Travel Blog
Golf Courses, Bedsheets and the ‘Endless Search for the Peculiar’
by Eva Holland | 04.18.08 | 11:47 AM ET
“What constitutes a meaningful cultural difference?” That’s the question that The Smart Set contributor Michael Gorra is faced with after a bedsheet-shopping expedition in Hamburg. What follows is a thoughtful essay on the traveler’s search for differences, our inevitable comparisons to the familiar and our efforts to make it all add up in the end. Laced with references to the peculiarities around him (Berlin’s new golf courses, or the way cashiers in Hamburg make change), the essay left me reassessing the way I take note of the world around me when I travel. It also left me craving the “cool pilsner tingle” of a mug of German beer.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe New Yorker ‘Journeys’ Issue Goes to China, New Guinea, Bengal
by Michael Yessis | 04.18.08 | 9:31 AM ET
As usual, The New Yorker turns to big-name writers for its Journeys issue: Jonathan Franzen, Jared Diamond and Caroline Alexander among them. Also as usual, several of their stories aren’t online. Two that are: Alexander’s journey through the mangrove forest of Bengal, and Paul Goldberger’s intriguing look at the architecture of airports. “The best new airports in the world right now are in Beijing, where Norman Foster’s Terminal 3 has just opened, and on the outskirts of Madrid, where Terminal 4 at Barajas, designed by Richard Rogers Partnership, has been in operation since 2006,” he writes. “Foster has achieved what no other architect has been able to: he has rethought the airport from scratch and made it work.” A conversation with Franzen about his trip to China is also online.
Paul Theroux Skewers V.S. Naipaul (Again)
by Jim Benning | 04.17.08 | 1:14 PM ET
One of my favorite Paul Theroux books is Sir Vidia’s Shadow, his memoir of his ill-fated friendship with V.S. Naipaul. In it, Theroux paints an ugly picture of the famed writer, detailing countless character flaws. Now, a new authorized biography of Naipaul is coming out, The World Is What It Is, by Patrick French. That book, writes Theroux in the London Times, “amply demonstrates everything I said and more. It is not a pretty story; it will probably destroy Naipaul’s reputation for ever.” Wow. Talk about twisting the knife. Theroux’s new travel book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, is due out in September.
Movies and Books That Inspired Travel Booms
by Michael Yessis | 04.17.08 | 12:23 PM ET
Jon Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild”—and Sean Penn’s movie adaptation—have boosted tourism in parts of Alaska more than 100 percent, and the “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy caused a 34 percent increase in travel to New Zealand during its run a few years back, according to a piece in the April issue of Outside by World Hum contributing editor Frank Bures. Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” also inspired travelers, drawing 57 percent more through-hikers to the Appalachian Trail in the two years after his book’s 1998 debut.
Dengue Epidemic Hits Tourism in Rio
by Jim Benning | 04.17.08 | 11:19 AM ET
Since January, more than 70,000 people have been infected with dengue fever in the Brazilian state of Rio. At least 80 people have died. Now, the growing health crisis is “taking a toll on tourism,” reports the International Herald Tribune. A number of foreign embassies have warned citizens about the outbreak, including the U.S. Embassy.
Global Warming’s Next Victim: Beer?
by Eva Holland | 04.17.08 | 11:07 AM ET
We’ve already noted the rise of see-it-before-it’s-gone tourism, or climate tourism. Is “drink-it-before-it’s-gone” tourism next? A scientist in New Zealand is warning that climate change could affect the growth of malting barley, both in New Zealand and neighboring Australia, thus causing a fall in beer production.
Damascus Becomes Haven for Westerners Learning Arabic
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.17.08 | 10:53 AM ET
American and European students who love the cheap tuition for Arabic classes and the purity of the dialect (it’s close to classical Arabic) have been going to Syria’s capital for years. But in the latest report on the trend, NPR notes that the community of young language students from the West are also stepping out of the usual expat and study-abroad bubble. Looks like they’re at least taking time to discover a complex, restless and intriguing country often reduced to caricature as a member of an extended Axis of Evil.
Photo by James Gordon via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Are Cell Phones Killing the Tradition of Cabbies as Travel Guides and Cracker-Barrel Philosophers?
by Michael Yessis | 04.16.08 | 2:53 PM ET
Sadly, I think so. During my recent travels to New Orleans, Austin and Los Angeles, I took eight cab rides. During two of them I barely said a word to the driver. Not because I didn’t want to, but because the cabbie was on his cell phone, yapping with someone else. I was annoyed by the chatter, but also deflated.
Peru to Yale University: Dude, Give Us Back Our Machu Picchu Artifacts!
by Jim Benning | 04.16.08 | 1:36 PM ET
The Wires Behind American’s Flight Cancellations
by Jim Benning | 04.16.08 | 11:47 AM ET
Wired offers a detailed explanation of just why American Airlines’ inspection of its MD-80s last week was so important: “The wiring bundles are located near the plane’s fuel tanks, and failure to follow the FAA directive could result in a wire shorting out and sparking. Which could result in jet fumes igniting. Which could cause an explosion in the fuel tank. Which, as you can imagine, could be a really bad situation.”
Remembering Octavio Paz
by Jim Benning | 04.16.08 | 11:35 AM ET
This week is the 10th anniversary of the death of the great Mexican writer and poet Octavio Paz. The Los Angeles Times’ La Plaza blog notes that the Nobel Prize winner is being remembered in Mexico City with conferences and radio programs. For travelers, Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude is a challenging but essential book for understanding Mexican culture. Paz also wrote a travel memoir of sorts, In Light of India, based on his time as a diplomat in the country.
Communing with Kerouac: Ben Gibbard in Big Sur
by Michael Yessis | 04.16.08 | 10:19 AM ET
The singer and songwriter for Death Cab For Cutie wrote songs for the band’s upcoming album, Narrow Stairs, at a cabin in Big Sur—the same spot Jack Kerouac wrote his book “Big Sur.” For its most recent issue, Paste magazine sent Gibbard back to the cabin, where he filed a cover story about his love for Kerouac and the impact of the writer on his life, particularly his book “On the Road.”
Robert Burns Would Have Scoffed at Vegetarian Haggis
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.15.08 | 3:07 PM ET
But I love it. I was in Scotland last week, eating the herbivore version of Scotland’s national dish as much as possible. It’s not that I’m afraid of the real haggis —an agitative mix of sheep liver, heart, lungs and other internal organs blended with meat, oats, barley and spices and cooked inside a sheep stomach. It’s just that “fake haggis” tastes better and seemed far easier to find. It may be a sign of the health-food times in Scotland, great purveyor of heart-attack cuisine. But a furious Robert Burns is surely scoffing in his grave.
U.S. State Department: Be Alert to Safety Concerns in Mexican Border Zone
by Jim Benning | 04.15.08 | 9:59 AM ET
Not terribly surprising, but it’s worth noting that the U.S. State Department reissued a travel alert for Mexico on Monday, citing “[v]iolent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade.”
Postcards: Making a Comeback
by Eva Holland | 04.15.08 | 8:17 AM ET
Not so long ago I wrote about the last days of the postcard—now it seems my requiem for a beloved travel souvenir may have been premature. This story in the Globe and Mail suggests that postcards are actually making a comeback, noting that sales, in the UK and Canada at least, have only increased since 2003.
