Destination: Asia
Reporters Without Borders vs. Beijing 2008
by Jim Benning | 12.10.07 | 10:57 AM ET
Reporters Without Borders—or the much hipper sounding Reporters Sans Frontieres, if you prefer—launched a campaign against the Chinese government’s crackdown on journalists and Internet users earlier this year, according to its Web site. I just spotted this powerful billboard promoting the campaign yesterday in Los Angeles. Among the organization’s beefs: China’s ongoing detention of at least 30 journalists and 50 Internet users, the blocking of news Web sites and the fact that “the authorities are now concentrating on blogs and video-sharing sites.”
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzMumbai Plans Museum for Rudyard Kipling
by Jim Benning | 12.07.07 | 12:30 PM ET
The Mumbai house where Rudyard Kipling was born and lived until the age of 6 will become a museum honoring the writer—a sure sign, some say, that India is beginning to embrace him, despite his imperialist stance. An English professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi told the Telegraph: “It’s part of the process of India finally pardoning Kipling.”
Photo: AP.
New Travel Book: ‘Ganga’
by Frank Bures | 12.07.07 | 11:04 AM ET
Full title: “Ganga: A Journey Down the Ganges River”
Author: Julian Crandall Hollick, who also guided a six-part NPR series on the river.
Released: Oct. 15, 2007
Travel genre: River travel
Territory covered: India
Mumbai and the Proximity of Elegance and Squalor
by Joanna Kakissis | 12.06.07 | 9:47 AM ET
The middle of the night is “not such a bad time to arrive” in Mumbai, Thomas Swick writes in a engrossing story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The darkness hides the city’s sins, such as the searing poverty. By daylight, however, you see the slums but also the garlanded temples, Bollywood wealth, the elevator operators reading Oliver Sacks, the carnivalesque tourist district of Colaba, the “harsh, utilitarian cacophany” of Crawford Market.
Memo to Macau Guides: Don’t Mess With Mainland Chinese Tourists
by Jim Benning | 12.05.07 | 3:48 PM ET
This has to be my favorite travel-related news story of the year. From the BBC: “Riot police in China’s enclave of Macau have been called in to calm mainland tourists angry they were being shown too many shops and not enough sites.” The report is a tad sketchy, but it seems that roughly 100 tourists were involved, traveling by bus in Macau, and their guides were leading them to the shops. “The tourists had complained to their guides that they wanted to see more of the former Portuguese colony’s historic sites,” the report states. “They said they were being pressured into buying goods.”
New Travel Book: ‘Marco Polo’
by Michael Yessis | 12.04.07 | 7:13 AM ET
Full title: “Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu”
Author: Laurence Bergreen, who also wrote “Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe” and biographies of Al Capone and Irving Berlin.
Released: Oct. 23, 2007
Travel genre: Historical footstep following
Territory covered: The Silk Road from, uh, Venice to Xanadu
In Thailand, Pink is the New Black
by Jim Benning | 11.30.07 | 12:39 PM ET
Seriously. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who traditionally has worn dark colors, was recently spotted wearing a pink shirt, and that has prompted a run on pink shirts in the country. Reports the BBC: “Thais have been queuing in their hundreds” for shirts like the one pictured, and the “Phufa fashion chain said it had sold 40,000 pink shirts this month.” No word on whether backpackers in Thailand will trade in their ubiquitous Southeast Asian Red Bull T-shirts for something in pink. I hope so.
.
How to Eat Peking Duck in Beijing
by Diana Kuan | 11.29.07 | 11:29 AM ET
It's a feast fit for emperors. But as Diana Kuan explains, there's more to devouring the iconic dish than you might think.
New Travel Book: Bad Karma
by Frank Bures | 11.29.07 | 10:19 AM ET
Full title: “Bad Karma: Confessions of a Reckless Traveller in Southeast Asia”
Author: Tamara Sheward
Released: Nov. 1, 2007 (U.S.)
Travel genre: Bad Aussies abroad (you know the type)
Territory covered: Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
China’s Theme Parks Look West
by Julia Ross | 11.28.07 | 12:49 PM ET
Call it Interlaken East. Just outside China’s coastal boomtown, Shenzhen—a city better known for shark’s fin soup than grilled bratwurst—a meticulously duplicated Swiss Alpine amusement park is attracting middle class Chinese looking for a vicarious European vacation. In a story on the rising popularity of Western-themed amusement parks in China, Time magazine reports that the Shenzhen project, called OCT East, spared no effort in recreating a Swiss village (the real Interlaken is pictured): “Last summer, an Alpine songfest brought yodelers. A wooden Christian chapel sits above a Swiss clock made from flowers. You can tour the whole property aboard an antique railroad that circles it, or view it from the highest summit—some 50 feet high—before plunging down the slope on the gondola-cum-roller coaster.”
In Search of the Perfect Dumpling in Shanghai
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.26.07 | 11:09 AM ET
In Shanghai, the dumpling known as xiao long bao is on the city’s list of “protected traditional treasures.” It was invented in Shanghai, which made an excellent setting for a witty and mouth-watering piece in the International Herald Tribune by intrepid travel writer and World Hum contributor Daisann McLane. During the course of three days, she taste-tested her way through the city, looking for the perfect dumpling.
Go Forth And Run: Marathon Tours Taking Off
by Eva Holland | 11.14.07 | 11:25 AM ET
We recently blogged about urban running tours that allow devoted runners to take in some sights while getting their daily exercise fix. Now, an increasing number of travel agencies are promoting marathon packages—to destinations all over the world, writes Andy Riga in The Montreal Gazette. Want to run the Taj Mahal Marathon? Or the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon? Somewhere, according to Riga, there is a package tour that will get you there—though don’t expect they’ll guarantee a personal best time.
Pod Hotels: Not Just For Japanese Salarymen Anymore
by Eva Holland | 11.09.07 | 7:57 AM ET
In Japan, pod hotels are old news. The first one, Capsule Inn Osaka, opened in 1977. Writes Karen Burshstein in a National Post story: “With more than a passing resemblance to the drawers in a morgue, it was a weird but nifty addition to Japan’s space-starved cityscapes.” Now, though, the concept has spread, and mini-hotel rooms are popping up in London, New York, Amsterdam, Vancouver and elsewhere. They range from the garish yet economical (the low-cost and bright orange easyHotels,) for instance, to trendy and high-tech (like Dutch company Qbic‘s LCD TV screens and changeable color schemes that match your mood, pictured) and many are available for only a few hours at a time, neatly filling the gap between a red-eye landing and the start of a long day of museum or gallery hopping.
Angkor Wat, Better When It Rains
by Julia Ross | 11.08.07 | 1:30 PM ET
When writer Stephen Brookes told friends he planned to visit Cambodia’s Angkor Wat in July—the height of monsoon season—they said he was crazy. “You’re certain to get stranded in your hotel, swatting at mosquitoes and hoping you don’t come down with malaria,” came the general response. Well, Brookes and his wife proved them wrong. In a story for the Washington Post, Brookes recounts a lovely trip to Angkor in the off-season, when costs are low, tourists are sparse, and visitors can take in the temples at their leisure.
Photo: Hong Kong Skyline, With Plane
by Jim Benning | 11.08.07 | 12:36 PM ET
The (very cool) photo below was shot in Hong Kong recently during the filming of the next Batman film, “The Dark Knight.” That’s a C-130 cargo plane. As an interesting aside, all hasn’t gone smoothly with the filming. Reports the Guardian: “The trouble began when director Christopher Nolan requested that Hong Kong’s inhabitants leave their lights burning during the film’s night-time shoots in order to present the city in its full, illuminated glory. Letters were reportedly sent to 60 companies along the city’s waterfront area, while building managers were told to ask all residents to comply with the request.” Nolan was met with a collective shrug. According to reports, 80 percent of those asked ignored the request.