Destination: Bali

Bali Belly and the Zombie Apocalypse

When Linda Watanabe McFerrin fell ill, all the travel meds in the world couldn't keep the undead away

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Tags: Asia, Indonesia, Bali

World Travel Watch: Second Bomb Threat at the Eiffel Tower, Rabies in Bali and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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Interview with Michael Scott Moore: ‘Sweetness and Blood’

Jim Benning talks with the author of a new travel book about the spread of surfing around the globe

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World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’

A big-screen incarnation of author Elizabeth Gilbert heads to Italy, India and Indonesia. Eva Holland and Eli Ellison go along for the ride.

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World Travel Watch: Crime in Bali, Burj Dubai and Machu Picchu Re-Open, and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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Travel Movie Watch: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Trailer

The movie version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s blockbuster travel book “Eat, Pray, Love” comes out this summer. The trailer was just released:

In December, World Hum contributor Liz Sinclair reported from the set in Bali.


Lover’s Moon

Lover’s Moon iStockPhoto

Pico Iyer on the power of travel to make a forgettable Glenn Frey song last forever

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World Travel Watch: Chile Earthquake Aftermath, Rallies in Bangkok and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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An Extra in Ubud: On the Set of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’

a temple in Ubud, Eat Pray Love iStockPhoto

Liz Sinclair gets her Hollywood moment in Indonesia, but the job is far from glamorous

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Eight Great Stories of Beaches, Islands, Travel and the Tropics

Eight Great Stories of Beaches, Islands, Travel and the Tropics Photo by Oscalito via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

To mark our eighth anniversary, we've collected eight favorite stories from our archives that celebrate and explore travel at land's end

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What Fatwa? Bali’s Yoga Tourists Follow Their Bliss.

Hundreds of yoga tourists in Bali have now joined author Salman Rushdie in an exclusive club: those who have defied a fatwa. This week’s International Bali-India Yoga Festival—which drew participants from the U.S., Germany, Sweden and Japan—proceeded as planned despite a recent edict by Indonesia’s Ulema Council banning the practice of yoga for all Indonesian Muslims.

The New York Times reports that festival organizers initially conceived the event to boost spiritual tourism on the island and decided to go forward with it as a public show of force against the fatwa. Bali’s governor, no doubt aware of the island’s growing yoga tourism potential, has said he will not enforce the ruling.

Who knew sun salutations could be this fraught?


On Asia: Points East

On Asia: Points East iStockPhoto
Shibuya, Tokyo. iStockphoto.

If this is indeed the “Asian century,” count me as an early adopter. I’ve quit two full-time jobs to explore the world’s most diverse continent, and they were the two best decisions I’ve ever made. To an Asia hand, the lavender fields of Provence might be pleasant, but it’s the chanting of novice monks, the mystical tinkling of the gamelan, a bowl of spicy dan dan noodles that really get the blood pumping. I’m drawn back, again and again, and I don’t know if I’ll ever kick the habit.

My (unlikely) introduction to Asia began in arid, post-Soviet Uzbekistan in the late ‘90s. As soon as my conference in Tashkent wrapped up, I hopped a bus to the Silk Road city of Samarkand, where blue-tiled madrassas dazzled against an azure sky. They were like nothing I’d seen, a window into an ancient time when Tamerlane traipsed across the steppes.

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Western Tourists Told to Avoid Bali

Bali tourism officials and other governments issued the warnings in response to news that the convicted bombers in Bali’s 2002 nightclub terror attacks will be executed in November.


Tourists Should be ‘Beat Up,’ Says Bali Bombing Conspirator

Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir called Western tourists in Indonesia “maggots, snakes and worms,” and he urged his followers not to tolerate them in a sermon captured on video by Australian university student Nathan Franklin.

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For a Beach Vacation, Should I Go All the Way to Bali or the Maldives When Hawaii Would Do?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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