What We Loved This Week: Chorizo Tacos, ‘Stuff White People Like’ and ‘Passenger Side’

Travel Blog • World Hum • 09.12.08 | 3:01 PM ET

World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.

Stephen Brookes
I’ve been watching the protests going on in Thailand with interest, partly because an old boss of mine—Sondhi Limthongkul, who hired me to write for his newspaper Asia Times—is leading the demonstrations. And things are getting wild: not only was the prime minister forced to resign this week (over hosting a TV cooking show!), but dozens of protesters have been killed or injured, tourists were stranded when demonstrations closed airports, and a state of emergency was decreed Sept. 2. Many countries (including the U.S.) have issued stern travel advisories.

All that, of course, has the Thai tourism industry in a panic. High season starts next month, and bookings are dropping through the floor. But I’m really tempted to jump on the next plane to Bangkok. With fewer Western farangi cluttering up the place, hotel rates will drop and the beaches will be less crowded. And besides—there’s nothing like a whiff of tear gas in the air to make a trip come alive, right? Just gotta watch out for those rubber bullets.

Eva Holland
“Stuff White People Like”—the book. A friend lent it to me this week, and I enjoyed flipping through the listings and chuckling at the ones that hit home (No. 63: Expensive Sandwiches, or No. 147: Public Transportation That Is Not The Bus). But I did wonder, with things like Religions Their Parents Don’t Belong To ( No. 2), Apple Products (No. 40) and Pretending To Be A Canadian While Traveling Abroad (No. 105) on the list, whether the book could just as well have been called “Stuff Backpackers Like”?

Jim Benning
American Mishy Lesser’s story on public radio’s The World about her return to Chile to visit the family that hid her in their Santiago home for three weeks following the military overthrow of Salvador Allende. Lesser’s boyfriend became one of Chile’s Disappeared, and the man and woman who took in Lesser were ultimately arrested. It’s a heart-wrenching and heartwarming story about the kindness of strangers, and it recalls the other infamous Sept. 11: Sept. 11, 1973.

Michael Yessis
This line from Alain De Botton‘s The Art of Travel: “If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest—in all its ardour and paradoxes—than our travels.”

Valerie Conners
I actually jumped out of my chair when I read Mike’s blog post, They Ain’t Writin’ Car Songs No More, in part, because I am unnaturally obsessed with Wilco and it gave me the chance to belt out “Passenger Side” while at work. But also because of the memories and emotions stirred up thinking of some of my favorite auto-related tunes, namely Drive, by The Cars. Being lost in car song bliss brought me back to a time when I still owned a car—before I became a city dweller—and the simple but extraordinary joy of driving a winding country road at night, windows down, stereo up, singing my heart out.

David Farley
I was in Los Angeles over the weekend for a wedding, but made time to seek out some great Mexican food. The rule I used was the less English that was written on the menu and in the window, the better the food would be. And I was right. I started by driving down Santa Monica Boulevard, heading west from the 101 Freeway, popping into taquerias for juicy chorizo tacos and burritos smothered in green salsa. I didn’t eat for the rest of the day, but I was seriously satiated. If only New York, where I reside, had authentic Mexican like this.

Eli Ellison
The new Rolling Stone comedy issue features an interview with David Letterman and it got me thinking about the old NBC Late Night with David Letterman years. Back then, when Dave was actually worth staying up for, one of his frequent stand-up comic guests was the late great Bill Hicks. I watched some old Hicks clips on YouTube and loved this short but funny bit on traveling in the Southern United States: