As of this afternoon, the spinning chunk of rock we inhabit is one- to two-and-a-half days of rotation from the year 2007. If you’re on the tiny Pacific atoll of Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the island nation of Kiribati, you’ll be among the first to welcome it. Kiritimati is the largest land-mass in the chain, at 248 sq. miles, and has a population just over 5,000. Despite lying almost due south of Hawai’i, Kiribati gets the honor of being the first, and not the last, into the new year, due to the angle of the earth’s rotation and a tricky little deviation in the international dateline,
which puts it ahead of competitors such as Chatham Island, New Zealand and Tonga. Time and Date.com has a list of dates and times in UTC (GMT), that the new year will start all around the world, and an applet with a countdown clock for every time zone.
If you’re spending New Year’s Eve in one of the US nightlife capitals, such as Miami, New York or LA, you might be able to forget entirely that there’s a nation of teetotaling bible-thumpers out there waiting to harsh your buzz and call you a heathen. But land in the wrong state, and local “blue” laws preventing the sale or consumption of alcohol on a Sunday, which NYE is this year, could but a serious damper on your party plans. In the states of Georgia, Connecticut and Indiana there’s no alcohol sold for home consumption anywhere on a Sunday; while Minnesota, Oklahoma and Utah, allow only sales of low-alcohol beer. Several other states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas and South Carolina allow communities to make their own laws concerning booze and the sabbath and confuse everyone. As if that weren’t bad enough, in many places where alcohol is at least served on Sundays, bars are forced to kick patrons out by, yup, midnight. Bar and liquor store owners are complaining mightily, though, about the loss of business and in a few cases have successfully petitioned for an NYE exemption to the rules. How to cope if you planned to party in the States? Look up local laws here and then contact your legislators and tell them “Let the people drink!”
Elsewhere:
– “‘Blue law’ states face New Year’s Eve alcohol dilemma” (Houston Chronicle)
– “Sunday holidays loosen alcohol laws” (USA Today)
In honor of the coming New Year, the jet-setting folks at Condé Nast Traveler have rounded up a list of how 12:00 am, January 1 will be met in nine different places around the globe. From a night of Buddhist meditation in Tokyo, to Edinburgh’s three-night Hogmanay bender involving gallons of alcohol, and men in skirts and no underwear, there’s bound to be a celebration to suit your style.
On a round-the-world jaunt, foodie documentarian Liz Morrison was dismayed by the number of American fast-food franchises that she discovered crapping up foreign locales. Her clip “Eating in a McWorld,” is an interesting take on how the omnipresence of our supersized culture changes traveling, but also how other cultures change the the face of the franchise. This goes way beyond the Royale with Cheese, McAlooTikki anyone?
Previously:
– posts for foodies
– Today in YouTube
Amid speculation on the state of Fidel Castro’s health, and, consequently, whether or not he, or his political cohorts, will be able to remain in control of Cuba’s government, come reports that the new Democratic majority in Congress may push for a “new direction in Cuba.” Massachusetts Representative William Delahunt (D) and others recently visited the island nation as part of a delegation and returned talking of changes to decades old sanctions and travel restrictions, according to the Boston Globe. One of the first steps in the process would be to ease the restrictions for Cuban-Americans returning to visit family members. If that measure succeeds, though, it may be a crack in the dam. It was not so long ago that Cuba was one of the top vacation destinations for Americans, and for much of the rest of the world (and hundreds of yanquís traveling clandestinely) it still is. The Malecón and Old Havana have been largely restored in recent years, and hotels are springing up. The US travel industry (in particular, certain top-tier hotel magnates) are getting restless for their piece of the action. (via World Hum)
– “Delahunt pushes for end to U.S. travel ban on Cuba” (Boston Globe)
– “Castro Does Not Have Cancer, Spanish Surgeon Says” (NYT)
Previously:
– “Note to US Hoteliers: “Cuba Libre” is Still Just a Cocktail“
Another look at how the Web 2.0 captured holiday weekend travel traumas: flickr may have the Denver blizzard, but YouTube has footage of the fog that shut down Heathrow. TAflyertalk’s clip was shot from a United 777 that was able to take off for the States after all of British Airways’ domestic flights had been cancelled, stranding hundreds.
Now that’s what I call low visibility.
Previously:
– “Under Snow: Denver International Airport”
– “Holiday Travel in High Gear: 65 Million En Route, and Big, Bad Weather”
– Today in YouTube
Denver is back up and running after a major blizzard grounded flights and stranded passengers during the holiday rush last week. To get an idea of just what it takes to put an international air hub into the deep freeze, check out this bird’s-eye image of the snowbound facilities, courtesy of flickr user Ashley Niblock:
And here’s a side-by-sde comparison of the same aerial view sans snow, from mo.murrey’s photostream. (via Boing Boing)
Elsewhere:
– “Mostly Clear Skies Await Travelers” (USA Today)
anti-tourist n. – as defined in The Lost Cosmonaut, (Scribners, 2006):
– The anti-tourist does not visit places that are in any way desirable.
– The anti-tourist eschews comfort.
– The anti-tourist embraces hunger and hallucinations and shit hotels.
– The anti-tourist scorns the bluster and bravado of the daredevil, who attempts to
penetrate danger zones such as Afghanistan. The only thing that lies behind this is
vanity and a desire to brag.
– The anti-tourist travels at the wrong time of year.
– The anti-tourist is humble and seeks invisibility.
– The anti-tourist is interested only in hidden histories, in delightful obscurities, in bad art.
– The anti-tourist believes beauty is in the street.
– The anti-tourist holds that whatever travel does, it rarely broadens the mind.
The Travelistic Blog’s holiday reading is Daniel Kalder’s newly published anti-tourist travelogue, The Lost Cosmonaut. Kalder is a man on a mission to overturn the truisms of conventional travel writing –that there is a “right” time of year to go anywhere, that there are “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.” To prove his point, he journeyed to the hinterlands of the Russian Federation, quasi-autonomous regions so obscure that I had to look them up to be sure the book wasn’t fiction. Casting himself as a sort of “anti-Borat”–to quote the New York Times– Kalder travels by tenets laid out at a purported International Congress of Anti-Tourists that took place in (where else?) Kazakhstan. Borat-land isn’t far enough off the map for the true iconoclast, however, so Kalder packs off to Tartarstan, Udmurtia, Mari El and Kalmykia. Right. Along the way he encounters fragments of Peter the Great’s cabinet of curiosities, mail-order brides, and tribal pagans, and visits an isolated outpost dedicated entirely to chess. Mostly, though, Kalder plays tourguide to a nearly empty landscape of bleak post-soviet burgs, and bleaker steppe-country that even most Russians will never visit. But for the anti-tourist, of course, that is exactly the point.
Previously:
– Borat
– “The Endless Steppe”
– Word of the Day
Elsewhere:
– Daniel Kalder
– “Going nowhere” (Guardian)
– “Armchair Traveler: ‘Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-Tourist’” (NY Times)
Readers’ “Best-Of” Lists:
– “2006: how was it for you?” (Guardian)
– “FOLLOW THE READER: THE AMERICAS” (SF Chronicle)
Around the World
– “Flying faster than Jules Verne” (LA Times)
Bangladesh
– “Lured by the Beach Side of a Beleaguered Land in Bangladesh” (LA Times)
Finding Santa in Finland
– “The road to Santaland” (Times of London)
Pennsylvania
– “Just Don’t Call It the Poconos” (NYT)
Nicaragua
– “Fit for Man and Beast” (Washington Post)
St. Moritz
– “Sybaritic St. Moritz” (NYT)
Thailand: Cheap and Chain-Store Free
– “Thailand without Tescos” (Times of London)
Vienna
– “Vienna from a new angle” (LA Times)
If your idea of how to celebrate a winter festival has less to do with astronomical phenomena, religious observance or gift-giving, and more with the “airing of grievances” and “feats of strength,” well then a merry Festivus to you. Dating back to a 1997 episode of Seinfeld in which Frank Costanza turns his back on the commercialization of Christmas and decides to create his own holiday, Festivus has gone from a sitcom joke to a genuine seasonal phenomenon, typically celebrated on December 23. The event actually originated in the family of Seinfeld writer Daniel O’Keefe, whose The Real Festivus is a helpful guide on how to start gathering around the aluminum pole, and creating your own Festivus tradition.
Elsewhere:
– “Yes, Virginia, there is a Festivus” (Boston Globe)
– “A Festivus for the Rest of Us” (Washington Post) – Interview with Dan O’Keefe
– “Have Yourself a Merry Little Festivus” (Washington Post)
– “‘Seinfeld’ spurs Festivus pole sales” (Yahoo News)
Yes, that’s right: today is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (I’m choosing to ignore you dratted southerners who are basking in summer sun right now). Sunset is due here in NYC at 4:32 pm today, but from here on out there can only be more light, even if, in theory, it will get colder. Here’s a look at how one of nature’s holidays is celebrated around the world:
England:
Druids and assorted flavors of pagans gathered at Stonehenge for sunrise this morning. Because the event is a religious observance, English Heritage allows the be-robed and drumming masses access to the inner circle of stones.
China:
In China, the solstice is celebrated as part of the astronomical calendar, the same one that puts the Chinese New Year on a shifting date from late January to February. Called Dōngzhì, the festival is an all-night family reunion where everyone partakes red bean rice dumpling soup.
Spain:
In Spain, the 22nd is a big part of the seasonal build up to Christmas, as it’s the day the main drawing of the national lotteries is held. It’s called El Gordo (the Fat One)- or El Sorteo de Navidad, and the extravagant proceedings are a 200-year-old tradition. This year the jackpot for the Cordoba lottery alone was 10 million euros, and nearly €2 billion was handed out across the country as a whole, almost €50 for every person living in Spain. The Fat One indeed.
That’s right, in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, 65 million americans will be in the air or on the road. That’s almost double the number who traveled over Thanksgiving weekend (aka – the busiest travel weekend of the year), and an increase of one million from last year. It’s also a new record for the highest number of people traveling during this period. With such an epic number of people flooding airports and highways, cue the bad weather: Denver International is in lockdown due to a blizzard, which in turn has snarled O’Hare. It snowed heavily around Seattle yesterday, with more storms expected over the weekend, and, on the international scene, it’s so foggy in London that hundreds are stuck at Heathrow, and thousands more caused British Airways’ website to crash trying to find out about their flights. If you’re traveling in the next few days, make sure to check the weather, traffic reports, and airport conditions before you set out.
– “65 million expected to travel over holidays” (MSNBC)
– “Some holiday travel delays at O’Hare” (Chicago Tribune)
– “Blizzard Blankets Colorado, Snarls Holiday Travel ” (Bloomberg)
– “Overnight storm mild, but mountain passes get lots of snow” (Seattle Times)
– “Anger and frustration at Heathrow” (BBC)
If you’re flying for Christmas and you expect to arrive toting a Santa-like sack of wrapped gifties, think again. The TSA wants you to know that they retain the right to open all presents to get at any suspicious looking articles inside. For you harried travelers who think you won’t have the time to wrap once you arrive, just imagine how bad the security lines will get when every other body through the checkpoints leads to a teary scene between an indignant gift-wrap artisan and the frazzled guards. It’s also worth remembering that carry-on restrictions are still in effect regarding all liquids, and some foods. Your Jell-O mold and festive bottle of booze aren’t going to make it unless there’s only three ounces of them. You can find the TSA’s run-down of holiday travel rules and recommendations here, including their somewhat helpful “311” mnemonic:
* Liquids, aerosols and gels must be in containers three ounces or less,
* Items must be put in a one quart, clear plastic zip-top bag, and
* Only one zip-top bag per passenger.
(via inFlightHQ)
Previously:
– “Traveling for Thanksgiving”
– “TSA Eases Ban on Liquids in Carry-On Luggage“
How good are TSA agents, those bastions of security against “freedom haters” around the world? This good: On Saturday, a non-english speaking grandmother was confused at an LAX checkpoint and managed to put her 1-month-old grandson through the X-ray machine. Screeners did not notice what had occurred until the infant showed up on the monitor and was quickly pulled from the scanner. This even though, according to the LA Times, the security area was not busy at the time. Said a retired FAA agent quoted in the story, ””The screeners are still reporting that they’re being pushed. If a baby can get through, what the hell else can get through?” The infant in question was checked into a hospital for observation and released with a clean bill of health.
Elsewhere:
– “Baby put through X-ray machine at LAX” (MSNBC)
Our friends at Gothamist linked to Kelly Loudenberg’s new video on last weekend’s Santacon in NYC. Santacon is an annual event where hordes of Santa suit-clad miscreants take over parks, stores, and bars in New York for a day of merry mischief-making. Witness the track suit Santas, Bondage Bambi, Santa Smurf and many others in today’s featured videos.
If you missed the annual art/celebrity showdown that was Art Basel Miami Beach, the friendly dilettantes at Cool Hunting, now sufficiently recovered from their hangovers, have just the thing: a video recap of the weekend’s happenings. Today’s clip includes a parade of artist-designed blimps on the beach, a look inside the exhibition halls, and arty musical performances from freaky, folksy Devendra Banhart, and freaky, freaky Peaches. As collector Marvin Friedman says: “It’s the art market on steroids, it’s the Superbowl of art.” Check Cool Hunting next week for the second half of their coverage.
Paris has a new tram line connecting the outer edges of the 13th, 14th and 15th arrondissements, the first tram within city limits since 1937. The T3 line replaces part of a beleaguered bus route that travels the city’s busy ring road, the Boulevard Périphérique, and will eventually encircle the the whole city. Right-wing opponents of Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoë slammed the $400 million project as a waste of public funds, and boycotted the inauguration on Saturday, but Delanoë was unfazed, stating: “We need to respond to pollution with action, it’s a necessity of public health and civilization.” “Half of the planet’s population lives in towns today, so we need to make behavior evolve.” (Right on, Bertrand.) The electric trams will ferry 100,000 people a day through some of Paris’ most populated neighborhoods, along tracks that have been laid with grass and lined with borders of trees. Here’s an interactive map showing the route and connections to the Metro and RER systems.
– “Paris welcomes trams back to town” (BBC)
– “Paris tram slides into action after 70 years” (Sydney Morning Herald)
– RATP interactive map
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Annual Geography Quiz
– “Where In The World?”
New Year’s Eve Travel
– “25 great New Year’s getaways” (Guardian)
“The LA Times’ Savvy Shopper
– “A Parisian present … pour moi?”
– “These bargains made in Mexico”
– “Hong Kong, a.k.a. treasure island”
- “In Saigon, spending is great frenzied fun”
- “Wrap up a little cultural cachet from Paris, London”
Southern Caribbean
– “In Los Roques, Venezuela, a No-Frills Vibe” (NYT)
Mozambique
– “Mozambique buries the AK-47” (NYT)
Nicaragua
– “The Rediscovery of Nicaragua” (NYT)
Amazing what a cellphone video camera can do. YouTuber Medford’s video Travel Mix was created from clips of planes and airports shot on a mobile during a four-month period of business traveling through Europe. I think this nicely captures the kind of non-space that’s unique to airports, where one concourse blends into the next seamlessly, with only different languages on signs and different prepackaged foods in the terminal stores to mark the change.
For those of you heading out to hit some fresh Sierra powder at Squaw, Northstar or Alpine, good news: there are two new transport programs in the North Tahoe area that will help you to get from airport to mountain, or mountain to bar…to bar, all without having to drive. If you haven’t driven in the area in winter before, trust me, it’s something you want to leave to the pros: the snow and ice can get pretty thick, those mountain roads are steep, and Caltrans means business with their tire-chain checks. The North Lake Tahoe Express shuttle just kicked off a new route of regularly scheduled service from Reno/Tahoe International to resorts and villages around the north shore of the lake, and starting December 14, the town of Truckee has extended evening hours for their shuttle service which runs between various hotels and the nightlife of downtown. Both services connect to the existing regional network of what has to be the best (or worst?)-named public transit system in existence, the TART (Tahoe Area Rapid Transit).
(via Jaunted)
– North Lake Tahoe Express
– “Truckee to test more evening shuttle bus hours” (Nevada Appeal)
They might not be cold-blooded, venomous snakes, but mice are still scary to a lot of people, especially when a herd of 80 of them escapes into the cabin of a plane at 28,000 feet. A male passenger on a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight, from Riyadh to north-eastern town of Tabuk, somehow managed to get the scores of rodents past security in his carry-on bag. Part-way into the flight they staged an escape and began stampeding around the cabin; the BBC reports that some even fell onto passengers’ heads. Protestations of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to the contrary, the basic premise of Snakes on a Plane is seeming a lot less implausible right now.
– “Mass mouse escape on Saudi plane” (BBC)
Previously:
– “Snakes on a Plane: the Cold, Slithery Truth“
The first new art museum in Boston in nearly one hundred years debuted last weekend. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) its opened its very shiny and futuristic doors on December 10th in a formerly derelict harbor-front area of South Boston, now resurrected thanks to the Big Dig. The building, by art and architectural darlings Diller Scofidio & Renfro, makes the most of the location with huge glass walls that give almost as much attention to the views as to the exhibitions, though the art can definitely hold its own. The first show out of the gate is “Super Vision,” an exploration of the effects of technology on perception that includes works by James Turrell, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum and Chantal Ackerman. To mark the occasion, the Boston Globe has a big, fat online special with articles, video interviews with the curators, photo galleries, and an interactive map including 360º panoramas of various parts of the museum.
Elsewhere:
– “Expansive Vistas Both Inside and Out” (NYT)
– “Waterfront Colors: Boston’s Modern Update” (Washington Post)
– Boston ICA (flickr)
(Image via jimcurran’s photostream)
The NY Times has caught on to the art scene, cafés, clubs, and neo-Weimar energy of Mitte, Friedrichshain, and Kreuzberg (What, no Prenzlauer Berg?). It’s not exactly breaking news, but it’s a pretty decent tour just the same. Find an expanded text version here.
Sustainable food and living vlog Freshtopia has teamed up with Treehugger TV for a clip about traveling the country by rail. Host Tanja and director Oscar went from Oakland to Chicago and back again by rail (three days and two nights each way) and filmed as they went. Click below for their mission statement about why train travel beats flying, with lots of lovely landscapes as supporting evidence.
Previously:
– “London to Hong Kong by Rail”
– Treehugger
There’s a new travel blog in town: trip-booker Travelocity (no relation) appears to have stealth-launched a page appropriately named “The Windowseat,” and written by globe-trotting contributors including columnist Amy Ziff. How do we know this? Well, we followed the trail of back to a link to us in their blogroll. (Thanks, y’all!) They bill themselves as “a blog for every traveler,” and thus far the posts are mostly of the stories-from-the-road type with insight on applying for passports, encountering local customs etc. One neat feature is a series of posts they did during the Thanksgiving rush that kept tabs on conditions at airports all over, which is a great way to capitalize on all the data that Travelocity must have so readily available. A tipster tells us there may be an official announcement about The Windowseat soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
The Airbus “superjumbo” A380 has been declared worthy for the commercial air market by both the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA) in a joint ceremony today. Despite a troubled history including years of delays, wiring problems, an insider trading scandal, canceled orders, and rumors of a standing-room-only cattle class, this baby’s gonna fly. All 1,200,000 lbs of it. “It’s a great day for aviation … The size of this aircraft is indicative of just how big dreams can be,” said FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. But dreams have been that big before – the A380 has almost the same dimensions as Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose,” – and we all know how that went. Only one aircraft larger than the A380 has ever been built, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, which was a one-off designed to transport Soviet space shuttles. The A380 can carry a human cargo of 555 passengers on two decks. Currently, Airbus has orders to deliver 166 of the beasts to carriers including Emirates, Korean Air, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore, and Air France. Singapore Airlines will have the first A380s in service, starting in October of 2007.
Elsewhere:
– “World’s largest airliner declared safe to fly (Reuters)
– “Airbus Insider Dealing Probe Intensifies” (NYT)
Previously:
– “Steerage for the world of Air Travel?”
UPDATE:
– “Giant jet sets off fuel tank concerns” (USA Today)
It’s called the Guyana Shield – and you might say it’s protecting us from climate disaster: roughly 10 million acres of the most undisturbed tropical forest in the world, sheltering some 5,000 types of medicinal plants and countless rare animal species, with the largest remaining reserves of unpolluted water in the Americas. The region lies on a unique geologic uplift that spans the countries of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil; Brazil has just agreed to create preserves of almost 58,000 acres of it that lie within their borders. Portions of the Shield in other countries are already protected, and Conservation International, together with a group of NGOs and local governments, is working to create a “preservation corridor” through the area, and to encourage ecotourism to stave off the farming and logging industries. (See a map of protected areas here) The BBC quoted Adalberto Verissimo of the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (Imazon), which is also working on the project, as saying: “This is the greatest effort in history toward the creation of protected areas in tropical forests.”
Elsewhere:
– “Rainforest gets protected status (BBC)
– “Brazil creates 7 new protected areas in eastern Amazon rain forest (IHT)
According to Word Spy:
aerotropolis (air.oh.TROP.ul.lis) n.: A city in which the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered around a major airport.
Word Hum picked up this coinage via a story in the NY Times this week, about the opening of Bangkok’s massive new airport complex, Suvarnabhumi. According to the Times this “golden land” will eventually encompass “all the components of a major metropolis: shopping malls, office buildings, hotels, hospitals, an international business center, conference and exhibition spaces, warehouses and even a residential community.” Even more over-the-top new airports in Dubai and Beijing will be opening in a few years. This trend has its roots in showplace terminals like O’Hare and Charles De Gaulle 2–which turned airports from fusty warrens of passageways into shiny, white spaceports–but really got going when Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok opened in 1998 on its own island, custom built to house the massive air-travel city, which employs some 45,000 workers.
Previously:
– Airports
– Word of the Day
The NY Times has their end-of-year picks, while the LA Times and Washington Post finally get their snow-season specials on the lift (where were you two weeks ago, guys?) Included are three separate articles about the here-to-fore little-known mountains of Big Sky, Montana–so much for that bit of “insider info.” The Guardian crashes the après-ski festivities with tip on the really unknown winter destination of Kashmir, written by the amazingly, frostily named Minty Clinch (seriously).
NYT End-Of-Year Bests
– “Budget Destination: Albania, Europe’s Rough Corner, Loosens Up”
– “Hotels: The Toiletries, the Concierges, the Spas. For 2007, Conspicuous Luxury Is In”
– “Luxury Destination: In Zambia, Safaris With a Penthouse Touch”
– “Party Destination: Amid the Minarets of Istanbul, Club Music Pulses”
– “Family Destination: The French Riviera is an Adult Playground, With a PG Side”
– “Buzzword: Carbon Neutral – Raising the Ante on Eco-Tourism”
– “Entrepreneur: The Sheik of Dubai”
– “Adventure: Yemen, An Arabian Oasis for the Intrepid”
Washington Post Ski Issue 2006
– “Deer Valley: A Little Snow-How”
– “Montana: Plenty of Snow For Everyone”
– “Berguen, Switzerland”
– “La Grave, France”
– “Sainte-Foy Tarentaise, France”
– “Slopes With the Most”
LA Times Winter Holidays
– “Montana: White open spaces”
– “Montana: A quick whoosh through Big Sky”
– “Finding thrills on those smaller hills”
– “Lift-ticket deals: Less green stuff, more white stuff”
– “Brand names resonate when it comes to online bookings”
– “FIVE REASONS TO…Explore spectacular Whistler”
– “Fat but so light on your feet”
The Guardian
– “Why Kashmir beats Klosters”
Previously:
– “Weekend Travel Section Roundup: Snow Report”
This just in: According to USA Today, the TSA has announced that they are running a pilot program at Dallas/Ft. Worth and Detroit airports to test the feasibility of allowing non-passengers through security. Ever since the agency took over in 2002, only airline club members and parents of unaccompanied minors have been allowed through without boarding passes. Under the new plan, guests at airport terminal hotels will also be permitted. Though it’s not much, it’s a step in the right direction. Pittsburgh International Airport, whose attempt to allow the public back in was shot down in 2003, will be watching the results with interest, and will likely re-petition the TSA if the test goes well. More porous security and the profiling systems used to filter out “dangerous” visitors are of legitimate concern, but I can’t say I’d miss the days of Checkpoint Charlie at the airport. A TSA agent once prevented me from hugging a friend, whom I’d dropped off at the airport, over a barrier after she was asked to go directly through security while I was parking my car. I’ve also spent enough time on layovers in cities where I could have called a friend for company, if it didn’t mean the gauntlet of having to leave and re-enter the secured part of the airport. But unfortunately the program doesn’t symbolize a kinder, gentler, more people-centered TSA – it’s being pushed through by airports, who are jonesing for the revenue from the food, gifts and reading materials all those extra people in the gate areas will buy. ”’There are a lot of airports that would like people without boarding passes to have access to concessions,’ said Michael Conway, a spokesman for Detroit Metro Airport, which starts its test next week. Dallas’ test started last week.”
– TSA may let non-fliers go to gates (USA Today)
The NY Times ran a fascinating piece this week on the fate of the former site of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The two Buddhas, standing 121 and 180 feet tall, were carved into faces of cliffs in the valley in the 6th century, and surrounded by a complex of caves also decorated with sculptures and frescoes, where Buddhist monks lived. In 2001, the Taliban government of Afghanistan decided that the statues should be destroyed as part of a cleansing of un-Islamic imagery from the country, this despite their protected status as part of UNESCO’s World Heritage program. They were dynamited March of that year, raising a tremendous international outcry. Five years on, with the Taliban toppled, attention is again focused on the site, as the Afghan government and a coterie of international archeologists and donors working on preserving what remains decide how to proceed. The current plan seems to be that one Buddha will be rebuilt from the rubble, using as much original material as possible in order to retain the World Heritage designation, while the other will be left in ruins as evidence of what occurred. Another plan with tentative approval is a vast laser sound-and-light show proposed by Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata, which would project images of the Buddhas across the valley into the niches where they once stood. The whole thing would be powered by a battery of windmills that would also supply electricity to the valley. Neither of these undertakings will come cheap, however. The restoration of one Buddha could cost up to $50 million and require a crane bigger than any currently in Afghanistan; the laser installation has an attached price tag of $64 million. Though a restored site seems only just to many outside of Afghanistan and will undoubtedly drive tourism, there’s concern that this influx of international cash for ancient monuments, in a country where millions are still in extreme poverty and starving, will only result in further backlash against the site.
Click below for the Times’ video report from Bamiyan.
From today’s featured videos on YouTube: the world’s smallest twin-engine airplane. While Airbus rushes to get its super-jumbo, SUV-of-the-air on the market, it seems some flyers are willing to trust life-and-limb to aircraft that look like glorified radio-controlled toys.
The plane in the video is very real, though. Called the “Cri-Cri” it was designed in the 70’s by a French aeronautical engineer as a build-at-home kit. There are currently some 100 of these tiny terrors in use around the world.
The Fijian military seized control of the islands’ government in Suva on Tuesday. While the coup is so far bloodless, the military faction under the control of Commodore Frank Bainimarama has declared a state of emergency. This gives Bainimarama the power to impose curfews and checkpoints, and call up army reservists in the event of an uprising. The coup, the fourth in 19 years, stems from ongoing political tension between native Fijians, who represent around 50% of the population, and the descendants of Indian laborers brought to the island under British colonial rule, at 44%. The international community has quickly condemned the actions of the coup leaders: the UN has called for for the restoration of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, the US has suspended aid, and Australia and New Zealand have imposed sanctions and are urging Fijians to peacefully resist the takeover. This development is bad news for travel to Fiji. Tourism accounts for a quarter of the archipelago’s economy, roughly $700,000, with 400,000 visitors each year, while the Fijian population is only 900,000. Most tourists are drawn by the idyllic “paradise lost” vibe of the islands’ many beach resorts, which doesn’t jibe very well with thorny political realities. (Here’s how Tribewanted’s faux-islanders are taking the news) Already tourists from New Zealand, the second biggest share of the market, are staying away, and TVNZ is reporting that bookings to Fiji are down by a third. The NZ government is warning travelers to limit non-essential visits to the islands, but the U.S. State department has yet to issue any advisories. What to do if you already have a trip booked? Thus far, conditions are stable and most of the resorts are, indeed, far from any of the action; Fiji’s Tourism Action Group is not recommending that anyone cancel their trip. But you’d do well to keep an eye on the news, check for any late-breaking advisories, and be sure to have your embassy or consulate’s information handy.
Elsewhere:
– “Fiji’s military chief seizes control of country” (Globe and Mail)
– “Fiji imposes state of emergency” (BBC)
– “Fears for Fiji tourism as unrest hits” (Hotel Travel News)
– “Tourists shy away from Fiji” (TVNZ)
– “The trouble with paradise takes many different forms” (Telegraph)
– “Background Note: Fiji” (US State Department)
If you thought US Geography was tough, this game takes it to the next level: Locate countries all over the world in whatever random order they’re thrown at you. And they don’t make it easy either. Can you find Moldova and Burkina Faso?
(click for link)
Previously:
– Election Day Time-Waster: How Well Do You Know Your US Geography?
The Guardian already had one of the best travel sections in the UK (or anywhere, really) with fresh stories several times a week, travel news, and their travelog blog for a little extra editorializing. Now, they’ve decided to go themselves one better, by redesigning their travel page for easier access to their comprehensive archive of the past six years, current articles, deals and the like. New features include a best-of-the-week section, prominently displayed tips from readers, and sidebars for searching by type of journey (beach, boating, gap year, solo) and destination. Definitely one to keep bookmarked for all your trip researching needs.
You might have noticed our brand-spanking news show The Map, which debuted last month. Every week, The Map rounds up the most interesting, bizarre, and necessary stories for Internet travelers, with the best of what’s new on the site thrown in for extra flavor – whether that be bug-eating in Bangkok, or traveling the Masai Mara in Kenya. Starting today, The Map is available as a podcast that you can access through iTunes. Subscribe to the show and have the newest clips loaded directly onto your iPod, for use on-the-go. We’ve also added an RSS feed, so that you can catch the latest episodes as soon as they’re live. Happy viewing!
Aqaba
– “In Aqaba, Jordan, Sun and Sand in the Red Sea” (NYT)
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay: The Jesuit Province of Paraquaria
– “In South America, Missions of a Lost Utopia” (NYT)
Austin, TX
– “City insider: Austin, Texas” (Globe and Mail)
Caribbean Roundup
– “Caribbean, From A To V” (SF Chronicle)
Chicago’s Meatpacking District West
– “In Chicago, Slaughterhouses to Art Houses” (NYT)
Galapagos Islands
– “Vive the evolution” (Sydney Morning Herald)
LA Times Vintage Vegas Special
– “Ultimate low roller’s guide”
– “Hotel deals you can dig, baby”
– “It takes a whole lot of green”
– “Lucky you: Rates from $39”
– “The best things in town are free (or almost)“
One for the shameless-self-congratulation file:
Canadian blogger Rick McCharles put up a very flattering post about the site yesterday:
“Those who feel YouTube is crappy should check Travelistic. It’s by far the best interface for online video I’ve seen. It happens to be a travel site. But the format could be used for any specialty channel. Top ranked series include The Thirsty Traveller and the scantily dressed GetOut Girls. For a sample, try Travelistic: Switzerland: Jungfraujoch — a tour of the cog railway to the highest train station in Europe.”
Not the real kind, the kind who liberally spend their dollars in Rio and Buzios, but rather the new slasher movie about a group of hot-but-dumb Yanks who get carved up by organ harvesters on a trip to the Amazon. Call it the Kazakhstan Effect, in which a foreign country attempts to battle a negative portrayal in the all-powerful American media (no matter how implausible) by any means necessary. To coincide with the movie’s release today, the Brazilian Tourism board has issued a statement calling Turistas “a fictional story created for those who enjoy horror movies.” “We hope moviegoers will be inspired to learn more about Brazil,” it continues, “because of the breathtaking setting, which is true to life, unlike the people and events in the movie.” New York magazine got a somewhat less tolerant quote from an official in the NYC bureau of the Brazilian Tourism Office. Taking issue with the film’s tag-line – “In a country where anything goes … anything can happen” – he retorted ““It’s not whatever goes in our country!” Expect Brazil to unveil a glossy and expensive “Visit Brazil” ad campaign any day now.
– “‘Turistas’ is based on true scenery, fictional horrors” (USA Today)
– “Ugly Disemboweled Americans” (New York)
– Kazakstan v. Borat
(Image via La Mariposa’s photostream)
