Travel Blog
Signspotting Gets a Fresh Look
by Jim Benning | 05.07.08 | 9:18 AM ET
Doug Lansky has redesigned the website for Signspotting, his collection of offbeat and funny sign photos from around the globe. For the first time, users can post photos and visitors can rank them. “This is just a lot more fun and gives people a chance to help me pick the best shots each week,” he tells me. “It’s a lot more interactive.” Lansky’s narrated slide show featuring some of his favorite shots recently appeared on World Hum.
Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Doug Lansky
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzRiding the Rails in Iran and Beyond
by Jim Benning | 05.06.08 | 4:37 PM ET
Interesting bit in a Guardian story about train travel in Iran: “Scheduled for completion later this year is a line that will run from Kerman in the south-east to Quetta across the Pakistani border. When finished, it will present a mouth-watering prospect: uninterrupted rail travel from Europe to the subcontinent.”
Fictional Travelers and the ‘Greatest Books’
by Eva Holland | 05.06.08 | 1:30 PM ET
The Globe and Mail is hard at work on a list of the 50 Greatest Books—each week through 2008 they’re adding another entry—and some of our favorite fictional travelers are representin’. It’s only week 17, and already The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Gulliver’s Travels and Don Quixote have made the cut. I won’t hold my breath waiting for a nonfiction travel narrative to make the list, but stay tuned to see if Sal Paradise or Odysseus show up later in the year.
Related on World Hum:
* 10 Greatest Fictional Travelers
* World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books
The Problem With ‘Do you Speak English?’ (And an Easy Solution)
by Jim Benning | 05.06.08 | 12:27 PM ET
Travel Channel show host Samantha Brown doled out some travel advice in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, and I thought this simple observation about language barriers was particularly astute: Americans’ tendency to ask “Do you speak English?” with little introduction when they’re overseas, puts distance between them and their hosts.
Farecast Wins Webby Award for Travel
by Jim Benning | 05.06.08 | 12:15 PM ET
Kayak.com won in the People’s Choice category. Full list of Webby winners here.
A Carbon-Free ‘Green City’ in the Desert?
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.06.08 | 10:42 AM ET
If the excesses of Dubai aren’t your thing, you might soon consider a very different kind of travel destination in the United Arab Emirates. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is planning to build an “eco city” for 50,000 people that will be powered entirely by renewable energy, NPR reports.
Death Toll Rises in Burma
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 3:35 PM ET
We can’t let the day pass without noting the tragedy in Burma (Myanmar). According to some reports, as many as 10,000 22,500 100,000 people have died as a result of the cyclone that hit over the weekend. As if the Burmese people haven’t suffered enough already.
Related on World Hum:
* Under the Banyan Tree
* Big Brother in Burma
* Burma’s Ongoing Cycle of Despair
Updated: Wednesday, May 7, 6:20 p.m. ET
Happy Cinco de Mayo
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 1:07 PM ET
It’s White-People’s-Excuse-to-Let-Loose Day! (Or, if you’re NPR, it’s your excuse to go completely loco and play some Nortec Collective.)
‘It’s My Life’s Ambition Not to be the Subject of a Krakauer Book’
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 1:00 PM ET
You and the rest of us, Dan. Los Angeles Times Pulitzer winner Dan Neil embarked on a solo backpacking trip across Joshua Tree National Park recently armed with a satellite phone, a GPS unit and a personal locator beacon. “It’s my life’s ambition not to be the subject of a Krakauer book,” he writes, referring, of course, to Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” and “Into Thin Air.” He continues: “I have kids, a wife, a cat who’d miss me terribly. But sometimes, I want to be alone too. Why? Because I have kids, a wife, a cat etc.”
More Americans Traveling Overseas (But Not Those Staycationing)
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 12:26 PM ET
Amazing. Despite a lagging economy at home, a tanking U.S. dollar across the planet and increasing use of the ridiculous verb “staycation,” more American are expected to travel abroad this summer than last.
In Los Angeles, ‘Carne Asada is Not a Crime’
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 11:13 AM ET
Have more profound words ever been uttered? That’s one of the rallying cries of Save Our Taco Trucks, a movement opposing a new law that restricts taco trucks in Los Angeles County. The law requires the trucks to change locations every hour, with violators “facing fines, misdemeanor charges and, possibly, jail time,” the New York Times reports.
Why Flights Are Getting Longer
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 10:30 AM ET
The same flights are taking longer these days—by a few minutes, give or take—because many airlines are slowing down their planes to conserve fuel. No complaints here. It’s not exactly the kind of slow travel some have in mind, but it’s a start.
Related on World Hum:
* Fueling Desire
Time Magazine’s 100 List Includes Elizabeth Gilbert, Cuban Blogger
by Julia Ross | 05.05.08 | 9:58 AM ET
World Hum’s Most Read: April 26-May 2
by World Hum | 05.02.08 | 4:49 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts this week:
1) Thomas Kohnstamm’s Lonely Planet: The Firestorm Around ‘Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?’
2) ‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?
3) How to: Wear a Sari in India
4) Why I CouchSurf
5) Rural Pubs in Ireland Becoming ‘So Yesterday’ (pictured)
What We Loved This Week: Easter in Jerusalem, Politics, ‘A Billion Lives’
by World Hum | 05.02.08 | 4:33 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Julia Ross
My first trip to Jerusalem overlapped this week with Orthodox Easter, a coincidence that gave me immediate appreciation for what the city means to pilgrims worldwide. Walking through the Old City last Saturday, I found myself shoulder-to-shoulder with Ethiopians, Greeks, Armenians and Russians making their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (pictured), revered by Catholics and Orthodox Christians as the site of the crucifixion and resurrection. Halfway up the Via Dolorosa, the Armenians erupted in a raucous celebration, chanting, singing, swinging large knives, and waving Armenian flags to what sounded like drums and bagpipes. Nothing like Easter at home, for sure.
