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Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

TRAVEL BLOG
Q&A
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Tony Horwitz: Rediscovering the New World

Ben Keene talks to the author of the new book “A Voyage Long and Strange” about travel, American myths and the importance of visiting places where “history happened”

SPEAKER'S CORNER
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In Patagonia, In Patagonia

Tim Patterson packs his fleece and long underwear, and enters the Twilight Zone where corporate branding meets the multilayered reality of place. 

ASK ROLF
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Should I Quit Law School so I can Travel the World?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

BOOKS
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‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?

Lonely Planet author Robert Reid reviews Thomas Kohnstamm’s “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” and weighs in on the controversy surrounding it

HOW TO
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Have a Hockey Night in Canada

From Montreal to Sault Ste. Marie, the sport is the country’s greatest passion. Eva Holland explains where to go to indulge—and who you need to know.

AUDIO SLIDE SHOW
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Promised Land Closed

And other odd and unlikely signs from around the world. Aficionado Doug Lansky, editor of the book “Signspotting,” recounts his 10 favorites.


THE LIST
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10 Sizzling Hot Travel Tips From Sir Francis Bacon

Rolf Potts repackages the 17th century philosopher’s ‘Of Travel’ essay in the manner of a 21st century magazine feature

DISPATCHES

8.27.07

Manuel Noriega Slept Here

In Panama, Leigh Ann Henion’s self-appointed tour guide insisted she visit the home of the country’s former strongman—the same man scheduled to be released from a Florida prison next week


8.20.07

Walking Off the Karakoram Highway

On a winding route to Pakistan’s Rama Lake, taunted and ignored, Jeffrey Tayler learns the truth of the saying, “All politics is local”


8.13.07

Hope and Squalor at Chungking Mansion

Karl Taro Greenfeld explores Hong Kong’s notorious black-market bazaar and budget accommodations, and one possible over-populated, multi-ethnic future for us all


7.30.07

The Lost World of Nigeria

The Eredo once formed a boundary between the real and spirit worlds, and could easily contain Manhattan. Frank Bures goes in search of one of the planet’s forgotten architectural wonders.


7.23.07

The Delicacy of the Andes

In Peru, people go crazy for cuy. In the U.S., they’re household pets. When faced with eating them, Matt Villano confronts childhood memories, nausea and the costs of cultural immersion.


7.16.07

Honeymooning with Jaws

She went to Bora Bora on her honeymoon. She had a few tropical drinks. Someone suggested scuba diving. Then Nancy Smay found herself in way over her head.


7.9.07

Crying Uncle in Italy

Todd Pitock planned to play a little golf and see a few works of art. He didn’t factor in the wrong turns and ramblings of a man named Joe.


7.2.07

The Horse Spirits of Big Sky Country

Deanne Stillman ventures to the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana to remember the nearly forgotten warriors of Custer’s Last Stand


6.25.07

Fire in the Night

In a Florida lagoon, Bill Belleville paddles among the manatees and mangroves on a quest to see the dazzling blue-green light of bioluminescence


6.11.07

The Woman in the Kuffiya

In southernmost Turkey, women are known as the forbidden ones. So when a beautiful local invited Jeffrey Tayler for a ride on her horse-drawn cart and unmasked herself, he tried not to look. But he failed.


6.4.07

An Island in Costa Rica

When she decided to spend her vacation volunteering at an orphanage, Tara Swords thought the kids would just need a little love to blossom. Then she met 5-year-old Catalina.


5.7.07

Eating Fajitas in France

He’s a Mexican food addict. He was suffering from withdrawal. So when Jim Benning happened upon the Tex-Mex restaurant in Lyon, he had to eat there. Never mind that he knew it would be awful. 


3.21.07

A Very Long Way to the Hong Kong Cafe

In Ilulissat, Greenland, Daisann McLane found one righteously good Singapore curry chau mihn. More surprising, though, was the man who emerged from the kitchen when she shouted, ”Hai go douh yauh mouh jung gwok yan a?”


2.21.07

Caught in a Czech Funk

All David Farley wanted from the tourist information office in the tiny town of Nove Hrady was directions to the train station. Then he asked the young clerk a seemingly innocuous question: Was that funk booming from the speakers?


1.23.07

Saying Goodbye in the Sierra Madre

Jeff Biggers was living among the Tarahumara in Mexico’s Copper Canyon when he was invited to a funeral for a local woman. Amid the sorrow and song, he peeked at ‘the other side.’


12.29.06

Unlocking Beirut

When Catherine Watson left Lebanon’s capital city in the 1960s, she carried home the key to her former apartment. Forty years later, she returned with her prized souvenir and found it could still open doors.


11.29.06

I Still Don’t Know For Whom the Bell Tolls

In Florida’s Key West, land of tropical cocktails, Doug Mack went to Ernest Hemingway’s house looking for inspiration. He found some, but not the kind he hoped.


11.10.06

The Art of the Deal

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.


10.18.06

The Speed of Rancho Santa Inés

The saying goes: Bad roads, good people. Good roads, bad people. On a sleepy Mexican ranch, C.M. Mayo finds out what the Transpeninsular Highway brought to one stretch of Baja California.


9.21.06

The Winding Road to Joshua Tree

She moved to Los Angeles, found herself in the midst of a personal monsoon and began skipping dinner parties. Then Deanne Stillman rearranged her life around trips to her new church: Joshua Tree National Park.


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