Travel Blog
‘International’ Novels: ‘There’s a Bit of a Buzz on the Web Right Now’
by Michael Yessis | 02.07.08 | 7:31 AM ET
Rory MacLean follows it to, among other places, a World Hum blog post, and offers some book recommendations of the best fiction books for transporting readers to a foreign land.
Related on World Hum:
* Crime Fiction Where You Least Expect It
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Yahoo! BuzzNYC Shops to Visitors: Give us Your Huddled Euros Yearning to be Free
by Jim Benning | 02.06.08 | 1:24 PM ET
In what Reuters reports is a sign that the U.S. dollar “just ain’t what it used to be,” some New York City businesses are now accepting euros and other foreign currency—and they’re finding plenty of takers: “The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn.”
An Expat Journalist and His Servant
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.06.08 | 12:59 PM ET
Expat stories about maids and servants who come with a house abroad almost always make me wince. Alternately condescending, clueless and gloating, the stories are often never more than apologist reactions to a complicated cross-cultural issue.
French Designer Unveils Plans for Hotel-Blimp Hybrid
by Michael Yessis | 02.06.08 | 12:30 PM ET
It looks like a flying whale, but creator Jean-Marie Massaud calls it the “Manned Cloud.” He claims his floating luxury hotel will contain 20 rooms and fly at 18,000 feet, and will be able to zip around the globe in just a few days. And he promises it will be green.
R.I.P. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
by Jim Benning | 02.06.08 | 11:50 AM ET
The 1960s icon and one-time Beatles guru helped put Rishikesh on the counterculture map and inspired countless young Westerners to wander East across the Hippie Trail. He died Tuesday at his home in the Netherlands at the age of 91. Just how great was his influence on travel?
More Than One in Four Domestic U.S. Flights Delayed in 2007
by Michael Yessis | 02.06.08 | 9:37 AM ET
The Department of Transportation reports that 26 percent of flights last year arrived late at their destinations. Only 2000 had a worse record, with 27 percent of flights delayed or canceled.
What’s Joshua Tree National Park Without Joshua Trees?
by Jim Benning | 02.06.08 | 7:09 AM ET
That’s what park rangers and visitors are wondering, given a new prediction that in just 50 to 100 years global warming will make the southern California park too warm to support its namesake trees. I’ve spent a lot of time at Joshua Tree park, hiking, playing on boulders and even shivering through the 2000 New Year’s Eve there.
Just Another Day in ‘Bolivarian Paradise’
by Michael Yessis | 02.05.08 | 5:27 PM ET
A Sort-of Love Story, Uzbekistan Style*
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.05.08 | 5:00 PM ET
Uzbekistan has never been high on my must-see list, despite its Silk Road mystique and stunningly beautiful architecture. Maybe I’ve read too many dreary news reports about soldiers mowing down unarmed protesters and police boiling alive terrorism suspects. But a strange profile this weekend in The Washington Post made this hard-to-love land alluring in a flinty, James Bond-meets-Graham Greene sort of way.
Super Tuesday Abroad: Obama Takes Jakarta
by Jim Benning | 02.05.08 | 11:13 AM ET
World Hum contributor Joanna Kakissis recently blogged from Greece about the local enthusiasm for Barack Obama—and how the Greeks’ attitude toward her and the United States seemed to be warming as a result. Now, Americans overseas—Democrats, at least—are getting a chance to chime in. From Indonesia to the UK to a Starbucks outlet in Bangkok, they’re voting in the Democratic primary. The first results have come from Jakarta, where roughly 100 Democrats cast ballots: Obama got 75 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 25 percent.
The Ryugyong Hotel: ‘The Worst Building in the History of Mankind’?
by Michael Yessis | 02.05.08 | 10:14 AM ET
Longtime World Hum readers will be familiar with the Ryugyong Hotel, a sad icon of North Korea. “It’s a hotel that stands 105 floors, has 3,700 rooms and is crowned with five revolving restaurants,” we wrote in 2005. “No one has ever stayed in it. In fact, it has stood derelict since 1989.” Esquire recently dubbed the building the worst in the history of mankind.
Video: Improv Everywhere’s ‘Frozen Grand Central’
by Jim Benning | 02.04.08 | 4:42 PM ET
The New York City-based group pulled a cool stunt in Grand Central Station recently that had travelers baffled. Video:
‘A Walk in the Woods’: Robert Redford to Make Movie of Bill Bryson’s Classic Travel Book
by Michael Yessis | 02.04.08 | 4:01 PM ET
The news just broke about Redford’s renewed plans to produce and star in Bryson’s book about hiking the Appalachian Trail, A Walk in the Woods, and already the knives are out. “If made correctly, this would be the funniest movie of the year,” writes New York Magazine blog The Industry. “It will not be made correctly.” I disagree. The pieces are in place for a great adaptation.
Your Dream Trip? Priceless. Cost of the Journey in ‘The Bucket List’?
by Jim Benning | 02.04.08 | 1:42 PM ET
That would be $105,730, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Mary Forgione. She added up the cost for two people to follow in the footsteps of Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson in the film “The Bucket List”—and to do it “in style,” taking into account that you’d want to “stay in each place longer than a Hollywood scene change.”
Lisbon: ‘City of Breathtaking Light at Noon’
by Eva Holland | 02.04.08 | 1:06 PM ET
In a heartfelt story in the Globe and Mail, John Doyle describes how he first fell in love with Lisbon several years ago, and recalls taking his mother there for her 70th birthday to share the delights of the city with her. I’ve never been to Lisbon, but Doyle’s love letter to the “city of luscious pastries and ambrosial port wine” has bumped it up a few notches on my never-ending list of places to see.
Photo by Free-Secret-Life* via Flickr (Creative Commons)
