Destination: Asia
Love Hotels Welcome World Cup Visitors
by Jim Benning | 05.21.02 | 7:55 PM ET
The Honeymoon Park Inn, the Eros Motel and the Valentine Motel will welcome soccer fans arriving in South Korea next week for the World Cup—but not because the hotels’ owners necessarily want to. These “love hotels” and many others—so named because they usually house couples in search of a little privacy and some funky erotic art—are being commissioned by tourism authorities to play host because South Korea simply doesn’t have enough hotel beds to house the 650,000 visitors expected. The hotels often rent the same room five times a day. Not so during the World Cup, so they’ll likely lose money. To add insult to injury, owners are also being asked to change out some of their rooms’ more risque art. “They don’t want the places to be vulgar,” Lee Jung Yeon, manager of the Romance Inn, told the Los Angeles Times. Vulgarity? They’re worried about vulgarity? They obviously haven’t spent much time with many soccer fans.
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Yahoo! Buzz“This is the Essence of Travel, I Reminded Myself: Meeting Someone New, Seeing Something New”
by Michael Yessis | 05.20.02 | 8:04 PM ET
Alison Buckholtz often thought of travel as a way to gain access to exotic objects, which she would then purchase and take home as souvenirs. But when the rare bamboo basket she craved during a trip to Japan wasn’t for sale at any price, even for a stash of Budweiser, she was forced to rethink her narrow-minded notions of travel. Buckholtz writes in the New York Times: “[T]he act of travel itself grants us true access, the ultimate gift from host to guest, and it is more precious and transportable than any basket.”
Are You Following the Rules for Travel?
by Michael Yessis | 05.14.02 | 8:23 PM ET
The Pacific Asia Travel Association released a six-rule manifesto for travelers last month. Among them: Support local businesses and accept different cultures. Bangkok Post writer Don Ross thinks the six rules are five too many. “[T]he wordy code could have been said in one sentence,” he writes. “[U]se your common sense.” It’s good advice, Don, but we’d add one more universal rule: You can survive anywhere with a jug of peanut butter and a fresh roll of toilet paper.
Trekking With the Maoist Rebels
by Jim Benning | 05.13.02 | 10:18 PM ET
Maoist insurgents continue to taint Nepal’s reputation as a snow-capped Shangri-la. The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn offers a detailed look at the Maoists’ actions and their effects on Nepal travel and trekking. “According to published reports, some trekking companies are paying protection money so the Maoists will leave their clients alone,” Flinn writes. He asked a couple of San Francisco travel companies about that. One confessed that some trek leaders carry “a stash of cash” for emergencies.
Travels With Daisy
by Jim Benning | 05.09.02 | 10:22 PM ET
After she was famously kidnapped and released by the Taliban last fall, journalist Yvonne Ridley was accused of being a “bad mother” to her nine-year-old daughter, Daisy. The experience rattled Ridley. She re-examined their relationship and realized she didn’t even know Daisy’s favorite color. So she decided to take Daisy traveling. “We basked on Bondi Beach, shivered in an air-conditioned Dubai taxi, got drenched in torrential rain in Afghanistan and sweated in the stifling heat of Lahore,” Ridley writes in the Observer. “We had an amazing time together but, more importantly, I have emerged from a wonderful bonding experience with a child I am very proud to call my daughter.”
The Pokemon Hegemon
by Michael Yessis | 05.08.02 | 10:28 PM ET
The United States isn’t the only reigning cultural superpower in the world these days. Japan is rising. In the May/June issue of Foreign Policy, Douglas McGray offers a thoughtful, detailed examination of how Japan is exerting growing cultural influence across the globe. He looks at a range of influences, from Pokemon and anime to Hello Kitty and the “Super Flat” art movement. “Millions of teenagers in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Bangkok covet the latest fashions from Tokyo, most of which never make it to New York,” McGray writes. “Japanese lifestyle magazines, some of the most lavishly produced in the world, are smuggled by illegal distributors across Asia as soon as they are on newsstands in Tokyo, though none has launched an American edition. At the same time, Japan has made deep inroads into American culture, usually written off by the rest of the world as aggravatingly insular.”
“We Plan to Develop Canned Dog-Meat Juice, Which Football Fans Can Enjoy in Their Stadium Seats”
by Michael Yessis | 05.07.02 | 10:30 PM ET
We’re a couple of the rare Americans who can’t wait for World Cup South Korea/Japan 2002. Many of the games will begin at 4 a.m. where we live, but we don’t care. We’re watching—for the football, and the inevitable cultural confusion, enlightenment and head-butting that comes when fans and teams from 32 countries get together to fly their flags and chant their songs. With less than four weeks remaining before the Cup kicks off, the zaniness has already begun.
Down by the Buskaschee Field
by David Raterman | 05.03.02 | 12:40 AM ET
Photo by David Raterman. Friends couldn't understand why David Raterman endured war-ravaged Tajikistan. But they never chanced upon a good game of goat-carcass polo.
Afghanistan’s Airline: One Place, 1,600 Employees
by Jim Benning | 04.30.02 | 7:08 PM ET
U.S. airlines complain about tough times, but they’ve got nothing on poor Ariana Afghan Airlines. Six of Ariana’s planes were destroyed during recent U.S. bombings. How many are left? “Don’t ask me that question,” the man charged with rebuilding the airline, Jahed Azimi, told CNN. “One aircraft and 1,600 employees. Can you believe it?” It’s hard to believe. But don’t write off Ariana yet. CNN reports that Afghanistan’s commercial airline is resilient: “After all, this is the airline that began domestic flights in December despite an unexploded bomb in the middle of the runway.”
From Stockholm to the Top of Everest and Back to Nepal by Bike with the “Crazy Swede”
by Michael Yessis | 04.22.02 | 7:45 PM ET
Acknowledging the Unacknowledged in Japan
by Jim Benning | 04.22.02 | 7:42 PM ET
While working in Japan, Peggy Orenstein suffered a miscarriage—something most Americans don’t like to talk about. But in Japan Orenstein found a culture far more open about such things. In Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, she explores the two countries’ differing views, and she recalls her visit to Zozo-ji, a Buddhist temple in Tokyo filled with small statues of infants.
Japanese Tourists Stumble into Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
by Jim Benning | 04.18.02 | 7:31 PM ET
It sounds like a spoof news story from The Onion, but this is legit: A pair of Japanese backpackers touring Bethlehem were so engrossed in their guidebooks they wandered right up to the Church of the Nativity, only to be shocked to learn it was the site of an ongoing seige between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.
Home Alone
by Aaron Paulson | 04.18.02 | 1:40 AM ET
Photo by Aaron Paulson While his wife taught at the local middle school, Aaron Paulson worked at home. To his Japanese neighbors, that made him one of the girls.
Japanese Exchange Student Taken to Japanese Restaurant
by Michael Yessis | 04.10.02 | 5:05 PM ET
The Onion reports from Iowa that 16-year-old Japanese exchange student Takashi Miyazawa was taken by Bobbie and Bill Tucker, his host parents, to a restaurant named Edo in order to experience some authentic Japanese culture. The outing marked the first time any of the Tuckers had eaten Japanese food. It was Miyazawa’s 18,358th time.
It’s, Like, So Cold War!
by Jim Benning | 04.09.02 | 5:01 PM ET
North Korea is opening its doors to thousands of foreign visitors this month for a gymnastics tribute, of all things, to its founding father, Kim Il-sung. Analysts wonder if the famously reclusive communist nation just might be “coming out of its shell,” according to a report on CNN.com. If the country does become more accessible, what’s in it for travelers? “It’s the last bastion of Communism,” said the owner of one tour company. “It’s also the last vestige of the Cold War. That is the enticement.”