Destination: Morocco
In Morocco, a Khubz in Every Communal Oven
by Terry Ward | 06.18.07 | 2:15 PM ET
In every neighborhood in Morocco, from Tangier to Agadir, five places are open to the public: a mosque, a school (madrasa), a public fountain, a hammam (public bath) and a communal oven. In Fes, where I studied Arabic in 2003, my host family was fairly well off, so we had our own oven in the garden—a gas-fired number that we had to shoo the pigeons from when we baked.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Seeing Stars Edition
by Michael Yessis | 06.01.07 | 6:41 PM ET
Kelly Slater, Billy Graham and Harry Potter all make the Zeitgeist this week as travelers contemplate Hawaiian surf, learning to speak French, Planet Theme Park and the alleged return of the Loch Ness monster.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Q&A: Eight-Time World Champion Surfer Kelly Slater
* He says the sight of the heavens from Mauna Kea (pictured) is probably the best view in Hawaii.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
36 Hours in Florence
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Harry Potter, Billy Graham Get Theme Parks
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Travelers Face Frustrating Passport Delays
* Earlier on World Hum: U.S. Passports in Demand: Lines Look ‘Like a Rolling Stones Concert 25 Years Ago’
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Panoramio
* The site allows users “to locate photos exactly over the place they were taken.” It’s also being acquired by Google.
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
National Geographic’s Atmosphere
* The pitch: “It’s not quite as cool as teletransporting, but it’s close.”
“Hot This Week” Destination
Yahoo! (this week)
Cheyenne, Wyoming
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Interstate Highways, Hot Destinations and the Mile-High Club
by Michael Yessis | 02.09.07 | 8:34 AM ET
We’re going to France and we’re learning the language. Excellent. Other stops in this week’s Zeitgeist include Spain, Morocco, Cuba, Hawaii and Hot-lanta.
Most Popular Country for Travelers
Reuters/French Tourism Ministry (2006)
France
* 78 million people visited the country last year.
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Fodor’s French for Travelers
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
‘Significant Steps’ Taken in Quest for Morocco-Spain Tunnel
Best Place in the U.S. for a Value Vacation
Hotwire.com Travel Value Index (2007)
Atlanta, Georgia
* Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Orlando-Daytona Beach, Florida; and Kansas City, Missouri round out the top five.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
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Interstate Highway System Simplified
* The U.S. Interstates rendered in the style of a metro-system map. Its designer calls it “map-porn.”
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* We still like this book.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
In Cuba, Finding a Tiny Corner of Jewish Life
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
How to ... Join the Mile-High Club
* The Guardian suggests this.
Most Read Weblog Category
World Hum (this week)
Planet Theme Park
* This story helped it rise to the top.
‘Significant Steps’ Taken in Quest for Morocco-Spain Tunnel
by Michael Yessis | 02.06.07 | 9:00 AM ET
Photo of Strait of Gibraltar by karynsig via flickr (Creative Commons).
Building a tunnel between Morocco and Spain has been on the “official drawing boards” of the countries’ governments for 25 years, according to the Washington Post’s Craig Whitlock, and perhaps on the minds of adventurers—and seasick ferry travelers—for much longer. Now, after rounds of geological tests and a set of blueprints developed by a Swiss firm, engineers say a tunnel underneath the Mediterranean Sea could materialize by 2025. “Government officials on both sides of the Mediterranean say the tunnel would give the economies of southern Europe and North Africa an enormous boost,” writes Whitlock. “But the project is being driven at least as much by intangible benefits: the prospect of uniting two continents that culturally and socially remain a world apart despite their geographic proximity.”
Honoring ‘Babel’
by Jim Benning | 01.16.07 | 9:41 PM ET
I’ve done a bit of complaining about some travel-related films recently, but I have no qualms with Babel. In fact, I was happy to see it win the Golden Globe for best dramatic movie last night. While it doesn’t depict world travel in the most favorable light—among other calamities in the film, Cate Blanchett’s character is shot during a trip to Morocco—it does movingly show how interconnected the world is becoming, and how that doesn’t necessarily make communication across borders (or even within families) any easier. Filmed in rural Morocco, Tokyo and Tijuana, it’s the kind of movie that somehow simultaneously shrinks the world and expands it. It’s ambitious, with a global perspective, and how many movies can you say that about?
National Geographic Adventure’s Top 2007 Destinations
by Jim Benning | 01.03.07 | 1:54 PM ET
Where to go this year? The world is wide open, but some countries seem particularly good choices now. For the December 2006/January 2007 issue of National Geographic Adventure, I worked with editors on a list of six countries offering compelling reasons to visit soon. Among them: China (now’s a great time to check out the new train to Lhasa); Morocco (for a major splurge before a visit to the High Atlas Mountains, spend a night at the historic, Winston Churchill-approved La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech, due to reopen this year after a renovation); and Brazil (TAM airlines is now flying nonstop between Miami and Manaus, making a visit to the Amazon easier than ever). To further stoke some wanderlust and inspire, the magazine celebrates the feats of a number of travelers, including the “new Magellans,” Colin Angus and Julie Wafael, who recently circumnavigated the globe by walking, cycling, skiing and, yes, rowing.
The Art of the Deal
by Peter Wortsman | 11.10.06 | 1:15 PM ET
Photo by Peter Wortsman. In Marrakesh, Morocco, Peter Wortsman bargains for goods with the city's savviest shopkeeers. For him, the give-and-take is not just about the money.
Shredding Morocco’s Sand Dunes
by Terry Ward | 08.17.06 | 11:50 AM ET
I could practically feel the grit of sand in my teeth and the harsh desert sun beating down while reading Patrick Steel’s sensory-overload account in the Guardian of carving Saharan dunes atop a snowboard in Morocco. While duneboarding is nothing new on the extreme sports circuit, the story brought back memories of my own failed attempts at riding sand. So many times—New Zealand, Uruguay and Australia all come to mind—I have followed my guidebook’s suggestion to rent a board and cruise down the nearby dunes only to fail miserably. The sand sticks to your board in a way snow never would, and when you catch an edge it’s all the more miserable.
“From the Movies and the Music Videos, I Thought All Girls in America Were Like Britney Spears”
by Jim Benning | 08.05.05 | 10:49 PM ET
So says Kaoutar, a 17-year-old girl from Morocco. But that was before she came to the United States as part of the U.S. State Department-sponsored Youth Exchange and Study Program, launched in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to a story in the International Herald Tribune, while some U.S. efforts to improve the country’s image abroad have been criticized, the youth exchange program is “a notable exception.” The program appears to be changing minds.
How to Visit a Moroccan Hammam
by Terry Ward | 07.25.05 | 4:09 PM ET
Photos by Terry Ward Public baths are a part of daily Moroccan life. Terry Ward provides the rundown on getting a thorough and enriching scrubdown. (Hint: Be sure to pick up a kiis in the souk on the way there.)
Terror and Travel in Morocco
by Jim Benning | 07.01.03 | 12:21 AM ET
Terry Ward had just arrived in Morocco for a six-week Arabic course when she heard about the previous night’s terrorist bombings in Casablanca, 230 miles away. “Four explosions in Casa. Suicide bombers,” the receptionist at her Tangier hotel told her. “Many, many people dead.” Ward spent the coming days trying to make sense of the attack and how it might affect her stay in the country, which she chose to visit because she thought it would be safe. Her evocative account appears in Sunday’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Take A One-Minute Vacation
by Michael Yessis | 06.06.03 | 8:56 PM ET
We’ve just added a new link to our travel blog section, Aaron Ximm’s One-Minute Vacation. Every Monday Ximm posts a 60-second audio clip recorded by him or another traveler originating from somewhere around the world. “One-minute vacations are unedited recordings of somewhere, somewhen,” he writes on his site, quietamerican.org. “Sixty seconds of something else. Sixty seconds to be someone else.” Recent recordings include a call to prayer in Morocco and a scene from the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. Ximm reveals the hows and whys of his audio blog in a Q-and-A with Dave Heaton at erasingclouds.com.
Fitness for Travelers
by Michael Yessis | 05.23.02 | 7:36 PM ET
The idea for World Hum contributor Suzanne Schlosberg’s latest book came to her while she was working out at the world’s most inadequate gym, which is located in the basement of an overpriced hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco. “My instinct was to blow off the workout. Between the flimsy equipment and my general feeling of lethargy, I had a couple of decent excuses,” she writes in the introduction to Fitness for Travelers. “But then I rallied…Afterward, I felt much, much better.” That incident inspired Schlosberg to compile fitness tips and routines for travelers taken from her own experiences and those of an array of fellow wanderers, many of whom also share anecdotes about the lengths they go to stay fit on the road. Among those Schlosberg spoke with are a sex therapist, an American political big wig and, most noteworthy, Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Michael Cartellone.
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