Apr 2008
(52 min)
Greenwald talks about travelling and travel writing.
(Photo: Justin Mott for The New York Times)
Some day i’ll go along the road to remote upland Asia. North to South, or South to North? Think about it. Turn out i’d just join the local tour in Kunming. dah.
Mar 2008
(55 min)
Murray, a Financial Times contributor, takes a look at the literal journey of food through multilayered essays of the history of food transportation:
From the banana export business of Central America (which was rife with America’s economic gain and political manhandling) to the creation of the barrel (which revolutionized transcontinental trading and contributed a new dimension to the art of winemaking), the dozen chapters each start with a straightforward item-the shipping container, a tin can, a tub of yogurt, etc.-and delve into topics of greater significance like globalization, empire building, localized farming and food aid programs.
For example,
her essay on the amphora, a container used to carry olive oil throughout the ancient Roman Empire, not only depicts the social and economic importance of olive oil in Roman times but also leads into the contemporary debate of regional designation of origins for foods like Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese or Newcastle brown ale.
It was one of the not-yet-written-book-i-want-to-read.
(50 min)
The author is such a crazy man…
In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan-surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. Along the way Stewart met heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers. He was also adopted by an unexpected companion-a retired fighting mastiff he named Babur in honor of Afghanistan’s first Mughal emperor, in whose footsteps the pair was following. Through these encounters–by turns touching, confounding, surprising, and funny–Stewart makes tangible the forces of tradition, ideology, and allegiance that shape life in the map’s countless places in between.
…that some day i wish to be.
Part 1
(15 min)
Part 2
(9 min)
i would have to admit that… i never “travel” in Hong Kong. well, it depends on what do u mean travel. somebody can do travel writing for a trip of supermarket at the cornor of the street.
Sep 2007
(61 min)
Michael Hawley presents his trip to Bhutan.
(1)
Jan 2008
(50 min)
Graham Robb, biographer of Balzac, Mallarmé, and Victor Hugo, introduced and read his new book The Discovry of France, which is recommended by NY Times editors (Caroline Weber, Tour de France, 4 Nov 2007).
(2)
“no one speaks perfect Franch, except foreigner,” Graham said. the Franch learnt in school is quite different from the one in reality. only half of the country spoke Franch before the revolution.
his travel advice in France: get a bike. but one audience asked, how about the crazy drivers?
(1)
12 May 2007
Part 1
(12 min)
Part 2
(11 min)
(2)
what’s the say? not a good place to live; but a good place to visit. maybe. especially when you’re visiting with Amanda Palmer.
(AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
(1)
An introduction to Havana written by Frommer’s:
It’s hard to convey the wonder, sensuality, and odd fallen beauty of Havana. Hard to imagine a city with such rhythm and verve. A city at once so tremendously vibrant and at the same time laid-back. Until you’ve taken a lazy stroll along the Malecón, gotten lost in the time warp of Habana Vieja’s colonial cobblestone streets, ridden in a 1940 Dodge taxi through crumbling Centro Habana, danced salsa until dawn after catching the Tropicana floor show, or witnessed Afro-Cuban religious rituals on the street, anything I write will simply not suffice.
(3)
Donna Cairns from Australia asked: “From which cities can I fly to Cuba? What are the restrictions for United States citizens? Thank you.” The answer:
Despite the conventional wisdom that it is illegal for citizens of the United States to travel to Cuba, it is not. The restriction is on “travel-related transactions pursuant to travel to, from, and within Cuba,” according to the State Department Web site. And there are some exceptions to this de facto ban on spending money there.
The Treasury Department can issue special licenses for those traveling to Cuba for reasons including traveling in professional or educational roles. That’s how Caren Osten Gerszberg managed her trip in late 2006, when she joined a group organized by the Westchester Jewish Center of Mamaroneck, N.Y., to visit Jewish communities in Havana — including Adath Israel, Cuba’s only Orthodox synagogue — and other parts of the country (“In Cuba, Finding a Tiny Corner of Jewish Life,” Feb. 4, 2007).Although such a trip allows travelers to bypass United States restrictions on tourism to Cuba, it requires a full schedule of religious and humanitarian activities that often require donations of medicine, clothing or religious objects needed for prayer.
Though plenty of Americans dodge the restrictions on travel to Cuba by flying there from airports in Mexico, Canada and Nassau — a somewhat risky strategy that Seth Kugel, a frequent Travel section contributor, wrote about in “Cuba: You Can’t Get There From Here …” (Nov. 14, 2003) — others are looking forward to the day when those restrictions are dropped, perhaps once Fidel Castro dies.
Chief among them are hotel and cruise-line executives who see a huge pent-up demand for travel to this long-off-limits country and are already checking out sites where they can build new hotels or dock their ships. You can read about those plans for a post-Castro Cuba in “Waiting for Havana” (Nov. 27, 2005), by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa. (All these articles can be found at nytimes.com/travel.)
- DAVID G. ALLAN
9 Jun 2007
Part 1
(12 min)
Part 2
(11 min)
