Travel Blog
A Tourist’s Guide to the World Cup
by Jim Benning | 06.19.06 | 3:29 PM ET
Who are the favorites in this year’s World Cup? Forget defense strategies, speed or player experience. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Thomas Swick handicaps his favorites based on something else entirely: their standing in the world of travel. It’s a guide to the games unlike any I’ve seen, beginning with the opening paragraph: “On paper, Group F is definitely the strongest. Brazil comes in with Christ the Redeemer, Carnival, samba. Croatia has the newly hot Dalmatian coast. Australia is a perennial favorite with its kangaroos and opera house. And then there’s versatile Japan, with its potent mix of old (temples) and new (technology).”
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Yahoo! BuzzHow World Cup Losers Explain the World
by Michael Yessis | 06.19.06 | 11:11 AM ET
Serbia & Montenegro, Paraguay and Ivory Coast are already eliminated from the World Cup in Germany, and if Michael J. Agovino is right, the players will soon forget their losses. It may be a different story for the teams’ fans. In a piece for the New York Times this weekend, Agovino explores how losses in soccer’s biggest event, particularly upsets and losses to longtime rivals, can affect the way a country’s citizens feel about themselves and the way a nation presents itself to the world. He writes: “Famous upsets in sports abound ... but it is still soccer, by far the most popular sport, whose results are so entangled with a nation’s history and sense of identity.”
Fake Travel Tips From a Fake Rachael Ray
by Michael Yessis | 06.19.06 | 11:05 AM ET
Krubera Cave, Georgia
by Ben Keene | 06.17.06 | 12:25 PM ET
Coordinates: 43 12 N 41 5 E
Deepest point reached: 6,824 feet (2,080 m)
With the onset of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and average temperatures worldwide on the rise, the question on the minds of many is: how to beat the heat? For cavers willing to travel to Abkhazia on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, one solution might be to head underground. Krubera Cave in the Republic of Georgia, with limestone passages that extend to depths well over a mile and half, offers a particularly cool opportunity. In the last few years, teams of explorers seeking to push deeper into Krubera Cave have contended with hypothermia while diving through flooded parts.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
More Ways to See the World Through Literature
by Michael Yessis | 06.16.06 | 11:53 AM ET
Salon debuted a Literary Guide to the World yesterday, which, if you’ve read World Hum’s budding Three Great Books feature, will seem familiar. “From Turkey to Togo, D.C. to L.A., Rio to Russia and beyond, the Guide promises to recommend the best books—fiction, history, memoir or otherwise—to take with you on your travels,” writes Hillary Frey, Salon’s books editor, in her introduction to the package. “And if there’s a place that you’ve always dreamed of seeing, but won’t visit in the foreseeable future, the Literary Guide will point you to the books that offer the best virtual tours around.”
Bush, Koizumi Headed to Graceland
by Michael Yessis | 06.15.06 | 9:09 AM ET
The hair should have tipped me off. Turns out Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a huge Elvis Presley fan. How huge? “The 64-year-old PM is well known as the most serious Elvis disciple of today’s world leaders,” according to the Washington Post’s Reliable Source column. “He shares a birthday (Jan. 8) with the rock icon, and his brother once ran the Presley fan club’s Yokohama chapter. In 1987, he was one of the key players in erecting a bronze statue of Presley in Tokyo. He’s sung Elvis tunes poolside at [President] Bush’s Crawford ranch and dazzled Condi Rice with his knowledge of Elvis trivia at a G8 dinner. And in 2001, he released a 25-song compilation CD called ‘Junichiro Koizumi Presents: My Favorite Elvis Songs.’ It was sold only in Japan, and all proceeds went to charity.”
“What Color is Your Jockstrap? Funny Men and Women Write from the Road”
by Jim Benning | 06.14.06 | 5:52 PM ET
That’s the wacky title of Travelers’ Tales’ new humor collection, which hits stores this week. Edited by Jennifer Leo, the book features stories by writers familiar to readers of this site, including Frank Bures, Rolf Potts, Elliott Hester, Doug Lansky and yours truly. Other contributors include Tim Cahill, Susan Orlean and J. Maarten Troost. The book’s Web site features the introduction and author reading dates. I’ll be joining Jen Leo and contributors Sean Presant and Don Priess for a 7:30 p.m. reading at Distant Lands bookstore in Pasadena on Monday night, which should be good fun. If you’re in Southern California, stop by and say hi.
Anthony Bourdain on Travel, Vietnam and his “Graham Greene Worldview”
by Jim Benning | 06.14.06 | 4:59 PM ET
Bookslut has posted a terrific interview with the Ramones-loving chef, traveler and TV host. Among the highlights, Bourdain talks about his love of travel in Vietnam and what he calls his “Graham Greene worldview.” He said, “To me The Quiet American is a happy book. I read it every year. It nails Vietnam. It’s still there, that Vietnam. It’s a perfect metaphor, he loves a woman who can never fully love him back. It is a perfect metaphor for colonialism and Western adventurism in the East. I don’t care, I just want to be there.” Elsewhere, he remarked, “Vietnam in particular ruined my whole life. My expectations for what I see when I open my eyes in the morning, or even little things like the condiments on the table when I sit down.” Bourdain is the author of the new book, The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones.
Franklin Foer and Friends: A World Cup (and More) Blog
by Michael Yessis | 06.14.06 | 9:20 AM ET
There’s some wonderfully expansive World Cup coverage going on at the New Republic’s Goal Post blog. Franklin Foer, the editor of the magazine and author of How Soccer Explains the World, and his friends—“Nowhere Man” author Aleksandar Hemon and movie director Edward Zwick among them—are covering the tournament from all sorts of interesting angles. Yesterday afternoon, for instance, Kevin Arnovitz had a dispatch from Los Angeles, where South Korean fans spilled into the streets to celebrate their team’s victory, and Alex Massie posted about the potential media reaction if all the African teams lose their first-round matches.
The Rewards of le Big Mac
by Michael Yessis | 06.14.06 | 8:15 AM ET
Rolf Potts’ Traveling Light column about McDonald’s over at Yahoo! has stirred up much conversation in the last few days. That’s what happens, I guess, when you tout the virtues of eating at the Golden Arches while traveling abroad. “Look closely ... and you’ll discover that (despite their placeless ambience) the McDonald’s in far-flung places are culturally discernible from the McDonald’s you’ll find in Modesto or Milwaukee,” he writes. “In India, for example, a McDonald’s serves chicken Maharaja Macs’ instead of Big Macs (due to Hindu and Muslim taboos against beef and pork), and a door-greeter is often available to assist the middle-class clientele. Moreover, as any Pulp Fiction fan will note, Paris McDonald’s offer the option of ordering a frothy beer with le Big Mac.”
Visiting with Jan Morris in Wales
by Jim Benning | 06.13.06 | 1:27 PM ET
For the May/June issue of National Geographic Traveler, writer Michael Shapiro visited Wales and had tea with acclaimed author Jan Morris. His story isn’t available online, but a photo gallery is. Shapiro contributed to our recent feature on the 30 greatest travel books of all time. In fact, he sang the praises of Morris’s classic “Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere,” which was number 24 on our list.
What do Travel Writers Always Carry When They’re On the Road?
by Michael Yessis | 06.13.06 | 11:07 AM ET
For Jan Morris, it’s a pot of English bitter orange marmalade. Tim Cahill takes a world-band radio (“I may be safe in the bush, but I would like to know if there are riots, gunfire, etc. in the capital city where I’ll have to go to fly home”). Bill Bryson carries items he no longer wants, such as sweaters given to him by his in-laws (“I can discard them en route and lighten my load as I go”). A dozen other travel writers answered the question posed by John Flinn in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle.
Expedia, TripAdvisor, New Zealand Tourism Win Webbys
by Michael Yessis | 06.13.06 | 6:41 AM ET
The Webby Awards were handed out last night in New York. Expedia won the award for best travel site, and NewZealand’s tourism site took the tourism site award. As we discussed when the nominees were announced, the difference between the two categories is a bit fuzzy. TripAdvisor won the People’s Voice Webby for best community site and best travel site. Congats to the winners and nominees.
Soccer: Three Great Books
by World Hum | 06.12.06 | 1:16 PM ET
iStockPhoto Soccer is more than just another sport. It often reflects centuries-old ethnic, nationalist and religious tensions. It’s a global business. Its fans are wildly—and sometimes violently—passionate about their teams.
While some writers have explored the subject as part of larger works—Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Soccer War features (despite what its title might suggest) just one compelling chapter on the soccer-inspired war between El Salvador and Honduras, for example, and Paul Theroux’s “The Old Patagonian Express” includes a terrific passage about a soccer-related riot in San Salvador—other writers have devoted entire books to soccer and the culture that surrounds it.
Herewith, three great books about soccer:
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer. Foer travels the globe, hanging out with soccer hooligans and exploring age-old rivalries to see how soccer reflects—or doesn’t—the forces of globalization at work. His insights are fascinating. For example, he traces the relationship between the Balkan Wars and soccer: how, early on, soccer fans at Red Star Belgrade stadium had chanted for secession from Yugoslavia; how Slobodan Milosevic’s interior minister had sat on the soccer team’s board; how Serb leaders recruited nationalist Red Star fans for paramilitary operations. And that’s just the opening chapter. In the prologue, Foer addresses larger questions about the world’s future, noting that many have embraced traditionalism out of fear that globalization will obliterate indigenous cultures. But soccer, he finds, suggests the future is not so simple. Local allegiances and identities continue to thrive.
He writes:
By the logic of both its critics and proponents, the global culture should have wiped away these local institutions. Indeed, traveling the world, it’s hard not to be awed by the power of mega-brands like the clubs Manchester United and Real Madrid, backed by Nike and Adidas, who have cultivated support across continents, prying fans away from their old allegiances. But that homogenization turned out to be more of an exception than I had anticipated. Wandering among lunatic fans, gangster owners, and crazed Bulgarian strikers, I kept noticing the ways that globalization had failed to diminish the game’s local cultures, local blood feuds, and even local corruption. In fact, I began to suspect that globalization had actually increased the power of these local entities—and not always in such a good way.
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. In his 1992 bestseller, Hornby explores the world’s fascination with soccer through his own obsessive relationship with Premiership powerhouse Arsenal. “While the details here are unique to me,” he writes in the introduction, “I hope they will strike a chord with anyone who has ever found themselves drifting off, in the middle of a working day or a film or a conversation, towards a left-foot volley into a top right-hand corner ten or fifteen or twenty-five years ago.” The great strength of “Fever” lies in Hornby’s recall of those details—the book is organized in short sections that take place at or are inspired by his memories of matches—right down to the noise in the stadium the first time he took his place in the jam-packed North Bank with Arsenal’s most passionate fans.
I loved the different categories of noise: the formal, ritual noise when the players emerged (each player’s name called in turn, starting with the favourite, until he responded with a wave); the spontaneous shapeless roar when something exciting was happening on the pitch; the renewed vigour of the chanting after a goal or a sustained period of attacking ... After my initial alarm I grew to love the movement, the way I was thrown towards the pitch and sucked back again. And I loved the anonymity: I was not, after all, going to be found out. I stayed for the next seventeen seasons.
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy by Joe McGinniss. On one level, “The Miracle” is a book about soccer—the highs and lows, the dreams and despair that a team from Castel di Sangro in southern Italy faced throughout its hardest year ever. They lacked skill, talent, organization and money, but played from the bottom of their souls. On another level, “The Miracle of Castel di Sangro” is about people—the players, their families and their fans (for many of whom this would be the most exciting year since World War II). It is a book about a nuanced Italy, complete with its bumps, warts and graceful curves; the paradoxical land, as one player remarked, of both Dante and Machiavelli, where there is always more beneath the surface. McGinniss is a master of his craft. His sketches of life in Castel di Sangro are so smooth and so vivid that you can easily find yourself lying awake at night worrying about the next day’s game.
—Jim Benning, Michael Yessis and Frank Bures contributed to this report.
‘Naked Tourist,’ ‘The Places in Between’ in the New York Times
by Michael Yessis | 06.11.06 | 6:37 PM ET
It’s rare that the New York Times reviews a travel book, and even more rare when it reviews the same travel book twice. And I can’t remember the last travel book that made the cover of the Sunday Book Review. This weekend the paper hit the trifecta. Last Sunday, Lawrence Osborne’s The Naked Tourist: In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall landed a spot in a roundup of summer travel books; yesterday it got a full review from William Grimes, who called it a “a biting, highly amusing and occasionally profound inquiry into travel and its discontents.” Today, the cover of the Book Review features Tom Bissell’s stellar review of Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between, which chronicles the writer’s walk across Afghanistan in 2002. “Even in mild weather in an Abrams tank, such a trip would be mane-whitening,” Bissell writes. “But Stewart goes in the middle of winter, crossing through some territory still shakily held by the Taliban—and entirely on foot. There are some Medusa-slayingly gutsy travel writers out there—Redmond O’Hanlon, Jeffrey Tayler, Robert Young Pelton—but Stewart makes them look like Hilton sisters.”
