Tag: Islands
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
by Jim Benning | 09.16.09 | 3:38 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Two Sides of Tenerife
by Tom Swick | 09.10.09 | 10:10 AM ET
Photo by Tom Swick Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
Lord of the Flies: ‘Absurd and Uninteresting’?
by Eva Holland | 09.01.09 | 11:25 AM ET
Apparently, William Golding’s castaway classic really made the rounds before finally being published, and one unimpressed reader’s note on the manuscript has just surfaced. After calling the book an “absurd and uninteresting fantasy,” she wrote: “A group of children who land in jungle country near New Guinea. Rubbish & dull. Pointless.”
Dull? I’d love to know what her idea of an eventful island getaway is. (Via The Book Bench)
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Southern Cross’ by Crosby, Stills & Nash
by Jim Benning | 07.23.09 | 5:29 PM ET
Hawaiian for Travelers: It’s About the Vowels
by Pam Mandel | 06.17.09 | 9:28 AM ET
Photo by quinn.anya via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Aloha and mahalo. Those will get you out of the gate in Hawaii, though it’s also handy to get a good grasp on mauka —inland—and makai —towards the sea, just in case you find yourself getting directions from locals.
A few more words might make their way into your vocabulary, especially when it comes to food—there’s poke and poi and ahi and ono. I learned how to say no problem or thanks—a’ole pilikia—from a park ranger and I can read Hawaiian out loud with a halting conviction, but there’s no way I understand it. I still stumble over directions and streets signs—Hi’ilawe and Ali’i and Ala Wai and Kapiolani and Kalakaua—they all start to run together in this haole’s mind. We were going where, now?
Uighur Tourism in Bermuda?
by Eva Holland | 06.15.09 | 1:29 PM ET
Over at Jaunted, Victor Ozols “speculates recklessly” about whether the island’s acceptance of four Gitmo inmates could help its tourism profile. Hey, if ex-detainees keep on landing in island paradises, I’d happily plan a thematic world tour.
Finding Hawaii on the Mainland
by Pam Mandel | 06.12.09 | 4:01 PM ET
I’m not sure why I’m surprised when, on the mainland in the middle of rural territory, I find a town named “Aloha,” or when a festival in Seattle brings thousands of Hawaiians out to listen to traditional music and see hula. The Hawaiian diaspora is extensive—hey, it reaches all the way to the White House these days.
Kilauea’s Hot Summit
by Pam Mandel | 06.09.09 | 12:48 PM ET
It used to be that you had to go to the end of the winding Chain of Craters road in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park if you wanted to get a look at hot melted planet. I’ve never done it—once the road was closed due to excessive volcanic activity, and once there wasn’t time and once ... Oh, my excuses are endless.
But if you’re on the Big Island right now, you don’t have to make that trip. According to the L.A. Times, Kilauea is “glowing brightly as molten lava swirls 300 feet below its crater’s floor, bubbling near the surface after years of spewing from the volcano’s side.”
About Those Souvenirs: Made in Hawaii?
by Pam Mandel | 06.08.09 | 10:22 AM ET
I find souvenir shopping tricky. I like things that really scream of place or are packed with a trip’s significance—no pressure, souvenir makers! I was eager to buy a Hawaiian-made uke on my last trip, though the one I ended up getting is more global than I’d have ideally liked—the parts are made in Indonesia and shipped to Oahu for assembly. Is it made in Hawaii? Sort of.
Brother Bertram, Photojournalist
by Pam Mandel | 06.02.09 | 1:08 PM ET
Image courtesy of Lyman Museum. I’m a sucker for Hawaii’s unreachable past, a somewhat imaginary time when there really was a little grass shack in Kaleakakua to go back to. So I’m pretty excited about the photography show that’s running at the Lyman Museum in Hilo.
Hanalei Is America’s Best Beach: Really?
by Pam Mandel | 05.28.09 | 11:02 AM ET
OK, it’s a beautiful crescent of golden sand. It’s wide and clean and almost aggressively picturesque. There’s no denying that it’s an archetype of what a perfect beach should be. And it was recently selected as the “Number One Beach in the US” by Dr. Beach, a self-declared beach expert. He seems to have gained quite the cred; my Google alerts are crowded with mentions of Hanalei Beach’s new “honor.”
Budget Barbados: Five Free Island Activities
by Eva Holland | 05.27.09 | 3:48 PM ET
Photo by Eva Holland I’ll admit, Barbados is hardly known as a shoestringer’s paradise—this isn’t $5, $25 or even $100 per day territory.
But still, after a couple of extended visits here, I’ve learned that it’s not all pricey cocktails, rooms with a view and chartered yachts, either. There are affordable accommodation options and wallet-friendly meals to be found—and, best of all, some of the island’s most memorable spots are free, or close to it.
More Ahi, Please*
by Pam Mandel | 05.27.09 | 10:25 AM ET
You can not pile too much ahi—the Hawaiian name for tuna—on my plate. I love the stuff: raw, grilled, wrapped in rice and nori and served as sushi, marinated in soy and spice and served as poke, crusted with macadamia nuts and coconut and topped with a little mango sauce ... I swear I am turning into a big drooling mess just thinking about it.
But overfishing is depleting tuna stocks, just like it’s depleting so many of our dinner-bound, ocean-dwelling populations, driving up the price and making for scarce supply.
Hawaii Passes Islam Day Resolution, Haters Call for Boycott
by Pam Mandel | 05.19.09 | 3:44 PM ET
High on the list of reasons I lost my heart so completely to Hawaii?
The diversity. You’ve got your Pinoys, your Japanese, your mainland surfers, your Native Hawaiians, your Portuguese and Spaniards, the descendants of European shippers and missionaries, a whole mess of “hapa” types who are half one thing, half something else, be it Scottish, Korean, Hawaiian, Jewish ... If you’re looking for a slice of world culture, you’re as likely to find it in Hawaii as anywhere. All those cultures make for a lively and appealing place.
But a few spoilsports are calling for a boycott of travel to the islands because the Hawaii state Legislature recently passed a resolution recognizing “Islam Day.”
The New Sand: May Contain Plastic
by Pam Mandel | 05.19.09 | 10:29 AM ET
The May 2009 issue of Hana Hou!—Hawaiian Airlines’ in-flight mag—includes an article called The Voyage of the Junk. The story is about a journey from California to Honolulu via the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The ship itself was a trash heap, made out of plastic garbage and leftover bits of a Cessna. The goal of the journey was to raise awareness of the impact that all the plastic crap we create, buy and use is having on the oceans.
There’s a particularly sad and telling passage in the story. Upon arrival in Honolulu, one of the sailors decided to find out how long it would take to pull a piece of plastic out of the water. He hopped overboard, and: “Less than a minute later he was out, holding up an ‘ABC Stores’ bag. ‘Thirty seconds,’ he said, with both triumph and distaste.”
Luau Chow: Chicken Long Rice
by Pam Mandel | 05.12.09 | 10:33 AM ET
I admit it: I think you should go to a luau at least once. You need to see one of those big showy events where the dancers make you think impure thoughts with their suggestive hips and a shirtless guy twirls fire while drums pound. Also, there should be a huge buffet where a roast pig comes out of a hole in the ground and poi is dished up in polite amounts for the malahini (foreigners) and there’s a big gooey pan of chicken long rice.
Eight Great Stories of Beaches, Islands, Travel and the Tropics
by World Hum | 04.30.09 | 10:31 AM ET
To mark our eighth anniversary, we've collected eight favorite stories from our archives that celebrate and explore travel at land's end
Still No Word on What Caused Scabies Outbreak Among Boston TSA Staff
by Rob Verger | 04.15.09 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo of Pohnpei's airport by Rob Verger In late March, five TSA workers at Boston’s Logan Airport were infected with scabies, a nasty little bug that literally lives and breeds underneath the host’s skin.
The incident merited a posting on the TSA’s blog, reassuring passengers that there was basically no chance they could have contracted the bugs by going through security. (One of the many reasons why it would have been practically impossible for a passenger to become infected this way is that the TSA screeners wear gloves, and scabies is usually only spread through direct skin-to-skin contact.)
When I contacted the TSA this week to see if they had any leads in how the outbreak began, Ann Davis, the Public Affairs Officer for the TSA in Boston, said via email:
The Deep-Sea Discoveries of Papahanaumokuakea
by Pam Mandel | 04.02.09 | 2:32 PM ET
The submersible plunged into the deep waters of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in 2007, but it’s only recently that we’re learning about what was found there. Seven new species of bamboo coral have been identified in the protected area northwest of Hawaii’s main islands. Researchers also located a coral graveyard that might have died a million years ago. The NOAA site has some pictures of the coral, the submersible used for exploration at depths of over 5,000 feet and, whoa, cool, that’s a robot arm poking a sponge. And, uh, a milk crate? Whatever is best for science, I guess.
The Superferry’s Last Sail
by Pam Mandel | 03.20.09 | 10:37 AM ET
From day one, Hawaii’s Superferry was fraught with problems. It’s all over now. On March 19, the Superferry made its final run between Oahu and Maui.
From a logistics point of view, the ferry made travel between Oahu and Maui seem a lot easier. Drive on, drive off, with whale-watching thrown in for the price of the crossing, in season. Tourism boosters loved it, as did parents and schools—it made getting your baseball team to that game on Maui a snap, and you could bring your own bus or squeeze the whole swim team into the minivan.
But Hawaiian traditionalists objected to the Superferry because it made it too easy to plunder, like a pirate in a pickup truck, island resources. Environmentalists worried about the whales. And quality-of-life types bemoaned the traffic, suggesting that the cars lined up on either end would cause not only pollution, but delays and crowds.
The Superferry ran, and then it didn’t, and then it ran, and then it didn’t. If you held a ticket, you had to check the website the day of your sailing and, even then, there was no guarantee that you wouldn’t be turned back by protesters. The case to block the Superferry went all the way to the Hawaii Supreme Court. The issue? The Superferry had been allowed to operate before the environmental impact research was complete.
The Hawaii Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a law allowing the Superferry to operate while conducting an environmental impact statement was unconstitutional.—MSNBC
It’s back to interisland flights for travelers.You can’t take your car, but you’re less likely to get seasick. And yeah, you can get a refund for that Superferry ticket.
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