Destination: Asia
U.S. State Department: Postpone Travel to Burma*
by Jim Benning | 09.27.07 | 1:45 PM ET
The U.S. State Department has issued a no-brainer announcement—our phrase, not theirs—on Burma: “U.S. citizens should defer non-essential travel to Burma at this time. American citizens resident [sic] in Burma should avoid all demonstrations and processions as they could turn violent with little or no warning.” Even without an ongoing military crackdown on protesting monks, of course, plenty of travelers argue against visiting the nation.
* Update, 2:56 p.m. ET: State television in Burma reports that nine people have been killed today in Rangoon, including eight protesters and a Japanese video journalist, as a military crackdown persists, according to the BBC. “Thursday’s protests followed reports of overnight raids on six monasteries,” according to the news agency. “Witnesses say soldiers smashed windows and doors and beat sleeping monks. Some escaped but hundreds were taken away in military trucks.”
Related on World Hum:
* First Deaths Reported in Crackdown on Protesters in Burma
* As Defiant Monks Protest in Burma, Travel Debate Rages On
Photo: AP.
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Yahoo! BuzzIslamabad’s New Art Gallery: 28 Years in the Making
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.27.07 | 12:36 PM ET
Built in the 1960s, Islamabad is known for being clean, planned and, well, a little sterile—at least compared to the rest of colorful, crowded and unpredictable Pakistan. But the arrival of the National Art Gallery—which opened last month after 28 years of planning and construction—may liven up the capital, writes Carlotta Gall in The New York Times. Interestingly, the half-completed building was neglected for nearly a decade, until none other than Gen. Pervez Musharraf himself moved his offices into the neighborhood. Apparently he grew tired of looking at the thing and one day said, “What can you do with this eyesore?”
The Critics: Paul Theroux’s ‘The Elephanta Suite’
by Frank Bures | 09.27.07 | 11:00 AM ET
Paul Theroux is back, right on schedule, with a new book of fiction, this time a collection of three novellas about Westerners in India called The Elephanta Suite. Pico Iyer gives it a glowing review in Time, calling it “a set of brilliantly evocative and propulsive novellas.”
First Deaths Reported in Crackdown on Protesters in Burma
by Jim Benning | 09.26.07 | 11:13 AM ET
Observers—heck, everyone we know who has been paying attention—feared it was coming.
Related on World Hum:
* As Defiant Monks Protest in Burma, Travel Debate Rages On
* Big Brother in Burma
* Burma’s Ongoing Cycle of Despair
Photo: AP.
Six New Nonstop U.S.-China Flight Routes Awarded
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.07 | 4:13 PM ET
The six so-called U.S. legacy airlines—Delta, United, US Airways, Continental, American and Northwest—received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin flying new routes to China. U.S.-China routes are regulated by a bilateral agreement, and the two countries recently agreed to open up more routes, according to USA Today’s Ben Mutzabaugh. It’s yet another sign of China’s growing stature among travelers.
Related on World Hum:
* China Faces Pilot Shortage
* Driving the Silk Road—in a New $7,000 Chinese Car
Photo by Michael Yessis.
As Defiant Monks Protest in Burma, Travel Debate Rages On
by Jim Benning | 09.25.07 | 1:27 PM ET
As thousands of defiant Buddhist monks rally for democracy in Burma (or Myanmar) despite of warnings of a military crackdown, travelers watching in awe from afar continue to debate the ethics of visiting the country. Arthur Frommer yesterday denounced tour operators who continue to lead groups into Burma and called on all travelers to boycott the nation. “Shockingly enough, several major U.S. tour operators continue to operate trips to Myanmar, despite pleas not to do so by the country’s democratically-elected leader, the Nobel-prize-winning Aung San Suu Kyi,” he wrote. “On occasion after occasion, Mrs. Kyi has emphatically stated that such visits simply support the brutal, thuggish military junta that now rules Myanmar.”
Monks Stage Historic Protest in Burma
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.21.07 | 12:16 PM ET
Thousands of Buddhist monks have been marching in Burma (or Myanmar) this week to protest the country’s repressive military junta, and today, the Guardian calls it “the most sustained challenge to the military junta in more than a decade.” Onlookers fear a government crackdown, given the dictatorship’s history of human rights abuses. As we’ve noted, the junta has detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for years. But according to the Guardian, “a government spokesman today insisted it had no plans to use force.”
Plane Carrying Tourists Crashes in Phuket, Thailand
by Michael Yessis | 09.17.07 | 9:34 AM ET
More than 80 people were killed, including more than 50 foreigners, when an MD-82 operated by the budget airline One-Two-Go crashed Sunday on Phuket, Thailand’s popular resort island. News reports vary on the exact number killed and injured, but many note that it was Thailand’s worst air disaster in a decade.
Border Stories: A Journey to Korea’s Joint Security Area
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.07 | 12:01 PM ET
North Korea and South Korea meet at just one place, the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom, about 40 miles north of Seoul. The demilitarized zone, the mine-riddled buffer between the two countries, doesn’t extend there. Instead, “on the demarcation line itself stand five huts,” writes the Telegraph’s Alex Bellos about a trip to the JSA. “In the middle one, which tourists are allowed to enter, the line bisects the middle of a shiny, wooden negotiating table. Meetings between the two nations still go on here. Once in the hut, you can walk round the table—thus stepping a few yards into North Korea.” Bellos provides a brief but insightful look at the JSA, with some telling details about the efforts of both sides to control the propaganda war tourists are inevitably sucked into.
‘Human Horses’ Defy Calcutta Rickshaw Ban
by Eva Holland | 09.13.07 | 12:00 PM ET
For more than a century, hand-pulled rickshaws have rolled through the busy streets and narrow alleys of Calcutta—or Kolkata (yes, we got the memo). But last month the BBC reported that the state government of West Bengal would be banning Calcutta’s famous human-powered transport. Now, the AFP has released this video report showing both rickshaw pullers and regular customers voicing their opposition to the ban. One customer noted that they were the only affordable transport for the injured or the sick, and wondered about compensation or re-training for the pullers. One rickshaw-puller said simply, “I have never done anything else.”
Singapore, Brand That Nation!
by Jim Benning | 09.10.07 | 3:26 PM ET
Photo by Alex.ch via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
The latest focus of Brand That Nation!—our tip sheet for countries that may or may not be considering new branding campaigns and that just might want to improve their image in the U.S. travel market, where simple, easy-to-remember slogans are key: Singapore.
Location: Southern tip of the Malay peninsula in Southeast Asia
Capital: Singapore City
Noteworthy factoids: Durian fruit is not allowed on public transportation. Also, Singaporeans hold the world record for the most people exercising simultaneously while wearing green.
China Faces Pilot Shortage
by Michael Yessis | 09.10.07 | 8:59 AM ET
The country will need 9,000 pilots in the next few years to accommodate the rapid growth of its travel industry, and Reuters reports it will fall 2,000 short. Among the solutions: recruiting foreign pilots and more women. Says Gao Hongfeng, deputy head of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China: We are “very happy to see that many women are so enthusiastic about this industry and want to become part of it. Airlines have opened their doors to this, and the regulator has too.”
Related on World Hum:
* China to Become World’s Top Tourism Destination by 2014
Photo by http2007, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
China Identifies 2,753 Menu Items For Name Changes
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.07 | 10:32 AM ET
The Chinese government advanced its campaign to rid the country of “Chinglish” in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, highlighting 2,753 dishes and drinks—including the ever-popular “burnt lion’s head”—as “confusing, even ridiculous [English] translations.” The Chinglish Files has a link to the official government report.
Nepal Airlines Sacrifices Goats in Front of Troubled Plane
by Jim Benning | 09.04.07 | 1:35 PM ET
Two goats, to be exact. The airline did so in front of a troubled Boeing 757 in Kathmandu in order to appease the Hindu sky god Akash Bhairab, Reuters reports. Apparently the plane had been suffering from electrical problems.
Related on World Hum:
* FAA to Airlines: Speed Up the Boeing 737 Inspections
* Everest Base Camp: ‘The Himalayan Version of Burning Man’
Happy 50th Birthday, Malaysia
by Jim Benning | 08.31.07 | 12:49 PM ET