Destination: Singapore
Odorless Durian? That Stinks.
by Jim Benning | 04.09.07 | 5:14 PM ET
The first time a Singaporean friend insisted I try durian, that notoriously stinky Southeast Asian fruit, I feared the worst. I’d heard fellow travelers’ horror stories and read all about how the fruit had been banned in hotels and on Singaporean trains. My friend shrugged all that off and carefully selected one of the spiky fruits at a giant outdoor stall near his home, eliminating the need to smuggle it onto a train. Yes, it smelled like sweaty feet. But when we sliced it open and dug in, I enjoyed my first bites, savoring its sweet flavor and buttercream consistency. Then, after a few more bites, I started to feel a little ill, overwhelmed by the rich, nutty flavor and odor. So I’m not a big fan of durian.
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Yahoo! BuzzR.I.P. R.W. Apple
by Michael Yessis | 10.05.06 | 3:30 AM ET
Legendary New York Times journalist R.W. “Johnny” Apple passed away yesterday from complications of thoracic cancer. Apple, who made his name as a hard-hitting newsman, wrote mostly food and travel stories in recent years. Times editor Bill Keller wrote in a note to his staff that Apple wrote his last story for the Times—this story about 10 restaurants abroad worth boarding a plane to visit—from his sickbed.
Seven Travel Stories to Tell Before You Die
by Jim Benning | 10.02.06 | 6:43 AM ET
I’ve never been too enamored of the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die approach to travel—or at least the approach that the title of the book suggests. Among other things, it emphasizes quantity over quality. But the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn has offered a modest alternative checklist that I can get behind: seven travel stories you should be able to tell before you die. It puts the emphasis where it belongs, I think: on experiences and stories. Flinn just concluded a series of columns exploring the seven stories he believes are essential for every traveler, and he recounted his own version of each. “Go ahead and visit every one of those ‘1000 Places to See Before You Die,’ as catalogued in the best-selling book,” he wrote. “But spare your friends the description of the Taj Mahal. Yes, it’s beautiful. And, yes, of course, the Great Barrier Reef is awesome. Everybody knows this. And we don’t need to hear about the seventh hole at Pebble Beach. What we want to hear are stories.”
Cohan, Bourdain in T Style Magazine: Travel
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.06 | 7:05 AM ET
The latest issue of T Style Magazine: Travel in the New York Times features a couple of noteworthy stories. “On Mexican Time” author Tony Cohan immerses himself in the rejuvenated city of Guanajuato, Mexico, and globetrotting chef and television host Anthony Bourdain eats his way through Singapore. “There’s a fever-dream quality to Singapore, particularly if you’re a foodie,” Bourdain writes. “Outdoors, the heat is smothering. In the ubiquitous megamalls, the air-conditioning could frost a bottle of beer. Everyone, it seems, when not shopping for Prada or Armani, is feeding their faces.”
Singapore, United Arab Emirates Jump Into Space Tourism Race
by Michael Yessis | 02.21.06 | 12:35 PM ET
Space Adventures announced plans yesterday to open a spaceport in Singapore by 2009, just three days after releasing plans for another spaceport in the United Arab Emirates. The news escalates a race between Space Adventures and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to be the first company to offer commercial space flights. The Independent’s Justin Huggler writes that Space Adventures has a slight lead. It has sold a Chinese businessman, Jiang Fang, a place on a sub-orbital spaceflight next year. Branson’s outfit plans to send its first passenger to space from a spaceport in Roswell, New Mexico by 2008.
Meet Laura Moser, Medical Tourist
by Michael Yessis | 12.08.05 | 11:26 PM ET
The Rise and Fall of a 10th Grade Social Climber author Laura Moser has an interesting two-part story in Slate this week about her experience as a medical tourist in Beijing. Her decision to seek treatment abroad isn’t unusual.
The Flight of the 800-Passenger Gorilla
by Jim Benning | 04.28.05 | 10:44 PM ET
Cleo Paskal, What’s the Biggest Reward of Life as a Travel Writer?
by Jim Benning | 04.20.05 | 9:29 PM ET
The Atlanta Hotel: Accommodations for Writers Not on the Bestseller List
by Jim Benning | 06.07.04 | 9:42 PM ET
Thomas Swick’s excellent two-part series on Bangkok’s Atlanta Hotel concluded Sunday. “All over the world I have visited famous literary hotels—the Ritz in Paris, Raffles in Singapore—that today have rates prohibitive to any author not on the best-seller list,” he writes in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “The Atlanta, in yet another cap feather, was a writers’ hotel that writers could actually afford.”
It’s an 18-Hour, 42-Minute Flight, or About as Long as it Now Takes to Pass Through LAX Security
by Michael Yessis | 02.17.04 | 9:13 PM ET
Salon’s Ask the Pilot has more colorful info in his latest column about the world’s longest non-stop flight recently established by Singapore Airlines. Among the topics covered: deep vein thrombosis, the in-flight buffet and the post-flight garbage count. “Veteran fliers will know what I’m talking about,” Patrick Smith writes. “By the time most intercontinental flights are docking at the gate, the aisles, floors and seats have come to resemble the scene of a dumpster explosion, the volume of refuse (cups, wrappers, bottles, bodily fluids and food) increasing proportionally with time spent aloft. For 18 hours, I’ll venture the passenger-to-trash weight ratio is about 1-to-1.”
“This is the Record-Breaking Flight”
by Jim Benning | 02.06.04 | 9:28 PM ET
Those were the words of aviation fanatic Luke Chittock at the end of the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight—Singapore Airline’s 18-hour-plus Los Angeles to Singapore service—which began Thursday. Chittock was among a number of flying enthusiasts who made the trip, which broke the old non-stop commercial record by more than two hours. The Los Angeles Times featured a great story about the flight Friday.
Talk About a Long Flight
by Jim Benning | 10.17.03 | 9:02 PM ET
Singapore Airlines announced this week it will soon begin operating the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight, an 18-hour haul connecting Los Angeles and Singapore. CNN.com has the details.
Singapore Girl: Icon, Anachronism, Winged Geisha and Pretty Young Thing
by Michael Yessis | 11.13.02 | 12:35 AM ET
Singapore Airlines is one of the world’s great airline success stories—never in 30 years has it failed to turn a profit, and for 14 out of the last 15 years the readers of Travel + Leisure have named it their favorite international carrier.
A big reason for its success? The flight attendants, aka Singapore Girls. “She’s a winged geisha, a tea-party animal, a pretty young thing in a form-fitting sarong,” USA Today reporter Jayne Clark writes of the Singapore Girl. “She’s also an anachronism of sorts, harkening back to an era when being a stewardess wasn’t just a job, it was a lifestyle.”
Clark covers some interesting cultural ground in the piece, including weight, hair and makeup regulations for Singapore Girls that “raise doubts about whether Western sensibilities could ever fit that snug Pierre Balmain-designed sarong kebaya that is her signature garb.”
Sleeping in Airports
by Michael Yessis | 05.24.02 | 7:32 PM ET
The best airport for sleeping? Singapore’s Changi. The worst? Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Says who? Donna McSherry and the readers of her Web site, The Budget Travellers Guide to Sleeping in Airports, who are all very passionate about sleeping in airports. “Sleeping in airports is an adventure,” McSherry writes. “Enjoy it! Have fun. From someone who does do it, let me tell you that it is fun and it adds an extra element of strangeness to your trip.” It’s true. I once slept on a baggage carousel in Kansas City, Missouri. It was great until someone turned the thing on.
The Rise of the Brand State: The Postmodern Politics of Image and Reputation
by Michael Yessis | 11.02.01 | 8:37 PM ET
That’s the actual headline of a story in Foreign Affairs magazine. It’s a piece that may change the way you look at the countries you visit—and the country you’re from. “Look at the covers of the brochures in any travel agency and you will see the various ways in which countries present themselves on the world’s mental map,” Peter van Ham’s story begins. “Singapore has a smiling, beautiful face offering us tasty appetizers on an airplane, whereas Ireland is a windy, green island full of freckled, red-haired children. But do these images depict real places, existing geographical sites one can visit? Or do the advertisements simply use cultural stereotypes to sell a product?” Interesting questions, both. Van Ham has no concrete answers, but he explores them with depth and insight.
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