Destination: Syria
World Travel Watch: Dengue Fever in Brazil, Strikes Across Europe and More
by Larry Habegger | 02.24.10 | 11:16 AM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
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Yahoo! BuzzTravel Photography: The Key to Photographing People
by Jeff Pflueger | 02.22.10 | 11:59 AM ET
iStockPhoto Are you making photographs of people or taking them?
Morning Links: Glum Gladiators, ‘Nutters and Nudies’ and More
by Valerie Conners | 01.16.09 | 8:39 AM ET
- Yesterday’s incredible US Airways rescue in the Hudson River has yielded a medley of media coverage including eye-popping slideshows, surprising facts about bird strikes on planes and even a sprinkling of gallows humor.
- One New York City diner is taking the ultimate road trip to Alabama.
- Boston.com is featuring a series of stunning photos taken from NASA’s Earth Observatory website.
- Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn announced plans for the band’s third album, dubbed the “Syria Sessions” and inspired by Arabic orchestral music. The band will head to Syria to record in March.
- The backlash against Slumdog Millionaire has begun, including harsh words from one critic describing the film as “poverty porn.”
- With the number of foreign tourists to Rome down more than 12 percent from last year, the dolce vita is no more for the city’s “glum” gladiators, carriage drivers and other tourism operators.
- Vegas’s iconic topless showgirl review, “Les Folies Bergere,” is closing after entertaining oglers for 49 years.
- We previously noted Australia’s call for applicants for the “best job in the world.” Now, the video applications are rolling in, and there’s no shortage of “nutters and nudies.”
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‘Come to Syria. Leave Your Preconceptions at Home.’
by Eva Holland | 09.17.08 | 10:30 AM ET
“Damascus is a city of which we—or certainly I—have barely a notion, so obscured is it by ignorance and Syria’s unwholesome image,” Tim Jepson writes at the beginning of this essay from the Telegraph. By the end of the story, though, Jepson discovers the many pleasures of the Syrian capital—and convinces me of them, too.
Related on World Hum:
* Damascus Becomes Haven for Westerners Learning Arabic
Photo by James Gordon via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Where’s the World’s Largest Restaurant?
by Jim Benning | 06.04.08 | 12:03 PM ET
In a suburb of Damascus, Syria, of all places. “The 6,012-seat Damascus Gate has taken the accolade from a Bangkok eatery serving a mere 5,000 diners,” the BBC reports. According to the article, the restaurant “has a huge open air area complete with pools, fountains and replicas of archaeological ruins for the summer, and separate themed areas for Chinese and Indian cuisine.”
Damascus Becomes Haven for Westerners Learning Arabic
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.17.08 | 10:53 AM ET
American and European students who love the cheap tuition for Arabic classes and the purity of the dialect (it’s close to classical Arabic) have been going to Syria’s capital for years. But in the latest report on the trend, NPR notes that the community of young language students from the West are also stepping out of the usual expat and study-abroad bubble. Looks like they’re at least taking time to discover a complex, restless and intriguing country often reduced to caricature as a member of an extended Axis of Evil.
Photo by James Gordon via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Global Warming, Tourism Among Threats to Cultural Sites
by Jim Benning | 06.07.07 | 10:43 AM ET
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