Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Napa Valley, California
by Ben Keene | 08.04.06 | 3:35 PM ET
Coordinates: 38 30 N 122 20 W
Area: 754 square miles (1,953 sq. km)
Bavarian beer baths are fine for some, but the more sophisticated may prefer a Chardonnay massage—a truly intoxicating way to de-stress. Popular among the Parisian upper class in the 18th century, the
long relaxing soak in a barrel of wine once thought to reduce the effects of aging has now become an exfoliating rub-down in the 21st. And California’s Napa Valley, famous for its Mediterranean climate and abundance of wineries (roughly 300), happens to be one of the few places where such a spirited spa treatment can be found. A narrow valley that stretches almost from Mount Saint Helena to San Pablo Bay, Napa Valley actually produces only about 5 percent of California’s total wine.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
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Yahoo! BuzzJapanese Theme Parks Offer an “Abridged Grand Tour For the Fast-Food Generation”
by Michael Yessis | 08.04.06 | 3:02 AM ET
One of the highlights of a trip I took to Japan a few years ago was a visit to Spa World, an eight-story resort located in the Shin-Sekai section of Osaka that aims to transport its visitors to far-off countries and continents and, sometimes, back through time via re-creations of spa and bathing experiences from around the globe. Like the smiling mechanical crabs I saw hanging on restaurant walls and the “Three Minutes Happiness” store I visited, I chalked it up as just another piece of Japanese kitsch. Earlier this week, though, the New York Times added some perspective with an interesting story about the country’s penchant for building meticulous theme-park re-creations of other countries, including the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. “These parks, some of which cost as much as $2.5 billion to build, are by and large a product of Japan’s ‘bubble economy’ of the 1980’s, a response to the newfound interest in travel that was spawned during this period of frenzied economic growth,” writes Katie Kitamura. “Many opened shortly after the 1990 crash of the Japanese economy.”
De-Politicizing the French Fry
by Terry Ward | 08.03.06 | 9:48 PM ET
Francophile that I am, I was glad to hear a short snippet on the NBC Nightly News yesterday evening mentioning a menu change on Capitol Hill. “Freedom fries” and “freedom toast”—so dubbed on congressional cafeteria menus when tensions rose between Washington and Paris during the looming invasion of Iraq in 2003—have quietly reverted to their original monikers, French fries and French toast. A USA Today blog noted that, back in 2003, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, angry about France’s anti-war position, “wielded his legislative authority over the House cafeterias and mandated a change of menu, which had been suggested by Republican colleague Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina.” The blog goes on to say that there are no official comments from the hill on the decision to re-Frenchify the names.
In Cuba, ‘Fidel Has Always Felt Revulsion Toward Tourism’
by Michael Yessis | 08.02.06 | 6:40 AM ET
With word coming out of Cuba that Fidel Castro has temporarily handed his presidential powers to his brother Raul, American travelers who’ve long wanted to visit Cuba legally may be wondering whether that day is now on the horizon. It’s obviously too soon to say, but for now, they can find a terrific glimpse inside present-day Cuba in the July 24 issue of the New Yorker. The well-timed story by Jon Lee Anderson, written before the latest news story broke, focuses on how the rest of Fidel’s reign might play out.
World Hum’s Most Read Stories: July 2006
by Michael Yessis | 08.01.06 | 6:42 AM ET
Our 10 most popular stories posted last month:
1) Anthony Bourdain in Beirut
2) The Crown Princess, The Norovirus and Titanic
3) Zidane and the Head Butt Debated Around the World
4) Anthony Bourdain Evacuated from Beirut
5) Bali’s Bargaining Ballet
6) The Sound of Sunshine
7) How to Find Good Gelato in Italy
8) Reading Rushdie in India
9) Vanuatu Tops “Happy Planet Index”
10) Thomas Pynchon: Travel Writer?
Bourdain in Salon: “Watching Beirut Die”
by Michael Yessis | 07.29.06 | 12:04 PM ET
On Wednesday, Anthony Bourdain fielded questions at the Washington Post about his recent experience in Lebanon—he was filming his Travel Channel show “No Reservations” when the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began. Friday, he wrote a terrific essay about it for Salon. “It’s not what I saw happen in Beirut that I feel like talking about, though that’s what I’m doing, isn’t it?” he writes. “It’s not about what happened to me that remains an unfinished show, a not fully fleshed out story, or even a particularly interesting one. It feels shameful even writing this. It’s the story I didn’t get to tell. The Beirut I saw for two short days. The possibilities. The hope. Now only a dream.” Bourdain’s story has stimulated a flood of letters from Salon readers.
‘What Happens Here, Stays Here’: The Dark Side of Las Vegas’s Tourism Slogan
by Michael Yessis | 07.28.06 | 10:41 AM ET
Here’s what happens when some people start taking Las Vegas’s ad slogan—“What Happens Here, Stays Here”—a little too seriously: First, they arrive in Las Vegas and do things they never do at home, often involving too much alcohol, too little judgment and an alibi provided by the official Las Vegas Alibi Generator 2.0. Sometimes what they do in Vegas also happens to be dangerous and possibly illegal, and that captures the attention of the Las Vegas Police Department. And that prompts the local Las Vegas NBC affiliate to run a sensational local news story asking, Is the Vegas slogan causing problems for police? The answer? Well, maybe, but we don’t want to kill the golden goose.
Airport Gift Shops Feel the Sudoku Effect
by Michael Yessis | 07.27.06 | 12:27 PM ET
In the course of reporting a story about hot sellers at various airport gift shops, Harriet Baskas came across a bit of a mystery. She writes in her On the Road column for USA Today: “[T]he folks at the Hudson Group, which operates news and gift shops at airports nationwide, noticed that an unusual item was being increasingly re-ordered by newsstands. The Hudson Group’s Laura Samuels says, ‘We had plenty of pencils in storage, but noticed that the general managers kept re-ordering mechanical pencils. On closer study we realized this was a byproduct of the Sudoku craze.’ Travelers working on these extremely popular grid-based puzzles need sharp pencils and good erasers. Pencil sharpeners aren’t a common airport amenity, so savvy Sudoku players have transformed an old-fashioned writing implement into an airport bestseller.”
Life Abroad in the U.S. Foreign Service
by Michael Yessis | 07.27.06 | 11:40 AM ET
National Public Radio’s Morning Edition had an interesting two-part series this week on what life is like for American Foreign Service workers these days, at a time when anti-American feelings are so pervasive. “More and more, diplomats are assigned to serve in countries that are too dangerous for their families,” reports Megan Meline, a Foreign Service spouse whose husband has served in Dar es Salaam and Manila. “There are about 700 of these unaccompanied positions, in places such as Kabul and Bujumbura, Burundi.”
Reminder to Voodoo Practitioners: Please Keep the Human Skulls Out of Your Carry-On Bags
by Ben Keene | 07.27.06 | 11:20 AM ET
Airline travel sure isn’t what it used to be. As we’ve posted in the past, many carriers have reduced the niceties on long distance flights in an effort to cut costs in an increasingly competitive business. These changes may not bother all travelers, but after a U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale ruled against well-intentioned individuals packing human skulls with their other luggage last week, you have to wonder what comfort will be the next to go. Back in February, Myrlene Severe, a Haitian woman and practitioner of Voodoo, brought a head with her from Cap Haitien to the United States to ensure a safe arrival. Judge James I. Cohn saw things differently. “All of us has something unusual in our religions,” her lawyer said during her trial. In our religions, perhaps, but in our suitcases no longer.
Bourdain: “I’m Feeling a Little Pessimistic About the World These Days”
by Jim Benning | 07.26.06 | 12:40 PM ET
Globe-trotting, show-hosting chef Anthony Bourdain, back safely from Lebanon (where he was filming a Travel Channel show when the conflict began) fielded questions online this morning from Washington Post readers. Asked if a No Reservations episode was in the works based on the trip, he replied: “We’re trying to figure some way to show how beautiful and hopeful Beirut was before the bombing, how terrible a thing it is that happened, what we’ve lost, the pride and hopefulness and optimism that was smashed…It will not be a regular episode of No Reservations.”
Princess Cruises: Human Error Caused Listing Accident
by Jim Benning | 07.26.06 | 11:43 AM ET
As we noted here, the Crown Princess departing from Port Canaveral, Florida last week listed suddenly, injuring hundreds of passengers. On Monday, the cruise company published a letter apologizing for the accident: “[W]e can confirm that the incident was due to human error and the appropriate personnel changes have been made.”
GQ: Literary Travel, Elizabeth Gilbert in France and How Not to Look Like an American Abroad
by Michael Yessis | 07.26.06 | 10:26 AM ET
In its August issue GQ devotes 14 glossy pages to interesting travel stories, including three pages to “The Traveling Library,” which features a black-and-white photo of a sexy woman reading a book and a round-up of eight novels and memoirs that capture “what you’ve come looking for” in a destination. Among the recommended books and places are: Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi (Greece), George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia (Barcelona), A.J. Liebling’s Between Meals (Paris) and Jan Morris’s The World of Venice. Walter Kirn also picks three books to read when you hit the highway—Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim Thompson’s The Getaway and Charles Portis’s The Dog of the South. The story itself isn’t available online, though, of course, the photo of the sexy woman is. So are some online-only additions to the piece, including Geoff Dyer’s pick for India: V. S. Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness.
Can Microjets Save Us From Being Alone?
by Michael Yessis | 07.24.06 | 7:45 AM ET
Walter Kirn has some serious issues with modern air travel. “A passenger on a great commercial airline is like the subject of a tyrant who rules through humiliation and conflict,” he writes in an interesting essay called Flying Alone in Sunday’s New York Times magazine. “Resources are kept perpetually scarce, while the procedures for obtaining them (achieving ‘platinum status,’ for example) are kept infernally confusing. Even the architecture of airliners seems designed to encourage sullen withdrawal. The seats not only don’t face each other; they recline in the fashion of falling dominos, creating a chain reaction of resentment every time someone up front decides to stretch. And the windows aren’t windows. They’re demoralizing peepholes, reminding the flier that there’s a world out there from which he is, for the moment, wholly cut off.” Kirn makes his points in the context of arguing that modern air travel has become socially isolating and that “a sense of debilitating entrapment” pervades. I don’t completely agree with his characterization—the thrill of travel still outweighs my sense of isolation and entrapment—but I think he makes some interesting points.
Thomas Pynchon: Travel Writer?
by Michael Yessis | 07.24.06 | 6:59 AM ET
“Against the Day,” the first Thomas Pynchon book since Mason & Dixon in 1997, will be released in December, according to the AP and other press reports. It’s a novel, but from a description allegedly written by Pynchon himself that appears on Amazon.com, it sounds like it could be a hell of a travel book. From the promo blurb: “Spanning the period between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.” And he covers all that ground in a mere 992 pages.
