Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Morning Links: Skycar, Disney Shanghai and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.15.09 | 9:07 AM ET
- Disney and Shanghai have reportedly agreed on plans for a new Disney theme park in China.
- Google has added a transit layer to its maps in 50 world cities.
- The Skycar—a flying car—departed from London to Timbuktu with Neil Laughton behind the wheel.
- CNN offers video profiles of Dubai’s Emirates terminal and the airport of the year, Hong Kong International Airport.
- What about the world’s worst airports?
- Hu Jintao warns of potential travel problems in China for Chinese New Year.
- Men’s Fitness names Salt Lake City the fittest city in the U.S. The fattest? Miami.
- Slideshow: Paragliding over Africa.
- A Japanese website maps smells around the world. Apparently, there’s a “toasty odor of cow dung” somewhere out there.
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzRacking Up the (Frequent-Flier) Miles
by Eva Holland | 01.14.09 | 5:08 PM ET
Call it carbon-neutral mileage running. Over at The Art of Nonconformity, blogger Chris Guillebeau reveals how he collected more than 300,000 frequent-flier miles in just five weeks—without stepping on a plane. The secret? Some savvy manipulation of those ubiquitous “Sign up NOW and get 30,000 miles FREE!” airport credit card offers.
Guillebeau estimates that he spent roughly $500 on the experiment, and gained $12,000 worth of miles in exchange. His post includes detailed instructions for any readers hoping to join in the fun.
If You Build an Eco-City, Will They Come?
by Joanna Kakissis | 01.14.09 | 2:06 PM ET
Photo by bschmove (Creative Commons). Green is trendy, and the very fashion-minded Milan loves trends. So if all goes as planned, by 2013 a chic, eco-mini-city called Milano Santa Monica will open some seven kilometers outside Milan’s city center in a town called Segrate. If this place actually looks like the computer-generated images on its website, it’s going to be beautiful. Imagine two million square meters of lush green space with well-designed and energy-efficient apartments and shops, and a pedestrian mall with a waterway, parks and lots of trees.
R.I.P. London’s Astoria
by Eva Holland | 01.14.09 | 10:14 AM ET
The legendary London venue is closing down this week to make way for a new rail line. The Astoria and its annex, Astoria 2, have hosted everyone from Nirvana and David Bowie to Iggy Pop and Eminem over the years.
“People tend to get misty-eyed about the demise of historic dives, and in this sense the Astoria does not disappoint,” Ian Winwood writes in the Guardian. “The security people can be difficult, the beer is always too warm and if it weren’t for the musicians on stage the loudest sound in the room would be people’s feet un-sticking themselves from the floor. ... The Astoria is inconvenient and exciting, just like London itself.”
Morning Links: A New Way to See the Prado, Cuban Tourism and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.14.09 | 8:00 AM ET
El Tres De Mayo by Goya (via Wikipedia) - An American in Spain writes about studying Euskera, the “clearest sign of Basque identity.”
- Greenpeace buys land in effort to halt a third runway at Heathrow. It’s now the prime minister’s move.
- Here’s an interesting project: Masterpieces from the Prado on Google Earth.
- Jonathan Raban on the best presidential writers. He notes some of the travel bits of Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father.”
- Cuba reported huge tourism numbers in 2008. It could grow if Obama implements the policy outlined by Hillary Clinton.
- A steady flow of flights from Europe—and “tightened restrictions in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia”—are fueling sex tourism in Mombasa, Kenya.
- A couple of long-term travelers share ten lessons of the road. No. 2: Smile.
- The BBC offers some tips on landing that best job in the world.
- Lawlessness reigns at San Diego’s skate parks. Given the city’s financial shape, officials decided not to staff them. Skateboarders have flocked to the parks for the “[f]reedom to smoke while they skate, drink beer, bring dogs, ride minibikes amid the skateboards and scrawl graffiti.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Bird’s Nest or White Elephant?
by Julia Ross | 01.13.09 | 5:09 PM ET
Say it ain’t so. A mere five months after the Beijing Olympic Games, has the Bird’s Nest stadium become a tourist trap? With no permanent tenant signed, that’s how it’s looking. I’m a big fan of the building and would happily pay the $7 fee to walk around inside, but at the same time hope the Chinese find a dedicated revenue stream to maintain it.
For a behind-the-scenes look at how the stadium was built, check out the documentary, Bird’s Nest: Herzog and de Meuron in China. The best parts are the unintentionally hilarious culture clashes between the building’s two “make-the-trains-run-on-time” Swiss architects and their Chinese partners. You can imagine.
Because Underdogs Rock
by Jenna Schnuer | 01.13.09 | 12:03 PM ET
Growing up in New Jersey, you, quickly, understand what it’s like to live as the underdog. My poor home state. Its wonders are frequently overlooked. Isn’t that just a place where people who commute to NYC live? It’s an easy punchline for most outsiders. New Jersey. Heh heh. Snicker snicker.
Yes, I’ll admit that, once I went off to college (Boston—another underdog place), I made Jersey jokes and laughed along the millionth tired time somebody asked me what exit? I made it clear that I hated Springsteen, that hair bands were evil and that my aesthetic leanings were more Manhattan than Jersey. I vowed never to return (permanently) to the Garden State. But graduating into the lovely economic climate of 1992, well, plans changed. I ended up back at my parents’ house in Teaneck, commuting into Manhattan via NJ Transit’s 167 bus.
Morning Links: Science Pubs, Staged Plane Crash and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.13.09 | 8:13 AM ET
- Money guy Marcus Schrenker apparently staged a plane crash to fake his death. Wow. Gawker calls him “one of the most memorable villains to emerge in the financial crisis.”
- Bill Donahue in Panama: It has “the dark allure of a Graham Greene novel.”
- Tourism officials in Australia have put out a call for the best job in the world.
- Foreign Policy hosted a virtual roundtable on Samuel Huntington’s legacy.
- Tokyo’s Tsukiji market has reopened to tourists.
- Maclean’s examines “changes that have taken place in the travel landscape as a result of 2008’s tumultuous economy.”
- Sake consumption may be falling in Japan, but it’s on the rise in the U.S.
- In these Portland, Oregon “science pubs,” drink in a little physics or volcanology lecture with your brew. Even better: “There are no tests.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Falling in Love with America
by Sophia Dembling | 01.12.09 | 1:58 PM ET
Growing up in New York City, I was deeply indoctrinated with the view of the world that Saul Steinberg summed up in his famous 1976 New Yorker magazine cover. As far as I was concerned, if you headed west, there was 10th Ave. and there was New Jersey (which you avoided as much as possible) and then there was a whole bunch of nothing worth mentioning until you hit the Pacific Ocean.
When I was 19 years old, I tagged along with a friend on a cross-country drive to deliver a baby-blue Plymouth Duster to her brother in Los Angeles. On that trip, I saw my first cornfields. My first hay rolls. I saw Chicago. The Great Salt Lake. (Yuck.) Cows. The Rockies. For real? I thought this stuff was just rumor and legend. We drove from New York to San Francisco and then down the jagged coastline to Los Angeles, where I dipped my toes in the Pacific Ocean and fell madly in love with America.
Rambo Goes To Burma: Worst Movie of 2008?
by Eva Holland | 01.12.09 | 12:19 PM ET
You remember the latest Rambo flick, right? Sylvester Stallone’s gory expose on the plight of Burma/Myanmar’s ethnic minorities? (Don’t worry, I had forgotten, too.) When it came out last year, the critics were less than wowed. Now, the movie looks to be in the running for Hollywood’s greatest indignity: a Golden Raspberry award for the worst of the worst in filmmaking.
According to a little bird at the MTV Movies blog (the list hasn’t been formally announced yet), ‘Rambo’ has landed Razzie nominations for Worst Picture; Worst Director (Sylvester Stallone); Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone); Worst Career Achievement (Sylvester Stallone); Worst Prequel, Sequel, Remake or Rip-Off, and Worst On-Screen Couple (Sylvester Stallone and His Ego).
Hey, at least the folks in Yangon liked it.
Are Travel Writers the Next Great Competitive Eaters?
by David Farley | 01.12.09 | 10:54 AM ET
Matt Gross. Photo by Jean Liu. I once wrote a story about taking a competitive eater out to three buffet lunches in as many days to see how much he could eat. At the Indian buffet, 400-pound Eric “Badlands” Booker (then the third-ranked competitive eater in the world) proved he was born to indulge. By the 12th trip up to the buffet (I’m not kidding), the restaurant manager pointed out the dessert options, a subtle suggestion that it was time to retire his fork for the day. “Just for that,” Badlands said to me, “I’m going up for more after I finish this plate!”
At the all-you-can-eat sushi the next day, he consumed so much food we had a crowd around our table watching as he put the plate to his mouth and scooped the fish with his chopsticks right down his throat. At the Brazilian steakhouse the final day, Badlands received handshakes form the waiters for his eating prowess.
But I didn’t really know gluttony until a recent outing with writer Matt Gross.
‘Slumdog Millionaire’: Hollywood, Meet India
by Eva Holland | 01.12.09 | 10:07 AM ET
Publicity still via IGN.com I remember reading, when the Bollywoodized Jane Austen adaptation Bride and Prejudice came out a few years ago, that this would be North America’s introduction to India’s powerful film industry. The film certainly brought mega star Aishwarya Rai on to our radar, but any broader, longer-lasting crossover potential seemed to fizzle. Sure, The Darjeeling Limited gave us a taste of the country, and The Namesake touched on the experiences of the Indian diaspora, but for the most part we remained unexposed to the subcontinent’s endless cinematic possibilities.
Last night, watching “Slumdog Millionaire” sweep all four of the categories in which it had landed nominees at the Golden Globes—Best Screenplay, Best Score, Best Director and Best Drama—I wondered if that might finally change.
Morning Links: Museum of Broken Relationships, GlobalPost and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.12.09 | 8:27 AM ET
- GlobalPost begins its “bold journey to redefine international news for the digital age.”
- Two Japanese restaurants split the $100,000 bill on a bluefin tuna. Yumiko Ono says it tasted “smooth, succulent and a little on the light side.”
- Turns out cities impair our brains.
- More than 200 people are feared dead after a ferry sank off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
- During the last two years an estimated 1.5 billion passengers flew on U.S. airlines. Not one of them died as a result of a crash.
- The Los Angeles Times tried out Row44, “a soon-to-debut satellite Wi-Fi system” for airlines.
- Daisann McLaine tells why she always visits supermarkets when she travels.
- Kristen Wiig and Neil Patrick Harris played long-nailed air traffic controllers on Saturday Night Live.
- Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Deputy Prime Minister, says “art is to arouse emotions.” A map of European cliches and stereotypes commissioned by the Czech Republic is succeeding on that count.
- The Las Vegas Mob museum is stirring up controversy in Washington, D.C.
- The Museum of Broken Relationships—“an exhibition of the relics of failed love”—opened in Singapore last week. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to see “an axe used by a woman to break up her ex-girlfriend’s furniture, along with the broken furniture.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
World Hum’s Most Read: Jan. 3-9
by World Hum | 01.09.09 | 7:12 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts for the week:
1) Subcontinental Homesick Blues
2) World Hum’s Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time
3) Plato Was a Backpacker (pictured)
4) The Songlines of Key West: Doing the Duval Crawl
5) Lisa Ling: Globetrotting Journalist, ‘Thinking Man’s Sex Symbol’
World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Mamma Mia!’
by Eva Holland, Eli Ellison | 01.09.09 | 5:18 PM ET
Here’s the set-up: Bride-to-be Sophie has three possible biological fathers, and all three have come from around the world—along with an international cast of oddball friends—to her destination wedding on a tiny Greek Island. The result? The year’s biggest travel-musical-comedy.
Since it sashayed onto the big screen this past summer, “Mamma Mia!”—the movie adaptation of the hit ABBA-themed musical—has smashed sales records and garnered some award nominations, too. World Hum Travel Movie Clubbers Eli Ellison and Eva Holland took the disc for a spin.
