Destination: Australia & Pacific
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Beppe, Borat, Bungees and Bunnies
by Michael Yessis | 09.29.06 | 8:03 AM ET
Beppe Severgnini returns to the top, and so does the Playboy Club. Travelers and armchair travelers have an eye on both this week as the Zeitgeist ventures to Oaxaca, New Zealand, Italy, Colorado and the 52nd floor of the Palms in Las Vegas.
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La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind by Beppe Severgnini
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Where the Moon Stood Still, and the Ancients Watched (Chimney Rock, Colorado)
* The current most e-mailed story overall at the New York Times, however, is our kind of travel story: Kazakhs Shrug at ‘Borat’ While the State Fumes
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Getting Stoned With Savages’: The Adventures of Flip-Flop Man in Vanuatu and Fiji
by Kristin Van Tassel | 09.12.06 | 6:31 AM ET
In J. Maarten Troost's new book, he again flees Washington D.C. for a life on the islands of the South Pacific. Kristin Van Tassel reviews his foray into the world of volcanoes, sharks, hookers and kava.
Kiwis Sour on U.S., and it’s Getting Personal
by Jim Benning | 06.22.06 | 1:43 PM ET
And a bit ugly. According to a story in the Christian Science Monitor, a recent poll found that while 54 percent of Kiwis had positive feelings about the U.S. in 2001, only 29 percent of them feel that way today. Perhaps more surprising is that Americans in New Zealand are getting an earful. One American teacher on the North Island got so tired of verbal abuse from his students, he filed a complaint with the country’s Human Rights Commission.
No. 10: “In A Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson
by Michael Yessis | 05.23.06 | 1:38 AM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 2000
Territory covered: Australia
Bill Bryson, like many of the best travel writers, fuels his books with a keen eye for detail and an historian’s ability to research. In In a Sunburned Country, for instance, he cites a whopping 66 books in his bibliography. But what sets Bryson apart is his ability to process everything he’s learned and experienced with the voice of a seasoned comedian. “Sunburned” is laugh-out-loud funny. “This is a country that…is so vast and empty that a band of amateur enthusiasts could conceivably set off the world’s first non-governmental atomic bomb on its mainland and almost four years would pass before anyone noticed,” he writes. “Clearly this is a place worth getting to know.” Bryson travels from Sydney to Perth and throughout the continent’s Martian-like desert middle, and his affection for Australia’s people and its varied landscapes is obvious. In fact, it’s infectious. If an armchair trip through Australia in the company of Bryson doesn’t make you want to go there, it’s doubtful any book will.
No. 12: “The Songlines” by Bruce Chatwin
by Jim Benning | 05.21.06 | 2:19 AM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 1987
Territory covered: Australia
Early on in The Songlines, British-born Bruce Chatwin recalls his childhood as one of “fantastic homelessness.” His most treasured possession was a conch shell his father brought back from the West Indies that he called Mona, which he held to his ear to listen for crashing waves. Perhaps this accounts for the peripatetic life Chatwin would go on to lead, and his journey to explore the traditionally semi-nomadic Australian Aborigines and their “Songlines”—creation myths that “tell of the legendary totemic beings who had wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path…and so singing the world into existence.” With its sharp dialogue and philosophical digressions, Chatwin’s evocative account reads almost like a novel—some people he included in the book, in fact, accused him of playing fast and loose with the facts, writing more fiction than fact. Chatwin is among the most enigmatic of modern travel writers, and one of the few to be recalled in a biography. He died of AIDS-related causes in 1989 at the age of 48. “The Songlines” endures as a travel-lit classic from a writer whose life ended all too soon.
Nullarbor Plain, Australia
by Ben Keene | 05.12.06 | 8:27 PM ET
Coordinates: 31 10 S 129 0 E
Approximate length: 1,243 miles (2,000 km)
A scenic ride with nothing much to look at. Well, nothing you’re likely to see from the window seat as you glide along the rails of Australia’s Transcontinental Line. A treeless expanse of limestone south of the Great Victoria Desert that once formed the bed of an ancient sea, the Nullarbor Plain is crossed by the single longest straight section of railroad track in the world. But for all its monotony, it’s not altogether lifeless. Lacking any surface water, the Nullarbor’s semi-arid terrain nonetheless supports well over 1,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and vascular plants.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
The Australia Tourism Ad Controversy: ‘Has the World Gone Mad?’
by Michael Yessis | 03.24.06 | 11:04 AM ET
Now that the Canadians have joined the Brits in objecting to Tourism Australia’s “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign, and the U.S.-based American Family Association is poised to make its concerns known, Australians are asking themselves, “Is the ‘bloody hell’ ad campaign a growing embarrassment for Australia? Or is it the greatest marketing ploy of all time?” The comments are flowing on both sides at the Sydney Morning Herald news blog.
Great Barrier Reef Takes 30-Mile Hit From Cyclone Larry
by Michael Yessis | 03.20.06 | 11:46 PM ET
Experts say the damage inflicted on the Great Barrier Reef by Cyclone Larry on Monday may last for 20 years. “[T]he worst damage is limited to a fraction of the sprawling, Japan-sized reef network—and it’s far from the places where nearly two million tourists a year gaze in awe at the coral’s vibrant colors and fish life,” according to an AP report. Northeast Australia may not be out of harm’s way just yet. According to another AP report, a new storm, Cyclone Wati (pictured), is brewing in the Coral Sea.
Australian Residents, Tourists Brave Cyclone Larry
by Michael Yessis | 03.20.06 | 12:19 AM ET
The storm reached Category 5 status just before making landfall Monday near Innisfail, Australia, a popular jumping-off point for travelers heading to the Great Barrier Reef. Meteorologists say that Larry’s winds reached up to 290 kilometers per hour (about 180 miles per hour), making it one of the most savage storms ever recorded. Preliminary reports indicate a lot of property damage but no fatalities. CNN, among others, has details. It’s too soon, however, to tell how the Great Barrier Reef fared.
The Bloody Good Saga of Tourism Australia’s Latest Advertising Campaign
by Michael Yessis | 03.17.06 | 10:20 AM ET
Tourism Australia recently debuted a new advertising campaign that turns on the slogan, “Where the bloody hell are you?” Very cheeky. Very Australian. And quite offensive to the ears of the members of Britain’s Broadcast Advertising Clearance Center. (With an uptight, bureaucratic name like that, it probably doesn’t take much to offend.) Last week, the group banned the campaign from the country’s televisions because it uses the word “bloody,” which, according to The Age, is the 27th most offensive word to the BACC. That’s behind bollocks (No. 6), bugger (No. 21) and sodding (No. 24).
New Zealander Captures Eerie Image of Sunken Soviet Cruise Ship
by Michael Yessis | 02.27.06 | 6:06 AM ET
Ghostly, isn’t it? Ken Grange of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research used an ultrasound device to capture this image of the ill-fated Soviet Union cruise liner the Mikhail Lermontov, which sank more than 20 years ago in New Zealand’s Marlborough Sounds. The ship was the largest cruise liner to sink since Titanic, and is now a popular dive spot as well as a magnet for conspiracy theorists who believe the ship may have been used as a spy vessel by the Soviets.
“It’s Really Not That Dangerous Out There”
by Jim Benning | 02.06.06 | 1:15 PM ET
The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn enjoys perusing the travel-gadget catalogs loaded with items to keep you safe: shirts with secret pockets, siren alarms for your hotel room, germ-fighting airline seat covers. “These catalogs are fun to peruse (and even more fun to make fun of),” he writes in Sunday’s paper, “but I worry about two things: that they foster paranoia in novice travelers, and that they perpetuate the notion that safety and security comes mainly from buying—and lugging along—the right gadgets. Experienced travelers know this, but to those of you just getting started: It’s really not that dangerous out there.” I agree wholeheartedly.
Bradley Murdoch Found Guilty of Murdering British Backpacker
by Michael Yessis | 12.13.05 | 10:43 PM ET
Peter Falconio was killed four years ago in Australia’s Northern Territory, near the end of an around-the-world trip, during a drive from Alice Springs to Darwin. A jury concluded Tuesday that Bradley Murdoch, a mechanic from Broome, was guilty of the crime. The Australian, among many news outlets covering the events, has a report about Murdoch’s conviction and a detailed story recapping the crime.
Italy Ranked Number One “Country Brand”
by Michael Yessis | 12.02.05 | 11:56 AM ET
Australia took the runner-up spot, and the United States rounded out the top three in a recent global survey conducted by FutureBrand and its sister company, public relations firm Weber Shandwick. It also named China as the “most improved” country brand.
Melbourne Man Jailed in Frequent Flyer Scam
by Michael Yessis | 11.23.05 | 10:15 AM ET
Austin Perrott took advantage of computer system irregularities to amass 17.6 million frequent flyer miles on nine different airlines. Today he was sentenced to six years in jail.