Travel Blog
Air Travelers Who Forgot ID Were Placed on TSA List
by Michael Yessis | 08.13.08 | 11:49 AM ET
USA Today reports the TSA had been keeping records of passengers who arrived at airport checkpoints without identification since late June.
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Yahoo! BuzzEgypt Plans to Ban Hustlers, Peddlers From Giza Pyramids
by Michael Yessis | 08.13.08 | 10:31 AM ET
The area surrounding the pyramids used to be “a zoo,” Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief archaeologist, told the AP. Now the area will be modernized, with a new entry building, X-ray machines and a 12-mile-long security fence.
Hawaii: Too ‘Foreign’ and ‘Exotic’ for a Presidential Vacation?
by Michael Yessis | 08.12.08 | 3:01 PM ET
Barack Obama’s Hawaiian vacation has stirred up some laughable comments, but none as laughable as this: On the pundit circuit, Cokie Roberts has floated the idea that Obama’s trip to Hawaii sends the wrong idea about the candidate and his campaign, implying that his vacation spot—his birthplace, the home of his grandmother and, of course, a U.S. state—puts him out of the American mainstream. “It has the look of him going off to some foreign, exotic place,” Roberts says. “He should be in Myrtle Beach if he’s going to take a vacation at this time.”
Dave Barry in Beijing: No ‘Chicken Without Sex Life’ for Him
by Valerie Conners | 08.12.08 | 2:25 PM ET
Pulitzer Prize-winner Dave Barry has been writing columns in the midst of Beijing’s Olympic bedlam.
Laptop With Personal Info of 33,000 Travelers ‘Probably Stolen’
by Michael Yessis | 08.12.08 | 11:19 AM ET
An unencrypted laptop containing data from travelers who applied to the Clear program disappeared at San Francisco International Airport last week. After the TSA announced the suspension of new enrollments in the program, though, the computer reappeared. “Investigators are now treating the disappearance as a theft,” according to the AP.
Sauna World Championships: Overlooked Olympic Event?
by Ben Keene | 08.12.08 | 11:17 AM ET
Those Games in Beijing you may have heard about overshadowed this year’s 10th annual Sauna World Championships in Heinola, Finland, but that doesn’t diminish the achievement of Bjarne Hermansson, who lasted an impressive 18 minutes and 15 seconds in the official sauna.
The Latest Inflatable Beach Prop: The Blow-Up Church
by Valerie Conners | 08.12.08 | 10:33 AM ET
Lord knows, finding time to worship on a beach vacation isn’t always easy. Cue a group of Italian priests and nuns who, with some gumption and an air pump, have brought church to the beach.
Enormous, Phallic Flower: A Belgian Spectacle
by Valerie Conners | 08.11.08 | 3:12 PM ET
As if chocolates, mussels and that darling Mannequin Pis weren’t big enough tourist draws, now visitors to Belgium are privy to the “giant strangely shaped penis”—an enormous (five-feet tall), stinky (think rotten meat or rancid cheese), phallus-shaped flower.
Shakespearean Theater Unearthed in London?
by Valerie Conners | 08.11.08 | 2:42 PM ET
Archaeologists in London announced that they unearthed the 16th-century remains of a playhouse believed to be “The Theater,” where many of the Bard’s early plays were originally performed and where he acted onstage with the theater troupe, Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
In Beijing: Olympic Travel Junkies
by Eva Holland | 08.11.08 | 1:49 PM ET
My companions at the hotel here vary by age, gender, nationality and sport of choice—but as we’ve chatted over breakfast or on the shuttle to the subway, I’ve learned that there’s one thing many of them have in common: this isn’t their first Olympic Games. “Calgary, Barcelona, Atlanta ... Sydney, Nagano,” one man rattled off during a subway ride. His wife added: “Don’t forget Salt Lake!” Another man scratched his head thoughtfully when I asked how many Games he’d attended. “I guess I got started back in ‘76,” he said, “in Montreal.”
Volcanic Ash Causes Alaska Airlines to Cancel Flights
by Michael Yessis | 08.11.08 | 12:19 PM ET
Kasatochi volcano in the Aleutian Islands erupted on Thursday, and the resulting “towering plume of ash” has caused an impediment for flights to Alaska, Reuters reports.
Related on World Hum:
* Letter to a Volcano
Paul McCartney Does Route 66
by Michael Yessis | 08.11.08 | 12:11 PM ET
The legendary Beatle and his girlfriend Nancy Shevell are apparently motoring west, driving a green ‘89 Ford Bronco with New York plates, and they’re leaving a wake of amazed fellow travelers as they head from Joplin, Missouri to Oklahoma City to Amarillo and so forth. What have we learned about Paul’s road tripping skills?
In Beijing: Three Cheers for Cheers
by Eva Holland | 08.11.08 | 11:43 AM ET
Last night I made it to some boxing preliminaries at the evocatively named Beijing Workers’ Gymnasium. The crowd—mostly Chinese, with scattered pockets of brightly colored foreigners—was a quiet one, rarely reacting to what happened in the ring with more than a low “oooh” or “aaah,” despite the organizers’ best efforts.
Which Way to the Bird’s Nest? Chinese Help for Tourists.
by Julia Ross | 08.11.08 | 11:41 AM ET
ChinesePod, the wonderful online Mandarin language service I’ve recommended before, recently launched a companion site to help English-speakers navigate the Beijing Olympics this month. The site offers a number of downloadable Olympics-themed Mandarin lessons, plus audio translations of Olympic venue names and sporting terms like “pommel horse” and “cross-court shot.”
Denver Prepares to Go the Extra, Um, Mile
by Valerie Conners | 08.11.08 | 11:29 AM ET
It’s “go time” in Denver. In a literal test of friendliness leading up to the Democratic National Convention, thousands of hospitality industry workers and convention volunteers are competing in an unusually rigorous test of niceness, seeing just how many strangers they can greet in a mere 45 seconds.
