Destination: Asia
In India, an Antidote to Monsoon Hair Drama
by Terry Ward | 07.18.07 | 11:04 AM ET
There’s another great slice of life piece—this one from Delhi, India—in the Washington Post’s enlightening Time Zones series. It’s the start of the monsoon season in India, writes Emily Wax, and well-heeled Indians are making their ways to city salons in Delhi to battle a universal enemy—the bad hair day. For both sexes in India, healthy, long hair is a major beauty symbol, and Indians take tress management seriously.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Critics: ‘Shadow of the Silk Road’
by Michael Yessis | 07.17.07 | 11:25 AM ET
Michael Yessis checks out what reviewers are saying about the U.S. release of the new book by Colin Thubron, "the dean of British travel writers"
China’s Wulingyuan National Park: A Gasp at Every Twist and Turn
by Michael Yessis | 07.16.07 | 5:02 PM ET
Add Simon Winchester to the list of heavyweight writers recently filing stories from China. The New York Times has Winchester’s dispatch from Wulingyuan National Park. “This is central China,” he writes, “and a remote part of the mountains of northwestern Hunan province, until lately seldom visited and indeed until 50 years ago barely even settled.” The two main draws now: a two-mile, $200 million tunnel to ease access, and “one of the most remarkable geomorphological spectacles existing on our planet,” the sandstone pillars of Wulingyuan.
So Long, Forbidden City Starbucks. Help Us Pick a New Wonder.
by Jim Benning | 07.16.07 | 11:33 AM ET
Earlier this month, we named the Starbucks outlet in China’s Forbidden City one of the seven wonders of the shrinking planet. It was, we wrote, symbolic of both globalization and, because of the ongoing protests surrounding its near-sacred location, any nation’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid rapid change. But now, like the ancient wonder the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Forbidden City’s Starbucks outlet has bitten the dust. According to Reuters, it closed on Friday as a result of protests. The closure has left World Hum with only six viable wonders of the shrinking planet, and that’s just wrong. Now we need your help.
Coming Soon: Japanese Bidet-Toilets at 30,000 Feet
by Terry Ward | 07.13.07 | 11:23 AM ET
My sister, Janet, visited Japan last year and returned with a breathless account of her experience with Japanese toilets, particularly the “washlets”—high-tech bidet models with myriad features such as adjustable hot and cold water sprayers, heated seats, blow dryers and, in some cases, massage settings. “It’s not for someone who just wants to go in, do their business and get out the door,” she concluded. Japan-bound visitors have traditionally had to wait until they arrive to make use of what are perhaps the world’s most luxurious loos. But according to a recent Reuters story, soon passengers on some All Nippon Airways (ANA) flights won’t even have to wait that long. (Yes, the airline that brought the world the Pokemon jet is again breaking new ground.)
Leo Hickman: In Search of the True Cost of Travel
by Frank Bures | 07.13.07 | 8:44 AM ET
Are travelers destroying cultures, economies and the planet? Are they making the world a better place? Frank Bures chats with the author of "The Final Call" about the ethics and consequences of world travel.
Mongolia: ‘On the Trail of the World’s True Last Wild Horses’
by Michael Yessis | 07.12.07 | 8:17 AM ET
On the heels of Deanne Stillman’s story honoring the horses Battle of the Little Bighorn comes another interesting piece, this one from a spot on the other side of the world: Mongolia. The country has more horses—an estimated 3 million—than people. The Telegraph’s Sara Evans ventured to the Mongolian plains to see the horses. She writes of the wild creatures known as takhi: “While takhi may come in confectionary colours, their nature is not so sweet. During the mating season, stallions will kick each other to death to gain dominance; when wolves threaten to take foals, takhi will rear fiercely to protect their young; and no man - except, if you believe the legend, Genghis Khan - has ever been able to ride one. Unknown to Europeans until 1878, takhi are as wild as the landscape they live in.”
Related on World Hum:
* ‘Mongolia Loves Puff Daddy’
* The Horse Spirits of Big Sky Country
* Down by the Buskaschee Field
Chopsticks Faux Pas and Other Cultural Land Mines in Japan
by Terry Ward | 07.11.07 | 12:47 PM ET
I try to be sensitive to cultural customs while traveling abroad but inevitably find my American-ness shining through. I can only imagine what cultural land mines await me in a traditional country like Japan. An insightful piece in the International Herald Tribune looks at the country’s subtle etiquette code from the viewpoint of a Japanese woman readjusting to her country’s norms after spending many years abroad. From “faux pas chopstick maneuvers” to dealing with her runny nose on a crowded train (in Japan, blowing your nose in public is the epitome of bad manners), Kumiko Makihara often finds herself overcompensating in an attempt to avoid offense.
Paris Mayor to Parisians: Be Nice to Tourists, S’il Vous Plait
by Michael Yessis | 07.11.07 | 8:38 AM ET
Is their reputation for rudeness catching up to Parisians? Oui, mayor Bertrand Delanoe apparently believes. Earlier this week, Paris launched a campaign to make the City of Light more tourist friendly with initiatives that include “Paris Tourist Day” and the “Charter for the Parisian and Visitor.” The AP and the Agence France-Presse, among others, have the story of the Paris “charm offensive” and the charter, which asks Parisians to “take the time to give information to visitors” and “make use of foreign language skills to reply to them in their language.” It’s probably a good thing for a country that’s seeing its most-favored nation status among tourists rapidly eroded by China.
UNESCO Adds Three Sites to Danger List, Names Next World Book Capital
by Michael Yessis | 07.10.07 | 11:14 AM ET
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has had a busy few weeks. Not only was it busy issuing a press release claiming no affiliation with the new seven wonders, during meetings in Christchurch, New Zealand, the group added the Galapagos and their surrounding marine reserve; Samarra, Iraq; and Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park to its list of endangered World Heritage sites. Two more sites—the Royal Palaces of Abomey, Benin and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal—were removed from the Danger List.
New Seven Wonders of the World Named
by Michael Yessis | 07.09.07 | 7:51 AM ET
Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet
by Jim Benning, Michael Yessis | 07.06.07 | 12:04 PM ET
Jim Benning and Michael Yessis unveil World Hum's seven wonders: places, things and people that embody ways the planet is shrinking and cultures are colliding
China to Become World’s Top Tourism Destination by 2014
by Michael Yessis | 07.06.07 | 9:15 AM ET
So says the World Tourism Organization, according to an Agence France-Presse story. That’s six years earlier than the organization predicted earlier this year. At this point, I’m not most interested in when China will gain the top spot. I’m intrigued by the country’s amazing growth.
Taiwan Enlists ‘Goth-Style Rock Band,’ Ozzy Osbourne in U.N. Quest
by Michael Yessis | 07.05.07 | 10:52 AM ET
Ozzy Osbourne, diplomat? The music icon/ drug-addled punchline, or, as Reuters calls him, “satanic- theme rocker,” will sponsor the Taiwainese band ChthoniC and its government-supported efforts to stir up support for Taiwan’s U.N. membership quest. ChthoniC will join this summer’s Ozzfest tour, and, according to Reuters, Ozzy will help out with transportation costs and let the band promote Taiwan’s U.N. membership. That will no doubt include performances of “UNlimited Taiwan,” ChthoniC’s song that “seeks to express Taiwan’s boundless vitality and its efforts to overcome international restrictions, isolation and prejudice,” says Minister Shieh Jhy-wey of the Taiwanese Government Information Office. Great. But if the band is going to take the message to the Ozzfest masses, one question remains: Does it rock?
Japanese to Sumo Recruiters: Yawn
by Jim Benning | 07.03.07 | 4:16 PM ET
For the first time since modern sumo standards were established in 1936, not a single person has applied to become a sumo wrestler in the lead-up to a key recruitment test in Japan. According to The Asahi Shinbum, sumo’s popularity has been on the decline, but the cancellation of the July test seems to be a new low. It prompted the newspaper to crack: “The Nihon Sumo Kyokai (Japan sumo association) is desperately looking for a few fat men.” Adding insult to injury, the BBC notes, “The two reigning grand champions, Asashoryu and Hakuho, are both Mongolian.” The widely reported death of a 17-year-old newly minted professional wrestler last month can’t help matters.
Related on World Hum:
* Japan’s Big Fat Sumo Controversy
* The Hot New Trend in Japanese Cuisine: 500-Year-Old Kaiseki
* R.I.P. Momofuku Ando, Inventor of Instant Ramen Noodles