM ET
UC Irvine history professor and World Hum contributor Jeffrey Wasserstrom is determined to pump you up—intellectually speaking—for the Olympic Games. Last November, we noted his suggested reading list, which included no fewer than 12 books.
‘Good Teachers Make for Good Journeys’
by Julia Ross | 06.30.08 | 10:53 AM ET
In over 30 years as a foreign correspondent, the New York Times’ Howard French has struggled with his fair share of language lessons, taking on everything from Haitian Creole to Japanese. He recalls these sometimes exhausting attempts in his last “Letter from China,” written as he prepares to leave his posting in Shanghai to return to the U.S.
An Official Press Tour in Tibet: ‘Far From the Ideal Way to Gather News’
by Eva Holland | 06.27.08 | 10:31 AM ET
As we noted yesterday, Tibet has just been reopened to foreign visitors for the first time since March. The Globe and Mail’s Beijing bureau chief, Geoffrey York, was one of a select group of journalists invited to the region during the lockdown, and in this grimly humorous blog post he recalls the “unsolicited wake-up calls,” “official minders” and the dreaded “man with the megaphone” who made his official press tour not-so-pleasurable.
Photo by mckaysavage via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Related on World Hum:
* Travel Junkets: On the Way Out or More Popular Than Ever?
Japanese Athletes Train Their Taste Buds at Pre-Olympics ‘Food Camp’
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.27.08 | 10:07 AM ET
The Games are all about cultures coming together, but unity’s hard to come by when it comes to food. Especially when you’re from Michelin-starred Japan, home to some of the choosiest eaters in the world. To prepare for three weeks of food in Beijing, Japanese Olympians are attending food training programs to get used to eating Chinese staples like cold spring rolls, fried catfish and noodles—and not with chopsticks but with the plastic cutlery that will be available at the Olympic village, Reuters reports.