Travel Blog
I Wrote a Travel Guidebook and All I Got Was a Pistol Whipping in Caracas
by Jim Benning | 07.10.06 | 11:58 AM ET
Okay, we exaggerate. Lonely Planet contributor Thomas Kohnstamm, a 30-year-old Seattle native, got more than just a pistol whipping while working on one guidebook. He also spent “massive amounts of time staying in fleabag hotels,” and he surely enjoyed the writing process, which he likened, at times, to “data entry.” Kohnstamm is among those quoted in a recent New York Times story about the challenges and perils of researching travel guidebooks for the likes of Lonely Planet and Let’s Go. Reports Warren St. John: “While the phrase ‘travel writing’ may invoke thoughts of steamer trunks, trains, Isak Dinesen and Graham Greene, or at the very least, well-financed junkets to spas in Rangoon for some glossy magazine or other, writing budget travel guides is most decidedly yeoman’s work. Most who do it quickly learn the one hard and fast rule of the trade: travel-guide writing is no vacation.”
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Yahoo! BuzzFrank Bures
by Michael Yessis | 07.10.06 | 7:15 AM ET
Frank Bures has learned many swear words in Italy, fallen out of trees in New Zealand, eaten assorted cow parts in Tanzania, seen amazing dart shows in Thailand and, most recently, investigated penis theft in Nigeria. His work has appeared in Wired, Tin House, Mother Jones, Audubon, Salon.com, the L.A. Times and other publications. His World Hum story Test Day was featured in the The Best American Travel Writing 2004. Another story of his appeared in Travelers’ Tales’ What Color is Your Jockstrap? He is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and is currently at work on a book about culture shock. He’s also World Hum’s books editor and was instrumental in the creation of World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books list.
Dispatches:
* The Sound of Sunshine
* Test Day
* Family on Safari
* The Magical Miracle Tour
* On Tanzanian Time
Book reviews:
* A Spook’s Planet: “The World Factbook”
* Elizabeth Gilbert: “Eat, Pray, Love”
* Ian Frazier: “Gone to New York”
* Notable Travel Books of 2005
* Welcome to Bizarroland: “Pyongyang”
* Paul Theroux: “Blinding Light”
* Emma Larkin: “Finding George Orwell in Burma”
Q&A’s:
* Billy Collins: The Poetry of Travel
* Christopher Wakling: “Beneath the Diamond Sky”
* Joel Henry: Dean of “Experimental Travel”
Michael Yessis
by Michael Yessis | 07.10.06 | 7:06 AM ET
Hi, I’m michael yessis
Lucha Libre in Tijuana: The Real “Nacho Libre”
by Michael Yessis | 07.09.06 | 9:35 AM ET
Jim has a story in today’s Washington Post about a trip to Tijuana to watch some chair-slamming lucha libre action. He’s scheduled to be interviewed about the piece this morning on Washington Post radio between 10:30 and 11 a.m. ET.
Devils Tower, Wyoming
by Ben Keene | 07.07.06 | 1:21 PM ET
Coordinates: 44 48 N 104 55 W
Height: 865 feet (284 m)
Whether out of vanity or a genuine appreciation for geography, the Devil has left his mark across the American landscape in the form of Paws, Thumbs, Elbows, and most notably, a Tower. Established as the first national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt on Sept. 24, 1906, and once described as “inaccessible to anything without wings” by a 19th century geologist, Devils Tower, Wyoming celebrates its centennial this year. The tower is located in the northeastern corner of the state not far from the Black Hills, and its formation is best understood as an igneous intrusion—a process that occurs when molten rock is forced up into sedimentary layers above. Now a popular destination for hikers, campers, and climbers, Devils Tower also appears in the sacred narratives of six different Plains Indian tribes, often with the name Bear’s Lodge or Tipi.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
Writer’s Digest on the Business of Travel Writing
by Jim Benning | 07.07.06 | 11:08 AM ET
A Los Angeles-San Francisco Bullet Train?
by Jim Benning | 07.07.06 | 10:35 AM ET
Michael Dukakis (the guy who taught us all that one bad photo-op can ruin your whole presidential campaign) makes the case in today’s L.A. Times for a high-speed train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. We know, it’s a pipe dream. But we can dream, can’t we?
The Rise of Chinese Car Culture
by Michael Yessis | 07.07.06 | 10:05 AM ET
China’s train to Tibet dominated the headlines this week, so much so that I forgot to post about Ted Conover’s excellent story about Chinese car culture in last weekend’s New York Times Magazine. “The figures behind China’s car boom are stunning,” Conover writes. “Total miles of highway in the country: at least 23,000, more than double what existed in 2001, and second now only to the United States. Number of passenger cars on the road: about 6 million in 2000 and about 20 million today. Car sales are up 54 percent in the first three months of 2006, compared with the same period a year ago; every day, 1,000 new cars (and 500 used ones) are sold in Beijing.” Conover signs on for a “self-driving tour” with the Beijing Target Auto Club and explores the economic, environmental and cultural impact of all those automobiles hitting Chinese roads.
Train Completes First Journey to Tibet. But is it Progress or a ‘Second Invasion’?
by Jim Benning | 07.07.06 | 7:30 AM ET
In the final chapter of his terrific 1988 book Riding the Iron Rooster, about riding trains through China, Paul Theroux wrote of the difficulty in traveling from China to Lhasa, Tibet—“six days overland from Xian, or else a long and frightening flight from Chengdu.” Later, he continued, “[T]he main reason Tibet is so undeveloped and un-Chinese—and so thoroughly old-fangled and pleasant—is that it is the one great place in China that the railway has not reached. The Kunlun Range is a guarantee that the railway will never get to Lhasa.” If only it were so. Earlier this week, after years of construction, a train completed the first journey from Beijing to Lhasa along what is now the world’s highest railway, topping out at a breathtaking 16,640 feet. “Laptop computers and digital music players failed because the tiny air bags that cushion their moving parts broke,” the AP reported via the Los Angeles Times. “Some passengers threw up. Others took Tibetan herbs or breathed oxygen through tubes.”
Update: CouchSurfing Returns
by Michael Yessis | 07.07.06 | 7:03 AM ET
The popular Web site that connects travelers with fellow travelers and places to sleep around the world suffered a huge data loss the other day, which caused founders to believe the site might be too far gone to recover. But the site’s supporters rallied, and
CouchSurfing 2.0 is now online. Thanks to Mikky Mouth for the heads up.
Iron Cross and Scott Carrier “Rock the Junta” in Burma
by Frank Bures | 07.07.06 | 12:30 AM ET
Scott Carrier has a fantastic piece on Burma in the July/August issue of Mother Jones. Carrier, who is known for his stories on This American Life and his book, Running After Antelope, traveled to Burma to look for Buddhist temples, but found himself hanging out with Iron Cross, the band whose spirit, if not its censored lyrics, have resonated with the oppressed population of Rangoon. “Everywhere we went, we were watched,” writes Carrier in Rock the Junta. “Long, intense stares coming from every direction, as if we were out of place and out of time, and it was hard to tell whether the Burmese were wondering if we were ‘external destructive elements’ or some second-rate soap opera stars they’d seen on TV. They did not, however, appear to be very friendly, and some of them laughed at us. Yes, a mockery, seconded by legions of squawking crows in every tree.” It is a fine portrait of modern Burma, and an even finer meditation on freedom and oppression.
Tim Cahill on World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books
by Rolf Potts | 07.06.06 | 10:23 AM ET
Back in May, World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books of all time included Tim Cahill’s Road Fever, which occupied the number 21 slot in the countdown. Since I know Cahill from the Key West Literary Seminar, and also from my online interview of him in 2004, I e-mailed him to see what he thought might be missing from the Top 30.
CouchSurfing Knocked Out By “Perfect Storm” of Tech Problems
by Michael Yessis | 07.06.06 | 7:13 AM ET
Is CouchSurfing wiped out? The popular Web site that connects travelers with fellow travelers and places to sleep around the world suffered a huge data loss in recent days, erasing profiles, e-mails, photos and other information central to the site’s mission. It may have also turned some CouchSurfers into “refugees.” The damage to the community has been “massive,” according to a message Sebastien, one of the site’s co-founders, posted on a message board that’s currently taking the place of the once-vibrant site.
Hahn: “More Sections of the New York Times That Help Terrorists”
by Michael Yessis | 07.05.06 | 8:29 PM ET
Why did the right-wing attack the New York Times travel pages for revealing the location of the vacation homes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld when, as World Hum contributor Kate Hahn shockingly points out today on McSweeney’s, the Gray Lady has so many other sections that aid the terrorists? The real estate section, for instance (“Shows terrorists where people live or might live,” she writes. “Extremely dangerous.”). And the vows (“Makes public the names of recently wed couples, so terrorists have no problem hacking into gift registries and determining which china patterns are most popular,” she writes. “Just think what they could do with that information.”). Even the crossword puzzle. Hahn writes: “Weekly lesson in cracking the code of double-entendres, obscure literary references, and puns used by people on the Upper West Side. Once deciphered, allows terrorists to infiltrate the best private nursery schools and kiddie gyms.” Will Shortz, watch your back.
Happy Fourth of July!
by Michael Yessis | 07.04.06 | 3:32 PM ET
Greetings from Washington D.C., where I’m spending Independence Day in the nation’s capital for the first time. I usually lay low on the Fourth, but today I’m taking part in some of the events around the District. I just returned from hearing Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams read the Declaration of Independence on the steps of the National Archives, fife and drum corps in tow. In a few hours, I’ll be out on the National Mall to see Stevie Wonder and the fireworks show. This will be our only post for the day, but it’s not the only Independence Day material we’ve got. Check out Joel Deutsch’s story about spending the Fourth in Los Angeles with some of his Russian immigrant friends. And over at MSN, Jim has a story about watching Fourth of July fireworks at a U.S. military base in Stuttgart, Germany. Happy Fourth, everyone.
