Travel Blog
DOT Inspector General Urges Airlines, Airports to Fight ‘Strandings’
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.07 | 11:49 AM ET
Passengers’ rights advocates have kept their goals, including securing a minimum amount of time air travelers can be stuck on planes, in the news lately with a splashy publicity campaign. Congress has responded with legislation. Now the Department of Transportation’s inspector general has weighed in with a report recommending that “airlines, airports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and DOT must work together to reduce long, on-board delays and minimize the impact on passengers when these delays occur.” USA Today called it a “tough report,” but Paul Hudson of the Ralph Nader-affiliated Aviation Consumer Action Project said “the recommendations are as weak-to-nonexistent as ever,” according to the New York Times. “There is no mention of the word ‘rights.’”
Related on World Hum:
* Audio slide show: Stranded at the National Mall
* Kate Hanni: ‘The Ralph Nader of the Skies’
Photo of planes at JFK by stephenhanafin, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Critics: Paul Theroux’s ‘The Elephanta Suite’
by Frank Bures | 09.27.07 | 11:00 AM ET
Paul Theroux is back, right on schedule, with a new book of fiction, this time a collection of three novellas about Westerners in India called The Elephanta Suite. Pico Iyer gives it a glowing review in Time, calling it “a set of brilliantly evocative and propulsive novellas.”
Cell Phones to the Rescue After Memphis Radar Snafu
by Terry Ward | 09.26.07 | 2:15 PM ET
We may not be allowed to use our cell phones in flight yet, but personal phones certainly came in handy during a harrowing air traffic control crisis in Memphis yesterday. CNN reports that air traffic controllers were forced to use their cell phones to reroute hundreds of flights when the local FAA center in Memphis lost radar and phone service for more than two hours.
The World’s Vanishing Languages
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.26.07 | 1:38 PM ET
One of the wonders of traveling is encountering all kinds of languages, especially ancient tribal tongues that have endured the ravages of colonization and globalization. But researchers at the Enduring Voices Project say indigenous languages are dying at an alarming rate of one every two weeks. That means that at least half half of the 7,000 languages spoken today could disappear in 20 years, John Noble Wilford reports in the New York Times.
John Grisham’s New Novel ‘Playing for Pizza’ Just an Excuse to Visit Italy
by Michael Yessis | 09.26.07 | 11:52 AM ET
I guess I can’t blame John Grisham for being able to turn his vacation to an inevitable bestseller. I just wish he weren’t so smug about it. On The Today Show, Grisham straight-up admitted that Playing for Pizza, his new novel about a washed-up NFL football quarterback who moves to Parma, Italy to play for an American-style football team there, provided him an excuse to visit Italy. Matt Lauer asked:
First Deaths Reported in Crackdown on Protesters in Burma
by Jim Benning | 09.26.07 | 11:13 AM ET
Observers—heck, everyone we know who has been paying attention—feared it was coming.
Related on World Hum:
* As Defiant Monks Protest in Burma, Travel Debate Rages On
* Big Brother in Burma
* Burma’s Ongoing Cycle of Despair
Photo: AP.
From Sufjan to ‘Nashville Skyline’: Two Takes on a Road Trip Soundtrack
by Eva Holland | 09.26.07 | 8:52 AM ET
And the Kerouac anniversary celebration lingers. In honor of the 50th birthday of “On the Road,” the Guardian’s Laura Barton put together a 50-song list of must-listen road trip tracks, one for each American state. It’s an eclectic selection—everyone from Sufjan Stevens to Aerosmith to Loretta Lynn is represented—and it’s stirring up a lot of (mostly civilized) debate on the story’s comment pages. I can’t see how she skipped over “Georgia On My Mind” or “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” but for the most part I was impressed by the list’s range and creativity. Perry Como’s “Delaware”? Who knew?
Six New Nonstop U.S.-China Flight Routes Awarded
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.07 | 4:13 PM ET
The six so-called U.S. legacy airlines—Delta, United, US Airways, Continental, American and Northwest—received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin flying new routes to China. U.S.-China routes are regulated by a bilateral agreement, and the two countries recently agreed to open up more routes, according to USA Today’s Ben Mutzabaugh. It’s yet another sign of China’s growing stature among travelers.
Related on World Hum:
* China Faces Pilot Shortage
* Driving the Silk Road—in a New $7,000 Chinese Car
Photo by Michael Yessis.
As Defiant Monks Protest in Burma, Travel Debate Rages On
by Jim Benning | 09.25.07 | 1:27 PM ET
As thousands of defiant Buddhist monks rally for democracy in Burma (or Myanmar) despite of warnings of a military crackdown, travelers watching in awe from afar continue to debate the ethics of visiting the country. Arthur Frommer yesterday denounced tour operators who continue to lead groups into Burma and called on all travelers to boycott the nation. “Shockingly enough, several major U.S. tour operators continue to operate trips to Myanmar, despite pleas not to do so by the country’s democratically-elected leader, the Nobel-prize-winning Aung San Suu Kyi,” he wrote. “On occasion after occasion, Mrs. Kyi has emphatically stated that such visits simply support the brutal, thuggish military junta that now rules Myanmar.”
It’s Tapped: Oktoberfest Kicks Off in Munich
by Eva Holland | 09.25.07 | 12:43 PM ET
The 174th annual Oktoberfest got under way this past weekend in Munich, Germany, and just reading the AP story about the opening keg-tapping ceremony made me thirsty. Last year, the festival attracted more than 6 million people, saw nearly 13 million pints poured and generated 1 billion euros in revenue. Similar numbers are expected this year.
Tehran’s Hidden Vault of Western Art
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.25.07 | 9:53 AM ET
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad—who made such a, uh, splash at Columbia University yesterday—may hate the West, but his country owns one of the most massive collections of 19th- and 20th-century Western art outside the West, according to a fascinating story by Kim Murphy in the Los Angele Times. The works—which include Picassos, Kandinskys, Miros, Warhols and possibly the best Jackson Pollock collection outside the United States—are relegated to the basement of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Amazingly, they have rarely been seen over the past 30 years.
How to Handle ‘Urgent Experiences With Exotic Meals’
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.07 | 9:51 AM ET
That’s one way to describe bowel issues, a common but not easily talked about problem for many travelers. Another way: Over-functioning. And a description for another less urgent but still critical problem: Vacastipation. Sophia Dembling uses all these terms in a recent Wandering Mind column for the Chicago Tribune about troublesome experiences she’s had on the road. Dembling doesn’t offer any foolproof tips for avoiding problems, but she does deliver a few laughs. And in return I, who have more than once found myself far from home—or a bathroom—when faced with an urgent experience, offer my sympathy.
Related on World Hum:
* How to Use a Squat Toilet
Related on TravelChannel.com:
* Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern
Photo by code poet, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Forget ‘Snakes on a Plane.’ How About Scorpions?
by Jim Benning | 09.24.07 | 2:23 PM ET
No, not these. The real deal. According to USA Today’s Ben Mutzabaugh, a man on a flight from Costa Rica to Madrid was stung on his shoulder and finger by a scorpion. Mutzabaugh cites news reports stating that the man was treated for severe nausea by a doctor on the plane, and that a fellow passenger killed the scorpion. As Mutzabaugh points out, this isn’t a first. A number of travelers have been stung by scorpions mid-flight, including a passenger aboard a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Burlington, Vermont in January.
Related on World Hum:
* Three Travel Tips: Stay Healthy When You Fly
* ‘Snakes on a Plane’ = Movie. Bees on a Plane = Serious, Real-Life Problem.
Related on TravelChannel.com:
* Bizarre Foods World Travel Guide: Vietnam
Photo by alex.ch via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Warning for Haiti’s Carbintair Airlines
by Jim Benning | 09.24.07 | 1:31 PM ET
Reports San Francisco Chronicle’s World Travel Watch column: “The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince now prohibits all U.S. government personnel from flying on Haiti’s Caribintair Airlines, and warns travelers to avoid the carrier.” Caribintair planes have made two forced emergency landings in the last month, the paper adds.
Harar: Islamic Holy City Turns to Tourism
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.24.07 | 12:36 PM ET
The ancient city of Harar in Ethiopia may suffer chronic water shortages and a lack of modern amenities, but regional politicians are hoping to transform this hilltop city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, into a popular getaway for tourists, writes Anita Powell of the AP. With its walled maze of ancient mosques and alleyways, Harar has enough mystique to stir the imagination of adventurous travelers. The fourth-holiest city in Islam, it’s a center of the faith in the Horn of Africa. The French poet Arthur Rimbaud lived there in the late 1800s, and his home is now an art gallery. Harar is also known as the birthplace of coffee; its scent lingers in the Ethiopian highlands. And it’s also got “an old man who hand-feeds some 50 hyenas every night, treating them like obedient kittens,” Powell writes.
