World Hum’s Most Read: Aug. 23-29

What We Loved This Week: Las Vegas, Maui and the Street Art of Sao Paulo

R.I.P. ‘Staycation’

‘The Internet is About the Best Thing to Happen to Geography Nerds Since the Sextant’

A Tourist With a Shovel and a Hoe

When she arrived in Kenya to volunteer with the Maasai, Daniela Petrova looked down her nose at tourists there to have a good time. But was her own motivation much different?

How Should I Spend My Time in Spain?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

Paul Theroux: Invisible Man on a Ghost Train

Jim Benning asks the author of “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” about his new book, aging and the challenge of disappearing in the age of the BlackBerry

Eat Ceviche in Lima

Grab a Cusqueña and get comfortable. As Nicholas Gill explains, a trip to a Peruvian cevichería can be an all-day immersion in good conversation and raw seafood.

Unsentimental Journeys: Wrestling With Paul Theroux

Bronwen Dickey considers “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: 28,000 Miles in Search of the Great Railway Bazaar”

My Travels, My Feet

After taking one too many headless torso shots of herself, solo traveler Sophia Dembling started snapping photos of her feet around the world, from the Grand Canyon to Red Square

Seven Reasons to Have a Foreign Fling

Sure, having an overseas romance is fun. But Terry Ward points out seven other benefits to cross-border love, mon petit chou.

Sex, Drugs and Changing Times in Amsterdam

The Dutch people need to take their country back from outsiders.  If they don’t, they will look up 10 - 15 years from now and see a country that is not theirs from a ethnic and cultural standpoint.  No country on the face of the earth should be expected to take in massive numbers of people whose beliefs are so totally opposite their own.  Muslim immigration was a thoughtful gesture but it has backfired.  They want to make Holland into an extension of Mecca.  Holland should be - and should stay - for the Dutch people.  They should not have to make excuses or apologize for creating the culture that has suited them these many hundreds of years - but they had better close their society to those who are religiously and culturally different from them in order to get a handle on their immigrant problem - or Holland will slip away from them.  In the next 25 years all of Europe will be lost. That is not racist - that is a fact!

R.P.
USA

Dutch people wake up!Mecca is only for its own selfish ideology.They say,"kill the infidels”!Straight from their holy book! And to think of anyone having compassion for these barbarians!!!! Dutch people don’t let your country go the way mine has and that is called all out war!!
Lonecat11

We travelled to Amsterdam in 2004 and experienced it all and loved every minute of it. I think Holland and the open minded people are already going in the right direction and shouldn’t change. Prostitution is the oldest profession and they have safe houses, physical check ups and the government gets taxes. In Canada, they spend the taxpayers money to set traps for the Johns and P’s who are released back into society almost immediately. It makes it safe for everyone involved to legalize Prostittion and and the government gets $$ and face it...it is all about the money. Same with pot. I am talking hard stuff but pot and hash...legalize it with limits and tax it like cigarettes. Keep going forward Amsterdam...don’t go backwards like the rest of the world.

What if the United States, which is often called the greatest country on earth, felt the same way as many seem to feel about the Dutch situation.  The only native Americans are the American Indians.  Everyone else living here is an immigrant, coming to America on the Mayflower, Amistad or other slave ships or by way of the greatest symbol of relief and freedom to an immigrant, Ellis Island.  Those ancestors who migrated to America were hard working people seeking freedom from oppression in their own land and seeking rights that America guarantees to all its inhabitants.  They set up neighborhoods in all the major northern cities and established their own “cultural mecca” which all of us still enjoy to this day.  If they had had those freedoms in their own land of origin they would not have come to America, the land of freedom.  And the majority of people who came here against their own will have flourished in this country, generation after generation.  There are good people and bad people in every group and culture of people throughout the entire world.  Let’s be careful about what’s lurking in our own hearts before we start judging people out of fear or by some misguided, misinformed perception and keep in mind that everyone wants a place on earth where they and their family are free, safe and able to worship G-d in their own way, and should be able to do so as long as their particular practice is not harmful to others.  All major religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.)have variations of belief and practice among their people. Foremost, let’s remember that human beings did not create the earth nor do we own it.  It was created by The Most High as a place of refuge for all of humanity, not as a place of oppression.

I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT THE TRAVEL CHANNEL IS MY NUMBER 1...NUMBER 2 IS HGTV....

BUT PLEASE KEEP SAMANTHA BROWN, FOREVER...THAT IS THE MOST ENTERTAINING SHOW...SHE IS FANTASTIC...THE DISNEY CHRISTMAS SHOW WAS AWESOME..HER FACE AND EMOTIONS ARE SO SINCERE…

I ALSO LOVE THE VACATION HOMES SHOW...IT JUST MAKES ME WONDER WHY SPEND ALL THAT MONEY FOR A COUPLE WEEKS A YEAR...OH, WELL, IF YOU HAVE IT FLAUNT IT..

THANK YOU SINCERELY, BRIDGETT

I travel alot so naturally your chanel is on alot at my house!  Ive watched Sam Browns Europe shows dozens of times and never tire of them![marry me Sam] Hope to see more new shows in future!  Im also a huge fan of Tony Bourdain and am very happy to see anew season of shows. Sometimes Tony is a little too New York, but he has an edge that I appreciate.  Keep up the great work!  Jim

Travel Channel is such a relief from the network and cable sitcoms dribble. Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern are great fare while we sit in our homes huddled by the fireplace awaiting spring. Like the raw comments that Tony spews out! Hurrah for the T-Channel...DanO

I visited my family in Holland back in 2005. Nothing short of magical I must say, the feeling you get when walking down the ancient streets of Amsterdam or Zwolle, the food is amazing and the Dutch people are even more so. I had a bad experience with Muslims when I was there though, I don’t think they are bad people, but you can’t come into my house and tell me what to do, no sir.

My girlfriend is Dutch and we travel to Holland each summer to hang out in Amsterdam and visit her brother.  Over the past few years the atmosphere has gotten a little tense.  The Dutch feel that the Muslim population presents problems and does not want to have any part of the Dutch culture.  Even though some are 2nd generation citizens, they do not care for Holland as a nation.  The high muslim areas have most of the country’s crime problems centered around them.  The groups are rowdy and show a dangerous look of resentment as if they feel oppressed and could retaliate.  It seems that the guys aged 18-35 are constantly staring down caucasian girls with disgusting looks on their faces.  They grab girls at clubs and think all girls want to dance with them.  Some even joke about terrorism and bring up 9/11.  I’m not saying that all Muslims are bad.  I do not feel anyone is perfect or any type of person is inherently better than another.  But the tension between the groups is there and is only gonna cause more problems as time goes on.  I do not feel that this is the reason the Dutch government is tightening its restrictions.  I think it has more to do with reviving the pure side of their culture and bringing a prideful face back to Holland.  It really is a matter of pride and identity.  There could be ethnic undertones in the battles at hand, but everything from a smoking ban to protect the population from second-hand smoke, to turning slums into real-estate GOLD.  Conservatism in general is changing Holland, Amsterdam in particular

I have been in Amsterdam at last year, that was awesome!

I wasn’t expecting such news in Amsterdam. As far as I know they could handle drug legalization pretty well, more countries actually considered legalizing drugs as well. We just have to wait and see what happens next.