Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Dining With NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli at Le Train Bleu in Paris
by Joanna Kakissis | 12.04.07 | 5:21 PM ET
For months now, NPR’s correspondents have been tempting devoted foodies like me with delicious reviews of noteworthy restaurants, bistros and cafes around the world. Among other things, they’ve sampled creamy orange hot chocolate in Berlin, camel’s milk desserts in Nairobi and blue corn quesadillas with zucchini flowers in Mexico City. The latest dispatch comes from senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli, who sampled pan-fried shrimp with red onions and fresh coriander, spiced pumpkin soup with mushrooms and a dessert of oranges, yellow and black carrots and yuzu sorbet at Le Train Bleu in Paris.
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Yahoo! BuzzAll Hail ‘The Burrito King of Argentina’
by Jim Benning | 12.03.07 | 10:43 AM ET
In our ongoing quest to chronicle the spread of Mexican food —Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex, you name it—around the globe, we note the rise of the humble burrito in Buenos Aires. At The California Burrito Company, which was co-founded by a 24-year-old expat from California, eating instructions are posted on the wall: “Pull back the foil wrap as you consume the burrito.” There’s even talk of expanding to Montevideo.
Photo by rick via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Ryanair, European Parliament in War of Words Over Green Travel
by Eva Holland | 12.03.07 | 9:47 AM ET
The rhetoric was cranked up a notch late last week in the ongoing debate over air travel and climate change. The Times of London reports that Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the Ireland-based European budget carrier Ryanair, has demanded an apology and a retraction from a British MEP (Member of European Parliament) who accused him of neglecting the climate change issue. Chris Davies, MEP for north western England, had stated in a debate that O’Leary “says that he does not give a toss for the environment so long as he can stuff his pockets and those of his company full of gold.”
World Hum’s Most Read: November 2007
by Michael Yessis | 12.03.07 | 9:43 AM ET
Our 10 most popular stories posted last month:
1) Can I Have Meaningful Experiences Abroad if I Don’t Speak the Language?
2) ‘Elderly White Women’ Look to Kenya for Sex Tourism
3) How To: Wear a Sari in India (pictured)
4) Top 10 Foreign Cities for Americans to Get Arrested
5) Air Traffic Controller to United Pilot: ‘Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!’
6) A Vagabond Finds a Home
7) From Tonga to Texas, Doing the Haka
8) No Direction Home
9) Controversial Hawaii Superferry to Resume Operations
10) Saudi Billionaire Buys First Private Superjumbo A380
Photo: AP.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Food for Thought
by Michael Yessis | 11.30.07 | 2:45 PM ET
Another Hot American on Television Botches a Geography Question
by Michael Yessis | 11.30.07 | 1:49 PM ET
We may have a new travel trend here. At the very least, we’ve got ourselves a new World Hum travel blog category: Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions. First came Miss Teen South Carolina. This time around it’s American Idol’s Kellie Pickler, who appeared as a contestant on the U.S. television game show, “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” The answer, as you will see, seems clear.
In Thailand, Pink is the New Black
by Jim Benning | 11.30.07 | 12:39 PM ET
Seriously. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who traditionally has worn dark colors, was recently spotted wearing a pink shirt, and that has prompted a run on pink shirts in the country. Reports the BBC: “Thais have been queuing in their hundreds” for shirts like the one pictured, and the “Phufa fashion chain said it had sold 40,000 pink shirts this month.” No word on whether backpackers in Thailand will trade in their ubiquitous Southeast Asian Red Bull T-shirts for something in pink. I hope so.
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Scientists Unveil High-Def Map of Antarctica
by Jim Benning | 11.30.07 | 12:13 PM ET
Antarctica fans, and perhaps a few cruise ship captains, might want to check this out. U.S. and British researchers unveiled a new high-definition view of Antarctica this week, piecing together more than 1,000 Landsat satellite images and, according to NASA, creating “the most geographically accurate, true-color, high-resolution views of Antarctica possible.” Thanks for the tip, Ben.
Rock Stars in Hotels: ‘Whatever Happened to the Good Old Days?’
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.29.07 | 12:21 PM ET
Trashing a hotel room like a wild animal is so 1990s. Today’s rock stars want the same things many of us want in a hotel—clean and quiet rooms without intruding housekeepers, high-speed Internet access, an in-hotel gym and maybe some San Pellegrino in the mini-bar, writes David Browne in The New York Times. “These guys want to go back to their rooms and have peace and quiet,” Jennifer Chiara, a travel agent who works with musicians, tells Browne. “Gone are the days of people riding a motorcycle down the hallway.”
China’s Theme Parks Look West
by Julia Ross | 11.28.07 | 12:49 PM ET
Call it Interlaken East. Just outside China’s coastal boomtown, Shenzhen—a city better known for shark’s fin soup than grilled bratwurst—a meticulously duplicated Swiss Alpine amusement park is attracting middle class Chinese looking for a vicarious European vacation. In a story on the rising popularity of Western-themed amusement parks in China, Time magazine reports that the Shenzhen project, called OCT East, spared no effort in recreating a Swiss village (the real Interlaken is pictured): “Last summer, an Alpine songfest brought yodelers. A wooden Christian chapel sits above a Swiss clock made from flowers. You can tour the whole property aboard an antique railroad that circles it, or view it from the highest summit—some 50 feet high—before plunging down the slope on the gondola-cum-roller coaster.”
Slide Show: ‘A History of the Hotel’
by Michael Yessis | 11.28.07 | 10:21 AM ET
Photo of the Las Vegas Hilton by Markyboy81, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Modern hotels trace their history to early America, and Slate currently has a terrific slide show from A.K. Sandoval-Strausz depicting just how the country built and shaped them. “The hospitality industry is one of the fastest-growing segments of the international economy,” Sandoval-Strausz writes. “So it is easy to forget that the hotel, as we know it today, was once a new invention, an experiment that initially met with failure and endured periods of slow, halting development.”
Beyond The Nuclear Family: Single Parent Holidays On Offer
by Eva Holland | 11.28.07 | 9:37 AM ET
We all know how tough it can be traveling with kids, and these days it only seems to be getting tougher. But how about trying it without a co-pilot? In an article in the Times of London, Jane Owen lists non-profit organizations and travel agencies that offer custom-designed holidays, discounts or other opportunities to single parents and their children. The offerings range from ways to dodge single room supplements to full-on group holidays, where the theory is “that if single parent families eat together and play together, the parents will be more relaxed and the children will have more fun.”
New Travel Book: ‘Children of Jihad
by Julia Ross | 11.27.07 | 12:14 PM ET
Full title: “Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East”
Author: Jared Cohen, U.S. State Department policy planner and 25-year-old second-time author
Released: Oct. 25, 2007
Travel genre: Travel memoir, cultural commentary
Territory covered: Internet cafes and house parties from Beirut to Tehran
U.N.: Iceland Rocks. Sub-Saharan Africa? Not so Much.
by Jim Benning | 11.27.07 | 11:57 AM ET
Reports Reuters on the United Nations’ annual Human Development Index report: “Norway had held top spot for six years but was edged into second place by Iceland this year because of new life expectancy estimates and updated figures for gross domestic product.” Australia, Canada and Ireland rounded out the top five. The U.S. is 12th. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst place to live, according to the rankings, and worst of all is Sierra Leone.
Disney vs. Denver vs. Chicago
by Michael Yessis | 11.27.07 | 10:53 AM ET
My return flight from Ireland landed at Dulles International Airport late Sunday afternoon, giving me a first-hand opportunity to see how the Disney-produced, U.S. government video to promote travel to the U.S., Welcome: Portraits of America, was being presented and received. I was amused, albeit probably not in the intended way.
