Travel Blog
Dark Days on Galapagos
by Julia Ross | 02.04.08 | 10:33 AM ET
Unsettling news out of the Galapagos Islands: The BBC reports on the mysterious killing of 53 sea lions in the islands’ nature reserve. While poachers have been known to target the animals for their skin and teeth—prized ingredients in Chinese medicine—that doesn’t seem to be the case here, and park officials are at a loss to explain the slaughter. The tragedy hits the Galapagos at an uncertain time, with green groups warning that the islands’ unique ecosystem is suffering under a sharp increase in tourism.
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Yahoo! BuzzWorld Hum’s Most Read: Jan. 26-Feb. 1
by Jim Benning | 02.02.08 | 2:07 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts this week:
1.) Fire Breaks Out at Monte Carlo in Las Vegas
2.) 10 Sizzling Hot Travel Tips From Sir Francis Bacon
3.) Q&A With Michael Palin: The New ‘New Europe’
4.) The Trouble With ‘Smile When You’re Lying’
5.) The (Full Moon) Party’s Over
What we Loved This Week: From Yesterland to ‘Graceland’
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 3:00 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Michael Yessis
I’m 90 pages into Barack Obama’s memoir, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, which so far has covered his childhood in Indonesia, a stint in New York City and his early life in Hawaii. He’s a terrific, evocative writer, and I’m hooked. You sure you don’t want to trade politics for travel writing, Barack?
New U.S. Passport Design: The’ Ugly Khaki Shorts’ of Passports?
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 12:48 PM ET
We’ve written before about the over-the-top patriotic design of the new U.S. passport. Reviews are still trickling in, and I like Karrie Jacobs’s take. “When I travel, I try to be the Complex American—a citizen of the fascinating, nuanced, multicultural, messy and basically decent place I know this country to be,” she remarked yesterday in a short essay on public radio’s Marketplace. “But I feel like this passport blows my cover. It’s like suddenly, against my will, I’m wearing ugly khaki shorts and talking way too loud.” That’s right, Karrie. You might as well be wearing these at every customs checkpoint.
R.I.P. Miles Kington, King of ‘Franglais’
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 12:05 PM ET
Miles Kington “satirised the earnest but doomed efforts of native English speakers to handle French,” as the BBC put it. (Example: Bill Wyman’s remark, “Je suis un rock star.”) Kington coined the term “Franglais,” and his books on the topic included Let’s Parler Franglais! He died Wednesday, prompting the fitting BBC headline: “Au revoir Mister Franglais.”
Related on World Hum:
* New Addition to the Travel Lexicon: ‘Geotourism’
Is Kauai’s Aloha Spirit in Peril?
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 11:42 AM ET
Tourist visits to Kauai reached record numbers last year: 1.27 million people made the trip to the Garden Island. A slew of construction projects—many around the resorts of Poipu—are in the works. Locals are worrying about the future. Writes Laura Bly in USA Today: “[O]ver the past few years, as tourism kicked into high gear and the island’s 63,000 residents wound down from rebuilding efforts following 1992’s devastating Category 4 Hurricane Iniki, frustration levels have swelled like north shore surf during a winter storm.”
Tanya Shaffer: Travel ‘Puts me in a State of Hyper-Awareness’
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 10:25 AM ET
So says the author of Somebody’s Heart is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa and other travel-related works. The writer, performer and playwright spoke to the Santa Barbara Independent about the third annual Women’s Literary Festival, which takes place in the city Saturday, Feb. 9.
10 Super Bowl-Worthy Watering Holes
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 10:07 AM ET
U.S. Issues New Kenya Travel Alert
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 9:50 AM ET
As post-election violence increases and the World Bank threatens to suspend projects, the U.S. State Department urged citizens Thursday to “strongly consider the risks of travel to Kenya at this time,” adding, “U.S. citizens should avoid all travel to the cities of Kisumu, Nakuru and Naivasha, and defer all non-essential travel to the remaining portions of Nyanza, Western, and Rift Valley provinces.”
Dispatch from Oaxaca: ‘A Year Later’
by Jim Benning | 01.31.08 | 3:39 PM ET
Ceci Connolly visited the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca recently to see how it was doing after the deadly riots of 2006. “It didn’t take long to realize that the answer is more complicated than I’d thought,” she writes in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Oaxaca is no longer the filthy, smoldering wreck of 2006. Nor, however, is it the bustling cultural center of years past. It appears safe and clean. But unresolved political tensions have prompted the U.S. State Department to keep it on a watch list.”
China Plans ‘Weather Modification’ for Olympics
by Jim Benning | 01.31.08 | 1:05 PM ET
We’ve already reported that Chinese officials are toiling to rid Beijing of troublesome mixed elbow with garlic mud in time for the Olympics. Now comes word they also want to rid the city of rain—at least for a short while. According to the Los Angeles Times, meteorologists will be working to ensure that nary a drop falls during the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies. Writes Barbara Demick: “Chinese scientists believe they have perfected a technique that reduces the size of the raindrops, delaying the rain until the clouds move on.” Too bad they can’t delay some snow right now.
Photo by Ingsoc via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Historic Canadian Bookstore to Close
by Ben Keene | 01.31.08 | 11:37 AM ET
Independent bookstore closures are hardly a new phenomenon, but this one really stings. As Canada’s oldest bookstore, The Book Room has kept readers in Nova Scotia supplied with bound volumes for 169 years—since 1839. But as a result of declining sales, the Halifax store is selling down its inventory in preparation for a March closure. Said the store’s president Tuesday, “The staff and I are both really sad about having to do this.”
How Bad is Travel in China Right Now?
by Jim Benning | 01.31.08 | 9:50 AM ET
It’s hard to imagine it getting worse. On Tuesday, we noted the bullhorn-wielding prime minister’s apology to travelers. Now, as a result of the worst winter storms in half a century, Chinese officials are asking migrant workers to cancel their trips home for Lunar New Year celebrations—no small request.
New U.S. Border Entry Rules Take Effect Today*
by Jim Benning | 01.31.08 | 9:18 AM ET
If you’re a Canadian or U.S. citizen crossing into the U.S., you’ll now need to show a government-issued photo ID—a driver’s license will do—and proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate. Those under 18 need only a birth certificate. Of course, a passport is all you really need, but the new rules are a precursor to a mandatory passport rule, which has been postponed until at least 2009. Cross-border commuters fear long waits and headaches as the new rules take effect today. Hopefully the scene at checkpoints won’t look anything like this. The U.S. State Department has the official word on requirements.
Update, 11:40 a.m. PT: Word from the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing this morning is that the wait is perhaps slightly longer than usual.
Blog to Watch: ‘Evolution of Security’
by Michael Yessis | 01.30.08 | 2:43 PM ET
Awful name, but an interesting development: It’s a new blog from the Transportation Security Administration, which, in the words its chief, Kip Hawley, aims to provide “a forum for a lively, open discussion of TSA issues.” The key word here: Lively. The blogosphere isn’t shy when it comes to Hawley and the TSA.
