Travel Blog
Conan O’Brien: “Hasselhoff is Big in Germany, But I’m the King of Finland”
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.06 | 9:25 PM ET
Five days in Finland turned out to be fruitful for Conan O’Brien—and Finland. I just watched last night’s “very special episode” of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which was devoted exclusively to his brief journey through the country. It turned out to be a sweet love letter and, as expected, one of the more hilarious television travelogues I’ve seen. O’Brien, whose show is extremely popular in Finland, received a Beatlesque-greeting at the airport in Helsinki, inquired about Finnish stereotypes, scared some Chinese tourists, took a pack of sled dogs for a spin in Lapland and visited some of his fans in their homes, even going so far as attempting to repair an on-the-rocks friendship.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz“Translating Genocide”: MTV Goes to Africa
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.06 | 6:19 PM ET
Looks like MTV beat Nicholas Kristof to the punch. Sunday at 11 a.m. ET it debuts Translating Genocide, a documentary featuring three college students who, after being denied entrance to Darfur, travel to Chad to report on regional violence and human rights abuses. In a review in today’s New York Times, Ned Martel writes that the program “can’t be accused of an encyclopedic understanding of the crisis, nor does it instill a this-could-happen-to-you fear. But genuine emotions are captured on tape as respectful visitors empathize with traumatized refugees. ‘The world really is kind of small,’ one of the students says, mid-epiphany about mutual tastes in music.”
Los Angeles: Three Great Books
by Jim Benning | 03.11.06 | 5:24 PM ET
So Long, Hotel Minibars. Good Riddance.
by Jim Benning | 03.10.06 | 1:43 PM ET
I’ve never taken an item from a hotel room minibar. Five dollar sodas? Ridiculous. Four dollar candy bars? No way. As far as I’m concerned, the things are just a waste of space. And don’t get me started on the hotel staff that knock on your door, waking you from a perfectly good afternoon nap, to ask whether your minibar needs refilling. Let me nap in peace! So I was delighted to read in USA Today that an increasing number of hotels are giving up on minibar price gouging and emptying the little fridges so guests can actually use them for their own drinks or other items. It turns out, ironically, that some hotels are finding the minibars to be big money losers. The pricey drinks and snacks often don’t generate enough revenue to justify staff time refilling them.
Luxor, Egypt
by Ben Keene | 03.10.06 | 12:32 PM ET
Nicholas Kristof: I Want You to Travel With Me to the Developing World
by Michael Yessis | 03.10.06 | 12:28 PM ET
The New York Times columnist known for his reporting from some of the world’s most deadly and horrific places is looking for a traveling companion. “Over the next month, I’ll be holding a contest to find a university student or two to accompany me on a reporting trip to the developing world,” Kristof writes in his pitch on the Times Select section of the paper’s Web site. “I’m not sure where yet, and that will depend partly on what’s in the news at the time. But to give you a sense of the kind of travel I’m thinking of, the possibilities include a jaunt through rural Burundi and Rwanda in central Africa, or an odyssey from the coast of Cameroon inland to the heart of the Central African Republic.”
Conan O’Brien Takes on Finland
by Michael Yessis | 03.10.06 | 7:38 AM ET
The Late Night host will finally debut footage from his recent trip to Finland on tonight’s program. If you can’t wait, check out the video teaser and a series of photos he’s already posted on the Late Night With Conan O’Brien Web site. O’Brien’s trip seems to be creating some buzz for Finland tourism, and the Finnish Tourist Board is certainly trying to capitalize on it.
Spain: Home of the World’s Coolest Architecture
by Michael Yessis | 03.10.06 | 12:22 AM ET
Slate recently posted a slide-show essay about innovative architectural developments in Spain. The presentation includes great shots of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, Granada’s Museum of Andalusia and Barcelona’s Santa Caterina Market. New York’s Museum of Modern Art also currently has a great multimedia exhibition on its Web site, featuring audio commentary and images of more stunning Spanish buildings.
$20 Million for Bedbug Bites?
by Jim Benning | 03.09.06 | 7:48 PM ET
A couple is suing the Nevele Hotel in New York’s Catskills for $20 million, claiming they suffered more than 500 bedbug bites during a July stay. Yikes. That’s a lot of bites—and a lot of money. We’re not entirely surprised to hear about the bugs, though. As we noted here, the New York Times reported last year that bedbugs were “spreading through New York like a swarm of locusts on a lush field of wheat.”
China: It’s Not Easy “Preserving the Progressiveness”
by Jim Benning | 03.09.06 | 2:42 PM ET
Today’s New York Times has an interesting story on China and the communist party’s struggle to retain members and maintain interest. The approach? A “Maoist-style ideological campaign, complete with required study groups,” the paper reports. The campaign is known as “preserving the progressiveness.” It’s the butt of jokes in China, and it’s easy to understand why. When I was there, I asked a Chinese friend about the state of communism in the country. The response? “I don’t pay much attention to communism. I’m too busy following the value of my stock.”
A Cultural Shift in Macho Chile?
by Jim Benning | 03.09.06 | 1:48 PM ET
Just how macho and socially conservative is Chile? According to the Los Angeles Times, “It was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to legalize divorce, little more than a year ago. Abortion remains illegal.” And according some, rates of domestic violence are high. But Chile’s culture appears to be changing. On Saturday, Michelle Bachelet officially takes office as Chile’s first female head of state. Some citizens, including hopeful women, see Bachelet’s election as a sign that the nation is slowly becoming more democratic, post-Pinochet, and more open to women taking a prominent role in all walks of life, from business to government. The Los Angeles Times’ Reed Johnson, who has been filing terrific culture-related stories from throughout Latin America, reported on the phenomenon in yesterday’s paper.
Rick Steves: “I’m Just a Travel Writer Trying to Get More Horse Power”
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.06 | 1:56 PM ET
He’s already got a lot of it, of course. An AP profile of Rick Steves this week covers his publishing business and television shows, and details the success and future plans for his new hour-long radio show. Steves says he hopes it will be the travel equivalent of Car Talk. He’s apparently well on the way. The show set a new record for Saturday afternoon listeners during its public radio debut in Seattle, and is now in 17 markets and counting.
“It’s Like Writing a Travel Guide To a Place That Doesn’t Exist”
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.06 | 1:54 PM ET
Those are the words of David Hodgson, author of 55 video game strategy books. Matt Richtel wrote about him this weekend in the New York Times, and I got a kick out of how Hodgson describes his job. “Whereas Frommer’s guides tell you what hotel to stay in,” he says, “I tell you which hotel not to stay in because you’re going to get dragged down by a gangster.”
Goodbye ‘Calcutta,’ Hello ‘Kolkata.’ What’s in a Name?
by Jim Benning | 03.07.06 | 3:35 PM ET
To reflect pre-colonial times in India, Calcutta has become Kolkata, Madras is now Chennai and Bombay has become Mumbai. More and more Western newspapers are using the new official names in datelines—the Los Angeles Times made the change Monday. In an eloquent piece in today’s Times, David Lamb wonders what’s lost when such iconic names are tossed into the “historical scrap pile.”
Want to Send a Message to the People Who Search Your Bags? Try Some Fourth Amendment Luggage Tape.
by Michael Yessis | 03.07.06 | 11:36 AM ET
The words of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, are on every inch of the new product from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “You can put it on packages, or over the zipper of your luggage,” EFF Chairman Brad Templeton told Boing Boing. “Now, if they want to search your stuff, they have to literally slice the Fourth Amendment in half in order to do it.” It costs just $8 a roll to make your statement to TSA screeners and fellow travelers.
