Travel Blog: News and Briefs
What We Loved This Week: Cat Cafes, Robert Service and ‘Transsiberian’
by World Hum | 07.17.09 | 4:02 PM ET
Photo by Lisa Gay Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Eva Holland
I visited the Robert Service Cabin in Dawson City, Yukon, last weekend—it’s a two-room log house where Service lived for three years writing poetry, now maintained as part of a National Historic Site—and I loved seeing an enthusiastic performer tell us about the life and work of the “Bard of the Yukon.” Here’s one of the poems I heard during the performance: Goodbye, Little Cabin, a farewell verse Service wrote before leaving Dawson for good in 1912, to serve as a war correspondent in Europe.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
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.”
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?”
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.
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.”
Pet Airways Begins Flights for Pampered Animals; Humans Still Out of Luck
by Alicia Imbody | 07.15.09 | 12:41 PM ET
Beginning today, Florida-based Pet Airways will fly your critters to and from New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. The new airline promises that pets will be constantly attended to and treated as first-class “pawsengers,” with rates for one-way flights—for Fido only; you’ll have to book on a regular carrier—starting at $149. Representatives are confident that the high prices are well worth it, offering peace of mind against the “severe emotional and physical harm, even death” that can befall your pet traveling in the cargo hold on human-centric flights.
The airline has even started a blog featuring everything from the latest in-flight pet news to expert tips on keeping fit with your dog on the road.
Pedaling Through New York’s Neighborhoods
by Eva Holland | 07.15.09 | 9:47 AM ET
Good news for travelers on two wheels: New York City’s planning department has launched a series of cycling guides to lesser-visited areas of the five boroughs. The Times’ J. David Goodman took the first installment, “Queens Around the World,” for a test drive, and apart from a few logistical hitches he gives it a positive review. He wrote of his trip through Flushing, Corona and Jackson Heights: “Cruising this route by bike reveals how each community bleeds into the next, and does so at a speed that is quick enough to show the juxtapositions, but not so fast that each is lost in a blur.”
A guide to the Bronx is due out next.
AirTran Presents ‘Internetiquette’
by Eva Holland | 07.14.09 | 4:29 PM ET
As we’ve noted, AirTran has been leading the charge on in-flight Wi-Fi service—and now it’s pioneering in-flight internet protocol too. The airline’s new seat pocket guide, “Internetiquette: A Guide to Keeping Everyone in Line, While They’re Online,” is no dry list of rules, either. Take, for instance, Tip #10 on personal photo galleries:
SFF, or Suitable For Flights: family vacation photos, graduation photos, birthday party photos.
NSFF, or Not Suitable For Flights: the photos from Vegas. You know the ones.
Sometimes humor can be the best way to get a point across. Here’s hoping AirTran’s passengers take note, and that e-card jingles and musical MySpace pages are kept to a minimum on future wired flights.
Photo We Love: On the Rocks in Shanghai
by World Hum | 07.14.09 | 3:00 PM ET
REUTERS/Stringer A worker walks on the bank of Huangpu River. Shanghai is getting a citywide facelift in advance of the 2010 World Expo.
