Travel Blog
Life as a ‘Polie’ at the South Pole: It’s Cold But is it Cool?
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.24.08 | 12:20 PM ET
Some people think so. NPR visited the community of American scientists and staff who spend months at a time working at the South Pole Research Center. The “Polies,” as they call themselves, live a Spartan life in this hyper-cold landscape, where the temperatures can reach -50 degrees wind chill. They live in tiny, door-less rooms in long Quonset tents. Bathrooms are nonexistent: If you need to relieve yourself you can use the outhouses or a can under your bed.
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Yahoo! BuzzPilot’s Gun Fires on US Airways Flight
by Michael Yessis | 03.24.08 | 11:27 AM ET
Details are sketchy about the incident, which took place Saturday in the cockpit of a US Airways flight from Denver to Charlotte. The Charlotte Observer reports, however, that it was an accident and nobody was hurt.
Paul Theroux: ‘The Travel Book Was a Bore’
by Jim Benning | 03.24.08 | 11:24 AM ET
We recently noted that Paul Theroux’s next book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, due out in September, retraces the journey he chronicled in 1975’s The Great Railway Bazaar. Perhaps that’s why he’s now reflecting on his motivations behind the original journey, and his feelings about travel writing at the time. Whatever the reason, fans of “The Great Railway Bazaar” should enjoy this essay in the Guardian.
R.I.P. Cachao
by Jim Benning | 03.24.08 | 10:25 AM ET
Travel Across the Taiwan Strait: A Historic Opening?
by Julia Ross | 03.24.08 | 10:19 AM ET
Last June, I traveled to the tiny Taiwanese island of Kinmen, which lies a mere mile off the coast of China’s Fujian province. The waters between the island and the mainland constitute the narrowest point in the Taiwan Strait, and, standing on the Taiwan side, I found the view slightly surreal: I peered through giant telescopes to see Fujianese fishing boats bobbing happily in the middle of one of the world’s tensest political flashpoints. It seemed downright peaceful.
World Hum’s Most Read: March 15-21
by World Hum | 03.21.08 | 5:25 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts this week:
1) How to: Use a Squat Toilet
2) Ask Rolf: I’m Worried About Food Safety Overseas. Any Tips for Staying Healthy?
3) Woman Sues American Airlines For Not Protecting Her From Masturbating Man
4) How to: Cross the Street in Rome
5) Violent Protests Prompt Travel Warnings for Tibet* (pictured)
Photo by apainog via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
What We Loved This Week: Okkervil River, the ‘Thunderbolt Kid’ and Teeing Off in Kauai
by World Hum | 03.21.08 | 5:23 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Terry Ward
I discovered golf is actually a lot of fun while hitting the driving range for the first time in Kauai. Even better than making solid contact with a five wood, however, was watching the humpback whales breaching just offshore while puttering around the course in Princeville. I had heard it was the season, but I didn’t expect to be treated to seeing whale spouts every few minutes. So cool.
About Those Southwest Planes: ‘Is it Really as Bad as it Sounds?’
by Michael Yessis | 03.21.08 | 11:27 AM ET
Patrick Smith offers some sober analysis of the recent Southwest scandal—and the safety of airline travel in general—in his Ask the Pilot column today.
Related on World Hum:
* Report: Southwest Airlines Flew at Least 117 ‘Unsafe’ Planes
Next Jan Morris Book to Come ‘From the Grave’
by Michael Yessis | 03.21.08 | 11:23 AM ET
We won’t get to see Jan Morris’ last book until she passes away. It will be called “Allegorizings,” and it’s already finished—except for one chapter. The legendary 82-year-old writer told Publishers Weekly that the book revisits her “lifetime’s preoccupations—place and animals and all the things that have interested me. ... But, of course, I’m also looking back at them from a peculiar vantage point. There is a theme, which I suppose may remind the audience that even the most superficial writers can have a thread of more serious philosophical thoughts going through your mind.”
Memo to Philly-Bound Foreign Travelers: At Geno’s it’s English Only, or no Cheesesteak For You
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.21.08 | 10:27 AM ET
Don’t bother asking for Philadelphia’s heart-attack sandwich in anything other than good ol’ English when you’re at Geno’s Steaks. The popular cheesesteak eatery can keep up a sign that reads: “This is America. When ordering, please speak English,” according to a ruling this week. In a case that lasted nearly two years, the Philadelphia Commission for Human Relations had tried to force owner Joey Vento to remove the sign because some commissioners found it discriminatory.
Inside the Gridlock Capital of the World
by Michael Yessis | 03.21.08 | 9:33 AM ET
It’s Bangkok, according to Time. The story seems to offer support for both sides in a brewing debate in our comments section about whether it’s more difficult to cross the street in Rome or some cities in Southeast Asia. The chaos of Bangkok sounds crazier than Rome, but so does the gridlock. And if cars in Bangkok are perpetually stopped, isn’t that an argument that it should be easier to cross there than in Rome?
Related on World Hum:
* How to Cross the Street in Rome
Bhutan: How Will the World’s Last Independent Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom Survive?
by Michael Yessis | 03.20.08 | 12:30 PM ET
The once-isolated country has welcomed tourists, satellite television and Matt Lauer in its efforts to engage the world. Now, as Arthur Lubow writes in the latest Smithsonian, the country has begun efforts to preserve its culture by displaying it outside its borders. Two major exhibitions are set for the United States this spring and summer, displays of Buddhist art in New York and San Francisco, and “demonstrations of traditional Bhutanese dancing, weaving, metalworking, woodcarving and herbal medicine” at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. Lubow traveled to Bhutan to see how these efforts, as well as larger issues of globalization, are changing the country.
China Blocks Travel to Ethnic Tibetan Regions
by Jim Benning | 03.20.08 | 12:21 PM ET
Tibet is often narrowly defined as the Tibetan Autonomous Region, but as the BBC points out, half of all Tibetans live outside it. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that recent protests over China’s rule of Tibet have spilled over those borders, too, into the ethnic Tibetan Chinese provinces of Gansu and Sichuan, among other places.
Peter Hessler Nominated For National Magazine Award
by Michael Yessis | 03.19.08 | 4:21 PM ET
Hessler’s China’s Instant Cities, a story we noted last June, has been nominated for a National Magazine Award in the Reporting category. Also nominated in the category: William Langewiesche’s Vanity Fair piece City of Fear.
Burning, Burning, Burning, and Nothing Can Cool Me?
by Eva Holland | 03.19.08 | 10:17 AM ET
Photo of parking sign at Graceland RV Park by Eva Holland.
I spent the better part of last week literally at the end of Lonely Street, in an RV park across the street from Graceland. Competition was stiff, but my verdict is in: The most hilarious Elvis-related play on words came courtesy of the Heartbreak Hotel’s Jungle Room Restaurant, where the “Hunk a Burning Tenders” are on offer every day from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. The only downside? They really weren’t that spicy.
