Destination: Asia
I Admire Eggs. They Teach Travelers About Packing in One Container, With No Loose Ends Hanging Out.
by Michael Yessis | 04.02.02 | 7:43 PM ET
Susan Spano has eaten eggs in Scotland, Scandinavia, Japan, France, Spain, China and many other countries near and far. Even at fancy resorts or on a cruise ship known for magnificent breakfast spreads, she goes straight for the eggs. Spano likes them for their nutritional punch, sure, but that’s not the only reason why. “I love finding the egg in some of the most outlandish places and seeing how differently it is prepared and served,” she writes in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. “The egg is global but no instrument of globalization.”
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Yahoo! BuzzCereal Traveler
by Michael Yessis | 04.01.02 | 7:41 PM ET
We at World Hum love to travel, and we like all sorts of cereal, so we send out a hearty “Bravo!” to the resourceful and intrepid Lori Mayfield. After a bout of forgetfulness, she was left ticketless just weeks before a planned trip to India. Mayfield could have shelled out $4,500 for last minute airfare. Instead, she discovered that Kellogg’s was offering 100 frequent flyer miles with proof of purchase of certain cereals. Off to the market she went.
Field-Testing the Simputer in India
by Michael Yessis | 04.01.02 | 7:37 PM ET
Lincoln Kaye recently traveled to India to test the Simputer, a powerful, low-cost, palm-top that is intended as India’s home-grown answer to the “digital divide” in the country’s poorest and remotest villagers. Kaye wrote about his experiences bringing state-of-the-art technology to the Central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, a tableau of mud-hut villages and forested hills, in a diary for Slate.
Judging Hong Kong by its Cover
by Jim Benning | 03.27.02 | 7:28 PM ET
If you can’t judge a book by its cover, can you at least judge a city by its cover? Hong Kong tourism officials hope potential visitors won’t. That’s because Lonely Planet’s latest guide to the city features not enticing junks and colored lights on its cover but the Bank of China skyscraper enshrouded in what looks like smog—not exactly an inviting image. Lonely Planet apparently isn’t talking, but CNN.com offers a report on the matter, along with a photo of the cover in question. According to the article, a local lawmaker recently lamented to a wire service, “Travel guides usually show pictures with blue sky, white clouds, clear water and fine sand.” Yeah! Where’s Hong Kong beach? Where are the curling waves? The girls? Now there’s a cover!
The Derailing of America’s Rail Service
by Jim Benning | 03.07.02 | 4:03 PM ET
Amtrak, America’s passenger rail service, is in a real financial mess, and its future is looking grim. If President Bush and Congress don’t agree to pitch in more money soon, long-distance trains could simply cease operating as early as this year. This is absurd. At a time when Americans are wary of air travel, they should be able to turn to top-notch high-speed rail service. Unfortunately, as the New York Times pointed out recently, under-investment in Amtrak has left Americans without this option. Even the new high-speed Acela trains aren’t running at full-speed for most of the trip from Boston to Washington. As for taking a quick train ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco, forget it. I tried last week. The scheduled 12-hour journey—double the time it takes to drive—took more than 15 hours counting the late start. The staff spent a good chunk of the trip joking about the slow service. I’ve had better rail experiences in Malaysia, Thailand and China. All of this leaves the automotive industry delighted, oil salesmen gushing and U.S. travelers as tethered as ever to their cars.
Would You Ride This Train?
by Jim Benning | 03.06.02 | 2:46 PM ET
Overland travelers moving between China and Tibet must brave harrowing drives through rugged mountains, but that could change. The Chinese government has approved the development of a railway linking the nation with the “Tibetan Autonomous Region.” As Tibetans fear for their culture’s future, Outpost Magazine examines the cultural, political and environmental consequences of “one of the world’s greatest engineering challenges.” Wonders writer Jon Link: “If you take the train - which will be an easier and more spectacular way to arrive than is available now - are you giving tacit approval to its existence?”
The Magnetic Pull of a Purple Umbrella
by Michael Yessis | 03.06.02 | 1:31 AM ET
It was raining in Japan and Karin Muller lacked an umbrella. The omission was conscious. Muller was already hauling enough in her backpack, and she wasn’t afraid of a little water. So when a generous pension owner gave her a four-pound purple “wooden paper ceiling,” she tried to “lose it.” But whenever she tried to leave it on a train, she says in a Savvy Traveler audio postcard concerned Japanese locals wouldn’t let her get rid of it.
Interview with Robert Young Pelton
by Michael Yessis | 03.05.02 | 2:29 PM ET
Kojo Nnamdi, host of the Public Radio program Public Interest, interviewed Robert Young Pelton last week. Pelton, the author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places, spoke about several of his adventures, including his recent experiences in Afghanistan where he famously interviewed American Taliban John Walker Lindh for CNN.
Flying Afghanistan’s Ariana Airlines
by Jim Benning | 02.27.02 | 11:44 PM ET
The Chicago Tribune’s E.A. Torriero, on assignment in Afghanistan, flew the local carrier recently and lived to tell the tale. As it turns out, Ariana isn’t doing so well these days. The company is down to just two planes. “Look, we used to have three Boeing 727s and five Russian Antonovs,” a ticket clerk explained. “But you [Americans] bombed us. One bomb fell on three planes at once. Now we have one 727 and one Antonov.”
What Will Lure Wary Japanese Tourists Back to America? Ishii! Ishii!
by Jim Benning | 02.27.02 | 11:41 PM ET
Japanese tourists wary of traveling to the U.S. since September 11 just might make the haul again—not to see the state’s famed beaches or Yosemite National Park—but to see the newest member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kazuhisa Ishii. Japan views its athletes playing in the U.S. as rock stars, according an article in the Los Angeles Times. Said Ko Ueno, director of Japanese travel for the California Division of Tourism: “If it plays out the way we’re hoping, baseball will be our savior in this tourism slump.”
The Misery of Being Far Away
by Michael Yessis | 02.21.02 | 12:08 AM ET
Thomas Dillon lives in Tokyo. When his stepfather fell into a coma during the holidays, Dillon had to endure a few maddening days before he could get to his bedside in Minnesota. He writes about his experience and the fate of those who live far away from loved ones in a recent story for the Japan Times. “[W]hen people make a commitment to living abroad, they also sign up for the inevitable—that sad and mad dash home, hopefully to catch one final moment with a fading loved one,” he writes.
Moors, Mosques and Mendieta
by Michael Yessis | 02.21.02 | 12:05 AM ET
Two writers for the Independent recently attended soccer games in Senegal and Spain. Each returned with a travel story illustrating that local sporting events are excellent ways to immerse yourself in a local culture. “At the foot of each terrace, a posse of drummers with their barrel-shaped djembe covered in goat hide competed with the distorted mbalax rhythms of Youssou N’Dour blaring out over the loud speakers,” writes Ann Noon, who visited Bamako, Senegal for the African Nations’ Cup final between Senegal and Cameroon. “Coins went flying as ambulant vendors threw bags of fresh peanuts up and down the rows of spectators packed tight like peas in a pod.” In the second story, David Angel attended the Spain-Japan friendly in Cordoba, the first time the Spanish city had hosted an International soccer match.
Super Bowl Fever Hits Thailand
by Jim Benning | 02.05.02 | 2:19 AM ET
Rolf Potts found himself in southern Thailand for Super Bowl Sunday. In an audio report for public radio’s The Savvy Traveler, he grapples with the prospect of missing yet another quintessentially American big game. “My expat neighbors don`t even sympathize,” he says. We sympathize.
“It Would Be a Pity to be Killed, Of Course”
by Jim Benning | 01.30.02 | 1:16 AM ET
Rory Stewart, a pale, wispy 29-year-old Scotsman, might very well be the first tourist to return to Afghanistan. On Sunday, the Oxford-educated traveler set out on a 600-mile walk through the country, tracing a path once taken by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. The only food in is backpack is a yellow container of emergency rations dropped over Afghanistan by American planes last fall. “Oh dear—why, of course I’m worried,” Stewart’s mother, back in Scotland, said in today’s Los Angeles Times.
The Future of Foriegn News in America
by Jim Benning | 01.29.02 | 1:14 AM ET
Foreign news coverage has long been on the decline in the United States. Has the paucity of international reporting fed American isolationism? Have the September 11 attacks prompted improved international coverage on network TV and in newspapers? If so, will it last? Former Los Angeles Times Editor Michael Parks examines these issues in the latest edition of the Columbia Journalism Review. “American newspapers have carried more stories about Afghanistan on page one in the four months since the September 11 attacks than in the previous four decades,” he writes.