Travel Blog
Kerouac: ‘I Rode Around This Country Free as a Bee’
by Eva Holland | 07.17.09 | 2:31 PM ET
In a new Poetry Foundation essay, Aram Saroyan looks back at his time with the Beats. “God, man, I rode around this country free as a bee,” he remembers Kerouac saying of his “On the Road” days. “We had more fun than five thousand Socony Gasoline Station attendants can have.” (Via The Book Bench)
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Yahoo! BuzzTravel Song of the Day: ‘Walkin’ to New Orleans’ by Fats Domino
by Eva Holland | 07.17.09 | 1:33 PM ET
Photo We Love: Beach Day in Karachi
by World Hum | 07.17.09 | 12:36 PM ET
REUTERS/Athar Hussain A man collects shells on Clifton Beach in Karachi, Pakistan.
How Bad is the Air Quality in the Air?
by Michael Yessis | 07.17.09 | 11:42 AM ET
It’s “basically adequate,” writes Scott McCartney. Not very comforting. The airline industry knows that, so last year it put together a panel of experts to recommend changes—changes that, of course, haven’t been implemented.
McCartney investigates further and does a good job explaining what we really need to worry about when it comes to air quality on planes. As one expert told him, “In general the air on an airplane is not too bad, but when things go wrong, they can get really bad. And it happens in a hurry.”
The Top 10 Comic Book Cities
by Michael Yessis | 07.17.09 | 10:59 AM ET
I’m not a comic book reader, but I found this list at the Architects’ Journal compelling—and the artwork amazing. Among the cityscapes included: Tintin’s Inca city and Chris Ware’s Chicago.
Bombs Hit Two Jakarta Hotels
by Eva Holland | 07.17.09 | 10:38 AM ET
Grim news from the Indonesian capital, where a pair of apparent suicide bombers attacked the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels last night. According to the BBC, nine people are confirmed dead, and around 50 injured.
R.I.P. Julius Shulman
by Jim Benning | 07.16.09 | 5:37 PM ET
REUTERS/Fred Prouser/Files The famed Los Angeles architectural photographer died yesterday at his home in Laurel Canyon at the age of 98. Among his most iconic photographs: a shot of Pierre Koenig’ Case Study House #22—the photo within the photo here.
Dwell magazine put it well: “His photography helped define mid-century modernism and no one can claim more credit for documenting, and in some ways inventing, what post-war California cool looked and felt like.”
Parking Fees Around the World
by Jim Benning | 07.16.09 | 3:22 PM ET
The Economist has a great chart on parking fees around the globe. Among the highlights from its report: “European cities have some of the highest daily parking rates, with Amsterdam and London coming out on top. Tokyo is the most expensive place to leave your car outside Europe.”
Cheap travel tip: You’ll find great rates in Chennai, India. Um, road trip!
(Via the Idea of the Day blog)
Zac Sunderland, 17, Becomes Youngest Sailor to Circumnavigate the Globe Solo
by Eva Holland | 07.16.09 | 2:40 PM ET
REUTERS/Alberto Lowe The teenager arrived back in Southern California this morning after 13 months at sea, breaking the record held by Australian Jesse Martin, who completed his solo sail around the world at 18.
You can check out Zac’s blog to get more of the back story on the journey, or see photos and a map of his route courtesy of the L.A. Times.
Anyone else thinking, “Gee, what was I doing when I was 17?”
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Passage to Bangkok’ by Rush
by Jim Benning | 07.16.09 | 1:53 PM ET
William Least Heat-Moon on Travel, Twitter and the Call of the Open Road
by Michael Yessis | 07.16.09 | 12:19 PM ET
The author of Blue Highways theorizes why the United States is “the most mobile nation the planet has yet seen” in an intriguing essay in WSJ magazine. Here’s the part where he addresses Twitter and our era of self-absorption:
For the past three decades, travel—especially when it gets written down—often has at its center a defining solipsism: the Self in search of itself in strange places promising to cast a different and edifying light on the Quest. In an era of self-absorption and self-gratification—Facebook and Twitter may be the ultimate in narcissism—such is to be expected. On a stretch of open road, a driver can roll along with his window reflection laid over the landscape ahead so that he must see through himself to see the territory—call it windshield therapy (it’s probably as effective as any couch counseling and certainly cheaper and more accessible, no appointment necessary). On the road, where no one knows your name or your past, the miles can efface one’s identity and make a traveler ready for reception.
I love the kicker to the piece: “In America, our prayer wheels come with vulcanized nonskid treads.”
In Search of Franklin in the Arctic—Again
by Eva Holland | 07.16.09 | 11:38 AM ET
An Alberta archaeologist is headed to Canada’s far north this fall in search of the lost Franklin expedition. Rob Rondeau’s team is just the latest in a 160-year stream of hunters for the two ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, that vanished with their crews while seeking the North West Passage in 1845—but this time, Rondeau plans to search in a different area than most. An Inuit resident of Taloyoak, Nunavut, where the search will begin, told the Globe and Mail that the new expedition will be only the second to go Franklin-hunting in the area.
Guardian Writer ‘Absolutely Terrified’ of South Africa
by Eva Holland | 07.16.09 | 10:44 AM ET
Today in not-so-good news for a tourism board somewhere in the world, a sports writer for the Guardian has written a blog post called Why Going to South Africa for the World Cup Terrifies Me. In it, Louise Taylor lays out the reasons why she would “definitely balk” at a trip to Cape Town for next year’s FIFA event, and even suggests that the World Cup should have been hosted by Egypt instead.
Consider me unimpressed.
Gay Travel Book in Translation Trouble
by Eva Holland | 07.15.09 | 4:04 PM ET
Long-time Frommers writer Michael Luongo’s “Gay Travels in the Muslim World” has become the first gay-focused English language book to be translated into Arabic. The only catch? Every instance of the word “gay” has been translated to read “pervert.” Luongo had planned a Middle Eastern promotional tour, but, as he told Page Six, “this has thrown a wrench into the plans. Imagine standing in front of a crowd declaring yourself a pervert. So far I have avoided real fatwas, though I’ve been told the Taliban produced a Web site condemning the book. But with this new title, who knows?” (Via The Book Bench)
The Plight of the Paris Bouquinistes
by Michael Yessis | 07.15.09 | 3:16 PM ET
Times are tough for the booksellers along the Seine. Mildrade Cherfils writes in GlobalPost:
For centuries, used booksellers, with their unmistakable dark green boxes perched along the banks of the Seine River, have been charming and permanent fixtures of Parisian life.
Or as Christian Nabet put it, “we’re part of the scenery.” And that’s partly a problem, as he sees it.
“Look,” Nabet said, pointing toward a sizeable group of tourists who wandered past his stall with hardly a notice of the classic titles, which he has been selling in the same spot for about a decade. We’re “a little like the animals at the zoo.”
