Travel Blog
Rapa Nui to World: ‘We Don’t Want to Become an Archaeological Theme Park’
by Michael Yessis | 01.10.07 | 8:55 AM ET
Should Rapa Nui restore more of its iconic and mysterious stone statues? They’re a big reason Rapa Nui has become a hot spot for travelers, and “commercial and political interests, as well as some archaeologists, would like nothing better than to restore more—or perhaps eventually all—of the moai, as the statues are known,” writes Larry Rohter in the New York Times. “But many residents of Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for Easter Island that is favored here, regard that possibility with a mixture of suspicion and dread.”
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Yahoo! BuzzWard on CouchSurfing: ‘I’ve Paid Dearly to Stay in Bed-and-Breakfasts that Weren’t Half as Inviting’
by Michael Yessis | 01.10.07 | 8:35 AM ET
World Hum contributor Terry Ward recently tried CouchSurfing, and her latest story for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel covers her night lodging in Limerick, Ireland with Mike and Carlo. The experience, Ward writes, made her realize “how many times having a little faith in people has opened up my world while traveling.”
Related on World Hum:
* CouchSurfing in Good Magazine: ‘This Isn’t Just About a Place to Crash’
R.I.P. Momofuku Ando, Inventor of Instant Ramen Noodles
by Jim Benning | 01.09.07 | 1:31 PM ET
Oh instant ramen, how we love thee. You feed 100 million people a day, by some estimates. You have served as a worthy and affordable introduction to Japanese food for countless people around the globe. In much of Asia, you are standard dining fare on trains. And now, we learn you were invented by Momofuku Ando in 1958. Sadly, we learn, too, of Ando’s death at the age of 96 near Osaka, Japan. But we agree with everything Lawrence Downes writes in an eloquent tribute in today’s New York Times: “Ramen noodles have earned Mr. Ando an eternal place in the pantheon of human progress. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Give him ramen noodles, and you don’t have to teach him anything.” Too true.
Related on World Hum:
* Chinese Noodles Predate Marco Polo
Photo: jayceho, via Flickr. (Creative Commons License.)
For Sale: World’s Smallest Island Nation
by Jim Benning | 01.09.07 | 12:29 PM ET
Yup. The Principality of Sealand, a former wartime fort seven miles off the coast of England, is up for sale. It doesn’t exactly sound like paradise. Calling it an “island” might be generous. It’s set on a steel platform rising out of the chilly North Sea. But if you’re looking to be king, it surely has it charms—particularly a wild history. It was claimed in 1967 by Paddy Roy Bates. The Royal Navy ordered him out, but he refused and even fired warning shots at a Navy ship to defend his autonomy. In 1968, a judge ruled that Sealand was beyond Britian’s territorial control, allowing Prince Roy to go about the business of nationhood, including issuing passports and developing currency and a flag.
‘The Cultures That Produced Dubai and Las Vegas Surely Must Have Something in Common’
by Michael Yessis | 01.09.07 | 8:40 AM ET
Seth Stevenson believes Dubai’s “media moment” has passed. “The flurry of breathless write-ups —in Sunday travel sections and glossy lifestyle magazines—has come and gone,” he writes in the latest edition of Slate’s Well-Traveled. “We’re on to the next destination already. (Laos. Yemen. Low-altitude space orbit.)” Yet Stevenson couldn’t resist Dubai’s “profound wackiness,” and set-forth on a trip that, in typical Stevenson fashion, he mines for insight and laughs.
Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos on Fresh Air
by Michael Yessis | 01.09.07 | 8:14 AM ET
The frontman for Scottish band Franz Ferdinand sat with Terry Gross yesterday on the public radio show Fresh Air to talk about Sound Bites, Kapranos’s book about his gastronomic adventures on the road. The book is based on a food column Kapranos wrote for The Guardian. Food, Kapranos tells Fresh Air, has always played a big role in his life. He and bassist Bob Hardy hatched the idea for the band while working in a Glasgow restaurant.
Don George on Leaving Lonely Planet and the Future of Travel
by Jim Benning | 01.08.07 | 3:20 PM ET
Tom Bissell in Estonia: ‘It Feels, In a Word, Sane’
by Michael Yessis | 01.08.07 | 9:16 AM ET
Technologically, Estonia seems “like a planet from a Flash Gordon serial.” Economically, it’s strong and growing. And in Tallinn, the nightlife is “fun and welcoming,” and boasts “what I can say were—without fear of hyperbole—the most jaw-droppingly beautiful women I have ever seen in my life.” Those are the observations of Chasing the Sea author and World Hum contributor Tom Bissell writing in The New Republic. But Bissell, who traveled to Estonia twice in 2006, was not completely blinded by what he saw. He writes: “I wondered: Was Estonia’s stylishness actually some geoeconomic version of keeping up with the Joneses of the Western world?” His excellent story examines Estonia’s history and rise to become one of the European Union’s most successful new members.
Coming Soon to a TSA Security Checkpoint Near You: Advertisements
by Michael Yessis | 01.08.07 | 6:11 AM ET
It’s odd, but it sort of makes sense: It’s hard to think of a more captive audience these days than travelers trying to get through airport security.
I Want My Book TV: P.J. O’Rourke
by Jim Benning | 01.05.07 | 2:06 PM ET
Occasional travel writer P.J. O’Rourke will be interviewed live for a whopping three hours on C-SPAN2’s Book TV Sunday. O’Rourke is the author of Holidays in Hell, among other books. The network’s three-hour interviews have to be grueling for everyone involved, but they’re always illuminating.
Jeff Biggers on NPR
by Jim Benning | 01.05.07 | 1:52 PM ET
World Hum contributor Jeff Biggers appears on NPR’s Latino USA this weekend to discuss his latest book, In the Sierra Madre. In fact, Maria Hinojosa’s interview with Biggers—or “Pancho,” as the Tarahumara called him—is already available online.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Cheap Flights and Covered Bridges
by Michael Yessis | 01.05.07 | 9:08 AM ET
It’s a new year, and travelers are still showing love for some old standbys—Las Vegas, cheap travel and a good Irish beer. But they’re also looking for some underwater adventure. Here’s your first Zeitgeist of 2007:
Most Viewed Weblog Category
World Hum (this week)
Las Vegas
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
No Place for a Zamboni: A Hockey Rink Where Players Sink
* Yes, this story is about the glorious sport of underwater hockey. It is, apparently, big in Britain.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
How to Get the Cheapest Flight Every Single Time
Most Dugg Travel Podcast
Digg (current)
The Traveling Morans
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Three Travel Books Crack Entertainment Weekly’s Nonfiction Books of the Year List
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Busiest Airport in the U.S.
FAA (2006)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
* Total flights logged in Atlanta: 976,307. Chicago O’Hare International Airport finished a close second with 958,643 flights.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Covered Bridges Take You From Present to Past
‘Where the Hell is Matt?’: The Commentary Track
by Michael Yessis | 01.05.07 | 9:03 AM ET
Matt Harding of the ubiquitous around-the-world dance video has posted on YouTube a lecture he gave to students at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont about the making of the video and travel in general. Click continue reading to watch:
Marajó Island, Brazil
by Ben Keene | 01.05.07 | 7:20 AM ET
Rocking in Chile, Post-Pinochet
by Jim Benning | 01.04.07 | 5:13 PM ET
