Destination: Canada
Note to American Travelers Pretending to Be Canadians: Stop It!
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.04 | 7:22 PM ET
Joseph Cohen writes in Sunday’s Seattle Times that he “could have held a full (and very poorly played) hockey game with all the fake Canadians [he] ran into while traveling in Western Europe.” They were, of course, Americans trying to avoid being outed. Cohen believes pretending to hail from Canada is a silly practice. “The plethora of Canadian flags on American backpacks this summer obviously has roots in current events dealing with Iraq and President George W. Bush,” he writes. “Yet Europeans do not translate their dislike of our president into animosity toward American travelers. You have a better chance of being pickpocketed in Switzerland than accosted for being an American anywhere in Western Europe.”
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Yahoo! BuzzCan’t Find Prince Edward Island on the Map? That’s Because Fodor’s Forgot to Put It On. Oops.
by Michael Yessis | 07.17.03 | 10:05 PM ET
Canadian Tourism officials are steamed—and Fodor’s officials are embarrassed—after the guidebook giant’s “shoddy work” on maps it produced for the Canadian Tourism publication, PureCanada, has come to light. Fodor’s, which was paid $600,000 to develop editorial for the publication, left Prince Edward Island completely off the map, spelled Nunavut as “Nunavit” and forgot the cities of Fredericton and Halifax, too. “This is not our finest hour,” Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for the publisher of the popular guides, told Canada’s National Post newspaper. “We’re very sorry about the errors and we’re making every effort to correct them as quickly as possible.” Said Prince Edward Island’s Minister of Tourism, Jeff Lantz: “We’re a little surprised and disappointed that something like that could happen with a very well-respected company.”
The World’s Canadian Population is Skyrocketing!
by Jim Benning | 03.13.03 | 1:58 PM ET
The proof? Just look at Americans living or traveling abroad right now such as Larry McIlvain, a school principal in Saudi Arabia. When a street vendor in Riyadh asks where he’s from, the American tells him straight out, “Canada.” McIlvain is featured in a Los Angeles Times story today (registration required) about ex-pats’ war-related concerns. “I felt if I said America, it would have cut the connection,” McIlvain explains afterward. Of course, he is far from alone. I’ve spoken to other Americans who have used the Canada line recently, fearing that telling the truth wouldn’t go over well. It’s an old Amercan travel trick taking on new urgency. In World Hum’s 2001 gift guide, in fact, we featured T-shirts that speak directly to the miffed mullahs and torch-wielding mobs abroad. Their message, in bold red and white: “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Canadian.” Product is moving fast.
Travel Warning: Visiting the U.S. May Be Hazardous to Your Health
by Jim Benning | 01.13.03 | 11:32 AM ET
It’s important to be aware of threats to one’s safety when traveling abroad, but take one look at the U.S. State Department’s travel warnings for a given country—or the blanket warning for the whole world—and you may never want to step foot on foreign soil again. It’s frightening! So we were happy to see Jane Engle turn the tables in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, pointing out just a few of the warnings that foreign countries offer to their citizens about travel to the U.S.
Canada, for example, notes the potential for carjackings in Santa Monica, California. France offers tips on avoiding shark attacks. And, on a lighter note, what about fashion? “Leave it to the French to fret over fashion,” Engle writes. “Their government says Americans are tolerant about clothing but forbid even little girls to wear a monokini—the topless bikini invented in the ‘60s by designer Rudi Gernreich. Further, children must wear swimsuits and must use toilets corresponding to their gender. Mon Dieu! You can almost hear the French exclaim. Those crazy Americans!”
‘Anne of Green Gables’ Big In Japan
by Michael Yessis | 11.15.02 | 12:29 AM ET
About 50 years ago, Hanako Muraoka translated the book “Anne of Green Gables” by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery into Japanese. “It was a good book and she
was a good translator, but no one could imagine what would happen next,” writes Cleo Paskal in a recent edition of Canada’s National Post. “Half-a-century later, Akage no An (Anne with Red Hair) has become a rol model—no, an icon—for countless Japanese…The books sell well, Japanese tourists flock to Prince Edward Island, and earnest young folk try to live life as Anne would have.”
Paskal’s piece explores the travel scene inspired by the book, including the theme park in Hokkaido, Canadian World.
Who Is Stompin’ Tom Connors?
by Michael Yessis | 10.16.02 | 7:54 PM ET
When people ask Cleo Paskal who her favorite travel writer is, she answers Stompin’ Tom Connors.
“I know I am supposed to answer with a soliloquy on the comparative merits of Bruce Chatwin and Bill Bryson, perhaps throwing in something about how the
genre has not been the same since Homer. (The Homer, not the yellow fellow ontelevision),” she writes in Canada’s National Post. “But I can’t.”
Just who is Stompin’ Tom, you ask? He’s a songwriter. And a best-selling author, Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement award winner, an Officer of the Order of Canada, an Honourary Goodwill Ambassador for Prince Edward Island, a multiple Juno winner, a recipient of two honourary doctorates (prompting him to name one album Dr.
Stompin’ Tom, Eh?), he had his own TV show and put out dozens of albums.
“If you can name a corner of Canada,” Paskal writes, “chances are Stompin’ Tom has written a song about it.” It’s true. We surfed his Web site and came across dozens of dandies, including a nice little ditty about that most Canadian of pastimes: Ice hockey.
Announcing the Mexi-Canadian Overpass
by Michael Yessis | 05.16.02 | 8:14 PM ET
After almost nine years in the making, the Mexi-Canadian Overpass is complete. The Onion reports that the elevated highway linking Guadalupe,
Mexico and Winnipeg, Canada opened last week. Some U.S. residents are up in arms about the $4.3 trillion, 18-lane structure. “It would be one thing if we somehow benefited,” said Junction City, KS, business owner Neil Grandy. “But because of the way stations, we don’t get anything out of it and have to deal with people tossing garbage out of their windows at 80 mph. You wouldn’t believe what we’ve found some mornings. Everything from tamale husks to broken hockey sticks. The people on that bridge are animals.”
“I Guess Those Canadians Really Like Their Fish”
by Michael Yessis | 02.21.02 | 12:09 AM ET
American Cliff Burkett recently expanded his world horizons by visiting Canada. “If you look for it on a map, you’ll realize it isn’t far from the United States,” he writes in the most recent issue of the Onion, America’s finest satirical news source. “But once you cross the border from America to Canada, you’ll immediately know you’re in a foreign land. “Burkett saw bilingual signs, spent money without dead presidents on the front and ate a breaded-fish sub at Mr. Sub. He returned to the U.S. deeply affected by his trip to the Great White North. “When I finally made it back home, I started to see things through a different lens. I no longer viewed the world as being all the same. Now I see it for what it is: America and a bunch of other places with subtle differences from us.”
Eco-Tourists on the Whale Trail
by Jim Benning | 02.07.02 | 2:02 AM ET
Michael Lacy explores the relationship between gray whales, tourists, conservationists and business operators in the latest issue of New Times Los Angeles. In Baja Mexico and Canada, that relationship is driven by the rising popularity of eco-tourism, he writes, “a form of identity travel that asks the backpacker to understand just how destructive the human presence is before even the first bag of freeze-dried chicken tetrazzini is reconstituted. Such angst-driven relaxation is the hottest ticket in town.”
First You Must Slaughter the Pig. Then You May Kiss the Bride.
by Jim Benning | 02.07.02 | 1:58 AM ET
Canadians Geoff and Kiran, self-described “travel nuts,” spent a year crossing six continents to explore the roots of marriage. They underwent traditional marriage ceremonies wherever possible, documenting them on their Web site, e-lopers.com. “Stephen tells me that the groom should slaughter a pig to bring good fortune,” Geoff writes, describing their Borneo ceremony. “I use the excuse of being a vegetarian to shirk my duty, and I ask him to do it for me….We hear its squeals as we get dressed and try hard to ignore them.” Geoff and Kiran returned to Canada recently. They’re working on a book about their travels and will soon marry, Canadian-style. Presumably sans pigs.
Gifts for the World Traveler
by World Hum | 12.20.01 | 12:52 AM ET
Photo by Michael Yessis. Get your autographed Geraldo Rivera Signature Travel Pistol while supplies last. Hurry!
Going Home
by Stephen Hunt | 11.12.01 | 11:53 PM ET
Photo by Michael Yessis. The Greyhound bus takes 51 hours to get from Los Angeles to Winnipeg, just enough time for Stephen Hunt to rediscover a little human decency
Telling Stories
by Michael Yessis | 10.20.01 | 8:50 PM ET
National Public Radio’s Savvy Traveler recently broadcast two stories of note. This week, residents of Gander, Newfoundland and passengers of Delta Flight 15, which was forced to land in remote Canada in the hours after hijacked planes hit the Pentagon and the World Trade Towers on September 11, tell their stories. The passengers of Flight 15 were stranded for four days, and locals turned out in droves to comfort them with hot showers and home-cooked meals. Previously, World Hum co-editor Jim Benning reported on an encounter with a Muslim man named Kenny in Malaysia. Kenny invited Jim to join him in a restaurant and told him he looks a little “like that American actor, that kung fu fighter.” Jim, who, for the record, looks quite unlike Chuck Norris, reluctantly joined him, and emerged with a renewed sense of why we travel.
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