Destination: Russia
Where Can You Find the Most Expensive Cup of Coffee in the World?
by Eva Holland | 08.04.08 | 10:51 AM ET
And the winner is ... Moscow, where the average cup apparently costs $10.19. Forbes brings us the full list, but I have to wonder about the methodology behind the survey. Are we talking cups of joe, or are we talking venti caramel mocha frappuccinos? It was the New York City listing that got me doubting: it landed in the middle of the pack, with the average cup costing $3.75—but when was the last time you paid nearly $4 for a regular coffee from a New York City deli?
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Yahoo! BuzzRussians Express Their Fondness for Colon Cleansing
by Elyse Franko | 06.20.08 | 11:13 AM ET
A spa in southern Russia has unveiled a monument to enemas. Apparently based on Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, the bronze statue features three cherubs carrying an enema bulb. According to Svetlana Avakova, the sculpture’s artist, “An enema is an unpleasant procedure as many of us may know. But when cherubs do it, it’s all right.” Agreed, Ms. Avakova. Agreed.
Meet the New Moscow*
by Jim Benning | 06.16.08 | 5:22 PM ET
It’s changing fast, to be sure, but in some ways, it’s the same as the old Moscow. World Hum contributor Peter Delevett recently paid the city a visit and stopped by the Kremlin. As he writes in the San Jose Mercury News: “Customer service, to put it mildly, is an embryonic concept.”
* Update, June 17, 5 p.m. ET: Peter just finished an online chat with readers about his trip. Transcript here.
Related on World Hum:
* The Rise of the Russian Traveler
Photo by Argenberg via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
The Rise of the Russian Traveler
by Michael Yessis | 06.16.08 | 10:53 AM ET
Fascinating front-page story in yesterday’s New York Times about how Russians, newly prosperous and free of Soviet-era travel restrictions, are hitting the road by the millions. Countries like Turkey are now scrambling to cater to the influx of Russians—one resort resembles the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral—and Russians are wondering how seeing more of the world may change the way they see themselves and their homeland.
The Implications of a Viable Northwest Passage
by Michael Yessis | 02.28.08 | 7:09 AM ET
We’ve touched on what a navigable passage through the Arctic will mean for international shipping and travelers. The latest issue of Foreign Affairs offers a thorough look at the economic and political implications of an ice-free Northwest Passage, something that, according to experts, could happen as soon as 2013.
Northwest Passage Open for Business?
by Eva Holland | 09.18.07 | 12:30 PM ET
When we picked the Northwest Passage as one of our Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet, we didn’t anticipate just how apt the “shrinking” moniker would be. The AP is reporting that the Arctic ice has reached its lowest-ever recorded level, meaning that a navigable passage could be open much sooner than previously predicted.
Take a Vacation. It’s Presidential.
by Ben Keene | 08.16.07 | 10:19 AM ET
Love him or hate him, our commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, can teach Americans at least one lesson: how to vacation. With only a few weeks of summer remaining, President Bush, like many other world leaders, is trading the stress of executive office for some rest and relaxation. And he’s leaving the majority of U.S. citizens in his Texas dust. Actually, if a survey conducted by a global human resources firm is accurate, even the average Finn, Israeli or Lithuanian would have a hard time keeping up with his seven-year vacation-time total. Because whatever President Bush may lack in creativity—he’s taken 65 trips to Crawford, Texas since entering office—he more than makes up for in number. According to the Houston Chronicle, G.W.B. is well on his way to claiming the White House record for time off, rapidly closing in on the 436 days Reagan racked up during two terms.
‘EIMI: A Journey Through Soviet Russia’
by Frank Bures | 08.14.07 | 9:49 AM ET
E.E. Cummings's book chronicling a 36-day trip in 1931 has been reissued after almost 50 years out of print. Frank Bures says it's a tough read, but worthwhile.
Russia to Plant Flag on North Pole Sea Bed
by Michael Yessis | 08.02.07 | 11:40 AM ET
It’s provocative actions like this that we had in mind when we selected the Northwest Passage as one of our Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet. According to the AP and other media reports, Russia’s Rossiya icebreaker has reached the North Pole, clearing way for scientists “to dive in two mini-submarines beneath the pole to a depth of more than 13,200 feet, and drop a metal capsule containing the Russian flag on the sea bed.” The goal of the expedition: to solidify a claim to the enormous oil and gas reserves that are believed to be stored beneath the floor of the Arctic Sea. Russia, however, isn’t the only country with interest in controlling the area.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Naked and the Red
by Michael Yessis | 05.11.07 | 3:45 PM ET
From Sin City to St. Petersburg, Russia, we’re not worried about traveling with too many clothes this week. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
36 Hours in St. Petersburg, Russia
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Sin City Uncovered: Vegas Strips Down to Embrace its Naughty Side
* It’s an $8 billion embrace.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
The Perfect Break: Jersey
* The island, not the home of Bon Jovi.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Brisbane Times (current)
Gang Violence Marring NZ’s Image
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
A Mass-Transit Trek Through Portland’s Singular Sites
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* It’s been so many weeks now we’ve stopped counting.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Hawaii, Highways and One Hot Book
by Michael Yessis | 05.04.07 | 5:14 PM ET
Internet Phone Service: Convenient, But at What Cost?
by Jim Benning | 03.12.07 | 1:36 PM ET
Photo by ling883 via flickr (Creative Commons).
When somebody dials Clifford J. Levy’s telephone number in Brooklyn, the call is immediately forwarded to St. Petersburg, Russia. For Levy, who now resides in St. Petersburg, that’s generally a good thing. For a modest monthly fee, he can dial up his family back home, and when his daughter gets lonely in Russia, she can call friends in New York, too—all thanks to an Internet phone service. But as much as he loves the convenience of it, Levy wonders about the drawbacks, and not just when the telemarketers call in the middle of the night, which happens to be dinner time in New York. “In the past, cut off from your old life, you may have tried harder to immerse yourself in your new one,” he writes in the New York Times. “That was part of the allure of being an expatriate: learning a new language, overcoming isolation by trying to cultivate friends among the locals, making daily discoveries about another part of the world.” Now, he adds, that’s just more difficult to do.
To Russia, With Actors
by Michael Yessis | 11.29.06 | 8:48 AM ET
Martha Plimpton, who plays Varenka Bakunin in The Coast of Utopia, prepared for her latest role by traveling with her fellow actors to Russia. Moscow and St. Petersburg, to be precise. “Rather than dive headlong into the icy waters of ‘Voyage,’ ‘Shipwreck’ and ‘Salvage,’ the three plays about revolutionary thinkers from 19th-century Russia which make up Tom Stoppard’s epic ... four of us decided it might be wise—not to mention unspeakably cool—to go to Mother Russia herself.” Plimpton joins the growing list of celebrity travel writers and recounts her week-long experience in New York’s Daily News. “Nothing is ‘easy’ in Russia,” she writes. “You don’t just ‘get a taxi’ at the airport, for example. You don’t just go ‘grocery shopping.’ But it’s through these seemingly irrelevant inconveniences one gets a feel for the place and for the culture shaping our characters.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Triumph and Tragedy
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.06 | 8:02 AM ET
This week we’re paying tribute to literary feats, vintage air travel and the victims of tragedies in Moscow and New York. Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk
* Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature Thursday, and it sent his travel book to the top. No similar bump for Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones. After its nomination for a National Book Award, its Amazon ranking among travel books stands at No. 26.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Rick Steves’ Europe: Packing for Women
Most Viewed Story
World Hum (this week)
Fueling Desire
* The best story ever about jet fuel as travel aphrodisiac.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum
R.I.P. Anna Politkovskaya
Most Dugg World News Story
Digg (this week)
Aircraft Crashes into NYC Building
Most E-mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Cabbies, culture clash at Minn. airport
Traveler Buzz Video
Yahoo! Current Traveler (today)
Vintage Airline Commercials
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Pulled Pork, Pulled Corks in North Carolina
World’s Most Expensive Restaurant
Forbes (2006)
Aragawa, a steak house in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district
* The cost for one person to dine? $368. Yikes. Now, for the not-so-rich among us…
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
Best budget restaurant in Tokyo
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R.I.P. Anna Politkovskaya
by Frank Bures | 10.11.06 | 7:18 AM ET
A few years ago, I showed up at a small used book store in Portland, Oregon to hear a Russian journalist whose book A Dirty War had just come out. Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered last week, was a thin woman with short hair and a fearlessness that few writers in the West could conjure. It was not long after Sept. 11, 2001, and we didn’t really know what the world was going to be like, or if we’d be able to travel around the world as we had before.