Travel Blog
Internet Phone Service: Convenient, But at What Cost?
by Jim Benning | 03.12.07 | 1:36 PM ET
Photo by ling883 via flickr (Creative Commons).
When somebody dials Clifford J. Levy’s telephone number in Brooklyn, the call is immediately forwarded to St. Petersburg, Russia. For Levy, who now resides in St. Petersburg, that’s generally a good thing. For a modest monthly fee, he can dial up his family back home, and when his daughter gets lonely in Russia, she can call friends in New York, too—all thanks to an Internet phone service. But as much as he loves the convenience of it, Levy wonders about the drawbacks, and not just when the telemarketers call in the middle of the night, which happens to be dinner time in New York. “In the past, cut off from your old life, you may have tried harder to immerse yourself in your new one,” he writes in the New York Times. “That was part of the allure of being an expatriate: learning a new language, overcoming isolation by trying to cultivate friends among the locals, making daily discoveries about another part of the world.” Now, he adds, that’s just more difficult to do.
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Desert Louvre’ Plans Cause Uproar in France
by Michael Yessis | 03.12.07 | 7:41 AM ET
What can $1.3 billion buy? For Abu Dhabi, it’s the rights “to borrow the Louvre’s name and hundreds of its artworks, as well as treasures from the Picasso Museum, Pompidou Center, Chateau de Versailles and other French museums,” according to the Washington Post. It’s also a way for Abu Dhabi to compete with neighboring Dubai for tourists. For France, however, the transaction has brought on a heated national discussion about how to handle its renowned cultural assets.
Win a Trip With Nicholas Kristof, Take Two
by Michael Yessis | 03.12.07 | 7:29 AM ET
New York Times columnist and emancipation tourist Nicholas Kristof has announced another contest to find travel companions for a reporting trip to Africa. Last year, Missouri grad student Casey Parks joined Kristof, and she blogged, vlogged and spoke eloquently about her experiences. This year, Kristof writes, he’ll take along a student and a teacher, and they’ll report on their experiences at NYTimes.com and on MySpace. The “Win a Trip” contest is part of Kristof’s effort to expose more people to the ongoing horrors in Africa and to promote travel in the developing world as a tool for enlightenment. He writes: “Let’s face it: We’re provincial.”
Global Good Times: ‘The Rough Guide to the World’s Best Festivals’
by Jim Benning | 03.09.07 | 1:15 PM ET
With the right trip-planning (and hangover antidote), a good festival can be the highlight of a journey. So Rough Guide’s book, World Party: The Rough Guide to the World’s Best Festivals, should make a fine addition to any traveler’s reference library. Hundreds of events around the world are featured, from Rio’s Carnival to Buñol, Spain’s annual tomato-throwing bash. Jerry V. Haines notes the book in this Sunday’s Washington Post, writing: “Clever icons identify the attractions and perils of the 200-plus events: fancy costumes, parades, drugs, nudity. And party-till-you-puke alcohol consumption.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Seville, Switzerland and The Strip
by Michael Yessis | 03.09.07 | 9:00 AM ET
Travelers this week looked to Las Vegas, Seville, the Grand Canyon, Tallinn, Riga and Charleson, S.C., and wondered whether to avoid Oslo (too expensive) and Atlanta (too busy). Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Most Read Weblog Category
World Hum (this week)
Las Vegas
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Las Vegas: A Winner’s Guide to Blackjack
World’s Busiest Airport
Airports Council International (2006)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
* Chicago’s O’Hare and London’s Heathrow finished second and third respectively.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Seville’s the City for Piety Animals
* This also gets another of our groan-inducing headline of the week awards.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
36 Hours in Charleston, S.C.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Switzerland Invades Liechtenstein
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Another Wonder for Grand Canyon?
* As we like to say, what would Edward Abbey think?
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Wi-Fi Bus Crosses the Border
* It’s “likely the first international cross-border Wi-Fi-enabled bus line.” It connects Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Schmap
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: ‘100 Places Every Woman Should Go’
Peace Deal Helps Lure Travelers Back to Nepal
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.07 | 8:42 AM ET
Photo of Nepal by Hugh Gage (Via Flickr, Creative Commons).
Adventure travel companies that had discontinued trips to Nepal in recent years are planning to resume their operations soon, according to a New York Times report. Conflict between the Nepalese government and Maoist rebels had caused outfitters to stop running trips, but a peace deal signed in November changed their outlook.
The 13th Floor: Okay With Most Travelers, But a Concern for…Firefighters
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.07 | 8:37 AM ET
Hotels in the U.S. traditionally skip the 13th floor, but Starwood and Hilton are among the companies now refusing to succumb to superstition on their properties. A USA Today/Gallup poll suggests they won’t offend too many travelers: 87 percent of respondents said they would be “comfortable” staying on the 13th floor of a hotel.
New Travel Word of the Day: ‘Glamping’
by Jim Benning | 03.07.07 | 1:03 PM ET
Translation: Uh, glamorous camping.
The Travel Writer as Airport Screener: ‘I Feel Ridiculous’
by Jim Benning | 03.07.07 | 12:03 PM ET
Dick Cheney, Long Flights and the Dangers of Deep Vein Thrombosis
by Jim Benning | 03.06.07 | 2:13 PM ET
The vice president has had better weeks. Not only was his former aide “Scooter” Libby just convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury, but as a result of the whopping 65 hours Cheney spent on a plane recently over the course of a 9-day trip, he has a potentially deadly blood clot in his leg. He reported experiencing “mild calf discomfort” on Monday, and that’s when his deep vein thrombosis (or DVT) was diagnosed. He’s being treated with blood-thinning medication. It’s a good reminder for all travelers to beware the dangers of flying long distances and to be able to recognize DVT symptoms. As one doctor told the Los Angeles Times: “DVT kills more people every year than breast cancer and AIDS combined, but when people have a pain in their leg, they often just shrug it off.” So what are the symptoms?
Chuck Klosterman: ‘I Believe Germans Are Nice Because They Were Nice To Me’
by Michael Yessis | 03.06.07 | 9:25 AM ET
Cultural stereotypes. We hate them and we love them. And in the case of Chuck Klosterman, they make an excellent topic for another half-brilliant, half-baked piece of cultural criticism. Writing in Esquire, the author of Fargo Rock City, Killing Yourself to Live and other books writes about a trip to Germany, where experiences including watching American football in a bar and visiting an art exhibit called “I Like America and America Likes Me” lead him to several insights about the folly of cultural stereotypes.
Name Every UN Member State. You Have 10 Minutes.
by Michael Yessis | 03.06.07 | 8:21 AM ET
That’s the latest addictive geography game making the rounds.
Related on World Hum:
* Around the World in 20 Geography Questions
Rolf Potts in the Australian Outback
by Jim Benning | 03.05.07 | 3:14 PM ET
Slate began a Well-Traveled series today by Rolf Potts about his trip to Australia to explore aboriginal culture—and particularly the uneasy relationship between the continent’s indigenous people and curious tourists. That relationship, Potts notes, can easily be captured on film at the famous red monolith Uluru, by the sign near the trailhead.
“This sign, which was erected by the local Pitjantjatjara people, solemnly requests that you don’t climb up the face of a rock that they consider sacred,” Potts writes. “Aim your camera at a certain angle, however, and the top half of your viewfinder will capture the knots of tourists who’ve decided to climb the rock anyway (aided by a safety chain designated by the Australian National Park Service for that very purpose).”
The Critics: Tom Bissell’s ‘The Father of All Things’
by Jim Benning | 03.05.07 | 1:58 PM ET
New York Times and Los Angeles Times critics raved Sunday about Tom Bissell’s new book, The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam. The book explores the journey Bissell took to Vietnam with his father, John, a veteran of the war. (Bissell initially wrote about the trip for Harper’s.) Bissell’s book, its publisher notes, “is the first major book about the war by an author who grew up after the fall of Saigon.” The war has had profound effect on his generation, and particularly, Bissell writes, on the sons and daughters of veterans: “At every meal Vietnam sat down, invisibly, with our families.”
Carbon Offsets for Travelers: What Are You Really Paying For?
by Michael Yessis | 03.05.07 | 7:59 AM ET
You’re traveling by air to Australia, but you’re conscious of the environmental damage caused by jets, so you spend an extra few bucks on offsets to balance out your carbon footprint. Good deed done, you’re on your way. Is it that easy? Not really, according to a USA Today story by Barbara De Lollis, who examines the effectiveness of offsetting projects such as planting trees and discusses who stands to profit from your green consciousness. Yes, some of these companies are out to make money from selling offsets to travelers.
