Travel Blog: News and Briefs
The Jekyll & Hyde B&B: What They’re Saying on TripAdvisor
by Michael Yessis | 11.20.06 | 9:00 AM ET
The “charming basement laboratory” is “cute!”, but beware of the limping, slurring innkeeper. World Hum contributor Kate Hahn has a funny rundown of what faux TripAdvisor members are saying about the Jekyll & Hyde B&B in her latest piece for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzThe Critics: ‘Walt Disney’ by Neal Gabler
by Jim Benning | 11.20.06 | 8:15 AM ET
If the world is slowly but surely becoming one giant theme park, as we often suspect, then Walt Disney is that future world’s founding father. So we think it’s worth pointing out a new biography of Disney by Neal Gabler, the media critic who wrote the terrific book Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality. The New York Times’ Michiko Kakutani recently reviewed Gabler’s Disney biography, observing that Disney has long been derided by critics as “a purveyor of the synthetic, the sanitized, the puerile and the cloyingly cute,” but that recent critiques have been more favorable. Gabler’s book would seem to fall in the latter camp. Indeed, according to the book’s publisher, Gabler is “the first writer to be given complete access to the Disney archives.”
Nigeria’s Airplane House: “Very Strange, but Nice. Very Nice.”
by Michael Yessis | 11.20.06 | 7:50 AM ET
Liza Jammal had a vision for an airplane house long before “Monster House” took on the task. Jammal lives in Abuja, Nigeria, with her husband Said, and, according to Craig Timberg’s story in the Washington Post this weekend, in 1980 she asked her new husband to build her a house in the shape of an airplane to symbolize her love of travel. In the flush of young love, Timberg writes, he agreed.
Cruising: A Dreaded Norovirus Strikes Again
by Jim Benning | 11.19.06 | 10:32 AM ET
That’s what experts believe sickened more than 500 passengers aboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ Liberty ship, which docked in Fort Lauderdale today after 16 days at sea. The Sun-Sentinel paints a grim picture of the scene on the ship: “Anti-viral agents were repeatedly sprayed all over the ship and passengers said a medicinal spell lingered everywhere. Passengers told of three dozen people waiting in line for the infirmary to open every morning.” The story mentions that many cruise industry officials believe norovirus outbreaks at sea “get unfair attention because a CDC study found only 10 percent of the 232 outbreaks investigated from 1997 to 2000 were on ships or vacation settings. The rest took place in restaurants, nursing homes and schools.” Unfair attention? They get more coverage because victims are, uh, stuck on a ship.
Holiday Air Travel Carry-On Primer*
by Jim Benning | 11.17.06 | 12:42 PM ET
The Seattle P-I offers a quick look at the latest rules. It answers the vexing question normally reserved for graduate seminars in contemporary TSA regulations: Can you carry on a 6-ounce toothpaste tube with 3 ounces of toothpaste left in it?
*Add: Washington Post on the latest carry-on rules in Europe.
Gifts for the Traveler: Photo Books
by Jim Benning | 11.17.06 | 11:31 AM ET
‘Tis the season when intriguing travel-related photo books hit bookstores, offering travelers a raft of gift ideas. We already noted the recent release of Middle of Nowhere, Lonely Planet’s celebration of picturesque, far flung places. Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Regan McMahon suggested several other intriguing titles. For starters, McMahon noted Hans Kemp’s Bikes of Burden, featuring photos of motorbikes pressed into delivery work in Vietnam. “In each sharp color photo, one can barely see the rider as items from ducks to hula hoops to fish to wooden cabinets to topiary are piled high on the two-wheeled vehicles,” McMahon writes. “My favorite: a shot from behind of a towering stack of live fish floating, one each, in water-filled, gallon-size baggies, with the driver completely obscured.”
Seven New Wonders of the World Fever: Catch It
by Jim Benning | 11.16.06 | 7:36 PM ET
Yesterday, we noted USA Today’s list of Seven New Wonders of the World, and we briefly mentioned another list of Seven Wonders in the works. Today, CNN.com published a story about that other list, and according to the report, it’s generating loads of interest. More than 20 million people so far have cast votes for their favorite wonders in a global competition started in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. A panel of architectural experts, including former UNESCO chief Federico Mayor, helped narrow down the nominations to 21 sites, from Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China (pictured) and Turkey’s Hagia Sofia to Petra, the Statue of Liberty and the Eifel Tower. The public can vote until July 6, 2007. The winners will be named the next day.
USA Today’s Seven New Wonders of the World
by Jim Benning | 11.15.06 | 4:00 PM ET
Photo courtesy of freestockphotos.com.
The newspaper, along with “Good Morning America,” recently consulted six panelists, from an astrophysicist to travel writer Pico Iyer, to update the Seven Wonders of the World. The news organizations are now revealing the wonders—one each weekday—through Friday. Making the list are Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet (“they form a dramatic double act of spiritual power, architectural splendor and faith enduring against all odds”); Old City, Jerusalem (“for its central place in religious history and struggles for tolerance”); the Polar ice caps (“it is becoming increasingly clear that the mind-blowing expanses of frozen water at the top and bottom of Earth hold the key to the future of life as we know it”); and Hawaiian Marine Monument in the Pacific (“It is the largest protected area on the planet”). Today, the newspaper added the Internet to the list, and World Hum’s own Michael Yessis, who also happens to be an editor at USA Today, explained the unorthodox choice.
L.A. Comic vs. the Transportation Security Administration
by Jim Benning | 11.15.06 | 2:25 PM ET
Oh TSA, why do you seem to torment so many travelers, even funny people? U.S. Army veteran Tom Irwin, who performs the one-man stage show 25 Days in Iraq, had little trouble getting cleared to visit the White House last summer. But somehow, he wound up on the TSA’s security radar. As a result, the Los Angeles Times reports today, Irwin has had a tough time checking in for flights, encountering one mysterious and frustrating delay after another.
Borat and the ‘Real Kazakhstan’
by Jim Benning | 11.14.06 | 8:55 PM ET
What do real Kazakhs make of Borat, the faux journalist claiming to be from Kazakhstan? “Those few Kazakhs who are aware of him are mainly from better-off families who can watch MTV (where Borat infamously hosted the 2005 Europe Music Awards),” writes John Noble on Lonely Planet. “Many people here realise that Sacha Baron Cohen’s target, through Borat, is not really Kazakhstan but prejudice wherever it occurs, and may feel that their government’s steps to counter Borat (such as revoking Cohen’s right to use the .kz website domain) have been unnecessary. But few feel that his insults to their country can be ignored indefinitely.”
MTV, Like, Enters the Travel Guidebook Biz
by Jim Benning | 11.14.06 | 3:11 PM ET
The network has teamed with Frommer’s to produce guidebooks aimed at young budget travelers, according to an AP report. MTV Italy and MTV Ireland are the first books published in the series, with additional Europe titles due out over the next year. “The ‘best of’ recommendations in ‘MTV Italy’ include ‘most awesome ancient ruins’ like the Colosseum and Roman Forum, best seen, according to the guide, after dark when the floodlights come on,” the story reports. “Best churches, according to ‘MTV Italy,’ are St. Peter’s Basilica, the Duomo in Florence and St. Mark’s Basilica.” We’re all for any books that can inspire young Americans to head overseas for the first time. MTV guidebook readers will no doubt discover that Europe is packed with fly hostel-cribs, seriously awesome ruins and people as beautiful as those in Laguna Beach—I mean, on “Laguna Beach.”
Who Wears the Pants on Alitalia Flights?
by Jim Benning | 11.13.06 | 4:16 PM ET
Soon—for the first time ever—female flight attendants. From an AP report on USAToday.com: “Alitalia’s female flight attendants will be allowed to swap their traditional skirts for trousers, breaking with half a century of rigid dress code at Italy’s flagship carrier, a union said Thursday.”
‘This is Lagos’: George Packer in Nigeria’s Megacity*
by Michael Yessis | 11.13.06 | 10:43 AM ET
By 2015, George Packer reports in an amazing and heartbreaking story about Lagos, Nigeria, in the Nov. 13 issue of the New Yorker, the country’s former capital will rank as the third-largest city in the world, behind Tokyo and Bombay, with 23 million inhabitants. Right now it’s the sixth largest and has 15 million residents, who live mostly in squalor. Packer writes: “It’s hard to decide if the extravagant ugliness of the cityscape is a sign of vigor or of disease—a life force or an impending apocalypse.” As the city struggles to fight off the latter, Packer explores its slums and how Lagos is now “a hip icon of the latest global trends, the much studied megalopolis of the future.” Unfortunately, the story is not available online. However, Packer did recently speak about Lagos on NPR’s Day to Day.
* Update: The story is now online.
Wallpaper City Guides: Stylish, Unconventional Looks Inside Great Cities
by Frank Bures | 11.10.06 | 1:05 PM ET
It’s not often that a publisher churns out a new guidebook worth mentioning. But the design and travel magazine Wallpaper has just come out with some beautiful little guides highlighting stylish sides of a wide range of cities, from Bangkok to Barcelona and Singapore to Stockholm. Each guide includes photos that feel real yet also alluring (in other words, no mundane close-ups of vegetables and market women). Each book has a 24-hour guide, an “Urban Life” section, an “Architour” and a few other unique features.
The Rise of the Procreation Vacation (Complete with Sea Moss!)
by Jim Benning | 11.08.06 | 1:40 PM ET
We’ve reported on the growth of dental tourism, among other offbeat vacation trends. Now comes word of the growing popularity of “procreation vacations” undertaken by couples on a quest to get pregnant. An AP story notes a range of options, including the three-day Procreation Vacation on Grand Bahama Island, where guests sip sea moss to boost their chances; the Birds and the Bees package on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland (think oysters and massages); and the Procreation Ski Vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which includes romantic crackling fires. The trips sound like good fun, but do they actually help?
