Travel Blog
Tom Downey on the Graphic Travel Story
by Jim Benning | 07.03.06 | 11:23 AM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzWhen Passport Photos Go Bad
by Jim Benning | 07.03.06 | 10:47 AM ET
Actually, Eileen Mitchell’s passport photo wasn’t just run-of-the-mill bad. As she writes in a fine essay in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, “Imagine a black-and-white mug shot of a drunken Prince Charles in drag, sporting a bad perm—a photo valid for the next five years.” Okay, we’re convinced. That’s bad. Now please help us forget this horrible, horrible image.
“Cross Country”: Across America with Lewis and Clark, Emily Post, Jack Kerouac, Etc.*
by Michael Yessis | 07.03.06 | 10:05 AM ET
For the second time in less than a month a travel book made the cover of the New York Times Book Review Sunday. Robert Sullivan’s Cross Country is the latest book to get what might be the most coveted review spot in U.S. media, and like The Naked Tourist The Places in Between in early June, it earned a rave review. “‘Cross Country’ is delightful as history, but it’s the tender portrait of a family driving home together, enjoying their time just the four of them, that resonates on closing the book,” Bruce Barcott writes. “America may or may not ‘be’ the road, but for the Sullivans and so many other families, their time there comes to define them.”
Cheney, Rumsfeld and an Attack on the New York Times Travel Pages
by Michael Yessis | 07.02.06 | 2:20 PM ET
Yup, it’s the New York Times travel pages taking a wild attack from the right wing this weekend. The alleged offense? Publishing a story about St. Michaels, Md., a “primly groomed waterside village” that happens to be where Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld own homes. Peter T. Kilborn pinpointed the houses in his story. To Michelle Malkin and others on the right, that exposes the two high-ranking government officials to terrorists and offers further proof that the Times is out to undermine the Bush Administration. It’s a ridiculous charge for so many reasons. Glenn Greenwald goes through them point-by-point in this weblog post.
Darkness, Then Light, On a Road in Tanzania
by Jim Benning | 07.01.06 | 11:29 AM ET
I Want My Book TV: Sunday, July 2, 2006
by Jim Benning | 06.30.06 | 2:42 PM ET
Cue the Dire Straits song “Money For Nothing.” Then, as you play your air guitar and sing along—that is what you do when you hear this song, isn’t it?—simply substitute “I want my MTV” with “I want my Book TV.” Not only is it fun, but for all you guys out there, it’s a great way to impress the ladies. And you’ll help me start a book-club-karaoke craze that will sweep the nation.
But to the point: Prolific World Hum contributor Jeff Biggers (Family Traveling; Italy’s Dark Heart; Europe from the Passenger Side) will appear on C-SPAN2’s Book TV this very Sunday at the Tivo-mandatory time of 5:30 a.m. Eastern to discuss his book, The United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America. If the book doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps you missed our mention of it earlier this year.
Lviv, Ukraine
by Ben Keene | 06.30.06 | 10:22 AM ET
Coordinates: 49 50 24 0 E
Population: 732,818 (2001 est.)
The Ukrainian national team has surprised many 2006 World Cup fans with its success in making the quarterfinals, but the team actually has a fairly long history beginning in the western city of Lviv in July 1894. In that month, the first official soccer match was held here in a small stadium in Stryisky Park. Established in the 13th century along the trade route between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea, Lviv is the only Ukrainian city with Renaissance architecture. Beyond its significance to European athletics, the urban center north of the Carpathian Mountains also plays an important role in the country’s culture, economy and educational system.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
Bush, Koizumi and Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches for Everyone*
by Michael Yessis | 06.30.06 | 6:22 AM ET
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is such an Elvis fan he’s got to have a fried PB&J for lunch today, doesn’t he? It’s the day he and President George W. Bush say farewell to each other with a trip to Memphis to visit Graceland. Priscilla and Lisa Marie will be their guides. ABC News, among others, has details.
R.I.P. California Map & Travel, Cody’s Books
by Jim Benning | 06.29.06 | 1:13 PM ET
Today, we pay our respects to two great California bookstores we’re losing or already have lost. California Map & Travel Center, the fine Santa Monica travel bookstore whose L.A. roots stretched back to 1949—an eternity in L.A.—recently closed shop. The small Pico Boulevard store was crammed with guidebooks, narratives and globes, and it sometimes hosted readings. I once saw travel editor and writer Thomas Swick read there on a book tour, to an enthusiastic audience. The store was profiled here in better days. The other big loss, of course, is Cody’s Books, an institution on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. The store, which stocked all kinds of books, will close July 11. Two other Bay area Cody’s locations will continue to operate, but it is the Telegraph Avenue store, a stone’s throw from the UC Berkeley campus, that is so beloved among book-lovers.
Tokyo for Under $1,000 a Week, Including Airfare
by Jim Benning | 06.29.06 | 12:20 PM ET
Travel writer Ben Brazil recently accomplished this very feat—nibbling sashimi, enjoying private city tours, wandering through Asakusa’s old temples. Please, he writes in Sunday’s Washington Post, “refrain from envy.” As he discovered, Tokyo is not the world’s most expensive city anymore: “It’s fallen all the way to No. 2.”
Road Tripping Across Bhutan
by Ben Keene | 06.29.06 | 11:07 AM ET
Outside magazine’s June issue features a compelling article on Bhutan, the isolated Asian kingdom short on airports, stoplights, and tourists, but apparently not short on happiness. Senior editor Stephanie Pearson joins Robert Thurman, ordained Buddhist monk and friend of the the Dalai Lama, on a road trip across the landlocked nation in search of her own inner contentment. Following in the footsteps of a Buddhaholic and joined by a gaggle of psychonauts and budding bodhisattvas, she describes a society seeking to find its own sort of peace between ancient traditions and the pull of modernity. For travelers with bigger budgets as well as a hankering for a blend culture, adventure and spirituality, Outside includes several tour operators that arrange Bhutan trips from the United States.
The Interstates and “That William Least Heat-Moon Problem of the Intellectual Wayfarer”
by Michael Yessis | 06.29.06 | 10:43 AM ET
This afternoon, after two weeks on the road, a convoy lead by the great-grandson of Dwight D. Eisenhower—the 34th president is one of the fathers of the American Interstate System—will arrive in Washington D.C. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the big roads. On June 29, 1956, Ike signed the legislation to launch the project, and the country has never been the same. Loads of copy have been spent in recent days on the convoy—some participants have blogged the trip—and impact of the Interstate System on American culture. The best I’ve read so far is by Hank Stuever in today’s Washington Post. Stuever, as usual, offers a fresh take and lovely writing. “The interstate didn’t create us,” he writes, “it is us.”
South African Writer Adam Levin on Travel, AIDS and Bruce Chatwin
by Jim Benning | 06.29.06 | 6:35 AM ET
Peter Hessler on World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books
by Rolf Potts | 06.28.06 | 11:11 PM ET
Last month, World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books of all time included Peter Hessler’s River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, which weighed in at number 20 on the list. Curious to know Hessler’s take on the Top 30—as well as his own suggestions for books that might have been included—I contacted him by e-mail as he toured the U.S. in support of his latest China book, Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present.
Ethical Travel: What is a Traveler’s Responsibility?
by Michael Yessis | 06.28.06 | 9:27 PM ET
World Hum books editor Frank Bures explores the idea of ethical travel in a piece for the July/August 2006 issue of Mother Jones. “Last year more than 800 million tourists traveled internationally, and in 2004 tourism generated $623 billion, making it one of the largest industries in the world,” he writes. “Yet somehow that rising tide has not lifted all the boats (except, perhaps, cruise liners), and a growing number of travelers are ... looking to such movements as pro-poor tourism, fair trade tourism, and ethical travel for answers.”
