Destination: Australia

Shooting Kakadu

Shooting Kakadu Andrea Johnson

Andrea Johnson explores Australia's Northern Territory and the challenge of capturing meaningful travel photographs

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Seeing Australia Through Australian Crime Novels

B. R. Myers looks Down Under through the eyes of an American reading Aussie crime fiction. From the Atlantic

It is a rare crime novel that doesn’t seem better in the first part, when we are still trying to find our bearings. Perhaps we want to feel the way we did as children, when the genre was so much more thrilling for being slightly over our heads. This is the good thing about Australian crime fiction: as an American, you are never completely at home in it. True, the suburban backdrops appear very familiar, and on the printed page the Australian variant of English is almost identical to our own. But the characters in these novels behave much more differently from Americans than do the Swedes in those Stieg Larsson books, and this never stops feeling odd. Among male friends an intensity of joshing camaraderie is in evidence that even our frat boys would find stifling.

Previously, we noted Reggie Nadelson’s essay on the importance of place in crime novels, and Sarah Weinman’s piece on “international crime novels based in places as unlikely as Laos, Gaza and North Korea.”


World Travel Watch: G20 Alert in Seoul, Volcano in Indonesia and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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World Travel Watch: Striptease at Uluru, Ongoing Strikes in Greece and More

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World Travel Watch: Volcanoes in Ecuador and Guatemala, Violence in Rome and More

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The Titanic Awards: 10 Worst National Cuisines

The Titanic Awards: 10 Worst National Cuisines Photo by onlinehero via Flickr (Creative Commons)

More than 2,000 travelers from 80 countries voted in the Titanic Awards survey. Here are the unlucky winners.

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World Travel Watch: Airplane Safety in Peru, Metro Bombings in Moscow and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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High-Speed Rail in Australia?

Only if the country gives up its “national can’t-do mentality,” says Clive Dorman.


World Travel Watch: Protests in Thailand, Dingo Trouble in Australia and More

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Men at Work Loses ‘Down Under’ Plagiarism Case

An Australian court has ruled that the flute section in the catchy travel song was lifted from “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree,” another Aussie classic that dates to the 1930s. Frontman Colin Hay has issued an emotional dissenting statement in response. Here’s the song in question:


World Travel Watch: Major Earthquake in Haiti, Road Blocks in Greece and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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World Travel Watch: Fees and Visas in India and Argentina, Maoists in Nepal and More

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Jan Morris Reveals her Favorite Cities

She fields this question in the Guardian: What is her favorite of them all?

Dear God, what a question! To my mind cities are distillations of human life itself, in all its nuances, with all its contradictions and anomalies, changing from one year to another, changing with the weather, changing with history, changing with the state of the world, changing above all in one’s own personal responses. How can I have a favourite? Sometimes I prefer one city, sometimes another. Inconstancy governs my responses to cities—fidelity in personal matters, promiscuity in civic affairs.

Morris does have a ready answer, though, when asked about her least favorite city: Indianapolis. (Via @ben_coop)


World Travel Watch: Monster Crocs in Australia, Bridge Collapses in Costa Rica and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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