Travel Blog
A Linglei’s Life in China
by Eva Holland | 04.26.10 | 12:08 PM ET
The Millions has a compelling essay about a Chinese-American novelist’s life as a linglei —a “different species”—in Beijing and Shanghai. Deanna Fei writes:
I’d moved to Beijing for a year of postgraduate study with some notions of mastering my mother tongue and reclaiming my heritage. I hadn’t expected to feel at home, but I hadn’t anticipated feeling quite so alien. Like most Asian Americans, I’d always been asked the question, “Where are you from?” with the expected answer being China, or someplace equally foreign. Now, this question was asked even more relentlessly of me by Chinese people in China, but the answer never satisfied them. But you don’t look American, they might say—or, You don’t sound Chinese. They’d assure me that I wasn’t really American, even as their suspicious expressions made clear that I certainly wasn’t really Chinese.
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Yahoo! Buzz‘When Life Gives You Volcanoes, Make Magazines’
by Eva Holland | 04.26.10 | 10:54 AM ET
Sure, the volcanic ash cloud may have done a number on the airline industry, but it looks like it could give publishing a wee boost—there’s a volcano strandee magazine in the works. (Via Kottke)
What We Loved This Week: Truck Art, Tijuana and Stories from Africa
by World Hum | 04.23.10 | 7:50 PM ET
Eva Holland
I loved hearing the latest results from the NHL playoffs being announced by the pilot on a flight from Calgary to Ottawa last weekend. Air Canada has let me down more than a few times over the years, but this is one thing they get right: They always make sure to keep their hockey-mad Canadian passengers up to date on the big games.
Daisann McLane: On Letting Go of the Places We Love
by Eva Holland | 04.23.10 | 12:23 PM ET
Her latest column in National Geographic Traveler is likely to resonate with most travel junkies:
[T]he villagers are no longer novel to me and I’m no longer a novelty to them. Dogs that used to bark and snarl when I passed now run up to me, tails wagging. All the signs are telling me: Move on. Still, the idea of packing up, leaving behind the dogs, the yoga on the beach, the chatty shopkeepers, and the spectacular sunrises puts my stomach in a knot. Even after thousands of miles and hundreds of trips, there is one thing that completely fazes me whenever I travel to a place: the leaving of it.
Fish Rock in Japan
by Jim Benning | 04.22.10 | 4:17 PM ET
Fish rock is music aimed at promoting greater fish consumption in Japan, where it’s on the decline. Public radio’s The World explains.
Here’s a, uh, taste.
A Moment of Doubt in a Berkeley Cafe
by Eva Holland | 04.22.10 | 2:03 PM ET
Don George’s latest, over at Gadling, is a thoughtful look at the ways in which the world is shrinking, although “intractable divisions delineate our world still.” Here’s a sample:
For the past quarter-century I have been dedicated to the proposition that travel seeds understanding, and that understanding nurtures open-mindedness and compassion—and that these pave the pathway to peace and progress. As a wandering pilgrim, I have come to worship in the church of insatiable inquiry and unconditioned kindness.
Still, last week I looked at the world’s headlines and wondered: Are we really learning anything? Are we any closer to the catechism of kindness than before?
Coming Soon: Same-Sex Weddings on Everest?
by Eva Holland | 04.22.10 | 11:09 AM ET
Nepal’s new government has some ambitious plans to rebuild and expand the country’s tourism industry, the Times of London reports. One way to make that happen? By becoming Asia’s biggest gay tourism destination—and, with a same-sex marriage bill also in the works, same-sex weddings on Everest could soon be a major part of that effort.
Said Nepalese MP Sunil Babu Pant: “There are plenty of gays and lesbians who want adventurous, sporty, outdoors kind of tourism. In other Asian countries which offer this, they are either not welcome or considered criminals.”
Taco Bell to Indians: ‘Visit Mexico for 18 Rupees’
by Jim Benning | 04.21.10 | 2:59 PM ET
Yes, Taco Bell is invading India, offering such classic Mexican delicacies as “Potato & Paneer Burrito.”
The offerings, with an Indian twist designed to appeal to local tastes and vegetarian diets, sound genuinely intriguing in an Indian-Mex-fusion kinda way.
Theroux: ‘The Netherlands has Struck Me as the Most Robust Literary Culture in the World’
by Michael Yessis | 04.21.10 | 10:29 AM ET
Paul Theroux weighs in on the state of fiction in the age of eBooks—and touches on travel—in an interview in the Atlantic.
Study: ‘Internet Users Are a Bunch of Ideological Jack Kerouacs’
by Michael Yessis | 04.21.10 | 9:33 AM ET
Those are the words of David Brooks, invoking one of our travel heroes in characterizing a study about Internet usage by Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Brooks continues about internet users:
They’re not burrowing down into comforting nests. They’re cruising far and wide looking for adventure, information, combat and arousal. This does not mean they are not polarized. Looking at a site says nothing about how you process it or the character of attention you bring to it. It could be people spend a lot of time at their home sites and then go off on forays looking for things to hate. But it probably does mean they are not insecure and they are not sheltered.
Actors Cast in ‘On the Road’ Movie
by Eva Holland | 04.20.10 | 2:57 PM ET
Looks like there’s some progress on the Walter Salles-directed adaptation of “On the Road” that we’ve been keeping an eye on for, oh, a few years now. Get the Big Picture is reporting that Garrett Hedlund has been cast as Dean Moriarty, while Sam Riley will play Sal Paradise. Both actors are relatively unknown, which—given the scrutiny this project is sure to get—could be a good thing. It’s hard for me to picture a pair of really famous faces playing Sal and Dean, and it’s not like Salles will need a major star’s brand power to get publicity for the flick.
Filming is slated to start this summer, but don’t hold your breath—we’ve heard that before.
What Does a Travel Warning Look Like in Tijuana?
by Jim Benning | 04.20.10 | 1:19 PM ET
Something like this, snapped with my camera phone over the weekend.
I went there for lunch and took a stroll down Revolution Avenue, the main tourist thoroughfare lined with bars and curio shops. A few years ago, the street would have been hopping with gringos out for an afternoon of margarita drinking, taco downing and sombrero buying. Not these days, and especially after the latest travel warning issued earlier this month.
A number of shops and restaurants were closed. The sidewalks, at least on some blocks, were nearly empty.
I’ve been going down to Tijuana for years. The drug-related violence has been taking a toll on the tourism business for a long time. But this was, by far, the emptiest I’d ever seen Revolution Avenue. Strangest of all, I didn’t see another gringo on the street during my visit. I was less than a mile from the U.S. border but in some ways felt as though I could have been in central Mexico.
One shopkeeper told me he sees more European visitors than American these days. (Now that I think about it, I saw more German travelers than American when I visited the southern Mexican state of Chiapas several years ago.)
Revolution Avenue wasn’t entirely empty. There were people out having drinks and lunch in bars and restaurants, and some of them appeared to be having a good time. They just weren’t white Americans.
This street designed to appeal to gringos is now, it appears, catering almost exclusively to Mexicans.
50 Amazingly Achievable Things to do Before You Die
by Eva Holland | 04.20.10 | 11:18 AM ET
Blogger Mike Sowden is “tired of reading about difficult, expensive, time-consuming things” he must do before he dies—you know, like the ones in these sorts of books—so he’s pushing back, with a list of 50 mundane and readily achievable things to do instead. My favorite? #31: “Pack a bag or suitcase too full, and unpack it with a suddenly heavy heart.”
EU: Traveling is a Human Right
by Eva Holland | 04.20.10 | 10:26 AM ET
Oh, Europe. While Americans continue to suffer from Shrinking Vacation Syndrome, the European Union has declared that vacationing is a right that should be accessible to all—and its bureaucrats are working on a plan to subsidize holidays for those who can’t afford them. Said the EU commissioner for enterprise and industry: “Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life.”
Five Days on, Volcanic Ash Cloud Still Wreaking Havoc
by Eva Holland | 04.19.10 | 1:33 PM ET
The air travel crisis touched off by a volcanic eruption in Iceland has continued to worsen since we first wrote about it last week.
The Globe and Mail reports that 750,000 passengers are stranded across Europe, while airline losses from the travel shutdown have surpassed $1 billion. The New York Times outlines rising industry anger against European governments’ handling of the crisis; one aviation executive described the response as: “no risk assessment, no consultation and no leadership.” Britain, meanwhile, is taking action: After a failed civilian effort to rescue stranded Britons from the French side of the Channel, three Royal Navy ships are being dispatched to serve as emergency passenger ferries instead.
Andrew Sullivan has posted a chart showing the emissions savings created by a few days of grounded flights. Our own columnist Eric Weiner offers seven travel lessons from the crisis. And finally, check out these wild NASA shots of the ash plume, courtesy of Twitter user @stefanthepilot.
