Destination: Vietnam
Vietnam’s New ‘Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail’
by Jim Benning | 08.06.07 | 3:51 PM ET
How times have changed. According to the press release at hochiminhgolftrail.com, this route being marketed from Saigon to the Red River Delta pairs “first-class clubs and resorts with some of the most remarkable, luxury accommodations in world golf.” Cracks the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn: “Just stay out of the bunkers.”
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Yahoo! BuzzA ‘Random Guide to International Behavior’*
by Jim Benning | 05.29.07 | 12:18 PM ET
In his Sunday column, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Thomas Swick has some sage advice for international travelers, ranging from ways to stay out of trouble to simple pronunciation tips. Among them: “In Vietnam, don’t say pho with a long ‘o’ when ordering the popular noodle soup. (It’s pronounced more like ‘fuh’). In Ireland, don’t ask, ‘Are there any good books by local authors?’ In Singapore, don’t do a lot of things.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Road to Adventure
by Michael Yessis | 04.27.07 | 9:10 AM ET
This week travelers were drawn to roads in California, Vietnam and danger zones throughout the world. Italy, France, Hong Kong and a discount startup airline were also top of mind. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Puglia: Italy’s Heel Has It All, Except Tourists
Most E-mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Practical Traveler: As Hotel Prices Rise, a Villa May Be a Bargain
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Top 5 Most Dangerous Roads of the World
* The photos will make your stomach churn.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
U.S. Highway 395: California’s ‘Mother Road’
* Here’s the accompanying photo gallery.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
‘American Shaolin’: Interview with Matthew Polly
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Fodor’s French for Travelers
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Critics: Tom Bissell’s ‘The Father of All Things’
by Jim Benning | 03.05.07 | 1:58 PM ET
New York Times and Los Angeles Times critics raved Sunday about Tom Bissell’s new book, The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam. The book explores the journey Bissell took to Vietnam with his father, John, a veteran of the war. (Bissell initially wrote about the trip for Harper’s.) Bissell’s book, its publisher notes, “is the first major book about the war by an author who grew up after the fall of Saigon.” The war has had profound effect on his generation, and particularly, Bissell writes, on the sons and daughters of veterans: “At every meal Vietnam sat down, invisibly, with our families.”
Gifts for the Traveler: Photo Books
by Jim Benning | 11.17.06 | 11:31 AM ET
‘Tis the season when intriguing travel-related photo books hit bookstores, offering travelers a raft of gift ideas. We already noted the recent release of Middle of Nowhere, Lonely Planet’s celebration of picturesque, far flung places. Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Regan McMahon suggested several other intriguing titles. For starters, McMahon noted Hans Kemp’s Bikes of Burden, featuring photos of motorbikes pressed into delivery work in Vietnam. “In each sharp color photo, one can barely see the rider as items from ducks to hula hoops to fish to wooden cabinets to topiary are piled high on the two-wheeled vehicles,” McMahon writes. “My favorite: a shot from behind of a towering stack of live fish floating, one each, in water-filled, gallon-size baggies, with the driver completely obscured.”
Hanoi Embraces the Colonel
by Terry Ward | 06.26.06 | 6:50 AM ET
Last week, American fast-foot giant KFC opened its first outlet in Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi. It was a huge hit. “The line was so long Phan Huyen Trang, 26, had to wait 25 minutes for chicken, coleslaw and mashed potato and gravy,” according to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur report. “‘You have to wait for a longer time to have a KFC meal than to have pho,’ Trang complained, referring to the Vietnamese national dish of beef soup with rice noodles.”
Anthony Bourdain on Travel, Vietnam and his “Graham Greene Worldview”
by Jim Benning | 06.14.06 | 4:59 PM ET
Bookslut has posted a terrific interview with the Ramones-loving chef, traveler and TV host. Among the highlights, Bourdain talks about his love of travel in Vietnam and what he calls his “Graham Greene worldview.” He said, “To me The Quiet American is a happy book. I read it every year. It nails Vietnam. It’s still there, that Vietnam. It’s a perfect metaphor, he loves a woman who can never fully love him back. It is a perfect metaphor for colonialism and Western adventurism in the East. I don’t care, I just want to be there.” Elsewhere, he remarked, “Vietnam in particular ruined my whole life. My expectations for what I see when I open my eyes in the morning, or even little things like the condiments on the table when I sit down.” Bourdain is the author of the new book, The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones.
Phaic Tan: It’s No Vietnam
by Michael Yessis | 04.12.06 | 7:57 AM ET
The U.S. edition of the Southeast Asia guidebook parody Phaic Tan: Sunstroke on a Shoestring came out recently, and yesterday I got my hands on a copy. It’s hilarious all the way down to the blurbs about contributors (“Jenny Ronalds is a freelance travel writer with a special interest in Southeast Asia who, over the years, has contributed to Travel & Leisure, Globe Trotter and International Gourmet. None have ever been published and we kind of felt sorry for her.”). It’s also so dead on in its aping of guidebook style and convention that I almost started believing Phaic Tan was a real place. It’s easy to do. How easy? Take our Vietnam vs. Phaic Tan quiz and find out.
Bird Flu Isn’t Hurting Asia Travel
by Jim Benning | 01.24.06 | 2:25 AM ET
Back in October, we noted that small numbers of Westerners were changing their Asia travel plans because of concerns over avian flu. (Some, for example, had decided to avoid rural areas in Southeast Asia.) Three months later, the travel industry is thriving in Asia as the Lunar New Year approaches, according to the AP. Said one travel company director in Vietnam, “According to the figures from hotels, they’ve never known such a high occupancy rate.”
106-Year-Olds Set to Travel
by Michael Yessis | 01.04.06 | 1:39 AM ET
Kudos to the three Japanese travelers who are proving that you’re never too old to go somewhere. According to Thanh Nien News, the trio from Okinawa Island will embark on a four-day trip to Vietnam beginning this Sunday.
A Father-Son Journey Back to Vietnam
by Jim Benning | 12.01.04 | 5:51 PM ET
Vietnam: The Post-Bali Bombing Asia Hot Spot
by Jim Benning | 12.13.02 | 4:45 PM ET
Bali’s tourism loss after the October nightclub bombing is apparently Vietnam’s gain. “Being considered a low risk as a target of terrorism has sent touris
m surging,” David Lamb reports in today’s Los Angeles Times. “City and resort hotels that had been chugging along at 60% occupancy before the Bali attack are fully booked well into this month.”
Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail! Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail!
by Michael Yessis | 11.24.02 | 5:34 PM ET
The supply route used by Viet Cong soldiers as they battled the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War is to become a visitor attraction, according to a BBC story.
“Tourist authorities in the province of Quang Tri have unveiled a $3.5m plan to restore a 41-kilometre (26-mile) section of the supply route which sustained the North’s fighters as they headed south,” the BBC reports.
The project should be completed by 2005.
Good Morning, Vietnam!
by Jim Benning | 01.19.02 | 1:52 AM ET
R. Scott Moxley was sound asleep at 6 a.m. when he got the wake-up call from one of Vietnam’s thousands of blaring, moralizing loudspeakers. “People here say the Communists’ real message is: we’re watching you, so stay in line and keep your trap shut,” he writes in this week’s OC Weekly.
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