Travel Blog

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In spite of my power pop predilections, I’m excited to get my hands on a copy of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam, a new book by history professor Mark LeVine. The New York Times praised the book for offering “the hit-and-run pleasures of a lively road trip.” The book will eventually be complemented by a film, although few details are available online as of yet.

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Registered Travelers Get a Break—Sort of

by Elyse Franko | 07.29.08 | 11:05 AM ET

The Transportation Security Administration says those signing up for the Registered Traveler (RT) program, which gives security lane benefits at select airports, will no longer need to fork over $28 for a security screening. Apparently, the RT screening “largely duplicates the watch list matching that is conducted on all travelers every time they fly,” the TSA says. As the Economist’s Gulliver blog pointed out, it’s very convenient that they’ve realized this now, after 135,000 people have paid the fee.

Related on World Hum:
*Blog to Watch: Evolution of Security

Wanted in Beijing: Tourists?

by Eva Holland | 07.29.08 | 10:35 AM ET

Not so long ago, as many as 2 million visitors were expected to descend on Beijing for the Olympic Games. But according to the Telegraph, those hordes have yet to appear—thanks in part to tightened visa restrictions, turmoil in Tibet and the state of the U.S. economy—and the capital’s hotels are now cutting prices by as much as 50 percent in an effort to fill up those empty rooms.

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Virgin Galactic Unveils ‘WhiteKnightTwo’ Mothership

by Michael Yessis | 07.28.08 | 3:37 PM ET

It’s so hot Xeni Jardin wants to fondle it. Other reports from today’s unveiling of the high-altitude aircraft that will carry SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s commercial space ship, to the edge of the atmosphere were almost as breathless. Wired, the Los Angeles Times, Jaunted and others have reports from the scene in California’s Mojave Desert.

Has Paris Become a ‘Backwater’?

by Michael Yessis | 07.28.08 | 11:40 AM ET

This New Zealand Herald story asserts that, when it comes to arts and culture, Paris has become “second string” to Berlin, New York and London. Catherine Field writes, “[T]he worshippers these days are consumers, not creators. They are mainly foreign tourists who come to see the eternal Mona Lisa, post-modern American artists, the French Impressionists and Moliere. The city chemistry that produced rawness, dynamism, change and challenge seems absent.” This comes on the heels of Donald Morrison’s Time magazine piece, The Death of French Culture.

Related on World Hum:
* David Sedaris on Flea Markets and Foods Courts in Paris

Photo by izarbeltza via Flickr, (Creative Commons)

David Sedaris on Flea Markets and Foods Courts in Paris

by Eva Holland | 07.28.08 | 11:33 AM ET

David Sedaris’s latest collection is storming the bestseller charts, and the Globe and Mail tracked him down for a chat about his adopted hometown, Paris. In the interview, Sedaris talks about his love for Parisian food courts, flea markets and movie theaters, and why he never gets tired of the city: “Paris is so beautiful that, even after 10 years, I stop sometimes and I am just overwhelmed.”

A Polymath in Iceland and Greenland

by Michael Yessis | 07.28.08 | 11:12 AM ET

The Freakonomics guys recently carved out some space in their blog for the freakishly accomplished Nathan Myhrvold, who turned in three interesting posts—and a bunch of terrific images—from his travels to Iceland and Greenland.

Related on World Hum:
* A Very Long Way to the Hong Kong Cafe

Extraterrestrial Tourism: The Truth Is Out There?

by Eva Holland | 07.28.08 | 10:23 AM ET

If, back in the spring, you had asked me to pick one summer blockbuster to spawn a travel spin-off this year, I would have bet on singing and dancing Mamma Mia! tours of the Greek Islands, or even criminal underworld-themed tours of Manhattan and Chicago, to coincide with the latest Batman flick. But X-Files tourism? I never would have guessed. Or maybe I just don’t want to believe?

Oxygen Tank Explosion May Have Caused Hole in Qantas 747

by Michael Yessis | 07.28.08 | 10:10 AM ET

That’s the leading theory, according to investigators. Fragments of a missing oxygen tank were apparently found on the jet.

Related on World Hum:
* Hole Opens in Qantas 747 During Flight

Remembering ‘Staycations’ Before They Were a Trend

by Julia Ross | 07.26.08 | 9:59 AM ET

NPR commentator Laura Lorson finds it curious that her childhood trips to places like Indianapolis and Knoxville would today be dubbed “staycations.” In the ‘70s, it was simply what families on a budget did during summer vacation. And while she sometimes felt inferior to classmates who jetted off to Paris, she had seen one thing they hadn’t: the Ponderosa Steakhouse.

World Hum’s Most Read: July 19-25

by World Hum | 07.25.08 | 3:17 PM ET

Our five most popular features and blog posts for the week:

1) Dan Bilefsky: Telling Counterintuitive Stories From the Edge of Europe
2) My Senegalese Cousin, the Rice-Loving Pig
3) Dave Barry in Costa Rica: ‘A Nation Located in South or Central America, or Possibly Europe’
4) Baggage: Check It or Ship It?
5) World Hum Travel Movie Club: National Lampoon’s ‘Vacation’ (pictured)

What We Loved This Week: Applause on Planes, Flag Waving and New Orleans

by World Hum | 07.25.08 | 3:13 PM ET

World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.

Joanna Kakissis
When I was a kid, I used to love how everyone clapped when planes on trans-Atlantic flights touched down. My family was always traveling to Athens, so we were usually surrounded by a 747 full of grateful and dramatic Greek expatriates who both longed for and feared that long flight to the homeland. The applause upon reaching Athens was a thanks to the pilots and the higher powers for keeping us safe, but it also became a prelude to everything I loved about my childhood summers in Greece: my Uncle Thanassis waiting anxiously for my father at the gate; the cousins who would fill the homes of every house we visited; the powerful and elusive sense of home that filled those summers.

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