Travel Blog
Philippines Doctor Wins $238,000 From KLM Over Lost Luggage
by Michael Yessis | 03.07.06 | 11:35 AM ET
The airline lost Dr. Jose Tiongco’s bag eight years ago on a KLM flight from Manila, Philippines to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tiongco was on his way to give a lecture at a World Health Organization conference, and he claimed his reputation took a nose dive when he had to address his audience in a “sweatshirt, denims and running shoes”. (No clothing stores were open between the time his delayed flight arrived and his scheduled speaking time). KLM, of course, has appealed the ruling of the Philippines court. Yikes. Can you imagine the precedent this will set if the judgment stands? The Minda News has the full story from Davao City.
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Yahoo! BuzzTravel and the Effects of “Feature Accumulation Theory”
by Frank Bures | 03.06.06 | 6:17 PM ET
Why does Bangkok’s Khao San Road seem 800 miles long the first time you walk down it? Scientists may have found the answer. According to a report in Nature available only to subscribers, the reason is something called “feature accumulation theory.” The phenomenon, described in the article, is something we’ve all experienced landing in a new city.
Will Travel Become a Weapon in South Dakota’s Abortion Rights Debate?
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 4:19 PM ET
It’s hard to imagine it will have any effect on South Dakota’s controversial decision to severely restrict abortions. But interestingly, those on both sides of the debate are voicing their response by talking up travel plans.
Pico Iyer on the Tricks of the Travel Writing Trade
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 2:54 PM ET
“Best American Travel Writing 2005” vs. “Best Travel Writing 2005”
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 2:13 PM ET
In Perceptive Travel, Tim Leffel compares the Houghton Mifflin anthology with the Travelers’ Tales collection. He prefers the latter. On The Best American Travel Writing 2005, edited by Jamaica Kincaid, he writes: “[S]logging through this collection was too often about as much fun as taking a Friday night seminar class at the university.” And on Travelers’ Tales Best Travel Writing 2005: “Get that one if you want to read stories that are fun, intriguing, and exuberant.” (Via Written Road.)
“English Spoken Here”?
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 1:50 PM ET
Not if Richard Goodman has a say in the matter.
Rio de Janeiro: The Little Slum Inn
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 1:12 PM ET
Talk about slumming. That’s exactly the experience operators of The Little Slum Inn are selling to travelers in Rio. The five-room hostel is located in the midst of one of the city’s impoverished favelas—prime real estate, apparently, if you’re a backpacker with an urge to experience one of Rio’s grittier neighborhoods. According to a Reuters report, “adventurous tourists, mainly from Germany, France and the United States,” are staying at the hostel in Pereira da Silva. “This place isn’t for wimps,” the inn’s co-owner told Reuters. “If you are uptight, you can go stay at the Copacabana Palace.” A bed goes for $15 a night, doubles go for $35.
Rolf Potts is Traveling Light at Yahoo! Travel
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 12:49 PM ET
The first installment of Traveling Light, Rolf Potts’ new column at Yahoo! Travel, debuted last week, focusing on an experimental vaccine that could put an end to traveler’s diarrhea. Potts has reservations about it. “This is a good thing, I know—but it’s also a sign of how travel is becoming less and less an experience of the unfamiliar,” Potts writes. It’s a fine start to the new weekly column. Potts joins two other travel columnists at Yahoo!: Richard Bangs, who writes about adventure, and Barbara Correa, who writes about business travel. Potts will continue to field your questions here.
Cruise Lines Release Crime Data
by Michael Yessis | 03.06.06 | 10:01 AM ET
Twenty-eight people disappeared from cruise ships during the past three years, and only five of them have been found, according to figures released last week by Holland America Lines, Royal Caribbean Cruises and other major cruise companies. The disclosure of these and other crime statistics on the high seas comes in advance of hearings Tuesday by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that’s looking into cruise ship safety. The hearings were triggered in part by the July 2005 disappearance of honeymooner George Allen Smith IV from the Royal Caribbean Line’s Brilliance of the Seas as it sailed the Mediterranean.
Celebrating “Cosmopolitanism”
by Jim Benning | 03.03.06 | 1:28 PM ET
On Saturday night, C-SPAN2’S Book TV will feature Ghana-born Princeton philosophy professsor Kwame Anthony Appiah discussing his book, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. It sounds like the kind of read that just might belong on the bookshelf of a good Lonely Planet-reading, sushi-eating, U.N-supporting, passport-carrying traveler.
Killing My Lobster in San Francisco’s Mission District
by Michael Yessis | 03.03.06 | 1:16 PM ET
The acclaimed San Francisco comedy group Killing My Lobster finishes up a two-weekend run of its travel-themed show “Killing My Lobster Takes a Cruise” tonight and tomorrow at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. I recommend this or any other Killing My Lobster event. The group puts on themed shows several times a year, and when I lived in San Francisco a few years back I saw a bunch of performances. All were hilarious. Here are a few ideas for what to see and do before and after the show.
San Francisco: The Mission District
by Michael Yessis | 03.03.06 | 1:05 PM ET
San Francisco’s Mission District, with its strong Latin tradition, is beloved by artists, activists, hipsters and foodies. “I try to get anybody coming to San Francisco to come to the Mission,” San Francisco-based writer Dave Eggers recently told the New York Times. “Not to misuse the word ‘authentic’—I think that’s such a troubling word—but the Mission really does have all the best parts of San Francisco intersecting here.”
Darién National Park
by Ben Keene | 03.03.06 | 12:46 PM ET
James Gandolfini as Ernest Hemingway?
by Jim Benning | 03.02.06 | 10:25 AM ET
Interesting note in a USA Today story yesterday about “The Sopranos”: Star James Gandolfini, the article mentions in an aside, “is still toying with playing Ernest Hemingway in a biopic, though he’s finding it a long and difficult process to set up the project at a studio.” Apparently there’s been talk of a Hemingway project for some time. This 2004 article suggested the film, about Hemingway’s romance with journalist Marth Gellhorn, would be made last year. It also noted Gandolfini’s involvement with The Hemingway Preservation Foundation and its efforts to restore Hemingway’s Cuba home.
Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium Reaches 1 Million Visitors Milestone
by Michael Yessis | 03.02.06 | 2:14 AM ET
It comes only 98 days after the Georgia Aquarium opened its doors, according to a CNN report today. Impressive numbers and a rousing success, yet I have to admit that I’ve never really understood the appeal of aquariums.
