Travel Blog
From the Times of London Archives: Thomas Cook’s Lost Dispatch
by Eva Holland | 08.22.08 | 11:16 AM ET
The latest in an ongoing series of “travel classics” from the Times of London’s seemingly bottomless vaults? Thomas Cook‘s six dispatches from a ‘round-the-world trip in the early 1870s. One of the just-published pieces, written from the Red Sea, never appeared in print before. Why? As we learn now from an editor, in those pre-email days, “[I]t did not reach London until the Parliamentary Season, when it was impossible to find room in the paper.” Better late than never, right?
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Yahoo! BuzzExpanding Auto Museums, Shrinking Industry?
by Eva Holland | 08.22.08 | 10:50 AM ET
The Globe and Mail’s Paul French has a run-down of several ambitious new expansions being unveiled at the shrines to BMW, Audi and Porsche in Germany. Ironic timing, all things considered.
Wine Spectator Gives ‘Award of Excellence’ to Fake Restaurant
by Jim Benning | 08.21.08 | 3:25 PM ET
Yes, Wine Spectator magazine, which urges readers to “Learn More, Drink Better,” unwittingly gave an “Award of Excellence” to a non-existent restaurant in Milan. Wine writer Robin Goldstein is behind the hoax. Goldstein entered Osteria L’Intrepido and its fake menu in the magazine’s restaurant awards competition, paying the $250 entry fee, “[a]s part of the research for an academic paper I’m currently working on about standards for wine awards.”
Madrid Crash: MD-80 is ‘One of the Safest Planes in the Sky’
by Jim Benning | 08.21.08 | 1:38 PM ET
The investigation into yesterday’s crash of the Spanair MD-82 that killed 153 people continues. Meanwhile, “Measured by accident data alone,” The New York Times reports, “the MD-80 is considered to be one of the safest planes in the sky.”
Related on World Hum:
* Nearly 150 Dead in Madrid Plane Crash
Profile of a Space Tourist
by Eva Holland | 08.21.08 | 12:15 PM ET
The space tourism business is heating up, but who are these customers willing to spend millions of dollars for what they hope will be the ride of their lives? Wired offers a fascinating profile of one would-be space tourist—Japanese tech millionaire Daisuke Enomoto, who completed a grueling training program only to be grounded by a kidney stone.
Headed to Angkor Wat? Beware the Dengue.
by Jim Benning | 08.21.08 | 11:15 AM ET
World Travel Watch notes that, although dengue fever cases in Cambodia are down from last year, “the risk is still high in major tourist areas, especially Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat.” Dengue, of course, is spread by mosquitos that are no doubt loving monsoon season in Southeast Asia. How I hate monsoon season. As we’ve noted, dengue is expected to rise around the world as temperatures increase, and dengue should be taken seriously: The less common hemorrhagic dengue can be fatal.
Go Directly To Jail: Headline Writers Go Wild For Monopoly ‘World Edition’
by Eva Holland | 08.21.08 | 10:34 AM ET
Now that the winning cities have been announced for the new “World Edition” of Monopoly, the real fun can begin—and by “fun,” I mean groan-inducing Monopoly-themed puns capping news stories around the world.
Travel Headline (and Video) of the Day: ‘Monkey Stuns Japanese Commuters’
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 1:47 PM ET
The stray monkey showed up at a Tokyo train station. What a scene.
Canada Launches New Search For Lost Franklin Expedition
by Eva Holland | 08.20.08 | 1:35 PM ET
According to the CBC, the Canadian government is sponsoring a new search—the latest of many—for Sir John Franklin and his ships, both lost in the Northwest Passage more than 160 years ago. I suppose the rapidly melting ice in the passage could make the hunting easier than in the past, but it also makes the search more urgent: It’s no secret that the expedition is Canada’s latest move in the ongoing political maneuvering by several governments to claim the area as their own.
Listening to Writers’ Voices, from Jack Kerouac to Graham Greene
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 11:46 AM ET
Years ago I picked up a CD of Jack Kerouac reading passages from On the Road. Sometimes, during late-night drives on I-5 between Los Angeles and San Francisco, I’d pop it in for an hour or so. As the miles breezed by, my eyes focused on the highway, I’d find myself enjoying not only Kerouac’s musical prose, which I expected, but also the timbre of his voice and the way he emphasized certain words or phrases (“drinking wine-spodiodi and spitting at the stars ...”), pausing for unexpected beats. It was a very different experience from reading Kerouac, and I liked it. I wish I could find more recordings from other writers, but they’re hard to come by.
Nearly 150 Dead in Madrid Plane Crash*
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 11:24 AM ET
Nearly 150 people on a Spanair flight bound for the Canary Islands were killed when the MD-82 plane overshot the runway and crashed during takeoff at Madrid’s Barajas International Airport. Reports the New York Times: “A passenger on a flight that landed just after the accident told the BBC that the Spanair plane lifted off briefly but landed hard on its left wing, and then the left part of the aircraft collapsed.”
* Updated/edited 4:24 PT
Women-Only Beaches: The Debate Continues
by Eva Holland | 08.20.08 | 11:00 AM ET
Every time a new women-only travel option makes the news—recently, we’ve noted the revival of women-only hotel floors, and even an all-female hotel in Saudi Arabia—the question is the same: Is this new development a rare oasis for women, or an obstacle to full equality?
American Adding Internet Service to More Cross-Country Flights
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 10:30 AM ET
Fifteen additional planes will offer wireless Internet service for laptops and PDAs beginning today for $12.95. Reports USA Today: “If the service is deemed successful after three to six months, American Airlines plans to roll out the service to the rest of its domestic fleet.” Yes, slowly but surely, airline by airline, plane by plane, we’re moving closer to a day when the sky is one big, happy internet cafe.
Jeffrey Tayler on the Russia-Georgia Conflict
by Jim Benning | 08.19.08 | 1:21 PM ET
World Hum contributor Jeffrey Tayler offers a thoughtful explainer in The Atlantic: “The lessons that emerge from the Russia-Georgia war are clear: Russia is back, the West fears Russia as much as it needs it, and those who act on other assumptions are in for a rude, perhaps violent, awakening.” While we’re on the subject, it’s worth noting that Paul Theroux makes a stop in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in his new book. There in winter, he described the city as looking “as if doomsday had come—snowbound, fozen, corpse-like, frostbitten.”
Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Jeffrey Tayler: Facing Africa’s ‘Angry Wind’
* The Songstress of Kunming
Photo of Tbilisi street by masterplaan via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Test Your Knowledge of Accents Around the Globe
by Jim Benning | 08.19.08 | 11:22 AM ET
Can you distinguish between an Australian accent and a Kiwi accent? Or a German and Belgian accent? If so, take a crack at this online quiz, which features video of people around the world reading a portion of the Rudyard Kipling poem “If,” followed by multiple choice questions asking you to locate the speaker. It’s fun—and surprisingly hard. Time after time, I thought I knew the answer and, well ... not so much. (Via Very Short List)
