Travel Blog
Air Travelers For Barack Obama!
by Michael Yessis | 01.08.08 | 3:43 PM ET
The Air Travelers Association has endorsed Barack Obama for U.S. President. Association president David Stempler said in a press release that the endorsement is based on the belief that Obama can “quickly get in place a new, GPS-based, next generation, air traffic control system, called ‘NextGen.’” What? He wasn’t simply swayed by Obama’s four-and-a-half Air Force Ones rating in World Hum’s U.S. Presidential Candidate Travel Scorecard? (via Los Angeles Times Daily Deal)
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Yahoo! BuzzGrounded 747? No, it’s a Hostel.
by Ben Keene | 01.08.08 | 3:31 PM ET
‘Three Tourists Mugged in the Quarter? No Big Deal.’
by Eva Holland | 01.08.08 | 12:35 PM ET
I’ve been following Sarah Hepola’s Nerve.com column “Crying In Restaurants”—a series of essays about her romantic misadventures, most of which involve (you guessed it) crying in restaurants. The series’ finale has all the humor, insight and almost-uncomfortable honesty as the first five installments—and it’s also a travel story. Hepola writes about her violent mugging in post-Katrina New Orleans, which, amazingly, has a happy ending: the mugging leads her, by way of a friendly detective, a nasty defense lawyer, a couple of NYC-NOLA flights and a whole lot of long-distance phone calls, to an outcome so good she’s no longer (you guessed it again) crying in restaurants.
Photo by David Paul Ohmer via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
In Burma, the Revolution Will Be…Text-Messaged?
by Jim Benning | 01.08.08 | 9:31 AM ET
Turns out that jailing all those protesters in Burma (Myanmar) last year may not have been the best way to keep them down, at least in the long term. “There seemed little chance of getting organized until more than 2,000 protesters, arrested and jammed into crowded jail cells, met one another and overcame their distrust,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “Now, most of them are on the streets again, carefully building a network for what they call a new revolution. Their digital tools are e-mail and text messages, which are more powerful than a megaphone, and cellphone cameras that are so common that thousands of people are potential journalists.” It sounds encouraging, but only time will tell, of course.
Related on World Hum:
* Can Your Panties Help Save Burma?
* The State of the Burma Travel Debate
Man to Stay in Paramus, New Jersey Ikea for Six Nights
by Michael Yessis | 01.07.08 | 4:23 PM ET
Mark Malkoff, aka the guy who visited all 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in 24 hours, checked into the Ikea this morning and will remain there through Saturday, eating at the Ikea restaurant and perhaps sleeping in a four-poster Hemnes. I bet the Ikea fanatics who spent the night at the temporary Ikea hostel in Oslo last summer are jealous.
May You Encounter Waitresses Who Call You ‘Hon’
by Jim Benning | 01.07.08 | 2:58 PM ET
That’s but one of Thomas Swick’s fine travel wishes for you for the new year. My wish for you in 2008: May you avoid this place.
Melbourne: An ‘International Centre for Literature’?
by Jim Benning | 01.07.08 | 2:40 PM ET
Australia’s The Age argues that Melbourne is the Edinburgh of the south and should be named UNESCO’s second City of Literature. (Via TEV)
Rick Steves Raps: ‘Europe Through The Back Door is Pretty Much the Bomb!’
by Michael Yessis | 01.07.08 | 1:02 PM ET
Now here’s a man who knows how to annoy his kids—and who isn’t afraid of appearing “butt-clenchingly bad.” That’s one comment on his blog post containing audio of “some sick rhymes” he recorded for his daughter’s high school radio station.
Sex, Drugs and Changing Times in Amsterdam
by Jim Benning | 01.07.08 | 12:37 PM ET
During my one visit to Amsterdam years ago, I strolled through the red-light district and into a couple of the city’s famous coffee houses, dutifully playing the part of the gawking tourist. Since then, I’ve always taken a little comfort in the fact that such a place can exist—that an extremely tolerant, live-and-let-live society can actually function, albeit with a certain number of associated problems. So it’s sad to read that, as the Los Angeles Times puts it, “it may be last call for drugs, sex and live-and-let-live in the Netherlands, one of the most famously broad-minded countries in the world.” The Times notes that a ban on hallucinogenic mushrooms taking effect this year is representative of a more conservative mood driving changes in Dutch laws and society.
Jet Lagged Blog Finishes Run
by Michael Yessis | 01.07.08 | 10:29 AM ET
The New York Times’s Jet Lagged blog ends its run today with a post from the man who started it all in early December, Pico Iyer. He concludes a wandering conversation among seven travel heavyweights with a bland but agreeable sentiment. “The unfriendliest skies in the world,” he writes, “are better than no skies at all.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Hello Goodbye
by Michael Yessis | 01.04.08 | 5:17 PM ET
Travelers welcomed in the new year this week with their eyes on Turkey, Maui, Indonesia and Jack Nicholson. We welcome 2008 with a farewell. Next week we’ll debut a new end-of-the-week post, so here’s your final Zeitgeist.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph UK (current)
Istanbul Travel Guide
Top Mediterranean Escape
TripAdvisor (current)
Nice, France
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Follow Nicholson and Freeman in ‘The Bucket List’
Most Read Feature Story
World Hum (posted this week)
The Trouble With ‘Smile When You’re Lying’
Top It List Destination
Concierge.com (2008)
Mozambique
Most Read Blog Post
World Hum (posted this week)
Crime Fiction Where You Least Expect It
2007: The Year of Mapping Dangerously
by Ben Keene | 01.04.08 | 5:03 PM ET
As an editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World, I spend a good chunk of my time following geographic changes around the globe. And the last year saw more than a few worth noting, from borders shifting—or even disappearing—to names changing and islands suddenly appearing. Herewith, my favorites from ‘07, starting with some good news.
Garrison Keillor: ‘I’m Nostalgic for the Long Car Trip’
by Michael Yessis | 01.04.08 | 2:14 PM ET
Some inspired travel-related musings from the bard of Lake Wobegon this week in Salon. In Just Follow the Map, he writes:
‘Global Soul’ Daniel Radcliffe Set to Play Slain Photojournalist
by Eva Holland | 01.04.08 | 1:11 PM ET
The mother of slain world traveler and freelance photojournalist Dan Eldon, who was killed in Mogadishu in 1993, has hand-picked the Harry Potter actor to play her son in an upcoming biopic.
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘End to Travel Woes Unlikely’
by Jim Benning | 01.04.08 | 12:07 PM ET
That’s right. It’s never going to get better. Thank you, Chicago Tribune.
