Or something like that. World Hum contributor Jeff Biggers argues in The Huffington Post that “now is the time for universities, schools and literary organizations—and publishers—across the country to begin the process of breaking the ice in people-to-people diplomacy and cultural exchange” with Iran. American readers, he writes, should pick up some good Iranian literature this summer, starting with Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature. 

Related on World Hum:
* Rick Steves on his Iran Trip

He’s back from his trip to shoot a show that will air in January—we noted it here—and he recently spoke about it on public radio’s The World. Interesting interview. Warning: This web page plays the audio automatically.

Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Rick Steves: Reflections on Three Decades of World Travel

Fancy a retreat at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang Zen monastery? A leisurely tour of the ruins at Persepolis (pictured)? Dream on. Foreign Policy has a tongue-in-cheek look at five alluring destinations off-limits to Americans.

Related on World Hum:
* Wheeler: You Shouldn’t Always Mind Government Travel Advisories

Photo by Zoom Zoom via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler says Iran, North Korea and other countries that appear on government travel advisories are worth the almost-guaranteed hassles. “There are plenty of reasons they’re worth the extra effort, and, furthermore, they’re generally far less risky than the rumors, horror stories, and ‘don’t go there’ warnings would have us believe,” he writes in GOOD Magazine’s travel issue.

Related on World Hum:
* Rick Steves Blogs From Iran
* Knife Tricks: A Blogger Goes to North Korea

Chris who? You probably know his syrupy song “The Lady in Red.” (Video below.) It was huge in the mid-’80s. Turns out the British singer is still huge in Iran, where, for almost three decades, most Western music has been forbidden by the ruling Shiite Muslim clergy. De Burgh’s songs circulated on illegally copied tapes there, and he became rock-star popular. So much so that, in an apparent lifting of the Western music ban, de Burgh recently became the first Western pop musician to visit Iran since the 1979 revolution.

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He’s there to produce a TV show about travel in the country—and he’s on something of a mission. As he explained on the blog a couple of days ago: 

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Interesting bit in a Guardian story about train travel in Iran: “Scheduled for completion later this year is a line that will run from Kerman in the south-east to Quetta across the Pakistani border. When finished, it will present a mouth-watering prospect: uninterrupted rail travel from Europe to the subcontinent.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may denounce the U.S. as the “Great Satan,” but we all know that most Iranians are welcoming to American travelers and are curious and open-minded about American culture, right? Lest anyone forget, a couple of recent articles highlight the point.

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Full title: “Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East”

Author: Jared Cohen, U.S. State Department policy planner and 25-year-old second-time author

Released: Oct. 25, 2007

Travel genre: Travel memoir, cultural commentary

Territory covered: Internet cafes and house parties from Beirut to Tehran

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad—who made such a, uh, splash at Columbia University yesterday—may hate the West, but his country owns one of the most massive collections of 19th- and 20th-century Western art outside the West, according to a fascinating story by Kim Murphy in the Los Angele Times. The works—which include Picassos, Kandinskys, Miros, Warhols and possibly the best Jackson Pollock collection outside the United States—are relegated to the basement of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Amazingly, they have rarely been seen over the past 30 years. 

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It’s not a new idea, visiting the countries U.S. President George W. Bush dubbed the “Axis of Evil.” Ben Anderson, for instance, did it several years ago, and the BBC broadcast several programs based on his travels. Now Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler has written “Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil,” in which he chronicles his travels through Bush’s original three “axis” countries—Iran, Iraq and North Korea—plus Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia. 

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The April issue of Condé Nast Traveler features an excerpt from Ryszard Kapuscinski’s last book, “Travels with Herodotus.” Kapuscinski passed away in January, and “Herodotus” will be published in June. We’ll have a full review closer to its publication date.

Related on World Hum:
* Kapuscinski: ‘I Sometimes Call it Literature by Foot’
* World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books: No. 4: “The Soccer War” by Ryszard Kapuściński