Destination: Asia
R.I.P. Dith Pran
by Jim Benning | 03.31.08 | 11:07 AM ET
The New York Times photographer whose story was immortalized in the movie “The Killing Fields” died Sunday. Remarked the Times’ executive editor: “To all of us who have worked as foreign reporters in frightening places, Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism—the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter, the driver, the fixer, who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do.”
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* Welcome to Khmer Rouge Land!
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Yahoo! BuzzJapan’s Yoshoku Menu: Hambagoo, Ketchup-Flavored Rice and Stir-Fried ‘Napolitan’ Spaghetti
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.27.08 | 4:01 PM ET
Yoshoku means “Western food” in Japanese, and it’s been a staple of the country’s cuisine for decades. Chefs have taken hamburgers, spaghetti and other dishes, and “reshaped” them for Japanese palates. Most foreigners, though, have never heard of yoshoku, writes Norimitsu Onishi in The International Herald Tribune.
Pondering ‘Tourism’s Withering Impact’ in Asia
by Michael Yessis | 03.27.08 | 3:39 PM ET
Denis D. Gray looks at the rise of travel to “places once isolated by conflicts, hostile regimes and ‘off-road’ geography to which only the more intrepid travelers had earlier ventured.”
Out Today: Pico Iyer’s ‘The Open Road’
by Jim Benning | 03.25.08 | 1:58 PM ET
The timing is remarkable. After Pico Iyer spent five years working on his new book about Tibet’s spiritual leader, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama hits bookstores today—at a moment when Tibet is making headlines around the world. If nothing else, it assures Iyer’s work will find an audience beyond armchair travelers and Tibet admirers. We’ve just posted an interview with Iyer in which he explains why travel is at the heart of the book. Elsewhere on the Web, reviews and related Dalai Lama profiles are beginning to trickle in.
Tourists Should be ‘Beat Up,’ Says Bali Bombing Conspirator
by Michael Yessis | 03.25.08 | 12:27 PM ET
Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir called Western tourists in Indonesia “maggots, snakes and worms,” and he urged his followers not to tolerate them in a sermon captured on video by Australian university student Nathan Franklin.
Travel Across the Taiwan Strait: A Historic Opening?
by Julia Ross | 03.24.08 | 10:19 AM ET
Last June, I traveled to the tiny Taiwanese island of Kinmen, which lies a mere mile off the coast of China’s Fujian province. The waters between the island and the mainland constitute the narrowest point in the Taiwan Strait, and, standing on the Taiwan side, I found the view slightly surreal: I peered through giant telescopes to see Fujianese fishing boats bobbing happily in the middle of one of the world’s tensest political flashpoints. It seemed downright peaceful.
Inside the Gridlock Capital of the World
by Michael Yessis | 03.21.08 | 9:33 AM ET
It’s Bangkok, according to Time. The story seems to offer support for both sides in a brewing debate in our comments section about whether it’s more difficult to cross the street in Rome or some cities in Southeast Asia. The chaos of Bangkok sounds crazier than Rome, but so does the gridlock. And if cars in Bangkok are perpetually stopped, isn’t that an argument that it should be easier to cross there than in Rome?
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* How to Cross the Street in Rome
Bhutan: How Will the World’s Last Independent Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom Survive?
by Michael Yessis | 03.20.08 | 12:30 PM ET
The once-isolated country has welcomed tourists, satellite television and Matt Lauer in its efforts to engage the world. Now, as Arthur Lubow writes in the latest Smithsonian, the country has begun efforts to preserve its culture by displaying it outside its borders. Two major exhibitions are set for the United States this spring and summer, displays of Buddhist art in New York and San Francisco, and “demonstrations of traditional Bhutanese dancing, weaving, metalworking, woodcarving and herbal medicine” at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. Lubow traveled to Bhutan to see how these efforts, as well as larger issues of globalization, are changing the country.
China Blocks Travel to Ethnic Tibetan Regions
by Jim Benning | 03.20.08 | 12:21 PM ET
Tibet is often narrowly defined as the Tibetan Autonomous Region, but as the BBC points out, half of all Tibetans live outside it. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that recent protests over China’s rule of Tibet have spilled over those borders, too, into the ethnic Tibetan Chinese provinces of Gansu and Sichuan, among other places.
Talking Trash in Taiwan
by Julia Ross | 03.20.08 | 9:45 AM ET
Julia Ross thought she knew something about waste disposal. Then she moved to Taipei and watched masters in action.
China’s ‘Boxer Shorts Rebellion’
by Michael Yessis | 03.18.08 | 12:37 PM ET
A man known online as Chinabounder went to Shanghai “to teach English and, apparently, have a little naughty fun on the side,” writes Mara Hvistendahl in a New Republic story. That allegedly included “gallivanting with local women” and blogging about it, which inspired an online posse to get Chinabounder kicked out of China.
The Back of the Bus
by Laurie Gough | 03.17.08 | 4:43 PM ET
Laurie Gough reflects on a classic travel experience: The bus ride through a developing country. Cue the bumps, flat tires and Lionel Richie tunes in the jungles of Sumatra.
Violent Protests Prompt Travel Warnings for Tibet*
by Jim Benning | 03.14.08 | 11:40 AM ET
Ethnic Tibetans burned cars and shops in Lhasa, Tibet today, capping a week of demonstrations marking the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. (Unless, of course, you’re domestic Chinese media, in which case nothing is happening.) The U.S. Embassy in Beijing advises Americans to defer trips to Tibet.
* Update, 12 p.m. ET: Chinese police have reportedly fired on protesters, killing at least two people. Said one witness: “As I approached Potala Square, I heard cannon fire, louder than rifles. Others told me police were firing tear gas along Beijing Zhonglu, west of the Potala.”
Dollar Hits 12-Year Low Against Yen
by Jim Benning | 03.13.08 | 4:13 PM ET
You want bad travel news? We got your bad travel news. The dollar’s tumbling value in Japan is today’s big headline. (Japan-bound budget travelers might want to cancel that hostel reservation and book a night here.) But the dollar has been sinking around the globe, from euro-land to India, for some time now. Get this, from the AP: “At the Taj Mahal, dollars were always legal tender, alongside rupees, for entry into the palace. But because of the falling value of the dollar, the government implemented a rupees-only policy a month ago.”
William Langewiesche in China: ‘No Pushing! No Swearing! No Irony!’
by Michael Yessis | 03.13.08 | 3:14 PM ET
Yet another high-profile U.S. writer has journeyed to China to take the country’s pulse in advance of the Beijing Olympics, this time in a 2,900-word piece in Vanity Fair. Langewiesche’s take: