Travel Blog: News and Briefs
World Hum’s Most Read: September 2007
by World Hum | 10.01.07 | 10:41 AM ET
Our 10 most popular stories posted last month:
1) Southwest Airlines Veers Into Fashion Controversy—Again
2) We Don’t (Really) Know Jack
3) Nine Great Ways to Get Thrown Off an Airplane
4) ‘Girls of Riyadh’: Saudi Arabia’s ‘Sex and the City’?
5) The Critics: ‘Into the Wild,’ the Movie
6) How To Road Trip Like Kerouac (and Stay Out of Trouble)
7) Given the Weak Dollar Overseas, Any Tips on Long-Term Travel?
8) Seven Travel Rules From a Brooding Teenager (pictured)
9) The Crackdown in Burma: One Chilling Photo
10) Dollar Sinks to Record Low in Europe
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Yahoo! BuzzThe World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Of Passport Rules and Falling Leaves
by Michael Yessis | 09.28.07 | 5:11 PM ET
With the arrival of fall, travelers are planning leaf-centered sojourns and leafing through their passports to make sure they’re still valid. But that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about Burma. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Starting Monday, New Passport Requirements Kick In
* If you’re a U.S. airline passenger headed to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean or Bermuda, you’ll need your little blue book—again
Most Read Feature
World Hum (posted this week)
Gwendolyn Oxenham and Ryan White: ‘The Soccer Project’
Most Read Blog Post
World Hum (posted this week)
The Critics: ‘Into the Wild,’ the Movie
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Down East in Maine, by the Pint or the Vat
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
The Hunt for Red October: Prime Spots to View Fall Foliage
* Great Smoky Mountains National Park makes the cut, and rightly so
“Hot This Week” Destination
Yahoo! (this week)
Santa Monica, California
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
TripIt
President Bush: Passenger Strandings ‘Just Not Right’
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.07 | 6:45 PM ET
The issue of airline passenger strandings now has the attention of the White House. According to the AP, President George W. Bush said today that “endless hours sitting in an airplane on a runway with no communication between a pilot and the airport is just not right,” and he asked Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to meet with airlines to try to solve the problem.
Islamabad’s New Art Gallery: 28 Years in the Making
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.27.07 | 12:36 PM ET
Built in the 1960s, Islamabad is known for being clean, planned and, well, a little sterile—at least compared to the rest of colorful, crowded and unpredictable Pakistan. But the arrival of the National Art Gallery—which opened last month after 28 years of planning and construction—may liven up the capital, writes Carlotta Gall in The New York Times. Interestingly, the half-completed building was neglected for nearly a decade, until none other than Gen. Pervez Musharraf himself moved his offices into the neighborhood. Apparently he grew tired of looking at the thing and one day said, “What can you do with this eyesore?”
DOT Inspector General Urges Airlines, Airports to Fight ‘Strandings’
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.07 | 11:49 AM ET
Passengers’ rights advocates have kept their goals, including securing a minimum amount of time air travelers can be stuck on planes, in the news lately with a splashy publicity campaign. Congress has responded with legislation. Now the Department of Transportation’s inspector general has weighed in with a report recommending that “airlines, airports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and DOT must work together to reduce long, on-board delays and minimize the impact on passengers when these delays occur.” USA Today called it a “tough report,” but Paul Hudson of the Ralph Nader-affiliated Aviation Consumer Action Project said “the recommendations are as weak-to-nonexistent as ever,” according to the New York Times. “There is no mention of the word ‘rights.’”
Related on World Hum:
* Audio slide show: Stranded at the National Mall
* Kate Hanni: ‘The Ralph Nader of the Skies’
Photo of planes at JFK by stephenhanafin, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Cell Phones to the Rescue After Memphis Radar Snafu
by Terry Ward | 09.26.07 | 2:15 PM ET
We may not be allowed to use our cell phones in flight yet, but personal phones certainly came in handy during a harrowing air traffic control crisis in Memphis yesterday. CNN reports that air traffic controllers were forced to use their cell phones to reroute hundreds of flights when the local FAA center in Memphis lost radar and phone service for more than two hours.
The World’s Vanishing Languages
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.26.07 | 1:38 PM ET
One of the wonders of traveling is encountering all kinds of languages, especially ancient tribal tongues that have endured the ravages of colonization and globalization. But researchers at the Enduring Voices Project say indigenous languages are dying at an alarming rate of one every two weeks. That means that at least half half of the 7,000 languages spoken today could disappear in 20 years, John Noble Wilford reports in the New York Times.
John Grisham’s New Novel ‘Playing for Pizza’ Just an Excuse to Visit Italy
by Michael Yessis | 09.26.07 | 11:52 AM ET
I guess I can’t blame John Grisham for being able to turn his vacation to an inevitable bestseller. I just wish he weren’t so smug about it. On The Today Show, Grisham straight-up admitted that Playing for Pizza, his new novel about a washed-up NFL football quarterback who moves to Parma, Italy to play for an American-style football team there, provided him an excuse to visit Italy. Matt Lauer asked:
From Sufjan to ‘Nashville Skyline’: Two Takes on a Road Trip Soundtrack
by Eva Holland | 09.26.07 | 8:52 AM ET
And the Kerouac anniversary celebration lingers. In honor of the 50th birthday of “On the Road,” the Guardian’s Laura Barton put together a 50-song list of must-listen road trip tracks, one for each American state. It’s an eclectic selection—everyone from Sufjan Stevens to Aerosmith to Loretta Lynn is represented—and it’s stirring up a lot of (mostly civilized) debate on the story’s comment pages. I can’t see how she skipped over “Georgia On My Mind” or “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” but for the most part I was impressed by the list’s range and creativity. Perry Como’s “Delaware”? Who knew?
Six New Nonstop U.S.-China Flight Routes Awarded
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.07 | 4:13 PM ET
The six so-called U.S. legacy airlines—Delta, United, US Airways, Continental, American and Northwest—received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin flying new routes to China. U.S.-China routes are regulated by a bilateral agreement, and the two countries recently agreed to open up more routes, according to USA Today’s Ben Mutzabaugh. It’s yet another sign of China’s growing stature among travelers.
Related on World Hum:
* China Faces Pilot Shortage
* Driving the Silk Road—in a New $7,000 Chinese Car
Photo by Michael Yessis.
It’s Tapped: Oktoberfest Kicks Off in Munich
by Eva Holland | 09.25.07 | 12:43 PM ET
The 174th annual Oktoberfest got under way this past weekend in Munich, Germany, and just reading the AP story about the opening keg-tapping ceremony made me thirsty. Last year, the festival attracted more than 6 million people, saw nearly 13 million pints poured and generated 1 billion euros in revenue. Similar numbers are expected this year.
Forget ‘Snakes on a Plane.’ How About Scorpions?
by Jim Benning | 09.24.07 | 2:23 PM ET
No, not these. The real deal. According to USA Today’s Ben Mutzabaugh, a man on a flight from Costa Rica to Madrid was stung on his shoulder and finger by a scorpion. Mutzabaugh cites news reports stating that the man was treated for severe nausea by a doctor on the plane, and that a fellow passenger killed the scorpion. As Mutzabaugh points out, this isn’t a first. A number of travelers have been stung by scorpions mid-flight, including a passenger aboard a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Burlington, Vermont in January.
Related on World Hum:
* Three Travel Tips: Stay Healthy When You Fly
* ‘Snakes on a Plane’ = Movie. Bees on a Plane = Serious, Real-Life Problem.
Related on TravelChannel.com:
* Bizarre Foods World Travel Guide: Vietnam
Photo by alex.ch via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Warning for Haiti’s Carbintair Airlines
by Jim Benning | 09.24.07 | 1:31 PM ET
Reports San Francisco Chronicle’s World Travel Watch column: “The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince now prohibits all U.S. government personnel from flying on Haiti’s Caribintair Airlines, and warns travelers to avoid the carrier.” Caribintair planes have made two forced emergency landings in the last month, the paper adds.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Endless Summer
by Michael Yessis | 09.21.07 | 12:41 PM ET
Summer is over, but beaches remain on travelers’ minds. This week the Zeitgeist hits Cancun, Fire Island and Galveston, as well as Saudi Arabia, Germany and India.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
U.S. Tourists Flock to Revamped Cancun
* Cancun (pictured) is “reporting hotel occupancy approaching that of pre-Wilma days.”
Most Popular Travel Story
Propeller (this week)
10 Beautiful Places in Orissa
Most Read Feature
World Hum (posted this week)
Nine Great Ways to Get Thrown Off an Airplane
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (posted this week)
‘Girls of Riyadh’: Saudi Arabia’s ‘Sex and the City’?
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Fire Island Heats Up
The Critics: ‘Into the Wild,’ the Movie
by Michael Yessis | 09.21.07 | 11:13 AM ET
After a couple months of hype, including an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild” opens today in New York and Los Angeles. The big-screen telling of Christopher McCandless’s self-imposed exile from mainstream society and tragic journey into the Alaskan wilderness is Penn’s “warmest, most celebratory and most completely realized film and, though you might not guess it from the material, it is also arguably his most personal,” writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times.
