Travel Blog: News and Briefs
South Korea Develops ‘Five-Point Kimchi Scale’
by Michael Yessis | 06.21.07 | 11:41 AM ET
Do you like your kimchi mild, slightly hot, moderately hot, very hot or extremely hot? The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture recently announced it has developed a five-point kimchi scale—Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell likens the “kimchi alert system” to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s threat advisory system—to help Westerners figure out what type of kimchi best suits their palates. The system will also measure fermentation levels. It’s all part of an ongoing effort to promote kimchi as a global food.
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Yahoo! BuzzIn San Francisco, the Search Goes on for the Summer of Love
by Michael Yessis | 06.21.07 | 10:00 AM ET
It’s been 40 years since the famed Summer of Love, when San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood became either the embodiment of brotherhood and sisterhood or, in the words of the Beatles’ George Harrison, full of “hideous, spotty little teenagers.” I tend to believe more in the latter characterization, not because I experienced it (or was even alive) in 1967 but because around the turn of the millennium, when I lived in San Francisco, I saw a lot of “spotty little teenagers” there and that colors my impression. Don’t get me wrong. I like the Haight, and I still go there often when I’m in San Francisco. It’s got an all-time great music store, Amoeba Music; an excellent and cheap pizza place, Fat Slice; and a fine bookstore, The Booksmith, among other things. But I never really felt that Summer of Love spirit.
From Worldwide Delays to Raw Sewage in the Cabin: Pick Your Travel Poison
by Jim Benning | 06.20.07 | 3:43 PM ET
Yikes. I can’t decide which is worse: United Airlines’ grounding of departing flights around the world for hours this morning because of a computer glitch; the seven-hour stranding ordeal yesterday for 400 unlucky Cathay Pacific passengers in San Francisco; or today’s news that raw sewage seeped out of a Continental Airlines jet toilet and right into the main cabin during a flight across the Atlantic last week. How bad was that one? Said one passenger: “I was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours.” Uh, is that covered in the passengers’ bill of rights?
Related on World Hum:
* Federal Passengers’ Bill of Rights One Step Closer to Law
* IRS Beats Airlines in Customer Satisfaction Survey
* Travel Writer on Airport Stranding in Texas: ‘My Head Was in Burma’
* How Not to Panic When Your Circling Plane Runs Low on Fuel
Leg Room Requirements Under Consideration for European Flights
by Michael Yessis | 06.20.07 | 12:07 PM ET
On behalf of all airline passengers who fly with their knees in their teeth, I say, “Hooray!” And: “What’s taking so long?” The European Aviation Safety Agency is considering imposing a minimum leg-room requirement on all planes registered in Europe. Acccording to an Agence France-Presse report, no distances between seats have been proposed, but one can hope it will become reality. The lack of space between seats, known in airline parlance as “pitch,” has become ridiculous, particularly when, like me, you’re six-foot-four and on a long-haul flight. The impetus for possible change, however, isn’t comfort. It’s safety. The EASA is worried about cases of deep vein thrombosis and the ability to evacuate planes within the mandated 90 seconds. (Via Elliot.org).
Related on World Hum:
* Dick Cheney, Long Flights and the Dangers of Deep Vein Thrombosis
* Flight Attendants’ Rep: ‘We’re Back to Pre-9/11 Passenger Attitudes’
The Future of Air Travel: ‘Flying the High-Tech Skies’
by Michael Yessis | 06.20.07 | 10:44 AM ET
The Washington D.C.-area public radio program The Kojo Nnamdi Show featured an interesting discussion yesterday about the technological future of flight and commercial air travel, covering “everything from your airline’s carbon ‘footprint’ to how you locate your luggage,” according to its Web site. Guests included Jim Mathews, Editor in Chief of Aviation Daily, and Steven Lott, Head of North American Communications at the International Air Transport Association.
Related on World Hum:
* The Future of Travel: “Will August 2006 be Remembered as the Point of No Return?”
* Don George on Leaving Lonely Planet and the Future of Travel
* Welcome to the Age of the ‘Aerotropolis’
Pico Iyer on Business Class: ‘A Gated Community in the Air’
by Jim Benning | 06.19.07 | 3:13 PM ET
I’m not sure I agree with Pico Iyer’s argument in today’s Los Angeles Times that exorbitantly priced business class seats reflect “the worst side of globalism, in compact form.” But Iyer does a fine job of exploring the frivolousness and waste involved in paying $10,000 for more leg room and in-flight entertainment options. “You don’t have to be a philanthropist to realize that by enduring slightly more human company for six hours, you could build nine homes in Burundi, each big enough to house 10 people with the money left over,” he writes. “And even if you want to keep the savings for yourself, with $9,000 extra you could take five weeklong, all-inclusive tours to Southeast Asia, for the price of just an afternoon’s greater comfort en route to London.”
Related on World Hum:
* IRS Beats Airlines in Customer Satisfaction Survey
* Are You a Member of the ‘Backpack Lunatic Fringe’?
* Q&A With Pico Iyer: On Travel and Travel Writing
Bab al-Yemen: Where ‘Tradition and Modern Life Merge’
by Michael Yessis | 06.19.07 | 1:11 PM ET
Bab al-Yemen is the entrance to Sanaa, Yemen’s old city—and the spot where, in the afternoon, when the city “shakes off its lunchtime doldrums,” a market springs to life. The Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid writes about it today, yet another great story—earlier, we posted about this one—in the paper’s Time Zones series. “Less than 50 years ago, the walls that meet at Bab al-Yemen encompassed all of Sanaa, then a city of just tens of thousands and more medieval than modern,” Shadid writes. “Today, its residents number nearly 2 million, and the sprawling capital stretches beyond the walls for miles in every direction. Bab al-Yemen has somehow managed the transition. Unlike some Arab markets, fetishized for tourists in places like Cairo and Jerusalem, Bab al-Yemen embraces its original incarnation—market, playground and meeting place.”
British Airline Pilots’ Association: ‘Air Travel has Become a Scapegoat for Global Warming’
by Michael Yessis | 06.19.07 | 11:00 AM ET
So how does one reconcile that sentiment, which comes from a new report by the British Airline Pilots’ Association, with this and this and this and this. (Frankly, I can keep going with the links.) Well, Greenpeace doesn’t even make an attempt, calling the report “pure propaganda,” according to the BBC. BALPA, which says it represents 85 percent of Britain’s 10,000 airline pilots, claims trains and ships are also big sources of carbon dioxide, yet they don’t receive the scrutiny that airplanes do when it comes to emissions.
The Seven Wonders of Canada, or More Proof the Country Isn’t Boring
by Michael Yessis | 06.19.07 | 9:07 AM ET
Last week I happily waved my Maple Leaf flag in support of Canada’s above averageness, citing, among other things, an abundance of moose and snowboarding the Canadian Rockies. I now have more ammunition. CBC Television’s The National and BCB Radio’s Sounds Like Canada conducted a search to determine the Seven Wonders of Canada, and earlier this month they announced the results. The wonders, based on this criteria, are: The canoe, Niagara Falls, Pier 21 in Halifax, the Rockies, The igloo, Old Quebec city and Prairie Skies.
Dubai World Buys Queen Elizabeth 2
by Michael Yessis | 06.18.07 | 4:05 PM ET
Goodbye, high seas. Hello, Palm Jumeirah. One of the world’s grandest cruise ships, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2, has been purchased by a division of a Dubai-owned corporation and by 2009 will become yet another mega spectacle in a land of mega spectacles. According to the AP, Istithmar, a division of government-owned Dubai World, purchased the famed British ship—it has carried royalty, troops to the Falklands War and the Norovirus from Acapulco to San Francisco—for $100 million and plans to turn it into a “floating hotel, retail and entertainment destination” off the coast of the manmade Palm Jumeirah island.
In Morocco, a Khubz in Every Communal Oven
by Terry Ward | 06.18.07 | 2:15 PM ET
In every neighborhood in Morocco, from Tangier to Agadir, five places are open to the public: a mosque, a school (madrasa), a public fountain, a hammam (public bath) and a communal oven. In Fes, where I studied Arabic in 2003, my host family was fairly well off, so we had our own oven in the garden—a gas-fired number that we had to shoo the pigeons from when we baked.
R.I.P. Colin Fletcher, ‘The Father of Modern-Day Backpacking’
by Jim Benning | 06.18.07 | 12:13 PM ET
The author and adventurer best known for his seminal backpacking guide The Complete Walker and his Grand Canyon narrative The Man Who Walked Through Time died last week at the age of 85. “The Complete Walker” was first published in 1968, and it was enormously influential in its day. Backpacker magazine editor in chief Jonathan Dorn told the Los Angeles Times: “He brought this idea that you didn’t have to be a nut case to take long solitary walks in the wilderness at a time when a lot of people were really looking for ways to create holistic lives and escape from the craziness of Vietnam and the stresses of the ‘60s.”
Longest Overland Tunnel Opens in Switzerland
by Terry Ward | 06.18.07 | 11:04 AM ET
Switzerland loves its tunnels nearly as much as its timepieces, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that the country crowned the world’s longest on Friday. The AP reports the 21-mile rail link will cut train travel between Germany and Italy from 3 1/2 hours to less than two. The opening of the $3.5 billion Loetschberg Tunnel after eight years of construction is good news for Swiss locals, who hope it will ease heavy truck traffic in their mountainous land.
Zagats on Chinese Cuisine: U.S. Needs ‘Dumpling Diplomacy’
by Jim Benning | 06.18.07 | 7:40 AM ET
One day in Beijing, not far from Tiananmen Square, I stumbled upon Wu Da Niang, a dumpling restaurant I later learned was part of a popular Chinese chain. I ordered a plate of boiled fish dumplings. A woman soon appeared at my table and filled a bowl with chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar, creating a spicy, tangy dipping sauce. One bite and I was hooked. It was the first of many occasions in China when I realized we in the U.S., with our countless Chinese restaurants, were missing out on some seriously great Chinese food. Tim and Nina Zagat argue just that in an op-ed piece piece in Saturday’s New York Times. The co-founders of Zagat guides decry the sorry state of Chinese cuisine in the U.S., noting that while Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese restaurants have continued to improve, Chinese restaurants, which have a long, storied history in the U.S., have stagnated.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: On the ‘B’ List
by Michael Yessis | 06.15.07 | 1:23 PM ET
This week we’ve got mountain bikers, the best beaches in the U.S., passport blunders and the return of Bill Bryson. Here’s the Zeitgiest.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Top 10 U.S. Beaches
* No. 1 on the list from “Dr. Beach”: Ocracoke Island, North Carolina (pictured)
“Hot This Week” Destination
Yahoo! (this week)
Hilo, Hawaii
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Where Mountain Bikers Carved Their Dream Terrain
* Not Moab, Utah. Fruita, Colorado.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
U.S. Plans Temporary Waiver of Passport Policy*
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Diary of a Trip Through U.S. Passport Application Limbo
From the writer, travel editor Catharine Hamm: “A travel editor without a passport is like Paris Hilton without a party.”
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hertz, Avis Add Hybrids to Fleets
* Each rental car company says it will have 1,000 Toyota Priuses in its fleet by the end of the month.
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* Still unstoppable.
