Travel Blog: News and Briefs
The Most Polite Cities in the World
by Michael Yessis | 06.28.06 | 6:30 AM ET
They’re New York, Zurich and Toronto, according to a survey in the July issue of Readers Digest. The least polite? Mumbai, Bucharest and Kuala Lumpur. The magazine arrived at its conclusions after a semi-scientific survey: It asked its reporters in major cities in the 35 different countries where it publishes to perform a series of tests.
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Yahoo! BuzzWorld Hum in the Wall Street Journal
by Jim Benning | 06.26.06 | 11:56 AM ET
Today’s Wall Street Journal kindly named World Hum one of the top travel weblogs around, generously noting: “Superb writing and stylish layout make visiting the site like cracking open a high-quality travel magazine.” Other sites making the list include NewYorkology, Lonely Planet’s Journeys blog and BootsnAll. Unfortunately, the story is available only to subscribers. However, another story in today’s Journal, available to everyone, notes that niche Web publications, when done well (say, with superb writing and a stylish layout, we’re thinking), can make great investments. Not that we’re suggesting any investors take an interest in World Hum or anything. That would be crazy.
Hanoi Embraces the Colonel
by Terry Ward | 06.26.06 | 6:50 AM ET
Last week, American fast-foot giant KFC opened its first outlet in Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi. It was a huge hit. “The line was so long Phan Huyen Trang, 26, had to wait 25 minutes for chicken, coleslaw and mashed potato and gravy,” according to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur report. “‘You have to wait for a longer time to have a KFC meal than to have pho,’ Trang complained, referring to the Vietnamese national dish of beef soup with rice noodles.”
Kiwis Sour on U.S., and it’s Getting Personal
by Jim Benning | 06.22.06 | 1:43 PM ET
And a bit ugly. According to a story in the Christian Science Monitor, a recent poll found that while 54 percent of Kiwis had positive feelings about the U.S. in 2001, only 29 percent of them feel that way today. Perhaps more surprising is that Americans in New Zealand are getting an earful. One American teacher on the North Island got so tired of verbal abuse from his students, he filed a complaint with the country’s Human Rights Commission.
Southwest Flight 1248 Pilots “Picked the Wrong Day to Stop Sniffin’ Glue”
by Michael Yessis | 06.22.06 | 1:03 PM ET
I love the movie Airplane! And I’m not above quoting it. But I’m not sure I want the pilot of my plane barking out lines from it while flying through bad weather. A snowstorm, say. Yet according to the partial transcript of Southwest Flight 1248—the flight that ran off a snowy runway at Chicago’s Midway Airport last December, killing a six-year-old boy—Capt. Bruce Sutherland and first officer Steven Oliver were yukking it up less than 15 minutes before the plane’s tragic accident.
Thai Monks Succumb to World Cup Hangovers
by Michael Yessis | 06.22.06 | 11:12 AM ET
Oh, those wild monks. The Nation newspaper in Thailand reports that they’ve been staying up all night watching World Cup matches, “causing them to skip their morning walk to beg for alms.” It’s not against the rules, says Phra Kru Sophonkaweewat, deputy abbot of Jedee Lung Wiharn Temple in Chiang Mai. “We allow them to watch some matches but they are prohibited from watching all of them and engaging in noisy cheering,” he said. “And no gambling is allowed.” Even though Thailand doesn’t have a team in the competition, the country is soccer mad and it has several connections to the tournament. All the game balls were made in a factory in Sri Racha, Chonburi province, and one Thai linesman is working the games in Germany. Check out stories in the International Herald Tribune/ThaiDay by World Hum contributor Newley Purnell.
Tom Bissell on Robert D. Kaplan and Travel Writing
by Jim Benning | 06.21.06 | 7:51 AM ET
Chasing the Sea author Tom Bissell doesn’t much care for the work of Robert D. Kaplan, the author of numerous books about travel and world affairs. In a new essay in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Bissell offers an extensive critique Kaplan’s work. He also has a few words for travel writers in general. “[T]he travel genre has much to answer for,” he writes.
Ballet for Bellhops
by Michael Yessis | 06.20.06 | 7:31 PM ET
Bellhops at Washington D.C.‘s Hotel Palomar are learning lessons in classical ballet in advance of the hotel’s September opening. “It’s a ... uh ... different experience,” bellboy-in-training Alvin Green tells the Washington Post’s Adriane Quinlan. It’s part of a trend by boutique hotels to develop themes other than “Hand over credit card, get key.”
Buford, “Heat” at the Post
by Michael Yessis | 06.20.06 | 11:53 AM ET
Foodie travelers can chat with Heat author Bill Buford today at 3 p.m. ET at the Washington Post. Before serving an apprenticeship with Mario Batali in the kitchen of his New York restaurant Babbo, Buford spent time in Italy studying to be a pasta maker and butcher. He chronicles it all in “Heat.” The book has received rave reviews from, among others, the Post, the Onion, Slate and the New York Times. The Los Angeles Times recently profiled Buford and recounted his unlikely journey from New Yorker editor to culinary student. Reported the Times: “[N]ot too many people would have walked out on his job at the New Yorker. Few would have traded such cachet—rubbing shoulders with writers and influencing the national literary conversation—for a set of perilous kitchen knives.” Buford told the newspaper: “These all turned out to be exhilarating experiences. Before this happened, I was on the outside looking in. But now I’m a participant. I feel like I’m part of a culinary tradition.”
How World Cup Losers Explain the World
by Michael Yessis | 06.19.06 | 11:11 AM ET
Serbia & Montenegro, Paraguay and Ivory Coast are already eliminated from the World Cup in Germany, and if Michael J. Agovino is right, the players will soon forget their losses. It may be a different story for the teams’ fans. In a piece for the New York Times this weekend, Agovino explores how losses in soccer’s biggest event, particularly upsets and losses to longtime rivals, can affect the way a country’s citizens feel about themselves and the way a nation presents itself to the world. He writes: “Famous upsets in sports abound ... but it is still soccer, by far the most popular sport, whose results are so entangled with a nation’s history and sense of identity.”
Bush, Koizumi Headed to Graceland
by Michael Yessis | 06.15.06 | 9:09 AM ET
The hair should have tipped me off. Turns out Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a huge Elvis Presley fan. How huge? “The 64-year-old PM is well known as the most serious Elvis disciple of today’s world leaders,” according to the Washington Post’s Reliable Source column. “He shares a birthday (Jan. 8) with the rock icon, and his brother once ran the Presley fan club’s Yokohama chapter. In 1987, he was one of the key players in erecting a bronze statue of Presley in Tokyo. He’s sung Elvis tunes poolside at [President] Bush’s Crawford ranch and dazzled Condi Rice with his knowledge of Elvis trivia at a G8 dinner. And in 2001, he released a 25-song compilation CD called ‘Junichiro Koizumi Presents: My Favorite Elvis Songs.’ It was sold only in Japan, and all proceeds went to charity.”
“What Color is Your Jockstrap? Funny Men and Women Write from the Road”
by Jim Benning | 06.14.06 | 5:52 PM ET
That’s the wacky title of Travelers’ Tales’ new humor collection, which hits stores this week. Edited by Jennifer Leo, the book features stories by writers familiar to readers of this site, including Frank Bures, Rolf Potts, Elliott Hester, Doug Lansky and yours truly. Other contributors include Tim Cahill, Susan Orlean and J. Maarten Troost. The book’s Web site features the introduction and author reading dates. I’ll be joining Jen Leo and contributors Sean Presant and Don Priess for a 7:30 p.m. reading at Distant Lands bookstore in Pasadena on Monday night, which should be good fun. If you’re in Southern California, stop by and say hi.
Anthony Bourdain on Travel, Vietnam and his “Graham Greene Worldview”
by Jim Benning | 06.14.06 | 4:59 PM ET
Bookslut has posted a terrific interview with the Ramones-loving chef, traveler and TV host. Among the highlights, Bourdain talks about his love of travel in Vietnam and what he calls his “Graham Greene worldview.” He said, “To me The Quiet American is a happy book. I read it every year. It nails Vietnam. It’s still there, that Vietnam. It’s a perfect metaphor, he loves a woman who can never fully love him back. It is a perfect metaphor for colonialism and Western adventurism in the East. I don’t care, I just want to be there.” Elsewhere, he remarked, “Vietnam in particular ruined my whole life. My expectations for what I see when I open my eyes in the morning, or even little things like the condiments on the table when I sit down.” Bourdain is the author of the new book, The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones.
Franklin Foer and Friends: A World Cup (and More) Blog
by Michael Yessis | 06.14.06 | 9:20 AM ET
There’s some wonderfully expansive World Cup coverage going on at the New Republic’s Goal Post blog. Franklin Foer, the editor of the magazine and author of How Soccer Explains the World, and his friends—“Nowhere Man” author Aleksandar Hemon and movie director Edward Zwick among them—are covering the tournament from all sorts of interesting angles. Yesterday afternoon, for instance, Kevin Arnovitz had a dispatch from Los Angeles, where South Korean fans spilled into the streets to celebrate their team’s victory, and Alex Massie posted about the potential media reaction if all the African teams lose their first-round matches.
The Rewards of le Big Mac
by Michael Yessis | 06.14.06 | 8:15 AM ET
Rolf Potts’ Traveling Light column about McDonald’s over at Yahoo! has stirred up much conversation in the last few days. That’s what happens, I guess, when you tout the virtues of eating at the Golden Arches while traveling abroad. “Look closely ... and you’ll discover that (despite their placeless ambience) the McDonald’s in far-flung places are culturally discernible from the McDonald’s you’ll find in Modesto or Milwaukee,” he writes. “In India, for example, a McDonald’s serves chicken Maharaja Macs’ instead of Big Macs (due to Hindu and Muslim taboos against beef and pork), and a door-greeter is often available to assist the middle-class clientele. Moreover, as any Pulp Fiction fan will note, Paris McDonald’s offer the option of ordering a frothy beer with le Big Mac.”
