Happy Fourth of July

World Hum’s Most Read: June 28-July 3

What We Loved This Week: Def Leppard in Greece, Austrian Competence and Freedom in Colombia

The LAX Theme Building, Then and Now

As a Woman, Can I Really Travel Without Much Fear for my Safety?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

Inside Slum Tourism

With mixed feelings, Rob Verger recently signed on for a tour of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. He looks back on the experience—and the photos he was allowed to take.

Break Bread and Brie in France

Great cheese abounds in the land of Gaul, but dig in and you risk committing any number of faux pas. Terry Ward explains how to partake of the nation’s famed fromage with savoir faire.

10 Wanderlust-Inducing Summer Concerts

Call it world music or global pop or the sound of the world hum. Ben Keene reveals 10 acts on tour that are sure to transport you. Plus videos.

Bryan Mealer: ‘War and Deliverance in Congo’

The former AP correspondent traveled up the Congo River. Frank Bures asks the author of “All Things Must Fight to Live” about following in the wake of Joseph Conrad. 

A Journey Into ‘The Second World’

Some bureaucrats joke that they would never claim expertise about countries they had not at least flown over. In an excerpt from his new book, Parag Khanna argues that real global understanding can only come from serious travel.

‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?

Lonely Planet author Robert Reid reviews Thomas Kohnstamm’s “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” and weighs in on the controversy surrounding it

Pondering ‘Tourism’s Withering Impact’ in Asia

You know, its not that so many tourists are visiting these secluded places. It’s the arrogant insensitivity that is so appalling. If the tourists could just show a bit of restraint and acquaint themselves with local customs beforehand, it would be a lot easier for everyone.

What I love here is that everyone is to blame: mindless tourists, idealistic backpackers, corrupt governments, greedy entrepreneurs, Westerners, Easterners, and, of course, the press. In the face of such hopelessness, what can you do?

Or rather: If going to a “new” destination inevitably leads to its destruction (provided it’s cool enough for other people to visit), where the hell are you supposed to go?

Actually, the locals are just as much to blame for ruining such historic sites as the wester tourists, bums though many of them are.  From what I have seen of the “development” of a number of sacred mountains in China, neither the Chinese tourist authorities nor the Chinese tourists have much taste for the original meaning of these places.  It’s a kind of Hello Kitty meets Disney, dotted with a few shrines!  Mass travel and tourism definitely have a flip side, if you consider the understanding levels of visitors of all nationalities.

People lament the cultural damages that occur with increased tourism but in Alaska we have a very different experience—Americans come up here in hoards just to KILL things !  We call it ‘blood-sport tourism’.  It’s not pretty.  Anyone considering becoming a professional guide has to choose: Cater to Muscle Heads or Motor Heads.  Both vastly different career choices in the field.

Personally I’m an Air Head— just love touring Southeast on my fusion powered sailboat !