Travel Blog: Shrinking Planet
New Satellite Map of Earth Unveiled
by Eva Holland | 07.01.09 | 10:05 AM ET
The latest terrain map, a collaboration between NASA and the Japanese government, offers coverage of 99 percent of the planet’s surface. The best previous effort managed 80 percent.
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Yahoo! BuzzIn Thailand, Visit ‘Moscow in the Tropics’
by Michael Yessis | 06.23.09 | 11:22 AM ET
Here’s another intriguing story about the rise of the Russian traveler, this one about luxury travelers descending on the “neon beacon of sleaze” that is Pattaya, Thailand.
Writes Patrick Winn in GlobalPost:
Russians have helped revitalize Pattaya, first transformed into raunchy nightspot decades ago by Vietnam War-era U.S. troops. The city has since seen its ups and downs, but now it has a new look. Pattaya abounds with Cyrillic signs advertising scuba shops, restaurants and bars. There’s even an all-Russian local TV station.
Last June, the New York Times put a piece about newly prosperous Russian travelers hitting the road on its front page.
T.G.I. Friday’s in Tokyo
by Eva Holland | 06.22.09 | 3:34 PM ET
In Slate, Daniel Gross goes to Tokyo and tackles the city’s “SPC ratio” (Starbucks per capita) and other oddities of the Japanese love affair with American chain food outlets.
YVR: A Traveler’s Plea for Noodles
by Eva Holland | 06.22.09 | 1:23 PM ET
I flew into Vancouver International Airport last week with a craving: I wanted pad Thai, or some vaguely similar, spicy, wok-fried noodle dish, and I wanted it bad. On the five-hour flight from Toronto, as images of tofu bits and crushed peanuts danced in my head, I didn’t fret—I was confident I’d be able to satisfy the urge during my one-hour layover. After all, I thought, where better to find some airport noodles than in a foodie city that’s home to one of the most vital Asian immigrant communities in North America?
Where in the World Are You, Lynne Friedmann?
by World Hum | 06.22.09 | 12:42 PM ET
The subject of our latest up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: World Hum contributor Lynne Friedmann. She wrote the essay All the Flowers in Amsterdam and contributed to our Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time.
Where in the world are you?
Blog to Watch: ‘Recession Road Trip’
by Michael Yessis | 06.22.09 | 11:36 AM ET
Christina Davidson departed Washington, D.C., 11 days ago to “travel the back roads and State highways through the 48 contiguous United States, uncovering stories of economic survival and endurance,” she wrote in her debut post at The Atlantic. “In diners, bars, bingo halls and coffee shops, I seek those Americans who have lost everything—except hope.”
She’ll also tweet during her four months on the road.
What’s Become of the World’s Red-Light Districts?
by Michael Yessis | 06.18.09 | 3:50 PM ET
A Wallpaper slideshow looks at how red-light districts in Amsterdam, Singapore, Sydney and seven other major world cities have been cleaned up. Or, as the story’s intro describes the transformation of Times Square in New York City, how they’ve reacted after after being given an “urban colonic.”
Shrinking Planet Headline of the Day: ‘Facebook Swahili Version Launched’
by Jim Benning | 06.15.09 | 2:15 PM ET
Facebook is now available in roughly 50 languages, and Swahili was the second African language to get its own version of the social networking site, the BBC reports.
Truman and Khrushchev: Gone to Look for America
by Michael Yessis | 06.15.09 | 11:16 AM ET
Some Cold War travel memories bubbled up this weekend in the Washington Post. Christopher Buckley favorably reviews Matthew Algeo’s Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure, a chronicle of Truman’s post-presidency road trip in the summer of 1953. And Peter Carlson follows the journey of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who accepted an invite from President Eisenhower to “road trip through the wonderland of ’50s America.”
English Hits the One-Million-Word Mark
by Eva Holland | 06.12.09 | 2:50 PM ET
And the milestone word? Web 2.0. The Global Language Monitor, an online agency that tracks English word use, made its official announcement yesterday, and noted that the new addition was “indicative of the age.” You can debate the methodology that they used in determining the million-word threshold (as plenty of commenters on the story I linked to have) but, as someone whose traveling life is totally wrapped up in—and made possible by—the web, I’d certainly agree with that second point.
Hollywood Heads to Bollywood
by Eva Holland | 03.10.09 | 3:12 PM ET
Turns out, it really is a small world after all. Kylie Minogue has wrapped up filming for an upcoming Bollywood flick, “Blue,” making her one of the first big-name Western stars to land on a Mumbai sound stage. “I don’t feel that I’m necessarily at the forefront of a Hollywood-Bollywood crossover because I don’t consider myself Hollywood,” Minogue told the Telegraph. “But I do think this could be the start of something. The fact that I’m here shows it could be the start of something.”
Early signs suggest she’s right—Sylvester Stallone is set to do the Bollywood thing later this year. And—rumor has it!—Arnold Schwarzenegger will be joining him. Could the Bolly/Hollywood fusion become another wonder of our shrinking planet?
I’m all for it.
A Half-Century Ago: Let the Jet Age Begin!
by Rob Verger | 01.28.09 | 2:21 PM ET
This past Sunday was the 50th anniversary of “the first transcontinental commercial jet trip”: American Airlines Flight 2 on a Boeing 707 on January 25th, 1959. The New York Times has this great story.
An interesting detail from the piece: “The earlier flights were not just cushier but faster: 4 ½ hours eastbound and, because of headwinds, 5 ½ westbound. In today’s stacked-up skies, New York-to-Los Angeles flights typically take an hour longer in each direction—if they land on time.” The article also quotes an onboard correspondent for the L.A. Times who wrote of that original flight, “The shrinking effect of the jetliner upon geography distorted the earth’s face.” Beautiful. (Via Airline Biz Blog)
Music That Migrates
by Eva Holland | 12.18.08 | 5:55 PM ET
We’ve been on a road music kick this week at World Hum—and we’re not the only ones. Over at Matador Nights, David Miller offers up a compelling list of musicians who have influenced travelers in the last decade.
When you travel, you come face to face (or ear to speaker) with the music that belongs to the places you go, Miller writes, but “there is also the music that seems to travel itself, migrating from one area to the next—making its way into hostels and DJ stacks, becoming part of local culture abroad, and also returning home with you.” Among his picks? Manu Chao (who’s also one of our Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet), Bajofondo Tango Club, Daft Punk, and the entire Marley clan.
The ‘Great Public Spaces’ of the World
by Eva Holland | 12.03.08 | 9:31 AM ET
The non-profit Project for Public Spaces has put together a list of the 60 greatest public spaces in the world—and they’ve gone about it using a pretty compelling definition of “public space.” “These are the places we remember most vividly,” says the PPS site, “the places where serendipitous things happen, the places we tell stories about. They are decidedly local, but can also absorb a fair amount of tourism without losing the qualities that make them great.”
Fair enough. So how about the winners? It’s an eclectic, far-ranging list. I found myself nodding in agreement with Venice’s Campo Santa Margherita, New York’s Grand Central Station, or the Ridge, in Shimla, India—and raising a puzzled eyebrow at the inclusion of the Corpus Christi bus terminal, or the main drag in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown. Over at Reid on Travel, Lonely Planet author Robert Reid offers up 10 spots that PPS missed. (Via Reid on Travel)
Earthrise: ‘How a Picture Transformed Our View of Ourselves’
by Eva Holland | 12.02.08 | 1:41 PM ET
On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 launch, the Guardian offers this thoughtful essay about the mission, its accomplishments and the iconic photograph (pictured) shot by its NASA crew. “Certainly, Earthrise is a striking reminder of Earth’s vulnerability,” Robin McKie writes. “We may have forgotten the men who risked their lives getting to the Moon and who explored its dead landscape—a ‘beat-up’ world as they put it—but the view they brought back of that glittering blue hemisphere continues to mesmerise.”
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